A Two-Part Season 9 AU where Jason Myers doesn't exist

"Just pretend to be my date."

"What exactly is this between us?"

"I think I'm in love with you and that terrifies me."

"I know you want me just as much as I want you."

"Take off your clothes."

PART 1

"I need your help!"

Alex made a face as he was ripped away from the conversation he was having with a hot girl at the bar, "What the hell?"

"I need your help," Jo looked up at him with wide eyes.

"What's going on?" Alex asked, getting concerned as to what had her so frantic.

"You see that guy over there?" Jo pointed to a man who'd just walked into Joe's bar. "He's radiologist at the hospital. He asked me to go out on a date with him tonight two days ago, and I said no because I already had plans with my boyfriend. So, I need you to be my boyfriend for now."

"What? No. Absolutely not," Alex shook his head. "I was working on getting laid tonight. If I pretend to be your boyfriend, no one will sleep me. And that'll be like the sixth time you've cock-blocked me since we started being friends."

"Alex, come on. Please," Jo looked up at him with what could only be called puppy dog eyes. "If he comes over here, which I'm pretty sure he will, he can't see me alone. All you gotta do is wrap your arm around me or give me a kiss on the cheek. Nothing too fancy. Just pretend to be my date."

Alex let out a frustrated sigh, "Fine. But you owe me. Big time. Gimme money to go buy some drinks."

"I've gotta pay for the drinks? What happened to being a gentleman," Jo asked.

"I am being a gentleman," Alex stuck his hand out. "Would a non-gentleman sacrifice his evening plans to help his friend avoid some dude? I don't think so. Pay up."

Jo grumbled as she took a twenty dollar bill from her pocket, "Here. And make sure to give me the change."

Almost as soon as Alex left to get their drinks, Jo was joined at the table. Sure enough, the guy from radiology was standing in front of her, "Hey, Jo. How are you doing?"

"Garret," Jo flashed a fake smile. "I'm great."

"Oh, that's good," Garret nodded. "I didn't expect to see you here tonight. You know, since you blew me off and said you were hanging out with your boyfriend."

"I am with my boyfriend," Jo narrowed her eyes a bit. "Not that I owe you an explanation, but we came out for drinks. He's at the bar getting them now.

"Really," Garret looked unconvinced. "Which one is he?"

Jo pointed at Alex who had just turned around with their drinks in hand, "Him."

"Karev?" Garret raised his eyebrows. "You're going out with him? You could do much better."

"What, like you?" Alex said, startling Garret who had not realized how quickly he'd walked over. "Look man, I don't have any issue with you, but I'd appreciate it if you stopped hitting on my girlfriend."

Garret huffed and looked at Jo with disapproval in his eyes as he walked away. Alex sat down across from Jo and handed her a beer, "You know, I see why you said no. He's kind of a douche. Also, no offense to the guy, but you're way out of his league."

Jo chuckled and took a swig of her beer, "Thanks. I appreciate it. Didn't want to get caught up in a lie you know."

"We're gonna have to keep it up, though. He works in the hospital and we'll probably run into him at some point while working on a case," Alex pointed out.

"Dammit, I didn't think of that... it's okay. We're always together anyway. We can just say we're not big on PDA in the hospital," Jo shrugged.

"Well, you might want to engage in some now because I can feel him staring at us," Alex motioned behind him where Jo had a view of Garret staring daggers at the back of Alex's head.

"Crap, you're right," Jo got up from her side of the booth and moved to sit next to Alex. She grabbed her beer and moved his arm around her shoulders. "There. Now maybe he'll stop staring."

"Highly doubt that," Alex shook his head.

"Whatever... this isn't too weird right?" Jo asked shyly.

"Why would it be weird?" Alex gave her a strange look.

"No reason," Jo shrugged. "It's just... we're never this close in front of so many people. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable."

"I'm fine," Alex assured. "Really. It's kind of nice actually."

"Okay. Good," Jo exhaled. They sat in silence for a while before she spoke again. "I'm sorry I keep cock-blocking you."

"No you're not," Alex stated.

"Yes I am!"

"No," Alex shook his head. "You aren't getting any so, subconsciously you feel the need to keep me from getting any that way you don't feel left out."

"Since when did you become a psychiatrist?" Jo glared.

"Gotta keep up with all the latest psych research considering my best friend is a case study," Alex brought his beer up to his lips.

"Hey!"

"What?" Alex shrugged. "It's true. You're kind of a mess, but so am I, and that's why we get along."

"Fair enough," Jo conceded. She looked around the room for a moment before standing up and extending her hand to Alex. "Come on. Let's play darts. If you win, I'll buy the drinks next time we go out. If I win, you have to buy some more pillows for the couch so I don't have a stiff neck every time I crash at your place."

Alex reached out to grab Jo's hand and let her lead him to the dart board. They played best two out of three and Jo won, meaning that Alex would have to go buy some more pillows for his couch. His rolled his eyes at her little victory dance and laughed when she bragged about her win to the bartender.

He made sure to stay close to her at all times while at the bar. He could feel that douche from radiology glaring at them basically all night. He didn't like him. Something about that guy, Garret or whatever his name was, didn't sit well with him. He didn't like that this guy looked at Jo like she was a piece of meat. Alex made sure to keep Jo within a couple feet from him, especially since she was starting to get tipsy. He knew how she could get once she had too much alcohol in her system and he needed to make sure she got home safely. Well if they were being honest, to his house safely, because like most nights out she would probably crash on his couch tonight.

"Come on Hobo Jo," Alex placed his arm around her shoulders. "Let's get out of here. Your douche-bag radiologist is kind of freaking me out. He keeps looking at you and I don't know how I feel about it."

"Look at you, taking your role seriously and playing the protective boyfriend," Jo awed.

"This is definitely not me playing the protective boyfriend," Alex shook his head. "It's me wanting to get away from that creep and keeping up your story. Let's go."

"Fine," Jo huffed and looked over to where Garret was standing. Sure enough, he was staring at them. She turned back to Alex and grabbed his hand, allowing him to lead her out of the bar.

*

Throughout the next two weeks, Jo had done a great job at avoiding radiology and Garret as much as possible. She hadn't run into him again and she was grateful. She didn't have to cringe as he stared at her creepily. That all was about to change, though.

She was on Alex's service, and hadn't even batted an eyelash when he put her on the case of a six year old little girl with cancer in her stomach. Alex had been hoping that multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation would shrink her Mets enough to perform a complete resection of the tumors. It hadn't even dawned on her that Garret could be the radiologist that'd be assisting on this case.

Seeing Garret in the doorway of the radiology room, Jo grabbed Alex's arm and stopped him, "Wait! It's Garret. The creepy douchebag from the bar. I forgot he worked in radiology and we might end up working with him. I need you to pretend you're my boyfriend again. If you don't he'll know I lied or something and will be all creepy again. He has to believe us."

"You see, this is why we don't lie," Alex shook his head. "You're lucky I care and that I don't like that guy."

"You're the best!" Jo reached up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and grabbed his hand, leading him inside the radiology suite.

Once inside, Alex and Jo greeted Garret who began to brief them on their patient's latest images. Jo inched closer to Alex, feeling Garret's intense gaze on her. Sensing Jo's discomfort, Alex placed a hand and the small of her back, letting her know that he was there.

"So... you two are still together?" Garret asked.

"Yeah, we are," Alex scowled at the other man.

"Really? That's surprising considering I haven't heard anything around here about you two being a thing. You know how gossip spreads around the hospital," Garrett's scrutinizing gaze falling over them.

"Look, man. We don't owe you or anyone else for that matter, an explanation. You do however, owe it to my patient to get over yourself and do your job. Or I can always request the case to be given to someone else," Alex challenged. "And I'd really appreciate it if you stopped looking at Jo like she's a piece of meat."

By the end of the day, Alex had what seemed to be a permanent scowl etched on his face, "God, I hate that guy. Son of a bitch doesn't know when to let things go." Alex stopped to look at Jo, "I don't want you anywhere near him. I have a really bad feeling about him. Don't let him corner you or catch you alone."

"Alex, I'm an intern. I can't exactly be around someone else at all times. I have a job to do. One that requires me to run around this place," Jo reminded. It was sweet that Alex cared. Honestly, Jo didn't feel comfortable being in a room with Garret by herself. She had a history with bad guys and the way Garret had been behaving lately set off all the red flags. "As much as he creeps me out, it's not like I can stay attached to someone's hip all day."

"The hell you can't. As of right now, you're on my service until Hunt tells me that I have to let you go so you can spend time on a service other than peds. And since you'll be on my service, you'll be attached to my hip. All day, everyday. Got it," Alex stared at her intensely.

"Fine."