JACKSON

There was something odd about Sydney being pregnant. I was glad – grateful even – that it wasn't mine. Our relationship had never been that serious and I'd never considered kids with her, and her moving on so quickly was proof of that even though it hadn't been intentional. But hell, it was weird.

Kids were something that I wanted. Career and family were both something that I saw in my future but right now, in the last year of my residency, I was only really focused on one of those items. April had a role in both. Now that people had started to listen to her and respect her, things with her as chief resident seemed to go pretty well. I'd been jealous at first, undeniably so, but that had faded as she had settled into the role. Hopefully, she would be a part of the future plan of family, too. But neither one of us knew what would happen at the end of our residency. We could stay in Seattle or end up in different parts of the country, different hospitals… the possibilities there were endless. I didn't see us breaking up but certain things might have to be put off for a year or two, depending on how things went.

But in the middle of an important cleft palate surgery was a hell of a distraction from having to think about the drama that was occurring in the hospital hallways. This was the kind of plastic surgery that I liked doing – the kind that could change a kid's life forever, the kind that would make a smile that would last a lifetime. Every surgery was meaningful, of course, but there was something extra special about making a child's life better. Those were the types of surgeries I wanted to spend my life doing.

The skin had been loosened from the hard palate and I made another incision along the gums. This allowed for the tissue of the palate to be stretched and moved toward the middle of the roof of the mouth. The incisions along the gums will be left open to heal over the next three weeks. Closing the layer of the nasal tissue with careful stitches in order to minimize the scarring and make sure that there were no further problems in a careful Z shape, the last layer of sutures were put into the outer layer of tissues. It was pink and swollen, but that would go down. It looked exactly like it was supposed to in every teaching manual, and just like Sloan's procedures did.

"Looks good, Avery," Sloan said as he leaned over to get a look. He had been observing, letting me take the lead and lingering around to make sure that I didn't screw anything up.

"Thank you, Dr. Sloan," I said with a nod of my head.

"So, I heard your ex is pregnant." There is was. I'd been waiting for him to bring it up. "That's gotta be awkward. You and April are still good though, right? I figure I would've heard otherwise."

"We're fine." I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as I finished closing, putting down my instruments. "It's not my kid so it's not like it's something either one of us needs to worry about. She's got her own life, moving on and all, just like I've done."

"Phew," he chuckled. "You nearly bit the bullet with that one."

"Yeah." I agreed. "Glad I didn't."

As the nurses began to take the patient away so that he could recover in post-op, I headed toward the sink to begin to scrub out. It was a successful surgery. No bit of criticism from Sloan which was something that very, very rarely occurred. I always had to take what I could get when it came to him. That naturally meant that he would chatter with what he could.

"There's not much else going on here. Burn unit is pretty cleared out for now," Mark said. "So you can go join your girl in the E.R. if you want."

"Thanks." I grabbed a towel and dried my hands. "Page me if you need anything."

Before heading downstairs to the emergency room, I do a quick check on my other patients on the floor just to make everything was going the way that it should have been. Having a good load of cases fresh on the sheets would be good for taking my boards in about eleven months. It would be a matter of keeping it up between now and then. I wanted to make sure that everything was impressive by the time that I got there. One in five people failed the boards. There were six of us going to take them together. Even if we were a top tier hospital and had better odds than some of the others, there was still a chance that it could be one of us. But I would make sure that it wasn't me.

When I made my way downstairs finally, it doesn't take long to spot my girlfriend. Even though she was rather small in her height and demeanor, the brilliant waves of red hair on her head were always very easy to spot no matter how crowded things were. At the moment, they weren't that crowded which meant it was a good time for me to be down here. Perfect.

"Hey," I greeted as I tapped her shoulder, sneaking up on her.

"Oh–" she breathed out quickly. "Oh, god, Jackson! You scared the life out of me."

"Sorry," I chuckled. "I just finished up with my cleft palate surgery and it couldn't have gone better. Not much left to do up there today so I thought I'd come and see how my girl was doing."

April stretched up her toes and gave me a quick kiss. "Good," she answered. "Things actually aren't – well, I don't want to say it and jinx it, but nothing has been too overrun down here so I'm happy. I did get to pull a piece of rebar out of a guy's neck after he wrapped his car around a pole. That was a bloody mess, but boy, it was so much fun." She lit up when she talked about work.

"Rebar? That had to be something. I hope you took pictures."

"I didn't, but Bailey did and I asked her to send them to me," she replied with a laugh. "It was pretty gnarly."

"Sounds like it," I smiled. My hand came up and I pushed her hair behind her ear. "Do you think have a free minute to go get coffee? I've got a little sucking up that I need to do with the chief resident."

"I think that I can make some time for that." April beamed.

As I reached for her hand, the loud and hoarse coughing of an approaching patient caught both our attention. She turned and I looked over her to see a male approaching with his mouth covered, blood coming up from the coughs. "Excuse me?" The patient spoke. "I've-" Another bloody cough escaped. "Been waiting a while. I really gotta get back to work, I've been out of town on a trip and–"

"Alright, sir. Let's get you back into bed." She spoke to him, glancing back at me.

"Take your time," I said before she got a chance to apologize.

Watching her take the patient back over to the bed that he had previously been on and pull the curtain shut behind her, I lingered where I was standing for a minute. There were things that I could busy myself with easily even if I did want to just spend a few minutes of downtime with her.

Instead of lingering around and waiting for her, I went out to the coffee cart outside of the entrance of the hospital to get coffee for the both of us. I also ordered a slice of the lemon loaf from the cart as I knew that it was one of her favorites – she had a tendency to go for anything fruity which only made her nickname that much more apt for her. It doesn't take me long to get two coffees and that, pausing to sweeten hers just the way that she liked it, before I headed back toward the emergency room.

When I arrive, nothing was the way that it had been as it had been when I left.

Then, things had been relatively calm. There was rarely such a thing as a slow day in the ER and saying that was almost a key to jinxing it, which was undoubtedly why April had been careful earlier not to call it that. The ER had been rather quiet as far as noise went and not all of the beds were filled, which was about all that a level one trauma center could ask for in the middle of the week. But apparently just thinking it had been enough to cause an outbreak of utter chaos in the few minutes that I had been gone.

Now, the clear glass doors to the ER had been shut. No amount of scanning my badge or trying to open them manually would change the fact that they had been electronically locked. There was no way in or out of the emergency room.

On the inside of the doors, masks were covering all of the patient's and staff's face that I could see. Straining my eyes and getting close to the glass, I tried to spot April. There was no sign of her typical red hair which could have been a good thing. Maybe she had stepped out of the ER for some reason – she could have been paged elsewhere, she could have gone for more supplies, or up to radiology. I reached into my pocket and sent her a quick text, trying not to act too alarmed. There was no reason for her to know that I was panicking, especially if she didn't know what was going on down here.

Trying to be patient doesn't go well. There was no immediate reply from her. There was no code pink or anything else playing over the PA system that would have explained a whole hospital lockdown. Instead, this was isolated in the emergency room. It was hard to know whether that was good or bad. Squinting, the ambulance bay door opened and men in hazmat suits began to walk in, looking around. My eyes followed them as they opened up the curtains of one of the patient beds. It was then that I finally got a flash of red hair and saw April, blood splattered on her gown and mouth covered with a mask.

Fuck.

Not wanting to wait any longer, I got my phone back out of my pocket and dialed April quickly. "Come on, come on, come on…" I muttered under my breath, listening to the line ring. After five rings, it eventually went to her voice mail and I hung up before sending her another text.

"Do you know what's going on?" A nurse, Janet, asked as she approached the shut doors, carrying gauze pads in her hand.

"No," I shook my head. "No clue."

"The ER went into lockdown." An orderly that I didn't recognize answered, stopping next to the two of us. "Dr. Kepner's patient apparently has Ebola. I overheard the Chief called the CDC about it. They have to make sure that it doesn't spread any further."

"Ebola?" I echoed his words, making sure that I had heard him correctly.

"Yeah. Cool, isn't it?" The orderly smiled as if it was no big deal before walking away.

My stomach curdled as I looked inside the ER again. Things seemed to settle into place now with no one moving aside the men in hazmat suits. It seemed as if they were prepping the area around April and where her patient had been, probably so the rest of the ER could resume normal business and so the patient could be moved to a proper isolation room. Wherever he went, it was likely that April would have to go along with him.

"I need to get in there," I muttered out loud.

"Dr. Avery, you know that's not possible." Janet gave me a sympathetic look. She must have known April was in there.

I sighed. She was right, of course. It was against protocol and there was physically no way for me to get into the emergency room as long as lockdown protocol was in place. I was just going to have to wait it out.

"Please answer…" I grumbled as I tried to call her again. "Please."

The phone inevitably went to voicemail again and I let out a heavy sigh, pacing along the length of the door. This hadn't been what Mark meant when he told me to go down to the ER, but now plastics certainly wouldn't be getting any cases from the ER. My phone vibrated and I quickly looked down to see the message.

[Received] Hey. Sorry. Can't talk.

[Sent] Are you okay?

Immediately after hitting send, I realized how idiotic the text sounded. She was in lockdown with a possible Ebola patient, there was no way that she was okay. I sighed. Even if it would have been a risk, I still wanted to be on the other side of the doors so I could make sure that things were okay with her. At least now, things were apparently under control enough that she could send me a text.

[Received] Yeah. Being extra cautious. They're getting ready to move both of us to an isolation room.

[Sent] Do you have to be in one? Or are you being a good doctor?

[Received] They're going to have to run my blood to confirm and make sure that he didn't give anything to me. I'll stay with him until those results come back.

Her information didn't actually make me feel any better about what was going on.

Working at the hospital ran any kind of risk. The emergency room especially did – you never knew who or what was coming inside of the emergency room. Some of the insanity that had come into the hospital over the years was hard to believe. But I wasn't prepared for this. I couldn't imagine that she was, either, no matter how good she was at her job.

"What's going on down here?" Meredith asked as she came up behind me. I turned over my shoulder to see that Cristina was right behind her.

"The ER is in lockdown," I answered, turning back to face the doors. "Possible patient with Ebola."

"Seriously?" Cristina questioned. "Wow."

I sighed. "Yeah."

"Is anyone in there?" Meredith asked.

"Yeah," I repeated with a nod. "April is. It's her patient."

"Shit," Cristina swore. I could feel her eyes on me as if waiting for me to freak out. "That sucks." What a goddamn understatement. I didn't want to get upset in front of her or anyone else. That kind of vulnerability was something that I had reserved for April.

My phone buzzed and immediately, I checked the message on it.

[Received] They're getting ready to move us. We can talk through the glass once we're set up there.

"They're getting ready to move them," I announced, finally looking over at Meredith and Cristina. Both of them looked concerned. Another sigh escaped as I lifted my weight between each foot. I hoped they would be quick about getting them set up. A text from her was nice, but it was nothing compared to actually being able to talk to her myself. "Fifth floor."

Meredith and Cristina grow bored of it and walk away. I continued to stay by the glass doors as they begin to move things out of the emergency room, arms folded restlessly in front of my chest. As soon as April, her patient, and the people in the hazmat suit had dispersed from the ER, the rest of the people in the room began to return to normal activity. I knew it would take a few minutes to get everything set up upstairs – so I take the stairs all the way up to the fifth floor, taking my time. I could go up faster, that's not a problem for me. But every minute that I slowly walked up the stairs was a minute that I didn't have to stand around doing nothing on the fifth floor. I wasn't sure how long I was going to make it like that.

Reaching the top floor of the hospital, I let out a sigh as I glanced around. The imaging center and laboratory services were both on this floor of the hospital, it had the least amount of patients and personnel. It would make putting April and the patient into isolation easier here than anywhere else.

"Where's Dr. Kepner and her patient?" I questioned one of the passing oncology nurses.

"Room 5302," Liz answered and kept walking.

Hurrying down the hallway toward the room, the men in hazmat uniforms are easy to spot outside of her door. She was now dressed up in a suit of her own from what I could see on the other side of the glass. They must have gotten rid of the scrubs that had been covered in the man's blood. I glanced down at myself, making sure none from earlier was on me. It was just a cough – it would have had to pass into her body for her to be injected. She was smart, safe. Surely it hadn't happened…

"April!" I called out, waving my hand to grab her attention. She turned around.

I could see her mouth my name but couldn't hear her from the distance. One of the men in the hazmat suits heard my voice and turned toward me, holding up his hand to stop me.

"You shouldn't be up here," he grumbled.

"I'm a doctor. It's fine." It's a bullshit excuse. "I need to see Dr. Kepner and her patient. I'll stay on this side of the glass." For now. Normally I was good at thinking before accepting but having her on the other side of this made it much more difficult.

The man didn't put up any fight and I moved over toward the glass, standing opposite from her. She placed her hand upon the glass and I mirrored her, wishing I could feel her warm touch instead of the cold glass. I would do anything or it.

"Hey, can you hear me?" I asked.

"Yeah," April answered. I was relieved to hear the sound of her voice. "Hi."

"I shouldn't have left you." The coffee and muffin that I had gotten for us had been left behind somewhere – I hadn't even realized my hands were empty until I looked down at them.

"Then you would just be stuck in here with me," she shook her head. "You don't want that."

"I don't want to be on the other side of it without you." I chewed at my inner cheek.

Her head continued to shake. "Don't be ridiculous. I'm fine and then both of us would just be bored in here." Her hand slid down the glass and fell down to her side. "I promise, that's the worst part of being in here. My patient is unconscious and being treated, and I'm just standing around, as bored as could be. I want to actually be practicing medicine."

I laughed. "Only you would call this boring."

"Seriously, it is!" April smiled as if this was the most normal thing in the world. "What else am I supposed to do? They took my blood and my clothes, and my phone once we were in here."

"You possibly have an Ebola patient and you're still managing to complain about it." I shook my head. Her smile infected me and I could feel my own begin to stretch across my patient. "Do you know if you got any of the blood in you? How did you even piece together Ebola?"

"No. Absolutely not." She shook her head firmly. "His fever was so high, he's had diarrhea, he was vomiting and had horrible stomach pain, unexplained bruising on his arms. And a week ago he was in the Congo which is having an outbreak right now."

"Shit." So she was probably right with her guess.

"Yeah…" she nodded her head. "Pretty rough. But he's here, which means his chances are already better."

"How is he doing now?" I asked.

"Well, he's unconscious, so at least he's not in any pain now." April looked over her should back at the patient before her gaze returned to me. "His fever is dropping some but that's probably just from the medication." She assessed.

Before I could ask any further questions about him, the sound of two commanding voices chattering from the hallway drew my attention. I turned my head to see Dr. Webber and Dr. Bailey approaching. Hopefully, neither one of them would be annoyed with the fact that I was here instead of finding something else to keep me busy. It wasn't like anyone didn't know we were together now. They would know exactly why I was here. Anyone would have.

"Kepner, what's going on here?" Webber asked.

"I'm almost positive my patient has Ebola," she answered. "High fever, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, bruising, and he just got back from the Congo which is having an outbreak of the virus right now. He confirmed that he could have been in contact with someone who had the virus but he wasn't sure. The lab has his blood and my blood to test for the virus."

"Oh, good Lord…" Bailey sighed out, pinching the bridge of her nose and shaking her head. "Okay. Kepner, you keep doing what you're doing in there. Whatever you do, do not let that man die. We don't know who all he's been in contact with."

"Right. As soon as he's up, I'll get to working on that." She confirmed with a nod of her head.

"The CDC is on their way here. They'll get to work on it once they're here," Webber spoke.

"Of course, I–" April stopped suddenly, blinking a few times before grabbing her stomach. Her nose scrunched up and her brows drew together. I knew that face. She was nauseous.

"April?" I questioned.

"Kepner, what's going on?" Dr. Bailey asked.

She didn't give an answer. Instead, she clutched harder at the top that she was wearing and suddenly tore off the protective gear that she had over her head. She threw herself over a biohazard bin and threw up into it. I cringed as I watched. Someone vomiting in front of me was common, especially as a surgeon given the side effects of general anesthesia, but it was different to see her doing it. Especially knowing what she had just been exposed to and the fact that nausea was a side effect. Fuck.

"Kepner!" Bailey shouted.

"I'm– I'm fine," she wiped off her face with the back of her hand before grabbing a towel. "I'm fine. I swear."

"Clearly that's not true," Webber pointed out. "Kepner, you need to sit down. Now. I'm going to come in there with you."

"Avery, why don't you make yourself useful and go see if the results are in yet?" Bailey requested.

"Dr. Bailey, I–"

"Avery, go now." She ordered.

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I nodded my head before turning sharply on my heel and walking back down the hallway. I have to glance back at her but it's hard to figure out what was going on without being able to hear them. Fortunately, the lab was on this floor and something like this would have been a top priority. I'd seen the pictures of what Ebola looked like under a microbe and it was easily identifiable. Either an ELISA or RT-PCR had been run. Whatever they had chosen, they would have to work their ass off to make the diagnosis. Something with the potential to be as big as this, there would be no lulling like the lab occasionally did.

When I arrived at the desk, the usual attendant wasn't there. I leaned forward to peer past it, letting out a sigh and clearing my throat. "Excuse me?" I called out. Tapping my fingers against the countertop loudly, a few seconds passed before a gangly-looking male appeared. Finally.

"Yes?" He questioned.

"Do you have Dr. Kepner's lab results? For the possible Ebola patient?" I asked with a raise of my eyebrows.

"Oh, man, we were just looking at the patient's ones. You should see it, man, it's incredible." He – Leonard, according to the name tag – enthused.

"What does that mean?" I snapped.

"Oh, right, the results. Just a second." He turned away from me and the tapping of my fingers became louder and more persistent with each second that I had to wait. These guys had a lot of work back here and I generally tried not to be an asshole to them, but this was pushing my luck even if it's only a few brief moments. "Here you go. The patient is positive for the Ebola virus." He answered.

"And what about Dr. Kepner?"

"Still running her results." He shrugged his shoulders.

Sighing, I don't bother to thank him as I headed back down the hallway to get the results to April, Webber, and Bailey. Webber was geared up and inside of the room with April and her patient, Bailey still lingering on the other side of the glass and watching every single thing. I handed the results of the patient's blood test over to Dr. Bailey.

"He tested positive for Ebola," I announced. April and Dr. Webber both looked over with wide eyes.

"What about Kepner?" Webber asked.

"They don't have her bloodwork yet," I answered uneasily.

"But she's already begun to show some symptoms." Bailey sighed out, flipping through the patient's results. "Let's get fluids started for you, Kepner. We don't want things getting worse."

"All I did was throw up." She threw out a hand. "That doesn't mean anything. It could be anything!" She protested.

"Well, better safe than sorry," Bailey insisted. "You need to take it easy until we get those results back. And if you don't have the virus, then I want to know definitively whatever it is you do have. Let's go ahead and draw some more blood so we can run a CBC and full blood panel for you." She instructed.

My eyes don't leave April as Webber got the blood draw kit and took tubes of her blood. She looked pale now that I had a moment to sit here and just watch her. She had always been pale, the sun only ever giving her more freckles and never any more color. She doesn't get any paler after the blood is drawn, which I guess had to be a good thing. When Webber brought out the labeled tubes of her blood, I carried them back down the hallway toward the lab. If there was something abnormal in the results of her prior tests or these new ones, I didn't know what the hell we were going to do. It really seemed like we had just gotten started with our life and having a steady place. Sure, it'd been a few months. But now with an end in sight to our residency, it didn't seem fair to have a catastrophe thrown our way.

"I've got more bloodwork for Dr. Kepner," I announced. Again, Leonard or the others working there were nowhere in sight. But her name was enough to get him there quickly, the same giddy look of naive excitement clear on his features.

"Great," he smiled, taking it. "CBC? Oh, that's boring. But we'll get it done ASAP," he said.

"Do you have the results from her first test?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah," Leonard stated like an afterthought. "I'll grab it."

"What is it?" I called out after him as he walked back to grab it, returning moments later and handing it over.

"Negative for Ebola. Do you still need the other tests?" He asked.

"Yeah, with a rush on it," I nodded, letting out a sigh. I opened up the results and looked at them myself, giving a shake of my head. "Thanks," I muttered as I began to walk back toward the isolation room.

Scanning my eyes over the results, I tried to take it as good news. She didn't have Ebola – or it could have just been too soon for it to show up on the blood test. They would have to run it again in a couple of days to know affirmatively that she didn't have the virus if that was the actual situation. Nausea was a sign of a lot of things, nonspecific to Ebola. Watching her temperature would be important too. I knew that Webber was among the best and that he could take fine care of her, that he was certainly better than I was, but I wanted to be in the room with her. Not him.

"April tested negative for Ebola," I announced as I returned to them, handing the file to Bailey again. "The lab said that they would put a rush on getting back her results."

"Good," Bailey said, looking at the results and shaking her head.

"It could take a few days for the virus to show up in her blood work." Webber reminded us. My teeth ground together, shaking my head. It had to be a stomach bug, something trivial and poorly timed. It couldn't be anything as serious as the Ebola virus.

"I'm just a little nauseous, guys," April complained as she spoke up for herself. "There's no way it's something that serious. I'm sure it's just a stomach bug. We had Chipotle for dinner last night. It could have been a bad burrito."

"Hopefully that's all that it is," Bailey announced. "But until we know, you're staying put."

"You're going to be fine." I smiled softly at her.

"I need to get going, but Avery, I want you to page me the second that we have any more information about Kepner. Dr. Webber, what are you going to do?" All of our attention turned toward the chief.

"I'm going to stay." He decided with a firm nod of her head.

Dr. Bailey didn't seem particularly happy with his decision but there was nothing that could be done to change his mind. He was just as stubborn as she was. Even if there were a few things that I would have liked to have said to April without anyone else around, I was glad that there was a senior and experienced doctor here. But Ebola was something that no one at the hospital had ever dealt with before. It was rare. Reading could help but it would only go so far.

Time dragged on. No amount of pacing up and down the length of the hallway could make up for the fact that she was on one side of the glass and I was on the other side.

Webber was clearly getting restless with this too but I could tell that he didn't want to go anywhere. April remained sitting down in one of the chairs, slouched down completely. She made a few complaints about being stuck in there when she felt as if she was fine, all of which was shot down. I wanted her out too, but I found myself siding with Webber and his persistence to listen to what Bailey had said and not make an affirmative move until we had all of the possible answers. I hated waiting games. It meant that nothing could be done on my end. That was what I hated.

"Hey," I curled my finger and motioned April over toward the class so we could attempt to have some privacy. "I love you."

"I know," she smiled softly at me. "I love you too, and I think that you're overreacting."

"Probably," I huffed out sheepishly. "But I hate that you're stuck in there."

"You know what I want to do when I get out?" April questioned. I raised my eyebrows and waiting for her to continue. "I want to go to that Italian place down the block from the apartment. I want a glass of wine and… either lasagna or fettuccine alfredo with shrimp. I can decide later." She smiled.

A laugh slipped out and I nodded my head. "Yeah, sure. We can go out for dinner. I think I could use a glass of wine after a day like today, too." That felt like an understatement.

"Maybe we can ever split some tiramisu."

"You never do dessert," I commented. "You must really be sick of being in there." Before I could say anything further, my pager went off. I pulled it off the elastic of my waistband and glanced down at it. "Shit, your results are ready. I'll be right back. I promise."

Forcing a quick smile, I jogged down the hallway toward the lab. This time, there was a line of people waiting outside of the window. Any other time and I would have had to sit back and wait, but undoubtedly, this was the kind of case that took priority over everything else that was going on. I rushed past the line of people that was waiting and stepped in front of one of the third year resident who was at the front of the line without giving it a second thought, interrupting him.

"Dr. Kepner's results?" I requested.

"Here you go." Leonard handed them over.

Moving back down the length of the hallway, I scanned through the results on the blood panel. Red and white blood cells were both completely normal, the latter of which was a good thing. White blood cells would have been higher if her body was fighting off a disease or infection. There was nothing else abnormal that would have indicated that her body had some kind of infection. Her hemoglobin and platelet levels were also completely normal. Everything on the pieces of paper in front of me looked normal as I flipped through them. I couldn't tell if I did or didn't want to find an abnormality on it. Maybe that was the reason that I couldn't find anything on here. A lack of answers was hard, but having one… that had to be harder, didn't it?

"What is it?" Webber asked as I approached them. I shook my head as I continued to go through them a second time, looking for whatever it was that was out of place. Everything was normal.

Everything except…

"Shit," I breathed out, eyes widening.

"What is it?" April asked, having gotten up from her chair.

"I know why you threw up, and it's not Ebola," I said, taking a deep breath and looking up at her. "April, you're pregnant."