Hi everyone, thanks so much for reading this story and your kind words about it. There is one more chapter after this one, then the break, and then I'll pick back up again. Please tell me what you think and if you want more to the story. Thank you all!

The storm is coming but I don't mind

People are dying, I close my blinds

The storm was coming down hard, roads were closed, schools had been shut down, and if it weren't for the backup generator, Seattle Grace Mercy West would have followed suit. The lights had been flickering for on and off, for hours, and it had worried Alex Karev who was at the hospital picking up extra hours in the E.R. and trying to get as much time with Wilson as possible, however, the flickering lights were scaring both staff and patients. As the only level one trauma center that was still accepting patients it was imperative that they stay open, the storm was not over and more patients would certainly be coming. As the new owners: Meredith, Lexie, Derek, Mark, Cristina, Arizona, and the 51% stake Harper Avery foundation had they decided their first priority upon purchasing the hospital was to update the E.R. So, it would have the top of the line equipment, technology, and staff. Jackson proposed the idea to upgrade the E.R. because it was important, but mainly because he knew his wife worked most of her shifts there and he wanted to spoil her. However, April would not be able to enjoy the new and upgraded E.R. because she was no longer working.

April could hardly sleep at night, the thought of tossing or turning and somehow hurting her son more made her panic, so she usually laid in bed with a few pillows supporting her neck, but she never moved. It concerned Jackson how solemnly she would lay with her hands clasped together over her belly while she started intently at the ceiling. Her eyes said nothing, her lips were firmly shut not revealing what she wanted to say or how she was feeling, and she had become a shell of the formerly peppy to an annoying fault, April Kepner. They didn't talk much about their son, every time he attempted to bring the topic up; she shut it down, or spurred irrational thoughts about miracles. It pained him to see her lay there like a dead body in a coffin, about to be lowered into the ground. He wished more than anything to be able to touch her, but he knew it wouldn't matter. So, like every morning for the past three weeks, he left her lying there, he'd kiss her goodbye tell her he loved her, asked if she needed him to stay. But she would always answer no. He knew that they needed to induce her soon; he just didn't want to pressure her as to when.

"She'll come around," he thought to himself. It wasn't as if he was looking forward to having a dead son, but he couldn't help his joy over having a daughter. That's what confused him so much about April, she constantly thought about their son and what he was feeling, but not once about their daughter.

April had stopped working and was ordered to immediate bed rest per her orders, after their meeting with Dr. Keller when she was 30 weeks. She was scared that any movement, even a step would hurt her son and cause his bones to break again and extend his suffering further. Although staying in bed all day allowed her to catch up on her reading or watching those coveted TV episodes she never had the time to get around to. She also had time to think. Leave someone alone with just their thoughts and madness will ensure; it's why solitary confinement is deemed cruel and unusual. People need people. Contrary to what some may try to do or be, people are not solo beings, to be alone goes against all rules of human biology. To handle one's problems alone is not strength, it's cowardice. And try as she might to keep her feelings to herself, eventually her façade was going to crack and everything would come tumbling out, but April Kepner was a solider she was a fighter, not a flyer. She knew she would choose flight, but she kept denying it in her head. But for now, she was holding herself together with tape and glue.

April looked at her burgeoning stomach, she used to love to rub it, speak to it, and sing to it. But now, it felt empty. Why make a child fall in love with her when she was only causing his pain? She was being selfish to not induce. She was naïvely holding out hope for a miracle.

"Samuel," she whispered. She was alone, so now she could let her mind wander to the dangerous place she refused to let it go to while Jackson was around. While anyone was around, actually. She would imagine the life her son was supposed to have, the small facets of his personality. Every detail about him she had memorized and written in a small red notebook that she kept in the top drawer of her nightstand.

He has light skin like Jackson, but his hair is a similar texture to mine, but dark like his. He has Jackson's eyes, I can see it the young teenage girls swooning over him, and Jackson teasing him over it. He's a calm baby, the sound of my singing tends to soothe him, and his favorite is 'you are my sunshine'. He and his sister get along well, but no one really calls them 'the twins' they have their separate interests and their personalities are completely different. He's much quieter, reserved, he keeps to himself, but he loves diving into books and the fantastical. He and I will watch Lord of the Rings and I his fifth birthday party will be Harry Potter themed. We take family vacations every year, and as a surprise we decided to go to New Zealand to walk the Lord of the Rings Trail, he's fifteen and I've never seen him more excited. When he turns 16 Jackson insists on buying him a car, so he can take girls out on dates. My sweet little man taking girls out on dates, it seems like only yesterday that he was one and crawling. But, I'm his mother, I raised him well. He'll respect women, treat them with kindness and compassion, and if not, I'll make sure to whip his butt or have Jackson give him a stern talking to. He'll have his first kiss at fourteen and then tell me about it, he and I are particularly close, he felt scared that he didn't do it right, but I assured him that he did fine. He'll have his first girlfriend in high school, it'll be young love, true honest, young love, and Jackson and I will have the dreaded birds and the bees talk with him. He'll take her to prom; she's both his lab partner and best friend, only the smartest for my boy. She'll wear a turquoise dress that brings out the blue-green hue of his eyes. He'll graduate from high school at the top of his class with his sister and Jackson and I will watch him walk across the stage with tears in our eyes. Our baby boy had finally grown up. He'll fly the nest, but won't go too far, only to Stanford. Then off to medical school at Stanford. And after that his surgical residency, where he'd declare for neuro. He was always methodical and focused, so it would be the right fit for him. He'd get married and have kids of his own too. He'd have the perfect life.

Tears filled April's eyes as she read her scribbles of notes about her son. She had everything written down about his life, from his favorite song to what kind of bike he'd ride when Jackson and her taught him how to ride one, right down to the way he'd place his finger on his temple when he's stressed. And once she was finished writing, once her son no longer moved in her belly, he occasionally would give her a kick, it was rare, but she knew it was him. Once she was done, that's when she was ready to let go, he had stopped kicking her for a week now, and it was time. She could no longer write his story in her head, she had to meet him, let the subject tell her himself if she was right or wrong. Now she was ready, ready to be a mom, but not ready to leave the hospital without him, she doubted she ever would be. So, April got into her car and drove herself to Seattle Grace Mercy West, storm and all. She was thirty-three weeks today, and today she would become a mom.

Callie and Arizona had been going to therapy for a while now; even before the plane crash things weren't perfect for the couple. Their relationship went from zero to one hindered in what felt like days, when Arizona left for Africa Callie thought they were done. So, she and Mark had sex, Callie wound up pregnant, Arizona came back, and decided to raise the baby with her. It was a whirlwind. But sometimes, Callie couldn't get the thought out of her head that Arizona was forced into becoming a mom when it wasn't what she actually wanted. Arizona never said anything about it. She was a wonderful mother to Sofia, she loved Sofia, but Callie could since little quips. They were rare before the accident, a short temper here or there, but after the accident it was a nightmare. If Mark hadn't intervened and told them to knock it off, if not for her own sake but for Sofia's, Arizona and her would have certainly headed for divorce.

"Good morning Lexie, and good morning Sofia," Callie put her nose to her daughter's tummy.

"Morning Callie. Can I hitch a ride with you and Arizona, Mark's already at the hospital for an early consult?"

"Sure, no problem. I'll just go see if Arizona's ready. Do you mind watching Sofia for five more minutes?" Callie asked.

"Of course." Lexie was getting used to Sofia, a year ago the thought of having a child scared her half to death, but something about almost dying makes a person want to go into overdrive. She knew she wanted three kids with Mark and sooner rather than later. "You know Sofia," she started off in a baby voice, "Your daddy and I are going to try and have a baby so you can have a little baby brother or sister."

"You're trying?" Arizona exclaimed, she was just putting on her prosthetic leg so she was taking an extra minute to get ready.

"Yeah. Last night actually was the first time. But please don't say anything, I don't want to steal Meredith's thunder or you know, upset April."

"I understand. But Lexie that's amazing!" Arizona was so gleeful. "Callie, I want another baby, we should have another baby!"

"Little Grey mentions she's trying and you've already got baby fever," Callie sarcastically responded to her wife while she kissed her cheek, "But I know what you mean. When you have this sweet little face to look at how can you not want another one?"

"See Sofia, you're going to be swimming in siblings in no time," Lexie laughed.

Mark Sloan and Derek Shepherd had been best friends their entire lives. Derek grew up with five sisters, and Mark grew up with no siblings, so naturally they stuck together. Mark was quirky and suave, while Derek was charming and endearing, put those two together at a bar and someone would probably end up pregnant. They had been through everything together, all the milestones, from being each other's best men, to graduating medical school together. Their bromance was a well followed one around the hospital, and if it weren't for the Grey sisters rumors certainly would have been flying about the men's sexualities.

"So, did I mention that Lexie and I are trying," Mark began the conversation, taking a sip of his morning coffee.

"No you didn't. That's fantastic. Meredith's going to be thrilled!" Derek answered quickly. He was feeling concern for his wife, she was forty-weeks pregnant after all and refusing to slow down at work.

"Yeah, she doesn't want to tell anyone. But I want to shout it from the rooftops. I mean, after having Sofia, I can't imagine my life without her. It's the most amazing experience. You and Meredith are in for a wild ride."

"I'm not looking forward to the late night diaper changes, at least Zola was almost one when we adopted her, so we luckily skipped that phase."

"It's the best phase though, actually their whole life is the best phase. But late night diaper changes were the only alone time I'd get with Sofia. It's where we did most of our daddy-daughter bonding."

"Good to know. I was planning on doing all the diaper changes, you know, to help Meredith out as much as possible."

"Superhero dad, aren't we?"

"No, just a dad." He smiled at his best friend and went on his way to his surgery. Even though Derek was in his forties, he couldn't help but be as excited as a child on Christmas morning waiting for what Santa Clause had brought him.

Meredith, Alex, Cristina, and Jackson were eating their lunches together in the cafeteria, nonchalantly chatting about their days and what surgeries they had planned.

"My case kicks your case's ass. Guarantee this could win me the Harper Avery," Cristina taunted Alex.

"Cristina, a simple endoscopy does not win you the Harper Avery," he argued.

"Jackson, has the foundation ever given a Harper Avery Award for an endoscopy?" She asked Jackson.

"No. The award is for revolutionary surgical technique, not to see who can put a scope in someone's body and look around," he answered coldly.

"What's got him in a mood," Cristina quietly said to Meredith.

"Leave him be, he has a lot of stuff to deal with about April. Give him space."

"Okay, where is April anyway?" Cristina asked Meredith so as to not upset Jackson, but he heard her anyway.

"She's at home. She's been at home for the past three weeks and she'll be at home until she decides what she wants to do." He sternly stated. And then he got up from the table, took his tray, and left. He needed time to himself to think without the judgment of his friends. He knew they meant no harm by asking him about April, Hell she up and disappeared on day. She handed in her letter of resignation to Hunt, which Jackson told him not to file with the board he knew she'd want her job back once she got back on her feet. But it didn't stop the whispers. People thought she left him, went back to Ohio, or that the babies weren't actually his and now she's with the real father. The rumors made him feel sick. But not as sick as having no one to talk to. He couldn't talk to April; no he couldn't burden her with his pain. He couldn't talk to anyone at the hospital because they knew April, they sympathized with her and saw him as the jerk that got her pregnant and made her feel this pain in the first place. And he most certainly could not talk to his mother; she would just make him feel worse right now about not being able to know what was the right thing to do. Everyone kept telling him to be there for April, wait for her, listen to her, but when was someone going to be there for him? He was alone, dammit. He had been abandoned. But no one seemed to care.

"Jackson," Meredith Grey had come out to talk to him. He had stormed out of the cafeteria so quickly she knew she needed to be there for him. She hadn't really paid attention much the past few weeks. She had been focused on her own pregnancy, prepping for her own baby, welcoming her sister back to the hospital, dealing with Cristina and her divorce. Somehow Jackson had slipped to the bottom of the totem pole of Meredith Grey's lists of people to give a damn about. She found him in the chapel, sitting in a pew, head down, mumbling to himself.

"I don't know what do to. Meredith, I'm damned if I do, I'm damned if I don't," he began, his words were flowing like a river, how long has it been since he's talked about his feeling she thought to herself.

"Jackson, what do you need? What can I do, for you?"

"I need April. I need my wife back. I need to talk to her and not the shell of a person she's become. I'm losing my son too. Why can no one see that," his sea-green eyes were now wet with tears, "Why can't anyone see that I'm losing something to? I'm trying to be a man, I'm trying to be strong for April and our daughter, but I'm breaking." Meredith sat down next to him and let him air out his feelings, "I'm never going to play catch with my son, teach him how to ride a bike, take him to his first basketball game. I'll never be able to talk to him about girls. I'll never be able to watch him go on his first date, graduate high school, or go to college. He's supposed to have a life, April and I would have given him the most amazing life. Why did God have to do this? Why God? Why did you have to do this to April? Me, I can take it. But April, April did nothing to deserve this," he shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Jackson, do you remember the day I had my miscarriage. It was the day of the shooting."

"I remember," he slowly responded, slightly embarrassed by his outburst earlier.

"I was nine weeks along, and so I had already begun thinking about the baby. What their name would be, what their personality would be like, in my mind they were a tiny person, my tiny person. And in an instant they were gone. Jackson, what you're feeling is normal. But you can't be stuck on what ifs, think about the what is. You're going to have a beautiful baby girl, and now I'm going to have a son. Sometimes, God puts things in our paths that we don't think we would ever be able to handle, but in the end it's all worth it. Every bad surgery, every bad relationship, every single thing, leads to this. Where we are now. We're both expecting children, don't let your grief eclipse your joy." And with that she left the chapel.

"God," he slowly began, "I don't know if you can hear me. I'm sorry about earlier, I was just, I don't know, upset. This is awkward. I haven't really done anything like this before. If April were here she'd know what to do, she'd know how to talk to you, but she's not here. My wife isn't here anymore. I see her, she looks the same, sounds the same, but she's not the same. I'm asking you to give me my wife back. Punish me. I've never been a believer, never gone to church, I pretty much swore off the idea of your existence when my dad left us. But right now, I'm going to need to ask for the biggest favor in the entire world, I've been on this earth for 32 years and haven't yet, so I'd say you owe me," he laughed to himself but then turned serious, "Please, save our son. Please give April the miracle she so desperately believes in. Please, do this for her." And with that Jackson Avery got up from the pew and lit three candles, one for his wife, one for his son, and one for his daughter.

Meredith had been working at the hospital all day, even though she was forty weeks she needed to keep working. Kept her mind off labor, which she wasn't excited for. Sure she had been to all the Lamaze classes, she understood which breathing techniques to use, and she had a thorough birth plan. She was a doctor, so she understood the mechanics of labor, the science of it at least, but she'd been in the room while Addison Shepherd was delivering a baby girl once and the screams of the mother sounded like they were not in a hospital but in a war zone. She wasn't looking forward to it, so she decided to come in last night before the storm fully hit. She knew that her labor would start relatively soon and what better place to be than in a hospital, filled with capable doctors and nurses. Although Derek had been reluctant to agree at first, he couldn't spot the flaw in her logic.

"I'm just going to stay the night, especially with the storm," Meredith began; she was pacing back and forth in the room.

"That sounds like a good plan. Do you have a surgery later?"

"Yes, with Hunt. Little boy, their car was hit by a tree, it's in about an hour."

"Meredith, why are you pacing?" Derek was curious to why his wife was behaving so anxiously.

"I'm just having some Braxton hicks contractions, it's nothing to be concerned about," she was incredibly nonchalant about it.

"Meredith, you're forty weeks. Those are probably real contractions. How far apart are they?"

"Ten minutes. Plus my water hasn't even," Meredith felt a rush of water flow down her leg.

"Your water hasn't?"

"Broke," she quietly whispered, "Derek. I think my water just broke. I think I'm in labor."

"I told you," He took her by the arms and helped her sit down. Panic was beginning to ensue.

"Oh my God, I'm in labor," she excitedly exclaimed.

"We're going to have a baby," he smiled, holding her hands as he crouched down and looked into her eyes, intently.

"We're going to have a baby," she kissed him.

Jackson had been at the hospital for a few hours now, he had called April when he had a break between surgeries earlier, but she didn't answer. He didn't know why he bothered trying anymore when he knew the answer would be the same. When she was ready to talk, she'd talk; he just had to be patient. But it didn't make it any less frustrating.

"So, how are you and Kepner? How's she holding up?" Karev asked Jackson. The two men were working on a case together that afternoon and although Jackson would have preferred to keep his private matters, well private, he did need to talk to someone. Plus he was a little concerned over Jackson's freakout at lunch.

"She's doing her best. And I'm just trying to keep it together for her."

"Man, I don't know how you're doing it. How you're even at work, you've definitely got my respect."

"Thanks."

"Hey, is that Kepner?" Jackson turned around and there he saw his heavily pregnant wife standing at the nurse's station, her hair was in a messy bun, she was wearing a simple outfit of jeans and an Ohio sweatshirt, and she had very minimal makeup on. She was soaked from the rain as well. To be honest she looked like she just braved the most dangerous storm of her life, but she had another one coming.

"Oh my God, that is April. What on earth is she doing here?" He ran over to his wife.

"April? April, are you okay? What are you doing here? Did you drive in this weather? I called you and told you not to come, April why are you here?"

April barely looked at him, it was like she was in a trance, but she simply replied,

"Jackson, I'm ready."