Hey readers,

Just want to take a quick second to thank you all for your amazing reviews.
It means the world hearing your opinions and positive feeback.
Without further ado, here's the next chapter. I hope you like it!

The rain against the window is what eventually wakes her but Jackson's always been a heavier sleeper. It's still dark out, and the time on her watch tells her it's only been three hours since she fell asleep. The storm outside is still raging, and if the weather reports are anything to go by, they'll be trapped inside for another day or two at the least.

April takes a moment to watch the man sleeping beside her. The rise and fall of his chest, his heartbeat stuttering softly against her palm as she presses it over his heart. The warmth of skin, with the rhythm of life pulsing beneath it.

He's perfect. Not just in the way that everyone else sees, a pretty face and perfect body. He's selfless and brave, and he's always been in her corner, even though it's taken her awhile to see it.

She feels unworthy sometimes, in the privacy of her own mind, but when she's with him she feels good. Jackson has always been the one with who she can really be herself, and better. Someone with who she can be a better version of herself that likes to indulge in all the things she can't around everyone else.

Her pager goes off as she's untangling herself from the bed, which wakes up the sleeping man beside her.

"Hey. What time is it?" Jackson asks groggily.

"A little after three." She tells him.

It's still pitch black outside, and the rain is still pouring down as lightning streaks across the darkened sky.

"I need to go check on the E.R." She says. "Make sure everyones okay, that we have enough supplies. The interns probably need a break."

"I'll come with you." He says, standing up from the bed.

"Jackson, you're injured. You need to rest." She tells him, attempting to push him back down.

He waves off her concern, using his free hand to take off his sling and stretching his arm out.

"April, I'm fine. It's just a little pain, nothing I can't deal with." He says sincerely, trying to soothe her.

"Are you sure? Because you could make it worse by going back to work-" Jackson cuts her off before she can continue, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"Hey. I'm fine, I promise you." It's hard to say no to him when he stands there smiling down at her with his eyes.

"Okay." She says, knowing it's useless to fight.

"Okay then, come on let's go see what we can do."

He places his hand on the small of her back, guiding her out into the ER.

Everything seems to have settled down somewhat, while they were asleep.

Hunt had arranged for more patients to be transferred to Seattle Pres, and the remaining few were all stable.

Stephanie is the first one to spot them when they enter the E.R, putting down her clipboard and running over to Jackson.

"Hey. I've been looking for you everywhere. Heather told me what happened." She says, placing a hand on his arm.

"Hey Steph, listen.."

"I'm just about to take a break, do you want to come with me, I can make sure you're really okay.." She trails off, before following Jackson's gaze to the woman beside him.

"Oh, Dr Kepner. I didn't see you there. Sorry." She apologizes, looking slightly embarrassed.

"It's fine, Dr Edwards." April says, feeling uncomfortable.
She'd forgotten that while she had ended her relationship with Matthew, Jackson was yet to do the same with his own.

"I need to talk to you." Jackson tells her, glancing at April quickly before he ushers Stephanie away.

April doesn't hear the rest of their conversation, as Jackson leads the younger girl out into the hallway but she has a general idea of what's happening if their body language and facial expressions are anything to go back. Stephanie looks upset, her arms crossed defensively, and April can tell she's struggling not to cry as Jackson speaks to her.

Jackson's body language is harder to read, but April's had years to practice.

She has every feature of his body catalogued in her head, down to the twenty seven freckles he has splattered across his nose.
She knows that the knit he gets between his eyebrows means he's frustrated, and when the corners of his mouth turn down somethings disappointed him.

She doesn't have to hear their conversation to understand that Jackson feels bad for hurting the girl, but also relieved that it's over. His hand reaches out to pat Stephanie's arm but he pulls it back at the last second, like it would only make things worse.

April feels bad too, that all of her actions over the past few months have resulted in so many casualties. If she had been honest with herself and with Jackson from the beginning now of this would be happening.

Stephanie comes back first, rushing past April with nothing more than a sad smile, and a few tears trailing down her cheeks.

Jackson stays in the hallway, his head leaning back against the wall when she approaches him.
She's only ever broken up with one person so she doesn't really know what advice to offer him, instead settling for pulling his body close to hers and rubbing his back.

His head settles into the crook of her neck as she runs her fingers through his short hair.

"I love you." He says, tilting his head up into her touch.

April will never get used to hearing it. It's hard for her to believe that someone so amazing could possible feel so strongly about her. It wasn't that long ago that she was staring down the barrel of a gun pleading with a gunman to spare her life because no one had loved her yet.

"Is it always going to be this hard?" He asks, sounding defeated.

"I don't know.. Maybe." She answers him honestly. "I hope not."

It's the truth. She's being honest now, and sugar coating things wont help anyone. Life is always hard.
They've been through more trauma in the last two years than April's experienced in her entire life, and there's no point denying it.

"Even if it is, we'll get through. The same way we have everything else." She truly believes that. They've made it this far, together.

They're surgeons. It's their job to stop things from falling apart, and sew the broken pieces back together.
When one problems solved they move on to the next one. It what they're trained to do.

"Me and you." Jackson says.

"Yeah. Me and you." She agrees with him, smiling warmly.

Callie is the one that tells them about Richard.

She finds them as they're handing out more blankets to some of the families in the waiting room, and her expression alone is enough to tell them that something serious has happened.

They run through the halls until they reach the ICU, where most of their colleagues are standing around the nurses station.
From what April can gather it was an electric shock from the power generator, which caused serious internal injuries to his heart and lungs, combined with some minor burns. His body's still recovering from the trauma, and they won't know more until he wakes up, if he wakes up.

April can't bear to look into the other doctors faces as they all stand around debating what to do. She knows exactly what she'll see there, the pain and sadness present in all of their eyes.

Jackson takes the news quite hard, taking his anger out on the wall behind them. Despite his hostility towards their former chief over the relationship he'd developed with Jackson's mother, the older man had really taken the plastic surgeon under his wing the last few months, and April knew he looked to the man as a mentor, much like he had Sloan.

April takes his larger hand in hers and interlocks their fingers as he spends the next several minutes on the phone with his mother, delivering the news.

Catherine offers to fly out immediately but the airport's closed and the roads are too dangerous. He ends the conversation with a promise to call her with any updates on Dr Webber's condition.

They sit there in silence for what feels like an eternity, April and Jackson along with the rest of the doctors. Derek is the one that eventually breaks the silence.

"I need to go and tell Meredith."

April's heart goes out to Meredith, knowing that Dr Webber is the closest thing she has to a father.

He makes his way back up to the maternity ward, while April peeks her head into the window behind them. The sight of Bailey reduced to tears at Dr Webber's bedside is enough to prompt the return of her own. He looks so small in the large bed, surrounded by wires and ventilators while their co-workers do what they can for him.

Needing to escape the morbidness of it all she takes a hold of Jackson's hand, leading them down the corridor and into the first empty on call room she finds.

Through the window the thunder rolls across the sky. Streaks of lightening so intense they turn the night into day with each momentary flash.

"I'm sorry, I..I just can't be around there." She says, pacing around the small room. "We've already been through so much.. I don't understand why this keeps happening. How many more people can we lose.."

"Hey, we're going to be okay. He's going to make it." Jackson tells her, pulling her close to him.

"I know, I just.."

She doesn't know how to express what she's feeling; the grief over the potential loss of one of their colleagues, the relief that it's not Jackson lying there and the selfishness of herself for even thinking it, the anger in God for allowing this to happen again, so she does the only thing she can think of.

She brings his head down to hers and kisses him, needing to be as close as humanly possible.

It's nothing like the soft kiss they had shared earlier by his bedside, it's channeled with desire and emotion, deep and dangerous, that sends tremors down her body, as nails skim across skin and teeth scrape lower lips.

The thing about keeping desire so distant is that when you finally embrace it hits you stronger than ever.

The proximity of their bodies and the contrast between the air-conditioned environment and their warm skin causes her breath to hitch, but his mouth never leaves hers, sliding fluidly over bruised lips, threatening to swallow her whole.

"You okay?" He pants as they break apart, when the need to breathe becomes too apparent.
Jackson's eyes bore into hers, like they're trying to see something inside her that she wonders if he can actually see.

April raises a hand to his shoulder, warm and tense under her touch, and traces the line of his collarbone down to the curve of his bicep. He tenses his shoulder into her touch, and she let's her hand fall down to the curve of his back.

His hands slide to grasp her hips, palms digging into the soft flesh, and pushing her body back against the wall. Her body hums in anticipation when he brings her body closer to his. April has never felt a deeper connection to anyone, or anything, than right here in this moment.

He slides his hands under her shirt and up her ribcage, caressing the skin there so softly, as if it were to break should he apply the slightest pressure.

"Jackson." His name is a whisper off of her lips, exhaled in a shaky breath.

He pauses what he's doing, and looks at her. Really looks at her. The kind of look that makes her chest tighten, and her head start to spin. Before she can analyze it further it's gone, and his mouth is pressing down on hers again. Hungrier, frenzied.

Jackson's right hand leans against the door, supporting them, while the other is still clamped tightly around her slim waist. She runs her fingers along the ridges of his back, his breathing heavy as she's presses her hips against his roughly. His grip tightens on her for a moment as he lets out a small moan.

She closes her eyes, and can feel how much he wants her, and it's enough to make her almost cry. No one has ever wanted her this much. The air is hot, and her heart is beating fast, and so is his.

"April." He says, his voice hoarse and full of desire.

And that's all it takes. She nods, and let's him push them back onto the bed. She wants to focus on right here, right now. They can deal with the rest of it all later.

"I missed that." He tells her afterwards. "Missed you, I mean."

She leans forward and kisses him, taking him by surprise. Before he can respond she's pulled away, her fingers darting up to touch his mouth gently, briefly.

"I did too." She tells him sincerely.

His hand works it's way to her collarbone, holding her back to his chest as he presses down with two fingers, quickly, over and over, tapping out a rhythm. It's only when the pace speeds up that she realizes he's tapping out the rhythym of her heartbeat. She presses presses closer to him, and hides a smile in the curve of his shoulder as he grins wider, leaning down and placing kisses where his fingers are, precisely, like a surgeon.

Eventually they're pagers go off again, reminding them off the outside chaos. They dress quickly, and make their way back down to the E.R where Callie and Owen are talking.

"Hey guys. What's up?" Jackson asks, placing a hand across April's shoulders as their co-workers turn around. She leans into him in response, more of a reflex than anything.

Callie seems to notice as her eyes zoom in on their close proximity.

"Hey, wait are you guys..?" She trails off, obviously not knowing what to refer to them as.

"We are." Jackson says, giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

"Oh wow.. What about..?" Owen says, looking between the two of them, with an expression April can't quite read.

"Um.." She says, looking down at her feet, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. A part of her can't help but wonder if this is the way everyone else will react when they find out. Silently judging her for changing her mind.

Jackson seems to notice as he attempts to move the conversation away from themselves.

"How about we focus on something else for now. We got your page, what's going on?"

"Oh yeah, Jackson I was hoping you could have a look at some of Webber's burns. I don't trust anyone else." Callie asks, handing him over the chart.

"Yeah, no problem." He says, nodding.

"And April, we're running out of saline and suture kits downstairs. Bailey mentioned that they've got some extras in the clinic."

"Of course. I thought we'd closed the clinic though." They'd closed it off yesterday due to the storm, wanting to contain everyone in the one building.

"It is, I've got the key here. I'd go myself but I need to run back upstairs and check on a few things." Hunt says, handing her a set of keys.

"Sure, of course." She agrees.

After finishing their conversation, Jackson walks with her to the elevator.

"Hey, be careful going outside okay. I want you to take Brooks with you, she's down in the E.R." He says, looking down at her.
She presses a quick kiss to his cheek, hoping to erase some of the worry lines.

"I will, I promise." She tells him.

"Alright, I'll come down and see you after I finish upstairs." Jackson says leaning forward and leaving her with a long kiss, before walking towards the stairs.

When she makes it back downstairs she looks around the crowded room before spotting Dr Brooks walking away from a patient.

"Brooks. Are you free?" April calls out to the intern.

"Dr Shepherd just paged me upstairs. Why?" The younger girl asks, coming over to her.

"Never mind, if Dr Avery comes downstairs can you let him know I'll page him when I come back." April asks.

"Sure thing." The intern agrees before walking away.

Exiting out the main trauma doors she runs across the car park to the clinic, pulling the keys out of her pocket to unlock it. The weather outside is still wild, with rain pouring down all around her. It's so heavy it soaks through her scrubs in seconds and plasters her hair to her face. The lightning that flashes across the sky brings with it thunder so loud it rattles the doors and windows.

When she finally gets into the clinic and out of the rain she's soaked to the bone.

It takes her a few minutes to turn the lights on, and locate the suture kits, loading as many into her arms as she can before making her way back towards the hospital.

It's only when she's halfway across the parking lot that she realizes she's forgotten the saline.

Shielding her eyes from the heavy rain and dashing back in the direction she'd just came from, she doesn't see the lightning that hits a nearby tree branch until she feels something fall on top of her. The force of it is so heavy that it knocks her down to the ground, the supplies falling to her feet as her head falls back making impact with the cold concrete, effectively trapping her under it's weight. What little strength she has left she uses to try and push the large object off of her stomach, but it's too heavy and her hand comes back stained with blood.

Uh-oh, poor April! Hopefully Jackson can save her.

ALSO: What was everyone's favourite scene from the finale? Curious to hear your opinions!