A/n: You wish this fic was filled with dead people. This is not the 6th sense. Spoiler alert.
Chapter Four – Feel it coming
Flashback...
It was dark and it smelled like gasoline. Lexie stared up at the sky, the plane partially disrupting her view. She felt moderately calm, awaiting her own death. It was a funny situation and yet horribly sad. Arizona had been screaming about something but she wasn't entirely sure what. Cristina had hurt her shoulder and Meredith was looking for Derek..or she'd found him. Something like that. Her mind was muddled at the moment but she didn't care too much. All she cared about was the man that never left her side. Mark held her hand and wouldn't let go. She wondered if they would all survive the coming days or even the night. Lexie took a breath. It had hurt before but now, now it was painless. She was going to die and somehow, she found peace with that. Lexie wasn't alone. She had Mark with her and that's all that mattered.
Eventually she fell unconscious, saying her final goodbyes...
Except...it wasn't.
Lexie woke up midway through the night, an animal sniffing at her body. She locked eyes with it, unable to move at first as it tried to take her arm or what was left of it. Lexie through adrenaline or something, wriggled free of the plane and ran into the woods. She was half crazed, practically bleeding to death. Lexie wasn't sure how long she ran for but with only one thought in her head, escape, she ran as fast as her legs could carry her. She found a road, her lungs burning from the exertion and stopped, her hand resting on her knee while her other arm hung loosely.
Sheer luck it seemed as a car drove by and noticed her. Not only did they stop, they actually helped her. She was driven to the closest hospital and taken care of before she her arm had to be amputated. Lexie found out her surgical career was over and without thought, tried to take her own life. The plane crash and now that had pushed her over the edge. A short time after that she was taken to the very facility she resided in now.
Lexie had no memory of the entire thing including her half sister Meredith. Everything was gone. Mark was gone. It was all gone.
Present
Lexie stares down at her bruised up arm and frowns. Thank god Owen had punched him or who knows what would have happened. She feels relief as she sits in the doctor's office on the couch. Lexie watches him come into the room and sit down. He smiles at her as he always does. Dr Thomas always tries to give off the impression he's an approachable person and she supposes that's the point. They're supposed to talk to him and want to talk to him. They are supposed to spill everything to him. Lexie hasn't been taking the medication for over a week and she knows better than to tell him anything. He does, however, bring up the incident that just happened. She says she was scared and that she was glad Owen intervened. The doctor, however, thought he'd acted too rashly. Lexie brushes it off, not caring what he thought. "How..how long is Owen going to be in solitary?" She finally decides to ask, raising her eyebrows a little. "As long as it takes." Dr Thomas replies. Lexie frowns and makes a mental note to help him the moment he gets out. She's got to get him off the medication if he has any hope once he leaves this place.
They talk for a little while longer before Lexie is excused to her room. She wonders down the hall and takes a detour. Lexie finds her way towards the room Owen's in and peers through the little window. He's just laying there on the mattress and she frowns. At least he's just drugged up at the moment. She knows sometimes when they can't "fix" people with medication, they take it to the extreme. Lexie hopes that doesn't happen to either of them. She just wants her memories back and she wants to get out of here unscathed. She taps her finger on the glass, wondering if he'll notice. Lexie watches Owen turn his head, his eyes glazed. At least he moves. She looks a little longer and finally runs back to her room before her orderly notices.
Owen watches Lexie by the door, happy she's there. He feels exhausted, like he hasn't slept in days and he considers rolling over and going back to sleep. Owen can't figure out why. Did something happen? Maybe he really did have trouble sleeping. His mind isn't working properly, a fog coating his thoughts. He decides to just roll over and sleep. Owen doesn't know how long he slept for but when he wakes up, it's night. He doesn't know what time it is and for a moment, he doesn't know where he is. Owen looks around again and falls back asleep.
GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA
It's 630 in the fucking morning when her plane lands. She pulls the sleep mask from her face and grumbles, wondering why in the hell she decided to pick such a flight. Time changes are a bitch, this much she knows.
"Good morning. The local time in Seattle is 6:35 am..." The pilot bellows on, annoying her at how cheery he is. She supposes that perhaps that's a good thing. He should be alert while he's flying. One plane crash is enough for her. Cristina runs a hand through her hair and sighs. Her hair is everywhere and she makes a note to shower once she gets to her hotel. The plane parks at the airport and she grabs her carry on and gets off the plane, dragging her feet. "You look tired Dr Yang." "Shut up Shane." She replies, dismissing him immediately. Why she brought him all the way to Switzerland is beyond her. Well he's useful sometimes. Sometimes. Cristina remembers being on the phone with Meredith and her asking flat out if she was sleeping with Shane. Cristina laughed for a while before finally saying she has standards. While Meredith points out her Minnesota fling, Cristina dismisses that too, telling her to fuck off.
Cristina walks over to baggage claim and waits for her luggage with Shane. A little while later, the thing starts up and eventually their bags are in sight. Shane grabs hers, nearly throwing his back out at how heavy it is. "Big baby." Cristina says, taking the bag from him. He grabs his. "Well be seeing you in a week." She says, walking away from him. He stares at her as she walks away, wondering why she stopped sleeping with him. Cristina sees Meredith waiting for her and her eyes widen. "What the hell? I thought you'd be sleeping." She says walking over and hugging her. Meredith hugs her back. "Come on. I have two kids. That doesn't happen." They walk together and head outside. "Christ it's cold today. I didn't miss this." Cristina says zipping her coat up the rest of the way. "I'll drive you to your hotel and then we should eat." Meredith says unlocking her car and helping Cristina get her bag in the back of her jeep. "God this bag is heavy.." "Yeah well, I have needs." Cristina replies, waving her hand as she gets into the passenger seat. Meredith gets in the drivers and they head off. "So how are things?" Cristina asks, staring out the window. "Ah okay. The hospital's busy but nothing we can't handle right now. Derek is on another research kick. The kids are great, Bailey is growing like crazy. How's Zurich?"
Cristina smiles. "You know it's really great. I can't believe how much resources I have. It's the dream. You know, the usual." It really is. She thinks it was fantastic and she couldn't be happier. They chatted as Meredith drives to the hotel, telling stories back and forth. Meredith was however careful not to even mention Owen to her. She knew better and wouldn't say a word unless she asked in which case, she would just tell her he was away or something. He was sort of away anyway...
Cristina gets settled into her giant hotel room before she heads down with Mer to get some breakfast. "It feels weird eating breakfast right now. I should be eating dinner.." That of course didn't stop her from ordering a bunch of breakfast food. Meredith laughs. For such a tiny woman, she can sure eat and Meredith knows Cristina will eat everything off her plate. "So the hospital's good?" Cristina says casually, sipping her coffee. "Yup." Meredith replies sipping her own. "How's Owen?" Meredith nearly chokes on her cup. "Oh uhh good. He's busy." She replies, hoping that's enough. Cristina's eyebrows furrow. "Okay..." She's obviously not convinced. "It's okay if you tell me he's in a relationship. It's fine, honestly. He deserves to be happy.." Even though the idea is a slightly nauseating. "Oh no. He's not. He hasn't been with anyone since you.." Which is likely one of the contributing factors to what happened. Meredith can't tell her. There's no way. Something's going on but she's not sure what. Cristina decides to drop the subject.
They eat and head to the hospital. Cristina wants to see her old friends before she succumbs to jetlag. The first person she sees his Alex. Cristina smiles broadly and Alex does too. She hugs him. "I missed you Evil Spawn." Cristina says with a grin. "Missed you too Yang." "So..How's Jo?" She asks, getting straight to the point. "Fine. We're fine. Happy even." Alex says with a genuine smile on his face. Cristina smiles back. "Good. I'm really glad to hear that." And she honestly was. Alex deserved all the happiness in the world. It was amazing how far they'd come along. "How's Zurich?" He asks, leaning against a nearby nurses station. "A hell of a lot better that I ever thought it would be." They chat for a while longer before he gets called into surgery. "See you around Yang." He calls as he heads down the hallway. Cristina nods. "Yeah." She heads down to trauma, just to spy on Owen. Just a peak. Good thing she's over him or this would be really hard.
Good thing.
Cristina pokes her head around the corner and scans the room. He's nowhere. She's instantly annoyed. "Cristina?" She hears a familiar voice say. Cristina turns around and sees April standing there. "Oh hey April. How are you?" She asks, actually wanting to know. "Oh good. Jackson and I are really good. The baby is growing and we're happy." Her answer seems muddled but Cristina goes with it. "He's not here Cristina." She furrows her eyebrows. "What do you mean? Who do you mean?" Cristina says, pretending she doesn't know what April's talking about. "You know exactly who I mean. You came down here to see Owen and he's not here." "He's away?" "Yeah. He's away. Dr Hunt's on vacation.." April lied, wondering how convincing she was being. Everyone seemed to be shifty about the subject which irked Cristina a bit.
But she left it alone. Cristina headed around the rest of the hospital and said hello to who she cared about before heading back to her hotel to sleep for bit. The moment her head hit her pillow, she was out. Several hours later, she wakes up under the covers feeling rested or at least somewhat rested. Cristina considers rolling over and going back to sleep but she promised Meredith she'd be there for dinner. She lays there a little while longer before finally getting up. Cristina showers and gets on some jeans and a t-shirt. She grabs her signature leather jacket and grabs her purse. Cristina drives to Meredith's house in the woods and gets out of her rental car. She knocks on the door but doesn't wait long as Zola is standing there. "Aunty Cissssyyy!" She says happily, holding her arms up. Cristina picks her up and hugs her. "Hey Zola!" Cristina replies with a huge smile. "Mumma, Aundy Cissy is here!" Zola yells to Mer. Meredith comes around the corner and laughs. "Hey Cristina." "Hey Mer." She heads into the dreamhouse and sits down on the couch. "Alright well sit down. I'm going to grab a bottle of wine." Meredith says, heading into the kitchen and digs in a cupboard, finding a bottle of red. She pours them each a glass and comes back to the couch, handing Cristina the glass. "I'm making some lasagna..Callie made it."
She got the table set with some mismatched plates but it works. "Derek should be home soon. He's just running a little late." Cristina nods, not caring too much that McDreamy wouldn't be joining them for a little while yet. She was content enough, finding Derek annoying most days anyway. Cristina looks around the house at all the pictures and the life that Meredith had now. It was a far cry from back when they were first interns. Now she is a mother and a wife and one hell of a surgeon. Cristina is rather proud of all of them. Alex is an amazing Paediatric surgeon which she would never admit to him. Her heart ached a little as she thinks of George, thinking that he would have excelled tremendously at trauma surgery if he were still alive today. She wonders about Izzie occasionally but ultimately, she hurt Alex which makes her scum.
Cristina's mind wanders back to Owen. She wonders how he is doing and whether he's happy or not. Cristina honestly hopes so even though her heart aches for him every day they're apart. Sure the job is amazing but it doesn't keep her warm at night and wrap their arms around her. It doesn't cook for her or give her a shoulder to cry on when she feels overwhelmed. She bites her lip before trying hard to push him out of her mind. Cristina brings herself back to the moment she's in and sees that dinner is ready and that Derek has come home. She hugs Derek out of obligation, knowing that him and Mer are still on thin ice. Cristina sits down at the table with them and starts sipping the rest of her glass of wine. Dinner goes well. The kids make her laugh and Derek makes her roll her eyes. Meredith is very happy Cristina has come back for a visit. She missed her person a great deal and having her here seems right. She wants to convince Cristina to stay but she knows that's selfish.
Eventually dinner is done and everything is cleaned up. Cristina and Mer are sitting on the couch with cups of tea, like old ladies, Cristina points out. Mer points out having more than one glass of wine would make her tipsy and she can't be hung over the next day. She actually has to be responsible, little people are counting on her. Cristina sips her tea. The two women are quiet. "Where's Owen?" The raven haired woman finally says, breaking the silence and setting her mug of tea down. "He's aw-" Meredith started to say before she was cut off. "I know. That's what I hear and it's bullshit. Where is he Mer? Is he married? Is he dead?" Married might be stretching it considering it had only been several months but she had to say that. Meredith sighs. "He's...neither of those things." She doesn't know what to say. Meredith doesn't want to tell her but with the look Cristina is giving her, she might not have a choice. "Tell me Meredith." She hisses. Meredith sighs. "Okay...a couple weeks ago..he was...sad. I guess with everything that's going on, he just...couldn't take it..and..he's.." "I thought you said he wasn't dead!" Cristina says, tears threatening to leave her eyes. "He's not. He's not. He's fine. He just..there's this program you can put people in when they get really really depressed. Facilities have been popping up all over the country and they help people..." Meredith starts, wondering if that's enough or not. Why would it be with Cristina? "It's the best thing for him..." It might not be but she doesn't want to worry Cristina. She just wants her friend to know that Owen is okay and is being taken care of.
"You put him in one of those fucking hospitals?" Cristina snaps, standing up and putting her hands on her hips.