The First Time Ever chapter thirteen
Hey guys, I'm sorry for the late update. I'm also sorry that the late update happened to be on the other end of a cliff-hanger, but I've been super busy… A new relationship, performing at festivals, writing my other story (on Wattpad- That Smile) and basically just life… But since it's my birthday, I allowed myself some time to write. I hope you enjoy! Happy Existing!
The acrid smell of jet fuel that rented the air, combing my nostrils was the first of many things that I noticed when my eyes eventually snapped open. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I turned my head to the left. As I looked around I recognised the remnants of the plane, some of it black and charred from flames that had licked the back of it, and some of it scattered randomly all over the forest floor.
Our plane had crashed.
"T-Teddy?" I choked out, clearing my airways which felt like they had stuck together. As I spoke a throbbing pain shot through my head, making my eyes water. I lifted my hand to the source of the pain, groaning when I drew it back to see blood. And a lot of it. A wave of nausea swept over me and I jerked my head violently to the right, emptying the contents of my stomach all over what seemed to be one of the seats of the plane.
Once I had finished emptying my guts, I rose shakily to my feet, carefully examining myself for any other injures. I winced painfully as I flexed the fingers of my right hand out and a jolt of pain rushed through my arm. Despite the pain I moved my shoulder back and forth, relieved when it still seemed to be in place. I suspected it was broken. I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief as I realised that my injuries weren't too major- for now. My head wound was worrying, but I was still conscious and that was a good sign.
"Teddy?" I called out again, fear plunging through my heart when no reply came. With thoughts on nothing other than locating my best friend, I set off through the woods, doing my best to ignore the pain in my arms and the remnants of the plane that were scattered everywhere. By the looks of the wreckage it seemed I was extremely lucky to have only sustained minor (ish) injuries, but I refused to settle with the feeling of relief until I found the cardio surgeon. I continued to make my way through the trees, carefully pulling back each branch before it could come back and whack me in the face, all while calling Teddy's name repeatedly.
"Arizona!"
I froze in my tracks. I could hear a voice calling me. A familiar one. I whirled around in my spot and nearly passed out in relief as I saw Teddy stumbling towards me, tripping several times over unforeseen branches or rocks.
"Teddy!" I yelled, running as fast as I could over to my best friend and embracing her tightly. "What the hell happened?"
"We were in a plane crash! We were in a plane, and it crashed! That's so fucking stupid!" Teddy yelled in panic. I examined her injuries from where I stood, frowning when I saw a make shift tourniquet, supposedly made from her Seattle Grace jacket, tied around her leg. "A piece of metal stabbed me. Bastard." She huffed, making me smile weakly. The feeling of dizziness was starting to swarm around my head and I could feel my eyelids growing heavy. I continued to examine Teddy, relieved to see only a few shallow cuts and scrapes scattered over her face.
"How the hell did we not get injured more?" I asked disbelievingly, leaning against a tree and wincing when my head made contact with the trunk.
"I wouldn't say that. That head wound doesn't look good." Teddy replied apprehensively. "What should we do?"
I pondered her question. What the hell were we supposed to do? I had no idea where we were, but the fact that we were surrounded by trees only suggested that we weren't anywhere close to people, or decent cell reception. The dizziness was pressing down on my eyelids further and further each second. We had no food and no water. We didn't know how to get out of here.
"The pilots." I finally said, remembering the round faced man and his partner who had greeted us warmly when we had boarded the plane. Teddy nodded in agreement, and without further discussion I lead her back to the plane, which was roughly 15 feet from where I had come to. I kept my eyes focused on my feet as we walked, carefully making sure that I didn't trip over anything- another injury for either of us was the last thing we wanted. "Over there!" I called, pointing over to where I could see the pilot in the cockpit. I frowned. "Is that a branch?"
Teddy stopped in her tracks. "Shit." She said, dumfounded. Clearly visible from where we stood was a ten foot branch that had broken through the cockpit and through the pilot's chest. The co- pilot was nowhere to be seen in amongst the mess. I turned to Teddy, feeling sick to my stomach just looking at it. As a doctor, things like this didn't normally bother me. However looking at the blood spatters against the windows gave me a sudden urge to throw up.
"I didn't notice. Before." I told her. In my urgent search to find Teddy I hadn't paid attention to what was going on in the cockpit. I was thankful that Teddy was there when I eventually saw it, though, because I was leaning on her for support, feeling like I might collapse. Her face was pale and she didn't say anything, just nodded weakly.
"There're some seats over there." She pointed out, indicating to where two seats, still joined together, peeked out from the area where the plane had literally snapped in two. We stumbled over and collapsed down into the seats, staring at the open sky blankly. "Our plane crashed." Teddy repeated, lifting her hand and slamming it against her forehead.
"We're alive." I reminded her, taking her hand in mine. She turned to look at me, smiling softly.
"Yeah, we are." She agreed, letting go of my hand and moving my hair out of the way to examine my head wound, which was stinging like a bitch. I winced harshly when she pressed down on it, frowning. "This is still bleeding." She murmured softly, bringing her hand up to my neck to check my pulse. "But your pulse is strong." She added in a happier tone.
"I can feel my pulse in my head." I informed her dryly. "If anything changes, I'll know."
"Very funny, Robbins. I'm going to see if I can find some water." She said as she rolled her eyes, before turning away from me and limping off to find some water.
As I sat there alone, my mind immediately to the one person I was trying not to think about, because if I thought about Callie I would surely cry. If I thought about her warm voice or the sweet scent of cocoa butter and cocoa beans that was uniquely Calliope, I wouldn't be able to keep it together. If I thought about how I was stuck in the middle of the woods with a broken arm, while my girlfriend was an orthopaedic surgeon, then I would definitely go mad.
I looked up to the sky, blinking back a few tears that were threatening to fall. I will not cry, I told myself. Crying will not help anything.
Instead, I allowed my mind to flick back to the time that Teddy and I first met. It was September 13th, 2001, two days after the towers collapsed in New York. My father and brother were stationed in Philadelphia at the time, but naturally as soon as they had seen the news, they had made a beeline for New York to see where they could help out. Teddy and I had met in the church, where families and friends of lost ones sought comfort. Her best friend had died when the north tower came down, and following that she had joined the army and we didn't speak very often in years, but after my accident she managed to get two weeks off to come visit me in hospital, and after she started working at Seattle Grace it was Teddy who let me know about the free attending position.
I would have thought that after a catastrophic event like this that everywhere would be in chaos. I expected shouting and sirens and alarms going off everywhere, but as I looked outside the only free window of the church I stood in, all of the ash-covered streets were bare. An eerie silence gripped the building, only broken by the dull rumble of chatter amongst civilians, all of whom had tear tracks staining their cheeks.
I was standing next to a window, behind a table holding boxes full of water and fresh clothing when I saw her. My father and brother were out in the debris zone- a place where no one who didn't have special permission was allowed- helping other marines, soldiers and firefighters sort through the hot pile of debris that was the remainder of the two towers which once cast shadows over New York. I was still in med school, however we had all been given a week off in order to allow us to go and visit family and friends, or in my case, volunteer at a church. She was sitting alone in a corner, clutching a bottle of water for dear life and looking terrified. I turned to the lady, Maria, who was working with me.
"Have you got this for a couple of minutes?" I asked her, slightly tilting my head in a gesture towards the woman sitting in the corner. She followed my line of sight until she spotted her and nodded sadly.
"Yeah. Go see her." Maria replied with a reassuring nod, patting my arms gently and taking over my stance behind the table.
I walked quickly over to where the woman was sitting and lowered myself down beside her without asking her permission. She looked up at me with raised eyebrows. "I'm Arizona." I introduced myself, sticking out my hand and offering her an apple that I had picked up from one of the stations on my way over. She took it gladly and shook my hand.
"Teddy." She replied with a weak smile, and soon enough her eyes travelled back to the TV, where the latest news report was being broadcasted. It disgusted me to see the amount of damage caused not just in New York, but in Washington and Philadelphia too.
"You look like you could use a friend." I continued and she turned to me with watery eyes.
"My best friend, Hazel Freeman was in the north tower two days ago. I haven't heard any news on her, but I just have this sick feeling in my stomach." She told me, her voice cracking slightly. I gently took her hand in mine and gave it a comforting squeeze.
"You're gonna be friends with me, okay? At least until you here news. And even after, I'll be here." I told her.
"I am?" She asked, raising her eyebrows for a second time, this time with a slight smile.
"Yes. I'm an awesome friend."
I smiled as I looked back on that memory, feeling glad to know that at least one good thing came from that horrible day.
"Got some!" I heard Teddy exclaim from a distance, and a few seconds later she came into my line of sight clutching two bottles of water. "We'll share this one." She said, holding up the bottle in her right hand, "And we'll use this one to clean that cut out until we can find a first aid box. There's two more by that tree over there but I couldn't carry them all." She explained. In moments like this I was glad that Teddy was a soldier- it gave her the ability to come up with a game plan even though we had basically no idea what to do. And the doctor part of both of us gave us the ability to keep our cool.
"It's getting dark." I said softly, gazing up at the sky once more. If it was getting dark, it surely meant that they realised that our flight hadn't landed. Maybe they're looking for us right now, I thought, a shimmer of hope shining in my head.
Pouring cold water over and open wound was not something that I could describe as particularly fun. In fact, it sting like hell. I clenched my teeth to keep myself from crying as Teddy carefully wiped away dry blood from the wound. "Give me that. I'll do your leg." I told her, taking the bottle into my shaky hands and carefully drizzling it over Teddy's injury. It was hard to get it completely clean given that it was already wrapped up, but I did as best I could as quick as I could.
"What do we do now?" Teddy asked as she sat down beside me, looking up at the sky.
We were in the middle of nowhere. The pilot was dead and the co-pilot was probably dead, although neither I nor Teddy could bring ourselves to go up there. Teddy was injured and so was I, and by the looks of the cockpit I was guessing the transmitter was broken in the crash. I could have said something sarcastic, or something morbid and sad. However, I just shrugged my shoulder dumbly.
"I have no idea." I said, resting my head on her shoulder, all while finally letting my mind drift towards Calliope. I couldn't sleep without her, and staying awake until we were found meant that it was going to seem like forever until I saw her again.