Warning: None. Rated T.
A/N: Thank you everyone for your comments and reviews. I hope you enjoy this next chapter.
This chapter's song title is "You and Me" by Lifehouse
Chapter 6 – You and Me
Saturday – 5:00pm (Boise Memorial Hospital – 3 days after the crash – 5 hours after being rescued)
Lexie sat next to Mark's bedside, her chair scooted as close as possible, so that she could rest her head against his arm in his private ICU room. Derek and Meredith had been with her, but news that the new charter plane had arrived, needing their attention, gave Lexie the few precious moments of privacy with Mark.
She checked his vitals, and double checked the machines to make sure that everything was in working order, and that he was getting the proper care he needed. When she had been satisfied, she finally took a seat next to him.
He looked peaceful, as if he was just sleeping, but with the tube sticking out of his mouth and the machines assisting the breathing process, the seriousness of the situation and that it was very possible he might not wake up and come back to her made her queasy.
"You need to wake up," she said. Her hand found his, and she squeezed it with her own. "Mark…please come back. I can't do this without you," she admitted.
The whoosh sound of the doors to his room opened, her head lifting to see who had entered. Meredith, Derek, Richard Webber, and Miranda Bailey were standing in the room.
"Dr. Grey," Dr. Webber said. "Glad to see that you are ok."
She rubbed at her eyes. Her fatigue was settling in. "Thank you."
"It's time for us to get everything ready so we can transport you all back to Seattle," Richard advised.
"Is…is it safe to move him?" she asked.
"We have everything we need on the plane," Miranda answered for him, in her motherly and reassuring tone. "We'll make sure that you are all comfortable for the ride home."
"I don't want to be sedated," she said. Richard and Miranda looked at each other, before looking back to her. "Sometimes people forget I am here. I heard the trauma doctors talking about their recommendation considering our circumstances that it would be best if we were sedated for the trip back."
"Dr. Grey—"
"I don't want to be sedated," Lexie repeated cutting Richard off. She looked back down at Mark. "I need to be with him during the flight. I need to keep an eye on him."
"Okay, Dr. Grey," Miranda said. "You will be with him."
Lexie nodded. "Let's go home."
Friday – 9:30pm (Somewhere between Boise and Seattle – 2 days after the crash)
It had been two days since the crash had happened, and still they had not been saved. He had told Lexie not to give up hope, but as he looked around the small space, they had been calling home for these last two days, the hope was starting to dwindle more and more with each passing minute.
The pain in his chest was getting worse. He strained against the pain anytime he made any sort of movements, and with Lexie's watchful gaze on him every few seconds, he was worried far more about her then himself. She was refusing to sleep or leave his side other than to do the bare necessities like use the bathroom.
"Mer," he whispered, when Lexie had left for a quick restroom break just near the camp.
He could see her just beyond the tree line, Derek having gone with her for protection. Now, that night had fallen, the more dangerous predators were more active at this time than during the day.
"Are you ok?" Meredith asked.
He nodded, even that action causing him to grimace. "I need something from you," he said.
"Nope. You don't need to do this. We are going to make it out of here. All of us are going to make it out of here," she replied.
"Meredith," he said again, her name less sturdy than the last time he had said it. "Promise me, that if things go south, that you and Derek will look after her. Make sure she makes it through. Make sure that she's happy."
He caught her watching him, her mouth pressed into a hard line. His eyes fleeted back to the tree line and he saw that Derek and Lexie were making their way back over to the group.
His gaze was fixed back on her. "Meredith."
"I promise," she said.
He nodded, looking back up towards the sky. Lexie was back at his side, already working so that she could lay down next to him. "Is everything ok? Are you ok?"
"I'm fine," he assured reaching for her hand.
She placed her hand in his, and laid back down next to his side. He could tell by her expression she was tracking and counting his breaths and changes in his condition.
The group went on alert not long after, Arizona going into heavy gasps and seconds away from full-on hysterics when there was a large primal growl close to their campsite. It was Cristina that had to shake her and keep her quiet from alerting their position. They had hoped the fire would have kept any predators from wanting to wander into their territory, but the smell of blood and rotting flesh could potentially be tracked for miles by the animals.
Lexie scooted herself closer to his body, almost as if she was willing to throw herself over him in the event, they were faced with the danger head on. He would use every ounce of strength he had left to ensure that she was the one protected and not him.
The growls turned into hisses and then what sounded like battle cries as Mark figured out what was happening. A pack of predators—what he didn't know—had found the dead bodies of the pilots and were fighting over their corpuses. It was morbid and horrifying to think about, but the reminder that if they did not get the help soon, their chances of surviving would get smaller. At least for him and Arizona. They were the two that had the worst of the injuries. With their supplies dwindling, their time was running short.
As it was, they were down to one bottle of water remaining for the six of them. They had already blown through all of the snack like items they were able to recover, and the limited forging that Cristina and Meredith were able to do during the day had turned up empty handed without anything they could locate that could be eaten.
They were all out of morphine and medical supplies, with the exception of one roll of clean bandages. The small box of matches that Lexie had found in the wreckage only had two good matches left, and those were needed if they were going to be here for additional nights.
Mark turned his head so his lips could press a kiss to her forehead. "Sleep," he said.
She yawned. "I'm not tired."
"Sleep," he repeated.
She was about to argue again, but her eyes closed before she could even get the words out of her mouth. His eyes glanced back up to the sky, hoping and praying that help was soon on its way.
Saturday – 5:00pm (Boise Memorial Hospital – 3 days after the crash – 5 hours after being rescued)
Mark still couldn't quite understand where or why he was still floating along in the darkness, but since he was no longer feeling any pain or much of anything at all…it was hard to fight against the will to want to leave the comfortable silence.
He felt that familiar feeling of weightlessness at the back of his mind, one that had become like a drug. As if he was a junkie waiting for his next fix. He knew what happened when this feeling came along…it meant that he would get to see his beloved Lexie again. Beautiful, smart, perfect.
He smiled, the memory coming to him now, was when she had called him to the carpet about them being in a relationship, and not wanting to keep secrets anymore.
He had been waiting in the on-call room for her. He had been cleared to let Big Sloan get back into action, and since he was taking his friend Callie's advice about letting himself feel and be happy, he wasn't going to let Derek stop him from getting in the way of his happiness. Of what him and Lexie were building together.
She opened the door, and shut it behind herself. He was giddy with anticipation about taking her in his arms and getting back to what they had started before things had gone so wrong.
"I don't want to keep secrets anymore," she said.
Her looked at her puzzled. "Sorry?"
She sighed. "I have been keeping secrets all day. About surgeries, rings, you…and that secret, the you secret…it's giving me high blood pressure," she replied, using her hand to emphasize her point. "I don't want that secret. We're having a relationship, and if we are, if we're in a relationship then I need to be in it in front of my sister and Derek Shepherd." She paused, and he knew based on the look on her face that this last part of what she was going to say was something he wasn't going to like. An ultimatum. He was right. "If we can't do that, then I can't do this."
She had turned and left, without even giving him a chance to reply that he wanted this. He wanted the relationship with her. He didn't want the stolen glances, and quickies in the on-call room—well he still wanted that—he just didn't want to have to hide that he wanted that any longer.
When he had finally gotten the courage to walk up to his best friend and tell him the truth about his relationship with Lexie and that they were happy seeing each other—albeit it…looking back at the wrong time—he never expected out of that painful time in his relationship with Derek—both physically and emotionally—that Lexie had given him one of his favorite insecurity speeches about their relationship.
He was dressed in his clothes, just finishing researching one of the cases that one of the nurses had left for him. He was waiting for her to get done with her shift so she could meet him and they could leave the hospital together.
She walked up to him with a purpose, her hands gripping the strap of her messenger bag that was fasted behind her hip.
She exhaled. "Yes, the odds are against us." He let the paper from the case in his hand drop. "I'm a one-woman wrecking ball. All I do is break your hand, your penis, your relationships, your life. I would say our survival rate is about three percent. And that's…that's…bad, but it's not nothing…" he rubbed his hand against his jaw as she continued to ramble on about the likelihood they were doomed—something he had really no care in the world to want to hear, since he knew she was wrong. He would prove to her that she was wrong. "And I don't think we should give up on this, at least not yet because—" –he stopped her words from continuing by putting his finger to her lips. "Okay," she managed even with his finger against her lips.
He let his finger fall when he was satisfied, he had her attention. "You think you broke me, Little Grey?" she nodded. "You're the one who put me back together," he admitted.
She smiled, and he came from behind the desk, the case long forgotten, as he placed his arm around her shoulder so they could leave together. She had said three percent. And while they faced tough times ahead and even what he felt deep in the back of his mind—something happening now—he knew they would defy those odds.
The visible memory faded from behind his mind. He was still privy to other encounters they had together that had brought him so much joy. Like when Meredith, Derek, Cristina, Owen, and he and Lexie went to the baseball field for the first time to relieve some stress by hitting the ball. He still to this day thought she was the cutest thing ever wearing a helmet while she went up to bat.
The weightless feeling was leaving him, and no matter how hard he was trying to grasp to keep it, the darkness was creeping back into the mind. Blocking out the memories, the warm and safe place that was taking root—disappearing from him.
"Mark, you need to wake up," he heard at the edge of his mind, like a whisper in the breeze.
"I can't," his subconscious rebutted. "I can't leave…not yet."
Saturday – 8:00pm (Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital – 3 days after the crash – 8 hours after being rescued)
Lexie had been the only of the Seattle Grace Six—apparently what they were coined from surviving the crash— that was awake when they had been wheeled into their familiar ER. All of their familiar friends and faces were waiting, Chief Owen Hunt front and center.
Mark was brought in first, Owen immediately dispatching orders to both April and Jackson to help get him up to ICU and settled. He wanted a full report on his vitals and last check, making sure that round the clock care was provided to all of his own doctors.
Owen's hand on her shoulder stopped her from following after April and Jackson as they wheeled him away and out of her view.
"I need—"
"You need to let us do a thorough check on you," Owen said, his tone and expression letting her know this was not a negotiation. "As soon as your cleared, you can see Mark," he said.
"The others are in worse shape then me," she replied. "Derek and Arizona need to see Callie more than I do. I can wait," she said.
"Dr. Grey, your no good to Mark if you let yourself continue without proper care. You need to let us check you out," he responded, and this time she knew there was no arguing.
"Fine," she relented.
"Dr. Karev, see to Dr. Grey here," he ordered, his attention now behind her having seen his wife had been wheeled through the door.
She heard Dr. Bailey and Dr. Webber give him a complete and thorough overview from what had been given by the emergency doctors at Boise and their monitoring of all their doctors on the almost two-hour flight back to Seattle.
"You look like hell," Karev said to her, once he had her seated on one of the emergency gurney's.
"Uh, thanks," she replied almost on autopilot.
"I'm going to send you for a scan for your shoulder. That way once Dr. Torres gets a chance to see Shepherd and Robbins, she has determined if your dislocation might need surgery."
"Okay," she said, staring into open space.
She felt Alex's eyes on her, but she couldn't bother to care what he was thinking about. "Sloan's strong. He's going to make it."
She blinked and looked back at him. "What makes you say that?"
His grunt was a combination of a laugh and a grin. "The guys the cockiest bastard I know. A guy like that just doesn't fade into the wind," he answered.
She stared at him for a minute, before looking down. "Thanks."
"Come on," he said. "Besides the fact that you need sleep, I think the best thing I can prescribe to you is more Sloan."
"Dr. Hunt said—"
"I will handle Dr. Hunt," he interjected, helping her down from the gurney with her good arm.
"Thanks, Alex."
He shrugged. "Yeah, whatever. Don't think because you went and got yourself in a plane crash that it means I am going to be nice or go any easier on you," he reminded.
It was the first thing anyone had said since Mark had told her that he loved her back, that put a smile on her face. "I wouldn't dream of it."
"I'm glad you're ok," Jackson said, coming to stop in front of her, once Alex and brought her into Mark's room. "We were all worried," he added.
"Thank you."
When she looked up into his eyes, she expected to find something there. Hurt, betrayal, an "I told you so" when he had told her that all along there had been something still there between her and Mark. She had seen him looking at her for weeks after they had broken up, the look in his eyes sometimes shifting between longing and trying to study her and figure her out.
He had known even before she was willing to admit it that she was still in love with Mark and not him. That he was ending things because he wasn't interested in being with her when she was in love with someone else.
Lexie walked into the attending locker room. "Hey, you paged? I can't get out of here yet. I have to follow-up with my patient and make sure she's in her right frame of mind." She smiled with a laugh, thinking about the lecture she was going to give Justine when she woke up about her characters in her books. When he refused to look at her, his eyes remaining casted down, her smile dropped. "You, okay?"
He sighed. "Yeah, I missed a surgery today." He shook his head. "That's not true, I avoided a surgery today, one I wanted to do for weeks, because of this thing with you and Mark."
She shook her head. "There's nothing between me and Mark," she said, a baffled look on her face.
"Yeah, I am trying really really hard to believe that…but there is a thing, and it's not going anywhere anytime soon. This new thing with me and plastics, that's not going away either." He shrugged. "Something's gotta budge." Her lips pressed into a hard line. "So, I have to walk away, from you, for me."
"So, your picking Mark?"
"I spent way too much time sabotaging my own career, Lex, yeah, I'm picking Mark," he answered, putting his jacket on, and walking past her to the door. Before he walked out, he turned and asked, "Can you tell me I shouldn't?"
She stood there, her chin to her shoulder and said nothing. She couldn't say anything, but he had already figured out what she had been trying to deny over and over again. He had picked Mark, just like her heart had always picked Mark too.
Lexie couldn't pick Jackson, because she wasn't meant for Jackson. Jackson wasn't her soulmate. Just like Kate would never be able to be with Nathan, because Kate didn't love Nathan.
There was no judgement or sadness in Jackson's eyes when she met them head on. Whatever had transpired between them was gone. They would always care about each other and their time together, but as she glanced at him now, those looks of longing were gone. He seemed happy. He seemed as if he had moved on.
"If you need anything," he said, his voice breaking her from her thoughts, "just let us know."
"Thanks."
"We are so glad your safe," April said, coming to stand next to Jackson.
Jackson looked to April, and there was a smile she noted there. Her brows furrowed together. April and Jackson had always been best of friends, but Lexie could have sworn there was something else there, something that hadn't been there before.
"Thank you," she repeated.
"I'll check on him in a little bit," Jackson assured. "For now, we will give you some privacy."
April and Jackson left the room, and she waited a few minutes before she went over to his hospital bed and slid in next to him. She was exhausted, not having slept a wink on the plane even though she had laid on the couch like seats on the charter plane. Bailey and Webber had begged her to try and close her eyes, that they would wake her if anything at all changed, but she couldn't fully rest until she knew she was back in Seattle and Mark was settled getting the appropriate care he needed.
Her shoulder started to feel better now that Alex was able to put it in a proper sling, as well as give her some muscle relaxers to help with the tightness in her shoulder. Her stitches to the large gash on her head were healing nicely, Alex even commenting that in the worst of circumstances Mark was still a plastics god by how well and flawless his sutures had been to her head. He had to guess she would have a limited scar—if that—and if she kept her bangs, no one would ever know.
Her body moved on autopilot until she reached the side of his bed. It was late, and the hospital would already be on the nightshift which was almost staffed less than half during the day. She knew that they wouldn't be disturbed.
She climbed into his bed, careful to not upset her injured arm any further, and rested her head on his shoulder. Her eyes were starting to open and close more slowly, until she felt the edge of sleepiness upon her.
"We're home now, Mark," she said through her yawn. "I need you to come home now, too," she added, before drifting off to sleep.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed. Looking forward to your thoughts and reviews.