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“Dr. Bailey! Oh thank God, I need your help!” Jo squeaked as she came to a halt in front of the woman in question.
“What did you do, Wilson?” Bailey sighed and looked up from the tablet in her hand.
“Karev.” Jo stated, eliciting a confused expression from the woman in front of her. “It’s Karev now.”
“Oh yes. Karev.” Bailey rolled her eyes. “What can I do for you, Karev ?”
“I need someone to take my two o’clock surgery.” Jo grimaced. “I wouldn’t ask you unless I absolutely had to. I tried to get Meredith to take it but she’s in the OR doing a transplant that is going to last another four hours. It’s an ex-lap.”
“And why is it that you can’t perform your own surgery? You’re a fellow now Wilson—I mean Karev. You shouldn’t be carting off a simple ex-lap to another surgeon. You’ve done plenty of them before.” Bailey’s frown made it known that she was unimpressed with Jo’s request. “So you better have a pretty damn good reason why you need me to do it.”
“I—uh,” Jo paused and considered whether she should tell Bailey the truth. She had tried keeping her suspicions to herself for the past few days, but Jo was practically bursting to tell someone. “I have an appointment to see Carina DeLuca.”
Jo watched as Bailey’s eyes grew wide.
“Wilson, are you pregnant?”
“Karev. And could you keep your voice down?” Jo shushed her superior and looked around to make sure no one was listening. “I haven’t told anyone. Not even Alex. I took a test this morning because I had been feeling strange and the line was really light but it was there so I just made an appointment to be sure. I don’t want to say anything until after the appointment. I mean, we just got married and he’s interim chief and I just started a fellowship, so this just might be the worst, most stressful time to make a baby, but of course, this is when he decides to knock me up!”
Bailey stood there dumbfounded for a few seconds before speaking. “Alex Karev is having a baby?”
“Maybe?” Jo shrugged. “I don’t know. You see. This is why I really need you to take my ex-lap so that I can make my 1:45 appointment and find out if my entire life is about to change.”
“Um… yes of course.” Bailey nodded. “Just let me rearrange some things. I can get one of the senior residents to take my appy.”
“Thank you so much Bailey. You’re amazing!” Jo clapped her hands together in gratitude.
“Yeah, uh huh…” Bailey waved her hand as Jo skittered away. “You better tell me as soon as you find out.”
“Yes ma’am!”
The next few hours seemed to drag on as Jo waited for 1:45 to roll around. She spent the entirety of the lumpectomy she was performing mulling over the faintest little line that had showed up on the stick that morning.
“Dr. Karev? Dr. Karev? Jo?”
Jo looked up to see Andrew trying to capture her attention.
“Jo. Are you okay? You froze for a second there.” Andrew asked, concerned. “Did you feel like you missed something? Because, you already finished the hardest part of the procedure and you did it flawlessly. All that’s left is to close.”
“Thanks. And no it’s not that.” Jo shook her head. “Sorry, I just got a lot on my mind right now. Do you think you can close?”
“Uh, yeah of course!” Andrew’s eyebrows shot up. “Are you sure you don’t want to do it?”
“I trust you. You have great suturing technique. You barely leave a scar. Go ahead. Finish.” Jo insisted. “I’m going to head out. I have an appointment to get to. When you’re done, make sure to talk to the family and assure them that everything went smoothly. I’ll come back to check on her as soon as I'm done.”
“Okay…” Andrew grinned under his mask. “I won’t let you down!”
As soon as Jo stepped out of the OR, she braced herself against the nearest wall. She took some slow deep breaths to help keep the ever present nausea and dizziness at bay. Come on, Karev. Get yourself together. You don’t even know for sure yet. That line was so light it was basically nonexistent. Your results could come back negative. Yes. They could be negative. That’s what Jo needed to remind herself of. They could also be positive, though. That would mean you’re having a baby. That would mean that you’re growing a human, right now, at this very moment.
Jo’s heart pounded the entire way down to the OBGYN clinic offices. When she finally rounded the corner, she was surprised to see Carina waiting for her already.
“Jo. I was surprised to see your name added last minute to my schedule. Let’s get you into the room quickly.” Carina led her past the front desk as discreetly as possible and into an exam. “I’m assuming you want to keep this from as many people as possible since your husband is the chief, no?”
“You would be correct.” Jo nodded.
“I figured that was the case.” Carina smiled. “I normally wouldn’t do these things myself but I had a nurse come set up everything for me so I could do all of your examinations myself. I promise everything will be done with the utmost discretion.”
“Thank you so much Carina.”
“So you said that you think you might be pregnant? Tell me, have you taken a test yet?” Carina washed her hands and donned some gloves.
“I took one this morning because I had been having some of the same symptoms as last time and wanted to check. So, I took the the test, but the line was really light so I’m not sure if it was a false positive or if it’s just too early.”
“You said you’re having the same symptoms as last time. I thought you and Dr. Karev didn’t have any children. Have you been pregnant in the past?”
Jo cursed herself for the slip. She’d never had this conversation out loud with another soul and was terrified to do it now, but it seemed as good a time as any. “I was pregnant about ten years ago. It was during a very difficult time in my life. I was in an abusive relationship, so… I had an abortion.”
“I’m sorry about your situation.” Carina placed a sympathetic hand on Jo’s shoulder. “But these circumstances are very different from the last one. So, no matter what your results say and what you decide to do going forward, it will not be like the last time.”
“You’re right.” Jo took a deep breath. “My life is different now. It’s good. I'm happy. I’m in a loving relationship with a man who would die before ever laying a hand on me. That won’t change depending on if I’m pregnant or not.”
“Well, we are still going to find out. I don’t need you running around stressed out about whether or not you’re pregnant.” Carina took the needle in her hand and began to draw some blood. “I'm going to do this first and run the labs so that hopefully it’ll be in soon.”
“Do you think I’m pregnant? They say OB’s have like a sixth sense about these kinds of things. Well, they also say that about peds surgeons and Alex hasn’t said anything to me so maybe they’re wrong. Maybe a special pregnancy sixth sense doesn’t exist.” Jo rambled as Carina put a bandaid on Jo’s arm.
“Oh, it exists. Trust me.” Carina’s eyes glimmered as she dropped a couple vials of blood into a specimen bag. “But, I will not tell you what I suspect until the results come in.”
“Come on, that’s no fun.” Jo pouted.
Carina walked over to the door and opened it slightly, blocking Jo from view. She motioned to one of the nurses to come over.
“Hi, Vivi. Could you run these labs for me? I need them back as soon as possible.” Carina smiled and handed them over to the nurse.
“Yes, of course.” Vivi reached for the bag and took a look at the vials. “There’s no name on these.”
“Yes. I know.” Carina nodded. “Just put it down as Jane Doe or something like that. Remember to tell them that it is urgent!”
As soon as she closed the door, Carina turned back towards Jo. “Okay, I am going to go check on some of my other patients while we wait for those results to come. I will be back soon and then we will know if we’re going to have a little bambino to care for.”
“Sounds good.”
Minutes never felt this long in the past. The ticking of the clock seemed exponentially louder than it ever had before. The last time she’d been pregnant, Jo never gave herself the time to think of whether she could be a mom. She never allowed herself to picture her pregnancy as more than just another thing that Paul could beat her for. She refused to allow herself those thoughts in the past out of fear of getting attached to something that could never happen. Now that she was no longer in the same position, Jo couldn’t help but think of everything. The passing minutes were full of countless thoughts ranging from fear and anxiety inducing ones, to happiness and excitement, to uncertainty and trying to calm herself down.
By the time Carina returned, Jo was sure of one thing and one thing only. She needed to know the results.
“Okay, Jo. Let’s see what this says.” Carina clicked on the screen of the iPad in her hands and waited for the results to load. When they showed up on the screen, she gave an almost imperceptible nod. “You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
“You’re pregnant.” Carina beamed. “Most likely very early on based on your hCG levels. I’d estimate somewhere around five weeks. Two of those weeks are counted from your last period which means you conceived approximately three weeks ago… So right around the second week of June.”
As she did the mental math, Jo burst out into laughter. “Oh my God.”
“What’s going on?” Carina asked, a confused expression making its way on her face.
“I know when I got pregnant.”
“You do?” Carina’s eyebrows raised. “Well, if you can remember the exact date, that would be very helpful in tracking the development of your baby.”
“It was on my wedding day, June ninth.” Jo laughed again. “Alex and I snuck away and had sex in a shed before the ceremony. I forgot to take my pill the night before and didn’t bring them with me to the venue. I thought I’d be okay because I had Meredith bring them to me so I could double up the next day.”
“It must’ve been enough to cause you to ovulate.” Carina chuckled. “But besides the nausea and dizziness, how do you feel? Do we need to talk about options or have you decided?”
“I’m keeping it.” Jo said without hesitation. She gasped immediately after. “I can’t believe I said that. I’m going to have a baby. I’m going to be a mom.”
“Yes, you are.” Carina laughed. “My sixth sense never fails me.”
The remainder of the appointment went smoothly. When Jo and Carina finally parted ways, Jo took a second to gather herself before walking back over towards the surgical wing. She entered the gallery of OR 4 and waited for Bailey to notice her presence.
After a few minutes, Bailey’s head turned in Jo’s direction. “Well, Wilson? Sorry, I mean Karev. What’s the verdict?”
Sure that no one would understand the context of their conversation, Jo smiled. “Yes.”
“Ah!” Bailey let out a little shout of excitement. “Okay, we’ll talk as soon as I get out of here. For now though, I’d appreciate it if you popped in on Baldwin in OR 6. Make sure that he isn’t screwing up my appy.”
After checking in on the residents, a consult in the pit, and a quick hernia repair, Jo was back in the lab with Bailey. She was grateful for the older woman’s care and support. Bailey had been so helpful and understanding as soon as she learned about Jo’s pregnancy.
“I’m really happy for you, Jo. I think this is going to be wonderful.” Bailey squeezed Jo’s hand lightly. “Can you believe how far you’ve come?”
“It’s still surreal.” Jo confessed. “Sometimes I wonder if I’m going to wake up as Brooke, living in Paul’s prison of a townhouse hoping that he’ll be in a good mood today and decide not to hit me… But then I realize that this is my life. I’m Jo Karev now. I have a loving husband. I’m a doctor. I have friends who care about me. And I’m going to be a mother.”
“Alex Karev is going to be a father.” Bailey snorted. “I never thought I would live to see the day.” She shook her head. “Is it selfish of me to hope that the baby is a girl? You know, as payback for all of the headaches he gave me with every one of his indiscretions? ”
“Not at all.”
————
“Hey. You’re home.” Jo said as Alex walked in the door.
“Yes, finally.” Alex sighed as he put his stuff down. He walked over to where Jo was seated on the couch and kissed her. “I missed you today. I usually see you at least once but I didn’t see you at all today.”
“I was uh, busy.”
Yeah, real busy avoiding him to avoid slipping up and revealing their baby news.
“I got something for you.” Alex pulled away to retrieve something from his bag. He handed her a small box.
Jo looked at the box and her eyes widened. “Is this a pregnancy test?”
Alex shrugged. “Look, call me crazy, but I’m a peds surgeon. I’ve been enough pregnant ladies that I can practically sniff it out. I’m not saying you look different or anything, I don’t know… I just have a feeling.”
“And you want me to take this?” Jo stared at him in shock.
“I know it’s ridiculous and it’ll probably be negative, but I don't know. Humor me.” Alex cracked a grin.
“I don’t need to take this test.” Jo shook her head.
“Come on, Jo. It’s not that hard. All you gotta do is pee on the stick and give me a little peace of mind.”
“No, you don’t get it.” Jo put the box down beside her. “I don’t need to take this test because I already took one.” She inhaled deeply as if trying to muster up the courage to say it. “Alex, I’m pregnant.”
“Hold on, what?”
“I’m pregnant.” Jo beamed. “We’re gonna have a baby.”
“We’re having a baby?” Alex’s jaw dropped. “You’re pregnant? Like, right now?”
“Yes.” Jo laughed as Alex swept her into his arms.
“Holy crap. We’re going to be parents.” Alex’s eyes widened in shock and excitement.
“Yeah, we are.” Jo felt a couple tears prickle at her eyes. “I love you.”
“I love you.” Alex kissed her. “I love you so much, Jo. More than you could comprehend.”
After a few tender moments just reveling in their joy and impending parenthood, Jo sat up. “So, I figured out when we conceived this baby.”
“When? Because I’ve been trying to figure it out myself. We haven’t exactly had a ton of sex since I got this job.”
“We made a baby in that shed next to that corpse on our wedding day.”
Alex stared at Jo in disbelief and laughed. “You’re joking right?”
“I wish I was.” Jo giggled softly.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Jo, I—” Alex's laughs filled the room. “Well, you have to admit that was some of my best work.”
“Yeah it was.” Jo joined his laughter.
“You’re happy about this right? I know it’s not ideal and I certainly didn’t mean to knock you up right at the beginning of your fellowship, but you’re okay with it, right?” Alex asked quietly.
“Alex, I don’t care if it isn’t ideal. I love you so much and I already love this kid so much and they’re nowhere close to being here yet. I’m happier than I’ve ever been and that’s thanks to you.” Jo pressed her forehead against his. “You’re giving me everything I thought I’d never have.”
“You’re everything to me.” Alex kissed her again. “I can’t wait to experience this with you.”
“Me neither.”