Jo had barely been home forty-five minutes when there was a knock on her apartment door. She pulled the door open surprised to find a delivery man holding a bouquet of flowers. A smile tugged at her lips. Alex. She thanked the delivery man and offered him a tip only to be told it had already been taken care of. After she pushed the door closed, she buried her nose in the flowers taking in their sweet scent; she set the vase down on the table and pulled the card out. It read: Beautiful flowers for a beautiful woman. Her small smile grew into a full blown grin. She took a picture of the flowers and one of the card, texting them to April with the message: he is seriously the sweetest. No man had ever treated her this way, had ever bothered to woo her, and now she wondered why she had settled. She didn't know what she had been missing, hell, she didn't know men like this existed.

Jo continued unpacking from her weekend trip and did a little laundry. She popped a frozen pizza in the oven before going to her closet to choose an outfit for a job interview she had the next morning. Satisfied with her clothing decision and just as the timer sounded signaling her dinner was ready, she finally picked up her phone. She scrolled through her contacts until she landed on Alex's name, tapping the screen to make the call she sat down on the couch curling her feet under her with a plate full of pizza and a bottle of soda.

Alex answered on the second ring, "Jo," his smile evident in his voice.

"Hey, I got the flowers; they're beautiful. Thank you," she said picturing his handsome face, "You really didn't have to do that."

"I know. I wanted to. It was a day late, but hey, it still counts, right?"

"Yeah, it still counts," she chuckled. "So… what are you up to? I hope I didn't interrupt anything," she nibbled her pizza.

"No, not at all," he quickly assured her, "We just got back to town. I'm unpacking, doing some laundry, nothing pressing."

"Good."

The conversation was a bit stilted; the easy rapport they had shared on their date missing over the phone lines. They made small talk, neither one willing to broach too serious a topic.

Finally, Jo said, "I guess I should go; I've got a job interview in the morning I need to prepare for."

"Okay," Alex agreed a mix of disappointed and relieved, "Goodnight, Jo, and good luck tomorrow."

"Thank you," she replied before hanging up the phone with a sigh. Was this going to work out? It's so hard.

Alex's thoughts echoed Jo's as he stared down at the now black screen of his phone. How were they going to make a marriage work? It's too hard being so far apart. If they had just had more time together face to face, maybe it would have been different.

Not surprisingly, Jo received a text message early the next morning from Alex: Good luck today. I know you will be awesome and will impress. The job is yours. She was beginning to see just how thoughtful he was. Good morning texts, flowers for no reason.

She got ready and went to her interview, unfortunately she didn't feel like it went as well as she would have liked, and she was not as confident as Alex had been that the job was in fact hers. Oh well, it was just her first interview, she reasoned.

Alex had class that morning, but he found it hard to focus on the professor's lecture. Instead he was caught up with thoughts of the past weekend, the intriguing woman he had inadvertently married, and just exactly how the heck they were going to move forward.

That afternoon, Alex took a deep breath and picked up his phone. He figured it would be better to talk to his parents about Jo sooner than later. What was he going to tell them? He agitatedly ran a hand through his hair. He was twenty-five years old. Why was he still so nervous to have this conversation with his mother? He gave himself a silent pep talk, and then bit the bullet dialing his mother. He almost hoped she didn't answer, but of course she did.

After greeting each other and the obligatory "how are you?", "good", "and you and Dad?", "good," Helen Karev caught her son up on the church and all the members, especially the young single women. Alex told his mom about his classes and vaguely answered her questions about Jackson's bachelor party.

Just before she was going to end the call, Alex cleared his throat, "Umm Mom, there is one other thing I was gonna tell you about." She encouraged her son to go on noting the hesitation in his voice. "Well I've kinda been seeing someone, and I think she might be… well she's special. I really like her."

"How long have you been dating?" the curious mother asked, wondering why she was just now hearing about this 'special' girl.

"Not long, but I don't know, there's just something about her," he answered.

"That's good. I'm happy for you," Helen said, slowly adding, "Do you think she might be 'the one'?"

"I'm praying she is," he replied quietly gazing at the marriage license, picture, and wedding ring he had set up on his bedside table.

Jo found herself really looking forward to that evening. But should she call Alex or wait for him to call her? Her phone rang as she pondered that. Seeing that it was Alex, she shook her head. Somehow they seemed to be on the same wavelength all the time. "Hello," she answered in a cheerful tone.

"Hi," he said simply. "How was your day?"

"It's better now," she answered honestly curling up on the end of her couch once again.

"The interview?" he asked.

"Eh, I don't think it went that well," she sighed.

"I'm sorry," he sympathized, "What was it? I don't even know what you do," he gave a short humorless chuckle.

"It was just a receptionist position. I'm kinda in between jobs right now," she glazed over his question. She didn't want to spend her life as a receptionist, but it was something, somewhere to start. She really wanted to go back to school, but she had to have money for that. It had been five years since she stepped foot in a classroom and that long since she had had a job. She didn't know what she wanted to do, but she did know she wanted to help people; the forgotten about, looked over, passed around people. "How about you? How was your day?"

The fact that she once again changed the focus of the conversation off of herself and onto him did not go unnoticed. "It was okay.. I called my mom, and told her about you."

Jo's eyes opened wide in surprise, "You did? How did that go?"

"Well I didn't exactly tell her everything, just that I had been seeing someone.. special."

She smiled at the tenderness in Alex's voice and his choice of words, "Oh yeah, what did she have to say about that?"

"She said she was happy for me.. I guess she probably is, I don't know. I'm supposed to be settled down and happily married by the time I graduate, Dad retires, and I take over for him, so… of course there are a few girls at the church they would love for me to marry.."

"Ah, pre-approved good Christian girls who will make the perfect preacher's wife," Jo read between the lines of what he was saying.

"Yeah, something like that," he confirmed.

"Alex, that's not me; I don't think it ever will be," she said quietly, apologetically.

"That's what they want, Jo. Not what I want," he insisted. "I've dated those girls; they're all I've dated, and nothing's come of it. I'm more into you after what, two or three days, than I've ever been into any of them," he admitted shyly his face flaming.

Jo couldn't believe what she was hearing, "Alex, I…" she didn't know what to say.

"It's okay, Jo, you don't have to say anything," he understood her hesitation, "I don't know where we will end up, but I still want to give us a chance. I'm in this all the way. I wasn't just saying that to my mom when I said you were special. I really think you are, and I really like you, Jo. I know it doesn't make any sense; we barely know each other, but I feel it; there's something between us." He didn't know where his confidence came from. He never spoke like that to anyone before. He was sure she must think he was crazy.

Jo blinked away the tears that sprang to her eyes. How could this man she'd only met a few days ago affect her so much. He was so much more invested in her than anyone had ever been. And she wanted that, wanted to explore the relationship he offered, wanted to be cherished by this man who was so willing to give of himself, but could they ever work? They were so different. The last thing she wanted was for someone to get hurt. "Alex, we're so different," she put voice to one of the many thoughts swirling in her mind.

"Maybe we're good for each other," he countered. The tables had turned. He was now the confident one.

"You're a preacher," she stated the obvious, "I don't go to church. I didn't grow up in church. I went a few times sporadically, that's it. It's your whole life."

"I can have more than one thing in my life. I'm not giving up on you because you don't go to church. That's not who I am. And you never know, maybe you will go someday, and maybe you'll find it's not so bad."

Jo took a deep breath willing herself to calm down. She didn't want to sabotage this, whatever this was, he could really be the best thing that had ever happened to her. No one had ever made her feel the way he did. "April and Matthew are always trying to get me to go with them. Maybe I'll take them up on it one of these times," she conceded.

"Only if that's what you want. I'm not pressuring you," he let up.

"I know," and she did. She was getting to know him well enough to know he wouldn't push his beliefs on her.

After a few beats of silence, Alex changed the subject lightening the mood. They talked late into the night; the awkwardness of the night before seemingly disappeared. When the conversation stalled, they regretfully ended the call, wishing each other goodnight and sweet dreams.

The days passed quickly, Jo had a few more job interviews, none that she was overly excited about, and Alex spent his time in class and studying. The highlight of both their days soon became their nighttime phone calls. They talked about everything and nothing.

They had been carrying on this way for almost two weeks when Jo finally mustered up her courage. This was it, tonight was the night, everything depended on their conversation tonight, well really Alex's reaction to it. She ran herself a bath and poured herself a glass of wine, keeping the bottle close at hand. Taking a steadying breath she sank down into the hot sudsy water calling Alex. Her eyes drifted shut briefly and a smile graced her lips at the sound of his voice on the other end.

She took control of the conversation before they could get too far, "Alex, there's something I need to tell you. I should have told you right away, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it."

"O-okay," his heartbeat quickened, "You can tell me anything, Jo, you know that."

"I've been married before," she rushed right in not wanting to lose her nerve, "I just got divorced actually. I didn't tell you the whole story in Vegas. I was there to celebrate my divorce being finalized; it was supposed to be a girls trip, just me and April…" she let her ramblings drift off waiting for his reaction.

"Okay," he said anticipating more, something bigger.

"Okay? That's all you have to say?"

"Well, yeah…" he shrugged confused.

"What about everything you said about marriage? It's worth fighting for, you make it work..? I didn't stay and fight, Alex, I ran," she explained cringing in preparation for the disappointment sure to come across the line.

"Jo, I told you before, I don't care about your past. I'm concerned with the future we can build together. I don't know what happened in your previous marriage; I'm not going to hold your past against you," he assured her, compassion so evident in his voice. He had such a strong urge to take her into his arms, to hold her. Damn the miles between them.

"Aren't you afraid it will happen again, with us?" she asked quietly.

"No," he said simply, confidently.

She slipped down further into the tub resting her head on the rim eyes closed. "We met my first year in college. Got married a couple of years later, I was twenty," she started, needing him to know the whole story, "He was charming, attractive, seemed to have it all when we started dating even the first few months of our marriage. Then he took a job across the country, moved us away from our friends, his family, everyone we knew. He didn't want me to continue school, said I didn't need to, that I didn't need a job. He wanted to support me; I just needed to raise our family. Thank God I didn't get pregnant," she shook her head remembering.

Alex listened, glad she was finally opening up to him, but aching all the more to hold her.

"As time went on he became more controlling, wanting to dictate more and more of my life. April is really the only friend I have, and he wasn't happy about that even. He only wanted me to socialize in his circles. It took me five years to finally decide I deserved better. So I left him and filed for divorce." She opened her eyes, returning to the present, finishing off her wine and pouring another glass.

"Jo, I'm so sorry… I don't know what to say," his heart broke for her. "Did he ever.. hurt you?" he asked concern causing his voice to crack.

"No," she shook her head adamantly, "Not yet anyway; I think he might would have. I think we were headed in that direction. That's when I knew I had to get out."

"Oh, Jo," he uttered crushed.

"I should have never married him. I'd been passed around from foster home to foster home so much. I just wanted a place to belong, and I thought I had found that with him," she explained. Before Alex could say anything, Jo ended the phone call, exhausted from the emotion, "I gotta go; goodnight Alex." She stood up from the tub and wrapped a towel around herself shivering as the water had grown cold. She knew what she had to do, and she wasn't going to waste any time. She would make arrangements the next day, starting with coming clean to April.

"Goodnight," Alex murmured to the empty phone line. He lay awake for a long time that night. Troubled by what Jo had revealed to him, not because it changed his mind about wanting to forge a relationship with her, but hurting for her and wondering what other secret hurts her past held. Her strength was even more evident now, knowing what she had been through, and he didn't even know the extent of what she had been through. It wasn't lost on him that she made no mention of her family, and what of the foster homes she had mentioned?

Sometime in the wee hours of the morning, Alex's phone alerted a new message: I'm sorry. I just dumped all of that on you and hung up. I didn't even give you a chance to talk about it.

He typed out a quick reply: It's fine. Don't worry about me. Are you okay?

Yeah I'm good now.

Good. Do you wanna talk more now... or?

No it's ok... it's late. We'll talk tomorrow. Goodnight.

He turned over and fluffed his pillow once again, trying to find a comfortable position. She had so many layers, so many walls, and all he wanted was to break through them and show her love, if she would just let him. But he was getting ahead of himself, wasn't he?

Alex answered his door the next evening, "Jo!" he uttered shocked. The woman was standing in front of him suitcase at her feet.