IN WHICH Norah dodges a tragedy, but that doesn't mean that the world is on her side...

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This AU chapter continues the last part of Chapter 84 'calm before the storm', ignoring the part where Derek asks Norah to join their case in Boise (:

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[CW: plane crash, description of injuries, trauma, character deaths... and tears]

S8 EP23

NORAH SENT A GLARE TO Derek as she walked up to Mark, the Neuro attending returning her with an apologetic smile. The group of surgeons gathered in the hospital's lobby, and all dressed in jackets with suitcases beside them.

"Did you pack enough clothes?" she asked the plastic surgeon, who was staring at her with a stupid smile on his face while she zipped up his jacket as she would do to Kai. "Toiletries? Towel? Cash? And no shaving-I love this face the way it is."

He nodded half-heartedly before cupping both sides of her face and planting a long, sweet kiss on her lips. "The mom-side of you is turning me on, oddly enough," he admitted, and she rolled her eyes back at him.

She leaned up to his ear, whispering, "Get back in one piece, and we shall see what happens tomorrow night."

"Laurie, that's not helping with everything happening below the belt."

Before either of them could add another comment, Mark yelped as he got attacked by an item thrown at his back.

"Keep the dirty talk elsewhere, for love's sake," Timothy faked a gag, picking up the rubber lizard from the floor. He had a bag over his shoulder and another in his hand; Lexie snorted at the look he gave her when she placed a rubber lizard on his shoulder.

Norah smiled at them. Everything was fine.

A prick of chills ran down her spine-one that was clouded with the thickest layer of fog.

Her face faltered slightly as her brows furrowed, but Timothy had snapped her out of her thoughts with his arms held open, wanting a hug. She shook her head with a small smile before crushing her brother in her arms.

"Ow, ow, ow-"

"See you in two days, cheeky sod," she smirked, glancing over to the other resident. "See ya, Lexie."

"Thanks for letting me on this surgery!" the younger resident piped up. "I mean, obviously, this is a rare opportunity-conjoined twins, who're we kidding?-And Derek was about to ask you, and-"

"Lexipedia-I'm expecting a full recount on the surgery, every detail," Norah chuckled as Mark placed a kiss on her head. She lifted her head to him, losing herself in the pair of blues. She narrowed her eyes, which made him raise a brow curiously.

"What?"

"Nothing... I just love you, a lot."

He felt a skip in his heartbeat, a grin creeping up his face. "Well, not saying that it's a competition, but I love you more than that," he shrugged before giving her one last hug.

"I should get Kai from daycare... It's getting late," she stated, slowly backing away from the group after waving them goodbye. "Remember to-"

"-text you when we land," he finished her sentence with a smile. "Don't worry. I won't forget."

If only she knew that would be the last time she saw him safe and healthy, staring at her with those lusty blue eyes she lost herself in-perhaps she would have stayed for just a moment longer.

❦ ❦ ❦

S8 EP24

"COULD SOMEONE PLEASE mercy kill me, so I don't have to go to this thing?" April ranted as she entered the residents' locker room, carrying sets of dry-cleaning in her hand.

"You do me, I'll do you," Alex offered grimly.

"Better leave me a bullet. Hell if I'm going alone," Jackson added. None of them was particularly looking forward to the residents' dinner Webber had planned for them.

"Yang and Grey skipped town at the perfect time."

"Oh, no, they will be back in time for the dinner," April stated, "Because I had to pick up their stupid dry cleaning and dig through their stupid closets for their stupid heels, all the while babysitting Mer's stupid kid." She sighed before shaking her head, "She's not stupid... She's actually adorable."

Norah was sitting on the bench in the middle of the room, tapping her foot against the floor. She had her phone in her hand, and she was staring at the last few messages she had sent-all were still unread.

"Still no answer?" Jackson asked.

"Nope. Not Mark, not Tim, either," she sighed before putting her phone back into her pocket. "I'm overthinking it, right? I mean, we're all medical personnel. There could be a ton of ways that the conjoined twins had a medical emergency, yeah?"

"They could've had to go straight into surgery right when they landed," Alex offered as he put his arms through his white coat. "Conjoined twins could have many issues."

"And the surgery got prolonged because something went wrong with the twins," Jackson added convincingly, "Until-" His words got cut off as he quickly brought the bin under her face, just in time as she retched out her breakfast.

"Are you okay?" he questioned, rubbing her back. "You're seriously over-worrying, Norah."

Alex, however, had a different idea. "You and Sloan are really getting to it, huh?" he snorted. "Your son's six months old, and you're already trying for another child?"

His initial slyness of making a joke out to balance their crappy morning, instead, made her face drain in colour. April quirked a brow at the brunette, who froze at her spot as the three other residents stared at Alex.

"Oh my fucks." She headed to the sink to rinse her mouth, her head filled with every possible thought. Could she...?

She did not utter another word as she sped out of the locker room, leaving three wordless residents to ponder upon her wellbeing.

The chills never went away, though.

❦

MARK STAGGERED ON HIS steps with a hand on his chest. He was panting while trying to search for the others from the plane.

The only thought in his mind was how Norah would be feeling when she never received a text from him.

How long has it been? He did not know.

He lifted his hand in front of his face when he saw a glaring light-a reflection from something... metal. Squinting hardly, he made out the faint figure of one part of the crashed aeroplane. A wave of relief surged through him when he saw the light blue scrubs slowly growing bigger at his every heavy step.

The same relief entirely flushed away when he found Cristina crouching in front of two people in light blue scrubs-Lexie, who had most of the bottom half of her body under the plane; Timothy, a few metres away, crushed under a large piece of metal.

"M-Mark..." Timothy managed out a small smile with a shaky exhale at the attending's appearance. Cristina snapped her head backwards, slowly getting back up on her feet.

She walked over to Mark, who was stunned at his spot, unable to move a muscle. "Are you okay?" Cristina asked him.

"I... Yeah, I-I think so," Mark replied hesitantly. "How are... they?"

Cristina shook her head the slightest, which made him swallow hard. "Mer... Meredith went to look for Derek... Have you seen Arizona?"

He did not answer; no words formed out of his lungs. His eyes darted between the two under the plane, their hands held together. This time, his mind was blank.

Lexie looked very pale, and judging by the position she was stuck in under the plane-they knew there was not much hope. Timothy, on the other hand, looked like there was still a chance for him to survive. The metal piece covered most of his abdomen; his arms and legs were mostly free.

"We gotta... We gotta s-save them," Mark choked out, his own voice had started to tremble.

❦ ❦ ❦

NORAH WAS CARRYING Kai on her hip as she wandered around the Pediatrics floor. "Look at Uncle Alex's sulky face," she cooed the boy whose big round eyes were staring at Alex. "Say 'sucks to be you, Uncle Alex'."

The boy giggled, pointing at the grumpy-looking resident. "Your Mom's a bad influence, Kai," he told the boy, and the brunette shrugged back at him.

"Arizona isn't picking up either, is she?" Her sudden change in tone made him shift his gaze to her, and he let out a long sigh, shaking his head as he shoved his phone back into his pocket.

He was still pissed at Arizona for seizing his opportunity to work on the conjoined twins' case. However, every time he tried to call the attending's cell, it went straight to voicemail, which, along with Norah's unread messages, raised curiosity in him.

"I'm sure it's just the surgery," Alex spoke, in an attempt to comfort the worried-looking resident.

Norah nodded quietly, staring at her little boy. Kai lifted his hand to his mother's face, and she placed a kiss on his palm, then another on his cheek.

"So," Alex cleared his throat awkwardly, "Are you...?"

"Yeah, I am." Her eyes met his shocked ones. "It's scary, honestly. I mean, Kai's so little and..."

He shook his head and rubbed the boy's head. "Coming from me, a dude who had been tossed around in foster homes-you're an amazing mom," he assured. "Kai and his sibling are lucky to have you. Sloan, too."

She grinned back at him. "I am so glad I decided to help you with your medical boards back when we were interns, Evil Spawn." He rolled his eyes at the nickname and let out a scoff.

❦

TIMOTHY'S CRIES THAT shook the trees was painful for everyone there. His agony was felt by everyone else.

The moment Lexie took her last breath, a part of him followed her. That part of him did not want to hold onto the possibility of living.

"Sofia," Lexie managed out frailly, her breath hitching, "Live... for Sof..."

Her last words were the only thing making him force himself to fight for his life-even though the bigger part of him did not want to.

"Tim, Tim..." Mark panted as he lay on the soil ground. "We're gonna find a way to get you outta there, okay? Yang and I... We'll get you out..."

Timothy did not respond, not even a single nod.

It was the first time he met true despair, and he welcomed it. He allowed the feeling to sink into him, consuming him as a whole-despair had never felt so real.

The concept of time was lost, never found back. After nobody knew how long, he let out a loud yell from the great pain that was coursing through his numb body-at least that was what he thought-causing Mark to freeze while Cristina quickly assessed the younger man's injuries.

The look on her face was a look of grief.

As Mark slowly lowered the metal piece back to its place, he coughed at the use of strength and the dust that entered his throat. The new pool of fresh red blood that tainted the ground caused him to frown.

Timothy was heaving, his breath uneven and his hand un-hopefully cold when Cristina checked on his pulse. "Tell... T-Tell me," he requested, his eyes meeting the older resident's.

Cristina drew in a hard breath, her face troubled. "There's a part of the metal impaling your abdomen," she informed, and he barely reacted. "You'll continue to bleed if we don't remove it... But if we do remove it..."

"I-I'll bleed faster," he stared back at her emptily. "The metal is... It's slowing m-my blood lost, b-but also causing... it." Cristina nodded once, slowly, with a pitying look on her face; he shifted her gaze to Mark, who looked lost. "I'm gonna die... aren't I? Mark?"

The attending looked at him, tears stinging the back of his eyes. "I'm sorry, man."

"I'm sorry... too..."

❦ ❦ ❦

NORAH BROUGHT HER phone to her ear and let out yet another sigh when the call reached voicemail. She now stood outside the daycare, watching the many hospital staff's children, who were playing inside with big smiles on their faces.

They were carefree, innocent, and had nothing to worry about.

"Hey, love. It's me... again," she muttered after the beep. "You should reach Seattle in like, two hours... right? I mean, that's per schedule, but I just... I have this awful feeling that I can't shake away since this morning. I'm worried, that's all."

She scratched her head as she paced down the hall. "Kai's taking his afternoon nap at the daycare, and I'm on lunch break because, well... Let's just say I have some news for you when you come home," she smiled slightly to herself, "Something for you to look forward to, huh?"

Her pager went off, and she furrowed her brows at it, sighing when she got paged to the ER. "I'm getting paged, love, so I gotta go. Um, I'll see you when I see you? Tell Tim and Lex I said hi." she stared at the number on the phone for a moment, before pressing it against her ear again.

"I love you. See ya."

❦

CRISTINA GRIMACED AT the sight of the two younger residents' hands linked into one, both whose eyes were shut and their breathing no longer present.

Mark's strangled grunts filled their ears as Meredith inserted the tube into his chest. The blood that flowed out through the tube made him queasy and alarmed. But above all, he was afraid... not for himself.

Derek frowned at his best friend, knowing the woman back in Seattle who had no idea what was going on nor what had happened to them. He was sure that she was worried sick, and that she had sent at least hundreds of messages and calls to each of their phones.

But they were stranded. All alone.

"I can't tell Norah that she lost three of the people she loves in one sweep. She won't survive, you know that very well," he lowered his voice to the man lying on the ground. "So you have to survive, Mark. Please."

❦ ❦ ❦

THE FIFTH YEAR RESIDENTS sat around the table along with Webber, who had invited them all for dinner before they departed for their fellowship respectively.

"Uh, any word from Yang or Grey?" he asked Alex, who had just returned from trying to call the other residents.

"No. Plane should've landed an hour ago," Alex shook his head, sending a worried look to the brunette seated beside him. "They'll show."

Norah was fiddling with the salad fork with her mind occupied elsewhere. The waiter had rounded the table to pour champagne into her glass, but she politely declined with a smile she had long mastered.

"You should have a glass, Lawrence," Webber insisted. "We're celebrating the end of your residency!"

"I'm feeling slightly under the weather today. I better not take my chances," she smiled back. She did not want to announce her news to everyone just yet, even though the three other residents at the table already knew.

"Alright, then. I hope you'll feel better in the morning," Webber nodded and brought his glass up. "There's a little bit of advice I like to give at these dinners every year," he prefaced, "It's a secret that will help all of you get through the challenges that lie ahead."

Jackson, April, and Alex shared a confused look when Webber paused on his speech; Norah was zoned out, staring at the glass of juice in her hand. The older man stared at the two empty seats and shook his head. "You know, um... We should wait for the rest of them."

They nodded, each setting their glasses back on the table. Norah was tapping her feet nervously under the table as the five of them waited for the two other residents' arrival.

❦

MARK COULD FEEL HIS entire body being weak. Or at least that was what his mind told him he was feeling. Truth was, other than the heavy stinging in his chest, he could barely feel a thing.

It was numbness coursing in his veins.

Lexie Grey was gone. Timothy Lawrence was gone. Even if the rest of them miraculously survived this tragedy, he was not sure whether she would ever look at him the same.

He did not know when his eyesight got blurry-or was it because his eyelids were exceptionally heavy?

He was struggling to keep them open. It was difficult for him to move a finger-he tried, several times-the hope that he sensed was beyond dim.

It was night, and the woods were cold, not only because of the temperature drop, but also the psychological factor that was driving his mind to think that his body could not pump enough blood.

Was he right, though? He could not tell.

"No, Mark, don't sleep," he heard a voice say, but he could not figure out whose. The voice was small and shaky, unlike her confident and witty one he was used to. "Stay awake, please, for Norah and Kai... Stay awake for them."

Stay awake for them...

"For Norah... a-and Kai..." he managed out; talking had never been so uneasy.

...but staying awake was exhausting.

❦ ❦ ❦

IT WAS PAST MIDNIGHT.

Norah sat in the living room with the red pillow close to her chest, under it was her hand that had unconsciously rested on her stomach. Alex, Jackson and April were over at the apartment, too; none of them could sleep, not when they had no idea where their friends-and family-were.

"Something is definitely wrong," Norah spoke up, breaking the long silence. Nobody replied; nobody had the optimism to convince her otherwise.

The next time the quietness got disturbed was when Jackson's phone rang, waking up Kai as well. Norah got up from the couch at once, heading into the bedroom to her little boy, who started crying.

When she picked him up, his wails quieted down almost instantly-yet the only thought in her mind was how Mark was the one who would wake up in the middle of the night whenever their son fussed.

"Shh..." she cooed, slowly swaying the boy in her arms. She hummed a soft tune, the same one that Mark would hum to get the boy to sleep. "Dada's gonna be back soon, okay?" The question was more to comfort herself than to tell Kai-he could not understand, anyway.

The unsettling rise in her heart rate had never calmed down since hours ago, and the skin around her fingers had been picked anxiously.

"Everything's gonna be alright..."

...right?

There were two soft knocks on the bedroom door, and Norah turned around to see Jackson standing there with his jaw clenched. The look behind his green eyes was one she dreaded as he lifted the phone in his hand unsteadily.

"H-Hunt just called..."

❦ ❦ ❦

THREE DAYS LATER, NORAH headed to the hospital in Boise with Bailey and Webber. Neither of them spoke throughout the journey; the only voices were Norah's soft mumbles to Kai, who had no idea what was happening at all.

She envied him, in one way.

The news that Jackson broke to her three nights ago still circled her head. Owen had called to inform that the surgeons had never arrived in Boise-they had lost contact with all seven of them.

The first thing Norah did was shut the door in Jackson's face, trying to talk herself out of the nightmare; she told herself that she was only dreaming, and everything was just fine. But the remaining of her sanity pulled her out of her false hope.

Everything she told herself was false-how she wished they were all true.

Because she would rather die than hear that news again.

The halls of the hospital were bright and quiet, unlike Seattle Grace Mercy West, where the hospital was always busy. There were already a few doctors-surgeons, maybe?-waiting by the nurses' station to greet them.

Before either of them could speak, Norah had marched up to them, her eyes burning through their skulls. "Where the fuck are they? Where's Mark Sloan, Timothy Lawrence, Lexie, Cristina, Derek Shep-where are they?!" she demanded.

The