A/N: There is smut ahead! I also wanted to address some more serious stuff in this chapter, so I hope you guys like it and stick with their journey!

After Christmas and New Year's, April began seriously planning her and Jackson's wedding. Everything was falling into place as they booked their venue, found a florist, and decided on a date. They were getting married on March twenty-fifth, which was a date April had picked out a long time ago for her wedding. It was the exact date her great-grandparents were married in 1943. They were married or sixty years before they both passed within a year of one another. It was one of the best love stories that April knew, so she figured the date would be good luck for her and Jackson in a way.

"Kepner, can you cover the Pit for the day?" Hunt asked as she was finalizing a dress fitting on her phone.

"Yeah, can I take Edwards and Wilson to help cover?" she asked in reply, knowing they would get swamped as the day went on in the Pit.

"Take whomever you need – even if the residents are already assigned to other attendings," he said quickly.

She nodded and went to find her residents, spotting a few in the lounge by the trauma center. Lucky for her, there was a few to choose from that she could take for the day and she didn't waste any time in picking out who she wanted.

"Brooks, Edwards, Wilson, Green, and Cox, you're all with me in the Pit until further notice today," she said. "Chop chop, let's get a move on people since you know how busy it gets after rush hour traffic."

A few of the residents groaned but followed without complaint as she gave out assignments for the next few hours. She sent them on their way before going about her own work, looking at her surgical schedule for the week to see what she had open to allot for trauma surgeries that might come in. After clearing some blocks of time, she updated some of the patient charts and then went to check on her residents to make sure that they were doing what they were supposed to do and not killing anyone. Dr. Green and Dr. Cox were in trauma room one, working on an unconscious man who needed several sets of stitches on his hands, head, and arms, and had been sedated to keep him calm since he had anxiety about hospitals.

"I just don't know how Dr. Avery could betray all the sisters out there," Dr. Green scoffed as she worked. "It's just…not natural to marry someone outside of your own race. It even says so in the Bible."

April felt her body freeze at the mention of her and Jackson's race differences. Not once had that ever bothered her or Jackson because they loved each other for who they were and not the color of their skin. And it had never really come up in conversation either in the context of them being different or how it affected their relationship since it had never mattered to either one of them. Jackson himself was biracial, so April really didn't care what race he was since he was a wonderful man and her best friend, yet this was a huge slap of reality to her face that other people seemed to care and make a huge deal about it.

"Dr. Green, Dr. Cox are you using proper stitching technique for his head wound to minimize risk of reopening the cut?" she asked authoritatively as she stepped into the room, choosing to ignore the callous gossip she had just been privy to.

"Yes Dr. Kepner," Dr. Cox said quickly, looking down as if she knew that they had been caught and was embarrassed to admit that.

"Good and make sure you inform him of wound care protocol when he comes to in about an hour so that none of his wounds get infected," she said irritably as she updated the chart and checked on the other residents who were working the Pit today.

When she was done, she left Wilson in charge temporarily and told her to page immediately if they needed her. She left the Pit and ran to an on-call room, shutting the door before wiping the tears that had begun to fall. No one had ever used the race card in regards to her and Jackson, so it stung to realize that there were still people out there that thought mixed race relationships were still wrong.

"April?" Lexie called from the bed in the corner. Joshua was in her arms and it looked like she was nursing.

"God I'm sorry to intrude…I didn't know anyone was in here," she apologized quickly, readying herself to leave to give Lexie some privacy.

"No no, it's okay," Lexie said, sliding a blanket up over Josh for privacy. "It's the only quiet place where Josh will nurse and not get fussy."

April nodded and sat on an opposite bed near where Lexie was perched comfortably with a pillow behind her back. She didn't know if she should talk to Lexie about this since she was the only other person that had dated Jackson in this hospital that April knew and felt comfortable talking to. Wringing her hands, she debated with herself about it while she sat there.

"What's wrong?" Lexie was very perceptive to everything, especially when someone was upset or something was really wrong.

"When you and Jackson were…together, did you ever get the mean looks and sneers from other people for being…different?" she asked. Lexie was the only other woman she felt comfortable talking to about this and she hoped that the awkwardness of the question wouldn't be too much.

"You mean for us being different races?" Lexie asked in reply.

April nodded.

"There was…a time or two where a few people gave some dirty looks, but no one outright said anything to either one of us that I know of," her friend said. "Did someone say something to you about it?"

"Not directly, but I overheard it," she sighed. "Some of the residents were gossiping while they were working and I happened to catch what they were saying about Jackson marrying me and how it was wrong for two people of different races to marry."

"Don't listen to what people say or it'll drive you nuts, April," Lexie warned gently. "People still sneer over Mark and I's age difference, but we've just learned to tune it out because it doesn't matter what people think."

"I guess I just never realized how judgmental people still were," she admitted softly. "I mean, I know that they are, but…it just hurts to have that judgment passed on you."

"Do you love Jackson?" Lexie inquired.

"Of course I do!" she quickly replied.

"Then nothing else matters but you and him. Everyone else may have an opinion about your relationship, but it doesn't count so long as you love each other."

April smiled a little and knew that Lexie was someone she could trust with this and trust her judgment about what to do in regards to people who said something behind her back about her relationship with Jackson. It was still unnerving that people could still judge her and Jackson's relationship based on race, but they didn't matter. That was what she had to keep telling herself. She hugged Lexie and left to finish out her day in the Pit before heading home.

Once she was home, she stepped into the shower and let the hot water roll over her and wash away the stress of the day. It was relaxing her sore muscles and allowing her to unwind. But when she felt a strong pair of hands on her bare hips, she froze and jumped until she felt a familiar kiss on her neck.

"Jackson!" she gasped, turning in his arms to face him. "You scared me!"

He laughed and kissed her. "Sorry…I saw you in the shower and couldn't resist my naked fiancée."

"You're cheesy," she teased, touching either side of his face. "But I love that."

"How was your day?" he asked, moving his arms around her waist to hold her close.

"It was good," she lied, not wanting to bring up what she had heard earlier. She knew he would get upset and it wasn't worth ruining this moment for.

"Just good?" he probed, arching a brow. He wasn't buying it and she knew it.

"It…um…okay, have you ever noticed that some people stare at us?" she cautiously asked.

"Well yeah because you're gorgeous," he laughed. "Or because my pretty face is kinda hard to miss."

"Um not because of that," she said.

"You mean because I'm black and you're white?" he asked, sobering his expression after a moment.

She nodded slowly. This was not the conversation she wanted to have in the shower, naked, with her fiancé, but he wouldn't have left it alone until he got what was bothering her out in the open.

"Did someone say something to you?" he asked, looking in her eyes seriously.

"I overheard some comments earlier," she admitted. "The usual gossip that goes around the hospital…"

"Who said it?" Jackson's face turned more serious as he looked at her. "Was it some of the nurses?"

"Just some residents that were working with me in the Pit today," she said, brushing it off like it didn't mean anything. They were just residents and she was over them anyway, so she knew she could suspend their privileges to operate if she wanted to.

"Which residents was it? Wilson? Brooks?"

Jackson always seemed so determined to protect her, which was endearing and sweet, but at the same time…she knew that she had to be a big girl and stand up for herself and for the relationship she had with him. They were getting married in less than three months, so she knew that she would be dealing with ignorance their entire lives from other people that didn't see beyond a person's color.

She shook her head. "It doesn't matter," she insisted. "They don't know us or our story…so they really have no room to judge, right?"

He nodded. "It's something my parents had to deal with too," he said. "My mom never paid much attention to others, but it was pretty scandalous back then, especially for an Avery."

There was a time when mixed race marriages were illegal and she knew that acceptance didn't come overnight for things, even when the laws changed. She had seen it personally with Callie and Arizona's relationship with all the laws that were changing around gay marriage.

"It's me and you…and no one else's opinion matters," she said, knowing that was all that really mattered to her. If she and Jackson never had a problem with one another, then no one else's opinion mattered or should matter in their lives. Her parents loved and adored Jackson. It didn't matter to them so long as he took care of April, which he had always done. And his mother already started calling April her daughter.

"April – I love you and only you. It wouldn't matter to me if you were purple with pink stripes. Or green with polka dots. So long as you were the woman I fell in love with, then the only thing that matters is that you're you."

A wry smile crossed her lips as she kissed him under the spray of the shower head, finding the humor in the thought of being purple with stripes. "And I love you, regardless of what color you are, Jackson Avery. Besides…the first thing I ever noticed about you was your eyes."

"That's what they all say," he teased.

"And your smile," she added.

He grinned and pressed her back to the shower wall. A shiver went up her spine as the cool tiles touched her skin, making her smile. Kisses were laid against her neck as she moved her fingers over his head and gasped softly. There was no denying how amazing their chemistry was both in and out of the bedroom. Anyone who said otherwise was blind.

"I want you," she said breathlessly, dragging her fingers down his back, tensing them when he hit a sensitive spot on her neck.

"How bad?" he asked teasingly, nibbling along her neck up to behind her ear while his hands traced along her sides up to cup one of her breasts.

April arched her back into his hand and whimpered, biting her bottom lip. "Jackson…" she said in a warning tone before turning around to brace herself against the shower wall. "Now."

She could hear Jackson suck in a breath as she turned around, since this was one of his favorite positions in the shower. It didn't take him long to move between her legs and enter her from behind. Her hands were against the wall for support as she rocked back to him and moaned softly as his hand found her breast while the other trailed down her stomach to between her legs.

"Oh God…" she gasped louder as his fingers made good on stimulating her while he thrust deep and hard.

"I prefer to go by Jackson," he murmured wickedly against her ear, making her smile and blush profusely. No one had ever made her feel this good or knew how to make her tingle with every sensation he gave her.

She could feel his grin against her shoulder as he kissed along her shoulder-blade to her neck while his hands did all the work. The water around them was running cooler and she could tell that they would be doused with cold water soon enough, but she was so close…almost there. Her body was already trembling when she started to come undone before she cried out and tightened around him with her release. As she came, he followed after and slid out before wrapping his arms around her waist in the shower, kissing along her neck while she panted and caught her breath.

They retreated from the shower when the water ran cold and wrapped their naked bodies in the sheets of their bed, not caring if it dampened the pillows or mattress. April moved to lay on top of Jackson, pressing her chest to his and looking at him with a smile. When she looked at Jackson, she saw the beautiful blue-green eyes she loved and his smile. She saw the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with because he was her best friend and knew her better than anyone.