Chapter 10: slow night, so long

I'm running a marathon had become April's mantra, and by the end of the night, it seemed even truer. Her bones and muscles were aching, she could feel her heartbeat in the soles of her feet, and there was no doubt she was in need of a shower.

It was 6 AM when she, Meredith, Alex, Jackson, and Lexie all made it home, but she decided to pretend that wasn't true, and go and take the shower she'd reserved in the car.

Once she was clean and a little refreshed, she wrapped her hair in one of her towels, ignoring the fact that it smelled like one of the guys had used it accidentally. They had no respect for the initials she'd stitched into the tag of each towel.

The hot water had woken her up again, so she thought maybe she should try and wait to sleep until the afternoon, since her shift wouldn't start until 3 AM the next day.

Halfway down the stairs, it occurred to her that she and Alex Karev had the same initials.

"I think we've been sharing towels," she muttered to him when she dropped into a chair by the kitchen table. Everyone but Meredith was still there, since she had gone to bed.

Jackson scowled. "You're going to want to replace yours completely," he suggested, standing up. "I'm taking my shower now."

As Jackson headed upstairs, Alex turned to her. "Oh, because we're both AK."

"Right."

"Well, what's your middle name?"

"Magdalene."

He cursed. "Michael."

Lexie, sitting on the counter with a cup of coffee, was laughing. "If you two ever get married, you'll only have to put one monogram at everything at the wedding."

"Monograms?" Alex scoffed.

April couldn't take in this offhand comment as smoothly as she might've wished. The bruise around Alex's eye served as a perfect reminder of everything that had just happened between them. The pizza he'd shared with everyone after work had lessened her hard feelings, but joking about marriage made her cringe—especially after that ridiculous conversation with a drunk Bailey today. Oh, I can't wait to tell Jackson about that.

"Good morning!" Derek said, chipper as he strolled into the kitchen, sunshiny and rested.

All three of them groaned.

"I would kill to be you right now," Lexie insisted, shaking the knife she had been using to slice some bread.

Derek held his hands up. "Knife down, Lexie."

Eventually, the sound of the shower stopped, and April heard Jackson getting out. She took her last sip of the coffee Lexie had made for her, and headed upstairs. Alex was already going to bed, hoping to sleep for the next 18 hours, apparently. Derek had left for the hospital, and Lexie was curled up with a book.

April hopped up the stairs, energized by the coffee. She waited outside his room for a minute, long enough for him to get dressed, then knocked.

"Come in."

"I have got to tell you about the conversation I had with Bailey last night."

Jackson nodded. "Okay, one sec." He moved past her towards the bathroom, to hang up his towel. "But make it quick," he added, walking back in. "I want to sleep."

She shook her head, frowning. "No, you'll wake up at dinnertime, and then by the time it's your shift you'll have already been up 12 hours. That's a horrible idea."

"Ugh. You're right. But I'm so tired," he whined.

She grinned. "That's fine. I can fix that. We'll go get you some coffee, then we can play Scrabble!"

"We're not playing Scrabble again!" he said, quickly. It was true that April had a habit of absolutely decimating him every time they played. And then he'd use some obscure off-brand internet dictionary to try and prove her words weren't real, even though they were right there in Merriam-Webster, and it turned into a fight before half the tiles were gone.

"Then we'll watch a movie."

"I'd fall asleep."

April groaned. "Well, you're not gonna sleep for the next five minutes, because I have a story that involves a very drunk Miranda Bailey giving me relationship advice."

That got his attention.

"I was trying to figure out how to separate my superglued teens, and she told me about the soap and water and acetone trick, but she also went on and on about my 'maiden voyage,' and finding my Ben."

"No!"

"Yes!"

Then they were both laughing, and as she went into the details, April did eventually remember to warn him to keep his mouth shut about the whole thing.

"You weren't supposed to tell anyone?" Jackson's eyes widened. "I thought you were a good secret keeper," he said, feigning shock.

"You don't count!"

"I don't count?"

"No, because you're my person, which means—"

He cut her off, "I told you! We're not going to use 'person' all the time. We're not doing that."

She smirked. "Well, you're the one who started it."

"Regretting it more every minute. But I'm just concerned about your secret keeping. How can I trust you?"

With a mischievous grin, April said, "I could never betray my person," which just made him complain all the way down the hall, down the stairs, and into the kitchen for some coffee.

They were noisy enough to bother Lexie, who relocated to her bedroom.

"I feel bad," April whispered.

Jackson laughed. "You don't have to be quiet now; she already left."

April opened the fridge. Some root beer sounded good with another slice of that pizza.

"Hey, what happened to drinking when we got home?"

"Alex and Meredith are asleep, but Lexie might come drink with us."

Eyeing her root beer, Jackson said, "I was imaging something a little stronger."

She passed him a Space Needle Golden IPA. "Why do you want to drink, anyway? I know we worked all night, but it isn't even 7:00 yet. Was the night really that bad?"

He looked up at her, and she could see in his eyes. "Two brothers in a car accident, and the 15 year-old died. Older brother's fault."

"Oh." She took a sip of her soda. "You want me to get Lexie? She would probably have a beer with you."

"Nah." He shook his head. "She thinks I'm messed up."

"What?"

"She hears my nightmares every night—she told me today. And… she woke me up from one this morning."

April was surprised. "You had a nightmare? It didn't wake me up. I'm sorry."

He shrugged. "I mean, it was fine, it was just weird to have Lexie there. I guess I'm used to you. And it was a little embarrassing."

She wanted to tease him, because she knew he had a crush on her, but she was also convinced that was a bad idea. Teasing him about it would only encourage him. "Is it embarrassing with me?"

"I guess not."

Okay, this'll cheer him up. "Well, I'll just superglue myself to you, and then I'll always be there to wake you up from your nightmares."

"What about the nightmare of being superglued to you?"

She punched his arm, but couldn't help but laugh. "Are you sure you don't want to play Scrabble?"

He scoffed, then his mood turned serious. "Actually, I'm feeling lucky. You're going down, Kepner."