Thanks for the reviews!!! I'm doing my best to get into these people's heads, and if this chapter is a little confusing, it's because she's not exactly thinking straight. This picks up right where the last one left off, and I know everyone's worried about Addison, but I need to cover a few things before I get back to her. So sit tight. :)

I thought this chapter would be hard for me to write because it's Izzie, and she's not my favorite person right now, but it actually wasn't that bad. Tell me what you think.

You run. You run because you have to get away from him, his hands, the cold metal against your head. You run because you're terrified of what will happen if you stay. You run because you can't think and you're scared of what will happen if you stop.

You round a corner. Another corner. The door to the stairwell is pushed open and you fall to the floor, gasping. The door is hard against your back. The entire time, you hadn't taken a breath. From the moment he'd come into the gallery and made everyone get out. Everything was a blur. One moment you were watching the surgery, trying not to think about anything else, and the next moment he's picking you randomly out of the group of people in the gallery. You can't get out. You have to be the leverage.

The held-back tears rush out, and you scream into the hollow space, slamming your hand back against the door. You know that you don't know what's going on. For all you know, there's another one waiting in the stairwell. But you can't. You can't hold it in anymore. You have to scream, move, think. Because you're free.

But you left them there, both of them. Alex was still in the building somewhere, and Addison had basically just exchanged herself for you. It had been her first thought, you realize. Addison had wanted to get both of you out.

You can feel the blood slowly leaving your head, going back into homeostasis with the rest of you. It couldn't be a solo job. Security would have been all over him. There had to be more of them…more of them in the hospital. And you're sure that this is partially your fault. You called this upon yourself. And now…if Addison…if Alex…if anyone died because of you…you couldn't handle it.

You have to help. You have to step up and do something about this. And maybe this is a stupid idea, but there's no way you're going to let this happen to them.

Another ragged breath and you're up off the floor, running up the stairs. You rise too quickly and your head is spinning, but you keep running until you get to the NICU, quietly, chest and muscles burning from your effort to quiet your breathing and your feet against the floor. The man hadn't sent anyone after Alex. If you could find him…

"Iz?" You turn around, and Alex grabs your arm, pulling both of you into a closet. His hand is over your mouth, to cover your involuntary scream, and you hear footsteps outside the door. A few minutes after they leave, he takes his hand away and you immediately make for the other side of the closet. Suddenly you're a little claustrophobic. This is all too familiar to you.

"Thank you," you choke. You're starting to cry again.

"I'm sorry…they were coming and I couldn't…"

"It's fine. I just…"

"The OR…I know. Breathe, Izzie."

"She got me out," you whisper. "They have her."

"She would have done something like that," he replies, sighing. Both of you slide down the wall and sit next to each other, trying to be silent. "Why didn't you leave?" he asks.

"I can't…I can't let you two…"

"Hey," he says, forcing you to look at him. "It's okay. It's not your fault."

"What…what happened to everyone?" You can't bring yourself to tell him what you've done.

"I don't know. I heard on my way up here that there are five of them. One's in the lobby. The other four are somewhere else in the hospital. It was those three patients. They're here for them…are you sure you're okay? You…You've just had a gun in your face."

You shake your head slowly "I can't…I can't think about that. Okay? I just…can't. I have to do something. I can't just sit here and let them…" You can't bring yourself to say it.

"Izzie. It's okay."

You don't understand. This is my fault. It's all my fault.

"It's not." And you can't look at him all of a sudden. Because you're sure he's going to see right through you.

"We need to get Ava," he says, after a silence. He lets it go, and you're grateful.

"You'll need help. I'll come with you." You nod as he shifts to the door and presses his ear against it.

"Are you sure?"

"I can't just sit here."

"Okay. Are you eady?" He pushes the door open quickly and soundlessly, and you both scamper into the hall, closing the door soundlessly behind you. The halls are deserted, and in the back of your mind you wonder how they managed to get the majority of the people out of the hospital. When you get to the stairwell, he checks down and you look up, making sure it's empty. As you quietly make it down a floor, you ask him for the sake of relieving some tension, "How's the baby?"

"He's doing fine," murmurs Alex. "I'm just worried…there's no one to monitor him."

"Yeah." The door is opened, and both of you fall silent, slipping back into the OR, a stab of panic going through you as you remember what happened moments earlier. The place is a mess because everyone up and left in the middle of surgery, and you're thankful Ava hasn't woken. You couldn't imagine the fear you would feel if you woke up in the middle of a deserted OR.

"What's her room number?" you ask softly.

"We were going to move her into 223."

You run out and look into the hallway. It's clear. "Alex…if they find us, they might kill her."

"No," he says, still keeping his voice down as you open the door but making sure you can hear him, "I don't think that's what they want…they want what they came for…whatever it is. That's why we're still alive."

The walk down the hallway is as fast and as quiet as you both can make it. When you get her into the room, you fight the urge to sigh in relief. It's a miracle that both of you made it.

"How long is she under?" you ask.

"I think it's a couple more hours. What time is it?" He takes one of the chairs in the room and places it against the door. It's not much, but it's all you have.

"It's 11:30." Four and a half hours ago, you were thinking about George and Callie. Now all you can think about is Alex, Addison, and if you'll even make it through this day alive.

Where was everyone anyway? No one had called or paged, which would have been the first thing they would have done if they'd been able to evacuate.

That's when it hits you. This whole thing had only started twenty minutes ago.

"Alex, what do we do?" Your voice is soft and not your own. You want reassurance, and it's unfair to ask that of him, but you ask anyway.

He looks down at Ava. "I'm not leaving her."

"I'm not leaving either." Both of you know what you've done. By not leaving, you've backed yourselves into a corner. The initial confusion was probably over, taking away any chance either of you had of walking out of here. You were in this. There was no way out.

And it's such a frightening thought. You should be scared, but you're strangely numb. Twenty minutes. That's all it had been. So you have to say it again to make yourself believe it, more than anything.

"I'm not leaving."

So basically I wanted to convey her guilt, fear, and how no one really knows what's going on at this point. Review please and make my day!!!