A/N: Hi everyone I hope that you're enjoying this story and want to hear/read more. I really appreciate any reviews/feedback. How would you all like the chapters, longer, shorter, with more dialogue, less? Thanks for sticking with me through all of my stories though; I couldn't do it without you!

"Avery!" Mark Sloan called.

"Yeah?" Jackson responded.

"Drinks at Joe's tonight?"

"Sorry man, I can't. I have a date. And don't you have that twin separation in Boise?"

"My man," Mark lightly smacked Jackson's shoulder, "You finally grew a pair and asked Kepner out on a real date. So, where are you taking her? And we'll be back by like 8:00, it shouldn't be that complicated. I'm just about to leave for that, take care of my post-ops for me?"

"I never said it was Kepner. And what else would you have me do Dr. Sloan?"

Mark gave him a disapproving look, "You're telling me that you've been best friends with her for years, you sleep with her at the boards, and you don't have the decency to take her out for dinner? Did I not teach you better than that?" Mark asked shocked.

"I'm kidding, of course it's April," Jackson smiled.

"Dear God, Avery, you almost gave me a heart attack." Jackson only smiled at Mark before he headed to the cafeteria.

"Have fun with Lexie tonight, Dr. Sloan, I'll see you tomorrow."

He picked April up at the apartment they shared with Alex, promptly at 8:00 o'clock like he promised; an Avery is never late for anything. That was one of the more annoying traits his mother had instilled in him, but it did have its advantages like now. He walked into their apartment and he saw her fumbling with her pearl earring and wearing one shoe. Her hair was swept off her shoulders in a soft chignon and her lips had a berry tint to them. He didn't say anything; he just sat down on the front steps and watched her get ready, mesmerized by her.

"Damn, where's my other shoe?" She complained, "I need to find my other shoe," she told herself. She ran to go upstairs to her bedroom, thinking it'd be in there when she saw Jackson sitting on the steps, "Oh my God is it already 8? I'm so sorry, I'll be ready in a sec."

"Take your time, this is actually kind of fun," he laughed, "I've never seen you more disorganized in my life."

"Well don't get used to it mister."

"Can I help you find your shoe?" She leaned her body in closer to his and took his face in her hands, "No, you can't help me find my shoe because if you do then we'll go to my bedroom and you know what happens in there. I won't be able to keep my hands off of you and right now I'm starving so I actually want dinner."

"We could skip dinner, go to the bedroom, and then order takeout?" Jackson suggested.

"And waste this dress? No Jackson, we're going out, you're just going to have to be patient and wait for dessert like any good boy," she teased. Oh God was she killing him. Just the thought of what was underneath that dress made him swoon. Well, he knew what was underneath it and he wanted to see it again. He hadn't touched her since this afternoon and he felt like he was in withdrawal, "This must be what it feels like to be in love," he muttered to himself.

"Okay, I'm ready." She called out from the top of the stairs.

Jackson stood up and faced her, the green dress looked better than he had remembered and her black hells made her four inches taller, now she came up to his shoulders, "You look beautiful," the words came out in a soft whisper and they made April blush. No one had ever told her she looked beautiful, not while they looked at her with eyes that sung passion.

"You're not so bad yourself. So where are you taking me?"

"Canlis, I figured you'd want to do something special for our first date?"

"Jackson! Seriously? Doesn't it take like months to get a reservation there? How'd you pull this off?"

"I have a mother with more connections than the devil, trust me this was the easiest thing I could have done. Anyways, your chariot awaits." He took her hand and guided her to his car, opened the door for her, and then drove to the restaurant.

"Good evening sir," the valet said to him as he got out of the car and handed the teenager his keys while the other attendant opened the door for April.

"My oh my Jackson Avery, you sure are sweeping me off of my feet," she swooned.

"Come on, this isn't even the best part, wait until they feed you, it'll be to die for." They walked into the restaurant which had wooden arbors lined with twinkle lights over the pathway up to the door and some heaters to keep the chilly evening September air at bay. He had sprung for a table near the window with a perfect view of the bay. Their table had a crisp white tablecloth on it and a single candle flickering in the middle, the rustic looking interior was perfect for both of them. It was classy, but not too formal where they'd feel pressured to remember which fork was the salad fork and which one was meant to be used to eat the meat. Sure, he was an Avery and he had practically been trained in the art of fine dining since he was old enough to hold a spoon, but April was different.

"Good evening sir, miss," he looked at April pointedly, "I'm Elton and I will be your sommelier for the evening, if you two would please take a look at our extensive wine list that'd be greatly appreciated," he paused while he gave them time to look over their menus.

"It says here that you guys have one of the best wine lists in the world, is it better than any bistro in Paris?" Jackson joked knowing April would find it hilarious, and he knew she did because she sort of kicked him under the table which caused him to jolt and smile like an idiot at the same time.

"Yes we do, we pride ourselves on our collection," he awkwardly responded, "Anyways, what will you two be having for dinner tonight?"

"I was thinking about doing the Peter Canlis Prawns, followed by the rabbit sausage, then the beef wellington, and lastly the soufflé," April explained to the Elton.

"And I'll do the same," Jackson chirped.

"Alright, well I'll start you two off with a glass of our sauvignon blanc from the Loire valley in France, then for your next course a new world red will be best I suggest a glass of merlot, which should hold your palette's over for the beef wellington. It's from the Efeste, upright, klipsun vineyard located in the red mountain of Washington and it's a 2012, very good, one of my favorites for sure. Lastly, I suggest a light champagne for the dessert, the Salon Blanc de Blanc is exquisite."

"That sounds great," Jackson assured him.

"Perfect, I'll go get those prepared for you and let Stacey know that you've decided on your meal."

"Thank you," Jackson replied.

"Do you have any idea about anything he just said?" April asked.

"None at all. Do you have any idea about anything that you ordered us to eat?"

"I literally just said the first things I saw, I'm used to eating hamburgers not duck at dinner. Reading the menu was like reading French for me and I was not good at that in high school."

"You took French in high school?"

"And all through college, I minored in it actually. I actually spent a semester there when I was a junior in college; honestly have to say it was the best four and a half months of my life. We lived in a small town in the south, so it wasn't really that touristy and it helped me to get the real French experience. I don't think I've ever felt more alive than I did there, except for well, when I'm in the O.R. at least or when I'm sitting here talking with you."

"You're a secret Frenchie and you've been holding out on me. Say something for me in French, please," he begged with his puppy dog eyes.

"Jackson, stop you're embarrassing me. I'm so rusty anyways, you wouldn't be impressed trust me. I bet your French is better than mine."

"I only know croissant and baguette," he laughed.

"Exactly the basics you need to know."

"April, I'm not going to stop pestering you," he took his shoe off and started to caress her leg under the table guiding his foot up and down her leg. It was smooth; clearly she had shaved for the occasion.

"I'm supposed to be doing that to you, mister," she smiled.

"Can't I treat you for once?" he teased.

"Jackson, peux-tu arreter s'il te plait? C'est bon?" She looked at him coyly but his foot was still stroking her leg.

"I didn't get a word of that, but it sounded oh so sexy. I'm pretty sure you could have told me to jump off a bridge and I would have."

"I told you to stop," she abruptly said which caused him to swallow hard, "Because I should be doing this for you. And if I wanted to talk dirty in French I'd just call you a putain."

"What does that mean?"

"Whore."

"April Ingrid Kepner, did you just call me a whore?"

"Oui, mais il était en français," she looked at him with a smirk plastered on her face as she took another sip of her wine. The meal was going well, their conversations flowed from one thing to the next. They talked about Moline and how Joe had just bought a new tractor after much convincing from her mother that his tractor from 1996 wasn't going to cut it for harvest this year. Jackson told her about how his mom was still wooing Weber and that he was still not over the scaring experience of knowing that they had sex at the boards.

"I still can't believe you needed your lucky pencil that day," she commented, "It's gotten you through everything Jackson Avery but even it could not save you from that horrible scene."

"That pencil had gotten me through every important test. My SATS, MCATS, intern exam. I needed it for the boards," he defended himself, "And the only help it could have been was if I had used it to stab my eyes out."

April practically chocked on her wine, "Jackson Avery I didn't know you were such a drama queen. Come on your mom's a single woman you can't be surprised that she," she trailed off.

"I know that. I just don't like seeing it. And you know my mother, she's just so open about those things, I'm sure she'll start texting me asking for me to talk to Dr. Weber for her."

"Speaking of your mother are you going to tell her about us?" April added as she put her hand on his, "I mean if you're not ready to I understand."

"I'm sure she already knows, my mother has her ways. You've seen her, I mean she met you for a day and she already bought that guy at the bar a drink from you."

"Oh my God, don't remind me. I don't think I had ever been more embarrassed in my life," she hung her head in shame, "How could you have let me go into the lion's den so blind?"

"Okay I'm sorry about that one. I knew she was manipulative with me; I honestly didn't like she'd do it with you. But damn that woman wanted you to get laid."

"Well, it's a good thing I did," April bragged, "And speaking of people who encouraged us to get together you know Dr. Sloan?"

"Never met the guy, what's his specialty?" He sarcastically quipped back.

"Stop it you, I'm serious," she laughed, "Okay, so one day I was minding my own business at staring at the surgical board, this was right before the boards mind you so, I wanted to see what surgeries there were and if I could get in on any for extra practice. Anyways he saw me and started talking about how you and I were study buddies and that we could be the other kind of buddies."

"That sure sounds like Mark. What did you say to him, I'm sure your face went beat red."

"Hey, don't make fun of the fact that I'm pale and unfortunately my emotions show all over my face, we can't all be blessed with a complexion like yours that never shows that you're blushing. Anyways, I told him that it was sexual harassment and he just laughed at me. Telling me we were both attractive people and whatnot."

"Who would have thought that Mark Sloan knew what was between us all this time?"

"Honestly, he kind of planted the idea in my head," she confessed as she took another bite of her beef wellington, "God this is good," she murmured.

"Care to elaborate on that one Apes?"

"Okay well this is really embarrassing."

"April, you walked around for three years with that damn red notebook of yours, trust me I've seen you at your most embarrassing."

"Says the boy who almost cried when he thought he lost his 'lucky pencil'. Anyways, I never thought of you in "that way," she gestured making air quotes, "You were always too pretty. And I don't mean that in a bad way, I just mean that in a way where like you're so attractive and you could have anyone you ever wanted so I never let myself think like that. I never let my mind wander to being anything more than friends and you know what I was happy with it, being a friend that is. Then Mark suggested we sleep together and I got to thinking, what would be so wrong with sleeping with you. First of all you're hot," she laughed, "But honestly it had so much more to do with the man you are. You're my best friend. You punched Alex for me, you defended me when everyone else called me weird, and you were there for me after the shooting. I guess it just dawned on me that you were everything I had ever needed in a person and I had just been too blind to see it."

"Do you want to know something?"

"Yeah," her lip quivered, she was a bit nervous that she had scared him off with her confession.

"I noticed you the first day I met you. The nervous way you clutched that red notebook like it was your lifeline. I could tell that you didn't come from a medical dynasty like a lot of us, I knew that you worked your ass off to get where you were. So, I assumed there was a bit of a spitfire in you. And then that night when you yelled at everyone for making fun of you for being a virgin something started to click. You weren't the mousey intern anymore; you were growing into a strong, kickass, and beautiful surgeon. And then when you punched that guy at the boards, trust me if you wouldn't have kissed me first, I would have been all over you."

"Do you think we've always been meant to be, but we were too blind to see it?"

"I'd like to think that two grown adults with medical degrees would have been able to see that they were in love with each other."

April legitimately spit out her champagne and it sprayed all over Jackson's face, "Oh my God I'm so sorry. I am so sorry Jackson, please I'll pay to get that dry cleaned."

"April, what the hell? Was it something I said?" And then he realized what he had said; he said that they were in love with each other.

"Jackson, it's nothing I really don't know what happened. I'm really sorry," she nervously tried to dab his tie with her napkin, her chest was right against his and he could smell her vanilla shampoo.

"I meant it," he confessed and her eyes looked straight into his, "I'm in love with you April and I have been for a very long time."

"I love you too," gushed. He grabbed her by the waist and sat her in his lap, he didn't care that they were in a fancy restaurant and that public displays of affection were not what Avery's did. Her arms were wrapped around his neck and his around her waist and he kissed her, passionately. His hand started caressing her back, and before he could even think they were on their way to the bathroom. They had gone one after the other as to not cause too much suspicion, so she left the table first. He met her in the women's bathroom five minutes later, making sure to check that the coast was clear of other guests.

"Are we always going to do it in bathrooms?" She teased.

"We wouldn't have to do it in the bathroom if you'd just let us skip coming to dinner," he replied.

"And miss out on that soufflé, no way mister." He unzipped her dress revealing a matching set of a black bra and panties. Her toned abs were expanding and compressing quickly, due to her heavy breathing and his wasn't any better. His mind wandered to the first time they had, had sex in a bathroom. It was right after their first board session and April was dripping sweat, her nerves were getting the best of her for sure.

"I shouldn't have taken advantage," he confessed.

"What?"

"Oh we should… we should go," he suggested.

"Taken advantage? I kissed you, remember?"

"Yeah, but I kissed you back.

"Yeah, but then I unbuttoned your shirt."

"Yeah, and then I… pulled up that skirt,"

"Yeah, but then I kissed your neck.

"Yeah. And then I took off your shirt.

"And I… But then I unbuckled your belt."

"And then… I slipped my hand up your back."

"And I wrapped my arms around your neck.

Say what you want about April Kepner getting tongue tied, the woman sure knew how to make a man feel something with just her words. She didn't think that she could do the whole dirty talk thing, but damn could she. Just the thought of her saying his name, whispering it into his ear softly and sweetly, made him swoon. He nestled his head into her neck as he reached around from behind for her breast. Bathroom sex was always dirty and a bit wrong; maybe the sheer thrill of getting caught was what made it all the more exciting. They had finished and after he zipped April back up and helped her fix her hair, since it had come out during their little romp, they made their way out of the stall. Unfortunately an older woman was in the bathroom washing her hands. She looked at them up and down and just smiled.

"I was young once too, enjoy it you two," she smiled before leaving the bathroom.

"Oh my God Jackson, she heard us!"

"I told you not to moan so loud!"

"I can't help it when you do that thing to my neck."

They made their way back to their table and asked the waiter for the check. It certainly had been the best first date April had ever been on and she couldn't wait to go on many more dates with Jackson Avery. She was really beginning to think that maybe this time things could go right, that everything would work out for them and then Jackson's phone rang. His face was in total shock as he dropped his phone to the ground and collapsed to his knees, April hated this because she knew exactly what was on the other end of that phone call, nothing but death and destruction.

"Jackson, what is it?" She worriedly asked him as she knelt down on the ground to try and console him.

"That was Dr. Hunt," he stuttered.

"What did Owen want, Jackson? Why would he call you instead of paging you?"

"The plane that took Grey, Robbins, Yang, Shepherd, Little Grey, and Sloan to Boise is missing. They think it crashed and they can't find it," he croaked out.

"Oh my God," she gasped. The old April, the one who didn't go into a combat zone probably would have collapsed on the pavement with him from the pure shock, but the new April was strong and almost machine like, she knew exactly how to handle a crisis like this. Back when the first plane crash happened she thought that it was going to be the second worst day of her life, second only to the shooting, but then she lost her son and realized that no day would ever hold a candle for the horror that that was. She reached out her hand for his and pulled him up, "Come on, let's get to the hospital and see what's going on. Let's not worry until we have to."

"How are you so calm with all of this? My mentor could be dead. Our friends could be dead."

"Jackson," she began, "We've been through enough tragedies I guess, and I guess I'm just used to it. Besides, let's not get ourselves worked up yet. No one is dead," she said to him, but whispered, "yet" under her breath. She had prayed that Owen had taken her advice on the plane and chosen a different charter company, why hadn't he just canceled the procedure all together she thought to herself as she drove Jackson's car to the hospital. Luckily it was only about ten minutes away from the restaurant.

"I'm going to head to the daycare to get Zola, Owen texted me and said to meet in the conference room. I'll meet you there," she suggested.

"Sure, that's fine." He leaned in to give her a kiss.

After getting Zola, April met Hunt, Jackson, Alex, Bailey, Weber and Callie in the main conference room.

"Thank you all for coming on a short notice," Owen began.

"Hunt, what is going on? You call me at like 11:00 telling me my wife's plane is missing," Callie anxiously complained.

"The plane went down about two hours after takeoff, the search and rescue team is looking for them," he tried to explain.

"And what are we supposed to do until then?" Alex yelled, "Wait here like sitting ducks?" he was angry, April knew he would be; that was supposed to be his spot and she knew the guilt must have been eating him alive.

"Dr. Karev, do you need to take a walk?" Owen asked.

"No, Dr. Hunt. What I need is to know if my friends are okay. If my mentor is okay. They've been gone for hours, they're all probably dead by now and if they aren't, they'll freeze to death out there in the woods." And with that a very angry Alex Karev stormed out of the conference room.

April handed Zola to Jackson, "I've got him," she said before excusing herself from the table.

She chased after Alex, which wasn't the easiest thing to do in heels, "Alex stop," she called out.

"I'm not in the mood Kepner so any of your God crap or your it all happens for a reason stuff isn't going to work. I don't want to hear it, I'm not in the mood."

She took a deep breath in, contemplating whether or not she should tell him. What was the point in coming back in time, in getting a second chance if she couldn't use it, if she couldn't help her friend in his time of need? Sure, Alex was an ass, but he was dirty Uncle Sal as Meredith had called him. Whether or not she like everything he did or said, he was still family, and family meant no one got left behind.

"They're fine," she began, "Meredith and Cristina are fine." He didn't say anything for a moment; he just stared at her dumbfounded. She knew that's what he needed to hear, he needed to know if his family was safe because that's what they were. She hadn't been there for the first two years of their residencies, but for the years she had been there she knew that those two women were all he had in terms of family. If they died, if anything happened to them, she was positive Alex would never make it back.

"How do you know that, do you have a secret connection with God or something?"

"No, it's not that, I just know okay. They survive," she stroked his back, "they survive," she whispers. He turns around and looks her dead in the eyes.

"Kepner, who doesn't survive?"

She didn't want to tell him, what if in this universe something happens and Mark and Lexie don't die. What if their plane landed in a different position and didn't crush Lexie?

"April, tell me! Who is it?" He roared, he grabbed her by the shoulders and practically shook her. Jackson heard the commotion and peeked his head out of the conference room.

"Lexie," she yelled back, "Lexie's dead. Lexie doesn't survive the plane crash and neither does Mark." April ran off crying and Jackson followed her.

"April," he softly said to her, "April what was that?"

"Nothing Jackson, can you please ignore it?"

"No, because Hunt just received a call and the only person to die was the pilot, and everyone else has really severe injuries but they're going to be fine. So, what were you saying about Mark and Lexie dying?"

"They're not dead?" Her voice quivered, "You're absolutely serious they're not dead?"

"April, why would I lie about them being dead? Now can you please explain what's going on?"

"Oh my God, thank you," she collapsed into his arms and the tears did not stop coming, "Maybe it's really going to be okay," she said thinking only about Samuel. Now that Lexie and Mark had survived the plane crash a little seed of hope had been planted in her brain that maybe her son just might survive too.

"Shhh, I got you." Jackson picked her up and laid her down on the on-call bed, "Go to sleep." He nestled in next to her and wrapped his arms around her sobbing body until she went to sleep, still unable to shake the feeling that something was wrong with April. She knew something; April didn't lie about things like this, and he was determined to get to the bottom of it.

A/N: Thank you for reading this you guys! Please let me know how you want this story to progress. I'm always open for suggestions!