Each of you comes here today a hopeful, wanting in on the game… a month ago, you were in med-school being taught by doctors. Today, you are the doctors. The five years you spend here as a surgical resident will be the best and worst of your lives. You will be pushed to the breaking point. Look around you. Say hello to your competition. Eight of you will switch to an easier specialty. Five of you will crack under pressure and two of you will be asked to leave. This is your starting point. This is your arena. How well you play? That's up to you.

"Look at Alex, showing us all up by going to Hopkins," Meredith Grey smiled.

It was a pathetic scene… a scene that could only take place somewhere as crazy as Seattle Grace Mercy West. A team of six surgeons were literally walking out the door to board their plane to Boise, Idaho and Arizona Robbins was chasing after Alex Karev who had changed his mind at the last minute… he was accepting a fellowship at Johns Hopkins instead of staying with his mentor in Seattle.

"If Robbins lets him live that long," Cristina added, who was standing next to her friend, her former person.

For years, the two residents had been calling each other their person…it was their way of acknowledging their kindred friendship without getting too soppy. When Meredith had tried to continue this tradition yesterday though, Cristina had shot her down, stating that Owen was her person now and that she could not make fellowship decisions based on their relationship.

Yeah, Owen is your person but wasn't it Owen that just cheated on you? Meredith had wondered numerous times. Derek was the love of her life but that did not undo her person-promise with Cristina.

It was time to be honest. Meredith looked at Cristina and uttered the words that she knew she would have to say sooner or later: "I'm going to Boston. I told Hunt."

"And I'm going to Mayo," Cristina said and despite the overwhelming sense of change, Meredith could not help but smile. They would keep in touch. Meredith would be home to visit Lexie; Derek would want to see Mark. Both of the twisted sisters had passed their boards and they were on their way to fulfilling their dreams. Cristina grinned, too.

Meredith would never make a huge, life-altering decision based purely on Derek's wants but moving to Boston only made sense for both of them. Yes, they would miss Seattle but a lot had happened there and it was not all rainbows and sunshine. Meredith's mother had died… George had been run over by a bus… Izzie had gotten cancer and then run away and the entire hospital had been shot-up by an enraged Gary Clark.

Derek had almost been killed and his recovery had been hell on both of them… Meredith had nearly drowned… they had suffered a miscarriage. Last year, the Alzheimer's trial had fallen apart and Zola could have lost her family forever.

It would be good to have a fresh start and Derek was looking forward to leading the neurosurgery department at Harvard. He would get to teach the best fellows in the world and be close to his family in New York. Meanwhile, Meredith would be learning from Brigham, the most incredible general surgery program in the country.

Yes, moving to Boston was clearly the right move for everyone. Mark was already in the process of purchasing the dream house that Derek had built in Seattle and the latter had sworn that he would build another dream house on the east coast.

Eventually, the doctors were able to get out the door of Seattle Grace. Arizona Robbins had let Alex live to see another day but it looked like he was not going to be joining the team on their flight after all. Arizona was taking his place because of the whole argument.

"Aw, man. That sucks; I was hoping for one more surgery with you and Evil Spawn before we all split off across the country," Cristina sighed as they traveled to the airport via bus.

Meredith gave her a subtle look; neither would admit it, but they were not thrilled about having Arizona here. She had been in such a bad mood the last few days and listening to her whine for hours was not the ideal way to end residency.

The group of attendings and residents were going to Boise Memorial to perform a complicated surgery on a set of conjoined twins. They had had success with a pair in Seattle not long ago, and other hospitals in the region wanted to be taught their technique.

This required an expert in almost every single specialty and that was why so many surgeons were making the trip to Idaho. Derek was Chief of Neurosurgery so it made sense to send him for the brain matter and then Mark was tagging along to work his magic on the skin as Chief of Plastics. The original plan had been for Alex to represent the pediatric department but Arizona had taken over. She claimed to have worked on conjoined twins lots of times in her career.

Finally, Meredith and Cristina were both extremely proud to be sent on this mission as the solo scientists in their respective specialties, general surgery and cardio. Lexie had been chosen to go as a tag-in surgeon. She had not yet officially declared a specialty so she could technically help out in any category but Lexie was the frontrunner for Chief Resident in the coming year and it would be good to have an extra set of hands.

At the airport, the team of doctors were brought directly to the private aircraft that Owen had arranged for them. It was not the first time that Meredith had flown somewhere for a surgery so she was not particularly nervous about the ordeal.

All of the fifth-year surgical residents, such as Cristina and Meredith, were supposed to return to Seattle by tonight so that they could have their end-of-residency dinner with Dr. Webber. Although he was not technically the Chief of Surgery anymore, he still liked to carry on the tradition of celebrating with graduating students.

It was a nice gesture. Unfortunately, none of the residents themselves were really looking forward to it. Meredith hoped that she and Cristina would be forced to remain in Boise overnight to complete some kind of miraculous, marathon procedure on the twins.

Now, that would be the perfect end to residency!

On board the aircraft, Meredith quickly stuffed her bags into the carry-on rack above her seat. She would need to review her notes for the operation but that could wait until later. In the meantime, once the plane was up in the air, Meredith got up and walked back to the rear end of the cabin where her little sister was studying.

"Hiding from McSteamy?"

Lexie glanced up from her work and smiled wearily. "Hey. Have you decided on a fellowship?"

Normally, Meredith might have teased Lexie about the fact that she had strategically avoided the McSteamy question, but now was not the time. Owen had been informed that his top neurosurgeon was leaving Seattle Grace, therefore, the news was sure to spread fast and Meredith did not want Lexie to find out about their move to Boston through the rumor mill.

"Yeah, um… that's actually what I was coming to talk to you about. I've accepted the fellowship in Boston. I told Hunt so… so it's official. Derek and I are moving in a month."

There were a few seconds of silence as this news sunk-in. Lexie looked sad but not all that surprised. "But… but then I'm not going to have anyone. And I'm gonna miss you so much."

"I'll miss you too, but don't worry. You'll have people. We'll be home to visit for Christmas, at the latest," Meredith said.

"We're not going to become strangers," Lexie confirmed and Meredith shook her head.

This appeared to make things better; Lexie sighed with relief. "Okay, then… I bet Derek's excited, huh?"

"Yeah, he's going to lead the neurosurgery department at Harvard," Meredith said. "And I'll be a fellow at Brigham and then… then I'll be an attending. This is insane."

"I really can't believe my boards are less than a year away," Lexie agreed.

Meredith tried not to think about how fast her little sister was growing-up. "Yeah, but you don't have anything to worry about. Do you have any idea what you want to specialize in?"

"Yeah, I… um, don't tell Derek I said anything cause I don't know for sure yet but I've really been liking neuro. Derek's hopeless cases aren't quite so… um, hopeless lately and he's been teaching me a lot. He said that neuro programs across the country would be fighting for me and my photographic memory," Lexie said and then stopped short. "Wait, would that make you mad? If I took, I mean… you were all into neuro…"

"I don't and never did own neuro, Lexie. That would be awesome if you were a neurosurgeon," Meredith said and she meant it. "Hey… maybe in a year, you could even look into a fellowship of your own in Boston. It looks like we're going to have a pretty fantastic chief of neurosurgery. You could stay with Derek and me."

Lexie's eyes lit up. "Oh, God… that would be amazing! I mean, I love Seattle but I don't know if I want to stay here my whole life and… and there's nothing else here really holding me down. I was supposed to be in Boston from the beginning; I'm a Harvard alumni…"

"And you could get away from all the… history here," Meredith whispered because Mark was sitting just a few rows ahead.

Lexie nodded eagerly. "It would be so nice to have a fresh start."

Meredith's fellowship had not even started yet but suddenly, it seemed like everything was falling into place for the foreseeable future. She, Zola, and Derek would move to Boston… Cristina would do what she was meant to do at Mayo and Mayo was a hell of a lot closer to Boston than Stanford was… they could meet up.

In a year, Lexie would join her sister in Boston because there was really no reason why she would not get accepted into their program. Lexie was brilliant and would doubtlessly pass her boards; Derek could put in a referral for her, too.

But Meredith did not want to get too far ahead of herself. Her life had been no cakewalk and it seemed like every time that she started planning too far into the future, reality slapped her in the face.

A million things could go wrong before this time next year. Lexie could get hit by a bus. Derek could be shot. Meredith might drown. One of them could make a medical error that ended their career; it had almost happened so many times already. The plane they were currently on could crash and they could all be killed…

"Well, I'm gonna head back up and sit with Derek for now; we'll talk more later, okay?" Meredith said, brushing the dark and twisty thoughts from her mind.

Lexie nodded. "Yeah, I need to finish my application for Chief Resident. It's due later this week and I'm hoping the whole conjoined twins thing will help."

"It will but don't worry about that either. No one else stands a chance," Meredith smiled and then she walked back up towards the front of the cabin and sat down next to Derek who had fallen asleep while attempting to read a pediatric neurosurgery book.

Meredith poked him. "Hey, sleepyhead."

Derek snapped awake. "God, I need to wake-up. I don't know what's wrong with me. There's not any coffee on this plane, is there?"

"I don't think there's any food, period; it's only supposed to be an hour and a half flight," Meredith said. "Do you feel okay? I hope you're not coming down with whatever bug Zola and I had…"

"Yes, thank you, Dr. Grey but I'm fine," Derek yawned and sat up properly. "So… so did you tell Lexie?"

"Yeah, I did but I think everything's going to be okay," Meredith said. "Don't tell her I told you but as of right now, she is wanting to pursue neuro as a specialty."

Derek raised his eyebrows. "So maybe I've made more of an impression on her than she acts like, sometimes…"

"It looks like it and she's gonna be looking into fellowships this next year. Do you think we could do anything for her in Boston? I know she would love to continue learning from you," Meredith suggested and hoped that Derek did not think she was pushing things too far, getting too personal.

It did not appear that way; Derek smiled. "Well, Lexie is one of the most talented residents I've ever met and she shows promise in neuro… not quite as much as her older sister but…"

"But we already know that we can't work together," Meredith finished. "And it's not like I have a photographic memory either."

"I'll see what I can do once we get settled there," Derek said and that sounded good.

Meredith placed her hand in her husband's and leaned her head onto his shoulder. "Thank you for convincing me to go."

"Like I had anything to do with it," Derek said. "Cristina is headed to Columbia, isn't she?"

"No, she's going to Mayo," Meredith said and tried not to smile at the way Derek's eyes lit up.

She knew it was difficult for him sometimes. There were moments when Derek felt like he was not the first priority in Meredith's life at all, that Cristina was, but that was not true. Derek and Cristina were equally special to Meredith and she knew that she would have Derek no matter where she completed her fellowship.

If Meredith moved to Boston or California or anywhere else- or stayed in Seattle- Derek would be there. He would be wanted anywhere because of his worldwide ranking as a neurosurgeon. It was different for Cristina. She was not a cardio goddess yet and Meredith had to make sure they stayed close.

The flight from Seattle to Boise was short. By the time that Meredith had grasped Derek's hand, they had already been up in the air for over thirty minutes which meant that less than an hour remained. Meredith needed to review the scans of the twins one more time before landing; she had been procrastinating for too long…

Suddenly, just as Meredith was about to stand and reach for her briefcase, there was a loud, rumbling noise from the back of the plane and the aircraft rocked back and forth.

"What was that?" Derek said; they both turned around but the only abnormality that Meredith saw was an expression of absolute terror etched on Lexie's face.

A strained voice echoed over the loudspeaker from the cockpit. "S-Sorry, folks; we're experiencing a bit of turbulence but… b-but there's no reason to be alarmed!"

"It's okay, Lex!" Meredith called into the back row and then faced Derek again. "I bet you're awake now, aren't you?"

Derek chuckled. "Oh, yes… nothing like a bumpy flight to wake you up…"

And then the turbulence returned, a hundred times stronger. Meredith was beginning to doubt whether or not this was turbulence at all. Before she could stop herself, she flew forwards, out of her seat and Derek barely grabbed his wife's arm in time to keep her from sliding down the aisle.

Wait, why was the aisle slanted, anyway?

"Meredith, get your seatbelt on!" Derek demanded.

Meredith was dragging herself back into her seat when the pilot made another announcement and this time, his voice was downright panicked: "W-We're experiencing some mild… mild m-mechanical issues! P-Please try not worry; I'm going to land us at the… the n-nearest…"

The pilot trailed off. Meredith's world was bouncing up and down. She heard someone, it sounded like Lexie, scream at the top of their lungs from behind. Derek grabbed Meredith's hand and she thought that she squeezed back… she knew that something was horribly wrong; she knew that things were too good to be true…

Meredith was falling, in a complete nosedive forwards. Derek could not catch her this time; his hand was wrenched out of her own…

SLAM! Meredith's head collided with something hard and then she was on fire; she was burning alive. Meredith tried to scream; she tried to escape but no part of her body was functioning correctly. Meredith's mind could process no more; the world slipped away and everything went black.