#and while it's not marriage it's certainly not nothing for wilson to watch play out

[marc--chilton]

hang on i'm once again thinking about house being stupid with love. stacy moved in with him a week after meeting him. that's HUGE change. could you imagine how much he'd have to be obsessing over her to make HIS home THEIR home??? and he still wasn't over her 5+ years later after everything either.

(and like. i wonder if there was ever a moment there for wilson where he's watching house and stacy be so witty and beautiful and in love together and thinking to himself, huh. so this is what that feels like.)

[jobrookekarev]

New Hair, but No New Engagements

Chapter One of One

Words: 3256

Summary: Link tries to fix Jo’s hair while the two of them talk. Link comforts her about her worries for leaving Luna in daycare, and Jo tells him not to keep pushing Amelia to marry him.

Fandom: Grey’s Anatomy.

Relationship: Jo Wilson & Atticus Lincoln, Alex Karev/Jo Wilson (Mentioned), and Atticus Lincoln/Amelia Shepherd (Mentioned).  

Characters: Jo Wilson, Atticus Lincoln, and Luna Ashton Wilson.

Rating: General Audiences.

Additional Tags: Fluff, Angst, Haircuts, Babies, Serious Conversations, Relationship Advice, and Friendship.

Read at AO3

Read at FFN

AN: There wasn't nearly enough of Jo and Link in last night's episode.

……………………………………………………………………

“Are you sure about this?” Jo asked, holding up the mirror looking to where Link was holding a strand of her hair, getting ready to make the first cut. 

“Yes, trust me. I'm much better at cutting hair than you are,” Link said as Jo scoffed, remembering the time she tried to cut his hair. “Besides, you've seen how I keep up this beautiful hair.” 

Jo rolled her eyes but pinned the towel around her shoulders and let him continue. After they deep conditioned her hair in the kitchen sink and worked out most of the tangles, Jo decided that although some of it could be saved, the majority of her ends were completely unsalvageable. So she put Luna on a play mat on the floor as Link grabbed the scissors. 

Jo closed her eyes as he made the first cut. As soon as she heard the snip of the scissors, she opened one eye and looked at it in the mirror she was holding. She let out a sigh of relief as, thankfully, it didn't look too bad. As Link continued to cut, Jo looked down at Luna, she was supposed to be doing tummy time, but she had rolled over onto her back and was currently staring up at the suspended animals while playing with her toes. 

“Does Lana have object permanence yet?” Link asked, catching Jo's attention as she looked at him in the mirror. 

“Yeah, she’s really good at not fussing when I lose her favorite blanket. We still play peek-a-boo all the time and it's her favorite,” Jo said, looking down at Luna again as she glanced at her, and Jo put her hands over her face before pulling them back and saying peekaboo to her as Luna laughed.

“So Luna knows that just because she can't see something doesn't mean it's not there. The same thing applies to you when you drop her off at daycare. She knows that you love her, Jo. I've seen the way she looks at you, and just because you drop her off at daycare doesn't mean that Luna doesn't know that you love her.”

“Thanks,” Jo said with a sigh, looking down at Luna, who was fixated on her and smiled down at her little girl.

Luna looked over at her with a wide smile as Jo waved at her, and Luna waved her arms as well before looking back up at her toys. Jo couldn't help but smile as she stared at her daughter. Her perfect little girl was so happy. She never wanted Luna to worry about if Jo was going to pick her up from daycare. All Jo wanted was to let her daughter know that she was always loved and wanted. 

“I know it's not as easy as I say it is. I’m still terrified that Scout is going to get cancer,” Link said, letting out a sigh as he picked up another strand of her hair. 

“Even though I've told you a dozen times that the likelihood of that is pretty small?” Jo said, looking up at him. “By the way, how was his 1-year appointment? “

“It was great, except for the fact that we over shared with the doctor, but Scout is doing fine. He's, he's perfect,” Link said, with a smile as Jo looked back at him, but it quickly disappeared before he shook his head and picked up another strand to cut. “But I still worry, you know, I don't think that I'll ever not worry.”

“I don't think I'll ever not worry either,” Jo said, staring at Luna before looking back at him in the mirror. “And Link, you gotta stop proposing to Amelia.”

“I just want to marry her. Is that so wrong?” Link asked with a sigh, running a comb through her hair and holding up the ends before he trimmed them. 

“You're pushing her to do something that she's not ready to do. Amelia has a really good reason for not wanting to marry you. She's been married before, and she loves you, and  I can tell that she doesn’t want to rush into a marriage she's not ready for. I was in her position and do you know how many times I turned down Alex’s proposal? He asked me like three or four times before he decided it wasn't enough for him and we broke up for six months.”

“Didn't he also punch DeLuca and almost go to jail at the start of those six months?”  Link asked, pausing to turn his head and look at her. “Also, weren't you still married to Paul and you hadn't told him yet, so technically, you couldn't have accepted the proposal even if you wanted to.” 

“Yes, but that's not the point,” Jo said, waving him off with her hand as he went back to cutting her hair. “Alex was pushing me to do something I didn't want to do. Both in terms of accepting his proposal and telling him about Paul. We were only able to work things out when he accepted that. Then down the road, I realized that I wanted to marry him, and so I proposed, and we got married. I mean, he still left, but...”

Jo trailed off, she wanted to say that they were happy together, but she questioned how much of that happiness was real. She knew that Link and Amelia were different, but given her failed marriages, sometimes she felt like she had no right to be giving relationship advice. Still, she clung to what was true for her and Alex and what she saw that Link was doing with Amelia. 

“Look, it doesn't matter. I still wasn't ready to marry him, but Alex decided that being with me was more important than marrying me!” Jo said, and she waited until he pulled the scissors for her to turn around and look at him. “You have the option to choose to love her and you're throwing it away! Do you think I would do that if Alex was standing in front of me right now? I wouldn't care if he brought an ex-wife and two kids with him. So long as I could have him, I would be happy. Are you telling me that so long as you have Amelia and Scout, you wouldn't be happy?”

Link looked down and away from her. She knew he wasn't quite ready to hear her words. He was still hung up on the fact that Amelia wouldn't marry him. She hoped that he would truly listen to her and Amelia, and they could work things out. Link looked back up and caught her eye again. He didn't say anything as he picked up a strand of hair by her face, measuring it out before he started cutting again. 

Jo turned back around and looked down at Luna, who had rolled over onto her stomach. Luna got up on her hands and knees, she wasn't quite crawling yet, but she would hold herself up and wiggle. Jo smiled and held her hands out to encourage her to crawl. Luna got the most adorable, determined look on her face as she moved back and forth, not quite crawling. After a few minutes, she got frustrated and started to cry out, sitting back and holding out her arms for Jo to pick her up. Link let go of her hair, and Jo reached down to pick up Luna before she sat back in the chair and held Luna on her lap. 

“You almost did it, Luna, you're going to be crawling before Mama knows it,” Jo said, reaching out and bopping her finger on Luna's nose as Luna almost went cross-eyed trying to watch her finger. 

“She is certainly getting close. You'll have to learn how to whip your phone in time to capture it,” Link said as he ran a brush through her hair before he started cutting it again.

“What if she crawls for the first time at daycare and I don't get to see it?” Jo said, her eyes widening as she looked at Luna.

“She's not going to crawl for the first time at daycare. Nothing ever happens for the first time at daycare,” Link said with a little laugh, and she felt another chunk of her hair fall off her shoulders. “The first time she crawls for you is still the first time and she's going to remember if you were there for the real first time or not. You're still going to get to watch her grow up and do so many first, Jo. You have a whole lifetime with her. A few hours in daycare is just nothing compared to that.”

“I know,” Jo said, picking up Luna’s little pacifier with a small brown bear stuffed animal attached to it and waving it around before Luna reached out for it and Jo put the pacifier in her mouth. “It feels so different than when she was in the NICU. Back then, I would visit her whenever I could, and that felt like it was enough. I never felt like I missed anything or like I was abandoning her. Now that she's home with me, it's different, and I don't know why.”

“It's different because she's home,” Link said, pausing to hold a strand of her hair and making sure his cuts were straight. 

“I've been home with her for 12 weeks and I still feel like I did the first day I got her. I've barely even unpacked. I've just been living out of boxes for three months,” Jo said as she glared over at the stack of boxes that she hadn’t unpacked yet.

“You've got a 10-month-old baby, a preemie 10-month-old baby girl, and you're doing everything on your own. So long as you keep yourself and her alive, I think you're doing pretty good,” Link said, putting a hand on her shoulder and giving it a squeeze.

“Thanks,” Jo said, looking back at him.

Jo let out a sigh as she looked around the room again. She never imagined her life turning out like this. Even with Luna, the penthouse felt big and empty at times. She was glad that Link was staying with her now. This was the first time that she had lived on her own in six years. She had never gone more than a few months without a roommate or without Alex. As she looked down at Luna, she smiled. Jo could tell she was getting sleepy as she ran her finger over her forehead and down the bridge of her little nose, and her eyes fluttered. It was a trick that Alex had taught her to get the NICU babies to sleep. She knew that even if they were still together, she would have still adopted Luna, but she always thought that Alex would be the one to make her mother or at least be with her through all of this.  

“I never thought I'd be doing this alone. I thought that I'd have him with me,” Jo said, looking down at Luna. She had settled in Jo's arms, her eyes were growing heavy, and she struggled to keep them open and soon closed as she fell asleep. 

“I know,” Link whispered as they both fell silent, save for the sound of the scissors cutting her hair. 

“Whenever we talked about kids, he always got this big smile on his face. He made all these promises to me. He promised me that we would move into a good house in a good school district and that we would go on all of the vacations that we never got to take his kids. Disneyland, and the beach, and roller coasters, and water parks. He promised me that he would change all of the diapers after I gave birth, and I would roll my eyes, but I knew that he would do his best to keep his promises.”

Jo couldn't help but get choked up even a year later. She still grieved for the things that she lost when he left as tears collected in her eyes and a lump formed in her throat. “I adopted Lena alone, and I knew that I was going to be a single mother, but I never thought I'd do this alone.”

“You're not alone, Jo. You have me,” Link said, although he still had the left side of her hair to do. He dropped the scissors and wrapped his arms around her, putting his head on your shoulder. She leaned her head against his, letting a few tears slip out of her eyes. “I never thought I'd find the love of my life and that she wouldn't want to marry me. I never thought that I would be raising my son half the time. I don't want to be alone either, so why don't we stick together? Then we’ll never be alone.”

Jo could only nod as she closed her eyes and shuffled Luna into one arm so she could put her arm around Link as he hugged her. Jo let out a sigh as she let out her tears, although it was just a few. Every time she cried about Alex, she cried less and less. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but it was what it was. Once she pulled away from him, Link let go of her and gave her a tissue to wipe her face. He double-checked that she was okay before he went back to cutting her hair. 

“So if I'm going to move in, we should probably move you and Luna into one of the bedrooms, otherwise it's just awkward,” Link said, as Jo let out a little laugh and tried not to jostle Luna too much. 

“Okay, so do you want the bedroom with the fireplace or without the fireplace?”

“The guest bedroom has a fireplace?” Link paused, moving his head around to look at her as Jo nodded. “Yep, and the master bedroom has both a fireplace and this huge jacuzzi tub that can fit like two people.”

“Wow,” Link said with a shake of his head. “It's so weird that you're rich now.”

“It's super weird,” Jo said as she looked around the penthouse a little bit while trying not to move her head. She still wasn't used to it and didn't think she would ever get used to it. 

“Alright, I'm all done. What do you think?” Link said as he ran a brush through their hair one last time before Jo held up the mirror to look at her hair. 

It was shorter and blond, and she didn't look anything like herself, but she was happy with it. “It looks great. Thank you”

“Don't act so surprised. I told you I know how to cut hair,” Link said as he took the scissors and went to grab the broom.

“It is kind of a little surprising, though,” Jo said as she got up to go put Luna in her crib. When she put her down, Jo lingered there. She held onto the side of the crib and just watched her for an extra second. 

“Hey, come help me with this?” Link said, holding out the dustpan to her, and Jo knew that he was trying to pull her away, but she let him and grabbed the dustpan to help him sweep up her hair.

--------------------------------

Later that night, Jo laid in bed staring at Luna in her crib. She just got on her back down and was just watching to make sure she didn't wake up again. As Luna slept peacefully Jo found that she couldn't close her eyes. Some Nights the bed still felt too big and empty, no matter how many pillows she squished up against her back. Every time she reached out to feel the cold space next to her, it was just another reminder of the person who should be there. 

Jo let out a huff as she reached out to her nightstand. She sat up just a little bit as she opened the drawer and pulled out the photo that she kept hidden away. It wasn't even her photo and frame. It was the one that Alex kept on his nightstand. The glass of the frame was gone and it was now held together with a little bit of duct tape after she threw across the loft, breaking it. The second she tossed it, she ran to get it and put it back together. Jo looked at the photo, it was them on their wedding day. They looked so happy and he looked so in love with her. She ran her fingers over his face, tracing the lines of his hair and the little curls in his hair. She still didn't know when that love stopped. 

“I wish you were here. I wish I would have given you a baby earlier. I wish you would know and love Luna like I do,” Jo said as she let herself whisper aloud. S

She could feel the tears that came up earlier in her eyes again. She took in a deep breath, and she closed her eyes as she settled, and the tears disappeared. Whenever she did that, she didn't know if she was holding in her tears or letting them go, sometimes it felt like doing a little bit of both.

She heard Luna stir and move around and saw her kick in her crib. Jo put the photo down and got up to glance at her, letting out a sigh of relief as she saw Luna was still asleep. She smiled too as she watched her little girl move in her sleep, dreaming of happy things. Her peaceful watching was interrupted by a loud snore from Link as she looked over at him. He was asleep on the couch and spread out with one leg up on the armrest and the other dangling off as he was too big for the couch. 

As much as she wished that she had Alex with her, she acknowledged that her life was pretty good right now. She was surrounded by people who loved her. She had a family and a daughter whom she loved more than anything. She was pursuing a new career that she was passionate about. If she had left with him and gone to Kansas, she wouldn't have any of this. She looked back at Luna and reached out, tracing her fingers across her arm down to her hand as her little hand wrapped around Jo’s fingers.

“You are worth the heartbreak a thousand times over,” Jo said, although the tears welled up in her eyes again and this time, she let them fall on her cheeks. “I hope you hear me and I hope you know that. I love you so much, my Little Moon.” 

Luna smiled in her sleep and Jo shared her smile. She squeezed Luna's hand one last time before she let her finger slip out of her grasp and went to crawl back into bed. She put the photograph away in her nightstand and moved the pillows up against her back again as she tried not to miss Alex. Instead, she watched Luna in her crib just for a moment. Her daughter would be okay in daycare and she would know that she was loved even if Jo wasn't with her all the time. Then she closed her eyes and she smiled as she fell asleep.

[harderbetterfasterstarker]

as though nothing could fall

hey so y’all know how i wrote a fic and was like, nah i’ll probably never get around to writing these random other fluffy interludes...? guess who had a bad day and wrote a fluffy interlude??? spoiler alert it’s me. you can also read it on ao3 here. if you haven’t read as if even now first, you should. 

“I guess I’m glad we’re on the same page, but I just—no matter how I think about it, I’m not ready yet for the world to know that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. And if it comes out that Peter Parker is dating Tony Stark, the world is definitely going to start looking into everything about me. I mean, and that’s fair, because how on earth is a kid from Queens going to get to date Iron-Man?”

Tony had gone to kiss to the top of Peter’s head, but barely a second later Peter was shooting up to a sitting position. “Tony, I have either the best idea in the world or the worst.”

Tony swallows, his mouth suddenly dry and his fingers desperate for a machine to tear into to stop the racing in his mind.

It’s not that the assembled reporters have made him nervous—he’s decades past being bothered by reporters—or that the fight with the Doombots was particularly difficult—he and Peter had it handled before Rhodey could even get suited up and out to the city, leading to a complaint about having to turn around halfway through his trip.

This was Peter’s idea, he tells himself, pasting a press-ready grin on his face as the reporters swarm closer, barking out first questions about the Doombots, which he handles calmly (if flippantly) before they get to the real meat of what they’d like to talk about.

He and Peter and Pepper had sat down and talked it out, calmly, rationally, like adults—a new experience for Tony. Agent May had been hanging around the kitchen with Sam Wilson, both of them pretending like they weren’t there to play mediator if things went poorly, but, amazingly, they hadn’t. They’d discussed living arrangements—Georgia for Pepper, New York for Tony and Peter—and Morgan—weeks in Georgia with Pepper, weekends with Tony and Peter, at least until summer, when they could alternate more freely—and then the big question. It was the inverse of colloquially popping the big one, and Tony couldn’t think of anything more ironic than the fact that deciding to ask Pepper to marry him had been an impulse decision brought on by nothing more than the fact that he had a press conference arranged and Peter had turned him down, and the question of their divorce was talked over and through and under and upside down until Tony knew every facet of every argument. Pepper made it clear she’d do whatever the group thought was best, but, Pep, always a smart PR girl, pointed out that keeping up the charade of a marriage gave Tony (and by extension Peter) cover, time to figure themselves out without the creeping inquiries of the press. Peter had said he understood, but Tony had been able to see something go dull in the kid’s eyes at that. He’d felt the same lurking coldness in his gut. It made sense, but something about it didn’t feel right. He wanted to give Peter everything he was capable of giving, no strings, no illusions, no facades.

So he’d said divorce, and now the papers were filed and the split, being amicable, was final, and here’s Tony, standing on the corner of the street three blocks from Madison Square Garden, kicking a Doombot and hoping Peter’s certain. Because as soon as the divorce was announced, the press had been a nightmare, all speculation over what Tony must have done for Pepper to leave, practically salivating over the expected return of his salacious playboy days, already rumoring which barely legal model or heiress they’d see on his arm next, and Tony could see the way it affected Peter. No matter how much time Tony spent showering him with affection, breakfast in bed and gifts and lazy weekends where they just got to touch, for as long as they needed, it hurt Peter to go get coffee with his friends and see The Daily Bugle’s headlines screaming about Tony’s impending bachelorhood. He’d admitted as much to Tony, finally, late one night when they were both on the couch in the lab, when heated kisses had, instead of escalating, devolved into soft, exploratory ones, lazy and loving, no pressure of a next step, just enjoyment of each other, of finally having each other.

“It’s not that I don’t—I know that you love me, Tony, and I know it’s all stupid press stuff, but—I just want people to know, you know? That you’re mine. I know it’s possessive, and silly, and immature—”

Tony had shushed Peter with a kiss. “None of the above, kid. Maybe a tad possessive, but I don’t have any room to talk on that one.”

Peter had just sighed, collapsing to rest his head on Tony’s chest at that. “I guess I’m glad we’re on the same page, but I just—no matter how I think about it, I’m not ready yet for the world to know that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. And if it comes out that Peter Parker is dating Tony Stark, the world is definitely going to start looking into everything about me. I mean, and that’s fair, because how on earth is a kid from Queens going to get to date Iron-Man?”

Tony had gone to kiss to the top of Peter’s head, but barely a second later Peter was shooting up to a sitting position. “Tony, I have either the best idea in the world or the worst.”

Tony’s reminiscing is cut short as he finally gets the question he’s been waiting for.

“So, Mr. Stark, now that your divorce is final, how do you feel about going back to being America’s most eligible bachelor? Any plans for your new bachelorhood?” The question comes from a put-together looking man, only Tony’s trained eye noticing the just slightly too much hair product, slightly too ostentatious suit that the man wears like he’s uncomfortable in it but wants everyone around him to think is his standard. Tony hears FRIDAY’s input in his earpiece—Matthew Clark, fresh out of UPenn, reporter at one of those men’s magazines that print paleo recipes next to cheap pick up artist techniques and one good music review and call it journalism.

Tony grins—perfect.

“Well, Mr. Clark, that’s a great question. You know, speaking of bachelorhood…” He pauses, watching as the assembled reporters crowd in closer, waiting for Tony to continue.

He keeps pausing.

Clears his throat. “Speaking of bachelorhood,” he says again, slightly louder, and a few seconds later there’s a loud clang as a webbed-up Doombot drops to the asphalt next to him, followed by a panting Peter, in full Iron Spider suit.

“Sorry, sorry, we missed one!” Peter says, standing up and nudging the Doombot behind him with one foot, cringing at the way the reporters are scrambling over each other to scoot back. “Uh, hi, I’m—uh—I’m Spider-Man.”

Tony almost wishes he still had the helmet up, if only because he knows that the rapid-fire clicks of the cameras are certainly catching the dopey-eyed look of affection on his face—he’s seen it in pictures before, ones Pep and Rhodey have taken and showed him, knows to associate with the warm, sparkly sensation, better than the best champagne, in his gut that only Peter seems to be able to bring out in him.

He doesn’t realize he’s hesitating until he glances over and sees Peter give him a nod—small, subtle, but undeniable—and then he’s turning back to the crowd.

“You guys probably already know this guy—Spider-Man. You know, or, if you don’t, you should know, that he’s been around for a while, keeping this city safe. You might even know that he took a… leave of absence,” Tony’s voice goes thin, only finding strength when he glances to the side to see Peter giving him a thumbs up behind his back, “during the Blip.”

“What you guys don’t know is that Spider-Man was in space with me, fighting to save the universe, before the Blip. What you don’t know is that he was in the fight afterward, too, saving the world again. What you don’t know is that Spider-Man saved my life, during that fight. You don’t know that I wouldn’t be here today without him. You don’t know that, despite the fact that I’ve been doing this hero thing for a few years longer than him, he’s the one who taught me what being a hero really means. You don’t know that, for a lot of people, when they think of a hero they think of Iron Man, but when I think of a hero, a real hero, I can only picture him.”

Tony’s fighting not to get choked up, so he doesn’t register that Peter’s moved closer, is reaching out for him, until he’s turning to take Peter’s hand like it’s the most natural thing in the world, because it is, and the whispers of the reporters are escalating, into a clamorous rustling that seems to fade away as he pulls Peter closer, reaches down to pull the cowl up just enough to show the bottom of Peter’s face, lips he’d know anywhere, over years and across galaxies.

“So, yeah, speaking of bachelorhood—fuck bachelorhood,” he says, and then pulls Peter against him, kissing him slow and soft and trying to pour every ounce of love and pride into it. He can hear the journalists gasping, sound level beginning to rise as they try to push closer, yell out questions, but he’s lost in Peter, and he can feel the kid against him, pushing closer, so—well, he’d planned to at least answer a couple of follow-up questions, and Pep will be mad, but he pulls away just long enough to say, “Gotta jet,” to the gaping crowd, and then take off with Peter in his arms.

<center>*</center>

It’s only 10am the next morning, and Tony already wants a drink. He’d tried to stay away, but found it impossible—impulse control has never been his strong suit—so he’s got a screen up in the living room, watching the talking heads screaming, all of them about them, so, by extension, about Peter.

“Our next guest is here to discuss the ethics of superheroes dating—” “Spider-Man hasn’t even signed the Sokovia Accords, and yet—” “—don’t even know who he is, and we’re expected to—” “—mean, how do we know they wouldn’t risk civilian lives to save each other? Why should we—” “—against God’s wishes, alien invasions are a punishment for our sins—” “—Stark Industries stock dropping sharply after Tony Stark’s surprise announcement—” “—discuss what this split means for the Stark-Potts partnership that has served Stark Industries for years—” “—Stark senile? How do we know what injuries he sustained during the battles?—” “—listen, Meredith, I just think if you have a kid, you can’t be selfish like that—”

The noise stops, and Tony looks behind him to see Peter standing there, remote in hand, arms crossed and frowning.

“That stuff’ll rot your brain, Tony.”

Tony huffs a little laugh, but the amusement fades quickly as his brain goes back to replaying all of the things he’d heard.

“I just—did we do the right thing? I never wanted any of that for you.”

Peter sighs, and comes around the couch to sit next to Tony, leaning his head on Tony’s shoulder and pulling out his phone.

“Tony—it was my call. I knew what I was getting into. And besides, it’s not my fault you’re only watching the old man media.”

Tony opens his mouth to retort, but then Peter’s got Tumblr open, scrolling through and showing him—photos of the two of them, at the press conference and before, even from the ferry fiasco years ago, filled with ecstatic comments and hearts, a long post from someone who said they’d never come out to their parents because they thought their dad would think being gay meant being weak and effeminate until Iron Man showed you could love other men and be strong, other posts from all over the world, about seeing and feeling seen, about being inspired by their story, and Tony doesn’t even realize he’s taken the phone from Peter until he notices it’s shaking a little bit in his hands.

Peter plants a soft kiss on his cheek. “C’mon, there’s one more thing I think you should see.”

He pulls Tony off the couch, shrugs on an oversized hoodie and a baseball cap and throws the same to Tony. Tony follows, because it’s Peter, and because he loves him, until they’re around the corner from the tower, looking at the side of a building, with tourists crowded around taking pictures on the sidewalk across the street from it. Tony knows the place, knows that it used to be the site of one of the murals of Iron Man that had sprung up after the battle upstate against Thanos, when it got out what Tony had done, had nearly sacrificed, to save them all.

Now, Iron Man is still on the mural, but Spider-Man is there too, and instead of Tony looking out at the world, he’s looking at Spider-Man as if he’s his whole world. Somehow the artist has managed to capture that exact starry-eyed look Tony knows he always gets around Peter, has managed to capture the devotion and strength in the way that Peter rests his hand on the back of Tony’s neck, the curve of his gentle smile with half the cowl pulled up. And the words of thanks that used to be there are are gone. Instead, there are tags of all different colors and styles underneath it—“love is love”, “New York’s finest”, “from Stonewall to Stark Tower��—and, right at the top, in big, block letters—“we could be heroes”.

He squeezes Peter’s hand tightly, turns to him, and finds Peter already there, ballcap turned around and leaning up to meet him in a kiss, soft and hopeful and new, like spring in the tired old winter of Tony’s heart, against the backdrop of the mural.

That’s the picture that makes the front page of the Saturday New York Times.

[calzona-ga]

The world of Grey’s Anatomy is expanding once again with a firefighter-set spin-off that features flagship fixture Ben Warren trading his scrubs for a spot in the firehouse.

Launching out of a March episode of Grey’s, the 10-episode drama follows a team of dedicated firefighters — including father figure Captain Pruitt Herrera (Miguel Sandoval), charismatic charmer Jack (Grey Damon), and leading lady Andy Herrera (Jaina Lee Ortiz) — who put their lives on the line during high-stakes rescue missions. How will Ben (Jason George) handle his new profession?

“It feels like Ben’s perpetually starting over,” George tells EW. “This was a guy deathly afraid of fire, and now he’s going after it for a living.” To be honest, he should probably be more afraid of the reaction that his wife, chief Bailey (Chandra Wilson), will have to his big move. For more scoop, read our full interview with George below.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When did you first hear about the possibility of moving from Grey’s Anatomy to the spin-off? JASON GEORGE: It’s kind of crazy. I got the first call probably back in July sometime. I remember I was literally throwing my kids and my nephews around in a pool back on the east coast, and I got a call and they’re like, “Would you be willing to take a call from Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers at 5 this afternoon?” I was like, “Are you allowed to turn that down?” [Laughs] When they talked to me, they gave me an idea creatively of how this would work and how it would make sense, and it really sparked my interest. You see the opportunity and it ended up being something that I got more and more excited about as time went on. The frustrating part was the closer it got, the more I got excited, but I still couldn’t talk about it, because it wasn’t out in the world yet.

Did you suspect that this could happen considering Ben was so game to save people alongside the firefighters in the season 13 finale? Not in the least. What was funny was, I genuinely had no concept that was in the cards.

Were you worried at all that moving to the spin-off would mean bad news for Ben and Bailey? Yeah, that was a concern of mine. They told me, “Well, you’re probably right to be concerned, because I’m sure Bailey is going to be concerned,” so I think we’re still in the middle of working out what that means. I’m as much a fan of the show as anybody, so I’m figuring it out myself.

Once Ben really is focused on this new job, how do you think that might either make things difficult or maybe even spice up their marriage? This goes one of two ways — either it stresses them out, perhaps breaks them, or they find a way to work through it. If they find a way to work through it, who doesn’t like a dude in a firefighter outfit? There’s no downside of being married to a firefighter, except for the fact that you wake up every day scared they might not come home. But as long as they come home, I figure things are pretty good once they get home. I think that part, the spicy part, comes in just fine because every day a firefighter walks through the door, the person waiting for him at home is probably pretty excited, and the uniform looks all right, too. I certainly believe that there’s going to be stress no matter what, whichever way it goes. If it breaks them up, then I have no idea how it’s going to be, because this is one of the firetrucks that brings patients to the hospital on Grey’s Anatomy. It could get really awkward in that case. I’m as interested to see how this turns out as everybody.

Ben has been training for this, but how might he struggle taking on this new profession? It feels like Ben’s perpetually starting over, but the cool part is that’s one of the things I love about Ben, because he’s excited to pursue new things and go up to new challenges. This was a guy deathly afraid of fire, and now he’s going after it for a living. That says a lot about him as a person. That said, Ben tends to have two speeds, stop and light speed, and sometimes that’s not always a great thing going so hard and so fast at something. He’s smart enough and talented enough that it usually works out for him, but as we’ve seen, sometimes there’s a question mark there. That’ll be interesting to see how that works out for Ben.

Ben has changed jobs a number of times. What’s to say he won’t change his mind about this, too? To be perfectly honest, nothing. As an actor, you know every job you have is going to end someday. That’s not so much different than the rest of the world, we just don’t have illusions about it. The average person changes career paths two or three times in the course of their life. Ben happens to be somebody that is perfectly comfortable with the idea, “Yeah, let’s switch things up.” Most people don’t change careers because they want to get settled and feel stability, and Ben has no problem being in a shifting situation. Could he change his mind again sometime? Yeah, but I tend to think he doesn’t do stuff like that until he knows — for a lack of a better word — he’s mastered this thing. He goes after it until he can say, “Yeah, I did that. Nobody can question the fact that I did that and was capable of it and was legit, so now I’m good.” He was a bomb anesthesiologist, he was a star resident, who, through the ins and outs of all of it, was still kicking some serious ass at the end of the day. Now he’s like, “Let me go prove myself.” Any firefighter he comes across will be able to say, “Yeah, you did that.” That’s when he might be okay with changing up again.

How do you feel the spin-off is thematically and tonally either similar or different from Grey’s? This is what I’m digging about the concept is, it is in the Grey’s universe, so there’s going to be a lot of elements that fans will completely recognize and love, not the least of which is, there’s always going to be humor and feels. You’re going to feel some kind of way, clutch the pearls, get misty, drop a few tears every once and a while. That will feel very familiar. What I love with these relationships is that firefighters are a dysfunctional family. They are not blood relatives, but they are family hands down, almost beyond anything else. They eat dinner together, they live together every 24-hour shift; literally, they’re a family for those periods when they’re on shift, a family that also happens to completely and utterly have their lives depending on each other in a way that virtually no other job does. There’s so much that’s familiar to Grey’s fans, but when Ben is in the OR, he needs his team and friends that are his extended family to back him up so he can save this person’s life, but out in the field as a firefighter, he needs his team to save his life or he needs to be there to save their lives. They’re backing each other up as well as saving other people’s lives. You screw up, you don’t lose somebody that you met an hour ago, you screw up, you lose your best friend, your brother, your sister, and that’s an extra level that hasn’t been introduced in the Grey’s universe yet.

Because he’s just joining the team, do you think there will be issues of trust? Yeah, trust is earned. To a degree, it just comes with time. He shows up and he’s brand new. He may know intellectually everything to do, but he hasn’t been there long enough for it to be absolute and complete reflex yet, so that’s the stuff that may get interesting. That’s the stuff that takes time, so it’s going to be fun to see how those relationships develop over time because some people trust easily, some people don’t. Like I said, it’s a dysfunctional family, and that’s going to be a really fun thing seeing this character that Grey’s fans have watched for years drop in a new circumstance. They’re still going to see some familiar faces, because this is the ambulance and firetrucks that pull up to Grey Sloan. So you’ll see him with folks that he knows and has real history with at times, and then you’ll also see the folks who are like, “Look, I don’t know you yet.” That’s the fun part to play. I just feel blessed to be able to play this character that I’ve really come to love, but flip it on its head and try a new thing. It’s like getting all the cake and you get to eat it too, because normally for actors you have to completely leave a job and the family you’ve built over a few years to get that new actor adrenaline rush of starting a new gig.

Have you heard how much crossover there will be between the two shows? When Private Practice did it, it was more of a major event, whereas shows from the Chicagofranchise do it more weekly, but smaller cameos. I don’t know if I’d use the Chicago shows as the analogy for us. My understanding is, Ben will be popping up in Grey’s Anatomy some and some of your favorite Grey’s Anatomy folks will be popping up in the spin-off. When it was Private Practice, the show was located in Los Angeles, so by definition, it had to be an event when they came up to Seattle or vice versa. This one can be an event, but it also doesn’t have to be. The fun part is, the writers have an embarrassment of riches, they can play it any way they want it at any given time. They could have a mega event that goes across both shows, or they could just drop off a person for a little bit and go have a beer. “Hey Avery, this is my friend from the firehouse.”

Grey’s has been setting up the spin-off mainly through Ben Warren running around training with his shirt off. Did that make you at all stressed to bulk up for those scenes? A brother just wants a little more warning, that’s all. [Laughs]

Can you tease when and how Grey’s will really introduce the spin-off? In the back half of Grey’s, there will be at least one episode prior to the spin-off airing that you’ll get to meet some of the characters from the spin-off. I’m sure they’ll do it in grand Grey’s style, as they’re want to do. And then these shows will coexist on the air and let the mixing begin. It’s almost like when you start dating somebody, you’re bringing them to meet your friends sometimes and they’re bringing you to meet their friends sometimes. It’s almost how it feels. I walked into my trailer at Grey’s and there were my firefighter boots and I thought, “This is weird.”