Safety Net

36

Tonight was Alex's last night before starting work again, so they planned a date. It wasn't anything fancy. They couldn't take Hazel to a restaurant, and they didn't trust anyone to care for her yet. Honestly, it was nothing too astray their regular Friday night, expect tonight there was the possibility of no sweat pants and they got to rent a movie; not settle for whatever was on.

By seven pm, Jo was putting Hazel down for the night. She liked to sing You are my sunshine to her when Alex wasn't around, and right now he wasn't. She was way too embarrassed of her voice to do it in front of him. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine... you make me happy.." She quietly hummed to her daughter as she rocked her to sleep. She didn't notice that Alex got home until she heard the sliding door to their loft hit the wall. She flinched and immediately stopped singing. "God, how long have you been standing there?" She whispered, aware of the sleeping baby in her arms.

"Not long." He sat the pizza box in his hand on the oak wood coffee table. He was there the whole time, and he thought it was adorable. "They ran out of olives so I put pineapple on it instead." He said, walking closer to her. He wrapped his arms around her, kissing the top of her head. He watched Hazel sleep with her mouth hanging open, and her cheek against Jo's arm. "Ready for our very fancy dinner and movie date?"

Jo chuckled under her breath and nodded. She stood up and laid Hazel in her bassinet before sitting on the couch with Alex. She tugged her leggings over her ankles after pulling her legs onto the couch. She picked up a piece of pizza from the box and cuddled up to Alex. "What do you want to watch?" She asked while he flicked through the films available for rent.

A few minutes of picking a movie passed and they finally agreed on Safety Not Guaranteed. Neither of them had heard of it before, but it was the first one they agreed on.

"You know, I like her. Her humour can be hit or miss, but I like her. I think she's funny." She said at some point during the movie.

"Who? Aubrey Plaza?" He got a nod. He chuckled.

"What?"

"Nothing. You're cute, that's all."

Another hour passed, and by now the movie was over. Alex nudged Jo, who he thought was almost asleep. She had been extremely quiet, which she normally wasn't. She loved to comment on whatever was happening in the movie normally.

She sat up, still quiet. "Marry me." She said, bringing her gaze up to Alex. She had her arms wrapped around his.

"What?" He furrowed his eyebrows, starting to laugh. He quickly stopped when he realized she wasn't joking.

"You, me, Hazel... tonight. I want to do this every night. Marry me." She repeated. She squeezed his arm.

"Okay. Yeah. Yes." He said with full certainty. He pulled her into a kiss, wrapping his arms around her. He never imagined their proposal to go like this, however it was perfectly them. The pizza, movie, complete spontaneity. This was Jo and Alex; the soon to be Karev's.