Hey everyone! This is just a short update to show you that I'm still alive and working. Actually I'm working too hard at the moment so it kind of makes it very difficult to update regularly, which I'm terribly sorry for! Thanks again to everyone who reviewed the last chapter

Kat Priestly, McLonely, Right Hand Blue, michallev, Lora Perry, addiekatefan, gizziefan118, addexlover, MDarkspIrIt, speckled girl, Ella Shady, Anie, PheobeHasABadPenName and Rachel!

It really means a lot to me so I'm dedicating this chapter to you! This is probably the favourite of my stories and I hope you're still enjoying it!

Let me know what you think about it!

Chapter 6

Blood.

Deep red blood was all he saw.

For about 2 seconds everything was a disturbingly bright redish color. The white tiles, the white walls, the white bathtub, simply everything in there appeared to be clad in an alarmingly shade of crimson. His eyes were dazzled so that he almost couldn't make out the person sitting on the floor.

His eyes were clouded

His vision was blurry

and the pain in his heart was numbed by the shocking scene in front of him.

He'd gotten up to use the bathroom, but what he found there robbed him off his need to pee. No scratch that, it robbed him of almost every emotion he had ever felt and his ability to move. After all these years of seeing his mother and sister being beaten, of being beaten himself, Alex couldn't recall a situation in which he'd been so scared and stunned before.

First he thought that it was just a nightmare and that if he closed his eyes for a moment, he'd wake up back in his own bedroom, his shorts and t-shirt drenched with his cold sweat.

But unfortunately it wasn't just a dream.

It took him another two seconds to lock eyes with his little sister. Her back was propped up against the bathtub, her hands resting on the blood stained jeans. A little pool of blood had already formed beneath her and was growing bigger with every passing second. Alex's attention was suddenly drawn to the knife that lay on the floor next to Laura.

The bloody blade already started to dry.

There was absolutely no screaming, no shouting for help, no pleading and begging which felt kind of weird. They simply communicated with their eyes. He was able to read them so well by now that he knew she was scared out of her mind, but still, there was something telling him that this hadn't been an accident and that she wasn't all that pleased with the fact that he'd found her. After all it was in the middle of the night and if he hadn't woken up because of his bladder……Alex didn't want to continue that thought right now because instinct set in and he immediately grabbed two towels from the cupboard, squatted down next to his little sister and he tied them tightly around her wrists. Then he quickly lifted her off the blood-spattered floor and held on to her firmly, pressing her against his chest. He didn't care that he was soon covered in her blood that wet his t-shirt almost instantly. Thank god that he'd passed his driving test last week but he'd have driven her even if he'd flunked. He took her to the closest ER. It was practically abandoned when they arrived, so all eyes were on them when Alex carried Laura through the door, straight towards the admission desk, where a young nurse was already awaiting them. When she realised what was going on she looked about as shocked as he must have when he first found her on the bathroom floor but he doubted that she felt the same way that he did: The stinging of his heart that kept reminding him of how much he loved her was almost unbearable, making it impossible for him to form a word. Luckily he didn't even need to speak. She just waved them to the closest procedure room where Alex lay Laura down on the table. He slowly backed away from her, letting the doctors and nurses do their job, hoping that he hadn't found her too late.

He watched as they examined her wrists and hung IV's to stabilise her. It was like he was deaf though. He saw everything, but the bustling sound that usually filled the ER had been blocked out by his brain until he felt someone touching his arm. It was another nurse. Her lips were moving but he didn't hear the words that came out of her mouth. He felt someone else seizing him by the shoulders, pulling him slowly backwards, out of the room where they worked on his sister and he obliged without resistance. Someone started to shake his arm again, but his eyes were still fixed on the people moving behind the glass doors.

"Please Laura don't do this. You can't just give up" he felt himself say, even though he didn't really wanna say that out loud.

"Hey boy! Can you hear me?" The female voice finally pierced through his thoughts and even though she was standing right next to him it sounded like she was quite far away.

"Yeah" He simply answered without taking his eyes off the situation in front of him.

"What's her blood type?" The nurse tried again, this time he could feel the desperation in her voice.

"B neg" he replied and with that the woman left, probably running to get the appropriate bags of Lauras blood type to transfuse her, leaving him there alone. He tried to get back into the room but was straight away thrown out by security. He didn't even fight them like he would have, if he'd been in his right state of mind.

Instead he settled for taking a seat in the waiting area. He didn't care that his own shorts were soaked with Laura's blood and that he probably left some ugly stains on the upholstery of the chair. Suddenly someone appeared in front of him, handing him a ton of forms he needed to fill out. On the outside he still seemed to be in control of everything, like this was everyday business for him. On the inside however he was slowly breaking down. The emotional pain he felt was too overwhelming and he started to feel mad because those fucking doctors wouldn't let him stay with her in the exam room. He focused his energy on the form in front of him though and started to fill it out with shaky fingers.

Surname: Karev

First Name: Laura

Middle Name: Catherine

Age: 14

And that's when it hit him.

Laura was only 14 years old. She was still a kid. She wasn't a grown up yet but she already wanted to die. She'd never even experienced life outside of the house they had to call "home". He wasn't much older, only 16, but still those two years were crucial. The pure thought that he might never see her again made his breathing speed up. After all Laura and maybe their mum were the only reason he was still here. If he hadn't taken care of them who would have? And now she might die anyway? Where was the freaking fairness? Hadn't he done enough already? He seriously tried to protect them whenever possible and it wasn't like he hadn't taken his fair share of abuse himself.

He could slowly feel his throat closing up and breathing got more and more difficult, causing him to breathe too fast until he felt light-headed and was about to faint. Just when he was about to fall from the chair he felt two hands on his chest, pushing him back up and holding a paper bag to his mouth, causing him to exhale into it. Someone rubbed soothing circles on his back and he only wondered lightly if this was what a normal family would do when one of their own was in trouble.

Without another warning he felt tears well up behind his eyes, the act of keeping them inside nothing he was capable of anymore. So he let them run down his cheeks while he felt his breathing slowing down, taking long deep breaths in the process. When he realised that his breathing was back to normal he roughly pushed the paper bag away from his face and rested his head on his hands, letting the tears he'd been holding inside for so long, too damn long, finally out and for the only time in his life he didn't care that people were watching him cry.

He suddenly felt so cold, like he was in a totally different place, but the person rubbing circles on his back was still there. He could feel her legs on either side of him and when he opened his eyes he saw the outlines of 3 people standing in front of him. He knew them but couldn't find the strength to say a word. He didn't remember what happened. He just knew that he was so freaking cold and that he wanted to be some place warm.. Florida maybe or the Dominicans… That would be great…. He thought to himself while he crossed his arms in front of his chest in a desperate act to get himself warmed up. He could feel that he was naked underneath those blankets that were supposed to raise his temperature and that made him feel uneasy.

"God what the hell happened?" He thought to himself silently, still feeling too tired to even open his mouth to speak.

Suddenly he heard a familiar voice in front of him beginning to talk, trying to get him to respond.

"Alex? Alex can you hear me?" Dr. Bailey. At least she didn't sound mad, more like concerned.

He couldn't answer, but instead he focused all his energy on opening his eyes at least a little, to tell her that he was alert.

"Okay, let's get him to a room. O'Malley fetch a gurney, so we can transport him safely." He could hear Dr. Bailey speak but it sounded like she was standing far away from him, like the nurse had when he'd brought Laura to the ER after her suicide attempt. It didn't make any sense to him though. He wasn't sick, so what the hell where they talking about?

When George returned all 4 of them lifted him up off the cold linoleum floor of the locker room and he got his first look at the person that had been sitting behind him. The person who had massaged his back and trying to sooth him down and when he realised who it was, he couldn't help himself but look at her for a few moments before he had to give up and let his eyes flutter close again.

Addison was the one person he wanted to be there the most and still she was the one that he never wanted to hurt, which by the look on her face he already had.

"Fuck, I've messed it up again. Great. She wasn't supposed to get hurt" He thought as they wheeled the gurney towards an empty hospital room. However, before they arrived at their destination Alex had already lost consciousness again.

I know it's short, but reviews are always welcome! Thanks!