Chapter 4

To say April was nervous was kind of an understatement, she hated parties even her intern mixer. Most of her dresses were old and kind of outdated and she bought them not because she even liked them but she needed a dress but here she was nervously at the Shepherd household, the infamous frat house wearing a Casual formal dress that makes her uncomfortable. Honestly all she wanted to do was stay home and do movie night with Emily, watch some classic Disney but Emily, and Reed pushed her to go and now she is here… at a party… with people that hardly like her and Reed is eyeing up .

"I'm going in" Reed said

"Really? Don't you think that's a bit inappropriate?!" April Replied but Jackson responded instead

"Go for it" and with that Reed did in fact go for it and land

"Well at least Reed can actually go for it you on the other hand…" Jackson said slowly smirking while April was confused

"Y'know you and Shepherd?" It clicked in her head and April smacked him playfully

"Their is no 'me and Shepherd' and never will be"

"because he is married, happily might I add" Jackson interjected and April glared

"yes AND because I never had feelings for him" now Jackson looked a little less convinced and said

"Sure" now the tone of the voice he was using caused April to raise one of her eyebrows and respond

" Jackson in the years we have known each other and the amount of men that surround me exactly how many times have you been wrong in your assumption that I am romantically involved with them hm?" April looked at him mock inquisitively and at that point Jackson did look sheepish and said

"none"

"NONE" April responded "Wow your going what 0 for 7-ish lets say" Jackson nodded "So maybe check yourself on that" she patted his shoulder and he responded at a 'yep' before heading off in the direction of the drinks where evidently Lexie and Alex were standing almost as uncomfortable as her.

"God you two look as uncomfortable as I feel" They both looked at her in surprise and April didn't even realize she said that but instead of being offended Lexie responded with

"Do we really?" April nodded "Lexie you have standing here stiff as a nail and smiling uncomfortably and Alex has been adjusting his tie every 5 minutes" Alex gave a simple response of 'I Hate Ties' while Lexie went on about how she had trouble putting on the dress and had to use Spanx to keep her fat in and usually April wouldn't question that but…

"Lexie I'm not trying to be mean but you don't have fat, you have an ass which in all honesty if you look at most men they don't mind a little more junk in their trunk" for some reason that comment caused Lexie and Alex to stare at her

"What?" Lexie just shook her head

"nothing that's just…that's kinda what Alex said but more Jock-ish" that caused April to nod understanding honestly they were pretty opposite individuals April and Alex but she couldn't dwell on the comment much her thought were on adjusting this really uncomfortable dress

"Dude you look like you have bugs crawling in your underwear or something" Alex chuckled at her and usually April would just glare at him but she knew that's exactly what she looked like

"I hate formal events" Both Lexie and Alex look surprised this type of thing screamed 'Kepner' but April rolled her eyes.

"Other then the intern mixer years back I haven't been to one in so long, I try to avoid them the whole dressing up, sure sometimes its nice but I'd rather be at home watching a movie" April grumbled before looking at Lexie and asking

"Are you going to dye your hair again?"

"What?"

"Your hair Lexie, the roots are starting to become noticeable" with that Lexie instinctively reached for her hair and looked at Alex and gave him a 'seriously?' Sort of look in which Alex just responded with a shrug and April bit her lip and hesitantly said

"I can help you…with your hair if you need it?" And Lexie looked questionably

"no offence April but have you ever coloured your hair?"

"It is coloured"

"wait. what?" Lexie said in surprise which caused a chuckle to come out of April

"I'm a red head I've been colouring my hair since I was 20" at that both Alex and Lexie looked at the top of head trying to believe her. April chuckled at their expressions and brought out an old photo on her phone of her red hair to show them

"Seriously?!" Lexie exclaimed and Alex held the phone up to stare at both her and her on the phone. April has perfected coloured her roots

"Yup the first couple of times I got my hair coloured professionally then I started to learn how to do it on my own, it was kind of messy at first but I got the hang of it and I'm pretty good at doing my roots" April replied with confidence which was true. After giving birth to Emily and finally got a good schedule going with school, job and the baby she wanted a fresh start and the hair was the beginning so she got rid of the red hair for the brunette look instead she never could get rid of her glasses but change them up for some contacts and has some money saved up to do LASIK but lately she felt like sticking too the glasses, it wasn't that big of deal compared to high school and she started getting frames that work with her far better then the ones she got as a teenagers. The discussion ended abruptly as Emily started calling her which honestly was a save on its own she quietly left everyone and went to a quiet area of the house to answer the call

"Hey Mom when are you going to pick me up?" Asked Emily

"In about an hour why?" April responded.

"Oh Jean mom wanted to know that's all byeeee" April responded with her own 'byeee'. Jean was Vanessa daughter, Emily and Jean became fast friend since Vanessa started helping her out a little with watching or dropping of the kids she was a great help.

"I'm guessing that's Emily" April nodded

"Yup, Vanessa wanted to know when I was piking her up" Reed nodded along before giving her a mischievous smile

"So that gives me an hour to find someone who you will flirt with" April rolled her eyes at that, it was a goal for Reed, any outing or event with a group of people Reed would try to find someone April would willingly flirt with and see if she will forget the fact she has to pick up her child although to her credit she did succeed at least twice but nothing really came out of it. Most people at her age don't want to wait for sex, she knew that, but after the debacle with Johnathan and having a child she personally wanted the next time to be with someone she wouldn't regret but she hasn't found that someone so, she hasn't had sex since she was 18, fully celibate, and as active as Reed was sexually she was one of the few people that never made jokes about her wanting to wait or her lack of experience but she did make it her job to find that someone who would do that for her.

"Where's Sloan I thought you guys were hitting it off" April asked while looking around for her key to escape another of Reed matchmaking event

"Oh we did, made plans after the party or whenever we leave he just got distracted with Torres and Robbins drama" both just made a face, yup the SGMW drama which for some reason the Hospital had no shortage of honestly it was amusing to watch.

"Reed I appreciate the matchmaking, really I do" Lie. "But with the whole Shepherd debacle I think this time I'll sit it out" this caused a slight pout from Reed and she was about to protest but Sloan finally came out to get her so either way April avoided the matchmaking she'll call it a success. The remaining time she had left April wandered, talked a little and just passing the time until she could leave and some how ended up in the kitchen cleaning the dishes. Honestly she isn't even sure how she got here.

"Are you seriously doing the dishes?" Quickly turning behind her and saw Alex.

Alex was just bored, the party was a bit too formal for him and again he hated ties, Lexie was being supportive sister-in-law(?) for whatever reason and so he wandered to the one place he knew he would have some enjoyment, the Kitchen. Once he got in he saw Kepner… she was cleaning dishes which was weird in its own right, the party didn't even end and she didn't even live here, she honestly expected them to not believe she had a crush on Shepherd and she goes cleans the dishes in his home…honestly she is an enigma.

"Yup" was the only answer he got and he really didn't know what made him go and help her with the dishes but he rolled up his sleeve and took some gloves and started cleaning

"Thanks but you don't have to do that" Alex just shrugged

"Beats being at the snooze fest behind us" the party wasn't typical for him, it was too…formal especially at the frat house.

"What are the parties usually like?" April asked handing him a plate to clean,

"Someone drunk, someone dancing on the table, someone drunk and dancing on the table" Alex remembered the previous party at the house one particular still stands out during his intern year when Izzie had a huge party to introduce her boyfriend at the time, O'Malley was naked on the floor from what he can remember, his musing of the past was interrupted by the clear laughter he heard on the side, but honestly all he could do was stare at her hair, he really couldn't guess she was a red head she really did look like a brunette, but thinking back on the photo, he could tell she aged from the photo her acne was gone leaving clear skin her face a matured, she could probably rock the red hair.

"Thanks" April said, Alex looked a little surprised

"Did I say that?" April nodded looking at him amused but her shrugged, sure he didn't mean to say it out loud but it wasn't a bad comment she would look good going back to red.

They just quietly cleaned the dishes, making some small talk about cases they got from the hospital, how different Seattle Grace and Mercy West internship and residency program were from each other it was pleasant chat until April had to leave. "Thanks for the help" April said, Alex looked at her amusingly

"I should be saying that to you" causing them both to chuckle

"I have to go but if you could give my regards to " Alex nodded and was about to just let her leave when he remembered

"I forgot thanks for the help" April looked slightly confused

"The divorce papers" Alex said, April made an 'oh' face and said

"No problem"

April left house and entered her car and started driving to Vanessa house to pick up Emily, it wasn't that far from where Meredith house was which was great. April called Emily before entering telling her she was coming and to come out. Emily did as April yelled a 'thank you' at Vanessa.

"How was the party?" Emily asked excitedly.

"It was…it was pretty boring" Emily excitement went down a bit.

"I thought parties were suppose to be fun" April chuckled.

"They are sweetie, but this party just wasn't fun for me but if its any consolation, Reed had fun so it wasn't that bad" Emily shrugged, she suppose that was okay but she wanted her mom to have fun. April saw the slight disappointment on her face and did the one thing that made her kid happy in the car, she turned on the music. April and Emily made a playlist on her phone of all the songs they like to listen too whenever they were in the car, it always brought the mood up. April saw her daughter light up as Don't Fence Me In by Bing Crosby and they both started singing along.

Ya this was way more fun then a party.