Hi, everyone here's the last chapter for a little while, I'll be without my computer until the 23rd of February. Please let me know if you want more/a continuation of this story. Thank you all so much! –R.

There's a thing we say when someone dies. We say it to the patient's family. We say, 'I'm sorry for your loss.' It's a pat little phrase and an empty one. It doesn't begin to cover what's actually happening to them. It lets us empathize without forcing us to feel their devastation ourselves. It protects us from feeling that pain, that dark, sinking, relentless pain. The kind that can eat you alive. And every day, I thank God for that.

Have you ever been to a place after dark? It's the oddest thing; a place that is beaming with life during the day becomes a desolate wasteland when nighttime falls. And when you wander those halls that are only dimly lit by the fluorescent lights overhead it feels as if you're not supposed to be there. Maybe you never were. Derek Shepherd had been in many hospitals in his lifetime, he'd spent practically his entire adult life in one, but none gave him the unsettling feeling that Seattle Grace Mercy West did now. Maybe it was the anticipation of Meredith giving birth or maybe it was the storm. See, rain purifies. Ancient tribes would worship it; they'd see it as a gift from the Gods. Now, it's a nuisance that extends the evening commute a few extra minutes, it's no longer magical. Life is magical, it's a gift that keeps on giving, and although most of it may seem to be like simple rain, sometimes we have to face the real storms.

"Dr. Grey, you doing okay?" Dr. Boswell asked, she had come to Seattle Grace three months ago to shadow Dr. Keller along with Arizona.

"Doing great," she breathed heavily, "I just want to get him out of me." She was exasperated, she had been in labor for three hours now and no one had offered her an epidural. She was craving one. She had wanted to do the procedure naturally, but that was before she felt the excruciating pain, screw not looking weak, she wanted the drugs.

"Okay, Dr. Grey. Let me check how many centimeters you are and we can go from there." She bent down to check, "Alright 5 centimeters. We can start the epidural in a bit, I'll let the anesthesiologist know."

"Thank you, Dr. Boswell," Derek said as he was stroking Meredith's forehead. She had begun to sweat a little bit and so he was feeing her ice chips.

"How long do you think that's going to take?" She quipped.

"Hopefully not too long, but the storm seems like it's taking everyone's attention."

"Well, I want my drugs. I own the place, I will have someone fired if I don't get them in the next twenty minutes." Derek knew better than to argue with his wife right now.

"Whatever you say. I'll page Mark and tell him to hunt down Dr. Fink for your epidural; she's the best in the hospital. And I want nothing but the best for my wife and the owner of SGMW," he sarcastically teased her.

"I'm going to kill you Derek Shepherd. You're the one who did this to me. You're the one who's making me push a watermelon through my vagina," her Bostonian accent was coming out strong.

"Meredith he's not going to be as big as a watermelon. And we had a plan, we had this all figured out, why are you so scared?"

"Says the one who only has to hold my hand and do none of the heavy lifting," she snapped, but then she put her hand over her head and sighed, "I don't know, maybe it's Kepner. I can't help but think that something's going to be wrong with our baby. We had no genetic testing done and anything could happen. You know me, I have the lottery of crappy genetics right here."

"Nothing is wrong Meredith. And if something is, we will deal with it as it comes. We can't change anything now by worrying."

"I know. I know." She breathed. "And get me Cristina," she called.

The hospital's staff was running on empty and Lauren Boswell was not in the mood to deal with Meredith Grey's antics, so she decided to keep her happy and get her the epidural and fast. She had seen Arizona; the two had become close over the past few months, talking about everything ranging from her accident to Lauren's own struggles with her marriage. The women had grown close, into best friends, and it would have only taken one of them to say the words and make that 'friendship' into something more.

"What are you doing?" Arizona asked as Lauren pulled her into an on call room. The NICU was hectic, with the threat of the backup generator going out and therefore the 'tiny humans' losing their lives, it was weighing on Arizona heavily.

"I want you," Lauren began trying to gain her words, "Arizona I want you. All of you. You're so incredibly beautiful, the way you work with those children every single day, and everything you do is turning me on. I can no longer keep my hands off of you." Lauren reached in for a kiss, but Arizona turned her head away.

"Lauren, I'm married and so are you. We have other people to think about."

"I know, but why turn away from something that feels so right? And you said so yourself, you and Callie were having issues."

"We are. But she's my wife and even though I have difficulty trusting her right now, I want to be with her. We have a daughter together, a family, and a life with one another. I'm not going to ruin that by having sex with you." As the two women were arguing about this, Callie walked into the on call room, wanting to get some extra sleep before the next wave of patients came into the O.R. from the storm. She watched her wife as she was intently staring at Boswell. Arizona wasn't touching her, but she looked at her with immense pleasure and something in Callie snapped.

"Arizona, what is going on?"

"I'm gonna go, I have to take care of Grey," Dr. Boswell bolted as fast as she could.

"Oh my God, Callie, you weren't supposed to see any of that. It was nothing. No need to worry," she tried to grab her wife's hand to comfort her, but Callie pulled hers away.

"That wasn't nothing. What is going on?" Callie pressed the issue further, and so the two women started talking while the storm raged on outside.

"She's just a friend. She wanted more and I told her to stop. End of story."

"Did you want more?"

"I don't know, Callie. I don't know."

"Is what we have no enough? I have dropped everything for you; I have put my career on hold to take care of you. And I would have done it over again because I love you."

"Don't you think I know that? Don't you think I know how you look at me, how you pity me all because of," she couldn't get the words out.

"Your leg. It always comes back to the leg."

"You had no right," Arizona began to choke on her words.

"I was trying to save your life," Callie was getting frustrated, how come Arizona couldn't see the impossible choice she was given?

"I don't care. You weren't on the freaking plane," Arizona screamed, finally her true feelings were coming to the surface. "You didn't lose anything!"

And calmly Callie responded, "Apparently I lost you."

Mark and Derek were pacing the hospital halls together, trying to keep their minds off of the impending storm and Meredith's not so easy labor.

"She's going to kill me you know," Derek began.

"She's just in a hell of a lot of pain. You got her a good push present didn't you?"

"A what?"

"You know the present for pushing your son out of," he refused to say vagina, even though it was the medically correct term for it, it felt odd referring to his friend's wife's vagina.

"Oh, well I was planning on surprising her tomorrow with the house. Lexie and I just put the finishing touches on it last week."

"What were you saying about finishing touches?" Lexie scared the two men.

"Lexie, what are you doing here? There's a freaking monsoon going on outside!" Mark alarmingly asked.

"No, you do not go there," she begun poking her finger into his chest, "I had to find out from Karev that my sister was in labor with my nephew, who is going to be my Godson, so of course I drove over here."

"We actually haven't decided his Godparents yet," Derek hesitated.

"Don't worry, she'll choose me. But that's not my point. Mark you have to stop babying me. I'm not broken. I'm not fragile. I'm a freaking surgeon."

"I know. But Lexie, you don't understand how scared I was out in the woods. I can't fathom ever losing you again." Derek had already left, duty called with Meredith and his ice chips were melting fast, he had better go and grab her another cup or there'd be hell to pay.

"Mark, we're not on a plane. I'm standing right in front of you, whole, unharmed. Please give me room to breathe."

"I'll try. But I can't make any promises."

"Thank you." They kissed and then the lights went out.

Owen Hunt had been the chief of surgery for a little over a year now, and no his job was not easy. First the plane crash and now a hospital without power, except for a measly back up generator that was only working for severely ill patient's life support machines. He was surprised that the stress hadn't caused his ginger hair to fall out. Even while he was in the army, the chaos had been organized. One expects disaster in a war zone, not in the middle of Seattle. He pressed his hands to his face, trying to calm his nerves. He could handle this; he thought to himself, he actually was a solider. But then doubt crept in, if he didn't manage to find a better generator he'd loose his job for one thing and so many people would die on his watch. He couldn't let that happen again.

"Owen," Cristina asked as she knocked on his door. She noticed her ex-husband sitting behind his desk looking more stressed than ever.

"What is it Cristina? I'm sort of in the middle of a crisis."

"Meredith is in labor and April's in the hospital, I just thought you may have wanted to know."

"Thank you." Cristina turned to leave the room, "Do you still want this?"

"Owen, please don't. Not now."

"Then when? When will we talk about it? Cristina you were my wife, I loved you, I still love you. But I can't keep doing this, one foot in one foot out business. I want all of you; I don't need kids to have a full life. But I do know I need you." She closed the door behind her as she approached her husband's desk.

"I can't have you give up on your dreams for me. Because one day, maybe not today or tomorrow or even in the next year, but one day you'll look back on your life and you'll see that it wasn't what you wanted. I won't do that to you."

"What people want can change."

"Owen, stop this. I'm not going to change my mind. I do not want children."

"I know you don't. I'm not asking you to have them, Cristina. I'm saying that I can change."

"I won't let you do that." Her pager buzzed 911 Meredith. "Owen, I have to go, it's Meredith. We can talk more later."

Derek had received the same page as Cristina and they were both sprinting through the darkened halls of Seattle Grace Mercy West to Meredith Grey's birthing suite, but when they got there, she was no where to be found.

"Where's Doctor Grey?" Derek panicked.

"Dr. Boswell took her up to the O.R., she had internally bleeding from a fall she took the other day, the baby's in distress," before the nurse could finish Derek rushed up to the O.R. floor.

"Derek, what are you doing? Why are you running?" Mark asked he had just come up with Lexie to see how Meredith was doing.

"Get Addison here, now!" Derek screamed.

April Kepner had arrived at Seattle Grace in the morning, much to her husband's surprise. She had looked like she was up all night thinking about the birth, contemplating about whether or not it was the right time. Jackson, didn't want to pressure her into talking about it, he just wanted to support her. But he couldn't help but wish that she'd snap out of this and go back to being the perky and overly positive April Kepner that he fell in love with.

"What do you mean, you're ready April?" He asked her, staring at her haphazard appearance.

"I'm done. Now, I'm ready to have them," she answered bluntly, as if the pregnancy was a burden.

"Done with what? April, I don't understand."

"It's nothing." She turned around to the nurse, "Tell Dr. Boswell April Kepner is here for her scheduled inducement; she should be expecting me."

"You had this scheduled?"

"Don't be silly Jackson, I called from the car."

"April, you're still not answering my questions." She had begun to walk towards the hospital room, "Do not walk away from this April. Please." She heard the exasperation in his voice and stopped.

"Jackson, what do you want me to say?"

"Please, say something. Do something. Show one ounce of emotion."

"I can't do that, Jackson. It will be too painful. Please, just come in with me, so we can get this over with."

"Okay," he really didn't want to argue; maybe when she saw their son she'd snap out of her funk. He could only hope.

The labor was long, April was in it for fifteen hours before she could start pushing, and then he was born, Samuel Mark Avery followed by his sister Delilah Louise Avery. And as soon as she saw them, something in April melted; it was like all of her worries were swept away. Dr. Keller put both the twins in April's arms as soon as possible while Jackson sat at her head.

"You did such a good job."

"Thank you. He's so beautiful, I didn't think he would be so beautiful."

"Yeah, he is. Do you still want me to get the pastor to baptize him?"

"Please." Jackson left to go get the pastor, they had talked briefly about baptizing him and he knew it would make April happy so he obliged. When he came back to the room, fifteen minutes later he saw April singing to their children, particularly their son.

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are grey. You'll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away." Jackson melted in grief hearing the pain in his wife's voice.

"Jackson, I didn't hear you come in, do you want to hold him. I don't know how much time we'll have left."

"I'm sorry April, I'm so sorry for what I said before." He said as he took his son in his arms. And then it all hit him at once. Everything that could have been, would never be. His son would only get a few hours, maybe a couple of days to live and that was it. Jackson would never be able to be his dad, not in the way that he was supposed to be. He and April were supposed to be tag teaming against the twins; they were supposed to go to school together, be best friends, and now in a few hours he'd have to send one of them to the morgue.

"It's okay Jackson. I know why you said it. Please, let's just enjoy this time as a family."

"I'd really like that." And so, they sat together for hours telling their son everything he would ever need to know. Jackson talked about basketball; telling his son to send in a good word to God about having his team, win a championship soon. He told him that he would have had the best Avery sparkle imaginable and that he would kill it with the ladies up in heaven. April laughed at the thought. She sung a bit more to her son and daughter, but she held her son to her chest and rocked him. She whispered good thoughts to him, told him about her grandparents that were in heaven and waiting for him. She described God and how he shouldn't be scared that he was leaving them too soon. She told him that they'd be thinking about him every single day; that they loved him, and would miss him. They stayed in that hospital room talking to their two children for about six hours.

"He squeezed my finger," she quietly said.

"That's great," Jackson tried to encourage her.

"And then he let go." The smile faded from both their faces, their son was gone.

The OR was dark, Meredith couldn't see a thing, but she could feel her contractions, they were becoming stronger and closer together. She was going in and out of consciousness; she had no idea what was happening or where Derek was. She wanted Derek.

"Dr. Grey, it's Dr. Bailey, I'm here," Bailey grabbed her hand. "We're going to take care of you."

"What happened, where's Derek, where's my baby?"

"He's on his way. You have some internal bleeding from your fall. We're going to fix it, and you'll meet your son very soon."

Meredith gripped Bailey's hand tightly, "You save him, you save him Bailey." And Meredith Grey flat-lined.

We can't get too close. If we felt even little of the joy and the hopes that our patients are saying goodbye to, we'd never be able to function. So we say, 'We're sorry for your loss.' and we hope it offers something. Some little bit of support. Some bit of peace. Some bit of closure. Something good. Some little piece of beauty in the midst of some place dark. An unexpected gift, just when it's needed most.