I open my eyes and find myself in the stairwell. Julian is nowhere to be seen. As a doctor, I know that I should assess my injuries before I try to stand and get help, but right now, I'm not acting as a doctor. I use the railing of the stairs to try and pull myself up. My right wrist is definitely broken, and there's a large cut on my right arm, but my left arm is fine except for a small bruise. I am almost in a standing position when my ankle gives out and I slip. I notice that what caused me to slip was a pool of my own blood.
I try to stand again and succeed, so I limp over to the door. I don't know who I will get help from. I don't want to worry Mark or Meredith, but I need help. I feel lightheaded from the loss of blood, and I'm pretty sure I have a concussion. One of my eyes is swollen shut, but that's the least of my problems at the moment.
It takes me a while to reach the door, and I'm about to lean on it when it opens. I try to catch myself from falling, but I'm not fast enough, so the person who opened the door has to steady me. I look up and see that it's Cristina.
"Lexie?" she says.
"Yeah," I say. My voice is raspy. Did Julian try to choke me?
"What happened?" Cristina asks, horrified.
"I-um... my patient, her brother..." I trail off.
"You Greys are always getting into trouble," she says, trying to make light of the situation.
I try to smile. The room is spinning out of control and I'm having trouble staying upright. "The room is kind of spinning out of control, so is it okay if we sit down?" I ask.
"Of-of course, let me help you," Cristina says and reaches out to steady me as I slowly lower myself to the floor.
Suddenly, the room tilts completely and everything is black again.
This time when I wake up, I'm in a patient room. Why am I here? Then, I realize I'm in the patient bed. I look around, taking in my room. Cristina is standing on one side. Owen has his arm around her, and she's crying. I haven't seen Cristina cry many times, and just the sight of her crying causes me to start crying too.
Meredith and Mark stand against the other wall. Meredith's eyes are red and puffy, but she's not crying anymore. Mark looks sadder than I have ever seen him.
Meredith is the first to notice I'm awake. "Lexie!" she shouts and hugs me.
I wince as her arm brushes against my wrist.
"Oh, sorry," she says.
Mark comes over to kiss me. Owen and Cristina smile at each other, then at me.
I start to really cry, but not because of the pain or trauma. I cry because I realize that there are people in this room who genuinely worried about me, and I feel like I'm part of a family.
Author's Note-
I just wanted to say thank you for 250+ reads! It means so much to me that people actually read my story. Please vote on my story and leave me comments with ideas or feedback. I also want to say hi to all of the international readers (I live in the US). It's so amazing to me that people from all over the world are reading my story. So, hi everyone from Canada, Brazil, Slovenia, and Israel! And of course, the US. Thanks again for reading!
-Shira :)
p.s. Check out my other story if you want. I would really appreciate it if you helped me get to 1,000 reads on it. (Of course you don't have to read it, but I would appreciate it)
