A.N: And so we being Alex's journey into their world. Enjoy!

Chapter 5: Death and Rebirth 2: Alex

Alex p.o.v

Three years ago, Dr Kenley, the Head of Peds, died. I'd had a few cases with him and found that I liked the cases, and I was great at them. I'd been milling around the ER when the Chief came in with two people behind him. They were both dressed in navy scrubs and had pristine white lab coats on.

"And this is the ER, which is where you'll be spending most of your time Dr Ryans. As a Trauma surgeon myself, I take pride in the state of the art machines that we possess here in the pit." I scoffed at the way Hunt's declaration, boy he was really sucking up, what's so great about them anyway. Dr Ryans, the dark haired one, smiled and nodded, before taking in the ER.

I tried to sneak out of the doors to avoid anymore of suck-up-Chief, but I was caught at last minute.

"Ah, Dr Karev, just who I was looking for. Come here for a second would you?" I rolled my eyes, damn! I was so close.

"Yeah?" He narrowed his eyes at me before plastering on his smile again.

"Dr Robbins here is the new Head of Peds," he pointed to the blonde woman, "Dr Robbins, this is Dr Karev. I do believe you'll be working together a lot. From what I've been told, he is the one to look out for in Peds, so I hope you don't mind taking him under your wing Dr Robbins." The blonde smiled at me, I looked her up and down. Yeah, she was kinda hot, she had nice boobs at least, could be worse. There was a cough and I looked up to see Robbins with an eyebrow raised and Ryans stifling a laugh. The cough came from Hunt, who had narrowed his eyes at me, clearly unamused. Whatever, I don't care.

"Well, Dr Karev, I look forward to working together with you." I grunted out a response and left before they could catch me again.

A few hours later, I was paged into the ER, there'd been a drive by shooting at a local school and a lot of kids had been shot.

"What have we got?"

"Karev, 12-year old, two GSWs to the torso, let's go, scrub in. Let's see how you work." Her face was hidden behind her scrub mask, but I could practically hear the grin in her voice.

We were two hours into the surgery, and I could tell she was good. She was meticulous, thorough, and she had ridiculously fast responses and reflexes. The patient had crashed a few times, but she was always calm and collected, she had complete control of the OR and she'd even managed to go through everything that she was doing whilst doing it. Talk about extreme multitasking. I had learned so much in just two hours with her, than I had in a long time, and when we closed up I saw that her final stitches were just as expected: precise and quick.

We received patient after patient, and her calm demeanour never once faltered. Each cut was done with precision, each step was taken with purpose, and she'd never once failed to catch a bleeder or to bring the patient back. She was like a Goddess.

When we were scrubbing out of our final surgery, I looked at her hands. These were the hands of a great surgeon, an amazing surgeon, and I wanted her to teach me with those hands.

"Great work there Karev, looks like we're going to have a great partnership." She brought me out of my thoughts, she was smiling at me, and when she turned to walk out, I stopped her.

"Teach me." I demanded. She turned back to me and raised an eyebrow. "Uh- teach me, please." She had remained silent. "You have great hands, I want those hands to teach me. You're meticulous, fast, and calm. You're like the perfect surgeon. I want to be like that. Teach me!"

She smiled and stepped forward, placing a hand on my arm. "That's what I'm here for Karev. If you're willing to learn, I'm more than willing to teach. Though these hands here" she raised both her hands up, "are one of a kind. I don't know if you'll ever be as good as me Karev." She grinned cockily at me, and swiftly left the room.

I stood there, dazed, before I smirked. Robbins was interesting, that's for sure. Hot, interesting and a Goddess in the OR, way better than the old dude before her. When I'd heard that he had croaked, I was disappointed, because that meant no more Peds cases for me, but now, after meeting Robbins, I was secretly glad he did die. His death may have been the best thing that's happened to Peds in a long time.

"Dr Karev? The lab said that they need more blood from the patient in room 4 for tests," I looked up to see an intern standing there, nervously shifting from foot to foot.

"And?" I hated interns; they were so useless and needy. If they were so scared, then they should've never left medical school. God I was never like this as an intern, why do I always get stuck with the pansy ones?

"I-I-uh…"

"What does that mean?" I was getting impatient.

"I-uh-I need to take some blood?"

Seriously? He actually asked that?

"Well done, give the boy a medal," I deadpanned, even throwing in a slow clap or two. He turned bright red before shuffling off to get the blood.

"You know, you should be nicer to your interns. They're the future of medicine … Or something." I turned around ready to take out whoever was behind me when I noticed it was Ryans. She stood leaning against the nurses' desk, arms crossed, smirking at me. She was tall and slim and pretty hot too, I'm a guy, so I notice these kinds of things, can't blame a guy. I hadn't worked with her yet, but from what I hear, she's a Goddess in Trauma, great just what we need, another cocky surgeon with an ego bigger than the sun. I scoffed internally at that.

"What do you want? Aren't you a bit far from the pit?"

"Yikes, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I'm looking for your adorably perky department head. Have you seen her bouncing around here? Or wheeling even, I'm not fussy, either one works."

What. The. Hell?

Seeing that I was less than forthcoming with information she grinned and added, "She owes me something and I'm here to collect."

"T! You're early." Robbins came down the corridor … wheeling? Was she wheeling? What the hell?

"Ah there she is, you owe me something"

"I thought we'd agreed 1pm in your office?" She tilted her head at Ryans, it was kind of adorable, but I was never going to admit that.

"Yes my darling little airhead, it's half past now."

"Oh crap, sorry, lost track of time. Come to my office, I'll sort you out. Karev, scrub in for the Appy at 3." With that they both walked off, secret smiles and tender gestures. Were they banging? Now that was hot. Whatever, it's not my business; even if it were hot, she'd probably kill me if I asked.

A few weeks later, we were in the OR, and she'd let me take the lead in this surgery. She was assisting, obviously, but I was in charge today. We had a 6 year old on the table, and she'd been hit by a car. There was a lot of blood, but I was used to it already, I knew Robbins had my back, and I felt invincible.

"V-Fib"

"Prepare the paddles"

"Clear!"

"No change"

"Charge again. Clear!"

…

I'd lost the patient.

We went to tell the parents, and the father was hysterical. He punched me and had me pinned against the wall.

"What the hell happened? Were you the doctor operating on her? Are you even qualified to operate? You killed her! You killed her! Give me back my daughter!"

He was right, I'd killed her, I shouldn't have taken lead. Robbins was the Goddess not me. I'm just trash, I'd killed her.

"Mr Miller, calm down." Robbins' voice cut through the tension, his grip tightened on my scrubs, and she'd laid a hand on his shoulder, "look at me Mr Miller." Her voice was so mesmerising, and it was calming even me. We both looked at her, and I swear her, there was something swirling in her eyes. She'd blinked when he let go and it disappeared.

"Yes Dr Karev was the lead in the case, but I was there all the way. I could've and would've stepped in at any moment if it looked like Dr Karev couldn't handle it. There was just too much bleeding, and too much damage. Even I wouldn't have been able to save her. I'm sorry for your loss Mr Miller, but we did everything that we could have." He broke down in her arms; she looked over his shoulder and signalled for me to leave.

She came to find me in the changing rooms where I was mulling over the loss. I ran over the surgery over and over again in my head to see where I went wrong.

"There was nothing you could've done Karev." Her voice was low and gentle, but I was too overwhelmed by guilt to humour her.

"You could've-"

"No I couldn't." Her voice was strong, and adamant. I looked up at her and she sat down next to me. "I wasn't just placating the father back there. I was serious when I said that not even I could've saved her. You were meticulous, and you did everything right, there was just too much damaged to be salvaged." She patted my thigh and smiled at me, "You did good work in there Karev, I'm proud of you."

I took pride in the fact that she was proud of me, but still, it hurt, losing patients always hurt, but when it's a kid. There are just no words to describe that feeling.

"How do you deal with it?" She tilted her head in confusion, "Losing the kids, how do you deal with it?"

"You just have to." She stood up to leave. Just as she reached the door she added, "The ones that you do save almost make up for the ones you don't."

Ever since losing the patient, I spent more time studying different procedures and past cases; I really wanted to impress Robbins. She'd had my back and defended me that day, and no one's ever done that for me. Ever since I went into medicine, everyone's always been out for themselves; every man for himself, and they never once offered to help me. Maybe it was because they knew I didn't have a rich daddy to back me up, or any money at all really. I would always hear whispers behind my back, 'trailer trash', was what they called me. It wasn't until I got an internship at SGMW that things started to change. I mean, Meredith and Cristina didn't treat me like I was any different to them, I was an intern just like them and that was it, they never made my life difficult, but it's not like they went out of their way to help me either, and I liked it that way. I couldn't really compare to them anyway, I mean Meredith Grey was the daughter of the renowned Ellis Grey, the inventor of the laprascopic Grey method, and Cristina Yang was the rich girl from California, with amazing talent in Cardio. I was a nobody compared to them, but it didn't mean I didn't work twice as hard to get noticed.

Robbins changed the game though, she came from nowhere and took me in, no questions asked and she pushed me twice as hard as anyone ever has to get results. She stuck her neck out for me and made it a priority to teach me, rather than just showing off her skills in the OR to me. Every surgery, from start to finish, she'd take me through it all, talk out loud, and ask if I had any questions. She was always happy and perky, the epitome of everything I hated, but would then transform into this hardcore, badass, focused surgeon in the OR. I idolised her and didn't want to disappoint her. So this led me to sitting exactly where I am now, in the canteen surrounded by old case files.

"Ooooh, whatcha got there, Karev?" A voice came from behind me; it was Ryans, who then plopped down in the seat next to me, placing her tray on the table. I held a lot more respect for her now, we'd worked together in the OR, and I'd experienced first hand what she was capable of. The rumours were right, which was surprising considering this is SGMW, and rumour mills are always exaggerated to an extent, but they were right about Ryans, she was a Trauma God. In the presence of a Trauma God and a Peds God, I felt infinitesimal; they were amazing and worked together flawlessly. When we were in the OR, Ryans must have caught on to what Robbins was doing, because she started explaining her every movement and taking the time to show me everything she saw. I still didn't like her all that much, but I had respect for her.

"Karev's looking through old surgical case files, to brush up on his knowledge I'm assuming" I hadn't noticed that Robbins had joined us at the table.

"And to impress you too right?" Ryans grinned impishly and I blushed. I didn't think she'd catch on to what I was doing.

"Either way, I think it's a great idea Karev. A good surgeon is never too good to learn new things. They should be prepared for any situation, and reading up on old cases is a good way to understand things that you might never actually see in the OR. You never know when it might happen though. Good job Karev." She looked at me proudly and I ducked my head, I never was good at being complimented. I mean I liked to be acknowledged for my achievements, but not to this extent.

"Oh boy, I think you've gone and embarrassed the kid Ari. It's sweet! Maybe I should go and find myself a protégé too. How about it Karev? Feel like switching to a more hardcore specialty?" Ryans teased.

"Peds is hardcore!" I said in unison with Robbins, though I was less indignant. I looked at Robbins and blushed again.

"Awwww, that is so cute. I'm super jealous."

I muttered out a 'whatever' before gathering my case files and fleeing the scene, leaving Ryans and Robbins giggling at my hurried departure. I really hated them at times, but secretly I was glad Robbins had someone. I knew it was hard to lose kids, and even though she put on a front, I could see the guilt and despair hidden behind her smiles every time we do lose one. Ryans made her laugh and I'd seen her go out of her way to find Robbins every time we lost one to comfort her, even if it was just to sit with her whilst she internally sorted out her feelings. I was glad that Ryans was able to bring back out the childish, perky side of Robbins every time. Okay, so maybe I didn't hate Ryans all that much, maybe.

One night, after a long shift, as I was headed home, I spotted Robbins passed out in the car park.

"Robbins! Hey, you alright?" I rushed to her side as quick as I could, and saw that she was really pale and cold. "Robbins... Arizona!" I was panicking; I'd never seen her like this before, then I noticed the blood. There wasn't a lot, but there was blood splattered on her clothes. "Shit."

"Hm?" She was waking up, barely though.

"Shit, you alright? Help me, I gotta get you to the hospital." I looked around for help, but there was no one around, not at this time at night at least.

"No, Terri."

"What? No, it's Alex" She was muttering and I could barely hear her. I wasn't going to let her die, dammit.

"No… Call…T…" She groaned out, and held out her phone, which was also covered in blood. I realised what she meant and grabbed her phone to dial Ryans.

"Ari? What's up?" Came from the other end, she sounded pretty awake, I tried to remember if she was on the night shift today.

"No it's Karev."

"…Karev? Why do you have Arizona's phone?"

"There's no time for that, I found her in the car park, pretty much out cold, she's covered in blood. I need to get her into the ER"

…

"Hello? Ryans!"

"Can you find a way to get her into my office without anyone noticing?"

The hell? She needed the ER, why the hell would I take her into her office?

"She needs to be checked out, she needs the ER!"

"Listen to me Alex," this got my attention, they had never referred to me as anything but 'Karev' before, "just get her into my office, I'm at the hospital, just trust me okay?"

I hung up and stripped off my jacket and wrapping it around Robbins. Looking around I debated whether or not to follow my orders. Screw it! I lifted her up and ran around the hospital, using the back entrance and ran up the stairs before anyone caught me. I was secretly glad that no one was around at this time; I'd have a hell of a time trying to explain why I had a bloody, unconscious woman in my arms.

When I finally got to her office, I saw Ryans waiting for me by her door, face full of concern.

"Lay her on the couch." I followed through, making sure that she was comfortable before turning towards Ryans. "You need to leave now Karev."

"The hell I am! I'm staying, and you better tell me why the hell I had to skip 3 floors to get her up here rather than run her straight into the ER!"

"Karev." Her voice cut like ice across the room, she levelled her eyes at mine and I noticed that her eyes were getting darker.

"What the hell is going on?" A groan broke through our stare down and we both moved towards the couch.

"Robbins, what happened?"

"Ari, wake up." It came out at the same time. Her voice seemingly to echo through the room, I snapped my head round towards Ryans, and I swear there was a faint glowing around her.

"Karev … Stays." She managed out. Ryans sighed before making the decision.

"Karev, lock the door and close the blinds." As I went to the door, I noticed her heading towards her desk; she sat down in her chair before reaching towards something under her desk. When I was closing the blinds, I heard the sound of a seal breaking and realised she had a mini fridge under her desk. She straightened up and I saw that she held a bottle in her hands.

"What the-"

"Karev, nothing can leave this room tonight okay? Anything you see, or hear, you ignore."

I just nodded mutely before following her back to the couch.

"Ari, drink up." She gently commanded, whilst twisting off the cap, and within seconds of the cap leaving the bottle, Robbins had shot up off the couch and latched onto Ryans' hands, pretty much downing the whole thing.

This was getting weirder by the moment, and I briefly had the thought to leave, but my concern over Robbins kept me stationary. I watched as the color began to return to her face and when she finally finished, she turned towards me with shining eyes that were glowing a deep purple. I froze immediately.

"What the hell?" A hand on my shoulder made me jump.

"Alex" Ryans warned.

"What the hell are you!" I demanded.

"Vampires." Came the small voice from the couch, she had more color in her face now, but still looked pretty weak. "I was attacked in the car park, it was 5 on 1, and usually I would be fine, but I was tired because-"

"You haven't left the hospital in 2 days because of the Thomas kid" I finished for her. We had a patient who was currently very much touch and go, and she had offered to stay and keep watch instead of me, even though it was a job for a resident.

"Yeah, so I hadn't had the time to properly … feed or anything."

Jesus Christ, things were getting weird. I looked at Robbins who was lying on the couch looking like a sick child and then towards Ryans, who remained silent and wore a poker face that was completely unreadable.

"So you're both vampires?" I got a nod, "And you were attacked by other vampires" another nod, "And because you'd been looking after the kid that I should've been looking after because I'm a resident and you're an attending, you didn't have the time to, what was it? Feed? So you were tired and what hungry?" another nod again, "did you get hurt?" This got me a smile.

"No, I took care of them. But guess I was hungrier than I thought and I guess I passed out?" I nodded, "Right, I thought so, I just remember the last one disappearing and then you were there shouting my name. Thanks Alex."

I took in the situation and briefly wondered if I was dreaming, maybe I'd passed out in an on-call room, or maybe I'd eaten something wrong and thing was a nightmare.

"Are you okay Alex?"

"Me? What about you? Are you okay?" Was she really asking me that?

"Oh yeah, I've fed now, just gotta get some rest, I'll be fine in a moment."

"So what happens now?"

"We kill you." Terri said it in such a serious tone, that I recoiled slightly, I looked at her red eyes. Wait, red?

"T, no." She pouted. What. The. Hell?

"Sorry Alex, but you can't tell anyone. It's not safe for you."

"For me? Aren't you afraid of people knowing about you?" In the back of my head, I thought it was kind of sweet that she was so concerned about me, but there were currently bigger issues that needed to be dealt with first.

"Well, we can erase their memories of us, but if they find out that you know, then it'll be dangerous for you." I briefly wondered who 'they' were. "We can wipe your memories too if you want?"

"Are you really giving me a choice?" she nodded, and I contemplated this for a while. "Yeah, no thanks." They both stared at me in shock.

"Wha? But Alex-"

"No, because if this ever happens again, I'll know how to help you. I'm sure Ryans can't always be around; I mean what happens if the next time this happens and Ryans is in surgery or something? You'll probably die, or be bought into the ER and cause a huge scene or something." She smiled at me, and Ryans tilted her head deep in thought.

"We could always mark you?" Ryans added.

"Mark?"

"Yup, mark, for protection. It'll let you contact us when you need help, and we'll know where you are, so if you're ever with Ari, and need me, you won't have to phone me or anything, and I'll know where you are immediately. Though the catch is that you'll belong to us. You can't tell anyone about us, can't ask us about any others that are like us, you work for us and only us. Think you can keep up?"

"Do it" I replied immediately. There really was no need to think this through; I'd already decided when I said I'd help them. There wasn't really any change, Robbins was still the mentor that I respected and idolised, the person who would rather give up her own sleep and time to stay with a patient than hand her off to an intern. And Ryans? Well she was still the same Trauma God that came as a package with the Peds God.

"Seriously? Just like that?"

"Alex, think about it first." They said at the same time.

"Nope, I've decided. It doesn't matter, you're still freakishly perky and happy Arizona Robbins and you're still the freakishly annoying Terri Ryans, and as long as you don't try to bite me I'm good."

Ryans laughed out loud whilst Robbins pouted.

"Alex, we don't feed off humans, not live ones anyway, and definitely not if they don't give us permission. We live off blood packs and feeders."

"Feeders?"

"Yeah, they're the rare few humans who willingly offer live blood to be fed from. We, Terri and I, only use them in emergencies, like if we need healing. Otherwise we just use blood packs from donors. We don't go around killing humans for food or fun."

"Right, whatever, just mark me."

I watched as Robbins slowly got off the couch and approached me, her eyes growing from deep purple to a bright violet, she lifted her index finger and placed it above my heart and then a burning sensation filled my body. When she removed her hand, Ryans handed me a mirror and I saw my eyes were glowing purple, I moved my shirt and saw a glowing purple on my chest, and when it faded away to black, it looked sort of like a reversed moon.

"That's the sign of Artemis, and that would be me. Terri is Athena." She explained, "And we're Vampire Royalty. Welcome to the family Alexander Michael Karev."

A few months later, I heard that Terri, yes we were on first name basis now, had marked one of my interns. If I remember correctly, she was the half-sister of Meredith Grey, went by the name of Lexie, or Little Grey to us residents anyway. I didn't particularly like her, but I didn't dislike her. There wasn't anything special about her, but if she was willing to help us, then I'd tolerate her. Either way she was 'family' now.

It happened when we were taking a walk, we were ambushed and surrounded, there were at least ten strays, and they looked hungry. Terri and Arizona leapt into the fray, but then he came at Lexie, and I made it my priority to protect my new family member. I jumped in front of her and confronted the guy, but who was I kidding? I didn't stand a chance, and I was thrown away like a ragdoll.

"Lexie!" No, dammit, run away you stupid girl! Terri had taken care of the guy and taken her into her arms. "Do something Terri!" Dammit she's dying, it's my fault, I should've protected her. I watched Terri apologise to her, and before I could ask, her fangs sunk deep into her neck.

Maybe it was the adrenaline filtering away, or the aura that was emanating from Terri, either way, I felt the edges of my world darken.

"Alex!" It was Arizona, she fell to her knees and cushioned my head before it could hit the ground. What was happening to me? I looked down my body and realised it was covered in blood. Was that mine? Then it hit me, when the guy threw me away, he'd clawed through me, but my brain's need to protect Lexie had overridden the pain and blood. Well at least I'll die a hero…

But what about Arizona? I promised to help her, to protect her, I couldn't die now. She looked me with shining violent eyes and I nodded, I had a promise to fulfil, and I would spend the rest of my life dedicated to her. I closed my eyes as she sunk her fangs into me. I had no regrets in choosing this option, she'd taken me in when everyone else would've shunned me away, she given me everything, a purpose in life, and more than anything, she'd given me a family, to love and protect.

I had no regrets.

When I woke up, I was dying of thirst, I saw Arizona sitting by my bed, and when she noticed I was awake, she gave me a glass filled with something. I sniffed it and recognised it as blood, and without a second thought, downed the glass. I instantly felt better.

I walked into the bathroom to wash my face and when I looked into the mirror I saw dark purple eyes staring back at me, I opened my mouth to see fangs protruding along the top, I growled at the mirror. I heard giggling behind me and turned to see Arizona by the door.

"Having fun Alex?"

I blushed and looked away. I felt her walk up to me and place a hand on my shoulder.

"Lexie's awake now, come, we have things to do."

It was said in a commanding tone that I'd instantly obeyed. Perhaps this was the result of her biting me; I would always be at her beck and call now. Surprisingly, I was okay with that. If it had to be anyone, I was glad that it was Arizona.

I would die for her, for Arizona, my master.

A.N: Woooo that was long! I really do like Alex and Arizona together in a sibling kind of relationship. I think it's cute!

Thoughts?