Seattle Grace Hospital
Elevator,
Early Evening

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Facing the shiny doors and silently counting the floors they were passing, Miranda Bailey was trying to find her game. She had lost it. Being nervous and worried and just a little bit scared she had lost it, just like every time something got too close. Which was why she had made it her rule, no, her law, to keep everybody in this hospital, especially patients and interns and anybody else she was in any way responsible for at arm's length. Incidents like Cristina Yang collapsing in the OR and both her and Burke running around like a bunch of scared chickens had proved her right. He was an attending, she was a resident. They were supposed to stay calm and in control!

Just like tonight would prove her right again. At arm's length! Everything else was just stupid!

But all her inner ranting aside she knew there was no way she could not be affected by this. First of all Addison Shepherd or Montgomery was an attending and hence not her responsibility but her superior, more or less. And even if she had never exchanged a single word with the woman – she would still have lost her game tonight because she was a colleague. A colleague gone patient but a colleague nonetheless. One of them and a so far living proof that none of them was invulnerable or untouchable. The fact that she knew and respected said colleague merely added to that.

She just couldn't get her head around how that moron of –

"Dr. Bailey," O'Malley snapped her out of her thoughts and she turned around towards him, noticing the shock and confusion written all over his face. She couldn't blame him. Attendings were supposed to teach them, not to become their patients. First Burke got shot, now this.

Looking down Miranda saw their patient's eyes flutter open and her hand move up towards her face.

"Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd?" she tried to get her attention, at the same time reaching for her hand. "Dr. Montgomery!" But she seemed too disoriented, struggling to pull the oxygen mask off her face. "Dr. –" Oh, to hell with that! "Addison," she tried again, bending further down and bringing her own face closer to Addison's. "Addison, it's Miranda. Miranda Bailey." Finally Addison's eyes settled on hers. "We're taking you up to the OR. You have serious internal injuries but we're taking good care of you, okay?"

Again Addison tried to remove the mask on her face and again Miranda stopped her, keeping a firm grip on her frighteningly cold hand. Only when she noticed Addison was trying to speak did she pull the mask away herself. "What is it?" she asked, her voice sounding too soft and too concerned, and dammit she could feel her eyes being just a little too wet for her to be comfortable.

"Derek," Addison breathed more than spoke, clearly fighting to stay conscious.

Miranda bit her lip.

"He's on his way," she lied, recognizing the intonation without a doubt. She had been there once herself and – oh, the irony - Addison had been there with her, telling her the exact same thing she was about to tell her now. "He'll be there," she said soothingly, "don't worry. He'll be there."

If she would ever have cared or wondered about the merry-go-round going on with the Shepherds and one of her interns – she'd know now. Because she knew that intonation and that look, and she didn't care what any of them would say later on. Those stupid, stupid people. And that moron of her husband. Ex-husband. Unlike everybody else she had never showed any interest or paid attention to all the rumors and gossip but even so, she was entitled to her opinion and in her opinion Derek Shepherd was a stupid man and right now a moron who better did not show his face around her!

Looking up she met the confused and slightly shocked expression of George O'Malley and became aware of her own expression.

"What are you looking at?" she snapped, wiping at her eyes as she turned back around to face the doors. Was that stupid elevator ever going to get there? She almost regretted Grey wasn't here after all. She could really need someone to blame right now for this mess she suddenly found herself in the middle of!