Author's Note- Here is Chapter 3, everyone! Thank you so much for all of the continued amazing reviews. They keep me so motivated to continue writing. Also, I am really doing my best to make this a believable story. I know a lot of the stuff that happens in Grey's Anatomy is crazy and unlikely (which is fine lol) but just know I am doing my best to make all the injuries both believable for a plane crash and survivable. If you have any advice though, feel free to let me know! All I ask is that you please be kind because I am doing my best. Thank you again for everything… ENJOY!
"You did it, Mer," Cristina said as Lexie began breathing easier.
"A-Are you sure?" Meredith asked weakly; now that the hard part was over, reality kicked in. Her hands were shaking; her entire body was shaking at what she had just done.
"Yeah, we just need to bandage her up now," Cristina said. "I have some duct tape."
Meredith reached into the pile of supplies and found the gauze to which Cristina had previously referred. "Okay, I've got the… the bandages… Mark, can you help… p-please?"
Mark had stopped speaking but he was able to do as Meredith told. He spread the small amount of gauze they had over Lexie's chest and then used the duct tape to secure it. Cristina lent Lexie a Stanford hoodie to keep her warm, for the time being.
Slowly but surely, with the help of her oxygen, Lexie's breathing evened out. To say that she was stable was stretching things a mile but she was not in immediate danger. Meredith dropped all the utensils she had been holding. "Oh, God… oh… Oh, God…"
"It's… it's okay. You saved her, Meredith. She's… she's gonna be okay now," Cristina said. Her statement would have been more believable if her voice was not coming out in an unnaturally high, wavering pitch.
Meredith shook her head. "We… we don't know that. We fixed… a… a small part of her… b-bleeding. She could be bleeding a lot more and… and…"
"Well, she's okay for right now," Mark finally said in a careful tone and Meredith realized that Lexie was awake, her eyes open and afraid.
"Right, um… and… and we have water," Meredith said. "Lexie, d-do you feel like… like you could… drink?"
Lexie nodded shortly so Meredith helped her lean forward while Mark fed her the water like a baby. It worked; Lexie quickly sucked down the entire bottle and then Mark replaced her oxygen mask.
"While we're at it, do you wanna put some water on your burn?" Cristina asked and it took Meredith a moment to realize that she was talking to Mark.
"Nah. It's really not too bad right now. We'll reassess in a little while," Mark said.
Meredith blinked a few times and focused her blurry vision on the plastic surgeon. "W-What happened… did you um… you g-got burned?"
"Well, I got knocked out when we crashed, just like everyone did, I think," Mark explained. "When I woke-up, I was… on fire. There were a bunch of small fires at first from the explosion. Yang helped me put it out. It really doesn't hurt so far but… I mean…"
Mark trailed off; he clearly did not need to say anymore and Meredith closed her eyes again.
"It's kind of funny, though, isn't it?" Mark continued with an amused smile on his face. "I mean, I'm the plastic surgeon and I got burned. I might need skin grafts. Do you think they'd let me operate on myself?"
Lexie giggled, softly. At the very least, Mark was keeping her in relatively good spirits. Meredith chimed in, too: "D-Do you remember… the first time I met you? You… you didn't know who I was and… and you were flirting and… and Derek… knocked you h-halfway… across the lobby. You w-wouldn't… let me do… your… stitches. I… held the mirror and… and you stitched… yourself."
"Of course I did. I wasn't going to let a first-year intern put her hands on this face, was I?" Mark said and Lexie grunted, like she was trying to laugh.
"I mean, they'll find us… soon, r-right?" Meredith said, moments later. "They'll know we're… g-gone."
"Yeah, Arizona talked with the pilot. He said that cause of the transmission box or something, the airlines will notice we're missing right away. They can map our location and should find us in no more than four hours," Cristina said.
Four hours… that was good. That was doable. If the surgeons were rescued four hours from when the plane went down, there was a decent shot that they could be rushed into surgery before their internal organs failed.
"Okay, that's easy," Mark said and he grinned. "You can hang on like, two more hours, can't you, Lex?"
"Y-Yeah… yeah, totally," Lexie agreed but she was hyperventilating again and her eyes were huge. If she was still bleeding internally, then the faster her pulse raced, the more blood she was going to lose.
Meredith crawled forward. "Lexie… I know it's scary. But you need to… to try and calm down. We're all right here with… you and we're g-going… we're going to… d-do everything we can… for you."
It was a cliche statement, the same statement that all surgeons gave their patients before a big procedure and Lexie knew that. But all the same, her overall frantic demeanor toned down. She took some deep breaths and pushed her bangs out of her face. "Is everyone else… okay?"
"We're all fine," Mark promised. "I got a few burns but that's no big deal. Cristina has a broken collarbone and a dislocated shoulder; that'll heal. Big Grey, you doing okay over there?"
Meredith nodded weakly, pushing her own probable internal bleeding out of her mind. "Y-Yeah… I'm… I'm fine, Lexie. Just um… just a few b-bumps and… bruises. Nothing some m-morphine won't… be able to fix."
There was the issue of Derek, who was still out in the forest somewhere, dead or alive. Now that Lexie was accounted for, all Meredith wanted to do was jump up and search for him but she knew better than to think she could walk ten steps without passing out right now. In the meantime, she tried to focus her mind on something else and it fell on Arizona.
"W-What about… Arizona; is she okay? Does… everyone… anyone… know?"
"Her femur is sticking out of her leg but… I guess she's okay. She's alive," Mark said. And then he started whispering with Lexie some more, gently stroking her hair and calming her respirations.
Cristina scooted over on the ground, closer to Meredith. "How's the head?"
"It's… okay. I'm okay," Meredith said.
"Please… you got knocked out. We all did. We probably all have brain bleeds; I'm so dizzy from running back to the plane, I… I think I'm gonna throw-up," Cristina admitted.
That would not be good because any loss of body fluids, at this point, could be fatal. But Meredith was feeling nauseous, too. "We gotta… t-try to keep it down."
Cristina nodded and closed her eyes. "God, we've gotta get out of here."
"We've got to… to find D-Derek," Meredith said. "I need to… go look for him. Maybe… m-maybe if we go together, we could… I don't know, go faster."
"You can't get up right now, Mer. Trust me, I can tell you're about to pass-out; your face is pale white. All we need is for you to get lost out in the woods and eaten by a bear," Cristina said.
There were probably any number of wild animals out here but Meredith tried not to think about that either. "B-But… what if… we can't let… D-Derek get… get eaten by a… bear either!"
At this outrageous statement, Mark glanced up from his conversation with Lexie. "Yeah, how is Derek, Mer? Is he stable?"
"I… I don't know. We stopped with… with Lexie and… no one can… can find him," Meredith whispered.
Mark's face went pale, too. "You mean no one's seen him at all since the plane went down?"
"I… saw him. I saw him get sucked out the side of the plane when we hit the trees but… but that's all I know," Cristina said.
It was this image of Derek flying through the trees, injured and alone, that forced Meredith to her feet. "I gotta look. I gotta keep… keep going. I won't go too far. Just… just… if a chopper comes, tell them… tell them I'm alive so they can pick me up… and then look… for D-Derek."
Cristina looked like she was going to argue but Meredith did not care. She grabbed a small, nearby tree branch that had fallen to the earth and used it as a makeshift hiking stick. Meredith was a few steps into the woods, gasping and panting for air, when Mark jogged up next to her.
"I'm coming with you. Cristina is staying with Lexie, for now. She said she'll be able to scream loud if anything happens. You holding up okay?"
Meredith's pain was getting worse; it was entirely consuming her from her head to her abdomen to her ankles but she nodded. "I'm… I'm okay. We've gotta… find Derek."
"Yeah, we do," Mark agreed and then took a deep breath and yelled loudly, "DEREK!"
They walked and walked for what felt like forever, or maybe it was just Meredith's intense pain that was making everything seem like an eternity. Every few steps, she had to pause and catch her breath… fight the nausea… remind herself that Derek was waiting for her… she could not give up now… it did not matter that her abdomen was making it hard to breathe or that Meredith was still bleeding profusely… she could die once she found Derek and got him back to the crash site…
Eventually, Meredith could take it no longer. Her mind was still reeling from the fact that she was in a plane crash at all and seeing her little sister in the state that she had did not help. Meredith was dizzy, confused, anxious and terrified. She grasped onto a tree, hunched over, and then retched and vomited onto the ground.
Mark rushed over, held back Meredith's hair, and rubbed her on the back, gently. "Hey… you're okay, you're okay. Let's stop for a second; you need to breathe."
As much as Meredith wanted to fight, again, she had no room to argue. Narrowly missing the pool of her own vomit, Meredith collapsed and moaned out loud before she could help it. Throwing-up had been the most torturous activity yet; it had sent shockwaves of pain through her torso.
Carefully, Mark sat down next to Meredith and helped her lean her head onto his shoulder. "There you go… you're pushing yourself too hard, Grey. You won't be doing Derek any favors if you die trying to find him."
"I… I know," Meredith said; she coughed again and clutched onto her stomach. This time, she instinctively raised her hand to her mouth and caught what appeared to be diluted blood coming up. Yes, Meredith was almost certainly hemorrhaging internally.
"Damn," Mark said; he had seen the blood as well. He stroked Meredith's hair, gently. "We need to go back to camp. You need to drink some water and then we can go back out and look some more later."
Meredith shook her head. "N-No… I can't… I can't… leave him."
"You're not leaving him. In fact, you better not tell him about this or else he'll probably beat the shit out of me," Mark said and it took Meredith a second to realize that he was referring to the way that he was holding her.
She smiled, weakly, a bit late. "I… I wanna keep looking… it just… it hurts… so bad…"
"I know. I know it does," Mark said. "Now, hold on tight."
In one quick movement, Mark swept Meredith up into his arms. It would be a strange scene for Derek to come across but absolutely nothing romantic or sexual was near Meredith's mind. In fact, she could barely think of anything at all as Mark carried her through the forest, her head resting on his shoulder.
"I need you to stay with me, Grey, okay?"
Mark's voice was fading away and Meredith closed her eyes. "Keep talking to me…"
"Oh my God. Oh my God; what happened?!"
"She started throwing-up about twenty minutes ago. It was bad; there was blood coming out. She wanted to keep looking but she was in too much pain; she couldn't stand up so… so yeah, I took over."
"Oh, God," Cristina's voice repeated. "Is she conscious?"
"No, she lost consciousness a couple minutes after I picked her up. I've been trying to get her to talk but… but she's out," Mark said. "Pulse is sky-high."
Part of Meredith felt herself being lowered onto the grass and then frantic hands were lifting up her scrub top and examining her abdomen. "S-Stop, Mark… D-Derek will… be mad if… you do that."
"It's not Mark, it's Cristina and three of your ribs have full breaks; they're sticking out," a female voice said but then she snorted at Meredith's remark. "Can you hear me, Mer? Do you know where you are?"
"I'm in… a p-plane crash," Meredith whispered. "We can't… find him… D-Derek. We looked… everywhere."
There was a pause and Meredith was not brave enough to open her eyes and see Cristina's actual expression but she sighed. "Maybe… he's fine. Maybe he went for help."
"Maybe… but I gotta… keep looking," Meredith said and she tried to lean forward and get up.
"No, no, no. You need to stop. You're really, really hurt, Meredith and Derek would not want you to kill yourself for him," Cristina said.
Finally, Meredith eased her eyes open and found herself surrounded by doctors; Cristina and Mark were sitting-up, on either side of her and Lexie was lying nearby.
"You need to try and drink some water, Meredith," Cristina said and she held out another one of the bottles she had brought from the primary crash site.
For a split second, Meredith wondered if she should drink the water. She might be dying anyway and if she was, all she would be doing is taking away fluids from someone else. But then she remembered the transmitter and how the rescue team would be here soon and she drained the entire bottle in seconds.
"There you go… you're gonna be okay," Mark said. "And Lexie, you're gonna be fine, too. I promise, I won't let anything happen to my Grey girls."
Lexie grinned through her pain. And Meredith tried to, but she could not be relieved yet. There was still a good shot that her internal organs were spewing blood. If that was the case, she might not make it to a hospital before bleeding out. But still, Meredith would take that deal if it meant that Derek could live and go home to Zola.
Derek was out there, somewhere… dead or alive… Derek Shepherd had to exist…
When Meredith woke-up several hours later, she was initially surprised. She had not expected to wake-up; she had anticipated death in her sleep as a result of internal bleeding. But here she was, opening her eyes on the forest floor, the sky turning a light shade of pink. There was a clear, oxygen mask covering Meredith's mouth and nose, as well. Maybe her internal hemorrhage, wherever it was, was a slow bleed.
Her body still throbbing with pain beyond measure, Meredith looked around. Cristina was sitting next to her, and it appeared that Mark, Lexie, and Arizona were all resting nearby. Someone, probably Mark, had carried her back to the primary campsite by the front of the plane. Meredith got the others' attention by moaning softly.
"Meredith?" Cristina's voice called instantly. "Mer, can you hear me?"
"Yeah, I'm… I'm alive," Meredith confirmed; her tone sounded surprised, too.
"Yeah, it looks like it," Cristina said and sighed heavily. "I really hope that means you're not bleeding because Jerry thinks that the transmitter got damaged in the crash. It's been more than four hours and no one's been out here to find us."
It had not sunk in yet for Meredith but she suddenly realized that of course, that was the case. The sky was turning pink; it was dusk and the plane had crashed at approximately 8:00 in the morning. If the transmitter had been damaged, then the surgeons could be out in the woods for days before anyone found them.
Just as Meredith was about to bubble over with panic, though, Cristina took a steadying breath and held her shoulder. "It's okay. We were supposed to land in Boise a long time ago. Owen will figure out that we're missing soon and he'll send a rescue team out."
That was true as well; unless a dozen traumas were currently being rolled into the Seattle Grace ER, Owen had to realize that something was wrong. Still, there was no way of knowing if the rescuers would find the surgeons in time because despite Cristina's words, Meredith was sure that she was bleeding internally in some way or another. She had vomited blood, after all.
"Help me… help me sit up," Meredith requested and Cristina offered her good arm. With one quick tug, Meredith was in a sitting position and she gazed around at the other doctors.
Lexie appeared a bit better than she did earlier; Mark had probably carried her over to the campsite as well. Her legs were propped up in the air, one of the surgeons' suitcase keeping them elevated. Meredith realized for the first time that her nose was also broken in addition to her arm and legs.
Half of Arizona's face was covered in cuts but she was sitting up and sipping on a bottle of water. She had a Seattle Grace jacket over her leg which was apparently open and exposed to the bone. At the very least, she was not screaming anymore so that was good.
Cristina did not have any life-threatening injuries so she was looking about the same as she did before Meredith had passed out, and it was only Mark that honestly appeared worse for wear. He had obtained a new t-shirt, a simple black one from his luggage, but he was leaned up against the plane wreckage, doubtlessly in pain.
"W-What happened, Mark? Burns… start hurting?" Meredith guessed.
"They don't feel great," Mark admitted. "But I've had worse."
Meredith was not sure if that was true; she could not remember Mark ever getting hurt in the past but he was probably trying to keep Lexie from worrying. Either way, thus far, it seemed that everyone except for Derek was accounted for… and everyone except for Meredith and Lexie had at least a decent shot of surviving this nightmare.
"I… I want to go now… go look for Derek some more," Meredith told Cristina. "Trust me, I'm… b-better."
Cristina's expression was filled with doubt. "No, I want to wait until we know you're not bleeding, Mer. You've already lost a ton of blood and… and I'm naming myself your temporary doctor."
"And… and what are we gonna do… if I am bleeding?" Meredith asked. "Open me up?"
"I don't know but we can at least keep you from doing more damage. Owen will be here soon, Mer, and when he is, then we can look for Derek a lot faster from the helicopter," Cristina said.
There was nothing Meredith could say to that, especially considering the fact that she was barely managing to remain conscious as it was… she leaned back against the plane wreckage with everyone else and tried not to think about how cold the air was becoming. It was April but the temperature still dropped a lot in the Pacific Northwest, particularly at night.
Hopefully, Owen and his helicopter would make an appearance sooner rather than later because there were no blankets or heaters on the plane. All the surgeons had to keep warm were their travel coats from Seattle Grace and any clothes that they had packed in their suitcases, which was not much considering the short amount of time they were supposed to be in Boise.
Hours ticked by, far too slowly but at the same time, far too quickly. By 8:00, according to her watch, Meredith was shivering from the cold and the constant movement made her injuries ache worse. There were still no signs of civilization.
Derek had not gone for help. Meredith knew that in her heart. Cristina kept suggesting the idea, mostly to keep Meredith calm, but the latter knew that if Derek had gone for help, he would have come to find the other doctors first. He would have made sure that Meredith, at least, was alive.
"I don't think Derek went for help," Meredith said at one point when she thought that Cristina seemed more realistic but the cardiac surgeon just shook her head.
"I don't understand how this keeps happening. We keep dying. We're in a plane crash, Mer, like right now."
Meredith ignored her. "If he went for help… if Derek had gone for help… he would have… sent a message or something. I mean… we have to find him."
"I can tell you one thing. When we get out of here, I am getting the hell away from Seattle Grace Mercy Death and I'm never looking back!" Cristina's voice was raising to a shout.
There was no energy left in Meredith's system to yell so she did not answer but then a few minutes later, the worry consumed her completely. For the first time, she began crying. "I… I think Derek is… is dead. He w-would've come for… us… by now. He d-definitely… would have come for us by now. I think… he's dead and… I think Lexie's gonna… d-die and… I think we're b-b-bleeding… internally and… we're all… going to die out here, too. We are gonna… die out here!"
"Keep it together!" Cristina snapped, interrupting Meredith's panic attack.
"N-No, you keep it… together! I'm… I'm trying here but my… husband is dead and… and my sister is gonna die… we all m-might die… there's no way we can… stop something… something like a b-brain bleed… out here!"
"Keep it together anyway… keep it together anyway," Cristina repeated.
Meredith bit her lip and attempted to do as she was told. "Do you… think… D-Derek is dead?"
"I don't know… maybe," Cristina confessed and then shook her head again. "But I've got PTSD so you know I'm not reliable!"
"You're still my person, Cristina… even if… I'm not yours!" Meredith said and then she started sobbing all over again.
A gentle hand touched her face. "Meredith… Mer, I know. I just can't think that way right now. You know, if there's one thing I've learned from all the bombs and the guns to my head and the busses running down my friends is that I'm not interested in dying. I want to get out of here and I want to go home. And I don't want you to die."
"I'm… I'm not saying I… I wanna die, Cristina. I'm not… suicidal like I was before. B-But my husband is out there… somewhere… d-dead or alive. And I… I have to find him. Think if… if it was Owen," Meredith insisted.
There was a pause. Meredith glared at her friend and Cristina stared back. "I don't know, Mer. Even if you find Derek, I don't think there's anything you could do for him right now. You can't carry him; you can barely carry yourself and we have no idea if there's wild animals out here or anything."
They were in the middle of the woods, either in eastern Washington or western Idaho so the possibility of there being wild animals was strong. But Meredith and the others were surgeons, healers. They could not just leave Derek out there to fend for himself.
Meredith looked towards Mark. "Then we'll go... together… like… like before. Come on, Mark. He's… your best friend; don't you… w-want to find him?"
"Of course I do, Mer, but… but I don't think we should go now," Mark sighed. "We should wait until the morning. If we go now, we're all gonna get lost out there and we don't have flashlights or anything."
There was a muffled sound from the cockpit and Meredith glanced up there just as the pilot, Jerry, stuck his head out of the window. "There should be… a lantern. Wherever you guys got… the water. There should be a lantern in there, if you can find it."
Meredith jumped to her feet; the dizziness was still there but she kept it together, just as Cristina told her to… she climbed into the demolished insides of the airplane and dug around in the cabinets until she found a small, black lantern and a pack of batteries. There were also a few more bottles of water but she left those where they were for now, because depending on how long it took Owen to find them, they might need fluids later.
"Okay, so… so we have a lantern and spare b-batteries," Meredith said, doing her best to at least speak normally. "What's your guys' excuse for… for not looking for D-Derek now?"
Arizona shrugged. "I mean… I have a broken femur so…"
"Right, I don't mean you," Meredith said and rolled her eyes. "And I don't mean you, either, Lexie; you need to rest. But Mark, Cristina… come on. Where's the loyalty?"
Mark had tears in his eyes, probably at the thought of losing Derek, but he still shook his head. "I… I'm sorry, Grey. I want to find him, trust me. But I think we should wait until the morning when we can see better. If we go now, chances are, all that will happen is that we won't find him and we'll get lost, too. I'm staying with Lexie."
So Meredith looked towards Cristina one more time, a pleading expression on her face. "Please, Cristina. Think if it was Owen. If Owen's your person… you would want to find Owen; you'd do anything!"
"I would want to find Owen and I do want to find Derek, Meredith," Cristina said. "But I wouldn't do anything. I wouldn't risk my own life. If I die, then who's going to keep the rest of you guys alive?"
Meredith opened her mouth to say that they were all doctors and that Mark seemed to be healthy enough but her words were interrupted by a sudden, loud buzzing noise from overhead. She stopped short and Jerry stuck his head out of the cockpit again, just in time to beat everyone to the announcement.
"CHOPPER!"
It was a helicopter! Owen must have realized that the surgeons never made it to Boise and sent out a rescue team. This was perfect; everyone could pile onto the helicopter and then search for Derek by air; they would find him much faster.
But it did not look like the rescue team had spotted the surgeons yet. The chopper was still high in the air, not focused on them at all so Cristina and Meredith both began jumping up and down, dizziness be damned, and screamed as loud as they could.
"There should be a flare gun, too!" Jerry yelled from the cockpit where he was trapped. "Get it from the cabinet and… and fire it up in the air!"
Cristina got there first, aimed the gun into the air, and pulled the trigger but nothing happened.
"Give it to me!" Meredith demanded and she tried, too, but it was like the flare gun was a complete dud; it was not omitting even the slightest puff of smoke.
"Let me try," Mark said but the gun failed for a third time just as the helicopter flew on, leaving the surgeons stranded and alone.
There was a long, depressing pause as reality registered for all of them. And then Jerry threw his head back against his seat and groaned. Lexie and Arizona started to cry. Mark threw the flare gun into the ground where it bounced away and Cristina sat back down, defeated.
Meredith felt like she was going to throw-up again but that was not an option anymore. There were no options anymore except for one. She bent over, grabbed her hiking stick, and then stood up again. The chopper leaving had been the final straw.
"I'm going… to look for Derek. W-When the helicopter… comes back… tell them that Derek and I are… alive and… that they n-need to come pick us up. And no, Cristina… there's nothing you can say… to change my m-mind."
Okay… that's it for now! I know I said that we would find Derek in this chapter but it just didn't work out without making the chapters like 5,000 words. We will DEFINITELY find him in Chapter 4! Thank you so much for reading and please don't forget to favorite/follow and leave reviews! I appreciate it so much. Xoxo, merderpedia.