A/N: I hope you all enjoy this chapter :D

Chapter Sixteen

"This is going to be so much fun," Lexie enthused, linking her arm with Mark's. "I love double dates! I mean, it's double the fun. What is there not to like?"

He chuckled, pressing a kiss to her cheek. "This is why I love you, Lex. You get excited over the simplest things."

"Well, aren't you excited?"

"I think it'll be a good time. This was my idea, remember?"

"Yes," she said, nodding happily. "One of your better ones, might I add."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

"All I'm saying is that it is your fault that I can no longer hang a shower curtain in my shower."

"You're as much to blame as I am on that one, Grey."

"Hey Mark, aren't you forgetting something?" Callie called from behind them. He turned around, adjusting the strap of his messenger bag on his shoulder.

"Forgetting what?"

"Um, your daughter?"

"You have her this week," Mark said.

"Yes, but you said you would take her tonight. Remember, when I came to you and said I wanted to plan a romantic night for Arizona and I?"

Mark groaned, squeezing his eyes shut. "I completely forgot."

"Well, unforget and pick her up from the daycare center."

"But I have plans for tonight."

"Newsflash, so do I. Which is why I asked you last week to take Sophia for tonight," Callie said. "Either take her home with you or our kid is homeless for the night."

"Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously. I intend on having hot sex with my wife tonight, sans a crying baby in the next room over."

"We'll take her," Lexie said, giving Mark a look when he went to argue. "You and Arizona have fun tonight."

"I can't believe this," Mark said.

"Sophia is your daughter," Lexie told him firmly. "She will simply come along for the double date."

"I think we might need to have a slight change of plans."

Owen Hunt was faced with the difficult truth that out of all the surgeons he had interviewed, Preston Burke was clearly the correct choice. An internal war began, him trying to decide whether it would be worse to choose someone else for personal reasons, or to willingly let Preston Burke close to his wife. All the while, Cristina was there, preaching the merits of Burke, seemingly oblivious to how her proclamations set her husband on edge. Ultimately, though, he knew that Cristina had been right from the start. The decision was made. The new head of cardio was Preston Burke.

"Bold choice," Richard noted. "Considering your history."

"It was the correct choice."

"I'm glad to see that you made it. Too often here we let our relationships and personal lives get in the way. I've been guilty of it myself. You have a level head on your shoulders, Dr. Hunt."

"Thank you, sir."

"You should head home soon. Not much more you can do today."

"I will," he said. "I just want to have the paperwork all filed for tomorrow."

Richard nodded. "Alright, well, good night, Dr. Hunt."

"Good night, Dr. Webber."

"We should have a safe word," April said, glancing up at Jackson as they walked toward the front of the hospital to meet Lexie and Mark. Jackson looked at her in confusion and asked, "What for?"

"For tonight," April replied crisply. "In case things get uncomfortable, we should have a word that alerts the other person that we want out."

"It's only a dinner," he reminded her. "How uncomfortable are you foreseeing tonight becoming?"

"I don't know," she answered. "Which is precisely why we need a safe word. Now, this should be a word that can easily be woven into conversation, as to not draw attention from the other parties."

"Okay, well-"

"I was thinking scalpel."

Jackson stared at her. "Scalpel? That's your word that can easily be woven into conversation, as to not draw attention from the other parties?"

"We're doctors, Jackson," she said. "We use scalpel in every day conversation all the time."

"Maybe in the hospital, but not in normal conversation."

She frowned and said, "Well, do you have any better suggestions?"

"How about not having a word in the first place."

"But-"

"April," he sighed, stopping in the middle of the hallway and framing her face with his hands. She frowned, knowing exactly what he was doing but finding herself powerless to the effect of his soft gaze. "We do not need a safe word. Tonight is going to be fine."

"You don't understand. I'm inherently awkward. I always say and do the wrong thing. Letting me out there, in the wilderness of ex's, could be potentially disasterous."

He smirked. "The wilderness of ex's?"

"Jackson-"

"I promise to be just as awkward as you are," he said, giving her a quick kiss.

"I don't know if that's even possible."

"Let a guy surprise you once in a while," he said, draping an arm around her shoulder as they continued on to the meeting place. "I might be painfully awkward."

"Fat chance. You're an Avery. You're practically born with a gene that protects you against such common-man problems as awkwardness."

He laughed, shaking his head as they rounded the corner. Lexie and Mark were standing by the door, Mark holding Sophia while Lexie had the diaper bag slung over her shoulder.

"Was Sophia supposed to be a part of this double date?" April asked. "Because that's weird. Even for him."

"No, I don't think so." They reached the couple-plus-one, and Jackson asked, "Everything okay?"

"I forgot that I had Sophia tonight," Mark explained. "Usually this is Callie's week, but apparently I promised to take Soph so her and Arizona could have hot married sex."

"Wow, that is…just wow," April said, wincing slightly.

"Anyway, no reason that our night can't go on," Mark said. "We just have a slight change of plan."

"Change of plan?"

"The restaurant we had in mind isn't really kid friendly," Lexie said. "But we thought of another place that's just as good. We promise."

"So, where are we going?"

"This is the coolest place ever," Jackson said in awe, looking around the restaurant. Mark laughed, clapping the younger man on the back.

"Callie and I take Sophia here a lot," Mark said. "She's entranced by the trains. It's the funniest thing, really."

The restaurant was called Choo Choo Johnnies and was a kid favorite due to the number of toy train tracks snaking around the restaurant, tiny trains chugging around bringing customers their food.

"I remember the first time I came here," Lexie said with a wide grin. "I think I was more excited than some of the kids."

"When I was little I used to love toy trains," Jackson said, sitting down at the table. "Each Christmas my parents would buy me a new LGB train and I would go around pretending I was the conductor with them all."

"Why, Jackson Avery, I had no idea you were such a complete dweeb," Mark said. "It's a wonder you turned out so well."

"This really is the funniest thing," April noted, pointing at Sophia as the baby whipped her head around at the passing trains.

"Free entertainment," Mark said, laughing. "And the food is pretty decent, too."

"What's good here?" Jackson asked, flipping through the menu.

"They have good cheeseburgers," Mark answered.

"Oh, and the chicken fingers!" Lexie threw in excitedly. "I know it's pretty hard to mess up chicken fingers, but these are particularly good. They're my favorite."

"Chicken fingers sound good," April said, smiling when she felt Jackson's hand on her knee beneath the table. She placed her hand over his and interlaced their fingers.

"What is it about food coming on a little train that makes it taste so much better?" April enthused, digging into her chicken fingers. She looked toward Lexie and said, "You weren't kidding about these being great."

"I know," Lexie said happily, biting into her own.

"Sometimes I think I like stuff like this better than the fancy restaurants," Mark said, pulling apart a chicken finger for Sophia.

"I'll take a burger over a steak any day," Jackson said. He glanced toward April and said, "Unless you're making it, of course."

"Right, April Kepner the gourmand," Mark said. "You're lucky to have a girlfriend who cooks. Lex here can't even make pasta."

"That's not true," Lexie said, slapping his arm lightly. "Just because I over-boiled the pasta once, does not mean I can't cook."

"I gotta say, Lexie, he's right," Jackson said, laughing at the look she shot him. "You didn't cook once when were dating."

He noticed April's silence beside him and glanced toward her, wondering if some scalpels would be thrown into the conversation. She seemed to be fine, though, munching on her chicken fingers. He knocked his knee against hers underneath the table and she looked toward him with a soft smile. He leaned in and whispered, "You okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"No need for scalpels?"

She snorted. "Nope. No need for scalpels."

"What the hell are you two talking about?" Mark asked.

Jackson went to give some fabricated story when April cut in and said, "Inside joke. We sort of had a safe word for tonight."

Mark snorted. "A safe word? Isn't that usually reserved for bondage and whips?"

"It has other uses to," April said. "Such as dinner with you boyfriend's boss and ex-girlfriend."

Lexie frowned and said, "April, you know I wound never try to make this uncomfortable. You two are amazing together."

"I know," April said, smiling sheepishly. "Which is why there is no need for a safe word."

"What was it?" Mark asked, picking up a french fry and dipping it in some ketchup.

"What was what?"

"The safe word. What was it?"

Jackson and April exchanged a look before he said, "Scalpel."

"Scalpel?" Mark repeated. "Your safe word was scalpel?"

"We're doctors," April threw in, using the same argument from before. "We use that word all the time."

"I would use the word mitten," Lexie said, mouth screwed up as she considered the merits of the word. "Yes. Mitten."

Mark laughed, draping his arm around her shoulder. "And that, Lex, is why we are never having a safe word."

"What's wrong with mitten?"

"What isn't wrong with mitten?" Jackson piped in. His mentor nodded his head in agreement and said, "Avery phrased it perfectly. No offense, Lex, but that is possibly the worst safe word ever to be in existence."

"Now you're just exaggerating."

"No, I'm not," Mark said.

"It's pretty bad," Jackson said. April wrinkled her nose.

"Well, I still think it is a good safe word," Lexie said firmly. "Therefore, I'm keeping it."

Mark kissed the side of her head, chuckling lightly. "Whatever you say, Lex."

Lexie and Jackson walked back to his apartment, her hand securely in his. She lifted their hands and draped his arm over her shoulders, pressing herself to his side. He kissed her head, wondering how he had lived so long without something that felt so right.

"Tonight was nice," she noted. "I had my reservations, but it ended up being a really nice night."

"I told you. Lexie has moved on. So have I."

"I know," she said. "I do know that. Sometimes my insecurities just get in the way. I try not to let them, but…"

"You don't have to be insecure with me," he said. "You never have to feel that way with me."

She reached up and took his hand, turning her head and pressing a soft kiss to his palm. He stopped walking suddenly, and she glanced up at him in confusion. His gaze was straight ahead, blue eyes narrowed. When she followed his gaze, she saw Catherine Avery standing beside a cab as the driver pulled her suitcase from the trunk.

"Jackson, what is your mother doing with a suitcase in front of your building?" she asked carefully.

Jaw clenched, Jackson said, "Scalpel."

A/N: More returning characters! If you like this, let me know! Reviews have been down a bit lately and I really would love to hear your thoughts on all the developments :D

Next chapter will be posted on MONDAY.