A/N: Happy Grey's Day! I sadly have class during it, so I'll have to watch tomorrow. I'm so excited to see where Shonda takes us next, though! Here's a little treat for you all before the episode tonight :D

Chapter Five

"We officially have a new project," Callie said, glancing up at Sloan.

"Oh, is that so?"

She nodded and said, "We are getting Kepner and Avery together."

Sloan laughed. "Isn't she dating that Dave guy? He showed up at the hospital or something?"

"Yeah, yeah," Callie said, flitting the other guy's mention away with her hand. "He seems like a nice guy. I even saw the back of him, and quite nice. But she has it bad for Jackson."

"And you know this, how?"

"She came to me earlier today, all bothered over Jackson acting weird. Apparently last night he walked in on her and the new guy going at it."

"Last night?" Sloan said, knitting his eyebrows together. "Jackson said he was up half the night listening Karev's marathon sessions with that intern."

Callie laughed. "Oohh, you were 100% lied to. He was at Kepner's."

"Interesting," Sloan said, rubbing his jaw. "Very interesting."

"He's jealous. Which we can work with."

"Why didn't he tell me about all of this," Sloan said. "I thought we were friends."

"Aw, are your feelings hurt?" Callie teased.

"No," Sloan said gruffly, although Callie knew better and began to laugh. "Shut up, Torres. So, what's the plan? Lock them in an on-call room together?"

"This is phase one," Callie said. "Observation. I don't know enough about the situation yet to make a definitive decision on the next step."

"Alright, I'll see what I can dig up," Sloan said. "Provided he'll share anything real with me."

She smirked. "Just do the best you can. Meanwhile, I'll continue on with Kepner."

"Sounds like a plan."

"So, I leave the kitchen and when I come back, she's doing the dishes with Derek," Meredith told Cristina, as they wait for some blood work. "He's helping her scrub one of the dishes, and she looks the happiest I've ever seen her."

Cristina stared at her with her lips pressed into a frown.

"Okay, that is not normal. Your kid is weird, Mer."

Meredith smiled indulgently and said, "Yeah, she is. What can I say, she loves washing dishes."

"That's not normal. And why did you even have dishes in the first place? Did you cook?"

Meredith snorted. "This is me we're talking about."

"Yeah, well you've gotten all domestic with Zola. Maybe you took up cooking without my knowledge."

"Again, this is me we're talking about," Meredith said. "Derek cooked."

"Sheperd cooks? What'd he make?"

"Some risotto thing," Meredith said, drumming her fingers on the counter. "It was pretty good."

Cristina smiled wide. "So, McDreamy cooks. Who would've known?"

"Grey," Bailey barked, joining the two. "I have a patient for you, if you're not too busy having social time with Yang."

"No, I'm not too busy."

"Bed 23," Bailey said, handing over the chart. "He's all yours."

Meredith exchanged a look with Cristina before heading over to the patient's bed. She read over the chart quickly, and felt disappointment settle when she saw it was a simple case of food poisoning. Bailey sent her to check on his fluids, like some lackey intern.

"Mr. Druthers, how are you?" Meredith asked, glancing over his shoulder at the IV bag to make sure it had enough fluid. "Feeling any better?"

"Yeah, I'm not chucking anything up, so that's a start. I…" he trailed off, looking at something to her side. "Hey, Bobby!"

She looked at him in confusion, and then turned around, surprised to see a younger man, around 30, wave and say, "Uncle Rich, you get hit with it, too?"

"Yeah. Should've known all I'd get in return for that 100 dollar envelope was food poisoning!"

She looked between the two men and then asked Mr. Druthers, "You two were at the same event?"

"Yeah. We had a wedding tonight. Figures we'd get sick off that meal. They served hamburgers. Who in their right mind serves hamburgers at a wedding?"

"That's a very good question," Meredith said, turning halfway through saying it when her attention was diverted by Bobby calling out to someone behind her.

"Aunt Lily!" Bobby said. "You too?"

Meredith turned back to the chart, imagining the hoard of wedding goers that were about to descend on Seattle Grace, and murmured, "Oh boy."

April walked into the stairwell, needing to only get one floor down to assist in a consult with Dr. Sheperd. She turned the corner quickly, and nearly collided with Jackson as he climbed up the stairs.

"Oh," she breathed out, a hand flying to her chest. "I didn't see you there."

"Sorry," he said, equally shaken. "Well, I'll just…"

He moved around her, and after a moment of hesitation she turned around and called after him.

"Jackson, wait."

He turned around but didn't move down the three steps that separated them.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry," she said. "What I said earlier. It came out all wrong."

"No, I think it came out just right. You're right. Our hook-up was meaningless. With you and Dave-

"I mean what I inadvertently said about you," she interrupted. There were other issues in what he just said, particularly about that night being meaningless, but she decided to leave them for now.

"You do mean something to me, Jackson," she said. "You're my friend. My best friend, and I never want to hurt you."

He nodded, jaw clenched.

"So, I'm sorry," she said. "If I could take it back, I would. But unless a time machine was made without my knowledge, all I can do is just say that I am really, really sorry."

A reluctant grin pulled at his mouth.

"Yeah, no time machines that I know of."

"Are we okay?"

She looked so eager for him to forgive her that he found himself hard-pressed to do anything else. Plus, it was a bit of an overreaction on his part. He knew what she meant that morning but was too set off by Dave spending the night to really listen to her. She hadn't taken them sleeping together well, and he couldn't imagine her jumping in bed with another guy so fast. He stepped down toward her and closed the distance between them. He gave her a quick hug and said, "Yeah, we're fine. I kind of overreacted, anyway."

"Good," she said with a succinct nod. "I mean, not with the overreacting, but with the us being fine part."

He chuckled lightly. "Yeah, I got it."

"Well, I have a consult to get to," she said.

"I have a surgery," he returned. "I'll see you later?"

"Yeah, see you later." He started to walk up the stairs, and at the last moment she said, "By the way, Jackson, we didn't do anything."

He looked down at her through the bars of the railing.

"What?"

"Dave and I. Nothing happened. We slept. That's it."

He paused for a moment and then said, "Okay."

"Okay," she echoed, watching him walk up the stairs and disappear out the door.

Sloan hurried down the hallway after Derek, weaving around a group of nurses before landing beside his friend. Derek glanced over at him and said, "Hey Mark. You're out of breath."

"I ran after you," Mark answered easily, and Derek laughed.

"I'm flattered. What's going on?"

"Let me run a hypothetical across you," Sloan began.

"Alright."

"If you walked in on Meredith getting busy with someone else, you'd tell me, right?"

Derek stared at him.

"Why are you asking me this?"

"No reason. Could you just give me an answer?"

"Mark," Derek said, tone warning. Sloan saw he wasn't getting an answer without a bit of explanation and sighed.

"Fine. Jackson lied to me about where he was last night."

"Having a spat with your other half?" Derek joked.

"He's having lady troubles," Sloan said. "I had to find out from Torres. Do you know how embarrassing that was?"

Derek snorted. "Oh, I'm sure it was awful. I'm surprised you survived, Mark."

"I'm serious. I'm his mentor, Sheperd. You'd think he'd come to about this stuff."

"Well, then you should have a heart-to-heart with him. Let him know that he hurt your man feelings."

Sloan frowned. "Okay, this conversation is over."

"What? You wanted my opinion!"

"Yeah, but without the Derek Sheperd sarcasm. Uncalled for, man."

"No, a little called for," Derek said, laughing at the look on Sloan's face. Derek's beeper went off, and he glanced down at what was on the screen. "I have a consult that I'm late for," he said, clearing the pager screen. He looked back at Sloan and joked, "Now don't be too hard on Avery. Every relationship goes through its ups and downs."

"Last time I go to you for advice!" Sloan called after him.

The emergency room floor was filled with what the hospital staff quickly learned was the Ganner wedding. According to about half of the vomiting-in-basins attendees, the marriage was doomed. The other half included the wedded couple themselves, and those too nauseous to care.

"Think we'll still make the honeymoon, babe?" Hank Ganner asked, reaching over the hospital bed railing to grasp his new wife, Nicole Ganner's, hand. She went to reach his hand, but then doubled over, vomiting into a basin Lexie had put in her lap.

"I think you may have to put the honeymoon on hold," Lexie said apologetically, delicately removing the basin once Nicole had finished vomiting. "Probably for the best with all the vomiting."

"It was only a trip to the Wisconsin Dells anyway," Uncle Rich, the original Ganner wedding victim, said from a few beds over. "I'd make myself sick to miss that one!"

"We happen to like the Dells," Nicole Ganner shot back.

"No, dear, it's all you could afford after spending all that money on those salmonella-tainted-burgers."

"Okay, I am going to get you all some apple juice," Lexie interjected perkily. "How does that sound?"

She turned on her heel, and went over to the nurse's station to have one of them put in an order for apple juice. Jackson came over to her, and glanced at the crowded emergency room.

"What's happening in there?"

"Food poisoning epidemic from a wedding," Lexie said. "Burgers were served. It's a big thing."

"Burgers at a wedding?"

"Don't even start," Lexie warned, making him laugh.

"Alright, alright. Do you need help? I was heading to lunch, but it can wait."

"Right now, I am ordering apple juice. This is why I went to medical school for four years. To get people apple juice."

"Hey, someone has to do it. And, you understand the hydrating properties behind the apple juice. You're a step above the average juice-getter."

She grinned. "Well, that makes all the difference. To be honest, I just made up an excuse to escape the constant familial bickering. That is one unhappy extended family over there."

"Well, it looks like you have things under control."

"Yes. Until another cluster of the family comes in projectile vomiting." She scrunched her nose. "Should be a hoot."

Meredith, Cristina and April sat at a table in the lunch room, digging into their sandwiches and French fries. Jackson joined them a bit later, slipping into the seat beside April.

"That's why I'm glad Derek and I did the post-it note wedding," Meredith said, taking a bite of her sandwich. "No dealing with family. No potential food poisoning."

"Didn't you miss having your family there?" April asked.

"You mean my dead mom and alcoholic-absentee-father?" Meredith asked. Beside her, Cristina snorted.

"Oh, right," April said in a small voice.

"Some people are built for those big weddings," Cristina said, munching on a french fry. "We're not big wedding people, Mer. Now, Kepner just screams big wedding."

Meredith laughed. "Oh yeah. That guy of yours better watch out."

Jackson looked over at April, whose cheeks were bright pink, and said, "You guys aren't talking about getting married, are you?"

"Of course not," she said quickly. "Don't be silly."

"Look at her," Cristina said, pointing a French fry in her direction. "Your cheeks give it away. You've been thinking about it. She's totally been thinking about it."

"I have not," April said. "We've only been dating for two weeks. I'm not some freak, you know?"

"I don't know," Cristina said. "You do have that whole twenty-nine year old virgin thing."

April stiffened, and she quickly looked down at her sandwich. There was silence from the other side of the table, which she knew was a bad sign.

"Oh my God," Meredith said. "You did it, didn't you?"

"No," April said, risking a glance up. It proved a bad move when her cheeks flushed even deeper at Meredith and Cristina's surprised and oddly satisfied gaze.

"She totally did," Cristina said, leaning back in her chair. "Her cherry has been popped."

"Look guys, can we not talk about this," April said.

"Yeah, let's just drop it," Jackson cut in. "She's obviously uncomfortable."

"Who was it?" Meredith asked. "Is it anyone we know?"

"No, it-it's not," April said. "It's no one you know. Can we please stop talking about it, now?"

"Kepner finally becomes a woman," Cristina said with a smug grin. "Welcome to the big leagues."

"I think I'm done," April said, gathering her things and rising from the table.

"April, we were just kidding," Meredith said. "Come on, don't go."

April walked away hurriedly, clutching her sandwich to her chest. Jackson gave both Cristina and Meredith a look and said, "Nice going, guys."

He rose from the table, too, and followed April out of the cafeteria.

"April, wait up!"

She didn't look back, but slowed down enough for him to catch up with her. He fell in step beside her and said, "Look, they were being jerks."

"Now the entire hospital will know," she said. "This is awful. No, this is worse than awful!"

"It's not that bad," he said placatingly. "And you don't have to tell anyone it was me."

She bit the inside of her cheek, thinking that she already had. She really hoped now that Dr. Torres would keep her promise and not reveal that it was Jackson.

They walked to the deserted hallway that they ate lunch in a lot the year before, after the shooting when everyone stared, and she settled on the spare hospital bed, pulling her legs up under her.

"They're going to assume that it's Dave," she said.

He looked down at his own food sitting on his lap and asked, "Will you correct them?"

"It would make sense. We are dating and all."

He nodded, wondering to himself why it was better to say that it was some guy she had known for less than a month, than to admit that it was him.

"Yeah, that makes sense," he echoed.

"Maybe they won't tell anyone."

"Meredith and Cristina? The only secrets they don't tell are their own."

She sighed, resting her head against the wall. "You're right. I'm officially screwed."

He patted her knee and said, "Chin up. You're a soldier, remember?"

She laughed, remembering how she had repeated that countless times when they were in San Francisco.

"Thank you, by the way, for standing up for me in there," she said. "I appreciated it."

"That's what friends are for."

His beeper went off and he glanced down at his belt.

"It's Altman. She has a surgery for me to scrub in on. You okay?"

"I'm fine," she told him.

"Alright," he said, getting up from the bed. "I'll see you later."

She watched him walk away and sighed, stuffing several French fries into her mouth. These next few days were not going to be fun.

A/N: And the plot thickens! Let me know what you think about this! Btw, I have some April-Dave-Jackson awkwardness planned for next chapter and it has some pretty monumental results. So, look out for that next chapter soon :D