"I'll switch with you. If you'll be on Alex's service for a day then I'll be on Medusas service for the week." Jo expected Leah to agree right away; with two young children at home Medusa rarely got any sleep and was crankier than ever. Leah had been complaining about being on being on her service for over a week. To Jo's surprise, however, Leah closed the chart she had been working on with an efficient snap before turning to smile at her.
"No thanks. Dr. Grey actually likes me now. I think she's going to let me do part of an upcoming surgery by myself." With that she put the chart back and flounced back to Medusa, leaving Stephanie, who had been standing next to Leah, to laugh at Jo.
"Why can't you be on Karev's service? You love being on Karev's service. It's easier for you to get him alone, thus making it easier for you to have sex with him." Jo sighed and shook her head.
"It's plenty easy no matter what. I'm hot enough-"
"And he loves you-"
"god knows he's horny enough, but I'm just not feeling it today." Stephanie gave her a disbelieving look.
"You're just not feeling it today? Are you serious? That's the excuse you're giving?"
"Maybe." Before Stephanie could answer, Kepner came running by shouting about some trauma coming in that she needed Stephanie's help on. Running after Kepner, Stephanie turned around long enough to shout back at her.
"You're telling me everything at lunch."
Sighing and shaking her head, Jo was about to go find Shane (there was a small chance he didn't want to be on Shepard's service) when-
"You know you two are like the Christina and Meredith of interns. And that's not actually a complement."
Jo sent the papers she was holding flying as she jumped, startled at the sound of the familiar voice. She was not, however, startled when he laughed. That was guaranteed. Trying to prevent herself from looking at him (that would cause her to see the worry that she knew was on his face) she bent down to pick up the papers. And of course he was already down there, being the gentleman he was, helping her.
She absolutely hated it.
Standing up and handing her the papers, he shifted back and forth before talking.
"We need to talk about last night."
She shut the folder she was holding and turned to walk away, made sure he was following her, then answered.
"Nope. What needs to happen, is this. I will go have a small discussion with Shane, and then in a half hour I will meet you and you will take me on rounds."
"But-"
"I will see you in a half hour Dr. Karev."
xxx
Alex supposed he should have seen it coming. Her mother had abandoned her for god's sake. It was a normal reaction to be completely turned off to the idea of having children. But, it had been a great day, and he'd had one too many beers, so he hadn't been as cautious as maybe (probably…defiantly) he should have been. And now here he was thirteen hours, one fight and one girl running out of his (their) house, later.
Today was going to suck.
Actually, it was already sucking. After being completely ditched by Jo, he had spent the next half hour trying to figure out how to fix things, before meeting up with Jo again for rounds. He had then spent the next hour doing rounds. Normally rounds with Jo were the best. They joked around, stole kisses, and had a blast. Today was just awful. They had spent the parts were they weren't with patients in complete silence, as she had made it perfectly clear she did not want to talk. This was part of the reason he slammed his lunch down on the table hard enough to send the apple on his tray flying, causing Christina to glance up from her magazine with a bemused expression on her face.
"What's wrong with you?"
Glaring at her, he answered "Nothing"
"Something happened. Let's think of the options. A patient of yours could have died. But no, that can't be it. You usually avoid everyone for a day after that happens. Maybe you got scolded by Arizona. Or maybe," she started, her eyes lighting up, "You had a fight with Wilson"
"I'm glad my misery gives you joy."
"So you did have a fight with Wilson! I knew it. What happened? Did you sleep with someone else?"
Before Alex could answer Meredith came running in, carrying a brown paper back with red scribbles up and down the side.
"Who slept with who?"
Christina was (of course) more than willing to answer.
"Alex slept with someone other than Jo."
"No I didn't. We can have fights without me cheating on her."
Meredith glanced back and forth between her two friends.
"What?"
xxx
Stabbing a piece of chicken, Jo became vaguely aware of the muttering's of her fellow inters.
"What's up with her?"
"Something happened with Dr. Karev."
"Of course. What did she do?"
"I don't know, she won't talk."
Jo was about to point out that it wasn't always her that messed thinks up, when Leah interrupted Shane and Stephanie's conversation by putting her tray down, and just beaming at them. After a moment of staring at her, it became clear that unless they asked, she wasn't going to say anything. Turning to Jo, Shane took his turn at interrogating her.
"What did you do?"
Shaking her head in disbelief at her friends trust in her, she answered "I did nothing. He decided that he wants children."
There was a pause as this sunk in.
"Out of nowhere?"
Jo, who had opened her mouth to say that yes, she agrees that it was crazy, was taken aback.
"What do you mean out of nowhere?"
"I mean, have you ever talked about this before. He's a pediatric surgeon. He have to have known he likes kids."
"Yes, I know he likes kids, I just didn't know he wanted them, let alone with me. There messy little brats."
"But cute messy little brats."
Both Stephanie and Jo turned to look at Shane.
"What?" he answered defensively "They are."
Shaking her head, Stephanie turned back to Jo.
"Alright, so he wants children with you. Did he say it in a way like I want kids in the next year, or that someday, he would like to have kids with you?"
"There's a difference?"
Leah, who had long since stopped smiling at them, entered the conversation
"Of course there's a difference. Saying he wants kids in the next year would be creepy. But saying he would like to have them eventually is sweet."
"Says the girl who decided that she wanted to marry her boyfriend based on the fact that opened the door for her."
"At least I'm not sleeping with my boss."
"Actually, she's living with him now."
Turning to Shane, Leah shook her head in disbelief. "Really? There officially living together now? That makes the children comment even less creepy."
"I never said the comment was creepy. Actually, I'm not sure I ever mentioned how I felt about this."
A few meaningful glances were exchanged before Stephanie turned back to Jo. In a gentle voice she had head her use on a five year old yesterday, she answered,
"Well, obviously you freaked out, and now you're not talking to him."
"Maybe."
xxx
It took Jo two hours at Joe's to get up the nerve to go home. And then only because she was pretty sure if she didn't leave Stephanie would have killed her for hanging around at her and her new boyfriends date.
She couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when she entered the house to find it empty, albeit the cat that she had convinced Alex to get. Pushing the pile of papers out of her way, she sat down with her freshly microwaved pizza and was about to take a bite when she heard the door open and then slam shut again with a force that only Alex could have. Spinning around in one of the island chairs, Jo studied him as he came to the kitchens entryway, and froze, studying her. He spoke first.
"Hey"
"Hey"
"You know, rounds are a lot more fun when you talking to me."
"I was talking to you. I distinctly remember asking about what procedure you were going to do on the eleven year old."
He shook his head. "No, you were talking to Dr. Karev."
"Sorry, I wasn't aware you were two different people. Out of interest, which one am I dating, Alex or Dr. Karev? Because Dr. Karev is a lot nicer."
"Sorry, you're dating Alex." He shifted back and forth, filled with sudden nervous energy, "Here's the thing. When, I said the thing about children, I didn't mean that I necessarily wanted children. I don't know if I want children. I do know that I love you, and if you're so against children, then no kids, but I love you and I don't want this relationship we have to fall apart just because of some stupid thing I said. Because like it or not, we are in a relationship, so if I say something that freaks you out, then talk to me."
"Should I talk to Dr. Karev or Alex?"
"Smart aleck."
AN: So…it's been…about a month and a half. I'm so sorry! I have had super bad writers block, so I have like five stories' that I've started and never finished. Plus life has been super busy. The ending to this is very bad (actually the whole story is very bad) but I wanted to get something (anything) out to you guys, so this is what I came up with. On a different note, I am going to try and get a poll on my bio that asks what specialty you think Jo's going to go into (plastics, Nero, general, trauma, pediatrics…) so if you guys could get on and vote, that would be great.
Tootles, thanks for reading!
Oh yeah, I know by the time Alex and Jo start living together, her intern year is probably over, but it just worked better that she was still in her intern year for this story.
Tootles!
