The Greens of Jericho

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Different Circumstances Interlude: Gail and Johnston's Story, Part 1

by Marzee Doats

Author's Note:

First, my apologies.  I know that you are all waiting for the pivotal Jake and Heather phone conversation, and to find out the full contents of Jake's note/love letter.  That is all coming.  But first we're going to take a "short" trip into how Gail and Johnston are feeling about and reacting to both Jake and Heather during the time frame of Different Circumstances Interludes: Long Distance Relationship, Part 7.  Specifically, this first scene takes place in the parking lot of Jericho Elementary School right after April, Gail, and Johnston leave Heather at the school at the end of Field Day during DCI: LDR Part 7. 

If you have absolutely no interest in Gail and Johnston's backstory, then feel free to skip this chapter.  I promise that next month we will go back to our regularly scheduled Heather and Jake romance and the "let's make a baby/kid" discussion that we've all been building up to and waiting for. 

But this is where my muse took me.  Besides, my beta readers had some questions, so I answered them.  Little did they know that I had such a large chunk of Gail and Johnston's backstory to tell. 😊

This is Part 1 of Gail and Johnston's Interlude, and Part 2 will be posted within the next week.  There will also be (at least) a Part 3, but I will finish off Long Distance Relationship before I return to this Interlude, and I'll also be getting back to Different Circumstances (proper) Part 15.  I think I've left poor April in limbo long enough. That story (this whole dang universe) is always in the back of my brain, bubbling away.

As I said, in this story, I delve into Gail's and Johnston's backstory.  Theirs was always the canon Jericho relationship that interested me the most.

Here's what we know from canon:

•       In episode 1.4, Walls of Jericho, April tells Gail that she will be fine on her own with a patient because she used to be a nurse. 

•       In episode 1.16, Winter's End, when Kenchy inquired whether she had done a surgical rotation as a nurse, Gail answered that she had in school, but had always worked post-op in her career. 

•       In between those two episodes (as aired, not chronologically) is episode 1.12, The Day Before, in which Gail is surfing the internet and dreaming of her European vacation.  Johnston tells her to book it, but of course this is the day before.  This has always stuck with me (I so feel for Gail, never getting that trip), and Jake and Heather have discussed the possibility of his parents taking this trip (as have Gail and Johnston) at other points in the Different Circumstances universe.  In The Day Before, Gail also reminds Johnston that she studied French and Italian for four years.  (She also claims not to remember much of either language, but I have faith in her – In Different Circumstances 14A, I let her translate some Italian instructions after a second [non-canon] food drop that occurred just before episode 1.15, Semper Fidelis.)

•       In episode 1.6, 9:02, Gail refers to Jake's "dinky uncle Dennis".  I've always assumed that Dennis is her brother, so he is the one Jericho canon family member we have for Gail.  (There are also the cousins – otherwise unnamed – that she goes to stay with during season 2.)

•       In episode 1.10, Red Flag, Johnston refers to a time when his mother thought Gail's name was "the other woman" and tells Gail that he ignored his mother, just as Eric is ignoring her.  Gail counters with the facts that they were "barely in their twenties", "she wasn't your wife" and "she wasn't pregnant".  I infer from this a rocky relationship between Gail and her mother-in-law (having something to do with a previous romantic interest of Johnston's) and that at least for a time, Johnston was also on the outs with his mother.  However, in episode 1.1, Pilot, Gail appears to have had a good relationship with her father-in-law.

•       In episode 1.13, Black Jack, when Johnston expresses his desire to go to Black Jack with Jake, Jake says: "Did you ask Mom?" and Johnston replies: "Son, I'm fifty-nine years old, I was mayor of this town since the Carter administration, I'm a retired U.S. Army Ranger and combat veteran.  Of course, I asked your mother."  Not only is this one of most people's favorite Jericho quotes, it's also highly relevant background for this story.

Here's what has already happened in the Different Circumstances universe with regard to Gail and Johnston and their family history (on both sides):

•       EJ Green's wife was never given a name in canon (at least as far as I ever realized) so I have given her the name Elizabeth "Betsy" Johnston Green.  In Part 2, EJ tells Jake and Heather a number of stories, one of which is about his time in the Army in Europe during World War II, and he mentions that he married Betsy almost as soon as he "stepped off that train" (and then travelled home – there's no train station in Jericho after all).

•       In Part 1, when Heather's tire blows and Jake stops to assist, he comments that she's lucky she didn't end up in the creek.  The creek he is referring to is Johnston Creek, the natural border between the Green Ranch and the Johnston Ranch, where Betsy Green grew up.  In Part 12E, when EJ Green tells Heather about his daughter Susie, he mentions that when Johnston and Susie had the chickenpox, he was left to take care of them one evening because Betsy had decided she'd rather help her sister-in-law, Rosemary, put up preserves than read the same book to their daughter one more time.  Rosemary was Rosemary Johnston, and she lived on the Johnston Ranch.  In Part 12F, EJ takes Heather to his nephew, Frank Johnston, to find a dog (Baron!) for Jake's Christmas present.  By this time, with both his parents deceased, Frank is running the Johnston Ranch.

•       In Part 5B, Gail, Johnston, and EJ discuss how Gail and Johnston met when he was hospitalized with appendicitis at the hospital where she was training as a nurse.  Johnston's parents had assumed he was going to marry his high school girlfriend, Susannah Lawson, but while Johnston was under the care of "Nurse O'Brien" he fell for her (EJ reveals that Johnston said he was in love with Gail after that week in the hospital) and the rest is history.  If you're interested, it's worth brushing up on that scene at least – details from it will show up in Part 2 of this Interlude.

•        In Part 5B, EJ also mentions that Susannah still lives in Jericho, and that she has a daughter named Lucy who has a daughter of her own.  Gail says that she and Susannah get along well enough that they were able to co-chair the high school athletic boosters committee for three years.  Gail also recognizes that Johnston still feels a twinge of guilt for "how things happened with Susannah".

•       In Part 8A, when Jake attends church with Heather, and then tries to escape with her right after the service ends, his mother thwarts him by dragging Heather off, explaining, "I grew up Catholic myself.  In Rogue River.  Lots of Irish, you know, from building the railroad.  Six of us kids in the O'Brien family, and five of us married Protestants.  The Greens and the Johnstons are a mix of everything, including Scotch.  They were Presbyterians, so I ended up one, too."  Later, while Gail, Johnston, and EJ observe Heather and Jake's interactions with the Taylor family across the church hall, Johnston tells Gail to not get ahead of herself with regard to Jake and Heather ("Don't go trying to imagine that girl pregnant, Abigail") and she reminds him that he proposed to her six weeks after they met.

•       In Part 9A, Gail tells April and Heather the story of having dinner with Johnston's parents after they were engaged and then learning from Johnston about his sister Susie who died when she was six years old.  Elements of Susie's story will be repeated here (in Part 2 of this Interlude), but there are also new things to learn about Johnston, Susie, and their parents.  This also establishes that Johnston and Gail got engaged when they were both eighteen (so NOT even in their twenties, like Gail said) though Johnston had turned nineteen by the time they went to dinner with his parents. 

•       In Part 9A, we also learn that when Johnston proposed marriage, he gave Gail a ring with the world's smallest diamond.  Gail figured it was more than he could afford at the time, and her younger sister Bridget said it was so small that it would have to grow up to actually be considered a diamond.  Gail also recalled that Johnston insisted on replacing her engagement ring for their tenth wedding anniversary, and Gail insisted that the new ring include her baby diamond.

•       Finally, in Part 9A, we learn that Gail's nursing school roommate is Jenny, that they both lived at Nightingale Hall, the dormitory for unmarried nurses and nursing students; that Johnston's first car was an AMC Rambler convertible; and that Gail (having grown up in Rogue River) didn't know about how connected/enmeshed in local politics EJ Green was until after she and Johnston were engaged, when all Johnston had to do to get her out of a demerit was smile and tell her house mother his name.

•       Gail's roommate, Jenny, was previously mentioned by Johnston in Part 5D as the person who gave him the news that he was the father of twin boys, and not just the one baby he was expecting. (In the Different Circumstances universe, Jake and Eric are fraternal twins.)  Johnston calls her Jenny Farrow.  In Part 8A, when Jake and Eric are driving to the hospital in Rogue River, they cross Telegraph Avenue, and Eric recalls that the Farrows (old friends of their parents) lived on Telegraph Avenue before they moved to Dallas.  This is the roundabout way of telling you that Farrow is Jenny's married name.

•       In Part 10A, Jake refers to both his wife and mother as "city girls" when he's talking to Mrs. Crenshaw.  Heather and Gail would both agree that they are "city girls", and the important thing to know for this story is that Gail definitely grew up in Rogue River and was just far enough removed from the rural life that was around her that it was a true difference between her and Johnston, but not one they couldn't overcome.  And she certainly learned to love Jericho and the Green Ranch.

•       In Part 10E, Gail asks Kenchy to pour the wine at Thanksgiving dinner, telling him: "My brother Dennis moved to Napa thirty years ago, and he always sends me a case for my birthday. I've got two bottles left, and tonight seems like a good time to finish them off."  Gail also mentions some misadventure she and Dennis (only a year younger than Gail) got into when they were children in Part 15A.  They were raising rabbits, and Dennis (a born salesman) turned the disgrace of a rabbit kicking a priest in the face into an opportunity by offering the rabbit to that same priest's housekeeper at a discount.   We knew Dennis existed in canon (one fleeting mention), but I've decided that he is the brother Gail is closest to.

•       In Part 14A, it is established that Gail completed nursing school while Johnston was in the Army, and then, while he attended the University of Kansas on the GI Bill earning a degree in History, she took a degree in French and Italian.  This is how I reconciled that Gail was a nurse and also studied French and Italian for four years.

•       In Part 15A, as part of the "5 Years Ago" scene, Gail and Johnston tell Heather (in the throes of wedding planning) about how they planned their wedding while Johnston was home on two weeks leave from the Army between tours in Vietnam.  While in the "After the Bombs" scene, Johnston recalls meeting the O'Briens (Gail's parents and siblings) for the first time, including the fact that Gail's father and brother came home from working at the family butcher shop.  Gail was happy to see them, and recognizing what a loving and caring person she was, he decided that he needed that in his life and had proposed to Gail two days later. 

•       Also, in Part 15A, in the "After the Bombs" scene, Johnston silently remembers how his mother (kind of a snob) hadn't thought Gail was good enough for him and had tried more than once to talk him out of marrying her.  For her part, Gail tells Johnston: "Like we were any better," when he complains about Jake and Heather's rather obvious intentions as they head upstairs before eight in the evening on Jake's birthday.  She also says: "Frankly, it still astonishes me that we both managed to graduate college, Mr. 'Let's Take A Study Break'.  And you made the Dean's List every semester to boot!"

•       In Part 15A, Johnston's birthday is established as February 4 and Gail's as July 31.  Both were born in 1947.  Part 12 (the trip to Black Jack) is set in early December 2006 in the Different Circumstances universe, so that also comports with Johnston's birthdate being sometime in 1947, as he says that he is fifty-nine.

•       In Part 15C, Johnston recalls dropping in at his and Gail's nephew's home in Cedar Run, post-bombs (and post road gang attack).  Here we find a number of family members from the O'Brien side of the family (none of them canon, though again we have those unnamed cousins living in Cedar Run from season 2). These family members include Gail's siblings Stuart (married to Dorothy), Bridget (married to Wayne, although Johnston learns he was killed in Rogue River), and Donald (married to Sharon).  We also meet Stuart's children, Kevin (married to Janine) and Kendra (married to Brian) and Bridget's daughter Lorrie (whose husband, Weijin, was in Washington DC at the time of the bombs).  Kevin and Janine's children are Alex and Zoey.  Kendra and Brian's children are Hunter and Caleb.  Lorrie's daughter is Marissa.  Another of Gail's siblings is mentioned: Eddie and his wife, Linda.  They, however, refused to leave Rogue River without their youngest child, Anthony, coming with them.  This is more than you needed to know, but that's okay. 😊  (We also learned in this flashback that Johnston's nieces and nephews all address him as "Uncle Jay".)

Many thanks to my two fabulous beta readers, Skyrose and Sherry for their feedback and encouragement. 

Warnings:

If you think of Gail and Johnston as you would your parents, then prepare yourself – they are affectionate in this story (but nowhere near as bad as Different Circumstances Heather and Jake).  In the "present" moments of this story, they are in their late fifties.  In the flashbacks of this story (Part 2 and beyond), they range between eighteen and twenty-five.   Personally, I think it's wonderful that they have remained in love and affectionate throughout their relationship.

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Tuesday June 6, 1:54 pm (Jericho KS)

3 and a half months before the bombs

"So, what's the thing that you both know 'bout your appointment that Heather isn't s'posed to know about your appointment?" Johnston asked his daughter-in-law as he stowed the second folding table in the back of her silver Escape.

"Johnston," his wife grumbled, glancing at him, her eyes shooting daggers.  Their sons often talked about 'The Look' that she used to stop them – not to mention their cousins, Stanley Richmond, and even Dale Turner – in their tracks if she was displeased with their behavior.  Johnston knew very well what 'The Look' looked like, and this wasn't it, but it was close.  "Really," Gail complained.

"What?" he returned amiably.  "You're tellin' me that Heather isn't completely aware of whatever it is that I'm not supposed to know about?  The thing she was askin' about, but you cut her off?  'Cause that's not this.  You said so yourself," he reminded, glancing at April before reaching to lift the field medical kit into the car.  "Make sure you have an orderly or someone help you with that," he ordered. 

April grinned at that.  "My most capable-of-performing-physical-labor LPN voluntarily put himself on today's schedule.  He remembers Autumn fondly from their mutual freshman year at the High School, and he remembers his days at Field Day even more fondly.  I try not to take too much advantage of that," she laughed.

"You could try and set them up," Gail suggested.  "I'm sure he would appreciate that."

"Trust me, he would, and I've tried," April sighed, rolling her eyes.  "But you know Autumn.  She's incapable of cooperating.  Or being interested in a nice, reliable guy who actually likes her for her, and doesn't mind that she comes with a four-year-old."  Gail nodded, flashing a sympathetic smile.

"So, what's next on the surprises-for-Heather's-birthday agenda?" Johnston asked, trying another tact.  "That's what your appointment is for?" he guessed, stowing the canopy in the back of the SUV, and then closing the tailgate.  "There was somethin' you didn't want Heather to know 'bout back there."

"Well, she'll know about it soon enough," April contradicted.  She waited a beat before explaining, "Jake commissioned a custom necklace for Heather.  My words, not his," she chuckled.  "He told me that he 'went shopping', but I told him he 'got concierge service from the family jeweler'."

"So now we've got our own jeweler?" Johnston inquired rhetorically.  "I guess Dalton and Sons qualifies, though I tend to think of them as the jewelry store we frequent when we require rings, wedding and engagement."

"'When we require'?" Gail repeated, emitting a put-upon sigh.  "You're such the romantic, Johnston Green.  And even you've managed to patronize Dalton and Sons in the last forty years," she said, pointing at the bracelet watch he'd given her for her fiftieth birthday.  "At least once a decade," she added, thinking about the upgraded engagement ring he'd given her for their tenth anniversary, and the ruby pendant and earrings that had shown up under the tree one Christmas when the boys were in high school.

"Jake takes after Gramps," April reminded, "At least on this.  When we went shopping for Heather's Christmas present before they got engaged, jewelry – and Dalton and Sons – was all his idea, not mine.  I was just his feminine perspective consultant."

"When you put it that way, I s'pose they qualify as the family jeweler," Johnston conceded. 

"That's what I'm sayin'," his daughter-in-law smiled.  "And the necklace he commissioned for her matches her engagement ring.  But since it's a custom piece, someone needs to officially accept it on Jake's behalf, and I was drafted.  Not that I mind," April claimed with her next breath.  "I'm a little jealous, but I still don't mind.  At least I get to see my husband every day," she argued.  "That's not something to take for granted."

"Indeed, it's not," her mother-in-law agreed, sighing softly.

"Anyway," April continued, facing her father-in-law, "I'm meeting Grant Dalton at the med center at two-fifteen for the official sign-off so he can bill Jake's card.  And then he's delivering the necklace to Heather at the ranch later this afternoon."

"And I'm certain she doesn't suspect a thing," Gail declared confidently.  "She knows there's a second thing that I'm doing for him, but even if she suspects you're helping him out as well – beyond a dinner reservation – she doesn't know about this.  Jake likes to surprise Heather, and in the end, Heather likes being surprised," she observed. 

"Yeah, but she was still trying to get us to tell her what her other surprises were," April laughed. 

"That's just her natural curiosity," Gail reasoned.  "She knows there are surprises, so she's trying to solve the mystery.  But she also didn't just assume she was getting flowers—"

"Even though it's her birthday," April interjected, grinning.  "And if there's one time he gets her flowers, it's her birthday."  But her grin turned into a grimace as she conceded, "Of course, this is the first time he's had to have her birthday flowers delivered."

"Jake and I talked about this the other day," Gail confessed then.  "He said the reason he gets her flowers so much is that it always makes her day.  And part of that is, she doesn't assume she going to get them," she repeated.  "Heather lets herself be pleasantly surprised."

"Fair enough," April nodded.  "And I better get going so she gets this surprise as planned."  She turned, holding her arms open to Johnston who pulled her into a hug.  "Thank you for your help, Dad," she murmured, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

"And the thing that Heather knows about that you don't know about?" she reminded, taking a step back.  "It's okay if you do know about it," she informed him.  "It's even okay if you already know about it," she added, glancing at Gail.

"He doesn't know about it from me," her mother-in-law assured, "But if you're sure—"

"I'm really not a big fan of family secrets," April grumbled, shaking her head.  "So, yeah, I'm sure.  I'll see you tonight," she promised, exchanging a quick hug with Gail.

They waved goodbye after April had backed her car out of its parking spot, and then watched as she exited the school parking lot onto Fourth Street, heading west toward the Jericho Medical Center.  "April is trying to convince Eric that they should go see a fertility specialist at KUMC."  She paused, flashing him a melancholy smile, before explaining, "They've been trying for a while now, and so far, no luck.  So, that's the thing that Heather knows about that you don't."

"Well, that's a shame," Johnston frowned, reaching for his wife's hand.  "I – I hope they do.  Go to the doctor.  It could be something simple, right?  Might as well find out.  They'd – they'll – make good parents, I think."

"They would," Gail agreed as he led her down the row toward her car.  The parking lot was starting to empty out, and they proceeded carefully, staying close together.  "Eric is a little resistant, worried about what the treatment might be.  And April says that he won't even discuss adoption."  Her husband acknowledged this with a nod but didn't say anything.  "I told her that was a very Green stance."

He stopped in his tracks, scowling gently at his wife.  "What does that mean?"

"Exactly what I said," she returned, repeating, "It's a very Green stance. The Greens are just insular enough that the idea of adoption gives you all pause.  It's not wrong, it's just how you're built."

"You're a Green, too, last I checked."

"By marriage, not by birth," Gail countered.  "Which allows me a bit of perspective.  And allows me to share that perspective with April and Heather on occasion," she sighed.  "Sometimes you are all a mystery to your wives, but I have more experience interpreting you than the girls have.  I'm sure they'll get it eventually," she chuckled softly.

"Probably sooner than later," he offered, squeezing her hand.  "They're both smart as all get out, just like their mother-in-law," he added, throwing her a very familiar grin.

She smiled in return, murmuring, "Thank you for that.  And I've told April that if the opportunity presents itself," his wife continued, "That I'd encourage Eric to go with her to the fertility specialist.  You should talk to him too," she suggested, "If you get the chance."

"Eric's been talkin' babies since they got married," Johnston reminded.  "Before, really.  You'd think—"  He stopped himself, shaking his head.  "If he asks, I'll tell him what I think.  He shouldn't cut himself off from fatherhood because he's afraid he won't like what a doctor might say."

"Thank you," she repeated, waiting as he opened the car's passenger door for her.  "And April thanks you as well, I'm sure."

Johnston helped her into the car, then crossed around the back of the vehicle and climbed into the driver's seat.  "So, I s'pose this is why you've pulled back on the pushing as of late?  I've been wondering about that," he confessed with a gentle chuckle.

He started to reach for the gear selector, but Gail caught his hand in her own, squeezing it and leaning toward him.  He took the invitation, grinning as he kissed her softly.  "Yes," she answered as they pulled apart, "It seemed wise to tone it down.  Though, I think things may get more complicated soon," she admitted.  She waited for him to back the car out of its parking space before continuing.  "Heather told Jake that she's ready to have a baby."

"But she's not pregnant?"

Gail tried but failed to suppress a snicker.  "Johnston, she'd have to be four or five months along," she informed him.  "Even you would have noticed by now."

"Right," he grumbled, turning out of the parking lot and onto Fifth Street. 

"It seems to be something she came to more recently.  And they have been married for four years, or nearly – next month," his wife reminded.  "So, they've been talking about that, but I guess they decided it was more of an 'in-person' conversation.  They're planning to talk about it on their anniversary trip.  Which we now know will be in Ha—"

"He should just give her this," Johnston interrupted, making an irritated noise.  He braked then for a stop sign, glancing to the right at his frowning wife.  "I – I know Jake loves her, Gail," he insisted.  "I know that.  Everyone who's ever seen them together knows that.  But he takes her for granted.  So, he should at least give her this.  She wants to be a mother, so it's time for him to decide that he wants to be a father."

"Jake doesn't need to decide that he wants to be a father, Johnston," Gail informed him, her tone betraying her aggravation.  "He knows that he wants to be a dad – a good dad.  For Heather, and for their children.  And he doesn't take her for granted," she finished, clearly cross.

"How long has he been gone this time?" Johnston returned.  "Heather said four months.  That's taking her for granted in my book."

"Heather and Jake don't have a doggy door anymore."

"Okay," he acknowledged.  "I don't understand what that has to do with him taking her for granted."

"The doggy door was taken out when the security system went in.  And the security system went in because Jake wanted to be sure that Heather was safe," she explained.  "Whether or not he's home.  That's not taking her for granted, that's taking care of her.  In my book, anyway."

"I heard her the other night," Johnston argued, turning the car left onto Chestnut.  "She misses him."

"Of course, she does!" Gail declared, throwing her hands up.  "She loves him.  She should miss him.  We want her to miss him—"

"She was crying," he interjected.

"—and he misses her, too."  Gail paused a moment, her lips pursed.  "And if you heard Heather when she was crying that means that what you actually did was overhear about thirty seconds of a conversation you weren't a part of," his wife informed him.  "So, yes, she was upset in that moment.  But there was a lot going on that you don't know about.  What you should know is that Jake – he – he offered to quit.  He said he'd get on a plane and come home if that's what she wanted."

"I think that's exactly what she'd want," he grumbled, turning the car into their driveway.  "If she wants to have a baby."

"She wants him to come home," Gail sighed.  "She just doesn't want Jake to quit his job, not for her.  She says if he wants to quit his job, it should be because that's what he wants to do.  Heather loves him.  Enough that….  She's not going to ask him to give up his career."

"Well, maybe she should," Johnston growled.  He'd parked the Le Sabre on the left-hand side of the driveway, half a car length ahead of his truck so there was room for Gail to get out.  "And he should decide what's more important to him.  His wife or his job."

"She loves him for who he is, not for who she or anyone else thinks he should be."

"I love Jake," he argued, unbuckling his seatbelt. 

Gail acknowledged this with a nod.  "I know that, Johnston.  What I worry about though," she frowned, undoing her own seatbelt, "Is that you don't seem to like him very much.  And that makes me feel sad for you."

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To be continued in Different Circumstances Interludes: Gail and Johnston, Part 2 later this week.

I am continuing to write this story (both the main Different Circumstances storyline and these Interludes), and I have a pretty good outline to get me through the rest of season one and beyond.  But again, I don't know how fast that will be or if there is still any interest in this story.  If there is, and you want me to know that the best way to do so (unless you are a registered user of this site and want to leave a review) is to email me directly at: marzeedoats @ gmail dot com (please format as an email address – I am trying to avoid getting additional junk mail).  I promise I will only use this information as encouragement to write, and potentially to send you pdf copies of later chapters, if / when the site closes (would be late May 2024 at the earliest).  Contacting me directly is the best way to let me know if there is still interest in this story, and if you want to know (eventually) how it ends.

In the Different Circumstances universe, April is the eldest of the three Glendenning sisters.  Her younger sisters are Autumn and August.  The news that Autumn is pregnant caused a bit of a stir at Jake and Eric's 28th birthday dinner as chronicled in Different Circumstances, Part 15A.  By this point in the story, Autumn's son Blake is just about to turn four years old.

KUMC is the University of Kansas Medical Center (also referred to as KU Med), the main medical campus for the University of Kansas.  KUMC houses the university's schools of medicine, nursing, and health professions, with the primary health science campus in Kansas City, Kansas (the smaller of the two cities named Kansas City, the other being Kansas City, MO, to the east over the state line in Missouri).  Other campuses are located in Wichita and Salina, Kansas, and are connected with the University of Kansas Health System. 

In the Different Circumstances universe, April was an undergraduate at the University of Kansas at Lawrence (as were Johnston and Gail) and went to medical school at KUMC, both on the main campus in Kansas City, KS and on the satellite campus in Wichita.  Naturally, as April considers going to a fertility specialist, she is interested in a doctor associated with her alma mater.

The medical campus in Kansas City is approximately forty miles from the university's flagship campus in Lawrence.

(In the Different Circumstances universe, Eric is a graduate of The University of Kansas School of Law at Lawrence, having earned a J.D., and Heather is a graduate of The University of Kansas School of Education and Human Sciences at Lawrence, having earned a M.S.E. in Educational Administration.)