Title: Forfeit all my lives to get just one right...
Word Count: 4500 (including the epilogue that is more Alex and Meredith centric but still has a pretty significant George ending).
Rating: PG-15 for naughty words only.
Prompt: #21. Alex sees George's ghost everywhere he goes. I was also heavily (kinda) prompted by #2. George and an asthmatic (or diabetic) Alex are trapped in an elevator, but it was too late to claim so, it's an honorary mention for that prompt only and (in light of that) I changed it up a little... you'll see what I mean.
Summary: He really doesn't think that the handful of beers he consumed last night justify the downright foul hangover he seems to have landed himself.
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libellous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
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Epilogue (Meredith's POV)
"Alex? Jesus, Alex!"
Meredith turns furiously to the stunned maintenance worker, her eyes flashing with rage, her arms gesticulating wildly, as though they're seperate to the seething composure the rest of her is channelling.
"You... you told me there was no one in there... you said... you said... I knew it, I knew it...Alex!"
They've only managed to get the doors open a foot so far, but it's enough to release the stench of vomit and sweat and all manner of other unspeakable fluids and Meredith is so completely and utterly terrified that she can barely see straight.
A shaft of light is swathing Alex in an eerie glow, he's slumped upright but a little to left, as though leaning his head against an invisible shoulder. His face is slick with sweat, beads of it are gathering on his chin before free-falling to the front of his shirt and it's only the fact that Meredith is fairly certain corpses don't actively sweat that she's able to function at all.
She reaches a hand through the gap, pushes in up to her shoulder and then some but is still feet too short of reaching him.
"Alex! Alex, open your eyes, please, Alex, please..." she's pleading and crying and only vaguely aware of a body above her, attempting to use brute force to shove the doors open enough that she can slide in.
Supplies are steadily stockpiling beside her, saline, crash cart, ambu bag, oxygen canister. Someone, not her, most definitely not her, is still capable of doing their job. She makes a mental note to thank them later.
She grabs for a crepe bandage that has materialised along with everything else and hefts it at Alex, it bounces off his forehead and Meredith feels awful doing it but she sags with relief at the same time because Alex's eyes drift open and stare right at her. They're glazed and fever bright but they're open and the rest... all of that?
All of that they can fix.
"Alex, can you hear me?"
"Mere?"
"Yes, Alex, it's me, it's Meredith," and the salt of tears she didn't even know she was crying burn at her lips. "We didn't know where you were. Alex, you didn't use the emergency phone. We didn't know you were in there... I'm so sorry we took so long..."
"Where's O'Malley gone?"
"What? Alex? It's okay... we're gonna get you out..."
"No..." He's agitated now, eyes rolling around in his head, trying to look but unable to move to do it properly, "... George?"
"Mere... George was here too... George O'Malley. He, George, he said he thinks I have meningitis and... crap... Mere..."
"Alex, it's okay..."
"Where's George?" And he's aware that he must sound pathetic, and more than a little whiny, but he's sick of feeling like any minute he's about to die...
"Mere, meningitis... that... you can die from that shit..."
"You're not dying, Alex."
No goddamn way.
"Izzie didn't die..."
"No, no she didn't... and you're not going to either..."
"But she left..."
"Alex, we're getting you out, okay... two more minutes..."
"I think maybe O'Malley died..."
"Yeah, Alex. Yeah, he did..."
"But he told me I have meningitis... He sat... right there against the door... I think I thought he was gonna fall out, I think I thought it was funny..."
"It's okay, I promise it's okay now..." she looks up at the body above her, notices for the first time that it's Mark and repeats her words, pointedly, up at him, "... I promise it's okay now..."
Mark nods back and with the help of the maintenance worker that Meredith is still too irrationally furious with to acknowledge with anything other than scathing threats of bodily harm, they manage to get the doors prised open enough that Meredith can twist her torso sideways and maneuver her way into the body of the elevator.
She screams at someone behind her, at anyone who'll listen, to page Cristina and, as an immediate afterthought, adds Lexie too. She's not entirely sure what having them there will change, probably not a damn thing, but in a world where each other is all that they have left, she needs them paged all the same.
Alex is unconscious again by the time she gets to him. Head hanging forward, eyes closed. The door has been propped open to stop it sliding shut again as it seems so determined to do, and there's enough light in there now that she can almost see what she's doing.
Now, if only she could get rid of the freaking tears, she'd be set.
She has a mask over Alex's nose and mouth and is dragging him backwards across the soiled elevator floor to the opening when Cristina and Lexie both materialise. They shout questions at her and panic and Cristina orders someone to do something in a wholeheartedly inappropriate and totally Cristina manner that Meredith can't quite decipher but is instantly comforted by nonetheless.
The knowledge that they're there, that Cristina and Lexie are there, is all that she needs and so she ignores them completely, concentrates solely on getting Alex the hell out of where he's been trapped for God knows how long.
The elevator has come to a stop about a foot and a half from level and Mark and Lexie help her ease Alex out and down without causing too much further trauma. Bailey rounds the corner only seconds later, drawn by all the commotion. She's instantly in control and despite the fact that Meredith can't quite bring herself to relinquish it initially, she knows, most definitely, that Bailey is also one of them and that she has Alex's back just as much as Meredith ever could.
A hand grabs at hers and she turns to face the body it's attached to.
Cristina.
Her mouth is agape and she's looking at Meredith like she has all the answers she could ever need, and then some.
"He said... he thinks..." Meredith swallows harshly around the solid lump of her heart, lodged high in the back of her throat and runs the palm of her hand, trembling and sweaty, across her lips, "... he said George was in there with him..."
It's all she can think of to say.
END