Chapter six

The next morning- March 17th 2012

20 weeks and 5 days pregnant

"Oh my god, Jo, are you okay? Is the baby okay?" Steph asks as she rushes into Jo's hospital room. She had seen that Jo was in the hospital after logging onto the database. She had been looking up her patients file when she came across Jo's.

"I'm...I'm... I'm a bit worse for wear but I'm okay. The baby is strong," Jo replies.

"What happened to you?" Steph asks as she sits down next to Jo. Jo looks down at her lap, "oh my god, it was Paul wasn't?"

"We were fighting. I had made the wrong thing for dinner. Apparently he didn't want A roast beef for dinner... And I didn't get the house clean. He was more mad about that because I'd been home all day. We started to fight and it got physical. He pushed me and grabbed me by the hand. He said that I had to make it up to him by having sex with him. I didn't want to... I said no so he laid me on the bed and that's when he hit me," Jo admits. Her lips were visibly trembling as she tried not to cry.

"Oh honey, why didn't you tell me?" Steph asks heartbroken.

"It... it all happened so fast. I was here and I needed to have exams... talk to the police and I just needed to rest," Jo sobs.

"It's fine, it's fine. The police... have they arrested Paul?" Steph asks. Jo pulls a tissue out from the box next to her bed and blows her nose and cleans her eyes.

"They're ah... they're looking for him," Jo sniffs.

"You can stay with me," Steph suggests.

"Paul would expect that. Alex said that I could stay with him until they found him," Jo replies.

"Where are you going to go after that?" Steph asks curiously.

"Can you go and find out hen I'm being discharged. I can't be in here. I need to be anywhere but in this room," Jo replies ignoring the question. The truth was that she and no idea where she was going to go after that, she didn't know if she would feel comfortable staying in their house. But she didn't know that she could stay with Alex either after Paul was caught.

"Okay, sure," Steph replies while nodding her head. Jo watches Steph walk out of the door. As soon as she walks out of sight Jo unhooks her IV and gets out of bed. She walks over to the hallway and scans it before walking out. She makes her way down to the third floor and over to the intern locker rooms on the west side and changes into her scrubs and lab coat. She ensured that the lab coat strategically hid her IV line and hospital tag.

Twenty minutes later

"Jo, what are you doing?" Alex asks shocked as he sees Jo wondering around the ER

"I'm working," she states.

"You haven't been discharged yet," he replies.

"I know, I know. But I haven't left the hospital so realistically I'm still able to be monitored," she replies casually.

"You are here as a patient, not as an intern," he points out.

"Look, I cannot stay in that room any longer. I feel like a victim in that room," she says and as she does she raises her voice slightly.

"I'm sorry for saying this, but You are a victim Jo. Your husband abused you," Alex replies using the same level of voice that Jo had just used.

Jo takes a look around and notices that Callie, Derek, Meredith, Jackson, April, Webber and Bailey were all staring at them. "I am not a victim. I choose to get married to him, It's my fault and I... I let it happen. And Great, now everybody knows that I'm the pregnant woman with the wife beater husband."

Alex looks at Jo straight in the eye, "If a guy hurts you physically it's got nothing to do with you and who you choose. It's not your fault, it'll never be your fault. You can't blame yourself for somebody else's actions."

"No, you don't get it. He was the first person in the world who loved me. He used to make me dinner. He would spoil me with flowers and spa days. We'd go on dates to fancy restaurants and we'd laugh at each other's jokes and smile. We used to be happy and maybe, just maybe I was holding onto the hope that things would go back to that someday. So, as much as I hated him, I decided to ignore every opportunity I had to leave him because I wanted to believe that there was still some good left in him..." She snaps.

"Jo..." Alex begins.

"And I know that it's screwed up, but that's the way it was. And it wasn't until I thought that I was pregnant that I realised that I didn't want to stay with him. I am pregnant with a baby I don't want, I am all hormonal. I'm sorry if I can't help blame myself for the situation I'm in," She vents before walking away.

Meredith rushes over to Alex, "Okay, Alex, I know that you want to help, but you need to keep out of it," she warns.

"I can't stay out of it Mer, I'm right in the middle of it," he says frustratedly.

"From what I just overheard, she's in a delicate situation right now. Just give her a bit of space. She needs to process things right now," Meredith warns.

"Oh my god, she's married to an abusive husband?" Callie asks shocked as she stands with the rest of the group in the ER.

"It's sad, so sad," April confirms. "When I saw her last night I just... I just wanted to cry for her."

"When did you see her last night Kepner?" Derek asks.

"I've um, I've probably said too much," April replies quickly before walking away.