A/N: I'm glad you guys like this story and, as always, I love to hear from you. Give me your theories for the next chapter. Trust me, it'll be a rollercoaster from this point on.
XxX
Beneath, Part II
December 23, 2015.
Zurich Switzerland.
It took over an hour for Collin to stop crying. He went silent very suddenly, pressing his face hard into her arm, and his little fingers grasped at her shirt. She cut the light on and found his eyes focused on her face. His gaze was more intense than usual. His lips were red, with bits of debris drying across his jaw and nose. She left them be, not wishing to share the blood on her hands. She got a good look at his leg, grimacing at the mass of muscle swelling outside of the wound. He was only nine months old, still crawling instead of walking. She was grateful for that. If his muscles had been any more developed this kind of injury would have damned him for life.
She sat quietly with him, running her hand up and down his belly to try and ease his discomfort, until her phone started vibrating again. It startled Collin and he curled closer to her, irritating his injury. She answered, not even checking the number first.
"Hello?"
"Cristina!"
"Shane?"
"Hey!" He had a painful relief in his voice. It was a sharp contrast to the booming tone he had used with her that morning. She had expected to get the silent treatment from him for months after their blowout, but hearing him now, she knew all was forgiven. "Hey," he spoke softer. She could hear sirens and loud noises in the background. "Hey, you okay? Are you hurt?"
She considered saying something sarcastic, but her chest ached with its objection. "Uh… I… the right side of…. my ribcage… is crushed. Collin has… Collin has anterior… compartment… syndrome. I relieved the… the pressure but… he needs surgery."
His breath caught. "Just focus on breathing. They know where you are and they're gonna get you out. You're gonna be fine." Someone was shouting in the background, and the heavy machinery drifted further away. "Just stay awake, and stay alive."
"I was… planning on… taking a nap… and then dying… you party… party pooper."
He chuckled. It was a sad sound. "Not on my watch."
"You let me… fall in here… you idiot…"
"You're the one who wanted to go man trolling."
"If you… get me out of… this…" she coughed, feeling light-headed. The more she talked the less time she had to focus on breathing. But she had to say this. "I will… consider your… proposal."
He laughed. Somewhere behind him, a car door closed. "Forget about it. Focus on you, okay? When you get out of this you can be right all the time, okay?"
She knew his voice. For over a year now she had walked side-by-side with him every day. She could picture his voice right now. She knew how upset he would look, and how he would pace around, how he would try to order the rescuers around. She knew him, inside and out, so she expected his words. She expected him to sound choked.
"You don't get to die on me. I won't let you."
He was still such a kid. "Not really… much choice here…"
"Cristina…"
"Sorry."
"Doctor Yang!" he snapped. "This is not a goodbye call."
"You were a… good friend… you should… probably… cry less."
She hung up on him. She knew he wouldn't do it, and she couldn't talk to him anymore. She couldn't afford to sob right now – it would make it impossible to keep breathing. She dialed a familiar number instead, one she hadn't allowed herself to dial in a long time. She had expected to see him at the Christmas party, but now that didn't seem like an option.
He sounded perplexed. She really couldn't blame him.
"Cristina?"
"Owen, hey… is this… a bad time?"
"Uh, no, it's just – are you okay? You sound-"
"I was… jogging… I just wanted… to check in… how… how are you?"
"I'm good, I'm fine. Cristina, are you sure you're-"
"I'm fine. Hey… how is… Amelia? Meredith said… you guys… were getting serious…"
"We are, yeah. Where are you? You sound horrible."
"I'm… I'm in a bit… a bit of a… jam here."
He was silent for a few heartbeats, and she almost thought she'd lost him. "What's going on? Do you need help? Do you need an ambulance?"
"Well… if it had… wings maybe… it could… help me…"
"I don't understand. What do you need?"
"I just need… to tell you… goodbye."
"Cristina-"
"Don't… talk over me… I don't have much… breath. Just listen." She felt a tear slip down her cheek and she reached up to wipe it away. Her lip trembled and her hand dropped. "Owen." His name came out as a whimper. It hurt just to hear herself whine like that. It reminded her of the shooting, when she'd heard his voice in that OR, when she'd said his name because she was afraid for her life, and all she wanted was to be protected.
She heard him draw in a breath.
"I love you," she said. Her voice echoed in the cave. "You are… the love of my… my life, too… I know I… make it hard to… be friends… but I love… you. I love you."
"Don't do that, don't say goodbye. Tell me what's happening. Tell me what's wrong."
"I… uh… I fell, down a… hole, down a hole." She coughed, slowing down to make it easier on her lungs. "I'm trapped… underground… my chest is… crushed… and the guy… up there… they're so… slow with the…with the digging."
She knew he wanted to say something more. She had two men in her life that she knew inside and out, and this one she'd been married to. She knew he had something else to say, but he held it back. He spoke urgently. "I love you, too. I love you. I love you." She heard a door shut. "But I'm going to see you again, okay?"
She nodded. "Okay."
"I'm going… flight…" His voice started breaking up. She strained to hear him.
Radio silence. She waited, moving the phone around in their little cave, trying to get the call to come back, but it was too far gone. The line went dead. She set the phone down beside her and blinked to fight off tears. She hadn't been afraid before that phone call. Now it seemed that she had so much to lose on the other side. She experienced a wave of devastation. It gripped her, drawing a sob from her chest, making it even harder to breathe.
Without warning the sand started up again. Both of them jumped, and Collin clutched at her, trying to get as close as possible. Cristina wrapped her right arm around him again and pointed the phone in the direction of the sand – she could barely see a wall debris and water falling endlessly in the mouth of the cave. It brought a putrid smell with it.
When a few minutes had passed she let the area go dark again. She leaned against the wall, letting her head fall back only to sit up suddenly. It wasn't smooth, but jagged, and she'd probably just cut her scalp. She kept the boy calm by stroking his face, keeping him pressed into her chest despite how much pain his weight caused her. He was trembling uncontrollably and this allowed her to keep tabs on his vitals.
She was tired of the sound of splashing water and rock, so she spoke to him. "Hey, sweetheart, look at me. Hey, that's it."
He shifted, curious, and she cut the light on. She could see tears on his face, and in the bottoms of his eyes as he stared at her. He was still a long way from learning to talk, but he was thoughtful. He was considering her. He wanted to know what was happening, but he had no way of expressing that need.
"We're getting… out of here… okay?"
Silence.
"Don't look at me… like that… you got us… into this."
He swallowed, lifting his hand up to touch her chin.
"We're gonna be fine… my friend is gonna… get us out."
His little lip trembled and he turned his face into her breast. His hand drifted to her shirt, locking onto the collar. His uninjured leg dug into her thigh. He was quite, save the sound of his breathing. It was normal, but she was fixated on it, sure that he would stop any moment. She was almost too focused on him to realize that the falling debris had become louder.
She sat up a little, jarring the baby and her own injuries. Her heart hammered. She turned on her phone light, but it was too dim to show what was happening at the drop-off. She could hear the sand moving around, rocks thudding against each other, water pouring between the cracks. It all became louder and louder, faster and faster, until the noise overwhelmed everything else.
She set the baby down, hardly able to hear his screaming over the splashing water. It sounded dangerously close to them. She crawled across the uneven cave floor, holding out her phone until she could see the edge. She was right. Water was rising toward their little hideaway.
She leaned over, startled when her hand struck the growing pool. It was a few feet below the edge of the cave. She looked up again, blinking through the spray of water and trying to find a way to dig out. It was shadowy up above. She couldn't tell if there was a break in the debris. If the water kept rising they had a chance to float up to safety, but if there was no hole, they would drown while the water continued to rise through the cracks.
She was about to retreat from the edge when someone burst through the water and tried to grab onto her. She reeled backward, gasping, but then lunged to clutch at their hands, trying to get a grip on their slimy, muddy skin. They slipped back down into the water and Cristina lunged after them, managing to catch their wrist as they struggled to stay at the surface.
It was a woman. She was screaming and gasping as Cristina hauled her up onto the edge of the cave. Cristina retrieved her phone and shined over her body. She floundered for a moment, and then she went still, staring at the ceiling and taking unsteady, shallow breaths. She was in shock.
Cristina wiped the mud off of her face, trying to clear up her airways and give her a fighting chance of surviving the water alone. She was freezing, trembling, and straining for the slightest bit of air. Water bubbled from her lips, but not with the force of a person reeling to survive. Cristina did a few compression on her ribcage, glad when the woman started coughing. Finally her reflexes were working. She vomited, shivering horrible, and curled up on her side.
"It's okay," Cristina said, pulling up her phone to get a look at her patient. She paused at her face, disturbed by the familiarity of her features. She scraped a little mud from her nose.
Cristina dropped the phone.
It was Phyllis.
