grey sloan retreat

chapter one

April kepner was in charge of putting together a retreat for some of the attendings. No one else had volunteered to set it up and she loved planning these types of things but getting everyone excited about this was a lot harder than she expected. She has decided on a three day camping trip outside the city. April loved going camping with her dad when she was younger. Her dad would take all four kepner girls camping when they were little and everyone loved it. How long had it been since she had gone? The last time she could remember was the summer before high school. Meredith and Cristina had already decided there was no way in hell they were spending three days in the woods. Alex didn't want to go because he wouldn't be able to bring Jo with him and Callie and Arizona already had "special plans that weekend". Obviously Derek and Owen wouldn't want to go without Meredith and Cristina. The only other person that came to mind was Jackson. She knew if she went alone with him Mer and Cristina would tease her endlessly. They were nothing more than platonic friends. Sure when she first saw him at Mercy West when they were just interns she had a little bit of a crush on him. But that went away after years of good friendship. He was sitting across the cafeteria trying to balance eating lunch with filling out paperwork.

"Hey." She said sitting down across from him.

"What's that?"

"Oh nothing just some stuff about one of Sloan's old patients." He said closing the big white binder.

"Anyways what's up?"

"Ugh." She said running a hand through her hair.

"Trying to plan a camping trip is hard, so far everyone I've asked has said no. I'm thinking about just canceling the whole thing."

"I'd go." He said looking up at her.

"Really?"

"Yeah! I've never been I always wanted to go as a kid but I never did."

"You've never been camping before?" Her wide eyes started at him.

"It wasn't exactly easy to do that type of stuff just me and my mom." He said before taking another bite of his salad.

"Oh right sorry." She shook her head, a few loose pieces of hair falling in her face.

"What day would you wanna go?"

"Hmm probably the 7-9th."

He scrolled through the calendar on his phone.

"I have to assist with a facial reconstruction surgery the 8th but I could get someone to fill in for me."

"Great! I'll text you a list of what you'll need. It's gonna be kinda cold so you'll probably need..." She rambled on not realizing how long she had been talking.

"Sorry I'm rambling!"

"No you're fine, you clearly care a lot about this."

He was such a good listener. That was one of the reasons they were such great friends. The continued to talk about their camping trip before her pager beeped.

"I gotta go. I'll text you tonight?"

"Sounds good!"

....

Later that evening:

April had spent seven hours in the OR trying to save a little boy who had been hit by a car while riding his bike. Sadly the surgery had been unsuccessful. April hating losing patients. She rarely lost them and when she did she always took it pretty hard. She drove home in silence, not even turning on the radio. After arriving in her apartment she immediately stripped down and ran a bath. That was always a way she helped herself get over these things. She grabbed a tub of icecream pit of the freezer and turned on the little tv she had in her bathroom.