Word Count: 5200

Disclaimer: Not mine…mostly.
Rating:
Medical procedures.

Spoilers: A rough AU continuation from Ep. 402 and 403.

Summary: Alex-centric drama that also includes all other characters, conventional pairings and break ups as a car crash and subsequent shooting have far reaching repercussions for many Seattle Grace staff members.

Chapter Summary: What's going on with Alex…revealed. George gets some insight. Christina and Lexie connect, without words.

Thanks to IceWhisper (Comma Nazi) for beta-ing, all mistakes that you find are my own!

Time in Tableaus – Chapter Three

-

Callie's mouth is moving but the sounds that should be coming out seem to bounce off an invisible shield around him before they get close enough to register. He's aware enough to know that she looks mad but not aware enough to care and the second Dr. Bailey touches his arm the tenuous, clingy hold Alex has over his pain receptors completely shatters. How he doesn't vomit all over her, he has no idea. His eyes slam shut, there is no strength left in him for slow blinks now, and his last image is of grey, bumbling Norman lurching in his direction, arms outstretched in comical slow motion.

He'd laugh if he could be bothered and as it all goes black and soft he silently hopes that Norman gets to him in time.

-

There is a split second of absolute stillness and silence before everyone seems to react simultaneously. Norman has no idea how he managed to cover the required distance so quickly and the shock of making it means he's not quite prepared for how much of Alex's weight he ends up taking. They both land somewhat clumsily on the ER floor but nonetheless Norman is confident it is with less force than Alex would otherwise have encountered.

"Alex?"

His arms are wrapped protectively around Alex's middle and Alex's head is cushioned between Norman's ribs and the soft underside of his upper left arm. His legs are bent awkwardly up underneath him and Kelsey Churchill's words ring in his ears as Dr. Torres and Dr. Bailey both reach frantic hands in his direction.

"He moved kinda last second but it still got him hard, he went over the hood I think..."

"No, wait," he orders sharply with a false sternness and an authority that he doesn't feel and is shocked when both women freeze and turn their eyes towards him.

"Just, don't...touch him...Alex?" he diverts his attention from the staring women and back to Alex's slack face, still pressed up against his side.

-

"Dr. Stevens?"

Mark has the last of Kelsey's x-rays displayed on the light board and he indicates for Izzie to come forward and have a look.

"What do you think?"

"Well...ahh...Oh."

Izzie sees what Mark is alluding to and turns her face sideways to look at him.

"Oh."

"Yes. Oh. How would you proceed?"

"How would I proceed? You're actually asking me for my opin-"

"Dr. Stevens, I can always get someone else's opinion...if you're not sure, that is..."

Izzie recognises his words for the silent challenge that they are and wisely chooses to play smart. She takes a moment to consider the implications of the shard of glass that appears to not only have penetrated the skin but embedded itself completely in Kelsey's abdomen, before, and with sudden confidence, outlining a suitable pre-op and surgical plan to Mark Sloan.

He nods, lips parting in a sly half grin before turning to where Izzie's remaining interns are standing by Kelsey's bed.

"Have we managed to get hold of her mother yet?"

-

The second Alex goes slack under her touch, Miranda know she's made a huge mistake. She knew, she knew, there were things going on that Alex wasn't admitting to. Gazing at him now, her own heart beating somewhere in the back of her throat, she can't believe she let him convince her into thinking he'd be okay. Norman's words startle her into abrupt stillness and a quick look to her left shows her Callie is frozen in a similar stance.

"Dr. Shale? What's...Alex? Alex?" She starts to move again, to shift her weight in their direction but is halted once more before she can stretch her trembling fingers towards the spot on Alex's neck where she is praying she will feel the steady rush of blood under her skin.

"I said, don't touch him..."

"What's going on?" Callie speaks this time and her voice sounds nothing like the angry, hot headed Chief Resident she was channelling only seconds earlier.

"Dr. Sloan's patient, young Kelsey Churchill, she said before the vehicle crashed through the diner window that it struck Alex and that he went over its hood..." Norman is desperately trying to keep his body still and his voice even. He can instinctively feel that both women are wound so tightly they are practically humming with nervous energy beside him, over stretched guitar stings, sharp and taut. "She seems to think that it struck him from behind and if I were to hazard a guess at where something of that height would hit then I would think it may be in young Alex's best interests if we were to proceed with a certain degree of caution, wouldn't you agree?"

Norman's words contain no malice or sarcasm, though he surreptitiously thinks that perhaps they both deserve a little of each. He looks up at them for only the second time since settling to the floor with Alex and sees lines of panicked guilt splashed with broad strokes across both their faces. He briefly acknowledges that they are probably already beating themselves up enough for now and is suddenly distracted by a shudder of movement in his arms. Only moments later a pair of pain hazed eyes crack open and bore into his own.

Momentarily conscious again, Alex's breathing speeds up and becomes painful to listen to, like hot air searing over sharpened steel, fast and harsh and raw.

"Alex, whoa, it's okay. Just keep still."

His own calming tones are echoed by two higher more frantic voices that he hopes Alex will have the sense to ignore for the moment and initially Norman thinks he has. But then, suddenly, Alex is struggling to release himself from Norman's tightening hold, to get himself into a sitting position.

"Alex, lay still. It's okay. Alex, please lay still."

He resists the urge to place a hand on Alex's forehead for he knows, somehow instinctively, that such a display of familiarity will only serve to unsettle an already disoriented Alex even further. Norman can see that a crowd is gathering and though he still steadfastly believes that caution is their top priority he also wants to insure his resident doesn't become the sideshow attraction he is quickly developing into.

He looks up as an abruptly authoritative voice seems to read his mind.

"Okay…okay, Yang? Get me a collar and a backboard over here now, we need oxygen and a..."

Norman watches with relief as Dr. Bailey takes over a situation that is already far beyond his limited medical experience.

-

Christina, shocked by the sudden turn of events, moves instinctively at Dr. Bailey's command. A year of responding to her barked instructions means Christina's reactions are automatic, second nature. She motions for Lexie to follow her and it's not until Christina is reaching for the requested cervical collar that she fully begins to consider its implications.

"What's wrong with him?"

The words are whispered, the voice to her left timid and somewhat uncertain and even though it merely echoes the exact question Christina is currently asking herself she can't help but snap back a sarcastic retort. She is unsure if the spite is just her usual reaction to her intern or based on something more primal, something barely recognisable, something that almost tastes a little like guilt.

-

The ER is pulsing red and blue in front of her eyes and Callie can't stop staring at Alex, still slumped in a tangle of arms and legs on the floor. She feels sick and she knows it's got nothing to do with the fact that she skipped breakfast this morning.

And dinner last night for that matter.

Thankfully, Norman seems to be holding Alex fairly firmly in place at the moment and Miranda has taken charge of the growing crowd because Callie barely has control of her own fraying sanity. For the most part, Alex seems to be slipping in and out of consciousness and every time his eyes close Callie has to fight the urge to scream in his face and shake him back to waking.

'Don't do this to me, Karev, please don't do this to me, not now, not now, not now...'

The sentence repeats like a mantra in the back of her mind. It gets louder and louder with each reverberating not now and she knows it's totally unfair, knows that Alex didn't do this to deliberately ruin her day, though she can't help but think everything seems out to get her at the moment.

Every damn thing.

Christina has returned with a cervical collar and an intern hovers by her shoulder with a red backboard and straps but Callie knows there is more to be done before they can even think about loading him onto it. His eyes are open at the moment, but they're glazed over and unfocused, and Callie shudders to think what type of pain would be required to create such an expression. She wants to speak, to tell him he's okay, that they're going to look after him because he looks scared beyond belief and she has always, always imagined that Alex Karev would be scared of nothing; which is stupid, she knows, because everyone is scared of something. His left arm is wrapped around Norman's and his white knuckled fingers are twisted desperately into the sleeve of the older man's lab coat.

Miranda takes the collar from Christina's outstretched hand, swaps it for a muttered have radiology on stand-by to go as soon as we get him up, and gets a sharp, efficient nod as a response. "Okay, Alex, you with me?"

His eyes slide in her direction and it feels like his eyelids have suddenly had their insides coated with sandy grit. He's with her...but only just.

"I'm just going to put this on you, okay? Just to be sure, then we're going to straighten you out and get you off this floor..."

"No, no, no, no..." Alex squeezes his eyes shut in protest, the repeated negative low and raw in the back of his throat. Panicked at the thought of being moved but suddenly lucid enough to try and pass it off as simply not wanting the collar on, he tries again for a sitting position, tries to get his legs out from where they are trapped up underneath him. The pain in his back is so breathtakingly intense and white hot and it contrasts so drastically to the icy cold that envelopes the rest of him that, for a moment, everything goes blue.

"'M okay, 'm fine, jus' lemme up..."

The collar is wrapped around his neck before he can slur any further protests and he hears voices suggest straightening out his legs slowly and on the count of three.

One.

Two.

He moans on the count of three, right on cue. The kind of guttural sound that takes a stranglehold of control and concentration, the kind of moan you make when you're trying your damnedest not to scream.

-

The OR is stiflingly silent and from where George is hovering behind Meredith's shoulder, he can't really see much which is doing nothing for his suddenly non-existent concentration levels. His thoughts are on everything but the patient on the operating table in front of him, they aren't even in this hospital at all at the moment. They're firmly ensconced back at The Archfield, in the second room from the left, out of the elevators on the thirty-first floor.

Then they're in the Church of Elvis, Las Vegas, a stereotypically trashy chapel with the celebrant sporting one of the most elaborate and realistic Elvis wigs George has ever seen in person. Actually, scratch that, the only Elvis wig George has ever seen in person, so maybe it's not that remarkable after all.

He's nudged from his reverie by an elbow to his ribs and the sudden contact has him dropping the notebook and pen he had poised in a studious guise in front of him. He lurches to the floor to collect his displaced items, the notepad is within reach but, horrifically, the pen has rolled about a metre and a half forward and is resting against the white shoe of the anaesthetist perched at the head of the operating table.

"O'Malley? Care to keep your personal belongings under control in my OR?"

"No, I mean...Yes, I'm sorry...Dr. Shepherd, I'll just..." he scurries forward and snatches up the offending implement, tries not to flinch (again) when the anaesthetist gazes down at him with undisguised scorn.

He hurries back into position behind Meredith, gives himself a stern, internal concentrate as she grins at him tightly from behind her surgical mask, full of doe eyed sympathy and what he thinks might be understanding but he knows she doesn't understand and he knows he doesn't deserve the sympathy.

He tries to grin back in sheepish thanks, but he can't.

If only you knew, Mer...

-

"Alex? Alex? Can you tell me what happened? What do you remember?"

"Lucy? Luce?"

"Alex, it's Dr. Bailey..."

"LUCY?"

"Alex? Alex, look at me..." There are fingers on his forehead suddenly, hot against his cold skin.

"I need you to answer some questions for me, can you do that?" He tries to nod that he can but there are hands on either side of his head, partially covering his ears, that hold him tightly still.

"Can you remember what happened? How did you get hurt?"

"No, no, 'm fine, 'm fine..."

"Alex, did the car hit you? Alex?" He can tell she is getting frustrated with him but she won't listen to him when he says he's fine. In fact, now that he is lying flat he feels so much better, nothing really hurts any more, except maybe his wrist and that he can definitely live with.

"Alex? Can you feel this?" A different voice this time, Dr. Torres, Callie. At least she's not yelling at him any more.

"Alex? Can you feel this?" She's out of his field of vision, so he has no idea what she's talking about and he vaguely thinks that's probably bad. Very bad.

He hears shouted orders for MRI's and CAT scans, various drugs and lines, monitors and tests, and he feels his eyes drift shut again, the act of keeping them open no longer something he is capable of achieving.

-

"Okay, so, Kelsey," Izzie pulls the seat up to beside Kelsey's head before sinking into it and resting her elbows on the edge of the mattress, "the x-rays have shown us that there's a piece of gla-"

"Do you think Alex is okay? I mean, he was walking around and talking to me and stuff and he said..."

"I'm sure he'll be just fine, Alex is pretty tough, he'll probably have done more damage to the car that its done to him."

"I can remember it more clearly now, watching him run past and then seeing the SUV coming towards him, I remember wanting to knock on the glass and warn him to get out of the way but I had a tray of coffees in my hands and I didn't know where to...anyway, guess it was kinda dumb in the end. I shoulda just dropped them 'coz that's pretty much where they ended up anyway...I don't even like coffee."

Her last words are clipped, as though she's trying not to cry and Izzie picks her bandaged hand up off the mattress and rests it lightly on her own.

"Hey, I'm sure it wouldn't have mattered, even if you had been able to knock, Alex is pretty quick, so if there wasn't time for him to get out of the way then the car must have been coming pretty fast..."

Kelsey nods in reluctant agreement, blinking fiercely in an attempt to keep her tears at bay.

"I've seen him before, you know..."

"Who? Alex?"

"No, well, yeah...him too, but no, I mean the guy with the gun. Jason I think. He's been in the shop a few times with Lucy, usually for breakfast and always with her. She'd been coming in by herself lately but before that, they used to come in together all the time."

The tears she is fighting escape suddenly and slide down the sides of her face, twin lines of salty betrayal.

"Hey, it'll be okay, you know..."

She shakes her head, just the barest of movements, "I don't think so..." then, more forcefully, "...no, no I don't think so. I have glass in me, actually in me, and Lucy's dead and Alex..."

"Is probably just fine, and you will be too as soon as your Mum gets here and we can take you off to surgery."

"Do you really think so? Do you really think I'll be okay?"

"I know so, because I'm going to be there to watch Dr. Sloan do his thing. He's the best, you know, but don't tell him I told you that, because he already thinks he's God's gift to women..." Izzie winks one eye in Kelsey's direction conspiratorially, grinning at Kelsey's softly giggled reply.

"Yeah, I kinda got that impression already. I guess he's alright but, you know, I think Alex is way cuter!"

"Ooooh, definitely don't tell him that! Actually, don't tell either of them that! Alex and Dr. Sloan are a lot alike in that department...but you're right you know, Alex is cuter...and nicer, but he'll pretend he isn't most of the time. Likes people to think he's a tough guy."

"Ooooh, a bad boy...I like bad boys!"

"Nah, Alex is only a pretend bad boy, he's a big teddy bear underneath it all. You should see him with the babies 'round here...he goes all gooey and soft..."

"Lucy was going to have a baby..."

"Yeah," Izzie sighs, patting Kelsey's hand gently once again, "yeah, I heard that."

-

"We need a neurosurgical consult down here now," Callie only just manages to keep the hysteria out of her voice as she shouts in Christina's direction, "Get Derek Shepherd down here, now."

"Uh, he's in surgery with the shoo..."

"I said, get Shepherd down here, now," Callie re-states through clenched teeth. She returns Christina's nod of understanding with one of her own before raising her eyes to meet first Miranda's and then Norman's, who still hasn't moved from his place beside Alex, a fact that Callie is oddly thankful for.

She reaches for a pair of scissors and begins to cut Alex's scrub top off with considerably more care than she would normally take. She has it almost all the way off before she notices the mottled bruising snaking its way round his side from a starting point somewhere on his back that she can't see.

"Shit, Dr. Bailey, you should probably take a look at this."

-

"God...what a mess..."

Derek's hands are moving skillfully, methodically as bone fragments after bone fragments are removed from where they are embedded in brain tissue.

"Mark's gonna have fun with this when I'm finished," he mutters, dropping another piece into a small silver dish that already contains numerous other shards just like it.

Meredith sighs through her surgical mask and Derek looks up briefly and catches her eyes as she speaks.

"It seems so unfair that he gets to make it..."

"He's not even close to making it just yet, Dr. Grey..."

"I know that, but...you know what I..."

The rest of her sentence tapers off as the door to the OR swings open and despite the gown and the mask being held in place over her nose and mouth Meredith recognises Christina instantly.

"Christina? What's...?"

"Dr. Yang, I think Dr. Grey made it perfectly clear that you wer-"

"Ah, Dr. Shepherd, we need you downstairs..."

"Christina?" Meredith interjects before Derek cuts her off.

"I'm in the middle of trying to save this man's life Dr. Yang, whatever's going on in the ER will just have to..."

"Dr. Shepherd, Dr. Torres and Dr. Bailey really need you in the ER urgently..."

Derek, who is yet to even look up, places the silver instrument in his hand down into the bowl with a ringing clatter before turning his head to look in her direction.

"Well if Dr. Torres and Dr. Bailey have requested me then it must be urgent..." sarcasm dripping like melting ice from his lips.

"Christina, what's going on?"

"Umm, I don't think...look, Derek..." all sense of hierarchy and rank gone, "just trust me okay?"

"Dr. Yang, I have this man's brain exposed on...well, I guess technically it was exposed before I sliced him open but, that's beside the point, and..."

"For God sake, Alex, okay? It's Alex. He collapsed in the ER about ten minutes ago, turns out the freakin' SUV, being driven I might add, by the man with the exposed brain that you are so busy trying to save right now, ploughed into him before it went through the window. He's in and out of consciousness and didn't respond when Callie did a reflex test."

Christina's run to the OR and subsequent tirade leave her panting and for a moment, the in and out of her breath and the monotonous beeping of the heart rate monitor are the only sounds in the room before Derek looks up, first at Meredith and then towards the anaesthetist.

Both give him affirmative nods and he steps back without a word to follow Christina to the ER.

-

"Hey, Kelsey…look who's here…" Izzie motions to a spot slightly behind her and to the left where Kelsey's mother is currently in conversation with Mark Sloan, having her daughters condition explained as well as the implications of the surgery. Kelsey's grin is wide and immediate.

"So, you ready to go?"

"Ready to get that thing outta me? Hell yeah…!"

Izzie grins back reflexively, feeling the young patients energy seep into her and using it to push aside her own worries.

"Well, before you go, I might just quickly go and make sure Alex is still as cute as ever for you…how's that sound?"

Kelsey's grin morphs slowly into a shy, sheepish smile, as though she's been caught out.

"Yeah, that'd be good, thanks…he runs past every now and then, I was outside once, cleaning one of the outdoor tables and he kinda smiled as he went past…God, how dumb does that sound?"

"It doesn't sound dumb at all…trust me…"

-

Miranda holds the ultrasound wand gently over Alex's abdomen before taking a jagged breath and pressing it to his skin, she can barely bring herself to look at the screen and it only takes seconds for her worst fears to be confirmed. The collective intake of breath around the bed is audible, even above the background noise and beeping machinery.

"Shit…shit, shit, shit, shit, shit…" Callie scrubs her hands over her face and presses her fingers deep into her eyes.

"No, Callie, look at me…Dr. Torres, look at me…" she looks up reluctantly.

"This, Callie, is not your fault."

"But-"

"Dr. Torres, this is not your fault."

Callie exhales slowly in defeat, "I know, I know it's not…"

"Dr. Shale, we need to type and cross match and get the blood bank on stand-by and then can you see if you can get hold of Alex's medical records…" he is nodding and noting her every word.

"Should I perhaps get his next of kin details for you too?"

Miranda nods in the affirmative without really thinking and it's not until Norman retreats around the corner and out of sight that she realises that might not be such a good idea after all.

"Dr. Bailey?"

Miranda looks up as Derek enters the ER and almost sags with relief.

-

"Okay, Dr. Torres I want you to hold his head as…"

Callie hold her hands out, palms face down, in front of her and smiles wryly at the violent shaking, "Probably not the best idea, Dr. Shepherd."

Derek looks across to Christina who instantly moves in to place at the head of the bed, relegating Callie to Alex's feet.

"Okay, I'm just going to do a quick check before we get him to radiology and then off to theatre, we don't really have any time to waste here…"

Christina looks towards Lexie and begins to raise her eyebrows, to silently asking if she is okay to do this. She gets a tight smile and a small nod in affirmative response before she can complete the movement and Christina wonders briefly when she and Lexie started being able to have entire conversations without words.

The shift in position increases Alex's blood pressure and has him returning to excruciating consciousness. His eyes open and all he can see are hands, feet, and the blue of surgical scrubs and he struggles to reign in his imploding panic levels. There are hands on his neck working their way down his spine carefully and he thinks, in that split second of his life, that he has never been more terrified.

Suddenly the curtain that is blocking his blurred view of the rest of the ER is ripped open with a loud hey, Alex before…

"Alex?"

Izzie's fingers fly to her lips and she looks from Dr. Bailey to Christina to Derek, a rapid, confused montage of frozen faces and eerie silence.

"Dr. Stevens…"

"What's…?"

"Izz…"

The last voice is the quietest, the most breathy but it's also the one that gets everyone's attention.

Izzie still can't begin to comprehend what is going on, why they have Alex secured in a collar and why Christina's hands are wrapped around his head and neck, why Callie appears to be crying and why Derek is looking at him like that…

"Izzie, maybe you should…"

"Izz…get me out?"

She looks towards Alex again, forgets to breathe for a moment as his voice slices through her chest and his eyes, liquid and hazy, reinforce his plea.

"Please Izzie? Get me out of here…please…"

"Dr. Stevens."

Dr. Bailey's delivery of her name is more command and direction than it is a question and Izzie nods back at her once before kneeling down to bring herself to eye level with Alex, tries to wipe her tears away before she gets there, tries not to scare him any more than he obviously already is.

"Shhh, Alex, it's okay. It'll be over in a minute. Just hold still for a little longer, okay?"

He squeezes his eyes shut at her words and she places a hand softly, like a whisper, on his cheek.

"Izzie, Izzie, Izzie…God…it hurts…"

"I know, but it's okay. It'll be okay…"

-

The silence in the OR is now even more stifling than it was before. George has stepped into where Derek had been and is helping Meredith keep the site irrigated, waiting for Derek to return. He feels sick and is taking deep breaths to try and calm down. He looks up at Meredith every few seconds, like it's a compulsion he can't control, and almost every time he does, Meredith is staring back at him anyway, so he doesn't think it matters.

"Shit. I can't…George?"

He looks up again, a reflex before nodding in understanding.

"I'll go see what I can find out."

Derek is still examining Alex's spine when George cautiously pulls back the curtain and peers in. Izzie is crouched in front of Alex's face and he can see that they are both crying, Izzie has her hand on his face and is whispering him, her lips moving with words George is thankful he can't hear. They're looking at each other like there is no-one else in the room, like nothing else matters, and George is confused to discover he is more pleased than jealous at this revelation.

He turns his attention to Callie briefly, realises that she has been watching him watching them. She is also crying, or she has been anyway, and the smudged mascara reminds him of earlier that morning, pressed up against the hotel room wall.

"Dr. O'Malley? Is everything okay?"

"Ahh, yes, Meredith…I mean Dr. Grey, she's doing fine but she was wondering, well…we all were…if everything's…"

He trails off, knows Derek understands exactly what he's saying despite the jumbled compilation of vowels and consonants he has just delivered.

"Well, I'm done here for the moment, so you can report back to Dr. Grey that I'll be back there in a moment. Okay?"

George nods, but it's not the information he wanted.

Derek knows that.

"Yes, I'll tell her, but…I think…"

"Dr. O'Malley, I'll be back there in a minute."

"Yes, Doctor. Right…I'll let her know."

Izzie doesn't even turn around.

-

Alex's blood pressure drops when they turn him back, he loses consciousness instantly and a quick ultrasound shows his liver is still bleeding.

"Okay, we're going to have to get him straight to theatre, or a spinal injury is going to be the least of his problems."

Izzie is holding an oxygen mask in place over Alex's nose and mouth, the collar preventing it from being secured conventionally. She motions for Lexie to take over for her.

"Shit, I'm meant to be…Mark, he'll kill me, I've got to…Christina?"

Christina nods, knows exactly what Izzie means, meets her eyes with a silent we'll look after him.

-

"Dr. Sloan?" Izzie slips through the OR doors, still in the process of tying her facemask securely at the back of her head. "I'm sorry, I got held up and…"

"Kelsey told me where you were, everything okay?"

She looks up to meet his eyes but doesn't answer straight away. Doesn't need to.

"Do you want…"

"No, no, it's okay, Dr. Bailey and Callie and Christina are with him…and ah, Derek." She almost chokes on his name and its hidden implications.

Mark holds her gaze for a second before returning his attention to the surgery.

-

Derek re-enters the OR and a drawn out pause is broken suddenly by everyone speaking at once.

"Is everything…?"

"What's…?"

"Is he…?

The flat lining of the heart monitor brings everyone to an immediate silence.

-

Mark carefully dissects around the shard, Izzie holds out a pair of forceps to him and has to concentrate on keeping her hand stilled.

"Pressure's dropping…."

"What?"

The anaesthetist speaks again, "pressure's dropping, is she bleeding anywhere else?"

"No, I've hardly done anything yet…what…"

"Still dropping, shit…she must be reacting to the anaesthesia…"

-

"Okay," Miranda looks across Alex's prone figure to Christina standing opposite her. "You ready to do this?"

Christina nods quickly and Miranda picks up a scalpel.

Almost immediately there is blood everywhere and Miranda instinctively knows it is still coming, fights through the mess to find its source.

"C'mon, c'mon, Karev…you will not…"

But he will, and he does and the rapid crashing of the heart rate monitor, the frantic screaming and the bleated warnings all merge with the rushing of her own blood between her ears. She looks up quickly, to get some perspective, some distance, some clarity only to catch the forlorn sight of Norman in the gallery, both hands pressed to the glass, looking helplessly down upon them.

TBC