Day one

It had been a restless night, the woods were cold and damp where the sun had yet to rise. Her back felt stiff and her leg was aching, she hoped that they would be found soon. Everyone else was still sleeping. Mark was laying next to her, and occasionally she would check that he was still breathing. She'd thought all night about how it wasn't supposed to be her on the plane. She selfishly wished she had just let Alex come like he was supposed too. She was mad at him, she's taught him all he knew and knew that he could make an amazing fellow for her and for the hospital, she hadn't trained him so well just for him to leave and take his talent somewhere else. She liked him as her partner, she could trust him with almost any case and hated the fact that if he left she would have to find someone new to share that trust with again. He'd come so far from when they first met. She hated herself for wishing it was him instead of her, she wished she could be at home right now with Callie, or visiting Nick in the hospital, something that had also been playing on her mind.

She never thought she'd lose her best friend so early in her life, especially after losing her brother Tim at an even younger age. The three of them had always been so close growing up. They played together after school everyday, Nick even spent Christmas with them a few times. Then when Tim died after the funeral, where she had held it together as best she could, he saw her through the hardest days of her life. He moved into her little apartment and slept on the couch. Watched her grieve the loss of her brother day after day sobbing until early hours when she couldn't fight sleep anymore. She didn't go to work, she didn't leave the house and rarely during that time even left her bed but he was the one who helped her to keep fighting. He told her how Tim would hate to see her like this, he always wanted the best for her, to live life to its fullest and do the best she could. She fought through her depression with him, and even on her good days when they began again he stayed, made her laugh and spent time with her almost like a second brother. He was there through everything, through unbearable breakups, family feuds and even failed job interviews, he was her first port of call, and he was always there, and now in his last days, she couldn't repay him. She couldn't be there for him, after resenting his choice of waiting so long to seek help and ignoring Callie's advice to just talk to him, she missed so many days with him, and now she was stuck out in the woods. No one knew they were out there and they didn't know how long they'd have to wait.

Time felt like it was passing so slowly, every now and then Arizona would feel a shooting pain in her leg that reminded her of the original impact. Just all of a sudden they fell out of the sky. The plane started making an awful noise and as it fell her stomach flipped, they all knew what was happening and had no control over it or had any idea what to do. The back of the plane completely disconnected from the front where she was sitting, it almost felt like it was falling in slow motion and she could see everything falling apart around her. She had tensed and closed her eyes and the plane collided with the ground. Even the memory of this made her whole body tense, the only thing she could remember after that was pain. Her leg wasn't shattered but it was severely out of place, and she knew her condition could only worsen while sitting out in the woods open wounds. She'd been coughing up small amounts of blood which meant she could also have a pulmonary embolism which would become fatal due to her inability to move and the possibility of her dying due to infection was rising the longer she was being left untreated.

When everyone was awake Cristina checked on her and Mark, while Meredith was with Derek, Mark's condition was worsening but there was nothing they could do to help any of them with no supplies. Cristina had spoken to Jerry the pilot and asked him if there was a way the flight company would know where they are, but he said the tracking device only worked when the planes were running, although there was a faint possibility that the signal cutting off in the middle of the journey could have sent an alert to the main tracking device, but not to get anyone's hopes up. Arizona was drifting in and out of sleep, but each time woke with a frightening reminder of her surroundings.

Day two

Forty eight hours into being stuck in the woods Arizona had still barely slept, she could feel her body weakening through dehydration and possible infection. Hunger had started to set in. She was so tired but every time she closed her eyes she could see the moment replaying over and over of the plane hitting the floor, hearing everyone's scream. Meredith screaming for Derek, Cristina looking for her shoe, Mark looking for Lexie. She could hear Mark next to her crying for Lexie, they couldn't save her. Her heart broke for them, she always thought that they were meant to be together the way her and Callie were meant to be. She knew Mark would never be able to get over her, they had spent years on and off, but they always knew what each other needed at the right time.

She spent most of her day thinking about Callie and Sofia back home. Callie would know that something was wrong by now. Arizona always texted her when the plane would land at any location, they never went more than a few hours without speaking and they were due to land home today. With the little energy she had, she cried at the thought of never seeing Callie and Sofia again. She could die out here and never be found. Just lost, completely off the radar. Sofia would have to grow up wondering where her mother and father had disappeared to and Callie would forever be wondering whether she was still alive and if there was any chance of her coming home and as the hours went by Arizona started to feel more and more helpless herself. Callie would be going out of her mind with worry, probably gathering everyone at the hospital asking if they'd heard from anyone.

Arizona had so many plans with Callie, plans she never had even dreamed of before she met her. She wanted to take her skating when Sofia was a bit older, it was one of many things she enjoyed and hoped that Sofia would grow up loving it just as she did. She missed the way Sofia would stare at her after picking her up from daycare and she longed for Callie's touch, the way she would brush her hair out of her face, or when they were in bed together and Arizona couldn't sleep, Callie would run her fingers up and down her back to sooth her. Their touch always made the other feel safe, she tried to imagine it but it just wasn't the same. She so wanted to just be sat on the couch with her at home, holding hands with their legs intertwined watching American bake off but instead she was sat in the woods amongst chaos on a plane seat on the floor with the father of her child laid out next to her fighting for his life with no supplies to attempt any kind of procedure to improve his condition.

Meredith and Cristina tried to walk through the woods to see if there was any place near where there could be people to help them, but for miles around it was just dirt and trees. Pieces of the plane were scattered so far from where the majority of it was, trees were knocked down but there was no sense of life around and their hope for survival was running thin. They had found a small creek that had running water, it definitely wasn't clean but they needed something for the hydration, they collected it in a bottle Lexie had brought on the plane with her and took it back to give to Derek, Mark, Arizona and Jerry. They went back for some more water but this time they used it to clean some of the dried blood on Arizona's face. The wounds had started to scab over but according to Meredith they still looked like they needed some proper cleaning. She watched as they cleaned up Derek and Mark as best they could before the sun went down. It was rather warm during the day but once the sun disappeared it became rather cool at night.

Day three

So far the hardest day. It had rained overnight, everyone was soaking wet and cold. Meredith and Cristina had to move Arizona and Mark to a more sheltered area under the wing of the plane. Derek sat with Mark telling him that they both needed to hold on. Arizona after being moved was in so much more pain than before, the makeshift splint wasn't tight enough which meant the rush to infection was growing higher due to the open wound and displacement of her bone. She couldn't help but hope that if they made it up alive that Callie would be able to fix her leg and she'd be back on it as soon as possible. She needed two legs, she skated, she stood up all day for a job, losing a leg was just not an option to her. She was uncomfortable, but so exhausted she could bring herself to shift position.

Arizona thought some dark thoughts that day, she felt herself drifting somewhere she'd only been once before. She thought about giving up. Stopping the fight with herself to stay with it. She could finally be with her brother Tim again. He would be there sometimes in her dreams trying to get to her but that space between them would never shrink, she always believed that he was stuck, watching over her. That he wasn't able to pass on because he never got to say his last goodbye or a last I love you.

The last time Tim had left for the army, he and Arizona had been fighting, they rarely fought but she really didn't want him to go back, she didn't want her brother to risk his life, she loved him so dearly and wanted him to stay near her forever. She'd always regretted not saying goodbye, because although it was her worst fear to lose her brother, never did she think it would come true and she knew she had to live with the guilt that he thought she hated him before he left. It ate away at her some days, no matter how many times Nick or Callie or even her parents reassured her that he knew she loved him, she always felt that guilt and wished to go back and say that final goodbye.

One thing that held her from giving up was knowing the pain her parents went through when they lost Tim, she was there and she lived it and swore that no matter how much she was suffering she would never give up because Tim would have always wanted her to live and she couldn't let her parents lose their other child. She'd shared this with Callie one night, how after Tims death she'd thought about ending her own life, because living without him was unbearable, but she was so glad she'd stayed because if she hadn't Arizona would never had met the love of her life, sh'd never had made so many beautiful memories and accomplished so many dreams that she never knew she had. She knew she had it in her to fight, but out in the woods how long could she last before her body gave up on her. Arizona's mind was strong but if her body was weak, it was always going to win and long before not she found herself drifting back in and out of sleep.

Day four

Everyone was losing hope, it had been four days and nothing. Arizona's eyes were heavy from crying. Her leg was really starting to cause her severe pain, once the initial shock had worn off and she'd realised the true severity of her injuries the hope of making it out of the woods alive was next to none. She couldn't walk, or barely even move. The muscles in her entire body were tired, she was trying so hard to fight the pain it was exhausting all of her energy.

She and Mark had stayed up during the night talking about Callie and Sofia. They both just wanted to get home to their family, for things to be the way they were before the flight. Mark told her that he had full hope that Callie would have a plan for her leg and she shouldn't worry too much, but she'd been thinking about it constantly, every thought was now just spiralling around her, she felt so weak and so tired all the time. She flinched at every faint noise in the distance. She always hated the idea of camping or sleeping outside, so being stuck in the middle of nowhere was a living nightmare. After watching the sun rise, she decided no would be a time to sleep, it seemed easier in day, when everything around her wasn't so dark.

"Arizona, Arizona wake up" Meredith said standing over her, she opened her eyes and looked around, Mark wasn't next to her anymore, "Arizona they found us, we're going to be okay". Who she thought, who had found them. Two men in Ambulance jackets came over towards her with a stretcher. Meredith explained to her how the plane had sent signals to the base tracker back in Seattle. It had alerted them that the plane had never made it to the destination and they had been working when during the route it had dropped off the radar. Once they had a tracking signal they were sure of they sent people out to look for them straight away in hopes that they would all still be alive.

The makeshift splint was removed and replaced with a real one that eased a lot of Arizona's pain and once she was on the stretcher they carried her to the ambulance. There were seven all lined up in the middle of the woods where they had been stuck for all that time, one for each of them, even Lexie. Meredith had to show them where she was laying, lifeless in the dirt, so they could take her back with them.

The drive to the hospital wasn't awfully far, but Arizona felt an anxiety rise in her chest. The shock of being saved when she really had lost all hope. Usually she wasn't on this side of the ambulance, she would be the one waiting to greet it at the hospital doors and even though she was through being stuck she knew she wasn't through that last of it yet. The ambulance came to a stop and the paramedics carefully handed over each patient one by one and it wasn't until they were at the hospital they realised where they were. Idaho. She was wheeled into the ER, where they cut off her scrubs and helped her change into a gown. They took her obs and booked for an emergency X-Ray and MRI scan to check the extremities of her injuries. The lights were giving her a headache and everyone had been split apart and sent to where they needed to be treated.

They attached her to a drip to get some fluids back into her system, they'd given her extra blankets to warm up and closed the curtains around her bed for some privacy. It felt weird laying in a bed after being on the hard floor for days. She flinched as her curtains opened and her heart sank as a familiar face was standing over her and all of a sudden she felt overwhelmed with the sight of Owen's face.

"You took your time" she sobbed and walked over and put his arm around while she laid back in her bed.

"Listen, Bailey, Webber and I are all here and we're going to get you home safely and as soon as possible but you know the drill we need to make sure you're all okay to come back with us" he said. Hearing his voice was soothing yet so strange.

"Owen, we-we can't fly" she stumbled, no way any of them would want to get back on a plane after the ordeal they just fought through.

"Meredith ordered us to sedate you all, you'll wake up back in Seattle Grace with Callie by your side and you won't even realise you've been on a plane. I promise" as she heard Callie's name be spoken she felt a sudden relief that she could see her wife again very soon.

"Could I borrow your phone, to call Callie" she asked

"Yes of course, here" he handed it over "I'll wait outside"

Arizona's finger hovered over Callie's name for a few seconds before she pressed it and pulled the phone to her ear. The dial tone ran long and she prayed that Callie wasn't in a surgery so she would pick up.

"Owen, have you got any news, have they found them, have they found Arizona?" Callie answered with a panic.

"Calliope, it's me, I'm okay" Arizona said softly.

"Oh thank god" Callie began to sob "are you okay, are you hurt?"

"I'm better, my leg is pretty messed up, I missed you". Arizona had a lump in her throat and a tear ran down her cheek.

"I missed you too sweetheart, I'm so relieved you're okay, I'll be here waiting for you as soon as you land okay!"

"Okay, I love you"

"I love you so much" Callie put down the phone.

Arizona could hear Owen and the doctor talking outside the curtains, they were talking about her leg and how amputation could be the best option. For who, she thought. Amputation to her sounded like a death sentence. She pulled herself forward and pushed back the curtains "show me those" she demanded.