Forever and a Day//Jolex

Chapter 4

By her 14th week of pregnancy, her bump had become slightly more noticeable, but it mostly just looked like she was putting on a bit of weight. Her most recent appointment with the OB was perfect, but Jo still refused to tell any of their friends.
She was sure people would start to notice soon anyway, but she was still getting used to the idea of a baby herself, and didn't want to bring other people into it until she had to. Of course, Alex agreed to wait as long as she wanted.
They pulled up to the hospital early in the morning and got out of the car, walking inside together.
"We have nothing on the board, want me to grab you some coffee from that cart outside? I can get you one of those donuts you like?" Alex suggested, nodding toward the line of people waiting at the nearby coffee car that Jo did, in fact, love.
"I love you. And those donuts. I'll wait right here."
Alex gives her an kiss and turns away when her pager goes off.
"Damn it!" She said, more upset to be leaving Alex than anything else.
"I'll put the donut in your locker, go ahead." He said, walking away with a smile.
The page was from Bailey to their research lab, probably to work on her fellowship. She figured it would be faster to take the stairs than to wait for the elevator, so she briskly walked to the nearest flight of stairs. She was excited to get to work with Dr.Bailey, since she had been so busy with other stuff and spent very little time on the fellowship which she was paying for out of pocket.
As she darted up the stairs, a sudden wave of dizziness caused her to miss a step. She was overcome with fear as she tumbled down the stairs, hitting her head on the way down. As she laid, bleeding, at the bottom of the stairs, all she could feel was pain. And then, everything went dark.
Jo, still unconscious, had no idea how much time went by before someone found her at the bottom of the stairs.
Andrew opened the door to see Jo crumpled in a ball down the flight of stairs, and he immediately and darted down the staircase to she What was going on.
"Oh my god! Jo? Can you hear me?" He said, taking to fingers to her wrist to check for a pulse. "Jo, it's Andrew. I've got you. It's gonna be okay." Without hesitation, he scooped her up bridal style and ran to the ER with her in his arms.
"Someone page Meredith Grey and Alex Karev 911 to the ER. Tell them... just, tell them to hurry the hell up!" He shouted at a passing nurse in the hallway.
By the time he got to the pit and laid Jo down on a bed in an open trauma room, Alex and Meredith were just coming down the hall. Maggie and Owen were nearby and both ran to see what was going on, but none of them had yet to see who the patient was.
"Andrew?" Mer says. "What's going on?"She calls from down the hall.
The gathering of doctors flood into the room behind Andrew.
"It's Jo." He said, feeling hollow at the sight of his friend and mentor lying unconscious on a bed before him.
"Get her on a monitor and start a central line- and page Amelia Shepherd, stat!" Mer orders.
Alex was standing in a corner, unable to move or speak. But he knew he needed to say something, so he put all of his strength into his warning.
"The baby." he said through tears.
"What? What's he saying?" Maggie says, getting her IV connected.
Alex steps forward to take his wife's hand, running his hand through her hair. Her face was bruised and a laceration ran across her forehead, dried blood on her face.
"Dr.Karev, you need to step back" Owen says.
"Page DeLuca." He says, speaking up for a second time.
"What? He's right there." Owen reply's, still rushing around the room, pumping Jo with meds and suturing her face.
"Somebody freaking page Carina DeLuca!" He shouts, and everyone stops what they're doing to look at Alex. "She's 14 weeks pregnant."
Andrew brings over the ultrasound and pages his sister, and everyone else goes into overdrive.
When Carina comes in and gets caught up, She starts the ultrasound and looks for a heartbeat.
Alex was shaking, still tightly gripping Jo's limp, cold hand.
"Do you hear anything?" He asks, terrified to hear the answer. "Oh, god. We can't lose this baby, Jo will never recover if we lose this baby."
After a moment of silence, the heartbeat fills the room and Alex can finally breathe, but he was still terrified about Jo.
"I've got something- heartbeat is strong and steady. I'll need to monitor her closely, but it looks like your little girl is going to be okay."
"It's a girl?" Alex says, wiping away his tears
After Carina cleared her, Jo was wicked away to CT, and Mer stayed behind with Alex.
"It's going to be okay. We're all going to be with her the whole time. I need to go see the scans and find out what exactly we're dealing with here, but I promise to let you know when we have information."
"I'm coming with you." He insists.
"Alex, don't make this harder than it needs to be. Let me worry about Jo and not whether or not you're gonna have a nervous brake down in the waiting room, okay?" She says, before running to catch up with the others.
An intern comes out a little while later to tell Alex that Jo was being taken to surgery. Alex understood sustained a minor concussion and some internal bleeding, but most of the details went right over his head. He felt like he was underwater, and everything around him sounded muffled. He was drowning, and he couldn't breathe. He wouldn't be able to inhale until he knew his wife and baby were going to be okay.
He eventually fell asleep in the waiting room, and nine hours later, Mer came out to talk to him.
"Hey, Alex. Jo is okay. The baby, too. We got all of the bleeding under control and I repaired the damage. She's going to be in a lot of pain, but she should be awake soon."
"Thank god." He said under his breath, holding his head in his hands.
He got up a moment later and they both walked to her recovery room. Alex pulled a chair up next to the bed, which he sat in, holding her hand. He waited and waited for her to wake up. All he wanted was to hold her, to let her know that everything was okay. He imagined she was terrified and in pain, and the thought of that made him feel sick, too.
Finally, Jo opened her eyes.
"Hey!" Alex said with a smile, relieved to see her awake.
"What... happened?" She said, still groggy from the pain meds she was on.
"You fell. God, I was so scared. Are you okay? How do you feel?"
"Jo, you had a brain bleed and some internal bleeding. Your injuries were quite severe, but we were able to repair them in surgery." Meredith says.
"And... the baby?" She says, hesitating to say it out loud as if everyone didn't already know.
"She's ok. And she's a girl. We're having a little girl."
Jo smiles but doesn't try again to talk, the strain on her voice was becoming painful. Alex climbs into the bed next to her, holding her close and stroking her hair. She fell back to sleep, and safe in Alex's arms once again.