A/N: A good song to go with the beginning of this is "Harder than Easy" by Jack Savoretti. A good song for the end is "Be Here Now" by Ray LaMontagne. Other then that... thanks for all the reviews and stuff! And thanks particularly to MusicWritesMyLife, Cyncortez2010 and In-A-Parallel-World for your wonderful reviews! It really means a lot to me!

Chapter Three: Unbreakable

"You know..." Mark said slowly, like he was trying to decide if he really wanted to say anything or not.

"No."

"What? You haven't even heard what I'm going to say yet."

"I know it's going to be something to do with your imminent death and no. Because you know what? Not going to happen. You're not dying. We will be rescued and you will be fine and... and..." I looked away. "You'll be fine, okay? Death is not allowed."

I looked over at him just in time to see him making a face like he was trying not to scream. I tried not to think of why. "Lexie... shut up. Just shut up, okay?"

Now I was the one making a face. For about the thousandth time in an hour, the word "what?" crossed my mind. This time, however, I didn't say anything.

"I'm not in love with Julia. I'm not. I wanted to be." He shuddered visibly and I wanted to do something to help. Anything. I couldn't even imagine the kind of pain he must have been in and... and all I could do was sit there and watch. I couldn't help but feel like all my training was completely useless. All the things I'd spent so much time learning and what good was any of it?

"Just, don't talk okay? Just... conserve your strength. Don't..." I tentatively reached out, wanting to touch him, comfort him, but my hand dropped limply to my side as he shuddered again. It was stupid, but I felt like maybe that might do more harm than good. Like maybe if I touched him he'd break into a thousand tiny pieces and cease to exist at all. I felt tears pricking at my eyes and I blinked furiously to keep them at bay.

"Shut up, Lex. I have to say this. I don't want to die here but if I do I want to know I said my piece."

I rolled my eyes, but let him continue.

"I'm in love with you. I don't think there's anything else at this point. It'd be easier if I could be with someone who..." he paused and, for a moment, went completely still. I had to fight the urge to scream. "Someone who wants what I want. But that doesn't work because all I really want is you."

I couldn't help it. The tears escaped. They started dribbling down my face and I couldn't help it. I'd wanted him to say that for longer than I wanted to admit. But not like this. Not here. I hastily swiped my hand across my face, trying to stop the tears. It didn't help. They just kept coming.

"I..." I sucked in as much air as I could and I swiped at my face again. I felt like I was about to break in two, but now was so not the time. I let out a long breath and closed my eyes. "I love you." It was all I could think to say.

"I know, you said." I didn't have to look at him to know he was smiling.

I moved so I was sitting a little closer to him. I grabbed his hand in mine and held it tightly. He didn't break into a thousand pieces when I touched him and I let out a sigh of relief.

Neither of us said anything else until Arizona returned with Cristina and Meredith. Cristina was half carrying, half dragging Meredith.

"Derek's not back yet?" Arizona asked.

I shook my head. "No. Maybe that means he found something."

"Derek?" Meredith asked hopefully. I looked at her, confused. Hadn't Arizona told her he was okay?

Arizona turned to Meredith. "He's fine, remember?"

Meredith nodded slowly, like she just forgot she'd been told that already. She looked back towards the other half of the plane and then looked down at her leg like she was contemplating something.

Cristina rolled her eyes and huffed. "You can't go after him. And I'm not dragging you there. It took an eternity just to drag your ass over here and it wasn't even that far." Then, like she hadn't noticed before, Cristina looked over at Mark and her mouth dropped open. "Oh. Shit."

"Thanks, Yang." Mark muttered.

"No, I just..." Her voice was soft and quiet. "Oh. Shit." Then a sign of the apocalypse happened. Cristina Yang started to cry.

She sank down to the ground so slowly it was almost like it was in slow motion. Carefully, Meredith sank down with her. "We're all going to die here." Cristina spoke so softly I almost didn't hear her.

Meredith reached out and started rubbing Cristina's back to try to calm her down but Cristina slapped her hand away. "No! No, Meredith! We're all going to die here! It's been hours! Hours and no one has come looking for us! No one has come looking for us!" She was starting to get hysterical.

"Cristina? I need you to stop. If you don't, I am going to slap you as hard as I can." Meredith crawled over so she was sitting right in front of Cristina. "Stop crying."

Cristina didn't stop crying. Actually, she started whimpering. So Meredith slapped her, the sound resonating in the otherwise complete silence of the forest. Almost immediately, Cristina stopped crying.

"Thank you," Cristina said quietly.

"No problem," Meredith said with a macabre smile. "I've wanted to do that for years."

Cristina smiled just a little.

Then there was a rustling in the trees and we all turned to face it. A few seconds later, Derek came charging through the forest with a duffel bag stuffed full on one shoulder and raised in the air in his other hand was a cell phone.

"I found one!" He cried out when he saw us. "I found one!"

Then, when he got a little closer and saw Meredith he dropped the duffel bag and quickly stuffed the phone in his pocket. He gulped. "Meredith."

She smiled. "Yeah."

He walked towards her slowly and when he reached her, he smiled this big, crazy smile. "You're...okay. I can't..." He blinked slowly, like he couldn't believe she was really there.

"Well, mostly." She looked down and pointed to her leg. She stood and it took longer than it would have normally. "I broke my leg." She looked him over carefully, looking for injuries and smiled when she didn't see any. "But you're okay."

He nodded. "Yeah." Then he looked over at me, and at Mark. "But..."

Meredith half turned to look at us. She didn't say anything, she just nodded. She turned back to Derek and hugged him so tight I think his face started to turn a little red from lack of oxygen. He hugged her back just as tightly.

I hated to admit it, but I hated them just a little right then. Meredith was my sister and Derek had become like a brother to me, but it wasn't fair. They had each other, they had a kid together and they were both fine. It wasn't fair. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't ever wish that either of them were in my place, but I wished I had what they had.

Mark squeezed my hand. "Lex."

I turned to face him and tried to look like I wasn't currently being overtaken by a little green jealousy monster over my own sister's good luck and like I wasn't a terrible, horrible person for feeling like that. "Uh-huh?"

He looked over at them and said, "I'm sorry. We should have that."

I was silent for a second before I said, "We will." He looked at me then and I knew we would. It didn't matter what was happening now, we would. In the future, we would have what they had. We would be together and this time, nothing would break us apart. We would be unbreakable. Nothing else mattered.

He squeezed my hand so hard I'm not sure something didn't break. I let out a quick gasp and he loosened his grip a little. "No, no, it's okay. I don't mind. Really." I pursed my lips to stop myself from letting out another gasp. It didn't matter how much it hurt. If it helped, even a little, it didn't matter. He squeezed my hand again. I didn't make a sound.

His face crinkled up and he screamed. "It's okay, it'll be okay, you'll be okay..." I whispered. He closed his eyes and I started to cry. I put my other hand on his shoulder. "Mark? Mark, look at me, hey... please..." He didn't open his eyes. And he stopped squeezing my hand.

"No, please, just..." I moved my hand up from his shoulder to his neck. There was a pulse, but barely. He wouldn't last much longer like this.

Behind me I could hear Derek fumbling in his pocket for the cell phone he'd found earlier. Nobody said anything.

And that was when I heard it. Everyone else heard it too, I'm sure. The spinning of helicopter blades. Everyone started screaming. I didn't turn to look but I assumed they were jumping around and waving their arms. I didn't dare move an inch.

The wind started to pick up, blowing dust and leaves everywhere. I looked up to see a helicopter circling above us, preparing to land. And then a voice, an unnaturally loud voice rang out, "Please move behind the plane." I leaned over Mark, not moving my hand from his neck and the only proof I had he was still alive. I wasn't sure if they meant me or not, but no way I was going anywhere.

The others ran over to me and stood behind me. I didn't think about it much, but I guessed that was what the man in the helicopter meant because a moment later the helicopter landed in the empty space where the others had just been standing. I looked up just enough to see several people getting out of the helicopter. A second later, two more arrived, hovering over the scene. There wasn't enough space for them to land, so they just hung there, blowing up dust and leaves and making it near impossible to hear much of anything.

I did manage to hear Derek say, "We have two dead," and for a second I thought he meant Mark, because he wasn't dead, not yet, but then Derek kept going. "And one critically injured." I realized then that no one had mentioned the pilot. The stewardess was dead and I guessed that the pilot was too. Derek kept going. "One broken leg and the rest of us are fine. Just cuts and bruises."

A man came over to me. He didn't say anything for a moment then, "Ma'am?" I didn't say anything, just looked up at him. "Ma'am?" he said again, this time pointing to Mark. I understood well enough that he wanted me to move out of the way so he could see better. I moved, but kept my hand where it was.

The man called everyone else over and they started talking about what to do. Eventually, they settled on a plan. There were five of us, four minus Meredith since she couldn't exactly put a whole lot of weight on her bad leg, and four of them. If we all worked together we should be able to lift the plane wing up long enough to get Mark out from under it. But, and at this point they all looked at me, that meant they'd need my help. And that meant I'd need to move. I knew that their plan was a good plan but at the same time, I almost fought them on it. I didn't want to have to be separated from him. What if... no. I couldn't let myself be torn up about it now. It was not the time. So, I took a deep breath and moved my hand away from his neck. But before I got up and we started to move the plane, I had one thing I had to do. I leaned in close one more time, so my body was nearly on top of his and I kissed him. I couldn't exactly say anything, with everyone gathered around like that, so a kiss would have to do. It was stupid, but I couldn't help but hope that maybe he'd know. That he'd know he had a reason to stay here, to not give up.

I got to my feet and was instructed on what to do. Everyone else lined up at the edge of the wing, ready to push it up. It was my job to drag him out from under it. One of the paramedics called out "three, two, one!" and they pushed.

The plane wing didn't move. Not an inch. Again, the man called out, "Three, two, one!" This time they managed to move it just a little, but not enough. A second later the man called out again, "Three, two, one!" and they pushed again. This time the wing lifted up just enough. I acted quickly, grabbed Mark by the shoulders, and with much effort and some cursing, dragged him out.

I tried not to look. I really did. But I saw. I wish I hadn't because I knew, I just knew that three second look at his crushed body would fuel my nightmares for months, maybe years. As soon as I got him out, they dropped the wing and the paramedics swarmed in and shoved me back. I wanted to do something, I was trained for this sort of stuff, right? But... I didn't move. I couldn't move. The others took several steps back and gathered together in a tight group and watched. We all just watched. Nobody said anything. Nobody did anything. We just watched as they ran back and forth, grabbing things from the helicopter, shouting to each other over the noise about what to do next. After a few minutes, once they'd done all they could, they put him on a stretcher and loaded him up into the helicopter.

The helicopter was about to take off when Meredith called out, "Wait. She should go with you." I assumed she meant me. One of the paramedics looked like he wanted to argue, but Meredith gave him a look and he clearly decided they'd get going faster if he didn't argue. That, and I'm pretty sure I looked about as pathetic as you could get with my cheeks coated in dried tears and sitting like a useless lump on the ground. He nodded and I got up and got into the helicopter. As it took off, I looked down at the others and watched as they got smaller and smaller as we got farther and farther away. Once the helicopter I was in had pulled up and was starting to fly away another one landed. Everyone looked like they were about the size of an ant by now but I saw people moving and getting into the now tiny looking helicopter before it took off. That was the last I saw of them before they were too far away for me to see at all.

A minute later I crawled down off my seat and sat on the floor of the helicopter, next to Mark. I reached out and for a second, didn't do anything, just let my hand hover in the air. Then, tentatively, I put my hand on his neck. I sucked in a sharp breath as for a second I felt nothing. But it was there. Slow and weak, but it was there. He was still alive. Barely. Please, I thought, I couldn't bring myself to speak in front of complete strangers right now, be okay. I need you to be okay.

A/N: Please leave a review! I love reviews!

And now... next chapter's teaser!

The paramedics started talking to each other, something about getting us out. I just sat there, not moving, not making a sound. One of them gently touched my arm and said, "Ma'am? You're going to have to move now. We have to move him." I just shook my head. I wasn't going anywhere.

"Ma'am? Please move," said the paramedic. I shook my head again. I didn't want to move. The paramedic shrugged his shoulders and grabbed me under my arms. He pulled me up onto the seat next to him and held me there. The other one started moving the stretcher out. There were doctors standing on the roof, waiting, but I didn't recognize them. I fought against the man that was holding me back, but I couldn't get free and he wouldn't let go. I had to sit there and watch as they took Mark inside. "I'm going to let you go now, okay?" the man said. I nodded. The second his hands released my arms I jumped up and got out of the helicopter. I could see now that we were in Seattle, but I had no idea which hospital we were at. I stumbled forward a bit and wrapped my arms around myself. It was dark out now and the cold breeze in the air plus the wind being whipped up by the helicopter's still spinning blades was making me cold.

A few seconds later the other paramedic returned with someone else. This time it was a face I recognized. Jackson.