A/N: This story is canon through Season 8 until the very end of 8x22 – "Let the Bad Times Roll". So ignore that final scene where they return to Seattle Grace and get their Boards results.

Timeline: For my purposes, they took their Boards on April 14th.

This story is un-betaed so forgive any errors. Enjoy :)

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Grey's Anatomy or any of its characters.

Chapter 1 – What Does This Mean?

Meredith Grey's description of the Boards couldn't have been more accurate. They were hell…actual physical hell. The fifth year residents found some solace in the fact that they all felt miserable about the exam. Maybe they had all failed. It was a small victory that when they returned to Seattle they had the rest of the day off. The five of them headed to their homes except for Alex Karev, who felt compelled to check with Dr. Robbins about how Morgan was doing.

Jackson Avery and April Kepner dejectedly shuffled into their new, barely lived in apartment. They left their luggage in the porch and walked into the kitchen. They both had the same thing in mind.

Jackson opened the refrigerator and groaned. "We're out of beer."

"I have liquor in my room," April revealed. "Come on." She gestured for him to follow her as she headed to her bedroom.

"Why are you hording booze in your room?" He asked with a laugh.

"Because I don't want you and Alex to drink it all," she replied as if it was the obvious answer.

When they entered her bedroom, Jackson fell back onto her bed while she riffled through one of her drawers.

"Found it," she said triumphantly as she held up a large, full bottle of whiskey.

Jackson smiled as he sat up and removed his suit jacket. "Have I told you today that you're my best friend?"

April laughed and sat down next to him on her bed. She followed Jackson's lead and pulled off her blazer and kicked off her heels. She had never spent an entire evening drinking before but she didn't feel like doing anything else right now. She needed a drink and she needed one badly.

They both sat on her bed, legs fully extended, with their backs leaning against the headboard. She opened the bottle and took the first sip. She coughed as the dark liquid burned her throat.

"God, that's strong!"

She passed the bottle to Jackson and he grinned. "Good, the stronger the better." He sighed in pleasure after taking his first taste. "Perfect."

April's cell phone, which she had laid on her dresser, began to ring and she uncharacteristically ignored it.

"Are you gonna get that?" Jackson asked curiously.

She shook her head. "No. Definitely not. It's my parents calling to see how my exam was and I just can't talk to them right now. I'll cry and I won't have the heart to tell them that it was a disaster and that I probably failed. I mean, how many Chief Residents fail the Boards?" She asked desperately.

"You're not going to fail," he answered supportively. "I'm going to fail and I won't be able to talk to my family ever again. Harper Avery's grandson cannot fail the Boards."

"You're not going to fail Jackson."

He groaned and took another sip of whiskey. "Let's talk about something else." He realized that both of them dwelling on their Boards catastrophe was not helping.

"Okay," she said in agreement.

There was a silence in which they passed the bottle of whiskey back and forth until Jackson turned to her and laughed. "I still can't believe you punched that guy in the face."

She laughed along with him and covered her blushing face with her hands. "Me either, but he deserved it."

"Yeah he did," he agreed. He was actually glad that April had stood up for herself because he had been seconds away from punching the guy himself. "He was a douche."

"Do you know what sucks though?"

"What?" He asked curiously.

"The Case Western Reserve Head of Trauma, Dr. Stevenson, did flirt with me a little bit during my interview." She was embarrassed to admit it but she needed to vent.

"Really?" He was both surprised and enraged. He hated the doctors who preyed on people who were eager to learn and succeed. He had practically grown up in a hospital so he had seen it happen on countless occasions, and someone like April was innocent enough not to see someone's ulterior motives. She saw the good in people; it's why she put up with Karev and Yang, no matter how mercilessly they teased her.

"Yeah, I thought that it was harmless but what if he's expecting something," she said worriedly.

Jackson pondered her statement for a moment. He knew that the very last thing that April wanted was to be offered a job because she was an attractive woman. "Well, if it comes up, you set him straight or," he purposed, "you take a job somewhere else and avoid the situation all together."

She sighed and took a rather large gulp of whiskey. "It's not like hospitals are breaking down my door Jackson."

"April," he began with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "You're the most in demand resident after Yang." He had overheard Hunt bragging that she had job offers from four programs besides Seattle Grace Mercy West, and she hadn't had the time to have interviews with countless others. "As you should be. You're a great doctor."

"Thank you," she replied softly before she repeated her mantra. "I'm a soldier."

"Okay," he chuckled, "you have to tell me what that's about now."

"Before we left for the Boards, Chief Hunt gave me a little pep talk. He told me that trauma surgeons battle every day. We're soldiers." It was a motto that she was trying to take to heart. She wanted to be a solider and not the emotional, annoying, little girl that so many people saw her as.

"See, that makes so much more sense to me now," he teased.

She giggled and he smiled at her dimples and the way she crinkled her nose.

Jackson took another drink and then stared at the half empty bottle. He was starting to feel a little lightheaded and he was definitely on his way to being drunk. April was obviously farther along than he was; she was a lightweight and usually limited herself to two drinks when they went out. He loosened his tie as his eyes drifted to her bare legs. Her skirt fell just above the knee and her legs were crossed at the ankles.

He was a man, so he had previously noticed that his best friend was an attractive woman, but recently he had started to see her in a different light. He blamed Mark Sloan. Everything had started to shift. In San Francisco they had crossed that imaginary line and now everything about her was sexy. He had no idea if it had been the wine, or the adrenaline, or the stress, or if it was a part of herself that she kept hidden, but last night she had been bold and confident, and it had seriously turned him on.

The sex had been beyond anything that he had expected. She had been beyond anything that he had expected. He hadn't been with a virgin since he was a virgin himself and they were best friends. He had expected it to be shy, timid, and perhaps even slightly awkward but it had been none of those things. She had known exactly what to do. Every touch, every sound, and every taste was catalogued in his memory. Her first time had been incredible for him and then again this morning, in the men's bathroom…she was driving him crazy.

Now that the Boards were over, being with her was all he could think about.

He knew that she felt guilty, like she had betrayed Jesus, and he felt terrible for being the cause of that guilt. He recognized the weight of what they had done, that she had given him something that she couldn't give to any other guy and he loved that she chose him. But he couldn't help but think that in some way he had taken advantage of her. He hadn't exactly put up much of a fight after she had kissed him for the first time. He kept telling himself over and over again that he wasn't that kind of guy. He wasn't the kind of guy who made his best friend break her promise to Jesus. But she had said it was okay and he couldn't bring himself to regret it, no matter how hard he tried.

"Hey," he called quietly and she turned her head to face him. "Can we talk about last night…and today?"

"What about it?" She questioned uneasily.

"Are you sure you're okay?" He had lost count of the number of times he'd asked her that question but her answer was very important to him.

"Yes," she smiled genuinely. "I know that I freaked out a little…" She paused and reconsidered her comment when he raised an eyebrow. "Okay, I freaked out a lot, but it was because everything was hitting me all at once. I had a weird epiphany today during the exam. I don't regret what we did. You're my best friend, I'm glad it was you," she told him honestly.

The only man in her life who meant more to her than Jackson was her father. She was still confused about her faith but she was happy that someone who was so important to her had taken her virginity. He was kind and sweet, and he really cared about her. She knew that they loved each other; it just wasn't on a romantic level.

"Good," he smiled back. He took yet another gulp of liquid courage before he broached a potentially dangerous topic of conversation. "It was really great, I didn't say that just to be polite or whatever. It was really, really great."

"Yeah it was," she giggled. "It really was." She hadn't expected her first time to be enjoyable but her toes had curled. It had been painful and uncomfortable at first but that had eventually subsided. He had been slow and gentle, and she had loved the feeling of him inside of her…the feeling of being connected to him.

The one thing that they had both noticed that neither of them had addressed yet was that their connection had seriously intensified since last night. They had a spark. There was fire and passion that neither of them could have predicted.

Jackson rolled over onto his side and scooted closer to her. He was more than confident in his abilities in the bedroom but the curiosity was too much, he was drunk enough to ask the question and April was drunk enough to honestly answer. "You…um...enjoyed yourself, right?" She had been rather vocal, and he was pretty sure that she had, but he wanted verbal confirmation.

She met his gaze and grinned. "Yes, I enjoyed myself." She swallowed a mouthful of whiskey before she added, "Multiple times." He smiled smugly and she rolled her eyes. "Like you needed the ego boost? You already know you're irresistible to women."

"You think I'm irresistible?" He teased playfully.

Her face felt like it was on fire and she knew that all of that could not be attributed to the alcohol, which was now all gone. She laid the empty bottle on her bedroom floor and turned back towards a still grinning Jackson. "Stop it," she said as she smacked his chest. "You're embarrassing me."

"I'm sorry." His apology was half-hearted and they both knew it. "I'm sorry," he repeated as he reached forward and tickled the skin of her knee.

She quickly pulled away from him and looked at him in warning. "Jackson, don't." She was ticklish and he now knew every sensitive spot on her body.

"I'm sorry." He said it again but this time he was serious and his voice had dropped several octaves. He propped himself up on his elbow and stared down at her as he slowly moved his hand along her body, from her knee to her ribs. His thumb grazed the outside of her breast and she inhaled sharply. He whispered her name before he leaned down to capture her lips.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his body down on top of hers. She kissed him back and her kisses were just as confident as they had been the night before and earlier today. He really liked the self-assured side of her.

"Do you really want to do this again?" He asked considerately. He was drunk and he wanted her but she was drunk too and he needed to make sure that she was okay with what they were doing.

"Yeah," she answered breathlessly. "Yeah." She was already removing his tie.

"You sure?" He double-checked despite the fact that his hands were pushing up her skirt as if he had no control over them.

She laughed into his ear and it sent shivers down his spine. "Yes. You don't have to be a gentleman all the time."

"Trust me, I'm not a gentleman," he replied huskily.

If he was a gentleman, he wouldn't have taken his best friend's virginity. If he was a gentleman, he wouldn't be having sex with her again, for the second time today. If he was a gentleman, he wouldn't have had a quickie with her in a men's bathroom. If he was really a gentleman he wouldn't have started it by teasing her about finding him attractive. He wouldn't have tickled her knee just as an excuse to touch her. And if he was a gentleman, he would find the willpower not to kiss her and to go back to just being her friend. She seemed to have a much higher opinion of him than he did of himself. He didn't deserve her and he knew it.

He pulled her shirt and camisole over her head and she set to work on the buttons on his shirt. Their clothes hit her bedroom floor quickly until they were in just their underwear.

She slipped a hand into the back of his boxer briefs and he reflexively pushed his hips into hers. She gasped as she pulled away from his mouth to kiss his neck. "Jackson, do you have a…um…?"

He raised his head and looked at her in confusion. "What?" She stared at him pointedly and it clicked. She was asking him if he had a condom. "Oh, yeah, I do, in my room." He cradled her face and gave her a soft kiss. "I'll be right back."

He rushed to his bedroom and grabbed the box of condoms out of the drawer of his bedside table. They were about to have sex for the third time in twenty-four hours, he was bringing the whole box just to be prepared. He returned to April's room and closed and locked the door behind him. Neither of them wanted Karev interrupting.

"So, um, what does this mean?" April asked as she lay on her back and attempted to catch her breath.

"That is a good question," Jackson answered honestly. He lay next to her and reached for her hand beneath her freshly rumpled bed sheets. "Do you want to talk about it now?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I think we should."

"Okay," he nodded.

They both agreed that they were going to talk about…whatever they are…yet they were silent. Neither of them knew where to begin. They had been friends since their internship and best friends since the shooting and now, all of a sudden they couldn't keep their hands off each other.

The real question they were trying to answer was: where do they go from here?

"We're best friends," she simply stated.

"Yes, we are," he confirmed.

"You're not supposed to sleep with your best friend."

She was on the verge of another freak out and Jackson could feel it. He propped himself up on his elbow and gently stroked her face with his other hand. "We can go back to the way things were, if you want."

He was leaving the decision up to her because he was trying to be the gentleman she accused him of being, and because he honestly didn't know what he wanted to do. When it came down to it, they were all each other had and the possibility of ruining that scared the shit out of him. He was afraid that they would hurt each other and ruin the most honest friendship he had ever had. The relationship that he had with her was the most important one in his life and he had told her as much this morning when she had brought up his relationship with his mother. She had a big family that she only saw at Thanksgiving or Christmas, and the Fourth of July because of her crazy schedule and large medical school debt, so he was the person she regularly leaned on. He was her protector. And he depended on her just as much, if not more.

They could be an incredible couple but they were also capable of ending a beautiful friendship.

"I don't know if I want to go back to the way things were," she confessed dejectedly.

"Yeah," he sighed. "I'm not sure if I do either."

"So, what do we do?"

He gave her a small smile and answered her truthfully. "I have no idea."

A/N: This story is already completely written and I will be updating on Tuesdays and Fridays! It's great to be back! Please review and tell me what you think!