A/N sorry for the wait for this! I hope you enjoy it. I still own nothing from Grey's Anatomy, only the plot of this story.

xo

"These buildings have been blown up and the devastation rivals that of the 9/11 twin towers. The body count is still rising and it seems the further in that search teams delve the higher it gets. The chances of finding many more living victims are already getting lower. This news is being reported to you only 35 minutes after this tragedy struck."

That voice. Clipped. Efficient. The voice was that of a news reported of whom was not wrong in her statement. Lexie peered into the mess that was once a shopping complex and gave herself no longer than 6 seconds to come to terms with what she was staring at. "Grey and Karev, I want you straight on the tarp with critical patients! Keep them alive until an ambulances come to take them. Do not under any circumstance, come into this building. I am trusting you to keep these people safe." The young surgeon had years of training under her belt and her photographic memory was useful, so she was not the least bit offended by being told to stay in the safe zone with the patients who were not being treated but needed to be. Badly. It was apparent that Alex Karev did not share that same thought process as he tried to sneak in with the other group of surgeons. "Karev! Help Grey or go back to the hospital and give sutures!" The chiefs voice shot Alex straight back to his area of patients. After what felt like 10 minutes Lexie and Alex had stabilized only 5 of their 20 patients, who were immediately placed onto stretchers and were rushed straight to nearby hospitals. "WE'VE FOUND ANOTHER 10 OR SO ALIVE! THEY ARE TRAPPED UNDER THE RUBBLE! WE NEED ASSISTANCE ASAP!" It was Mark's voice, and she couldn't bear to go near him just yet. She didn't know if he wanted her. And now wasn't the time to find out. "Alex, go help I've got this." The woman's ex looked at her with a thankful look before running to the mall to assist their colleagues.

Smoke was everywhere so locating any person's within the rubble was a difficult task, but it was one Mark Sloan was not afraid to take on. If they could locate survivors now, then some family, somewhere, would not have to feel the pain of having someone torn from them. Trying to lead the people who had come to assist in extracting the 10 or so survivors, back into the building was not as simple as one would think. There were dangerous chunks of wood, metal and every other possible material hanging from rafters and sticking out of what use to be high scale shops. Eventually after 15 minutes, give or take a few, the plastic surgeon had gotten all the volunteers safely to the section of the complex holding what was likely the last of the living people within the building. After all anyone who was stuck within this building for much longer would probably die with a lack of oxygen making it to their lungs. It was sad but it was a fact. Every doctor on the sight of this catastrophe knew. They all knew that this was it, anyone else stuck in the rubble would die and there was nothing that could be done to stop it. "Help, please help us.." the strangled cry came from the burnt building, snapping Mark out of his thoughts. "He can't breathe; this man is going to die! Please help, please." The begs were painful to hear. "Ma'am we are going to remove some of this debris but we need you to stand back. The man who isn't breathing, can you please turn his head to the left." April Kepner's trauma training kicked in as the rest of the team began to dispose of the boards that were covering the group of people just below. As the trauma surgeon in training continued to give the scared woman instructions on CPR, Sloan removed the last board from the hole that was keeping the people captive. This gave him first opportunity to run through the small gap and get to the man. The man who wasn't breathing. The man, who Mark realized as he saw his face, was someone he knew. This man was Thatcher. Thatcher Grey. Meredith's father. Lexie's father.

Leaning over one of the patients left on the tarp that had not yet been fully examined, Lexie saw that the woman had internal bleeding, "Shit," the surgeon said under her breath. "WHERE IS THE NEXT AMBULANCE?! WE NEED ONE IN HERE IMMEDIATELY." The panic in her voice pierced the ears of those emerging from the smouldering building causing Mark's eye to go straight towards her. Their eye contact lasted less than a second as the attending shot his head back to his patient in attempts to block Lexie's view from seeing the man on the gurney. He knew she would hate him when she found out, but maybe that would make the situation easier. In attempts to make himself feel better about what he was doing, he told himself Lexie would save lives by staying here and working with critical patients and she would be thankful for the opportunity. That is until she found out about her father anyway. The younger surgeon who was trying to keep the last critical patient alive was heavy as the man she loved took the last ambulance in sight. This patient wasn't going to last much longer, she needed a sterile room to begin any kind of procedure and even the ambulance wouldn't have the machinery. "I NEED JUST ONE MORE AMBULANCE! THE FIRST YEARS CAN HANDLE WHAT'S LEFT BUT THIS PATIENT NEEDS AN OR NOW!" She knew screaming would get anything done but god did it feel good. But apparently screaming wasn't completely useless as just seconds later she heard the sound of a siren. The siren sounded like a beautiful symphony to her, because that sound meant their ride to Seattle Grace Mercy West was nearly here. Which meant that this last patient had a chance. She had kept the rest alive until an ambulance got to them but now it was Lexie Grey's responsibility to keep this patient breathing until they got to her second home. To her workplace. To an operating room. "Out of the way, clear some room." It was a phrase that had been repeated all day, this time it came from the mouth of a paramedic whom Lexie had met plenty of times before. Before she knew it, the young women was within the medical vehicle prepping her patient for the surgery they were about to go through.

"Come on!" Get him into surgery... please god, don't let him die. Mark Sloan's brain was on overdrive. Thatcher Grey was alive. Barely. But he was unconscious and breathing, that was all that was needed to save him. Assisting the gurney into the OR where the patient was switched onto the operating bed was as much as Sloan could do before scrubbing in. Scrubbing in. It was a slow process but today it felt a million times slower, as the rest of the surgeons on this case filed in to begin scrubbing, Sloan became more and more agitated to begin the operation. Stepping into the sterile room holding Thatcher Grey was one of the most stressful experiences of the older surgeon's life and he wasn't even the head surgeon on this case.

"Okay, it's a beautiful day to save lives everybody." The voice of Derek Shepard, one of the best neurosurgeons in the world broke Mark out of his thoughts yet again. "Yes it is," the voice of Callie Torres added a contrast to the room. Two amazing surgeon and Sloan as the helping hand, this man had to survive and if the mans, daughters exboyfriend had anything to do with it. Then he would live.

1 hour.

2 hours.

3 hours.

4, 5 ,6 ,7 hours.

8 hours.

Fixing a broken spine, ankle and arm, along with various brain bleeds was going to be a long process but this was excruciating. Lexie and Meredith didn't even know that their father was lying on a surgical table within a hospital they had worked in for years, but that was for the best wasn't it? "Yeah, you keep telling yourself that Sloan." Great. Today was not the day for the man's conscience to come out of hibernation.

"Nobody move." The voice of the plastic surgeon, who had been silent for the past 8 hours, broke the quiet in the room. "Don't let him die, she needs him, she won't be able to handle this… She is going to break and I won't be there to check her back into Psych.. SAVE HIM DERECK!." Break downs were not something Mark was used to having but the stress of the decisions he had been forced to make over the past few hours was too much for the man.

"Leave my OR immediately Dr Sloan." The Neurosurgeons voice came out in a deadly whisper.

"I'm so sorry." Was the only reply Mark Sloan could utter as he dragged his body from the room with Callie's eyes following him as he did so. Slumping against the wall of the scrub room, the world spun around him. 1 breath. 2 breaths, 3, 4, 5. The room eventually halted and the nausea left his body. He had only a few blissful seconds of silence and calm before his pager lit up for the hundredth time that day. This time the beeper displayed the numbers 911 yet again, which was far from a relief to the exhausted man. Slowly standing he left the room without glancing back to the open patient on the table only meters away from him.

"Someone pass me some more bandages!" Lexie Grey was becoming increasingly more frustrated as the day continued. Her patient with internal bleeding who, against all odds, had been kept alive by the woman all the way to the hospital, was in surgery. Why wasn't she in the surgery? Because Alex Karev had poached the patient. Leaving her in the pit with the few lucky survivors who weren't blown up or grievously hurt. That surgery was hers. She had worked her ass off to get that John Doe to Seattle Grace Mercy Death. And she was in the pit. She needed to be in a surgery, she needed something to suck up all her focus. Sutures weren't enough to keep her mind from wandering off to Mark and honestly that was the last thing she should be thinking about today. She knew that and her patients deserved her undivided attention. But after 7 hours the constant task of placing sutures was ridiculous. It was a job for first years yet here she was. "Photographic memory has to give me brownie points does it Dad? It'll help me get into surgery's will it?" muttering under her breath with frustration present on her face, her Father was wrong and after a day like today he was the only person she could gloat to. Granted he would have to drag him away from his tatted up whore but it was a task she would be up to. The thought of seeing her dad again for the first time in 2 months excited her, she was so overworked and stressed and she had been planning this for 2 weeks. She was going to go to his house and they were going to have dinner. Just the two of them. She needed to sit with her Dad and forget about Mark and the hospital and Jackson and all the other crap that was happening around her. Thinking about the night she was going to have was enough to lift her spirits long enough to finish the last of the facial sutures she was working on, although they would have been finished earlier if the woman sitting on the hospital bed would stop bugging her about a scar. Lexie knew what she was doing, she had worked under Mark Sloan for Christ's sake! "Mrs York, I understand you are stressed right now but there are people in this hospital who are dying or will be losing limbs after this accident. Having a tiny scar is a small price to pay don't you think?" Mrs York's jaw dropped and she was clearly fighting with herself, trying to decide what to retort back to the surgeon sewing her face, it took about 10 seconds for her to slowly close her mouth in surrender.

"Time of death, 12 :00 o'clock ." Mark Sloan's voice was solemn as he announced that the man on the table was gone. It was as no surprise to those standing in room after all this patient had crawled from the burnt shopping complex hours after the search party gave up on the rest of the person's within the building. The third degree burn covering every inch of the man's body was enough of an indicator for Sloan to presume the man would die, but he still used every trick he knew to try to save the John Doe. It wasn't enough. The unclaimed man's lungs couldn't withstand the surgery and now another family was going to go home with a brochure for caskets rather than their family member. It took the plastic surgeon only a minute to remember where he was before this 3 hour surgery. He was in another surgery. The surgery in which Thatcher Grey was the patient. "Shit.." He breathed again before running from the OR to the one directly across from him. Pushing the doors open of the scrub room the older man's eye searched for Mr Grey, but he saw nothing through the window. The OR was deserted.. Seeing nobody within the room left Mark thinking of a different four lettered word. He took off again this time down to intensive care, if Thatcher was anywhere it was ICU or the morgue. ICU was the better bet. With fingers crossed Mark Sloan opened the glass doors to the ICU and walked straight to the reception desk. "Please, please tell me Thatcher Grey has been transferred here." Mark's words were so fast it came as a surprise to him when the nurse behind the desk understood him and began tapping the keyboard behind the desk immediately. "He is in bed 8." A look of shock and surprise washed over his face but the look was short lived as he made eye contact with the nurse. Her facial expression did not match his at all, hers was grim and apologetic. "No…" His voice barely a whisper. The nurse's face turned into a look of regret, "As soon as we can get his next of kin here we are going to recommend unplugging him. There was just too much damage and Dr Sheppard said the brain activity is non-existent." Without another word Mark turned to leave. He was too much of a coward to tell Lexie and his shift was coming to an end. Today was not the day to talk to his ex, today was the day to ensure Julia didn't end up an ex also. Thatcher didn't deserve what happened to him but Lexie had to be strong enough to deal with this. "Like I said, you keep telling yourself that, but you know it's not true" the voice inside Mark's head wasn't wrong and he knew without a doubt he was going to make sure someone close to Lexie gave her the news before she stumbled upon her father.

After another hour Lexie and Mark were both preparing to leave on different floors of the hospital. "Dr Bailey, can I please go home now?" Lexie's voice was cheerful as she thought of the home cooked meal her father would be preparing right now. Bailey's face was remorseful as she turned around. "Dr Bailey.. are you okay?"

"Lexie…" The tone that her mentor used on her sent shivers down her spin, let alone the fact that her mentor used her first name. Her body was shaking already as scenarios sped through her head. Was she going to be fired? Did she kill a patient? Did something happen to Meredith? What was happening? It was clear to the general surgeon standing in front of her that the resident's brain was working on over drive. "Lexie I need you to sit down." Her voice was shaky, Lexie felt the warm hand of the surgeon touching her hand. "No! Tell me what is going on!" Bailey took a deep breath before opening her mouth. Lexie heard Bailey's words and for the second time that day the world around her became a blur as she was filled with adrenaline. The woman bolted to the nearest staircase sprinting to the ICU with perfect focus. She ran without a care about those who were around her, knocking into machinery, garbage bins and people. She didn't care. Her father was in this hospital. As a patient. Again. He wasn't going to make it. She needed him, the woman needed to see the accusations about her father for herself. She needed proof.

Stumbling across the floor holding the ICU the middle Grey child halted at the desk s she impatiently waited for the bed holding her father. With the nurse taking too long she decided to take matters into her own hand opening each and every door until she reached bed 8. In bed 8 he lay, the familiar face of the man who raised her. The world spun as the woman ran over to the closest bin and threw up all the food she had ingested in the past two days. She continued to throw up until bile burnt her throat but the nausea didn't stop. She pushed her way back through the glass door of the ICU before making eye contact with him.

"Come on." Mark threw his arm around the shoulders of his.. Girlfriend. Julia. She giggled at the dorky gesture, completely unaware it was a habit the surgeon had picked up when leaving the hospital with Lexie. They cruised through the hospital, as Mark tried to ignore the fact they were about to pass the ICU. Although he tried he didn't succeed due to the fact that as soon as its doors came into view the woman he was in love with fell back through the doors. Her eyes were dry until they met his. The look in her eyes was pure pain and his was guilt. From where he was standing he heard her utter one word. His name. He looked at her as she sunk to the floor only centimetres from the door she had just exited, tears spilled from her eyes as she curled herself into a ball. That's all it took for Mark to realize that he was making a huge mistake.

"I'm so sorry."

"What?"

"I'm sorry .. Julia I'm so sorry."

The words clicked and Julia looked at him. Pure hate in her eyes as she quickly came to terms with why her… Ex, was apologizing.

Mark was aware of what he was giving up. But he also knew what he was gaining and he would take the consequences any day. At an insane speed the former womaniser ran, before he sunk to the floor next to the love of his life, enveloping her into a hug as her tears stained his shirt.