Hi everyone! I am so sorry, I actually thought I had finished uploading this story but apparently I did not. Better late than never, haha. Enjoy! (And side note- you would not believe the dramas I had when attempting to upload- it was an absolute mission filled with immense frustration and I'm not going to lie, I did in-fact give up on several occasions)
Chapter twenty one- Dear Life
Dear life, am I doing this right?
Can you see me tonight,
Can you help me dear life?
And I know that I can't understand,
What you hold in your hands for me,
Dear life…
-Delta Goodrem
One month later- August 7th
"Have you finished packing yet Jo? We need to get going soon if you don't want to rush to the airport!" Alex calls out as he stands at the bottom of the stairs. Jo was upstairs in her master bedroom packing the last few things she required for the trip.
Although it was only a four day trip, including travel, Jo didn't want to forget a single thing as the weekend was already going to be hard to bare as it was. It was Jo's high school reunion in Connecticut over the weekend and Alex had convinced her it would be a good idea to go.
"I can't believe that I let you convince me to go to this darn high school reunion," Jo groans as she walks down the stairs.
"Come on, It will be fun," Alex responds with a smile.
"For who? You or me? Because high school wasn't great for me. I lived in my car, I had crappy foster parents and then I didn't even have that," Jo sighs as she recalls the past and suddenly smiles, "the only good thing that ever happened to me in high school was Chris. You know, people thought that we'd never work out, that he was way out of me league. It was true because I lived in my car when we met…" Jo pauses for a moment, breaths and her thoughts take a turn, "And even though he's not here anymore I know that we did work, and I guess I kinda can't wait to show them that I proved them all wrong."
"And then let's not forget about the fact that you're a freaking surgeon. You made it Jo, and tonight you can prove them all wrong," Alex smiles.
"Now go get the bags from upstairs and I'll load the kids into the car," Jo orders.
Three hours later they had successfully made it to the airport and through security and were now waiting at gate 12 for their non-stop flight to Connecticut. Jo sat with Ainsley on her lap and was bouncing her up and down, Grace was asleep in the pram and Theo was siting next to Alex and playing on his etch-a-sketch. Sitting next to them was an elderly lady who looked to be in her seventies.
"You have a beautiful family," The lady speaks up.
"Oh, thank you," Jo replies caught off guard.
"How long have you been married for?" She questions.
"Us?" Alex asks surprisingly.
The elderly lady nods her head, "oh, we're not married. We haven't even been together for a year yet."
"Ah..." the woman replies uncomfortably and in an instant Jo knew what this woman was thinking, that she was a young divorced mother of three... not that that would be an issue to most if it were the case, but to this woman it certainly appeared to be a problem. "Divorce?" She continues, this time with a hit of judgement in her voice.
"Oh, it's not like that. I'm not divorced," Jo responds quickly.
"Oh?" The woman replies with her eyebrows raised.
"No, no, it's not like that either. That came out wrong. I'm a widow, my husband died a few years ago," Jo corrects.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she responds.
"It's fine," Jo responds awkwardly. She then turns her attention to Ainsley, who was still happily sitting on Jo's lap.
11 hours later they had arrived at Alice and Nathan's house. All were exhausted from the trip and wanted nothing more then to sleep off any jet lag and wake up refreshed for the next day, but had to make it through awkward introductions first.
Jo rings the doorbell and within a few moments Alice and Nathan open the front door. The kids giggle and smile with excitement as they see their grandparents and rush inside. Jo laughs at how at ease the kids were with being here.
Alice pulls Jo in fro a hug, "It's great to see you," she smiles.
"Its really good to see you too," Jo replies with a smile.
"And who is this?" Nathan asks as he notices Alex standing behind Jo.
"This is Alex Karev, my boyfriend," Jo speaks up.
"Hello," Alex responds.
"Boyfriend? We didn't know you were seeing anyone," Alice replies slightly surprised.
"We haven't been together long. I didn't exactly know how to mention it on the phone. And I know it must be weird for me to bring somebody else up here," she trails.
Alice and Nathan both let out a huge smile and sigh of relief, "Josephine honey, it's fine. We expected you to date again, Chris would want you to be happy and to keep living. He would be looking down on you and his heart would be so full because you're happy. And that's all we want to," Alice responds.
"Really, you're okay with me seeing someone else?" Jo questions surprised and relieved.
"Really," Nathan responds with an encouraging head nod.
"You have no idea how good it is to hear you both say that. I've been so worried," Jo confesses.
"We'd like to get to know you Alex, if that's okay?" Alice asks.
Alex nods his head, "of course."
"Why don't you head into the kitchen. Nathan will put the kettle on and I'll make sure the kids are okay," Alice suggests.
Scene break
Jo rubs her hands anxiously as she and Alex walk into the living room to say good bye to the kids before they head to the high school reunion.
"Bye kids," Jo smiles, "Alex and I will be out late so Nanny and Poppy will put you all to bed, okay?"
"Okay mummy," Grace replies.
"Are you going to your high school reunion now?" Theo questions curiously.
"I am," Jo replies with a head nod.
"Don't wee your pants!" Theo says with a grin.
"I'll try not too," Jo responds off guard.
"It's okay if you do. Accidents happen," Theo responds assertively.
"Yeah, we wont judge," Alex chuckles.
Jo chuckles and rolls her eyes, "come on, let's go."
Scene break
When Jo and Alex walked down one of the hallways to reach the school multipurpose hall they reached a table containing a bunch of name tags. She picks up one that reads, 'Josephine Bennett.'
"Rude, you think they would know it's Wilson now," Jo says to Alex as she pins the badge to her shirt. Jo takes a hold of Alex's hand and walks into the hall. They pause for a moment to look around at the sheer amount of effort that had gone into decorating the event.
Jo looks around and spots Cara Hollingsworth, a girl whom she had hated during high school, it was mutual of course.
"Ah, see that girl there? The one with the blonde hair and blue dress?" Jo asks Alex.
Alex nods his head, "Yeah."
"Cara Hollingsworth. She was little miss perfect who lived a great big perfect life bankrolled by her rich and perfect parents," Jo responds.
"Do I sense a hint of hatred?" Alex chuckles.
"It was mutual, believe me," Jo responds, "and that man over there?" Jo says as she points to a man to the right of them. He had brown hair, was quite short and wore casual clothes.
Alex nods his head, "mm."
"That's Stink Shorty McDike," Jo states.
"Stink Shorty McDike?" Alex questions.
"Kirk McDike. Everyone called him Stink Shorty McDike because he was the shortest one in our class and had no sense of personal hygiene. And that's coming from your girl, who, lived in her car!" Jo explains.
"Well, judging by the fact that there is nobody near him I'd say that maybe not much has changed," Alex laughs.
Jo continues to look around the room when Alex spots Cara walking towards them. He gives a Jo a nudge, "Little miss perfect is walking over here. Just be cool, don't make a scene." Jo fakes a smile and turns to see Cara walking over.
"Hobo Jo, it's good to see you could make it," Cara states.
"Hobo Jo?" Alex asks.
"Yeah," Jo cringes, "that's what they called me."
"Where's Christopher? Last I heard you two were having problems," Cara replies. It was obvious she was hoping for some kind of reaction out of Jo and she was determined to try her best not to give it to her.
Jo bites her lip, "we weren't having problems."
"Oh, where is he then?" Cara asks.
"I don't think you need to know that," Alex butts in.
Cars turns her attention to Jo, "It's funny, nobody thought that you and Chris would make it... Chris was way too good for you, and I guess we were all right..." Cara begins smugly.
"We made it, oh boy did we make it... I'm a freaking surgeon for crying out loud and I work at the countries top teaching hospital. We have had three beautiful kids together and they are so, so amazing. We proved you all wrong and I only wish that you were there at our vowel renewal a few years ago because your soul would have been crushed with how great we were," Jo passionately begins.
Alex could see people beginning to look at them as Jo's voice rose while speaking, "Jo..."
Jo brushes him aside, "No, no, I'm just getting started." She takes a deep breath, "and I know you moved away from Connecticut as soon as you could, so you wouldn't know, but, we were the Duke and Duchess of Connecticut. Everybody wanted what we had only nobody could ever attain it. But then Chris was in an accident and then a coma. He had a risky surgery that he survived. He had issues with memory but eventually he recovered and we were even happier than before and God didn't even think that was possible and we got married again. But only he didn't recover fully because he needed surgery again and didn't make it through. I was pregnant at the time. So you don't get to make comments about me and my life and relationships unless you've lived through what I have, and you haven't so it would appear that you don't get to make comments about any of it," Jo snaps.
"Wow, chill out much," Cara exclaims. She turns and walks away and Jo looks at Alex.
"That was me not making a scene," she replies.
"Really" Alex questions.
He and Jo turn and look at everybody who were now staring at them, "maybe I made a scene," she says quietly.
Alex puts a hand on Jo's back, "come on, let's get you a drink."
Scene break
A hour had passed and although Jo had been searching for someone special to her, she could not for the life of herself find her. She was just about to give up hope when the woman she had been searching for caught the corner of her eye.
"Miss Schmidt!" Jo calls out gleefully. Miss Schmidt turns her attention to Jo and Alex and smiles. They walk towards each other and when they meet they engage in a huge.
"Josephine," Miss Schmidt smiles as they pull away from each other.
"It's good to see you. I don't remember the last time we spoke, it's been that long," Jo responds.
"After high school graduation. Not something I'm proud of, but after you graduated high school you had a family with Chris' family. It just felt rude to keep imposing myself in your life," Miss Schmidt explains.
"You could never impose Miss Schmidt. You gave me love and support when I needed it the most. Thank you," Jo responds honestly.
"And Christopher, where is he? I heard about his accident, pretty much the whole town did. I tried to reach out but your number was disconnected and you know how I am with technology," she chuckles, "But I'm just glad the the surgery you lobbied for was a success."
Jo sighs, Miss Schmidt clearly wasn't at the reunion an hour ago when she lost it at Cara. "The first surgery was a success, yes. He had some memory issues but recovered. Only he didn't recover fully because he had complications that required a second surgery. He didn't make it."
Miss Schmidt feels her heart breaking, "I wish I could have been there for you," She admits.
"We have 3 kids though, so he gets to live on through them," Jo smiles.
"Wow, that's amazing. And Chris had strong genes, so I bet they look exactly like him," Miss Schmidt reminisces.
"Oh, more than you'd ever know," Jo laughs.
"How old are they?" Miss Schmidt asks curiously.
"Theo is 6, Grace is 3 and Ainsley is 2," Jo smiles, "they're a handful, but I love them," Jo gushes.
"I love that. Congratulations darling," Miss Schmidt smiles. "And you're working as a doctor, yes?"
Jo nods her head, "a surgical resident. It's certainly a lot of hard work trying to juggle it all."
"Don't be afraid to ask for help darling, I know that wasn't your strong suit as a teenager," Miss Schmidt comments.
"Believe me, it still isn't," Alex jumps in.
"And you are?" Miss Schmidt asks as she turns to look at Alex.
"Sorry, I'm Alex Karev, Jo's boyfriend," Alex speaks up.
"Well, Alex, it's good to meet you. Make sure you hang on to this one, she's a keeper," Miss Schmidt gushes.
"I'm pretty lucky, that's for sure," Alex replies. Jo leans over to him and gives him a kiss.