oii. and i won't back down
9.03

"Derek Shepherd, multiple hand fractures with a median nerve injury. Arizona Robbins, open femur fracture with resultant above-knee amputation. Oliver Lee-Sunny, sensorineural hearing loss. Lexie Grey, deceased. Venus Bardot, deceased. Mark Sloan, deceased. This doesn't include ..."

Oliver tunes the lady out, literally. He reached up and turned his green hearing aids off because he didn't want to listen to the words coming out of her mouth. He fiddled with the yellow lined paper in front of him, doodling some scribble of a tree. He was never a good drawer, he never liked art class. ( Well, that was a small lie. He liked pottery because he could sculpt anything and get his hands dirty. ) His ink drawn tree is scribbled and messy, lines coming from every direction to form weird branches.

" — Oliver?" Derek taps his brother in law on the shoulder, eyeing the scribbled tree. He holds a piece of paper with a extremely hefty number across it. One too many zeros.

Oliver fiddled with his hearing aids, turning them on and starting to pay attention. Everyone is looking at him; Callie looks like she's about to burst out laughing and Meredith has a soft but stern look on her face. He missed almost everything that the woman had said, but let's be honest, not a single person in that room had wanted to listen to her talk about their pain and suffering. They had already lived through it, they are still living through it.

"Oh, sorry." Oliver sent the woman a small smile, lightly apologizing for not paying attention to the words she had spoken. He cared, he truly did, but he didn't need to hear everything about what he already knew. About his suffering that had taken place in the woods, how he had heard the cries from others before his hearing had gone quiet.

Owen stood, dusting off his suit and fixing his tie. "I think this is all for today,"

The representative from the plane company stood as well. He nodded along with Owen, flashing the smallest smile when it wasn't needed. "Yes, yes. We do need a decision by three days time."

╚═ ☆ ═╝

Atlas and Derek lay on the sides of their king sized bed. In between them lay two sleeping children; Star and Cam. Tangled at everyones feet are three dogs; Snacks, Breakfast and Lunch. The family lays together, only the two adults awake. It's Atlas who looks away from the roof with glowing fairy lights hung across it, he rolls over so he can face his husband.

"Do you want to settle?" His voice is soft and quiet. He is temporarily in charge of Marks 'money' because Eliza and Brian who can't attend the meeting nor speak on the dead person choice. Atlas has been in constant communication with his sister, day to day taking about anything that shed like to hear. They talk about the settlement and if she wants to settle or not. They talk about the farm she lives on now, and how Brian likes to try and pet the pigs. "El said that the money would secure baby Brians education or anything he'd like to do where he'd need to have money. Does that make sense?"

Derek shifted so that Cam wouldn't wake up when he talked or moved. He wasn't sure if he wanted to take the settlement; theres so many things that no-one is talking about. All the things that would happen if they took the settlement and the things that would happen if they didn't. "Of course it makes sense. She wants to make sure her baby will be taken care of."

"Yeah." Atlas nodded lightly. He couldn't help but wonder what it was really like out there in the middle of the woods. He's heard the stories. He's heard as much as everyone is willing to share. But does an abundant amount of money really make up for what had happened? "Would Mark have wanted the money at this cost? For the company to do 'accordingly' with what they find in the investigation? We - he - nobody would have any say in what to do with the results."

"Mark wouldn't care as long as his son was taken care of," Derek tells his husband. He's known mark way longer than Atlas, he knows things that Atlas doesn't. He's even read a diary of Marks from when they were both younger. Derek can't help but pounder the thought that Mark may have wanted something else. Mark would want to make sure that this never happened to anyone else's families. "But Mark wouldn't want this to happen to anyone else. He would fight to make sure that it never happened again."

╚═ ☆ ═╝

"I could get in a lot of trouble for this." A man spoke as he pulled a ring full of keys out of his pocket. He had the key to open up the shed like building that would show Atlas and Derek much more than they both needed to see. He unlocks the dainty rusted lock and pulls the door open, the rattle of metal sounding from above the three.

Derek steps forward with his injured hand against his side, his other hand locked with Atlases. "This is everything?" Derek eyes each piece laid out in front of him; almost like they were all puzzle pieces of a puzzle that would never be built.

Atlas is ready to throw up. He can see everything; the wing of the place that had crushed Lexie, the expensive looking seats that Oliver and Christina had been sitting beside each other on, the cockpit where the pilot had been stuck paralyzed, the piece of the place that had caught Dereks hand in it. Atlas was ready to scream, why had he come here? He didn't need to be in this warehouse where the unfinished puzzle was laid out. "Oh my — " the gasp that leaves Atlases lips is full of shock and sadness.

"The planes aft broke away from the main cabin. The tail was recovered in, uh, zone one." The man who was risking his job by letting Derek and Atlas into the warehouse, follows after Derek who's lightly trailing his injured hand across one of the seats. "Thats a keel beam. It was recovered in zone two, about half a mile away. And that's the R-3 door."

Atlas drags his fingers along the scratch marks on the outside of the place. Probably caused by the trees and the collision with the ground. His mind is playing trick son him, flashing images of a burning forest where his husband and family had been.

"What happens to all this? What happens if we settle?" Derek asks the man, looking back and forth between the pieces of the plane and the employee.

The man doesn't say anything, silently answering Dereks question.

╚═ ☆ ═╝

Atlas sits at the end of the table, Oliver beside him. Beside Oliver is Meredith and beside Meredith is Owen. Next to Owen is Callie, and beside Callie is an empty seat where Derek should be sitting. He hasn't show up yet, and no matter how many times everyone seems to look at Atlas for an answer, it doesn't change the fact that he doesn't have one to give.

"We are running low on time." The man representing the plane company says. Atlas doesn't like him and his pushy ways. It seems as if Owen doesn't either by the look the two share.

The door opens and in walks Derek, acting as if he wants twenty minutes late for the meeting he knew was happening. He sits beside Callie, leaning against the table slightly. He doesn't say anything, or not until Meredith starts to tell the representatives that they've agreed on a decision. Derek shakes his head. "No. Wait, Mer. We can't do this. I - me and Atlas - saw the plane. We went to the hanger and saw the pieces of the plane, laid out on the floor like jigsaw puzzles. If we agree to settle, they do the investigation and we can't do anything with the results."

"Bayview aeronautics will take the results and act accordingly." The unnamed man says. He had rushed to say it, almost as if it was in some invisible script that he was reading off of.

Derek nods, although he isn't a hundred percent convinced that the company will do the right thing. "Oh, I'm very sure you'll act very thorough. Big companies are always very good and self-policing."

Callie turns her head towards Derek. "Mistakes happen, Derek. Accidents happen. We make mistakes that can cost lives, too."

Oliver is interest now. He glances back and forth between Callie and Derek. He feels the need to share his thoughts. "But we hold m&m's and we pore over the files, we make sure it never happens again. We try to make sure that it never happens to anyone else. so future patients never have to go through that grief. So they dint have to sleep with the lights on every night because the darkness is too much."

Derek nods, watching as Oliver sniffles and stops talking, leaning his head on Atlases shoulder. "We chat just stand by and let this happen to other peoples Marks, Lexies and Venues. We have to do something about it. We have to make this right."

"If I couldn't interject for a moment - " The lady speaks, only for Meredith to turn towards her and tell her to be quiet. "Your decision does have to be unanimous." Owen looks at her, telling her to be quiet. She doesn't listen."My advice at this time - "

"Shut up!" Both Meredith and Owen exclaims, shutting the woman up as she sinks into her chair.

"You're not one of us." Callie starts as she talks through her cries, "You don't know. You have no idea what we've been through." Callie cries and takes a Monet to compose herself. "Dereks right. we shouldn't take the money. We can't take it."

Callie is the first to slide her papers across the table. Then Derek and Owen. Then Meredith and Atlas. Oliver holds the stack of papers in his hand. He was going to sign them and try his hardest to forget what had happened. He wishes he could forget, but now the situation is. going to be dragged through the mud.

"Oliver?"

Oliver takes a breath before he slides the paper across the table, starting a new path.