I'm baaack! R&R :)

One month later

It was Friday night and the pit was complete and utter chaos. There were multiple gunshot wounds, a few car accident victims, a child who swallowed his weight in marbles and a rape victim all lining the beds. An extremely pregnant April Kepner waddled around as quickly as she could between the makeshift rooms to examine pending surgical cases and patients. Her scrub top was so tight that the bottom of her belly hung out and she was holding her lower back to relieve some of the stress from the baby.

"Dr. Kepner, are you sure you should be working the pit?" Her intern Dr. Ross asked her as he pulled a chair up to her and motioned for her to sit down. She sent him a quick scowl that he didn't know she was capable of.

"This is the only time I can get off my butt, Dr. Avery is in surgery for the four maybe five hours. I know what I'm capable of Dr. Ross, but thanks. I will let you know if I need help." April snapped at him and swiftly pulled back a curtain to introduce herself to her next patient.

The patient was a tall man who appeared to be in his late twenties, complaining of pain in his lower abdomen. He was clearly nauseated and nurse Olivia reported his temperature to be nearly 102. April slightly pressed on his appendix to double check but she was sure it was appendicitis.

"What the hell doc?" The man snapped, glaring at her.

"You have appendicitis. I'm going to have to take you into emergency surgery and remove them." April informed him and immediately took off to find an intern to prep him and book an OR.

"Dr. Kepner, I'm under strict orders from Dr. Avery not to let you anywhere near an OR. Is anyone else who could do it?" He asked, stepping in front of her as if he could hold her back. She chuckled humorlessly, like he thought he could hold a nearly full term pregnant woman back. Good luck. She rolled her eyes and walked past him, ignoring his comment all together.

"Dr. Kepner, I will inform Dr. Avery about this if it comes to that." Shane told her nervously. He didn't want to go to Dr. Avery any more than she wanted him to. Dr. Avery would be all over him just for letting her work as much as she had the past couple of hours.

April shrugged and continued prepping for surgery. She knew Jackson's was working on a burn victim from earlier and he would be at least a couple more hours. He wouldn't even have to know.

She made it in to the OR and even almost finished scrubbing in before Dr. Hunt came in. "No way, I don't think so. You and I both know your husband has put the entire hospital under strict orders to keep you off your feet and out of surgery until after you have the baby." He told her, shaking his head.

"You and I both know this is only going to take two hours at the very longest. His appendix isn't ruptured yet. Jackson's procedure is going to take twice that. He'll never know. Besides, we're so busy right now I don't think you have another surgeon to remove his appendix unless you wanted to use an intern. And we both know how that turns out." She told him, a tad cockier than what he was used to seeing from her. Who knew she had that in her? She wanted this, mostly because she knew it would be her last surgery. It was already pressing her luck to get Jackson to let her work at all on a Friday night.

Hunt eyed her carefully, likely judging whether or not they could get away with it. He knew she was capable but also knew Avery was worried for a reason. If it were Cristina he would feel the same way.

"Fine. But I want you in and out of there Kepner. Then you're done. You start your maternity leave after tonight. End of discussion. Have Dr. Ross scrub in so he can keep an eye on you." He told her and she scuffed at his using of 'keep an eye on you'.

"I think you mean babysit me, Sir." She argued under her breath.

The appendectomy was going better than expected. She had already removed the appendix and all she had to do was repair a couple of bleeding nerves and tie him up before closing. "Dr. Ross, you see these bleeders? Make sure you don't miss them during an appendectomy, it's very important. They never stress that enough," She lectured him, trying to get in as much teaching as she could before she was on leave. He nodded and so she carefully handed him her instrument.

"You try," she told him, grinning. He looked at her, judging whether she was serious or not. Warily, he grabbed the tool and began fixing the bleeders. Here and there April offered him a good job, always opting for positive encouragement rather than negative feedback. She knew he was one to feed off of the compliments too so it worked well.

After a couple minutes of silence she felt something strange. "Oh no, oh no. No no no," April groaned, accidentally alerting Dr. Ross who was already on edge. "What? What did I do?" He asked, stopping immediately and looking up at her. She was still silent and focused her attention on her water that just broke and was covering the OR floor.

She looked up at him and back down to the wet floor and then back to him again. He didn't say anything and he still looked confused. April was in too much shock to talk. "Her water broke. And somehow you're the doctor," Bokey mumbled under her breath, pointing to the mess on the floor.

Dr. Ross looked at Bokey and then under the table and saw it. "Oh my God. What do we do?" He asked her and she thought carefully about her options. She knew she wasn't even dilated yet and they likely had time. She'd been through this before. "We are not going to do anything. You are going to finish the few bleeders that you have left and close him up," she told him calmly. He looked so uneasy that it was humorous to her and she accidentally let a laugh slip. She watched him shake his head and finish what he was doing. She felt fine and waited as a scrub nurse came and dried the water beneath her feet.

They were done within twenty minutes and her contractions were barely started. She asked a nurse for a wheel chair and had her wheel her up to maternity. Once she was there she sent an OB resident to inform her husband that she was in labor.

Her OB set her up in a private room and programmed a monitor to monitor both her status and the baby's status. "Have you heard from my husband?" April asked her worriedly. She had texted him a couple of times. She knew he was in surgery and likely had a couple more hours to go still since it had only been a little over an hour since she went into surgery herself.

"No I haven't, Dr. Kepner. I will let you know if I hear anything," She smiled politely and walked back into the hallway. Dr. Ross came in a few minutes later.

"He's still in the OR. He knows though and is going to get up here as soon as possible." He told her, setting a cup of ice chips in front of her.

"As soon as possible? He can't have someone else finish? What about Sloan? Where's Sloan?" April asked her intern frantically.

"Dr. Sloan is in a different OR and he is expected to take even longer than Jackson. He can't do anything but try to finish as soon as possible."

Ross could tell she was on the verge of a breakdown. He suggested she call her daughter and when she did she snuck out of her room. The only thing she could think to do was call Dr. Karev.

It wasn't more than twenty minutes and Alex was in her room.

"About to pop, huh Kepner?" He asked playfully, pointing at her belly. She was covered in sweat and two centers dilated. She glared at him and he let out a playful shiver at her cold glare.

"Do you need anything?" Alex asked her seriously, trying to be a friend to both her and Jackson. It was the least he could do since Avery was his best friend and all. She shook her head and informed him that she called Isaac and Summer to let them know that she was in labor. Both of them had asked her where Jackson was since she was calling them instead of him. Summer shrugged, assuming that would happen. Isaac was mad that his dad wasn't there yet that he practically hung up on her.

Another hour went by with still no Jackson, two more centimeters of dilation and a bored Karev. He had taken to telling April stories of his days in high school and collegiate wrestling to calm her down. Normally those stories bored her to tears but it was nice to take her mind off of everything while he reminisced. She was calm for the most part, only slightly freaking out because Jackson was still in surgery. Their baby's heart rate was strong and it was only a matter of time until she would be a mother for the second time.

Her patience was wearing thin when she hit seven centimeters dilated and still no surgery. Alex was pacing back and forth, snapping at interns revolving in and out of her room updating him on Avery's status in the OR. April was refusing pain medicine, wanting a natural childbirth. He was on his last nerve with her and her bitchy attitude, even though he knew it was stupid for him to be annoyed. Maybe he was just more annoyed that Avery wasn't there yet.

A resident told April she was eight centimeters dilated just as Jackson walked in the room.

"Baby I am so sorry. I'm here. I love you," he gushed towards her, leaning down and peppering soft kisses all over her face. A small smile escaped her, taking a second to be thankful he made it and forget about the pain of the contractions that Alex wasn't really helping her with.

"We missed you," she laughed as he pulled her forward, enough so that he could sit behind her and hold her like they practiced in their Lamaze class. There was something uniquely intimate about the position they were sitting in that Alex felt he should leave for. His job was done.

Jackson wrapped his arms around her and settled his hands on top of her belly.. He rubbed it soothingly, feeling their baby bumping and kicking, reading to come out.

April rested her hands over his and squeezed them tightly, trying to get through another set of contractions. From what she could tell they were only a couple of minutes apart.

"Two minutes apart. Looks like I made it just in time," he whispered in her ear. He placed another kiss on her jaw and one on the crook of her neck. She didn't have much to say, she was mostly focused on her breathing and having Jackson with her made everything easier. "And did I hear right that you were doing an appendectomy when your water broke?" He smirked and dropped it. She pretended not to hear him at all.

"You can do this." Jackson told her calmly. She nodded eagerly. Only forty five minutes later she was a full ten centimeters dilated.

Her OB came in, "looks like you're ready to push," she sang.

April turned slightly to look at Jackson. "Are you sure we're ready for this?"

He chuckled and pulled her closer to him. "I think we've reached a point of no return."

She was instructed to push and with that came the loudest, shrillest screech Jackson had ever heard from her. Her normal high pitched squeals were nothing compared to this. Alex would be having a fit.

Jackson used the face towel a nurse had given him and wiped his wife's forehead dry of sweat. She screamed again and belted out another long and hard push, putting in everything she had.

"I can't! I can't push anymore. She's stuck!" April cried, she was emotionally and physically exhausted. Thinking back to having Summer, she remembered it being a hundred times easier than this.

"I can see her head. You're almost there. I just need one more big push from you, can you do that April?" the woman asked. April cried.

"Sweetheart, we're so close. One more hard push and we can see our little girl," Jackson tried reasoning with her. She took his words to heart and decided to try.

"Are you ready?" He ask her quietly, holding her as close as he possibly could. His red headed wife nodded quietly while her doctor counted to three.

April exerted more energy than she ever had in her life into that last push. She felt her baby come all the way out and her doctor pull her out from between her legs. Within three seconds they heard her belt out a shrill scream that strangely mimicked April's.

They cleaned her up quickly and wrapped her in a brand new soft pink baby blanket. A nurse handed her carefully to April who couldn't believe her eyes. Their new daughter was gorgeous. She was perfect.

The nurse took their camera off of the table next to their bed and snapped a quick picture of the three of them, still in bed. The picture showed April and Jackson mesmerized by their tiny 6.8 pound, 20 inch long baby girl.

"Do you have a name yet?" she asked them after a while, giving them time to admire their creation.

Jackson looked at April, completely smitten with his daughter. They had bickered back and forth about her name and up until this point he cared to have a say. After seeing what April just did to bring her in to the world he wanted her to name their daughter exactly what she wanted.

"Brynn." She told the nurse, not taking her eyes off her beautiful baby girl.

Probably two more chapters left. What do you think will happen?