Running in Circles - Lexie Grey x OC

The Art of Getting By

Late Night
Operating Room 3

Eric's stare stayed on the skull's cavity with his gloved hands suspended over it. His eyes are blank and empty and slowly reflecting fear that Lexie would often notice, something Eric wouldn't admit to her or anyone, that he still was experiencing going blank inside the OR. Lexie knew how to see it, the sudden shift of his stare, turning from thinking to just plain empty, his stiff and anxious posture that was often followed by him holding his breath; and then an almost muted shudder as he let it out.

Lexie was almost always his assisting surgeon, since Cristina couldn't. Most of the time it happened, like Eric was staring at the OR table in utter fear, pale and cold. He had admitted it to her one night when they were sleeping together, that sometimes when he's doing surgery, he had been seeing Izzie or most of the time, her on the table. He said it didn't bother him. It was helping him save his patients, but she knew it bothered him a lot, seeing his reaction everytime, that she would snap him off his trance reminding him she was standing beside him and not lying on the table.

Lexie was stretching her strained neck when she noticed him staring blankly again that night. She kept her gaze on Eric while she put down the tenting suture he had just used on the dura at the tray. She then cleared her throat and say a phrase that would make him look at her.

"I'm here."

Eric then slowly blinked and then glanced at Lexie who was smiling at him, from how her eyes twinkled, looking at him. She let out a few deep breaths which he unconsciously followed. As they let out the last deep exhale, he then would whisper, "You're here," and after a minute would continue the surgery.

It had been their routine ever since.

- - - - -

The room was pitch black. Lexie blinked her eyes awake and looked about the pitch black room. Her vision was hazy. She did not know where she was. All she knew was that she had fallen asleep on her bed in her room that night and woke up a few hours later, lying on a cold, damp floor. Lexie squinted as she struggled to see around the room. All she could see was black. Light couldn't seem to cut through the dark. Normally, even in the early mornings, the light from the lamppost outside could be seen through the attic window, providing her with some light inside her room, but not this time. The eerie, quiet, dark room suddenly made her nervous, out of breath, and shiver at the unknown. She leaned against the cold metal wall, pressing her hand on it as she calmed herself, trying to stand up. Puzzled by the feeling of the wall on her palm, her eyebrows knitted together. She couldn't resist the urge to knock her knuckles against the wall, giving in to the nagging feeling that something was wrong; that she wasn't supposed to be there and yet she was. She knocked on the wall. The muted clang of metal echoed inside the quiet room. It was then Lexie realized she wasn't in the attic anymore.

Her gaze aimlessly moved in front of her. It was dark but Lexie could feel a presence of a stranger, a figure, standing a few feet away from her, in front of her, eyeing her every move. Lexie froze. Her eyes widened in horror, and an icy panic crept up within her.

Lexie could hear the figure's breathing, deep and steady, agitated and restless. She couldn't see the person's face, but his familiarity caused her to stiffen. She tensed, then her body trembled, shaking uncontrollably at the sight, as the familiar figure moved excruciatingly slow towards her. Fear etched her features. Lexie attempted to speak, but nothing came out. The stranger called out her name, his voice, low and icy, raising the hairs on the back of her neck.

Lexie shuddered, curled in fear, her hands covering her ears as the figure roared an angry scream.

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