Yeah I know, this update took forever. Sorry about that, I've just not been in the mood to write. I'll try to update sooner.

Chapter 26: Fear is Lonely

After spending the rest of the weekend making love, Mark's human body had finally succumbed to exhaustion and Lexie quietly left the bed to get dressed. Leaving the room, she went downstairs to write him a note, in case he woke up to find her missing, and left the house to go hunting; since they would need to leave in a few hours for the trip back to Seattle. An hour later, she was fed and jumped into the shower to wash off the remnants of her prey before climbing back into bed with him. Although she no longer needed to sleep, it felt amazing when he instinctively wrapped his arm over her waist and pulled her against his body until they merged as one.

"Hmm, your hair is damp… did you take a shower without me?" He mumbled sleepily against her neck.

"Yeah, I ummm had to go get something to eat, so I took one to get cleaned up." She whispered, still unsure how to broach how she feeds on blood.

"So does that mean you're a messy eater?" he chuckles slightly at his joke.

"Ahhh no, but a wild boar is basically a pig and because they are just like their farm cousins, they really stink!" she giggled and felt him smile against her neck.

"Well, you smell good now." He whispered and began to kiss her neck.

"Mark, stop…. you need to sleep." She moaned softly, "besides if we keep this up, I might accidentally break…you know…. your bone." She jokes.

"Ahhh….very funny, Little Grey; but I'm willing to take the risk if you are." He says huskily, becoming more amorous. She smiles, turns around to face him and whispers, "With you… always."

Suddenly, her phone begins to ring and they both jump apart in surprise wondering who could be calling at 4 AM. Reaching over she looks at the display and sits up in shock when she realizes that it's Derek Shepherd calling her.

"Doctor Shepherd, What's going on?" she asks reverting back to her British accent and Mark sits up to turn on the light when he hears Derek's name.

"No, we're…ummm still in Forks." Marks listens in on the one sided conversation quietly. "Yeah, if we leave now we can be back to Seattle by 6…. But why aren't you handling this patient?"

"Zola? The patient is Zola!" Mark's heart jumps at the sound of his niece's name and he pushes back the covers to quickly put on his clothes. Lexie does the same, while trying to listen to Zola's symptoms Derek is providing over the phone.

"Okay, Doctor Shepherd… who's on call? Are they there? Yeah, let me talk to her…" Lexie remains silent until the phone is handed over to the on-call Doctor.

"Doctor Robbins, this is Doctor Scott, I'm on my way now and should be back in Seattle in 2 hours or less if we push the speed limit. How are her seizures? Is that dosage working? Okay, then let's stick with that and get her into Radiology for a high-def composite of her brain and spinal cord. Can you send the Scans to my phone and I'll review them on the way?" Lexie steps in front of a mirror and quickly finger-combs her hair it into a ponytail, while she watches Mark run around the room to get their stuff in the bags. "Yeah, call the surgical team in and prep an OR just in case. Okay….yeah…. I know…. try to keep them calm. See you soon." Hanging up, she looks over to a worried Mark standing by the bedroom door.

"Oh, Mark…. It's bad." She whispers.

"What happened, Lex?" he asks full of concern over his niece's health.

"They're not sure, Derek said that she had been pretty quiet all night and had acted like she didn't feel good, so they put her to bed. About an hour ago, they heard a crash coming from her room and they ran in to find that she had knocked the lamp off of her night stand because she was having a severe seizure. Once it stopped she was unresponsive and they rushed her to the hospital where the tests coming back are showing she may have developed meningitis from her shunt failing." Following him out to the car they quickly got in and pulled away from the Cullen home to head back to Seattle; a half an hour later, her phone buzzed as Zola's CT scan hit her email and Lexie began to review the pictures.

"Crap." She whispered and began dialing the hospital.

"What?" Mark asked, worried about Lexie's reaction to Zola's scans. But she didn't answer as the hospital picked up the phone.

"Doctor Robbins, This is Doctor Scott, I've reviewed Zola's Scans, and it looks like the shunt shifting may have been caused by a fall or injury…. It's pushed up into her brain and has caused an aneurism as well as an infection. Has an OR team been called in? We're making really good time, as long as we don't hit traffic, we should arrive in 45 minutes. Okay, keep me posted, if her stats change. See you soon." Hanging up the phone, Lexie looked over to Mark and he reached out his hand to take hers.

"I can't believe this is happening…..I had planned to use my gifts to help heal Zola's Spinia Bifida, so that a shunt and eventually the crutches would no longer be necessary. But she went away to camp this past week for kids with disabilities, so I never got a chance to touch her…now I've got to cut….into my niece's brain….oh God, I can't do this!" she choked out.

"Lex, Listen to me…. Derek and Meredith called you because you are the best Neurosurgeon resident our hospital's seen in years. You need to stop thinking of Zola as your niece and treat her like a patient, because here and now you're not Lexie Grey, her Aunt; you're Allison Scott the world class Doctor that's going to save that little girl's life." Bringing her hand to his lips, he softly kisses her knuckles. "They have faith in you…. I have faith in you." She gave him a soft smile and pulled her hand away from his to run her fingers through his hair. "Thank you." She whispered in gratitude from his encouragement and went back to reviewing Zola's scans.

Forty five minutes later, they arrived at the hospital and rushed into a nearby elevator to head to the attending's lounge so that she could throw on some scrubs for the surgery. Waiting nearby, Mark waited until she was done before pulling her into a hug one last time before they had to head up to Zola's room.

"Love you, Lex." He whispered into her ear, before pulling away. "Now go save our girl."

Moments later they exited the elevator and were immediately noticed by a couple of eager 3rd year Residents that began to give her Zola's stats as she read through her chart. Nodding her head in agreement that Zola needed surgery immediately, she told them to get her down to the OR and scrub in to assist.

"Doctor Scott, thank you so much for getting here so quickly." Derek said as he, Meredith and Arizona rushed out of Zola's room.

"It's no problem, Doctor Shepherd. I'm just happy that I was still in the area." She said trying to reassure her worried sister and brother-in-law. "I've reviewed Zola's current scans and I'm showing that an aneurism has formed from an injury to her shunt. I'm having her taken down to surgery now so that I can go in to clip it and then work on repositioning the shunt so it drains the excess fluid to relieve the pressure."

"I want to be there with my daughter." Derek said as he watched the residents prepare Zola.

"Doctor Shepherd, I understand your desire to be with your child, but you know the rules. Family is not allowed in the OR, even if they are Doctor's." she said.

"No… she's.." he began to argue, but her hand on his forearm stopped him.

"Derek, trust me. I'll take care of Zola as if she was my own niece." She said trying to convey in some way how important Zola was to her and she would do everything in her power to save a child she loved.

Meredith watched Doctor Scotts face as she interacted with Derek; it still amazed her on how much this young woman looked like her sister and in that moment she knew that Allison would do everything she could to save her daughter's life.

"Derek, we need to let Allison do her job; I trust her to take care of Zola." She said quietly, coming up next to him to wrap her arms around his waist. Looking down at his wife, he knew she was right.

"Okay…Okay… go. We'll wait here." He agreed and watched Allison move away to follow the residents pushing Zola's bed toward the elevator, turning to look behind her, Allison gave them a reassuring smile before looking over to Mark who was standing behind them. Once the elevator doors closed, she refocused on the task at hand and began giving directions to the residents once they arrived in the ER to scrub in.

Entering the OR after scrubbing in, Lexie made her way over to the little girl laying prone on the table and bent over to whisper into to Zola's ear. "Hey Zo Zo, Aunt Lexie's here to make it better. I love you baby girl." Seeing that everyone was now waiting for her, she walked to the head of the table and looked down at her niece then to the surgical team waiting for her directions.

"Since we all know who this little girl belongs to…. I'm going to borrow his catch phrase this morning and say, "It's a good day to save lives." Then she looks over to the scrub nurse and holds out her gloved hand to begin. "Ten blade, please."

Several hours later after scrubbing out, she made her way to the waiting room and pushed through the doors. Derek, Meredith and Mark all jumped up upon her arrival as waves of anxiety rolled off of them.

"She's going to be okay." Lexie began and everyone in the room exhaled as relief hit them. "I've clipped the aneurism and inserted a new shunt away from the damaged blood vessel, which is already relieving the pressure to her brain."

"What about infection? The preliminary tests were showing strains of Meningitis." Meredith asked.

"Yes, she does have symptoms of infection, but I'm going increase her dosage of antibiotics to fight it off and if all goes well she should start waking up in a few hours." She explained and then squeaked in surprise when Meredith pulled her into a hug and began to cry. Holding on to her sister, she whispered, "It's okay, Mere. I took care of her." Meredith's breathe caught in mid-sob because for a moment she sounded just like Lexie and it felt wonderful to finally hold her sister again. Coming up behind Meredith, Derek put his hand on Meredith's shoulder and she reluctantly moved away from hugging Allison and went into Derek's arms.

"Allison…you have no idea what this means to us. We can't thank you enough…." Derek voice rasped huskily as he fought back tears.

"Doctor Shepherd, you don't need to thank me." she said putting a comforting hand on his arm, "they'll be bringing her into ICU in a few minutes, why don't you both head down and meet her there."

Watching them leave, Lexie felt Mark come up behind and put his hand on her back.

"How did it really go, Lex?" he asked quietly sensing more went on in that OR then she let on.

"I had to use my powers, Mark." She whispered. "There was so much damage; she must have fallen….. and the infection….if another doctor had worked on her….. she would have died."

Facing her, he cupped her right cheek with his hand. "But she didn't, Lex. You saved her…. Just like you saved me." For a moment he looked like he was going to kiss her, but then she heard footsteps coming toward the room and pulled away from him just as an intern arrived, to let her know which room Zola now occupied.

"Mark… we can't do this here." She whispered, and watched as he smiled in understanding.

"Yeah, I know." he sighed, wishing he could pull her into an on-call room like the old days. "I'm going to go visit Zola, before my shift starts." He begins to walk toward the door but stops and turns around to face her. "Since you don't want anyone to know about us; how about you meet me at Derek's trailer which is now sitting next to the lake on his property? Looking at his hopeful expression, she chuckles before saying, "Sounds good, I'll see you later." He gives her a brilliant smile before leaving the room.

Later that afternoon with Derek's post-ops completed; Allison checked on Zola as her final patient and found that her niece was now doing better. Letting Doctor Hunt know that she had to go pick up her new passport and make travel arrangements for her return to England, she left the hospital.

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Forks, a tracker wrinkles his nose at the scent of wolves lingering in the air as his partner waits by his side. He can tell by the faint scent that the Cullen family is no longer in the area, but then the wind shifts and he smiles as the intoxicating aroma of a young female immortal feels his senses. 'A new Cullen perhaps?' he thinks to himself since he hasn't encountered her scent before and the wolves left her alone while she was in the area. The only way to know for sure would be to track her down and find out her connection to the Cullen Family.

"Come on, Denz. It's time to go hunting." He says with a low chuckle and they quickly leave the area to head toward Seattle.