Seattle Grace Hospital
On-call Room Surgical Floor,
Early Evening

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"Dr. Shepherd," an annoyingly loud voice drummed into Derek's conscience instants before the light was being switched on, effectively ending his well-earned nap in the on-call room. "Dr. Shepherd!"

"Yes," he slurred, shading his eyes from the brutal brightness. How long had he been asleep?

"We got a fire in a restaurant, a robbery gone bad and two car accidents coming in. We need everyone down in the ER," a well-familiar voice informed him rudely. "Are you awake?"

"Yes, yes," he assured, sitting up on the upper bed and rubbing his eyes to get a clear sight of Miranda Bailey standing in the door. "I'm coming."

Bailey gave him a skeptical look but left without another comment. Checking his watch he realized he hadn't been in here for more than 20 minutes. He gave his brain another moment before easing himself off the bed and down to the ground.

Having the elevator to himself on the way down, he assumed everybody else was already downstairs. Including Bailey's interns, preying on their latest victims. He sighed, thinking back to his own time as an intern. He wasn't keen on reliving that period of humiliation, bully and sleep-deprivation, but he wondered where all the years had gone. It felt like they had just flown by in a few instants.

The doors opened and he quickly made his way to the center of the mess that was an overcrowded ER, not without noticing Meredith, already busy with a patient but not too busy to send him a smile across the room. He returned it.

"Dr. Shepherd."

"How's the situation?" he turned to one of the ER attendings.

"We got three more units coming in from the club, no more criticals though. The GSW from the robbery is ten minutes out and the car accidents should both arrive any moment now."

"Okay. Any head injuries you know of?"

"None so far, but –"

"Coming through," a loud voice cut the attending off as the doors opened and three more stretchers were rolled in.

Derek listened to the paramedics calling out injury assessments, bps and medications. Seeing three interns practically fighting over the first gurney – male patient with internal bleedings, most likely a surgical case - he caught up with the second one as it was rolled past him. "I guess this one is mine," he said and looked down at the patient when he heard Bailey's voice cutting through the noise of the ER.

"Dr. Shepherd!"

He glanced over his shoulder.

"Dr. Shepherd, I think you should come over here." If it hadn't been for the tone of Miranda Bailey's voice, the expression on her face would have been enough to tell him something was wrong. He let go of the gurney.

"I got this," someone assured him when the stretcher plus paramedics moved on. Nodding absentmindedly, Derek didn't take his eyes off of Bailey and started to move towards her. The closer he got the more it troubled him that this tough, not to say rude woman suddenly seemed so…

"Oh my God," he heard his own voice when he got a clear sight of the gurney. "Addison!" He was by her side within a second, looking down on his wife, lying unconscious before him. Ex-wife, It rang out from somewhere distant in his mind.

"What happened?" was all he managed to stutter, taking in the blood on her face and in her hair, parts of her clothing ripped apart and the medical equipment attached to her still body while he tried to make sense of the situation. It wasn't strange to see Addison in the ER. She was a doctor, she belonged here. But her place was beside him or beside Bailey, standing up, leaning over a gurney, not lying on one, looking like… She was so pale.

"She was awake and oriented at the site but has been drifting in and out of consciousness since then," the paramedic reported factually. "Trauma to the head, internal bleeding," the woman continued but Derek didn't hear the rest of it. He had caught sight of the next patient being brought in.

Pressing a bandage or piece of clothing against his head, Mark was in a wheel chair, not on a gurney. Except for the nasty bleed and something with his leg or foot he seemed fine, talking to the paramedic who pushed his chair until he caught sight of Derek as well.

"Dr. Shepherd?" a voice tried to catch his attention and Derek jerked his head back around to face Bailey. "Dr. Shepherd, do you consent?"

He stared at Bailey for a second, glanced down at Addison, over to Mark, and finally met Bailey's questioning look again. "I'm not her husband anymore. You're going to have to try to reach her family if you need any legal consent."

"We don't have that kind of time," Bailey replied and Derek knew she was still waiting for an answer from him, a direction or order on how to proceed.

"Whatever you think is necessary," Derek stated coldly, sending a last glare Mark's way before turning and walking the other way. He really wanted nothing more but to head straight out and go home but unfortunately that wasn't an option right now. So he focused on the next patient getting in his way.

"Fine, let's move it, people," Bailey yelled as soon as she had processed what had just happened. Or actually, she had no idea what had just happened but she understood the medically relevant facts and that was enough for her. Addison Shepherd or Montgomery or whatever the hell she called herself these days was critically injured and there was no time to wait until they could reach her family. They had to get her up to the OR immediately. "Page Burke, paige the Chief. Tell them it's one of our own! Don't just stand there, O'Malley!" She was glad neither Grey nor Karev were around. The former for obvious reasons, the latter because he had been working close with Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd recently and although he couldn't strike anyone as the overly sensitive type O'Malley was probably the lesser evil. Less attached. Just where's Yang when I need her?