Wake up to the sound of your fleeting heart.
"There's my baby boy!"
He winces, squinting his eyes to shut out the noise of his mother's voice. "Oh, crap."
Catherine Avery quickly rushes over to her son's side, grasping his face and planting a kiss on his cheek lovingly.
"Look at you, all grown up! Your grandfather is very proud."
Jackson shakes his head unbelievably, "Yeah, sure." He stares down at his mother, "What are you doing here?" He asks, the slightest hint of curiosity in his voice because he doesn't want to seem too nosey, or too interested, in his mother's business. His mother's business was not his business, as he'd fully acknowledged at the Boards, because her business wasn't something that he wanted to see.
"Oh, I'm here for a surgery." She's wearing blue scrubs, so he could have guessed if he'd truly wanted to. "Tell me, have you seen Richard anywhere?" She asks, glancing around the room for the man in question.
"No. And neither are you!"
Catherine swats his shoulder, "Don't worry, my needs are satisfied."
"Mom!"
She grins, "So, how's your fellowship going? And I heard about Lexie. I'm sorry."
He bites his lip and watches the floor, slightly wishing it would suck him under and swallow him whole, "Yeah, I uh- I'm OK. I've moved on."
"Really? You seemed so infatuated with her..."
"I'm fine." He states, and she notices the way his eyes change. She knows her son well enough to stop talking about something when the subject is clearly disturbing him.
She smiles up at him, "So, how's that man? Sloan?"
"I really don't wanna-"
"OK, I'll stop snoop- Oh, April!" She calls, eyeing the girl down the hall.
April turns around slowly, a partly anxious look on her face. She grabs her chart and walks over to the pair, stopping to stand in front of the woman.
The way Catherine's smiling at her clearly means that Jackson hasn't told her about them yet.
"How've you been, Sweetie?" She has this pitiful expression on her face as thought she feels sorry for the younger woman, as though she's sending her condolences for a deathly loss, one April hasn't felt.
The redhead curves her lips, "I'm- I'm fine. What about you? How about you?"
"April, honey, don't make this about me." She smirks, "You seem different. Did you finally have sex?"
Her eyes suddenly widen and April stutters, "I uh- I don't- You-"
"Don't you think that's a little inappropriate?" Jackson asks his mother, glancing down at his girlfriend with apology, as though he was sorry for her question.
"Oh, she knows I'm just concerned for her well-being."
"I'm fine, Mrs. Avery. Really. I am."
Catherine smiles, "Oh, well. That's good." She pulls her scrub cap over her head and crosses her arms, "I have to go, but I'll see you after I'm done. Why don't we all have dinner?"
April stares on. The three of them went out for drinks last time she was in town and the woman spent most of the night trying to hook her up with random guys in the bar. But this time, now that she's dating the woman's son, sleeping with him, making it clearly obvious that he'd been the one to take her purity, this time was going to be sufficiently awkward.
"Yeah, sure." Jackson speaks, quickly ushering her away as she speeds off. He turns to his side, noticing the way April sends daggers at him, "What?"
"She's going to kill us." She informs him and he raises an eyebrow out of confusion, "She wanted me to have sex, I did her son. You got involved with a thirty year-old virgin and I'm pretty sure that's not what she meant when she said that she wanted you to be happy."
He chuckles as they begin to walk down the hallway, "She'll be fine. I will tell her we're together and she can just learn to deal with it." He spins around, backing her up against a wall.
She smiles, "Oh, really? Deal with it? You really think that your mother, Catherine Avery, is going to just deal with something? She's going to have my head!"
"She likes you, she's always liked you. How is that going to change?"
"Because I'm- I'm not- I- I'm freaking mediocre, Jackson, do you not get that? I failed my boards and your mother is going to kill me because I'm going to drag you down!"
He grins, "Are you kidding?"
He moves a hand behind her back and she realizes that the wall she was leaning on was a door. She stumbles inside as it opens, and he follows suit, stepping in behind her and throwing off his coat. The door shuts and she finds her legs hitting the bed mattress. "Really? Now?" She sounds almost whiny, and he chuckles at her tone. She slips her arms from her own coat and it joins his down on the floor.
"Yeah, why?" He quickly shrugs his top off and lowers her down onto the bed.
April giggles softly when he kisses down her neck, the stubble on his face tickling her skin, and slips his hands under her shirt.
"What?" He asks, glancing up at her face. Her shirt gathers up beneath her breasts, and she traces his arms with the palms of her hands. He leans up and kisses her lips gently, "April-"
She shushes him, her hands moving from his arms to his neck to his face slowly and carefully, as though she's taking him in, as though she's admiring his every feature.
"Seriously, what are-" He starts, coming to a halt when she bites her bottom lip and stares up at him.
If he wasn't completely and utterly in love with her, he could feel himself start to fall for her with that once look.
"I love you." She whispers, as though there was somebody else in the room that wasn't meant to hear it.
It takes a moment before she speaks again, a look of trouble written across her face.
"Why did you do it?" She asks him in a voice so quiet that he barely hears her.
Jackson frowns, "Why did I do what?"
She gulps, but keeps to confidence to look at him, "Sleep with me?"
He seems confused, like he doesn't understand why she's asking him the question. Like the answer is so obvious. But it's not, because she doesn't know, and he's not even quite sure if he does himself.
"I- I guess I just wanted to. It wasn't just something I didn't think about." He begins, "You were my friend, and it was something that you needed, and clearly wanted. I guess I was just taken back by your confidence. Besides, I didn't really-"
She starts to worry when he stops, an upset expression appearing.
He continues after a second, "Because I didn't want anybody else having that part of you."
April watches him adoringly, a smile erupting on her face. "You didn't?"
"No. And I know you think that I was making fun of you about the whole thing two years ago, but I wasn't. I mean, I didn't mean to. I just- I respected you because you had enough dignity to keep it to yourself for so long. You weren't just some floozy, so I respected you."
"You took my virginity because you respected me?"
"No, well, yeah, but- It was different. You weren't just my friend anymore. After the whole thing with Lexie and then moving in together- I didn't want to live with Karev but you were so persistent about the whole thing that I couldn't refuse. I just- It was different and then it happened and I thought you felt differently too."
It's her turn to frown.
"What are you talking about?"
"April, as soon as it was over, I could tell you regretted it. You just didn't have the courage to say it. So, I brushed it off."
"You were-"
He nods slowly and stares down, "Yeah, you kind of hurt me. Turns out you didn't feel different, you just wanted to have sex. The whole after thing didn't help. And- I didn't pity you, I didn't feel guilty. And I don't know why you thought that I did."
"I just - I thought that you felt embarrassed."
"Why would I have been embarrassed?"
"Because it's- I was ashamed, mainly because of God and everything but- Never mind."
He smiles and she copies the action after a while,
"Why are we having this conversation?"
"I don't know actually. I was just curious." She explains and laughs. He joins in and kisses her again, running a hand through her hair.
She rests her hands on his shoulders, "Can we just go back to-"
"Yeah." He nods and smiles while she wraps her arms around his neck, bringing him closer towards her. "You know, I almost told Sloan."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, I think he might have figured it out, actually. He didn't tell anyone if he did."
She grins, "He propositioned me once... for you."
"Why does that not surprise me?"
"Yeah, I sort of turned it down because I thought it was wrong and incredibly rude but, well, you're kind of on top of me right now so I guess it worked eventually, right?" She jokes and he chuckles.
Jackson smiles, grasping her hips and pulling her up to him.
She licks her lips, "Can we have sex now?"
"Yeah."
As soon as his lips touch hers again, her pager buzzes and she moans.
"No, no. No." She groans out, sitting herself up and pulling him with her. She sends him an apologetic look and gets up, slipping her jacket back over her shoulders. He does the same with his top, sliding it back over his head. She steps towards him, sliding her hands up his arms again, and pulling him closer, her fingers wrapped around his biceps beneath his scrub top.
April leans up on her tiptoes and presses a quick kiss against his forehead, "Love you."
He grins when she spins around fast and leaves the room.
She feels different.