[10x15]

Jo looked around the restaurant, searching the tables for Alex. She was exhausted and didn't feel like being here at all. She just wanted to crawl into bed and bury herself under piles of blankets and forget about this day. Alex had begged her to come here, though, and she hadn't had the energy to turn him down either. She smiled slightly when the waiter came up to her.

"Table for one?" he asked her politely.

"Actually I'm meeting someone," she replied to him in the friendliest voice she could conjure up. At this moment she spotted Alex over by the window in a corner, waving her over. She smiled at the waiter gratefully and walked over, scooting into the seat across from her boyfriend, sighing.

"Hey," he smiled at her cautiously, sizing up her mood.

"Why couldn't we have just gone home?" she asked him, tiredly.

"Well, I thought the smell of spare ribs would cheer you up a bit," Alex tried hesitantly. Jo rubbed her face.

"I'm not even sure I'm that hungry," she gave him back, ordering a beer for herself.

"I didn't wanna see any of their faces tonight. Not at the hospital or the bar or at home for that matter," Alex said in a small voice. Jo smiled at him slightly.

"I know. I'm pretty done with that, too," she responded, leaning back in her chair.

"How was the rest of your day?" Alex inched towards her mindset timidly.

"Ugh, crap. The organ donor went into cardiac arrest and I kinda slipped the news to a friend of his while telling Kepner without much fuss," Jo informed him, rubbing her face.

"I'm sorry," Alex reached over to stroke his thumb over the back of her hand when she put her arm down to rest it on the table. Jo nodded.

"Yeah," Jo just said, seemingly out of words.

"You tired?" Alex tried to keep the conversation going.

"Exhausted," she said. They sat in silence for a bit before the waiter came and they ordered their food.

"The surgery worked," Alex reported back to her, trying to give her some good news. "You helped save the boy with giving me the idea about the appendix," he added. Jo smiled.

"I'm glad," she just said, tugging at the sleeves of her shirt. She looked up when he didn't elaborate and saw him looking down to his cutlery, looking beaten as well. "You should have been the one doing it, though," Jo finally tried to cheer him up as well, having realized that he wasn't all happy either. Alex nodded without looking at her. "I'm sorry they took it away from you. It was one hell of a save and it should have been yours," she reached over now and took his hand into hers, trying for him to look at her. Alex nodded again. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Alex looked up and smiled, but she could see it was fake, too. "I'm glad he's okay now." Jo nodded slowly, thinking about what to say.

"I'm pretty sure they all realized it was your breakthrough. They can't just take that away from you," she stressed again, believing that was what bothered her boyfriend.

"It's over now, anyways. It's all good. The boy is doing well and I'm glad. Doesn't matter who did the surgery anyways. People will have forgotten about it in a week or two," he pointed out.

"I won't have," Jo tried to make him see. "And I'm sad that the chief's and the board's goal is now to rather try keeping us apart than seeing what amazing doctors they have working for them. You know, it never made sense to me that successes are always dealt with as in…well, we expected that from you, but failures are always dragged completely out of proportion. Especially, if the "failure"," she signed imaginary quotes in the air, "is us being in a relationship." Alex just shrugged.

"Did you hear Murphy had filed the complaint against Torres, not Robbins?" he changed the subject. Jo hiked her eyebrows.

"Are you serious? What for?" she asked in disbelief.

"I'm not entirely sure. Didn't hear anything about it. But if she actually did, she probably must have had profound reason…otherwise they wouldn't have taken her seriously… I guess," Alex shrugged again.

"That's probably true, yeah," Jo responded, thinking. "Did you hear about the dumpster baby?" Alex sighed deeply, looking at her through narrowed eyes.

"Yeah, sorry, I totally forgot, I meant to ask you about it. I'm so sorry, Jo," he told her, looking sympathetic.

"What for?" she just shot back at him questioningly.

"That you were the one to find him," he replied in confusion as if it was completely obvious.

"Oh," Jo snorted. "No," she shook her head no with a scrunched up face. "I'm just glad we did. And I'm kinda pissed that they actually wouldn't let me be on his case. But I'm also pretty sure I'm pissed about pretty much everything right now," she concluded.

"Which includes me, right?"

"What? No, why?" Jo asked him, taken aback.

"Well…. I did go after you today whereas you didn't want me to and Hunt caught us… and generally, you still seemed a bit off towards me since I blew up on the board the other day," he told her quietly. Jo sighed, trying to shape words herself.

"Well, yeah, you probably shouldn't have come after me today, there was no point in getting told off again when we're already on suspension," she admitted.

"I don't get it. We've been a couple. For a while now. Then they establish that rule, and what? Did they expect us to separate because of that? But then at the meeting they were all like… what you do at home is your business…and then they suspended you from Peds and me from the OR.., which okay, was because of the closet thing… even thought that was far from fraternizing but whatever… so what do they expect from us now? That you'll never be on Peds again? That we'll never be in the same room again at work? That we don't talk or stand next to each other? Can we have lunch together? What if… say… you're in Ortho but it's a 5 year old… does Arizona have to take all the Peds cases with you or do you have to leave the room? I don't really get what they want from us… it's like… ugh," he ranted, looking at Jo who was biting her lips. "You know, I'd understand if A we had fraternized after the rule was established or B we weren't a real thing…like only sleeping together. I'd maybe understand. But none of that applies to us. So, no, I really don't care what Hunt says at the moment. He might have made amends with you in giving you a potential six surgeries patient… but I sure as hell am not going to play nice with him," he said, smiling gratefully at the waiter when he brought their food. When Jo didn't reply, he looked over at her. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to make it extra hard for you," he added quietly.

"No, I know. It all sucks. I know you are pissed, too. I just…. I'm still scared that this will at some point mark the end of my career," she told him.

"I'll go before that happens," Alex responded casually, biting into one of his ribs. Jo looked at him in surprise.

"What do you mean by that?" Alex shrugged at her, chewing before articulating his answer.

"Either we'll find some way to deal with this," he said. "Or I'll go look for another job at another hospital. It's fine. I want you to have the best education there is. And I don't want you to have to fight for it daily, just because you're with me. I don't want that," he said, averting his eyes to indulge in his food.

"I don't want you to do that," Jo said, her voice sounding a bit weird.

"Why?"

"I don't want you to give up your job, your friends, your colleagues, your patients, your home…," she said.

"There is more than one hospital in Seattle, Jo," he said.

"I know that. But still. You've been here forever. I don't want you to give that up," she stressed again.

"I'm not. But if it's the only way it works, I will. I don't wanna stand in between you and your education," Alex informed her matter-of-factly.

"But you're not, Alex. They are. They, who are making a big deal about us dating, are standing in between me and my education. It's not you who has to make changes. It's them," she looked pretty upset. "I just don't wanna overdo the whole rebel attitude and get kicked out or something..," she explained.

"You won't get kicked out, I promise," Alex reassured her.

"There must be a way to end this whole freaking situation….right? I mean, this is just ridiculous," Jo looked at him questioningly. Alex looked back at her, pondering. A conversation he'd had a couple of hours ago with Mer popped into his mind but he didn't dare say anything. It was stupid and if Meredith thought that stupid paper made anything better, she was wrong. It really didn't.

"How about we enjoy this evening and try to figure things out once we know a little more about how the hospital will go further with this all… you know… maybe after they have all talked it out… Murphy and Torres and Robbins… maybe they'll take it back… I don't know… let's not be too hasty going about this… maybe it'll work itself out…," Alex suggested. Jo looked at him, insecure though.

"I don't know, Alex. I just don't wanna lose this job. Or you," she said.

"You won't, I promise, alright? Please don't freak. I know it's hard right now and irritating and unfair… but please, I… I'll try everything to make it better, alright? I'll think of something, okay?" Alex actually reached out for her hand and entwined her fingers with his. Jo gave him the tiniest smile and nodded. "Please don't… give up just yet…," he asked her.

"I won't," Jo narrowed her eyes at him. "Especially on us, you know that, right?"

They sat, looking at each other, having half forgotten about their food, while pondering how to go from here. How had it happened that they had gone from happy and carefree to fearing the loss of a job or each other every spare minute of their days? Alex didn't know. But he sure as hell was going to fight for Jo, whatever it took. He couldn't have her walk away from him. He just couldn't.