What if We Don't Die?

Chapter 3

Mark was lying in his bed, waiting. He wanted nothing more than to get up and sit beside Lexie until she woke up, but he trusted Callie to wake him when that would happen.

One hour passed, then two, and he couldn't sit still anymore. 'Screw it', he thought, and stood up. It hurt a little in his chest, but he could bear it because it was worth it.

He sneaked out of his room, making sure he wasn't seen by anyone, and right into Lexie's, which was next door thankfully. He carefully closed the door behind him, ensuring it wouldn't make a noise. Her anaesthesia hadn't worn off yet, so she was just lying there. She actually looked kind of peaceful despite the tragedy that had just struck them. She looked like she didn't have a care in the world and he hated that there was so much pain and darkness waiting for her when she would wake up. But he would be there for her every step of the way.

"Hey, Lex." he said softly, grabbing a chair and sitting down next to her bed. Every movement he made, painfully reminded him of the surgery he had just hours ago.

The time didn't pass faster there, but just watching her was enough. He observed how her chest rose and fell slightly with each breath or watched the heartbeat monitor attentively, like it was his favourite TV show. She was still the most beautiful woman in the world to him as she laid there unconsciously. Even though she was hooked on multiple machines and her body and face were covered with cuts, stitches and there were casts on both her legs and her left arm, he couldn't think of anyone more perfect.

He observed her like that for hours, studying every feature on her face and taking note of every single injury she had sustained, no matter how minor the cut was, until she finally opened her eyes. And it was like the pressure he had felt in his chest before was finally lifted. Like the pain had been more in his heart than around it as he feared that he was losing the love of his life.

"Mark?" she said weakly, still waking up. Her eyes fluttered open and closed again as she was met by a bright white light from the lamp right above her.

He could see that she was still confused and was trying to figure out where she was and what had happened. "It's okay. We're in the hospital." he helped her and took her hand, giving it a tight, reassuring squeeze.

"The plane... it crashed, and-and I thought I was dead." she remembered. It was like an acid flashback when the memory came back to her, as she was lying underneath the wing of the plane, slowly giving up and feeling all her energy leaving her. The hazy memory of being pulled out –every move feeling like someone was crushing all of her bones all over again– and the talk she had with Mark that could have been straight out of a dramatic romance movie. And then, when everything went black, she was so sure that that was it, that she had died. It had felt like dying, or at least what she had imagined it to feel like.

"Yeah, but you're not. You're still here." he smiled. He looked like a puppy that had just been given a bone for the first time. He was so innocently happy.

She gave him a warm smile back, as the memories continued to come flashing back, and she worried, "M-My legs and my arm..."

"They're still there. You're fine. They fixed you up." he told her, lifting the blanket so she could see them, knowing that would be the only way to soothe her worries.

"That's good." she said, relieved. She was still overwhelmed. It didn't feel real, everything that had happened to them just in the last 24 hours. They had been on their way to save two lives, performing a complicated surgery on conjoined twins, and instead they ended up in a freaking plane crash that left half of them crippled. Arizona had to have some bad injuries, since Lexie remembered her horrifying screams of pain. Thanks to her photographic memory, she could still see the images clearly that she hadn't been able to completely focus on back then because of her lack of energy. Her sister had been limping and Cristina had a messed up shoulder. And she hadn't seen Derek. She didn't even know if he was still alive. She didn't know anything.