Not knowing what else to do, he paged Addison. After all, she had been his best friend for over a decade. He rode in silence, waiting for Meredith to show signs of life, or a return phone call. Tears had been streaming down his face, but he had no idea. Miranda just looked at him, suddenly feeling softness for Dr. McDreamy. She put her hand on his arm, and he looked up at her.
"Derek," she began, not sure where she was going with this. "We will do everything we can to help her. She's our girl."
"She can swim, Miranda. She can swim!" he was about to really cry for the first time since he was seven years old and broke his arm on the playground when his phone rang.
"I got your page. What's up?" Addison's voice came on the line.
"I…I found her…She fell in the bay."
"Okay…"
"No, she's not okay. She's blue, Addie."
"How long has she been down?"
"I don't know…" his voice broke.
When they arrived at the hospital, Addison greeted the gurney before it even entered the pit. She pushed through the massive crowds in the hospital halls to a room she had cleared out especially for Meredith. Addison took over the compressions for Dr. Bailey and shooed Derek out of the room. Richard took over for him with an ambu bag. Nothing registered on the machines monitoring Meredith. For thirty minutes, a team of Seattle's finest doctors worked to save Meredith's life. Nothing happened. A pulse did not register, nor a heart rate. Meredith didn't have sinus rhythm.
"Asystole," Richard spoke the words everyone had been avoiding.
"We can't give up yet," Miranda's voice was frantic.
"She's been asystole for over thirty minutes. I don't want to give up either, but the chances now…" Richard trailed off.
"Give me a minute with her," came Addison's voice.
"Excuse me?" Miranda countered.
"Give me just one minute alone with her."
"I don't know what you think you can do, but…"
"Just trust me, Chief."
The other doctors and nurses cleared the room, leaving Addison doing compressions, the machines breathing for Meredith. Addison looked at the pale, blue face of a woman she once held great contempt for and felt only sadness.
"Meredith?" she whispered, still compressing. "I'm not sure if you can hear me, but if you can, listen up."
She looked at the monitor, still flat-lining and tried to keep her composure. What she wanted to say wouldn't be easy to admit, even to herself. She cursed silently for not noticing the symptoms before. Meredith had been more pale than usual and she hardly touched lunch in the cafeteria. Addison knew those signs well, for they were the first.
"I know how you feel. You probably don't believe me, but I do. I feel the same way myself pretty often, but you can't give up yet. There are so many more things waiting for you. You have the love of a wonderful man. He'll be there for you. So, whatever it is you are struggling with, fight through it. It will be worth it in the end. Damn it, Grey, you're our girl. Don't give up yet."
Just as Addison was ready to give up, the machine beeped. It beeped once, twice, flat-line. She swore under her breath.
Don't do this.
I didn't mean to.
You never mean to.
I really didn't mean to this time.
Let me go instead. Go back and make me proud. Be more than ordinary.
I don't know how.
Yes, you do. Now, go!
Addison looked at the machine, wondering if she had imagined the beeping, the small, but significant signs of life. Beep. She looked over again, knowing she had not imagined that beep. Her eyes wandered outside to where Miranda and Richard were telling the others everything looked pretty hopeless. Beep. Beep. The machines jumped to life.
"Atta girl, Mer. I knew you could do this," Addison whispered.
"Ohh," Meredith moaned.
At that moment, Derek burst through the door, frantic with grief. He looked from Addison to Meredith then to the machines. Speechless, he looked back out to where Dr. Bailey stood with the interns. He took Meredith's cold hands into his own and turned to Addison.
"Addie, what did you do?"
"I don't know. I just started talking to her. She did the rest on her own."
"Thank-you," he whispered into Meredith's wet, tangled hair.
She turned her head slightly, closer to him, "I…"
"Don't try to talk, sweetie. Just rest now. We can talk later." He turned back to Addison, "She's okay."
"It's some kind of miracle, I guess."
"No, it was you. You brought her back. What did you say?"
"Nothing really."
"You said something, and she heard you."
"There is no scientific proof that you can hear when you're unconscious."
"But she heard you. I know she did."
"It doesn't matter. She's going to be just fine. She's alive, and she can talk. I'm going to tell everyone."
Addison stepped out of the room to find the interns, including Christina, in a pile on the floor clutching each other and crying. Miranda and Richard were sitting against the wall, staring blankly at some unnoticeable object across the hall. Even Mark had joined the vigil outside Meredith's room. Not one of them moved when she stepped out. She cleared her throat, still no one moved.
"Meredith is alive," she stated quietly, suppressing a joyful yell.
Seven pairs of eyes turned to stare at her. Then she was greeted with many questions. She decided to answer Cristina first.
"She's alive, and she can talk. Beyond that, I have no idea what kind of damage there is. You can go in and see her."
Cristina pushed through the door and shooed McDreamy out of the room. She was anxious to see for herself that her person was really and truly okay. Shutting the door behind Derek, she sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Are you seriously okay?"
"It hurts," Meredith whispered in response. "But, look, I can move my fingers and toes."
She wiggled her fingers at Cristina with a small smile. Cristina sighed and wrapped her arms around Meredith's frail frame, a voluntary hug.
"I don't know what I would've done without you. You're my person and my maid of honor. I'm marrying Burke."
"Congratulations…ohh…"
"You need to rest. Can I get you anything?"
"Huh-uh. I just want to…" she drifted back to sleep, smiling faintly.
A/N: Sorry it took so long to update. Chemistry was ruling my life, then the site wouldn't let me upload. Thanks to loves2writestories for telling me how to upload without the document manager. Please, please review!!!!!!