After The Fall – Chapter II

Christina waited around the pit for a new ambulance to bring in a fresh round of patients and hopefully some sort of fantastic surgical case. Tapping her fingers together she heard the distant sound of an ambulance siren and began to smile.

Suddenly she felt a tap on her shoulder. It was the Chief.

"Ah, Dr Yang." Christina smiled helpfully. "We need you inside, on the surgical wing."

"Why?" Christina looked confused. "I was told to stay in the pit. And there's an ambulance coming in now."

"We need you in the surgical wing." The Chief said again, this time forcefully.

Christina looked over her shoulder to the ambulance now coming around the bend then walked past the Chief and into the hospital.

The Chief watched her walk down the hall past a corner then swerved round to the ambulance that was now pulling up.

"How is she?" He asked quickly as the ambulance doors opened and Derek sprang out with Meredith on the gurney.

"Stable." Derek placed the gurney on the ground with the paramedic. "She hit her head on some of the wreckage and she went down but she's stable."

"What does that mean?" The Chief looked at Derek bluntly.

"She's in a coma." Derek felt the words fall out of his mouth.

"Ok…" The Chief looked at Meredith again. "Ok…take her into intensive care."

"I'm going." Derek tried to follow Meredith as she was taken into the hospital when an arm jutted out in front of him, holding him back.

"You have a surgery." The Chief looked at him seriously.

"I can't –!" Derek looked at him in shock.

"There was a horrific accident. There are massive amounts injured. There's a head trauma waiting for you to scrub in, everyone else is busy."

Derek opened up his mouth to protest.

"There is nothing you can do now, you know that."

Derek looked down the hallway as Meredith was wheeled out of sight then quickly brushed his red eye.

"Fine."

00000000000000000000

The room was silent.

Alex sat next to Meredith as she lay on the bed, eyes closed as the intermittent beep of the stat monitor filled the room. Alex looked down at his fingers then sighed as he looked up at Meredith again, the breathing tubes protruding from her mouth.

"Hey there Mer." Alex murmured as he moved closer to her. "I tell you, that's some pretty nasty stuff you went through." Alex nodded to himself.

"You know, thank god Derek found you as soon as he did because otherwise you would still be down there. But I don't know what to say…there's a woman in the OR, a Jane Doe, her face got crushed and she's… No one knows who she is, none of her friends or family are here waiting for her downstairs, she's pregnant and she's alone…

I don't even know why I'm telling you this…but when I think about it, out of everyone in this hospital I think you're my best friend. There's Izzie, but she's, well, Izzie…but I guess I can just talk to you. You understand me, you know? Even though I'm an ass.

But guess what? I kissed Addison. Yeah, that's right, so you better wake up otherwise you'll miss Addison turning into a hypocrite and sleeping with the help. And trust me, you wanna see that."

000000000000000000000

Mark crossed his legs as he sat on the chair in the intensive care room. Flicking through a magazine he looked up at Meredith as she lay in silence, the tape of the tracheal tube beginning to roll up on the edges.

"You get that I'm doing this for Derek, right?" Mark looked back at the magazine and sighed. "Jesus, talking to a coma patient." He mumbled to himself. Attempting to read the magazine, Mark flicked though some more pages.

"Derek has forced everyone to take turns sitting in this room in case you wake up. Derek himself was pulled kicking and screaming into surgery because there's apparently some sort of horrific accident, you know."

Suddenly Mark sighed and closed magazine, placing it on the stool next to him as he leaned back in the chair and put his fingers into a fist on his lap.

"Look, you can't die. What will happen to the Dirty Mistresses Club? I'll be forced to recruit the Chief. But you have to wake up, for Derek. He wouldn't be able to handle it if you didn't, I wouldn't be able to see him like that. So wake up. We need you and your adulterous ways."

0000000000000000000

George sat up on his chair as he stared at Meredith anxiously, rubbing his fingers in a fist. Looking down at the floor he looked up again at her as she slept silently.

"Hey Mer, you ah, you can't die. I just…you can't die. We've been through some shit but we're still best friends. You're my family, and, I don't know how I'm going to get through if another part of my family dies."

George hung his head for a moment then looked up again. "And I know it's always you and Christina over there and me and Izzie over here, but you, you were the first person to actually congratulate me for my marriage and actually mean it. The whole time there was this doubt, you know, and even now there's still this doubt. I mean, I can't tell Callie cause she'd freak, you know? But I don't know, I hope it works out. I do want it to work out; I really do, more than anything. Well, maybe not as much as I want you to wake up. Because I still love you, but now as a sister, which is a love that is greater, stronger. Something that can never be broken.

But you bet your ass I'll break it if you don't wake up."

0000000000000000000

Christina looked around the intensive care room as she twiddled her thumbs. Looking back down to Meredith she quietly bit her lip.

"I'm engaged." Christina blurted out to the sleeping Meredith, hoping she'd wake up simply to laugh at her.

"Me and Burke, we're engaged. We're getting married. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, because I should have.

I just, I just need you to wake up, ok? Just wake up. I'm getting married, I need to be there with all your dark and twistyness otherwise I'd be left with Izzie as the bridesmaid and everything will be all pink and fluffy. Not to mention melodramatic when she's reminded of Denny. I will go crazy with all the McMarriage stuff so you better wake up or I'll personally kill you. And think about McDreamy! You can't leave us with him moping around and looking like some sort of sad puppy dog who's mum just died.

And I need you. I do. You're my best friend, and I've never done best friends, I'm just not a best friends person. So wake up. Just, wake up."

000000000000000000

Derek sat hunched over in silence; his brow frowned in worry as he stared up at Meredith's silent face. Hands knotted in front of him he felt a knot in his throat and his eyes begin to sting. Quickly he looked up at the stats. Stable. Glancing over to the IV he held the unit in his hand and looked at how much was left.

He turned back to Meredith. Feeling the knot form once more Derek picked up his hand and hesitantly reached out for Meredith's cheek, twitching a bit as he first touched her skin. Moving closer again he softly stroked her chin and ran his fingers through her golden brown fringe. She didn't notice, her face remained the same, still in blissful slumber.

"I love you." Derek murmured out loud. "God I love you." He smiled to himself softly then frowned again as the expression on Meredith's face remained the same.

"So just…I'm sorry I chose Addison, I'm sorry I implied you were a whore, I'm sorry for the panties, for Doc, for the looks, for the anger, the frustration, I'm…I'm sorry for being an arrogant jerk 80 of the time. But I love you, so much…so much that I'm finding hard to breathe right now, so much that if I lose you…if I lose you, I won't be able to function, I'll just…"

Derek sighed and looked down, rubbing his eyes with his hand then running it through his hair. "I was your Knight in Shining whatever." He looked up at her again, eyes now stained red. "You have to wake up."

Derek stopped breathing for a second as he listened for the sound of the stats. The steady beeps remained even. Letting out a shaken sigh Derek stoked Meredith's cheek once more then leant on the bed, holding his head in his hand as he listening intently to the sound of the heart rate as it echoed through the room.

0000000000000000000

NB: My god that has to be the strangest chapter I've ever written, as in, the process of writing it, I was just bashing it out as fast as I could, for some reason with butterflies in my stomach. Was like some kind of drug. Really, really strange.

I just needed to get that out, really needed to. But I hope you liked it. If so: review! If not: review! That's right! But I'd like to know why you didn't like it, so I can improve next time. All I need now is Thursday. DAMN YOU SHONDA!! – actually, scratch that. Love Shonda. I'm all for Shonda. More Shonda I say.