A/N: Again, you guys are going to love this chapter. Lots of J/A goodness along with some general plot development. Hope you enjoy it!
Chapter Fourteen
With Teddy officially off with MedCom, Owen was set with the task of filling her position. He hadn't faced a challenge like this before in his role of chief, and found himself marginally intimidated by the daunting task. Yes, there were many talented surgeons who would happily come clamoring at the prospect of being head of cardio, but Seattle Grace had become a hospital that not many surgeons clamored toward. There were the scandals and shootings. The once respectable hospital had taken a beating in the past few years.
Faced with the challenge, Owen did the only logical thing. He turned to Richard Webber.
"It's always difficult when an attending leaves," Webber sympathized. "Now you know what I had to face for all those years when this hospital was like a damn conveyor belt of people coming and leaving. It's not easy."
"Do you have any advice?"
"Half of finding that new attending is word of mouth. Use your resources. The more you have, the more interested surgeons you'll find."
"I'll talk with HR," Owen said, nodding. "I'll reach out to other hospitals, too."
"That's all fine, Hunt, but you're forgetting your best resource." Owen looked at Richard in confusion, not understand what he was missing. Smiling slightly, Webber said, "Me."
"You'll help?"
"I have a few favors that I could call in," Richard said nonchalantly. "I could make a few phone calls. I can't promise results, but it can't hurt."
"I'd appreciate any help I can get," Owen said. "Thank you, Richard."
"More than happy to help," Richard returned. With a smirk he added, "It's nice to know that after my few phone calls I'm finished. You have to do all the work after that."
April stood at a desk in the pit, looking through the chart for a patient that she was supposed to see at the end of the hour. She felt someone behind her, and grinned when Jackson placed a coffee beside the chart and said, "Medium cappuccino with hazelnut."
'You know my drink order," she said with a grin, twisting around and patting his cheek. "I'm impressed."
"You order it every time," he said. "And you order a lot of coffee. It's not impressive. It's observational."
"Look at you and your semantics," she teased. "Thank you for the coffee." She took a sip, nodding her head appreciatively. It was the perfect sweetness. "You know, if I knew this relationship had so many caffeinated perks, I would have started it a long time ago."
Jackson laughed, palming her waist. "There are other sorts of perks, too, of the non-caffeinated variety."
She bit her bottom lip to keep the smile at bay and innocently said, "Oh, really?"
"Really."
"What type of perks?" she asked innocently, although a sliver of a smile began to pull at her mouth.
He dipped his mouth to her ear and said, "The on-call room type."
"Be still my heart," she purred. "You bring me coffee and sleep?"
"Hey," he said, pulling away with a playful indignant look. She laughed, placing her hands on his shoulders.
"That's what you get for talking dirty to me while I'm at work."
"How about when you're off work?"
April grinned. "I'm all yours."
"Well, then I insist on a date tonight."
"Okay," she said, sliding her hands down his arms and interlacing her fingers with his. "My place. I'll cook."
His eyes lit up. "That, April, is a fantastic idea." He dropped his mouth to hers for a quick kiss. "Alright, I need to get back to work."
"Me too," she said. "I'll see you later."
"I miss weddings," Callie said, sitting with Mark in the observation deck. Sheperd and one of the younger cardio surgeons were both working on a patient. Sheperd didn't' share the OR well, and Mark was waiting to see how long it would take before his friend would snap. Callie was there during her lunch, which consisted of chips and a bar of chocolate.
"What do you mean you miss weddings?"
"We haven't had one in a while," she said.
"Yours was last year," he pointed out.
"Yeah, but that's different. You don't party at your wedding like you do at someone else's. I want someone else to get married. I want to party." She reached into the bag of potato chips and pulled one out, popping it in her mouth.
"Well, who can we push down the aisle?"
"How about April and Jackson?" she said. "They're disgustingly cute. That's perfect for marriage!"
"They've been together for a week," he reminded her. "Even we can't manage that."
"Maybe we can knock her up," she proposed casually. "With her God-complex and his morals, you know they'd end up with a shotgun wedding."
"You want to get Kepner knocked up?" Mark asked with a smirk. "This is your grand plan?"
"It needs some work," she admitted.
"Maybe someone else could get married," he said slowly. "Maybe me and Lex."
Callie snorted, breaking off a piece of chocolate. "Right. Because that is so gonna happen."
Mark frowned. "Why not?"
"Look, Mark, I'm happy that you guys are together. It's great, really. But you're that couple."
"What couple?"
"Come on, you know, that couple that gets together and breaks up. Gets together again. Breaks up again."
"You're wrong, Torres."
"Maybe I am," she said, holding up a hand. "But you're still nowhere near the aisle. It's in the next country over. The next continent." She broke off a piece of chocolate and popped it in her mouth. "Maybe we can get someone to renew their vows?"
Despite her overtures earlier in the day, April somehow found herself in an on-call room with Jackson, back pressed against the door as his mouth danced across her skin. She pressed her hand against the back of his head as his lips moved against her neck, dropping open mouthed kisses at her pulse.
"We shouldn't be doing this," she murmured. "We-we have work to do."
"I'm on a break," he murmured against her skin. "As are you. Which is why you agreed to come with me."
"We're not a pair of hormonal teenagers, though," she said. He wrapped his arms around her waist and began to walk backwards toward the bed. "We're adults. Fully in control of our adult urges."
"We are in control," he returned, sitting down and pulling her between his legs. "We are very in control."
"What if someone comes in?"
"The door is locked," he reminded her.
"What if someone needs the room? You know, someone who actually needs to sleep?"
"There are a lot of on-call rooms, April." He slid his hands down and cupped her bottom. "This one is taken."
She draped her arms around his neck and leaned forward, kissing him gently. "You're very persuasive."
"It's part of the Avery charm."
Owen decided that Richard Webber was magic. Before he talked to the former Chief, he was struggling to find even one interested attending. A quick conversation and he already had four messages blinking on his answering machine. He sat down and pressed the play button, note pad at the ready to write down any pertinent information. The first three were from local surgeons, inquiring about the position. He scrawled down names and phone numbers, thinking to himself that maybe this search for a new attending wouldn't be too painful. The last message played and his stomach twisted.
"Hello. This is Preston Burke. Richard Webber called me about the head of cardio position. As you may know, I…"
Cristina walked into her husband's office, stopping short when she recognized the voice on the answering machine. Owen quickly stopped the message, looking almost embarrassed as he shuffled his papers.
"Owen-"
"We're getting calls for the head of cardio position," he said, voice too booming. "We should have someone soon."
"Was that Burke?"
He clenched his jaw. "Yeah, it was. You don't have to worry, though. I wouldn't hire him."
"Don't be ridiculous," Cristina said immediately. "Burke's one of the best cardiothoracic surgeons out there."
Owen looked at her strangely. With their history, he would have thought that Cristina would be more than happy to not have to see that man again. If he were hearing correctly, though, she was speaking up for him. For the man who left her at the altar.
"I'm not saying hire him off the bat," she said in the wake of his silence. "But I also don't want you to not hire him because of me. This shouldn't be a personal decision."
"It's not," he answered. "I have to consider factors other than skill and reputation, Cristina. I have to think of whether or not the surgeon would fit well in the hospital. I need to consider if he'll fit in with the other attendings and residents that he'd be teaching."
"He's worked with nearly all of us," she said. "In terms of fitting in-"
"He won't fit in," Owen said firmly. "He's not the right choice."
"You can't know that," she argued. "You should at least bring him in for an interview."
"Cristina-"
"You're making it personal," she argued. "You're letting your jealousy and, quite frankly, archaic view on the whole situation cloud your judgment."
"Excuse me for not relishing the thought of my wife spending hours a day with someone she nearly married."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing," he said, shaking his head. They were treading toward seriously dangerous waters, and he didn't want to get into a conversation about anything resembling fidelity. "I just don't know if I would be comfortable with him working here."
"This position isn't about who you're comfortable with," she said. "It's who fills the position best. Don't make it personal."
"I'll bring him in for an interview," Owen relented. He would humor her with that, but he had no intention of hiring him. He'd rather pull Teddy back from Medcom than willingly hire Preston Burke.
After work, April went to the grocery store and gathered the ingredients for her dinner with Jackson. Excitement stirred in her stomach as she started cooking, her entire body sizzling along with the caramelizing onions as she counted down the minutes until Jackson arrived. It was strange to her how much she anticipated his visits. Being as good of friends as they were, she saw him all the time before they dated. In fact, she really didn't see him all that much more now that their relationship had an official title, but it was somehow different.
This was the first dinner she was cooking him since they became a couple, and she was pulling out all the stops. Balsamic pork chops with caramelized onions. Rosemary fingerling potatoes. Delicate haricot verts with pearl onions. She was almost impressing herself.
She opened up a bottle of pinot noir, sipping at her glass as she cooked. There was a knock on her door and she gave her green beans a quick stir in the pan before scurrying over to the door and opening it with a wide grin.
"Hey there," she said, taking Jackson's hand and pulling him in.
"It smells amazing in here. What's on the menu?" She listed off the different items, grinning as his eyes widened.
"Sound good?" she asked.
"Better than good." He shrugged off his coat and laid it on the couch. Slipping his arms around her waist, he said, "I'm glad I chose a girlfriend that cooks."
"You are a very lucky man." She gave him a quick kiss. "Alright, I need to check on the food."
He followed her into the kitchen, smirking when he saw the wine glass with her very obvious lipstick imprint on the rim.
"Did you start early?"
"Hm?" He gestured toward her wine glass. "Only a few sips. Do you want some now?"
"Sure. I can pour it myself. You just take care of dinner."
"Deal."
Having been at her apartment countless times, he needed no instruction as to where the wine glasses were. He poured himself a glass and leaned against the counter as April finished up dinner.
"So, I was cornered by Meredith and Izzie," Jackson said.
"You were?"
"Derek told Meredith about Teddy's party."
"The cat's out of the bag, then?"
"We weren't exactly trying to hide it," she said with a grin.
"Very true. Anyway, you'd be happy to know that they gave me a little talk. Something around the neighborhood of if I hurt you I will have to get past them. Then they said something about boys and their boy parts that I didn't completely understand, but I think it had something to do with female solidarity."
April grinned softly and murmured, "They threatened you?"
"I believe it was in there somewhere."
"That's so nice of them!"
He chuckled, swirling his wine in the wine glass. "I won't, for the record."
"Won't what?"
"Hurt you. At least not intentionally."
"I know you won't," she said softly, turning off the burner on the stove and walking over to him. She gently framed his face with her hands and leaned in, pressing her lips against his. He kissed her back, his free hand pressing gently against her waist.
"Alright, to the table," she said, patting his cheek. "Dinner is served."
He helped with the dishes after dinner, and her thoughts were pulled back to that night she had thrown the party for all the residents and he had called Mark Sloan and convinced him into coming and bringing half the hospital. As she put away the last plate, she thought of how far they had come. Then, they had just slept together and whatever was between them was murky and shapeless. Now, everything had changed and she couldn't be happier.
He took her hand, tugging her toward him. His mouth covered hers and he kissed her slowly, languidly. The fevered rush of that night in San Francisco had developed into a slow burn. There was no need to rush anymore. They had time – all the time in the world. Her shirt rode up as she pressed herself against him, and his fingertips brushed the skin revealed between the raised hem of her shirt and pants.
She didn't know how they got to her bedroom, but her knees hit the back of the bed and she dropped down onto the mattress, body thrumming with energy as his hands pushed up her shirt. She unbuttoned his shirt, her hands trembling as she fumbled with the tiny buttons. He felt her nerves and gently took a hold of her hands, bringing them to his lips.
"We don't have to do this," he said.
"I want to," she murmured, pulling her hands back and returning to his shirt. The trembling had subsided and she finished the rest of the buttons, tugging the shirt down his arms. She ran her hands over his bare chest and leaned in to press a kiss just above his heart. "I want this. I want you."
He kissed her hard, all teeth and gums, and she unbuttoned his pants, tugging them down as his own hands worked at hers. She scooted back, reaching toward him. He followed her slowly, dragging his hand up her leg. She gasped when he found her center, his fingers teasing her. She squeezed her eyes shut as he slipped a finger inside of her, working her effortlessly. He added another and she nearly squeaked.
"You are beautiful," he murmured, gazing at her flushed face. Her eyes drifted open wide as a wave of pleasure overcame her. She pulled him back up, kissing him messily as she arched her back and pressed herself against him.
"Are you ready?" he mumbled against her lips, pulling back slightly to look her in the eyes. "If you-"
She grabbed onto his bottom and her intentions were clear. He reached down for his pants and slid his wallet from the pocket, pulling out a condom. He pulled it on quickly, and then braced himself on his forearms before sliding into her. She sucked in air at the feel of him, sliding her hands to his back as they found a rhythm. He kissed her neck and she dropped her neck back, giving him better access. He nipped her at her neck and she laughed.
"Still hungry?"
He smirked, giving a harder thrust. "Starving."
She pulled her knees up, taking him deeper as she felt the finish nearing. He quickened the pace and she followed him, digging her heels into the mattress for leverage. Her orgasm ripped through her almost violently, and she dug her nails into his back as she rode it out. He followed a moment later, his forehead resting on her shoulder. She laughed, pressing a kiss against his hair.
"We're pretty good at that," she said.
"You can say that again," he said, rolling onto his back.
She smirked. "We're pretty good at that."
He chuckled, pulling her to his side. She rested her head on his chest, and murmured, "I'll let you stay this time."
He remembered the last time, and how he had foolishly let her send him away. He pressed a kiss to her forehead and said, "I'm not going anywhere."
A/N: A little smut there for your Monday ;) Hope you enjoyed this one! Let me know what you thought, please!
And a quick reminder - next chapter will be up Wednesday :D