Like always, thanks for the reviews! Not sure what else to say, so enjoy chapter 4!


April hoped she and Jackson could talk after she arrived home from her last shift, but he had grown distant, shutting her out whenever she tried to ask him about what was bothering him. It wasn't the first time he built an invisible shield between them. He had done it many times during their Mercy West days. She, Reed and Charles learned to give him space when he didn't want to talk about his problems, but she and Jackson were engaged now, so not talking was frustrating.

He watched her interact with Barry in his room while he pretended to work on charts at the nurses' station. She appeared to be entertaining him based on the laughter coming from the room. Yeah, he really hated that guy.

Meredith Grey arrived beside him to drop off a chart. Her eyes switched back and forth between Jackson and April. The expressions on their faces were complete opposites of each other.

"You really shouldn't be paranoid about them," she advised. "You'll only make things worse for yourself."

"I'm not paranoid."

"Really? So, why have you been watching April like a hawk?"

"I haven't," he said defensively. Jackson scowled as his fiancée talked to Barry with a wide grin on her face. "Did you notice I have big boobs now? I bet you wish I had these boobs in high school."

Meredith laughed at Jackson's poor imitation of April's high-pitched voice. "Oh, stop. You're jealous over nothing, Jackson. She's just being friendly."

"I'm not jealous." The plastics fellow rolled his eyes when she smirked at him. "Okay, maybe a little, but…" He lowered his voice to a whisper. "…she passed up sex to watch him in surgery yesterday. Who does that?"

"Hey, my husband rocked that surgery. I don't blame her," she proudly said.

Jackson noticed April preparing to leave Barry's room. Stephanie Edwards, one of the interns he had worked with and now a second year resident, was passing by and quickly approached her.

"Dr. Edwards," he called out to her. He placed his hand on her shoulder, giving her his best charming smile. "Would you like to scrub in on my nerve graft surgery later? I need steady hands for this delicate surgery and I think you have very, very steady hands."

Stephanie softly laughed and shyly smiled. "S-sure. Thank you, Dr. Avery. You won't regret your decision."

He winked at her. "Believe me, I won't." As his resident walked off he saw April staring at him, arms folded and unamused. "What? You're the only one who can flirt with other people?"

"That's what you think I've been doing?" She shook her head in disgust as she walked away from him. "Grow up, Jackson."

Meredith approached Jackson and slapped the back of his head. "You're ridiculous." She slightly glared at him as he rubbed his head. "Seriously? Do you want me to tell your mother how stupid you're acting right now?"

"Do not get my mother involved," he muttered. "I'll never hear the end of it."

"Then stop being an immature ass and apologize to April later."

Jackson watched Meredith walk away, then he entered Barry's room. He felt they needed to talk face to face while April wasn't anywhere nearby. Standing at the foot of the quarterback's bed, he folded his arms as he sternly looked at him.

"Uhh, hey," Barry greeted him with a puzzled look on his face. "Who are you?"

"I'm Dr. Avery. Jackson Avery, Dr. Kepner's fiancé."

"Oh, so you're the infamous Jackson. April told me about you earlier," he said and held out his hand. "I'm Barry Evans. We went to high school together. Nice to meet you."

Jackson waved off Barry's friendly greeting. "Yeah, whatever." He pointed his finger at him. "I'm going to get right to the point. I know what you did to her in high school and I don't like you. I also don't like seeing you talking to my fiancée either."

Barry laughed. He wasn't intimidated by Jackson's straightforwardness. "Is that what you tell every guy you see her talking to? She never described you as the territorial, possessive type."

"No. I just don't like her talking to you. I don't trust you."

"Well, I don't trust you either. Mainly because I just met you and we're clearly never going to be friends," he replied nonchalantly. "Does my presence intimidate you? It sounds like it does, Dr. Avery. You're not used to other guys fawning over April, huh?"

"No, but other guys don't stand a chance. That includes you, Evans." Jackson pointed two fingers at his eyes, then he pointed them towards Barry. "I'll be watching you until you're out of here." He left his room before he could respond. After finally meeting Barry Evans, he came to the conclusion that he really, really hated that guy.


"What a douche," Lexie said, shaking her head in disgust. She and April were sitting at the bottom of one of the hospital's stairwells as the redhead beside her cried on her lap. "I can't believe he did that in front of you."

"An-and he didn't even feel b-bad about it," April sobbed. She sat up straight, wiping away her tears with the sleeve of her lab coat. "I think he did cheat on me. He cheated on me and he's too much of a coward to admit it. And he thinks I've been flirting with Barry! It's like he doesn't trust me at all. How are we supposed to get married if he can't trust me?"

Lexie gently rubbed April's lower back. "He trusts you. It's the first time he's paranoid about you falling for somebody else."

"But it's not the first time he's been paranoid like this," she noted. "He was paranoid about you and Mark after you threw that softball at Julia. Honestly, I don't blame him. You and Mark have a long history, but Barry and I? There's nothing. He's just the guy who treated me badly in high school. Jackson's my best friend and for the first time, I can't figure out what's wrong with him. Besides the whole jealousy issue with Barry, there's something else he's not telling me. He won't talk to me."

"Maybe if you have sex with him, he'll talk," she joked, trying to lighten the mood. However, April wasn't in the laughing mood. She only glared at her and Lexie grimaced. "Okay, that was supposed to be funny, but you're clearly not feeling that one."

"Enough about me," the trauma surgeon said and nodded her head towards Lexie. "What about you? Tell Mark about the twins yet?"

Lexie slowly shook her head. "Nope."

April sighed. "Lexie, I thought you were going to tell him yesterday. That was the plan."

"I was gonna tell him, I swear!" she exclaimed. "But here's what happened. We had Sofia with us last night and you know she's going through that Terrible Two phase. Mark made a comment about how he was relieved that Sofia was the only child we needed to take care of at the moment because it would be a madhouse if there were more babies around. So, I choked. I couldn't tell him after he said that."

"Well, when are you telling him then? He'll eventually catch on when your morning sickness becomes more unbearable for you. You can't lie to him and say you're bulimic."

"I will tell him soon," Lexie promised. "Soon. When the timing is right. This time I mean it."


Both Jackson and April's shifts ended around the same time, a little after 10 PM. Normally, they picked up Jordan from daycare together, but their routine had changed that day. Jackson finished changing in the attendings locker room and he noticed April's belongings were already gone from her cubby. They had avoided each other for the rest of the day and she made sure to change out of her scrubs before he arrived.

He rode the elevator down to the fourth floor and walked to the daycare center. Before he went inside, she walked out carrying a sleeping Jordan in her arms. Their baby boy was dressed in his pajamas and asleep against April's shoulder.

Without saying a word to each other, they entered an empty elevator. They stood side by side, avoiding eye contact as they rode the elevator down to the lobby. The walk to their car was also quiet. April sat in the backseat next to Jordan's car seat on the way home and Jackson carried him into their apartment after they arrived. It was the longest they had ever gone without speaking a word to each other.

He carefully placed their son in his crib hoping not to wake him up. She changed into her pajamas before she used the bathroom to brush her teeth. He waited until she was finished for his turn at the sink, then he climbed into bed where she was already lying down. She turned off her lamp and they both lay on their sides with their backs facing each other. Neither of them could fall asleep. They were both wide awake in their dark bedroom.

"You cheated on me. Just admit it," April softly said.

"I didn't cheat on you," Jackson replied irritably.

"And you flirted with a resident to intentionally hurt me. The fact that you can't trust me hurts even more."

"I'm sorry. I do trust you, but I was annoyed with how friendly you were with Barry." Jackson rolled over to look at April. "I don't like it when you visit him. I keep thinking you're having second thoughts about us since you've been spending a lot of your free time with him."

It was April's turn to roll over. "Why would you think that?" She sat up on their bed to turn on the lamp, then she frowned at her fiancé. "You actually thought I'd leave you for him?"

Jackson sighed as he sat up and faced her. "Listen, I've been with a lot of women, but I know you're the one I want to marry and spend the rest of my life with." He gestured his hand towards her. "You haven't been with a lot of men, so it's not like you can compare me to anybody. I don't want to be compared to Barry freakin' Evans."

"I haven't been comparing you to him and I'm not having second thoughts about us." April scooted closer to him, picking up his hands and interlocking their fingers together. "I've just been giving him company because he doesn't have anyone. That doesn't mean my feelings for him from high school are back. In fact, I spent my visits with him today bragging about you and he didn't mind."

"Yeah, I heard," he murmured. "I uhh… visited him too, but not to make nice with him. I let him know how I felt about you visiting him. Umm… I got a little overprotective."

She smirked at him. "You were jealous."

He hated to admit it, but he was jealous. Very, very jealous. "Okay, I was," he mumbled. "Let me just say that Barry is not a bad looking guy and the fact that he wants to bang you because you're hot now doesn't sit well with me."

"He just had back surgery. He's not going to be banging anyone any time soon," April quipped. "And despite the fact that it turns out he may have had secret nerd feelings for me in high school, that was in the past. I've moved on to a better man who, by the way, will lose some precious body parts if he flirts with his residents again."

Jackson sheepishly grinned. "And again, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that," he apologized, placing his hands on her waist. "It'll never happen again. I promise."

He leaned forward to kiss her, but she pressed her finger against his lips. "There's one more thing we need to talk about," she said, gently pushing him away. "Something happened in North Carolina and I'm not sure why you won't tell me, but we're supposed to be honest with each other. Just tell me what it is. Whatever it is, I won't judge you or think differently of you."

She was April Kepner. Of course she wouldn't let anything go until she found closure. And Jackson hated lying to her. He desperately wanted to forget about Harper Jr. except she wouldn't let him until he told her the truth.

"My dad," he softly said, slightly dropping his head. "I saw him. He's alive."

"You saw your dad?" she asked, raising both of her eyebrows. "Umm… what happened?"

"It was bizarre. I was running around Duke's campus with Sloan and he just appeared right in front of me," he explained. "I thought I was imagining it, but he was really there. And he wasn't a drunk. He was sober and living a new life with a new family that he actually cares about."

April frowned. "Oh, gosh. Did you two talk? How bad was it?"

"He wanted to talk, but I couldn't look at him without feeling so much resentment towards him." Jackson answered and shook his head. "We talked a little bit at the hotel bar. He tried to explain himself and then he wanted to know more about my current life. That's when I walked out and I haven't heard from him since."

He turned around, sitting on the edge of their bed with his back facing her. "He was at Duke for his stepson. My replacement was being recruited for basketball and he was there to support him. He never did anything like that for me," he angrily said with tears in his eyes. "That kid probably doesn't even know I exist. My dad's such a bastard."

April could hear him sniffling, but he clearly didn't want to cry in front of her. The first and only time she saw him cry was when they reunited after her memory returned. He never shed a tear at Charles and Reed's funeral. While he was sad about their deaths, he was the type of person who cried behind the scenes when nobody was around.

She wrapped her arms over his shoulders as she leaned forward against his back. He quickly blinked his eyes to try to hide his tears. "Just let it out, Jackson. You don't have to be the tough guy all of the time," she encouraged him, rubbing his chest with her hand.

And on cue, Jackson buried his face into his hands and broke down. She remained quiet to let him unleash the hurt and anger he built up inside of him while she occasionally kissed the back of his neck. He had always been the strong one who comforted April whenever she was upset, but this time it was the other way around.


Jackson opening up about his father was a turning point because he was able to release his stress the best way he knew how – sex. And he was having a lot of sex with April throughout the week. He wasn't complaining and neither was she. Most of their free time was spent visiting Jordan in daycare or using one of the on-call rooms.

Barry had been discharged from the hospital at the end of the week, so Jackson couldn't be more thrilled when he went back home to Arizona. Even though April continued to visit his hospital room, her fiancé stopped being overprotective and jealous. He was getting laid on a daily basis again, so he had nothing to worry about.

The plastics fellow walked into the attendings lounge with a smug grin on his face. Cristina rolled her eyes as she ate her lunch at the dining table.

"Oh my God, don't tell me you and Kepner were at it again," she groaned.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he said unconvincingly as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

Cristina pointed at a vase with flowers on the table. "You also don't need to send her flowers, loser. I'm sure all of the sex you've been having is enough for her to know you love her."

"I didn't send those." Jackson picked up the card attached to the vase and opened it. The flowers were from Barry. Inside was a note thanking April for visiting him and he also wrote down his number for her, which made him laugh. "That guy doesn't give up."

"Who?"

"Barry. He gave April his number. What an idiot," he scoffed. "You know what? April doesn't need to know who actually got her these flowers. I can be a flowers type of guy. She won't figure it out."

Cristina watched Jackson throw the card away in a trash can. She shook her head when he replaced it with a post-it note. "You're pathetic, Avery. Now it just looks like you stole that from a patient's room."

"It's the thought that counts, alright?"

April entered the lounge and smiled brightly at Jackson. "Dr. Avery," she casually greeted him.

"Dr. Kepner," he replied, then he picked up the vase. "I bought these for you."

"More like stole them," Cristina muttered.

April missed the cardiothoracic surgeon's comment and gushed at the flowers. "Aww, you didn't have to do that, Jackson." She stood on her tip toes and kissed Jackson's cheek. "You're so sweet."

Jackson pointed at the post-it note. "For some reason, they left out my card. I hope this will do."

The note had a simple "I love you" and Jackson's name written on it, but it was enough for her to squeal with excitement. "I think this is the first time you bought me flowers. Funny, I didn't think you were that type of guy," she implied.

"But you love them, right?"

"Of course I do!" She grinned. "And I love you too."

Jackson set the vase on the table. He slipped his hands into the pockets of April's lab coat, pulling her towards him. "I'm pretty sure I love you more."

She giggled against his lips. "That's not possible."

Cristina pretended to gag as she stood up from her seat. "Oh, go back to the on-call room you just had sex in," she teased and left the couple alone in the lounge. Jackson and April were in their own world and didn't even notice her leave.

They moved over to the couch, making out like teenagers who couldn't keep their hands off of each other. Mark walked into the lounge, quickly approaching the couple with his hands on his hips.

"Hey, I've been looking all over for you," he said, interrupting their makeout session.

"What did I do now?" Jackson asked, annoyed at his mentor.

"No, not you." Mark pointed at April, who was adjusting her hair. "You. I paged you at least five times, Kepner. Don't tell me your horndog fiancé told you to ignore me."

"You paged?" April checked her pager and gasped when she saw the many missed pages from Mark. She quickly stood up, forcing a laugh. "Oh, umm… I see them now. Sorry. Did you need me, Dr. Sloan?"

Mark nodded as he gestured his hand towards the door. "Follow me." He pointed at Jackson. "And don't follow us. This has nothing to do with you, so stay put."

April quickly shrugged at Jackson as she followed Mark out of the lounge. He led her into a supply closet and blocked the door with his body, making her suspicious. "Uhh, Dr. Sloan?"

"Something is wrong with Lexie," he said worriedly. "She's been puking after she eats. First, she claimed food poisoning, but this has been going on for at least three days now. I'm talking to you about this because you two are close friends. You're like Jackson and I, but with vaginas."

"Umm, not really."

"Anyway, I think Lexie's bulimic."

She chuckled. "Why do you think that?"

"It's pretty obvious. She sneaks off to puke in the bathroom a lot," he recalled. "And she never had diarrhea, so it's not food poisoning. You and I need to create an intervention. We'll hold her hostage in one of the elevators because they seem to have magical powers in this hospital. It'll knock some sense into her."

April raised her hands in front of her chest. "Lexie's not bulimic, Mark. No intervention needed."

Mark stared at the redhead confused. "Then what's her deal?"

She personally didn't want to be the one to tell him the truth, but Lexie's inability to tell him herself left her no choice. "Think about it. Is she puking during specific times of the day? Does she get a bit moody?"

He slowly nodded. "Yes to both. She pukes after breakfast. Yesterday, she puked after dinner." Snapping his fingers, he shook his head in disappointment. "I know what it is. It's my cooking. Lexie hates my cooking, but she won't say it to my face! She's been forcing herself to down my crap, then she throws it all up afterwards."

"Umm, no-"

"You and Avery had dinner at our place before. Is my cooking that bad? If you want to blame somebody, blame Robbins. She's the one who taught me certain recipes," he said defensively.

April waved her hand. "Your cooking's fine. It's on par with Jackson's," she insisted. "Seriously think about it, Mark. Finish this sentence – when a woman is puking daily she could be…"

"Bulimic?"

"No! I already told you she's not bulimic!" she exclaimed. "Again, when a woman is puking daily she could be…"

"Sick with the stomach flu?"

April threw her arms up in frustration. "No, Mark! She's pregnant! Lexie is pregnant!" she yelled. She bit her lower lip as Mark blankly stared at her. She twiddled her thumbs, waiting for a response from the plastic surgeon. "Do you want me to repeat myself?"

He slowly shook his head. "No. I heard you the first time."

"Are you okay? Maybe you should sit down," she suggested. "Lexie told me you two wanted to wait until she finished her residency, so she's been afraid to tell you. Umm, she's about seven weeks now."

Mark took a deep breath and exhaled. "So it's not my cooking after all. That's awesome."

April rolled her eyes. She wondered how Mark could be so dense sometimes. "Are you not upset about this?"

"Are you kidding me? This is great," he cheerfully said. He caught her off-guard when he suddenly pulled her in for a hug. "I couldn't be happier. Sofia's getting a sibling to play with!"

"Actually, it's siblings. Plural," she added. "Lexie's pregnant with twins."

Mark grabbed April's shoulders, pulling her away to look at her. "Seriously?" She quickly nodded, then he hugged her even tighter. "That means she only has to get pregnant one more time. We're aiming for three kids."

"Well, if you're not upset, then congratulations!" she chirped. "Lexie's not as excited as you are, but maybe she'll change her mind after you talk to her."

"I'll talk to her as soon as I see her." Mark grinned at April and winked. "For now, just keep it a secret until Lex and I officially announce it to everyone. Thanks for telling me, Kepner. You know, I totally knew she wasn't bulimic."

"Right," she replied with a smirk.

Mark cautiously opened the door, peeking his head out into the hallway. It was clear, so he walked out of the supply closet and April followed him from behind.

Alex turned the corner to see his two coworkers adjusting their lab coats. They walked down the hallway before they split up going opposite directions. He wasn't sure what he saw, but it was suspicious from his point of view. Mark and April sneaking around? That was juicy gossip.

"Dude…"


Jackson's issues with Harper Jr. isn't over. And don't celebrate yet, Barry will be back :p