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Alex's pager went off just as they had successfully pulled up a cab to take them home. Looking down at it, they both saw it was a 911, so he took the cab, leaving April standing outside the restaurant, replaying his rambling apologies as he kissed her goodnight on the cheek and jumped into the cab. She waved to him as his disappeared around the corner, then headed towards the curb to hail another cab.

"Hello." A voice came from behind her. She could smell the alcohol on his breath before she had even turned around.

"No." April said, grimacing as she turned around and saw a man with black eye, his lip still bleeding for a recent fight. A cab pulled up as she stepped away, for which she was immeasurably grateful. In his state of insobriety she wasn't entirely sure what he would do, and she wasn't in the mood to knock someone out.

The ride back home was silent, the driver seemingly disliked the radio, so she was left with the sounds of the engine, the traffic around her, his heavy breathing and the occasional ticking of the indicator before he turned. She spent the time replaying her date in her mind. She loved everything that took place, it was perfect, everything that she had worried about, didn't happen. The lulls in conversation that she imagined, the uncomfortable topics and the overwhelming awkwardness when they didn't seem to click weren't a problem. It was the best date she had had in years. Granted it was the only date, but that didn't mean it wasn't anything short of wonderful.

Paying the taxi driver, she walked down the driveway, checking the house for lights. It didn't look like anyone was home, and if they were they probably weren't awake. Locking the door behind her, she crept up the staircase towards her bedroom careful not to make a sound. Grabbing a change of clothes from her room, she headed to the bathroom, locked the door behind her and took a long lengthy shower. Washing off her makeup, washing her hair and then letting the water run down her body, as she stood deep in thought, about everything, not focussing on Alex, but not dismissing him either.

After drying her hair with the help of the hair dryer, she hung her up towels, and headed back to her room, wearing her winter pyjamas, that were warm and soft against her skin. Shutting her door behind her, she collapsed onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling as she lay on her back, a smile spread over her face. Her phone vibrated in her handbag, bringing her out of her thoughts. Sitting up she fished it out of her bag that lay on the floor and flipped it open. She had two unread messages, both from Cristina.

"How did it go call me."

"Unless you're getting lucky, in which case call me later."

April grinned down at her phone. Cristina and her weren't what you would call close, they were friends, well as much of a friend you could be with Cristina if you weren't Mere, or even Alex who she had a pretty close friendship with. But Cristina loved knowing about the two of them, usually she wouldn't give a crap, but April assumed that she cared because it was Alex and she cared about Alex. It was surprising that Cristina helped them as much as she did, sure when she started she wasn't working and needed a distraction, but now she was almost back to normal, at least she was working at the hospital again.

That was the funny thing about Cristina, everyone assumed she was a robot, but she wasn't. She cared, when it mattered most, but most of the time she just seemed disinterested in other people's problems. Because most of the time she didn't care, but honestly most people didn't, they just weren't so blunt about it.

Dialling her number, April crawled underneath her covers and lay down, with her head against the pillow and flicked her lamp out, covering her room in darkness. The only light came through a break through the curtains in which the streetlight was shining through.

"Hey." Cristina answered, sounding tired but like her usual self.

"Hey." April said, closing her eyes as she spoke, she needed to crash she was exhausted.

"I just saw Alex, what happened?" Cristina asked, sounded interested, which was not something she could easily fake so she obviously cared, on some level.

"He got paged."

"I know that! I meant on your date." Cristina chimed, sounding a touch irritated.

"It went well, no, amazingly." April breathed, smiling as she thought about it. "You didn't tell me you instructed Alex about the date as well!" April added.

"I should get a Nobel Peace Prize for my works, it was exhausting. You have no idea how it was to preen him to be presentable in a date situation." Cristina moaned, yelling muffled part of her speaking, she was most likely in the ER, but judging by the reduced noise level by the time she finished she had moved into the corridor.

"Preen, really?" April sighed.

"Yup. Are you ready to tell everyone about your hunky new boyfriend?" Cristina quipped, sounding more like her normal self, than she did when she was moaning but helpful.

"Not yet!" April exclaimed, surprised at how quickly that came out of her mouth.

"So I can't accidentally let it slip yet then. Shame, the hospital could use with some new gossip." Cristina chuckled to herself as she spoke, part of her loved being the only one who knew about them, but it meant that that April would no doubt ooze her feelings all over her as their relationship progressed, which she was not looking forward to that in the slightest.

"No." April said firmly.

"Ok but if, shit, bye." Cristina started smugly before a yell crackled down the line and her voice turned frantic, but excited as she said goodbye and hung up, leaving April in silence.

Placing her phone on her bedside table, she rolled onto her side and stared out the window for a few minutes, thinking about Alex, their date and all that was left to come. Her eyes fluttered, and as she was no longer able to keep the open any longer, she closed them and promptly fell asleep.

Her alarm went off shattering her dreams, and dazed like state. Keeping her eyes shut, she hit her alarm to shut it up, took a deep breath, then opened them. What? 10 o'clock! No. April frantically looked at the alarm, how was it 10, she set her alarm for 7? Picking up her watch off her bedside table, she confirmed that it was 10am. Sitting up hastily, she yanked the covers off her and swung her legs onto the floor. April grabbed her alarm clock and pulled it towards her, to reset the alarm, when she noticed a post it note underneath it.

I took the liberty of changing your alarm. You don't start until 1, sleep a little. God knows you could use the beauty sleep ;)
Cristina

Of course it was Cristina. April fixed her alarm, grabbed her clothes and a towel and headed to the bathroom. Alex's door was still open when she walked by, he wasn't home yet, must have slept at the hospital. The house was silent, everyone was at work, it was her late start today, which usually meant she had the morning to herself, but thanks to Cristina she slept through a large chunk of that time.

After pulling her wet hair into a ponytail she cracked open the bathroom window, and headed downstairs for some breakfast, when her pager went off on her bedside table. Running into her room she grabbed it, 911, she had to go. Grabbing her handbag off the floor, she stuffed everything she needed inside and ran down the stairs. She would have to pick up some coffee and a bagel on the way, she was starving, and she needed her morning coffee, no matter what time it was.

"Didn't I tell you'd look better after a sleep in?" Cristina said as she walked into the lounge and spotted April in the corner pulling on her scrub top.

"Thanks for that, I had to eat breakfast on the way in!" April sniped, sculling the last half of her coffee, before chucking the empty cup into the bin.

"But are you tired?" Cristina asked, grabbing a muesli bar from Mere's locker, unwrapping it and then chewing on it as she smiled at April.

"Well, no." April said, following Cristina through the door and headed towards the ER.

"You're welcome." Cristina said, as they stepped into the lift. The lift was full of nurses, doctors and patients, who all stood in silence as the lift descended. The smell of chemicals filling their noses, and April saw a cleaner out of the corner of her eye. The lift doors opened, onto a loud bustling corridor as Cristina and April stepped out.

"Hey, how was your night?" Mere asked as they stepped into the ER and grabbed trauma gowns off the wall.

"'Twas ok, didn't really get up to much, read a book, ordered takeout." April replied not looking at her, she could never tell a decent lie.

"Oh what book?" Mere asked as the screaming issued from the trauma room beside them.

"We got an incoming trauma. Three car pileup on Broad street, let's go people, ETA one minute." Alex yelled to the ER, handed the phone back to the nurse and saw April in the crowd.

"Grey!" Callie yelled through an opened trauma room door, Mere smiled at April and Cristina before hastily shutting the door behind her as she entered the room.

"Hey." Alex said as he approached them, a small smile forming on his face. He walked behind April and tied up the back of her trauma gown, his fingers lingering for only a moment.

"Oi, you could do mine up as well." Cristina muttered, as Alex withdrew his hands quickly, hoping that nobody took notice of his hesitation. Tying Cristina's up quickly, he stepped away from them, smiled at April then headed over to the doors to greet the ambulance.

"Does he know we're not telling?" Cristina whispered to April, raising her eyebrow slightly as April's eyes followed Alex as he left the ER and disappeared from sight, a small smile lingering on her lips.

"Uhm.. I don't know." April said her eyes still unfocussed.

"Never thought this day would come." Cristina said, smiling.

"What day?" April turned to her quickly, as someone pushed past her and she looked at Cristina in confusion.

"When Virgin Mary fell for evil spawn." Cristina said as she started to walk towards the oncoming traumas, this was the highlight of her day, hopefully it would be something good.

"And on that note I'm going to leave." April backed away from Cristina and turned to focus on a patient lying in a bed, who looked as though she needed attention.

Pushing all thought of Alex out of her head, she smiled at the young woman lying still, her hands clutching her stomach, and her face white as the sheet on which she was lying. For the next few hours, Alex was off limit, Dr Karev was fine, but Alex, and last night, and all those feelings, had to be ignored. She was no longer April, she was Dr Kepner and she had to focus.

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