Title from the John Denver song, keeping on theme. Missing moments or perspectives from early S09 episodes. Oh yes. Basically, when they find out every detail of what happens, what happens? And, obligatory disclaimer about ownership or something.
Owen put down the phone. Boise had called the airport and when he picked the receiver back up message number four of six would be to say they'd just landed late. Then he'd turn his cell phone on and he'd have a message from Cristina, at the behest of Grey, telling him not to worry.
*eeee* "Chief Hunt, the airfield says the plane never arrived." The harried voice takes a deep breath. "In Idaho, air traffic says it never entered Idaho airspace. Did the plane turn around? Do you know what happened?" The line cuts out. Owen puts down the phone. Message number five, he tells himself, will be Boise telling him that his friends arrived safely via ground transport after their plane had to turn around.
"Hunt, it's Boise again. The airfield contacted point of origin and the plane never returned. They say they monitored it until it left Washington airspace. How does a plane full of surgeons disappear? They're opening an official investigation." Owen puts down the phone. The message came from hours ago - hours - and there was effective radio silence since, he doesn't know if it's good news or bad news.
"Doctor Major Owen Hunt, this is Paul Day, of the US Aeronautical Investigation Board. Please call me back as soon as you can. I know you're a busy surgeon, but this requires priority." Owen put down the phone. He stands up, he takes his gown off and then puts it back on. He runs his hands all over his head.
Owen picks up the phone. "Richard, I need you to come in. My office. An hour. Fine, bring the residents with you."
Owen goes to put down the phone as the line goes dead, but hits redial on Paul Day's message.
"Doctor Major Hunt?" Comes a friendly voice.
"Owen, yes. I presume this about my missing surgeons?" Owen stares at his reflection in the darkened window, trying to remain chiefly in the light of possibility.
"Yes, Owen. I understand your wife and colleagues were on board. Please, sit down." Paul suggests forcibly. Owen remains standing, staring. "The charter plane carrying one crew and six passengers - all civilians with advanced medical degrees, Owen, we are now certain it experienced a destructive crash. Owen, are you okay? The staff at Boise hospital said you were an Army surgeon but this is a major event." Owen breathes down the line and mutters to continue. "Owen, we don't know what caused the crash, but we've established that it occurred approximately an hour and 15 minutes after take-off. We also understand that it remained undiscovered until the passengers were missed at destination because it occurred at some point after the last reply handshake was sent to Washington traffic control before exiting the State airspace, but before the first reply handshake could be established in Idaho airspace. The crash also caused the airplane's internal transmitters to go offline, so it cannot be tracked. This investigation will likely be passed onto the representative airline, but we have initiated a recovery mission to be performed by the Army and Army Medical Corps. Given your standing in the Corps, is there any persons you would like to request join this mission?" Paul finishes his caring spiel with a sigh. His calculated rhythm requires more focus than the words he says - he practiced for this call: these passengers are, at least in his eyes, more important than most.
"Doctor Chief Commander Theodora Altman-Burton." Owen replies. Teddy can save them, she'll make damn well sure of it, she'll know how to do it.
"Of course, Owen. I'm very sorry. I'll call you if there's any updating to do. Would you like me to call the emergency contacts of the other passengers or can you?" Paul asks softly. Owen laughs. Cristina's emergency contact is him, Derek's is Grey and Grey's is Derek, little Grey's is Grey, as well, or Sloan, and Sloan and Robbins' is Torres. Thank god at least one of his surgeons isn't - no, missing. They're missing.
"I can call." Callie will want to hear it off him.
"Good night, Owen." Owen puts down the phone. He picks it back up.
"Bailey, you have Zola, right? Change of plan, meet me in my office in forty minutes, and bring Zola."
Callie sighs. Arizona is still not back. Her pager has beeped again, waking her from where she fell asleep waiting for her absent wife. Daycare? It says, scrolling, that Mark hasn't picked up Sofia and that neither Mark nor Arizona's pagers are receptive. Has the flight been postponed after surgery? Why haven't they called? As she reaches for her cell it starts ringing, and when she picks up she mutters, "Arizona Robbins Torres you better have an amazing reason to not be in bed with me right now."
"Doctor Torres." Owen's voice is amused but not happy. And not just not happy, but actually quite unhappy. "Do you have Sofia?"
"Chief Hunt, oh my gosh. I am so sorry you heard that -" she gets cut off by Owen, repeating the question.
"Uh, no. She's at daycare, at least until Mark picks her up but apparently he has other plans. I know they've been paging me but I thought they love her. Wait, are you really calling because daycare are sick of my kid being there?" Callie rambles, both annoyed at Arizona and Mark for not calling, and at the hospital for being pissed at her about this.
"No, no. They probably do love her. No. Ugh, Callie I know it's late but can you meet me in my office in half an hour. And bring Sofia with you." Callie immediately starts pulling on acceptable outdoor clothes.
"Sure." She replies and hangs up. It's Owen, he's not going to give anything away until he sees her in person, and everyone's strange behavior has got her so worried she doesn't want him to.
Teddy is fuming. Yesterday she got fired by one of her oldest friends, even if it was for her own good. And tonight? Well, she's been dragged up at almost midnight because she was personally requested by someone to be part of a recovery mission for a civilian plane. This is below her rank, surely, even if everyone is treating it more seriously than usual.
"Chief Altman, good evening." She gets greeted as she walks into the briefing room. The rest of the team in there have clearly already been out, and she has only just been added. It suggests the situation got worse or - what she's been told - that a body representing the missing civilians requested her by name and that it's an organization they can't refuse. Maybe it's the White House. "For the benefit of Altman, we're going to deliver this short briefing and update informally. Altman, sit." The order, and the concession, concern her. "Yesterday, shortly after it took off, a charter flight crashed without notice around the Washington-Idaho border. It was a charter flight carrying six surgeons from Seattle Grace-Mercy West hospital en route to Boise Memorial Hospital. The investigation authority have deemed it a destructive crash, and have authorized a recovery mission with medical support. The Seattle hospital were contacted fifteen minutes ago and asked for Altman to join the mission. We're going to follow the flight route in helicopters at low altitude, we may be looking for a fuselage or simply evidence of wreckage. Anything, really, the doctors are world class in many specialties so much that the government wants as much put into this recovery as we can. As you may know, Altman previously worked at the hospital with these surgeons." She was hyperventilating, she thought, except for the fact she couldn't really feel her breathing in the lucid state she'd slipped into. Owen requested her because it's her friends, her friends and colleagues, who could well be in chunks right now. Someone lifts her head, holds her hands, "Altman, we know from your disclosure forms that two of the passengers - Cristina Yang and Arizona Robbins - are very close with you. But Hunt asked for you."
"I've got to do it." She nods and stands.
When Callie approaches Hunt's office, she can see Webber and Bailey inside, with Zola of all people. She changes her perspective to hope they want to set up some weird daycare system so Owen can have time with kids now that he and Cristina seem to be doing well. Except, she turns to go down the hall to the door and half of the residents are loitering outside. They clean up well, but it's odd. Everything's been off these past few days, starting with Arizona. Sure, she was pissed at Karev but she hates planes, is petrified of them, she must care about Karev and his career a lot if she'd get on one just to teach him a lesson.
"We having a party in here?" Callie asks when she enters, wanting to break the tension.
"Torres, please take a seat." Hunt suggests, morosely. Callie can't help but question why she's the only one sitting, but maybe Webber and Bailey didn't take the offer. Hunt clears his throat. "You're probably wondered why I called you all here at almost one in the morning. Well, I'm not going to talk around the matter. I'm sure you've noticed that our surgeons haven't returned from Boise, yet. The fact is, they never arrived there. The plane crashed shortly after nine pm last night." Hunt, who was staring at the wall above Callie's head next to Bailey, now moves to look her in the eye. "The Army are conducting a recovery mission but nobody knows where the plane went down. The good news is, the investigation team have recommended medical assistance, so they believe there will be survivors." His delivery didn't make it sound like good news. "As of now, we are the only senior surgical staff." Sofia gurgles, Zola cries. Callie grabs them both and hugs really tight. She starts to cry - she'd usually go off on a hysterical rant, but right now she doesn't know if there's any of her left to do anything but cry and hug her baby and Meredith's baby. She cries for a long time, with Hunt kneeling down to hug her and then Bailey and Webber joining in. She cries until she snaps. It's like some logical or commanding part of her suddenly processed the information and now that part has taken over. She stands.
"Chief, are you telling me that our wives could be dead out there? And little Grey and everyone else?" She stares into his eyes coldly.
"But they're probably not, and they're probably scared. Not as scared as we are, because they know they're safe for now. And they'll be in survival mode, they're not going to be really scared until they're back home, and hopefully that will be really soon. So I want you to prepare yourself for a scared Robbins, a scared Sloan." Owen is holding her tightly and assuredly - he's so scared he's put himself in Army mode to protect from feeling, but Callie can't do that.
"I can't. I don't know what I can do, but I can't do that. I can cry, I can probably get really angry. You know Tim died in a plane crash? I can't call the Colonel. Oh, god, I can't operate tomorrow - today. I-I-I-I don't know what to do!" Callie starts bawling again, she feels like this might be hell and her mother was right. "Oh god, what if Arizona goes to hell?!" She chokes out, prompting confused looks from her colleagues.
It's almost two in the morning when Callie has calmed down enough, but she's moved from tears to pure anger. Owen would blame hormones if he weren't running through all the same emotions right now - but if he breaks down in front of them then they'll all be in a mess. He has to be a rock. Webber suggests preparing a short speech to give to the hospital staff at nine am, and when they've written it between the four of them (with two sleeping infants to cuddle for Callie every time thinking about her family hurts), she suddenly realizes the residents are probably still outside. She's angry at Karev now, and barges out with Sofia in her arms. The others are not far behind her on their way to on-call rooms for a nap, but she has fire in her eyes.
"Finally." Sighs Karev, with Avery tacking on that their reservation has probably been given away by now. "What were you guys doing in there with the kids, anyway?" He walks up to play with Sofia's hand.
"You," Callie says with some venom, fiercer than she intended but it works for her, "you're not heading off to Hopkins. Nope, you get to be Head of Peds, congrats. And you, Avery, Head of Plastics. Promotions, that's what we were talking about. Welcome to the team." The boys look at her confused, and Kepner raises a hand as if to ask a question but lowers it again when Hunt subtly shakes his head.
"I'm sorry, what?" Karev looks back down to where Sofia is stretching from her mom's arms.
"They never made it to Boise, plane crash." Callie states so matter of fact, trying to not think about it enough to cry again, but it doesn't work and within seconds she's all choked up and clinging to her baby girl as she runs off. Karev looks to Hunt after they watch her disappear around a corner.
"It's true." Hunt asserts, "the Army are looking for wreckage but don't know where it went down." The residents become awash with shock. A good day, shook just like that. Hunt continues, "I want you all to stay until we know more, even you, Kepner. Lexie's the next Chief Resident, and you're organized. Karev, you're Acting Head of Pediatrics - Hopkins loves Robbins so I'm sure they'll understand postponing, and Robbins loves you. Avery, Acting Head of Plastics. You're an Avery, I don't think they'll care if you're late." They nod, still shocked and genuinely unsure of what to do with themselves now. The doctors stand around for a minute before thinking of something more, "oh, Kepner, call Shadow Shepherd and tell him he's Acting Head of Neurosurgery. And find me someone to do neuro with him. Okay, go. There's going to be an announcement at 9am but you don't have to be there." They begin to slowly shuffle towards the lounge "Wait, Kepner. Also call for someone from psych and find me an Acting Head of Orthopedics. Torres is in no condition."
Nine am comes around, all the staff have been paged and are gathering in the large lobby. Hunt tried to send Torres home but she opted to stay and cry in the attendings' lounge instead. That's where she is, Bailey comforting her with Tuck and Zola and Sofia all snuggled around them. The newly promoted Karev and Avery, plus Kepner and Webber, are taking over duty whilst everyone else goes silent as Hunt descends the stairs.
"You may be aware that two days ago a team of surgeons from Seattle Grace Mercy West flew to Boise to assist in a groundbreaking conjoined twin separation surgery similar to the one successfully performed by many of you here. You may think that I am here to inform you of its success, but this news is not good. They did not succeed in the surgery because the surgery never took place. Instead of arriving in Boise late that night, the airplane they were traveling in crashed near the Idaho border. As of yet, nobody has been recovered. I know these surgeons are your friends, just as they are mine, and I will be keeping you all updated. I will not be performing any surgeries, indefinitely. In my place we have the Head of Trauma as well as April Kepner. Alex Karev will be Acting Head of Pediatrics in place of Dr Robbins, Jackson Avery for Plastics in place of Dr Sloan, and from Miami we have Dr Andrew Foulkner as Acting Head of Orthopedic Surgery as Dr Torres will be taking time off, as well. Dr Jim Nelson will be Acting Head of Neurosurgery in place of Dr Shepherd, with Dr Tan Lin on loan from Missoula as lead neuro resident in place of Dr Lexie Grey. Dr Tyler Cousins will be on loan from Seattle Presbyterian to assist in General Surgery in place of Dr Meredith Grey. In addition, we will shortly be welcoming Dr Jeff Russell as Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery. That will be all."
It's two days later, Owen and Callie having basically been camped out in his office the entire time.
"Four days and five nights. What's your chance of survival in the Pacific rainforest after four days and five nights? Suppose they survived the crash, they were probably injured. They'll be hypothermic for sure, and dehydrated. So they might be alive but on a downward spiral." Callie starts postulating, staring at the ceiling and listening to the whir of the fan.
"Torres, respectfully, stop that. It's not healthy. Try to be positive. They're doctors, we factor in that knowledge they have about an 83% chance of survival, they'll be fine." Owen turns the fan off, reaches for a bag of chips.
"They'll be fine." Callie agrees, just as the phone starts ringing. Both jump up to it, and Owen pages the PR team that have been dealing with the media about the whole situation.
"Good afternoon, Chief Hunt." Comes an authoritative but familiar voice from the other end.
"Is it a good one, Sergeant Brady?" Owen asks.
"Well, I have Teddy on the satellite phone, want me to turn it up for you? Altman, we have Hunt on the line!" Brady cheers, actually ecstatically despite his position.
Hunt turns his office phone to speaker and calls out "and Torres, too."
"Hi there." Teddy's muffled voice comes through. "You know, Owen, remind me to kick your ass." Owen laughs. "But not before I give you some great news. We have five choppers out here, and we're calling for more because we've found some wreckage. And some doctors. Want me to give you the rundown?" Teddy sounds happy, Owen and Callie assure themselves as they look at each other. Unless she was crazy she wouldn't be excited unless they were fine.
"Go ahead, Chief Altman." Owen commands.
"So, first recovery was Meredith Grey. Slight trauma but nothing superficial a few stitches can't fix. Second, Cristina. She's severely exhausted and isn't in the best shape, but is conscious and nothing broken. Third - shit. What do you mean she's dead?" Callie's heart stops. Owen moved away slightly hearing that Cristina was worse for wear, but at the d-word he returns to action mode. "Um, third, the remains of Alexandra Grey. Meredith says she died almost instantly. Oh god. That's where we're at. We're just about to go back for Derek, he's more complicated. And that's it for outside of the plane." If Callie's heart had stopped before, her whole body does now. It just freezes. That's four, the only ones left are Arizona and Mark and apparently they haven't even found them. If they're still in the plane wreckage after the best part of a week, are they trapped? Did they die instantaneously so never got out?
"Teddy, where's Arizona? Where's Mark?" She sobs down the line. The whirring disappears, replaced by Brady.
"Callie, hi. The pilot, Arizona Robbins and Mark Sloan haven't been located yet. From what Altman said, we can assume that they are inside the fuselage. There could be any number of reasons for this, including the reasonably sensible idea that it's going to be warmer inside - you told me yesterday that Arizona comes from a military family, she probably knows this and dragged Mark inside with her because he's like family, right? And if the others wanted to stay outside to signal for rescue, they'd want to be together because they're family, too. That's probably it, okay, Callie?" His soothing voice brings Callie down from a panic attack, and then there's muttering and some more serious discussion happening in the background before he returns. "Hey, Callie. I'm going to put Teddy back on in a second, but I need you to take a breath. She's going to tell you a bit about Derek, because she needs your help. Three recovery choppers have got Yang and the Greys, there's a recovery chopper at the scene for Derek and the medical chopper. There's three more recovery choppers about ten minutes out for the pilot and your family, okay? Teddy's with Derek and there's a real A-class team going to examine the plane now." There's a beep and the sounds of nature return, without the helicopter noise.
"Callie, hi, you know I said Derek was complicated? Yeah, it looks like he's broken his entire hand and seared right up his forearm. It's all pretty swollen, though, too. I've removed the rather inventive treatment Meredith gave him, but I need your ortho magic. Do I go for the arm first or the hand? I know he'll want the hand because he's an amazing surgeon, but I'm worried that if I don't treat the arm quickly that the infection will spread past where there was an attempt at irrigation I took out. Really they were very inventive." Stopping Teddy's adrenaline rant, Callie gives the simple directions of the treatment she'd follow before deeming it suitable to put Derek on a helicopter and fly him to Boise. Normally, the lead doctor would just go for it but when you already have a world class orthopedic surgeon on the phone you might as well try to give him more than just survival. "Okay, thank you, Dr Torres. Wait, what?" Teddy gets distracted talking to her team, but remembers to at least move the satellite phone away from her mouth. She returns saying "We've found the pilot. He's paralyzed, but he's okay. He was unconscious until a minute ago, and he asked if Arizona was okay. What's confusing is he said she was outside the plane when he talked to her, but we haven't found her. I only asked Meredith about Lexie before we sedated her, sorry. We're going to check out the main body of the plane, okay? I can keep you on while we search, I can't guarantee you won't hear swearing, though." Teddy tries to joke, but there's little conviction in her voice. The pilot had said that Arizona's legs were destroyed; if Lexie had turned into wolf food then such horrific damage on Arizona would well have attracted them, too, and prevented her from running away. She tries to reassure herself that Meredith would have mentioned Arizona dying when she confirmed Lexie's death, but Meredith was quite out of it at the time. And if Arizona was outside and isn't now, she doesn't want to think about that. That's her best friend. They move from where her guys were checking the stability after cutting away some of the cockpit. It's good, they can look inside. There's a cutaway piece but not enough to have seen in when they were busy, and given how the pair they find huddled right by the gap are either dead or very unconscious they wouldn't be making any noise. "Okay. I can see them. They're cuddling, it's cute." At this news, Callie lets out a breath and smiles. Teddy takes the break to check for a pulse, and they're both just about hanging on. "Callie? They're alive, we're going to assess them now. It looks like the guys tried to immobilize them both, Mark had a straw in his chest and, um, well I might need to borrow your expertise again for Arizona, okay?" Teddy tries to make it sound as good as she can, but there's really no good way to tell someone that their wife and best friend are hanging off the cliff edge of death. Callie swallows in shock. They're alive, it sounds like barely but they're alive. "Yeah, Mark has a lot of internal bleeding. We've checked his responses and it looks fine for us to move him, so we're going to rush him onto the chopper to go straight into surgery once I've replaced the straw with an actual line. They were good, Callie, they got him breathing and put him flat. I think that's what they were doing, they immobilized Arizona in a sitting position because she was probably conscious at the time and when they had Mark flat they used her legs as a surface. That's why they were in the plane, it was safer to prevent them from getting more injuries even despite the obvious dangers of explosion or shifting." Owen is sweating, puts his hand on Callie's shoulder though right now she seems more like a wall just waiting for information. There's some active noises and some squelching noises followed a few minutes later helicopter sounds - the new ones arriving - and then Teddy's back "We just sent Mark off to surgery. Owen, can I talk to you alone?" She asks, and he takes it off speaker phone whilst Callie nervously plays with her fingers and taps on the table. Teddy continues, "I have a flight list and have to mark them off - I'm telling you this whilst the guys are checking Arizona for spinal injuries - so Meredith and Cristina get a tick for relatively good physical shape. Um, Lexie gets a black cross, Derek gets a red tick for needs surgery but his chances are good. Owen, I'm going to have to give Mark and Arizona red crosses for high risk." Owen knows what that means - that they could die before they even get to hospital, and that doesn't greaten their chances by much - but just stoically nods and then verbally acknowledges this and the implicit 'don't tell Callie' before Teddy says to put it back on speaker. "Hey, so we've moved Arizona onto a tray to fully check her out. Callie, she's the last one so I'll ride with her, I promise. It looks like her left leg is, um, it's bad. Okay, but we're not going to do anything here, I'm going to get her stable for the chopper and then rush her to an OR at Boise, too. Their ortho department is great, right? Okay, I'm going to go now, but we've got them all. Go home, guys." Brady cuts the line and says that they're welcome to call him again, before hanging up.
"Guess you have an announcement to write, Chief. I think I will go home." Callie is relieved - she feels they may have been trying to hide how bad her family are, but she knows Teddy would tell her if they were really doomed.
Owen's glad that Callie isn't around for the announcement. "Hello again, everyone. I think you can guess why you've been called here. We have an update on our surgeons, the Army have found the wreckage and identified everyone. However, we have good news and bad news." He sees his senior surgeons, his trauma team, all the nurses that Mark and Arizona have slept with and Lexie's friends. Everyone loves Lexie, oh boy. "We'll start with the good: Meredith Grey, Cristina Yang, and Derek Shepherd are all in stable conditions. Dr Shepherd has experienced some injuries to his arm, however. Now the bad news." That sounded too short, he thinks. Everyone looks so shocked. So scared. "I am sorry to have to tell you that-" Shouting cuts him off. It's Bailey and Karev, and then Avery joins in. Whatever they're shouting isn't really coherent but it gets the message across: they will not accept their friends' injuries. Webber manages to get them under control, but they're still seething and brimming with fear-fueled anger. "As I was saying, it is with a heavy heart that I must tell you that Lexie Grey died from her injuries shortly after the crash. I know she was loved by everyone who knew her, and it is something, at least, that she had those closest to her at the time of her death." Owen looks out over the crowds, they're waiting for news of Sloan and Robbins, they're looking around for Torres. He's trying to remember what he prepared and not to make them scared or worried, but it takes long enough that everybody has realized that Torres isn't there. Murmur starts but it's not the usual chatter, they're scared and angry again. "It is also my job to inform you all," Owen starts, winging it, "that whilst Arizona Robbins and Mark Sloan were found alive, their vitals were not good and their injuries extensive. They were both stabilized at the scene and rushed to surgery at Boise Memorial Hospital a few minutes ago. Both remain unresponsive, we're not sure how long for. Dr Torres has gone home with her daughter. When she returns, I'd appreciate your discretion in discussing them." He walks away, distraught and resigned. He hates being Chief.
As Chief, Owen gets to go visit his people in Boise. Bailey brings Zola with her, and Owen makes sure Webber is with him because he's still the Chief for everyone there. He lies to Callie, saying they wouldn't let any relatives in but made an exception because he's Chief, and he thinks she knows he lied but it's better than saying that Mark and Arizona are comatose and so unstable that nobody is going to get to see them. Apparently, Grey is the only one who's doing well, hence she gets to see Zola. They brief him on the phone, but he isn't prepared for Cristina to have even worse PTSD than last time - worse than any veteran he knows. She's basically just a body that only responds positively to the stimuli of him or Grey. They haven't drawn up a treatment plan for Derek's hand - they're aware that it's worth quite literally billions of dollars - and won't let Torres fly out to help them in case she tries to find Robbins or Sloan. Boise are planning to send everyone back to Seattle together, Grey explains to him, because she has a head injury that's under observation for a few more days and by that point they should be okay to move Mark and Arizona. Cristina is able to be moved whenever Owen says so, and they're in the process of transferring Derek completely to Callie's service. Lexie can go whenever, they couldn't do an autopsy, but when Meredith said a wing landed on her they didn't really need to. Theoretically, it would be best to ground transport them, but Mark and Arizona wouldn't survive that. He gets to make a speech about this, too. He tries to call Callie, she doesn't pick up.
He knocks on her office door as soon as he returns. There's a few people in the hallway but he has to tell her now. "Callie, I've had to prepare another speech. They're coming back today." She stares at him blankly, it looks like she's slept but so poorly that she's wound up more exhausted. "I need to tell you this, and it's all bad. There's no good in it. They're getting flown in, even though ground transportation would be better, because Mark and Arizona couldn't survive the journey. They've made room for another crash cart so they don't have to choose if they both crash at once. Still, they've asked if you could make that choice, just in case." He also had to ask her that.
"Chief Hunt." She drawls slowly, she's not in a good place, "You've come to tell me that though my friends are more or less okay, the very one and only reason they are getting an air drop for a journey that would otherwise be made in secure ambulance is because my wife and best friend would be DOA if they did that?" She seems almost detached, but Owen waits, and the incredulity and humanity appear on her face. She cries herself into a fit again. "They're - they're just not okay. How are they not okay? Why, why them. Why my people. My amazing, beautiful Arizona. Are they really that bad?" She collapses into his arms. He's not going to ask her again, for the choice. It's Arizona. He's not going to make her make the choice because he knows it's simple - it's Arizona - but it'd be monstrous to make her realize that for herself.
"Hello again, everyone. I am here to announce that the staff at Boise Memorial Hospital are currently sedating several of our surgeons before they will load them onto the medical transfer airplane. This is by their choice. The staff decided that whilst ground transportation is preferable, Dr Sloan and Dr Robbins are too unstable to survive such a long journey without complete medical facilities. Dr Grey asked the staff at Boise to sedate herself, Dr Yang and Dr Shepherd as they were fearful of flying, which is more than understandable. I will send a team to receive the airplane when it lands, as well as a mortuary ambulance. Lexie will be the first off the plane, and then the doctors will follow by how severe their injuries are. Sloan and Robbins will be transferred immediately to surgery, initially to treat infection and their cardiothoracic concerns. The operating surgeons have been briefed. When these three vehicles have departed, non-emergency staff will receive Shepherd, then Yang, then Grey. Dr Webber and Dr Bailey will accompany them on the flight from Boise, along with emergency medical staff. I would join them myself, as Chief and as a Trauma surgeon, but the space will instead be taken by an extra crash cart. I'm telling you this so that you have all the details and there's no gossiping. We all know that these planes are usually fitted with a crash cart, but it has been recommended that an extra one be supplied should both Sloan and Robbins crash or arrest at the same time. Again, Dr Torres has been informed. She is currently in her office and will be allowed to observe any surgery. It is known that Robbins and Shepherd will require extensive orthopedic surgery. Please, only mention the incident to Dr Torres if it is in line with consulting on these surgeries."
The board told him yesterday that Torres could operate on Robbins because legally there's no ethical question. Obviously, Torres is never going to find that out because, well, she'd probably kill him given how homophobic it sounds and, two, because she's not operating on her wife. Not yet, at least.
It's three months later. Callie's been making amazing progress in therapy and she's operating again. She barely leaves the hospital, flitting between an occasionally-alert Mark and a usually-unconscious Arizona. For the first month both were in induced comas. Arizona's improvement is slow, because of her insistence on keeping her leg - and Callie won't see that the leg will be useless even if she does survive. Mark is yo-yo-ing, because of how long he went without treatment in the forest. It's unfortunate - both of them would probably be fine if not for nearly five days out there. Cristina is also doing better, after having what's nearly residential rehabilitation care. Meredith is back at work, taking time off after Lexie's funeral. Derek is waiting for his first round of surgery from Callie. The previous ones have been standard reconstructive - Torres is going in for the fix.
Five months after 'the plane crash' and it all happens. It's Derek's final revolutionary nerve surgery, a win for Torres. And she needs it, Owen reflects that night. Because five hours into the surgery, an insistent beeping happens. If someone crashes and they're not in Trauma or the ER, nearly everyone gets paged. That's what happens when Bailey is introducing interns to the ortho floor. She smiles - people rarely crash in ortho and it'll probably be fun. The smile disappears when Karev runs up to her, having seemingly abandoned his beloved mentor's tiny humans, and yells said mentor's name.
"What about Robbins, Karev?" Bailey glares at him as she marches towards the crashing patient.
"It's her, the one crashing. I was talking to her and suddenly she just, stops." He's in shock, but thankfully Bailey has the sense in her to yell at every medical professional who can hear her to get to bed 3312 and treat Dr Robbins. They shock her, and Karev stares. She mostly stabilizes but whilst they're trying to get a drip in to bring her fluids up, she crashes again. Karev takes over on checking everything off. The third time she crashes, they've gathered an audience. It's rare someone crashes in ortho, let alone three times so quickly. When the paddles are removed and they all finally see the virtually-dead ortho case, they begin to clear. Karev asks Owen to take over, the crowd parts as if he's Moses as he heads to the OR. Arizona has crashed three times - four, he hears as he leaves the hall - and her vitals and SATs take a nosedive every time. She's on her way out, not just one foot but quite literally an entire leg in the grave already. She's dying. They need to do something, like right now. But he's not going to do it without permission from her wife, and it's not like he's going to wait any longer to tell Callie what's happening.
Callie knows she has to keep her cool, and she's glad she was already in detached surgeon mode to operate on Derek - and that Karev managed to pick a moment when she thankfully didn't have tools inside of Derek's hand. She only vaguely remembers that the intercom is off when she has to make the decision she promised Arizona she wouldn't, to perform a complete leg amputation. She kind of hates herself, but she still has to finish fixing Derek's hand, so she's glad that nobody overheard to check on her, which would make her emotional and liable to screw up. Except Grey, the intrusion and probably the look on her face must've easily given away that something was wrong. She lies to Grey, and continues with the surgery.
Karev doesn't even take Arizona to an OR before starting to operate. No, if she wants to live she needs to lose the leg - preferably a few months ago, but right now might do it, too. She screwed herself, he thinks as he runs back to ortho, because now her infection and emboli have gotten really bad, and her upper body injuries are getting worse but can't be the focus because of the leg, and her recovery is going to be longer. He loves her, but he hates her. He pushes open the door, yells at anyone unnecessary to leave and tells Owen the plan.
"Torres said the only way to save her life is to cut it off. She told me to do it." And Owen won't argue with that. He'll check up on her after needing to call it, though.
The people kicked out didn't have very far to go, though, as Mark Sloan suddenly crashes up in Intensive Care. And, resuscitation over, he slips out of his surge and into a coma, maintained only by life support. Owen learnt his lesson with Teddy, and begins the walk to OR 3, passing where Karev has taken Robbins into OR 2 and is having someone prep a bone saw. He pauses - he's going to walk in looking sad (he's always looking sad nowadays) and unhurried, Torres is going to think Arizona's died. He calls Grey.
"Owen?" She's confused but he hears when concern enters her voice near the end.
"Hey, you're watching Callie operate, right? Could you tell me when she's not got any tools in her hands, I need to come in." He sighs. He sounds sad. Meredith, he feels, might try to put two and two together, to connect Karev's visit with his now careful one.
"She's not holding anything now, she's stood up to exercise her legs." She almost whispers. If she can postpone it, maybe it will never need to happen.
Owen enters the OR, and Callie looks surprised.
"Callie, sit down." Her face drops. "It's Mark." There wasn't exactly a smile to begin with, but it's not returning. "He also crashed, shortly after Arizona arrested when Karev came to see you. We resuscitated him, but he's fallen into a coma and is currently only being sustained on life support." He's trying his best not to let practice take over and the usual spiel to come out, but he can't think of how else he could ever give this news, "I have to inform you that Mark signed a directive to remove care if after thirty days he showed no sign of improvement. This point will be at five pm, thirty days from now. He has indicated both you and Derek to follow this living will."
"And Arizona?" Callie swallows, pulls her surgical mask down so Owen can see how she somehow looks so innocent.
"Is in surgery. Karev is amputating, but it might be too late. I'm sorry." He goes to shake her hand, and she accepts, she'll just scrub again - she needs to excuse to go to the scrub room so she can allow herself a short breakdown. Meredith looks on from the deathly quiet gallery, but she's unconcerned, knowing Callie wouldn't continue to operate unless she could. She calls Owen back to ask what happened.
"Honestly, Meredith?" He braces himself. "Robbins and Sloan both crashed, a lot. I, I really think that they're both about to die." He decides to make an announcement, because even if Robbins lives she may never operate again, and it'll be a long time before she can, anyway.
Callie's still in surgery when he gathers everyone, and Meredith stays to watch to reassure her that there's nothing exceptionally out of the ordinary. "I'm sure many of you have heard that not long ago both Dr Robbins and Dr Sloan experienced multiple medical emergencies, including several resuscitations for both. Unfortunately-" A cacophony explodes at this word, and he doesn't try to stop it. His words haven't gotten away from him, this is just bad news. "Please quiet down. Yes, Mark Sloan is currently being kept alive by life support, with his will to be carried out by Dr Torres and Dr Shepherd. Additionally, Arizona Robbins has been taken to emergency surgery being led by Dr Karev. The primary surgery is an above-knee amputation, the surgeons will then attempt to reconstruct her myriad organs that are in failure and to remove infection and emboli before taking measures to restore her vital signs and to prevent further damage. I feel the need to inform you all that for both of our surgeons the outlook is not bright. Dr Torres has been informed, I advise staying well away or being very nice. I am about to return to my office, where I will draft job advertisements for Head of Pediatric and Head of Plastic surgery. I will also buy any and all of you a drink tonight in Joe's. I'll be disappointed if there's not at least one card for Torres by the end of the shift."
Everyone is quiet and unmoving, daunted by the idea, until a small voice calls to the ether asking to not let them die, that they're angels but nobody here wants them to fly away.