𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐄 ━ jackson avery

008. ━ the past

season six // episodes fourteen and fifteen
[ the past ]

ELLIE WOKE UP to the sound of knocking on her bedroom door. She glanced at her alarm clock and groaned: 5:15 am. With a huff, she stumbled out of bed and answered her door. April bounded in with a cupcake in hand, far too excited for the time in Ellie's opinion. "Happy Valentine's Day!"

Ellie rubbed her eyes as she stifled back a yawn. "Yeah, you, too, Apes. Why are you awake this early?"

"I've been up since four baking," April replied with a smile.

"Why?" she asked, taking the cupcake from her energetic best friend. "You are aware that you are a resident and sleep is very hard to come by, right?"

"Oh, come on. Lighten up. Eat your cupcake. I'm gonna get Reed."

"Good luck with that," Ellie mumbled against the frosting. From across the hall, she heard a grunt and a thump, indicating that April had dragged a sleeping Reed out of bed and dropped her on the floor. The April Kepner Valentine's Day tradition.

Ellie went into Reed's room, found a grumpy Reed under a stack of blankets, and a still very awake April talking a mile a minute. Ellie yawned as she joined Reed on the floor and tried her best not to fall asleep on Reed's shoulder.

"So, what do you think we should do before our shift tonight?" April said, bringing the two girls out of the daze. "We could go mini-golfing, or we could go to a restaurant. Any ideas?"

"April, are you asking the two of us on a date?" Ellie asked with a smile.

"It's Valentine's Day," she replied. "No one should be alone on Valentine's Day. We're all single, we should embrace it."

"Galentine's Day." Ellie nodded. "It's a thing. How about, we sleep because we work later today and we go from there?"

"Hear, hear!" Reed agreed, getting up from her mound of blankets and ushering the two girls out of her room. "Goodnight."

April huffed in annoyance and went back into her room as Ellie looked around, suddenly no longer tired. She groaned as she went down to the kitchen and made herself an iced coffee. Valentine's Day... she thought to herself. Fun.

☀️

ELLIE WAS WALKING to the ER with Callie when Mark found them. "Hey, Ellie, Torres. Do you know anything about putting together cribs?"

"What about me tells you that I know how to put together a crib?" Ellie asked, tilting her head with a frown. "You bought a crib?"

"Well, Sloan's coming home tonight, and I got it put together, but it wobbles," he said. "And it can't wobble. Now will one of you take a look at it?"

Callie chuckled. "You're like a sweet, nerdy dad now. I don't even recognize you."

"I do." Ellie smiled. "Kicking off the rust, aren't you? Derek told me how freaked you were when you found out about me. It's cute."