A/N: I'm thrilled by the response to this story. Thanks everyone! Enjoy :)

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any Grey's characters.

Chapter 2 – Hello Beautiful

Anderson lazily flipped through the television channels on day two of his stay in Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital. He had not stayed this long in a hospital since he was a young child and he was an incredibly active individual. He biked, he played basketball, and he volunteered. He wrote for a living and was without any of his materials. So, he was incredibly bored and restless lying in a hospital bed with just a television. To dampen his mood even further, he hadn't seen Dr. Kepner since his check-up yesterday morning. She may be avoiding him since he had seen every other doctor on his case. Dr. Altman and Dr. Yang had talked to him about his heart and his new ICD and Dr. Sloan and Dr. Avery had checked on his stitches. Even Dr. Hunt had stopped by.

A brief knock on the door interrupted his thoughts and Dr. Avery stepped inside his room.

"Good morning, Mr. Matthews."

"Please call me Andy or Anderson. Are you here to change my bandages?"

Avery nodded, "Yup. How are you feeling? Tender?"

"A little bit but I feel pretty good," he answered.

Avery moved to stand at his bedside and began to meticulously clean and redress the bandages on his chest and abdomen. "And how is the ICD?"

"Great. I feel a little bit like a robot but it's good," he laughed.

Avery laughed along with him as he continued his work.

"Can I ask you a question?" Anderson began tentatively.

"Sure," Avery replied distractedly.

"Do you know Dr. Kepner?"

"I do," he nodded. "She's a good friend of mine."

"Is she avoiding me?"

Avery chuckled. "She's busy in the ER today. Why would she be avoiding you?"

"Because I told her that she's the most beautiful woman that I've ever seen," he explained. "And she blushed adorably. I'd blame the drugs but it's the truth," he laughed.

Avery's hands stilled on his abdomen for a moment before he mustered a stunned reply. "Oh."

"Do you know if she's seeing anyone?" He asked curiously.

The surgeon cleared his throat awkwardly. "No, I don't think so. She's busy with work and everything."

Anderson smiled and seemingly satisfied, he changed the topic of conversation to the Seattle Mariners game that was on television. Avery kept up but he was distracted and he focused on completing his task as efficiently and quickly as possible.

After another long shift at the hospital, Jackson returned to the new apartment that he shared with April and Alex Karev.

He dropped his keys on the table by the door and turned towards the living room where Karev was sitting on the couch drinking a beer. His feet were propped up on the coffee table and he was watching sports highlights.

"There's beer in the fridge if you want one," Karev offered.

He shook his head. "Nah, I'm too tired. Where's April?"

"In bed I think," Karev answered briskly.

"I'm going to go to bed too, man. See ya in the morning."

"'Night," Karev called out as Jackson disappeared down the hallway.

He made a pit stop in his bedroom to change his clothes before he tiptoed to April's bedroom and silently opened the door and closed it behind him. She was asleep on her side so he slid into her bed behind her and wrapped an arm around her waist. She tossed and turned in her sleep and he told himself that holding her was the best way to prevent it.

"Jackson," she murmured sleepily. "We should stop doing this…Sloan…"

"I set Sloan straight, don't worry, and besides, I had a rough day. You're not going to kick me out of your bed," he stated confidently.

She sighed, "Only because you're so warm." She grabbed his arm and pulled his body even closer to hers.

He smiled into her hair. He loved her like this, when she was half-awake and her defenses were down. He entwined his feet with hers and laughed. "Jesus April, you're freezing."

"Then warm me up," she retorted quickly.

He chuckled under his breath. Half-awake April was also bolder and a little flirty.

She rolled over to face him and blinked her sleepy, doe eyes at him. "You had a tough day?" She asked in concern.

He told her all about his day and the burn victim that he and Sloan had worked on. He neglected to mention his conversation with Anderson Matthews and the man's interest in her. He was already re-evaluating so many aspects of their friendship that he didn't want to analyze why he kept that bit of information from her.

Jackson woke up in bed alone when April's alarm clock went off and he lazily rolled over to silence it. April always set an alarm for him because she was a natural early riser. He assumed that it was ingrained in her from growing up on a farm. It was just another part of the Kepner work ethic. She liked to make coffee for the three of them and then be the first person in the shower. Jackson, however, was not as energetic in the morning. He slowly got up out of bed and rubbed his eyes as he walked out of the room and headed to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee.

Karev was already sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and a piece of toast when he entered. "Morning."

"Hey," he responded as he took a seat at the table with his coffee. He reached for the morning paper when Karev asked him a blunt question.

"Are you screwing Kepner?"

Jackson was incredibly caught off guard and he dropped the paper on the table. "What?"

"You left your bag in the living room last night so I brought it to your room. You weren't there but you never left the house. So, you were in Kepner's room," Karev reasoned.

Jackson met Karev's hard stare and calmly admitted, "I was."

"So, you're screwing?" He asked nonchalantly.

Jackson shook his head but Karev raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "We're not and even if we are it's none of your business."

"So what are you doing then?" Karev asked in confusion because he had no idea why else Avery would spend so much time alone with their roommate.

Jackson finished his coffee, got up from the table, and left the kitchen without answering the question. His friendship with April was very important to him. They had been through things together that no one else would understand. He didn't even fully understand the connection that they had or the pull that he sometimes felt towards her. So he certainly wasn't going to try to explain it to Sloan or Alex Karev. They wouldn't understand that sleeping next to her helped his nightmares or that he had to talk to her after a bad shift. They just assumed that he had some sexual motive and he had to admit that last night, after she had fallen asleep, very erotic thoughts had crept into his head.

He had always thought that her most striking feature was her beautiful smile but yesterday he had spent so much time observing her that he had noticed many more of her attractive features. She had soft, gorgeous skin. Nice lips. Long legs. Really nice breasts.

"Because I told her that she's the most beautiful woman that I've ever seen."

It took him seven years to realize what Anderson Matthews had seen immediately and that bothered him more than he thought it would.

A/N: Review please! :)