"George's father died today."
The news is dropped like a bomb, even though April realistically knew that the news wouldn't have a drastic difference on Jackson. Everyone had known that O'Malley's hospital had been in the hospital for a few days, the situation becoming increasingly more complicated with each passing day it seemed. The frat house had become tense, and she felt like of the group, she was the only one really taking it seriously. Alex was being, well… Alex about it. As were Cristina and Meredith. She didn't get it, but it wasn't hers to get. She was just doing everything in her power to be there for George, knowing that he had to be going through the unimaginable.
Which in turn, really meant that every hour that she wasn't working was trying to be as supportive of a friend as possible. Her approach was hands-on, by his side. A kind, gentle touch. Hovering presence. April knew he probably wanted to be around his actual family more than his coworkers, but she made sure he knew that they were an option.
"How's he doing?" Jackson's inquiry was mostly out of politeness, not knowing O'Malley particularly well himself. The death of a father was something always a little harder for him to relate to given his general distaste for fathers after his own had left him so long, but he's not completely heartless. He'd show up for a funeral, support the intern.
"It's hard to tell. I can't even begin to imagine going through something so awful…"
The words leaving April's mouth leave an unintentional sting. Jackson's hand came up to run over his features for a moment as he absorbed the comment, knowing that she meant nothing personal about it, but having to wonder for a moment if she realized just how privileged the words leaving her lips were. Probably, he mused. He knew that she could a piece of work on occasion, but ungrateful had never been one of her flaws.
"Yeah, it must be something else," Jackson agreed with a nod of her head. He's a little surprised that she didn't catch her own words, but didn't push it for the moment. Her thoughts were no doubt wrapped around her friend and not him at the moment, which was perfectly acceptable. Today wasn't a day to get caught up in his own head.
"Everyone's been hovering around the family a lot, I think. George knew that it was coming but I don't know if his family will feel the same way…" she rambled off in concern about her friend. Jackson listened to every thought that she had to express for the moment, nodding and make an occasional noise of agreement, knowing that she would feel better about herself if she got everything that was on her mind out and in the open. For the most part, he did pay genuine attention. She wanted to make sure that as many people as possible, and as were wanted, from the hospital, showed up at the funeral so that George knew he had an entire support system there. That was something that was mostly feasible, of course. It wasn't like the entire surgical staff could up and leave, but a few hours could be spared for the sake of supporting one another. At the moment, that seemed like the only tangible idea that she had.
Naturally, when the day of Harold O'Malley's funeral did come, it was packed.
It was a combination of both April's doing and the goodness in people's heart coming out, a large crowd gathered for the ceremony. She teared up, perhaps one of the more emotional of the coworkers there, but stayed somewhat near the back so she wouldn't draw attention to herself. Jackson didn't mind holding her for the duration of it, going up with her to the family to offer condolences of his own, and the cliche of whatever they needed. The latter was more likely to fall on April rather than anyone else.
When people begin to scatter after the end of the ceremony, Jackson's arm hadn't moved from around her waist. "Are you coming over?" He asked, letting his lips brush the hair on top of her head.
"No. We're doing a small get together with George after the funeral. I wanted to invite you, but... I thought it'd be weird for the rest of them, you know? For George, at least. He probably doesn't want to be around a ton of people right now and..."
"I get it, sweetheart. Don't worry," an airy chuckle accompanied the words. "I'll see you later."
The two of them go their separate ways, April sitting in the backseat of the car with Meredith and Cristina to ride over to the frat house. The two of them chattered in the front seat without her, and the redhead could begin to feel some of the exhaustion weighing at her bones. Pushing herself to be there for her friends was nothing new, though, nothing that she was going to let bother her. She wanted to think that someone like George would have done the same thing for her if the tables were turned. He'd always been the most accepting of their group.
Small talk is made with Callie when they get to the house, knowing that as his wife, she was going to be dealing with the brunt of George's grief. George hadn't appeared yet, no doubt lingering with his family. It didn't surprise April. As much as they spent time together at work, nothing could compare to having a good support system in your own family.
"Oh, shit–" Callie cursed as her pager went off. "There's an incoming MVC at the hospital, I've got to go. I'll be back as soon as I can, but do you mind taking over for things here?" The orthopedic surgeon had already begun gathering up her things. "Thanks, Kepner."
April hadn't actually gotten a chance to get a word in, blinking wildly for a moment before nodding her head as she watched the other woman rush out the front door of the house. She knew the love of surgery was strong for everyone in the hospital, but even she had to wonder how someone could leave the person that they were supposed to love without so much as a second thought for it after such a traumatic loss. She couldn't imagine just running off at such a time. Cristina and Meredith had disappeared somewhere, leaving her alone in the kitchen. The sigh that she had been holding in unintentionally is finally released from her lungs, finding a seat at the kitchen table until she heard the front door open.
George slammed the door shut behind him, giving April the quick opportunity to pop up and greet him. A few moments of small talk is made between the two of them, both of them walking on eggshells. Neither wanted to confront is quite so directly, yet it lingered in the room.
"I just want to go to my room."
The announcement that George made was a bit sudden and April froze in place for a moment before she trailed off after the other male, concerned furrowing her brows. It was easy to isolate one's self: that was something that the redhead knew well, she'd done it a few times here and there throughout her life whenever things got tough. But she didn't want him to make the same mistakes that she had already learned from.
Once again, the door is slam shut. She lingered on the other side of it in silence for a few seconds, debating whether or not this was appropriate. This seemed like something that a wife should have been doing, interjecting herself into his room. Callie's stuff was no doubt just as mixed in with his. She'd heard a couple of things about her living there but tried not to think much about it, knowing it wasn't her business. But leaving him alone like this just felt wrong, and she didn't trust Meredith or Cristina enough to be able to handle something so delicately without being crass. She took a deep breath before giving a quiet knock on the door before twisting the knob open and allowing her head to peak in.
"George, are you sure you want to be alone right now? It just seems like... a bad idea." April questioned hesitantly.
"You can come in, if you want." There's something hesitant in his voice but for the moment, she chose to ignore it, stepping into the room and closing the door behind her. She was careful to step over the scattered clothes before sitting down next to him on the bed.
"If you want to talk about it, I'll listen, you know? I'm not going to make fun of you for getting emotional." Like some of their other coworkers might. The addition was silent yet the both of them knew that it was there nonetheless. They were the soft ones of the group, the ones who allowed themselves to both do and feel. There was some kind of shared bond between the two of them for that. "Or we can do whatever you want."
George shook his head, hands on his knees and leaning forward slightly. "I don't need to talk about it." He insisted. The practice of swallowing his emotions was something that he'd had to develop here with his residency, trying to avoid the constant brutal comments that came from the other interns in the group. But he knew that April wasn't like that, it was why he'd accepted the company in the first place.
"I just... I need to not think." Before April could properly process his words, George had turned toward the redhead. Hands grab her face roughly and his lips were forced against hers in a hard kiss, leaning into her fully.
Panicked by the inappropriate gesture, April froze in place, unable to reciprocate nor push him off of her. She knew that people processed grief differently and while this was something that she herself would have never done, she'd knew well of bad coping mechanisms and considered this to just be another one of them. Hands raise up awkwardly to try and get him to stop, but the signal that George received was a completely different one. His tongue was forced into her mouth, beginning to try and move so that he could lay on top of her and pin her down on the bed. His wife, her boyfriend, they weren't on his mind. Nothing was, really, other than suppressing his emotions in whatever way possible.
That's enough for her horror to outweigh the fear of making things awkward, hands pushing at his chest to get him off of her, practically jumping back onto her feet. Wide eyes stared down at George and his confused expression in horror, shaking her head.
"I–I–I'm just gonna... I'm gonna leave you alone, yeah."
The next day at work, April was avoiding everyone.
She didn't blame herself for what had happened. Maybe for not being clear immediately, but she knew that he was acting out. But the idea of seeing Callie or well, the majority of their coworkers? Terrifying. She'd never been good at keeping things secret.
"Hey. How was yesterday?"
April all but jumped out of her skin when her boyfriend snuck up on her, eyes flying wide open to turn and look at Jackson. Mouth fell agape. Planning on telling him had come to mind, but she'd decided against it. She didn't want to create any drama or tension around the hospital, and something like that was never going to happen again. Even if it wasn't a discussion, and never would be something that she'd consider... she knew that it was something known between the both of them. There was no way. She'd brushed her teeth too many times afterward.
"It, uh– it was fine, yeah. Totally fine." She squeaked out.
"That bad?" Jackson questioned.
Her hand ran through her hair to push auburn curls back out of her face, taking a deep breath. Keeping it a secret had been a lot better of an idea in theory than in reality. April had been able to open up to him about so many things in her life, more than any other man that she'd ever dated. Her level of comfort around him was insane, the trust built between the two of them wonderful. But this would have been breaking the trust, either way, as far as she was concerned. But this seemed like the lesser of two evils.
"George kissed me," April blurted suddenly, unable to hold it inside.
"What?"
"George kissed me."
Jackson fell silent for a moment, a scowl forming across his features and head dipping down to get a better look at her expression. She looked absolutely horrified with the information that she had unloaded on him, and even though he could see the negative emotions convicted across her expression, there's still an ugly stir of jealousy in the pit of his stomach.
The thought of anyone kissing her was enough to drive him crazy. But the two of them had been spending so much time together, ever since his father had first ended up in the hospital. April understood the importance of a good father figure, the only other one in his intern group. And even if it's a dirty thought to be jealous of something like that, it's there. He can't make it go away as much as he wanted to. George had just lost his father and yet he wanted to beat the shit out of the younger man for thinking that he had any kind of right to kiss April.
"Explain. What happened?" Clarification was the first thing that he needed, holding his breath in anticipation of what was to be heard.
It's a relatively quick story to have to tell, not much behind the impulsive decision on George's end. She's flustered with every word, every syllable that fell from her lips, unable to meet his gaze as her cheeks reddened with shame. Not her fault, and yet she felt like she had done something wrong nonetheless. A bad habit of hers.
"And you're sure that was it?" Jackson questioned, needing the confirmation.
"Yeah. Nothing else. I-I just froze at first, but I pushed him off and left. I didn't know what else to do."
Jackson wet his lips and looked away for a moment, hand running over his face and fingertips scratching the short stubble growing across his chin. A little more thought would have been enough indication to know that he was overreacting and that the deep envy inside of him was something that was unnecessary, that she felt just as uncomfortable about the situation as he did hearing about it. But knowing that she'd been put into that situation only made rage boil inside of him. Beating the life out of him would have been equally impulsive and probably ended with April feeling just as awkward as before, but the thought was still there, not wanting to go away in the slightest the more that he thought about it.
Instead of saying anything further, he released the breath that he was holding before pulling her in for a tight hug. Nose buried itself in her hair, fresh smell of her strawberry shampoo hitting his senses. He didn't want to let go of her and he sure as hell didn't know what he was going to do the next time that he saw O'Malley, but he knew that it wasn't likely to be much of a positive interaction between the two of them.
Pulling away from the embrace only a few centimeters, Jackson dropped his head down so that he could press a firm kiss on her lips.
This was the exact kind of kiss that April wanted, the only person that she wanted kissing him. She couldn't help but moan into the kiss in the slightest, passionate and hotter than what most of their interactions inside of the hospital were, his possessive coming out. Maybe under normal circumstances, she would have told him not to be such an alpha male, but right now, it was perfect. Her hands held onto the lapels of his lab coat to hold him in tighter, neither of them breaking away until their lungs were burning for air.
"You're the only one that I want to kiss me, baby," she mumbled into his chest, letting her head fall to rest on it for a moment and listening to the steady sound of his heart beating inside of him.
"Good. Because I'm the only man who's ever going to kiss you again."
