Chapter Text
Meredith Grey looked at the woman lying next to her, sunlight streaming down onto her calm sleeping face and wondered how she ever got so lucky.
After all, it had to be accepted that things didn’t usually work out for her, what with her mom dying from Alzheimer's, her father running off when she was five and becoming a drunk, not to mention the fact that she’d nearly died. Twice.
Even her relationship with Cristina had been a rocky start, they were both stubborn and they’d had a lot of fights, especially at the beginning, if she was being honest Meredith hadn’t thought they were going to make it.
But she supposed the bonus to being best friends before you got into a relationship was you knew the person well enough to resolve practically anything, and so they did, and after the first few months everything fell into a rhythm and Meredith forgot what it was like to not wake up to Cristina’s face in the morning.
Well, she supposed her relationship was like everything was with Cristina, it was difficult, frustrating, downright impossible at times, but always there, always constant. It made Meredith feel... fearless, free, like she could be who she was, no fake smiles or forced personality, and know that she wasn’t going to be judged.
People said a lot about Cristina, some of which may be true, but she was the most loyal person Meredith had ever met.
She wasn’t the kind of person who did big romantic gestures or made loads of soppy promises like ‘I’ll always be your soulmate’ and crap like that, but she was the kind of person who ambushed your therapist to make sure you were alright, who stayed up till 4am reading your mother’s journals with you without you even needing to ask, the kind of person who, though she’d never admit it, give up everything, do anything, just to make you happy.
She was the person Meredith wanted to spend the rest of her life with.
And so, as the morning trickled in though the curtains, sunlight creating a warm glow around them as Cristina eyes began to flutter, slowly coming out of sleep, Meredith considered the idea of revealing the diamond and sapphire ring at the back of her second beside drawer, asking the question there and then.
But almost as soon as the thought entered Meredith’s head, she dismissed it entirely, after all, Meredith might not exactly have been a ‘romantic gesture’ person any more than Cristina was, but a moment like this should still be special, planned, a perfect place, a perfect time, not in bed on a random Tuesday morning whilst Cristina was still half asleep and groggy.
Besides, it could wait, it wasn’t like there was any rush. After all, they’d been together three years now, Cristina had moved into Meredith’s mother’s house, Izzie, Alex and George all knew and had now gotten over their initial shock, they even had couple’s dinners with Callie and Arizona when they could dredge up the energy for social interaction.
The point was that things were perfect. They had already set up for their lives together, the ring was just signing the contract. Nothing to be nervous about (and it wasn’t like Meredith was nervous about asking, not at all!) but still, it could wait.
For another couple of days, or maybe a week. Yeah, a week sounded good. In the end, they had time, she had plenty of time to wait for the perfect moment, no rush.
“Mer! We're going to be late!” it was at this point Meredith realized that whilst she’d been pondering this Cristina had already gotten out of bed, gotten dressed, something Meredith should have done about... thirty minutes ago.
“Oops.” Meredith replied sheepishly, fixing Cristina with an apologetic smile. Cristina gave her an unimpressed look, though Meredith noted that the top corner of her mouth curled up in amusement, before rushing back down the stairs, calling over her shoulder “two minutes or I leave without you and steal all the good surgeries!”
Half getting half falling out of bed Meredith threw on whatever clothes were closest to her, turns out she’d ended up putting on Cristina’s shirt, but she’d stolen so many off her clothes by now she doubted she’d mind.
Meredith then ran down the stairs in a hazardous fashion, until she skidded to a stop in front of Cristina, who was standing holding the door open with one hand and holding a piece of toast out to Meredith in the other.
She grabbed it and stuffed it into her mouth, then with a mouth full of bread, Meredith mumbled to Cristina, “fanks, bu- I'm stifl gunna get te gud surgerees.”
Cristina merely smirked and replied, “we’ll see about that” before turning on her heel and sprinting towards the car, Meredith quickly swallowing and chasing after her, laughing as she once again thought about just how lucky she was to have a day performing surgeries and kissing Cristina Yang.
Meredith wasn’t sure how to feel when she got paged to the chief's office randomly during a relatively ordinary day. After all, these meetings were often for varied reasons, however a lot of them ended with her either crying onto the Chief or yelling at him, sometimes both, and neither a desired reaction.
She also couldn’t think of a reason he’d have to bring her in, as far as she knew she hadn’t done anything outrageous in the hospital or with the patients, which meant that it probably wasn’t a behaviour thing.
It could be something to do with her father, though she’d thought that had all been sorted by now and even if it hadn’t been it wasn’t something Meredith wanted to get involved in particularly, the chief knew that so that probably wasn’t it. But then what else could it be?
As she arrived at the chief’s door, she took a deep breath to steady her nerves before pushing open the door, prepared to get some answers. However, her confusion and curiosity only peaked when she saw Cristina sitting down in the office already, tapping her fingers against the chair and looking up at Meredith as she entered, her face a likely identical image of surprise to Meredith’s.
Meredith then hesitantly went to sit down beside her, looking at her questioningly, however Cristina merely shrugged, clearly she didn’t know any more of what was going on than Meredith did.
Meredith then turned her attention towards the chief, who was not looking at her but instead his gaze was trained on the door, as though he was waiting for someone else to appear.
Only when an important looking man walks through the door and comes to stand beside the chief, eyes studying her, and Cristina judgingly did he start to speak, “I have called you both in here for a very important reason. Seattle Grace has been chosen to take part in a very rare heart surgery being performed in Rita Pentwood memorial hospital in Vermont this afternoon. The staff have said they needed two residents to assist with the surgery, and I have chosen you two.”
At this, Meredith looked over at Cristina, who looked right back at her, grinning and eyes shining with excitement. Meredith grinned back, both at the anticipation of an incredible surgery, but also simple joy at how happy this made Cristina.
After all, Meredith didn’t know what her speciality was going to be yet, but she was fairly certain it was going to be cardiothoracics. But Cristina had put her whole career into cardio, and now she was getting her chance to show her talent and Meredith truly couldn’t be happier for her.
After sharing a moment with Cristina, Meredith then returned her attention back to the chief, who continued to explain what was going to happen, “this man is Dr Clyde Wolverine, an esteemed cardiothoracic surgeon. He will be accompanying you on your travel to Rita Pentwood memorial hospital to fill you in on the case. Any questions?”
Meredith and Cristina both shook their heads, neither of them able to keep their excitement of their faces. However, Dr Wolverine then announced in a formal tone. “I do have one question. Are either of you afraid of travelling by helicopter?”
Meredith looked out of the window next to her, down at the snow-covered landscape far below them and sighed happily, leaning her head back against the headrest as she imagined what the surgery would be like.
Though the doctor with them had tried explaining everything to them during the flight, they soon found it was nearly impossible to hear one another over the sound of the helicopter’s propellers whirring and so soon gave up on conversation, agreeing to be briefed once the flight was over.
Therefore, they’d gone through the rest of the journey in relative silence, Dr Wolverine spending his entire time staring out of the window.
Meredith had spent most of her time doing this as well, however she occasionally glanced over at Cristina, smiling as she watched her find it impossible to sit still, fidgeting and peering around constantly, often looking down at her watch and letting out an annoyed huff before starting the process again.
Still, thought Meredith, Cristina wouldn’t have to wait for much longer, at least they were in Vermont now and, though she couldn’t see the hospital, she expected they would approach it very soon.
So, Meredith simply relaxed, leaning back against her seat and glancing once again at the window, now noticing that it had begun to snow slightly, little trickles coming down the glass.
As beautiful as it was, Meredith couldn’t help but feel slightly concerned about whether it was safe to fly in a snowstorm.
She then looked over towards the pilot, hoping to ask him when they were going to land as so to put her concerns to rest, when she noticed that he was shaking slightly, his hands clenching and unclenching the controls periodically.
Moving from worried to anxious, Meredith then began calling over to him, “Hey! Are you all-”
But she stopped mid-sentence as suddenly the pilot fell face down onto the controls and the helicopter hurtled downwards, spinning and out of control!
Meredith’s vision blurred, she couldn’t think, she felt nauseous and disoriented, also she could hear screaming, loud and desperate, though she was starting to think that might be her own voice.
Not that it mattered, she could barely be heard over the sound of the whirring, the sudden rapid beeping emitting from the helicopter as they continued to fall downwards, the ground getting closer at a terrifying rate.
Meredith couldn’t move, it was all too loud, too much, and she was still screaming but she didn’t know how to stop. And in those final moments of panic and impending doom, the last thing she heard was Cristina, calling out desperately “Meredith!” before they hit the ground, and Meredith’s world went black...
The first thing Meredith saw were white dots, floating down towards her. At first, she was confused, and wondered if she’d gotten a concussion. But after a few moments she realised what they were, snow. It was snowing, just like it had been snowing when they...
Meredith sat up with a bolt, causing several parts of her body to immediately flare with pain, as suddenly she remembered that they had crashed, reminding Meredith of where she was now, in a barren snow land, after a helicopter crash, with no idea of where she was or what she was going to do.
She then just sat there for a minute, breathing as she checked herself over to make sure she had no serious injuries, she had a pretty bad cut on her arm, and a small piece of metal she ended up having to remove from her leg, but then aside from some dizziness and a headache she couldn’t find anything else wrong.
But she did believe she could have a concussion as it was very hard to even try and form a coherent thought, her vision was still fuzzy, as was her memory, she couldn’t remember clearly what had happened before, but she did remember hearing something, someone was calling her name... ‘Meredith!’
Cristina! Frantically, Meredith scanned her surroundings, until finally she saw the familiar crop of jet-black curls. Relief settling in her stomach soon curdled to dread however as she crawled closer, she noticed the blood.
It was coming from Cristina’s leg, the leg itself bent and misshapen, broken or in the very least fractured. It was coming from her side, where Meredith could see a jagged piece of blood splattered metal protruding from, dangerously deep into the skin. And it was coming from behind her head, spreading out around her like a scarlet halo of death, still spreading, so fast, too fast.
Meredith let out a choked gasp and came to a stop at Cristina’s shoulder, tears dripping out of her eyes onto Cristina’s face, her eyes closed and her skin waxen and pale. Meredith looked down, she’d put one of her hands into the blood, the underside was now stained with, no spot left uncovered. Oh god, there was so much blood.
“Cristina.” Meredith couldn’t speak above a hoarse whisper, she felt like she was going to pass out, but she couldn’t do that cause then she’d fall into the blood, there was too much blood. She needed to stop it – but then another thought entered her mind, cruel in its implications, as she looked down at Cristina’s chest, she couldn’t see it rising.
She couldn’t see it rising which meant that Cristina was not breathing.
A cold new-found terror washed over her as Meredith raised a shaking hand to rest gently on Cristina’s neck, asking, begging, praying for there to be a pulse. As she waited for her life changing answer, Meredith’s mind, unbidden, took her to a memory...
‘She and Cristina are sitting on the grass in the park. It's sunset, and there’s nobody else around, just the two of them. They'd both just had a very long week in the hospital and are exhausted, for now simply sitting still and enjoying the usual yet beautiful sight of the sun disappearing over the horizon, giving the sky a light pink hue.
Cristina has her head resting on Meredith's shoulder, and Meredith has her arms wrapped around Cristina's shoulders, both enjoying each other’s warmth as a summer breeze rolls in, evening beginning to approach. “I wish we could stay here forever.” Cristina sighed, leaning in a little further to Meredith.
Meredith then smiled and replied softly, “you’d get bored, you know you would.” Cristina sighed again and replied, “yeah, you're probably right.” Meredith then breathed deeply, appreciating the smell of grass and flowers in the air. She then, caught up in the moment of beauty, quietly said to the woman sitting next to her, “I love you, Cristina Yang.”
She expected one of Cristina’s usual responses, a joke or a change of topic, but instead she sat silently for a moment before responding softly, “I love you too Mer.” it was Meredith's turn to be silent then, shocked yet overjoyed by the fact that this was the first time Cristina had said ‘I love you’ back to her.
Wordlessly, she slipped her hand into Cristina’s and turned to face her, resting her other hand gently on her cheek before bringing her in for a kiss, their lips softly pressed together, forgetting about the outside world for a moment as they took the time to simply relish this, them, being together, having each other in a way they never thought possible. Now, the possibilities felt endless.
After a while they pulled apart, Meredith asking, “do you want to head back?” Cristina shook her head slightly and replied, “5 more minutes.” Meredith smiled and pulled Cristina in for another kiss, answering happily “No problem, we have all the time in the world.”
To be continued...