"Oh my god," Meredith groans, opening her door to step outside. Her head is spinning from being thrashed, but in a few moments, it clears. The other doors of her car open, Derek, Olivia, and Cristina all getting out, disoriented for a minute, then stopping to take in the damage.
All three FBI vans are unscathed, they slammed to a stop just in time. Alex and the rest of the FBI team gather around Derek in the center of the road. Behind them, traffic stops; people yelling and honking, but it's nowhere near as bad as the sight in front of them.
Olivia is on her phone in an instant, calling 911 to get multiple ambulances and cops to the scene. Four or five cars litter the road in front of them, not that you can even tell these vehicles were cars. Most of them are flipped, each destroyed in some way, piling on top of each other. There's a small fire smoking from somewhere near them. The street is covered in track marks and metal, parts of the cars that have flown off.
"Everyone okay?" Derek calls, looking to eight people surrounding him.
"Yes sir," Maggie, Ryan, Vanessa, and Olivia say at varying times, and the three surgeons nod at him.
"Okay, Howard and Webbs you're on crowd control, no one comes near here unless it's the cops or emergency staff. Lohan, see if you can track help, get them here as fast as possible. Prenton, you're with me and these guys," Derek fires off orders and gestures towards the surgeons. "Let's get people out of their cars and help them however we can. Move fast!"
The agents split up to obey. Meredith's gaze is drawn to the closest car to her, flipped on its side. She can hear faint shouting from inside and without thinking she runs across the road to the vehicle. The pounding of feet behind her tells the blonde that Derek is right behind her for help. Cristina and Alex veer off to different cars, Olivia going with them.
Derek and Olivia do a lot of the heavy work, having trained day in and day out for the amount of physical labor this requires, while the three surgeons go into triage mode. Time flies, Derek pulls out two people from his car, and at the moment, Meredith forgets everything that's happened in the past few weeks as her medical knowledge comes flooding back to her.
She fires off orders at Derek, using whatever she can find to treat the man and woman, both unconscious on the ground in front of her. This. This is what she loves. Practicing medicine, saving lives. Meredith seems to have forgotten just how enthralling it is to do this in her time off, but it doesn't affect her now. Right now, she's a surgeon, just a surgeon doing what she does best. Save lives.
After what seems like hours, they can hear sirens. The group has pulled out five people from different cars and already has one casualty. Ambulances pull up and multiple paramedics Meredith recognize hop out. In a blur, patients are being loaded into the backs of the vehicles, cops have arrived to help direct traffic and firefighters are beginning to pull more victims from their cars and clear the road.
Without hesitation, Alex hops into the back of an ambulance with a little boy he's treating, shouting at the paramedics to get to Grey-Sloan. Cristina's patient is being loaded up, but she hesitates before getting into the back, glancing at Meredith, who has since moved off to the side. Her clothes are covered in blood and dirt, matching Cristina's. As the cardio surgeon approaches, Meredith jumps but relaxes slightly when she recognizes Cristina.
"Alex is in an ambulance, he's going to the hospital," Cristina announces.
"You should go too, that guy you were working on didn't look good," Meredith replies, not meeting her gaze.
"Are you sure? You're going to be okay? I don't know when I'll get back home."
"Cristina, I literally have bodyguards. I'm probably just gonna shower and try to sleep."
Cristina lingers a bit longer, not wanting to leave Meredith but also needed to get to the hospital. "Fine. I'll have my phone on me," she says, then runs off to the ambulance with her patient in it, hopping in the back, and snapping back into doctor mode.
Meredith stands, watching longingly. She's more than sure she wouldn't be able to handle being in a hospital right now, and she wouldn't be able to even talk to patients, but she misses it. She misses being the damn good surgeon that she is, and she misses operating.
Somehow, Olivia appears at her side, phone pressed to her ear. "Meredith! What are you doing over here? You're not supposed to leave us, especially out here," she says, scolding the blonde like a child.
"I'm fine."
Olivia studies the surgeon as she finished up her conversation with whoever's on the phone. When she's done, she slips it back into her pocket. "That was Jake. He and Quinn took a different route back to the house and freaked when we weren't there. We need to go, I think the first responders have got it from here."
Meredith nods, walking with Olivia back to one of the SUVs, where Ryan is waiting. Derek, Maggie, and Vanessa's shift had ended, so they're taking the other two cars to get some sleep. With some negotiating, Olivia manages to get the car through the crash site and back on the road. Since there's a backup behind them, the roads are almost empty, making the drive home quick.
It's dark outside by the time they pull up to Meredith's house. Jake is waiting for them by the door, and Ryan heads down into the undercover van. Olivia helps Meredith inside but lets her go upstairs to shower.
"Chinese?" Jake suggests.
"I'm starving," Olivia nods, moving through the house to do a perimeter. When it's clear, she relaxes slightly, but never fully lets her guard down. Eventually, the food comes and they begin to eat. Meredith joins them, actually hungry for once. It doesn't take long though for the blonde to go back upstairs and climb into bed, it had been a long, long day.
Even later that night, Ryan leans back in his chair, full of the Chinese take-out he just ate. He studies the camera views, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. That is, until the back door to the van opens. He looks up, expecting it to be one of his team members, but it's not. It's a tall man in all black.
Instantly, Ryan is out of his seat and drawing his Walther. Before he can take aim, the larger man has a huge hand wrapped around Ryan's arms. The gun is knocked from his grip, and he's slammed against the side of the van.
Knowing the man attacking him is larger and more powerful, he speaks into the mic connecting him to the other agents. "Prenton, Desmond, come in- Howard under attack, need-" He's cut off as the man pulls back and delivers a solid punch to Ryan's jaw. He instantly tastes blood and darkness begins to creep into his vision. He struggles, throwing punches to his attacker's stomach, but it's no use. With one more blow, the invading man knocks the agent out clean.
As soon as they hear Ryan's message cut off, Jake and Olivia are up and on alert. They draw their weapons, Olivia nodding at Jake to take the door as she moves upstairs to hide Meredith. Jake creeps around the wall, pressing his back flat against the small space next to the door, finger on the trigger of his Glock.
Olivia pulls out her phone on her way upstairs, Dialing Derek's number and him picking up on the first ring. "Shep, we're under attack, get your ass over here with Webbs. Howard status unknown, no eyes on the cams. Unknown number of hostiles," she whispers urgently.
There's rustling on the other side of the line, then Derek's gruff voice responds. "Got it, we're coming. Hold them off."
"Yes sir," she replies, then hangs up. She opens Meredith's door and moves to her bed and is quickly greeted by worried green eyes. Meredith had a nightmare not long ago and hadn't been able to fall back asleep. Upon seeing the look on Olivia's face, Meredith sits up. "They're here. We don't know how many, but they're no doubt here for you. Get in the bathroom." Olivia orders, helping her out of bed.
"Oh god," Meredith mumbles, moving slowly as a flashback threatens to take over. Olivia notices instantly.
"Fight it, Meredith. Come on, you're right here with me. Fight it, you need to be on alert right now. Come on," she whispers strongly, still guiding her towards the bathroom. Once they're in, Olivia glances around. "Get in the shower."
"W-what?"
"Meredith we don't have much time, get in the damn shower," she orders and Meredith obeys, now shaking. "Okay, I'm going to lock the door and leave you in here. Don't come out under any circumstances. Understood?"
"Y-yes," She whispers.
"Good. We're going to protect you with our lives, okay? I promise," the agent says, then pulls the shower curtain closed, locks, and leaves the bathroom. As soon as she's out, her gun is in her hands. Exiting the master bedroom, she can hear grunts and voices in the foyer. She takes a knee at the top of the stairs, squinting to make out what's happening downstairs without being seen.
Three men are down there, obviously fighting. There's a flash of blonde hair and she recognizes Jake. The other two men have him against the wall, all three panting and someone's blood splattered on the ground.
Olivia is sniper trained, an ace marksman. Though she doesn't have a Barrett M84 in her hands, she takes a deep breath, aims, and fires off two rounds. There's a groan, and one of the unknown men falls to the ground. In the moonlight, you can see the crimson liquid pool around him. She hadn't gone for the kill shot. Two bullets to the abdomen did just as good, and if he doesn't get help in time his death will be a lot slower and more painful.
The second attacker turns to look at his partner, and Jake takes his moment of distraction to escape from his grip. The two are going hand to hand now, and there's too much movement for Olivia to get another shot. If she fires, she risks hitting Jake. So, she waits. She knows that her teammate knows she's there. He's not surprised that someone is bleeding out on the floor next to him. This is what they've trained for.
Her adrenaline is pumping, her heart pounding. Olivia doesn't move from her spot, her gun trained on the men. Then, another person appears in the already open doorway. The first thing Olivia notices is the gun in his hand. She switches her aim from the fighting men to the new one, but before she can shoot he moves, helping out his buddy to take down Jake.
The blonde FBI agent slumps to the ground after his head hits the wall with a sickening thump. Every logical part of her brain is telling her to go help Jake, but it's her job to stay and protect Meredith, so she can't.
Backup is on the way. Backup is on the way. Just hold them off until backup gets here.
A flashback starts to creep in the sides of her vision, putting her right back to the academy all those years ago. She shakes her head to clear it, fighting to stay in the moment. She needs to focus. The two men exchange a quick word and look around the main floor. Olivia frowns as she watches, their third man that she had shot lay on the ground groaning in pain, and they just ignored him.
Sick bastards, like William Dunn.
She changes positions, now standing out of their sight, on the defensive. Her primary Glock is tightly gripped in one hand as she uses the other hand to check her secondary- just in case. The men clear the first floor and approach the bottom of the steps. Olivia listens, knowing that the one with the gun is in the front. If she can hit his arm, it'll knock the weapon from his hand and render him defenseless.
She takes a deep breath and peeks around the corner. Pointing the barrel right under her line of sight as the men start up the stairs, she takes aim, and fires.