Hi everyone! I'm back again! Didn't I promise you regular updates as long as you keep supporting me like this?

Thanks again to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! I hope you're gonna like this one too! There's only a small Alex/Laura scene, which actually turns out pretty bad for Alex, so be warned!

Disclaimer: I still don't own anything! If I did we wouldn't have to wait two more weeks for Grey's to return!

Rating: Mentioning of sexual abuse

Chapter 5

„Alex?" The faint sound was muffled and barely audible but it immediately tore him out of the light sleep that he'd fallen into as soon as he'd rested his head on the hospital bed. It wasn't really a whisper either, more like a noise coming from someone that was too scared to speak. But nevertheless he was sure that it had been his name that had escaped the lips of the person lying in front of him. He opened his eyes to look into his sisters brown ones that fluttered open. They had the same big brown puppy dog eyes but apart from that they looked completely different. No one would have recognised them as siblings if they didn't know it. Laura had inherited their mother's looks while Alex, when looking into the mirror, always saw the younger version of his father there. Except for the eyes, they were his mothers.

He'd always hated his looks. Well, he didn't complain when the chicks threw themselves on him simply because of his appearance but he genuinely feared, because he looked so much like him, that one day he'd turn into him. Every little glance at the mirror was a torture, which explained why he'd sometimes turned up at work unshaved.

Cristina had once mad a snide remark about doctors and personal hygiene and it had hurt to hear them talking about him like that, even though he'd never admit it. He'd just snorted back something along the lines of: Oh come on admit it Yang, you're just jealous because you're not getting in my pants.

But now wasn't the time to think about Yang or any of his other fellow residents. His sister was starting to wake up. Finally. He'd been sitting with her for about 6 hours, holding her hand. He'd also mad sure that the NG-tube was gone a mere 2 hours after he'd arrived. Laura wouldn't appreciate having a tube down her throat when she came to it. Luckily Bailey hadn't showed up either. Alex thought that she was probably still trying to figure out a way to deal with him now, which was kind of scary too, because he'd always thought of Dr. Bailey as the "superwoman" of Seattle Grace who was able to overcome every problem that was put in her way and he couldn't help but hope at least a little bit that she would also be able to overcome this.

He slowly reached out to stroke her hair when her eyes started to flicker again.

"Laura can you hear me?" Alex asked a little more determined, trying to get her to wake up.

He kind of feared his sisters consciousness that was about to come back in some ways because the pure thought of having to ask her all those questions the doctors used to ask them when they were little was threatening to kill him slowly inside. But if he didn't do it, then they would and he just couldn't do that to her, not while she was still in that state. So he had to get answers. Even though he didn't really want them. He certainly wasn't prepared for the devastating secret that she was about to reveal to him. Alex thought he knew about everything he'd done to her, but apparently he'd been wrong.

Laura started to stir a little and Alex tried to calm her down, so she wouldn't pull out the IV-lines by moving too much. He stood up and placed both hands on her shoulders, forcing her to stop shifting.

"Laura, you have to lie still, you're gonna hurt yourself!" He said a little more forcefully, trying desperately to hold her still. She was clearly getting more and more agitated.

He didn't know that those exact words had been used by their father about 14 years ago and that hearing them again, from a voice that sounded so similar to his, would send her still clouded brain into overdrive.

"No, you're not gonna hurt me again. I won't let you touch me ever again! Get off me!" She screamed at her brother, clearly confused about where she was and who was standing next to her.

Alex immediately let go of her when he realized what she meant and stood there in shock, not knowing quite what to do.

The doctor in him knew that she was still under the influence of the drugs she'd been given. She didn't mean it. Hell, she would probably not remember what she said in a few hours, when she was lucid again. She only confused him with that bastard of a father, it wasn't her fault that she was still too groggy to recognize him. The big brother instinct in him however told him to go and punch a wall or something because he didn't know how to process what he'd just learned.

He wanted to tell her that it was just him, Alex, her brother who was only looking out for her but he just had to get out of the room. He couldn't stay and presumably put her into anymore distress than she was already in.

He started to jog casually down the deserted hallway of the ICU floor and picked up the pace every few seconds so that when he reached the staircase he was sprinting. He ran down the stairs and towards the front of the hospital where he slumped down on one of the benches. He didn't care that there was a storm going on nor that the wind was punching the rain hard into his face. The fact that it was 3 in the morning didn't bother him and neither did the rain that was quickly soaking his thin scrubs, turning them from their usual light blue into a darker one. He didn't bring a jacket or exchange his slippers for real shoes that would have been more appropriate for this kind of weather. He just had to get away, out, run. Again. He just couldn't deal with her right now. Not now that he'd discover that his little sister had been abused in more than just one way while growing up. He forced his thoughts away from Laura and counted exactly 236 drops of rainwater that formed under the tip of his nose and then fell down to the ground or into his lap, he really didn't care where they went.

It was a welcome change from the warmth of the hospital, because warmth didn't numb the pain, if anything it just grew bigger and more hurtful. The cold however did. It dulled the pain, it forced him to focus on the freezing sensation that was slowly evolving around his body, so he wouldn't have to think about what he'd just learned.

When he started to shiver slightly he just brushed it off. He didn't want to be a wimp that goes inside cause he's a little cold.

When after a while (he had completely lost track of time by now) he realised that the shivering started to pick up a notch and his teeth started to clatter against each other, even though he tried to hold them still, and his spine felt frozen and like it was gonna break into a thousand pieces, he thought that this had probably been a bad idea and that hypothermia would set in soon, if it hadn't already.

He felt goosebumps begin to form on his arms and legs and suddenly he wasn't cold anymore and he only quickly thought that maybe he'd recovered but his doctor instinct told him that he was already entering stage two of hypothermia. He tried to touch his thumb with his little finger but he just couldn't, which meant that his muscles already started to give up. Another sign that he was too damn cold and needed to get back into the hospital immediately, if he didn't want to be carried around in a body bag tomorrow morning.

He tried, he really seriously tried to push himself up from his sitting position but he wasn't able to move anymore. All energy had been drained from his body, there was nothing left, not even enough to shout for help.

He knew it was pathetic that he couldn't even lift his own ass up anymore. He was supposed to be stronger than this, damn it! But it appeared that his behind was stuck, glued and nailed to this fucking bench.

He saw a flash of red exiting the hospital, but that was probably not real. Life hadn't treaded him lucky so far, so why would it start now? It was just his head toying with his imagination and his vision suddenly became blurry. He couldn't feel his hands anymore and knew that his body had already started to redirect his blood towards the viable organs to keep his sorry ass alive.

The human body was a freaking miracle.

He couldn't even make out the person that quickly approached him.

"Alex?" (Laura? He tried to form her name on his lips but they didn't obey)

"Alex?" The female voice spoke again. It wasn't his sister, that he was sure of now and then he caught a glimpse of the person standing in front of him and he started to think that maybe life wasn't supposed to be like this. Maybe it'd finally start to tread him right. He tried to open his mouth again to speak, to tell her that he's fine but he wasn't able to and she probably wouldn't have believed it anyway.

Why the hell did everyone around him come with a medical degree?

He only knew that he wasn't shaking anymore. God he wasn't really feeling anything except for the dull pain in the pit of his stomach that kept reminding him about what he'd found out about his sister.

"ALEX!" Meredith tried to get him to respond again, but when he didn't she barked at the person that was standing quietly behind her.

"George, get a wheelchair!" She ordered and he took off as fast as possible while Meredith placed a shaking hand on his carotid artery to feel for a pulse and taking a closer look at him. His lips were already a disturbingly dark blue color, matching his soaked scrubs and she knew, she had to get him insides as quickly as possible.

Firstly she briefly wondered if that's what she looked like after she had fallen into Elliot Bay.

Secondly she thought about what the hell had happened to Alex that made him sit out here in the cold.

His pulse was weak but at least it was there and when George returned he helped her to lift him into the wheelchair. They headed straight for the residents lounge because there they were likely to find some new clothes for him. When they touched him he was secretly glad that he felt anything and that they were gonna take care of him now.

As they hurried along the hallway he caught it again. A glimpse of red hair. This time it wasn't just imaginary and she hurried right along with them. He tried to turn his head to see whether this was true, whether she was really there but he was still frozen like an ice cube, not able to move anything by himself. He could even feel how his breathing got shallower with every gulp of air he took.

He just hoped that they hadn't found him too late.

--

Addison had just finished her shift and was about to leave the hospital when she spotted Grey and O'Malley almost running down the hallway towards the doctor lounges, pushing someone in a wheelchair she wouldn't have recognized immediately. It wasn't until they got closer that she was able to link the wet blue scrubs and the white skin with the fact that she'd just seen his sister alone in the ICU.

"What happened?" She asked clearly concerned while taking in his appearance. He looked as white as a ghost, nearly as bad as Meredith had looked when they had brought her in after the ferry boat accident.

"We found him outside, he must have been sitting in the rain for hours!" Meredith informed her without questioning the reason for the attending's sudden interest.

"O'Malley, get a thermometer and heating blankets from the supply closet. We also need warm fluids!" Addison almost shouted at George even though she knew that it wasn't his fault.

God Alex what did you do to yourself? She asked herself silently, even though she already kind of knew the answer to her question. Meredith and Addison quickly entered the locker room and the attending immediately reached for some scissors that were lying on the table and started to cut his wet scrubs while Meredith opened his cubby, looking for something for him to wear.

When Addison touched his forehead he suddenly, and without any kind of warning, responded to the contact and stared directly into her beautiful blue eyes. She was kind of taken aback by that, since she thought he was pretty out of it.

"Alex?" She tried to get him to talk to her while she continued cutting his clothes. He was still as cold as ice. He didn't say anything back so she stripped him of his clothes and asked Meredith to pass her the stethoscope from his locker. She mindfully heated it a little in her own hands before placing it on his bare chest. She listened to his heartbeat, which was worryingly erratic and fast. He was now sitting on the floor, dressed only in his boxers when Addison slid in behind him, trying to transfer as much of her body heat onto his icy one. She hugged his stomach from behind while Meredith was wrapping him in towels that she'd also found in his locker.

"We need to attach him to a heart monitor. I heard some arrhythmias. Can you maybe get a portable one?" She asked the resident that looked as worried as she did. Meredith only slightly nodded and left, knowing that they would be okay for a second.

"Alex, why did you do that? I'm so worried about you! You have to look after Laura, you can't get sick too!" She told him, even though she wasn't sure that he was able to hear her.

"Add?" He asked with all the energy that was left in him.

"Alex? Can you hear me? What happened?" She asked but he wasn't able to respond to her questions, not now anyway. He could only speak out the thought that seemed to be stuck in his brain

"She thought I was dad"

Reviews anyone? Pretty please?! They make me all happy and smiley and I might update again sooner!

-Christine