In the Wake of Disaster

by 123me

She was looking in his direction, her eyes pleading with him to save her, and he knew. He knew at that moment that it was more than her life on the line, that it was his too, that he couldn't live without her. ML oneshot

I don't own Grey's Anatomy, if I did, there wouldn't have been a plane crash.

I'm writing this without seeing all of the promos, because I don't like seeing Lexie like that, pairing that with the fact that I've watched a total of one full episode of season eight and the fact that I have no medical knowledge at all, not all of it will add up.

This isn't what I think will happen, I'd actually be shocked if it did because of how unlikely it is, it's what I would prefer happened.

---

She was looking in his direction, her eyes pleading with him to save her, and he knew. He knew at that moment that it was more than her life on the line, that it was his too, that he couldn't live without her. He loved her more than he'd ever known he could love, and he knew that if she died, a large part of him, her part of him, would die with her. Yet he was frozen in place, the sight of her robbing him of his ability to move, his ability to help her. He watched as she shifted her arm lightly, her hand outstretching as if she was reaching out for him. She was giving up. She wanted him to hold her hand as she died. Why didn't she know that he couldn't let that happen?

A sound behind him caught his attention, footsteps fast approaching him. "Dr. Sloan?" He didn't move, remaining focused on the woman he loved. "Damn it, Mark, don't be dead." Dead? He didn't even feel hurt in the slightest. It wasn't fair. He turned as a shadow blocked what little light he had had, looking up at the woman standing over him. She grabbed onto him, forcing him into a standing position and into a kind of half hug. "I can't find them." She rushed. "Any of them."

He looked back over to the wreckage of the plane, from this position, he couldn't see her, and that alone was killing him. He turned, ignoring the plea's of the other doctor to head to the wreckage, crouching down and bringing her back into his sight. She was at his side almost immediately, shock and concern etched on her face.

"Damn it, Lexie." The woman argued. "I was hoping rescue and recovery would be easy."

He turned to her. "We have to get her out of there." He paused, waiting for a response and gaining none. "YANG, WE HAVE TO GET HER OUT OF THERE!"

"Don't you think I know that?" She looked around. "We can't do that without help."

He turned, refocusing on his trapped love, finally grasping her hand in his own. "You're going to be okay. You just need to stay with me. Stay with me, Lex, okay, just stay with me. We're going to get you out." He noticed her faint nod, turning back to Cristina and lowering his voice. "We don't have much time. You have to find the others." She nodded, moving away from them and around the plane, leaving them alone.

"Don't leave me." He barely heard her weak comment, but it caused all thoughts of Cristina and what he'd asked her to do to leave his head.

"I'm not going anywhere." He assured her. "I'm going to stay right here."

"Thank you."

"I love you." He blurted out, trying not to flinch at the blood and dirt masking her face. "I always have."

"Are... you just saying... that because... I'm going to die?" She was struggling to speak, and clearly having difficulty breathing, but he couldn't help be hopeful that she was, infact, speaking.

"No. I'm saying it because I love you. I've always loved you. Everything's going to be fine, and when we get out of this, we'll work everything out, okay? We'll get married. We'll be one of those normal boring couples, like Meredith and Derek." He paused. "You're not going to die."

"That sounds nice." Her faint smile faltered, and he could almost feel the pain she was enduring.

"Stay with me." He requested, squeezing her hand. "It's not time to sleep, Lex."

"It hurts."

"I know," He agreed, and he did. He knew his pain was nothing compared to hers, but it did hurt. "But I need you to keep talking to me."

"I'm scared."

"Don't be." He moved his free hand to place it on her forehead, brushing back a stray hair. "You're going to be fine, just concentrate on getting better."

"I'm not..."

"MARK!" They were both distracted by the call, and he momentarily turned his head, spying Meredith making her way towards them. "You're crying."

He blinked, realising that she was right, but turning without responding. "Meredith's here. She's going to help us get you out, okay?"

"Who's under there?"

He felt Meredith crouch down next to him, heard the hesitation in her breathing when she realised that the person he had been speaking to was her sister.

"Meredith, tell your sister she's going to be fine." He ignored the questioning gaze of the older woman. "Tell her, Meredith."

"Lexie." Meredith gave in. "You're going to be fine. We're going to get you out, and everything will be okay."

"Am I meant to pretend to believe you?"

"You don't need to pretend."

"I do..." She gasped. "You need to tell dad, that..."

"You can tell him yourself." He stopped her. "Meredith doesn't need to tell him anything for you."

"But..."

"No." The pause that followed the statement was almost eerie. "Mark's right. You can tell him yourself."

"Doctor Robbins is trapped." They hadn't heard the approach, but the words almost froze both of them.

"Is she concious?"

"Concious and loud." Cristina confirmed. "Didn't you hear her screaming?"

"Can you get her out?"

"Probably. It's just her foot that's caught, if I had help I could probably..."

"Go and help her, Meredith."

"We don't know where Derek is."

"Go and help her, Meredith."

"Mark..."

"We can worry about Derek later, one job at a time, Grey."

"You should let her..." She let out a cough. "You can help... Cristina."

"I'm staying here." He couldn't help but be concerned about her possible forgetfulness.

"One thing..." Cristina spoke up as she stepped back. "Doctor Robbins has cell signal."

**WoD**

"Wake up!" He shook her shoulder lightly. "Lexie, wake up!" Her eyelids flickered but she lacked any huge response. "Lexie, don't do this!"

"What's happened?"

"She's losing conciousness, we have to get her out of here now."

"We have to wait for Owen."

"It's been two hours since we got through to him Cristina, he's not here. We have to get her out!"

"They have to find us first! And do what after we get her out?" Arizona exclaimed, "we're not trauma surgeons."

"We don't have another option!"

"I should go and find Meredith, she should be here if..."

"She's not going to die, Cristina!" Mark interrupted. "You don't need to find Meredith because Lexie is not going to die."

"Mark I think we have to accept..."

"Help me shift this." He stood, examining the wreckage for some way to move it.

"If we move it she could bleed out, we have to wait until Owen is here with help."

"It doesn't take two hours, Cristina! Owen isn't coming." He gave up on moving the debris and went back to sitting at Lexie's side, his hand clasping hers.

Cristina flinched, knowing that she was going to have to intervene. She could still remember what had happened the last time she intervened in something like this for Meredith. "Move."

"What?"

"I said move, Doctor Sloan." She demanded. "Get away from my patient."

"Your patient?"

"Derek isn't here, Doctor Robbins can barely walk, and you are a mess, so yes, my patient."

He stood his ground, so she pushed past him, examining the scene. She turned, looking back to Arizona. "He's right, if we're going to help her, we need to get her out."

"None of us are strong enough."

"We have to be." She took in Arizona's expression. "This is Meredith Grey's little sister, that may not mean much to you but to me it does. She doesn't get to die without a fight." She turned to Mark, "and when we've shifted this, you have to stay back... How do we do this?"

"We don't have to." She turned to Arizona, before following her gaze, sighing in relief at the sight of not only her husband, but what seemed to be a team of rescue workers.

**WoD**

Waiting. That was the worst part. Not knowing what was going on behind those doors. Not knowing if he'd see her again. They'd been there for hours, and not one person had stopped to give them an update. He stood, advancing towards the elevator, keeping his gaze fixed to the ground.

"You are not going there." He looked up to see Alex blocking his way. "I remember how this felt with Izzie so I get it, but I also know that you can't be down there." He stepped in front of him as he tried to step around. "She's got Hunt and Bailey, you can't ask for better."

"I need to know..."

"What you don't need, is them distracted."

"Why aren't you bothering Robbins or something."

"Torres has it covered." Alex elaborated. "She told me to keep an eye on you and Meredith." He paused. "You're not going to that OR."

"I'm a doctor, Karev."

"With all due respect, Doctor Sloan, you're not. You're the family." He glanced at someone over Mark's shoulder. "Avery, you shouldn't be here."

"I need a surgery, I just, I have to cut someone open right now."

"Go and sit down, Avery. Go and sit and calm down."

"I have to be doing something, I can't just sit around and wait, I have to..."

"Avery, come on," Mark hadn't even seen Webber approach before he was leading the younger man away.

"He heard about Lexie?"

"No." Alex responded, following the men with his eyes. "The crash wasn't the only incident." He paused. "April wasn't coping as well as we thought she was. She's in the ICU." He looked over at Meredith, "You need to stay with her, things suck for you right now but this is her sister and her husband. She needs someone."

Mark barely digested what he'd been told, looking over at Meredith. "Thatcher's on his way."

"Then you can be there for both of them."

He gave up, knowing that Alex was probably right anyway, the last thing Owen and Bailey needed was him standing over them. Sitting with Meredith was his only option now, whether he liked that or not.

"Is there any news?"

He shook his head, sitting next to her and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "They'll be okay." He sighed. "They have to be."

"How could she survive that?" She was nearing hysteria.

"Hunt said he's seen worse."

"He also said that if they hadn't have got her out so fast they'd probably have been too late." She let out a breathe, and he realised for the first time that she was crying. "I can't lose them."

"They're coming back to us."

"What if they..."

"Meredith?"

They both looked up, and Mark sighed to see Teddy standing infront of them. "Derek's surgery was a success. There wasn't as much damage as we initially thought. He's been moved to recovery. I know you probably won't have many but if you have any questions, page me."

"You can't answer them now?" Meredith jumped in before she left. "He'll be okay?"

"He has a long way to go." Teddy admitted, "but I'm hopeful for a full recovery."

"Will you be monitoring him?"

"I will be, and if there are any complications I've asked to be paged immediately."

"But you won't be there?"

"She's going back into surgery."

Meredith turned to him following his statement. "What?"

"She doesn't want to say it, but she's been called back into the OR. What's happened to Lexie?"

"Doctor Yang has a concern that Doctors Hunt and Bailey would like me to look at before giving her the added trauma of heart surgery." Teddy admitted. "It may not be anything to worry about..."

"Go," Meredith interrupted. "They'll page you if Derek needs you and right now he doesn't, so go."

**WoD**

He opened his eyes at the sound of a throat clearing, knowing he wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway meeting the gazes of Hunt and Bailey as he did. "She's out of surgery?"

"Where's Meredith?"

"With Derek, is Lexie okay?"

"We need to speak to Meredith."

"You can..."

"Is there news on Lexie?" Both Owen and Bailey turned at the voice.

"Mr. Grey," Bailey nodded over at him, before glancing over at Mark and back, waiting for a nod from Thatcher before turning to Owen to continue.

"Your daughter suffered from a number of complications in surgery, we came close to losing her on multiple occasions and there is a high chance that she will require further surgeries."

Mark sighed. "She's okay."

"For now." Bailey corrected him. "She's still in a critical condition, and we're going to have to take it a day at a time. We were also unable to determine what, if any, long term complications may arise."

"Can we see her?"

**WoD**

"When did you last sleep?"

Mark turned to the door of the room, smiling faintly at Molly as she entered the room. "About fourteen hours before I got on that plane."

"She wouldn't want you exhausting yourself."

"And I'll sleep as soon as she tells me that."

"Go and get some sleep, I'll sit with her until you get back."

"I promised her I wouldn't leave her." He reminded her of what he'd already told her. "So I'm not."

Molly sat down. "Why isn't she waking up?"

"It could be any number of reasons." He frowned. "But she'll wake up, she has to, we have plans."

"What about that doctor that..."

"Nobody tells her about April." He demanded. "Even if she asks, nobody tells her. I don't want her dealing with that as soon as she wakes up."

Molly nodded. "Meredith said the same thing. She said she'd be down in a few minutes.

"Back down." Mark corrected. "She's barely been gone an hour." He paused. "How are Zola and Laura getting along?"

"Driving my husband crazy." Molly smiled slightly. "He gets why Meredith and I need to be here most of the time, though. He doesn't mind looking after both of them."

"Doesn't he have work or something?"

"I don't really know how it works, but I think he said it was compassionate leave. I'm not sure how long it'll last." Mark nodded, turning back to Lexie, jumping up almost instantly. "What?"

"Watch her eyes."

Molly frowned. "What am I looking at?"

He smiled. "She's waking up."

---

I wish I didn't have to kill off April, I don't hate her like a lot of people seem to, I actually quite like her, just not as much as those that were in the crash.