A/N: Wires by Athlete is one of my favourite songs ever and probably always will be.
You got wires, going in
You got wires, coming out of your skin
You got tears, making tracks
I got tears, that are scared of the facts
Running, down corridors through, automatic doors
Got to get to you, got to see this through
I see hope is here, in a plastic box
I've seen christmas lights, reflect in your eyes
~x~
It's different, running towards someone, it's not like running away. They all thought he'd run away, but here he is speeding through the halls, and he swears his lungs are about to give out but he won't give up, he needs to get to them.
When he gets there they're already in surgery and he barely feels Sloan's arms around him, holding him back from running right in there, keeping him in the scrub room looking through the glass no matter how much he fights. He sees his daughter for the first time being rushed from the hands of his girlfriends doctor to the waiting arms of another, and before he can blink she's put in an incubator and rushed from the room, only then does Sloan let him go, go after your daughter, he says, Addison will be fine, go. So he does.
Meredith is with him outside of the NICU, holding his hand as they watch wires and tubes get attached to the baby who didn't even have a name yet. Except she did because Addison had known since she could remember that her first daughter would be called Emily, after her first Nanny, the one who taught her how to walk, Emily Carson Karev. She'd insisted on Karev, no matter how many times he asked otherwise, it was Karev, she was a Karev, they both would be some day.
He'd never understood it, when people would say it felt like they were moving in slow motion but the whole world was speeding past, he'd never understood it until that moment. The painful moment of waiting, hoping, praying, and he'd never prayed to god in his life.
Finally he can see her, be near her, his baby girl. He reaches into her isolate and touches her delicate hand, she looks like Addison, even though she's so small and fragile, she is just like Addison. Beautiful. He stays with her, not saying a word, just keep their skin touching as doctors worked around them, and then he felt a hand on his shoulder and he saw a reassuring smile, and he let out the breath he didn't know he was holding. They were ok, they were going to be ok. And he was going to make damn sure it would stay that way.
~x~