Chapter four
Two weeks and two days later
18 weeks and 1 day pregnant
"Dr Stadler, why are you following me? Is everything alright?" Alex asks as he turns around. He had noticed Jo had been following him around the hospital for the past ten minutes.
"Ah Yes, I'm on your service," Jo replies.
"Okay. Um, great. I'm about to do rounds, you can join me," he replies.
"I'm not a monster you know," Jo states out of the blue.
"Um, I'm sorry?" He questions.
"You must think I'm a monster because I'm having a baby and I'm not excited about it. I want you to know that I'm not a horrible person. People can have babies without being excited. That is a thing that happens," Jo explains.
"Jo, I'm not judging you. I know nothing about your life or the events that surround you," he replies simply.
"Thank you," Jo replies with a smile.
"Now, we're rounding on two PICU patients this morning. I want you to familiarise yourself with the charts and meet me back at the nurses station in ten minutes to begin," he replies.
"Yes Dr Karev," Jo replies with a smile. She heads back to the nurses station while Alex continues to walk down the hall until he reaches the coffee cart. He orders a regular coffee and proceeds to wait for it.
"Karev, did Dr Stadler find you?" Arizona asks as she walks over to him.
"Ah, Yes, She did.," Alex confirms. "She Ah, she felt the need to explain her lack of enthusiasm towards having a baby to me," Alex replies.
"And of course I can assume that you made her feel comfortable and not judged?" Arizona questions.
"Yes Robbins, you can assume that," Alex grins.
"Good, good. It's a modern world, not every woman needs to use her female reproductive system to produce offspring. If that's what you want to do then great, but if not, no shame, right?" She asks.
Alex nods his head, "no shame."
"Good," Arizona smiles. "Where is she, I need to talk to her."
Alex grabs his coffee off the coffee cart lady, "She's up at the nurses station, I'll walk with you," Alex replies.
Arizona nods her head and they begin to walk back to the nurses station when they start to hear some people yelling. Upon walking closer they discovered that it was Jo and another man.
"Why the hell didn't you tell me Josephine?" He asks sternly as he slightly raised his voice.
"I.. I... I didn't know how. I'm not exactly thrilled by it," Jo states.
"We are having a baby and you're not trilled?" He questions with a death glaring stare. "There is a life inside of you that I created and you're not happy about that?"
"You are not going to lift a finger. The child rearing responsibilities will be left solely up to me. You want to have lots of children, but I'm going to be doing all of the work. I have no idea how to be a mother. I don't have a single motherly bone in my body. Why would I be thrilled?" She questions.
Jo takes a step back and Paul reaches down and grasps her right wrist.
Alex promptly approaches them, "hey, back off" Alex says sternly as he continues approaching Paul. He glances down at Jo's wrist, which was being held tightly by Paul.
He turns to face Alex, "We're having a private conversation here, do you mind?" Paul spits. He turns back and faces Jo.
"A private conversation that everybody can here. You need to let her go. Now, this is a place of healing... it is a hospital and you need to leave right now," Alex orders.
"You have no right to tell me what to do," Paul yells.
"You need to leave right now or I all calling security to haul your ass out of here," Alex orders. Paul gives him a fierce look and lets go of Jo's wrist. He glares at her with his 'unfinished business' look and walks away.
"Are you Okay? Who was that man?" Alex asks while Arizona walks over to them.
"Why the hell would you do that?" Jo yells at Alex.
"I... I'm sorry," Alex replies taken back, "He was yelling at you and he grabbed your wrist. He looked like he was holding it very tightly," Alex states.
"And now you've gone and made everything thing worse. I... I didn't ask you to butt in now did I?" Jo questions.
"No, but..."
"No butts. I did not ask for your help, period. That man is my husband, and things aren't great between us right now. You don't have to go home and deal will all of that, I do. I have to go home . You butting in has gone and made everything worse. Do you know how hard I'll have to work to make what you did okay?" Jo questions.
"Jo..." he begins before getting cut off.
"No, no you don't, you have no idea how hard it'll be. You have no idea what I'm going to have to do and frankly neither do I. He is unpredictable. Just when I think I've got it worked out, I don't," Jo vents.
"Jo, does he... does he hurt you?" Arizona asks shocked.
"Stay out of this Dr Robbins. This isn't any of your business, it's mine. And now because of this... this thing," Jo says waking her finger around, "it's a huge freaking mess that I have to clean up. I now need to work over time when I get home to make him happy and keep him that way. Now please, leave me alone!" Jo says in a huff before rushing off.
"What should we do?" Alex asks Arizona as they watch Jo walk away.
"Well, we can't make any assumptions, However we can write a report on what we observed here today and anything else that we observe in the future. It must be objective and just state what was seen. No assumptions can be made and you must remain impartial. I'll inform Webber and he'll keep it on her file. Once we have a number of reports stating suspected abuse then further parties will intervene," Arizona explains.
"I can't believe it. Why didn't Jo say anything about it?" Alex replies shocked.
"It's likely she feels trapped. Women in this situation feel an over whelming sense of control from their partner. And he demonstrated that. It's extremely likely that she doesn't know what to do. The defensive behaviour that she showed is common. And let's not mention the fact that she's also pregnant. It means that he now has control in her life for the next 18 years," Arizona says.
"That explains why she is so unenthusiastic about having the baby. I wish there was something more that we could do," Alex sighs.
"Just don't do anything to piss her off and stay out of her business," Arizona warns. Alex nods his head and reaches behind the nurses station and grabs his two charts.
Scene break
"Karev, why are you being so quite? You're usually full of smart arse remarks and Yang has just poured her heart out. Why aren't you ripping into her right now?" Meredith quires as the three of them sit down in the busy lunch room.
"I think I pissed of an intern," Alex states. "I don't know why I said, 'I think' I know I pissed of an intern."
"Why is this a problem Karev? We piss off intern's all the time. What intern did you piss off?" Cristina asks. Alex gives them a look.
"Oh my gosh. You pissed off Jo. The married intern that you have the hots for, right? You pissed her off," Meredith scoffs.
Alex nods his head. "What did you do?" Cristina asks.
"Her and her husband were having a fight and I got involved," he sighs.
"Oh my god Karev, are you stupid? You never get involved in somebody else's crap, ever!" Cristina shuns.
"Well, I didn't know that there was crap there. But he... He sounds like hard work," Alex replies.
"Look Alex, just let it go and stay out of it. It's got nothing to do with you," Meredith warns.
Alex notices Jo walking across the lunch room and stands up. Her begins to walk over to her, "Alex, don't! Alex!" Meredith and Cristina both call out. Alex ignores them and keeps walking towards Jo.
"Jo," Alex calls out.
Jo rolls her eyes and sighs as she looks at him. "What?" She asks annoyed.
"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for before," Alex says.
"Look, things between my husband and I aren't great right now," Jo replies.
"Jo... is your Ah... is your husband hurting you?" He asks.
"Why the hell would you say that?" Jo asks defensively.
"It's just..." he begins.
"Look, it's not your life, so please, just butt out!" Jo yells before walking off.