Sophia had never really hated Mondays, because she was never guaranteed to start her work week on a Monday. Sometimes Monday was her Friday, other times she had it off completely. But after almost two months of working a nine-to-five, Monday through Friday job, she was really starting to understand the day's unpopularity.

Part of her had been hoping that a beneficial side effect to the car following her over the weekend would be that she would get to skip a few days of work, but Jamie had dropped by Sunday evening to put her mind at ease.

"It was an old man," Jamie had reported back. "Apparently, he thought you looked like his granddaughter and was following you to try and get his attention. It was only when you ran off in the opposite direction did he realize that it wasn't her and that he had been behaving like a total stalker."

Her words had brought relief that Graham wasn't in New York, but that also meant that Sophia had to go to work.

Something was off, though. Not Graham related, but as Sophia got off the subway, there was something in the air that made her certain that today wouldn't be a normal day. Sirens filled the air, growing louder and more urgent as Sophia approached the hospital.

She turned a corner, and her jaw dropped.

Emergency personnel had the entire block barricaded off. Ambulance and firefighter crews lined the streets, lights flashing, everyone looking stressed. But that wasn't what took Sophia's breath away.

Almost an entire building was gone. The apartments and convenience store that sat right across from the E.R. now lay in a crumbled heap. Sophia had been to that store many times since starting work at Mt. Sinai, and now, nothing.

"Holy shit," she breathed. There was a growing crowd around the police barriers, and Sophia fought her way to the front, hoping her hospital I.D. would be enough to allow her through.

"My daughter lives there, let me through!"

There were similar pleas all around her, but the woman shouting in the face of an FDNY member was nearly in full meltdown, looking like she was going to torpedo through the barriers at any moment.

"Ma'am, I can't let you pass," the firefighter said. "We can't let anyone pass."

"But if she's in the E.R., then she's alone!"

"Ma'am, ma'am," Sophia said, stepping in. She flashed her hospital badge to both the firefighter and the distressed woman. "I work there, I can help."

"I'm looking for Sylvia Diaz," the woman said, desperately. "I haven't been able to get a hold of her."

Sophia nodded. "Okay." She turned toward the firefighter. "Can I go in?"

She looked at Sophia's badge again and then nodded. "Straight to the hospital."

Sophia gave a short nod, then turned back to the woman. "I'll be back," she promised. "Wait here, and I'll see what I can find out."

With her words, the woman seemed to have calmed down, and Sophia slipped away into the chaos, making a beeline into the emergency room.

As predicted, the place was in chaos. Nurses could only keep so much order in an E.R. that was right across the street from a major disaster.

Sophia stood off to the side, scanning the room and taking in the situation. As far as she could tell, there wasn't an influx of major injuries, probably because everyone who was the most hurt was still buried under the building. It looked like a lot of the activity was from people injured by falling debris, and the rest of the staff preparing for a mass casualty situation.

She spotted the person she wanted to talk to.

"Blake!"

The doctor looked up, his lips pursed and jaw tight. "I don't really have time, Sadie," he said.

Sophia was jostled by a concerned family member who had somehow made it past the police barrier before she could get to Blake. The man zeroed in on the doctor. "Please," he said. "I'm looking for my children. My children!"

"Sir," Blake began, but Sophia cut him off.

"Sir, I understand," she said, giving Blake a sharp look. "But right now we need all the space we can in the E.R. We're working on organizing so we can keep track of who's here and we can reunite you with the people you're looking for, but we need a little bit of time."

Sophia held her breath as the man processed her words. "Fine," he said. "But where do I go?"

"The park, down the street," Sophia told him. She had thought of it when she spoke with the woman looking for Sylvia Diaz. "We'll gather everyone there."

He left without another word, probably too much in shock to do much more than be angry or follow orders. Sophia turned around to find Blake nodding in agreement. "I'll send people your way," he told her. "But you can't do this on your own, Sadie."

"I know." Sophia scanned the room, her gaze falling on the person she needed. "Go," she told Blake. "I'm good." She didn't wait for a reply. "Carmen!" she called.

The young admin worker seemed relieved to see her. "Sadie!" she said. "This is, holy shit. Are we even working today?"

"We're working," Sophia said. "But not in admin."

Carmen's eyes widened, but then she gave a brief nod. "What do we need to do?"

"The E.R. can't handle the influx of worried people who are about to come in here," Sophia explained. "I'm going to try and set up the park as a rendezvous point. You and I need to be in communication so you know who they're looking for, and I know who's come in."

"How do we do that?"

"You got headphones?"

Thirty seconds later, they both had one earbud in, each other on the other end of the phone call. "Keep yourself on mute unless you need to talk," Sophia instructed. "Let me know if you get a name of anyone who comes in, although I doubt most of the people in the collapse will have I.D. I'm going to get names and try and get pictures, I'll text them to your phone. Don't text anything back, but if you think someone from a picture is here, let me know and I'll send their family member in. Oh, and Carmen?" Sophia frowned. "That includes bodies, too."

Carmen blanched.

"If you're not up to it, you need to say something. Now."

"I'm up for it."

"Good. Now let's get to work."

Sophia strode through the E.R. doors, pausing to tell the Incident Commander of the plan. The I.C. just gave a short nod in agreement, probably relieved to have the civilian aspect off of her hands. She said she would send civilians Sophia's way, and instructed that if anyone who lived in the building showed up, to send them to the police so they could add it to their record.

At first, the plan worked. People found their way to Sophia, told her the names of the people they were looking for, and most of them had pictures to give her. Sophia sent the names and photos Carmen's way, and eventually, she had a sizeable list. About half an hour after she started, a firefighter joined her, a middle-aged woman named Jayla, giving her a bit more legitimacy. But then everything stalled.

The problem with a collapse like this was that the rescue was slow going. So Sophia kept getting names, but the E.R. wasn't receiving any patients. According to Carmen, since the initial victims had been treated, things had slowed considerably.

"Anything on your end?" Sophia asked Jayla.

"A couple of bodies," Jayla said quietly. "No one alive. Yet." She added the last word half-heartedly. The odds grew more dismal by the minute.

At that moment, Carmen's voice appeared in Sophia's ear again. "Hey, Sadie?"

Sophia took herself off mute. "Yeah?"

"The fourth picture you sent me?"

Sophia pulled up her text chain and scrolled through, Jayla peering over her shoulder. "Yeah?" she asked, dread twisting her stomach into a giant knot.

"I think, I think her body is here."

Sophia swore under her breath, and Jayla closed her eyes and sighed, not needing to hear Carmen's words to know what happened. "Okay, thanks, Carmen."

"You know who's looking for her?" Jayla asked.

Sophia scanned the crowd. "Him." She pointed to Jeremy Meers, the older brother of Katia Meers. "Her brother."

"I'll go talk to him and escort him to the E.R."

Sophia watched as Jayla approached the man, feeling nauseous as the man jumped up, hope shining on his features. That hope wouldn't last long.

There weren't many others, the rescue efforts were so slow in an effort not to cause more of a collapse.

"Mom? Mom!"

Sophia turned toward the sound, her legs wobbling under her as she saw who she assumed was Sylvia Diaz run into her mother's arms. The woman Sophia first talked to clutched her daughter in a vicelike hug, both of them crying.

"Well, I guess that's something," Jayla said. Neither of them had mentioned what happened with the Meers siblings, but Jeremy hadn't come back.

"I guess," Sophia sighed. "I'll go send them over to the cops so they can put down that she's alive."

The sun was setting, and a lot of the people Sophia had spoken to were losing hope and going home. She had put together an official list with contact information and passed it off the Jayla, but likely, not a lot more would happen until the next day. With the fading light, rescue efforts would slow even more.

With the withering crowd, Jayla had returned to her team, leaving Sophia to handle the desperate relatives on her own.

"We've been divorced for years." The man who Sophia had met in the E.R., Tom, sat beside her. "The kids stayed with her most of the time, but I live close by. I heard it, you know? I could hear it collapse, but I didn't do anything. Never in a million years..." His eyes focused on the disaster scene, tears welling up.

"Hey, Sadie, can you hear me?"

Sophia lifted up her finger, telling Tom to give her a minute, and stepped away. "Carmen, what's up?" she asked, her stomach sinking at the thought of another body.

"We got a kid," she said. She sounded breathless, almost excited. "Alive."

Sophia's jaw dropped. "You're kidding."

"One of the ones in the second picture you sent. I'm positive."

Sophia spun around to look at Tom. She knew who that picture belonged to. "On my way."

Sophia and Tom pushed through the crowd. She hadn't told the man much, just in case there had been a mistake, but he was desperate and hopeful nonetheless.

She spotted Blake as they walked in. "Dr. Rhodes, this is Tom Shelton."

"Mr. Shelton," Blake said, "I know this is difficult. But we need you to identify a patient for us."

"Yes, yes," Tom said, his breath shaky. Everything about him was shaky. "Just, let me see her."

Sophia watched as Blake led Tom over to a hospital bed. "Please, please, please, please," Sophia whispered under her breath, her hands laced together and pressed to her lips. Her knees nearly collapsed as she saw Tom double over in relief and then hug the person lying on the bed.

"Thank God," Carmen said, coming up behind her. "It would have been horrible if we'd been wrong."

"Just the one kid?" Tom's picture had three.

Carmen frowned and nodded. "The paramedics said it was nothing short of a miracle. Hell, the kid isn't even that injured, probably out of here in a few days, a week max."

Sophia shook her head. It was hard to believe. "No one else has been pulled out alive."

Carmen shook her head. "The fact that it hasn't been chaos in here since the initial collapse makes me ill."

Sophia had to agree. "You've done well, Carmen," she praised.

"Why does that not give me a lot of comfort?"

Sophia had nothing to say. Nothing would bring comfort. Not on a day like today.