Mark is dead.
Mark is dead, and Lexie is dead, and Reed and Charles are dead, and April is leaving.
She can't leave. He's not sure he can cope if she does.
When he bursts into Joe's after rushing frantically to try to get to her on time, he half expects himself to be too late. The sight of a tiny redhead waiting at the bar, with her luggage bags parked beside her stool, surprises him, and he feels his heart skip a beat.
He takes a moment to try to regulate to his breathing, before making his way over to her. "Hey. You're still here."
"I am...uhm, I can't stay much longer though, or I might miss my flight," She replies softly.
Jackson blinks, nodding slightly, before ordering himself a beer. He's not even really interested in drinking it, but he thinks the liquid courage might help. When Joe places it down in front of him, he gulps half of it down in one go, before shifting in his stool so he can face her more.
"Don't go."
"Jackson, I-"
"Please don't go. Mark died. He just...died," He lets out of a puff of air that he wasn't sure he was holding in. He doesn't want to cry again, having done enough of that on the way over here. If he cries, then he'll just mess up what he needs to say to her, and then she'll definitely leave. "He said to me...before he died...he said, if you love someone, you tell them. Even if you're scared it'll burn your life to the ground, you say it and you say it loud...and I think I do, I think I do love you. I know I have feelings for you, April, and its not just because we had sex or because we've been friends for a long time. I think...I think I've had feelings for you for a while now."
April blinks at him, eyes wide as she stares. Her breath hitches in her throat before she finally manages to reply, "Y-you do?"
"I do...which is why I need you to please just...stay."
"I...I can't. Jackson, I don't have a job anymore, and I already gave up the lease on my apartment. I have nowhere to go and...this is all just...a lot to take in. I think I have feelings for you too but...its not that simple."
He reaches for a hand for a moment, a pleading look on his face, "We'll figure it out. You can stay with me. It's not like we haven't lived together before. You can get a job at the clinic, or I can suck it up and ask my mom to pull some strings, and I can help you. I know that us sleeping together...it freaked you out, with your...vow and everything, but we can go as slow as you want, if you even want to. If not, then we can just go back to being friends, and I'll try to be okay with that too."
She bit her lip, trying to hold back the moisture that was building behind her eyes.
He really, truly cared. No one had ever cared about her as much as he had - even when they were just friends. It was overwhelming, and exhilarating, and maybe a little bit sad given the circumstances and the pain they'd experienced over the past few days...but he cared, and she knew that them sleeping together hadn't been a mistake.
"You really mean that? That you're okay with taking things slow?"
"I do."
"Then okay."
"Okay?"
"Okay, I'll stay."
Jackson beams, and they both find themselves letting out the tears that they'd been holding back. She reaches for his cheek, her dimple popping, and they find themselves leaning in, resting their foreheads against one another.
"Can I...kiss you?" He asks softly.
She doesn't respond with words, instead shifting so their lips can meet gently.
For the first time in a while, they both feel as though everything might be okay.