A/N: Thank you all so much for the reviews!

Jo gasped as if she had just been rescued from drowning, and her eyes flew open. It took a few more strangled breaths for her to realize her situation. She was at the hospital, and she was lying in a bed. She racked her mind for any possible reason she'd be in there. Did she take a nap or something? Suddenly, she noticed a tube near her nose providing her with oxygen. Something clicked within her brain.

"Jo?" someone said softly. Jo turned her head at lightning speed to see Meredith looking at her concernedly. "How are you feeling?"

"I had an asthma attack, didn't I?" she asked her, although it wasn't really a question.

"Yes, you did," Meredith informed her.

"How?"

Meredith gave her a sly smile. "You're the intern. You tell me."

"I have a history of asthma attacks, but they stopped when I was nine. I thought they were gone, so I stopped receiving asthma medication. At the time, I was experiencing stress and strong emotion, a common link to asthma, and I was crying, an action that involves a lot of labored breathing."

"Very good," Meredith said, satisfied. "On a more serious note, you really gave us a scare."

"Why? What happened?" Jo asked. Although she remembered crying and the beginning of the attack, the rest was a blur in her mind.

"Dr. Karev was taking a walk to clear his head or something, and he heard banging coming from an empty on-call room. He opened the door and saw you clearly struggling. So, he picked you up and carried you until Dr. Kepner saw him. At that point, you were starting to lose consciousness. They didn't have enough time to hook you up to a ventilator, so they put you down and you lost consciousness almost immediately. Your heart stopped for a second there, Jo."

"I died?" she said, incredulous. "Oh, my God, I died."

"Technically, yes, but you're alive now, and that's all that matters."

"And after my heart stopped?" Jo questioned. "What did they do then?"

"Dr. Karev performed CPR on you, and Dr. Kepner went to go find a defibrillator. The CPR kept you alive long enough so that, by the time Dr. Kepner had come back with a defibrillator, she was able to restart your heart. You were still unconscious, so they carried you here, hooked you up to the ventilator, and gave you some asthma medication."

"How come neither of them are my doctors?"

"Dr. Kepner's got a lot to do today in trauma."

"Well, what about Alex?"

Meredith looked around awkwardly. "It became clear that he was, um, too emotionally attached to this case."

Jo gave her an odd look. "What do you mean he was too emotionally atta – " she started, but she cut herself off. The words she had overheard earlier that day and the image of him close to tears rushed back into her mind. "Oh."

"Don't tell him I told you this," Meredith started, "but he's been a wreck all day. He keeps checking in on you every half an hour, and when he hasn't been in here, he's been either pacing or yelling at everyone." Meredith grimaced. "It hasn't been pretty." Jo nodded curtly, clearly deep in thought. "Jo, he really likes you."

Jo groaned. "I know!" she exclaimed. "I know, okay? I know that he likes me. I wish everyone would just stop telling me, because I get it. I'm not stupid; you only have to tell me once, and I'll remember. I promise."

"Does it bother you that you know?" Meredith said, pushing her a bit.

"I – I don't know." Jo sighed. "I wish I didn't."

"Why?"

Jo laughed to herself. "I can't believe I'm telling you all this," she admitted but continued anyway. "It's kind of like learning how to read. At first, it's all just a bunch of symbols that don't mean anything to you, so you can just ignore them. But the second you find out that they mean something, you're determined to know. Then, you figure it out, and nothing's the same again."

"So you're upset because you've figured it out?"

"I'm upset because I still haven't."

Meredith nodded thoughtfully. "I get it. And you're afraid that once you do – "

"Nothing will ever be the same," Jo finished lamely. "I mean, he's my boss, Dr. Grey."

"Derek was my boss."

"Really?" she asked. "Was he also your best friend?"

"Well, he is now," Meredith countered. "Does that count?'

"He's also seven years older than me," Jo challenged, a smile creeping onto her face.

"Eight."

"And I have a boyfriend."

"Oh, that's nothing. Derek was married when he met me."

Jo laughed. "You're kidding, right? I didn't know Dr. Shepherd was married before!"

Meredith laughed with her. "Just don't go telling your intern friends, okay? You know how much gossip spreads around here."

"I won't," Jo told her. "And you're not gonna tell anyone what I told you, right? About Alex and me?"

"Of course not! What do you think I am, some sort of monster?" Meredith smiled. Jo looked at her strangely. "Oh. Right. I'm Medusa. I forgot there for a second."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Jo apologized. "You can just be a bit intimidating at times."

Meredith shrugged. "Yeah, I get it. I actually find it kind of funny." Meredith and Jo laughed again, and Jo enjoyed it: having someone to laugh with after all the stress of the day.

Speaking of stress… "You said you were gonna page me," Alex said, walking into the room. Their laughter stopped.

"She just woke up," Meredith informed him. "You know that she's been through a lot of stress; I didn't want to overwhelm her."

"Bullshit. I'm her best friend, Mer. You can't leave me in the dark like that," Alex told her. It was silent for a moment as the two stared each other down.

"Thank you," Jo said, breaking the silence. "You, uh, kind of saved my life out there."

"That was sort of the point," Alex countered.

Meredith looked at Jo. "I think I'm gonna go now." Jo nodded her approval, and Meredith slipped out the door.

"What's up your ass?" she demanded once Meredith had gone. "I know it must've been scary for you to see me like that, but that doesn't give you – "

"Scary?" Alex seethed. "Scary doesn't even begin to describe it. That was freaking terrifying, like falling-off-a-bridge terrifying. Damnit, Jo, I don't think I'd be able to survive if you ever did anything like that again."

"Well, excuse me for having an asthma attack."

"Don't make this about you," Alex growled. "I thought you were dead. I thought you weren't coming back. I thought I'd never get to talk to you again."

"I love how me dying has suddenly become worse for you than for me."

"Because it would be, Jo," Alex admitted. "If you'd died out there, at least you'd have been dead. The suffering would've been over. But I would've been worse than dead, Jo. I'd be alive, sure, but I'd be dead on the inside, and isn't that worse? I'd have to deal with the fact that I could never have a chance with you. I don't know if I even do now, but at least you're alive, and as long as you're alive, I'm going to keep fighting until I have one."

Jo stared at him for a bit. "I – I never said you didn't have a chance."

He didn't seem to be listening. "It was the only thing I could think of that whole time: that I'd never let you give me a chance," Alex said, his voice strained.

Jo's heart beat ridiculously loudly in her chest at his words. Its rhythm was the one thing that kept her grounded as Alex stepped forward and captured her lips with his own.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review, favorite, follow, etc.!