The Great Escape
AN: So, a big thanks to all of you who reviewed chapter 9 – you know who you are.
And, a super big thanks, to all of you who constantly review my stories – you also know who you are. You guys truly make this worthwhile, and you make me want to keep writing. So, thank you.
Disclaimer: I, unfortunately, do not own Grey's Anatomy…
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Chapter 10: Carry Me
"Maybe I've come so far,
Maybe I'm on my knees.
Maybe I'm dead or alive,
Maybe I'm none of these."
- Patty Griffin
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Meredith's instincts took over at the sound of the gunshot. She dove to the ground, attempting to shield her body from the gunshot. Glass shattered in front of her and it sprinkled onto her back and arms. She flinched as the pieces flew into her back and arms, piercing her skin, and then she heard more gunshots. She willed her body to stay still, not wanting Chuck or Frank to know that she was alive, but as glass continued to break, her back and arms continued to be bombed with shards of glass. The pain of the shards digging into her skin flowed through her body and she bit her lip to keep from screaming. Gunshots continued to fly through the store, from every direction, while Julie's screams filled the air. Meredith closed her eyes and kept her face against the dirty cool tile of the store. She just wanted it all to be over.
"Chuck?" Frank screamed from an isle on the other side of the store.
When there was no response, Frank gently eased his body up slightly to see the front of the store. The windows and both sides were no longer there and no one was insight. He crawled through the isle towards the front of the store, but stopped when he saw Chuck's bloodied face, his eyes and mouth open, but no air coming out. Blood had splattered the snacks of the isle and the floor, making Frank cringe.
Finally, the gunfire stopped and Frank knew it was only a matter of time before the police came in to take him away. As he looked at Chuck's body, he knew that he had to finish what Chuck had started. He had to make Chuck proud of him. Frank pulled his gun out of the back of his pants and started to crawl, making sure that his body was shielded by isle row barriers. He made his way past Chuck and then he saw her. He reached his free hand out and grabbed one of Meredith's legs and started to pull. Meredith began to scream as she felt her body being pulled towards someone. She looked up and saw the police watching in horror as her body was pulled across the store by a hand. Meredith struggled against him, but stopped when he used his fingers to pinch her Achilles tendon. Tears tracked down her cheeks as her stomach rubbed against shards of glass that were scattered on the floor and became embedded inside of her.
Outside, the police moved closer to the store as the watched her body move through the store. One by one, the police filed into the store, making sure to stay low so that Frank would not see them. As they surrounded the store, one officer grabbed Julie and brought her out of the store, leaving the rest of the officers alone with Frank and Meredith.
"Stop, right there!" A police officer yelled at Frank as he pointed his gun down at Frank's squatting figure.
Frank looked up to see several gun barrels pointed at his face. He briefly considered surrendering, but then he remembered that he too had a gun. He cocked his gun at Meredith's body and smirked. "How do you know I won't pull the trigger before that bullet reaches me?"
The officer watched Frank carefully and assessed the situation. "You don't want to do this."
"You killed Chuck!" Frank screamed, his temper flaring.
Meredith listened as the officer and Frank went back and forth. Pain flooded every inch of her body, and she attempted to breathe, but failed. She drew rapid breaths, but none of them filled her body. She needed air.
The officer looked down at Meredith at the sound of her gasping for air, but remained focused on Frank. "We can all walk out of here alive if you just put the gun down."
Frank hesitated for a moment. "You're going to shoot me regardless of what I do."
"If you put your gun down," the officer bargained, "then we'll put our guns down."
Frank looked around the room and for the first time noticed how many police officers were inside of the store. He knew that this was a no win situation. There was no way out of this, and even if he did make it out, he would just spend the rest of his life rotting in a prison cell. "I can't."
Meredith coughed against the floor and she watched in horror as her blood painted the tile. With each breath she tried to take, she could feel the glass moving in her body, damaging everything it came in contact with.
The officer continued to watch Meredith and noticed the blood that she had spit out from her mouth. He knew she didn't have any more time. This had to end now. "She's going to die. Is that you want? To kill another person?"
Frank glanced down at Meredith and saw the glass that was stuck in her back and arms. He breathed deeply. He never wanted anyone but Pete to get hurt. This wasn't the way it was supposed to happen.
"Do you want her to die?" The officer pushed.
Frank ignored the officer and started to look around the store again, this time noticing Chuck and Pete's bodies on the floor. He noticed the blood that was scattered about the store, filling it like water fills a glass. His eyes settled on Chuck's body, and he knew what he had to do.
"What's it going to be?" The officer asked.
Frank glanced at Meredith and held his gun tightly in his hand. Sweat dripped down his temple; he knew he had to be fast. He had to beat them to the punch. He drew another breath and then abruptly pulled the gun away from Meredith's body, and aimed it at his temple. Within seconds he pulled the trigger. His body fell instantly on top of Meredith's, causing any of Meredith's ability to breath to disappear.
The police officers moved quickly towards Meredith, each holstering their gun as they approached her. Multiple officers pulled Frank's body off of Meredith's back as a few others ran outside of the store summon a paramedic team. Meredith felt instant relief when Frank's body was lifted from hers, but she still struggled to breathe.
"Miss?" A police officer asked.
Meredith coughed, blood spitting out of her mouth. She didn't have the air to say anything. She only hoped that they wouldn't turn her over onto her back. A few officers placed their hands on her body, attempting to assess the situation, but stopped when they saw the paramedic team approaching.
The paramedics came closer to the area and looked at Meredith, air escaping their mouths as the looked at Meredith in horror. Glass stuck out of her skin like flowers sticking out of the ground, and they knew it was a miracle that she was still conscious. Now, they just had to figure out how to get her onto a stretcher and to the hospital without doing too much damage.
"Does anyone know her name?" The paramedic, Lisa, asked the officers that had surrounded Meredith's body.
"Meredith," an officer said, "I heard the guy that came out earlier screaming that name."
"Meredith?" Lisa asked gently.
Meredith groaned in response. She didn't have enough energy or enough air to get anything else out.
"I'm going to take that as a yes," Lisa whispered to Bill, the other paramedic, before speaking to Meredith again. "Meredith, we need to move you. We have to get you to the hospital right away."
Meredith let out another groan, but it was smaller than the last one. She thought of Derek and wondered if he was okay, if he had made it to the hospital safely. Memories of the past couple hours came flooding back into her thoughts. She tried not to think about what had happened to her, about what she had done, but she couldn't. There was no stopping these memories. They were a part of her now, and she suddenly found herself gasping for air.
"She needs oxygen," Bill told Lisa.
Lisa moved quickly and grabbed an oxygen mask that was attached to a small oxygen tank. She shifted Meredith's head to the side gently, and placed the oxygen mask on her mouth and held it there. Lisa looked at the side of Meredith's mouth and noticed the trail of blood. She glanced up and Bill and said, "She's coughing up blood."
Bill nodded. "Lets move her."
The officers brought over the stretcher that had been resting a few feet away while Lisa and Bill decided on a plan. Lisa looked at one of the officers and told him to hold the mask in front of Meredith's face. As the officer held the mask, Bill walked to the head of Meredith's body while Lisa moved to Meredith's feet. Bill grabbed onto Meredith's shoulders while Lisa grabbed onto Meredith's feet. They looked at each other and counted aloud before picking Meredith's body up off the floor. The officer moved with them, keeping the oxygen mask over Meredith's face as they moved slowly over to the stretcher and placed Meredith's body on her left side on the stretcher. They continued to hold on to her body, attempting to keep her on her side. Once they had steadied her body, they let go.
"Lets go," Bill screamed.
Bill and Lisa grabbed the stretcher and began to walk quickly towards the ambulance, the officer walking with them as he continued to hold the oxygen mask against her face. They moved carefully through the store, careful not to hit anything that could cause Meredith's body to shift. When they reached outside, they moved slightly faster until the officer yelled stop.
"What is it?" Bill asked.
"Her eyes are closed." The officer yelled.
Bill moved around the stretcher to the left side. "Were they open before?"
The officer nodded. "Yeah."
Bill placed his fingers against Meredith's neck and searched for a pulse. "We've got no pulse."
Lisa apologized silently to Meredith for what she was about to do, and then flipped Meredith's body onto her back. "Go! Go!"
The officer watched as Bill and Lisa moved away from him, leaving him holding the oxygen mask and tank that had been keeping Meredith alive. He watched them lift the stretcher into the ambulance and then close the ambulance doors. Another paramedic ran to the driver seat car door and yanked it open, before he jumped in and drove away, leaving the officer to wonder if Meredith would make it or not.
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Derek opened his eyes to familiar surroundings and familiar faces. For a second, he thought it had all been a nightmare, a terrible dream that had gone from bad to worse in a matter of seconds. But then, reality hit him when he heard the sound of his heart beat on the monitor, and when he felt the pain of the gunshot wound he had suffered. He blinked again, and moved his head slightly to see the Chief and Burke standing over him.
"How are you feeling?" Burke immediately asked.
"Where's Meredith?" Derek replied. "Did she get out?"
The Chief put his hand on Derek's uninjured shoulder. "We don't know."
"I have to get back there," Derek breathed. "She needs me."
"You're not going anywhere," Bailey said as she moved closer to Derek's hospital bed. "You have to have surgery."
Derek looked around the room to see Burke, the Chief, Bailey, Addison, and Mark all standing inside of it. "What happened?"
"They had to sedate you," Addison offered. "You were agitated and they needed to get you here."
Derek shook his head against his pillow. "I need to be with Meredith."
"You can't," the Chief said firmly, "you need surgery. We only waited because we knew you'd kill us if you didn't."
"You've also lost a lot of blood," Burke added.
Derek glanced upwards and noticed the bag of blood. "Why do I need surgery?"
"The bullet is lodged in your bicep," the Chief explained. "We have to go in and get it out."
Derek nodded, but was growing more agitated. "We have to wait."
"Derek," Addison hesitated, "we can't wait. We have to do this soon."
"I need to know how Meredith is," Derek breathed. "I should be in there with her still - "
"She'd want you to get better, Derek," Mark interrupted.
Derek closed his eyes, but refused to respond. This was all his fault. If he had just gotten gas before he came into work, this would have never happened. They would have never been at that gas station to begin with; they would have never stopped. This was all his fault. She could die because of him.
"Shepherd," Burke pushed, "we have to get you in. You need this surgery, now."
Derek opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted when Cristina burst into the room.
"They're bringing her in," Cristina breathed.
Derek closed his eyes in relief, but then quickly opened him. Something in Cristina's voice did not sound good. "Is she alive?"
Cristina looked at Burke, her eyes filling with tears. "She didn't have a heart beat."
"Didn't?" Derek asked, his voice cracking with emotion.
Cristina's tears spilled over her eyelids onto her cheeks, leaving wet tracks. "They were able to revive her."
Derek frowned. "But?"
Cristina moved closer to Burke, but refused to look Derek in the eyes. "She has glass shards all over her."
Derek remained silent. He didn't know what to say to that. He hadn't expected her to come into the hospital with glass in her body. He didn't know what he was expecting.
"Derek," the Chief interrupted, "we have to get you into surgery."
Before Derek could respond, the Chief's pager went off, and they all knew that it was for Meredith. She was at Seattle Grace.
Okay, so… I hope this update was fast enough for everyone. I did it as fast as I could. So, the chapter ends with Meredith arriving at Seattle Grace…so, they are both out of the store now – but are they really out of the store?
My brain is mushy right now because I'm tired, but I hope you liked this chapter, and what happened in it. There is still so much more to come in this story… so much more.
Anyway, as always thanks for reading… and if you like this story, you should check out my other store, You Might Die Trying (updated with chapter 4).
Like it? Love it? Hate it? And everything in between…
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