The silence in the SUV suddenly seemed deafening as Meredith turned her head toward the passenger seat, a feeling of dread filling the pit of her stomach. "Izzie?" she called worriedly, unbuckling her seatbelt and leaning over the console to where Izzie was slumped against the dashboard. "Iz?" Meredith called more frantically, finding her friend unconscious, a gash on her forehead oozing streaks of blood into her hair. With shaking hands, she brought her fingers to Izzie's neck, feeling for a pulse. She let out a breath of relief when she found the steady rhythm beneath her fingertips. "Izzie, can you hear me?" she asked loudly.
Izzie's eyes remained closed, but she began mumbling incoherently. "B…Ben," Meredith heard her say before she went silent again. Meredith eyes widened as the tiny word penetrated her mind, and she quickly turned toward the back of the car to check on Izzie's son. Her eyes widened at the sight of the scene behind her, waves of nausea beginning to course through her belly.
The back passenger door had been completely crushed in, impelling Ben's carseat into the middle of the car. The toddler's body was unmoving, his head sagging forward as he sat in uncharacteristic quietness. "Ben!" Meredith cried, seeing his tiny, motionless body. She climbed into the backseat, her heart racing as she rushed to his side. "Ben?" As she felt for a pulse on the little boy's neck, grateful tears filled her eyes at the detection of a soft rhythm against her ring finger. It wasn't as strong as she would have liked, but it was there and that was all that mattered. "Ben, sweetie? Answer Aunt Meredith, baby. Come on, Ben," she whispered, her attention becoming momentarily diverted as a man ran up to the car.
"Are you okay in there?" he asked.
"No!" she yelled, her voice sounding nearly hysterical. "Call 911. Tell them there are two serious injuries in this car, including…including a child," she said, her throat tightening with emotion. The man nodded and immediately took out his phone, but Meredith turned back to the little boy in front of her, ignoring the man as he conversed with the emergency operator.
Meredith took a shaky breath as a wave of dizziness overcame her. Get it together, she thought to herself. Switching to doctor-mode, Meredith did her best to push her personal discomfort to the back of her mind so that she could assess Ben's injuries. Outside the car, she heard the man with the phone tell her, "The ambulance will be here any second. You're lucky; there were a couple of EMT's a few of blocks over so they'll be here pretty quickly."
She laughed bitterly to herself at his description of them as lucky. She most definitely did not feel lucky at that moment. Her hands trembled as she gently touched the little boy's body, feeling for injuries that were not immediately apparent to the naked eye. As her hands scanned his tiny arms, she found two displaced bones on the left side, causing her guilt to intensify. "Oh, Ben I'm so sorry, baby."
Minutes passed by before she heard the sound of an approaching ambulance and almost instantly, two EMT's were moving toward the vehicle, shouting for curious onlookers to back away. They appeared by the Explorer's side within seconds, ripping open the front and back doors on the driver's side.
"Are you okay?" the female EMT asked Meredith, crawling into the back seat beside her and Ben as her partner climbed in the driver's seat to look at Izzie.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Meredith rushed to assure her, leaning against the seat as waves of dizziness swept through her head. "Check on him. Check on Ben."
As she leaned against the seat, Meredith could hear the EMT speaking to her, the words sounding blurry as the woman's hand gently shook her shoulder. The actions, though, seemed distant from her mind as a ringing resounded in her head, and before she realized what was happening, her world suddenly went black.
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Bailey and Callie stood outside of the emergency room waiting for an incoming ambulance. It pulled into the bay moments later, the doors of the rig swinging open and a paramedic jumping out. "What've you got?" Bailey asked hurriedly, approaching the vehicle.
"We have a pregnant female. She passed out in the field, but she's conscious now," the paramedic said as the stretcher was pulled from the ambulance.
As Bailey drew near, she immediately saw Meredith's figure struggling to sit up. "I'm fine," Meredith insisted, fighting the paramedic who was attempting to hold her down.
"Meredith?" Bailey asked with surprise, Callie running over to join her. Bailey's eyes narrowed as the younger woman continued to struggle against the paramedic. "Lay down!" Bailey demanded, causing Meredith to look at her warily. "What happened?"
Meredith's eye clouded with tears, her distress becoming more apparent. "There was an accident," she said with a shaky voice as two more ambulances approached the bay. "Izzie and Ben…they…Izzie and Ben were…"
"They were in the car?" Callie asked worriedly when it became obvious that Meredith couldn't continue her thought. Meredith nodded in confirmation as she fought to keep her tears at bay, and Callie looked anxiously at Bailey.
"I'm going to go page Mark and Derek," Bailey said to Callie as she started to go back through the hospital doors, her heart pounding with worry as she thought of the two women she'd raised since internship and the tiny boy she'd grown to love.
"Bailey!" Callie called from behind her, interrupting her thoughts and causing her to turn around. "Page Addison, too," she reminded her, looking worriedly at Meredith's pregnant stomach as they wheeled her stretcher toward the entrance of the emergency room.
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Mark hurried to the elevator, slipping through the doors just before they closed and finding Derek on the other side. "Hey, are you going to the ER?"
Derek nodded. "I told you not to talk about the quiet board. This is all your fault," he said with a grin.
"Do you know what'd going on down there?"
Derek shook his head as the elevator doors parted open, and he immediately saw Addison standing over a patient. "Let's go see where they need us," he suggested, already walking out of the elevator in the direction of his ex-wife.
As he approached the gurney, Derek felt his breath catch in his throat, Meredith's face coming into view. "Meredith!" he said with alarm, rushing to her side as Mark following closely behind him.
She looked up from the screen where Addison had already started a sonogram. "I'm fine," she assured him immediately. "We're fine."
Derek looked questioningly at Addison, who nodded to confirm Meredith's assurances. "Everything looks normal," she told him, her voice sounding strained. "The baby's heart beat is strong, so you don't need to worry. Meredith passed out from shock, but she seems okay for now. I want to monitor her for the next few hours just to be safe, but I really don't think that there's any cause for alarm."
Derek nodded, his heart still beating widely in his chest. "What happened?"
"Where are Izzie and Ben?" Mark interjected before Meredith could answer, his voice rising in alarm as his eyes scanned the ER. Meredith looked at him remorsefully, her eyes filling with tears as she observed the panic on his face. Seeing her expression, Mark shook his head fervently. "No…no, where are they?"
"There was an accident, Mark," Addison quietly interposed, laying her hand on his shoulder for support. "Izzie's in Trauma Room 2 with Callie and Bailey, and Ben's in Trauma Room 3 with the Chief and Cristina."
"Oh my God," Mark whispered, the blood draining from his face as his chin began to quiver.
Before Addison and Derek could stop him, he'd turned around in the direction of the trauma rooms, ignoring the burning sensation in the pit of his stomach as he approached the bustle surrounding his family. "Mark," he heard Addison call from behind him, but he didn't bother to turn around as he arrived at Trauma Room 2, easily pushing open the doors to find Callie and Bailey examining his wife.
"Oh my God," he whispered again, knowing instantly that the image of her lying motionless on the gurney with crimson streaks of blood coating her hair was one he would not soon forget.
"Mark, you can't be in here," Callie told him the moment he walked into the room. "You need to leave."
"But…"
"Come on, Sloan, you have to wait outside," Bailey told him as she walked to where Mark was standing, placing her hand gently on his arm and ushering him out the door.
"Is she…what's…how's…"
"We're still examining her, Mark" Bailey told him softly in the hallway, her tone sympathetic as Mark's obvious devastation grew increasingly apparent. "She's unconscious right now, but I'll let you know as soon as we find out anything."
Feeling helpless when Bailey disappeared back through the double doors, Mark walked to the trauma room next to Izzie's, looking in the window of the door. It was impossible for him not to see the Chief barking orders at the nurses and doctors scrambling around the room, but he soon shut the image out, closing his lids when tears formed in the corner of his eyes at the sight of his tiny son lying on the table.
He soon sensed a presence behind him, and he turned around to find Alex standing over his shoulder, looking fearfully inside the room where his co-workers were frantically working on Ben. Alex turned to Mark, meeting his gaze. "What…what happened?" he asked, staggered by the sight before him.
Mark shook his head. "I don't know," he said hoarsely. "They were just here…they were just here laughing and talking and everything was fine. And now…now…"
Addison and Derek walked over behind them. Addison immediately went to Alex, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "I can't believe this," she said quietly, looking briefly into the trauma room where the doctors were hovering over Ben. "This seems so surreal," she whispered, burying her face back into Alex's shoulder.
Alex nodded his head in agreement, his hand running through her hair as his fingers gripped the thin material of her scrubs, hold the cotton in his hands as though it were a lifeline. "Do you know what happened?" he asked his fiancé quietly. "Did Meredith say anything?"
She began fidgeting in Alex's embrace, her eyes darting nervously between Alex and Mark. "Um, she didn't say much. They were in an accident on their way to shop for Meredith's baby. The EMT told Bailey that the driver of the other car was killed instantly. He was only sixteen," she said quietly.
Alex swore under his breath, pulling Addison tighter against him. Looking at Derek over Addison's shoulder, he asked quietly, "How's Meredith?"
Derek was looking worriedly at Mark, who seemed to be in a trancelike state as he watched the Chief place a breathing tube down Ben's throat through the window. "She's okay. We're about to take her upstairs, but I wanted to come check on Izzie and Ben before we left," he said, the chief swiftly opening the door to the trauma room as the words crossed his lips, looking gravely at the people congregated in the hallway.
"Derek, we need you in here."
Derek looked up at the sound of his name, his eyes nervous. "Oh," he answered in surprise, gazing fleetingly toward Mark before turning back to the chief. "Oh, I…um-"
"Now!" Dr. Webber told him.
Derek nodded his head, turning to Mark. "It's going to be okay," he assured him, though they all knew that his promise was empty. There was no way Derek could know whether or not things were going to turn out alright for the Sloan family.
Mark nodded, doing his best to hold back the uncharacteristic tears that were burning his eyes. "Take care of him," he told his friend quietly, his knuckles turning white as he gripped Derek's shoulder desperately. Derek nodded, pushing the panic away from his mind as he disappeared through the door.
Behind him, Mark felt Addison place her hand on his shoulder. "Mark, they're fighters, okay? They're going-"
"Stop it. I can't…I can't listen to this right now. Please, just…just don't say anything."
She complied with his wishes, standing silently between Mark and Alex as they watched the activity through the window. She knew everything the doctors were doing as she observed their movements, and with a sinking feeling, she realized that Mark did too. She took a deep breath, lacing her fingers through his as she said a silent prayer.
Their vigil was interrupted when Callie burst through the doors of Trauma Room 2, turning toward them anxiously. "Addison, Alex, we could use you guys in here."
Mark's eyes darkened, his shoulders tensing as he looked at her with panic. "What's going on?" he asked. "Callie…"
Callie looked from Addison and Alex to where Mark stood helplessly beside them. "She…she's pregnant, Mark."
Mark's jaw dropped slightly as he let out a breath of surprise. He turned to study Alex and Addison's expression, noting their twin looks of anstonishment that likely mirrored his own.
With a sinking feeling, he watched Alex run to the door that Callie was holding open. Beside him, Addison looked sadly at Mark, her fingers tightening around his to gain his attention. "Are you going to be okay?"
He laughed cynically, a tear falling down his cheek and disappearing off the sharp plane of his jawbone. "Yeah, I'll be fine," he finally answered, his voice quivering with emotion. Addison frowned at his response, hesitating to leave him alone, so he squeezed her hand lightly, doing his best to keep the miserable look off his face. "Please, just…just go take care of my wife."
She nodded, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye as she hurried off to join the team that was working on Izzie.
Alone in the hallway, Mark leaned against the wall before sinking to the floor, burying his head in hands. Now all he could do was wait.