CHAPTER ELEVEN.
into you like a train

Vienna's hand were placed on the table in front of her, formed in two 'L' shapes with her thumbs touching, in an attempt to resemble a field goal. A folded piece of paper then flew her way, passing right between her hands. Across from her, George cheered and threw his arms in the air. She cursed, lightly smacking her palm on the table before preparing to take her shot. The interns had been extremely bored just watching Meredith drink her spirits away after their 30-hour shift, so Vienna and George had begun their own game of makeshift table football. So far, the blonde was losing badly, 7-0.

Apparently, a few hours earlier Meredith had told Derek to pick her, choose her, and love her, (Word for word, in that order) and now Bailey's interns, minus Alex had been waiting to see if he'd show up for her. Vienna hoped he would show his face soon, because after the elevator surgery she was doing everything to keep herself awake and to stay at Joe's in support of Meredith.

"When you tell someone I'll meet you later at a bar tonight, how long exactly does that mean you're supposed to wait?" Cristina asked as the interns watched Meredith sit at the bar and rant to Joe.

Vienna lined up the folded piece of paper directly center of George's hands which were now placed how her's were earlier, the male watching intently. "Do you think he's really not coming?"

"It is getting a little hard to watch." Izzie admitted, turning toward Vienna. "You're friends with him, do you think he's coming?"

She didn't answer, too focused on her game. And also because she honestly had doubts that Derek was going to show up. She flicked the paper, sending it flying past George and onto the ground. "Are you serious?" She groaned. "This shit's rigged."

George smiled as he leaned over to grab the paper, "8-0."

"Izzie, it was hard to watch an hour ago." Cristina said. "Now it's just pathetic. Almost as pathetic as Vienna's attempts at scoring. Thank God you're a surgeon and not a football player."

Vienna frowned, "Hey!"

Meredith spun around in her seat, "Who's pathetic?"

The other three gave Cristina a look, to which she simply faced the other way. "What?"

"You, who pretend to be my friends are calling me pathetic behind my back in front of my face." Meredith said, very clearly inebriated. George almost instantly pointed at Cristina, basically ratting her out. "Why don't you just dump the pig's blood on me now and get it over with?"

Vienna giggled. "Behind her back, in front of her face."

The bell on the bar's door then jingled, signaling someone was entering. All of the interns' heads snapped toward the door, only for it to just be Tyler, one of the nurses.

As they all turned back around, somewhere in the bar a pager went off. George was getting ready to take his turn again when his pager went off, and then one after the other, all of the doctors in the bar's pagers started going off.

"Joe, turn up the TV!"

"A massive train wreck occurred just outside of Seattle just minutes ago." A news reporter on the bar TV informed.

Cristina looked at her pager, "911."

"We just worked a 30 hour shift." Izzie complained.

"I don't have any clean underwear." George sighed as the interns picked up their coats and bags, getting ready to leave.

"The Vancouver-bound train was carrying over 300 passengers."

"Meredith?" Cristina called as she and Vienna waited for her at the door.

Meredith exchanged a few words with Joe before she made her way over to the two. "Bye Joe."

Now in the hospital, Vienna threw her bag onto the floor of the elevator as she and the rest of the interns changed into their scrubs.

"I think I saw a pneumothorax." Cristina said to George and Vienna. "I hope I get a pneumothorax."

Each of them except for Meredith grabbed their own yellow E.R. gowns and began putting them on. Bailey joined them shortly after, decked out in a dress and heels.

"Oh!" George exclaimed in shock.

"What are you looking at?"

Vienna snickered as Bailey walked over to Alex and handed him her jacket and purse. "Hey, you, go get me my damn shoes. Let's move, people."

"Hello. I seem to be a little bit drunk. I was off duty."

"So was I!" Bailey shook her head before looking at the other interns, "Anybody else half in the bottle?" They all shook their heads no, George checking his breath to make sure. "All right then. Grey just stay out of the way. I'll deal with you later. The rest of you, stick with me and wait for your assignments. Now, you get all aquiver at the sight of blood, and organs but it's gonna be a long night and you already tired. I don't want any mistakes."

The group then entered the E.R., Vienna's eyes glistening at the sight of it packed with patients. "Holy crap."

"I'm so not tired anymore." Cristina said in awe.

"Me neither." George nodded, "I'm not tired either."

Addison walked over to them, "I've got a 3rd trimester burn victim here Dr. Bailey and I'm gonna need some help."

Izzie, George, and Cristina all put up their hands up eagerly, looking toward their resident with hopefulness. "Izzie, go."

"Yes! Have a nice nap."

Tyler, walked into the pit dressed in his casual clothes. He noticed Meredith standing against the wall and looked at her, the three interns slightly eavesdropping on their conversation. "Oh hey. Joe told me to tell you that McSteamy came looking for you."

Meredith perked up. "You mean McDreamy. Joe said McDreamy came looking for me?"

Tyler shook his head, "No. I'm pretty sure it was McSteamy."

"Does that mean he picked her?" George asked.

Cristina looked at him. "If it does, I just lost 50 bucks."

"Got the leg!" A paramedic yelled as he rushed in holding up a severed leg, the three remaining interns staring in awe.

Cristina groaned, "I want the leg."

"Dr. Bailey who you got?" Webber asked, wheeling the guy without the leg.

Their hands shot up eagerly, all of them nearly hitting Bailey. "Ah! Cristina. Go."

"Yes!" Cristina.

"No!" Vienna.

Cristina went off running toward the severed leg guy as Vienna and George watched dejectedly. "Clark!" Bailey then called, waving the intern over. She rushed over to her, jaw dropping slightly at the sight of two people from the crash sitting on a gurney together, a metal pole sticking through each of their abdomens, practically connecting them.

"His BP is looking steady at 90 over pal. She's had 2 hypotensive episodes to the low seventies." A paramedic informed Vienna, Burke, and Bailey.

"You couldn't get a saw in there?"

"Not without moving them."

Bailey agreed, folding her arms across her chest. "Which would have been a very bad idea."

"They're never gonna fit into CT." Burke shook his head. "We're gonna be flying blind. Clark, get x-rays and labs and page me the minute you're done."

"Excuse me?" One of the patients called from inside the trauma room.

Burke smiled at her, "Hi. I'm Dr. Burke. You shouldn't turn your head. You want to try and move as little as possible."

"Oh, okay. . ." The woman frowned. "So are you gonna pull this pole out of us anytime soon?"

"It's a touch uncomfortable." The second patient added.

"I'm sorry we can't until we get a better look on what's going on internally. But I assure you we will work as quickly as possible." Burke comforted.

"Well, in that case, does anybody have a breath mint?" She asked awkwardly, Vienna doing everything in her power to contain the giggle that threatened to slip past her lips. "For me, not you."

Bailey looked at Vienna, "Clark, get them an X-ray. Um, O'Malley! Go with her." The male made his way over to her, "Move them extremely carefully."

George looked at the blonde, "This never would've happened to me before the elevator."

The two of them wheeled Bonnie and Tom slowly through the hallway as they made their way to the x-ray lab. "Is there any one you'd like us to call?" Vienna asked them, wanting to distract them from the large pole that was currently impaling them.

"No, they called my wife from the ambulance." The male patient, who they now knew was named Tom, smiled politely.

"And my fiancé. They're flying down from Vancouver together."

"Normally, Amanda would be a tad upset to find me pressed up against another woman." Tom joked, causing Bonnie to laugh. "But in this case I think I'll get a pass."

George looked shocked. "You two weren't traveling together?"

"No. We just met."

"Bit of an awkward introduction."

"You have very nice pores." Bonnie observed.

Tom chuckled before wincing. "Oh. Hurts to laugh."

The two of them finally reached the x-ray lab, only to see a massive queue of people waiting to get their x-rays. Vienna shared a look with George, the blonde subtly nodding her head to another intern in front of them who had a patient in a wheelchair. The male frowned before tapping him on the shoulder.

"Hey."

"Hey." The intern nodded before noticing Tom and Bonnie, an uneasy look taking over his face. "Whoa. You guys can go ahead."

"Oh. Thanks."

Vienna pushed the two on the gurney as George moved up in the line, getting the next intern's attention. He cleared his throat behind her and she turned around to see the impaled people. "Oh wow."

"Do you think, uh, we could ━━ "

"Oh yeah go ahead."

Eventually, George and Vienna had finally made their way inside one of the x-ray rooms. After the scans were done, the interns had paged Bailey and Burke who were now looking at them. Meredith had also joined them and was simply standing off to the side with her banana bag IV.

"Is, is it going straight through her spine?"

"It is." Bailey confirmed. "T8's completely crushed."

Derek then joined them in the room. "Hey." He noticed Meredith and her IV. "What happened?"

"Uh, tequila." Meredith answered.

"I'm keeping an eye on her." Bailey told him.

He nodded before noticing the x-rays. "Look at this. These people are still alive?"

"They're still making small talk." Vienna said.

"Pole's tamponading the wound as far as we can see."

"It's hitting the aorta."

Burke nodded. "And look at him. It's right in line with his inferior vena cava."

George looked at their superiors, "Is there anyway to operate without separating them?"

"No."

"But if we move the pole ━━ "

Bailey looked at him, "They'll both bleed out."

"What if we don't move the pole? What if we move one of the patients off the pole to get the saw in there?" Burke suggested. "Then we can hold the pole steady in the other one. Move it very slowly and repair the damage as we go."

Vienna's eyebrows furrowed. "Who are you going to move?"

Burke sighed. "With her aortic injuries, her chances of survival are extremely slim no matter what we do. But if we move her, we have a real shot of saving him."

"Well, I could argue since her injuries are so extensive we should move him." Derek crossed his arms. "Give her the best shot we can."

Meredith finally spoke up, "So basically whoever you move doesn't stand a chance?" Everyone in the room turned to look at her with unsettled glances. "So how do you choose? How do you decide who gets to live?"

No one answered.

♱

They were now back in the trauma room, where Derek was testing to see if Bonnie had any feeling in her feet. He ran something along her foot before looking up at her. "Can you feel that Ms. Krasnoff?"

"Hmm." She giggled. "You're a cute Doctor. Cute doctors get to call me by my first name."

Derek smiled. "Bonnie?" She hummed. "Ok, Bonnie. Do you feel that Bonnie?"

"Can I feel what? Oh, well I guess that's a no."

George handed him the labs, "Thank you." The neurosurgeon looked over the labs briefly before turning to the male patient. "Could you try to wiggle your toes Mr. Maynard?"

Tom wiggled his toes, causing a soft smile to erupt on Vienna's face. "Are they moving?"

"Yes, they are."

He chuckled lightly, "Oh good. That's good right?"

"Yes it is. Yes. It is."

"What about me? Are mine moving?" Bonnie asked as Derek moved downward to have a closer look. Her toes weren't moving. Vienna shared a sad look with Derek, the male concealing it before he turned back to Bonnie.

"Yes, they are."

Bonnie smiled in relief, "Yay me."

Vienna never really thought of herself as an emotional person. Since she started High School she'd only cried three times. When her mom was diagnosed with cancer, when he who shall not be named cheated on her, and then yesterday after the elevator. But right now, it was taking everything in her to not tear up at Bonnie and Tom. These two were holding up better than her despite their circumstance and it was tugging at all of her heart strings.

She knew Bonnie's chances of making it out of this were slim to none, yet here she was smiling and laughing with everyone. If Vienna were in her position, she'd be inconsolable.

"Dr. . . uh, Shepherd is it?" Tom asked.

"Yes it is."

"Dr. Shepherd. . . Bonnie and I. . ." He trailed off. "Are we gonna live through this?"

Bonnie smiled at him. "Now that's just morose Tom."

"I'm sorry, dear." He apologized, before turning back to Derek. ". . .Doctor?"

"We're gonna do everything we can Mr. Maynard."

The two interns and Derek had left the trauma room and were now looking Tom and Bonnie's scans again when Burke and Bailey joined them. "Where are we?" The head of cardio asked.

"You were right. Her vitals are erratic. Pulse is weak. Spine severed." Derek sighed. "I was hoping it didn't hit from that angle. It just can't miss the aorta."

"What about him? Think he can live?"

"He's got better odds."

Bailey looked at Vienna. "Alright. Let OR 1 know we're coming." The blonde sighed, dragging a palm down her face before nodding. "Oh, and Clark, close off the gallery. We don't need an audience for this."

"She's cracking jokes." George spoke up. "How do you tell somebody that she's gonna be dead in a few minutes when she's sitting up cracking jokes?"

Everyone in the room shared sad looks with each other at the male's question. Vienna's head hung low as she left to notify the OR, quietly sulking on the inside.

♱

When she'd returned to the trauma room, she noticed the three doctors speaking to Bonnie and Tom who both had looks of fear coating their faces.

"This is hard, because your body is in a certain amount of shock. It's preventing you from feeling pain." Derek and informed the patients as Burke re-entered the room. "Feeling the extent of your injuries."

Bonnie smiled softly at Derek before speaking to him in a delicate tone, one too soft for her current predicament. "Dr. Shepherd. We have a metal pole cutting a path through our insides. I don't know about Tom here, but I didn't expect to walk out of here anytime soon." Vienna briefly glanced at George, seeing the upset and troubled look on his face. "So. . . whatever it is you have to say just please. . . say it."

"Okay, Bonnie." Derek nodded slightly. ". . .In order to operate on Mr. Maynard, we have to separate you two. In order to do that, we have to move you backwards off the pole."

"Can't you just pull the pole out of both of us?"

Derek shook his head no, subconsciously but subtly looking more toward Bonnie as he did so. "Well if we did that, you would both start bleeding very quickly. Too quickly. Right now the pole is plugging the wounds." Burke concluded. "Once removed, the organs will shift and there's a great deal of damage."

"So if you move me, I'll die?" Bonnie asked, voice cracking as she tried not to cry.

There was a pregnant pause between the doctors and the patients before Derek attempted to soothe them. "We're gonna do everything we can to ━━ " He trailed off as Bonnie started to cry softly, and rightfully so.

Tom shook his head. "No. If anyone body has to go it should be me. You just move ━━ "

Burke interrupted him next. "No. Mr. Maynard. . . Mr. Maynard your injuries are less extensive." As he explained this, Vienna's eyes trailed over to Derek who she noticed was had now been holding onto one of Bonnie's hands, rubbing it in a comforting manner. "If we pull the pole from you as we operate around it, we have a better chance at repairing the damage."

"It's not right. It's not fair."

Bonnie gave him a sad smile, "Shh Tom. It's not fair either way. Is uh, is my Danny. . . is he here yet?"

"There are delays at the airport," George trailed off ". . . The storm."

Bailey face and tone both grew sympathetic. "Uh, we could wait but, uh, the longer we do the higher the risk of infection for the ━━ "

Bonnie interrupted her in a sad tone, "No, no. This is better. Huh. Danny, he wouldn't understand. I've had a couple of hours to, you know," She inhaled deeply, ". . . process all of this. But if, if he had to see me. . . talk to me like this. . . well, I just think it would be too hard."

It was then that Vienna wanted to break down and cry. She couldn't wrap her head around how someone so full of brightness having accepted the fact she was going to die in such a short amount of time.

Although she was a surgical intern and was around death daily, it was really times and cases like these that got through to Vienna and engraved the thought that life is short and that you should make the most of it because your life could change in an instant.

What was supposed to be a normal train ride ended up being the thing that cost Bonnie her life.

♱

The group on Bonnie and Tom's case were now scrubbing in for the surgery as they looked on through the small window, watching as the patients were prepped for their surgery. "Why do I feel like we're about to kill this girl?" Bailey asked just as Meredith walked in.

"Dr. Bailey, my labs are in."

"Sober?"

Meredith nodded. "Can I scrub in?"

"Do it fast."

As she began to scrub in, Derek entered the room. Vienna was waving at the attending while George was looking at Meredith who was staring back at him. The older blonde had subtly tried to get them to leave, and after they still hadn't left, Meredith whisper shouted at them. "George! Vee!"

The two nodded, mumbling back their own responses: "Right." and "Of course."

The two interns joined Bailey and Burke in the OR as the anesthesiologist had just put both of the patients under, preparing to begin the operation.  A mere few seconds later, Bonnie's monitor began to beep frantically, prompting the short resident to call for Derek. "Dr. Shepherd, she's crashing."

"What happened?" Derek asked. Vienna briefly looked up as he entered, eyes failing to see a dejected looking Meredith through the window watching the neurosurgeon with sad eyes.

"I just put them under."

"Pole must've shifted."

"I barely touched her." The anesthesiologist, Dr. Addams, suddenly grew defensive. "This isn't my fault."

"It's nobody's fault. We'll need to remove her now if we're going to have a chance." Burke observed.

"How are we going to do this?"

"Team 1 continues, stabilize his body. Team 2 move her back and let's get the saw in there. This has to be fast and smooth, people." Burke informed before sending stern glances to the two interns. "O'Malley, Clark, you two hold the pole in place. Whatever you do, don't pull on it, don't let it move. On the count of 3. 1, 2 ━━ "

Bonnie was slowly slid off the pole as George and Vienna held onto the the metal, keeping it as steady as possible until she was placed onto a nearby operating table. After she was moved, a doctor came in with a saw and started to cut through the pole. With Tom now on his own separate OR table, Dr. Adam looked up at them with a nod. "He's stable."

"Let's start with her and we can see what we can do." Burke told his crew that was still stood at Bonnie's bed. "Scalpe"

Bailey looked up. "Uh, Grey. Get in here and help re-tract."

"Re-tractor." Derek handed it to Burke. "I'm in."

"Quick please. Give me some sponges. Sponges." The Shepherd said calmly yet urgently. "Lap sponges. Hade me the cautery."

Burke shook his head. "Her aorta is shredded. She's gonna bleed out." As he spoke, Bonnie's monitor starts began faster.

"Got no rhythm."

The anesthesiologist called over to the surgeons from his spot at Tom's side, "Doctors. He's losing pressure."

"He's bleeding."

"Let's go."

At once, everyone at Bonnie's side left to join Tom, except for Meredith who stood with the retractor still inside Bonnie's chest.

"Everybody change gloves."

"What about her? We can't just abandon her." Meredith said in an upset tone as everyone switched gloves to start on Tom's operation. "We can't just abandon her!"

Vienna could've sworn she'd heard her heart breaking as she briefly took her eyes off from the scene in front of her to look at her best friend. Burke ignored Meredith's complaints, although she couldn't blame him, as time was crucial. "I'm going in. Extend the sternum. Scalpel."

Refusing to give up, Meredith began to give Bonnie's heart compressions in an attempt to revive her. The other two interns shared a look as they watched their friend helplessly from their spot at Tom's table. "Lets go Dr. Grey." Bailey told her.

"Meredith."

The blonde ignored any calls out to her, continuing to pump Bonnie's heart. "Dr. Grey!"

"Meredith!"

"What about her?" The blonde intern finally cried out. "We can not just abandon her! We have an obligation!"

Derek looked over for a few moments, before turning his attention back to Tom. George and Vienna shared looks with each other as Bailey made her way over to Meredith. "Meredith, come on. There was too much damage. There was never anything we could do." The resident attempted to soothe her intern. "We have to let her go."

The sound of a monitor flatlining made her look up from where she was holding Tom's body open with clamps as Burke and Derek worked.

"Time of death, 3:49."

♱

After Tom's surgery was finished and successful, the three interns on the case stood at a nurse's station as they watched Derek and Bailey speak to Bonnie's fiancé who'd arrived not to long ago. "Did she uh. . . Did she suffer?"

"No. Her injuries prevented her from. . ." Derek trailed off with a deep breath. "No, she wasn't in any pain."

"Good. That's. . ."

Derek cleared his throat, "She asked me to uh, tell you that. . . she wanted you to know, that if love were enough," He paused, taking a moment to gather himself. "That if love were enough that she'd still be here with you."

♱

Meredith was sat on a bench despondent with Izzie next to her when Cristina and Vienna entered the locker room, the heartbroken blonde looking up at her and Cristina silently.

Vienna hadn't gotten a chance to speak to Derek yet, but she was assuming from Meredith's actions that he had chosen to give Addison another chance. This whole situation was stressing Vienna out, on one hand she had been best friends with Derek and Addison and spent most of her time in New York surrounded by them, and on the hand, Addison slept with her boyfriend. It also didn't help that Meredith had become one of her closest friends, and Vienna just hoped it wouldn't come to her having to choose between Derek or Mer.

It was a shit situation all around.

Cristina and Vienna were stood by their lockers, before the former looked at Meredith and took a seat in between Meredith and Izzie, glancing at her with a comforting look. Vienna ran her hands down her face before joining the women on the bench.

The four were sat in a peaceful quiet when the door to the locker room opened causing Meredith to look up hopefully, only for it to be Bailey. The resident took a glance around the room at her interns who looked beaten up.

"Better get cleaned up. Rounds. 5 minutes." She told them in the softest tone that she'd ever used with them before exiting, the interns standing up to follow suit.

a/n
so sorry this took me
so long to get out,
i was so stuck on
how i wanted
it to end,
i had literally 0 ideas
so the ending is shit af
bc i wanted to get this out
and work out the next upcoming
chapters

♱ word count, 4241