"How'd it go?" Derek spoke up and asked.
"I never want to have to tell that story again." He said solemnly. Meredith moved over so that Mark could take her place. She knew that it was what Lexie would've wanted. Mark to be at her side fighting for her life.
It wasn't long before Bailey finally returned with happy Zola in her arms. Meredith immediately got up and grabbed her baby, squeezing and rocking her in her arms. She thanked Bailey who nodded as response and then stood in the back of the room to show some support for her fellow surgeons. Mark was still sitting next to Lexie, holding her hand up his mouth, kissing it ever so gently while mumbling to her. He was a wreck, he was rocking back and forth like a mad person, there was a light sweat beading his forehead and his eyes were extremely wide and bloodshot.
Callie than walked in next, her hands in the pockets of her white lab coat. She walked all the way to Mark and bent down to talk to him. She whispered in his ear, "Mark, you need to stop this. I know that you love her and I know that you are upset but this isn't good for you okay. Maybe you should go to the cafeteria and get something to eat to take your mind off of this. Sitting here all night waiting isn't going to help. Come on I'll go with you," She coaxed.
"NO!" Mark screamed abruptly, slapping her arm off of his shoulder. Every one's attention was on them now. Mark gave a remorseful look to a rather frightened Callie Torres for his agitation towards her trying to help him.
"I…I'm sorry. I'm just a little on edge here; I didn't mean to...react …like that. I just…I…I can't…leave. I know that I'm not helping myself by doing this but it's not about me. It's about her. I love her and I'm not going to let her wake up and find me not here, I want her to wake up and know how much I care about her. I'm not gonna risk missing that. I've messed up enough times with Lexie to the point where she probably hated my guts for what I did to her; I've got to correct that somehow."
Callie gave him a nod and said she understood, "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pressured you. I just don't want you beating yourself up for this."
"What if she doesn't wake up Callie?" Mark asked abruptly, looking up to his good friend, "Or what if she isn't the same?"
"To be honest, I don't know. I can't tell you anything because I really have no idea." She said truthfully.
Derek stood up and began to check Lexie again, "I'm still not gettingmuch of a response from her," He looked around at all the people sitting in the room and then sighed, "If she doesn't respond in some kind of way within the next 24 hours….I …I don't think there will be much for us to do. She could be brain dead from the trauma. I don't want to think this way, I know it's hard but we have to be realistic with this. I suggest that if she doesn't wake up…That no extraordinary measure be taken to keep her alive if she should start to…code."
Everyone looked at Derek like he was insane with faces of horror and despair but Mark gave him a sinister look of anger. He stood up rapidly and screamed, "No! That is not your choice Derek! You don't know what she would've wanted. Life, she would've wanted life. You don't get to take that away from her. We are not signing a DNR. If she should code we will do everything in our power to try and save her, alright? We aren't just gonna unplug her and let her die. I don't care if it takes her a day or a hundred years. She deserves a chance. Just because she's hurt doesn't mean she can't heal. It's barely been a few hours and you're already deciding her fate? This is insane. Why are we even talking about this?" He said with emotion and gesticulating arm motions.
"Because Mark we need to. If we don't do it now when are we…When she's dead? This is real-life Mark. And in real-life people die. That is part of nature and if Lexie should happen to die then there is nothing more we could do. You need to open your eyes and see this!" Derek screamed back at him. They both gave each other death glares until Bailey chose to break up the fighting.
"You two stop it! Stop this. You're fighting over a girl's life like she's not even part of the decision. Lexie Grey is one of us. She is all of you guy's friend and for some of you she is more than that. She is not a toy, or a pawn in your little games. She is a human being. And you're fighting and picking over her like a bunch of wild, hungry hyenas. Neither of you get to chose what you'd rather do because you are not qualified to do so. Meredith is her family. It is Lexie's family's choice. Since her dad will not be making any decisions for his daughter that leaves it to Meredith. So stop acting like children and let this girl be. There's no need to jump into conclusions, we're going to wait it out and then decide what's going to be done. Alright?"
Everyone agreed. This whole fight had probably only even started in the first place because of how worried everyone was. The room was in a state of awry. People were still bickering back and forth despite what Bailey had just said. Zola began to cry from the volume and anger in the room which added to the disruptiveness. In the background Hunt could be seen as he barged into the room with a puzzled look upon his face.
"WHAT'S GOING ON?" He yelled, louder than everybody else, "This is a hospital and you people are doctors. You should know better. You are not the only people in this place, there are other patients trying to rest and there are other people grieving but they aren't disrupting the entire building. Get it together and stop arguing. Have you no decency? She's barely holding on, all this screaming isn't going to help what's going to help is if you doctors do your job and figure out how to save her. I am the Chief of this hospital, I make the rules…Not you,"
Everyone was stunned by the man's crazy reaction. They all stared him down as he turned around and left. Every single person, even Zola had gone completely silent. That was rude, but maybe he was right. They were fighting like children; this wasn't the way it should be. They should just be supporting her through it all until the very end.
In all the silence Mark spoke out first, he had gone back to Lexie and was holding her hand again, "I don't care what any of you think; she's going to make it. She's strong; she has been through a lot. She knows how to fight for herself." And then he looked at her face, tears welling up again. He brushed his hand through her hair, and smiled. "You can do it Little Grey,"
Everyone smiled at this. Lexie had been forever dubbed as "Little Grey," it definitely stuck, and had become like a nickname for her. It was the nickname that Mark had originally made up just to tell the two apart, now it was a part of his life.
Within the next few hours people slowly began to filter out. Yang was first to leave because she had an early morning and needed at least a few hours of sleep before her next shift started. Then Bailey because she'd left Tuck home with Ben and didn't want to burden him any longer. Callie was next so she could get home to Sofia before it was time for Arizona to leave for work. She was reluctant from seeing Mark in such a horrific state, but she had other responsibilities too. Meredith was falling asleep on Derek's shoulder and Zola had clunked out in her Daddy's arms long ago, when Derek whispered to her "Meredith,"
"What?" She answered groggily and opened her eyes.
"It's almost 4am. You should go home and get some rest; I can stay here with Lexie… It'll be fine. You need your rest; this is taking a lot out of you. The last thing you need is to be sleep deprived.
Derek tried to stand up but Meredith said no. "Come on. You can take Zola home so she can sleep too. I'll drive you and come back. Mark can stay here with her in the meantime. It's going to be fine. She's going to be fine."
Meredith was still reluctant to leave but she stood up anyways and walked over to where Mark was standing. She laid her hand on top of Lexie's leg that was covered by a thin hospital blanket. She looked at her long and hard and said, her voice cracking, "You'd better be here when I come back, you hear me?"