Pairings: Mark/Lexie with appearances by other the rest the Seattle Grace crew
Warning: T for now, may be updated in future chapters.
Summary: Mark regrets not telling Lexie how he feels about her as their plane plummets to the ground. Will they both make it out safe and sound? Will Mark be able to make Lexie his and prove to her he loves her?
Disclaimer: I do now own these characters. All rights go to Shonda Rhimes. Some scenes may be based off scenes that occurred in Grey's Anatomy.
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Rescued
Once the helicopter landed, everything seemed like a blur. There was screaming coming from the doctors, and the medics aboard the aircraft were running around trying to figure out who needed help first. Lexie knew that they were doing their best to triage the situation, to figure out whose injuries were the most severe. The whole scene seemed like a dream, as if she was watching a movie play out in front of her. Unfortunately, she knew that she was actually a part of that movie. And it wasn't a movie. It was real life, and she was seriously injured along with Arizona. A medic came up to Lexie, bending down to look at her. "Hi there, I'm Stan. I'll be taking care of you. Let's get you loaded up onto this gurney backboard, okay?" he stated calmly, searching her eyes for hesitation.
Lexie quickly shook her head, pointing over to Arizona. "She needs to go first," Lexie explained, glancing over to Arizona. She had someone tending to her, but Lexie could see that the blonde was in a severe amount of pain.
"Lexie," Meredith reprimanded, coming over to stand by her sister. "You need help, too. Arizona's leg needs to be looked at, but we don't know what your injuries are."
"Arizona is a mom, Mer. I'm, I'm nothing. She needs to be okay for Sofia and Callie," Lexie responded. Sighing, Meredith looked around for Derek and Mark. They were over speaking loudly to the helicopter pilot. She had no idea what they were talking about, but she knew that she needed to get Mark over here to talk some sense into Lexie.
"Don't say that. I need you to be okay. Mark needs you to be okay," Meredith scolded, eyeing her sister.
"There's another helicopter coming, it will be here in a few minutes. But we need to get you loaded before it can land to help your friend," Stan reported, standing to move the board closer to Lexie.
"Well if there's another one coming right behind this one, then I'll be okay waiting another few minutes," Lexie said quietly but stubbornly. Meredith desperately looked over at Arizona, who looked right back at her. She had heard the conversation between Lexie and Stan. Arizona wanted to get to the hospital and get looked at as she knew that her leg injury was severe. She wanted to be out of pain. But she also knew that Lexie likely had internal injuries that they were unable to see. She knew the younger doctor needed to get to the hospital first.
"Lexie, you go ahead. I'll be right behind you," Arizona spoke up, causing Lexie to turn and look at her. Frowning, she shook her head, insistent that Arizona needed to go first. Arizona and Meredith both turned their attention toward the men, relieved when they saw them walking back toward their small group.
"Mark, please talk to her," Meredith pleaded, her face scrunching up. She was scared for her sister. Mark looked at Meredith quizzically, not understanding the situation at hand.
"Tell her that she needs to take the first helicopter. She wants me to go first," Arizona inserted, letting out a small sigh. Lexie's head snapped toward Arizona, her brows furrowing. Once she heard Mark's voice, she slowly moved her head so she was facing him.
"Lex, we need you to go first, okay? You and Arizona are the first priority right now. We're all going to need scans done, but you're injuries are the most unknown. You were the one that was trapped," Mark stated, sliding forward to take Lexie's hand. "If you won't do it for yourself, do it for Meredith. Or for me," he whispered, his eyes boring into hers. Lexie knew that she wasn't going to win this fight. It was Mark, Derek, Meredith, and Arizona against her. Deep down, Lexie knew that they were all correct; she should be the first one to be checked out. However, the irrational part of her brain wanted her friends to be checked out first.
"Fine," Lexie relented, sending a glare toward Meredith, Mark, and Arizona. "But when your wife gets mad because it took longer for your leg to examined, I hope you remember this moment," she brunette grumbled while the others began to laugh at Lexie's dramatics.
"Don't worry, I know how to deal with Calliope Torres," Arizona smiled widely, watching as Stan picked up Lexie to place her on the gurney backboard.
A loud scream parted from Lexie's lips, which caused Mark's head to snap toward Lexie. "What happened?" he panicked, scrambling over toward Lexie. Blood began to seep down onto the ground under the gurney. Mark's breath hitched in his throat. "What did you do?!" he roared at Stan as he examined Lexie's body to determine where the blood was coming from. He saw a large red spot forming on Lexie's pant leg. "I need a scissors!" Stan quickly grabbed one from the medical bag beside him, handing it to Mark. Mark quickly cut open Lexie's pant leg from the bottom, seeing a large gash on her thigh. Placing his hand over the wound, Mark growled deeply and sent a menacing look toward the medic. "What did you do?" he demanded again.
"Nothing. I just picked her up and placed her on the gurney," Stan defended, grabbing the head of the board. Derek grabbed the other end near her feet, walking her quickly toward the helicopter. Meredith followed closely behind, watching as her sister was loaded onto the helicopter. "We can take one person with us," Stan offered, fearing that the man that was pressing against the wound would want to come. Stan tried to take over for Mark, but Mark elbowed him out of the way. He would not let anyone that was not a Seattle Grace doctor on that helicopter near Lexie after what just happened.
"Meredith, do you want to switch?" Mark called out to her, snapping his head to see her right beside him. Of course Meredith wanted to go with Lexie, but she knew that Mark would have an impossible time leaving her. She also knew that Lexie would prefer that Mark be with her.
"Mark, stay," Lexie pleaded, her left hand coming out to grip Mark's bicep. She was weakening quickly and knew it wouldn't be long before she passed out. Stan quickly went and grabbed some oxygen, placing the mask over Lexie's mouth.
"It's okay, go. Make sure she's alright. We'll be right behind you," Meredith stated, her eyes looking fearful. Once Lexie started bleeding, she knew it was only a matter of time before her sister bled out. "I'll see you soon, Lex," Meredith promised, resting her hands atop Lexie's ankles. Nodding, Mark kneeled down on the ground beside Lexie, not letting his hand off the wound.
The helicopter began to take off, breezing through the sky. Mark let his eyes close for a moment, trying to concentrate on getting Lexie to the hospital. The last time he was in an object in the sky, it crashed which is what landed them in this predicament. Now wasn't the time to panic, though, and he needed to stay strong for Lexie. When he opened his eyes, Mark saw Lexie staring right back at him. "You're going to be okay, we're almost there," Mark promised.
Lexie nodded, letting his eyes slip closed. She tried her hardest to keep them open, but she was really struggling to be able to do that. The darkness just felt so good. Her head began to throb, and she tried to focus on her breathing. In and out, in and out Lexie told herself. Minutes later, she felt the helicopter land and heard commotion around her. She didn't have the strength to open her eyes, though. Her headache was becoming more excruciating by the second. Lexie felt Mark's hand on her thigh being replaced by someone else's. Where is he going? The darkness started to consume her, and she slipped off into an abyss.
As soon as Mark and Lexie landed, Mark was placed on a gurney no matter how much he tried to resist. The medical staff wheeled him into a room and began to examine him. Mark didn't care about what his injuries were. He wanted to see Lexie and know what was going on with her. "How's Dr. Grey?" he asked, after he was hooked up to several machines.
"We can find out," one of the doctor's stated, offering him a small smile.
About an hour later, Mark was told that Lexie was rushed into surgery, though the doctor would not tell him what it was for. Mark tried as best as he could to get the information out of the doctors, but they refused to tell him. He knew that the Meredith, Derek, Cristina, and Arizona had shown up at the hospital and were being examined, as well. Mark wanted to go to Derek to see if he could get the information out of these doctors. He let out a frustrated sigh, resting his head against the pillow.
The doctor's came back in to tell Mark that he had sustained non-life threatening injuries. Apart from a few scrapes on his legs and face, bruising against his chest, and a minor concussion, he escaped from the crash injury free. The doctors informed him that they wanted him to stay connected to the monitors tonight to monitor his vitals, just to be sure that he was stable. Mark was fine with that as long as he was able to be next to Lexie once she got out of surgery. His team of doctors informed him that Seattle Grace doctors were on their way. Mark knew that he would be able to convince whichever doctors showed up that he needed to be next to Lexie once she was out of surgery. He just needed to wait until they showed up.
As soon as the Seattle Grace jet landed, Owen, Jackson, April, Bailey, and Webber were departing from it. Owen was first in line, and the Boise Hospital Chief of Surgery greeted him with a shake of his hand. "Nice to meet you Dr. Hunt," the man smiled, ushering the group into the elevator. "I'm Dr. Vaughn, Chief of Surgery."
"Is everyone okay? Did you get them all here?" Dr. Bailey asked, not being able to stop herself from worrying. As much as she liked to put up a hard exterior, she cared deeply for all of her colleagues. She knew that they all had family waiting for them at home.
"Let's go to a conference room and talk," Dr. Vaughn stated, leading the group out of the elevator. They entered a room with a small, round conference table. Dr. Vaughn took his place with Jackson sitting next to him. Next to Jackson was April, then Dr. Bailey. Webber took his seat between Bailey and Owen, and Owen was next to the Chief. "Now, I understand that these are your doctors, but we've been doing everything that we can to assess them and provide them with the needed medical treatment. A couple of the doctors sustained major medical injuries. The others ranged from non-life threatening injuries to very minor cuts and bruises."
Owen nodded, his head, wanting the Chief to get on with who suffered from what. At this point, it sounded like all his doctors made it out of the woods alive, which he was grateful for. However, this Chief was still being quite vague about who suffered from what.
"Can you go through each doctor's injuries?" Webber asked, noticing that Owen was preoccupied with his thoughts. While Owen was the Chief of Surgery, Dr. Webber had been the chief for years before him and had way more experience. He was always able to keep a level head in stressful situations.
"Yes, sir," Dr. Vaughn nodded. In front of him were a stack of files about each doctor. "Let's start with Dr. Grey," the chief began before April interrupted him.
"Which one?" the red head inquired, resting her arms on the table.
"Dr. Meredith Grey," Dr. Vaughn clarified, opening up his file. "Her injuries were minor," he started, in which Bailey and Webber let out a sigh of relief. "She did have an injury to her leg, which was stitched up. We believe she had a piece of debris lodged in her skin. Since we don't know exactly what it was, we have been giving her antibiotics. There was a gash on the back of her head, but after a CT, it was ruled to be just superficial cut; no internal bleeding," Dr. Vaughn continued, passing the file to Owen to look over. "She had a few cuts on her face, which were stitched up as well. It's fair to assume that all the doctors will suffer from some type of PTSD, but Dr. Grey seems to be doing well."
Owen nodded and passed the file over to Webber, allowing him to look over the information as he saw fit. "Next we have Dr. Shepherd. He has several broken bones in his hand, but is refusing to let us operate. It's not cause for immediate concern, but he does need to get those fixed within the next day or so," Dr. Vaughn reported, passing Owen Derek's file. "We stitched up a couple cuts on his face, as well. He is on light pain medication for his hand, but like I said, is refusing surgery. Something about a Dr. Torres?" he questioned, glancing from one doctor to the other.
"Dr. Torres is our orthopedic doctor. Fantastic surgeon," Dr. Webber explained, glancing over Derek's chart once Owen handed it to him. "She is the wife of Dr. Robbins," he added, setting the file down in front of him.
"Ahh, yes, Dr. Robbins," Dr. Vaughn grimaced, searching for her chart in the files. Once he had it, he opened it up. "She sustained pretty severe injuries. Her left leg is completely shattered. Bones are sticking out everywhere. We did a surgery to put the bones back in place as best as we could, though our recommendation was amputation. She flat out refused that, though," he reported, passing Arizona's file over to the other chief. "She is eager to get back to Seattle. She had internal bleeding, but that was quickly controlled. A few minor lacerations were repaired, as well," he finished. Bailed nodded her head sadly, glancing over Webber's arm to scan Arizona's file.
"Dr. Yang is next," Dr. Vaugh stated, and Owen's breath hitched. Dr. Vaughn scanned his eyes over to Owen, arching his eyebrows. "Seems a bit more person," he mused, opening up Cristina's file.
"She's my wife," Owen reported, his eyes starting at the back of the file Dr. Vaughn had in his hands.
Nodding, Dr. Vaugh continued, "Relatively speaking, she had minor injuries. Her arm was dislocated, but one of the doctors popped it back into place. The scans showed that no further course of treatment needs to be completed for her arm. Stitches were applied to her cuts. However," Dr. Vaughn paused, letting out a sigh. "She is having a tough time mentally. She seems to be in shock. Dr. Yang is not responsive to others speaking to her and has been violent with our staff when they try to examine her. Medically, she's okay and we have no indications that there is anything internally wrong with her. She's just lying on the bed and doesn't seem to want anyone near her."
Owen licked his lips as he was passed Cristina's file, paying close attention to all the details. He knew he had to keep his emotions at bay, but was finding it difficult to do.
"Dr. Sloan is next," Dr. Vaughn started. Jackson looked at April, knowing that one of them were about to get terrible news. It was Mark or Lexie that was the other critically injured doctor. Mark was Jackson's mentor, and he looked up to him like a father figure. Lexie was April's best friend, but also Jackson's ex. Whatever the outcome was, one of the people that Jackson cared about was seriously hurt. "He's doing well. He had a few cuts that he insisted on stitching himself, much to our dismay. He also has a mild concussion and several bruises on his chest. There are no internal injuries that we found."
April felt tears prick her eyes, a few falling down her cheeks. "It's Lexie," she whispered, wiping away her tears quickly. Dr. Bailey rested her hand against April's shoulder, and Jackson placed his hand over her knee. Passing on Mark's file to Owen, Dr. Vaughn picked up Lexie's.
"Dr. Lexie Grey and Dr. Robbins were the ones most injured, though it's fair to say, Dr. Grey suffered the worst injuries," Dr. Vaugh began, glancing at April. Jackson let go of April's knee, instead taking her hand in his. "From what the others reported, Dr. Grey had part of the plane on her from her pelvis down. She was able to move her legs, which is a great sign. We put rods in her legs in order to stabilize them as we are not sure how long she was under the plane. Doctors operated on her legs to clear out an infection," he explained, looking over at Owen. "She had quite severe internal bleeding. Some debris must have gotten into her system because she was septic upon arrival," Dr. Vaughn continued, clearing his throat. "Dr. Grey also had a brain aneurysm, which our neurosurgeon was able to remove. However, the aneurysm did rupture prior to surgery causing Hydrocephalus," he revealed, looking up at the doctors. He knew this news was not going to be taken well. "Our doctors are still operating on her, but we won't know the results of this damage until she wakes up."
April rested her forehead against Jackson's arm, letting her tears flow freely. Owen took Lexie's file, shaking his head sadly as he read over the notes. He went ahead and passed the file to Webber. Jackson reached his hand out for it once Webber finished, setting it down in front of him. "Can we go see the others?" he asked, sitting up a bit straighter once April removed her head from him. Dr. Vaughn nodded, standing up. He took the files in front of Owen, and tried to take Lexie's in front of Jackson, but Jackson held onto it.
"I would like to study this a little more if that's okay," Jackson said. The others looked at him curiously, but didn't say anything.
"Sure. Let's go get you reunited with your doctors," Dr. Vaughn stated, leading the way toward the rooms where the Seattle Grace doctors were. Jackson went directly to Mark's room with April following close behind him.
"Avery," Mark stated, looking behind him to see April, as well. "What're you two doing here?" he asked, lifting the head of the bed up so that he was in a sitting position.
"Uh, Hunt paged us last night and we've been with him since…" Jackson started, making his way over to the chair near Mark's bed. The older surgeon nodded. He was glad to see his protégé, but his mind couldn't stop thinking about Lexie.
"Have you heard anything about her?" Mark asked, knowing that he didn't need to say her name. Jackson sighed, glancing over at April.
"Dr. Sloan, s-she's, s-she's in bad shape," April whispered, moving to stand at the end of the bed. She gripped the bars on the bed, tears leaking out of her eyes.
"What?" Mark questioned, staring at the girl in front of him. "Avery?" he demanded, panic coursing through his body. "Is she…?" he started but couldn't finish his sentence. Mark couldn't picture a world without Lexie Grey in it.
"No, but she's in surgery and is in bad shape," Jackson clarified, handing Mark the chart. "I figured you'd want to look at it for yourself," he explained, sitting down in the chair once Mark had the chart. Mark studied every word on the page, his eyes glossing over. He had tried so hard in the woods, they all had, to make sure that Lexie and Arizona were taken care of. Learning that he very well may lose the love of his life shattered Mark into a million pieces.
"I want to see her," Mark demanded, setting the chart on his lap.
"She's still in surgery," April reiterated quietly, shuffling over toward Jackson. She took a seat on the edge of Mark's bed, letting her head hang low. April knew wasn't the time to ask, but she had to know. She had to know if Lexie got her answer from Mark. Over drinks at Joe's the night before they left, Lexie informed April she confessed her love to Mark mere hours earlier.
"I'm such an idiot April," Lexie whined, taking another shot of tequila. April shook her head, taking a sip of her cocktail. "I went into this huge rant about how I can't sleep or eat or breathe without him, and what does he say? What does he say?!" Lexie fumed, her voice increasing with every word. She raised another shot glass filled with tequila in the air, clinking it with April's before taking it quickly. "Thank you for your candor!" Lexie fumed, setting the shot glass down on the table.
April listened to her friend pour her heart out, taking a few sips of her drink. She could never understand what Lexie and Mark had gone through in their relationship, but she did understand how it was to not know if the person you loved loved you back. "I'm so sorry, Lexie. I'm sorry he didn't say anything back to you, but I know that he loves you," she commented quietly, rubbing her hand gently across Lexie's back.
Lexie sighed deeply, placing her elbows on the table. Head in hands, Lexie glanced at April and shook her head. "I don't know, April. He left with Julia and said that god forsaken phrase!" she laughed humorlessly, finishing her drink.
"Well, boys are stupid," April stated lamely, not know what else to day. It didn't help that she and Lexie were on their third drink and had done who knows how many shots.
"Cheers to that," Lexie agreed, throwing back another shot.
"Dr. Sloan… I know it's none of my business, but did you," April started, pausing for a few moments. "Did you tell her how you felt?" she asked softly, peering over at Mark.
Licking across his lips, Mark nodded. He wasn't surprised that April knew about the situation that had occurred. Lexie told April everything. "I did, yeah. She was going to move back in," he started, rubbing his eyes. There was shuffling outside his room. When he looked up, Meredith, Derek, Richard, and Bailey entered quietly. Meredith's eyes were red and her cheeks were blotchy. She made her way over to Mark's other side, pushing a chair up to his bed to sit down. He furrowed his brows, confused as to why everyone just came into his room. Understanding Mark's confusion, Meredith decided that she should explain.
"Lexie's out of surgery. The doctors are coming to update us."