Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy and never will. No copyright infringement intended.

Alex and Jo stumbled into their relationship, completely unsure of what they were doing. They were both fucked up and knew it, but that was okay with them. They were just taking their relationship one step at a time. They were mostly happy, however, and were enjoying themselves. They tried not to think about the future because that terrified the hell out of both of them.

Alex was sure he was falling in love with her, but the last time that had happened for him with Izzie, it had ended badly. And he didn't want to scare Jo off since she tended to bolt from "minor" things like feelings. So he decided that he'd keep that a secret to himself if she fell in love with him, something Alex very much doubted would happen. Why would she love him?

Jo had already realized she was in love with Alex, but decided not to tell him. It would only end in a break-up, and she didn't want that. She liked how their relationship was going. The sex was good, and despite some minor issues that Medusa said were his normal personality, their relationship was fine. She was happy and didn't want to ruin that.

Unfortunately, this avoidance of feelings was about to come to a head and create problems for the two. The fact that Alex and Jo didn't trust very easy was going to come back to bite them in the ass sooner rather than later. Their issues ran very deep and weren't easily fixable. Alex had found his way out of some of his problems with Meredith and Arizona's help.

Alex had just done rounds and went to find his girlfriend when he saw her talking with the brother of a patient. And they were clearly flirting, which pissed him off. He fought the urge to go over and confront them since that would only lead to fighting and he didn't want that. Alex wanted to be mature about this for once. He just hoped he could do it. So he went somewhere else to calm down so he wouldn't explode on Jo, but it didn't work very well. As soon as she came by to talk to him about their plans for tonight, the fury came rushing back. "What the hell were you doing with this guy's brother earlier?"

She was confused and told him so. "We were just talking about what should happen next. And that was it."

"You were flirting with him!" He was aware that he was probably overreacting, but he was terrified of losing her. He wasn't about to admit his abandonment issues were kicking back up in full force.

Jo rolled her eyes. "I was not flirting with him. He may have been flirting with me, but I definitely wasn't reciprocating.

Alex took a deep breath to try and calm down. "I know what flirting is like, Wilson and you were clearly flirting right back."

She had had enough and was angry herself now. "You know what? Fuck you. I can't play this kind of game with you, so call me when you can trust me, Doctor Karev." She stalked off and went to go find her friends to rant at them.

"Did she just break up with me?" Alex looked at the nurse next to him, who shrugged. He glared at her and then went off in another direction to stew in peace. He was slowly starting to realize he had screwed up and pushed her away, but didn't want to admit it.

Arizona found him wallowing in self-pity about half an hour later. "Okay, what did you do?" It hadn't been hard to figure out that something was bothering Alex.

"Nothing. Are you okay? Do you need to sit?" He was a little overprotective of Arizona now, which irritated her, but she didn't mention it today. Yelling at him for taking care of her when she didn't want his help could come later.

Arizona rolled her eyes. "I know when you're lying to me, Karev, so just admit to whatever it is you did already." She sat down next to him and waited for whatever stupid thing was about to come out of his mouth.

He sighed and thought it over for a few minutes before deciding to come clean. "I saw Jo with some patient's brother and flipped out because he was flirting. I accused her of flirting with him and she got pissed and ended things. I screwed up."

She tried to resist smacking him at first, but gave up and hit him on the back of the head. "Don't you dare say a word because you deserve this. Alex, why do you keep sabotaging your relationships? That girl is good for you! You're happy with her. And it's a much better situation than last year, when that other intern latched onto you because you helped with her baby. I know you love her."

Alex flinched. "I have no clue what you're talking about. I don't love her."

"Stop being an idiot, Karev. If you didn't love her, you wouldn't be this upset right now. Now man up and go tell her how you feel. Grovel first, though, because otherwise this may not end well." She gave him an encouraging smile and then walked away to let him think over what she had told him.

Luckily, Alex listened to his boss and friend's advice and decided to go find Jo. She was in an on call room, eating a snack. "What do you want?" Jo stood up and prepared to leave, but Alex stopped her.

"Wait, please! Just let me say what I want to say and you can go afterwards if you don't believe me. Just hear me out."

She tapped her foot impatiently. "Go on then. I'm waiting."

He laughed, but stopped when Jo glared at him. "First off, I want to say sorry for fucking up like that. I tend to do it a lot, so you may have to get used to it? I don't do relationships very well. My marriage ended badly, so I don't exactly trust just anybody. I should know better than to think you'd flirt with that guy, but my stupid insecurities got in the way. I have a hard time trusting people, you know?" He sighed and prepared himself for the words that were about to come out of his mouth. It took Alex a few minutes to compose himself but he finally decided to go for it. "I love you, Jo. And I want to be with you and try to make this work."

She didn't want to smile, but finally gave in. "You love me?"

"Yeah, I do." He was terrified know that she didn't feel the same way for him and that their relationship was definitely over.

"You're an idiot, but I love you, too. I also have trust issues, so I'm going to fuck this up myself at one point. Figured I'd let you know well in advance."

He laughed and went in for a kiss. The two made out for a few minutes before reluctantly pulling apart. "I fully expect an apology dinner tonight, so get on that."

"You got it, Princess." He kissed her again and then headed back to work. Alex was really, truly happy and he was excited for whatever happened next.

Alex and Jo both had trust issues, but they'd be able to navigate their various problems together. They were happy and in love. Neither wanted to lose that.