Chapter 8

"Okay wait she just came in? In the middle night?" April replied as she made breakfast. She was currently talking on the phone with Jackson apparently Cristina came in the middle of the night slept in Meredith and Derek bed with Derek in it. Their friendship was…odd.

"Is that like a Best Friends requirement for girls? Do I have to let you sleep in my bed if you have a mental breakdown?" April laughed, ya Jackson was hot but sleeping beside him was never going to happen-well…

" Eh depends on how far this friendship goes"

"Really?"

"Look if I need your help when I have a mental breakdown which may require snacks and boatload of really bad rom-coms to treat, I will help you by… I don't know whatever you do…I'll run with you" Jackson laughed on the other side of the call

"YOU will run with me"

"Okay I don't appreciate that tone Jackson Avery I can so… I can try to run with you" They both were laughing at this point and breakfast was done and ready.

"How is she?"

"Who? Cristina?" April answered with 'ah huh'

"She is…I don't know I can't say she is fully Cristina Yang but she is in their somewhere" Jackson replied "Hey…"

"Hm?" April questioned.

"Why didn't you move in here with us?" Oh wow, she really should have expected this question, it was odd, free living space that would be amazing but how was she suppose to answer.

'Sorry can't I have a 10 year old I never told you about and I rather not let her formative years living in a frat house' she obviously can't say it like that but she realized she needed to tell someone soon but she just wasn't ready… was really getting to her.

"It's, um, it's a long story and I'm not quite ready to tell you yet, just be patient" was what she said instead.

"You're not in trouble or anything right?" Jackson said in a concerned voice

"No, no its just…its a long story"

"Alright…" Jackson said clearly unsure but willing to accept that answer. The ended the call after that, Jackson needed to get ready and so did April.

"Emily come breakfast is ready" April yelled.

"Coming" said a groggy Emily,.They sat silently eating food and April thought about introducing her to her co-workers. April wanted to know if her kid was ready to meet them or at least for them to know about her, April herself didn't see the problem but she wanted to do the best for her kid.

"Sweetie how would you feel if I introduced you to my coworkers?" Emily shrugged it didn't really matter to her but she did want to visit the hospital once in a while.

"I would like to see the hospital you work at" Emily replied, April smiled and patted her head. Honestly April was lucky to have such an understanding little girl, the moving around wasn't the greatest and April couldn't get her everything she wanted but Emily always seemed to understand that. Ya she really loved her little girl.

—Line Break—

Meredith really didn't know what to make of April, she was assigned to the pit along with her which was fine but April starting talking about Cristina (she would question how she even knew about Cristina but it was obviously Jackson) and she really didn't need Kepner butting into Cristina business. Meredith could understand where she was coming from, it was a place of kindness it just… it was Cristina. April seemed to get over her remarks pretty quick so, she guess no feeling were particularly hurt. They just admitted the very virgin 27 year old when they ran into Dr. Perkins who smiled at them and at April in particular.

"Dr. Grey, " Meredith gave her own greeting but April looked to be trying her best to not roll her eyes or show any sign of annoyance. It didn't seem to work, either way Dr. Perkins looked amused.

"Dr. Kepner-" Dr. Perkins was interrupted.

"Yes, yes I will talk to someone" April now showing her visible annoyance.

"Actually, I was going to say what you did during the ex-vivo heart repair, that was impressive" Meredith was confused as well and April looked sheepish and didn't know how to respond so she just nodded and walked away and she joined her.

"Also you need to talk to someone" Dr. Perkins said as they were walking away which April actively seem to be ignoring.

"What was he talking about?" Meredith asked after they got a good distance away.

"Oh, I,um, I saw a bunch of people betting on Cristina breakdown in the Gallery, and I kinda, called them useless surgeons" Meredith gave her a look that suggested she needed to elaborate more. "I just told them that all the money they made on those bet better be worth it because Cristina got chosen to do this surgery over the people who were cleared to do surgery and I was chosen over them to replace her even though I was fired" Meredith was looking at her in surprise.

"Are you trying to get people to hate you?" April snorted at that

"If they hate me for telling the truth then they should just quit being a surgeon" Meredith could agree with that, Surgery was life-or-death for each procedure and they needed the best and the best weren't created on lies. She would know her mother was Ellis Grey, she never lied, withheld information sure but she never lied.

"…and what about whatever Perkins wants you to talk about?" Meredith inquired. April was silent, it seemed she was thinking through if she should tell her.

" Its… something personal…I don't know if I'm ready to share it with you guys yet" Meredith could understand that. Their friendship was just in the beginning stages even if they went through a lot with the shooting, she didn't want to share, Meredith wasn't going to push.

—Line Break—

April really could commend Gretchen for being a virgin for this long. April herself got over the 'pre-marital sex is bad' thing after the whole disownment thing, but sex was still such an intimate thing for her which was funny considering how many times she caught people having sex in this hospital. It was a miracle they got anything done. Gretchen really was a commendable girl for lasting this long without sex and actually waiting for marriage.

"A virign…at 27?" Said as they were doing the operation on Gretchen.

"Yep" Meredith responded amused and surprised herself.

"It's sweet. It's…it's idealistic." April responded, she felt the need to defend Gretchen, it was her body her choice when she got to have sex.

"It's smart is what it is, if you don't sleep wither, you…you don't get attached. Y-you sleep with them, then you get attached even when you don't want to, even when you specifically pick someone that you are sure that you couldn't possible get attached, and then boom…you're hooked." Meredith and April were looking at each other not sure how to respond or if they should well either way it didn't matter they found the thing causing Gretchen to have trouble breathing and um…

—Line Break—

"A condom?" Exclaimed Alex. The case from April and Meredith was already interesting a 27 year old virgin bride who doesn't seem to be a 27 year old virgin and they pulled a condom out of her lung.

"Yep" Meredith responded.

"Wait she aspirated it?" Cristina asked both confused and intrigued.

"And her fiancé thinks she's a virign" Meredith added.

"A condom in her lung? I'm gonna gag." Jackson said as he rushed forward. April was pretty quiet during this exchange but that didn't really matter when they all saw it, a man filled with overgrown warts as Lexie was cutting them off, it was disgusting. Alex saw April trying to hold her gag in.

"I mean, I kinda wish I was in there." Meredith said. Cristina looked at her like she was crazy

"Seriously how often does a case like this come along?" Meredith added, which was true, warts to this extent of growth was rare that didn't make it any less disgusting to look at, possibly more sad.

"About as often as 27-year-old virgins" Alex said.

"She could still be a virgin just 'cause she's 27, I mean it's… it's not impossible" April defended albeit a little weakly. Alex looked at her questioningly but didn't ask. They didn't stay long, Lexie fighting back her need to hurl got pretty boring and the more you saw the guy with the warts it got more sad, plus they all wanted to know more about the 27-year old virgin. They all were standing near the nurse station closest to the patient, Gretchen, room.

"So, Karev, how old were you your first time?" Jackson asked. Alex smirked, he remembered the experience.

"15. School nurse, back of her car." All the girls looked exasperated but amused at that.

"15? That's impressive." Said Jackson. Alex remembered what happened afterwards.

"When I was 16, she taught me how to drive that same car." Alex saw April looked uncomfortable during the conversation, he had an inkling as to why but he didn't want to push it…yet.

"Sophomore in high school, Paul Waxman, had absolutely no idea what he was doing" Meredith responded.

"Junior prom, Sarah Richardson and Penny Caraway, together. I knew exactly what I was doing" Jackson said, Alex was impressed at that even April looked amused.

"19" Cristina said and Alex looked questioningly at her. I mean who could blame him, he remembered she slept with her professor.

"Mm-hmm. I was very focused on my studies. It was my chew T.A he was a whole head shorter than me but… man, he was smart" Cristina said. Now the only one left was April who was distinctly quiet.

"Hey April" Jackson said amused. April for the most part looked uncomfortable with the conversation and Alex almost felt like leaving her alone. Almost.

"I'd rather not talk about it" April said.

"What happened, did the guy die?" Asked Alex.

"Alex" Meredith said in a amused tone.

"Oh, did it last, like, three seconds, so you don't know if it counted?" Cristina pressed.

"No, I wish that were the case though" April said. Now Alex was in a loop, he thought she was a virgin with how defensive she was about Gretchen and how shy she was in general. It seemed everyone else were thinking along the same line and were now curious. April herself saw all the intent stares and sighed.

"17, the guy was 19, his family was rich so he took me too a private beach. It was at sunset beautiful at the time." Ok Alex could see that, April seemed to be the romantic although the thought of the beach and sex…all that sand…

"At the time?" Meredith inquired. It was an interesting remark, this was probably the most they learned about April, even Jackson seemed intrigued and he knew her the longest.

"Ya…a lot of stuff happened afterwards, ruined the entire thing for me and made me a celibate." April said. Everyone stared at her in surprise that was unexpected.

"Wait the dude was so bad you haven't had sex in over 10 years?" Cristina started laughing and even April looked amused. Cristina went and started shoving Alex towards April.

"Alex, go break her 10 years of celibacy. Do it. Do it" Alex slowly took off his white coat while walking towards her as all them laughed even April. Speaking of April she seemed to have relaxed a bit during the conversation, Alex noticed how tense she was and the fact she left out a major part of the story, but he didn't want to push her to tell him. That was her business anyways.

—Line Break—

April really did feel bad for the entire misunderstanding with Gretchen and Danny but at the same time it was funny as hell. The entire situation somehow lead to her even talking about her first time, it was a long time since she talked about it. April wasn't sure if her first time was good looking back, she had very little experience she didn't quite understand what was good. April has done some "self-care" before which was honestly better then her first time experience. Self-conscious feeling she had about sex really came reeling back during the bar after shift. Alex and Jackson were being particular assholes and the girls really didn't help

" Come on. Just admit it. You're still a virgin" Alex said.

"No, I'm not" April replied. She was looking into her glass, damn it her self-consciousness was really showing today

"Het, there is no shame in it" Jackson said

"Really?" Alex replied.

"No, there's shame" Jackson said. April glared at him. Some best friend he was.

"A lot of same. Tell her mer" Alex laughed. April really could be home drinking right now instead of here but, she needed a ride now.

"I, um…" April really hoped she would come to her defence but nope girl was either too drunk or used being too drunk as her excuse. Lexie walked in and took seat.

"Okay. So today only one person looked at me like a psycho who might run down the hall naked, and Dr. Bailey screamed like a little bitch baby over a spider, so I'm feeling pretty good, you know, for a crazy person." She did look less nauseated and less stressed which April was glad.

"Well, nobody gives a crap if you're crazy we're all crazy" Jackson said

"Yeah, look at April, She's still a virgin" Alex said and laughed. April really should punch him.

"He stares at me like I'm a menace to myself and everyone around me wait. You're still a virgin" Lexie said laughing a little out confusion but April was really fed up with this.

"Stop okay? Just stop. I'm not a virgin but I haven't had sex in over a decade okay? We all have things we don't talk about" April already started she wasn't going to stop."Alex you've been afraid of elevators for, like, a month, but I never said anything because it's none of my business." Alex seemed to look a little embarrassed at that. " And, Jackson, you wake up every night screaming and then call me because you have nightmares" April did feel kinda bad for that one but at the same time it looked like it sent the message across to Jackson. "And, Meredith, you don't talk about Christina because you're afraid she's never gonna be the same Christina again" April mostly said that to wake Meredith up, like she thought she was on a roll might as well say her thoughts. "And Lexie, for god sake, Mark never thought you were psycho. He loves you. That's why he stares at you, because he can't keep his eyes off the woman he loves." April really wanted to get those words out, the entire thing with Lexie and Mark was soap opera level at this point, well looking it a lot of the drama in the hospital is soap opera level. "Look we all have things we don't talk about, I am a 28-year old who has been celibate since I was 17, due to a lot of things I don't want to talk about some of it has to do with the fact I waited too long, and some because I'm pretty sure guys find me annoying, but all this doesn't make it drinks conversation." April was finally done, kinda parched so she chugged her entire drink. Yup she will definitely need a ride home now.

"Oh, April. I'm liking you more and more" Meredith said. April said a quiet 'thank you'

Should she really be saying 'thank you' in this situation? Well she was a bit tipsy but, she was now enjoying herself which was great.