Two ambulances arrived at Seattle Grace Mercy West hospital. Doors were thrown open by doctors awaiting the traumas.
"Alex Karev, 30, sustained blunt head trauma and lost consciousness en route. Vitals are stable, just needs a head CT." One doctor shouted. After realizing that the serious trauma and the person everyone was worried about was in the other ambulance, the doctors flocked around the vehicle as the doors were flung open by Miranda Bailey.
"Deja Vu..." she muttered to herself.
Inside the ambulance, two paramedics were standing over a body covered and blood and charring. They had multiple broken bones and weren't moving at all.
"We lost her en route. We just need you to call it." One of The paramedics said solemnly. The doctors gathered around the doors gasped and burst into tears, their hearts dropping into their stomachs at the news.
Miranda stayed calm on the outside, looking down at her watching and telling the paramedics the time softly before jumping out of the ambulance, pushing through the crowd, and reentering the hospital.
Cristina Yang ran through the crowd towards the ambulance, tears streaming down her face. She passed people she recognized and people she didn't, all stunned at the loss of one of their own.
She jumped into the ambulance and, at the sight of her best friend, almost collapsed in grief. She stumbled towards the fallen surgeon, taking the girls mangled face in her hands and looking into the distant eyes.
Suddenly, her heart leapt in her chest and her eyes went wide. She sucked in a gasp and turned to look her husband in the eyes.
"This... isn't Meredith." She laughed. Owens mouth fell open and he jumped up next to her, looking at the woman's face as well.
"How can you tell?" He asked.
"Meredith has green eyes. This girl has brown eyes." Cristina said, gesturing towards the pupils of the dead patient. Owen let out a chuckle and turned to address the group of anxious surgeons.
"It's not Meredith." He laughed. Cheers erupted through the crowd and tears were wiped from faces as everyone let out a sigh of relief. Suddenly, a thought dawned on the cardiothorasic surgeon inside the ambulance and the smile disappeared from her face.
"If this isn't Mer... where is she?" The doctor asked. Her husband turned around to look at her with wide eyes, frozen for a second, before running and jumping out the ambulance and into the other one, which had already been emptied.
"There's still another person back there! Turn around and go back, hurry!" He screamed, gesturing for Cristina to jump in the ambulance as well and closing the door just as it pulled away.
"Oh, god. Oh, god. Oh, god, oh god oh god oh god." Cristina muttered to herself. Owen grabbed her hand and squeezed it reassuringly.
"She's going to be okay. We're going to find her and we're going to save her." He told her. She sighed and looked out the window at the shadow of the hospital retreating away from them.
"I hope so."
XxXxX
The ambulance stopped about ten minutes later and Cristina threw the doors open, scanning the dark area with her eyes.
"Where's the ambulance?" She cried, looking for the vehicle she had expected to see on arrival.
"It must have exploded when they got hit. If Meredith was inside..." Owen trailed off, realizing that Cristina wasn't even listening and jumping out of the Ambulance, turning on his flashlight and beginning to search the area.
It seemed like hours had passed with no progress and Owen was just about to throw in the towel when he heard Cristina shouting from the edges of the forest.
"Meredith! Oh, god! Oh god, Meredith, oh my..." She screamed. He heard rustling and ran over, seeing his wife crouched over a body with tears soaking her face.
He leaned down and assessed the body, which was covered in dried and crusty blood. She had multiple badly broken bones and was bleeding profusely from her head, which had shards of glass imbedded in it. He noticed glass sticking out from places all around her body and assumed she must have flown through the windshield.
"Oh, god."
XxXxX
Derek and Lexie had been sitting in silence for a while, crying into each other, before the door to the stairwell had opened and Miranda Bailey had sat down next to them. At the sight of the two doctor's bloodshot eyes and tear-soaked faces, she decided that she wouldn't be judged if she showed her emotions there.
"Five interns. Five of them, that's all I started with. I don't believe it's been five years, but it has. George O'Malley, he was my favorite. I named my son after him, and then he went and threw himself in front of a bus to save a stranger. Izzie Stevens, boy she drove me crazy. She cut her fiancés L-Vad wire and kept her job, the crazy girl. Then she went and got cancer and I was down to three. Cristina Yang, the prodigy of the group. God, shes good. She messed around with her teacher and got herself pregnant. Poor girl had a miscarriage, that's three on the table now. Alex Karev, never stood out for much. He's the toughie that's actually a softie. Idiot went into peds. Got himself in an ambulance crash, and who knows what's going on with him now." She sighed. Derek and Lexie looked up at her, intrigued.
"And then there's Meredith Grey. The trouble-making intern with the celebrity for a mother. That poor girl worked her ass of to make everyone believe she was just as good as the Ellis Grey. None of us knew, she was screwing an attending! She got so caught up in all the crappiness of her personal life... her career was left in the dust! The girl fell off a bridge trying to help someone and died on our table, and she still came back from it. She got herself married, got herself pregnant, and she was a fine surgeon. Then, her husband gets shot, she loses her baby and she lets her whole world just go down the drain.
She destroyed that Alzheimer's trial, almost lost her job and her career, got her husband and her boss blacklisted and on top of all that, she lost her baby. You just got around to forgiving her, and god knows I haven't, and then she goes and gets herself in the middle of a deadly situation. I mean, the girl cares so much about everyone else that she doesn't even stop to think about herself for a second. I'm stupid for only realizing that now." She sighed.
"The ambulances arrived. Alex Karev is alright, he's got a few minor injuries but nothing that requires surgery." She said, gulping as both of the surgeons jumped up and looked at her expectantly.
"What about Meredith?! Where is she, is she okay?" Derek probed. Bailey closed her eyes and let a single tear roll down her face.
"The paramedics told us that she had not survived the trip to the hospital." She cried, shaking her head.
Lexie's reaction was immediate, she burst into hysterical tears and covered her face with her hands, allowing herself to fall into Miranda's lap and sob loudly.
Derek was frozen. He stared blankly ahead with a concerned expression on his face, his chest heaving up and down violently.
He took a single shaky breath and felt a cold tear streak down his face, leaving a trail of stickiness in its wake.
"No..." was all he could say. He leaned back against the wall and covered his face with his hand, running it up into his hair.
"Meredith, No! This can't be happening!" Lexie cried. Derek was still in shock and Miranda felt tears in her own eyes as she comforted the younger Grey sister, stroking her hair and allowing her to cry into her lap.
Just then, the door to the stairwell burst open and Mark, who still had a phone clenched in his hand, ran into the room.
"They found her! They found Meredith!" He yelled, a relieved smile on his face. Derek looked up at him, tears spilling from his eyes, and shook his head, letting his hand drop limp to his side.
"They lost her en route." He choked. Mark's eyes went wide and he shook his head.
"Whoever told you that left too soon. It wasn't Meredith! Yang and Hunt went back out there to find her and they did, they're bringing her back now. Apparently she's in bad shape but it's manageable. Did you hear that, Derek? She's alive!" He said.
Lexie had stopped crying and was looking up at Mark, a frown on her face as Derek held his head in his hand and clenched his eyes shut, overhwlrmed with anxiety.
"I swear to god, Mark, if you're joking, stop now." Lexie ordered. Miranda Bailey was shaking her head, trying to remember if she had heard anything after she had left.
"I'm not joking! I've got Hunt on the phone right now, ask him!" Mark defended, handing the phone to Lexie.
"Owen? Owen! Is it true? Meredith's alive?" She almost screamed into the phone. Everyone in the cramped stairwell sucked in a nervous breath as they waited for the answer from the other line.
"We found her in the forest. She's got a few broken bones and she's probably got bad internal injuries and some pretty scary burns, but she's alive." Owen responded.
They all let out sighs of relief and Lexie let tears fall down her face. These tears weren't tears of grief or remorse, though. They were happy tears. And Derek let his own tears drift down his face. Mark's hand rested on his best friends back and he smiled as Lexie barraged Owen with more and more questions. Bailey sat, silent, next to her, shaking her head in disbelief.
"She's a trouble-maker... that's for sure."
Wow okay so this chapter was really long... ;) I was struggling a little bit at about 700 words and then I got on a role and just didn't stop... There will definitely be more!
Kisses!
-E