A/N - I seriously love your freaking reviews SO much! You guys have no idea how I love, love, love reading your reviews! You guys have always been so in depth (The Nanny, Scalpel, etc), but this one... I swear, I can FEEL your frustration with things. I have to say, I was kinda nervous about trying to capture this stage of Alex where he is clearly NOT getting it. Your frustrated reviews let me know I am capturing that ;) Love you guys to pieces! xoxo
Chapter 4
The next morning Alex opened his eyes and groaned in pain, his hand flying to his neck. He hated this damn sofa bed! Sure, it beat paying for a hotel, but... Hell, maybe he should just pay for a hotel. It was pretty clear that Jo wasn't going to invite him home anytime soon. At the thought of her name, he reached over, grabbing his phone.
No, she hadn't text him.
Alex frowned deeply and turned his phone off, waited a few minutes, then turned it on again. Still nothing. "Avery, is my phone working?" he yelled.
"Seriously?" Jackson asked as he passed through the living room, dressed in his scrubs already. "She hasn't called you. Let it go."
The older man fumed and looked to his phone again. "Maybe the reception sucks."
"Maybe she's trying to move on." Jackson poured himself a to-go cup of coffee as he spoke. "Generally people who initiate a break up aren't the first ones to make contact. See you later."
Alex's frown deepened as the slamming door echoed in the apartment. Whatever. Avery didn't know what the hell he was talking about. He understood that Jo was obviously pissed at him, but she needed to move past this whole breaking up thing. They both loved each other. After all they'd been through, how could she be that upset? She turned down his proposal, twice now, and he wasn't throwing their history away!
Alex's mind continued to churn as he took a shower and dressed for the hospital. Had he been ignoring her lately? Putting his friend first as she claimed? Thing is, Jo just didn't understand Mer. Mer was a person of extremes-when she hated you, she truly hated you. When she needed you, she truly needed you. Jo was strong, and she didn't get that. She just didn't understand that Mer didn't have many people she could depend on. Her best friend moved on, and her husband died. All she had was Alex.
The peds surgeon shook away the thoughts as he pulled on his lab coat and grabbed his keys. He'd fix all of this before the day was over.
Once inside the hospital, the surgeon grabbed a coffee from the cafeteria and headed for the OR board to review the surgeries for the day. He groaned as he spotted a fresh faced intern awaiting him. "You with me today?" he greeted gruffly.
"Yes, Dr. Karev, I'm Dr..."
"I don't care who you are," he cut the woman off, not really in the mood for this rose colored glasses crap. His world was falling apart, and Miss Sunshine wasn't helping. "Go up to peds, round on my patients, and check back with me."
"When you say round, do you mean..."
"Are you seriously standing there telling me that you made it through med school and your freaking boards without knowing how to round on a patient?!"
"No, sir, er, Dr. Karev. I know how to round on patients, Dr. Karev!"
Alex watched as the woman turned and fled from him. Good. She should be out of his hair for a few hours at least.
"Damn, Karev, you made that one cry," Callie tisked as she and Jo approached him at the OR board. "Extra cranky this morning?"
"You could say that," the peds surgeon mumbled, his gaze lingering on Jo. She had a touch of eyeshadow on this morning, blush accentuating her cheeks, and her bottom lip was dabbed with gloss, making it nearly irresistible to him. "I didn't sleep well last night."
Callie and Alex exchanged more casual conversation as Jo shifted uncomfortably and looked to the board. A part of her hated to hear that he wasn't sleeping well, but the other part of her was glad. It was his own fault that he was finding himself alone now. Why wasn't he with his precious Meredith? The one person he would always be there for? The one person he could depend on? The one person that meant more to him than anything?! The resident felt her blood pulsing as her hands balled into fists, so she took a deep, calming breath, breathing out through pursed lips.
"She's doing great, Karev, you'd be proud of her," the orthopedic surgeon continued, putting her arm around Jo's shoulder.
"She's good at everything she does," Alex replied earnestly. "I'm not surprised in the least." He wasn't surprised by her ability, but...he was surprised that Callie spoke to them as if they were still a couple. Word obviously hadn't circulated the hospital halls yet.
"Thank you, Dr. Karev," Jo addressed him professionally after clearing her throat.
"Dr. Torres, Dr. Wilson!" Isaac exclaimed, rushing up to the three.
"You're late," the resident directed towards him, thankful for the distraction.
"I'm sorry, Dr. Wilson, I..."
"Don't make excuses!"
Callie smirked to herself, deciding to toy with the intern. "You know, Dr. Wilson, the last intern who was late, we put on rectals."
"Rectals," Jo mused, catching on to the game. "I thought I saw this big biker guy on the second floor. I'm sure Dr. Cross could handle him."
Isaac's eyes widened. "I...uh...if you need me to..."
"Dude, grow a pair," Alex snapped, still fuming from the night before at Joe's.
The brunette gave him a hard glare before looking back to the frightened intern. "We're just teasing, Dr. Cross," she nudged his shoulder. "You need to lighten up."
The blonde relaxed fractionally, giving her a dopey smile. "Thank you."
"You need to watch that one, Karev," Callie remarked as the resident and the intern left to scrub in. "I heard he had a thing for her, but seeing it up close..."
"What is he even doing here?" Alex fumed. "I thought he was Dr. Edwards' intern!"
"Turns out he knocked over a surgical tray and Amelia banned him from her OR," the attending laughed. "Edwards gave him up eagerly."
"Why did Jo get him? Isn't that a conflict of interest?"
"Dr. Wilson needs the teaching experience," Torres shrugged. "And the intern needs to be taught. You're not threatened, are you?"
"Huh? Of course not!" he scoffed.
"Good, cause you'd mutilate him."
Alex watched the ortho surgeon head for OR two. Had that little chump had a thing for Jo all this time? That little piece of information had obviously made the rounds of the hospital gossip mill. How come he'd never heard it? Or noticed the guy staring at Jo as if she hung the moon? Was it possible that some of her accusations were actually...true? Had he been paying her less attention lately? The peds surgeon considered the idea-he hadn't really thought he was ignoring Jo...he just considered them a solid couple. Sort of like Meredith and Derek; he and Jo were rock solid and nothing was shaking them.
Except, something had.
Him.
The attending ran his hand over his hair. Oh crap, he'd really screwed things up. Everything she said was right-he had taken her for granted and assumed she'd always be there. He could treat her however he pleased, and she'd just stay and take it. But Jo deserved so much better! He had to step up and win her back. He was a freaking mess without her.
Alex jarred from his thoughts as his pager beeped. Arizona, nine one one to the pit. He took the stairs, joining her minutes later. "Robbins, what's up?"
"Karev, you got any surgeries?" Arizona asked as she pulled on a pair of gloves.
"Not until this afternoon..."
"Great, I need your help," his former mentor informed him. "School bus hydroplaned and hit a semi head on. Lots of injuries. Call the interns for sutures."
"Page all interns, stat!" he directed to the nurse before dashing outside to meet the ambulance. The rush of patients definitely helped his new feeling of inferiority. Alex spent the next hour directing the interns, sending the patients to x-ray, and actually discharging a handful of students with minor bumps and bruises.
"Dr. Karev, Steven Black has a dislocated shoulder," Spencer reported, handing the attending the tablet.
"Steven Black," Alex mused, looking over the anterior dislocation. "Page ortho."
"Dr. Karev, I'm quite capable of..."
"I said page ortho!" The surgeon tucked the tablet under his arm and moved to gurney three. "Mr. Black?" he questioned after pulling back the curtain and seeing a boy that looked to be about sixteen. Maybe seventeen.
"Call me Steven," the kid groaned, clutching his wrist.
"Steven, I'm Dr. Karev," Alex introduced himself. "I'm the Peds surgeon, and..."
"Peds?" the teen frowned. "I'm not some little kid."
"I know, dude, but as long as you're under eighteen, a pediatrician has to treat you."
"That sucks."
"Tell me about it," the attending smirked. This kid reminded him of himself. "As I was saying, you have an anterior shoulder dislocation. I've paged ortho to reduce it for you. We'll get you set up with some outpatient therapy to make sure there's no permanent damage, and you'll be ready to go."
"Can't you just pop it back in or whatever?" Steven frowned. "It really hurts."
"I know, but...the ortho girl is hot," Alex winked. "You'll thank me later." If he knew Callie Torres as well as he thought he did, she'd keep the klutzy intern in the OR and send Jo to check out the pit.
"You paged ortho?" Jo asked moments later, right on cue.
"Dude, she is hot," the teen approved, grinning widely at the brunette.
"Excuse me?" her eyebrows shot up, looking from the patient to the attending.
"Dr. Wilson, this is Steven Black," the peds surgeon bit back a smirk. "He has an anterior dislocated shoulder, and I thought you'd like to reduce it for him."
"Let me see," Jo fumed, taking the extended tablet. Had Alex seriously called her out of surgery to do something he could have done ten times already? "What happened?" she directed to the patient, handing the tablet back to the attending.
"I had a wreck on my motorcycle."
"Dude," Alex chuckled, shaking his head slightly.
"Oh, really?" the resident smirked, retrieving a fresh pair of gloves. "Maybe you should be more careful next time."
"I'll try," Steven shrugged, wincing as a pain shot through his shoulder.
"Don't worry, I'll get that fixed up," Jo soothed, retrieving an INT from a cart in the corner. "Any allergies?"
"Yeah, blondes."
"Did you put him up to this?" the resident directed to the attending, her eyes widened slightly.
"No, that's all him," the peds surgeon laughed, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms over his chest in amusement.
Jo directed her attention back to the patient. "You keep that smart mouth up, and you're going to end up like him," she nodded towards Alex.
"A doctor with money who hangs around hot chicks all day? Awesome," Steven smirked.
"Seriously, Steven, what did you do?" the brunette rolled her eyes as she secured the tourniquet.
Alex kept quiet as he remained against the wall observing Jo. He kept an ear out for any emergency, but the pit was getting more and more quiet, so the patients were obviously being treated and discharged or admitted. He knew he'd be paged if he was needed. At least he could be here without her trying to push him away. "What is it?" he asked after she administered the sedation and hesitated. Steven was down for the count, what was the problem?
The resident blew her hair from her face. "I've only reduced dislocations in adults," she admitted quietly. "I don't want...what if I hurt him?"
"You won't hurt him," he promised, pushing away from the wall. "Hold his elbow at a ninety degree angle, then slowly rotate his arm out. You'll know when you get it."
Jo nodded before moving to the side of the bed and taking a deep breath. She stilled for a moment as she felt Alex move behind her.
"Hold his elbow in your left hand," he taught, taking her hand in his and putting it under Steven's elbow. "Take his wrist with your other hand and rotate it out. He'll probably resist at first," he lowered his voice, getting a whiff of her hair, "but he'll relax and it will pop right in."
The resident closed her eyes for a moment, shivering at the closeness of him. She could feel the warmth radiating against her back, smell his cologne, and his hand on hers was sending fire up her arm. She took a breath and focused, moving the kid's arm at a slow, gentle pace. Steven grunted and his body tensed, so she hesitated, then shifted his arm the rest of the way, hearing the gentle pop. "I got it," she grinned, moving the arm freely with no signs of pain from the sedated teen.
"Good job, Dr. Wilson," Alex said softly into her hair.
Jo cleared her throated uncomfortably, laying Steven's arm across his stomach. "Thank you for the opportunity, Dr. Karev."
The attending stepped back, realizing their moment was over. He nodded once and watched her leave the pit without looking back. She might be playing hard ball now, but Alex wasn't going to stop until he got her back.
