Mark had a bad feeling about this trip. Several doctors were headed to Idaho to perform a surgery on conjoined twins. They would be gone a week and all he wanted to do was talk to his best friend Sitalia before he got on that damn plane, but he hadn't been able to get ahold of her for the past two days. He had talked to her last week when he found out him, Derek and Meredith were going on the trip. Lexie was going as well, but things with her just hadn't been the same since they broke up the last time. He loved her, but he would never love her as much as he loved his best friend and he had never told Sitalia how he really felt. He had never had the guts to. He had a feeling he needed to tell her before he got on that plane. He didn't know why, but he felt like this would be his last chance which made not being able to get a hold of her all the more maddening.
He was brought out of his thoughts by someone calling his name from down the hall. He turned around and for a second he thought he was dreaming. Running towards him was his best friend Sitalia. She was gorgeous with long blonde hair, bright blue eyes and a body the greatest plastic surgeon couldn't recreate.
"What are you doing here Sita?" He asks as he looks her over. She looks flushed and he can tell she's been crying.
"You can't get on that plane Mark. You, Derek and Meredith cannot get on that plane." She says over and over as she crashes into him.
"What are you talking about? We have to get on that plane. We have a surgery to perform in Idaho in two days." He says as he keeps looking at her.
"Do you trust me Mark?" She asks and he nods his head. Of course he trusts her. The only other person he trusts just as much would be Derek.
"Then don't get on that damn plane Mark. If you're so gungho about doing this surgery than at least let me drive the three of you to Idaho, but please don't get on that plane." She begs. He's never seen her beg like this. He has also never seen her this upset before.
"We'll have to go talk to the Chief about this. Let's go find Derek and Meredith first. I don't think they've left for the airport yet." He says as they start walking towards Derek's office. He had a feeling that's where they'd be and he was right.
As soon as they walk into the office Sitalia throws herself at Derek and starts crying again.
"What's the matter sweetie?" Derek asks her and she lifts her head to start talking.
"Don't get on that plane Derek. Please don't get on that plane. Something bad is going to happen. I've had this feeling since Mark told me the three of you were going to Idaho. Please don't get on it." She begs him and Mark can see how serious she is.
"What's wrong with the plane Sitalia?" Meredith asks. She has a surprised look on her face.
He remembers she's only met Sitalia a handful of times so he's guessing she isn't used to how in tune with her instincts she happens to be.
"I don't know what's wrong with the plane, but I do know the three of you can't get on it. Please just listen to me." She begs and his heart starts to break for her. She was really upset.
"How are we supposed to get there then Sitalia?" Meredith asks and he can tell she's getting a little frustrated with this whole thing, but Mark knew that Sitalia had valid reasons for not wanting them to get on the plane. He didn't know how he knew, but he just did.
"I'll drive the three of you, but I can't let you get on that plane. Will you let me drive you? I'll drive all night if I have to. It's only Wednesday and the operation isn't until Friday. If we leave now we'll get there before midnight tonight and you'll have all day tomorrow to go over pre-op scans and patient history." She says and then looks at the three of them with hope in her eyes. He can see the tears starting to form as no one says anything.
"Alright Sita. I'll ride with you. There's no way I'm ignoring you even if you are a stuffy neurosurgeon like Derek." Mark jokes and watches as a small smile lights up her face, but it quickly falls when she realizes Derek and Meredith hadn't said anything yet.
"Derek? Meredith? Please?" She asks as she looks at them again.
"I'll ride with you Sitalia." Meredith says and then we all wait for Derek's answer.
"You realize this is crazy, right?" He asks as he looks at the three of us, but his eyes settle on Sitalia.
"I know it's crazy Derek, but remember back when you were in New York and I told you not to go near the Twin Towers?" She asks, but leaves it at that. He simply nods. We both remembered that day.
"Let's go talk to the Chief then. He'll have to clear it." Derek says and the four of us walk to Hunt's office.
~oOo~
As Derek knocks on the Chief's door we all wait patiently to enter. He can see Sitalia fidgeting with her hands.
"He can't make us get on that plane babe. Stop worrying so much. The three of us have already agreed to drive there." He says before he is interrupted by Hunt calling to them to enter.
"Hey Chief. The three of us have a problem." Derek starts off.
"Who is this?" Hunt asks as he points to Sitalia.
"This is Dr. Sitalia Romanov. She went to college with us and did her residency with us at Mt. Sinai in New York. The three of us have decided to ride with her to Idaho. None of us want to get on that plane." Derek states and we can see Hunt contemplating his words.
"Why not?" He asks as he looks at all four of them.
"Sir, you don't know me, but I have a tendency to have pretty good instincts when it comes to my family. These three here are my family. Mark and Derek have been my best friends since high school. Meredith is married to Derek which makes her family as well. I don't think they should get on that plane." She states with all the confidence in the world, or at least that's what it would look like to anyone that didn't know her, but Mark knew otherwise. He could see the twitch in her eye that said she hated standing up to this man.
"I'll give the rest of the doctors the option to not fly as well, but you better be there on time." Hunt orders and then dismisses us.
Out in the hall he quickly hugs Sitalia.
"I love you, you know that?" He says, but then stops as what he has just said registers in his mind.
"I love you too Mark. I have since high school, but you were always with someone else." She says as she looks down.
"I hate to break up this touching moment, but we really need to leave. It's already almost noon." Derek says as he watches his best friend finally tell the woman he loves how he feels. He watches as Sitalia kisses Mark real quick and then walks over to Meredith.
"Want to sit up front with me so these two don't drive us crazy?" She asks with a smile and Meredith nods with a laugh.
"Enough you too. Don't make me separate you two. Sitalia, are you going to be alright driving the whole way?" Derek asks.
"Yeah, I should be perfectly fine. Although I did drive here from New York." She states and then looks down when the three of them look at her shocked.
"Is that why I couldn't get a hold of you?" Mark asks.
"Yes." Sitalia whispers.
"Well, at least I know you weren't ignoring my calls." He states and then grabs her hand as they walk to the parking lot to get their bags out of their cars.
"The cars should be fine here until we get back." Meredith says and then gets in the passenger seat of Sitalia's SUV.
"This is a nice car babe." Mark says as he looks around the interior.
"Thanks. I had Nancy help me pick it out." Sitalia says as she looks at Derek.
"So what you mean is Nancy saw it at a dealership, called you and talked you into buying it." Derek says with a laugh.
"Of course." She answers back laughing and turns onto the road out of the parking lot.
~oOo~
It was almost ten hours later that they pulled into the parking lot of St. Luke's Hospital. Derek had decided that they needed to stop in here to see what the rest of the team had found out before they headed to the hotel for the night.
"Sitalia, do you want to scrub in with me on Friday? Two neurosurgeons are always better than one." Derek says as he looks at the woman he believes will be his sister soon.
"If I can get the privileges here that I need I'd be glad to. I haven't operated with you in a long time." She responds with a smile.
Once inside they search for the Chief of Surgery Dr. Martin. They find him in his office on the phone.
"Oh wait Dr. Hunt, four of your surgeons just walked in. Let me see if they know anything or have heard anything." Dr. Martin says as he puts their Chief of Surgery on hold.
"Hello. My name is Dr. Martin. I'm the Chief of Surgery here at St. Luke's. We were expecting all of you earlier, but it's good you're here now. Where are the others? Did they already go to the hotel?" Dr. Martin asks them and Mark can feel his stomach drop.
"No. We're the only ones that drove. The rest took the plane that our hospital had setup for us. We had a friend tell us that it wasn't a good idea to get on the plane. She said she had a bad feeling about us flying." Meredith says as she looks at Sitalia. Mark can see the fear in both women's eyes. Something wasn't right. The others should have been here hours ago.
"I don't want to be right." Mark hears Sitalia whisper and watches as a few tears fall down her cheeks.
"Hey, it'll be alright. I'm sure everyone is fine baby. The plane was probably just delayed or the others went on ahead to the hotel. Why don't you and Meredith go to the hotel and see if they've checked in, alright?" He asks and looks to Meredith trying to convey to her that she needs to get Sitalia out of here.
"Yeah, come on Sitalia. Let's go check and see if they're there." Meredith says and leads Sitalia out of the office.
Meanwhile, Derek is still talking to the Chief of Surgery.
"We have no idea what happened to the others. We didn't fly as I said. We've been on the road for the last ten hours or so." Derek says as he looks back to Mark. They both know this isn't good.
"Do you know who was on the plane?" Dr. Martin asks.
"Well, since we're the only ones that drove I'm assuming there's Dr. Yang, Dr. Karev, and Dr. Grey. Those were the ones scheduled to fly with us." Mark says and looks at Derek. If Lexie was on that plane and it went down Meredith is going to have a fit.
"I'll start calling the local airports and see if they've had to make an emergency landing. I'll also have your Chief call the FAA and see if they can track down the plane." Dr. Martin states and dismisses us.
"What do you think happened Derek?" Mark asks as they walk to the lobby to call a cab to take them to the hotel they were staying at.
"I think Sitalia just saved our lives for the second time." Derek says and then goes quiet. Mark has a feeling he's thinking the same thing that he is. Were any of the others still alive?
~oOo~
"It's been a week Mark. How the hell can it be this hard to find a damn plane?" Sitalia yells as she paces their hotel room. They found out three days ago that her sister, Arizona Robbins, was on that plane as well.
"I don't know baby, but they'll find them. We just have to be patient." Mark states as he watches her start pacing again.
"I'm just so glad you, Derek and Meredith weren't on that plane. I don't think I could take it if any of you had gotten hurt, but I had no idea Arizona was going to be on that plane. I would have told her to stay off it too." She states as she starts crying. Mark quickly pulls her into his lap and cradles her, trying to calm her down.
That's how Derek and Meredith found them two hours later. Sitalia had fallen asleep and Mark was just holding her when they knocked on the door.
"Come in." Mark yells trying to be as quiet as possible, but loud enough so they would hear.
"You need to wake her up. They found the plane and the survivors." Derek states, but before Mark could wake her up she's up and talking.
"Who survived? Where are they? Is Arizona alright? What happened?" She fires off question after question not pausing between each one.
"Slow down Sitalia. We'll answer what we can. Everyone survived except Lexie Grey. She was Meredith's sister." And before Derek could continue Sitalia has Meredith in her arms telling her how sorry she is.
"It's alright. Well, maybe not alright, but it will be." Meredith says as she sniffles.
"They were found in a forest about sixty miles from here. Arizona has a severe broken leg and some other bruises, but that's about it. They have no idea what happened. The pilot is paralyzed. They're being brought to St. Luke's and from there they'll be flown to Seattle Grace Mercy West." Derek says.
"Alright. I want the three of you to take my SUV and head back to Seattle now. You'll beat us there, but at least you'll be there to help before we arrive. I'll fly with the survivors." Sitalia states, but Mark is already trying to interrupt.
"I'm not letting you get on a plane. Not when you just saved the three of us. We'll all drive there." Mark states and by the look on his face Sitalia knows there's going to be no arguing with him so she doesn't even bother.
"Fine. We'll all drive together. Happy?" She asks with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm ecstatic." He says as he hugs her and kisses her breathless.
"I just want to say thank you for saving our lives again Sitalia. We would have all been on that plane and we could have lost all of our lives. Thank you." Derek says.
Mark can't help, but think of "What If" when it comes to the plane crash.
He's simply happy that the three most important people in his life are still alive and safe.
**AN: Should I make this into a longer story? Or should I leave it as a one-shot? I do have an idea to continue this, but I'd like opinions. Let me know in a review.**