this actually isn't jolex, it's an izzie/jo meeting, but they don't know who it is. again, it was a prompt i was gifted!
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aviothic
(n) —the strong desire to be up in the air or to fly
Shuffling into row 26A, she sat back into her seat and let out a sigh of relief. Bumping her way through the aisle had been proven to be difficult, since at every turn there was one more person hauling their suitcase into the overhead compartments. Her carry-on sat at her feet, and she closed her eyes for the briefest moment, letting a moment of peace wash over her.
As she relaxed in her seat, she could feel the tension release from her shoulders, the stress from the day slowly washing away. It had started out fine, she got up early after going to sleep hours before she normally did the previous night, grabbed a bagel and coffee from the hotel's complimentary breakfast, and made it to the airport on time, with more than thirty minutes to spare before she would need to fuss over which direction she needed to head in.
It was all good, until her flight got delayed an hour. She could deal with an hour. It wasn't like she had anyone anxiously awaiting her arrival at home other than Luna, who seemed to be full of pre-teen sass nowadays. She loved her daughter, she did. But as much as she loved her, not hearing complaints over every single thing for the past two days had been a well deserved vacation.
But then her flight got delayed a further two hours. Then one more, leading to four straight hours of sitting in uncomfortable airplane chairs, eating fast food, and squinting to see the scenes playing out on her phone's screen.
She didn't need to wait long before the seat next to her was occupied, a woman with near jet black hair brushing a strand out of her face as she settled into her spot, pulling a book out of her purse.
The woman turns and gives her a smile, "Hi, I'm Izzie." she extends her hand, her friendly grin never leaving her face.
She smiles back, placing her hand in Izzie, "Jo," she introduces herself back, tucking a strand of dirty blonde back into her bun.
"You from New York?" Izzie questions, just as they hear the flight attendant over the speakers, announcing that they'll be taking off soon.
Jo shakes her head, "No, Washington. I'm here for work."
"Same here."
Before they can say anything more, the plane is ascending into the air, and they each pop a stick of gum into their mouths, one mint, the other pineapple.
They sit in a comfortable silence, Izzie reading through her book, while Jo takes advantage of the free wifi, responding to some emails on her laptop. When her phone lights up with a notification, she lets out a sigh, expecting it to be work related, but smiles when she sees that Luna had sent her a picture.
"How old is your daughter?" Izzie asks, realizing her mistake after a second. "Sorry, my book's getting boring and I'm practically bursting at the seams to do anything but read it." she apologizes, and Jo gives her a reassuring laugh.
"No, it's okay," she pulls up the photos app on her phone, and swipes until she gets to the photo she took of her little girl the week before. "She just turned eleven, but acts like she's sixteen."
Izzie studies the photo, a small smile gracing her lips. "She's beautiful," she tells Jo. "I have a sixteen year old at home, and god, do I wish she was eleven again."
"Yeah?"
She shakes her head. "Oh yeah. Normally she's well-behaved, but sixteen means that she wants to go to parties and hang out with boys, which her dad hates. He's adamantly against the idea of her dating anyone until she's thirty."
"I don't blame him. You remember guys at sixteen?" Jo teases, her mind automatically going back to the shroud of boys she used to attend school with. The pretty ones were always the jerks, she'd learned that the easy way.
Despite what TV liked to show, guys at sixteen did not look like magazine models. More often than not, they were sweaty, pimply faced, and as immature as a second grader who heard a fart joke.
"Oh trust me, I do. I got knocked up at sixteen." Izzie raises her soda in a mock toast, and Jo can't help but laugh,
"Lived in my car at sixteen," she lifts up her own drink and clinks it against the other woman's cup.
Izzie hums, "To... our crappy situations when we were sixteen years old." she downs the drink, Jo doing the same.
"This would be better if it was alcohol," she pipes in, and both woman smirk, flagging down the attendant who was passing out drink, ordering a mini bottle of vodka each.
The women go into easy conversation from there, laughing and talking like there was no tomorrow, and a few hours later the plane comes to a descent for their layover in Kansas. As they pack up their bags and exit the plane Izzie turns to Jo, a grateful smile on her face.
"It was wonderful meeting you Jo. I'm pretty sure I would've passed out from boredom if I had to read that book for a second longer," she grins, patting said book that sat under her arm.
Jo smiles back, tucking a hand of hair back behind her ear "Same here, and I'm glad I was able to prevent death by book," she shuffles her grip on her carry-on. "I'm guessing this is your stop?"
"It is. Thanks again Jo. Hope your daughter doesn't drive you up the walls too much," she says.
"Yours too," she waves goodbye and goes to find the nearest bathroom. It wasn't she was washing the suds off her hands that she puts it all together.
Izzie, Kansas, Sixteen year old daughter. She brought up that she had another kid, a son at some point in their conversation as well.
Well dammit, seems like she just met the woman her husband left her for.
That's gonna be one hell of a story to tell Meredith once she lands back in Seattle.
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