The Starting Line (Reupload)

13

"Max." Eleanora exhaled, entering her brother's office without knocking. The man looked up and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"Ella, hey!" Max greeted, his face lighting up with a smile when he saw his older sister. "Did you want to get away from the sad people with Alzheimer's?"

"No." Eleanora declared, her face pale. Max notices after a moment, his face turning a little serious as he stands up.

"What's wrong? I-is it, Lexie?"

"No, Max, it's not Lexie," Eleanora tells him. She takes a deep breath, her voice coming out shaky. "It's Callie."

Max's entire being stiffens, fear grips his heart and his throat closes. He was quiet, and tense for a few moments before he came out from behind his desk, stopping in front of his older sister. His chest was heaving, his breathing rapid and panicked.

"Where?"

"She's five minutes away," Eleanora whispered, Max without hesitation running towards the emergency room. Eleanora turned to follow him, but she took a moment.

She closed her eyes, trying to stay calm and control her breathing. After a few seconds, she opened them again and hurried to follow her younger brother, five words repeating in her head.

Please be okay.

____

The doors to the ambulance bay open, Eleanora looks over her shoulder as she hears her husband's panicked voice. He was in surgery and they had sent Meredith to pick him up, knowing that Eleanora would be unable to hide her feelings from him.

"What the hell happened?" Mark asked in a hard voice. He sat next to his wife, panicked eyes flickering between the Chief and her. Then landed on Max, his face turned worried.

Max paced back and forth in front of the line of doctors, his hands trembling as he periodically ran his fingers through his hair. It was obvious that he was a disaster.

"Car versus truck. That's all we know." Hunt informed the Plastic Surgeon. Eleanora leaned towards him a little, not wanting to have to change her gloves for touching him.

"Only a few minutes left, Mark." She told him, her voice still a little shaky but much calmer than her brother's.

"T-they don't have any news about Callie being alive." Max snapped, eyes filling with unshed tears as he looked at Mark, scoffing. "They don't know anything about our damn baby either!"

"Max, that's enough," Eleanora said to her brother, her voice firm. He scoffed again, but stayed silent, continuing to walk.

"Well, why...why don't you know?" Mark snapped, beyond worried about his best friend, her girlfriend, and their unborn baby they shared with his brother-in-law. "Someone get me a trauma gown!"

"Mark, you have to sit out of this." Richard was startled. He then moved his eyes to Eleanora, finally noticing her gloves and yellow trauma gown. "You too, Amedeo."

"I'm not going to be left out. It's Callie!" Mark snapped, Eleanora's angry eyes turning to the Chief.

"She's my friend and my niece or nephew, Chief! I don't-"

"That's why you two can't." He responded with a firm voice. Eleanora felt her hands shaking, Derek and Cristina exchanged a look when they noticed. Max sat up straight, anger evident in his body language. "I'm sorry. You two can't be the Doctors on this case."

"What the hell do you mean?" Max hissed.

"Not you," Mark said, trying to push the group away. Eleanora remained silent, which made her friends even more worried.