April Kepner

"I'm not going to let them turn me into someone they can hate."

- April Kepner

April Kepner is an attending trauma surgeon at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital who was one of the staff members who joined from Mercy West Medical Center after the merger.

Early Life
Much of April's personal life was revealed while she was being held at gunpoint by Gary Clark. She was forced to tell him personal details about herself in an attempt to prevent him from murdering her. She reveals that she was born on April 23rd in Columbus, Ohio and was raised on  a corn farm along with three sisters, a pet pony, and a pet duck. Her mother is a teacher, while her father stays home and tends to the farm.

When April told her parents she wanted to become a doctor, they were "over the moon" about it. April has always been very focused on her studies, so other than medical school and various church related events, she hasn't done much.

Religion
April is of Christian faith, and always prays for her patients before going into surgery. Although elements of her Christianity are traditionally conservative, she is very open minded – as she is seen attending Callie and Arizona’s wedding, and even dancing and taking pictures of the newlyweds during the reception. She has an extremely close relationship with God, and remained a virgin so long for this reason.

April kept her relationship with God a secret from her fellow doctors because she feared they would see her as less of a surgeon because of it. However, when she lost her virginity to Jackson the night before her medical boards, she re-evaluated her faith and stopped caring what others thought about it.

Since losing her virginity, she still remains close to God and hopes to find forgiveness. Although her virginity is gone, she still wishes to wait until marriage before having sex again.

Personality
When April first arrived at the hospital, she was extremely insecure and wrote notes to herself in a personal diary to help cope with her insecurities. She wrote notes telling herself nobody could tell she has had plastic surgery on her nose, and that she could one day be the future of medicine. Although April seems to be a little bit fragile, the shooting at the hospital proved that she is much stronger than she seems.

Since making some new friends at the hospital, April seems to have become much more confident in herself and her abilities, and little by little showed more of her personality. It's been noted by Owen Hunt that although April panics under pressure, she shows promise as a trauma surgeon due to her tenaciousness. Along with being extremely organized, April is also very competitive - refusing to give up until she wins. April's most noticeable quality is her ability to read people. She's extremely receptive and notices things that most people would overlook. Also, unlike most of her peers, April is a morning person. She is also compassionate and understanding. April also cares deeply about her friends and patients. Along with those qualities she also has some flaws - such as her inability to filter what she says and her extreme anxiety that causes her to come off as annoying. April also has a tendency to push people away and shut them out when she is hurt. April can also become very emotional over little things.

Derek Shepherd
She had a huge crush on the married Derek Shepherd following the merger. Jackson said of the crush, "she thinks he walks on water" to Meredith.

Jackson Avery
After the shooting at the hospital, Jackson and April became close when she noticed he'd been having nightmares about the tragedy. He then grew very protective over her - claiming she was the only friend he had left. April has always been very close with God, and she says she remained a virgin so long due to her religion - which Jackson respected. However, she decided to sleep with him the night before their medical boards, giving up her virginity and putting somewhat of a strain on their friendship.

When April returned to Seattle Grace Mercy West, she informed Jackson she was "re-virginizing". He didn't support this action because he felt she was trying to pretend they never happened, but he promised to help her in any way that he could. However, in the end, no matter how hard they tried to stay away, they couldn't resist each other.



At some point in their relationship, April's period was late. Because she'd never been late before, she thought she was pregnant. While waiting for the results of the pregnancy test, Jackson told her that he was all in and that they would marry and raise the kid together. However, the test came back negative, to which April responded delighted. A little too delighted, as she said to Jackson that they dodged a big bullet and that they wouldn't have to get married anymore. This hurt Jackson's feelings and he broke up with her - stating that perhaps this was a sign they shouldn't be together.

Soon after, Jackson began seeing intern Stephanie, which first started out as only a sexual relationship. Jackson told April himself, thinking it would hurt her even more if she heard from anyone else. April was glad that he did and thanked him, but confessed she still had some feelings for him and wasn't ready yet to be friends again. However, she soon met Matthew and they both concentrated on their own relationships. Jackson and April did become friends again, however, when April asked Jackson for advice on whether or not she should tell Matthew the truth about her virginity.

During a massive storm near the hospital, a bus flipped and the doctors had to rush in and evacuate as many people as possible. The doctors believed they got to everyone, but Jackson stayed behind because he noticed a small pink shoe. When April noticed Jackson wasn't with them, she began to panic and rushed back towards the bus as it lay there ablaze, but was stopped by Matthew. Suddenly, the bus exploded. Thinking Jackson was in the explosion, April became hysterical. When he emerged from the fire with a small child, she ran to hug him, but was stopped by Matthew - who was trying to comfort her.

When Jackson was being treated by Callie for his injuries, April walked in furious, screaming at him for almost dying, but was quickly removed by Callie and Matthew. Thinking she had lost Jackson made her realize her true feelings for him. When everyone calmed down, she went back in to see him. She told him that she wanted him and not Matthew - which Jackson quickly rebuffed by telling her she was marrying Matthew soon. April then told Jackson to give her a reason not to.

Although though Jackson and April were seeing different people, they remained friends.

On the day of April's wedding, she ran into Jackson at the hospital while searching for Meredith and Cristina. Jackson had previously told April he wouldn't be attending her wedding, but she asked him one more time if he would be there. He asked if she really wanted him there and she said yes. During the ceremony, however, Jackson broke up with Stephanie and told April he loved her and that he always has loved her in front of the entire crowd.

Matthew Taylor
A new paramedic at the hospital, Matthew has reccently caught the attention of April, as he awkwardly asked her on a date after confessing to watching her for some time.

They are later seen bonding in an ambulance, when Matthew receives a call about a nearby trauma. April rides along with him and they come across a hit and run accident involving a nine year old boy. April saves his life by assembling her fellow doctors to operate although Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital was no longer a trauma center at the time. When the doctors were eventually caught operating on the boy, Meredith Grey protected April by claiming him as her patient and "accidentally" deleting incriminating evidence from the new system. Alex Karev and Jackson Avery also defended April during a meeting with Owen Hunt about the situation.



When all is said and done and the young boy is stable, April runs into Matthew on her way home from the hospital. He tells her she is the bravest, strongest, and most beautiful woman he has ever met. He tells her whenever he's around her, he loses all thoughts. April, flattered and somewhat shocked, kisses Matthew - much to the dismay of a jealous Jackson as he passes by with Stephanie.

When April turns to Jackson for advice before a date with Matthew, Jackson reveals to April that his relationship with Stephanie is purely sexual and they're not romantically involved with each other. April then confesses to Jackson that she is unsure how to explain to Matthew that she is no longer a virgin, but still wishes to wait until marriage before having sex again. Jackson jokingly responds by saying he's going to think she's mentally ill, but April takes him seriously and her feelings are hurt. He later apologizes, however, and tells April to be honest with Matthew, stating that once he gets to know her, he will want to follow her anywhere.

When April found out Matthew was saving himself for marriage - like she intented to do before sleeping with Jackson, she told him she was saving herself for marriage, as well - leaving out the fact that she was no longer a virgin. When she finally confessed to Matthew that she had lied, he was hurt, but accepted her for who she was.

April and Matthew are now engaged to be married. He proposed to her via flashmob and she said yes, smiling from ear to ear and crying tears of joy.

They had a few bumps before the wedding, but they made it through. At the wedding ceremony, Jackson stood up in front of everyone and told her he loved her and he always loved her. April didn't respond. Mathew looked pissed.

Reed Adamson
Before the shooting at Seattle Grace Mercy West, April and Reed Adamson were best friends and roommates, as well. When Reed was tragically murdered during the shooting, April was the first to find her. Finding her best friend shot to death at the hands of Gary Clark sent April into shock, but she quickly recovered and reported what she found to Derek Shepherd. April often still mentions Reed, indicating that they were very close friends.

Charles Percy
It's unknown just how close April and Charles really were, but they were seen on several occasions laughing and joking around. April often disapproved of his crude humor, but overall seemed to get along with him.

Lexie Grey
When Lexie and April first met, Lexie found April annoying because Derek Shepherd seemed to take shine to her. Her jealousy caused her to steal April's diary and then read it. While reading the journal, she noticed tear drops on the pages - indicating that April was crying while the notes were being written. Feeling immediately guilty, Lexie returned the diary and apologized to April.

They had another run in when Meredith opened up to April about her miscarriage and not Lexie. Lexie, again became jealous and tried tricking April into annoying Meredith with her idea of a chore wheel. However, Meredith approved of the idea - much to Lexie's dismay. Lexie then blew up at April infront of Meredith - who quickly ended the confrontation and explained to Lexie that the only reason April knew about the miscarriage is because she was there when it happened. Lexie then apologized to April for treating her the way she did and gave her Izzie's room as an apology.

Lexie and April no longer had any negative feelings towards each other, and even developed a friendship of sorts. April even went to Lexie first for advice when Robert Stark asked her on a date.

Meredith Grey
April and Meredith didn't really start talking until the shooting at the hospital, when April kept her company during Derek's emergency surgery. Meredith was annoyed at April for crying during his surgery because she felt April had no right to cry, but April explained to her the reason she was crying was because her best friend, Reed had been murdered earlier that day. Meredith then held April's hand for the duration of Derek's operation.



After the shooting, Meredith invited April to move into her home because April had been previously sharing an apartment with her deceased best friend, Reed. Meredith defended April when her peers were joking about April's virginity, and even told April she was beginning to like her when she stuck up for herself and put everyone else in their place.

Since Meredith and Derek adopted Zola, April has played babysitter for her on several different occasions. Meredith is also a bridesmaid at April's wedding.

Alex Karev
Like he is to everyone, Alex was very rude upon meeting April, but it didn't take her long to notice this was only a defense mechanism he used to prevent people from getting too close. He continued being rude to her for quite some time, but she still treated him as a friend - doing his laundry and sharing her grocceries with him.

When Robert Stark stole Alex's idea during a surgery, April defended him to the chief and made sure Alex received credit for his idea. She later met up with him in an on-call room and made sure he knew he was appreciated, and that she noticed all the good he's been doing. This prompted Alex to kiss her, but being a virgin she asked him to slow down - which frustrated him to the point that he screamed at her. He felt guilty, but left the room without saying a word.



April avoided Alex for some time after that, but they reconciled over a piece of pizza on the way home from the hospital one day. When April failed her medical boards, Alex comforted her and reassured her that hospitals would still want her regardless of not being board certified.

Callie Torres
In April's office, she has a photo of Callie & Arizona from their wedding day. She also made a onesie for baby Sofia during Callie's baby shower that had a pie drawn on it accompanied by the words "Cutie Pie" decortively written above. She was also seen dancing with both Callie and Arizona at their wedding reception.

Arizona Robbins
After Arizona is outed by Callie as being a cheater, April finds herself relating to her in a weird way. Although April has never cheated, she did almost end things with Matthew to be with Jackson. After April overhears Callie tell everyone at the fundraiser that Arizona died in the plane crash, April takes two bottles of champagne and meets Arizona in the hospital storage closet to share a drink and comfort her. They soon become very open with each other and discuss their relationship problems together, bonding them. Arizona is also going to be a bridesmaid at April's wedding.

Cristina Yang
Like many of the other doctors, Cristina found April to be somewhat annoying upon meeting her. Though she did admit that she found Lexie Grey to be much more annyoing than April. Although April sometimes disapproved of Cristina's rule breaking, she considered her a friend. When April was let go by the hospital for making a mistake in the ER, Cristina defended her to the other residents, claming that everyone made mistakes that night and April was only fired because she was caught. During the race for chief resident, April and Cristina were assigned a case together and April often spoke out to Cristina about her habit of bending the rules, much to Cristina's annoyance. She was so annoyed by April's "goody-two-shoes" behavior that she exploded at her saying that no matter how hard she tried or how many charts she made, she would never be chief resident, but they later made up. After April failed her boards, Cristina showed kindess to her by comforting her after all of the hospitals turned her down. She even answered April's phone (pretending to be her) and told the hospitals that they were missing out because April was "an amazing little surgeon." Cristina is a bridesmaid at April's wedding.

Owen Hunt
After the shooting at the hospital, Owen met with Richard Webber - the current chief of surgery to discuss a trauma training program he thought would benefit the hospital incase another emergency situation like the shooting arose. During this training, Owen was extremely impressed by April Kepner's determination and tenacity while caring for her "dummy" patients. He was even more so impressed when April refused to allow her patient to die, and accept the message Owen was trying to get across to the doctors - that trauma was unfair, and sometimes no matter what you do, your patients die. After the trauma training was over and all the doctors were certified, Owen mentioned to Cristina how proud he was, and although she didn't look like one, there was a trauma surgeon in that girl.

Since the training exercise, Owen has taken April under his wing and even comforted her before her medical board exams - telling her that "she was a soldier." When she failed and was let go from the hospital, he flew out to Moline - her home town, and hired her back saying he should never had taken her job away from her.

On April's wedding day, Owen went through the entire hospital making sure everyone knew they had to be at the ceremony. Moments before April walked down the aisle, Owen told her she was beautiful, well-loved by the hospital, and kissed her cheek.

Career
April was always top of her class in medical school, and has received numerous heart felt recommendations from her professors. During a meeting with Richard Webber, he stated he has no doubt she is an excellent surgeon because she has the recommendations to prove it.

April spent most of her residency at Mercy West Medical Center, but later moved to Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital during the merger. When April arrived at Seattle Grace, Derek took a shine to her because she was full of intelligent and creative ideas. When Richard Webber was forced to let her go for making a mistake in the ER, Derek later rehired her because he felt she was unfairly fired and deserved a second chance.

After being rehired, April decided to stick to more administrative work because she believed she wasn't a good surgeon anymore. She felt constantly guilty for losing her patient and couldn't handle any more losses. With a little encouragement from Derek, however, she finally began doing surgeries again and is well on her way to becoming an excellent surgeon.



April Kepner was later hired as chief resident of Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital when she impressed Owen Hunt with her patient checklist. She had a rough start, but later got a handle on things and became an excellent chief resident.

However, nervousness got the best of her during her medical board exams causing her to fail. Although April is not a board certified surgeon like her fellow doctors, she still remains at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital as an attending trauma surgeon. She plans to retake her medical boards next year, and is confident she will pass the second time.

It has been noted that although the new interns refer to her as "the dud", she is one of their favorite surgeons and is the most willing of all her fellow attendings to teach them. Also, unlike the other doctors in the hospital, April doesn't hold grudges against the interns for making mistakes.

When the trauma center at the hospital closed, April worked night and day with Derek Shepherd to hatch a plan to keep it open. They succeeded in receiving donations from the other departments, but were devastated to find out all of their hard work was wasted. They found out the trauma center wasn't closing due to budget issues, but instead because trauma centers aren't a good selling point.

With the trauma center back in place at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, April finally feels she has her career headed in the right direction, and is confident she will "kick ass" this year during her medical board exams. She did ultimately pass and become a board-certified surgeon.

Notes and Trivia

 * Growing up, April had terrible acne and wore braces and glasses until college; landing her the cruel nickname of duckie (the ugly duckling) given by her sisters.
 * April took years of physical therapy as a child to correct pigeon toes (a condition in which a person's feet face inwards instead of straight ahead).
 * April watches Oprah.
 * April cries at weddings.
 * As a child, April had a fish tank, two hamsters, a pet pony, a pet duck, and two dogs named Buster and Pickles. Pickles was a Schnauzer. She says the pet duck lived in their house.
 * April is a bit of a photographer. She is seen taking pictures at almost every social event she and her fellow doctors attend.
 * April used to Facebook Jackson's mother, Catherine Avery, but removed her as a friend at Jackson's request.
 * She used to have a red journal with motivational messages to get her through the day, such as, "You are the future of medicine".
 * April was a virgin until the age of twenty nine.
 * When she was little, she had a pony named Sparkle.
 * April has fasted (abstained from any food or drink for a period of time for religious observation).
 * April has a dimple on her right cheek.
 * She is the only doctor who has been seen driving an ambulance.
 * April has had plastic surgery on her nose. It is unknown whether this was reconstructive or cosmetic.
 * April dreams of being married in a field full of beautiful flowers with butterflies that are released when she says "I do" and mints that have the phrase "mint to be" on them.
 * According to Richard, she is a terrible driver.
 * When April becomes nervous or upset, her voice becomes noticeably higher than usual. She also often waves her hands when trying to make a point.
 * According to Jackson Avery & Cristina Yang, April is an excellent cook.
 * April is very talented when it comes to numbers and statistics. She even claims to become overly excited when numbers and statistics are mentioned.
 * April can sometimes become too emotionally involved with her patients. She will often cry when she loses a patient, and will go above and beyond to make sure her patients are comfortable.
 * April once cooked a special porridge for one of the African orphans Alex Karev brought to the hospital, prompting Robert Stark to give her a glowing review for chief resident to Owen Hunt.
 * According to a patient at the hospital, April looks identical to the fictional Dothraki Princess from the "Song of Ice and Fire" series.
 * April has been let go by the hospital on two different occasions, but was hired back each time.
 * April's favorite song is "Sexy and I Know It" by LMFAO.
 * Although she was not a board certified surgeon, April was still hired as an attending trauma surgeon at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital/Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital.
 * As of Everybody's Crying Mercy, April is board certified after passing her exams.
 * She named a pig after Jackson.
 * April wanted to wear her mother's veil at her wedding.

Memorable Quotes

 * (When Mr. Clark is pointing the gun at her) "My name...my name is April Kepner. I'm 28 years old, and I was born on April 23rd in, in Ohio. I'm from C-Columbus. Columbus, Ohio. Um, my mom, my mom is a teacher, and m-my dad is a farmer. Corn. C-corn. He, he, he grows corn. Their, their names are Karen and Joe. (crying harder) I have three sisters! Libby's the oldest. I, I'm next, and then there's K-Kimmie and Alice. I, I, I haven't done anything yet. I haven't...I've barely lived! I, I'm not finished yet. No one's loved me yet. Please. Please. I'm someone's child! I'm a person! I'm a person!"


 * “Stop! Okay just stop. I’m a virgin, yes. So what? It’s not something I talk about, okay? We all have things we don’t talk about. Alex, you’ve been afraid of the elevator for like a month, but I never said anything because it’s none of my business. And Jackson, you wake up every night screaming because you have nightmares. And, Meredith, you don’t talk about Cristina because you’re afraid she’s never gonna be the same Cristina again. And Lexie, for God’s sake, Mark never thought you were a psycho. He loves you. That’s why he stares at you. Because he can’t keep his eyes off the woman he loves. Of course, he’s never gonna say anything cause he doesn’t feel like he can. Well, we all have stuff we don’t talk about! I am a 28-year-old virgin. Mainly because I wanted my first time to be special and then I waited too long and partially because I’m pretty sure guys find me annoying. I’m a virgin! That doesn’t make it drinks conversation! We all have stuff we don’t talk about!"


 * “Hey, here’s a question. Whatever happened to good, old-fashioned romance? No stuffing of turkeys or disinfecting sofas. But you know, what about nice, normal dates, where people talk, share a meal, get to know each other? And then wind up together. Not because they’re monkeys but because they have genuine feelings in a committed way. I mean what is so wrong with that, huh?”


 * “I guess I have to believe that everything happens for a reason. It’s all part of some plan; you’re supposed to learn something. You lose a patient because you forget to check their airway, you don’t make that mistake again. You fail your boards ‘cause you’re too busy sleeping with your best friend, maybe you stop doing that. The hospital you call home shuts down just when you’re starting to feel like you’ve got your life together..”