A.N: Teddy's story!

Chapter 6: Death and Rebirth 3: Teddy

Teddy p.o.v

When I joined Seattle Grace Mercy West two years ago, I didn't know what to expect, I'd heard a lot of good things about the top rated hospital. But what I completely didn't expect was to run into Owen Hunt. We'd served in the army together for a while, but he'd gotten discharged before I had. In an even more surprising turn of events, I found out that Owen had been promoted to Chief a year ago after Richard Webber had retired. Needless to say, it was quite shocking on my behalf when I walked into the Chief's office on my first day to see the red haired man behind the desk.

"Owen?"

"Welcome to Seattle Grace Mercy West Doctor Altman." He replied with a grin. He got up, walked around the table and took me in for a hug. "God it's good to see you Teddy."

"The feeling is mutual, I mean, God, look at you, it's only been 2 years since we last saw each other and you're Chief!"

"Imagine my surprise when I received an application for the new Head of Cardio position sent from the Army! When I saw your name, I had to hire you immediately."

I recoiled slightly at the admission. "Wait, you didn't hire me because we're friends did you? Because that wouldn't be right."

He laughed, "God, you know I wouldn't do that Teddy, I looked through each application thoroughly, even made sure to put yours last so there was no bias. But seriously, your experience blew everyone else's away, there was no way I wouldn't have hired you, friends or not."

"I know, I'm sorry. Maybe spending the last decade in the army has made me unaccustomed to how job hunting works. You sure you want to hire me?" I joked, "I dunno, maybe I won't remember how to live life as a regular civilian and turn up to all my surgeries and consults in my fatigues and bark out orders like a drill sergeant."

After our laughter subsided, he looked at me intensely. I have to admit that I've always had a huge crush on Owen; we met at boot camp and went through everything together. We'd been through hell together and survived to tell the story.

"I really have missed you, Teddy" I couldn't help but blush at his admission. "We've got a great team here, and I know you'll be an exceptional addition. Just last year we had Dr Robbins and Dr Ryans take over our Peds and Trauma department, and needless to say, they have both been flourishing."

"Wait, as in Arizona Robbins and Terri Ryans?"

"Yup!" He seemed very proud of that, and he so should be.

"How in the hell did you manage to get them to join? I mean no disrespect to you and SGMW, but they could get into anywhere! Arizona Robbins is like the in the top 3 Paediatric surgeons in the country, a superstar in her own right, and don't even get me started on Terri Ryans. The genius doctor, youngest attending in the ever, and has even managed to land her self within the top 3 Trauma surgeons in the country. Even I heard of their accomplishments all the way in Afghanistan."

"I know right?" He laughed, "They just came and handed me their applications, at the right time too. Dr Kenley had just passed away, and I was replacing Richard as Chief, talk about coincidence" he replied with a knowing smile. It was odd, but I brushed off the feeling.

"Jesus, and from what I hear, you've also got Derek Shepherd, Mark Sloan and Addison Montgomery, who are all superstars and Gods/Goddesses in their own field. What the hell, are you like, a holding place for talented geniuses of the medical world?" It was pretty overwhelming for me. I mean talk about first day jitters; I had so many prestigious doctors to compete with.

Owen seemed to know what I was thinking, and sobered up immediately, "Don't worry about it Teddy, you're amazing, I've seen what you can do, and if I didn't think you'd fit in or that you couldn't handle the pressure, then I wouldn't have given the position to you. You work the best under pressure remember? We're hardcore soldiers, we never back down from a challenge!" Dammit, peer pressure; he always knew how to press my buttons.

"Fine, fine, but if I break down crying after my first week, I'm blaming you, and you're paying for my therapy bills!" He laughed at me before leading me out the door to begin my first day.

So far my first day was going smoothly, after a quick tour of the hospital, I'd settled down into my office on the Cardio floor. The last Head had left a mass of paperwork for me to catch-up on. If the slimy weasel hadn't retired, I'd probably be tempted to strangle him. I mean seriously, it's like he didn't bother with any of the paperwork and had instead just piled them high on his desk.

Lunchtime was when my predicament came; it was like being the new kid at school all over again, standing there, holding my lunch tray, and looking for somewhere to sit. Every table seemed to be occupied, dammit, where was Owen when you needed him? I briefly considered going to eat in my office when my name was shouted loudly, "Hey Dr Altman!" I looked around trying to locate the owner of the voice, when I spotted a blonde sitting at one of the tables in the corner, waving at me cheerfully, signalling for me to go and join her. I debated whether or not I wanted to go, she seemed way too perky, but on the other hand, I really needed new friends. Shrugging my shoulders, I made my way over to her and sat down.

"Thanks for inviting me, I appreciate that." I smiled and took in the woman's appearance. Her long blonde hair was tied into a loose ponytail, she had strikingly clear blue eyes, and when she smiled at me, I noticed she had dimples too. In short, she was rather stunning.

"No problem, I'm Arizona Robbins, Head of Peds," holy shit, this woman was perky. Wait, did she say? This is Arizona Robbins? I stared, mouth agape, this was really not what I'd expected from the world-renowned paediatric surgeon.

"Teddy Altman, Head of Cardio," I recovered quickly from my shock and shook her hand, "But you already seem to know that." She just gave me a cheeky grin before taking a sip from her cup.

We both sat silently eating our food, to be honest, it was pretty awkward, but she didn't seem to mind. She was still happily chomping away at her salad, and slurping from her cup like a child. I seriously wondered if the stories were all just fictional, and briefly wondered about her mentality. I shook that off though, I knew better than to judge a book by it's cover. When we were finished eating, she finally spoke up.

"Hey listen, you're new here, and I know how that feels, because that was me a year ago. So you and me, we're going to be friends." I was shocked by the finality in her voice, she was pretty confident of herself.

"We are?"

"Yup, I'm an awesome friend, oooh and Terri, you haven't met her yet, you will, now in fact, let's go!" The way her thoughts were jumping around, I seriously wondered if she had ADHD. This woman was the Head of Peds? Seriously?

"Who's Terri?"

"Dr Terri Ryans, Head of Trauma, my best friend, we moved here a year ago. So me and Terri will be your new best friends here!"

With that I was pulled out of the canteen and into the ER, where I'm assuming one Dr Terri Ryans would be found.

"Oh hey Ari, just in time, got a patient for you." We turned around to see a dark haired woman headed our way. Seriously, does this hospital not have any bad looking doctors? She was stunning, tall, slim, brown eyes, fair skinned, and her smile was so charming, that I'm sure I blushed. I'd already met Dr Shepherd, Dr Sloan and Dr Montgomery, and this hospital seriously does not do things by halves, it was like I'd walked onto the set of a TV drama, where everyone was amazingly talented and charming and stunning. Talk about pressure.

"Hey T, this here's Dr Teddy Altman, and she's needs friends, so we're going to be her new best friends!" Arizona's declaration didn't seem to surprise Terri in anyway. Instead she just raised her eyebrow and chuckled.

"Aye, aye Captain," she saluted at Arizona and they both giggled, whilst I stared at them wide-eyed. Seriously? The charming Dr Ryans suddenly turned into a child around the blonde Peds surgeon, I was worried about the future of their departments, but Owen had said their departments were flourishing. Needless to say, I was thoroughly confused.

"Dr Altman, Cardio, right?" I was so deep in my thoughts, I didn't even realise I was being spoken to, until the blonde poked my side. I jumped and they both laughed.

"Yes, Teddy Altman, Head of Cardio" I held my hand out and stated in my most formal voice. She just raised an eyebrow at me before shaking my hand.

"Terri Ryans, Head of Trauma," she replied in a voice just as formal, but I could swear she was mocking me. "Good thing you're here actually, I was about to page the both you. We've got a 13 year old, didn't realise his brakes didn't work before he went full speed down a hill on his bike, got impaled by a freaking tree branch in the upper chest. Free for a consult?"

Excitement ran through my body at the prospect of a surgical case. I grinned like a child on Christmas, "Bring it."

As we were scrubbing out, I couldn't help but watch on in amazement. Terri and Arizona were messing around, giggling like children, yet only mere moments ago, we were elbow deep in a child's chest cavity. I was definitely wrong about them, the two surgeons that I'd worked with in the OR were cool, meticulous, precise, fast and they worked amazingly well together, almost as if they could read each other's minds; they were there to support each other before the other could make the next move. The moved together as one, and their knowledge was ridiculous; they had a plan for every situation, and had somehow, considering that we had never worked together before, managed to arrange it so my skills and I were able to completely harmonise with their movements. They were a phenomenal duo, and I was absolutely honored to have been able to work with them, a sentiment that I made known, but they'd just laughed it off.

"No way, you were amazing, like super, super amazing. You were awesome!"

"I agree with Ari, you were the star of the show, and we were just the helpful sidekicks in this scenario, we couldn't have done it without you Dr Altman." The energy coming from them was astonishing, I was absolutely shattered from the intense atmosphere of the OR; the patient kept crashing, but they was always there to bring them back, and they'd treated the last 8 hours like it was just a stroll in the park.

"I think, as my new best friends, that you're entitled to call me Teddy."

"Teddy it is then."

"Awesome!"

The more time I spent with the hyper duo, the more they amazed me. We spent a lot of lunches eating together, sometimes in the canteen and sometimes outside in the park by the hospital, there were times where two other doctors joined us. I later learned that one was a resident named Alex Karev and the other an intern named Lexie Grey, and as I watched their interaction, it genuinely made me smile. The duo never once acted like superiors, they teased their juniors and played around goofily, but was always willing to offer advice or opinions on surgeries they'd encountered, sharing stories of their own of similar cases. They never once made the junior doctors feel uncomfortable asking any questions, even ones with obvious answers, I'd later learn that Alex was Arizona's protégé, so they'd worked together a lot, but they feeling I got from them was that they were all very close; just like a little family. It was really endearing, I had asked about Terri and Arizona's close relationship, and it was a rather embarrassing moment if I have to admit.

"So, like, are the two of you together?" They'd turned from where they were laughing at Lexie's misfortune of having a drunk patient throw up on her in the ER this morning, and looked at me curiously.

"Um, yes? We're always together, why?" Arizona cluelessly replied, and from the look Terri was giving me, she'd guessed what I was really implying.

"No, I mean like together, together. You know like lesbians,"

"Uhm, yes we're gay?" That didn't help at all.

"No, like, dammit, are you sleeping together?" The other three were now turning red from trying to stifle their laughter.

"Yeah, we slept in the same bed last night, why?" Oh my god! She can seriously not be this clueless. I was getting frustrated, how many other ways could I put it before she got it? It was only then that I'd noticed the twinkle in her eye. Dammit! She played me!

"Dammit Arizona!" They burst at into laughter at this point and I turned bright red.

"Oh my god, that was hilarious!" Terri said after catching her breath, I looked at Arizona who was now holding her stomach, tears coming from her eyes, giggling uncontrollably.

"We grew up together Teds, so we're always close, we're like sisters, except we're not. She's technically my cousin. And even though she's supposed to be older than me, I look after her, she gets into a lot of trouble you see?" she grinned and Arizona pouted.

"Hey! Not fair, it's not my fault, you always lead me into these situations and disappear so I'm left with the aftermath, and then you magically reappear to 'save the day'."

Whilst the two cousins duked it out, I stared on in wonder. It did make a lot of sense, but still, it was weird to consider that they were cousins, they way they played it; they seriously looked like a loving, married couple. Guess I called that one wrong then.

It had been about six months since I'd arrived to SGMW, and I'd gotten used to a lot of different scenarios and more, especially being around the Godly Duo, as I had named Terri and Arizona. One scenario I never imaged I'd stumble upon was seeing two doctors, a resident and an intern, smuggling blood packs up from the … basement? It was late at night the first time I'd caught them, so I thought I was imagining things from lack of sleep, but the second time? I had just started my shift and it was midnight, when I caught them running upstairs from the basement. Deciding that I wasn't hallucinating, I followed them upstairs, only to end up outside Terri's office.

I didn't think Terri was on that night, but the sounds from the other side of the door told a different story. I opened to door to find Alex and Lexie pouring blood from the packs into bottles. Startled, they whipped their heads up and stared at me. We just stayed there, me at the door and them on the couch staring at each other, before I broke the silence.

"What the hell are you doing?" I walked towards them and picked up a full bottle from the coffee table in front of them, "Is that blood? Are you stealing blood?"

"We can explain!" The both exclaimed.

There was a gust of wind and the door slammed shut behind me, I heard the sound of the lock engaging and turned around to see both Terri and Arizona standing there. Where the hell did they come from? I didn't even hear them; they didn't even make a single noise.

"Teddy," Terri's voice was calm, far too calm for the situation.

I was put off by her voice, but I still pushed forward, "You know I'm going to have to report them for stealing hospital equipment right?" I wasn't even sure if blood counted as 'hospital equipment', but this wasn't making sense to me, and I was hoping they'd explain it to me.

"I'm afraid we can't let you do that." She took a step towards me and I could feel the air around us change. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I could sense a dangerous aura, but it didn't make sense. This was Terri and Arizona, for all their perkiness and goofiness, even when in the OR; their presence was never like this. This was darker, and much more intimidating. I took a quick glance towards Alex and Lexie and saw that they hadn't reacted to the change at all, was this normal?

"Look, we're best friends right? Just tell me what's going on." I was desperately trying to diffuse the intense atmosphere that had appeared, you could seriously cut the tension with a knife.

It was Lexie who finally spoke up, though she was more apprehensive, as if treading carefully to test the waters. "Can't we just tell her, Terri? Please? I mean, Arizona likes her, right?" She looked towards Arizona, who was still staring at me intensely, and after a moment she nodded her head. Both Lexie and I relaxed slightly, but I tensed up immediately again, feeling Terri's breath on the back of my neck. When did she get there?

"You really want to know?" She inhaled deeply, taking in my scent and I shivered. "It's your call Ari, what you want to do?" She backed away, and I finally felt like I could breathe again. Arizona walked towards me,

"Teddy…" She began.

"No! I know that tone of voice Arizona, no more lies, no placating me, I want the truth." I cut her off, I recognised her tone of voice, it was the same she used with her kids, the ones who wanted a story, or the ones who were scared of surgery and she made up a lie to placate them.

She sighed, and looked around the room, before stopping just over my shoulder at Terri.

"It's your dance this time Ari, take the floor and lead."

"We're Vampires, Teddy." I froze; momentarily I thought she was joking, until I noticed the sombre look on her face, I realised the graveness of the situation.

"What? H-How?" For the life of me, I could not figure out why I asked that. Her look of melancholy made me almost regret asking.

"T was born one, and I was … Sort of made one."

"Sort of? How can you sort of be made one?"

"I don't know, I don't remember, when T found me, I had no memories of anything. I didn't even know who I was, we've been trying to piece together my past."

I felt guilty for bringing that back up, but it was confusing, Terri and Arizona were cousins, so if Terri was born a vampire how could Arizona not be? Neither one seemed to have an answer; they were as in the dark as I was regarding Arizona's past.

"So, is there anything I can do to help?" she looked at me in shock, and I'm not surprised, I suppose it's not everyday that someone tells you they're a vampire and the response in an offer of assistance.

"Really? Just like that? No freaking out? Because you seemed pretty freaked out earlier on?"

"Well yeah, that was because I walked caught them stealing blood and then walked in to a pretty bloody scene here," pointing at Lexie and Alex, "I thought you were in some weird cult, or were secretly serial killers with crazy fetishes or something." Lexie giggled at this, and I'd later find out that she once thought they were serial killers too.

Arizona practically tackled me into a hug, "Yay! I hated keeping this from you, I mean we didn't have a choice, but you were, no you are our best friend, and we felt bad having to lie to you all the time to hide what we were really doing."

"So, Lexie and Alex too?" I still didn't know how they fit in to the story.

"They were marked," she stated obviously, as if I should've known already.

"Marked?"

"Yeah, it was for protection, once you're marked we always have contact and know where you are, sort of like a GPS/tracking kind of thing, although the contact thing works both ways. But if we mark you, then you belong to us, you answer to us, you work for us, you can't tell anyone about us, can't ask about any others like us, and your whole world is practically dictated by us and only us. Sort of like property."

It was interesting and horrifying at the same time. On the one hand, to be protected by vampires and having constant contact with another person sounded kind of cool, but on the other hand to be own like property by someone, to be made a slave, that made me shiver.

"So they've been marked by you?"

"Oh not both, Alex is mine, Lexie 'belongs' to Terri."

"But they're really nice, they've never treated us like property. I mean, you've seen us interact on a daily basis, and it's pretty much the same always, there might be instances when we've been 'ordered' to do things, but that was always for our safety." Lexie cut in and rambled on, "and they said they would never feed on us, they only feed from blood packs like this, and feeders, who are the humans that volunteer and are willing to be fed on. Otherwise, it's all blood that's been stored, which tastes horrible compared to the fresh stuff, but they don't kill humans." I shivered at the thought of feeder, why would anyone want to be fed from? Wait a second.

"It tastes horrible? You know how it tastes?" Lexie recoiled immediately at the realisation that she'd revealed more than she wanted.

"Shit, uhm-I…" It was Terri who came to her aid.

"There was a situation, and incident if you will, that caused us to require to turn our humans."

"Because we were pretty much dying. We got attacked and almost died; Terri and Arizona couldn't bear to see us die, so they changed us. Alex chose to be changed and I didn't know until I woke up," Terri's face darkened and Lexie hurriedly added "but I don't regret it!" She looked at Terri, "Really, I don't. I wanted to become useful to you, it was my choice to join you in the first place, and so becoming a vampire just extended that offer to a lifetime deal."

I looked at them all, and was hit by the bond shared between the four of them. They really cared about each other, and I could see that Arizona and Terri were still plagued by the guilt of having the turn their friends, and that Alex and Lexie still strongly and loyally stood by their friends.

"Right, so are you going to have to mark me too?"

"We'd probably have to, you'd be targeted if anyone found out you knew about us. I could always just wipe your memory of this event completely if you'd rather that?" It was sweet to see Arizona giving me an out. If she'd offered that same to Alex and Lexie, then I think that the bond between them really is genuine rather than forced to become because of the situation.

"I want to help you Arizona, you said that you're trying to reclaim your lost past right?" She nodded at that, "right, well I want to help you. As your best friend, I'm declaring it a priority, no a necessity to help you, whether it be past, present or future, I'm here for you." I looked at Terri, "both of you. Hell even Alex and Lexie too, I don't know if I'll be of any help, but the more the merrier right?"

The four shared a look between them, holding a silent conversation that I wondered if I would be privy to if I was marked. Arizona lifted her index finger and placed it above my heart, but then she hesitated, her eyes drifted off to Terri.

"It's your show Ari," she reminded her. Her eyes turned a bright violet, before I was overcome with a burning sensation that spread throughout my entire body. When it disappeared, I was given a mirror, to which I noticed that my eyes had briefly turned a light purple and I had been left with a black mark that resembled a reverse moon.

"That's the sign of Artemis, which is me. Terri is Athena." She explained, "And we're Vampire Royalty. Welcome to the family Theodora Altman."

I'd eventually learned that Alex and Lexie had been vampires for just over a year, and told me things they'd learned about, like their hyper senses, the enhanced speed and strength. The visual manifestations of their powers, like elemental summoning for example, which they had not yet mastered and was still nowhere near affective as their sires, was the most interesting thing. To be honest it was to be expected, considering that their sires had been vampires for years and were royalty to add to that. I had heard myths of the senses, speed and strength, but I'd never thought there'd be additional powers too.

I got the chance to experience the additional power first hand, far too soon, to my dismay.

Perhaps it was the scent of the blood covering my scrubs that had attracted them, but when I'd headed to the roof for some air, I found myself face to face to what I later learned to be a stray. Strays were vampires who were turned in a ruthless feeding; they possessed no masters, and no control. All I know is that one minute I'm staring into the snarling face of a monster, and the next, he'd pounced at me. My army training kicked in and it was only my survival reflexes that had saved my head from being torn off. My arm, unfortunately, wasn't so lucky. He'd latched onto my shoulder and he'd dug his claws deep into the joint, and all I could feel was burning pain, as his hand burst into flames and my arm ignited. He then proceeded to pull at my arm, whilst I tried to pull away from him, which was a bad move on my behalf, as the pulling from either side caused my body to separate completely from the arm from the shoulder joint. And Jesus did that hurt! I had dropped to the floor and closed my eyes, resigned to my fate, when the door burst open.

"Teddy!" I opened my eyes at my saviour to see Terri, eyes ablaze, fangs at the ready, and in the blink of an eye, she'd disappeared and reappeared in front of the stray. Seeing my burning and bloody arm in his possession, she growled and he was enveloped in a flame of pure anger, before he promptly turned to dust. I could still hear his screams echoing in my head.

"Shit, Teddy, stay with me." This was really not how I'd ever imagined my death to come about, not that I really think about dying that often. But seriously, dying because a deranged vampire set your arm alight and then tore it off and then bleeding to death on the roof of a freaking hospital was not the way to go.

"Shit, shit, shit, Arizona's still in surgery, shit, freaking dammit!" it was amusing that Terri was panicking more that I was, I mean hello? I'm the armless dying person here; perhaps I'd developed a morbid sense of humor in my last moments.

Her eyes were still blazing a bright red, and I could tell she was still angry. Would she turn me?

"Do you want me to?" I didn't realise that I'd spoken out loud. It was endearing, how even when I was practically on death's door, that she'd still asked for my permission. Maybe being their possession wouldn't be so bad after all; I mean I'd do anything to take away all this pain.

"Do it."

I felt her breath on my neck, "I'm sorry," it was the last thing I heard before I felt a sharp pain in my neck. I'd briefly wondered if she always apologised before biting someone, before I passed out.

When I woke up, I was on a couch, Terri's couch to be accurate; it was the couch in her office, from what I could tell. The first thing I did was lift up my right arm, which was miraculously whole and together again. Regenerative powers perhaps? The next thing I did was flex my fingers to be sure that it was really attached and actually worked.

"You're awake," came a sombre voice from behind me, I sat up and saw that Terri was sat behind her desk, rocking back and forth on her chair. It was only then that I'd noticed the other people in the room, Alex and Lexie were sat in front of her desk, and Arizona, who'd I'd just realised, was sat on the couch next mine, eyes avoiding contact with mine. Lexie stepped forward and handed me a bottle that I recognised as the ones from Terri's fridge; the ones filled with blood. She nodded towards the en suite bathroom and I headed towards it, bottle in hand. I removed my top, and then drank from the bottle, hungrily if I might add, and looked into the mirror. The first thing I noticed was the dull red eyes staring back at mine, the next was that my shoulder had completely healed and not a single trace of trauma had been left behind. I put my top back on and headed back into the room. As I stood there at the doorway, I took in the four in the room who had a heavy cloud of gloom sitting over their heads. The fact that they weren't overjoyed that I'd become one of them made me feel glad, it felt like I wasn't taken advantage of. The situation was dire, and we'd had no choice, but Terri had asked for permission, that I had given, rather than take away the option. I looked towards Arizona, and remembered that I had made her a promise; a promise to help her find her past. This was my reality now, and I had no regrets. I stepped into the room and it felt exhilarating.

I was home.

A.N: I swear these chapters are just getting longer and longer!