POKER FACE 8x6

"Hey, um, April, I can't cover the E.R. tonight," Lexie pressed her lips together. "I have to do research for Dr. Shepherd."

"No, what? I—" April opened her mouth.

"I— take it up with Shepherd," Lexie walked down by the elevator with April on her side.

"I— come o—" April gave up, Lexie speeding up to get away from April's pleads.

April leaned on the nurses station, looking at the clipboard to find out who could run the E.R tonight.

"Where are my mouse labs?" Bailey walked up to the counter, one hand on her hip and the other on on the counter.

"Oh, uh, s— sorry," April stuttered, totally forgetting about the mouse labs. "I was stuck in the O.R. all day, trying not to fall behind in my surgeries."

"Oh, so you'd rather just fall behind in my opinion of you?" Bailey raised her eyebrows.

"I will take care of it right away," April nodded and hurried off.

"It's hard to be a team when only one player cares, Kepner!" Bailey yelled after her.

❄️

"I gave you his blood work five hours ago," Alex leaned on one side of the window frame, talking to the lab worker.

"Alex, I need you to cover the E.R. tonight," April asked desperately.

"No," Alex responded simply. "Look, before midnight would be nice," He smiled sarcastically.

"I'm still looking," The man responded.

"It's the E.R. People will die if we're not there," April drew her eyebrows together.

"Which will be your fault, not mine."

"Got it. Here you go," The man handed Alex the paper, the doctor snatching it from him.

"Finally," Alex muttered.

"Alex, please, can't you just be a nice person for a second?" April asked, desperately.

Alex walked a few steps and stopped, turning around to look at the chief resident.

"See?" Alex tilted his head. "This is why you don't deserve this job. You're bad at it. You get all stressed out and frantic and nobody wants to listen to you. You have no authority, and your voice.." Alex speaks in a high voice, "It gets all high and nasally like this when you're nervous. It's annoying," Alex changed his voice back. "You're annoying, so, no, I can't be that person for a second. Deal with your own crap!"

April watches as Alex walked away, Charlotte coming up beside him.

"Do I need to punch you again?" April overheard Charlotte say, making April smile a teary-eyed smile at the brunette.

"What's your problem?" Alex said, about to go off on Charlotte as well.

"You can say whatever the hell you want about me, Alex. But April is a different story," Charlotte crossed her arms over her chest, watching out of the corner of her eye as April walked down the other hallway, a smile still plastered on her face. "You're lucky I don't kick your ass right now for making April cry. But if you do it one more goddamn time, I will kick your ass and get every attending on my side to kick you out of the O.R. for a month."

"You can't do that," Alex scoffed.

"Do you wanna find out?" Charlotte put her hands on her hips, making Alex straighten up and change his attitude quickly.

"No," Alex said, hurrying away from the woman.

Charlotte to herself smiled proudly, and walked away to find April.

❄️

"What are you doing in here?" Charlotte asked as she plopped down onto one of the couches in April's office.

"What are you doing in here?" Cristina asked back.

"I asked you first," Charlotte pointed out, her hands resting on her stomach as she stared ceiling.

"I don't know. It's quiet in here I guess," Cristina shrugged. "And I needed to use April's computer."

"What are you doing with Q?" Charlotte asked, sitting up alarmed.

"I find it very alarming that you know the mice by name," Cristina looked at the computer screen.

"I—"

"I don't have time for this," The two heard Meredith say down the hall, April accompanying her. "Two more moms just came in."

"Well, yeah, but a— as long as no one's crowning, they'll be fine."

"Get your hand out of there!" Charlotte scolded.

"What are you doing?" April speed walked towards Cristina.

"Told you," Charlotte said, plopping her head back down again.

"Uh, researching a new surgery for my neck guy."

"What are you feeding my mouse?" April asked worriedly. "Q is a diabetic. A donut could kill him," She tossed the donut into the trash.

"Then why is he is your office?" Cristina blinked.

"So Meredith can run tests on him," April threw her hands at the rats cage.

"Are you really gonna do her grunt work?" Cristina asked Meredith.

"Oh, Bailey blames me for Richard losing his trial. The last thing she wants is for me to work on it."

"Which is why you're doing it in secret," April insisted.

"Okay, that's the worst thing I've heard all day," Charlotte stated, still staring at the ceiling.

"Seriously," Meredith agreed.

"I am your chief resident, Dr. Grey," April stomped, all three residents laughing—although Charlotte felt kind of bad for it afterwards.

"Which means if you cross me, I will make your life a living hell. I will put you on call every night, I will assign you dumb interns, and I will make sure that you get every exploding bowel and rotting limb that comes into this hospital," April says in a low voice, making all three of the women stop laughing.

"Okay," Meredith nodded. "Relax. I'll do it."

"O— okay," April walked towards the door, stopping and turning around before exiting. "It's 'cause I made my voice different, right? That's— that's why you lis—"

"Go away before you embarrass yourself more," Cristina advised.

Cristina's phone went off as April left the room.

"Oh, that's Owen. Duty calls," Cristina smirked.

"Are you two talking yet, or is it just sex?" Charlotte asked from across the room.

"Are you and April just talking or are you having sex yet?" Cristina replied back.

"Neither," Charlotte rolled her eyes.

"Well?" Meredith asked interested.

"Not just sex," Cristina put her lab coat on. "Hot, dirty, stand-on-my-head sex."

"I'll take that as a no," Charlotte muttered.

"You know what? Who cares if we talk?" Cristina threw her hands up. "Besides, if you want to talk about something, how about the fact that you're wasting your fifth year playing around with vaginas and mice, huh? Want to talk about that? Or that you stopped sleeping around for someone who you won't even make a move on? Huh?"

Meredith takes Cristina's chair, staring at her best friend with amusement.

Charlotte sighs.

"Do you really stand on your head?" Meredith laughed.

"I'm very talented," Cristina bragged.

"Oh," Meredith nodded as Cristina left the room.

❄️

"I leave for— what— two hours? And you already wrecked April's office?" Charlotte laughed, walking over to Meredith to hand her the foam box of fries.

"Well, I left. And then Richard. Well, you know Richard," Meredith shook her head, biting on a fry.

"Yeah," Charlotte walked back over to the couch, grabbing one of the magazines she forced April to put in her office.

"You're ditching O.B. to be a vet now?" Alex walked into the office, not seeing Charlotte.

"Oh, April dumped Bailey's trial on me," Meredith told him. "I would be annoyed, but turns out I'm good with mice. And I found her secret snack drawer," She opens the drawer.

Also Charlotte's doing.

Charlotte stood up to grab one of her granola bars.

"Sweet," Alex leans down to grab a snack.

"Don't touch the granola bars," Charlotte walked over beside Meredith, leaning down. "They're mine."

"Hey. Hey, that's not your food," April said, busting Alex and Meredith. "Not your food."

She grabbed the snack out of Alex's hand and throws it back into the drawer, glaring at him.

Alex rolled his eyes and walked towards the couch.

"But Charlotte can have a snack?" Alex scoffed.

"Yeah, because unlike you, I'm not a douchebag," The brunette fake smiled.

"Shut the hell up," Alex shot back, taking Charlotte's spot on the couch, picking up the magazine Charlotte was reading not too long ago.

"What have you done to my office?" April looked at the Grey woman.

"Get over it. I'm helping you," Meredith reminded April. "And go get me a healthy mouse."

"Bailey hasn't left the lab in forty-eight hours. I— I can't steal another mouse," April threw her hands up in the air, hitting her sides when they come back down.

"I can't steal another mouse," Alex mocked, reading the magazine.

"You know what?" Charlotte grabbed Alex's bicep, pulling him along. "You're not allowed in here anymore."

"Ow! You can't decide that."

"I just did," She pushed him out into the hallway, shutting the door.

❄️

"He just went in blind and he hit the ventricle," Lexie told Jackson about her surgery—Alex sitting beside Jackson and Charlotte sitting beside Alex. "It was the most incredible thing I have ever seen."

"Wow," Jackson grinned at his girlfriend. "All Sloan taught me today was how to brine a chicken."

"Altman called me a chicken," Alex took a drink.

"Well, you are, so," Charlotte shrugged.

The woman leaned back when April cut in between her and Alex.

April ripped Alex's drink from his hand.

"What you said to me today was horrible, mean,
and—"

"All right. You're doing it again. You're like a friggin' mosquito," Alex said arrogantly.

"Yeah, well, that's all changing," April said in a deeper tone. "Lexie, your leading pre-rounds tomorrow. Jackson, you're touring med students, and, Alex, you've got nights in the E.R. for the next week. Any of you argue with me, and I'll take you off the O.R. board indefinitely."

"What about Charlotte?" Alex pushed his hand out beside April, pointing at Charlotte.

"She's done nothing but treat me with respect."

"Yeah?" Jackson laughed. "What about— never mind." Jackson stopped, seeing the glare Charlotte was sending him.

"Me on the other hand, just got fired from Bailey's trial. So I'm going to spend the night drinking and flirting with boys," April drank the rest of Alex's beer, leaving the three surgeons in shock.

"How do you feel about that, Charlotte?" Lexie smirked at her.

Charlotte kept her face neutral, shaking her head. "Fine."

Charlotte looked back behind her, April already hitting it off with one of the single guys at a booth—their booth.

Why does it hurt so much to see April flirting with a guy?

lol