Alex tried to take a deep breath. He tried to remember how to breathe in and out. He remembered how Jo would go over the steps for a chest tube when she panicked and decided to try it. He kicked off his shoes and Meredith immediately knew what he was doing. She stood in front of him as she helped him go over the steps of the procedure saying them with him in a gentle voice. By the time he completed it, he felt like he could breathe again, although there was still a tightness in his chest and a worry in his heart. He knew wouldn't go away until Jo was out of surgery. He wanted to trust Cristina, but when it came to his wife's life, he didn't trust anybody, not even himself.
"Why don't we go sit down," Meredith gently prompted, still rubbing his back.
"Okay," Alex said as he shuffled his feet and rubbed his hand on his pants.
He put on his shoes again and walked to the doors intending to go to the waiting room, but he couldn't leave her. Alex turned around and walked back to the Cath lab doors. Meredith immediately ran to catch him and stop him, but she didn't need to. He turned around and came back and paced back to the other set of doors. He did this twice before Meredith was content that he wouldn't run into the Cath Lab when she wasn't looking. It was good, it gave his body something to do and his mind something to focus on as he counted the steps. He walked back and forth, back and forth, seven steps this way, seven steps back.
Meredith leaned against the wall before she slid down to sit on the floor. Link joined her but sat on the floor across from him. Each time he paced back and forth he glanced up at the clock across the hall from them. The wait was agonizing. Alex paced up and down the hall from one set of doors to the other. Each second that ticked by he checked the clock again and again, wondering when they would be out.
"They should be out by now," Alex said, looking at the clock again, the second hand ticking by to spite him. "Cristina said it would only take ten minutes."
"Yeah to get the stent placed, you and I both know she has to retract it and check that Jo's heart is beating on its own, plus she has to stitch the incision and so on," Meredith said in a matter of fact voice that was too calm for him.
"Why don't we go down to the daycare and see girls?" Link said again with a raised eyebrow as if he expected Alex to say something different this time.
Alex shook his head and looked back at the door to the Cath lab. "No, I'm not leaving her."
"Alex," Meredith said, in a weary voice as she read his mind, he was fast, but not fast enough to get in there without Meredith catching him first. Instead, he turned around the hallway and walked the length of it again and then again and again. He counted for one minute, then five, and ten.
"It shouldn't be taking them this long," Alex said with a growl, as he glared at the door.
"Just give her a few more minutes," Meredith said, getting up and trying to put a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged her off with a growl.
"Jo was never good at waiting either," Link said with a small smile.
"No, she would be chewing her sleeve off if she was here instead," Meredith said with a smile as she sat back down.
"One time we were waiting for the results of our final exams and she ate a hole in the sweater she was wearing. And then she threw up yarn the next morning. She never did get it patched back up," Link said with a little laugh.
"Why are you telling stories about her like she's dead? She's not dead!" Alex screamed back at Link as he shrunk back.
Meredith got up and growled at him. "Stop it, Alex!"
"I'm sorry," Alex said in a softer tone to Link as he nodded, before they went back to their silence, waiting and pacing.
Finally, Alex spotted Cristina coming out of his scrub room as she took off her purple and gold scrub cap. He didn't wait for her to come to him and instead scrambled to get through the doors.
"Alex," Meredith yelled as she chased after him.
However, he was already running through the door to Cristina who looked up as she saw him. He just waited for a half second before she gave him a relief filled smile.
"I replaced the valve and Jo's going to be fine. Her heart is beating strong and I suspect she won't have any trouble with it."
"And the baby?" Alex asked, his heart still as he waited for news about both of them too.
"Carina said they were doing fine. They were playing around the whole time doing flips and kicks," Cristina said with a shake of her head but a small smile.
Alex didn't let her say anything else before he wrapped his arms around her in a quick hug. "Thank you."
Cristina was surprised by his affection but hugged him back. He remembered what it was like to have her support and affection. He missed her much more than he realized. Not only was she his fellow resident, but she was like a sister to him, and having family around him now more than ever eased the stress and worry just a bit. Alex let her go before he raced into the cath lab. They had already had Jo moved off the table and onto a stretcher, ready to go back to her room. He ran up to her as the nurses protested.
"You shouldn't be here Dr. Karev," Ginger protested, but he ignored her.
As he finally laid eyes on his wife he let out a sigh of relief. She was still pale and limp as she slept, but she was alive and her heart was okay. She was going to be okay. He carefully reached out to hold her face and place one hand on her belly. She was warm and her cheeks were soft and pink. Jo was still sleeping, but as he held her face she let out a sigh in her sleep and a small smile graced her lips. Alex nearly cried as he saw it. She knew he was there looking after her and he knew she loved it. He brushed away the few hairs that had escaped the hair net and looked over the rest of her body. She was warm and carefully tucked into the blankets. He couldn't wait for when she would open his eyes and see him. He let out another shaky breath, as he smiled and leaned down to kiss her forehead.
Someone put a hand on his shoulder and he looked back to see Meredith standing there with Cristina and Link standing behind her. All of them with a smile across their faces. "Come on, let's take Jo back to her room."
As he grabbed Jo's hand, it was warm and her cheeks were even getting to be a little pinker now as he ran his fingers across her cheek. He leaned down and kissed her head again before he grabbed a hold of the side of the bedroom and helped them push it down the hall.
It was a quiet walk as they went back to the recovery room and Addison, Carina, and Meredith followed behind him. All of them were happy that Jo was alive and well and they exchanged small talk that Alex didn't hear. Finally, they got to the room. The nurses on the shift had cleaned it up and the mess from the emergency earlier was completely gone. In its place was a clean room and an empty spot for the bed. The rest of Jo's things were scattered around the room though. Although even that had been tidied, probably by Jennifer who had taken such good care of Jo recently.
They parked the bed and Alex parked himself in the chair next to her. He held Jo's hand as he watched her, waiting for her to wake up. He knew she would sleep for a while, but he wanted to be there the moment her eyelid started to flutter. Again it was a waiting game, but this time around it was a little easier. He knew that Jo was okay now and he relaxed in the fact that all he had to do was wait for her to wake up.
It was like waiting for her to wake up in the morning as he lay in bed next to her with a cup of coffee ready as she snuggled into his side and chased a few more dreams. How he longed to be back at home with her in their own bed, with their sheets, and their pillows, and the comforts of home next to them. But he couldn't crawl into her hospital bed now, he couldn't take her away just yet, but the surgery meant he was one step closer to bringing her and their baby home.
He reached out and put a hand over her belly. The baby greeted him with a series of very excited kicks. They seemed to be very active and were doing somersaults in Jo's belly as they took advantage of her sleeping like they always did. They were going to be a soccer player for sure, Jo had already bought them a soccer ball. She had placed it in their room with a little basket full of baseballs, footballs, soccer balls, and tennis balls in their room for them to play with the second they could. Jo was determined to get them into some kind of sport and he knew it would be worth it judging by the kicks he received now.
"I'm so glad you and your Mama are okay," Alex whispered to them, despite the full room of people.
"Alex," Cristina said, finally getting his attention with a gentle hand on his shoulder, looked up at her and his face fell as he took in her sober face. "As I said surgery went well, however, one of the leads got caught on a vein coming out and Jo bled a little bit more than expected. We were able to cauterize it and I don't think it will bleed again, but Jo has to be careful and stay on bed rest for at least a week."
"She won't have to lift a finger, I'll make sure of it," Alex said as
Cristina nodded before retreating, however, she came back and leaned down to wrap him in a hug. Cristina was the hugger in the family. The only one who initiated this sort of thing. He had reluctantly gotten used to it, but this time around it was a welcome comfort. Cristina finally pulled back and gave Jo's leg a squeeze before she left.
Meredith came and sat down next to him putting a hand on his shoulder. It was a quiet and kind gesture as they both waited again. They all sat down and waited for Jo to wake up. Alex eagerly counted the seconds as they passed, by feeling the baby kick and waited, and waited, and waited.
"You know I still can't believe you two got married," Christina said as she sat down next to Alex.
"What do you mean?" Meredith said as she raised an eyebrow at her.
"Well you had Meredith marry you on a boat, but that wasn't legal so then you two got married again on Halloween," Cristina said as she pulled off her scrub cap. She undid the bun and ran her fingers through her now free hair.
"It's all legal now, we went to the courthouse and everything, besides what does it matter? Meredith and Derek were married on a post-it note for years," Alex said as he pulled the blanket up around Jo's arms as he knew she hated her shoulders being cold. "If you don't believe me I'll show you the paperwork."
"It's not that, it's that you're married, Alex karev is a committed husband and now father who adores his wife. It's not a role I thought I'd see you in, but it suits you so well," Cristina said with a small smile as she looked over at him. "Also you're completely whipped."
"I am not," Alex said glaring at her as Meredith laughed.
"Just admit it now Alex, and we can move on to a better topic of conversation," Cristina said, making a rolling gesture with her hand as she smirked at him.
"I've seen it first hand and Jo always jokes about how she could get you to do anything for her. I asked her to prove it one night and she sent you on an errand to get donuts and bacon, but not a bacon donut. She made you go to the store and buy bacon, one unfrosted donut, and frosting. Then she had you cook said bacon, frost the donut, and then put the bacon on top," Meredith said with a laugh as she recounted the story from a few months ago and Christina started laughing.
"She's pregnant with my baby, The least I can do is cook for her every now and again," Alex said, looking down at his wife and putting a hand protectively over her belly.
This only made Christina and Meredith laugh harder as even Link joined in on it and Christina had to lean over and put her hand on Meredith or else she would fall out of her chair from laughing too hard Alex scowled at them if they continued to laugh as he looked over at Jo he did admit that it was a bit of a fool's errand but he would do anything for her if that made him a whipped husband and so be it.
"Do you think she'll want some mac and cheese when she wakes up? Maybe we should go get some from the cafeteria or something?" Alex looked back at Jo. "She didn't eat breakfast this morning. She was too nervous to eat in anticipation of the surgery."
"She might be nauseous from the anesthetic," Meredith said as Alex nodded.
"You know I never thought I'd see the day you had kids. I mean I know you were always good with them, but I don't know. I figured you and Jo would maybe have just one or two, not an entire baseball team like Meredith over here."
"Hey," Meredith said, crossing her arms and glaring at Christina.
"I'm just saying between the two of you, you've got half a little league. At least Kepner and Avery only had one kid. But Owen has two, Bailey adopted a teen and a toddler, and then there's Sofia. What am I supposed to do with thirteen nieces and nephews?"
"Well it's not like you don't have enough money to spoil them all," Meredith said with a little laugh as she shoved Christina's side and they laughed together. "I don't know, I figured these two would be the ones to have a baseball team. I suppose he'll have to be the last one now.
"We're not that bad," Alex said with a frown although he couldn't deny the amount of sex they had.
"Alex, Jo got pregnant a year to the day after she gave birth." Cristina reminded him with a raised eyebrow.
"You have sex like rabbits, I figured you'd have half a dozen kids with Jo constantly getting pregnant," Meredith said with a giggle.
"I'm surprised you guys haven't gotten pregnant before," Cristina added as she laughed too.
"Jo had an IUD and she made me use condoms while she was ovulating," Alex said with a shrug.
"That's a little much," Meredith said as the laughter stopped but they all still smiled.
"Jo was so scared to get pregnant and I knew I couldn't push her. She didn't want a baby until she fell in love with Luna and OB," Alex smiled down at Jo, looking down at her bump as well. "Now she's done a complete 180 and as much as she complains about it, she loves being pregnant. You guys don't know this but she told me she was pregnant on Christmas day."
"Seriously I thought you guys didn't know till January?" Meredith said, leaning forward a bit.
"That's what we told everybody but we knew. We were so excited but we wanted it to be just between us for a little bit. Plus she hates being fussed and having to be on light duty at work. However, I think this has permanently scared her into taking it easy. It scares me too."
"Alex I know you will never stop worrying about Jo and her heart, but you have to trust the medicine." Christina said as she reached out and put a hand on his leg.
"I know, you know the statistics but When it comes to the heart, I've seen more people have better recoveries because they had someone who loved them nearby."
"Meredith, are you saying you believe in the healing of love?" Cristina said with a raised eyebrow.
"Okay look, I've seen a lot of patients, I had a patient a little while ago who needed his gallbladder removed, he was old and grumpy and nobody liked him. Everything went well. He was recovering fine up until about two days post-op. Then he just died. Nobody knew why and it wasn't anything medically related. The surgery was perfect. Then I did a liver transplant on a grandma who had 50 grandkids and a husband who would look at her like you and Jo. It was a bad surgery and everything that could have gone wrong did, but I managed to get her body to accept the liver and I closed. I didn't think she'd pull through but she did. I still get Christmas cards from them every year, but they had so much love, Alex and you and Jo have that love. You two are going to be that old couple married with ten grandkids, and maybe Jo's heart will need a couple more surgeries, but I know she'll pull through because she has love and that's better than any medicine anyone can give her."
Meredith smiled, truly believing it as she reached out and squeezed his leg. Although he knew Cristina didn't believe it, he was starting to. Alex looked down at Jo, he leaned in to give her a kiss as he held her. He closed his eyes and held her and Jo side in his arms. He saw her smile in her sleep and he knew she would be all right. He loved her so much it made his heart burst and he hoped that love would be enough to heal her heart.