Meredith stared at Alex's inanimate form with pain in her eyes. Tears rolled slowly down her face as she stroked his face.
"I'm so sorry, Al. So sorry," she whispered. Mark placed his arm around her, silently offering comfort. She leaned into his warmth and asked him brokenly,
"D-Do you think that it's m-my fau…lt?"
He shook his head vigorously.
"Mer, it definitely wasn't your fault. You didn't force him to run those red lights. That was him."
"But I broke up with him, knowing that he would do something like that. I know him! And I knew that if I didn't tell him in person he would do…act rashly."
Mark had no idea what to say so he merely held her tightly as if he could absorb her pain.
Derek watched them, pain in his eyes, wishing he could be the one to hold Meredith, to dry her glistening eyes, to murmur soothing nothings in her ear. He had never been jealous of Mark; he had never had reason to be, but now he couldn't stop that green-eyed monster from showing his face.
"You love her."
He spun to face Addison. Her tone was not accusing, but…sad and mournful. He began,
"Addison, I…"
She shook her head and gently interrupted,
"Don't worry, Derek. I'm not angry or anything."
"I'm so sorry, Addison. I haven't been fair to you and if we had tried when we were younger than maybe it might have worked. When we tried I…I thought I could learn to care for you as I used to, but…I think that it was nothing more than a schoolboy's crush, but please, please believe me. I never ever meant to hurt you."
"But you did anyway."
She choked, unable to say anything else, unable to dislodge that lump in her throat which showed how much she cared for him. The pain in her beautiful eyes sent a knife through his heart.
Suddenly as gasp from Meredith made them run into the room, crying,
"What's wrong? What's happened?"
But Meredith didn't need to answer for they could both see Alex's brown eyes opening.
"He's awake," breathed Meredith.
Alex looked at her confused.
"Who're you? Je ne vous connais pas."
Bewildered Meredith said,
"Al, it's me, Meri. And since when do you speak French?"
She felt sure that he would recognize her from her nickname, but no such thing. Instead he declared,
"Je ne vous connais jamais. Qui sont ces gens? Where am I? Why am I here?"
Meredith started to cry again as Derek ran out to fetch a nurse. He thought he knew what had happened to the young man, but he didn't want to believe it. It would hurt Meredith so much and he couldn't bear that. The nurse arrived, having paged a neurosurgeon and checked his stats. Meredith kept crying out,
"What's wrong with him? Why doesn't he remember me? Why is he speaking French? Why doesn't he remember? I thought he loved me!"
Alex looked at the petite woman as if she were mad and she felt like she was. She couldn't bear to think of a world where Alex didn't remember her.
Cristina strolled into the room with Preston close behind, but halted as she noted the scene in front of her. She demanded authoritatively,
"What happened?"
Derek answered quickly,
"He woke up and…I think he may have amnesia."
"Don't say that!" Meredith shrieked. "He's Alex! He can't have amnesia. He has to remember. Oh God! He has to!" At this point her words became incoherent as she buried her face in Mark's shoulder.
A neurosurgeon walked in and examined Alex. As she was doing this Addison asked Preston,
"And where have you two been?"
He turned red and stammered,
"W-Well we were just-um-having a coffee and talking?"
Addison looked at him speculatively, but decided that now was not the time to investigate Preston's love life. Instead she said shortly,
"We'll talk about this later. Now let's concentrate on Meredith."
She turned her attention back to the doctor who had finished doing tests on Alex. She announced,
"I'm afraid he has amnesia."