Why me? ~ mark sloan

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

"Vanessa?" She heard a voice approaching and she moved her head to the side to see Owen coming back into the hospital. He walked up to her quickly and enveloped her in a hug, cradling her head as he always did.

"He-he's dead." Vanessa breathed, still in a state of shock from Charles' death.

"Who?"

"Charles. He-he just...died." She began to look around frantically, breathing heavily.

Owen planted his hands on her arms and shook her gently, pulling her attention to him.

"There are people who need help. I need you to leave, now, so that I can help them." 

"No, I'm not leaving. He was after Derek." 

"You're seven and-a-half months pregnant, V. You need to leave."

"No. Now are we going to waste time here or are we going to check the O.R's for anyone who needs help?"

---

Vanessa opened the door cautiously and peeked inside. Both April and Meredith jumped at the sound but immediately calmed down when they saw it was only her and Owen.

"Dr Hunt what are you doing here? With all due respect." April clarified, "You're pregnant - it's dangerous for you to be here." 

"I know, I know." 

"I tried to tell her." Owen piped up from behind her and she looks into the window of the O.R, her blood running cold as she sees what's happening.

"Yeah. Cristina's operating on my husband. He was s-shot." Meredith explains but Vanessa's eyes were glued to the gun pointed at Cristina's neck.

"Yeah. I'm just going to go in there and see if they need any help." Owen says, pulling a mask out and walking toward the door.

"But you're not scrubbing in?" Meredith asks.

"He'll assess first. If she needs him then he can scrub in." Vanessa covers and Owen nods, "Cristina was right you should stay down there, okay? Don't move." She smiles at Meredith and watches as her brother walks into the O.R.

Vanessa listened as April tried to comfort Meredith but she kept her eyes on the scene infront of her. The gunman pointed the gun at Owen and she was ready to jump in, mask or no. She also noticed that Jackson was in there and she had to physically pinch herself to stop herself from crying.

"What?" Meredith noticed the anxiety in Vanessa face and went to look but April pulled her back down again, shooting Vanessa a worried look. 

"Everything's fine." Vanessa said although her voice didn't make it sound that way. She watched as Gary turned the gun back to Cristina as she continued to work on fixing Derek. The gun was pointed at Jackson and Vanessa wrung her hands together. 

When it was pointed at Owen again, Vanessa grabbed a mask from the wall and went to walk in but her ankle was grabbed by April. April shook her head gently, tears forming in her eyes. It seemed she had read the situation and knew what was going on. 

The gun was still pointed at Owen when Vanessa looked back into the window, April's grip still strong on her ankle. With April not paying attention Meredith got up and looked into the O.R.

"Shit." Vanessa breathed, chasing after her as she entered the O.R, "Stay here." She demanded to April as she stepped in to the tense environment, slowly edging her way toward Owen as Gary's attention was on Meredith while she was speaking.

"What are you doing in here?" He hissed at her, keeping his eyes trained on the shooter.

"I was trying to get Meredith out. I didn't think - I'm sorry."