A/N- Just a warning, this chapter and the next chapter (the last two that take place in the woods) are probably going to be the hardest to read. (They sure are proving to be the hardest to write.) That being said, thank you SO much for all of the amazing reviews I received on my last chapter. It truly means so much to me that you guys think I am a talented writer.

Also… disclaimer. The first half of this chapter is told from Meredith's POV in the woods. The second half, after the line of "MTB" is from Owen's POV at Seattle Grace. Hopefully you realize that, but if not, I wanted to tell you because Fanfiction dot Net has not been great about recognizing my chapter separations. Okay… ENJOY!

Lexie was not the only one struggling to remain strong. Meredith was also having a hard time staying vigilant. It felt like she had been curled inside the cockpit forever, sandwiched in between a dead pilot and an almost-dead sister. While slipping in and out of consciousness, Meredith took any opportunity she had to touch Lexie's carotid artery with her fingers… to make sure that Lexie was still breathing… it was more important that Lexie survived than Meredith… Lexie and Derek… otherwise, Meredith never would have offered up her life for them in the shooting…

Cristina found the two sisters an hour or two later and updated Meredith on the others- Mark was in a lot of pain so he had finally accepted some Tylenol. Arizona was burning up, with a fever of 103.3 and so she had also received more medication.

"Is Derek okay?" Meredith whispered because Lexie was asleep.

"Um… his hand is definitely getting infected and he's still losing blood. He keeps saying that his chest hurts but I think… I hope it's because of his broken ribs," Cristina explained. "You should come see him, Meredith."

"Okay, help me move Lexie; she… she doesn't want to be… alone," Meredith said.

Ten minutes later, with Lexie and her oxygen tank lying on the ground next to them, Meredith knelt down by Derek who was circling the drain as well. His skin was pale white, he was gasping for air, and like Lexie, there was sweat dripping down his face and neck.

Meredith knew that a fever was not usually fatal- any doctor knew that but this was not a normal kind of fever. Meredith saw fevers every day in the hospital and they almost never looked like this. When they did, that was when the patient got rushed to triage in the emergency room.

"Derek?" Meredith called and when he looked her way, she laid a cool hand on his forehead which indeed, was on fire. "Derek, you… you have an infection of… of some sort. You have a r-really high fever and we need to… to take your temperature. D-Do you understand?"

Derek nodded as he continued to gasp with a crazed look in his eyes. "I… I know…"

"Okay," Meredith said and put the thermometer in his mouth. Seconds later, the buzzer went off and the numbers told the story: 104.1 degrees.

"He needs the Tylenol. He needs it more than Lexie," Cristina said but as she took the last two pills out of the bottle, she stopped short and Meredith knew why.

"There's not any water, is there?"

"I… no, I… I forgot…"

Meredith gave her friend a brief, panicked expression but then went back to being the caring wife. She pulled Derek's shoulders up. "Derek, we need you to sit up. P-Please, you need to try to… to sit up for me, okay?"

"Okay," Derek whispered and he did manage to get himself up halfway, although all his weight was against Meredith. "I'm… I'm sick… I don't get sick…"

"I know and… and we have some Tylenol for you, okay? It should help the fever… go down," Meredith said and took the pills from Cristina. "The only problem is… is we don't… have any w-water left."

Derek's eyes went big and scared. "No… no more water?!"

"No… we… we gave the rest of it to… to Arizona and Lexie cause… cause they weren't… d-doing very well," Meredith said. "So… I'm gonna put the pill in your mouth… and you're g-gonna have to get it down, okay? Let it dissolve… if you have to… it's… it's gonna taste bad but… we have to… get your fever d-down."

"Okay," Derek agreed and so Meredith put the first of two pills in his mouth and waited.

It did not take long. Either the taste or the texture must have registered because Derek began gagging. Meredith covered his mouth with one of her hands and tried to force the medicine down but all that happened was that Derek threw-up- onto her hand and across the grass. It was probably a mixture of dehydration, infection, and his attempt to swallow the Tylenol.

"Shh, you're okay," Meredith said and rubbed her husband's back as he continued to cough and retch. She was initially surprised that there was anything left to come up besides bile because Derek could not have anything in his stomach but then Meredith saw the red blood cells. Derek was vomiting blood again, too.

When he finally stopped heaving, Meredith tried her best to hide her anxiety and used the sleeve of her coat to wipe the sweat and vomit off Derek's face. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I love you…"

"I… I love you… too," Derek whispered. "I'm… sorry…"

"Don't apologize. We'll save… the other pill for… for later and see if… if we can get some water or something," Meredith decided. "You just um… you're just g-gonna need to lie down and… and try to breathe, okay? I… I don't know, um… what else we can do… for… for a fever."

Derek did not move from where he was leaned up against Meredith. He was breathing and his eyes were open but it was like he was too exhausted to move.

Meredith looked at Cristina. "They're gonna come today… they have to… to come today, right?!"

"Yeah… yeah, they'll come today. Don't worry, Derek," Cristina said.

"I'm… I'm so… thirsty," Derek gasped. "Aren't there… is there… w-water…"

"There's no more water… r-right now," Meredith said and she hated herself for giving as much as she had to Lexie. All they needed was a swallow for Derek or they needed it to rain again.

What if you honestly had to choose between keeping your sister alive or your husband? Meredith wondered to herself but then she knew the answer. She would choose Derek. But that did not mean that she would not be damaged beyond repair if Lexie died…

For now, Meredith helped Derek lie back down on the grass and covered him with one of the Seattle Grace jackets. She stroked his hair and held his hand and prayed more than ever for a chopper even if it meant staying in the woods herself… Meredith would lie here forever if it meant that Derek could get home to Zola.

"How are you feeling?" Cristina asked and it took Meredith a moment to realize that she was being addressed.

"I'm… I'm tired and… I'm dizzy and I want some… d-damn water for my husband because… b-because everyone is… is puking b-blood and the… the sky is falling, Cristina!" Meredith cried and then took a deep, steadying breath. "What about you; are you… okay?"

Cristina shrugged. "I mean, I'm dehydrated as hell but yeah, I'm okay. I know I got lucky… a dislocated shoulder and a fractured collarbone really isn't bad as far as a plane crash goes…"

"Yeah," Meredith said. She knew that she had gotten lucky, too. She had her concussion, her head wound, a deep cut on her leg, broken ribs, and a strained back, but other than that, Meredith was relatively unhurt. It could have been so much worse. She could have broken major bones or suffered internal bleeding.

But at some moments, it was hard to feel lucky. Meredith was beginning to feel seriously sick, and she knew that it was not on account of the flu. She was dehydrated like everyone else and she was pretty sure that the injury on her thigh was becoming infected. It was turning a darker shade of red by the hour and occasionally, Meredith's head would start to bleed again because they had no actual treatment… she had a fever; they all had fevers… she wondered if she was going to die before Derek or Lexie…

"Cristina… I need you to… find um… some kind of cream," Meredith said when the sky was turning dark for a third consecutive night. "Is there any… antibacterial cream or… or anything because… I think I'm… I'm infected…"

"Oh, God… not you, too," Cristina said and searched through the mostly empty suitcase. "If we had antibacterial cream, we would have used it on Arizona and Derek… we have hand sanitizer."

"Okay… okay, that'll work," Meredith agreed and squeezed Derek's hand, even though he was asleep while Cristina worked on her thigh injury.

Derek was not exaggerating when he reacted to his hand pain. As soon as Cristina rubbed the alcoholic-liquid into Meredith's wound, it was like her entire leg was on fire. She screamed at the top of her lungs; she wished that they had done nothing…

"I'm almost done, Mer; hold on," Cristina said but the burning went on and Meredith screamed again; she had not known that this kind of pain existed…

"Okay, I'm done!" Cristina held her hands up just as Derek jerked awake, his eyes full of concern.

"Mer… Mer, what's wrong…"

He was still weak and feverish; Meredith knew she could not worry him right now. She wiped away her tears and forced a smile on her face. "Nothing's wrong… I just um… Cristina put some… some hand sanitizer on one of my little cuts and it… it r-really hurt."

"Are you okay… are we okay…"

"We are okay," Meredith lied and she noticed as she touched Derek's face that he was as hot as ever… how high could a fever get before it did permanent damage? Meredith could not remember…

They were not okay… they were not okay in the slightest. Derek and Meredith were both a mess… Lexie was near death and Arizona's leg was infected. If something did not happen soon, she was in serious danger of losing the entire leg… Mark was putting on a brave face but the elements were getting to him.

Cristina was in relatively good shape, aside from the dehydration and dislocated shoulder but Meredith could feel her fever taking over. She was still losing blood. Her leg was not infected to the degree that amputation was in the equation but it was leaking blood and pus which was never a good sign. She was beginning to side with Lexie; she was not sure if she wanted to fight anymore.

It was approximately an hour or two later. Cristina had just taken Meredith's temperature which had risen to 101.8 degrees. Derek was unconscious, Lexie was unconscious, and Cristina had just gotten up to attend to Arizona who was vomiting bile. Mark was asleep but breathing unevenly.

Meredith could not move from where she was leaned up against the plane wreckage. She stared up at the sky and watched as a single bird flew overhead. She was jealous of that bird; it could go wherever it wanted. It could fly out of the woods and to a hospital or to someone for help. Maybe it could even go visit heaven.

Her entire life, Meredith had never believed in heaven or God. She was a scientist and had been raised by a scientist… Ellis Grey made sure that her daughter never put any faith in things that could not be proven by science. That had always been the way life was… but right now as blood seeped out of Meredith's leg and Lexie was inching away from this life, Meredith figured it was time to put her faith somewhere… George had to exist somewhere, right?

Of course he does. Of course there's a heaven, Meredith told herself. You've been there, remember? You visited Denny and the guy from the Bomb Squad… and Doc… they're all there…

But the life that Meredith had known so far was gone a long time ago. She watched the bird as it perched itself in a tree and tried not to think about how much she wanted to drink the hand sanitizer that remained. She focused on the bird who at the moment, was smarter and more functional than any of Seattle's best surgeons.

You can go anywhere in the damn world and you choose to stay right here, Meredith said to the bird in her head. Maybe the bird was not so smart after all.

MTBMTBMTBMTBMTBMTBMTBMTBMTBMTBMTBMTBMTBMTBMTBMTBMTBMTBMTBMTBMTBMTBMTB

He had not slept in over 36 hours but Owen Hunt did not stop moving. He refused to stop looking, not until he knew for certain that Cristina, Meredith, Derek, Mark, Arizona, and Lexie were all dead and gone… and even then, Owen swore to himself that he would find the money in Seattle Grace's budget to pay for all of their funerals.

Search and Rescue had been out for hours already. Once, they had called Owen, thinking that they had found one of the bodies but it turned out that the "body" was a sleeping camper. Owen could not decide if he was more relieved or disappointed at this revelation.

All of the families of the missing surgeons had been at the hospital almost constantly. Thatcher Grey lived nearby so he had gone home a couple times but Arizona's parents were currently living in an on-call room on the second floor and Carolyn Shepherd had booked a hotel less than a mile away; everyone wanted to be at Seattle Grace if and when the plane crash survivors arrived.

Eventually, Owen was forced to tell the families what the police officer had told him. The news had spread to the media and again, he did not want any of them to find out that way.

"There is absolutely still a chance. We have seen all kinds of medical miracles here and around the world," Owen told everyone in a private conference. "I am only telling you what the airport stated because I don't want you to overhear something and assume outcomes that are not necessarily true."

That speech did not appear to provide much comfort. Callie Torres had not stopped crying in over 24 hours and Arizona's parents were reaching out to friends and family across the country. Alex Karev insisted that he was alright and continued to practice medicine but Owen made sure to keep a close eye on him as he performed procedures only in the pit. It was doubtless that Karev was hiding a lot of internal pain and anxiety.

It had been a little over 24 hours since the surgeons were due to return to Seattle when Search and Rescue landed their helicopter on the roof of Seattle Grace.

Owen sprinted up there to meet the paramedics, his heart beating dangerously fast. "What did you find?! Why didn't you call?!"

"Sorry, Hunt. Heavy rain and fog is moving into the area so we had to come back early. We'll get started again early tomorrow," one of the paramedics said.

"Rain?! You're letting rain stop you from finding my surgeons?!" Owen shouted. "I don't care if there's a damn hurricane out there! FIND MY SURGEONS before they drown!"

But the same paramedic shook his head. "It would be more dangerous than now, sir. Even if we found the surgeons, there would be no way to get them back here safely. We will pick things up early tomorrow. We'll find them tomorrow, okay? I promise."

"Don't promise things you can't control," Owen said and then stormed back downstairs to the trauma center to inform the nurses that nothing was happening tonight.

The surgeons' families insisted that Owen get a little sleep so he tried. He went into one of the empty on-call rooms, showered, and then laid down. He had no desire to eat anything. How could he, when Cristina was lost in the woods, potentially dead? How could he when five of his other closest friends were with her?

Sooner or later, Owen did manage to doze off for a short time, intermittently. His body was exhausted, physically and mentally, so he slept for around 45 minutes and then woke-up before passing out for another hour. It continued like that until 4:00 in the morning when Owen got up, convinced he had secured around four hours of sleep in all. That was more than enough.

Downstairs in the lobby, all of the families were already awake and waiting. Carolyn Shepherd kept pacing back and forth and the Robbins family was gathered with Callie like usual. There was a new face that Owen had not seen before, an Asian woman that he knew was related to Cristina. Owen approached her, carefully. "How are we holding up today, ma'am?"

"I'd be a lot better if you could tell me whether my daughter is alive or not!" the woman snapped. "I mean, honestly, I got up here to Seattle from Beverly Hills by train faster than you can get to Boise, Idaho!"

"I understand your frustration, Mrs. Yang," Owen said. "I assure you that Search and Rescue will get to the bottom of this. They're heading out again now and we are ready for them."

"But you said… you said that most likely, there aren't any survivors," Carolyn Shepherd whispered like she did not want to remember.

"I know what I said," Owen agreed. "But I'm not giving up and I know you aren't either. Derek is strong and he's an optimist. Optimism can be life-changing in a situation like this. Search and Rescue still hasn't covered a majority of the ground in between here and Boise and they could be fine. They could be out there with food and water just waiting for a chopper."

In between speaking with the families and contacting the police, Owen did still have a job to do. He was a surgeon and Seattle Grace was without more than half of their greatest surgeons between the ones missing and the ones unable to operate.

To try to take his mind off of the grave mood, Owen performed a surgery on a young adult named Payton who had been in a car accident and it made him feel good, if just for a moment, when her parents embraced him in thanks. Owen knew that Webber and Bailey were both operating a little too; they had each done an appendectomy and gallbladder removal since the plane crash.

When Payton's surgery was finished, Owen was sure that there would be news waiting. Search and Rescue had been out in the woods all day and a helicopter could not look for over twelve hours and not find anything. Owen ran up to the roof of Seattle Grace again, sure that even if they had not found the crew alive, they would have found them… or at least found some revealing clues.

"What's the verdict?" he asked as the chief paramedic hopped out of the chopper.

"I don't know what to tell you, Dr. Hunt," the paramedic sighed. "We flew all the way from here to Boise and back. There's no sign of them. It's like they disappeared."

It's like they disappeared. That was the best that a team of paramedics and Coast Guard soldiers could do?!

"Well, they didn't just disappear!" Owen said. "My surgeons are out there somewhere, dead or alive. If you can't find their bodies, then you should at least be able to locate the remains of a damn airplane! You must be looking in the wrong places."

What was he supposed to tell the dozens of people that had now gathered downstairs? There were family members crying and praying for their loved ones… church groups and ex-patients had come to offer their support. There were journalists and news reporters from around the country and according to Search and Rescue, Owen was supposed to go down there and tell them that Derek Shepherd, Mark Sloan, Arizona Robbins, Cristina Yang, Meredith Grey, and Lexie Grey had… vanished.

Before Owen got there though, he ran into Webber who was eager for news. "What did they say? Did they find any of the plane?"

"Nothing… they found absolutely nothing and it's like they've already given up hope," Owen said. "Isn't it these people's jobs to never give up hope, just like it is ours?"

Webber sighed. "That's not necessarily true though… our job is to never give up hope as long as we know the body can recover. There is a point when we stop doing CPR, when we don't give them anymore blood because we know it's a lost cause."

"So you're saying you've given up, too… you think they're all dead and they're never coming back," Owen said and it was more of a statement than a question.

"I wish I could offer something differently. You have no idea how much I wish I could," Webber said. "But I just had a long talk with the police chief. We know each other well from the shooting here and the one at Pacific College. He's honest with me and I believe him. He said that he had little hope that our people were alive from the beginning and if they haven't been found by now… he thinks there's virtually no chance they could have survived the rainstorm."

Owen's eyes were full of tears for the first time. He could barely choke out his next sentence: "So you're… you're saying my wife is dead…"

"I'm saying… I don't know what I'm saying. If I am, I'm also saying that Ellis Grey's little girl is dead, and that I was supposed to protect her. I'm saying the greatest neurosurgeon in the country is dead and… and… I don't know. I don't know what to say."

It was not any easier for Webber than it was for Owen and the two men shared a quick yet heartfelt embrace. Owen squeezed his eyes shut and tried not to think about how terrified they must have been… he pictured Derek and Meredith holding hands… maybe Lexie and Mark together… who was with Cristina? Was anyone there to comfort her in those last few moments, as the plane went down?

And then, even though he was a doctor and knew that he should not think this way, part of Owen could not help but wonder… did it hurt? Did they suffer or was it quick? Was there a chance that they could have lived if they had been found faster or was it over from the moment that the plane hit the trees? Owen hoped it was the latter, if they really were dead.

As soon as Owen walked into the hospital lobby downstairs, he was swarmed by family, friends, and other loved ones. Callie Torres was stable, for once, and Owen knew that it was because she had allowed herself to feel hope. Everyone was hoping that Owen had good news, or if not good news, then news of some sort.

Owen stood on the main staircase like he typically did when making announcements to his staff and sighed. "I have been in contact with both the Chief of Police and Search and Rescue. Today our helicopter flew all the way from Seattle to Boise and back. Unfortunately, they have found no signs of our people."

"They didn't even find the plane?" Carolyn Shepherd clarified.

"No, but in a way, that's better because if they had found the plane but not the surgeons then it would almost certainly mean that they had died upon impact," Owen said. "I know what you all must be going through. I wish I could provide better feedback but as of right now, this is all we know."

Arizona's father stepped forward. "Listen, Hunt. I've served in the United States Military for longer than you've been alive. You don't just give up on your people. Tell your search team that they're not looking in the right damn places. Tell them to follow a different path; do you know how many different routes that pilot could have taken?"

"I do and we are not giving up by any means, Mr. Robbins," Owen said.

"That's Colonel Robbins. The Colonel," Arizona's father stated.

"I'm sorry, Colonel Robbins," Owen apologized. "And I repeat, we are not and never will give up. We will find Arizona and all the other surgeons, no matter what."

"Do you really think there's a chance they're still alive?" Arizona's mother asked.

Owen took another deep breath and shrugged. "I don't know. I wish I did. I don't like to pull the personal-card because I assure you that I would be trying my hardest to find your loved ones no matter their relations but let me remind you all that my wife was on that plane. I… I won't stop until I find her and all the others."

This appeared to do the job for now; the families wandered off again, forced to accept Owen's explanation.

Owen trudged back upstairs and laid down in an on-call room. He knew that he could not and would not go home, not until the surgeons were found. He closed his eyes and tried his best to get a few hours of sleep but it did not work; how could it work?

Hours later, after Owen tossed and turned and talked with some of his military friends about possibly bringing in the army, he knew that he could not do it anymore. He could not sit here and do nothing and put the surgeons' lives in other people's hands.

He caught up with Search and Rescue who were preparing to head out for the third straight day. It had been almost four days since the plane went down.

"I'm coming with you guys," Owen decided and threw on one of the spare Seattle Grace coats. "When you find our people, they're going to need immediate medical attention and luckily, I'm a doctor."

The first paramedic appeared uncertain but Owen gave him a look. "I'm the chief of surgery. If you think I'm accepting no for an answer, you shouldn't even be here. We're not coming back until we find them, understood?"

Owen did not wait for an answer but he followed Search and Rescue out the door, glancing back only once to shout, "Webber, you're in charge!"

Don't forget to follow/favorite/review! All of those things make me very happy and they give the surgeons strength to continue fighting. :) xoxo, merderpedia