I am so sorry for the long hiatus. I have rewritten this chapter a few times, and I think I was probably being too picky about it. I am so overwhelmed with the response this story has gotten. Thank you all for reading and reviewing - it means the world to me!

I promise that it will not be another three months until an update is posted... I've already started rolling on chapter four. As for the cliffhanger at the end of the second chapter, you'll have more answers soon :)

CHAPTER THREE

"Jackson, you do realize that we only have two hours – wait, no, more like one hour and 48 minutes left until this exam, right? And it's not just any exam… it's a big, scary, life-changing exam that could very much determine the rest of our careers, not to mention our lives."

He ignored her paranoia and continued trailing kisses down her neck and across her right shoulder, which was made bare due to the way his oversized t-shirt hung off of her body.

"Mmm, I do, but I also realize that you perform best when you release some of that tension. And, lucky for you, I happen to have an excellent technique for that release."

"Is this what the rest of our life is going to be like?" she asked, letting a soft moan escape her lips. "Me stressing out about the MCATs, and then the intern exam and eventually our boards? And you providing distraction after distraction?"

"Well, I remember you accepting my marriage proposal, so yeah. That's exactly what it's going to be like."

The shrill buzzing coming from his pager pulled Jackson out of his memory-induced dream. In the months since April had reappeared in his life, he had practically relived their entire relationship in his dreams. However, the moments in his subconscious had been the extent of their interactions, as they had been successfully avoiding one another everywhere else.

When April had first shown up in Seattle, he still carried resentment toward her. Yet, at the same time, a small part of him wanted to find a way for them to find a friendship once again. He watched her from afar, and he could tell that she was struggling. Transitioning from working in a warzone to being a surgeon at a world-class hospital would be a difficult task for any doctor, but April had the seemingly insurmountable task of preparing for her boards on top of it.

As far as he could tell, she was isolating herself and trying to handle it all on her own. According to the hospital rumor mill, April was angry with her brother and barely speaking to him. Cristina seemed relieved, especially when her sister-in-law refused Owen's invitation to stay with them and chose to rent a room in the house Alex, Jo and Kevin Banks shared. While nobody seemed to know why the Hunt siblings were fighting, Jackson knew April well enough to know any grudge that kept her at odds with her brother for this long must have been serious.

He jogged into trauma room 3, where his paged had directed him, and frowned to find it empty. He turned around and caught Jo's attention as she wheeled a patient past.

"What's going on? Someone just paged me here."

"Banks asked me to call for you, but apparently Hunt got impatient and brought the patient up to OR 2. I'm guessing you can find them up there."

"That's freaking fantastic. I got down here within ninety seconds of the page," Jackson groaned. He rushed up to the operating room and flipped on the intercom so he could get an update on the patient while he scrubbed in. The first voice he heard was April's.

"I've got the bleeding in the abdomen under control. His stats should be coming up now."

"See, you're a natural. It would have taken me twice as long to find the source of the bleed. There's no way you didn't pass the boards," Kevin's voice answered. "And when you get the news that you passed, we'll have a celebratory dinner, on me."

Jackson felt a wave of jealousy flow through him. Kevin Banks had been in his intern class at Mercy West, and he considered him a good friend. They had their differences, though, and most of them had to do with their approaches toward dating. Since April had left him, Jackson had dated a few women here and there. He even had a relationship that lasted six months. But he didn't do one night stands, and he tried not to waste any time with women that he couldn't envision a future with.

Kevin, on the other hand, was a serial dater. In the years Jackson had known him, he had never spent more than two nights with the same woman. He was a good surgeon, but when it came to the opposite sex, the man had the attention span of a toddler.

Jackson finished scrubbing, marched into the operating room and cleared his throat. "Sorry I couldn't be here sooner. For some ridiculous reason, I was paged to the pit rather than the OR."

"Yeah, Avery, sorry about that," Kevin started, "The guy was crashing fast. But lucky for him, Hunt's a rock star. She gave him a trach in the elevator on the way up here, found the bleeder in no time and now we're working on fixing his spleen."

It was one thing to overhear Kevin flirting with April, but the fact that the guy continued to do so in front of him really pissed Jackson off. He approached the table and surveyed the patient.

"Well, rock star might be a stretch," he argued, "Considering these incisions are a mess."

"What?" April questioned, raising her gaze to meet his.

"I could see how you find this kind of approach effective in a war zone, Dr. Hunt, but here, we cut for precision so that our patients won't have horrible scars to remind them of a day that was quite possibly the worst of their lives."

"I-uh… I thought I was pretty precise…"

"You weren't," he answered harshly, "And you would do well to remember that for the next time you choose to take matters into your own hands before the backup you requested arrives."

"Avery, chill out," Kevin started. "She made a call."

"And it was the wrong call!" Jackson argued. "Now if we can please just focus on the patient, I have a lot of work to do to clean up this mess."

(Later that night, Joe's Bar)

"What about that one?" Alex asked Jackson, pointing to a blonde woman who looked barely legal across the bar. "She may look like she's in high school, but she's got easy written all over her."

"It's unbelievable that they let you work with children all day," Jackson commented as he finished off his beer and signaled to the bartender for another. "And I told you I didn't come here trolling for sex. I just wanted to have a few beers to help forget about my crappy day."

"Then why are we here? We could be drinking better beer for a lot cheaper at my house," Alex argued, pulling out some cash and leaving it on the bar to cover their tab.

"We're not going to your house," Jackson groaned. He had been hoping to get his mind off of April, which would be practically impossible if he wound up drunk and sleeping on the couch in the same house where she was living.

"Seriously?" Alex questioned "Because of April? You're still hung up on her, aren't you?"

"No, I'm not hung up on my ex after seven years," Jackson argued.

"Are you sure? Because now that I think about it, you haven't been over to my place once since she moved in. And Jo told me that you were in surgery with her today, which probably explains why you've been pouting like a baby since we left the hospital."

"I'm not hung up on April," Jackson reiterated with irritation in his voice. "It's just uncomfortable… being around her is uncomfortable."

Alex noticed April walk into the bar and chuckled. "Well, then get ready to be uncomfortable."

Before Jackson could pay for his drinks and sneak out, April approached them and cleared her throat softly.

"Jackson… I mean, Dr. Avery… is there any chance I could have a moment of your time?"

He knew from the way her voice was shaking that she was nervous and that it was his tirade in the operating room that made her nervous to be around him. No matter how uncomfortable it was for him to be around her, he didn't want to be the man who made her nervous. He stood up, dropped some money on the bar and finally made eye contact with her.

"Let's step outside," he suggested, leading the way through the bar to the alley behind. Once they were alone in the reflection of the floodlights behind Joe's, he noticed April wringing her hands together as she paced back and forth in front of a dumpster.

"I was out of line today," she started. "Taking that patient up to the OR before you got to the pit was out of line, and I'm sorry. I should have followed protocol instead of making a call. I know I made the wrong call."

Jackson found it almost impossible to ignore her facial expressions as she apologized to him. He tried to imagine that it was any other surgeon in front of him, not the woman who had been haunting his dreams for longer than he could remember. But when she looked at him with that sparkle in her eye that precluded tears, he only saw April Hunt, the woman he had planned to spend his life with all those years ago.

"You were trying to save the patient's life. Maybe it wasn't the right call, but I know why you made it. I shouldn't have gone off on you like that," he admitted. "Just don't let it happen again."

She stopped pacing for a moment and looked him straight in the eye. "My being here is not good for you. I know that. And believe me, if I could get on a plane tonight and make this easier for you, I would, because I owe you that much. But I can't… I can't for a lot of reasons that I realize you probably don't want to hear. And that's your right, especially after all I've put you through. It's also your right to say no to this next thing I need to ask you…"

She took a small step toward him, and while there was still enough distance between them to make it impossible for him to touch her, the gesture was not lost on Jackson.

"What is it?" he asked softly.

"I don't want to leave my patients with scars that will be constant reminders of the worst days of their lives. Sometimes I see the way you look at me, and I think I'm a scar for you… I remind you of this terrible moment in your life when I broke your heart, and I hate being your scar."

She choked back a tear before continuing.

"I need to be a better doctor to my patients than I was a fiancée to you. And I know in order to do that, I need help. You're one of the best plastics fellows in the country. And on top of that, you singlehandedly got me through most of medical school, so I know you're a good teacher."

"You want me to help you?" he questioned.

She nodded. "I know you're super busy running the hospital, and you have a packed surgical schedule. But I am willing to put in the time. And I can pay you or something."

He smirked. "What exactly is the hourly rate for surgical tutors these days?"

"More than I can afford," she smiled. "But I'm still really good with administrative work. I could help you catch up on paperwork or something."

Jackson knew that he was going to agree to help her before she even asked. He just needed to remember he was doing her a favor as a colleague for the better of the hospital. It had nothing to do with their personal history.

"Meet me in the skills lab at 5 a.m. tomorrow. And you're in charge of bringing the coffee."

"Really?" she asked with a smile. "You'll do it?"

He shrugged. "I mean, I am one of the best and you work in my hospital… why not? Plus, I hate paperwork, so it's a good trade."

"Then I'll see you tomorrow," she replied, moving back toward the door before she gave into her impulse to hug him.

"Yep, tomorrow," he repeated, turning in the opposite direction to leave. He only made it a few steps before stopping and calling for her. "Hey April?"

"Yeah?" she answered, turning back to face him.

"I don't see a scar when I look at you. You are so many different things to me, but you are definitely not my scar."