Time is a funny thing, no one cares about time really. We live by time, but time doesn't rule us, we rule time. We fight time with memories and with keepsakes. Things that let us live on forever, things that time can never touch. Sometimes, just sometimes, time wins and we lose.

It was five o'clock in the morning. Derek was up, as usual with a cup of coffee. He sat at the kitchen table drinking his coffee, reading the paper, like clockworks. Every morning, the coffee, the paper, sometimes a baked good if he could find one.

At exactly five after, he would look out the window and admire the New York skyline, for five minutes pretending it was the Seattle skyline. At five thrirty, Addison would come down, kiss his left cheek and then pour herself a cup of coffee. She would then stir in milk and sit down. He would hand her the front page and she would nod in acceptance.

They had the routine worked out from two years ago after they had left Seattle, after they had moved into the New York flat and after they had settled in.

The routine was broken this morning by a call. The phone rang twice before Derek picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Dr. Shepard?"

"Cristina?"

Cristina didn't want to be the one calling Shepard but they had drawn straws and she had lost. So now she was at the payphone looking up numbers calling every Shepard she could find in New York.

"Thank God, I've called three other Shepards…this is Derek Shepard right?"

'Cristina it's five fifteen in the morning…"

"I'm painfully aware of this Shepard."

"So why are you calling me at five fifteen in the morning."

"There's been an accident. Richard was tied up and he needed somebody to call you to ask for your expertise…"

Derek sighed, "At five fifteen in the morning?"

"Your flight leaves in an hour and fifteen minutes… sorry, now fourteen minutes."

"I'm going to hang up now Cristina…"

"I've emailed the tickets Shepard, you had better be here, or else I will personally come to New York and get you, clear?"

"Clear as glass…"

"Good, what are you waiting for, hurry!" With that she hung up.

At five thirty that morning Addison was not greeted at the table by her husband, but by a scribbled note saying.

Addison:

There's been an accident. In Seattle. I'm going.

-D

Izzie was waiting in the airport. Her blonde hair was tousled and her lipstick was slightly smudged.

"Izzie. Nice to see you." He smiled pleasantly hoping that she wasn't still mad at him for leaving two years ago.

"Shepard…" She rolled her eyes, and then turned around and walked away.

"Alex is getting your bags. Don't argue, I'll catch you up on the way to the hospital…"

Derek sighed, obviously she could hold a grudge.

"Female, late twenties. Fell unconscious without warning, she'd had a car accident some time ago, we think that the problem has re-appeared. She's in a medically induced coma."

"What's her name Izzie?"

Izzie gave him a glare, "Did I let you speak?"

Derek cleared his throat.

"As I was saying, she had been admitted recently, we had no neuro-consult that knew what was happening…"

Derek was quiet for a moment, "So how's everything at the hospital."

Izzie raised an eyebrow, "Dr. Shepard you cannot possibly be idiotic enough to think that I'm trying to make pleasant conversation. I think that you are a jerk. In case you can't tell I don't like you very much, you've hurt a lot of friends of mine and I'm ready to forgive you for that. I'm not going to chit chat with you, and I'm not going to talk to you on a personal level, is that clear?"

Derek nodded.

"Great, we're almost there."

He knew who the patient was, Izzie didn't have to tell him, he read it off her face. He read it from Cristina's voice. He saw it in George's face as he stared out the window.

"It's Meredith isn't it."

Izzie didn't say anything.

"Izzie?"

"What part of I'm not talking to you do you not understand?"

"Don't be childish Izzie…"

"You have NO right to tell me whether or not I'm being childish Shepard. You abandoned her. If she didn't need a neuro consult I would've wanted you to stay with Satan in her salmon colour scrubs. But we've stayed up late, we've done research and we know none of us can do the surgeries. I'd rather be childish than turn into the adult that you are…" Izzie then flipped her hair and stormed into the hospital.

"Why did I come back?" He muttered softly as the automatic door opened softly before him.

It was kind of scary to see her hooked up to all of the machines.

"Cristina?"

Cristina stopped, not turning around.

"Cristina?"

"What?"

"How long has it been going on?"

"What?"

"When did she get into the accident."

Cristina looked down.

"Two years ago…a little after you'd left. You know after you left she swore off alcohol. She was sober for a week, and then this happens, a woman rushing somewhere, conference, airport, something like that. Izzie and George were in the car too, but the car hit the driver's side, they both just got a case of whiplash. Meredith was admitted to Seattle Grace, but it was kept under wraps, Richard didn't want anyone to know for some reason, he didn't want press coverage on her. She was released because they couldn't find anything after she woke up. Now it's back, some kind of trauma, they say it's gotten worse." Cristina never made eye contact in the whole story, like she was trying to avoid him and he had caught her.

"Anything happen before this?"

"She's been complaining about headaches, pain in her chest, some on her forehead and temples. She never talked much though, you know Meredith…"

"Anything else?"

Cristina was still staring at her shoes, "No, can I go…"

"Sure." Derek sighed, resigned.

Time can change us, there's no doubt about that. We can change time, but it's never the same effect. Time rules us, but our memories rule time. So we're crushed by time and our memories, our past and out future. Somehow though we find a way to live, a way to thrive. Sometimes we can survive.