#posting then ditching cause I’m nervous and embarassed

[matchamiko]

Just posted chapter 4 if anyone wants to check it out ૮꒰ྀི ୨ ៸៸៸ ୧ ྀི꒱ა

[iamtrebleclefstories]

help, ‘cause I need saving - part two

six times Jo and Alex saved each other from horrible dates and the one time they didn’t

a two-shot fic taking place in a Season 9 alternate universe

if you haven’t read part one, you can read it here => six times

"You look mopey-er than normal," Cristina commented as she walked into the house. "What's up with you?"

"Nothing," Alex frowned and took a swig of his beer.

"Where's the hairball? I normally would've seen her by now but I haven't seen her in the past few days," Cristina watched as Alex sat on the couch in silence. "So that's what's got you all depressed. What happened? Did she realize that you're a jerk and stop hanging out with you?"

"I kissed her."

"What?" Cristina raised her eyebrows.

"I kissed her," Alex repeated. "Or maybe she kissed me. I don't know. All I know is that she has been avoiding me for the past five days since it happened."

“Crap,” Cristina sat down on the couch next to him. “Well, was it bad?”

“No it wasn’t bad,” Alex shook his head. “At least, not for me it wasn’t. I—I’m just… such an idiot. I love her.”

Cristina stared at him in mild shock that he had actually said the words, “Woah.”

“Yeah,” Alex sighed. “I don’t know what to do. She doesn’t want me. If she did, she would’ve realized that I was trying to ask her to go out with me for drinks that night she decided to go out with that douche Peckwell.”

“Wow, you really are an idiot,” Alex glared as Cristina rolled her eyes. “You two are drinking buddies, friends, joined at the hip. All you ever do together is drink beer and hang out. Of course she’s not going to realize that you were asking her to go on a date with you. It’s what you always do together anyway. You may not realize it, but you’ve been unofficially dating each other for the past few months without knowing it.”

“Well it doesn’t really matter now. Whatever we had going on is over,” Alex huffed in frustration. “I always screw myself out of everything good.”

“How are you going to know it’s over if you haven’t even talked to her about it, dumbass?” Cristina swatted him on the side of his head. “Put on your big girl panties and just talk to her.”

“I don’t want to make her uncomfortable. I’m her boss,” Alex made a weak excuse.

“That’s a load of crap and you know it,” Cristina sighed. “Whatever, you can wallow in your pit of sorrow by yourself. I’m going to get ready because Owen’s coming over.”

+++

He should’ve known that things wouldn’t end there. Cristina was persistent, and although she claimed not to care, she was deeply invested in her friends’ lives and did her best to help them when she could. It was a side of Yang that very few people rarely got to see and being one of her oldest friends, Alex was one of them. And since he was one of her oldest friends, Cristina had also enlisted Meredith for help.

“Come on, don’t be like that. It’s a date, at a nice restaurant with great booze. It won’t be the end of the world if you go,” Cristina brought up the subject as they were getting ready for rounds a few days later.

“Look, I get what you’re trying to do here, but I’m just not ready for that. I don’t want to go on a date with somebody else,” Alex shrugged his arms through his white coat. "And this time I won't have anyone to get me out of it when it inevitably goes bad."

"I'll get you out of it," Cristina offered. "Yeah, I'll have my phone with me and fake page you for an emergency if it goes horribly."

"Really?" Alex raised his eyebrow. "You actually are trying to help me? You're not trying to embarass me or anything like that?"

"Now that would just be cruel. I wouldn't kick you while you're down," she rolled her eyes. "Just go on the damn date. I promise, I think you'll enjoy it."

"Fine," Alex huffed in annoyance. "I'll go. But if I hate it,You owe me the money I spent on the date."

"Yeah, yeah," Cristina waved her hand as she walked away. Cristina rounded the corner and ran into the person she'd been looking for.

"Dr.Yang!"

"Edwards," Cristina placed her hands on her hips and looked at the intern expectantly. "Well, did you do it?"

"Yup," Stephanie nodded enthusiastically. " It took some time to convince her because she is still hung up over Karev, but I promised her that I'd save her if her mystery date went horribly."

"I had to do the same thing with Alex," Cristina chuckled. "Okay, I am going to go tell Meredith to make sure that she lets Wilson leave early. And because you spied on your friend and helped me out, you get to scrub in on my aortic valve surgery. Go prep her for surgery now”

“Thank you Dr. Yang!” Stephanie grinned. “I’ll see you in thirty minutes.”

Cristina sighed and made her way to the lounge where Meredith was eating a snack, “Mer!”

“Dammit Cristina, you made me drop my cookie on the floor,” Meredith glared at her friend.

“I’ll buy you a new one,” Cristina sat across from her. “You have Wilson on your service today, right?”

“Yeah,” Meredith huffed and ran a hand over her belly.

“Okay so you remember how I talked to you about getting Alex and Wilson together?”

“Mmhmm,” Meredith hummed and continued to eat her snack. “I thought it was a good idea and helped you pick the place for the date. What about it?”

“Well, it’s happening tonight, so I need you to make sure that the hairball makes it there in time,” Cristina reached over to grab a bite out of Meredith’s food only to get her hand slapped away.

“Get your own food,” Meredith grumbled. “But yes, I can do that. Maybe I’ll even let her out early so she can get dressed up.”

“Great, I’m going to go do surgery,” Cristina stood up and made her way towards the door.

“If those two get married and we’re not in the wedding, Alex will never hear the end of it,” Meredith shouted at a snickering Cristina as she walked away.

+++

Jo didn’t want to be there. The last thing she wanted was to be on another meaningless date with some guy she didn’t care about at some restaurant she’d mentioned trying out one day to Alex. When she heard she was on Medusa’s service today, she’d hoped that Grey would pile on the scut so that she’d be forced to cancel. But to her surprise—and disdain—Grey let her leave early. So, she begrudgingly changed out of her scrubs and into the outfit that Stephanie had laid out for her and drove to the restaurant.

Everything within her was screaming to make a run for it and ditch the guy so that Steph would never bother her about finding a date again, but as someone who’d just screwed things up so badly with the one person she’d only ever really wanted to date, Jo decided it may have been best to put the horrendous experience behind her. That was becoming increasingly difficult, however, as the days she’d spent apart from Alex only led to feeling his absence that much stronger.

So despite the overwhelming desire to go home and watch scary movies in her favorite pair of sweatpants, Jo got out the car and walked over to the entrance of the restaurant. She sighed as she told the host that she was looking for a reservation under the name Edwards.

“Ah yes, the Edwards-Yang table. Right this way,” the hostess smiled at Jo. “Your date is already here. He’s really handsome and seemed nice enough. I hope it goes well.”

Jo nodded half distracted as she allowed the young woman to guide her to the table where she’d have to endure another date. Jo stopped suddenly, not noticing that the hostess had paused and was pointing to a table with a man seated with his back towards them.

“That’s him. Good luck!” The hostess chirped and turned around to leave them alone.

Taking a deep breath, Jo readied herself and walked up to the table. She moved to stand in front of the man who she was supposed to be courting that evening and gasped, “Alex?”

“Jo?”

Jo gaped at him for a few moments, “You—what are you doing here?”

“Yang set it up, she said she was setting me up on a date tonight,” Alex answered quietly, still unsure of what was going on. “She told me I needed to get over—never mind. What are you doing here?”

“Stephanie told me the same thing,” Jo stared at him curiously. “Oh my God. We’ve been set up. They set us up.”=”

Alex snorted a laugh, “You’re kidding right? This is Yang we’re talking about. She doesn’t do things like these. She doesn’t care enough.”

“Well she obviously does or we both wouldn’t be here,” Jo looked at the empty seat across from Alex in question. “Why else would Grey let me out early instead of keeping me there to monitor her post ops?”

“You can sit down you know,” Alex motioned to the chair. His lips curved up into a slight grin. “I won’t bite.”

Jo rolled her eyes and sat down quietly. The pair stared at each other awkwardly for a moment, fidgeting nervously as neither one of them knew what to say. It was never like this when they were together. Ever since they first started hanging out, there had been an immediate sense of comfortability. They had never needed to feel nervous or afraid when around each other because they just worked. That’s what was making the recent shift in their relationship so difficult. The kiss they’d shared brought up a whole slew of emotions that neither of them really knew how to handle.

Maybe that’s why when they decided to break the tense silence, both of them stumbled on their words.

“So, how was work?” “I haven’t seen you around in a bit.”

“Sorry,” Jo let out a breathy laugh and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

“No, it’s okay. You first,” Alex shook his head and motioned for Jo to continue.

“I, uh… ha,” Jo bounced her leg as she tried to shake the nerves off. “I said, how’s work?”

“Oh it’s uh, it’s good,” Alex shrugged awkwardly. “I got to operate on Hannah Gordon today. I got to remove her colostomy bag.”

“Really? That’s the little girl who was in the accident at school, right? You finally got to operate? That’s fantastic. I wish I could’ve been there to see the look on her face when you told her that she no longer needs a poop bag anymore,” Jo smiled.

“Yeah, she had the biggest grin on her face when I told her that the crap bag was gone and she could go back to school and do gymnastics again in a few months,” Alex mirrored Jo’s grin.

“You see, that’s what I love about peds. There’s a special connection and follow-through that you get with peds patients than you do with adults,” Jo sighed.

“Well, you are always welcome on my service. I know that you have to go through all the specialties, but if you feel like peds is something you might want to do one day, then I’d be more than happy to take you under my wing,” Alex smiled at her softly. “I can be your Robbins.”

“My Robbins, huh?” Jo hummed. “We’ll see. I might have to take you up on that eventually.”

Those comments seemed to have done it, because once Jo and Alex started talking, everything seemed right in the world again. They both relaxed and joked around with each other, making the dinner date that they had both been dreading, enjoyable. The hadn’t noticed how long they’d been in the restaurant talking when they realized that the staff had begun cleaning up all around them.

“Oh wow, it’s ten o’clock already?” Alex wondered out loud as he looked down at his watch.

“For real?” Jo raised an eyebrow and looked over to glance at the time. “Have we been here that long?”

“I guess we have,” Alex chuckled. “I’m surprised they haven’t kicked us out yet.”

“It might be because we haven’t paid yet,” Jo pointed at the check on the edge of the table, waiting for payment.

“Yeah, that might be why,” Alex reached over and grabbed the receipt, stopping Jo’s protest. “I’ve got it. Don’t worry about it.”

“Alex-”

“Dude, chill. It’s not that big of a deal. Besides you’re an intern and you barely make any money. Consider it a gift,” Alex pulled some cash out of his wallet and deposited it on the table and stood up. “You ready?”

“Yeah.”

“I had fun tonight,” Alex’s mouth curved into a crooked half-smile. “It was the first date I’ve been on in a long time where I didn’t need to fake an excuse to get out of it.”

Jo laughed lightly, “Same here.”

“So are we gonna talk about it?” Alex asked as they neared the car.

“Talk about what?” Jo shrugged innocently, sighing when she unimpressed look on Alex’s face. “We kissed.”

“We did,” Alex nodded quietly. “Why did you do it? You could’ve come up with plenty of other things to do so that I could help you get away from Peckwell, or whatever the hell his name is. Why did you kiss me?”

“I don’t know.”

“I think you do know,” Alex buried his hands in his pockets and leaned against her car. “But you’re too afraid to say it.”

“I kissed you because I wanted to,” Jo confessed as she looked down at the ground beneath her. “I still want to, if I’m being completely honest.” Jo looked up at him, heart hammering in her chest as she said the words she’d been wanting to say for so long, “These past few months I’ve been on horrible dates. We’ve each been on horrible dates. And every single time we needed rescuing because for some reason they didn’t work out. So, I spent time thinking back to all those dates and trying to figure out why they went badly and I think I figured it out. I could on a hundred dates with a hundred really nice guys, but I will always need rescuing. They would always go badly and I’d need saving because those guys aren’t you. But with you… I never need saving with you. Because with you, I’m already safe.”

Alex stared at her in wonder. He was quite honestly, speechless. That’s what she did to him. Jo rendered him completely and utterly speechless. He realized he’d been quiet for too long when Jo started rambling nervously about how she should’ve never said anything.

Alex placed his hands gently on her face to bring her attention to him. He looked back and forth between her eyes and her mouth. Leaning in slowly, Alex pressed his lips against hers, bringing her into a sweet kiss.

When they parted, Jo breathed in and out deeply, seemingly in shock of what had just happened. Seeing her dumbstruck expression, Alex chuckled slightly. She really had no idea how he felt about her. Deciding to take a chance, he opened his mouth and said the thing that had been threatening to spill out of his mouth for a few months now.

“Jo, I love you.”

“What?” Jo’s eyes widened at his confession.

“I love you,” Alex repeated, a large smile on his face. “I love you.”

“You love me?” Jo asked shakily. “It’s not all in my head? You’re actually saying those words to me? And you mean them?”

“Mmhmm,” Alex grinned brightly. “I’m in love with you. I’ve been in love with you for a while now and I want to be with you.”

“Oh,” Jo’s mouth froze in that shape. “Woah.”

Alex leaned in for another kiss, “God I could do this forever.”

“I can think of some other things we could do if we get out of here,” Jo whispered lowly, causing Alex’s eyebrows to shoot up in surprise. “I don’t normally make a habit out of sleeping with guys on the first date, but I think I can make an exception for you.”

“As amazing as that sounds, I think I’m gonna make you wait,” Alex took a step away from Jo.

“You’re gonna make me wait? You. Alex Karev. Are going to make me wait for sex?” Jo’s face displayed her disbelief.

“I am,” a shit-eating grin made its way onto his face.

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope,” Alex’s smile increased tenfold.

“Are you seriously going to make me beg?” Jo narrowed her eyes. “Because I will beg. I have no shame in begging you to take me right here in the parking lot.”

“You’re gonna be the death of me,” Alex groaned. His eyes softened after a moment. “Look, I know I have a… reputation, but I always jumped head first into sex with everyone. You’re not just anyone. You’re Jo and for the first time in my life, I want to do things differently. So, let me take you out a couple more times before you let me in your pants.”

“Well when you put it like that, it makes you sound all sweet and sappy, and me sound like a slut because I want to jump into bed with you,” Jo laughed and let out a breath. “I’ve never had anyone who wanted me for more than my body or that wanted things to be special.”

“I know,” Alex answered simply. “Which is why I am gonna make you wait. I want you, Jo. I love you. And I’m gonna show you that you mean something to me. More than just your body, which let me say…” Alex paused and gave her a once over as he allowed his hand to wander down her spine, causing her to shiver. “Is pretty incredible.”

Jo chuckled softly and kissed him, “Well, whenever you’re ready, it’s all yours.”

“Ugh,” Alex laid his head on her shoulder. “Okay, you need to go home before I pull you into the backseat.”

Jo laughed, “Alright, I’m going.” She unlocked her car and sat down in the driver’s seat, glancing up at Alex to give him a bright smile. “Goodnight.”

Alex’s face softened, “Goodnight.”