Title: Breathe

Authors: Sara And Lizzie

Rating: T for language, mild sex

Disclaimer: It would be nice to own grey's anatomy, sadly all we own are a lot of high priced shoes and handbags, and both seasons on dvd.

Summary: A month or so after Meredith's near death experience, tragedy strikes Seattle Grace again in the form of a robbery gone wrong. A hostage situation takes place in the OR. Nine lives hang in the balance as they wait to live, die, or just get blown up.

Author's Note: Let's clear this up right away. "Gimme A Break" left us an anonymous review claiming we pawned this off from General Hospital. Let us say that we wanted to do a hostage story for months now, but haven't known when to set it, how to execute it, etc. When it happened on GH, we were like, that's it. Masked guys storming a room. JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER HOSTAGE SITUATION EVER.

We know it's really similar now, but there will be differences, and seriously, how many other ways are there to start a hostage crisis? Callie leaving isn't stolen, its necessary for our plot. We have lots of ideas that we needed this story to write. We want Mark to make a heroic gesture for Addie. We want to expose the irrationality of George and Izzie. We want Meredith to tell Derek that not even death can tear them apart. Hostages, duh!

The purpose of this story is that things are shaky in the GA universe right now, and this tragedy isn't just Meredith, it's all of them, and this night that they spend in there is going to be a really definitive night for all of their relationships, not just romantically, but with each other as people. So if you have a problem with us openly acknowledging we didn't dream all of this up, don't read it.

For the other 54 of you who reviewed and liked it, thank you so much. We were BLOWN AWAY by the response to the first chapter. We hope you keep reading and reviewing.

Peacekeeper don't tell why, don't be afraid to fight.

George looked back and forth between the two women. Callie was his wife. Till death do us part and all that. But Izzie was his best friend. She had been there long before Callie. George wanted this marriage to work. He wanted it to be something more than a stupid, impulsive thing he'd done because his father died and he had needed to feel alive.

He wanted it to work, but only time would tell if it would. And God knows if it didn't he was going to need Izzie. He turned away from Callie to look at his friend. George swallowed hard. He had to be honest with himself. This was selfish, but if he had to chose, he was going to chose the one he needed to get him through this. And that one, the one he needed in the room, was Izzie.

"Enough hesitating." Their captor snapped. Izzie met George's eyes and squeezed her own eyes shut. She gripped Alex's hand tightly and shook her head at George. He nodded slowly. "Callie." He said, pointing at his wife. "I want Callie to be the one who goes out." Callie looked back and forth between George and Izzie.

"We don't have all day, doll face." He said. "In or out?" Callie stood and with one last look at George, she left the OR. The gravity of the situation hit her as she ran to the elevators. Two people were standing in front of them, guns in hand. Callie went to the stairs, noticing vaguely that the entire floor was deserted. When she burst through the doors onto the floor below her, she was met by the chief and Bailey and the surgical staff that had previously occupied the floor above.

"Torres, what the hell is going on?" Richard asked.

Callie shook her head. "Call the police." She told him. Walking numbly to the closest chair and sinking down in it. That look George had given Izzie. It wasn't a look that said I want o ensure the safety of my wife, it was a look that said you're the one I need to get through this. Callie felt tears prickling at the back of her eyes, because she knew now. It was true, it was clear, it was undeniable. She was never going to be first in George's life. He could use her full name and shout at Izzie and Cristina, but she still wasn't first.

They were a family, those five interns. And she didn't fit into that family. The irony was, that since their wedding, she was George's actual family, but he didn't see it that way. She was a newcomer, she didn't have that connection to them, she didn't have the history. The five of them, even Alex, they would always be something special, something set apart from her. She would always be second to them, and Callie, for the first time, acknowledged to herself that second wasn't enough.

Derek pulled Meredith close to him, wrapped an arm around her and slipped his hand under Meredith's scrub top, and to that perfect place above her left breast where he could feel her heart beat lightly against his hand. She looked at him, but he didn't move his hand. It reassured him. Her heart was still beating. She was still breathing. That was all any of them had to do. Still be breathing whenever they got out of here.

Derek looked around him at the people who had become his friends, his life. The most important person to him was the one he held close, not daring to let her go. Burke and Cristina were huddled together on the other side of Meredith, and on the other side of Derek was Addison, knees drawn to her chest, Mark's left leg pressed against her right one. On Mark's other side were Alex, Izzie and finally George. Had they been sitting against a wall like this for any other reason, Derek would have laughed.

Their captor looked down at them. "Henry Montcalm." He said, pointing to himself. "Who has a phone?" Mark produced his first. "Fine." Montcalm said. "Call whoever is in charge." He commanding in an accent no one could identify. He smirked. "Call your chief." Mark dialed the number of the nurse's station on the floor below them.

"It's Dr. Sloan." He said. "Put Richard on the phone. Now." Olivia punched the speaker button.

"Chief? It's Mark Sloan." She said. Dr. Webber and several police officers gathered around the phone.

"Mark?" Webber asked. "Are you all okay?"

"We're fine chief." Mark said. Montcalm gestured for the phone and Mark handed it over wordlessly.

"This is what I want." Montcalm said. "I want specimen number 435 developed by the research team stationed here last week. I want all of it. You will deliver it to the black Range Rover sitting outside in the handicapped parking space."

"And if we don't?" One of the police officers asked. Montcalm reached into a black duffel bag that was sitting on the floor. He extracted an electronic device on the floor, and pressed a button on the top. A ten flashed on it's digital screen, and starting counting backwards.

"You have ten hours until this OR explodes. The only way to save the nine doctors inside is to give me the entire specimen. It's your choice." Hanging up the phone and throwing it at Mark. He shrugged at the row of doctors sitting against the wall looking stricken. "You can keep your phones. Call your chief. Beg for your lives. My men are guarding every entrance so getting in or out without my permission is impossible. You might live if the bomb goes off. You might not." He opened the door and stepped outside. "Have a nice night doctors." Meredith stared at the door long after he left. She had a strange feeling creeping through her body. It put a gross unease in her bones and made her feel shaky. She looked from the windows to the heavy table in the middle of the OR. Her eyes widened in panic and when she locked eyes with Burke over Cristina's head, she knew her fears were right.

Months ago, she had walked out of this very OR with a bomb in her hand. Because the main oxygen line was flowing right under the floor. Now, there was another bomb in the room. One that she couldn't stop from going off by handing it to Dylan. Her breath came in rapid, uneven puffs as the reality set in. She couldn't tear her eyes from Burke, and he didn't look away either. They were gauging everyone, trying to decide if they should share of suffer in silence. "Mer, what is it?" Derek asked. He looked at Burke who was looking at Meredith. "What's going on?" he asked.

Meredith swallowed hard. "This OR…" she said. She looked uncertainly up at Burke who opened his mouth and Meredith shook her head. She would be the one to tell them this. She could be this strong. "We left it with the bomb. We left because the main oxygen tank runs under this OR."

Addison shut her eyes. "So you're saying that if that bomb explodes, the oxygen line is going to blow up."

"That's what I'm saying."

"So if that bomb explodes we're all going to die."

"Well that's a fantastic attitude, Addison." Derek snapped, tightening his grip on Meredith. Addison didn't want to say anything that would hurt either of them, but the fear was getting to her, and it was making her mean.

"We know you're sensitive about death, Derek." She said, her voice taking on the bitchy undertone it always did when she got scared or anxious. Meredith closed her eyes and laced her fingers through Derek's and squeezed his hand reassuringly, but it didn't help. He turned to Addison with murder in his eyes.

"Oh, that was great Addison. Fantastic, really. Please, keep talking." He said sarcastically. Meredith both loved and hated when someone said something about her that elicited this reaction from him. She loved hearing him defend her. But she hated the sheepish, apologetic glances she had to shoot at them, much like the one she was now giving Addison.

"Derek, it's okay." She said, placing her other hand on his arm. "I'm here, I'm breathing. It's okay." Addison rolled her eyes. She was okay with this. She really was. She knew that Derek loved Meredith in a way he'd never loved her and she was friendly with both of them, but this protective streak Derek had for Meredith, it irritated her. So she sighed and turned away from them.

"You didn't have to talk to her like that." Mark said to Derek.

"Oh shut up, Mark." Derek fired back. "You shouldn't even be here."

"Derek…" Burke said warningly.

"What, he was there for me last month? You think that changes anything?"

"Dude, maybe it should." Alex piped up. Derek looked at him, ready to snap.

"Alex, just don't." Meredith said. "Look, we're all scared…."

"Please, Grey." Addison snapped bitterly.

Izzie stood up and looked at them all. "Seriously?" she yelled. "Are you people freaking kidding me? We're stuck in a room with a bomb, and all you can do is bicker?" Everyone stared at her. "I don't know what we're going to do, or how we're going to get out here, but I do know that you all acting like right year olds on the playground is not going to help! So say something nice or don't say anything at all!"

She sat down, fuming, and everyone lapsed into silence.