This chapter I tried to tie things together a little better, I tried to at least get everyone in Seattle on the same timeline, sort of.
For those of you still reading, thanks!
Please review, as I mentioned, this is my first fic and I can't get better without feedback. Thanks for the people who have reviewed! :-D
Also, anyone who is a little lost on the timeline, just ask and I can give you times for everything.
Bailey and Ben had spent the last hour and a half celebrating their engagement, and trying to spend as much time together before Ben left for his internship. Neither of them had been paged, a fact that the on-call Bailey was very grateful for. Just one of the benefits of being an attending, she had no interns breaking any of her rules, especially rules three and four. Exclusive use of the on-call rooms was another benefit of being an attending, they weren't going to get kicked out by anyone, except maybe the Chief.
"You're right, that was wonderful." Bailey leaned over and kissed Ben, she hadn't been this happy in a long time. The moment was cut short by both of their pagers going off. They were being paged to the conference room, so as far as she knew, no one was dying. She started to move off the bed and gather her scrubs but Ben stopped her
"Just a few more minutes?"
He was difficult to resist, and Bailey settled back into the bed with him. "Alright, but just a few, we don't want to completely miss whatever it is we're being paged for."
Callie paced back and forth in her apartment, not really sure what to do. She was obsessively checking her phone, hoping that she would get some news about Arizona. It had been half an hour since she got off the phone with Owen and she had taken the time to shower and get dressed. She wanted someone to tell her everything would be okay but Arizona and Mark were miles away, unreachable, possibly dead Don't think like that, Torres. She thought about Bailey, but she had no interest in interrupting her time with Ben. Going to the hospital crossed her mind, but knew it wouldn't do her any good. Sleeping wasn't an option either, not until they were okay. I know! I'll call Dad!
Carlos Torres had come a long way in accepting Callie's sexuality and they had come out of it having a much stronger relationship than before. Even though Callie's mother still did not accept Callie's marriage to Arizona or Sofia, Carlos was still there for Callie when she needed it. It was 11:30 at night and Carlos was sleeping, but once he saw the name on the caller ID he jumped out of bed and answered as soon as he was out of the room.
"Calliope, what's going on? Is Sofia okay?" He sounded a little groggy but he was wide awake.
"Sorry, did I wake you? I didn't realize how late it was in Miami but I didn't know who else to call."
"No, no, it's okay, talk to me, mija."
"Arizona, Mark, and four other doctors are missing."
"Missing? What do you mean, missing?" Carlos was a little relieved that it wasn't Callie or Sofia, but he still cared for Arizona, and some part of him cared for Mark.
"They were supposed to go to Boise to do a surgery on conjoined twins."
"Conjoined twins? Really?"
"Yes Daddy, can I continue?"
"Oh yes, sorry."
"The plane never made it there, and they can't find it, it went off the radar." Tears started to form and Callie was trying hard not to cry, trying to stay somewhat coherent, but they fell anyway.
"What do you need me to do? Do you want me to come to Seattle? Have you talked to Arizona's parents yet? I will pray for them, but I'm sure she's okay, you're surgeons."
"But if they went off radar it means a crash, people don't often survive plane crashes in the woods. You don't have to come to Seattle, although Sofia would probably love to see you." Callie knew adding the bit about Sofia was a bit manipulative, she knew it was hard for her father to resist seeing his granddaughter but she didn't realize how nice it would be to have him there until he suggested it. "I understand you can't just drop everything and jump on a plane."
"Sure I can, mija, you're my daughter, there are very few things more important than that. I will be on the next plane to Seattle and I will keep you updated."
Callie was a little relieved at the prospect of having her father with her, "Thanks Daddy, talk to you soon, I love you."
"I love you too Calliope."
After hanging up the phone with her dad, Callie felt a little better, but still wasn't sure what to do. She decided on calling Sofia's babysitter to check up on her when she heard a knock on the door. Who is that? Callie was not expecting anyone, and knew that Arizona wouldn't be knocking, so she couldn't even entertain the thought of this plane crash just being a horrible nightmare scenario. Whoever it was knocked again, a little more urgently, "I'm coming!" Callie opened the door and was surprised to see Teddy standing there, looking like she had been crying and suitcases at her feet.
"Teddy, what's going on? Have you been crying? Are you alright? Come in." Teddy grabbed her bags and walked into the apartment, taking a seat on the couch.
"Owen fired me when he found out I wouldn't be taking the Med Com job. He talked to the board and everything. I just wanted to come by and say bye, I know you have a special night planned for Arizona but I didn't want to just skip town without saying goodbye. Where is Arizona, isn't she back yet?"
"Um, Arizona and the others never made it to Boise, they're missing." For what seemed like the hundredth time, Callie felt tears start to form. Damn, saying that just does not get easier.
"What? When did you find that out? Callie, they're okay, they are doctors, very good doctors, and I know Arizona and Yang are both survivors. They will make it." Teddy was really hoping she was right, she did not want Callie to lose Arizona, losing a spouse was awful, something that Teddy had to experience a few months ago. Teddy also really liked Arizona, they had become friends over the past couple years. She gave Callie a hug, knowing it wasn't much but it was something comforting.
"Thanks, I talked to Owen about 45 minutes ago, he said that he had known for like an hour, he didn't listen to his voicemail until around 7. The hospital in Boise left him a few messages about the team not arriving."
"He sent those calls to voicemail?"
"That's what I said, I'm sure he's not happy with himself, I already went off on him about it."
"Callie, do you need me to stay with you tonight? I imagine being alone is not exactly making any of this easier."
"I would like that, I could use a friend, my dad is on his way but he probably won't be here until sometime tomorrow afternoon or evening. You looked like you were on your way out though, when do you start the job at Med Com?"
"I have some time, I have a week or so to settle in, nothing is concrete, they're just happy to have me. I just wanted to get out of Seattle after Owen fired me so I figured I might as well get going."
"Okay then, I can make up the couch for you later, tell me about Med Com, and what happened with Owen. That was kind of shitty of him for firing you, but I understand. He wanted you to take the job, right?"
"I guess, he probably could have done it better than telling me he didn't want me there."
"He said that?"
"Yes, his words, 'I don't want you here', and he more yelled them at me."
"Teddy I'm sorry, that blows."
"Thanks, it does and it doesn't. I can get away from Seattle, which is nice, no offense, but it also means I'm leaving Owen and I just don't want to do that."
"I understand, it'll be good for you to leave. Owen will be okay, I'll keep tabs on him and let you know how he's doing."
"Thanks Callie, you're a good friend."
While Callie and Teddy were talking, Callie's pager was going off, but neither woman noticed it.
Owen stood there as residents, attendings, and nurses filed into the conference room, most seemed a little confused as to why they were there. He noticed that Torres was missing and turned to the nurse next to him, "Have you heard from Torres?"
"No, we paged her but we haven't seen her. Maybe she didn't hear it go off?" She knew what was going on, many of the nurses having been filled in by Hunt. If I were her, I wouldn't want to go near the hospital, I wouldn't really want to do much of anything.
"Maybe, since she already knows what's going on I won't wait too long for her. Try paging her one more time and then we'll leave it alone." The nurse left the room and Hunt saw Bailey and Ben shuffle in, it looked like everyone was there. He waited a few more minutes for Callie.
"Hey Hunt, what's going on?" Being called into the conference room like this made Alex a little nervous, he was sure it wasn't for anything good.
"Give me a minute Karev." Owen took a deep breath, he wasn't exactly sure how to start, even though he had been thinking about this since he first heard about the plane, but he knew he had to start somewhere. The people who had been at Seattle Grace for years, been through the merger, the shooting, all of it, were starting to get worried looks on their faces, he had to say something. His eyes locked on to Richard, who gave him a small nod of encouragement, indicating that he was doing the right thing.
"I'm sorry if this inconveniences some of you, I know that many of you had already left the hospital for the day, so I will try to keep this as quick as possible. As you know, today has been a hectic day and because of that, my calls were forwarded to my voicemail, when I sat down to listen to them 2 hours ago, there were several messages from the hospital in Boise asking about our team." He took a second to look around the room, seeing peoples expressions change to worry and general horror. "The team, consisting of Dr. Arizona Robbins, Dr. Derek Shepard, Dr. Mark Sloan, Dr. Christina Yang, Dr. Meredith Grey, and Dr. Lexie Grey, never made it to Boise. As of right now, we don't know where they are, but there are search and rescue teams looking for them. The plane went off radar and it seems as if the transmitter broke." The doctors and nurses were stunned, Kepner looked like she was going to cry, something bad happening again? Bailey was the first and only to speak.
"Oh my God."
"Now, I'm asking that everyone stay calm, we can't help find them, but we can make sure their patients are cared for. Which is why I ask that any 5th year resident that is able to postpone leaving for their fellowship until we have word on our team in the woods. I understand that it's a lot to ask, we are expecting some new fellows but the transition needs to be as smooth as possible. Any resident willing to stay, please come speak to me, Kepner, I'd like to speak to you as well. Attendings, with Robbins, Sloan, and Shepard missing, we are short handed, I have made some calls to help with that but until we can get some people here, it means an increase in hours and patients. Nurses, I just wanted to say thank you, you've been a lot of help and I appreciate you taking on additional work to help residents and attendings. As I have information, I will make sure it gets to everyone. I do not want to alarm the rest of the hospital, so please, try not to let it get around, although I'm sure it will. Anyone with questions or concerns, please come talk to me, otherwise please go to the nurses station and get a list of the additional patients you will be taking over. Thank you." It took some time for people to gather themselves together and leave the conference room. To Owen, it seemed that for every person that left, two came up to speak with him.
"Hunt, who have you gotten in contact with to act as temporary attendings?" Richard wanted to offer as much help as possible to Owen, having a few names of doctors who might be willing to come. Maybe Catherine will come help out.
"Well, I went down a list for cardio attendings and actually wanted to ask you about Dr. Burke and Dr. Hahn. It looks like neither of them really gave a reason for leaving. I know Burke and Christina were an item, but was that why he left?"
"Why are you looking for cardio? What happened to Altman? Burke left the day he and Christina were supposed to get married, I think he felt that he needed to leave to free her. Hahn left after a patient of hers came in and she found out that he didn't get a heart that was owed to him because of one of our residents, who was an intern at the time. They are both good doctors, decent teachers, but I'm not sure you can get them to come back. You can try though. What about Catherine Avery? I know you're looking more at neuro, and plastics, but she might be able to help."
"Altman is leaving to pursue a position at MedCom. I'll try Avery, we could use any hands we could get. Do you have any suggestions for neuro?"
While waiting for Hunt and Webber to finish talking, April was trying very hard not to freak out, or cry. Right now, she was responsible for Zola, with Derek, Meredith, Lexie, and Christina AWOL, she was the only one. She had no idea what she was going to do, and she was freaking out wanting to know what Hunt wanted. Does he want me to stay? Has he reconsidered firing me? Maybe he'll give me another chance? Jackson walked over and put his arm around her, "Hey, are you alright?"
"No Jackson, I'm not alright! Their plane went down, that does not make me alright, we don't know if their okay and I have Derek's and Meredith's child!"
"I know, I just, wanted to see if there was anything I could do, I guess."
"There isn't, just go, please just go."
Jackson reluctantly backed off and walked toward the back of the line of people waiting to speak to Hunt. He was in no rush to head to Tulane. I hope they're okay. Jackson probably wouldn't tell April, or Sloan, but he loved Lexie, still cared a great deal for her.
Owen finished talking to Webber and was grateful to see Karev and Avery in line waiting to talk. That must mean they're willing to stay, thank God. He spoke to April first, "Kepner, I wanted to ask if you wanted to stay and help out. I also wanted to offer you a space here for next year, until you pass your boards in June. You'll basically be repeating 5th year, but it gives you a job."
"Seriously? Thank you Chief!" April was estatic! She wouldn't have to go home after all! She ran over to Jackson, forgetting that she had told him to go away, and gave him a huge hug. "Hunt gave me a spot as a 5th year! I don't have to go home!"
"That's great, congratulations!" Jackson couldn't help himself and kissed her, lost in the moment, she kissed him back. He pulled back and offered a quick apology, although he wasn't the least bit sorry. "Wait for me, we'll celebrate at Joe's"
Alex knew the second Owen said something about the doctors missing that he was staying to help out in any way he could. He felt he owed it to Robbins and also wanted to stick around and make sure they were found and that they were okay. He may not freely admit it but they were his family, he cared about Meredith and Christina. His mind went back to the conversation he had with Meredith and Christina about Seattle Grace, Mercy Death. I was only half joking at the time, but it sure as hell seems like this hospital is just full of death and tragedy.
"Sir, I want to stay, Hopkins has been lenient so far and if I explain they should give me some time before I start my fellowship."
"Karev, are you sure? This is Hopkins, if they aren't willing to give you the chance are you going to go?"
"If they aren't willing to do this for me, then I don't want to be there. This is my family, I want to stay and make sure they get home ok."
"Alright, then, I know Robbins took you off her cases but I'm putting you back on, you will have other attendings around but you're going to be in charge for the most part. You've put in a lot of time and I know you know those patients. Thank you Karev."
"Thank you, Chief." Alex headed towards the locker room to change, he wanted to check on his patients and give Hopkins a call. He didn't expect to leave the hospital anytime soon.
Slowly, Owen got through everyone who wanted to speak with him, many like Karev and Avery, wanted to offer help in whichever way they could. Others, like Bailey and some other attendings wanted more information, they knew the odds were slim of them making it home, but they wouldn't talk amongst themselves about it.
After speaking with Owen, Bailey walked over to Ben, who immediately embraced her. "I need to make a phone call and check up on Callie, if she doesn't answer, I just might go over there, there are enough people staying and she lives close enough where I think it would be alright." Ben just nodded, knowing he didn't really have to say much. "I can't believe something is happening again."