AN: So I know I said I would write the wedding and honeymoon next, I lied. Just joking, I'm working on that, it'll be up in the next few days.
This one wasn't leaving my head, it pretty much wrote itself, I hope you enjoy the fluff. I'm really nervous about tonight's episode. I hope there's nothing seriously wrong with Japril's baby...
Late nights
April hears the front door open and close and the jingle of the keys being hang on the hook, she smiles smugly, guess she won that one. She keeps mashing the potatoes as the sound of nearing footsteps announces Jackson's approach.
He presses close to her back, hands resting on her waist, lips brushing her cheek. "Hey, I missed you last night."
"Missed you too," she says turning sideways to receive his kiss, "but I thought you had surgery all night, you were gone when I got home this morning."
He pecks her lips again and puts a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "Yeah the surgery got rescheduled for earlier today so I came home last night after all. Relaxing day off?"
"Yes, I did laundry, read a little and took a nice long nap, it was heaven," she smiles. She loves her job, but having an entire day to do nothing is great too.
"Sounds like it," he murmurs rubbing his nose against hers, his hand tenderly traces small circles on her belly, "and how's this little one?"
She melts at his words, she finds the way he's been acting and talking to and about the baby lately really sweet. Her hand rests on top of his, "baby is good, behaved really well today, let me had all the rest I wanted."
"That's great," he comments before she presses her mouth to his kissing him hungrily, turning around she wraps her arms around his neck, he pushes her against the counter, hands tangling in her long hair as they continue to devour each other's mouths.
They break apart, ragged breaths mingling as they struggle for air. "I guess you really did miss me," he says teasingly.
She holds his gaze, mesmerized by his gorgeous eyes, she truly loves his eyes. "You have no idea," April whispers.
"I think I do." The heated look he's giving her makes it clear he does. And she's very tempted to forget all about dinner and move on to dessert right away.
Before she can act on her impulses the kettle whistles interrupting them, damn she forgot about it. "Can you turn that off?" she asks tapping his chest lightly.
Jackson clears his throat, "right." He rounds the counter and does as she asked, April sighs deeply and turning around starts mashing the potatoes once again.
"How was girls night at Robbin's? Have fun?" Jackson asks grabbing a beer from the fridge.
She shrugs, "yeah, sort of. We cooked dinner and made jello moms for her to practice fetal surgery."
"Jello moms?" His eyebrows raise in confusion as he deftly uncaps the bottle and takes a long drink.
"Yes, anyway it was good," April continues, "then Callie showed up, she was kind of angry." She thinks about the uncomfortable interaction between the couple last night and she was right in the middle of it, the joy
Jackson frowns, "with you?"
April shakes her head. "No, I don't think so anyway, with Arizona or their situation, I don't know. They aren't talking to each other, they're in some sort of 'break', it's supposed to help them get through things."
"They're trying to fix things by not talking about them?" he inquires settling on a stool next to her.
Finished with the potatoes she pushes the bowl away before turning to face him fully, she rests her side on the counter. "No, I guess is like getting some space to work things out or something," she tries to explain, "don't say anything about it, I'm not really supposed to tell you." You're such a gossip, she says to herself, but well he's her husband.
He shrugs, "who would I tell?"
"It's sad, their relationship seems to be falling apart, but they're trying so hard to make it work," April distractedly traces the surface of the counter with her fingers, she's really worried about Arizona and Callie, she hopes they can make it work.
Her friend's problems also bring her own marital issues to mind.
"Is it still about the cheating?"
"I think that's just part of it, I don't know, there seem to be a lot of things that were swept under the carpet for too long and are now coming up," she bits her lip eyeing him nervously, "it scares me."
"Why?" he asks.
"They seemed to be so happy once and apparently Meredith and Shepherd are having problems too," she adds the little bit of gossip she heard around the hospital lately, "are all relationships destined to fall apart? What if it happens to us?" She wanders, finally allowing him to see what her real worries are about.
He takes her hand in his, squeezing it gently. "Some relationships don't work out, others do, that's just life. That doesn't necessarily means it'll happen to us or to them," he says honestly, he could offer more reassuring words, but in this case he prefers to go with sincerity.
"And why not?" April demands, "we have so much to work out, I don't want us to ignore things until they blow up again."
"We're working through things April, there's not need to do it all in one day, is this about religion again?"
She shakes her head, "not just that."
"I thought we reached a compromise," he continues, "I'll go to church with you, we'll teach our children both of our beliefs and then when they're old enough they get to decide what to believe in, wasn't that the deal?"
April sighs aware that he's right, they made a compromise but she knows is not going to be without difficulties, it would be so much easier if they agreed on mayor things.
"Yeah I know," she concedes, "but you know me, I worry and tend to freak out a lot. There's still a ton of other stuff."
He cups her cheek, his thumb softly tracing her delicate skin. "There'll always be, but I believe we'll be fine," he smiles. "Nobody knows what will happen in the future, but I have faith in us."
"You're sweet," she says pressing a kiss against his palm.
Jackson winks at her and tugs on her arm bringing her between his spread thighs, hugging her tightly against him. He runs his hands up and down her back and presses a kiss to her temple. She melts in his embrace and nuzzles her face against his shoulder.
"By the way," she mumbles, "if you ever cheat on me, I'll kill you, not joking."
He chuckles, "duly noted."
"And I'll burn all your shoes."
He rolls his eyes amused and lightly kisses forehead. "Now that you brought in the shoes I wouldn't dare."
"Okay smartass," she hits his side playfully. "How about gnocchi for dinner?" she says pushing away from him.
"Sounds great. Need any help? I'm a great kitchen assistant."
"You can chop the onions," she quickly slides them his way along with a knife and cutting board before adding, "I don't feel like crying. I'll take care of the rest."
"Wuss."
She huffs walking around the counter, "we'll see who ends up crying like a little baby."
"Not me."
She says nothing in return, adding the rest of the ingredients she begins to ensemble the gnocchi. Her healthy conscious side tells her that she should have used spinach instead of potatoes, too late now.
She sneaks glances at Jackson working silently in front of her, she purses her lips to keep herself from laughing at him when she notices him blinking more frequently as his eyes start to burn.
"Shit," he mumbles blinking furiously.
She chuckles, "is that a tear I see?"
"Shut up."
Half asleep he feels April raise his arm from around her waist and move away from him, "you okay?" he mutters.
"Yeah, go back to sleep," she whispers.
He blinks adjusting his eyes to the dim light, he watches her silhouette leave the bed, "where are you going?"
"Be right back," she says quickly leaving the room.
He turns around already dozing off, imagining how she'll return complaining about pregnancy and small bladders.
Probably less than five minutes later he opens his eyes again, wide awake this time, he knows she's not back yet. He listens carefully hoping to hear her light footsteps approaching, the sound of doors opening and closing reaches his ears instead.
The clock on the nightstand reads one am, what could she possibly be doing at this hour? Worried there might be something wrong he quickly gets up and follows the sounds to the kitchen where he finds his wife going through cabinets.
"April, what are you doing?"
"I'm hungry," she says not looking away from the drawer she's searching.
"Really?" That's the cutlery drawer he wants to add, but chooses not to be a smartass for once.
Closing the drawer she glares at him, "don't look at me like that, it's all your child's fault, I'm hungry all the time."
"I didn't say a thing," he says quickly raising his hands up in defense. So much for not being a smartass, he can't win lately.
She huffs opening another drawer, "you were thinking it, I want something sweet, I won't be able to sleep otherwise."
"I think there are some chocolate bars in the fridge," he suggests walking towards it and opening the door to look for them. He opts not to mention that craving is not the same as hunger, some wise people gave him the advice of not pissing off the pregnant lady, he's trying to follow it to the letter.
"Not anymore," she pouts a light blush covering her cheeks, "I ate the last of those yesterday."
Surprised he raises his eyebrows, "you did? All of them?"
"Not all at once!" she says quickly. "What? Are you afraid I'll get fat? I'm supposed to gain weight you know."
"April, nobody's calling you fat," he suppresses the urge to roll his eyes at her. "You aren't fat, in fact the only way to tell you're pregnant is seeing you belly from the side."
"Some of my clothes don't fit anymore," she mumbles dejected closing the drawer in defeat.
He approaches her and wraps his arm around her, "it's completely normal, what do you want to eat?"
"Ice-cream, but I finished that too last weekend," she admits embarrassed.
He snickers. "Okay, I'll got get you some, what flavor?"
"Really?" She eyes him hopefully, "but it's one in the morning."
"Yeah, one of those twenty-four hours stores has to be open, right?"
"I'm going with you."
Knowing it's completely useless he doesn't even try to dissuade her, "get dressed."
"Damn it," he hits the steering wheel exasperated, "if they say twenty-four hours stores, they're supposed to be open twenty-four hours."
"Jackson let's just go back, this is the third one we've found closed," April says tiredly. She's almost over ice-cream at this point, almost.
He stubbornly shakes his head, "you're getting your ice-cream. Let's try at least one more."
Checking on her phone she gives him directions to another 'supposedly' twenty-four hours store nearby, she hopes this one is open, maybe the information on the page is old or they just have bad luck and everyone decided not to work tonight.
Fortunately, the next store is open and soon she finds herself in the ice-cream section in front of at least twenty different flavors to choose from, chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, peanut butter, cheesecake, it's so difficult to decide on just one.
"I don't know which one to choose," she says to Jackson, "you pick."
"Okay, let's see," he looks for a few seconds before grabbing a pint, "how about chocolate fudge, sounds good?"
Still watching the other options she nods not entirely convinced, "yeah..." Chocolate fudge sounds delicious, but now cheesecake sounds even better.
Picking up on her tone he smiles amused, "April, just pick the one you want."
"Strawberry cheesecake."
Opening the fridge he takes the one she chose.
"But you wanted the other one," she objects.
"We'll take both."
She bites her lips, "don't let me eat all of it."
As she turns to leave a bright label catches her eye, "oh look there's cotton candy! Never tried that one."
"Take that one too."
"I'm gonna get so fat," she sighs, but still grabs the cotton candy ice-cream.
Jackson chuckles, "I'll try to help you restrain yourself."
"Pfft, clearly you're my enabler," she comments as they walk towards the checkout.
"Looks that way," he playfully bumps his elbow with hers, "we'll compensate eating healthier the rest of the week. Deal?"
She grabs a pack of gummy bears from a shelf in passing and gives him an innocent smile, "deal."