A/N: Thank you all SO much for the positive feedback. Here is the next chapter for your enjoyment!

Two weeks had come and gone since April had left Seattle to go back to Moline for a little while. In those two weeks, she had done a lot of work around the farm with her dad, spent time with her mom helping out at the school where she worked, and devoted more time to her faith to pray and look for guidance in this situation. She had taken a leave of absence from work and Owen had understood that she needed time to process her divorce, having gone through one himself, and told her to come back when she was ready. But she didn't know if she would ever be ready to go back and face the one person in the world that she loved more than anything, especially knowing that she still loved him and never wanted to end their marriage in the first place.

She was now nine weeks pregnant and her nausea had begun to subside a lot more, meaning she felt great and things were improving. From what she could tell, everything was going well and normal. Then again, only an ultrasound would really tell what was going on inside of her uterus where the baby was. Her doctor's appointment was next week in Seattle for her first ultrasound and she didn't know if she was ready for it yet. The last ultrasound she'd had was with Samuel, finding out that he had Osteogenesis Imperfecta, so it was traumatic to say the least.

Today was a Saturday, so a kind of down day in the Kepner household as they took time to relax and get other things done that weren't related to the farm, like shopping and crafts that her mother loved to do. April was in her bedroom, reading her What To Expect When Expecting book. She had only read about half of it the last time, so she was hoping and praying this time would be better.

"April, I'm going into town for some groceries, do you want to come with me?" her mother asked, knocking on the door.

April jumped and hid the book under her pillow. "Uh yeah, let me find my shoes and I'll be right down!"

When her mother had gone down the hall, she picked up the book again and put it away in her suitcase. Finding her shoes, she slid them on and then came out of her bedroom and down the stairs to the living room where her mother had already gathered up their purses and was waiting to go.

"I was thinking I would get the ingredients to do the taco soup you love so much," her mother told her as they went out the door.

"Oh Mom, you don't have to go to all that trouble," she replied, smiling at her mom.

"But I love doing it…you're my daughter and I don't get to see you often enough, so I have to spoil you when I can," Karen insisted as she unlocked the car and got in.

Despite the tension in their previous meetings when she was pregnant with Samuel and trying to make decisions as his mother, she knew that her own mother loved her and meant well. No one could make heads or tails of a situation like she and Jackson had been given, so they had done what was right by their son and given him as painless an entrance into the world as possible before holding him, loving him, and letting him go peacefully.

"Mom?" she asked as they drove toward town. "How…do I move forward? What do I do from here?"

"I know it seems like an impossible task to keep living life after a lot of drastic changes like the loss of a child and the end of a marriage, but sometimes the best thing to do is to keep on going…keep on living and doing the daily things, like getting up, going to work, and coming home to make dinner."

April nodded. "A huge piece of me still loves Jackson…I suppose I always will."

"You don't forget the ones you love. You just have to find a way to make peace with what has happened and move forward with your life."

"I just…am afraid of going back and facing him for the first time since we signed the papers," she quietly admitted.

"It's okay to feel fear and apprehension," her mom reassured her. "You're human and all of those feelings are normal. Just like it is normal to love and grieve and be angry with a situation you cannot control."

Even in the darkest storms, April always found comfort at home in Moline. After failing her boards, losing her job, and the plane crash, she had come here for solace. Her parents, as conservative as they were, loved April and tried to see things from her perspective more now that she had gone through some pretty horrific things herself and help her through those times. She had come clean to them about being held at gunpoint and they knew she had failed her boards and was fired. Everything else kind of came in waves as she told them about Jackson almost dying saving a patient. They understood her job was stressful and that she had been through a lot in the last year since losing Samuel.

They drove along in silence a little while longer before arriving in town and going to the grocery store, grabbing a few things that they needed. While her mother was getting a few personal items, April excused herself for a few minutes and went to the pharmacy to pick up some prenatal vitamins. She quietly purchased them and hid them in her purse before returning to her mother. They checked out and returned to the car, loading everything up before heading back toward the farm.

"April, you have to tell Jackson sometime…" her mother said as they were about halfway home.

"Tell him what?" she asked, nervous for what could come next.

"I see all the signs…you're nauseated, you have been avoiding any wine at home, and I saw the prenatal vitamins…"

April was quiet for a few minutes and looked down at her hands. "I found out the morning I signed the papers. I couldn't tell him…not when he wanted to be free so badly and a baby would just make him stay out of obligation and not love. I am going to tell him…I just wasn't ready yet."

"I can understand that. Jackson is a good man and he will be there for the baby. But I have faith that there is more planned than either of you know."

"Mama, I just don't know what to believe anymore," she admitted dejectedly. "But I would never keep him from our child."

"Everything has a way of working out exactly how it's supposed to. Just wait and see, sweetheart, just wait and see."

April didn't know if things could ever be more than civil between her and Jackson now that they were divorced, but she was determined to keep it that way for the sake of their baby. For the first time in a year, she was happy about something. Samuel's death had taken a toll on her and then Jordan, her marriage, and finally the divorce. This baby was the first glimmer of light she'd had since finding out her unborn son had a fatal disease and she was holding onto that like hell.

In Seattle, Jackson had spent the last two weeks throwing himself into working around the clock at the hospital. He had taken double shifts and was trying all he could to distract himself from the fact that April still had not come back from Moline. More than once, he had typed out a text message to her and then deleted it when he realized she deserved more than that. A phone call wasn't it either, so he waited and thought about how everything had gone down in the last year, regretting not spending more time trying to fix his marriage. He had always accused April of being the one to run away, but even Sloan had pointed out that when things got hard, Jackson tended to bail out. And he had bailed on April after only four weeks of counseling.

"Heard anything from Kepner?" Alex asked as he came to the desk to drop off a chart.

Jackson shook his head. "She's still in Ohio as far as I know. Robbins knows more than me, but won't say a damn word other than she's doing okay."

"Sucks man," Alex replied. "If you wanna come by and grab something to eat, Jo is making some pasta."

"Thanks, I might do that once I wrap up here." Karev had been a lot nicer to him the last two weeks than usual, but he figured since Izzie had abandoned him a few years back, he knew how Jackson felt at this point. Not knowing what the future would hold.

When Alex was gone, Jackson signed off on the chart he had been working on and checked his phone for any messages. He hadn't expected any, but was still disappointed when he didn't see a single one from April. Then again, why would she text him since they had just signed papers to end their marriage? His phone background made him pause. The last two weeks, he hadn't really paid much attention, but he realized that it was a photo of him and April that she'd taken with his phone. It was from a little over a year ago, before they found out about Samuel's condition. She had caught him talking to her belly and took a picture with his phone before setting it as his background. Seeing it now made him pause.

"Avery," a voice said behind him, causing him to quickly put his phone away in his pocket and turn.

"Shepherd," he greeted. Amelia Shepherd had taken some getting used to after the death of her older brother, but he didn't mind her so much now and actually thought she was pretty nice.

"I have a case I might need a consult on. You game?"

"Yeah, what's the case?" Anything to take his mind off of her was good in his book.

"I had a guy come in with severe trauma to the head…a piece of machinery fell on him while he was working on an oil rig," she explained as she showed Jackson the chart. "I've stabilized him and he will recover, but he has a huge piece of his skull and scalp missing. I need someone to help me reconstruct that and graft the skin so that it looks natural."

"I'm your guy. I've done skin grafts for burn victims and reconstructed many faces and skulls," he said.

"Good, the patient is stable for the time being but I want to monitor him over the next forty-eight hours to see if his brain is going to swell or remain stable," she went on.

Jackson nodded. "I'll draw up plans and look at the X-Rays for reference on the structure before I actually meet the patient."

"Thank you, Avery," she said. "How are you doing?"

"Um…okay?" He didn't realize so many people knew his personal life in this hospital, but then again he knew he shouldn't be surprised with the way gossip spread.

"Sorry, I just know how gossip goes around here and personal stuff can be tough," Amelia shrugged. He was thankful that she didn't seem to be offended that he didn't open up.

"I just worry about her," he replied. "She's been gone two weeks and I've heard nothing."

"Well she signed the papers and ran…it's what us runners do." Amelia put the chart down. "She'll come back…April is the kind of person that is committed to what she loves doing. Her life is here at this hospital."

He hoped that Amelia was right because he knew that April had run from him a lot in the past, but this time was different because he had walked away from her through the divorce and she took off to deal with it. When Amelia left, he pulled out his phone again. On impulse and just because he wanted to hear her voice, he dialed her number. It went to voicemail and beeped.

"Hey…I uh, look I know I'm probably the last person you want to hear from right now and I respect that. I just wanted to call and see if you were okay. You don't have to call me back…I just wanted you to know that I was worried about you. I…I am sorry, April. So sorry. Bye."

Sighing, Jackson put his phone in his pocket and went back to work.