A/N: Thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, liked, and favourited the story. As always feel free to review, I love to hear what you think. I apologise for any medical inaccuracies, I am not a doctor.

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Greys Anatomy. This piece of fictional work is made purely for fun and not profit, no copyright infringement is intended. Any original characters are of my own creation as well as the storyline. Any similarities to any other works on this site or any other are unintended and purely coincidental

Chapter Six

Arizona was getting more and more frustrated, she knew some things took time but it had been nearly two hours since she started taking the antibiotics Callie had prescribed her, but the only change was her leg was deteriorating.

She had made Callie promise she wouldn't cut off her leg, after all how was she supposed to be who she is without her leg, she certainly wouldn't be able to slide around the hospital in her wheelies.

She knew her wife would arrive with their daughter any minute, but she didn't know if she was up to seeing them, her leg was on fire, all she really wanted was to up her morphine and take a nap.

Of course, that only made her feel guilty because she nearly died which would have left Callie a widow and Sofia down a parent, she loved the two of them more than anyone or anything in the world but still a nap would be amazing right now.

Maybe if she pretended to be asleep Callie would take Sofia back down to daycare, then later after she was rested Sofia could come up before going home.

Whichever way she looked at it, she felt like the worst mother in the world, she either let Sofia visit and feel guilty for thinking about pretending to be asleep, or she pretended to sleep and felt guilty about that.

In the end the decision was made for her when in walked Callie holding Sofia in her arms.

"Say hi mommy"

As soon as Sofia saw her, she started pulling away from Callie arms outstretched looking for Arizona to hold her.

Instantly all thoughts of naps and being alone vanished as she took Sofia and started tickling her mercilessly, which only caused Sofia to screech and giggle.

Callie was relieved to have her wife back safe and sound and loved watching her play with their daughter, but she knew from the look on Arizona's face she was in pain, and a lot of it. She looked at the chart on the end of the bed before starting to undo the bandages to have a look see were the antibiotics doing anything.

Arizona made sure to keep Sofia's attention on her so she wouldn't look at what Callie was doing, she didn't think it was a good idea for her daughter to see just how gruesome her leg was.

Through the corner of her eye Arizona was able to see the look of concern and disappointment on Callie's face, which only stood to confirm her suspicions that her leg was only getting worse.

"How bad is it Callie?"

"It's not that bad"

Arizona just sat there and looked her wife in the eyes.

"Do not lie to me Calliope, how bad is it?"

Callie really didn't want to admit that she was more than likely going to have to cut her wife's leg off.

"I don't know if I can save it"

"Well you need to figure something out, you promised me you would save my leg"

Callie counted to five in her head before responding, not wanting to snap at her for expecting too much of her.

"I am doing my best Arizona, I am not God I can't do everything I set my mind to, I'm not a miracle worker"

Arizona was getting more and more frustrated and angry.

"That is exactly what you are Calliope, you perform miracles for other patients every God damn day, what should I be any different?"

"Well you shouldn't even be my patient you are my wife I shouldn't be your Doctor, I am doing everything I can Arizona you know as well as I do sometimes there is just nothing we can do"

Callie regretted raising her voice as soon as she had done it, not only had she shouted at her sick wife, she had scared their child.

Arizona started rubbing her hand in small circles on Sofia's back trying to sooth her.

"Well done Callie"

Callie knew if she didn't leave the room now she would say something she would regret,

she walked over to Sofia and picked her up.

"I have a surgery in a few minutes, I need to get her back to daycare, I'll see you later"

With that Callie had left, leaving Arizona to reflect on her own part of that argument, she knew Callie was trying her best, she knew that Callie would keep her promise if she could. The problem was she also knew she couldn't face losing her leg.

At this stage her leg was getting more painful, she decided that nap wouldn't be the worst idea in the world. She hit the button that added more morphine into her system, closed her eyes and waited for the sweet relief of sleep to take over her body.

Mark could have kissed Derek, it wouldn't be Derek performing the surgery which would have been the ideal scenario but at least someone would be.

The tumour wasn't inoperable, the tumour wasn't inoperable. He started smiling like a child on Christmas morning.

"I've got to go tell her, Derek, I owe you"

"She may be the love of your life Mark but she is my sister, you don't owe me anything, I also haven't done anything, I still need to find someone to do it"

Mark scoffed, "You're Derek Shepherd, you will find someone, you always find a way it's who you are"

With that he was gone, half running down the hall to get back to Lexie's room.

"Hey Mer, we were going to go visit Christina, you coming?"

Meredith turned to Jackson and shook her head, knowing the longer she put off telling her husband about what she did, the bigger the fight would be.

"No., go on ahead I'll catch up later, I need to talk to Derek about something"

"Alright, see you soon, come on Avery"

Alex and Jackson left leaving Meredith to face the music.

"So, I uh did a thing"

Derek was confused, Meredith hadn't really left the hospital since they got here, what could she have done that caused her to look as nervous as she did.

"What?"

"Well, uh, before we went to Boise, I e-mailed Mass Gen and turned down the fellowship they offered me, and accepted the one Dad gave me. I know you already handed in your notice and accepted Harvard but our family is here and our life is here Derek, I can't just up and leave.

I know I should have spoken to you about it first, I was going to tell you on the plane but I was comforting Lexie over Mark and then when I was going to come talk to you, you got up and walked over to Mark and then, well you know what happened then"

This was a surprise, he thought Meredith had been looking forward to going to Boston, he knew he had been looking forward to it. It was hard to believe everything Harvard was offering him.

"Alright"

Now it was her turn to be confused, she was expecting a massive fight, she knew he wanted to go to Harvard, she knew that what she had done was selfish, she just couldn't help it.

"Alright? You're not mad?"

Derek half laughed holding up his hand to her.

"It isn't like Harvard were still going to want me anyway Mer, at least here Hunt will probably let me stay and do consults, maybe even still run the department. If you want to do your fellowship here in Seattle then that's fine"

Relieved wasn't the word for what Meredith was feeling, she was sure there was going to be a fight. She leaned forward to give Derek a kiss.

"I won't be doing my fellowship her after all actually"

"What do you mean? You just said our life is here and we can't just up and move"

"I know what I said, but Hunt had an idea and consulted with Dad and Bailey and all three of them agreed. Dr. Matthews is retiring at the end of the month, opening up an Attending spot, Hunt offered it to me, I'm officially an Attending"

"What? Really? Meredith that's fantastic I am so proud of you, congrats"

Now it was his turn to kiss her, and they stayed like that until Richard walked in.

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to walk in on you too"

It didn't matter how long they had been together, the fact they were married or the fact they had a child together, every time her father walked in on them she got embarrassed.

"Sorry Dad"

"I just stopped by to offer you my congratulations, Hunt told me you accepted the Attending position, I am so proud of you Meredith, and I know your mother would be too"

Meredith knew he was right, her mother would have been proud, she never had the best relationship with her mother, probably why she was so close to Richard. She called him Dad even though he was only her step-father, but he was the one who was there for her childhood.

Thatcher was too busy raising his other family, and her mother was too busy preforming surgery to really be present. They had grown closer when Meredith went to Med School and Ellis had to step back after her Alzheimer's diagnosis, but that had been short lived seeing as not too long after Ellis forgot who she was.

It was nice to think that her mother would have been proud of what she had accomplished, it was very unheard of for a resident to move to Attending straight after their Boards and bypassing a fellowship year regardless of specialty.

"Thanks Dad"

"I visited Lexie on my way here, she told me about what Hunt said, how are you holding up?"

"Better, Derek just looked at her scans, he says he would be able to remove it as well as a few other surgeons, so now we just have to get one of those surgeons to agree to do it and things should be okay"

Richard patted his son-in-law on the shoulder, he knew it must be killing him that he couldn't perform the surgery himself. His ability to perform surgeries like the one Lexie needed was the exact reason Richard had hired him five years ago.

Mark was passing by Arizona's room just as the monitors started beeping, she was crashing.

"I need a crash cart over here"

He rushed into the room and started compressions on her chest.

"Damn it, Robbin's what are playing at"

He took the paddles of the nurse who brought in the crash cart as another took over compressions.

"Push one of epi and charge to three hundred"

He placed the paddles on her chest and prepared to shock her.

"Clear"

He shocked her to no avail, she was still flatlining.

"Charge to three sixty…clear"

This time he got her back but barely.

"Someone page Torres NOW"

Barely a minute had passed by before Callie arrived, in that time Mark had undone the bandages on her leg to take a look and see that it was turning purple, she also was starting to spike a fever.

"It's her leg Callie Necrotising Fasciitis, I know what you promised her but it needs to come off, and it needs to come off now"

She knew this was coming but that didn't make it any easier, none the less Callie nodded to him and turned to the nearest nurse.

"Get me an OR now, I'm on my way up"

Callie and Mark rushed her up to OR 1 and while the nurses got her prepped Callie scrubbed.

"Mark I can't lose her I just can't"

Mark put his hand on her shoulder and gave it a light squeeze.

"Neither can I and neither can Sofia, but that doesn't matter because you are Dr. Callie Torres and you are an Ortho Goddess so you will go in there, do what needs to be done, come out and she will be fine"

"Thanks Mark, I needed to hear that"

Callie left him in the scrub room and went into the OR to do the one thing she promised she wouldn't.

Mark was torn between going to tell Lexie they may have found away to remove the tumour or to go up to the gallery and see if the mother of his child made it through this surgery. In the end he knew that he would find out one way or the other and he didn't really want to watch in case it didn't end well.

When he walked in to her room she was sitting up reading some case notes on the last surgery she preformed with Derek, where he got it was beyond him but he didn't care. He found it cute when she would focus so much on her job that she didn't even notice anything going on around her.

"Hey Lex, good news"

She may often get wrapped up in her work but hearing him call her Lex again was one sure fire way to get her attention, she had missed him calling her that. She immediately stopped what she was doing and looked up to see the concern on his face, which confused her seeing as he said he had good news.

"Derek says the tumour is removable, he is finding someone to do it"

Lexie was so relieved to hear that, if there was anyone in the world she trusted when it came to Neurosurgery it was her brother-in-law. Who cared if he wouldn't be able to perform it himself, he wouldn't just let anyone operate on her so who ever he gets will be more than competent. Still though Mark didn't look happy.

"That's great, but yet you look like someone just punched you in the gut, whats wrong?"

"Arizona is in surgery, she crashed as I was walking by her room on my way here, Necrotising Fasciitis, Callie is currently cutting her leg off, the one thing she didn't want so IF she comes out of surgery things are going to be rough"

Lexie took his hand and gave it a light squeeze so that he would look at her and not the ground. For someone who was more confident than they sometimes should be, whenever someone Mark loved was sick or in danger he became a shadow of the man everyone knew him to be, crawling into himself as if expecting the worst to happen.

"There is no IF but WHEN she comes out of surgery, and yeah things will be difficult but she has all of us to get her through it and I know full well she will be back to her chipper self in no time. Trust me"

Mark cracked a smile and thought about how lucky he was to have Lexie back in his life. In that moment thinking about how Callie may lose Arizona he made a vow to himself to never let anything get in his way of his happiness with Lexie again.

Life was just too damn short, people get shot, hit by busses, cancer, in plane crashes, anything could happen and he wasn't going to spend anymore of his life not with Lexie.

"What did I ever do to deserve you, you are too good for me little Grey"

"I know, but I love you anyway"

Meanwhile Derek was having no luck, he had made several phone calls to several neurosurgeons across the world, not just the US and nobody would take on the Surgery. He can't say he blamed them, it was a very risky surgery with very low odds of success.

Just when he was about to give up hope he had an idea, he opened up his contacts once more and scrolled down until he found the number he was looking for and hit dial. He sat there not sure what he was going to say but he didn't have much time to think about it because it only took three rings before the phone was picked up.

"Hello Dr. Montgomery's office how can I help you?"

Derek really hoped he wasn't making a mistake, but this was his only option.

"Hi, I need to speak with Dr. Montgomery please"

"I'm sorry sir, she isn't taking any calls at the moment she is in a meeting"

Derek knew what that meant, after eleven years of marriage he knew full well Addison only told her secretaries to say that when the opposite was true and she just wanted five minutes to herself.

"Look its important tell her its Derek Shepherd"

"Please hold"

He didn't have to wait long, he knew she would take his call, he never rang unless it was important. After the divorce, they had managed to become sort of friends. The kind of friends who sent Christmas cards, birthday wishes. They also used each other for medical consults when a case warranted it.

"Derek?"

"Addison, Hi. I hope I'm not interrupting anything"

He knew he wasn't, and she knew he knew, but it was the polite thing to say.

"No, no of course not what can I do for you?"

"Is Amy sober?"

This question stumped Her, not once had he never rung her to ask her about Amy, after all he was more than capable of calling his own sister if he wanted to.

"What?"

"I know it's a weird question"

"It is especially seeing as you could just ask her yourself"

Derek decided to just be completely honest with her about why he wanted to know.

"You know that plane crash that's been all over the news carrying Doctors?"

Now Addison was really confused, what had a plane crash and Amy being sober got to do with one another…unless.

"Of course, myself and Amy were just talking about it. Derek please don't tell me that plane was from Seattle"

"Wish I could. Myself, Mark, Meredith, Lexie, Arizona, Yang, Karev and Avery were on board, we all made it home, but I will probably never operate again"

"Oh my God, Derek I'm so sorry"

"I've told everyone except Amy and I don't want to tell her if it is just going cause her to go and get a fix, I also want her to come to Seattle and run my service until I know whether I will definitely never operate again and whether I'm going to stay as Chief of Neuro anyway if I can't"

To say that Addison was shocked would be an understatement, not only was Derek in a plane crash that may end his career, he was going to ask Amy to run his service, ever since she crashed his car he wouldn't even trust her to hold the suction in an OR, now he wants to give her his department.

"Derek whats the real reason you want Amy to run your service, I mean you have to tell her about the crash she has a right to know, but you have plenty Attendings in your own hospital that could take over for a few weeks, why Amy?"

Derek did tell himself he would be honest with her.

"Lexie Grey has a tumour close to her cerebral cortex, everyone here in Seattle deems it inoperable, everyone else I've contacted won't go near it and that's when I thought of Amy, I've kept track of her career so I know she is capable and I know she isn't the same irresponsible teenager she once was, I need her help"

There it was, the real reason and Addison was really hoping that it wasn't going to be so serious. She knew about Mark and Lexie so she could only imagine what he must be going through. As well as Meredith and Derek.

Lexie was after all a sister to them. In-law may be her official relation to Derek, but she also knew Derek well enough to know as far as he was concerned she was his sister, and there was nothing he wouldn't do for his sisters.

"Derek, I'm sorry. You're right she has really grown up and she has been sober for over a year now. Despite the circumstances I think she would be delighted to know you believe in her enough to ask her to do this".

Derek was relieved to hear this, if Amy was a mess he was out of options.

"Thanks Addison, do me a favour and don't mention Lexie to her, I don't want her to say no without seeing the scans and hearing my game plan"

"I won't, take care Derek".

"Yeah, you too"

Before he lost the nerve to call her Derek immediately hit call on Amy's number and hoped that she answered.

"Derek?"

The fact she sounded confused that he would be calling coupled with the fact that Kathleen said it was a surprise made him realise as much as he loved his sisters he didn't make enough of an effort with them. Hell, the only reason he was calling them today is because he almost died.

"Hey Amy"

"Who died?"

"What nobody, what kind of question is that?"

He knew what kind it was, it was the kind you ask when someone who never calls suddenly does.

"Sorry, I just thought…anyway doesn't matter, what can I do for the great Derek Shepherd"

"Come to Seattle and take over as interim Chief of Neurosurgery?"

Amy couldn't help but burst out into laughter at a comment like that, last time she saw her brother, he was reluctant to even have her in the hospital let alone work there.

"I see you developed a sense of humour since I last saw you"

"I'm being serious Amy, I need your help, I was in that plane crash that was carrying the team of Doctors"

If it wasn't for the serious tone in his voice Amy would think he was trying to make a crude joke, but there was no sign of anything but sincerity in his voice.

"Oh my God, are you okay? who else was on board? Why do you keep almost dying? Oh my God..."

This was what Derek was afraid of, that Amy would start to panic.

"Amy…Amy relax, breathe its okay"

"NO IT FUCKING ISN'T OKAY, YOU WERE IN A PLANE CRASH"

"And I'm alive, I'm okay Amy just relax, breath"

He was right, she just needed to take a deep breath, he was the one telling her not Meredith he wasn't dead. Meredith.

"What about Meredith, was she on board?"

"She was, as well as Mark, but they are both okay, they got it easy. They only have a couple minor cuts and bruises already discharged and medically cleared to go back to work pending a psych evaluation"

"This is insane"

Derek laughed, "You're telling me"

"What about you? You said Meredith and Mark were discharged and got the all clear, you never said anything about you"

"That's why I'm calling and asking you to come to Seattle, my hand got pretty mangled, I may never operate again."

"Oh my God"

"That's why I want you to run my service, the Attendings under me are good, but none of them are good enough to run a department in a hospital as renowned as this"

Now it was Amy's turn to laugh, "What and I am?"

"Yeah, I've been following you career Amy. I know the last time you were here I wasn't exactly welcoming but I believe you are good enough, more than good enough"

Amy was shocked, she always craved Derek's attention and approval, now that she had it, she found it hard to believe.

"You're serious, you want me to come and take over your department?"

"Yes"

"Alright I'll be on the next available flight"

"See you then"

"Oh, and Derek?"

"Yeah Amy?"

"I love you"

It had been a while since she had said that.

"I love you too"