A/N: Warning, there is some swearing and descriptions of injury. I am not a disaster expert, nor a medical professional. Research for this story was done on the internet. Thank you for all you reviews, and for sticking around for chapter two. It means a lot. Let me know what you think!

Following April out of the ambulance, the tips of Meredith's lips twitched as she tried to hold back a small smile. She exchanged a glance with Bailey and saw the older doctor shaking her head, trying to look stern, but clearly fighting to hide her own amusement. Alex looked completely perplexed, just like he always did when April put him in his place.

The chief resident didn't do it often, usually she just got indignant and shrill when Alex (or anyone really) insulted her. But, surprisingly, April could totally dish it out when she had a mind too. It wasn't something Meredith had seen her do all the time, but April, whether she realized it or not, had the ability to stop Alex's attitude in its tracks. And a lot of the time, Meredith thought Alex needed that.

It was just another part of the unique dynamic that Meredith had always noticed between Alex and April. That connection which never seemed to fizzle out, no matter what, surviving disastrous almost-hook-ups, insults, yelling and slamming doors. And Meredith had never seen Alex mess with anyone as much as he did April.

Then again, maybe their dynamic only survived because Kepner was overly nice, and put up with a lot from most people. More than Meredith could ever imagine herself handling without blowing up at them. But Alex had his own part in whatever made the connection with April last too. If she didn't know any better, it looked as though Alex liked being around April, even if it was only to tease her. He'd never admit it, but Meredith thought it was true.

At the house, Alex made a point of leaving his laundry and dishes out. Because he knew it would bother April. He hung out in the 5th year lounge more than anyone else, claiming that it was simply a convenient place to eat his lunch. To eat his lunch and bother April. Just like the little boy in second grade who insists that girls have cooties, but goes out of his way to pull their hair.

As they made their way to meet the search and rescue team, Meredith surveyed the once majestic brick building and winced. Brick and cement. Prime fodder from crush injuries, which were some of the most tricky. She really hoped that their soon to be patients weren't critically hurt.

A search and rescue guy approached them, and Dr. Bailey quickly introduced herself, and her residents, concluding by asking, "What's the situation?"

"I'm David Kramer," the tall man stated, using his hands to usher them along, "I'm the lead of the S and R team. Right now, we believe that we have the building shored up and stabilized. We were able to extract the mom and pop, and the paramedics on site think they have minimal injuries. If a couple of you could look them over, and get them off to the hospital that would be great."

He led them to two stretchers where paramedics were working with a worn out and sad looking couple. Dr. Bailey immediately moved forward, and began checking over the mother, signaling Meredith to join her. She swiftly moved to the other patient and began to check his vitals.

Kramer turned to Alex and April, "One of you works with kids, right?"

"I do," Alex answered, "And she's trained for trauma."

April nodded and the man quickly began to explain, "They have a 14 year old boy who apparently slept further into the building. We have located him and we believe that the building is stable enough to extract him. However, we haven't moved him because he has some broken bones and we're afraid he has a spinal injury."

April nodded, "We can do that."

"No problem," Alex added, and they briskly followed Kramer to toward the rubble of the partially collapsed building carrying a portable stretcher between them.

Meredith gently worked on her patient, flashing her penlight into his eyes, as he perked up hearing Kramer talk. "My son!" he said anxiously, "Have they gotten my son out? Is he okay?"

"They are working on it sir," Meredith said, glancing up momentarily to watch her friends retreating backs. She really didn't know what condition they'd find the teen in, so she worked to distract the man's attention, and deflect his fears, just like Bailey taught her too.

"Sir, can you tell me where it hurts?"

As Alex and April followed the Dave Kramer into the normal looking front part of the building, all the tension from the ride over was set aside. He could tell from the way Kepner walked and talked as they assessed the situation. It reminded him a little of their trauma certification. April had totally kicked ass at that skills lab, and no matter what he might say about her, Alex could never deny her skill in a crisis. He knew they'd be getting this kid out, in the best condition possible, so long as April had anything to say about it.

He was ready too, already planning in his head how they might move the boy if he did turn out to have a spinal injury. They were both in work mode, part of the same team, like the certification. They didn't need to talk or anything; they just fell in sync with each other, seamlessly ready to deal with what was coming. If nothing else, Alex knew that they made a good team.

The building became more eerily because the farther they walked into it, the less like a building it was. It suddenly became a dusty and dangerous mess of wires, glass, cement, brick, and steel. No place for a kid. Or an adult either.

It was also incredibly dark as you went along, the collapsed rubble of the building blocking out the mid-morning sunlight, which you might expect to stream through the broken windows. You couldn't just walk normally either, at least not very far. You had to climb and clamor your way along over fallen debris. And it wasn't silent. Every now and then you could hear and ominous sort of creaking and groaning. Crappy place.

When they rounded a final corner Alex caught sight of another S and R rescuer crouched over a small form surrounded by fallen junk. "See?" he heard the man say, "Docs are here, you'll be out in no time at all."

Kramer used one hand to point them down the hall, "That's Marty Yu. He's my second in command. He has a radio, and he'll lead you back out. I need to go check in with field command and let them know you guys are working on getting this kid out." With that he turned and made his way back the way they came, disappearing into the damaged building.

"Be careful," April added her voice echoing somewhat in the run down structure, a little too late for the briskly moving Kramer to hear her.

"Don't worry about him. Dave's is a little serious but he's damn good at this job. Taught me everything I know. I'm Martin by the way," the other search and rescue man said, flashing April an overly friendly smile. At least Alex thought it was overly friendly given the circumstances, and he rolled his eyes. April seemed oblivious, and began caring for the patient, completely focused on the task at hand.

An emergency situation is no time for flirting. Or for teasing someone about being flirted with. No matter how much you wanted to. No matter how tempting it was to say 'Back off Yu'. For pure comedic value of course. Alex could care less this guy wanted to flirt with Kepner. Whatever.

Really.

Alex followed April as she quickly moved to the patient. He knelt down by the kids head, and checked his pupils. Luckily the boy didn't seem to have a head injury. "Hello, I'm Dr. Karev. This is Dr. Kepner. We're gonna take care of you."

"I'm Tom," the boy groaned, clearly in a lot of pain. "Man this sucks."

"No arguments there, dude," Alex agreed. Tom laughed a bit, and responded with a pained smile.

April and the Martin knelt next to the boy too, April already running her hands along the teens limbs checking for breaks. "Okay Tom? Can you wiggle your fingers for me?"

Tom did as she asked, and Alex and April moved on to his legs, continuing their examination.

"Tom, it doesn't look like you have a spinal injury," Alex informed the boy kindly, after they finished their assessment. "You have a broken arm and leg. Probably a broken collar bone too. So, we are going to go ahead and put you up on this stretcher, and get you out of here, man. Sound good?"

Alex was relieved; the teen was lucky. Maybe not in everything, because his family was homeless and all, but he had no spinal or crush injuries. It looked like he was just hit by falling debris, meaning that the whole rescue and recovery would be much easier. The three adults worked together to carefully move the boy onto the stretcher.

Alex then grabbed the front end while Martin manned the rear and, with April walking alongside the stretcher, the group began to warily make their way back out of the damaged building. It all was going so well, with only some minor bickering between Martin and Alex over speed and pacing, which came to an abrupt end when April told them both to shut up and focus on the patient. Tom had chuckled a bit, even with his pain. Soon they were back in the front of the building, and Alex could see the search and rescue tent outside, with Bailey and Meredith and Kramer watching them exit.

It was all going so well. Until it wasn't.

An aftershock suddenly rocked the ground, and the constant groaning and creaking of the damaged building began to crescendo. Bricks, and debris began to crumble around them in bigger and bigger chunks, and they began to run, racing to the exit, desperately hoping that they had time to get out.

Later, Alex realized that, at some point, April must have figured out that they couldn't make it. Not all of them. She must have. Because in the moment, he was taken totally by surprise when she unexpectedly grabbed her side of the stretcher and violently shoved it forward, making Alex stumble closer to the exit of the building just as the whole rest of the structure to came down on top of them in a crushing wave of debris and dust. A stumble that moved him and Tom a few feet. A few extra feet closer to the outside.

A few feet that made all the difference.

April's eyes fluttered open for a moment, finding only darkness. Was she blind? Was it nighttime? She couldn't remember falling sleep, or how long her eyes had been shut. Her mind struggled to form a coherent though. She was so confused. The air was filled with dust and April struggled to breathe, gasping against the abrasive texture of the air. The dust irritated her eyes, and made her mouth dry. Where was she? What came before this? What was going on? Before she could answer her questions, April tried to move, which allowed her to at least understand exactly what had pulled her to consciousness.

Pain. More pain than she could ever remember feeling. So much pain that, in her hazy awareness, she couldn't even be sure where it was coming from. It was all encompassing. A pressure. Fiery and unrelenting. That was all she knew. The attempt at movement made April's mind drift further, pulling her back, deeper into the blackness of her own mind, until she could keep her eyes open no longer, and they slowly drifted shut again. Until she was unaware of everything, even the pain.

After stabilizing the homeless parents, and getting them sent off to the hospital, Bailey and Meredith made their way toward the damaged building, ready to assist Alex and April with their patient. They were almost out, and Meredith could see the small group approaching the exit of the building. She could just make out Alex's figure leading the way, holding the front end of a stretcher when an aftershock jolted the earth. Meredith was too stunned to move as she watched the walls of the building fall down around her friends. She fought to maintain her own balance in the quake and coughed as a huge wave of dust billowed out from the falling structure.

When the ground stopped shaking and the dust from the fallen building swirled around them, Bailey, and Kramer surged forward, with Meredith belatedly following along behind. She still hadn't fully computed the scene before her. In the few moments it took to reach the rubble, Meredith clung to the small hope that maybe, somehow, Alex, April, and the others had made it out of the building.

Of course, as she got closer to the building and she saw the rubble, it was clear that they hadn't.

"Slow down and move carefully," Kramer said holding his arms wide in front of Bailey and Meredith, preventing them from coming too close to the pile of rubble that had once been a building, and gesturing to his other search and rescue personnel. "They were almost out. This looks like a V-shaped collapse so there might be pockets, voids, between main strong points of the structure. It's very likely that they are alive but trapped. We don't want to shift the rubble on top of them."

Meredith watched as the man moved painstakingly slowly, gingerly testing each new step with the tip of his foot before settling his full weight. Things seemed to be fairly stable, so Kramer beckoned Bailey and Meredith behind him, as the rest of the rescue teams began to work, trying to shore up the few parts of the building that remained standing. When they reached a gap in the rubble he knelt down a little, and shouted, "Marty? Dr. Karev? Dr. Kepner?"

Meredith's heart felt like it was going to leap out of her chest as they waited for some sort of response. When only silence greeted them, Bailey closed her eyes, and shook her head, looking up to the sky angrily. She thought that they were gone. Meredith just couldn't fathom that she'd just watched Alex and April die. It was too much. Alex...Alex was like a brother to her. It was hard to envision a life without him, for all their ups and downs. And April may not be her favorite person in the world, but Meredith had developed a small sort of relationship with the red-haired chief resident. Maybe not quite a close friendship yet, but...

They couldn't be dead. Meredith didn't want to accept it. She let her head fall to her hands and took a few deep calming breathes, when she thought she heard...

Her head snapped up, along with Kramer and Bailey's. They heard it again. A clear and obviously pissed off string of curses coming from beneath the rubble, out of the door sized gap that they stood in front of. Meredith couldn't help but lean forward and shout, "Alex? Alex?"

She'd never been more happy to hear his vulgar language. He answered, "Meredith? Mer! I really reallywant to punch something right about now."

Turns out having a building collapse on you involved a lot of dust. After April had pushed him and the stretcher forward, Alex had used his own body to try to shield the kids head. He'd barely gotten into position when the building came down covering them both in a cascade of dust which temporarily disoriented him, and made him cough painfully.

At first it was incredibly hard to breathe, and Alex remained where he was, wary of another aftershock, and determined to cough as much of the crap in the air out of his lungs as possible. When he felt safe, relatively speaking, that the quake was over, Alex gingerly sat up, pleasantly surprised to find that he did have room to sit up. He carefully flexed his muscles and his body to see if the falling debris had hurt him. It seemed that he'd come out of this with some hefty bruises, but Alex didn't think he was any worse for the wear. He knew he hadn't been hit too hard, and nothing felt broken. Some luck at least.

Squinting in the sudden darkness, Alex figured he probably couldn't stand, because the little area they were in was like a small gap between piles of rubble. Hopefully there would also be a way out.

"Shit!" he shouted to no one in particular, venting adrenaline and anger at the situation. "God-damn, fucking earthquakes! Shit. What the fuck? Damn it!"

Leaning forward and blinking down at the stretcher next to him he was both surprised and happy to see his patient's wide eyes blinking back at him. Wincing, Alex was afraid he'd scared the kid.

"Sorry," he said more quietly.

"Don't apologize because of me," Tom grunted painfully. "I was just thinking the same thing. C-couldn't have said it better myself."

Alex smiled in spite of everything. This kid was tough. He leaned forward and did a quick exam as best he could. Awesome. This kid was still reasonably stable. His medic bag was still strapped to his shoulder, so Alex took it off and rifled through it until he found some pain meds.

"How are you feeling Tom?" he asked, gently administering the medication.

"Well, if the collar bone wasn't broken before, I'd s-say it definitely is now."

"Okay," Alex said, nodding, and scrambling around the dark space, trying to find a way out. "You just sit tight, and take deep breaths. We'll make it out."

Alex was beginning to get a bit nervous. If he and Tom were only a little disoriented, already talking and feeling good enough to be pissed, why hadn't he heard anything from April and Martin.

"Kepner? Martin?" He coughed looking back the direction they'd come from. Instead of the long damaged hallway he'd walked through only moments earlier, now it looked as though the open space only went back a few feet, the rest of the distance blocked by a huge pile of rubble.

"April...April?"

Now feeling slightly panicked, upon hearing no answer Alex continued to scan the area with his eyes. They were quickly becoming more adjusted to the darkness, and as he looked behind and to his right one last time, he gasped. The sight that he could barely make out was both tragic and grotesque, and it made Alex shout again.

"Shit! Holy freakin' fuck."

What he saw was Martin Yu. Or rather the body of Martin Yu. He was most definitely dead. Some falling bricks must have got him, because he was mostly buried by rubble. He might have been alright, Alex thought, except it was clear that something or more likely several somethings had clocked him right in the head. The skull looked crushed. There was just...no way.

His increasingly erratic breathing made Alex cough once again. He realized that his gruesome discovery was making him doubly frantic about April. Surely...he didn't even want to consider that she'd met the same brutal end. Because, really when he thought about it, Alex knew she didn't deserve that. Martin Yu probably hadn't deserved it either, but the dude was a trained rescuer. This kind of danger was part of his job. April was a surgeon. And she was nice. Different from other people. Special. Even when she bugged the crap out of him. Maybe because she did.

Not that he'd ever thought about it or anything.

Forcing himself to think more rationally, he considered the situation. Alex had carried the front part of the stretcher, and Martin the back. So the unfortunate rescuer had been the farthest away from the exit, and the most likely to get hit by the heaviest onslaught of debris. April had shoved Alex and Tom forward, but she'd never been as far back as Martin in the first place. So, she should be somewhere in the middle, right? Not dead like Martin, and not in this tiny open space with Tom and Alex. So there was still a chance...

"Alex?" Alex jerked around, facing where the exit had once been and crawled closer to the sound of his friends voice. There seemed to be a gap in the rubble near that area, which apparently lead to the outside, as it was where some light, and sounds came in to reach them.

"Meredith? Mer!," Alex responded, feeling insanely happy that his friend had found him, and also probably shown him the way out. Or at least that there wasa way out. This whole situation still made his blood boil. Which was rough because who could he really be mad at? Tom for getting hurt? Martin for walking to slow? God, if he existed? Hardly.

There was no one to blame.

So Alex was just mad. "I really really want to punch something right now!"

"That's probably not a good idea, Dr. Karev." Even though Bailey's voice was stern, Alex could detect how relieved she sounded too.

Kramer cut in, very business-like, "What's your status?"

Alex winced, even though he knew they couldn't see his expressions. He'd have to give Kramer the bad news about his friend. "Uh, I am okay. The patient's conscious and stable. Martin...Martin is dead. I'm sorry. And I..." his voice cracked a little, revealing how much the situation was getting to him. The initial adrenaline rush was wearing off now. "I can't see Kepner."

There was a long pause before Kramer finally answered, his even voice barely concealing his obvious sadness, "Marty's...gone?" He sighed and seemed to pull himself back to the urgent situation at hand. "I need you both to stay calm Dr. Karev. My men are working on stabilizing the building. I believe that we can get you and your patient out right now. I think this gap is wide enough for you to push his stretcher up to us. If the stretcher isn't damaged? Then you can climb out"

But what about April? Alex knew she wasn't dead. He justknew it. Then again, he did have an obligation to help Tom get out safely. Damn it.

"Yeah it's fine," Alex said finally, struggling to control his growing fears for April. "Tell me what to do."

He quickly followed the other man's instructions, clearing a path in the debris as best he could with his hands. He then hoisted Tom and the stretcher up and began sliding it up toward the open gap in the rubble. It was slow going, and the awkward position that the small space required made his muscles ache. Alex was also having a hard time concentrating. He couldn't help but worry about what had probably happened to April.

She could easily be dead. She could be dead and the last thing he'd have ever really said to her in a conversation would basically be that no one liked her. Messed up.

Alex strained and grunted pushing Tom's stretcher more, when finally he felt a pull from up above. Kramer shouted down, "We got him, Karev!"

The stretcher moved away from him and Alex thought he heard a sound coming from behind him. He tried to listen more, but Kramer continued speaking, "Let us pull him out and you can fol-"

"Shut up!"

There was the sound again, Alex turned around moving closer to where the noise was coming from. Finally, he could identify what the sounds were, and it made his heart leap. Coughs. Sporadic, but definitely someone was coughing. And that someone certainly wasn't Martin Yu. It had to be April.

Feeling his excitement build, Alex quickly moved closer to the sound, hoping she'd cough again so it would be easier to find her. He squinted, scanning the dusty rubble for some sort of clue. His eye settled on the fallen remains of a door. The way it was laying across the rubble looked wrong. The angle wasn't right. Unless...

Alex reached out and pushed the damaged door aside. Sure enough, underneath lay April. He exhaled loudly and reached for her wrist, silently hoping he'd find a pulse. A wave of relief spread though him when he found one. It was weak and thready, but April was still alive. She looked pretty battered, more pale than he had ever seen her. And she was unconscious, with much of her right leg buried by debris.

"Karev?" Kramer's voice sounded more insistent this time.

"I found April! She's alive. I think her leg is pinned."

The door had actually probably spared her from the same fate as Martin, protecting her from getting directly hit in a lot of places. But judging by the hitch in her breathing, and her random coughs, Alex suspected that the door had done it's own damage. Rib injuries. And that leg was probably also damaged by crushing. Even in the dark, Alex thought he could see blood pooling on along its side. The fact that April was still unconscious also meant that she'd hit her head at some point to. All typical and very dangerous of crush injuries. April needed to get out of here. She needed surgery.

"Damn it!" he said, quickly reaching for the med bag and pulling out a strap. He moved down to her leg, looping the strap beneath and tying a quick tourniquet around her thigh, hoping to stall the blood flow. April shifted, and moaned a little, the corners of her mouth twitching. She was showing signs of waking up.

"Karev," Kramer continued. "You should get yourself out. This is still an unstable area. We'll work on getting her out."

Alex knew he should leave, but as he watched April come closer to consciousness, he knew that there wasn't a chance in hell he was going to save himself, and leave her like this. He was a doctor, and she was injured. And if he left...she shouldn't wake that way; scared, hurting, and alone. He may tease her, and she might irritate him sometimes, but she was too good of a person to deserve that.

There was no decision to make. Alex was going to stay with her. No matter how dangerous.

"She's coming around. I'm not leaving!" he said firmly, hoping that Kramer would understand and not press the issue.

There was a long, pause, during which Alex watched April come to full agonizing awareness. He could tell the exact moment she came to. She suddenly shuddered, and whimpered, becoming more impossibly pale as the pain of her injuries hit her in full force. Her eyes flew open, and met his, full of fear.

"April," Alex said taking one of her shaking hands and running his fingers in soothing circles on the back. "Easy. Try not to move."

"Kramer's voice drifted into the small space again, "Alright, Karev. We are going to focus our efforts on shifting the rubble enough for you to pull her out. But if you have even the slightest feeling that we are making stuff collapse on you, you shout to high heaven for us to stop. Your friends here are ready to help you new patient."

"Okay," Alex replied distractedly, focused on locating some injectable pain killers in his med bag.

"Good. We'll check-in with you in 10 minutes. We hope to have some progress by then."

"I-I..." April struggled to speak, coughing again, and making guttural stammering sounds. "H-hurts," she finally mumbled, voice sounding dry and weak.

"You'll be okay," Alex said as matter of factly as possible. He kept his voice calm because he didn't want to freak her out any more than she was already. "This is gonna sting a bit, but I promise it'll make you feel better. It's from the med bag, so you know it will."

April grew tense and moaned as he administered the medication, and her breathing became less labored. Alex knew it could take a moment or two to set in, and he watched as her actions relaxed somewhat. The stuff they had in the med kits probably only took the edge off of her pain really. She needed something stronger. Still, Alex figured some relief would make a difference.
"Better?"

April was dimly aware of her pain long before she actually fully woke. As she drifted through memories of her childhood, snippets of conversations, and ridiculous dreams of flying, the constant undercurrent beneath the surface was one of muted agony. The same pain the drove her to unconsciousness began to relentlessly pull her back away from the floating dreamland. Her head throbbed, and her chest held a dull ache that made it hard to breathe. He leg was the worst, a sharp fiery pain that never seemed to ebb in its intensity.

Something was touching her leg, pulling something tight, and making the fire in her leg even more intense, which she'd thought was impossible, and contrasting with the growing cold she felt into the rest of her body. Finally her eyes flew open, and for a moment April saw only darkness. She was alone here. And it terrified her.

As the world came more into focus, she realized that Alex's face was looming above her. He was holding her hand. An immense wave of relief hit her when she realized that she wasn't alone. It calmed April enough to drift again, searching in her mind for some sort of explanation for all of this. The earthquake. Oh, yes. They had been rescuing people from the earthquake. The memories of the event all came flashing back.

April could vaguely hear Alex conversing with others, and she tried to pull back to reality. She knew she was in shock. She blinked, and tried to speak, but her tongue caught in the dryness of her throat, and the pain in her chest seemed more noticeable. She didn't even know if her words made it out of her mouth.

It took April a moment to realize that Alex was speaking to her, and the slight twinge of pain she felt as he injected her with medication paled in comparison to the rest of what she was feeling.

As the drugs began to take their affect, April's felt like a buffer of wool or cotton was suddenly being wrapped around the edges of her pain.

"Better?"

"Yeah...a bit."

She knew the pain was there, and she could still feel it's shape, but it wasn't as bad as before.

Letting her eyes roam around the space she was in April's mind began to swirl with memories. They were in a tiny, bleak pocket of a collapsed building. Random snippets of survival shows and Megaquake tv specials filled her mind and she began to panic. Fault lines, tsunami's, aftershocks. This was a dangerous place. They need to get out of here. At least, the one of them who could move should.

"G-go. You should leave. N-not safe here," April croaked staring up at Alex pleadingly, begging him to save himself, even though the thought terrified her. If he left, she'd be alone.

"No way," Alex said firmly. "I'm not going to leave you." His tone left no room for argument, and April didn't have the strength to fight anyway.

Her eyes started to roll back, and Alex squeezed her hand.

"Whoa, hey. Stay here. You shouldn't sleep April."

She blinked, "What?" Everything felt so disjointed, and April realized that she probably had a head injury. In which case sleep would in fact be bad. Very bad.

"Talk to me," Alex said, using an awfully bright pen light to check her pupils. He frowned slightly and continued, "Just talk to me. Tell me...tell me when you first wanted to be a doctor?"

Something about this situation seemed wrong. Alex never liked her to talk. No one did. Then again, if he thought talking might keep her awake...

"M-my voice. You don't like my voice."

He rolled his eyes, but something within them looked sad, and he grabbed both her hands, "That doesn't matter. I just like to put up a fuss. You know, keeps life interesting. Right now it's interesting enough without me complaining. Just talk alright?"

April nodded. She could do that. Well, she wasn't 100% sure it would all make sense, but she could try. "We h-have animals on our farm...I s-saved a chicken once when I was little. Nursed it to health. I l-liked helping..."

"You had a chicken?" He teased, in an incredulous tone that didn't escape her, even in her current state.

"Yeah, lots of them...It t-was a farm. This one w-was called Stella."

With that, April let her mouth and mind wander, soon losing her train of thought and drifting from fragmented memories of her past to disjointed narratives about how to best care for a common farm chicken. She felt that she was growing slightly more coherent and knew that the pain meds must be kicking in.

Alex was listening to her, holding her hand. And she was still awake.

That was something.