#jokarev

When Jo Karev wakes up to find her husband’s side of the bed empty, it’s almost alarming for a moment.

Alex Karev is by no means a morning person. She met him when they were already adults, but she assumed that for the entirety of his life, he had been a grumbling grouch in the mornings. It just seemed like an Alex thing to her.

No matter his morning tendencies as a child, a fully-grown Alex Karev never got out of bed on a Sunday before 8:30. If she let him, Jo figured he’d sleep all day long. So she rolls over and gets up, wondering where he is.

She knows they can’t live here forever, but she really does enjoy being able to get out of bed and immediately spot her husband, feeding their six-month-old, and eating scraps of bacon in between. Ah, the joys of living in a loft space.

Jo tilts her head at him, smiling at the sight before her. The baby has food covering her cheeks, and Alex’s hair clearly hasn’t been brushed. Jo doesn’t quite stifle her laughter, and Alex notices his wife.

“Morning.”

“Good morning to you too, husband of mine.” Jo makes her way across the loft, stepping into the kitchen area. She grabs a couple of napkins off the counter, wiping the baby’s face.

“Did the baby wake you?” She asks Alex, as he picks at another piece of bacon.

“Yeah.” Jo pecks his cheek, and he finishes, “I quieted her down quickly so she wouldn’t wake you. I think we’ve been up since six.”

“Aw, poor babies.” She smiles to herself, grabbing the Cheerios down from the cabinet.

“Ha ha, very funny.” Alex grumbles. Jo pours the cereal into a bowl. The baby reaches for the bowl as she turns around, but Jo just kisses her forehead, “You’re not quite old enough for those yet; you’ll get there, big girl.”

“No, she’ll be eating things with flavor. I don’t know how you eat that crap, but you will not corrupt our children. Now bacon,” He holds it up to the baby, “that, is delicious.”

Jo takes a seat across from Alex. “You know, she may just like them all on her own,” she places her bowl down. Instead, she picks up the baby, cooing at her. “I think she looks like you, Alex. She has your nose.”

Jo takes the seat next to Alex, and he makes a face at the baby girl before closely examining her nose. “Yeah, but she’s got your eyes. I mean in the shape.”

Their daughter was born with blue eyes, and despite their best predictions, her eyes haven’t changed to brown. Alex’s dad had blue eyes, so they knew where his side of it came from, but when Jo had met her birth mother a little over two years ago, the woman had deep, brown eyes.

She could guess that her father had had green or blue eyes, but she didn’t feel the need to venture farther into that thought. She could enjoy her daughter’s surprisingly blue eyes without curiosity; she had to.

“...looks very clear, so it’s just a guess. Jo?” Alex broke Jo out of her reverie, as she bounced the baby on her knee, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good. Perfect.” She smiles at him. She has all she needs right here.

“I’m going to make waffles now, for the adults. You want some right?”

[Future Jolex fic. Post S16 or it can be during S16. Who knows anymore.]

Camilla Luddington icon

This is my first hope you like it❤️❤️

No need to give credit and if you want to give credit

The OB wing of the hospital was different from the rest of the hospital. It was painted in a soft pink unlike the rest of the hospital's stark white walls. Nurses wore scrubs with cartoon ducklings and rabbits printed on them. There were piles and piles of magazines and pamphlets on side tables all over the waiting room. Someone had obviously done their best to make that wing feel detached from all the gloom that surrounded the rest of the hospital. Still, Jo didn’t like it.

It felt like someone had taken all the corners of Grey-Sloan and worn them down into a family friendly, bite-sized, hazy version of itself. Normally, Jo didn’t have to spend any time in the OB wing. She rarely left her office that she shared with Bailey. But now she was sitting in an uncomfortable, upholstered chair leaning her head against the wall of the waiting room.

“Are you nervous?” Alex asked giving her hand a squeeze. He smiled at her sensing his wife's unease. It seemed like Alex hadn’t stopped smiling since Jo had told him she was pregnant a week ago.

Jo shook her head. “Not nervous, I just want to see this little guy.”. At six weeks along she wasn’t showing yet so it looked a little awkward when Jo rested her hand on her stomach. Honestly, she was a little nervous. What if it was an ectopic or chemical pregnancy? The chances of that were slim to none but still, Jo liked to plan for the worst.

“Little guy? It’s more likely that we’re having a girl. Most chil-…” Alex began

“No we’re having a boy, I can tell,” Jo said. “It’s a motherly instinct.” She said decidedly. Her eyes tracked a surgical nurse who walked through the waiting room on her way to the fetal surgery ward. “We should have gone somewhere else, everyone’s going to know we’re pregnant before this appointment is even over.”

Secrets didn’t stay secret very long at the hospital. When she was an intern, Jo didn’t understand why Meredith called Grey-Sloan the “rumor mill” but after her ordeal with Alex and DeLuca, she understood. “We can’t go somewhere else. It would look like I didn’t trust my own doctors.” He said. “Plus, no one ever listens to nurse Ruth anyways.” He stuck his nose up in a very accurate impression of the nurse.

Jo tapped her foot against the tile keeping with the beat of the off-brand pop music playing through the intercom. She just wanted to get it over with. She hated the waiting, the unease of it all. A woman in baby pink scrubs stepped into the waiting room. “Doctor Karev, we’re ready for you.” She said.

Jo gratefully rose from her seat, Alex's hand still in her own. She drug him through the aisles of chairs toward the door that lead back to the exam rooms. “Right this way,” The woman said. Jackie her name tag read. As they walked to the exam room Jo felt a wave of nausea wash over her and she couldn’t tell if it was from her nerves or from her morning sickness. She stopped dead in her tracks and clambered for the trashcan that sat next to the door.

She collapsed to the floor and emptied the contents of her stomach into a trash can that was normally reserved for gloves and tongue depressors. Alex crouched beside her and pulled her hair back. She melted against the pressure of his hand that rested against her back. When she felt slightly better she stood up and faced the nurse. “Sorry about that.” She apologized.

The nurse shrugged obviously unfazed by pregnant women and morning sickness. “I’ll get you something to settle your stomach before your exam.” Jo smiled gratefully. They continued following her to their exam room.

Alex took her hand again and kissed the top of her head. “You okay?” he asked his wife. Jo nodded.

Jackie opened the door to exam room 7 and ushered them in. She pulled open the doors of a cabinet that hung on a pale yellow wall, fished out a small, oval-shaped tablet, and gave it to Jo. “This should help with the morning sickness for today.” She said. “Doctor Morgan should be in any minute.” She smiled.

“Thank you!” Jo said as the door latched shut. Her entire body was full of excited energy. She was about to see her child for the first time, hear its heartbeat. That was an insane concept that she still hadn’t really wrapped her mind around. When she turned around to face her husband he was simply standing there, smiling at her.

“What?” Jo asked raising an eyebrow. She sat on the exam table with her legs kicking in the air above the tiled floor.

Alex shook his head, “Nothing.” He said. “I just… It feels weird being here, doesn’t it?” Alex looked around at the room, a giant poster of storks carrying baby animals was on the wall across from him. “I still think that it’s a girl.” He said.

“No way!” Jo protested. “Fifty bucks says that we’re having a boy.”

Alex stared at her wide-eyed. “You are not putting money on the sex of our child.” He laughed.

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