OK, I really couldn't help myself and, besides, if you've seen the synopsis for the third episode "Love the One You're With" you know what I mean when I say couldn't wait 3 weeks for that.

No Absolution

"April!"

The redhead whips around to see Meredith down the hall, a smile erupting on her face as she spots the younger woman. She heads down the path, immediately engulfed in a hug.

Meredith pulls away slowly, "What are you doing here?"

"I got my job back. Dr. Hunt gave me another year to work hard and study for my boards against and... I'm going to pass this time."

"That's great! Hunt called you?"

"He, uh, came to my home. All the way to Ohio, no one's ever gone that far to make sure I take a job." She chuckles, shrugging her shoulders.

With a nod, she suddenly realizes, "Oh. Oh, he went to see you." She'd been curious ever since she'd seen him at the airport and Cristina hadn't been aware of his departure from the hospital. She didn't know because he didn't go to see her, he went to retrieve April.

But it's okay. It is, because she's an important part of the place, and she deserved a second chance or, well, a third.

"You're an attending."

Meredith smiles again, "Well, a fellow, but I know! It's- It's good to have you back. Are you starting today?"

"Yeah, I have to go find the Chief, do you know where he is?" She asks, a hopeful look on her face. She doesn't want to have to wander down the halls of the hospital by herself because, if she did that, she'd be sure to cross people, one person, that she didn't have the nerve to face at the moment.

"I think he's in the ER. But, uh," She waves her pen about before slipping it into the pocket of her coat, "You should go find Jackson, I'm sure he'd be happy to see you."

April bites her lip, holding back a nervous laugh, "Yeah, yeah. I should. I really... yeah." She scratches the back of her head.

Meredith grimaces briefly before brushing off the girl's strange behaviour. Shouldn't she be happy to see her best friend again? They were, like, each other's person.

"I'm going to go. I'll see you later."

"Welcome back."

At least one little thing is back to normal.

"Chief?"

The man turns around, a proud expression on his face.

She stares up at him expectantly, "Where do you need me?"

Owen checks down on his iPad for second , scrolling through a list of patients and schedules.

"You're on Plastics today." He tells her, "Something easy to get you started."

She knows it's not easy. Jackson had told her numerous times when she joked that he'd only chosen the speciality because it was simple procedures and easy money.

"OK. Who's the new Head of Plastics?" She asks.

He'd told her about the passing of Mark Sloan and she'd let the information slowly sink in. It was ridiculous, losing so many people in such a small amount of time. He'd seemed in recovering shape for the first month after the crash, but apparently his condition had worsened and he'd been stuck in a coma for a month before time had ran out and they'd had to turn off his life support.

It was ridiculous.

And she can't begin to imagine how Jacks-

"We don't have a new Head yet, so Avery is taking over most of the cases." He smiles down at her and pats her shoulder before handing her the charts that she'd be needing for the day. He'd put her on her best friend's service so it couldn't be so hard to do, right? "Simple mammoplasty. Have fun."

She stares down at the file for a moment, and rolls up the sleeve of her white coat to check the time on her watch.

Great, just wonderful. The one person that she didn't want to have to face was meant to be supervising her for the day.

It was ridiculous.

Just a few short months ago, they'd both been fifth years, preparing for their Boards. The same exam that she'd screwed up by letting the sex they shared and the nerves of failing get to her head. The exam she'd failed and now here she was, three months later, under his teaching.

It was ridiculous.

"Perfect."

"Ms. Peters, how we feeling today?" He asks as he steps into the room, clicking his pen as he walks.

The woman in the bed smiles up at him, clasping the hand of the man in the chair beside her.

"Good." She pulls her robe closer to her body, a slightly shy look on her face.

April suddenly appears in the room, carefully dodging Avery as she slides past him to the edge of the patient's bed.

He stares over at her, a confused frown on his face. Why hadn't Hunt told him that they'd working together?

She seems different. Her hair was different, lighter. Her skin was paler, softer locking. Her body was-

"Hi, I'm Dr. Kepner and I will be assisting Dr. Avery on your procedure later today." She smiles down at the woman.

"April-" Jackson starts but finds himself cut off by the patient's fiancee.

The man grasps her hand tighter, "It's an easy operation, right? She's not going to like die on me, or anything?" He asks, a half joking-half anxious grimace.

Jackson smiles, "No, it's- it's a simple procedure. Everything will go smoothly."

Ms. Peters glances down at her body when April speaks again.

"I read you recently lost 100 pounds, yeah?" She nods, "Okay, and you're here for breast reduction surgery, correct?"

"Did you not read the chart?" Jackson asks her, a mildly irritated look on his face.

"I read it, I was just making sure that it was right." She replies, a cold look on her face as she stares back at him.

He'll drop it because she looks like she's going to murder him or something.

"Yes." Ms. Peters answers her question finally, her fingers toying with the strings of her robe. "Yeah, it's- We, uh- It's kind of a big deal."

April smiles at her genuinely, pulling her chart against her chest. "Can I ask why?"

She's always been curious about her patient's stories, Jackson notes as he glances from the woman to his patient.

Her fiancee squeezes her hand reassuringly, and she speaks, "We've never had sex. And he's- You've never seen me naked." She turns to the man, sending him a loving smile. He returns the look, kissing the back of her hand. "But... that's about to change."

Jackson shifts, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he smiles gently.

Wonderful.

April tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and glances down at the floor for a second quietly.

"I just didn't feel confident, you know? And it- uh- it didn't feel right."

"It should." Avery suddenly speaks, but quickly stops himself when April turns her attention to him, raising an eyebrow and waiting for him to continue, "I mean... it will. It should feel right. And feel good." He talks quietly that she barely hears him.

"You must think I'm a freak." She laughs to herself and the man beside her places a hand on her cheek.

"Stop."

She nods and bites her lip, noting the way Kepner does the same.

"Nope." She breathes out honestly, "I don't- I don't think you're a freak." She tells them, "I think it's sweet. It's nice that you waited, because you wanted it to be perfect, right?" They nod and she smiles, "Yeah, it'll... I don't think you're a freak."

She doesn't because she's been in that same situation two years before, people thinking that she's freaky and weird for not having sex sooner. Jackson included. But that had all changed when she'd finally had enough and had practically jumped him because it seemed like a good idea at the time, because it seemed right, and good, and intended to happen.

"Thanks."

April nervously toys with her pen, and Jackson smiles at the couple, "We'll see you later to get you prepped."

He follows her out of the room, sliding the chart across the nurses' desk. She walks away from him quickly, trying to avoid him. It's not like it'll be possible anyway because they're going to be stuck in the operating room for over two hours together so she can't ignore him forever.

"April!" He calls after her and she turns around on her heel, staring straight at him dangerously.

"What?"

He walks closer to her, "What- What are you doing here?" He watches her face as she sighs, licking her lips and running a hand through her hair.

"Hunt gave me my job back." She tells him.

"That's great." He doesn't seem too upbeat but she can't blame him. He probably never expected to see her again.

She notes the way he looks different; his hair's grown, his eyes are darker and he looks tired. She figures it's because he's lost his ex-girlfriend and his mentor within the sake of three months and he's got the extra job load.

"I'll see you later." She tells him simply before turning away and walking off.

He stares after her, a confused expression on his face. He stayed in Seattle for a reason; partially for Sloan, but mainly for her. Because he wanted to be there for her. But she just went and left him, cold and alone. He'd literally woken up one day to find gone, the only remainder being a note to tell him and Alex that she'd moved back to Ohio.

She'd left him.

"Apes, welcome back!"

Alex appears behind her, patting her shoulder a couple of times before sitting down across from her and beside Meredith.

She smiles at him, "Thanks."

"Held back, huh?" He jokes and Meredith nudges him when she sees April face.

"Yeah, I guess so." She sighs and runs a hand over her face, "It's weird."

Meredith takes a bite of her salad before speaking, "I'm sure you'll be fine. You're working with Jackson, right? That's gotta be easy."

"You would think."

Meredith doesn't push it anymore because her tablet lights up, revealing Cristina's face across the screen.

"Lunchtime at Seattle Grace. Good times." She speaks and April creases her forehead in confusion.

"Is that Cristina?"

The screen is turned around in her direction and Cristina smiles, "Kepner! You back from the farm?"

"Yeah."

"Good to see you, Virgin Mary."

The redhead lets the comment slide, instead placing a grin on her face, "How's Mayo?"

"Weird. They're all a bunch of lunatics. Hey, you'd fit in well here."

"Thanks, I guess."

Meredith spins the camera back around, "What are you doing?"

"Charting the most boring cases ever. I swear, it's not even worth it sometimes."

"You know, you can always come back." Meredith suggests and Cristina shakes her head.

"Mer, I've told you to let it go. Hey, how are Evil Spawn and Pretty Boy?" She sees Alex in the corner of her screen and cheers, "Hey, loser."

"Whatever. You still suck for leaving."

April shakes her head. Yeah, she's missed this.

It passes faster than she thinks.

There's an awkward silence in the room for most of the time and nobody quite understands why.

"You need to bring down the skin that was above the areola to reshape, okay?" He asks her.

The only speaking that they've done in the last two hours is about the surgery, is him teaching her.

"Right."

It takes her a while longer than it would him but she manages and he smiles.

"Okay, good job."

April stretches her hands, "I don't know how you do this, it's incredibly difficult."

He smirks, realizes that she's starting up a conversation to rid the silence, "And you never believed me." He teases and she giggles.

"I believed you, I just thought that you were exaggerating."

Jackson smiles, watching her face turn into a foolish grin as she picks up the scalpel and hands it over to him. His hand lingers over hers for a second before he takes the sharp object slowly and continues working.

She observes him for the rest of the surgery.

"It should be a fast recovery, so don't worry." Jackson tells them, watching his patient as she stands from her bed and walks over to the mirror in the room.

She nods at his words, "Thank you."

He smiles before leaving the room. He glances at his watch, noticing the time, 1.00 am. No wonder he's so tired.

Everything's all filled out and his patients are cleared, or stable at least, so he guesses a quick nap break would do him good.

He quickly pushes open to an on-call room, thankful that he didn't walk in on Alex and another one of his interns. Again.

Jackson shuts the door behind him, leaning his head back against it for a second and closing his eyes.

A soft voice interrupts his peace and he snaps his attention back to the beds, noticing the woman on the bottom mattress.

"Jackson?" April mutters, moving herself into a sitting position.

He sighs. Great.

"Yeah," He replies, rubbing a hand over his face. "Yeah, I just- I'm gonna go." He goes to spin around to open the door but her voice stops him.

April stands up, stretching her arms behind her, "No, it's fine. Stay. I was just leaving anyway." She leans down at the edge of the bed to retrieve her shoes.

"You were asleep." He points out.

She shrugs, "Yeah, but I probably shouldn't have been. I have a lot of work to do. Can't fail again."

A short moment later, she bites her lip nervously when she realizes what she'd said.

He glances up at the ceiling for a second, "Can we just... talk about it?"

"About what?"

The way she always changes the subject or tries to steer the conversation away from the one thing that they have to discuss frustrates him to no end. The fact that she went to Ohio and left him to deal with it all by himself didn't help.

"April, you know what I'm talking about."

She takes a deep breath, crossing her arms over her chest. "Yes, I know, okay? I get it. I had sex. We had sex. I'm no longer a virgin. I get it. It was really, really good. It was great. Sex was good. I get it, Jackson!"

"No, I don't think you do!" He steps closer to her, shrinking the space between their bodies. She finds her back straightening when his hand finds her hip and tugs her body nearer to his. "You don't get it. I'm not guilty, I'm not sorry."

She gulps when his hand travels up her side, remembering the way he'd touched her that first night. It'd been good, great, perfect. Somehow, within all the mess and nerves that had been floating from her that night, he'd managed to make the whole thing perfect for her, to make her forget about the awkwardness or the aftermath of what would ensue.

The short distance between them closes and she feels the back of her head touch the edge of the top bunk.

He's sending her that intense look again, the one that she hasn't gotten out of her mind ever since the first time.

"We shouldn't..." She can't bring herself to finish her sentence because he grasps her hips and presses his front against hers.

He smirks, "That didn't stop us last time." He reminds her.

She goes to reply but finds her speech cut short when he runs a hand up her back as he presses his mouth against hers hungrily.

April moans out quietly, her fingers clawing at his scrub shirt. He slips it off quickly, briefly cutting off their contact. Jackson slips his hands down to her bottom, picking her up and she wraps her legs around his waist tightly.

Her hands find the back of his neck, her fingers toying with the hair as he lays her down on the bed, his lips finding her neck.

She rolls over a while later, finding her naked body colliding with his own under the thin sheets of the hospital bed.

He looks so peaceful when he sleeps, and she wonders how she could have kicked him out of bed the first time. Maybe she wasn't sure about the idea of sleeping in the same bed as the man who'd just taken her virginity. Maybe she wasn't sure how the conversation would go once they woke up.

Maybe she just wasn't ready.

But she's had two months to think without seeing him, without having him beside her was strange, being back home, on the farm when she'd grown up. She wasn't used to it anymore. Hunt was right.

Seattle was her home.

The hospital was her home.

And her best friend, the man who she'd finally let sleep beside her, was apart of that home.