A/N Many thanks to ATS300, greysgirl328 and jessreads4-your reviwes are really great! :) :) :)
Richard was going restlessly round the hospital's lobby with his telephone stuck on his ear.
"No, is your turn now to listen to me! Two of the doctors from this hospital are blocked up in that elevator. I expect from you to set in motion, as is needed. Don't tell me to appease myself!" Richard shouted on the phone with a fired voice.
"Dr. Webber?" One of the police officers appeared behind Richard, who turned to him and slowly took off the phone from his ear.
"Yes ?" Richard said awaiting.
"Dr. Webber, from what we saw and managed to get information from that miserable, we will have problem with the opening of the elevator. The whole system has been blocked. Evidently this devil had known what to do. In any minutes the lift engineers will come and we'll have more details about the interlock. The trouble is, that we don't know how long time we need to unblock the elevator. The good news is that the bomb does not have complex mechanism. So our efforts will be directed to free your people from there." The policeman stated.
"Damn.. But how is possible to happen that ." Richard said to himself.
"Have you any idea, who are the doctors closed in the elevator ?" The policeman asked.
"Not yet. It's nobody from these who are on duty this evening. We are checking now, but it's not so easy. Many doctors are working here. Can't we do anything? Maybe if we open the lift-shaft?" Richard suggested.
"No, it's too dangerous. We should wait the experts."
"I can't wait! Do you understand? I can't.. !!" Richard said in a loud voice.
"Dr. Webber, the most right thing would be for you to calm down. We are doing everything possible to help your people in the elevator." The policeman assured him.
"Do you know your words could not console me. Just the contrary! I'm a doctor and I know very well the meaning of the words - We do everything possible." Richard said grimly.
"Then you are also aware that we know how to react in such situations and you have only one choice, which is to trust to the people who are instructed to safe people." The policeman declared.
Richard remained silent for a few seconds and said.
"Maybe he is bluffing.."
"We both know that's not a bluff." The policeman was just about to leave when he turned to Richard. "Let we pray only to have time. "
Richard stood in the centre of the lobby with troubled countenance. Unfortunately he knew how much the policeman was right.
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In the elevator
Mark was leaned his back on the wall of the elevator, he was catching Izzie robustly whose body was loosened grip in to his hands. He could feel her heart how wildly was pounding, Mark was sure she also felt his. He has met the dead so many times in his life, but he has never been in front of it and in such a grave danger. He often asked himself the question what people felt when the peril threatened them. He had heard about the film which is passing before the eyes striking a balance for the life, but now he cared only for that, how to protect and calm Izzie. Mark felt her shivers. Instinctively he grabbed her more tightened in his embrace. She didn't react as if she had been stunt. The only thing which betrayed that she was alive was the beating of her heart. He could not see her face but he knew what was written all over her countenance – fear.
"Izzie.." Mark whispered into her ear. He didn't get an answer. Mark tried again, this time more insistently . "Izzie do you hear me?"
She didn't move. Izzie did not make an even small sign, that she heard him. She was standing frozen without making any movement. There was only one way to make her come out of the condition she was prolapsed. Izzie was jumped like stung, feeling Mark's hand under her top and his mouth behind her ear.
"What the hell you are doing? A shame on you! How you dare to..to do this..you bustard?" Izzie was out of rage. She was hitting him all over his body and Mark was trying to protect himself from the slaps of Izzie bowing and defending his head with hands. Mark couldn't hold his laugh although the situation.
"I knew that only like this I can make you react. Stevens I know you very well!" Noticed Mark cheerfully.
Izzie stopped beating him.
"What?" She stood before him staring inside at his eyes. Mark held her gaze, smiling. He took two steps near her.
"I said, I know you well Stevens. I wanted to make you out from the shock, and evidently that was the only one way to wake you up. Of course I got a big risk to attack me with desire..,but I love that kind of risk. And for the record you have very strong hands..You made me bruise. I don't know how I would take my clothes off..., who sees me would think that I have been with tigress in the bed" Mark got alarmed.
"I can't believe what nonsense are you talking?!" Izzie said in a disbelieving tone. "If you have not noticed yet we are in a trap, we got stuck in the damn elevator and soon from us won't remain even a trace. We'll die. Do you hear? We are dying!" Izzie was getting panic.
"We will not die. They will drag out of here." He endeavoured to sound convincingly.
"Nobody can take us out from here. We'll die in that elevator. We'll remain in the 5th floor forever." She broke up.
"Stevens, please just calm down. The elevator had damaged, the alarm had switched on and very soon it will be repaired."
"No one will notice, no one..." Izzie felt how the tears gushed out of her eyes and began to flow down her cheeks.
"Stevens.." Mark said softly. The sight of her crying face made his heart flexing. Not, that he hasn't seen crying girl, but he has never felt such helplessness before a woman. Mark Sloan was good at many things regarding women's feelings, but exactly in that part he was weak. He has met many desperate women and he has given back the smile on their faces, but in an other way. Using words wasn't his strong side.. In fact the women in his life were pretty different from that one. Izzie Stevens was made of different clay, whose ingredients were unknown for him. And now the destiny was offering him that situation- they both closed in the damn elevator and above their heads a bomb, which counting menaced the remaining time. But the only thing which was important to him now was to calm her and to give her hope that everything would be all right. Not, that he was assured that it would be, but in any case remained almost 3 h more or strictly 2h.52. It's strange how a man could begin to value the minutes and the time...
"Stevens," Mark's voice acquired firmly and steady timbre. "We'll not die, do you hear me we don't!" Mark grabbed her shoulders and his eyes absorbed hers. " I'm sure that we will be dragged out of that place. I want you to believe in that too." He ran his thumb to her cheek, brushing her tears. Izzie swallowed. On his face was written sureness, power and confidence.
"I have always been optimist… always. During the whole my life, I have been trying to see the world through the pink glasses. When...when Meredith was in coma, I believed, that she would be all right.. I knew she wouldn't die.." Izzie's voice trembled.
"I want you to believe it and now. I have seen you how behave with the patients, how you talk to them, how you give them hope for life and make them fighting, don't lose your most valuable feature right now. Your faith in the goodness don't lose it never and especially in that moment. We will not dye, not and today " He said with soft voice. Izzie didn't move her eyes from his ones. The lump, which was in her throat, began to disappear slowly, as if his courage and power have melted it. She felt safe.
"Do you promise?" Izzie mumbled and on her face appeared timid smile.
Mark smiled.
"I promise. And just to inform you some time ago one wise-woman has told me, I'll die at ninety having sex." Mark explained pleased.
Izzie couldn't hold her laugh.
"Seriously?!"
"Yep! On principle I don't take this seriously, but in a couple of years in NY, Derek had a patient with very bad cancer in the head after the surgery she began talking to everybody and was telling them what would happen to them. And surprisingly she made every time a good guess. I'm sure she will be right about me."
" I really hope she turns to be right! " , Izzie sighed. " If I was with somebody else I would have a big doubt, but with you I have a strong expectation.. "
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At the same time
In the hospital's lobby the bustle was growing up with every second. The stress was spreading in the air and overtook everybody. The people was going around and was hearing a continuous buzzing as if someone was ruining a beehive full with bees and now they were floating around frightened. Richard was pacing nervously forward and back, handing orders out. The sappers didn't come yet and the lift engineers were just coming.
"Richard!" He was just swelling one of the pills for stomach when he heard Adele's voice behind his back.
"Adele? What are you doing here?" He turned face to her.
"I came, because I know that you need me, I'm here to support you. I want to be close to you." She said softly.
"Adele, I'm very sorry that again the things are confused at the moment when we.." He couldn't continue because his wife interrupted him.
"No dear, I understand. You are supposed to be here. All these people need you. I know, that everyone doctor of SGH is part of your life, and your family. I respect that and I get it. I'll remain next to you and next to your family..."
"Adele, you don't know what a big force you are giving me at that moment.." Richard smiled.
"Dr. Webber!" Olivia appeared before him, gasping for breath.
"What's there? Why you are not out yet? Everybody has to leave the hospital immediately?" He quarreled her.
"Yes, I know dr. Webber, but I have to tell you something. I think it is long odds that Dr. Sloan and Dr. Stevens to be in the elevator." She gasped.
"Dr. Sloan and dr. Stevens?! Are you sure?" Richard inquired.
"I think so. On principle they are not on duty this evening but the both were here, me and Tina saw them few minutes before that happened taking the charts and headed together to the elevators. I've got page them so many times, but their pagers are out of use." The nurse informed.
"Damn!" Richard exclaimed and then said, "Thank you, Olivia."
"You are welcome, chief." She turned to leave when stared at Richard. "Dr. Webber, they managed to come out of there unhurt, didn't they?"
Richard looked the girl and saw how she was watching him in a state of expectation.
"Yes Olivia, they will. I believe they will." He assured her.
The nurse took the answer of Richard without any doubt, she left with a smile. Adele gazed at his husband, she felt that behind the firmness with that he replied to the girl was hidden something completely different- that it's possible not to happen so…..
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In the elevator
"And we'll be waiting just like this doing nothing..." Izzie didn't want to say the word.
"Stevens, we don't have to touch anything. It's a bomb and each contact with it would lead to explosion. Let's hope that someone will come to open the elevator soon in order the sappers to have time to disarm the bomb, " Mark clarified.
Izzie wanted object to him, but she refrained. Her pessimism was stronger than ever. She avoided looking at the timer, it seemed to her, that the minutes were passing like seconds. Maybe for the first time in her life she realized the worth of the time. She was thinking about the choice between recieving a couple of months more, suffered in grief and pain or to undergo the rest of your life for the last and full of value. The face of Denny emerged in her mind -fixed to the bed with all these appliances, tubes in his body and the whole equipment over him. If he had been feeling the same helpless like her now. Whether he felt the counting seconds of the life as she did at that moment.
"What are you thinking about?" Mark's voice came her back to the reality. Izzie faced him. He was seating on the ground, leaned back on the wall with hands on his knees. This picture reminded her for that when Mark and Derek were together when Meredith was in coma. She closed him and took a seat to Mark.
"I'm thinking about what the people feel, when they know that they don't have more time to live." She said sympathetically.
"I thought about the same." Mark nodded. "It's strange, isn't it? Every day we treat such people, we advise them what would be the best for them, but the truth is that we don't have an idea what they feel in that moment, how they would prefer to get through their life. "
"We all strive for the same thing. To fill in our lives with beautiful moments, great emotions and unforgettable memories. Why we lose our time with irrelevant things? Every day we care for so many insignificant objects, losing the importance. We quarrel with our friends we miss them, we are sleeping with the unsuitable people.."
"Hey!" Mark objected.
"I don't talk about you. I'm talking about me." Izzie clarified.
Mark glanced at her, saying nothing.
"Do you know, when I met Denny, I saw his desire for life, and at the same time how tired he was of all these hospitals and doctors' advises. I comprehend now that for him there was no meaning how long he could live, but how." She said with grief.
"He is lucky! Denny has filled his last days exactly with that, what you are saying." He said genially.
She faced him in a question. Mark held her gaze.
"He met you. You have given to him, what he had missed. You have been striving and fighting to save his life you have done something, which everyone would be happy to receive...You have risked all without paying attention to what would happen to your carrier. What you have done Stevens is really great... to put at stake all your future, because of a man.. Denny has died happy with such a love.."
Mark's words left her in silence. After Denny's dead the feeling of fault was gnawing at her deep inside very often, but now she saw the things in a different view. Maybe Mark was right Denny died happy having her love.
"May I ask you something?" She asked curiously.
"It's not necessary to ask me with regard to the situation at every your wish, I'm saying yes.." He smirked.
Izzie sighed.
"It seems to me, that the woman predicted your future has been confused. She has meant that you'll die not from sex, and from the impossibility to do it - FROM YOUR LONGING WISH!" She emphasized.
Mark laughed. Stevens was really good.
"Yes, she has misunderstood. She has missed to mention your name." Mark looked at her with his usual face.
"Can't you be now a little bit more serious, please?" Izzie glanced at him rigidly.
"I'm serious. Ask me!"
"What did make you enter me in the OR, when I was still in probation. I'm asking, because you were the only one, who supported me. I mean I was working with other surgeons, but none of them did what you have done. And we all know how much you dislike interns?" She questioned.
"I'll always make an effort to gain scores for a hot and beautiful blond.." He winked at her.
Izzie rolled her eyes annoyingly.
"Yes, I had to take it in my mind."
"I'm joking. I did it, because you impressed me by your attitude, behaviour and your dignity. While all were competing to scrub in the surgery using all means, you had self-respect and did nothing to have advantage serviling and running after some attending. And as I told you that what you have done to safe Denny Ducchette speaks much for you. You told me that I have to deserve your respect. Don't you know that you are the only one who dares to behave with me in that way, namely that impressed me. You were great." Mark smiled at her.
Izzie responded to his smile.
"I haven't told you till now but thank you."
"You are welcome, I would do it again. You understand, I would not give up to impress beautiful and sexy girl like you, don't you, I'm good at that." He smirked.
Izzie shook head making a particular face.
"Of course," she mumbled.
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At the same time
The hospital was almost evacuated with exception to the patients who couldn't be moved. The whole fifth and the fourth floor were empty.
"Dr. Webber the sappers are here," one of the policeman announced.
"Finally, I think that I have information who are the doctors closed in the elevator".
"It's good we will get down in the security room and will speak with them".
"What did the sappers say? " Richard asked.
"The man is too self confident which is good for us because we were said about the whole mechanism of the bomb by him and according to the sappers it will be easily disarmed. But the problem is in the lift. The technicians are worried because they need more time to unblock the whole system."., the policeman explained.
"Damn, there is not possible to have easier way?!" Richard demanded in a tone which suggested they ought to know.
"Dr. Webber leave this to the specialists, now we have to get in contact with the people in the elevator, we have to warn them not to do and touch anything," a policeman said calmly, answering Richard's furious question.
"Then not to lose time anymore," Richard agreed immediately.
When they got close to the security room and entered, the policeman immediately rushed in, and was just about to push the button of the speaker, when Richard ceased him.
"Leave this to me."
"But you don't know what to tell them."
"Look policeman here are entrapped two of my people which I love, appreciate and respect a lot. You said that I have to leave to do your job and I'm doing it, but don't tell me that I cannot speak with them, I want to talk with my friends first. " Said Richard sharply.
"Don't scare and calm them anyway they are in panic. There is no way not to notice the bomb. " The police officer warned.
Richard felt that he lose temper, took a breath and turned to the police officer.
"The people in the elevator are surgeons, each day are faced with difficult situations they knows how to stay cool. I assure you."
For a couple of seconds the policeman stared silently at Richard, then allowed him to push the button's speaker and stepped back. Richard bent down and pushed the button.
"Mark do you hear me, it's me, Richard..."