A/N: Thank you all for your lovely reviews! They really do help, and I appreciate every single one! Again, warning, there is some swearing and descriptions of injury. I am not a disaster expert, nor a medical professional. Research for this story was done on the internet (And the show). Thanks for sticking around for chapter 3, and I am hard at work on chapter 4. Let me know what you think!


"You don't like my voice."

Alex rolled his eyes. Did she really believe that he cared about that right now? So what if he did find her voice annoying occasionally? Lots of people did. Okay, so he might be the only person who actually complained about it to her, but he only sort of found it annoying. When he was cranky. That just happened to be a lot of the time.

Could April really believe he was the kind of doctor who wouldn't do everything to save her life? That he was enough of a jerk to let something like his jaded opinion of her voice prevent him from taking care of her? No way. If there was one thing Alex believed about himself, knew about himself, it was that he was a damn good doctor.

Alex cringed, feeling an unexpected wave of guilt, as he listened to April. She sounded so certain. It totally made him feel like a douche. But then again from her perspective, he probably looked a lot like one. Alex knew he behaved that way most of the time. It was easier for him. He didn't get hurt when he hurt people first.

And she was obviously confused and in pain. He grabbed April's hands and brushed her comments off. He needed to keep her awake, and the best way he could think of doing that was to keep her talking. Good thing Kepner was usually a talker anyway.

"That doesn't matter. I-I just like to put up a fuss. You know, to keep life interesting. Right now it's interesting enough without me complaining. Just talk alright?"

April started to ramble on about having chickens as a kid, so Alex slipped on a pair of gloves from the med kit and started doing a more in depth examination of her. He fervently hoped that the search and rescue people above could find a way to get her out quickly. Glancing next to him, he realized that he could probably use the door as a stretcher. If the search and rescue team shifted the rubble enough to free April's leg.

The gears in his head started to move and he envisioned how a possible escape might work. If he could pull her leg free and get her onto the door, Alex could slide April out the same way he'd gotten the homeless kid out.

When she trailed off again, Alex prodded her to continue, as he checked her eyes.

"You had a chicken?" He kept his tone light, and continued to check her injuries.

Her pupils were definitely sluggish, and Alex thought that one reacted slower than the other. That could mean she had a brain bleed, which meant that her window for rescue had just gotten much smaller. Of course the light he was working with down here was pretty low, so Alex knew he might be wrong. He really hoped he was.

April continued her rather disjointed story about her childhood with chickens on the farm in Ohio, explaining how she used to like helping her Dad and stuff. Figures Kepner would be the kind of kid who liked doing chores. Although, Alex had to admit that it didn't sound like she had much else to do. It didn't seem that kiddie Kepner enjoyed any more popularity among her peers than chief resident Kepner.

"So, you were always a freakin' goody two shoes," he teased, which elicited a weak smile.

Alex felt a small pang of jealousy when April talked about working with her Dad. Sounded like he was a stand up guy. The kind of guy who could put up with no less than 4 daughters and a wife couped up on one farm which, if the other Kepner women were anything like April, was positively saintlike. He sounded like the kind of Dad who'd always stand by you. Who'd never hit someone he loved. Ever. Alex dismissed this line of thinking and began to gently prod April's abdomen to determine if his theory on broken ribs was correct.

"Hens...have to have, um, a p-pecking order, but if they draw blood you should s-separate them. And-and...Al-lex? What are you doing?"

Alex might have laughed at the look April was giving him, a mixture of mild alarm and something else, if the situation wasn't so dire.

He smirked, "What do you think? I'm copping a feel?"

"No...no." For a split second, Alex thought she looked a little crest fallen. Then April winced, sucking in air through clenched teeth with a hiss as he continued to gently run his fingers along her ribs. Bingo. Lower left side. Broken. Damn.

Alex scooted down along side April's body, holding his penlight between his teeth for light, hoping that he could get a better idea of what was up with her leg. The tourniquet seemed to be holding, and hopefully the blood flow was slowed enough so that she could make it out of here without deadly blood loss.

"Alex?" Now she suddenly sounded panicked. "We..we had a patient. Didn't w-we? T-Tom. Is he? I don't remember..."

"I got him out. He's fine," Alex told her, really hoping that she didn't question any further, because he really didn't want to have to explain what had happened to Martin the search and rescue guy. Wouldn't exactly raise April's morale at all. Either she was satisfied with the answer, or his examination of her leg was too painful, because she stopped talking rather abruptly.

April's face looked pale and clammy and her eyes rolled back again, and Alex was afraid she'd pass out. His hands froze. Crap, crap, crap. Okay, so now he knew. Even if he couldn't see much of what was wrong with her leg, it was obviously very severe, and it was causing the worst pain. Which meant that Alex could theorize that the damage involved broken bones and nerve endings. The very worst in terms of crush injuries for limbs. And for pain.

"Hey, come on. Don't do that. I know it hurts. I'm sorry, but I have to finish, so I got a full picture of what's going on. You can...you can yell if you need to. Go ahead, it might help." Alex knew it might also help April stay awake. Her face crumpled, eyes widening. She kept her mouth clamped shut as though she was afraid that once she started screaming she'd never stop.

"Come on, don't worry. I'll do it with you. Get ready. One. Two. Three!" He let out some of his own frustration, yelling, and at the same time moving his hands down further along her leg to see if he could diagnose by touch more specifics about what was going on. Soon his yell was joined by April's wrenching scream. And now that he could feel what was going on with her knee, Alex definitely couldn't blame her.

He winced, and pulled his bloodied hands away from the exposed kneecap. Ortho wasn't really his thing, but he was reasonably sure that April had a severely fractured patella, if not a shattered one. And the top of her knee was as far as he could explore. Alex still had no idea what was going on beneath the rest of the rubble, below her knee. He'd stopped shouting at this point, and April was now sobbing heavily and hyperventilating.

Quickly sliding back up to face her Alex started to reach down to take her hands, schooling his face to be comforting. He didn't want her to know how bad he suspected the leg was. "Shh, it's okay. You're alright. It's okay. I'm stopping. I'm done now."

Alex realized that grabbing her hands with bloody gloves wasn't going to do much to calm her down, so he hastily slipped them off. The whole place was a walking tetanus shot anyway, and with her leg buried, April was probably already well on her way to getting an infection. What she really needed was someone to hold her hand. Human touch and all that. Alex knew he could do that.

Sliding one hand in to hers, and using the other to brush the tears away from her cheeks, he anxiously worried while April fought to calm her breathing. With her broken rib it it was a risk to have examined the leg like he had. She could perforate her lung. But Alex had had to assess the situation. After what seemed like an eternity, her breathing evened out, returning to the regular but slightly hitched rhythm she'd had before. Her eyes still held a look of extreme panic, though.

Taking her other hand and squeezing them both Alex joked, "On the bright side, it looks like your hands are unscathed. Surgeon's hands are safe. So don't worry, you'll be back to doing surgeries in no time." It probably wasn't in the best taste, his humor rarely was, but he really hoped it was true.

April shook her head, "D-don't lie." Her voice sounded stronger and more coherent than it had so far. Maybe the pain had cleared her head a bit. "I know this is bad," she continued, "I know crush injuries are...bad, Alex. I'm pinned. My l-leg. Not good."

"Hey, don't talk like that. We'll get you out. I promise."

April lip quivered and her eyes darted away from his. "I'm gonna die." She sounded too sure of that.

"Hell no you're not," Alex said as lightly as possible. "Not today." Nope. He was going to get her out. He just needed to focus. Get her out, onto an ambulance, and back to the hospital. All he had to do was keep her alive until he got her out.

When she still didn't look at him Alex leaned into her eyeline and held her gaze. "Hey, listen to me. I promise we will get you out. You're not gonna die."

He knew that it was actually still a very real possibility. In these conditions he had no way of knowing much more than the barest minimums about her injuries, and there was relatively little he could do down here to treat them. Which is why Alex felt he had to make April believe that she was going to be okay.

Because sometimes, even in the most critical patients, belief made all the difference. Like the kids in peds who believed in magic and fairies, and somehow ended up more resilient than many adult patients. That's what Robbins always said. Kids believed in magic and fairies, and somehow many of them could still come back from the most critical of conditions. And in a lot of ways, April had held on to some of that. Not that she was immature or childlike. Not because of the whole virgin thing either. Alex just noticed that she'd held on to that sense of wonder, to goodness, and to a sense of hope, which most other adults, himself included had long since abandoned.

April needed to believe she'd live. Alex needed to get her out.

April stared intently back at him for a long time, before she finally repeated the words, "I'm not going die. Not today."


"I'm not going to die. I'm not going to die."

It became a mantra April repeated over and over to herself. She wanted to believe it. She could almost believe it. After all, she was an optimist at heart. And it was hard to believe that she could survive having a whole building collapse on her only to die waiting to be rescued. Life had to be a little fairer than that.

Then again, optimist or not, experience had shown April that life definitely didn't work like that. It wasn't fair. If it was, everyone on earth would have the luxury of dying painlessly in their sleep, surrounded by people who loved them at a ripe old age. Knowing that death was inevitable, that was exactly how April wanted to go. Not trapped in the dark. Not in pain. Not with someone who generally thought you were a joke.

How many times had she seen patients die unfairly? Friends? People died because of stupid little mistakes, someone died because of her little mistake. A single distraction. One oversight. If something as inconsequential as that could make someone die, than being trapped in the rubble of a damaged building seemed like a surefire way to snuff it.

Or maybe she was just being morose. April's mind felt incredibly fuzzy, especially since Alex's exam of her leg. That had been pure agony. Ten times worse than anything she'd ever felt.

At the time the pain had cleared her thoughts somewhat, but since then the dull ache in the back of her head had grown stronger, and April's muddled thoughts raced around inside her head, alternating between feeling absolute certainty that she was on the brink of death, and cautious optimism.

She would have drowned in fear, and the chaotic turns of her thoughts, if not for Alex. Blinking up at him now, April could tell that Alex was doing his utmost best to get her out. It was one thing she'd learned about him in the times they'd shared pediatric rotations. It was proof enough to April that he wasn't the jerk he pretended to be. For whatever reason he might act that way, she could tell that underneath was someone who dedicated himself to helping others, usually children. Alex Karev never gave up on a patient. And it was comforting to know that he wasn't going to give up on her, however much of a lost cause she worried she might be.

April felt sick. Clammy. She shifted fitfully, and winced when the movement made her feel slightly queasy as pain shot up from her leg. The nausea persisted and she was drifting again because it took her a while to notice that Alex was no longer only talking to her. A vaguely familiar voice now echoed with in their tiny space.

"...have a crane ready to do this, Karev. We can only lift it so high...risk of secondary collapse. Think you can pull her free if we..lifted...beam a few feet?"

"Yeah...can do it...need the main heavy beam to raise...That's...really keeping the leg down...rest rubble..."

"...reinforced your exit...ready to take her..."

April couldn't focus on the conversation Alex was having any longer. Her whole body felt cold, and her stomach was still in knots. She swallowed hard. She so did not want to throw up right now. After trying to squeeze Alex's hand, she realized with a dim sense of alarm she was beginning to have trouble controlling her shaky movements. She felt her body shivering. April didn't know if her shaking came from the cold or her injuries or something else.

Her stomach lurched and she swallowed hard again, blinking rapidly and trying to focus on Alex's face as it now loomed above her. "'Kay...'pril...I'm...pull when they... you out..." he looked puzzled when she didn't respond. "...hear me?"

She squinted, and concentrated all she could on paying attention to what he was saying. It was difficult. April felt like her mind was swimming, deep underwater and it was harder and harder to pull up for a breath. By the time she pulled herself back at the surface, and more in sync with what was going on, Alex had moved behind her, resting her head in his lap.

He grunted, seemingly bracing his heals on the rubble beneath them and sliding his arms beneath her. She was struck by both how intimate and awkward the position was. His arms were looped through her armpits, and his hands were clasped across her chest. The last time they were physically this close was in an on call room. That hadn't ended well at all, so how could this?

April couldn't help but giggle softly. Didn't Alex understand how absurd it was? Some other part of her mind screamed that she had really lost it, but she was unable to suppress her weak laughter. Maybe it was the shock.

"Oh, so now you decided to join us?"

April didn't realize she'd left. She couldn't see his face, but she could tell from the tension in his body that his nonchalant tone of voice was a front.

"Alex," she moaned. "W-what's happening?"

"I'm going to pull you out. I'm sorry, but it's gonna hurt like hell."

She opened her mouth to ask another question when Alex 'shhed' her.

That other voice, the one she'd kind of heard before, drifted down to them again.

"Ready Karev? We going to lift in one, two...three!"

An incredible pressure which April had almost grown accustomed to was suddenly gone from her leg. She could only enjoy the feeling of relief for a spilt second before the piercing pain in her leg took her breath away, and made tears spring to her eyes. The pain was paralyzing; too overwhelming to scream, or move. She could only pant feebly and flop around as her body went limp. The intensity increased as she felt Alex pull her backwards. Black spots danced before April's eyes, and a white noise filled her ears before she slowly slipped away from it all.

Time didn't seem to make sense to April. She could have been out for only a second, or it could have been a lifetime. As she painfully came back to consciousness, April ruefully guessed that it would be safe to assume the former rather than the latter.

Without opening her eyes, April could tell that she was still the small void of the dark building. Still in agony. Why, why, why, couldn't she just pass out and stay unconscious? Like, if she had do die, why did her body and mind insist that she be awake for it? She'd rather not know. It would be much better to be asleep. Then you'd never know what was coming. Not like Charlie. He'd died kind of trapped in a way. April had had nightmares about him and Reed for weeks after the shooting. She still had them sometimes. And now she was dying too.

April sensed that she was definitely free from the rubble though. Now she was lying on her side with her cheek plastered against something that was surprisingly flat and cool. Maybe she'd moved too. But until she could open her eyes, April wasn't sure of anything. Someone was pulling on her leg though. Oh yeah, she smiled faintly. Alex was here. If she was dying, she wasn't alone.

Still, whatever he was doing to her legs just made everything hurt worse. With tremendous effort, she finally managed to pry open he eyes, and the sight which met her made her sure that this was is it. Death. She was dying. Someone had come for her.

Reed sat, unmoving in the corner not far from where April lay. She still looked pale and bloody, like she had the day she'd died, when April had tripped on her in that storage closet. Wasn't it true that people who'd almost died have memories of lost loved ones coming to get them? She muddled brain strained to remember details from the late night documentaries about crossing to the other side she'd once watched in the flickering blue light of her tv in her and Reed's old apartment. April couldn't remember. Her vision of Reed provided no help, and continued to sit frozen like a statue.

She must have whimpered or shivered or something because from behind her, she could hear Alex curse. "Damn it. April, are you awake? Can you hear me? Lay still."

"April," Alex repeated. "You shouldn't...what's wrong? Can you try to stay still for me?"

"I'm dying," she mumbled.

"No, you're not. We already talked about this."

"Reed. I s-see Reed. She's here to get me."

"April that's not-Geez"

"I left her d-dead in a closet and now she's here to take m-me."

"You're not making sense. I know that what you see must seem real. But, remember you hit your head? Are you sure you can trust everything you see?"

"But I see her." April could only shake and sob. Behind her Alex sighed. She suddenly had the strange sensation that the cool flat surface beneath her was moving. And with it she was moving. How strange. The change in position, though slow was enough to make April's stomach roll again, and the ache in her head throbbed. Alex grunted a little and cleared his throat.

"Okay...well...how do you know she's here to take you to die? I mean, she was your best friend. Right? She's probably just here because you are hurt. To look out for you. And make sure you get out okay. Doesn't mean you are dying."

Maybe...maybe that's what the documentary had said? After all, the people in it who had seen there loved ones on the brink of death had livedto tell the tale. In case, April wanted to let herself believe that his was only the brink. Not really dying. She could believe that. She could try. Even if Alex was only being nice.

April wanted to tell Alex, she wanted to explain that she thought he was right about Reed. Wanted to ask him if he'd seen the late night special on crossing over too? To thank him for being here with her. For trying to save her. For showing she was right when she thought that underneath all that snark was a good man. She wanted to say she was sorry for judging him. To ask him what had made him the way he was. To say sorry for her words on the ambulance earlier in the day.

April wanted to say so much to Alex, but in the end she could only sigh, as her eyes drifted shut once more and she returned to unconscious oblivion.


Meredith anxiously waited with Bailey for what felt like an eternity for Alex to emerge from the collapsed building. When he'd sent up the homeless teenage patient, Bailey had ordered Meredith to stabilize him, get him prepped and off to the hospital along with his parents. When she'd returned, Bailey explained, with a somber face that Alex had found April, trapped under the rubble. But things didn't sound good. The search and rescue people had set up crane and were lifting it up, in a bid to give Alex a shot at pulling April out.

Now, Meredith had her hands tightly gripped around a stretcher, ready to spring into action as soon as Alex and April cleared the debris. Bailey stood next to her, on the surface looking calm, though she that could see the older attendings jaw was clenching and unclenching as she slowly shook her head from side to side. For Bailey, this was nervous. At least as much as she was willing to show. They had no real idea what condition April was in. From the brief communication Alex could give by shouting out of the rubble, both doctors suspected that it the situation was dire.

"Here! Grab her." Alex's strained voice came from the gap in debris, and Meredith joined Bailey and other search and rescue people as they rushed up the rubble. She could make out a damaged door jutting out from the small space. Kramer and his personnel grabbed the edges and slowly pulled the door free. Meredith could just make out the unconscious form that rested on the door.

She quickly moved with Bailey and the stretcher and readied to move April from Alex's make shift door stretcher. Meredith could only winced as she helped Bailey gingerly transfer their colleague turned patient. April tended a pale person to begin with, but now her face looked drained, ashen. Her skin was covered with a sheen of sweat, and it was clear that her breathing was labored.

The right leg was a whole other issue all together. Even with Alex's tourniquet it was a bloody and oozing mess of clearly broken bones, torn scrub pants, and a tattered sneaker.

Bailey looked up, "Grey! I need to you tight that tourniquet off. Even tighter,okay? Now! Before now!"

Already on it, Meredith reached for the straps on the sides of the stretcher and secured the younger doctors body to the stretcher, while Bailey listened to breath sounds with her stethoscope.

Meredith could only spare a second to glance up as Alex clamored out of the hole next. He was dusty, sweaty, and covered with some heavy duty angry black bruises. He was tense, and probably in shock.

He quickly joined them at alongside the stretcher and matter of factly rattled off, "Check her pupils. I'm pretty sure she's got a brain bleed. She's been in and out of consciousness. Major hallucinating. I tried to keep her awake but…Broken rib lower left side, and.." He gestured to the leg, "Well." Well indeed. Severe leg injury.

Once Bailey had deemed April stable enough to move she shouted, "Grey, take the front. Karev, can you handle the back?"

Alex nodded immediately, "Yeah. I got her."

The group hurriedly made their way back to their ambulance, loading Dr. Kepner inside, and beginning their journey back to Seattle Grace at break neck speed. Alex's adrenaline rush seemed to have finally warn off because he slumped down in a seat on the side, staring in glum horror as Bailey and Meredith continued to work on April. In any other circumstances Meredith knew that she and Dr. Bailey would stop to examine him, but they simply couldn't right at this very moment.

April took priority. It reminded Meredith a bit of the recent ambulance crash that she'd been in with Alex. They'd both been in shock after that, but had had to tend to the injured family and their infant patient first.

Now that they were in the ambulance, Bailey began packing the leg and Meredith grabbed a penlight to checked April's eyes. Yes. Pupil response was definitely not normal. Lifting her eyes for a moment, she carefully thought back to her neurological training to try and figure out what might be causing it. She had worked in neuro very closely with Derek until the whole incident with the Alzheimer's trial, so Meredith felt that her guesses would be fairly accurate. Whatever had happened, she knew that she had been good in neuro surgery.

Meredith glanced up and saw Bailey looking at her expectantly and said, "She probably has a subdural hematoma. I can't tell if it is acute or low grade. She needs surgery. Right now, she is at risk of seizure."

"Good call, Dr. Grey," Bailey answered as she continued to work on their patient, administering medication and checking April's breathing again. Her eyes flicking from side to side as she listened to her stethoscope once again, Bailey tutted quietly, shaking her head at what she heard.

"Come on, Kepner."

April gasped again, still clearly having trouble breathing. Behind Bailey, Meredith could see Alex holding his head in his hands looking horrified. He swore viciously and shook his head, stunned, breathing hard. "I got her out. I told her she'd be okay. I-I told her..."

"She's crashing," Bailey said whipping the stethoscope around her neck. "That rib might have perffed the lung. Her heart rate is dropping, we need to intubate. Get that breathing under control."

Meredith responded quickly, praying that the ambulance was nearing the hospital. April was fading fast, and there wasn't much they could do on a fast moving ambulance. Surgery was necessary, and she could only hope that they made it to the hospital in time. Once the tube was in she waited for Bailey's verdict.

The shorter doctor listened intently, scowling as she murmured a stern mantra. Meredith didn't know if she was talking to her, or April. Maybe she was talking to God.

"I will not lose another resident, do hear me? I will not. I will not. Will not..."

With a pang, Meredith realized that in the past 3 years, Bailey had lost as many residents. Reed and Charles in the shooting. Admittedly as Mercy Westers, they hadn't been very close to the Seattle Grace doctors. Ironically, it was shooting that had been a major catalyst for solidarity and bringing together the two groups. It was certainly a major reason why Meredith had been willing to get to know Jackson and April more. Surviving something like that together, you couldn't just ignore the connection. For Bailey, it had been harder. Charles Percy had died in her arms.

And then of course, the year before the shooting, George had died. One of the original interns from Meredith's year. Died trying to save someone else. He was the good one. He really was. Bailey'd said it herself once, George O'Malley was her favorite. And in a strange way, April reminded Meredith of George. They probably would have gotten along, if they'd met. And if Bailey noticed the same parallels she did, than Kepner's injury probably felt all the worse.

So, Meredith silently added her own fervent wish, to Bailey's. Please don't make us loose someone else. Please.

The chest tube seemed to have made the difference, because Bailey, smiled a little bit and leaned back, "Okay, heart rate is going back up. Still, pretty unsteady, but..."

The rest of the ambulance trip passed by uneventfully, with April holding her own and remaining tediously stable. As they arrived at Seattle Grace, Bailey and Meredith wheeled April on a gurney into the pit, with Alex trailing behind. Soon, Owen joined them and they were swarmed with nurses and interns.

"We need Dr. Shepherd and Torres. Page Altman too. And prep an OR! Quickly!" Bailey shouted.

Meredith continued to operate April's oxygen supply, hearing a crash behind her.

"Hey, I got paged on a big trauma. Only big one we've had since this quake-" Jackson's voice came from behind Meredith. He trailed off, growing panicky. "So...Is that? April? Oh my god. What happened? Let me see!" He sounded freaked out.

Meredith could understand his fear. April was his last friend from Mercy West. And they were, however unlikely, best friends. Imagining her own reaction, if it were Cristina on the gurney, Meredith's heart went out to the other fifth year.

Callie, Derek and Teddy came into the room, jostling people out of the way. They each took up a place near each of their respective disciplines. Derek hovered near April's head, while Teddy moved too listen to her chest. Callie headed for the bloody mess of the right leg.

"Move!"

A nurse stepped in by Meredith taking over squeezing the oxygen bag, as another collision could be heard behind them. An intern had collided with Alex, who still stared anxiously at April, mouth. Jackson stood right beside him, equally stunned, and apparently unable to tear his eyes away from his injured friend. His hands hovered nervously at his sides, like he didn't know what to do with them.

Owen looked up from where he was working, "Avery, Karev. You should go."

"Dude, no freakin' way."

"I am not going to just leave her..."

"Neither of you are in much of a position to help April right now, okay? We've got this. We will take the best care of her. But you guys can't be on this surgery. Avery, why don't you give Karev a check over? He's got some bad bruising."

She actually thought that might be a good idea. Alex needed someone to look out for him. He pretended not to care about April, but Meredith suspected he did. A lot more than he'd ever admitted. And she had no idea what it had been like with April down that hole. It must have been awful. The stuff of nightmares. As though Alex needed any more personal experiences that resembled that.

Checking Alex would also give Jackson something to do. Something to keep his mind off his friend. If April didn't make it, he would be the last of his friends alive, and she guessed he was terrified of that outcome. It was probably all he could think about. In his shoules, it would be all Meredith would think about.

Neither man sounded like they wanted to leave, but Meredith saw Dr. Webber appear out of the corner of her eye. He gave both residents a knowing look, with seemed to have an effect on the agitated residents and carefully guided them from the room.

"Damn it," Callie said from her position down by the leg. Nurses and interns continued to wheel around, setting up an IV, heart monitors, and swiftly clipping April's tattered scrubs from her body. There was a frantic pace to everyone's actions that only ever seemed to be present when they were caring for one of their own.

Derek suddenly held his hands up, gesturing for everyone working in the trauma room to calm down. "Eyes. People, she's conscious."

Meredith glanced down, eyes moving straight down to April's panicked gaze. She must be completely terrified. She shook, and whimpered chocking a little as the resisted her tube.

"Hey, April," Derek's soothing voice filled the room, as everyone began working again, at a slightly calmer pace. "Don't try to talk. You're intubated. Don't fight it. We're going to take good care of you. I promise."

He nodded to an intern in the corner, and a sedative was added to April's IV. Her eyes fluttered shut and Derek conferred with Callie and Teddy. Owen, Meredith and Bailey listened intently.

"I need to do surgery rightnow. That rib is damaging her lung and putting unnecessary strain on her heart," Altman began.

"If I have any chance of salvaging this leg, I need to start working..." Callie continued.

"Frankly," Derek added, "I need to stop her brain bleed and drain that excess fluid now, or none of the rest even matters."

"So," Owen jumped in, "Triple surgery? You all work at the same time?"

The three attendings looked back and forth between each other, faces somber. They all nodded, and began to wheel the gurney out toward the elevators that would take them to the OR. Meredith and most of the trauma room entourage moved with them.

Altman turned to a intern and barked, "Page Cristina Yang to the OR."

She paused, slowly glancing up at Derek, who now stood staring at Meredith with a closed off, unreadable expression on his face.

"Dr. Shepard? Do you need to page Lexie Grey do work with you?"

"No," Derek said flatly, tilting his head to one side. "Not to work with me. Dr. Meredith Grey has had more emergency neuro experience than Lexie. She's...better qualified for this, I think. Meredith will scrub in. Page Lexie, and get her to keep an eye on Jackson and Alex."

Meredith could hardly believe her ears. Derek, who had been adamant that they could not work together and survive as a couple, actually wanted her to scrub in with him. She would be happy if it wasn't for such an unfortunate reason. And if she didn't have the nagging fear that he was right. Sure they had Zola now, but the clinical trial was still an elephant in the room that they never talked about. But there was no time to worry further. She rushed to follow Teddy and Derek onto the elevator.

Right now, Meredith had to concentrate on saving her patient. She had to concentrate on saving April.