#preemies

(January 2009)

“Hey, mister,” Jo knocked on the door frame to announce her presence in the room with a smile on her face, that appeared the second she saw the view in front of her. 

“Hey! How did you find me?” Alex smiled, his voice just above a whisper. 

“A little birdie told me about your whereabouts,” she allowed herself into the room. 

“It was Bailey, right? I’m gonna have to have a word with her about this. The amount of people coming over to take a look at what’s happening here is killing me,” Alex grunted, throwing his head back, his hand never leaving the tiny back of the newborn nestled against his chest. 

“Yeah, we can talk to her together, because I’m not a big fan of learning that a bunch of people are showing up to check on my shirtless boyfriend looking all hot holding a baby. That sight is mine to see and mine alone,” Jo joked, pulling up a chair and sitting by his side. 

“Don’t worry. It was mainly Sloan and Shepherd making fun of me,” he looked at her, finally being able to take in her presence. 

“How is she doing?” Jo asked, grabbing the baby’s hand. “She’s so tiny.”

“Jo, this is really cool. I was sure she wasn’t going to make it. That’s why I held her in the first place. No baby should die without having ever been held, so I did it. Bailey got all scientific when she saw her numbers getting better when I picked her up, so here we are. I think she’ll be okay,” he looked down at the tiny body on his chest. 

“Yeah. This is cool,” Jo said calmly, but her mind was almost exploding with so many thoughts that came to her when she found Alex with that baby. 

“You going home?” Alex asked, placing the pieces of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail behind her ears. 

“I don’t think so. Can I keep you company tonight?” Jo smiled. 

“Well, unfortunately you won’t be able to be my main chick tonight, but you’re more than welcome to join us, if you’re okay with it,” Alex grinned. 

“I’m more than okay with it.”

———

“Good job, Karev. You saved that baby’s life,” Bailey smiled at him. Alex and Jo spent the night with that baby who didn’t leave Alex’s chest until the sun came up and she was—to the surprise of everyone who was taking care of her—stable enough to not even need an incubator and could go straight to a warmer instead. 

“Thank you, Dr. Bailey” Alex smiled at his mentor. He looked over the woman’s shoulder and staring at his girlfriend, who was looking at the baby in front of her. 

“Did Wilson spend the night with you?” Bailey asked. 

“Yeah. She wanted to keep me company,” Alex explained as he cast a loving glance over to Jo.

“Well, in that case, I’ll figure a way out to put someone on your services. You can both go home and rest,” Bailey said. 

“Are you sure?” Alex asked. 

“Don’t worry. Enjoy your day off,” Bailey insisted, walking away. “And, Karev!” she turned. “You’d be good in peds, you know that? You get invested, you have good instincts, you stick to your instincts. You’d be good in peds.” 

“Thank you, Dr. Bailey,” Alex said loudly with a smile on his face that only grew when his eyes landed on Jo once again. She was standing above the incubator with a soft expression on her face. He walked back into the room and wrapped his arm around her. “We get to go home for the day.” 

“Really?” Jo turned her head to face him. 

“Yes. Bailey gave us the day off,” Alex traced his fingers across the baby’s delicate face. 

Silence took over the room for a while before he broke it, “It felt good having her on my chest. It made me a bit sad to put her down.” Alex admitted. 

“It’s a good thing that you could, though. It means she is well enough to not need you anymore,” Jo pointed out. 

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s go home,” he grabbed her hand before taking a step closer to the infant warmer. “You were a very good company last night. I promise I’ll come back and check on you tomorrow, okay?” Alex whispered into the baby’s side, but was unintentionally loud enough to be heard by Jo, who smiled at the interaction. 

“Let’s go home.”

———

“Do you think I’d be any good in peds?” Alex asked, joining Jo in bed and running his fingers across her back. 

“What?” she lifted her head from the pillow with a smile on her lips

“I’ve been considering it for a while now. First it was when I was working with Addison my intern year, and now Robbins. I don’t know… last night just felt different, you know? Maybe I wouldn’t be so bad at it,” Alex shrugged. 

“I’m sure you’d be an amazing pediatric surgeon if you choose to be one,” Jo grinned widely. 

“You really think that?” he asked. 

Jo nodded at him, trying not to spit out all the words she was holding back at him, but also trying to figure a way out to let him know what she was thinking, “You know another role I’m sure you’d be amazing at?” 

Alex moved his eyes back to her, eyebrows raised.

“I’m sure you’ll be the most amazing father to our baby,” Jo smiled, watching as Alex’s eyes grew larger and larger and laughed at his expression. “I’m serious.”

“Are you?” Alex tried to say the next words, but couldn’t. His face lit up as soon as her words hit his ears. 

“No. I’m not pregnant,” Jo chuckled, trying to focus on the message she was trying to get across. “I want to have kids with you. I see how you are with the little ones, and it really makes me want to have kids with you. I know we’re both residents and we hardly have any free time, but I think I’m ready to start trying. That is, if you are.”

“If having a kid is what you want, I can be ready,” Alex sat up straight in the bed. “I’m ready. Let’s do it.” He stood up and took off his pajama pants he had put on as soon as they got home, even though it was still quite early in the morning. “Let’s make a baby.” 

Alex looked at Jo’s shocked face and tried to keep his bad boy facade intact, but he was bursting with love for the woman in front of him, so his lips curled up into a lopsided smile. 

“I don’t mean right now, you moron,” Jo laughed at him. 

“What? I don’t get it. Don’t you wanna try for a baby?” Alex shook his hands around in confusion. 

“Well, yes and no,” Jo sat up, trying to explain her thoughts to him, but he started talking before she could figure a way out to say what she wanted to him. 

“So, how’s this gonna work? Are we actually gonna try and have sex when you’re ovulating or…?” Alex asked. 

“God, no. That’s so much unnecessary pressure. Let’s just, be us. We have sex when we want to have sex and at the same time, we aren’t preventing anything. That means I probably won’t get pregnant right away, but we know that there’s always a possibility,” Jo pulled Alex back to bed with her. 

“So does this mean we can throw your pills and the condoms away?” Alex asked. 

“Yes. We can throw them all away,” Jo rolled her eyes and pulled him in for a kiss. 

“I say we get started right now,” Alex reached for the hem of her shirt. “Practicing, at least.”

“I wouldn’t object to that,” Jo giggled lightly.