Seriously? Can't wait for the next ep! Thanks so much for reviews, hope you keep reading!


"Dr. Karev?"

Alex turns around and grins down at his intern.

"Yeah?"

Jo Wilson flicks open her folder and checks something on the sheet before speaking, "It's about Reed Kennedy... your kidney transplant." She finishes for him when he pulls a face, clearly not recognizing the name of his patient.

He watches the way she flips her hair behind her shoulder and raises her eyebrows when he doesn't reply.

"Yeah?"

"Can I... scrub in?" She asks, partly shy. She'd been courageous and bright when she'd arrived, but Seattle Grace Mercy West had put quite a damper on her attitude. She was less upbeat and more scared of everything, after hearing about everything that had gone on in the last few years at the hospital. Crashes, shootings, deaths, ...

The list was growing endless and she wasn't sure how to handle herself because one day she could be doing sutures and the next, dead on the hallway floor. It was insane, she'd never heard about anything like that. No one had ever mentioned those things in med school, maybe because they were uncommon for most places, as they should be.

Alex crosses his arms after taking a bite of his apple and smirks, "You wanna catch a drink?" He asks her, mouth full of fruit.

She frowns, "Are you serious? You've slept with all of my friends and I have no interest whatsoever, anymore," she recalls the week before when she'd attempted to make a pass at Dr. Torres, "to get involved with my superiors.

He liked her. Not with, like, feelings, or anything. He didn't do that anymore, because every time he did, he ended up getting beaten and bruised.

"Fine."

She smiles and thanks him before walking away happily, pulling her hair into a ponytail.

He watches her as she leaves, his eyes trailing on her ass with that same smirk.

A voice pops up beside him and he notices April in the corner of his eye, "She's your intern."

"Whatever. Why don't you go find Avery?" He teases and walks away, crunching down into his apple again with a chuckle.

The redhead shakes her head and huffs. He'd never learn.


"Your girlfriend's pissing me off."

Jackson pulls his jacket over his shoulders and spots Alex as he enters the locker-room. "What?"

"Kepner! She keeps giving me crap for trying to sleep with Wilson."

Jackson grins and picks up his bag from the bench, "She's right though."

Alex frowns and shrugs off his comment, "Whatever. No wonder you never slept with anyone else when she was gone. You're whipped." He jokes and Jackson frowns.

"I am not."

"Dude, you are. Only you can handle all that farm-girl Jesus-loving crazy-chick crap."

He contemplates his words for a second before admitting his fate, it was true. He couldn't help it and, as cheesy and as foolish as it sounded to him, he loved that he was the only one who knew how to manage her crazy mood swings sometimes.

"Yeah." He replies slowly, getting lost in his thoughts.

Alex grins and shakes his head from the other side of the room.

Whipped.

"Hey, you heading home?"

Jackson nods and pulls his keys, "Why?"

"Just so I know when I head back later."

"Right. See you later."

As he leaves the room, he runs a hand over his face. His mother had been grilling him all day about his love life, and if he was feeling OK, and if he was alright with all the work that he had to do by himself now that Sloan was gone.

Of course, he'd replied that everything was perfect, and he'd carefully avoided the topic that he knew she was trying to pry into.

"Hey!"

April appears beside him and lowers her voice when she stops in front of him, placing her hands on his chest.

"Your mom wants to talk to me." She informs him with a scared look on her face.

He glances around for the woman, "D'you want me to stay?" He asks her. He's not going to leave her to chat with his mother about him, and her, and them, and... that. He's pretty sure that April wouldn't be able to control her words and she'd end up telling her everything.

She shakes her head and takes a deep breath, "I'll be fine."

"Yeah, you'll be fine. I mean, she can't know, right?" Jackson tries to reassure her. He's not an idiot, he knows that someone's going to have said something to his mother.

"Yeah... you don't think somebody told her, do you?"

He doesn't answer so she sighs.

"Oh, crap."

Jackson pulls her into a hug, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Hey, you'll be fine. I can stay if you want."

"No, you go home."

He smiles down at her, "You sure? She's not the easiest to have a conversation with."

"Yeah, I know. Last year's talk wasn't the best." She shrugs and pulls away, "I'll see you later."

"Bye." He places a quick kiss on her forehead before heading out.


"You OK?"

He closes his eyes and pulls his legs up to his chest. "I've got to be."

She nods, patting his knee for a moment with a sad look on her face before she decides to diverge the conversation, into a slightly happier theme, just maybe not for him.

"How are the happy couple?"

Alex stares at her in utter confusion, "What?"

Meredith smiles, "Jackson and April. Not annoying you yet?"

"Dude, I gotta leave. I pretty sure I broke the volume on the TV because she was so loud."

She laughs and rests her head back against the wall.

They just gotten out of surgery and Alex had slid down the wall beside the OR door with grief. They'd lost him, the little boy. He was only seven, he'd barely lived yet. But, he knew. Alex knew the risks. He knew it was part of the job when he'd gone into peds, into surgery, into medicine. It was just hard to deal with sometimes.

"I was thinking, and Derek agrees," She starts, turning her head to him and he does the same, leaning back also. "We've moved out and my mom's house is just standing there."

"Yeah?" He asks, clearly distracted and not getting her point.

She fishes into the pocket of her coat and pulls out her set of keys. "You can have your key back."

"I thought you didn't want the interns hanging around there anymore?"

"Yeah, but- I can't sell it. It's my mom's house, Alex, my family." She places the key down in his hands and smiles, "And... you're part of my family."

If he was the kind to get emotional, he would. If he was the kind to hug people, he would. But he isn't, so he simply brightly smiles and wraps an arm around her shoulders.

"We've come such a long way." She speaks, reminding him of all of the dramas and joys in the past five years. They'd come much farther than they'd ever thought possible. Izzie and George were gone. Cristina had left.

Meredith had found her sister, and then lost her. She'd found the love of her life, and after so many problems, they'd finally found a rhythm and had created a family.

Alex had been married and gotten divorced, all in the same year. He'd come so far from the trashy home he grew up in.

Izzie had gotten cancer and had left.

George got hit by a bus and died.

Jackson and April came in and, after much hatred from the original group, had finally found a place in the hospital.

Cristina left, too distraught to stay in a place that reminded her of all the incredible losses.

Nothing was the same. People died. People left. Five years changes everything.


"It's good to know that you're alright, sweetie. I was worried when I heard about you failing your boards." Catherine tells her, scrubbing away at her hands.

April fakes a smile, "I'm fine, I'm great. Really. I really- I know what I'm doing this year. Last time it was just kind of... crazy."

"So I heard. Richard tells me that you and Jackson got into a bar fight?"

"Uh, yeah. This guy was just- he wasn't exactly being pleasant and I kinda punched him after he punched Jackson and I kinda lost it."

"You punched him?" She asks, her voice speaking with a hint of pride, "Honey, I didn't know you had it in you."

She sighs, raising her head and casting her attention to the woman, "Neither did I."

They stay in silence for a few more moments, washing away at their hands to scrub away the gunk and blood and germs.

"So, when did you sleep with my son?"

April suddenly perks up, nervously stuttering, "I- uh, we- What?" She squeaks, eyes wide and mouth open.

Catherine sends her an warning look, "Honey, I'm not an idiot. And Jackson's not as smart as he thinks he is if he thought he could keep this from me." She throws her cloth down after drying her hands and rests a hand on her hip, "It was him, right? Your first?"

The good discussion between the two quickly became awkward but the elder woman doesn't seem to care.

"I, uh- Yes." She has not other but to reply. Mrs. Avery is blocking the door, much to April's dismay because she wants nothing more than to escape the interrogation that's sure to follow.

"Was he careful with you?"

"This is extremely awkward."

She stops her, glancing around the room uncomfortably and Catherine chuckles.

"Oh, I'm not prying, I'm just curious. Don't worry, I'll stop." She smiles over at the younger doctor, "I'm quite happy for you, really. I have to stay, I was kind of rooting for it." She admits and April stares at her shockingly, "Just don't fail this time around."

Awkward conversation over.


"Your mother knows!" She calls out in the apartment, slamming the door with a lock and throwing her bag down on the floor.

She hears the background noise of the TV coming from the living room and peeks around the corner. Jackson's lay on the couch, an arm flung over his face as he watches the screen.

"What did she do?" He questions, moving slightly when she sits down on the other end, crossing her legs and leaning back against the cushions.

"She just came out with it. She already knew, Jackson. She knew, the whole day. And she's pretty pissed with you for not telling her." April informs him and he sighs, slowly sitting up and stretching his arms.

"That's a first."

She shifts for a second, pulling on the edges of her top, "She asked about it."

"About what?"

"My deflowering!" She screams, quickly admiring the floor when he laughs.

"Seriously? That's what we're calling it?"

She shrugs, "That's what I'm calling it. You can just say that time when you took your best friend's virginity."

"I didn't take, you gave."

She frowns, "That's the same thing." She turns her attention to the television for a second, glancing at the current episode of Friends that's playing. "Alex is moving out."

He raises an eyebrow, "Really?"

April nods, "Yep." She spins her head around to look at him again, "What?" She asks curiously when she notices the way he's staring at her.

The bashful yet playful look is toying on her face again and Jackson slowly moves over to her, lowering her down onto the couch. "You know what that means?" He teases with a smirk, resting himself above her.

She bites her lip and gawks at him as though she has no idea what he's talking about. "What?"

"It means..." Jackson starts as he leans down to kiss her jaw, "that we have the apartment to ourselves." He finishes, pressing kisses down her neck.

She moans out beneath him and runs a hand down his back, needfully gripping the bottom. "That's right."

He runs his hands up her legs as she pulls them up his sides. He pushes the straps of her top down her and gently kisses her shoulder, "You wanna do it again?"

April pants against him, gripping the edges of his top and pulling it over his chest hungrily.

"Yeah, kinda." She understates.

He smirks and grips her hips as he kisses her mouth, his lips spreading open her own. Her hands travel down his toned torso before hooking into the rim of his pants and tugging him closer to her and he groans when she giggles against him, gripping his shoulders.

"Bedroom?"

"Too far."