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Alex had woken up in one of the best moods of his life. Not because he had gotten laid – he knew the impatient person in him would have to wait a little longer for that – but because the woman he wanted was finally his. The pining and the envious behavior eventually paid off for him after he admitted his feelings to April. It took balls in his mind. He wasn't one to easily do that for anybody, but she was the type of person who was willing to listen. Maybe that was why he had fallen for her, he thought.

They hung out in front of his trailer, drinking beer and acting awkward around each other. Neither of them quite knew what to do next after he had kissed her. She preferred they keep their new relationship a secret until both of them figured everything out between them. He agreed, mainly to avoid the jokes and teasing from Meredith and Cristina for the time being. Once they knew what they meant to each other, then they could be a couple publicly.

After spending a couple hours relaxing and sobering up, April had gone home to the frat house to sleep. The inexperienced and shy sides of her were definitely not ready to share a bed with a man, even if it was just to sleep at night. But she had fallen asleep with a smile on her face.

The guy who seemed to loathe her the most actually wanted her. She couldn't be more elated that Karev, of all people, had feelings for her. Real feelings that didn't involve just scoring an easy lay in bed.

However, their cloud nine moment had been short-lived. Torres and Robbins were involved in a serious car accident. The orthopedic surgeon suffered the worst of it. Her multiple injuries put herself and her unborn baby in danger. Throughout the morning, the surgeons were crammed inside of an OR trying to save her life. The situation was so serious that the Chief called in Addison Montgomery to fly in from California. Alex had spent time comforting his mentor and cleaning up the cuts on her face, while April was busy assisting the attendings and checking on Callie in the ICU afterwards.

It was going to be a long day, maybe a week for everyone if the attendings couldn't figure out a safe plan for Callie and the baby.

April walked into a supply closet to stock up on materials for Torres' room. It was possible she would be spending the night in an on-call room just in case her assistance was needed at three in the morning. All hands were on deck, including the residents, so she hoped she would be able to sneak away for a half an hour to go home and grab some new clothes to change into for the following day.

She felt a set of arms slide around her waist and she froze in place. "Please be Alex."

"Who else would it be?" Alex softly chuckled and kissed her cheek. "Any other guy and I'd have to kick his ass. Saw you walking in here, so I thought I'd follow. Are you busy?"

"No. Dr. Montgomery gave me a break, so I'm just gathering supplies for Callie's room."

He grabbed the supplies and put them back on the shelf. "Do it later," he instructed, taking her hand and leading her out of the closet. Stepping into the hallway, they immediately let go of each other's hands to avoid any stares.

"Where are we going?" she timidly asked. "I mean, is this appropriate right now? Torres is-"

"Is she stable?"

"For now, but-"

"Pretty much everyone is keeping an eye on her. If she's not coding, we're okay," Alex insisted, opening the door to an on-call room. He immediately closed the door after she joined him inside, then he removed his lab coat and tossed it onto the floor. "Take yours off."

April's eyes widened. "W-wait. What?"

He smirked at the redhead. "We're not having sex if that's what you're thinking. Just take it off."

She slowly removed her lab coat and neatly hung it on the coat rack beside her. "Okay, so what now?"

"You can't possibly be that clueless," Alex teasingly said before he placed his hands on April's waist and kissed her. She grew more comfortable with him, resting her hands against his cheeks as he deepened their kiss. He carefully brought her to the bed and laid her down onto her back.

Their morning had been stressful, so a break away from reality was necessary. Plus, they hadn't been able to spend time alone since arriving at the hospital a few hours earlier. Their coworkers had occupied the locker room at the same time they did and once Callie arrived in the back of an ambulance, all of their attention was on her and the baby.

April softly gasped as Alex's lips traveled down to a sensitive spot on her neck. His hand slipped underneath her scrub top causing her to squirm beneath him. He quickly got the hint and lifted his head up. "Okay, before you start rambling about how we're not having sex even though I already said we weren't, is the touching not cool with you?"

"Umm… well, touching is nice. I'm not against the touching," she stated, nervously laughing. "You can touch as long as you don't go too far with it."

"So, how far is too far?" he curiously asked. "Below the waist, inside of your pants? Can I at least grab your boobs?"

Her eyes wandered to the side as she bashfully smiled. "Uhh, boobs are okay… but pants stay on."

"What about scrubs?" Alex pulled his scrub top over his head, tossing it aside. He wore a black tank top underneath, but even then he caught her eyes averting away from his upper body. Her cheeks had turned a rosy shade of red. "Dude, you can't even look at me barely topless?"

"N-no. It's not that. It's just I…" She paused and chewed on her lower lip. "It's not that I don't want to look at you. I mean, I want to, but then I start to think about certain things… that I'm not ready to do yet, especially in an on-call room."

He laughed out loud. "In other words, you're horny."

April playfully rolled her eyes and lightly slapped Alex's shoulder. Horny was a way to put it, but she personally preferred not being so blunt about it. Her boyfriend- maybe boyfriend, they hadn't gotten that far into the conversation yet, was an attractive man. He didn't have that pretty physique Jackson had, but that wrestler body and badass attitude reminded her of a couple of farmers' sons she knew back in Moline.

And his feelings for her were mutual, unlike with Stark. She was also surprised by how patient he was being with her. The redhead had fully expected him to grow tired of her hesitance and ditch her in the on-call room, but instead, he wanted to know where he could touch her. It was almost gentleman-like considering who she was making out with.

"How about you just kiss me again?" she sheepishly asked.

A smug smile formed on Alex's face as he lowered his head to kiss her. He desperately hoped she would let him remove her scrub top, but the boob grabbing was good enough for him. And he loved the way her legs naturally wrapped around his waist. How he could withstand all of this without ripping her clothes off, he had no idea, but if he had a good thing going with a woman for once, he didn't want to screw that up.


The attendings continued to disagree on a treatment plan for Callie and the baby. Every suggestion thrown in would either potentially kill their colleague or the baby and they all wanted to save both. For the past hour, they were inside of a room bickering without any viable solutions. And their residents were simply waiting around for orders.

April and Jackson approached Alex, Meredith and Cristina, who were watching the attendings from outside of their small conference room. "Have they decided what to do next?" the redhead asked curiously.

"Nope. They're still arguing inside," Meredith answered and sighed. "Going in circles. One option would kill Callie, another would kill the baby or both."

"Well, she's still stable, so that's good. Bailey's watching her right now," she informed them. "Can you believe it was just yesterday we were celebrating at her baby shower and now Torres' life is hanging by a thread? I don't understand why this had to happen to her."

Alex stuffed his mouth with potato chips. "It's the price you pay when you work at Seattle Grace Mercy Death," he mumbled. "Bombs, shootings, a freakin' deadly icicle – I'm just waiting for a wrecking ball to come crashing in to put me out of my misery."

"Hey, that icicle was one of the best things to happen to me… except for the part when it impaled me," Cristina bitterly replied. Her eyes narrowed after she noticed a dark mark on April's neck. "Kepner, is that a hickey?"

"Huh? What?" April thought she had strategically adjusted her hair to cover the love bite Alex left behind. The pale complexion of her skin made the hickey stand out like a sore thumb. She tried to brush her hair against her neck to hide it. "I-I I don't know what you're talking about. It's a rash."

Jackson pulled her hand away and chuckled at the sight of the obvious mark on the side of her neck. "You do have a hickey," he pointed out. "Did you and Stark…"

"No! We didn't!" she panicked. "I was not with Stark last night."

Meredith snickered. "Is that so? I thought watching From Here to Eternity at his house was the plan," she recalled, then she quickly shrugged and smiled. "What did I tell you? Pants came off."

Cristina approached April with a smirk on her face. "Honestly, I wasn't expecting that from you, but I'm actually glad to be wrong this time." She playfully bumped her hip against hers and imitated cheesy porn music with her voice. "Bow-chicka-wow-wow! Kepner finally got some last night."

The laughter from her friends was unbearable because she desperately wanted to blurt out to everyone that the hickey came from Alex. However, she wasn't ready to announce to the world that Evil Spawn was her boyfriend- maybe boyfriend. They really needed to talk about that, she thought. It annoyed her that he had joined in on the teasing, but she understood why he did it. Still, the fact that Cristina and the others believed she lost her virginity to Stark was humiliating enough. Gossip spread so fast in the workplace that it would be impossible for her to stop it from reaching the peds attending.

"I haven't seen Stark all morning," Alex noted, grinning at April. "Did your worst nightmare happen? Did he die?"

"You would love that, wouldn't you?" She retorted, angrily walking past him. "At least I got something, Karev. What have you been getting lately?"

Cristina grinned widely as she watched the perky doctor stroll down the hallway. "April's got spunk. I guess cashing in her v-card brought out the mean in her," she suggested and laughed again. "Wow. Stark must be really good or she'shad this hidden sex kitten inside of her that she finally unleashed."

Jackson shook his head. "I don't think she slept with Stark," he disagreed. "I just… no, I can't picture her jumping into bed with him that fast or ever, as a matter of fact."

"Trust me. Nobody wants to picture that image," Alex quipped. He internally cringed at the thought of naked Stark alone. Deep down, he was relieved to know who actually did leave a hickey on April's neck.

"I would know. I'm her best friend. She would've told me," the pretty boy insisted.

"And when it's your turn to share your secrets with her, does she braid those tiny bristles on your head?" Cristina jokingly asked, reaching up and obnoxiously rubbing the top of Jackson's shaved head.

He rolled his eyes and turned to walk away. "Bite my ass, Yang."

"Maybe it was Avery," the Asian woman insinuated after their coworker left. "They're both from Mercy West, he's disgustingly pretty and he's always quick to defend her."

"He's also dating Lexie," Meredith added. "I highly doubt Jackson would cheat on her since they only just started dating. He obviously cares about April, but those two are strictly friends. Who knows? Maybe she did sleep with Stark."

Alex groaned, crumpling his empty potato chip bag. "Stop with the filthy images. Damn," he agitatedly replied, throwing away his trash before he left the twosome alone.

"What's wrong with him?" she asked concerned.

"Oh, he's probably jealous. Also, pissed because Kepner made him look bad earlier," Cristina dismissively answered, then she giggled. "I love mean Kepner."


At the end of her shift, April slowly sauntered into the residents locker room. She pondered whether or not to drive home to Meredith's to sleep or claim an on-call room. Her plan to sneak away to get more clothes never happened as she spent the majority of her day checking on Callie in the ICU. She had endured being forced to listen to Mark and Arizona practically rip each other's heads off over what the best treatment plan was for the orthopedic surgeon and their baby. And it bothered her that a few nurses had given her suspicious stares. They either noticed the hickey on her neck or someone blabbed about her fictional tryst with Stark. She preferred the first choice.

Sitting down in front of her cubby, April simply stared at her shoes and sighed. Was changing out of her scrubs worth it? A page could arrive at any minute, though she hoped not. It would mean Torres was coding and her legs were sore enough from walking in and out of her room all day. Sure it sounded selfish, but she would feel less selfish if Callie remained stable throughout the night.

Just as she removed her lab coat, her pager went off. She softly groaned as she checked to see what it was, but to her surprise, it wasn't an emergency or an attending requesting her service. Alex had paged her… to meet him in his trailer.

Better than Callie coding, she thought. Leaving the locker room in her scrubs, April rode the elevator to the main lobby and walked out of the hospital. It was a chilly night and it rained again, which was no surprise for the typical Seattle resident. Now she wished she had taken her lab coat with her as she rubbed her hands against her arms on her way to the parking lot. She knocked on the door and waited for a response.

Alex opened the door wearing a forest green tank top and gray sweatpants. "Is your shift over?"

"Yeah, I was about to change and go home to Mer's, but at the same time, I thought about sleeping in the hospital in case I get paged," she answered, visibly shivering. "Umm, can I come in? It's cold out here."

"Well, yeah. That's why I paged you in the first place," he answered with a smirk. April entered the trailer and he closed the door afterwards. "So, uhh… about earlier, you know I was just trying to-"

"I know," she softly responded as she sat down on the small couch. "And you know I was also trying to-"

"I know," he interrupted. Alex slightly smiled down at her. "Sucks you gotta deal with potential Stark backlash, though. Yang seems to think Avery gave you that hickey now. You don't have any sex feelings for him, do you?"

She quickly shook her head. "No, not at all. I mean, I did once, but not anymore. We're friends. He's my best friend."

"This wasn't recent, right?"

"It was during around intern year," April replied, rolling her eyes. "Everybody had a crush on Jackson at some point, but this happened when I didn't know him very well yet. Now, he's sort of like a brother to me. When Charles and Reed died it felt like we were orphaned. We just had each other."

Alex sat down beside her. "Okay, but if he's like a brother to you, you should stop staring at him when he takes his shirt off. It's kind of gross. Besides, you've got a boyfriend now."

A grin formed on her face. He specifically called himself her boyfriend. That was refreshing to hear. "So, you are my boyfriend?" she questioned excitedly.

"Uhh, yeah. I thought we established that last night or did we not?" He folded his arms, half-smiling at her. "Crap, you wanted an official proposal or something, huh? One of those cheesy, 'Will you be my girlfriend?', type of questions? Listen, you already know I'm not the most romantic dude out there-"

"No, it's okay. I'm just glad you think of me as your girlfriend," she shyly replied. "I'm sorry if I sound like a teenager right now. Boyfriends weren't a major part of my high school life… and some of college… and lately."

Alex slowly nodded his head. He could see why she would assume they weren't official. It had only been a full day since they decided to start a relationship, but it was nice to know they proved Cristina wrong. He was confident they could last longer than that – so far. As long as April didn't get cancer or go crazy or get run over by a stampede of elephants, they would be fine. His unlucky streak with love needed to end. He just wanted to be happy with somebody who wouldn't screw him over.

"So… you want to spend the night in here?" he murmured, drawing a wide-eyed stare from her. "My bed is big enough for the two of us and it's more comfortable than the beds in the on-call room. No frisky business, alright?"

"O-okay," she hesitantly responded. "But I don't have a change of clothes and I don't want to dirty your sheets with my scrubs. Oh, and before you say it, I am not sleeping naked."

"That idea actually hadn't popped up in my mind." He laughed as he stood up from the couch. Opening a cabinet near the bedroom, he pulled out a t-shirt and tossed it to April. "Here, you can wear this. And it's clean, I swear."

Even then, the redhead briefly sniffed his black Iowa Hawkeyes t-shirt to be on the safe side. "Just this?"

"I have shorts, but I'm pretty damn sure they won't fit around your tiny waist. That'll cover you up, I promise," he assured her, then he covered his eyes with his forearm. "And I won't watch unless you want me to."

She softly chuckled at how considerate he was being towards her. Despite the fact that Alex was shielding his eyes, April felt compelled to turn around while she stripped out of her scrubs. The t-shirt looked extra large on her, the hem cutting off at her mid thighs. It was long enough to hide her backside, so she didn't feel too uncomfortable about wearing just a t-shirt to bed.

"You done?" he impatiently asked. Without waiting for an answer, he moved his forearm away from his face. Her back continued to face him as she folded her scrubs and set them on the couch. His eyes were drawn to her legs. They were pale, but somehow still sexy in his opinion. She looked quite hot in his clothes.

April spun around, biting on her lower lip and pulling down the t-shirt to try to hide her thighs even more. "Shoot, my toothbrush is in the locker room."

Alex waved his hand as he walked towards a drawer. "Don't worry about it," he insisted, opening the drawer and picking up an unopened toothbrush pack. "I have extras lying around after Izzie-" There was an awkward pause before he cleared his throat. He definitely didn't want to think about his ex-wife at that moment. "Jumbo pack."

"Thanks." Both of them spent a couple of minutes brushing their teeth, then they climbed into bed. April pulled the covers over her legs and remained seated upright, while Alex collapsed face first onto his side of the bed. "Do you think she'll be okay?"

"Hmm?" he hummed into his pillow.

"Torres. You think she and the baby will make it?"

Her boyfriend lifted his head and looked at her. "The attendings know what they're doing. We shouldn't worry right now. We should be getting some freaking sleep." He placed a pillow in between them. "In case you don't want me rolling over to your side, but if I just happen to, you can punch me in the balls."

"One more thing before we go to bed. No more hickeys on my neck," she ordered.

"Are you going to make a million rules for us until we let everybody know we're together?" he irritably asked.

"No. I just don't want you leaving hickeys on my neck. It gives them another excuse to make fun of me," April dejectedly replied. "And I'm not entirely comfortable with you joining in and adding fuel to the fire."

Alex sighed as he sat up on his bed. "You know, we could just tell them all we're together if you want," he offered. "But the sneaking around stuff is pretty fun. I'm not getting laid, but it's still fun. At least you're letting me grab your boobs."

She sheepishly giggled and smacked his shoulder. "That's the most important thing to you after sex, right?"

He leaned forward, gently kissing her lips. "I can think of something that's more important than both of those."

April smiled as she lay down on her back, pulling the blanket up to her chest. "Goodnight, Alex."

"G'night." After turning off the light, Alex lay on his side and shut his eyes. "By the way, I was kidding about punching me in the balls."

"I figured."


The following morning, April awoke to the smell of something burning. She stretched her arms over her head as she sat up on the bed. To her surprise, Alex was already awake and cursing up a storm in the kitchen area. He was waving a towel over the toaster after he kicked open the door of the trailer.

"Need help?" she asked and yawned.

"Freakin' A!" he yelled out, picking up the toaster using oven mitts and throwing it out of the trailer. Alex used the towel to clear the rest of the smoke inside. "Dammit."

April climbed out of bed and approached her disgruntled boyfriend. "Everything okay?"

He sighed in frustration. Making breakfast wasn't normally a priority of his because he was too lazy and the cereal boxes were always available instead if she hadn't cooked anything. However, he wanted to try to do something different that morning and make breakfast for her. So far, it was a fail. Overcooked the yolk of his eggs, burnt toast. And she had woken up to his crappy attempt to cook.

"I have Cocoa Puffs in the upper left cupboard," Alex disappointedly said. "I wasted the goddamn eggs."

"You tried to cook me breakfast?" she admirably questioned.

"Well, you've done it hundreds of times for me, so I thought I could return the favor, but I failed miserably at it," he answered with a pout. "Sorry. Cooking was never an area of expertise for me."

April rubbed small circles against Alex's chest and smiled. "It's the thought that counts. Thank you for trying," she acknowledged, kissing his cheek. "I'm going to use the toilet. I'll be right back."

While she used the bathroom, he tossed his inedible eggs into the trash and dumped all of the dishes into the sink. He slumped down on the couch feeling like an idiot and mentally scolded himself because he couldn't even toast bread without burning it. She didn't seem to mind, but he still felt humiliated.

She returned from the bathroom, then she washed her hands and brushed her teeth. After she finished freshening up, the redhead picked up her scrub pants and slipped them on. "Just in case I get paged, at least I'm half-ready," she stated. Alex failed to respond and remained silent on the couch. "Don't feel bad. It doesn't make me think any less of you."

"Did you sleep well?" he asked, changing the subject. "I don't think I rolled over and smothered you last night."

"I did actually," April chirped and sat down beside him. "And I had the coolest dream too. We were all in the OR operating on Torres, but we were singing. It was weird and awesome at the same time. You, sir, had an amazing voice."

"You were definitely dreaming. I don't sing," he scoffed. "I can't hold a freaking tune if my life depended on it."

She laughed and rested her head against his shoulder. "But your voice was sweet."

Alex wrapped his arm over his girlfriend's shoulder and sighed. "And I'm sure it made Yang weep like a bitch baby too," he quipped. "So… are you into Cocoa Puffs or do you just want to grab something in the cafeteria? Either one will be better than whatever the hell I tried to cook."

"We can go to the cafeteria, but not yet. Why not take advantage of the time we have alone together?" April innocently suggested. She grinned when he raised his eyebrow at her. "I just want you to stop pouting."

He cupped her cheek and pressed his lips against hers. "I'm liking you more and more," he huskily said in between kisses, pulling his girlfriend onto his lap. Wrapping his arms around her waist, Alex moved down to her neck, only to receive a slap against the side of his head. "Oww!"

"No hickeys!" she scolded him.

"Remind me not to piss you off for real anymore," he muttered, rubbing his head. In one swift move, he flipped April onto her back causing her to squeal. Climbing on top of her, Alex kissed her again. "Don't forget. I'm a wrestler."

She grasped the back of his head, smiling against his lips. Their time alone, though, was interrupted by their pagers.

"Of course," he mumbled, pushing himself up from his girlfriend. "It had to happen now."

April found her pager and gasped after reading the message. "We gotta go, Alex," she said in a state of panic. "It's Torres."

"Alright, alright. My scrubs are lying around somewhere, but don't-" By the time Alex turned to look at April, she had already left his trailer after changing into her scrub top. "…wait for me." He found his scrubs on the dining table and changed into them as quickly as possible before running out of his trailer and into the hospital.


Obviously, Callie survives ;)