For this chapter, I only ask that I am awarded substantial grace in my medicinal accuracy (or lack thereof). In the bathtub scene with Owen after Cristina returns, she mentions that Mark just "kept dying" on her, so I used that as a reason to create some of my own storyline and fill in Shonda's gaps.
I want to say that I am in no way, shape, or form a doctor or any related medical professional, so I'm sure a lot of my terminology and treatments are inaccurate, but I did do a fair amount of research, and this was the best I could come up with. I hope you enjoy despite my medical incompetency.
"Mark?" Arizona said groggily, looking down on her friend who had moments before been perfectly fine…had it been moments, or hours? How long had she been out? The sun had barely begun to come up the last she remembered, and now its blinding force caused her to shield her eyes as she searched for the others. She looked back down at Mark, who was sweating profusely and gasping for air beneath the oxygen mask. "Oh my God," she said, quickly reaching for his hand. She pressed her fingers to his pulse point, and felt around intently, trying to find a rhythm. Finally she found it and…"Dammit!" She cursed herself. Cristina had ordered her to keep an eye on his heart rate, fearing a complication, and she had fallen asleep. "Help!" she screamed, seeing a vague outline of Derek and Meredith's bodies curled against one another on the ground a few yards ahead of her. "Derek!" she screamed louder. "Meredith!" Where was Cristina? She searched around frantically, unable to move and find her herself. Mark continued to gasp beneath her, and she realized if she was going to save him, she had to act fast. "HELP!" she screamed again, apparently awaking Jerry.
"Arizona, what happened?" he screamed from the other end of the crash site.
"It's Mark," she called out, weakly. "His heart rate is through the roof. Call for the others until they wake up! There's only so much I can do alone." She heard Jerry's much louder, much deeper voice scream bloody murder while she spoke to Mark. "Mark, if you can understand me, squeeze my hand," she said urgently. She felt him squeeze ever so slightly. "Good," she gulped. "Now, you're tachycardic, and I need to regulate your heart beat, okay? I'm going to take your mask off, and I need you to cough, and not some sissy little clearing-your-throat cough." Her energy and confidence was returning. "I need you to cough like an asthmatic 2-pack-a-day smoker who just ran a marathon." She could hear Jerry screaming through the plane window to Derek and Meredith, and saw them stir. "Derek and Meredith are coming," she said, removing the oxygen mask. "Now cough," she commanded. Mark took in as deep of a breath as he could manage, and forced a cough. "Not enough, Mark. You gotta give me more," she shook her head, prompting him again. "Cough more than once as hard as you can." Mark spit out two stronger coughs before gasping for breath once more.
"What happened?" Meredith asked, jogging over to Arizona and Mark.
"I woke up and he was sweating bullets and heaving for air," she said, leaning her head against the wall of the plane. "I checked his pulse, and he's…" she paused, trying to explain, but the dehydration was getting to her. "tachychardic," she finished, checking his pulse again.
"Okay, we need to…" she gripped her head, unable to think straight. This was basic medicine. How could she not remember?
"Submerge his head in cold water. Spark the vagus nerve," Derek suggested, leaning his head to Mark's chest to better hear the arrythmia.
"We don't have any water," Meredith snapped, racking her brain for any other solution. "Where the hell is Cristina?" she snapped looking around.
"I'm here." Suddenly, Cristina appeared from behind the plane, and sprinted over. "No, no, no, no, no," she said urgently, crouching down beside Mark. "What the hell happened? Why weren't you watching him like I told you to?" In any other circumstance, she wouldn't be screaming at her superior, but this was no ordinary situation.
Arizona looked at her guiltily. "I'm sorry. I-I-I fell asleep," she said, unable to produce a more justified reason.
Cristina looked down at Mark, who was growing paler and paler by the second due to lack of oxygen. "How long has he been like this?" she asked, checking his pulse, just as the others had.
"No more than 7 minutes," Arizona replied helplessly. "I didn't have the mobility to do anything useful, so I did the only thing I could think of. I tried to get him to cough hard enough to stimulate the vagus nerve and slow down the electrical impulses in his heart, but he's not strong enough."
"He's extremely tachycardic," Cristina said, feeling his heart flutter rapidly through her fingers.
"We know," the trio replied, looking at Cristina for more of a solution.
She looked back at them incredulously. "So tachycardic that his heart is about to arrest," she said looking back down at Mark. "One of you grab his wrist and monitor his heart rate," she said, repositioning herself near his head.
Meredith grabbed his wrist and found his pulse point. "Got it."
She pried Mark's mouth open as wide as it would go, and instructed Arizona. "Hold this."
Arizona did so, using her thumb and her index finger to keep it as wide as possible. Meredith looked at Cristina doubtfully. "What are you doing?" she asked, urgently.
Cristina made no attempt to respond, so Derek did for her. "She's going to gag him. Stimulate the receptors in his carotid."
Meredith stared at her. "Cristina, he's going to start seizing. He'll break open his incision."
"Then someone hold him down," she snapped, staring back at her.
"This is a bad idea. He's too fragile. Overstimulating the vagus nerve could counteract the effects and send him into cardiac arrest instead of prevent it. You have no way of kn-"
"Do you have a better idea, Dr. Grey?" Arizona challenged, staring at her intently. "Mark is dying as we speak, so unless you have a safer solution up your sleeve…" she trailed off, not wanting to cause any bad blood. They were all on-edge, and fighting with a comrade wouldn't solve anything.
Meredith glanced at her, then back at Cristina. "Just be careful," she pleaded, looking back down at Mark.
"See, and I had planned on just killing him," Cristina grunted sarcastically, plunging her fingers down Mark's throat. Just as Meredith had predicted, Mark started convulsing violently beneath her, fighting the obstruction in his airway. "Hold him down!" Cristina shouted at Derek, who was bracing Mark by the shoulders.
"I'm trying," Derek responded, repositioning himself so that he was straddling Mark and sitting on his legs while he continued to brace his shoulders.
Finally, Cristina pulled back, and Mark gasped for air. They all looked at Meredith for an update. "Cristina, his heart rate picked up. You have t-" Cristina immediately went back in, once more inserting her fingers down Mark's airway. "Cristina stop. It didn't work. We have t-"
"Shut up. I know what I'm doing," Cristina rebutted through gritted teeth. Mark's eyes were beginning to roll back from lack of oxygen. Please don't throw up. Please don't throw up, Cristina thought.
"Cristina," Meredith shouted, urging her friend to look at her. "He's going to pass out! You have to stop!"
Not a moment after she said it, Cristina retracted her hand. "Okay, okay, I'm done," she said, leaning back onto her heels. "Meredith?" Cristina prompted, praying for good news.
She was silent for a moment, feeling his pulse intently. She relaxed onto her haunches. "Heart rate is down," she said with relief.
They all simultaneously sighed in relief as Mark's breathing began to return to normal. Cristina was the first to rise. "There should be one more water bottle in that backpack. Make sure he drinks some," she said, walking back out into the woods.
"Where are you going?" Meredith asked.
"Uh, I-we need firewood." she answered, not looking back.
"I'll come with you," she said, using her knee to push herself up. Cristina kept walking, ignoring Meredith's offer. "Cristina," she said, jogging to catch up with her. After she reached her, she put a hand on Cristina's shoulder. Cristina spun around to face Meredith.
"No Mer, you should go back and get some rest," Cristina said, feigning sweetness. "It's been about 20 minutes since your last nap. You must be exhausted." The sarcasm dripped from her voice as she stared at Meredith for a moment. Meredith absorbed Cristina's words in their moment of silence, but before she could respond, Cristina had turned and was strutting back into the forest.
"I suck. I get it. We all suck, but we're all in this shitty situation together, so it wouldn't hurt for you to be less of a b-"
"Bitch?" Cristina turned to face Meredith, who was several yards away. "Yeah, you're right. I could. I don't know why I'm acting this way." She smiled bitterly. "Must be the exhaustion setting in!" She gave Meredith a quick, cynical laugh throwing her hands up. She cocked her head. "Not that you'd know anything about that." And with that, Cristina walked briskly into the forest.
You know your world is falling to pieces when you turn on your person.