"April!" I call out, walking quickly toward the nurses' station while sporting a grin that stretches from ear to ear. She jumps at the sound and looks around before her eyes land on me as I race towards her. "Guess what I just did," I say, skidding to a halt beside her and tapping my hands against the desk.

She raises an eyebrow at me, "What?"

"You are looking at the lead surgeon of a pro-bono rhinoplasty."

"Seriously?" she asks excitedly, nudging me with her elbow. Her smile falters slightly as she lightly touches the tips of her fingers to her throat and furrows her brow before bowing her hand again.

"Yup," I tell her, grinning "Looks like I might be in the race for chief resident after all."

"That's great, Jackson." I can tell she means it but she keeps her head down as she says it and I just know that something is…off.

I lean forward, attempting to get her to look at me but she keeps her eyes trained forward. "You okay?" I ask.

She looks up at me this time and rakes her teeth over her bottom lip. Just when I decide that she's not going to say anything, she says, so quickly I almost miss it, "Do you think my voice is annoying?"

"What?" I ask bewildered, "No, April. Your voice is fine. Who told you that?"

She breathes deeply and mutters, "Torres."

I scoff quietly, "Don't even worry about her," I tell April seriously. "She's just cranky because she's still pissed about Robbins."

"So you don't think it's too…I don't know…squeaky?" she asks self consciously. April had always been overly critical of herself. It was probably what made her such a perfectionist. I never really understood it myself. Sure, she was a neurotic and little crazy sometimes but if she could just gain some confidence...well, she could be seriously hot.

I shove those thoughts to the back of my mind and turn around so that my back rests against the nurses' station. I shrug, trying to keep my voice nonchalant as I tell her, "I mean…alright, it's a little squeaky sometimes but…"

"So you do think it's annoying?" she cries, panic settling in her eyes.

"No, no, no." I assure her. "What I mean to say is I don't mind the squeakiness. Besides, it's what makes it so easy to read you."

My words seem to have quelled her fears momentarily because I can see her shoulders visibly relax. It is just over her previously tense shoulders that I can just make out Lexie Grey approaching us. She glances up from the chart in her hand and smiles at me before tucking the object beneath her arm.

I stand up straighter and run my hands over my lab coat in an attempt to rid it of any creases. Unsure of what to do with my hands, I shove them in my pockets. I press all of my weight against the desk as I lean against it casually.

"Hey, Jackson," she greets warmly, saddling up next to red head. "April," she acknowledges with a quick nod of her head.

I cough and nod back, "Hey." I groan internally, hating the way my voice shakes. She is just a woman. Albeit, an attractive, smart, sexy, intriguing woman, but a woman none-the-less. And I am Jackson Avery. I can handle this.

April remains silent, her jaw clenched tightly, until Lexie addresses her again. "Hey," she starts, handing her chart to an on-call nurse, smiling at her in appreciation before turning her attention back to April, "I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I think Torres is looking for you."

April's head snaps up, her eyes wide, "Seriously?"

Lexie nods remorsefully. Clearly, word of Doctor Torres' emotional instability over the last few days had spread.

"Why wouldn't she just page me?" April asks.

Lexie shrugs and pats April's shoulder sympathetically, "Good luck." She slows her pace and turns her head, looking solely at me with a glint in her eye as she says "See you guys at home," before sauntering down the hall in the opposite direction.

I watch her retreating figure with a smirk but my stomach churns with guilt as I remember the joy I had felt during that surgery. Sloan really was not a bad guy.

"Great," April mutters as she closes up her chart and hands it to the nurse on the opposite side of the counter. She thanks her before heading off down the hall, calling over her shoulder, "This should be fun."

I glance between Lexie's diminishing figure and April one last time before jogging to catch up with my best friend. Ignoring her moans of annoyance, I plow forward and ask, "What do you think of Lexie?"

"What about her?"

"Do you think she'd ever…you know…go for me?" I question unsurely. I try to ignore the way April's eyebrows raise in surprise. It was rare but I could be self conscious too.

Slowly, almost reluctantly, she responds, "She's in love with Sloan, Jackson."

"Yeah, but they broke up," I argue a little too quickly.

"She's in love with Sloan," she tells me again, this time more firmly.

"But…"

"Don't," she demands, stopping in the middle of the hallway to fully turn to me. "Don't go there. We've been over this before and determined that it's not going to end well for anyone, especially you, because…"

"She's in love with Sloan," I echo sullenly, scowling slightly at the floor, "Yeah. I got it."

"Jackson," she tries, reaching forward and frowning as I back away.

"It's fine. I'll just…I'll see you at home." I tell her, turning away and ignoring her shouts after me. With my jaw set, I march off down the hall towards the vending machines, April's words rolling around in my head on repeat. As I punch in the appropriate code, I can only hope that maybe those peanut butter cups can make this situation less crappy.

A/N: I still can't believe the overwhelmingly positive response to this story. I can't thank you guys enough! I know a lot of you aren't too happy about the impending Jackson/Lexie stuff (or the Stark/April stuff) coming up but hopefully this chapter wasn't too bad for you guys. It'll probably be like this for the next few chapters but it'll just be Japril goodness for the most part. Oh! And I completely forgot to make a shout out to Currente Calamo who was such a help with the last chapter! :) As always, thanks for reading and please review!