Author's Notes: Thanks for staying with me so far & for your sweet reviews! After this chapter I will probably only post a chapter a week. My plan is to have it all posted the week before the premier.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything associated with Grey's Anatomy. If I did I'm sure I would have someone helping me edit and I don't. All the mistakes you see are mine :)
******CHAPTER 3******
Jo paced the surgical hallway outside OR 2 overly alert for any signs of Alex. She repeatedly went over what she wanted to say in her mind while her eyes darted around nervously. The object of her thoughts soon rounded the corner headed right for her. His eyes widened in surprise as he noticed her and gave a clipped "Wilson" in her direction.
Jo stepped right in front of him causing him to rock on his toes to keep from running her over. His hands went to her hips to steady them, but he quickly jerked away as if he had been burned. "Sorry" Alex mumbled again staring at his shoes, "I got a page, I need to get in there."
As he started to move around her, Jo grabbed his hand and instructed him to follow her.
"Wilson, I have to answer my page, I can't do this now."
"I'm your page, so yes you can." Jo pushed open a closet door and pulled Alex inside. He immediately went to the the far wall and pretended to be looking through the different medical supplies. Jo's frustrations began to boil over. What the hell had gotten into him? Her heart began to break as he turned ever so slightly and she caught a glimpse of his tortured face. Jo took in a sharp breath as realization dawned. "Do you regret what you said?"
Alex spun around at speed that made her think he was going to lose his balance again. "Of course not! Where would you get an idea like that?"
"Let's see, you keep calling me Wilson..."
"Well that is your name."
"Not the name I want the guy I was making out with to call me!"
Alex began to smile. "I could go back to calling you Princess..."
"Stop trying to distract me!" Jo began to feel a little better that their old banter had returned, but his behavior earlier still troubled her. "Will you please just hear me out?" she pleaded. Jo could hear the emotion in her voice and wished she didn't sound so vulnerable. She looked into Alex's eyes and saw that he understood this was important to her. The raw emotion on his face caused her eyes to burn. Damnit here come tears. Jo blinked furiously trying to keep them at bay. "Don't look at me like that!"
Alex's voice was soft and soothing, "like what?"
"Like you feel sorry for me. I hate that."
She swore she saw a touch of pride in his face as he moved closer to her, "whatever you say...princess."
This caused her to laugh as she swiped at her eyes. She held his gaze as they both smiled at each other. Jo considered that to outsiders they probably looked like love struck teenagers. The thought caused her to smile more.
She was brought out of her revere by Alex's hand cupping her face, his fingers again playing with her hair. The ministrations relaxed her and her eyes fluttered. She suddenly felt exhausted. "Can I ask why else you would think I didn't love you?" Alex's voice was a rough whisper as if he didn't want to break the spell they were currently under.
"You wouldn't look at me and you didn't ask me to scrub in with you even though you knew I was stuck here for hours without a ride." Jo felt more confident in her footing with him and their changed relationship. This really wasn't so bad, maybe their relationship wouldn't be as complicated as she had feared.
"Are you serious? That's what made you think I didn't mean what I said? Jo, one thing about me is I mean what I say and I say what I mean. I hate lies. Hate them. And I would never lie about loving anyone. Most of all you."
So much for uncomplicated. Couldn't he just spit out what caused him to act weird. Geez. But at least she felt reassured about his feelings. "Is it because I didn't say the words back?"
"What? No! That doesn't even matter..."
"How can you say that? Everyone wants to hear the words back."
"Jo, its not about that."
"Well you are going to hear them anyway."
"Listen Jo, you don't have to. It's really okay, I don't want you to feel rushed or pressured in any way."
"Will you just shut up and let me get this out?"
"Fine," Alex smirked as he crossed his arms over his chest.
"I love you too. I have for a while now and I..." Before she could finish her thoughts, Alex once again grabbed her by the waist as his lips came crashing into hers. Jo felt more aware of his every move this time and tried to commit it all to memory. She'd want to relive these moments as much as she could in as much detail as possible whenever she was away from him. To her disappointment he broke the kiss much sooner than he had the last time, but her disappointment quickly turned to thrills as his lips travelled down her neck and began softly tracing her collarbone. She moaned softly and held his head in place.
"Just remember who said it first," Alex murmured into her skin. Jo laughed loudly and pulled Alex back up for another brief kiss, her arms hanging casually over his shoulder while his hands remained at her waist. She pulled back and marveled at the huge smile on Alex's face. She hoped she got to see a lot more of that smile as it made him even sexier than usual.
"So can you just explain to me why you were so aloof earlier? Obviously, I'm not getting anywhere with my guessing."
"It has been fun though." Alex teased while softly kissing her hairline. Jo pulled back slightly to narrow her eyes at him.
"Spit it out Karev. If we are going to be together and work together, we need to understand how we're going to act with each other in different situations. So when you are an aloof jerk I understand the reasons behind it." Jo could have continued her mild tirade, but she was distracted by Alex's thumb rubbing the skin he had found under her scrub top right above her left hip bone. If the tip of one of his thumbs could set her on fire like this, she was in deep trouble.
Alex sighed and stepped back from her. "Do you not see after our time in here? Now that I know what it's like to hold you in my arms and to kiss you and to hear you moan how the hell am I supposed to keep my hands off you?! I love everything about you regardless of your body, but let's call a spade a spade. You are an ridiculously hot woman and I haven't been with anyone in a really, reeeeally long time. And now it's gonna be even worse because I know that you actually have feelings for me too. How the hell am I supposed to do anything other than touch and kiss you now? So yeah I'm calling you 'Wilson' and not having you scrub in with me and I'm looking at the floor like a middle school self conscious nerd because if I don't I'm going to jump you each time I see you!"
"And that's a problem because?" Jo wished she had filmed this entire conversation. She knew she would want to relive this interaction over and over again.
Alex laughed at her words and seemed for a second to be considering jumping her right then. But he suddenly grew serious again and turned slightly before continuing, "look I just don't want this thing with us to be a big deal around here yet. I don't have the greatest reputation around here when it comes to my relationships with women. And I really don't want people..." Jo couldn't focus anymore on what he was saying as she was overwhelmed with her own thoughts. Warning bells were going off in her mind. She really does ruin all good things and this was partly because of her selfishness and not considering the feelings of her new boyfriend. Alex looked so serious and she could tell this was something that really concerned him. Of course he wouldn't want people to think they were having meaningless sex after he had worked so hard to clean up his reputation.
"I'm so sorry Alex, I was so excited for me I didn't even think about how this would be for you and I don't want to do anything to cause people to condemn you..."
"What? Damn, have you been listening to a word I've said?"
"Yes, you don't want people to know about this yet. I understand Alex, really I do. And its okay. I don't want people to think that you took advantage of me while I was vulnerable after what happened with Jason. Especially when that couldn't be farther from the truth. Cause I swear if I was to hear one person whispering crap about you..." Jo was silenced by Alex putting a finger to her mouth. She made eye contact with Alex and held his gaze. She felt momentarily lost in the love that she found there and wondered how she had missed noticing that look in his eyes sooner.
"I love how feisty you get when you feel the need to stand up for me," Alex whispered. "I've never in my life had someone have my back with as much passion as you do. But this isn't one of those times that you need to fight for me. I don't care what anyone says about me. I do care what they think about you."
"But I don't give a rat's..."
Alex chuckled, "I know. Believe me I know, but I do give a rat's ass and I don't want to hear it. And having been the center of hospital gossip fodder, I would rather avoid it and focus my energy on you." Alex gingerly took her hand in his as he continued, "I am so excited to get to know you even better than I already do, to be there for you when you need me and even when you don't, to make plans for our future. And I just don't want anything to get in the way of that."
Jo used her free hand to caress Alex's face for a moment before stretching up to gently kiss him. Jo tried to convey how much she loved him and how grateful she was for the way he loved her back with everything in her. She reveled in the way he could break through all her insecurities so easily. She wondered once again how her fortunes had changed so quickly.
The kiss ended before Jo was ready and Alex began wiping the tears she didn't realize had fallen. "You ready to get out of here?" Alex quietly asked.
"You bet your ass I am! Are you done with everything?"
"Well now that I don't have an emergency surgery to assist with I can go pretty soon. Meet me in the lobby in fifteen?"
Jo smiled brightly, "I'll be ready."
