"What?"
The news alarmed Jackson, shooting up from his formerly relaxed position on the couch with wide eyes to stare at his wife. For the most part, he'd been pretty good about getting himself checked, always running the tests that he knew were appropriate. He always used condoms, no matter how long the woman had been requesting his services. Of course, he'd heard time and time again that the only way to completely prevent diseases was abstinence. But he was a doctor. He knew how to be safe, how to be rational. He certainly knew how to avoid something like that.
Or so he thought.
"I've got fucking chlamydia." April's response is snapped back harshly. She wasn't one to swear under most circumstances, only occasionally slipping out when the two of them were in bed and she just couldn't hold it back anymore. But he'd never heard her swear, especially not like that, when she was angry. It gave him chills that he wasn't expecting.
There was no question about where she had gotten it on his end. And as much as she loved him, that hadn't changed, her blood was still boiling at the idea. She'd worked to change her perspective on the work that he had done when he was a resident, opened up her mind and stopped herself from trying to control his life by stopping him. And now that he wasn't doing it, well, she really thought that she was over and past it. She wasn't the type to hold something in his past against him – not without good reason. But now, when she'd been least expecting it, it seemed like that good reason had been handed to her on a silver platter in the cruelest way possible.
Jackson, on the other hand, was flooded with questions. Sure, he hadn't had a physical in awhile – not since… well, a few weeks he'd taken the boards. He thought back to the women that he'd been with near the end, and there's not a lot of questions the more that he thought about it. Two options as to who he'd gotten it from. It could have been transmitted orally just as easily as anything else. He'd have to go and get checked out too, even if he already knew what his doctor would say.
"Baby," he started as he stood up to comfort her. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know. I thought I was clean – I had been for a long, long time." The apologies poured from his lips and he tried to pull her close in an embrace, only slightly surprised when her hands flew up to push him away, not wanting to be touched. "If I had any idea, you know that I wouldn't have let this happen to you."
He had never had a reason in the past before to feel guilty about what he did. Sure, it's technically kind of illegal. Maybe he could argue that it wasn't because it was more than just basic sex, but he's not going to get into the semantics of that. Because the guilt had finally come. Not from his actions, but from the results of it.
"Don't– don't touch me." April retorted though he had already backed off. "I can't believe that you wouldn't know for sure before we got married, before we had sex. How could you not check, Jackson? How?"
"I don't know." He admitted honestly.
As much as she normally appreciated hearing the truth from him, this was one of those moments where hearing it only sent her flying further into a rage. April grabbed her purse and the paper bag presumably from the pharmacy, storming past him into the bedroom without another word.
Jackson lingered silently in the living room for a kitchen, debating what was best to do in the moment. She needed time to cool down before they could really discuss this. He needed to wrap his head around all of it, make a few phone calls. That would at least kill time. The first phone call goes to his own doctor to schedule an appointment for himself, quickly explaining the circumstances. Numbers of former clients had been deleted from his phone, leading him to pull out his laptop to send an email instead, seeing if he could at least get any honesty. Maybe they didn't know. He wanted to hope that, but that was one thing that he would never know. But he should have known better. He knew that he should have known better.
When the appropriate communications have been made, Jackson still didn't feel right going in there. Instead, he makes his way to the kitchen. Coming with food might at least be a little better than coming in empty handed midst her raging and wallowing.
As an apology, he sorted through the kitchen for the process of making her favorite meal. Fettuccine alfredo with chicken and a caesar salad. The latter takes no time to throw together, pasta easy enough. He's careful with the chicken because he knew just how picky she could be about the smallest thing, making sure that it's cut up to the right side and cooked well. He doesn't believe in God, but he's thankful to some higher power that there were actually the ingredients in the kitchen that he needed to pull it off.
"April?" He ducked his head into their bedroom hesitantly once dinner had been prepared, moving in further to find her in the bathroom. Even though he knew that she was upset, it's still not the scene that he'd been anticipating to find.
She was sitting on the bathroom floor, knees drawn up to her chest and eyes red from the presumable tears that had been shed midst all of her frustrations. The orange bottle of pills that was presumably the medication to treat the chlamydia was unscrewed on the counter, a slight glance inside of it before refocusing on his dry sobbing wife. Jackson lowered himself down onto his knees next to her, muscular arms wrapping around her and relieved when she doesn't try and pull away from him this time. His chin rested on top of her head where she fit perfectly, hand stroking auburn waves of hair.
"I'm so sorry, baby. I'm gonna go, get myself checked, make sure there's nothing else. This is never going to happen again, okay? I promise you that. I made a mistake, but it's fixable. We'll take the medication, we'll be fine. It's a one-time thing." He held her tight as he spoke, hoping that she'd find something in his words to believe.
"I know you didn't mean it," April responded hoarsely. "But it's just a slap in the face." She doesn't continue on with what she meant by the words, and no doubt it's a good thing because there was nothing that she could have continued on with that wouldn't have been offensive to him.
Jackson, fortunately, was too concerned about her in the moment to think about what she had said. That would come later. "I'm sorry," he repeated. "Why don't we get up to eat dinner? I made dinner. Your favorite."
"Okay."
He held her hand as she got up from the floor, not letting go until the two of them were serving up plates of dinner. It's a bit quieter of a meal than what the two of them usually go through but the tension is somewhat resolved after her festival of tears. April doesn't talk much, instead, prompting him to speak about the day, in desperate need of a distraction from everything. Jackson was relieved that he'd a surgery today that was more than just a general tuck or lift – he'd spent the afternoon working on an infant's cleft palate. He knew that hearing about those brought her some kind of joy, that she loved the better aspects of his work.
When they go to bed that night, Jackson tried to curl up against her but she rolled onto her stomach, not wanting quite as much contact. Instead, hands are layered on top of each other. Close but still a bit of a wall between the two of them, something that a little time for processing just needed to take care of.
His own doctor appointment comes and goes and he gets the same prescription as she did, finishing it up half a week after she did. Their day to date routine fell back into what it had been in their first few months, still honeymooning a little bit, a little touchy in front of their coworkers with the hand holding and casual bumps. Sex was completely off the table until both of them had finished up the medication, not wanting to mess with things any further.
But the avoidance only goes on for so long. He's finally got a day off and he knew that she was working the night shift, and had most of the day to do whatever. Sleep would occur – but he didn't want that to be the only reason they stayed in bed most of the day.
A little past ten, he rolled over closer to her, lips finding home against the curve of her neck to litter it with sweet, soft kisses. She's cold like she always is in the morning, a large hand moving to her stomach to pull her back against him. The slightest bit of suction gives way to leave a mark on the back of her neck, knowing that her hair would cover it for at least most of the day. During surgery, well, hopefully no one would be paying much attention.
"Jackson…" His name was a whine leaving her lips, but not in the way that he was expecting. She sounded annoyed. "I'm not in the mood."
He sighed against the back of her neck, nose brushing over the skin he'd just sucked on. It's not that he's trying to be pushy, but April was transparent. It wasn't just about the sex. Sex between the two of them was easy, free of problems. But not everything was that easy.
"Are we going to talk about it?" He asked.
What felt like an impossibly long moment passed between the two of them, a sigh parting her pouty lips before she could force any words out of her mouth. She doesn't really want to talk about it, no, but she doesn't know how to get away with any longer.
"Every time I think about your penis, all I can think about is chlamydia."
Even though Jackson knew that she was being serious, he can't help the laughter that vibrated against her back at the comment. Of all the things that he'd thought she was worried about, that definitely hadn't been one of them. He pulled her in a little tighter against his front, hand resting just beneath the swell of one of her breasts.
"That just means that I need to give you a better association." He chuckled out. It's a quick shift, pulling out from behind her and getting her flat on her back, nudging her thighs open so that he could rest between them. The weight of his hips was heavy against her core, giving the slightest grind against her, letting her feel the hardening length.
Despite the little noises of disagreement that April had made before, she did want to have sex with him. Feeling him press against he only remained her of the needy ache between her thighs.
"If you say so," she murmured, words mostly to keep up the attitude.
Proving himself, of course, was never a hard thing for Jackson. He knew that he was good in bed and there's no problem in proving it, pulling off her pajama shorts before dedicating himself to the space between his thighs. He licked and sucked until she came twice and was begging for his cock, only finally giving into her when she was right about to lose his mind. The near two weeks that they'd gone without has his tolerance a little lower than usual, eager to bury himself inside of her till his hilt and move with fluidity. He knows just how to move in her, just how to rub and pinch to get her finishing for a third time around his length, letting it spur on his own orgasm and emptying himself inside of her.
When they're both finished, he collapsed onto the mattress next to her, letting her curl up against his side and rest her head on top of his chest. April found it soothing to listen to the sound of his heart beating, even as accelerated as it was post-romp.
Stroking his hand along her side, he allowed the silence to come. It's the first comfortable one that they've really had since she'd first gotten back his blood work, the closest that they've been physically when they hadn't had an audience or coworkers watching the two of them. And it felt good. It felt like the two of them were getting back into their old flow of things, finding their footing again after their first real marital fight. The first one was supposed to be the worst, and it seemed as if it had come to its end.
"I want to have a baby, you know," April finally broke the silence between them, though she doesn't lift up her gaze to look at him with the announcement. It was something only lightly discussed. "I talked about it with my OB/GYN, at that appointment. She thought that I'd make a good mom, you know. She actually said that."
"I do too," Jackson smiled as he let his gaze drop down to his wife's face, a smile warming across his expression. "I guess we're getting a good start on that, huh?"
"Laying down after sex is supposed to be good for contraception. I'm pretty sure that you wear me out on purpose so I don't have another choice."
Loud laughter fell from his lips, spurring her own giggles after a few moments. They both shifted just enough so that their mouths could meet in a soft kiss, much more chaste than the previous ones between them.
"Hadn't thought of it like that. But now that you've said something, I'm definitely going to keep it up."