I hesitated to publish this because I'm pretty sure there are a lot of inaccuracies as regards to ceiling collapses and proper protocols, and also the medical aspect, but I thought maybe if you could all ignore my ignorance of that and just focus on the story, it won't be so bad…so if there areinaccuracies, please don't be too harsh…

Disclaimer: I do not own Grey's Anatomy or the characters.

"Jackson?" April said into the darkness, her voice breaking. It was almost pitch black, she could hear the dripping of a broken pipe somewhere, and she was in so much agony that she was almost numb. She had felt the blood on her stomach slowly soak in through her scrub top, and hadn't wanted to believe it. The searing pain she'd felt just as the sharp end of something pierced through her abdomen hadn't been enough, she'd needed more confirmation, and the blood had been it. She couldn't deny the wetness of it, or the rusty smell of it, and it made her want to throw up, except she didn't think she had any strength left. She called his name again, this time sounding weaker than before, but he didn't come. No one came. The battery in her phone had died a while ago. She had kept trying to call Jackson, but he hadn't picked up. She had tried to call the hospital, but just as she heard voices on the other end, she had kept getting cut off. She suspected the reception wasn't strong enough. She was alone and scared and terrified that no one would ever find her, that she'd be left to die alone in this hell hole without ever seeing anyone she cared about ever again.

Jackson shoved every thought of April out of his mind as he furiously fought to keep a patient alive. He had said something to her earlier, and he knew he had hurt her deeply. But he was also so angry with her that he didn't feel sorry about what he had said…not yet. The nurse had told him twice now that his phone was receiving calls from April but he'd told her to switch it off after the second time. Right now he was fuming, he'd be glad if he didn't see her for the rest of the day. Actually, days like this he wished he'd never met her. Who knew she'd make his life this miserable? He would have been a lot happier if she hadn't gotten under his skin, and he'd be able to concentrate on this surgery the way he should. Correction. He was going to concentrate on this surgery the way he should. He bet she was having fun, this is her thing, emergency situation, trauma, she thrived in this kind of environment and if she was having fun, then he certainly wasn't wasting time thinking about her. It wasn't worth it.

So he concentrated on the surgery. It was all hands on deck today, so many patients had swarmed in that it was hard to keep track. The storm still raged outside, and to make matters worse, the basement ceiling on the southern wing had collapsed in on itself, and there had been a power outage in that wing almost immediately. And now he was hearing rumors that the basement might flood with storm water because of the collapse. But that's a headache for tomorrow, when they were all hoping the storm would have subsided along with the surge in patient numbers. Right now, he was just thankful that the Southern wing had been successfully evacuated, ensuring that everyone was out of harm's way. He wouldn't want to be trapped in that dark dungeon of a basement, with or without a ceiling collapse and he couldn't imagine being in there now, especially if it was being flooded. There had always been something iffy about the South wing; it was the oldest part of the hospital, and it had looked like it was going to fall apart at any moment even back when he had first started at Seattle Grace. Although the basement had been a functional part of the building previously, now it was mainly used for storing extra supplies; which had been unfortunate, since they could use all the extra supplies they could get in light of the recent emergency. But the storm had struck hard and fast, earlier than it was scheduled to arrive, and they'd gone into crisis mode instantly with almost no time for preparation.

She should never have come down here, April thought, shifting in pain. Everyone had been evacuated from the building, she and Karev had been the last ones doing a final check up, and she'd actually come out of the building with Karev and told him she had a surgery in an hour and he'd nodded and left to the pediatric ward. But the surgery had gotten cancelled at the last minute, and remembering that the ER needed a few extra supplies, she had thought if she could just get some from the basement before the worst of the storm hit, she can make it out on time without being in any danger. She'd done this to herself, she thought wretchedly. The fire inspectors had told them to evacuate this part of the hospital immediately if there's any threat of a storm but she obviously hadn't thought things through. So foolishly, she had gone in, without telling anyone, and then she had heard it.

A huge crash from above just as soon as she'd entered the basement had confirmed her worst fears, and she had made a mad dash to the outside entrance, feeling like she was in some kind of movie. The lights had started to flicker creepily before completely going off, time had literally seemed to stop and her senses had become eerily acute. She had seen everything as if in slow motion: huge cracks had appeared on the ceiling before small chunks of it had started to rain down on her, and what seemed like a volcano of debri and dust had engulfed her; then she was running blindly, not knowing where she was going, heart thudding in her chest as she heard the terrifying sounds of the ceiling collapsing, thundering down to the ground close behind her. She had seen a ray of hope, it had seemed so close, she'd seen the entrance, the lights from the main building beckoning to her, and she'd almost thought she'd made it, when a huge piece of concrete had fallen in front of her, and then she'd felt the pain, oh the pain, as something sharp went through her. She'd fallen to the ground, unable to stand from the shock of being stabbed, as much as from the pain, and even though she'd managed to pick herself up and make her way to the piece of concrete, she hadn't been able to find a way around it. Sobbing to herself, she had tried to claw at it in the dark, petrified. She had heard the thunder clash as the storm had come into full force outside and, hands bloodied and bruised, she'd collapsed against the concrete, unable to hold herself up anymore because of the pain. All she could do was lay there, breath coming out in shallow gasps, trying to stem the blood flow. What felt like something metal seemed to be penetrating her stomach, and she knew she shouldn't pull it out because the chance of bleeding out quicker would be greater. She had felt the water start to trickle in bit by bit and now it was almost covering both her legs, and she was starting to shiver, the coldness seeping into her bones. She wasn't surprised. They had been warned that the basement might flood. Her sobs had ceased into little whimpers, and her voice had gone hoarse from crying out for help periodically. Trying to forget how terror stricken she was, she let her mind wander to that afternoon, when something that had started out innocently enough had escalated into something poisonous between her and Jackson.

"Matthew asked me to marry him" she blurted out to him. She had retired to an on-call room in the afternoon, mind convoluted with something that had happened in the morning before she had gotten paged to the hospital. The door had creaked open, shedding some light from outside and illuminating the room just enough for her to see Jackson's silhouette enter. "Scoot over?" he had asked, just like old times, when they had laid in bed together in companiable silence, staring up at the ceiling with eyes wide open, too tired to fall asleep. She had smiled slightly and moved over, feeling the mattress compress underneath his weight. She had laid her head on his shoulder, sighing as she had let her body feel how tired she was. He had whispered to her that he missed this, and she had nodded, but hadn't been able to stop herself from blurting it out.

He had gone so still that she hadn't been able to hear him breathing. Her mind had been running a mile a minute up until that point, cloudy images of both Jackson and Matthew whirling in her head. He had gotten up slowly from the bed, and she'd panicked, getting up as well, wanting him to turn around and face her. "Jackson?" she had asked hesitatingly. "Do you love him?" his back had still been facing her, and she'd desperately wanted to see his expression, to know how he was feeling. "I- my pager went off and I couldn't give him an answer.." "Do you love him?" he'd asked again, this time with more force. "He loves me…" she had whispered and he'd turned around, an unreadable expression on his face. "You're a coward." He'd said and she had felt like she had been slapped. Her expression must have said as much, but he hadn't seemed to care. "You're willing to marry a guy you don't love, because, what, you're afraid you'll never find another guy who will be able to love you?" One side of his mouth had gone up in a sneer she'd never seen him direct at her. "You're probably right though, who would be crazy enough to love you? Except this guy, obviously." he had mocked, and had turned on his heal, throwing the words "you better tie him down as soon as possible then, he's definitely a catch. For you anyway…" casually over his shoulder as he had walked out.

Tears rolled down her cheek as she thought of how deeply that had cut into her. That was her biggest insecurity. That had always been her biggest insecurity. That she would never be loved. That nobody would ever love her. And Jackson, her best friend, the one person who always stood up for her, had known that. And then she had found Matthew. He had told her he loved her and that insecurity had seemed to fade away for a bit. But the fact that she didn't feel fulfilled, that she was unable to say those words back to him still clawed at her, making her feel incomplete. And thoughts of someone else had kept sneaking in on her. Someone she used to be very close to. Someone she still couldn't stop being drawn towards, someone who had once treated her so kindly and so gently that he had been the one person who had brightened up her day for a long time. And to find out that deep down, he had been like everyone else, he had thought the same thing, that it would be crazy to love someone like her, hurt more than she ever thought possible. And yet, he was the one person who came to her mind right now, as she lay there, grasping at life, hoping upon hope that she'd be able to see his face one more time before she bled out…

Jackson finished up in surgery, satisfied that he had been able to forget all about a certain trauma surgeon in order to completely lose himself in his job, and scrubbed out, leaving the interns to close up. He was rounding a corner on his way to the ER when Karev slammed into him, knocking the breath out of both of them. "Dude, watch it!" came an irritated voice and he turned around, annoyed. "You slammed into me-" "Whatever, have you seen Kepner? We're running out of supplies in the Er-" "Nope." Jackson said, shortly. "I don't really wanna see her today…" he said, walking off, leaving a confused Karev in his wake. "Aren't you the boss of this place? Shouldn't you be worried about these things?" He called out to Jackson's retreating figure, only to get dead silence in reply.