#HE LEFT JO AND MEREDITH AND SEATTLE FOR IZZIE | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pagingevilspawn · 3 years

Note

Hey my request is about Alex who returns to Seatle and finds out about Jo and Jackson's relationship

i had all and then most of you (some and now none of you)

wc: 1.4k

pairing: Jo Wilson/Alex Karev (past), Meredith Grey & Alex Karev (gen), and mentions of Jo Wilson/Jackson Avery.

summary: during a late night phone call, alex learns that jo is well and truly no longer his.

rating: general audiences.

category: angst.

warnings: angst, no happy ending.

AN: again, this is pretty short, but i wrote it in two hours, so.... it's not quite what you asked for anon, but i tried to keep it relatively canon compliant, since here (as you can tell) Meredith didn't get covid.

_____

The silence in the house seemed alarming to him, not used to the lack of commotion that usually echoed throughout the halls. Izzie was finishing up on a shift and wouldn’t be home for a while, and the twins were tucked into bed, leaving the only sound in the home to be the low, steady humming of a sitcom rerun on the TV.

The appeal drained after a while, and he eventually grew tired of laughter from the audience after nearly every line spoken. Mindless chatter was all it was and all it seemed to be.

Alex sighed, leaning into the couch’s cushions and pulling out his phone, dialing Meredith’s number once he saw that he had missed her call only minutes before. He waits a few seconds, the droning of the beeps making him anxious for a reason he couldn’t place. Eventually, Meredith picks up, her voice slightly out of breath, which he only assumes could come from finishing a long day of work.

“Alex! How are you?”

He gets up from his place on the couch, taking his conversation onto the front porch, settling onto the swing that hung in the corner. “I’m good Mer, I’m good,” he says, directing his gaze to the end of the road, where a car went by, headlights being one of the only forms of light besides the dim street lamps.

“How are the kids?” he asks, feeling a sense of nostalgia at the fact that he hadn’t seen his niece or nephews in months. He missed them, more than he would admit. He had been there for everything, everything graduation, every dance, every school play, he had been there.

But he had his own kids to tend to now, and he wouldn’t trade that for anything.

(not trade, but make some changes. he lost that opportunity a long time ago though)

“They’re good. Zola is driving Bailey crazy with how much she’s correcting his homework, when all he wants to do is go play on his XBox. Ellis is hating distance learning, complaining that all she wants to do is see her friends, but what else is new. Zola loves it, not surprisingly. She thinks school is even easier than it was before, the only part she misses is talking to her friends, but she calls them and everything, so she doesn't see too much harm. She’s started staying after class to help other kids with her teachers. Amelia and I have been teasing her non-stop about being a kiss-up, but she loves it. If she decides to switch careers I wouldn't doubt that she would be a teacher,” she says, and he can hear the car door slam shut and the rumble of the car's engine coming to life.

He laughs softly, “We both know that that’s not gonna happen. Zo would rather get into a bear fight before giving up on being a surgeon.”

Meredith hums, “That’s true. The thought of being anything else almost is offensive to her,” she laughs. “The other day I made an offhand comment about a lawyer being a fun career for her because of how much she loves to argue, and she went into a five minute lecture on why she was going to be a neurosurgeon.”

Alex smiles, practically able to see the image of Zola telling her mom off for suggesting she be anything other than a surgeon. “That sounds about right. I learned that lesson a long time ago.”

There are a couple of beats of silence, the only thing he can hear is the crickets chirping in the distance and the faint sounds of cars racing around in the background.

“They miss you, you know,” Meredith finally speaks, her tone dropping slightly to let him know how sincere her words were.

He lets out a heavy breath, “I miss them too Mer,” the crickets continue their noise, and images of what his life used to be seem to filter through his mind. An endless loop, dancing in his head of a life he once used to live, but could no longer say he knew.

“Well,” she breaks him away from his thoughts, “When all this is over, you’re due for a visit, okay?”

He nods, even though she can’t see him. “Long overdue,” he agrees. “So, what’s been going on over at Seattle Grace Mercy Death?”

She fills him in on the latest events of the hospital, how everyone was adjusting to their new realities, the newest batch of interns, and patients that had stuck out more than others.

It was a funny thing that he didn’t realize until a while ago, somehow patients at Grey-Sloan had stuck with him more than the ones where he currently was.

“And Jo—” she starts, but cuts herself off, piquing his interest. Jo hadn’t come up in any other of their conversations, for reasons that didn’t really need to be said aloud.

He bites the inside of his cheek, releasing and giving himself the courage to finally ask about her. She never left his mind, so he couldn’t see the harm in asking about her —an opportunity to clear the part of his brain that was on a constant track of her if he was able to know how she was.

“It’s fine Mer, you can talk about her,” he says, running a hand through his hair.

He can hear her sigh, and can practically imagine the head shake she is giving him right then “Not about this, Alex.”

He perks up immediately, “Is she okay? I need you to tell me if she’s not okay Mer,” he demanded, his voice firm, only a trace of worry present if anyone were to listen closely.

(he felt like Elsa, conceal don’t feel)

“What? No,” she scoffs. “Jo’s fine, though I don’t really think you have the right to care about how she is anymore Alex, considering you’re the one that left her,” she scolds him, and he can hear the disappointment in her voice, no matter how hard she tried to hide it.

He lets out a heavy breath, trying to fight back the urge to explain himself to her, which would end up in a loud argument of why he shouldn’t have done what he had. He’d had it before, and each time it sent him to bed with all the what if’s playing out in the forefront of his mind.

Except he didn’t live a life of what if’s, he was living a life of right now.

“I know Mer,” he can hear the heaviness in his words, and she must too, since she relents her lecture on him, and he knows that it’ll just come up at another time.

“She’s sleeping with Jackson,” she says it so casually that he almost thinks that she’s joking, but realizes that she’s not when she stays silent.

“...Oh.”

“Yeah.”

He can feel the tenseness of the air, even though they are thousands of miles apart. He clears his throat after a few minutes have passed. “Are they together, or…?” he trails off, unsure of how he’s supposed to feel.

He left her. He left her. He left her. He wants to say that he’s upset that she’s already moved on, but there he was, sleeping in the same bed as his ex-wife and raising their children together, all while they were still married. He couldn’t really have an opinion, because he was the one who ended their relationship in the most cowardly way possible, through a letter sent in the mail, not even giving her the courtesy to tell her the truth to her face.

“No, they’re doing a friends with benefits sort of thing.”

He nods, trying to think of something to say. “Is she happy?” he settles on.

“Not like she once was, but I think she’s getting back there.”

The ache in his heart grows a bit more, because some selfish part of him wants her to only be able to be happy with him, as unfair and cruel as it is. But he smiles bitterly, and the larger part of him is happy for her, happy that she is finally able to have someone make her laugh and smile again.

The sight of headlights coming up the driveway breaks him away from his own mind, and he knows this conversation will have to be finished at another time.

“You did this to yourself Alex,” she says, as if she knows exactly what he’s thinking.

“I know.”

They both hang up, and he greets Izzie with a smile and a kiss on the cheek, wishing that the woman he was curled up on the couch with was someone else.

But it wasn’t, because he made his choice, and now he had to face the reality of a life he chose to live.

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fan4196 · 3 years

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Mister Perfectly Fine

Fearless - Taylor's Version (From The Vault)

As long as he's going, working his eight hours at the hospital, running from one meeting to the other, squeezing surgeries in every free minute he has or running behind the twins at home, everything is fine. As long as his mind is going he's perfectly fine. But as soon as his head hids the pillow or he sits down alone in his office and his mind starts to calms down he's not fine anymore. As soon as his mind stops thinking about the hospital he has to run, the patients he has to save or about his twins, his thoughts take over - thoughts he hates and loves at the same time. Deep thoughts that bring forth every kind of emotion in his body. Thoughts about her. The one good thing he had in his life for so long and now not anymore because he chose his kids. He chose his kids over her and after months he still doesn't know if it was the right or wrong decision. Since the day he left her, this thought lives in his head like a parasite, never leaving him. In every quiet second his mind goes back to this decision and everything involved in it and makes him go nuts. But not only his mind goes crazy also his heart. He could cry everytime he thinks about her and the potential future he lost by leaving her. He could beat himself at the thought of how much he hurt her - again. It beats him up that he not only broke the vow he gave her not to long before he left but that he broke the biggest promise he ever gave her - to always be her home and to never leave her. He knew that this was and still is her biggest insecurity. Way to many people left her or pushed her aside like she was nothing and Alex promised to himself, pretty early in their relationship, that he would never do that to her. But he did, more than once.

Every quiet minute his heart aches at his biggest lost he ever experienced and at the unconditional love he had received from her daily and now never will again.

Of course his kids love him and he knows that Izzie does too in some way but it's just not the same. It's not the kind of love that overfills his heart with warmth every day. The kind of love that let him growl at the ceiling, fake break up in front of a whole hospital, that is ok with going jail to prevent someone from having to testify, that puts on fake vampire teeth and marries someone for a second time after a crappy day at work. The kind of love that, now that it's gone, makes him realise how big of an impact it had on him, his mind and his heart. Because now that it's gone, his body wants it back like a drug. But nothing, sadly not even his kids, can fill his empty heart completely. There's always this whole that nothing can fill.

And so everytime his mind gets the chance to calm down it craves for the drug he can't consume. She is 1800 miles away, living her life like he should too - but he just can't, not really.

He leans back in his chair starring at the picture of the twins that's standing on his office desk right beside his work laptop. Their silly faces smile towards the camera. He loves his kids, they are one of the best things that ever happened to him but every time he looks at them he can't stop but wonder what his and Jo's kids would have been like. If they would have had a little boy first, who was through and through a mommas boy or if they would have had a little girl first, who would have looked like a carbon copy of Jo and would have adored her daddy to death. Or if they would have had both; twins - silly and foul-mouthed but still the cutes little angels.

He hates those uncontrolled, silent thoughts of what if. He hates that he secretly wishes things were different. He hates that he's not fine when he should be.

He loosens his stare from the only picture on his desk and turns his chair to reach for the lowest drawer of his desk - like he did so many times before. He opens it to take the only item out and carefully strokes his thumb over the wooden frame until it hits the silky red ribbon he never took off. Starring at the picture in the frame, memories of one of the best days in his life play in his head. From her excited face when she showed up at Mer's house, to her excitingly kissing Arizona, to her storming into his dressing room mocking him for something she thought he did, to her loud, pure laugh in the shed, her soft lips on his after they said I do, to her sleepy smile as he picked her up to carry her bridal stile through their loft door.

Everything about this day was perfect even though nothing went according to plan. But that was so them. Nothing in their six years together ever went according to plan. If it would have, he would have married her a year into their relationship. They would have started making babies immediately and would now live in a big suburban house with their five kids, two dogs and probably some fish. But it's not, their life didn't go according to plan, they had some massive bumps in their road - their ups and downs, they broke up and found their way back together, they had their difficult paths to navigate through but they did it and it made them stronger - as a person and as a couple. He always thought that nothing could ever break them. And he loved the thought of getting old with Jo and to die with her at his side once they were wrinkly and grey. Now everything changed and it's his fault.

Looking at the big smile on her face, the urge to call her comes over him - to hear her voice, to talk to her about everything he hates right now.

Way to many times the thinks of just dialing her number and calling her. The thought of hearing her voice again makes his heart flutter. He misses her. He misses talking to her. He misses his friend he can tell everything. He misses their lazy nights curled up in each other's arms on the couch, a trashy reality show in the background, while they just talk - about everyone and everything for hours without loosing a topic.

He also misses her silly self. Her bad jokes that she thought were hilarious. Her face when she told them. Her pure laugh after she told them. When they were alone she never took herself to serious. She was one hundred percent herself around him. Joking, laughing, running around without pans and only one of his shirts on.

He's not gonna lie, he also misses her body. Her perfect body - her ass, her boobs, her mouth, her smell, her hair, her perfect hands that she loved to bury in his hair. He loves and misses every bit of her. He misses what her body was able to do to his. How her hand in his neck was able to give him goosebumps on his entire body. How her presence when she walked into a room, made his stomach flutter. How her lips on his let him forget everything. How her curled up in his arms, close against his body made him love her even more. It wasn't just the amazing sex he misses, it is her.

He puts the picture down on his desk running his hands over his face. He never thought that he could miss someone this much - and he had lost a lot of people over time.

The little knock on his door let him sit up straight again. He quickly puts the picture back in the drawer and closes it before he let's the person come inside.

"Doctor Karev. You wanted to speak me?"

"Doctor Jones. Yeah, please sit down." He points to the chairs in front of his desk to let the resident sit. "I heard you were at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital in Seattle. Tell me how it was."

"Oh. It was amazing. I've never seen a this innovative and cutting edge hospital before. No offense." The brunette smiles a little nervous as she sits down in front of her boss.

"Absolutely not. I know how good it is. I learned in that hospital and worked there for many years." Alex replies with a little, toothless smile.

"Really? I never knew that." She answers surprised.

"So tell me a little bit. What did you do while you were there? Who did you meet?" Alex asks, interested in hearing about his former colleagues and friends.

"Oh I- Ok on the first day I was in their ER. Doctor Hunt showed me around and I assisted him. The second day I met the Doctor Meredith Grey. God she's everything, but I guess you know that. She showed me around the ICU and I met Doctor Webber and Doctor Bailey. On the third day I was in ortho and met Doctor Lincoln, he's amazing. Well they call him Ortho-God for a reason. My third day I was with Doctor Sheppard. She showed me her newest scans and let me join in on an operation. The last day I was with Doctor Hayes on the Peds floor. He was so nice and showed me around the NICU and PICU. I also met Doctor DeLuca and Doctor Wilson there, they were both so nice and showed me some of their cute little pacients." She smiles after finishing.

"Sorry, Doctor Wilson?" He asks a little confused.

"Yeah. She was so nice. She showed and explained me everything and let me hold one of her patients. She was so cute. The baby not Doctor Wilson. I mean Doctor Wilson is pretty cute too, especially when she's talking to her little patients but that's not the point, right?" She laughs.

"I guess I missed something, little patients? What is she doing on the Peds floor?" Alex asks again, trying to get every single little bit of information from the resident.

"Well that's where OB/Gyn's are sometimes, right?" She shrugs.

"Wait. OB/Gyn?" Now he's confused. Did Jo change specialties or was the resident in front of him talking about someone completely different?

"Yeah. Oh right. She was a general surgeon before but changed specialties during the pandemic. She told me everything when we were having lunch. She said she needed some joy in her life after her husband left her and she found that in OB so she changed specialties." Doctor Jones clarifies, with a smile.

"Thank you." Alex nods, to signal the brunette that he got all the information he wanted.

"Ahm sure. Anything else, Doctor Karev?" She asks before she stands up to leave.

"No. It's good to hear you had a great time in Seattle." He gives her a toothless smile before he leans forwards.

"I did. Thank you again for letting me do that."

"No problem."

As the door closes he leans back in his chair again. Thinking about what Doctor Jones just told him.

He's happy that she's happy. That she found new joy in her life. That's everything he needs to know. He needs her to be fine. Even though he misses her even more now and is not fine, he is happy that she is fine.

It’s finally Taylor Swift x Jolex Week! So excited for all the stories. Here’s mine, hope you like it.

Enjoy!

@odd-birds-and-booksellers @doc-pickles @angry-slytherin @cicinicole-14 @mac-andcheeses @renipedia @jobrookekarev @kidneys4karev @only-freaking-sunflowers @iamtrebleclefstories

#jolex #fan4196 #fanfic #fanfiction #jo x alex #alex #alex karev #grey's #grey's anatomy #grey's fanfic #TSjolexWeek21

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takaraphoenix · 2 years

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I’ve been trying to figure out why I don’t enjoy Grey’s Anatomy as much anymore as I used to and I think I found it. It’s the lack of friendship, the narrative shift away from the found family and friendship centric plots of the past and toward nearly exclusively romantic and sexual storylines as well as blood-family.

This show used to angle on friendships, above all else. Yes, it’d always been about the over-the-top love drama too, sure, but at the heart of it stood the friendships that withstood all of that. Cristina and Meredith used to be the central relationship of this show, regardless what drama Meredith and Derek, or Cristina and Owen, had going on, those two fell back to each other. When the show started out, the dynamic between Meredith, Cristina, George, Alex and Izzy was the core focus. The way they lived together, learned together, loved together.

This show had a really strong found family vibe going on and it kept carrying it, even as those five one by one fell apart, it never lost the focus of binding new characters into the network of friendships and establishing strong bonds.

The way Meredith grew closer with Callie, how Meredith and Arizona bonded over being the last survivors at the hospital from the crash, the dynamic between Meredith and Jackson, how Meredith and Jo became friends through Alex when Alex became the “new Cristina”.

But the show fundamentally changed when Alex left, like that was the breaking point when they decided to give up on being focused on friendships.

I thought that Jo would become the “new Alex”, that her and Meredith would bond over Alex leaving, since their friendship had already been build up. But honestly, it feels like Jo and Meredith barely had any scenes at all since Alex left?

Alex’s stupid letter that claimed Meredith was “her own person” still makes me mad, because being strong for yourself is one thing - and Meredith definite is strong for herself - but you still need other people. To support you, to vent to, to have your back, to laugh with and cry with. You can’t be your own support system.

She’s now living with her biological sister and her sister-in-law and her children. The found family was entirely replaced with the family-tree family and it became her sole focus, really. I’m not against her having blood-family, but what bothers me is that she doesn’t seem to have anything outside her family anymore. The only strong dynamics - aside from Richard and Bailey, but they are her mentors first and I’m reluctant to count them among the “friends” in the same sense as M.A.G.I.C. were - are with her family and with whatever current love interest they’re trying to make work.

(Which, I also have a problem with how things with Cormac played out. It never even got to sail at all. That flimsy excuse that Cormac’s kid didn’t like that he was in a relationship and instead of using that opportunity to have Meredith bond with his kids, to have the couple bring their children closer and have open conversations with them, they just completely end that relationship, like she is not a single mother of three too and doesn’t know the kids’ input is important and that kids’ trust needs to be earned.)

The fact that the narrative essentially removed Meredith Grey from Grey’s Anatomy isn’t helping any either. The only times she is seen in Seattle anymore is when she is at home with her kids and her sister. First, she was in the coma last season which already dragged on too long in my opinion and how, they keep shipping her off to her little side-project. I swear, if this were any other character but Meredith, I would say they’re setting that character up for their own spin-off with that, it doesn’t even really feel like she is still a part of Grey’s Anatomy, it very much feels like she’s on another show.

And so far - and we are a fourth into this season by now - that plotline hasn’t really let Meredith establish friendships either. She brought Amelia, her sister, into this. With her boss she as a boss/employee and doctor/patient dynamic, with Kai, she doesn’t really have any dynamic at all yet because the only times Kai’s brought in outside of work-scenes is to flirt with Amelia (which, nice, but I would also like to see them establish a friendship with Meredith?) and then there’s her new boyfriend, with whom she spends most of her time over there.

I miss this show being about found families and how much friendships mean. Now, it really does feel like it’s all about romance, because even the other characters are all about their romances. The only solid friendships this show has left at this moment are Schmidt and Taryn, as well as Jo and Link, all others are exclusively centered in their biological families or their romances. That’s it, I can’t name a single central friendship aside those two in the currently running season of Grey’s Anatomy, where this show used to be so strongly defined through its friendships.

I really hope that the writers will soon remember that friendships exist and spend more time on them again.

#Grey's Anatomy #Meredith Grey

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doc-pickles · 3 years

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i swore i wouldn’t do this

Don't you smile at me and ask me how I've been

Don't you say you've missed me if you don't want me again

You don't know how much I feel I love you still

So why don't you, don't you?

hello so if you saw me accidentally post this on friday no you fucking didn’t. also I only have two brain cells so if some of my TS fics seem similar ignore it. anyways enjoy!!

xoxo nina

When a knock sounds at her door Jo isn’t shocked. Link was proposing tonight and she knew if things went south that she would be his first stop. She picked Luna up from her rocker and settled the infant against her chest. Another knock sounded and Jo couldn’t help the groan that left her.

“I’m coming, hold on,” Jo unlocked the heavy oak door and pulled it open. “I swear you’re more impatient than-”

Jo’s words died on her tongue, eyes widening as she took in the sight of her ex husband standing before her. Alex was wearing a dark suit jacket, presumably coming from Maggie’s wedding. Jo can’t help the way her heart speeds up at the sight of him.

“Hi.”

“Hey.”

“You’re here. In Seattle.”

“You have a baby.”

Jo finally looks away from Alex to glance down at Luna who’s happily drooling on her hands. Her eyes are pointed up at Alex, as if the ten month old knows how important he is.

“This is Luna,” Jo looks back to Alex and her heart falls at the look on his face. “I just finalized her adoption papers last week. Her mom was my patient.”

She knows exactly what was running through Alex’s head, that she’d had his daughter and not told him as some sick form of revenge for what he’d done to her.

“Do you… want to come in for a beer,” Jo glanced at the near empty penthouse behind her. “I don't have any furniture yet but…”

“Sure,” Alex followed Jo, shutting the door behind him as she set Luna in her pack and play. “I can’t believe you’re in Avery’s place.”

“Well Schmitt and Helm took over the loft and that place wasn't exactly baby proof,” Jo grabbed two beers from the fridge, handing one to Alex who was leaning against the wall. “You’re in town for Maggie’s wedding?”

“No. I mean yes I’m here for the wedding but I’m not in town,” Jo is silent as she stands across from him. “Jo, I’m so-”

“Don’t.”

“Jo-”

“No Alex. I can’t do this today. Or ever actually. I just….” Jo took a deep breath as she turned away. “I know you think apologizing will fix things but it won’t. You should just go home to Izzie, okay?”

“I’m not… Would you just let me explain?”

“No,” Jo paused, narrowing her eyes at Alex. “You said more than enough in your letter.”

“Come on Jo!”

“Absolutely not.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t want hope, Alex! If you stand here and apologize and tell me why you did what you did then I’m going to be filled with this…,” Jo paused, struggling to find the words to express her feelings. “This stupid false hope! Because despite what you did there’s a stupid part of me that loves you still and it is a big part of me. A big stupid part of me. So just don’t say anything, okay?”

There’s a startling silence as Jo and Alex stare at each other, both with wide watering eyes and gaped mouths. Finally it’s Alex who breaks the silence.

“I bought a house.”

“In Kansas?”

“No, in Seattle.”

“Why-”

“Because I miss you. And I miss Meredith and the kids and non stop rain and ferry boats and long nights at the hospital. And I hate Kansas.”

“Alex-”

“And I love you too. I never stopped and I don’t think I ever will Jo,” Alex sighed and met Jo’s eyes. “I know I screwed us up and I’m sorry. But you mean… Everything to me Jo.”

“And what about Izzie?”

“We were never… I don’t know why I lied and said I was in love with her. Maybe to make it easier for you to move on?”

“I slept with Jackson,” Jo bites her lip, waiting for Alex’s outburst at her confession.

“I don’t care Jo.”

“You have kids.”

“Who are excited to spend summer and holidays in Seattle.”

“I have a baby.”

“Jo, when are you going to realize none of this changes how I feel about you?”

“You left me! You left our life together and you didn’t even answer my calls.”

Alex stood, taking a small step forward and reaching his hand out to Jo, “I know, but I came back. I’ll always come back to you Jo.”

Jo watches him for a moment, silently debating on whether she would take his hand or not. Finally after a long silent moment she steps forward into his embrace. There’s an audible sigh of relief from Alex as he wraps his arms around her, lips pressing into her forehead.

“So this house…”

“It’s no penthouse but it’s got a big backyard and lots of bedrooms.”

Jo looked up and met Alex’s eyes with a grin, “I’ll go anywhere if it means I’m with you.”

“I’m realizing that a little too late.”

#jolex #alex karev #jo wilson #jo karev #jo x alex #jolex fanfic #tsjolexweek21 #greys anatomy fanfic #greys anatomy #nina writes #jolex fanfiction

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jazy3 · 3 years

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Thoughts on Grey’s Anatomy: 17X8

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

I freakin’ loved this episode! It was so so good! Which surprised me considering what they focused on. Based on the promo I knew that this would be DeLuca’s goodbye episode and so I expected to like the other parts of the episode we were shown in the promo such as Hayes talking to Meredith at her bedside, Richard’s storyline, and Derek’s return. However, I was not expecting to enjoy any part of DeLuca’s farewell storyline and I was pleasantly surprised. I think that’s because they focused on the effects of grief and guilt and how everyone processes those emotions differently.

It was a really interesting character study on how each person feels a loss in their own way. Despite not liking the character I actually found DeLuca’s memorial service quite moving. I think it was because they found a creative way to do it and because funerals in the real world like we normally do aren't possible right now. My grandfather died last summer and while he didn’t want a funeral my family and I weren’t able to get together to mourn his loss as we usually would and that’s been hard.

I wasn’t particularly close with my grandfather, but the loss of traditional grieving rituals in this time of COVID-19 has been frustrating. I liked that they found a creative way to have the characters mourn the loss of a fellow staff member. I expected to see Carina more, but as I understand it her storyline played out more on Station 19 which makes sense. I felt like they did a good job of showing the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) and how everyone experiences them differently.

Teddy and Owen displayed survivors' guilt and frustration that they did everything right and he still died. At the end we see Teddy in a catatonic state and it made me think that she might be sick with COVID herself or that there was something else wrong. While I've never been a Teddy and Owen shipper I did like the moment at the end where Owen noticed something was wrong and came over to her and told her that he would take her home and when she didn't respond he picked her up and carried her.

It reminded me of the Season 2 episode where Denny dies and Izzie refuses to leave his side so Alex picks her up and carries her over to a chair in her prom dress. Very different relationships, but a nice parallel in my opinion. This episode had a lot of those. Teddy seeing DeLuca in other people’s faces was freaky! I have to say that guy is way more interesting as a ghost then he ever was alive.

I totally got Helm's reaction. I understand why she said and thought those horrible things about DeLuca. He was an ass for a really long time. I probably would have done the same thing myself, but that doesn't mean she wanted him dead. I thought what Maggie did for her was wonderful. My heart broke for Schmitt when he described his emotions. Richard was angry and Bailey went overboard trying to figure out what happened. Everyone's experience of a loss is different and I like that they showed that.

I’m glad that Richard told Bailey what she needed to hear. It was painful, but in trying to find an answer or a reason for what happened she was unintentionally hurting the people around her who were suffering too. The strength of Richard and Bailey's relationship is that they can tell each other the truth when no one else can or will. I loved his monologue to Catherine about trying to find a meaning in the puzzle of life and questioning his faith which is such a big part of his sobriety. James Pickens Jr. did a beautiful job in that scene.

Say what you want about Catherine, but I loved her response. Richard was trying to find meaning in the meaningless and in response she shared with him that her latest scans showed that the cancer hadn’t grown. Logically it should have, but it didn’t. Sometimes there are miracles and sometimes there are senseless deaths. Life is a puzzle. We don’t always understand it. That was exactly what Richard needed to hear in that moment.

On a more upbeat note, I loved the beach scenes this week! They were perfect! They were everything I dreamed of for my favourite characters and more! We got to see Derek and Meredith get closer and talk about the kids. When Meredith is heartbroken that Derek never got to meet Ellis or to know her he tells her all of these wonderful things about her. How she’s just like Meredith and makes it clear that he’s watching over them always.

He talks about Zola and how she writes to him in her journal and how Meredith taught her to ride a bike. I teared up! I've been waiting for them to discuss the kids and here it is! Hearing Derek talk about Ellis and knowing that he watches over Meredith and the kids was so emotional for me. I loved hearing him describe who she is and getting to learn more about her. I'm glad he encouraged her to go back. As much as Derek and Meredith miss each other she's needed back in the land of the living.

Her kids need her and so does everyone else. I loved Derek's gentle teasing. His facial expressions. And then there are her scenes with Hayes! God they were perfect! I've been waiting for this! I loved how Meredith kept joyfully asking him what he did to make Ellis smile so wide and laugh so loudly. She knows he can't hear her yet there she is dying to know what he said or did. The sound of her voice when she said that was everything for me. They already feel like a couple. So much in sync.

I love that Derek, who was shown to be extremely jealous in life, encouraged her to hear Hayes out. I really felt like he was giving her his blessing and the fact that they established that Hayes has met the kids virtually and they know who he is sealed the deal for me. Hayes has now received Cristina’s approval, Derek’s blessing, and is shown to have positive relationships with Meredith’s friends and family in Seattle. I loved that Hayes told Meredith to fight and talked about how her kids were doing and how everyone needs her.

I loved that he came and sat at her bedside and begged her to fight and not give up and that he talked to her even though he wasn’t sure if she could hear him. I love that he sat with her through the virtual memorial even though he wasn’t close to DeLuca and didn’t like him. The cheerful greeting and familiarity with which he greets Amelia and Zola and the stories he tells Meredith indicates that he’s been having regular video chats with Amelia, Maggie, Link, and the kids and that he’s chosen to stay by Meredith’s side when he just as easily could have left while she was on a call with her kids.

It will also make the transition easier when do start dating because the kids will already know him. The music in this episode was really beautiful. Especially the songs that played during the beach scenes. I really enjoyed the drunken Link, Jo, and Jackson scene. I felt it brought much needed levity and humour to the episode the same way the beer scene with Jackson, Link, and Winston did in the previous episode. Their scenes were funny and raw and provided a good balance for the episode.

I also loved seeing more of Jo and Jackson's friends with benefits relationship and more of Jo and Link and Jackson and Link's friendship. I'd actually forgotten that Jackson and Link were friends so it was cool to see that dynamic again and that Link is supportive of their situation. The drinking game to me felt like a throwback to the Season 2 episode where Meredith and Cristina are at Joe’s Bar playing a game of whose life sucks the most and she tells them that Derek is married and Cristina tells her she’s pregnant. These revelations eventual lead to Cristina scheduling an abortion and declaring Meredith her person.

It was cool to see Maggie and Winston working together at Grey Sloan Memorial. Winston living in Boston was only going to go on for so long because as we've all found out this past year there's only so much you can do virtually. I knew he'd be moving to Seattle at some point and I'm glad to see him working at the hospital and hanging with Maggie's family. The scene where he danced it out with the kids was too cute! I'll be interested to see more of their dynamic moving forward as Maggie used to be his teacher and is now his boss. I'm also glad that both Winston and Hayes are finally getting the proper screen time they deserve.

Their storyline with the naked guy cracked me up! My two favourite lines of the episode were when the guy freaked out because he realized he wasn’t wearing his mask and Maggie said, “You’re not wearing much of anything.” And when Maggie and Winston went looking for him and Zander Perez, the resident from Pac North, told them, “If you’re looking for a naked guy he went that way.” I laughed so hard!

The scenes with Zola got me. She is a real trouper. She definitely is Meredith Grey's daughter through and through. I'm a big believer in found family and one of the things Grey's does really is show that there are many different ways to be a family and that family is what you make of it. True family is made up of the people who love and support you unconditionally not genetics. I really love that they've shown the strength of that bond between Zola and her family.

My favourite hidden moment of the episode was Tom! He appears in the background at DeLuca's memorial which means he's getting better. If he's well enough to be outside at the memorial then his condition has greatly improved since last we saw and that's great! Tom's a wonderfully complex character and I'm glad he's doing better. He appears in a bunch of deleted scenes that were released through the Grey’s Anatomy Twitter account which I highly recommend. The writing in this episode was excellent!

This episode was written by Adrian Wenner whose previous credits include the Season 16 episode ‘A Hard Pill to Swallow’ in which Meredith and Hayes work that vaping case together and get to know each for the first time. Honestly, my only complaint about this episode is that I wish they’d done it sooner! I wish they had bumped this and the previous episode up. The Mid-Season Finale felt very anti-climatic to me and was poorly received by a lot of fans. I wish they had just scrapped that episode or combined it with what we saw in the Mid-Season Premiere and then jumped into this episode after the break. But we’re here now and that’s the important thing.

Onto next week’s promo. Damn does it look interesting! We see that Owen has brought Teddy home and she’s not eating or speaking and he’s worried if her condition does not improve he’ll have to admit her. I’m sure he’s having flashbacks to when Cristina did the same thing after the plane crash. She appears to be experiencing some kind of nightmare sequence where she sees DeLuca as a ghost and Meredith speaks to her. Looks intense!

Until next time!

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iamtrebleclefstories · 3 years

Text

it’s all because of you

So I FINALLY finished Coco’s bday fic. Sorry it’s so late, but I hope you enjoy this one-shot @cicinicole-14

Alex tells Jo about Eli & Alexis immediately after finding out about them

—————————

“Hey so, I wasn’t able to find the chips that you wanted but I did buy some of that ice cream we both really love,” Jo walked into the loft and paused when she saw the distraught look on Alex’s face. “Oh God. What happened? Is something wrong? Did something happen with Meredith’s trial? Alex?”

“Huh?” Alex looked up from where he’d been staring at the floor for the past thirty minutes after he made the phone call that rocked his entire world.

“Alex, what’s going on? Who died?”

“No one—no one died,” Alex shook his head.

“Then why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost?” Jo placed the bags of groceries on the counter and moved to sit next to him on the couch. “Alex. Baby, what’s going on? You’re worrying me. Please tell me. I want to help you.”

“I... I don’t even know how to say this,” Alex buried his head in his hands. He let out a nervous breath. “I have kids. Two of them. Twins.”

“What?” Jo’s eyes bulged. “Oh my God. Who did you—when... Alex did you cheat on me? Or was this when we were broken up? I won’t yell, just please tell me.”

“No, no, Jo!” Alex’s eyes shot up to her terrified expression. “I didn’t cheat on you. I didn’t sleep with someone else. Not even when we were broken up a few years ago. Babe, I haven’t been with anyone other than you in the past eight years.”

“Oh,” Jo sighed in relief. “Okay. So, how...”

“You remember the embryos?” Alex stared up at Jo who looked like she might puke at any given moment. He hated that he was doing this to her. She had just gotten better after a tough depressive episode. Jo didn’t deserve the stress of this burden that was his to bear. But he also knew that she deserved the truth and he’d be damned if he wasn’t completely forthcoming with the one person who’d been there for him through it all. “I called Izzie. I told myself it was just for the trial. To get Mer a letter of support. And at first, that’s exactly what it was. But then we started talking and it felt nice, normal. I felt all the nostalgia while talking to her and I can’t lie to you Jo, but it made me kind of miss her.”

“Oh God,” Jo pressed a hand to her mouth and ran to the trash bin and threw up. She felt Alex come behind her, held her hair, and rubbed her back lightly as he waited for her stop vomiting. Jo took a deep breath and straightened her back. She leaned against the wall and slumped down onto the floor, eyes closed. “You’re going to leave me, right? You’re gonna leave me for Izzie and the babies she has with your face on them. It’s over isn’t it?” Jo lost her fight with her tears. “Well it was good while it lasted, wasn’t it? I should’ve known. You can’t hold on to anything you don’t want to lose.”

“Jo, baby, I’m not leaving you. I swear to God. This doesn’t change the fact that I love you more than life itself, or that I want to be your husband and grow old with you. This changes none of that,” Alex crouched down in front of her and squeezed her knee. “Let me finish what I was trying to say.” Jo nodded at Alex to continue. “Then she told me all about her job as surgical oncologist and all of the things she’d accomplished. I told her how proud I was and shared that I got into peds and that I’m Chief of Surgery at Pac North. I told her all about how I’m cleaning the place up. Then she asked me if I’d met anyone and that’s when I told her about you. About how we met and fell in love and got married, and she was happy for me, for us. Really happy. She was asking me to send her a few of our wedding pictures when I heard them.”

Alex clutched Jo’s hands tightly within his own, “I heard kids laughing in the background, so I asked her if she had kids. She said yes. She has five year old twins, Eli and Alexis Stevens. They’re mine. She used our embryos.”

“She used the embryos. They’re five years old,” Jo repeated, attempting to process the information she’d just been given while staying strong for Alex. “So, it turns out when I found that form all those years ago, you already had not one, but two Izzie babies crawling around with your face on them.”

“Yeah,” Alex had a pained look on his face. “I’m sorry Jo. I should’ve—I should’ve called her years ago. Before we—because then I would’ve—“

“Before we got married,” Jo looked at Alex intensely. “That’s what you were gonna say right? You wish you would’ve known before we got married, or better yet, before we got serious, so that you could be with them. So that you could be their dad and be with Izzie and have the family you always wanted.” Jo wiped a couple tears. “But you didn’t call. I told you to call her two years ago and you didn’t do it. And now you’re stuck with me.”

“Jo, you know that we were never not serious. From the minute I kissed you, I knew you were it for me. I’m not stuck with you. I chose you and I’ll always choose you,” Alex shook his head and stared at their joined hands. “I gave up my rights when we got divorced, so she had every right to use them. But I just keep thinking about how I have kids and I never knew. I just wish I would’ve known. I would’ve done things differently. I wish Izzie would’ve told me. But she didn’t, so now I’ve lost five years of my kids’ lives and I don’t know how to even feel about it. I don’t know if I’m allowed to feel upset about it. I’m basically just their sperm donor.”

“Of course you’re allowed to be upset, Alex,” Jo placed a hand on his cheek. As much as Jo was in pain and as scared as she was to lose him, Jo knew that she had to be there for her husband. “When you and Izzie made those embryos, it was always under the understanding that you’d do it together. You never thought she’d use them after the fact.” Jo took a deep breath. “So, are you going to do anything about this? Are you going to meet them?”

“I don’t know,” Alex shook his head. “Iz said I could go see meet them. They live on a farm in the middle of freaking no where Kansas. They don’t know about me, though. Izzie never told them and they never asked. It’s just her and the kids. Well, she’s got this detective boyfriend now, but he doesn’t try to pretend to be their father.” Alex ran a hand over his face. “It doesn’t matter right now, though. What matters is Meredith’s trial. I can’t—I can’t focus on that and focus on the trial. After the trial is over, maybe I’ll revisit this, but I can’t Jo. I can’t.”

——————

In retrospect, Jo thinks maybe she should’ve thought things through a little better before packing a bag and flying out to Kansas in the middle of the night. It was an impulse decision, and like most impulse decisions, probably not the most wise one. But as soon as she touched down in Kansas at 8am the next morning, Jo knows that she made the right choice.

Jo walked out of her terminal and hailed a cab to take her to the nearest coffee shop or diner. She got dropped off at a small local diner that looked like it had been frozen in the 1960s. Finally mustering up what little courage she had left, Jo took her phone out of her pocket and dialed the number she had been dreading to dial. It rang four times before someone answered.

“Hello?” It was a woman’s voice in the background. “Hello? Can I help you?”

Jo cleared her throat, “Hi. Is this Izzie Stevens?”

“Yes, this is she,” the woman on the other line responded. “Who’s this?”

“Hi. This is uh—Jo, Jo Karev.”

“Oh my goodness,” Izzie’s gasp of surprise was heard over the line. “Jo! Alex’s wife Jo?”

“Yeah. That’s me,” Jo let out a breath. “Look, I don’t want to cause any issues or problems. Alex doesn’t even know that I’m calling or anything, but I was hoping you and I could meet. I’m here in Kansas.”

“You’re—you’re here?” Izzie asked, some shuffling being heard in the background. “Yes, of course. Where are you? Where should I meet you?”

“I’m at a diner in Kansas City. I can send you my location, if you’d like,” Jo suggested.

“Yeah, that’s perfect. I can be there in an hour,” Izzie replied. “I’ll see you soon.”

“See you soon.”

—————

“Jo! What the hell? Where are you? I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for the past ten hours. I woke up and you were gone,” Alex shouted angrily over the FaceTime call. “You didn’t leave a note or anything. No one knew where you were.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” Jo sighed. “I didn’t mean to scare you. There was just… something I had to do.”

“Where are you? Please tell me. Jo, I don’t want to lose you, ever and right now you’re scaring me,” Alex’s brows furrowed. “Just… tell me you’re okay. Tell me that you’re not gonna leave me or hurt yourself.”

“What? Alex, no,” Jo shook her head. “I would never leave you. And I wouldn’t hurt myself. I swear.” Jo bit her lip nervously. “I’m not in Seattle. I caught a flight in the middle of the night last night, to Kansas.”

“Kansas?” Alex’s eyes widened. “What—why—what are you doing in Kansas?”

“I’m in Baldwin City,” Jo answered simply, knowing that Alex would immediately know the exact reason.

Alex’s face grew serious, “Why are you there Jo?”

“I spoke with Izzie. I’m actually in a guest room at the farmhouse right now,” Jo confessed. “I just… I couldn’t stand around and watch you feel conflicted. The trial was a week ago and you still haven’t made a decision about what it is that you want to do. And I’m not trying to rush you, I swear. But, you’ve been there for me when I needed it. You spoke for me when I couldn’t speak for myself. You reacted when I couldn’t demonstrate things effectively for myself. So, I wanted to do this for you. I wanted to come out here and talk to Izzie and tell her all the feelings that you’re not quite sure how to express.”

“I never asked you to do that for me,” Alex had an unreadable expression on his face.

“You didn’t have to,” Jo looked at his face over the video call expectantly.

“So, what’s the verdict?” Alex asked after a couple moments in silence.

“You have really cute kids. Your son looks exactly like you and your daughter might as well be a miniature evil spawn from how Izzie described her,” Jo chuckled and averted her gaze from the screen. “I didn’t meet them. Just Izzie. I didn’t think it would be right for me to meet your kids before you do or before you even knew I was here.”

“Izzie wants me to meet them?” Alex questioned.

“Your kids want to meet you,” Jo stated quietly. “They know about you. They’ve seen pictures. Izzie asked me to send her a few pictures of us two when she and I met. She texted me about an hour ago. Eli and Alexis are very eager to meet Dad and JoJo.” Jo watched as Alex’s face contorted in a variety of emotions. “I bought you a ticket to Kansas City Airport. It leaves first thing tomorrow morning. I hope you’ll take it.”

—————

“JoJo!” Alexis shrieked as Jo opened the loft door, throwing her arms around her stepmother’s now protruding abdomen. “I missed you!”

“I missed you too,” Jo placed a light kiss on the young girl’s forehead. She laughed at Alexis’ widening eyes as her tiny hands were met with strong, powerful kicks. “And it looks like someone else also missed you.”

Alexis pressed her face up to Jo’s belly, “Hi baby. I missed you too.”

“JoJo!” Eli jumped forward and squeezed Jo as best as he could with her round belly in the way. “I couldn’t wait to see you!”

“And I couldn’t wait to see you,” Jo ruffled his hair as he and Alexis went off to play in the living room.

“Hi, Jo,” Izzie smiled warmly.

“Iz!” Jo wrapped Izzie in a hug. “How was your flight?”

“It was pretty smooth, which is surprising considering these two are definitely all Karev,” Izzie and answered and pointed to the twins. “I was convinced they’d pull off some prank or joke that got us kicked off the airline forever.”

“Well, I’m glad the kids didn’t cause you too much trouble,” Jo laughed. “Sometimes I get really worried about this kid’s temperament because Alex and I weren’t exactly the most well-behaved children. At least the twins have you.”

“I wasn’t exactly the best example either,” Izzie shook her head. “I got pregnant at sixteen. As long as I can make it through their teenage years without Alexis getting pregnant or Eli getting someone pregnant, I’ll consider that a victory.”

“Setting the bar really high, I see,” Alex spoke from behind the two women as he walked inside the door with grocery bags in his hand. He leaned down to kiss Jo. “Hey, babe.” And gave Izzie a quick hug. “Hey, Iz.”

“Daddy!!” Alexis and Eli shot up from the couch as soon as they noticed their father had walked through the door and begun to place the groceries on the table.

“Hey kiddos,” Alex lifted the two of them up in his arms and peppered light kisses on their faces. “I missed you guys so much.”

“We missed you too, Daddy!” Alexis squeezed her dad’s head tightly. “Two months is too long.”

“I agree,” Alex grinned.

“You know, that was actually something I wanted to talk to you two about,” Izzie sat down on one of the stools at the table. “I broke up with Carter last month.”

“Oh my goodness. I’m so sorry, Izzie,” Jo placed a hand on Izzie’s arm.

“No it’s okay. It was a mutual thing,” Izzie waved it off. “Anyway, I don’t really have anything left for me in Kansas and my mom is here in Chehalis. Also, you guys have a baby on the way and I’d really love it if Eli and Lex grew up next to their sibling. So, I was thinking that maybe the kids and I could move back to Seattle.”

Jo and Alex exchanged a look before simultaneously answering.

“Yes! That’s a great idea!” “We’d love it if you moved back.”

“Really?” Izzie beamed. “That’s amazing! Okay, I’ll start making arrangements for the move and look into buying a house here. I can’t wait to tell the kids!”

“We can’t wait for you guys to make Seattle your home,” Jo made a little noise of excitement.

————

“What?” Jo asked as she looked up from the book she was reading later that night to find Alex staring at her strangely.

“Nothing,” Alex shrugged and placed his hand on her stomach. “Just thinking about how much I love you and how grateful I am that you’re my wife.”

“Really now,” Jo hummed. “You do know that it doesn’t matter how many sweet words you say to me tonight, we are not having sex. The twins are asleep on the couch in front of us.”

Alex laughed, “I’m not trying to get in your pants.”

“Huh. What a miracle,” Jo raised an eyebrow. “You’re always trying to get into my pants.”

“That’s true,” Alex smiled smugly. “I normally get in them, too.”

Jo slapped his shoulder playfully, “Perv.”

“Seriously, though. I’m very grateful for you,” Alex brought Jo closer to him and looked deeply into her eyes. “If it weren’t for you, those kids wouldn’t be knocked out on our couch and snoring like truckers. If it weren’t for you, I probably never would’ve gotten the balls to go meet them or maybe I would’ve met them and done something stupid in the process. But you went to Kansas and talked to Izzie and assured me that this was a good thing. And it is. It’s the best thing. We have a family, Jo. A real family. And it’s all because of you.”

“I love you,” Jo replied, eyes shining. “And I love our kids.”

“I love you, too.”

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mcevilspawn · 3 years

Text

surgeonsoath

She wanted to scream at him. She wanted to hit him and shout, ask him after all this time is a ‘hello’ all he could muster? Was she not good enough for him? Instead she folded her arms over her chest, her jaw tightened. He looked good though. Like the time away was good for him. She wondered if he had dragged Izzie along for the show. Was she at home with the kids playing perfect wife?

No, she was still his wife. Technically. Neither of them had filed for a divorce. Neither of them had made a move on that side of things. She had always been scared to. Didn’t really want to say goodbye to something she held so dear to her heart.

“I would rather have been told than come to work and hear rumors, Alex.” She told him sternly. Slowly she unfolded her arms, pushed her hands into the pockets of her pink scrub top and rose an eyebrow. “Is that it? You’re back now? Did the whole perfect life on a farm not work out for you or did your drag her back to Seattle kicking and screaming?” He knew what Izzie had done to Alex, maybe that’s why it hurt so much more. Izzie had left him and he had left Jo. A cycle. She was part of a stupid cycle.

Alex had felt so stupid and angry at himself for how he left things with everyone, but Meredith and Jo were always the first people in his head when he thought of it. He was better than this, better than leaving with a letter but if he had seen Jo and explained it all, he would never of been able to leave her- but he needed to go, to get to know his kids, to not be his father.

"Of course, I just didn't know what to say to you. To anyone. I made a big mistake leaving like I did... I was better than this. This hospital and the people I've met made me a better person than that, and yet I still did it." Alex stated. The ability to speak seemed to have returned but now he was unable to stop as easily.

Going over the sound of the Jo's voice and words in his head. "The farm... It wasn't the world I had worked so hard for. I worked to get where I was here, to the person I was and the people I knew...I know." He admitted. "Izzie isn't here with me... I left to come back. I'm sorting things out here and getting on my feet for a few weeks before Eli and Alexis are coming up to stay" he admitted.

After a moment he turned to fully face her. "Jo.. I am sorry for what I did to you and the way I did it. You deserved so much better. I spent so long fighting for you to marry me and then I go and do this... I know it's no consolation, but they are my kids... And I had to be there for them. They deserved that.." he tried to apologise.

#surgeonsoath #alex karev #jo wilson

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drmarc · 3 years

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Breathe Again

So this is my first try at writing jolex and i just really needed to get this idea out of my head and then my mind wouldn’t turn off and my fingers wouldn’t stop typing and then it turned into this, so yeah, i hope you guys like it though!

feel free to judge me though, i am all ears

i am also all ears for anyone who needs to talk to anyone about anything, i’m a really good listener

trigger warning: self harm, mentions of suicide

This cannot be happening. The timing could not be more right and wrong at the same time. Just my luck, Jo thought while staring at the results in her hand. She was pregnant. 11 weeks, to be exact. She was almost done with the first trimester, how could she not notice she was pregnant? She’s a doctor, for God’s sake!

Her thoughts then wander to how Alex would know immediately. He told her once that pregnant ladies have a smell, that he’s just that observant, and then proceeded to tell her about how he knew April was pregnant again with Jackson’s baby, with Arizona the only one knowing about it and before everyone else knew about it.

Alex, oh Alex. Jo’s eyes start to fill with tears with thoughts about her husband. Yes, he is still her husband and yes, she will sign the divorce papers. She has to let him go, she knows that. But a part of her is still hoping that maybe, later, tomorrow, or next week, he’ll burst through those doors and tell her that he should’ve talked to her first, and they would’ve worked it out. She probably would have left her fellowship and moved to Kansas with him. She would have loved those kids of his like they were her own. But he didn’t give her that choice, instead, he chose for her, and broke his promise and vow in the process.

Jo knows Alex loves her. With everything they had been through, they both knew how much they loved each other. Jo just wishes this wasn’t how their story would go. But she will give birth to this child. She will raise this baby and she will tell Alex she’s pregnant. No matter how hurt and mad she is, she knows Alex has the right to know. But not now. Now, she has to go and make the future of medicine possible.

Jo puts the results inside her bag and throws on her white lab coat, her finger tracing the name embroidered on the left side of her chest. She sighs before walking off to the lab and gets started with Dr. Bailey.

“Okay, Dr. Ka-, I mean Dr. Jo is going to take over for me while I go and deal with whatever the hell my doctors are up to now.” Bailey says as she steps back once she sees Jo walk in the room and they gown and glove her.

“We got this, Dr. Bailey.” Maggie says behind her mask, briefly looking up to look at Bailey then at Jo, who nods in agreement. Bailey nods back at them and walks out as Maggie starts a conversation with Jo.

“So, I heard you’re going on a vacation this weekend.” Maggie says, glancing up at Jo who was in front of her. Jo glances up at Maggie before returning her eyes back to the patient open on the table.

“It’s not so much a vacation, it’s kind of like a conference-slash-reunion.” Jo says. Well, technically, she’s not lying. There is a conference-slash-reunion happening at Harvard in Boston. She’s just not attending, she’s using it as an excuse to go to Kansas to finally tell Alex she’s having his baby. She’s been sitting on it for weeks, thinking everything over. He’s happy, she knows that and she doesn’t want to ruin that but she knows Alex, he could come back to Seattle a few years from now and see this kid that’s his and knows he missed years of another one of his kids’ lives. And that will inevitably hurt him. And she’s signed the divorce papers, she just has to mail them in but she’s planning on giving them to Alex, so that he would be the one to make this decision. She’s giving him a choice.

“Oh? You’re going to Boston then, huh?” Maggie slowly makes the connection that Kansas, where Alex and his family currently resides in, and Boston are fairly close.

“Yeah, my old professors and classmates are pushing me to go now that I sort of have a name and a career.” Which is true, and not a lie, she’s just ignoring their emails, texts, and calls.

“Oh.” The surgery continues on without a problem and another conversation. As Jo and Maggie are scrubbing out, Jo sees Maggie open her mouth to start another small conversation from the corner of her eye, and hurriedly walks out the scrub room to avoid small talk.

“Oh, Jo, how was the surgery?” Bailey says, as Jo approaches the nurse’s station, the nurse handing her her tablet.

“It went smoothly, Dr. Bailey, vitals are stable, everything is fine.” Bailey nods at her as she checks in her tablet for the patient’s chart.

“What time are you off, again?” Jo hands her tablet back to the nurse and checks her watch.

“In a few minutes, actually.” Jo says and she takes out her phone to check her flight schedule. Bailey looks at Jo then back at the tablet before speaking again.

“And when are you coming back?” Bailey’s been suspicious of Jo for a few days now, but everyone’s been wary of opening up any topic that could relate to her ex-husband. She doesn’t know exactly what’s going on with Jo, and she doesn’t wanna open the topic unless she’s sure of what is actually happening.

“In a few days, maybe 3 days tops.” Jo and Bailey start walking down the hall towards the attendings’ lounge.

Bailey hesitates to ask her more questions but pushes against it and asks her anyway, “Where are you going again? Boston, right?” Jo narrows her eyes, but doesn’t turn her head to look at Bailey and instead answers her question as they continue to walk to the attendings’ lounge.

“Yes, I’m attending a conference and a reunion at Harvard.” They go into the lounge and Jo starts to fix her things and change her clothes as Bailey plops down on the couch after grabbing an apple from the table.

“Okay, well, if you’re going to extend your stay there, just give me a call or an email.” As soon as Bailey says that, Jo sighs in frustration and Meredith and Link walk into the lounge.

“Mer, Link, can you please tell Dr. Bailey that I am fine, that I don’t need a vacation,” Meredith and Link look at each other with confused eyes and look at Bailey who is already looking back at the two of them with wide eyes, discreetly pointing to Jo while her back is turned to her. “And that I am only going to Boston because some people won’t freaking stop messaging and calling me.” Bailey puts on a smile and drops her hand when Jo turns back around to look at her.

There’s a moment of silence that envelops the room before Jo turns back to narrow her eyes at the two standing in front of her and Bailey. After a few more moments of silence, If it’s even possible, Jo narrows her eyes at the two more and they speak up.

“She’s fine, perfect really.”

“She’s absolutely okay, a-okay.”

Meredith and Link say simultaneously with excessive hand movements and Bailey opens her mouth and closes it back as she stares at the two in disdain, and they just shrug their shoulders at her.

“See? I’m fine. Yes, my husband left me, and yes, I am mad, but like he knew and said, I understand why he did what he did. I am going to Boston tomorrow morning to attend the conference at Harvard, and I am going to attend a reunion a day after that, and then I am coming back here, where my work is. Goodnight.” She finishes packing her things and walks out the lounge. She sighs and stops as she turns the corner of the hallway. She blinks away the tears that are threatening to pour out of her eyes, and walks inside the elevator.

Jo's in Kansas. Baldwin City in Kansas. She's in the same vicinity of where Alex is. Alex who now was a family here. In Kansas.

She's in a small diner in Kansas, close to Shawnee Memorial where Alex said he was going to apply and is probably now the head of Pediatrics. She's having lunch but is currently experiencing braxton hicks, or at least that's what she thinks they are.

She waves a waitress over and asks for the bill. She can't bring herself to finish her lunch because of the pain and just wants to go back to her hotel room to lie down.

Jo pays the bill and leaves a tip on the table. She stands up from her seat but immediately holds on to the table in front of her as a fairly strong braxton hicks hits her. She tightens her hold on the edge of the table and breathes deeply waiting for it to pass but it only seems to strengthen.

She stands there and moves to sit back down but is met with a more powerful braxton hicks and loses her balance, causing her to fall down and a few people come to her aid.

“Ma’am, are you alright?” The waitress is the first to address her. She vaguely hears someone saying ‘Call 911!’ She groans and tries to speak but nothing comes out.

“Oh my gosh, I think she’s bleeding!” The woman standing behind the waitress says and the people surrounding her follow the woman’s gaze. Jo manages to find the waitress’ hand and grips it tightly.

“I’m pregnant.” Jo manages to let out. “And I think I’m losing my baby.”

The last thing Jo sees is the look of realization that falls upon the waitress’ face and the last thing she feels is the waitress giving her hand a firm squeeze before she falls unconscious.

“Doctor, do you know who the on-call for OB today is? We have an incoming rig with a pregnant woman and they say she might be having a miscarriage.” The blonde doctor lifts her head up from her position behind the nurse’s station.

“Oh, she just went on her lunch break. She’s the only OB on-call so she asked me to cover for her.”

“But you’re a surgical oncologist.” The intern trails off, not wanting to offend his superior, but the doctor just chuckles.

“I studied under one of the best OB doctors when I was an intern, and here in my residency, I know enough.” Izzie says as she begins to stand up to walk to where the gown and gloves are and puts them on before she proceeds to the ambulance bay outside.

A few moments later, the ambulance came into the ambulance bay and once they opened the door, the paramedic started to spew off the patient’s state. Izzie checks the patient herself and they wheel her into the hospital.

“On my count, one, two, three.” They lift the patient and transfer her onto a bed. As they start to connect her to machines and stick IVs in her, they hear her groan and Izzie quickly goes beside her.

“Hey, hi. I’m Dr. Stevens, can you tell me your name?” The woman opens her mouth to say something but nothing comes out. Instead, tears start to fall down her cheeks and her hand finds Izzie’s, Izzie responding to her by squeezing her hand.

“Can you try to say your name?” Izzie says softly.

“J-Jo.” She croaks.

“Okay, Jo, do you know where you are?”

“My b-baby.” Jo grabs Dr. Stevens’ arm, “Save m-my baby.” She managed to let those words out before her eyes rolled to the back of her head and her heart monitor went still.

“Code blue! Starting compressions.” Izzie started compressions on the woman's chest, the nurses bringing the crash cart over.

"Come on, Jo. You can't die on me. Charge to 150. Clear!"

Izzie looks at the heart monitor connected to Jo, the line taunting her.

"Charge to 200. Clear."

"No change."

"Charge to 250. Clear."

"Still nothing. Dr. Stevens-"

"Shut up! Charge to 300, clear."

Pain.

The first thing they feel.

A bright light.

The first thing they see.

Jo groans, her hand unconsciously and instinctively going to her stomach. No bump. Her other hand then goes to her stomach and feels no bump. Her heart starts to race, the result showing on the monitor, alarming the nurses and doctors.

"Jo! Jo, you have to calm down." Izzie runs in the room to find her patient trying to sit up and crying.

"Jo, you can't get up, you just had an operation." Izzie and some nurses try to get her to lie back in her bed but she fights and gets a hold of Izzie's arm.

"My baby, what happened to my baby?" She didn't stutter, and that somehow surprises Izzie.

"Okay, I will tell you what happened to you both but I need you to lie back down and try to calm down." Izzie says with a firm but soft voice, gently pushing Jo down on her bed.

"Was it placental abruption? I think I heard them say I was bleeding before I blacked out. I lost the baby, right? I'm only at sixteen weeks, I've been having braxton hicks since this morning. It's normal to feel them this early, but they just got so bad at the diner." Jo says, making Izzie wonder if she was studying or practicing medicine.

"Are you a doctor, Jo?" Izzie asks.

"I am. Dr. Jo Ka-Wilson, Dr. Jo Wilson. I'm sorry, what's your name again?" Jo says as she holds her hand out.

"I'm Dr. Izzie Stevens." Izzie continues to explain what has happened to her. "There was a tear in the placenta, which is what caused the bleeding. The bleeding wouldn’t stop so we rushed you into surgery. I'm very sorry, you were-"

"You did everything you could, but there was too much damage. You took out my baby and you closed me back up. Were there any other complications?" Jo asks, professionally, despite the lone tear that rolled down her cheek that she didn't bother to wipe.

"No, there weren't any complications. I'm really sorry." Izzie says, trying to empathize with her patient.

"It's fine. How soon can you advise me to leave?"

"Well, I would want you to stay for a few more days but-" Jo cuts her off, her voice coming out almost robotically.

"Can I leave the day after tomorrow? That's when my flight back home is scheduled." Izzie stares at Jo, seemingly thinking it over.

“Well, you could, and you’re a doctor so I guess you know what you’re doing.” Izzie reluctantly agreed to the grieving mother, she doesn’t want to put more stress on her and since she’s a doctor, she knows what happened to her and the complications that could happen.

“Okay then, I’m leaving the morning after tomorrow.” Jo nods at her and lies back down the bed to get more comfortable. She lays there and stares at the ceiling, her tears silently falling. Izzie stays for a few moments, pondering on what she should say. She chooses not to say anything at all and quietly leaves the room.

Izzie sighs as she opens the door to her house, the sight of Alex watching TV and drinking a beer on the couch, and she plops down next to him after planting a kiss on his cheek.

"Hey, how was your last day off with the kids?" Izzie asks, settling in beside Alex as he throws his arm around her.

"Great, we had fun." Izzie doesn't say anything about how his voice is slightly cold. She's noticed this about him. Whenever the kids are around, he lights up like a Christmas tree, but once it's just them, he dims.

When he first came here, he never said anything about his life after Izzie. Instead, he told her all about what was happening with Meredith, Cristina, the hospital, but rarely anything about himself. Izzie wants to push, she really does but she knows he'll push back. And she can't risk the kids seeing them fighting. So she doesn't push at all.

"What about you? Any cool cases come in?" Izzie sighs as she is reminded of her patient.

"No, not really." Izzie sighs and looks at him. "I discharged a patient of mine today, though. She came in like, two days ago. Lost her baby. She's a doctor like us, too, and when she woke up after the surgery, I started telling her about what happened and she immediately knew what had happened to her baby, and it was like," Izzie pauses, her throat closing up. "The life inside of her, figuratively and literally, was just, gone."

Alex looks at her, "I'm sorry about that." Was all he said before he took his phone from the coffee table and opened it.

Izzie almost didn't see it. Or maybe she was hallucinating it, but when he opened his phone, the first thing that it showed was a picture of a woman that looked an awful lot like the patient she just discharged today. She shrugged it off and went into the kitchen to prepare herself dinner.

Three days later, Jo is back to work in Seattle. Like nothing happened. To Meredith and the others, nothing did happen to Jo. But Jo, she was slowly losing everything she ever wanted in life. Her husband, then her baby. What’s next, her career and family in Seattle?

Jo sighs and smiles at the nurse who takes the tablet from her hands to put it back in its place. She stands in front of the OR board and checks her surgeries. While she’s standing, Bailey and Meredith see her and stand beside her.

“So! How was the reunion?” Bailey says, uncharacteristically enthusiastic. Jo looks startled at Bailey’s unusually high voice and looks at Bailey with her head tilted to the side while Meredith sighs and puts a hand on her head, seemingly embarrassed and slightly disappointed at Bailey.

“It was fine. Uneventful, really. Thank God, I came back here early.” Bailey starts to think of another question to ask her but Jo beats her to it.

"Well, I'm gonna go. I have surgery in an hour and I want to get some rest before I go in. See you, doctors." Jo says and she walks down the hall to the elevators, waving to Meredith and Bailey before the elevator doors close.

A year has passed. A year has passed since Jo lost her baby. A baby that was supposed to be safe and protected in her womb. But she lost it. Just like how her husband was in a marriage that was supposed to be safe and protected and she lost him, too.

Jo lays in her bed at the loft. Her 16-week scan facing down on Alex' side of the bed. She's under the covers and facing his side of the bed.

She's fine. Really, she is. Or at least she was. She hasn't left her bed in two days. She plans to get out tomorrow, if she'll even be alive to get out of bed tomorrow.

She vaguely hears the sound of the door to the loft opening, then Levi's voice.

"She hasn't left her bed in days. Not to shower, or eat, or even drink water. I don't even think she's moved. But what I'm really concerned about is that." Levi points to the bed, on the space that Jo isn't occupying. Meredith and Link look at each other with wide eyes, both not knowing what to do.

Beside the sonogram are pills. Pills she desperately wants to take but she can't bring herself to move. And beside the pills is a knife. It's not the big kind of knife, but sharp enough to cut you in the slightest mistake. She's not suicidal, she never was. She doesn't remember when or how she got the knife and pills. All she can think of is the life she lost.

She was married and happy. Then she wasn't married and happy. But then she was pregnant and happy. But that got taken from her, too. Now, she's just 'was'. She's not floating or surviving in life. She's just existing.

"Jo." Meredith calls out to her, her hand slowly inching towards the knife in Jo's hand. Jo sees her trying to get close to the knife and closes her hand around it.

"I tried that, but every time I got close, she closed her hand around it and every time, I got closer, she tightened her hand around it. So I stopped trying." Levi says, concerned. It would have been fine if Jo was holding the knife normally. But she wasn't. The edge of the knife is where her hand was, and if she tightened her hand around it, even just a little bit, it would cut into her skin.

"Okay. Okay. I won't take the knife. We won't take the knife." Meredith was close to crying. This was worse when she had found out the truth about her birth parents. Much worse. "But can I sit here? I'll just be here, I won't touch any of that."

Jo doesn't move and her hand doesn't move, either, so Meredith takes that as an 'okay' and moves to sit down by Jo's legs. Link goes to the other side of the bed and sits down behind Jo while Levi chooses to sit on the couch.

"We're here for you, Jo. We're right here." Link tries to touch her shoulder but Jo flinches away from him. So they stay there in that position for what seems like hours. Meredith already texted Maggie and Link already texted Amelia that they'll be a while. For how long? Nobody knew. But they knew that they needed to stay with Jo.

After what seemed like two hours to Jo, her hand moved to the sonogram in front of her. She traces the edges before she picks it up and Link and Meredith have to hold in their gasp of surprise when they see what it is. They don't speak, they don't ask her questions. Jo traces the outline of her baby as her eyes begin to well up and she begs herself not to let them fall.

“I was gonna have a baby.” She starts, and Meredith places her hand on her leg and she flinches, but doesn’t kick her hand away and continues. “Boy, I was gonna have a baby boy.” Her eyes move to where Meredith is sitting and sees her with tears in her eyes, her heart breaking for the girl that has become one of her now closest friends.

“I didn’t know that I was gonna have a boy, up until the night before my flight to Kansas.” Link furrows his eyebrows in confusion and Meredith’s face displays the same amount of confusion. “Exactly a year ago, you guys thought I went to Boston, when really I went to Kansas and I met Izzie, who is perfect, by the way.” Jo chuckles as Meredith, Link, and Levi, who stood up from the couch and joined them on the bed once he heard Jo speak, share looks of surprise and utter concern.

“I never went to Boston, it was just the perfect excuse. There really was a conference and reunion happening there, and they really were pestering me to go. But I went to Kansas. I was going to finally tell Alex about our baby because he had to know. I wanted him to be the first to know so I never told anyone here.” Jo looks at the three of them and they nod in understanding and that pushes her to continue.

“And I was experiencing braxton hicks. Before, during, and after my flight. I thought they were just that, braxton hicks. I went to eat lunch in a small diner near the hospital Alex said he was gonna apply in. I didn’t finish my lunch because I was in so much pain, tried to get out of there and back to my hotel, but I collapsed in the diner so they called an ambulance. They brought me to his hospital but he wasn’t there. Izzie was. I didn’t know who she was when I first got there, but I do know that she was the doctor who did my surgery. When I woke up, she told me what happened and that’s when I knew who she was. I mean, how many Izzie Stevens are there in Baldwin, Kansas, right?” Jo laughs dryly. There was silence after that. They sat in that silence as the three tried to process the information they were just given.

“I was gonna name the baby Athena Michaela if it was a girl, but then I found out it was a boy.” Jo returns her eyes back to the sonogram in her hand, while her other hand, which had the knife, slowly closed around it. Her hand slowly tightening her grip on the knife, breaking skin and making blood flow out.

“Jo, Jo, you’re hurting yourself, please don’t.” Link stumbles over his words, his throat closing and the tears finally falling. Jo closes her eyes, her hand and her whole body numb to pain.

“Atticus Michael.” She whispers as she opens her eyes and turns back to look at Link, her tears falling silently down her cheeks. “I was going to name him Atticus Michael, after the two most important men in my life.” Her voice cracks and her hold on the knife tightens more.

“Jo, please. Give me the knife, please.” Meredith pleads, moving closer to Jo, as Link holds Jo’s arm.

“I was married, I was a married woman. And then, I wasn’t.” Jo continues to whisper, looking at the sonogram in hand.

“I was a mother. And then I wasn’t.” Link moves into the bed more and pulls Jo to his chest. That’s when she breaks.

Heart-wrenching sobs and gasps for air echo in the small house she once shared with the great love of her life. She lets go of the knife and Meredith motions for Levi to get supplies for her cuts as she takes the knife and places it on the cabinet beside the bed. Meredith tends to Jo’s cuts while she sobs on Link’s chest, with Link trying his best to comfort her. Jo grips his arm like she was holding on for her life, sobs racking her whole body and resonating in the breaking hearts of everyone in the room.

Once Meredith finishes up Jo’s cuts, she takes Jo’s head in her hands. “I can’t-, I can’t b-breathe, Mer. I can’t-” Jo fails to finish her words as she gasps for air and holds onto one of Meredith’s arms. “I know, I know. You feel like you can’t breathe, I get it. And you’re gonna feel like that for a while, I’m not gonna lie to you. It might be days, weeks, but you are going to breathe again. And Alex? He wouldn’t want you doing this to yourself.” Meredith says, staring into Jo’s eyes.

“He was coming back to you. He was, but then he got in a car accident. But he was coming back to you. He loves you that much, he loves you so much, it would break his heart to see you like this. And your baby? It would break his heart to see you like this, too. You know, when I think of Derek, I imagine him looking down on me and the kids with our baby in his arms, and he’s telling them stories of us and everything we went through. I’d like to think that’s what Alex is doing right now, too.” Jo continues to sob and Meredith puts Jo’s head on her chest, caressing her hair like she would her child, while Link rubs Jo’s back and tries to get himself together.

“You cry. You just cry, and we’ll stay here.” Meredith says softly in Jo’s ear.

Three years later…

“Mama Jo! Mama Jo!” The two kids ran towards Jo who was holding a little girl by the entrance. Jo bends down, places the little girl on the floor and holds her hand, and opens her arms to the twins while her little girl jumps in excitement at the two familiar kids.

“Hi babies!” She exclaims as they embrace her in a hug, the blonde mother trailing behind them with a bittersweet smile on her face.

“Eli! Ali!” The little girl beside Jo squeals and this catches Alexis and Eli’s attention.

“Hi Emmy!” The twins fawn over the little girl while Emmy soaks up all the attention she’s getting. Izzie and Jo hug and chat while the kids make themselves busy.

“How was your trip?” Jo asks her.

“Great, but it would’ve been better if you and miss Emmy were there, right?” Izzie says as she brushes her fingers on Emery’s cheek. Izzie takes Eli’s hand while Eli takes Alexis’ and Alexis holds Emery’s hand, and they start walking.

“I wish you were there, Mama Jo! We went on these cool rides and everything, we even won some games and prizes!”

“Really? Alright, Emmy and I will go with you next time, okay?”

“Okay! Oh, I see daddy’s tree!” Eli and Alexis take Emery’s hands and they all run off to the tree with the tire swing. “Be careful!” Jo and Izzie call out.

“They will never stop giving us heart attacks, won’t they?” Jo jokingly says as Izzie wraps her hand around Jo’s arm and they laugh together.

“How are you doing these days?” Izzie asks Jo in a soft tone and she shrugs at Izzie. “Some days are bad and some are good. Emmy’s making me more good days, though.” Jo giggles.

After Alex died in a car accident three years ago, after he made the decision to come back to Jo, Izzie reached out to Jo, not knowing she was the patient she had a year ago. Apparently, Alex told stories to the twins about a princess named Jo, so when Jo met the kids, she was welcomed with open arms, and they explained who she really was. A year later, they asked their mother if they could call Jo their mama, and that made their family bond more prominent.

Izzie met someone a year after Alex passed, and Jo supported her all throughout her relationship, and they only introduced Tom, Izzie’s boyfriend, to the kids a year into their relationship and he was great with the kids. Jo tried to date other men, but she just couldn’t bring herself to open her heart up to anyone, so she stopped trying and her heart opened up to a little girl instead. Jo treated Emery when she was brought into the hospital because she was being abused by her parents. They put her into the system and Jo was already fixing the papers so she could adopt Emery. She is officially and legally the mother of Emery Michaela Karev as of eight months ago. She herself also kept Alex’ last name.

“So where’s Tommy? I thought he went on the trip with you guys.” Jo asks as they sit down in front of Alex’ and Ace’s tombstones.

“Oh, he’s picking his parents up from the airport because..” Izzie trails off and holds her left hand up to show Jo the sparkling rock on her ring finger. Jo gasps and pulls Izzie’s hand closer to her face. “Oh my God! Congratulations!” Jo laughs and pulls Izzie in for a hug. They talk amongst each other for a while until the kids go and sit beside them.

“Hi daddy! Happy birthday! We’re all here, just like you wished for.” Alexis says to the tombstone in front of her. Izzie and Jo share a look before asking her.

“What do you mean, ‘just like he wished for’, Ali?” Jo asks Alexis after pulling her and Eli onto her lap.

“He told me, last night, in my dream. That he wants all together for his birthday. And he also said that since it’s Sunday, we have to go to Auntie Mer’s house to have waffles with everybody.” Alexis explains, oblivious to the tears forming in Jo’s eyes. “Oh, Ace also said to save some waffles for him.” That makes Izzie’s and Jo’s head turn to look at each other, confusion in their eyes.

“Ace?” Izzie asks her daughter, who nods at her.

“Yeah, daddy told me Ace is our baby angel brother up in heaven. Him and Daddy are always together. His real name is Addicus-” This makes Jo’s tears fall and she hurriedly wipes them so that the kids don’t see her crying.

“Atticus Michael.”

“Yes! That’s his name, Mama Jo.”

“Yeah, we’ll have waffles at Auntie Mer’s later with everybody.” Jo kisses the top of Alexis’ and Eli’s heads as Izzie reaches out and takes Jo’s hand in hers, giving her a warm smile.

They spend the next hour there by the tree, texting Meredith and the others about what the kids want, and the kids playing on the swing.

“Okay, guys, let’s go to Auntie Mer’s!” Izzie says while standing up and the twins cheer.

“You guys go ahead, I just wanna stay here for a few more minutes.” Jo says, with Emery still in her lap, while they sit in front of the tombstones. Izzie nods her head at her and takes the twins to the car. Jo watches them until they drive off. Her and Emery sit in the quiet for a moment before Emery speaks up. “Mommy?”

“Yeah, baby?” Jo looks at the little girl in her lap.

“Is he my daddy, too?” Emery asks as he points to the tombstone. Jo smiles at her before saying, “Yes. He’s your daddy, too, baby. And if he were here, he would love you like I love you.”

“But not as much as you love me?”

“No, baby. Probably more than I love you, because that’s the kind of daddy he is.” Jo wraps her arms around Emery and Emery does the same.

“Hi, daddy. I love you, too.” Emery says as she leans towards the tombstone and puts her hand on it.

“I love you so much, Alex Karev.” Jo puts her hand on top of Emery’s.

And there, she breathes again.

#jolex #jolex fanfic #jolex fanfiction #well ouch #jo karev #alex karev #izzie stevens #meredith grey #atticus lincoln #levi schmitt #eli and alexis #tw #self harm #brief mention of suicide #grey's anatomy

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chachkayes · 3 years

Text

So This is Love - Merhayes/ Merlex

About 2 weeks ago, @herrera-n-hayes gave me a prompt in which Merhayes went to visit Alex in Kansas, and there, Alex tells Meredith that she’s smitten and in love with Hayes. The one shot is about 2900 words long because I am someone who has a very hard time sparring details, even the smallest most insignificant ones. Anyways, enjoy some pure fluffy Merhayes and Merlex friendship because I’ve been posting a lot of angst lately and we all deserve some feel-good content every once and awhile. I’m going to insert a ‘keep reading’ line just cause of how long it is. Anyways, enjoy!

It’d been a very long time since Meredith Grey last saw Alex Karev. She’d talked to him on the phone multiple times since he’d left, but most of their time talking consisted of her ratting him out for leaving her, Jo, her kids, Bailey and Richard, and up until she became friends with Cormac Hayes, his department. So, when Meredith Grey received a text in the middle of summer from her best friend saying, “Izzie’s out of town next weekend, would you want to come visit me and the kids? You could bring your kids.” She knew she had no reason to say no. Part of her wanted to, so bad. But she was admittedly missing her person – she had just made some major life changes and she wanted so badly to tell Alex and get his approval. So, she said yes, and went to find the one person she knew she wanted to bring along.

“Hey,” Meredith said softly, coming up behind her boyfriend and placing her hand on his back. He turned to look at her and smiled. “Hey. How’s it going?” He asked her as she grabbed his hand. “How would you feel about taking a trip next weekend to Kansas? With the kids and I, to visit Alex?” He looked at her, surprised. “Really? Are you sure you want me to go with you? You haven’t seen Karev in a while, are you sure you don’t want to catch up alone?” Meredith appreciated that he wanted to let her have time alone with Alex, but she knew that Alex was opinionated and wasn’t afraid to tell her when she was making a mistake – and she wanted him to confirm that she was doing the right thing. She knew in her heart that this was who she was meant to be with and that nothing he said would change how she felt, but his approval would be nice.

“Yeah – I’m sure I want you there. It’s important to me. We can give the boys the option of whether or not they want to stay home or come with us.” Austin and Liam Hayes were now 16 and 18 respectively, and while they were very quickly bonding with Meredith’s trio, she didn’t know if they’d really want to hang out with a 9-year-old, a 7-year-old, 2 6-year-old’s and a 5-year-old while their parents were all hanging out. “Okay.” He finally said after a minute of contemplating the offer. Meredith’s face lit up. “Really?!” She smiled brightly. “Yeah, really. We can talk to the kids tonight after work.” Meredith squealed ever so slightly as she hugged Cormac. “You’re the best.” She said confidently, kissing him quickly afterwards. “I’m gonna go talk to Bailey, make sure we’ll have next weekend off.” Cormac’s pager went off. “I was going to offer to go with you, but it never ends. We can talk more later.” They gave each other one last quick kiss and went their separate ways.

Later that night, after finishing their shifts and getting approval from Bailey to get time off for the following weekend, Meredith and Cormac headed back to Meredith’s new house. She’d decided to sell her old house to Amelia and Link, who’d recently gotten married and were expecting their second child in a few months. It had felt a lot like deja-vu from when she sold Alex the house to move into the dream-house with Derek and Zola, while she was expecting Bailey. Meredith’s only request when picking out her new place was that it had to be close to Amelia and Link – she didn’t want to have to drive very far in the middle of the night if they were having troubles with Scout and eventually their daughter.

The Grey-Shepherd children quickly ran up to their mother when she got inside. “Hey guys!” She said, kneeling down to hug them. Little Ellis gave Cormac a quick hug too. She’d quickly taken a liking to Cormac, and she took after her mom in how she always called him ‘Hayes’. Cormac had made it very clear to the kids when he and Meredith began dating that he could not and would never replace their dad, and he’d never overstepped with their trust. Meredith did the same with Austin and Liam, but it took them a bit longer to warm up to her since they were, well, teenage boys, and they were old enough to remember losing their mom. Eventually they got there though, and Meredith and Cormac were ecstatic when they did.

Cormac headed downstairs to say hello to his sons, get them away from their video games long enough to talk to them about the trip, and then get them back home. It was convenient for Meredith that her boyfriend’s children were old enough to watch her three. It gave the boys opportunities to bond with the kids and gave Meredith some peace of mind that her babies were in relatively good hands. Meredith entered her living room and gathered her kids around her. “So, guys, I got a text from Uncle Alex this morning.” The children’s eyes lit up – Zola’s especially. “And he invited us all over to his house to meet your cousins and hang out with him for the weekend.” That sentence was followed by jumping and squealing from all 3 of the children. “So, how does a plane ride sound next week?” More squealing and excitement followed. Meredith knew that this news would have her kids bouncing off the walls and pestering her about whether It was time to go yet or not, for the next week.

Meredith was spot on in her guess about the kids pestering her every day until the night before they left. The night before leaving was hectic – Cormac, Austin, and Liam were staying at Meredith’s overnight, which meant packing for 5 kids and 2 adults all in the same house. The couple was grateful to have Amelia so close to help Ellis pick out what things she wanted to take, while Meredith packed for herself and Zola, and Cormac helped Bailey in his decisions between superhero shirts. Austin and Liam were just trying to figure out how many portable games they could feasibly bring along without getting in trouble. Early Friday morning, the gang packed their suitcases in the back of Meredith’s car and made their way to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Maggie and Amelia followed along in Amelia’s car, so that Maggie could drive the car back to the house after they made it into the airport and onto the plane.

5 hours later, the plane had safely landed, the car was rented, and everyone was on their way to their hotel. Austin and Liam had successfully convinced their dad to let them stay in a separate room from the one where he and Meredith and her kids would be sleeping. About an hour after arriving at the hotel, everyone was sufficiently unpacked. Zola, Bailey, and Ellis were antsy to go visit Alex. Austin and Liam decided to stay back, so Cormac and Meredith loaded the Grey-Shepherd children into their rental car and headed for Alex’s place.

Ellis, Bailey, and Zola were giggly as Meredith pulled into the driveway of Alex’s farmhouse. Cormac only found himself feeling increasingly nervous. He’d already met all of the people Meredith considered family at the hospital, except for Alex. He didn’t even know if Meredith had told Alex that he was joining them. He knew that Alex was, aside from Cristina, Meredith’s best friend and that making a good first impression was key, far different from the first impression he’d made on Meredith. She parked the car and the two adults got out to let the kids out of their car seats. The kids immediately ran to the door and started pounding on it. Alex opened the door and the kids jumped on him almost immediately. Meredith laughed as she watched while she grabbed her purse and walked around the car to grab Cormac’s hand before heading into the house. “Hey guys!” Alex hugged the kids who were more than excited to see him. Meredith smiled at her friend. Alexis and Eli came by and the kids immediately hit it off. As Meredith and Cormac approached the door, Alex’s twins were showing off their toys to Mer’s kids. Meredith let go of her boyfriend’s hand to hug Alex. “I’ve missed you so much.” She said as she stepped back from Alex. “Me too, Mer. I’m glad you were able to come visit. Now are you going to introduce me to your boyfriend?” Meredith laughed. Alex knew that Meredith was in a relationship and that he would be coming, she just refrained from telling any details to him other than that. “Alex, meet Cormac Hayes. Hayes, this is Alex.” Cormac extended his hand and Alex shook it. “It’s nice to meet you, Grey and Yang have told me a lot about you.” Alex looked confused. “Wait, you know Yang?” “Yeah, I worked at her hospital in Switzerland for 2 years after my wife died. She talked a lot about some guy she called ‘Evil Spawn’. When Grey and I first became friends, she explained it a bit further.” Alex laughed and the adults moved inside the house further and sat down on the couch, with plenty of conversation to go around.

After hours of talking and being intermittently interrupted by the young children showing them various toys around the house, the sun began to set. Cormac liked Alex, the two pediatric surgeons found they had a lot in common, and it was easy to keep conversation flowing between the three of them. However, he knew that it was wind-down time for all of the children, and he wanted Meredith and Alex to have some time alone to catch up. Meredith was just about to check the time on her phone, but Cormac pushed her hand down. “It’s getting late, I know the kids have to wind down and go to bed soon. You stay here and spend as much time as you want with Alex, I’ll take the kids back to the hotel and take care of them for the night.” Meredith looked up and half-smiled at her boyfriend. “Are you sure?” She laced their fingers together. “Yeah, you two have fun.” The two smiled at each other, and Hayes kissed Meredith’s cheek. “Alex, it was nice meeting you.” “You too.” Alex responded enthusiastically. The men shook hands and Cormac rounded up the kids, getting them ready to head back to the hotel.

Meredith helped put Eli and Alexis to bed after she said goodnight to her kids and boyfriend, then she and Alex made their way to his kitchen. “Please tell me you have tequila.” Meredith said with a laugh. Alex smiled at his friend and pulled a bottle of tequila from his liquor cabinet for Meredith, and a bottle of whiskey for himself. “You and Hayes really have a lot in common, he loves whiskey.” Alex smirked at his best friend. “Your boyfriend has been gone for maybe 10 minutes and you’re already talking about him again.” Meredith smiled at Alex’s acknowledgement. “What can I say? He’s pretty great.” She exclaimed with a massive smile as she took a drink from the tequila bottle. “So?” Meredith continued. “What did you think of him?” She could tell that the two got along but she was more interested in what he had to think about the relationship. “Well, what matters is how you feel about him.” Alex told Meredith, encouraging her to talk about her feelings rather than his own. The best friends made their way back to the couch and Alex tossed Meredith a blanket. “Now, tell me what made you fall for him.” Alex was genuinely interested in Meredith’s response to this. It wasn’t like he hadn’t already made up his mind about Cormac, but he wanted to hear the truth from Meredith before telling her what he thought.

“He’s just the best. He loves the kids, they love him, and he always makes sure to talk to the kids about Derek – he loves seeing how they light up when they get to talk about their dad. He just instantly knows when I need to deal with something by myself or if he needs to help me out, he never oversteps, and he never gets jealous when I talk about Derek. I’m telling you Alex, Cristina really knew what she was doing when she sent him to Seattle. I’m really glad she did.” For the next five minutes, Meredith continued to list off all the things he did that made her smile, laugh, and just feel genuinely happy. Alex chuckled to himself listening to his best friend ramble about Cormac. “What?” Meredith’s heart began pounding when she realized he was laughing. “Dude, you’re in love.” He smirked and laughed at her a little more. “Like, in love, in love. You’re infatuated. I hope you’ve told him by now because it’s plastered all over your lovesick face every time you look at him. Have you told him you’re in love with him yet?” He asked her. “We’ve almost said I love you a couple of times. But no.” Alex’s eyes widened. “Trust your heart, Mer. He’s not Derek, but he knows that. And it really seems like he respects that. You’re lucky to have found him.” Meredith smiled at Alex. She knew he was right. She did love Cormac Hayes. Her heart was full – she’d just gotten her best friend’s seal of approval, she accepted the fact that she was in love because of it, and she was sitting with Alex, on his couch, drinking tequila with him just like old times. They moved on from the topic of love fairly quickly, and instead they sat together, laughing and reminiscing about their past.

Meredith arrived back at the hotel about 2 hours later. Her children were fast asleep, but Cormac was still wide awake, laying in their bed. “Hey.” Meredith whispered as she quietly put her purse down. Cormac looked up from his phone and smiled at his girlfriend. “Hey, did you have fun?” Meredith smiled back at him. “Yeah, I did. Thanks for taking the kids back to the hotel. I think all the playing with Alexis and Eli wore them out.” She laughed quietly, as did he. “Yeah, I don’t think we’ll have to worry about them till later tomorrow morning.” Meredith finished getting out of her daytime clothes, put on her shorts and bralette, and climbed into bed. “I was waiting for you to get back before going to sleep.” He whispered in her ear. She kissed him tenderly as she remembered what Alex had told her. “You know, talking with Alex tonight made me realize something.” Meredith said as she rested her head on his shoulder. “Oh yeah, what?” He asked, lacing their fingers together. “I don’t want you to freak out.” She said, looking up at him. His face changed to be incredibly confused very quickly. “What would I freak out about?” He asked her, worried.

“While I was talking with him tonight, I realized that, uh, I love you. More than that - I’m in love with you. With us, with the idea of our families coming together. And, uh, it’s totally okay if you don’t say it back, or are a little spooked. I know the first I love you can take time to come to terms with.” Cormac’s face became more and more surprised with every word Meredith whispered. She turned on her side, fully expecting Cormac to turn away from her while he processed everything that she’d just told him. But, like it was an everyday occurrence, Cormac immediately shifted and turned on his side as well, facing her back, and he wrapped his arm around her waist. During 2 minutes of complete silence, Cormac Hayes kept thinking about how Abigail told him before dying that she wanted to see him fall in love again. He thought about how happy he was with Meredith, how deeply she respected Abby and how much she loved hearing the stories he’d tell her about her.

So, even though it scared him, he pulled Meredith closer to him in the bed, to which she tangled their legs together and laced their fingers together, and he whispered in her ear, “I’m in love with you too.” He could feel her once racing heartbeat begin to stabilize, and her breathing became more normal as well. Though he couldn’t see her face, he could feel her smiling as their faces nuzzled together. He placed one last kiss on her neck and cheek before closing his eyes and falling asleep, happily holding the woman he loved. He knew for a fact that Abigail was rooting for them in heaven, and that she was happy to see them so happy, to see her sons so loved, and to see Cormac finally fulfilling her final wish for him.

#merhayes #cormac hayes #merwidow #meredith x hayes #hayes x grey #meredith x cormac #cormac x meredith #grayes #hayes x meredith #mcwidows

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pagingevilspawn · 3 years

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I have a request for Izzie to meet Jo. Neither or only one of them is aware of the other's identity.

aviothic

wc: 1k.

pairing: none. jo and izzie friendship

summary: izzie and jo meet on a plane, unaware of who they're talking to

rating: general audiences

warnings: mention of alcohol and alcohol consumption

AN: this took forever to answer, but here's a quick blurb that i typed out :)

_____

aviothic

(n) —the strong desire to be up in the air or to fly

Shuffling into row 26A, she sat back into her seat and let out a sigh of relief. Bumping her way through the aisle had been proven to be difficult, since at every turn there was one more person hauling their suitcase into the overhead compartments. Her carry-on sat at her feet, and she closed her eyes for the briefest moment, letting a moment of peace wash over her.

As she relaxed in her seat, she could feel the tension release from her shoulders, the stress from the day slowly washing away. It had started out fine, she got up early after going to sleep hours before she normally did the previous night, grabbed a bagel and coffee from the hotel’s complimentary breakfast, and made it to the airport on time, with more than thirty minutes to spare before she would need to fuss over which direction she needed to head in.

It was all good, until her flight got delayed an hour. She could deal with an hour. It wasn’t like she had anyone anxiously awaiting her arrival at home other than Luna, who seemed to be full of pre-teen sass nowadays. She loved her daughter, she did. But as much as she loved her, not hearing complaints over every single thing for the past two days had been a well deserved vacation.

But then her flight got delayed a further two hours. Then one more, leading to four straight hours of sitting in uncomfortable airplane chairs, eating fast food, and squinting to see the scenes playing out on her phone's screen.

She didn’t need to wait long before the seat next to her was occupied, a woman with near jet black hair brushing a strand out of her face as she settled into her spot, pulling a book out of her purse.

The woman turns and gives her a smile, “Hi, I’m Izzie.” she extends her hand, her friendly grin never leaving her face.

She smiles back, placing her hand in Izzie, “Jo,” she introduces herself back, tucking a strand of dirty blonde back into her bun.

“You from New York?” Izzie questions, just as they hear the flight attendant over the speakers, announcing that they’ll be taking off soon.

Jo shakes her head, “No, Washington. I’m here for work.”

“Same here.”

Before they can say anything more, the plane is ascending into the air, and they each pop a stick of gum into their mouths, one mint, the other pineapple.

They sit in a comfortable silence, Izzie reading through her book, while Jo takes advantage of the free wifi, responding to some emails on her laptop. When her phone lights up with a notification, she lets out a sigh, expecting it to be work related, but smiles when she sees that Luna had sent her a picture.

“How old is your daughter?” Izzie asks, realizing her mistake after a second. “Sorry, my book’s getting boring and I'm practically bursting at the seams to do anything but read it.” she apologizes, and Jo gives her a reassuring laugh.

“No, it’s okay,” she pulls up the photos app on her phone, and swipes until she gets to the photo she took of her little girl the week before. “She just turned eleven, but acts like she’s sixteen.”

Izzie studies the photo, a small smile gracing her lips. “She’s beautiful,” she tells Jo. “I have a sixteen year old at home, and god, do I wish she was eleven again.”

“Yeah?”

She shakes her head. “Oh yeah. Normally she’s well-behaved, but sixteen means that she wants to go to parties and hang out with boys, which her dad hates. He’s adamantly against the idea of her dating anyone until she’s thirty.”

“I don’t blame him. You remember guys at sixteen?” Jo teases, her mind automatically going back to the shroud of boys she used to attend school with. The pretty ones were always the jerks, she’d learned that the easy way.

Despite what TV liked to show, guys at sixteen did not look like magazine models. More often than not, they were sweaty, pimply faced, and as immature as a second grader who heard a fart joke.

“Oh trust me, I do. I got knocked up at sixteen.” Izzie raises her soda in a mock toast, and Jo can’t help but laugh,

“Lived in my car at sixteen,” she lifts up her own drink and clinks it against the other woman’s cup.

Izzie hums, “To… our crappy situations when we were sixteen years old.” she downs the drink, Jo doing the same.

“This would be better if it was alcohol,” she pipes in, and both woman smirk, flagging down the attendant who was passing out drink, ordering a mini bottle of vodka each.

The women go into easy conversation from there, laughing and talking like there was no tomorrow, and a few hours later the plane comes to a descent for their layover in Kansas. As they pack up their bags and exit the plane Izzie turns to Jo, a grateful smile on her face.

“It was wonderful meeting you Jo. I’m pretty sure I would’ve passed out from boredom if I had to read that book for a second longer,” she grins, patting said book that sat under her arm.

Jo smiles back, tucking a hand of hair back behind her ear “Same here, and I’m glad I was able to prevent death by book,” she shuffles her grip on her carry-on. “I’m guessing this is your stop?”

“It is. Thanks again Jo. Hope your daughter doesn’t drive you up the walls too much,” she says.

“Yours too,” she waves goodbye and goes to find the nearest bathroom. It wasn’t she was washing the suds off her hands that she puts it all together.

Izzie, Kansas, Sixteen year old daughter. She brought up that she had another kid, a son at some point in their conversation as well.

Well dammit, seems like she just met the woman her husband left her for.

That’s gonna be one hell of a story to tell Meredith once she lands back in Seattle.

#jo wilson #alex karev #izzie stevens #luna ashton #luna wilson #jo karev #chance meeting #jolex #jolex fic #even though it's not #grey's anatomy #greys anatomy #grey's anatomy fic #grey's anatomy fanfic #grey's anatomy fanfiction #jolex fanfic #jolex fanfiction #izzie and jo become friends

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thejolexgroupchat · 3 years

Text

the one where they met in med school - part two

hi guys! hope you enjoy part 2 of this fic :)

if you haven’t yet, read part one here

———

(August 2006)

He had been taking a nap on his couch when he heard a knock on the door. It was faint and persistent and Alex really considered not answering and just sleeping through the knocks. He was a surgical intern after all. There were limited hours in the day where he got sleep.

The knocks grew louder and more urgent, finally becoming too loud for him to avoid. Alex grumbled as he got up from the couch, "I'm coming, calm down."

Alex huffed as he yanked the door open, "What the hell—"

He was interrupted by a pair of arms wrapping around his neck and lips meeting his. He knew immediately who it was and felt as if all the stress and exhaustion in his body had melted away. Alex broke the kiss after a few minutes and smiled sweetly, "You're here."

"Hi," Jo grinned and leaned back in for another kiss. "I'm here."

"How?" Alex shook his head in confusion, staring at his girlfriend in awe. "I talked to you a few hours ago and you never mentioned coming here."

"I called from the airport to make sure that you'd be home when I got here," she shrugged. Jo smiled widely and kissed him again."I missed you so much. I told you that I had a week-long break this month. Well, that starts today."

"I love you," Alex picked her up and dropped her on the couch, eliciting a squeal from Jo. "God, this month has been hell without you. I need you so bad right now."

"You have me," Jo looked deeply into his eyes, noticing the dark look that clouded them. “You always have me.”

"You know we're going to spend the entire time you're here in bed, right?" Alex placed a kiss on Jo’s neck, causing shivers to run through her body.

"Oh, I'm fine with that,” Jo let out a moan, her hands moving to Alex’s chest. “I saw the Space Needle from the plane, I’m good.”

———

(January 2007)

“How was Boston?” Meredith gave Alex a sideways glance as he walked into the locker room.

“Did you have lots of sex?” Cristina grinned, elbowing Alex as he sat next to her on the bench. “You look happy.”

“It was good,” Alex nodded, looking up when neither woman responded to him. “What? You wanna hear about my sex life? Should I start telling you about how my girlfriend likes it when I use my tongue to-”

Both Meredith and Cristina began to verbally object loudly, sending Alex into a quiet round of chuckles. He felt Cristina’s fingers on his neck a moment later, examining the large hickey that Jo had left there, “Well Evil Spawn has got himself a biter. I’m gonna call her Dracula, since you never told us her name.”

“Oh shut up, she’s not a biter,” Alex examined the love bite momentarily as he stripped his shirt off before pulling his scrub top on. “Well not usually… Whatever, doesn’t matter because I had a good weekend. And for your information, we did not have sex the whole time. We went out to the bar with her roommate too.”

"Yeah, maybe once or twice for the entire week you were gone," Meredith giggled. "At least you had a better Christmas than we did. Izzie, George, and I stared at our Christmas tree for hours along with our new dog, Doc."

"You got a dog? You really are having a McDreamy crisis," Alex looked at Meredith sympathetically. "Well, if you ever want to get out of here and forget, you can always come to Boston with me next time. I'm going in the beginning of March for a few days. My girlfriend and her roommate have a couch you can sleep on."

"Sounds tempting, but I really don't want to be around to hear you and Dracula reunite after months apart," Meredith made a face.

———

(February 2007)

"Your girlfriend was here?" O'Malley asked as he bit into his burger. Alex had shown up late to the hospital that morning, explaining that he had to go take his girlfriend to the airport. "She's been to Seattle before and we haven't met her?"

“Yeah she’s been to Seattle. We’ve just never met her because Alex has her locked up in his bedroom doing dirty jailhouse hooker things the whole time she’s here,” Meredith laughed as she stuffed her face with some more french fries.

"Seriously, though. When are we going to meet her?" Izzie took a slurp of her drink. "Is she even real? Because I can't think of one good reason you'd hide your girlfriend from us. Unless, you were secretly doing it in the hospital with some other woman and you don't want them to find each other."

Alex choked on the pizza he’d been eating, “What? No!”

“Then why haven’t we met her?” Izzie looked at him expectantly. “You turn down every girl who comes your way and yet you won’t tell us about her. How’d you meet? How long have you guys been together? What’s she like? Is she smart, funny, pretty? Do you love her?”

“Why can’t you guys leave it alone? Isn’t there anything else you can focus on that’s more exciting or important than my relationship?”

The four interns exchanged glances before shrugging simultaneously, “Nope.”

“Fine,” Alex groaned as he rolled his eyes. “Since you won’t let it go, we met in med school. Her friend introduced us. We’ve been together for three years now and are going strong. And yes she’s smart. She’s the smartest person I know; even smarter than you, Yang. She’s hilarious and makes me laugh until I cry. She’s the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever laid eyes on, so that’s why I don’t care about anyone who throws themselves at me. And yes, I am desperately in love with her.”

Alex continued to eat his pizza, unfazed by the stunned and silent expressions on his friends faces. He knew he could be an ass with a cold exterior, but he really did love Jo. If there was anyone he had a soft spot for it was the petite brunette that had taken him by surprise.

“I’ll be damned,” Cristina muttered, sipping her soda as she stared at Alex. “The tin man really does have a heart.”

#jolex #jolex fanfic #jolex au #jo x alex #jo wilson #alex karev #lexie grey #meredith grey #cristina yang #izzie stevens #george o'malley #med school #grey's anatomy #grey's anatomy fanfic #grey's fanfic #grey's anatomy au #the one where they met in med school

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fan4196 · 3 years

Text

Happiness (Part 2)

Evermore

Here’s part two of three from this little fix-it fic. Hope you like it. Enjoy!

It's been a few months now since Jo's call and since Alex debated whether he should visit Seattle or not. He doesn't know if he should. There’s something telling him he lost his right to go back there. To just wiggle himself back into the life’s he left so abruptly. There’s something holding him back.

He ended up with a very big Peds case that kept him busy at work for like a month. When he then finally decided to man up and get over his stupid feelings, the twins got sick with the flu for two weeks. And as soon as they were well again he got it himself and was down for another two weeks. He waited another week to not infect Jo but when he finally got a ticket and was waiting to go to Seattle his flight got canceled. The next flight he wanted to take got canceled too due to bad weather conditions and then there was a lot of work again at the hospital.

Maybe this was the universe telling him to just stay in Kansas and let Jo live the happy life she deserves. Maybe she was better off without him in her life. But the second they got a call from Izzie's mom, that she was admitted to the hospital and it wasn’t looking good Alex took the opportunity to not chicken out again. They also took the twins visit their grandma possibly a last time and to show them where their parents once lived and maybe meet Mer and the kids.

A week later they landed in Seattle. After they left the plane and got their suitcases, they are now on their way to the exit. Mer offered to pick them up from the airport so they wouldn’t have to take a cap. They start looking for Mer as soon as they leave the airport but neither her nor her car was waiting for them. Alex is just about to get his phone out, to call Meredith when he hears a voice calling his name from behind.

Before he even turns he already knows who to look for. He would recognize her voice through everything. It has always been and still is one of his absolute favorite sound. Finding her leaning against her car door, greeting him with a toothless smile, his glance immediately goes to her expanding bump, which looks so good on her. It's so perfect that he would like to capture this view in his brain forever. It’s also so big, but what was he expecting from a seven months twins bump - he doesn't really know.

One of her hands is holding onto the car, the other one is in the pocket of her jacket, tightening the rim of the shirt she's wearing around her stomach. He knows women hate it when you say they have the pregnancy glow but Jo really has it and it fits her so incredibly well.

With a quick call he guides Izzie into Jo's direction, while he's already on his way towards his ex-wife, with his daughter and their suitcase.

"Hi." He greets Jo as he gets closer, not knowing if he should hug her or just do nothing. It's quite awkward. The last time they saw each other they were still husband and wife. He rememberes every second of their last morning together - they are burned into his brain forever.

They woke up, enjoyed the morning in each others arms, took a shower together, packed Alexs stuff in Jos car, he took her out for breakfast, they drove to the airport, they kissed each other goodbye and then he left for his flight.

Now standing here next to her again makes him feel like their goodbye has only been a week ago and she's here to pick him up to go home. But it's not, it's been almost seven month since their goodbye - he's bringing his family with him, she's carrying their babies and they act like they are total strangers.

"Hi." His thoughts get interrupt by his daughter excitingly greeting Jo, freeing her hand from her dad's to tightly hug Jo's leg.

"Oh- ahm hi." Jo greets the little girl a little surprised but immediately stroking her hair lovingly.

"And hello babies." Alexis greets Jo's bump as she carefully strokes it with one hand.

"Did you feel that? They’re saying hi too." Jo smiles as she looks down at the little girl, taking her hand to put it where one of the babies is kicking.

"Like a little alien." Alexis giggles happily, looking from Jo to her dad with a cheeky smile on her face.

"I'm sorry." Alex apologizes, grapping his daughters hands. "Ok, enough Alexis, give Jo some space-"

"There you are. We lost you back there, suddenly you two were gone." Izzie finally reaches the group with Eli on her hand. "Oh I thought Mer wanted to pick us up." Izzie notes as she spots the woman next to Alex.

"Yeah, she got pulled into an emergency surgery and asked me to pick you up, since she won’t let me stand in an OR longer than two hours." Jo jokes, trying to loosen the slightly tense atmosphere. "Oh right- I'm sorry, I'm Jo." She introduces herself, sticking her hand out towards Izzie with the best smile she can put on right now.

"Oh Jo like in Jo Jo." Izzie asks surprised pointing from Jo to Alex and Jo nods.

The whole situation is tense and rather awkward but thanks to the two smallest of the group the awkward silence gets interrupt as Alexis fights her dads hands off once again to start stroking Jos stomach again.

"Eli, come and feel. There are two babies inside." She calls her brother over, who's not so sure about it. He's always the more careful one and also rather shy. Other than his sister who's very outgoing and not afraid of strangers.

"Alexis! Stop that! It's not nice to touch people you don't know." Izzie disciplines her daughter, who's still stroking Jo's stomach.

"But mommy that's my friend Jo and she allowed me to say hello to the babies." Alexis explaines to her mother looking up to Jo, who smiles at her.

"It's fine. You would be surprised how many people touch my bumb every day out of nowhere." Jo assures Izzie, not missing Alex's face immediately turning sad.

"Mommy you know, I love babies." Alexis pleads.

"Yeah I know-"

"Ok. I think we should get going. We can keep talking in the car." Alex interrupts, starting to put the suitcases into the truck of Jo's Audi.

After convincing Jo to let him drive, so she could relax, they are now in the car. Alex in the driver's seat, Jo in the passenger seat, Izzie and the twins in the back.

"Jojo you know what?" Alexis continues her conversation with her new declared best friend Jo. "I wanna be a Peds doctor like my daddy when I'm big." She proudly announces, finally unwrapping her sucker all by herself, that Jo gave her and Eli.

"Wow. Really? That's so cool. Did he already teach you some cool stuff?" Jo asks, looking at Alexis while they talk.

The little girl nodds and puts the sucker in her mouth. Jo holds her hand out for Alexis to pass her the wrapping and puts it in the little trash bag in the center console. Alex's eyes watch her as she does so before Jo turns back to continue her conversation with Alexis. Alex's eyes stay at the little trash bag he put there almost a year ago for Jo to put her gum wrappers and tissues in.

It gives him this weird warm feeling inside to see that she didn't get rid of it yet.

#jolex #fanfic #fanfiction #jo x alex #alex #alex karev #grey's #grey's fanfic #grey's anatomy #jo karev #fan.4196 #tsjolexweek21

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