It turned out, all of those cliches that the flew out about college being the best and fastest years of your life were true. That was the last thing that April had expected – because in high school, she'd heard the exact same things aid then, and it'd be absolutely horrific. The entire time she'd wanted nothing more than to get out and away, and she finally had. It seemed like things really did work out, sometimes.
Of course, having her boyfriend by her side helped. She'd ended up working as his TA during her junior and senior year, and he'd been right by her side when it came to applying to medical schools. The recommendation letter that he had written for her had her in tears. It was something that students weren't generally supposed to see, but an exception had been made – one of the instances when their relationship on a personal and academic level crossed over. She hadn't been able to get over the beautifully composed words for days. And they still ran through her mind from time to time, particularly when things were so tough that she forgot about the end goal ahead.
During her senior year, as well, she moved in with him. The first three years of school had been spent on campus but she'd told her parents that she was moving in with a close friend, and they hadn't questioned it. She worked a job and was paying for everything on her own, as far as they knew. The hands-off approach was much appreciated.
"Babe, we need to leave!" Jackson called out.
April was in the master bathroom, finishing up the last touches of getting ready. Today was the graduation ceremony, she'd finally get to walk across that stage and received a diploma stating that she officially had a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Northwestern University. Next fall she'd be rushing off to medical school here, and she couldn't have been more excited about the prospect. But first, today. Jackson had bought her the dress that she was wearing, a modest but attractive fit that gave her a little more hip than usual, but rested just shy of her knees at a happy length. She couldn't wait to put on the purple robes over it, grabbing her high heels as she ran down the stairs, curls of auburn hair bouncing as she did so.
"You look amazing," he complimented as he bent down, kissing her on the lips.
"Careful! Lipstick." Even if she normally wasn't quite as much of a neat freak about certain things, April wanted to make sure that today was a good day. Her father was sick so neither of her parents would be there, which meant that Jackson was going to be the one there supporting her, taking pictures. Of course, he'd be there as a professor, too, but right now her priorities were on the personal side of things.
"Didn't smudge a thing, don't worry," Jackson reassured her. "You look perfect, babe. I can't wait to watch you strut across the stage."
Her nose twitched at the word choice and she swatted him playfully, dropping her heels down on the floor before stepping into them. "I will walk, very professionally, thank you. Now hurry up – we need to get there early if we don't want people to notice that you're driving me." She reminded him.
The two of them head out, the energy between them buzzing. But April didn't fully understand Jackson's excitement.
The day was one that April had been buzzing about for months. As accomplished as she was, she'd always been incredibly modest no matter what the circumstances were. And he's finally found the exception to that. It brought him so much joy to see her being open about her accomplishments and proud of herself - and it gave him just another reason to be proud. The accomplishment was more than worthy of it all by herself, graduating summa cum laude, but seeing her loving this part of her life meant just as much to him. This was the kind of intrinsic happiness that she deserved.
A black box containing a beautiful diamond ring was resting in the pocket of his dress pants, something that Jackson had been planning on for months now. He knew that he wanted to marry her, but they could only go so far forward as long as he was teaching at the university. And neither one of them was going anywhere, so patience had been the key to handling this. His day had come. Their day had come.
The two of them had plans to go out to dinner, plans and reservations already made. She'd have a graduation party to attend afterward with Lexie. Both of them had been Jackson's TAs for the last two years, and they'd been the kind of competitive friends that pushed each other to be better. It was a miracle that she hadn't managed to find out about their relationship with all of the time that had been spent together. But Jackson wanted to make sure that April went to her party with an engagement ring on her finger, give her one more thing to be proud of and excited for today.
"Good luck, sweetheart," he leaned over and kissed her cheek, nose nuzzling her cheek for a moment.
"Thank you," she turned her head just enough to get a proper kiss.
Getting out of the car, April's quick to get where she needed to be, buzzing with excitement. Hopefully, the ceremony wouldn't go on for too long because she didn't think she'd be capable of sitting still for too extended of a time with all of the energy that she had coursing through her at the moment. At least that was one area in which being so near the center of the alphabet would give her some kind of advantage.
The opening remarks are heartwarming as always, but Jackson was almost positive that he'd heard the same speech before given that this was the sixth commencement that he had attended as a professor. After so many, they start to blur together. It's great to see his students graduate to move onto bigger and better things, but he's never been excited about the ceremony himself. Even his one. Getting his Ph.D. had been an accomplishment, but his high school and undergraduate graduations hadn't felt like anything special. As an Avery, it was merely what was expected of him. But for once, he's excited, thrilled at the prospect of seeing his girlfriend and hopefully soon to be fiancée walk across that stage.
As the names begin to be called, Jackson sits forward with anticipation. Maybe it's a little ridiculous given how many people are about to walk off the stage and that she's only going to be about halfway through the ceremony, but he doesn't care. His full attention is given until her name is called.
April Noelle Kepner.
Among the polite clapping that was normal for anyone walking across the stage was Jackson's, loud and enthusiastic, letting out a moderately unprofessional whoop that earns him a curious look or two from his coworkers. But he doesn't care – not when in his head, he already had all of this figured out. They'd move to Boston together, she'd go to Harvard and he'd be teaching at Northeastern University. Some place in Cambridge would be their home, he'd make the commute for work. There, no one would know the history between the two of them. They could have their start as any normal couple, get married, and let the rest fall into place. That was all that mattered to him now.
When the commencement ceremony had been completed and their caps had been tossed, they're quick to meet up once again and get heading over to the restaurant. Osteria Langhe was the perfect balance of both fancy and comfortable, the two of them splitting a bottle of wine with the meal that was unlikely to be finished. Jackson ordered the beef tartare while April went with the agnolotti dal plan. They'd been here once before together, and she'd loved it.
But the real winner was dessert. Tiramisu was April's all-time favorite dessert, something that was a well-known fact between the both of them given that any time they went out together and it was an option, she pretty much always ended up requesting that they split one.
Tonight's would be one that was handcrafted for just the two of them, a deal that he had worked out before getting here. The ring had been passed off to the hostess out of his girlfriend's view with a note, knowing that the chef would already know what to do. A nice tip was going to be left at the end of the night, of course, for both the waiter and the man doing the work to actually get his proposal done the way that he had been planning it for months.
With much anticipation, the dessert is finally served and Jackson's excitement was nearly palpable. His leg jittered underneath the table, glad that she wasn't able to see it and pick up on his nerves. He allowed her to chat away about their plans for the summer – a small weekend trip had been made for the two of them next weekend, up to a lake house that they'd found on Airbnb, and then after that, she was going to be working in a research lab studying pain management. It was work that was both interesting and something that he was excited about, and normally, it would have had his full attention. Tonight, though, he's less concerned about the chatter leaving her lips as he was the action. He's careful with his own bites of the split dessert, not taking too much and wanting her to be the one to clink against the ring at the bottom of it.
"And I really think that Dr. Li– oh. Oh god, I think there's something in here." April's nose curled up in disgust as she pushed the tips of the fork around the dessert further, gaze dropping to focus on the task at hand.
"Hmm?" It's all that Jackson could manage to get out, not wanting to ruin the surprise.
"There's something in here! Here." As she scooped it out, enough of the piece of jewelry was revealed to make it obvious that it was a ring.
As April realized exactly what it was, she froze and her eyes blew up wide. Had the situation not been such a serious one, it likely would have been comical. Jackson watched her reaction process and took a deep breath before moving out of his chair, just enough that he can take her free hand inside of both of his and drop down to a knee in front of her. The loud gasp and sight are just enough that it began to draw attention from some of the other diners in the restaurant, slowly beginning to turn all eyes on the two of them.
"April, I love you," Jackson started. "And I've loved you and wanted to do this for a long time. But you already know why today is the perfect day, for the both of us. Today's the day that we finally get a chance at really starting our life together, as moving forward and having a future together no matter what's thrown in our way. There's no other woman or person on this planet that I rather spend the rest of my life with. In all of my years, I've never met someone as mature or sophisticated as you are, someone so passionate about everything that she invests herself in, and someone who cares for me and loves me with the intensity that you do. Truthfully, there's no one on the planet who could ever compare to you in so many ways. And I know you don't always see how amazing you are, so I'd like to be the person by your side for the rest of the life to constantly remind you of that. Because you are amazing, April Kepner, and I'd very much like for you to be my wife." The speech is a mostly rehearsed one, the only reason that he's able to remain calm despite the nerves in his stomach. "Will you marry me?"
What felt like an impossibly long moment between the two of them passed as April stared down at her proposing boyfriend dumbfounded, the surprise of the evening taking her off guard more than anything. She'd always thought that she'd been able to read him like he was nothing more than a book, and yet this had her blindsided.
"Yes– yes! Oh my gosh, yes, of course, I'll marry you." She finally squealed out with a smile breaking across her surprised facade, nearly stumbling out of her seat. Jackson wasted no time in swooping in, kissing her hard. "I love you so much, baby," he mumbled against her lips, not wanting to break the kiss even for so much as oxygen. He wanted to spend the rest of his life kissing and cherishing her, wanting to value absolutely every moment between the two of them. And this was one that the both of them would absolutely remember for the rest of their lives.
"I love you too, Jackson," April replied as she finally broke the kiss for air, stretched up on her toes and her forehead resting against his with a large, loving smile on her face. The audience of people witnessing the proposal are happy to cheer and clap for the two of them, unaware of the complicated situation that had only been vaguely referenced in the proposal. By all watching eyes, they were nothing more than a normal, happy couple.
And that's all that either of them wanted to be. Happy, normal.
The boundaries between the two of them didn't matter. With soulmates, it rarely did. Two people so fated to be together have a way of finding each other in one way or another in their life. The bridges that are meant to be crossed, and even burned, all lead to the same point in the road that would bring the two of them together. In many ways, age was just a number – the content of a soul wasn't always defined by that factor alone, instead, a number of variables played into it to define the humanity that was found inside of a person. That was just the type of thing that it didn't matter if he was thirty-five and she was twenty-two when they proposed, because the both of them were so full of joy and happiness to have each other in their lives, nothing besides that mattered. The rest would eventually fall into place, one way or another. It was one of those moments where life truly worked out, and all was meant to be.