AN: So this isn't a Run update (I'm still debating the end), but I had an idea and thought I would run with it.

Eight months had passed.

Eight months since the crash. Three days after that they'd gotten rescued, only not all of them had made it back.

Arizona had lost her leg, Cristina had taken longer than anyone expected to start operating again, Derek's hand had not gotten anywhere near better, Meredith clutched her daughter closer, focused much more on her than on anything happening in her budding surgical career - and Mark, well Mark had physically recovered but something disappeared out there in the woods.

Of the five who had come back, all had received heavy sedation on the planes and helicopters following their rescue. Only, once they woke up, one by one they realized the sixth person on their flight had not made the flight back.

Mark had kissed Lexie's hand goodbye, firmly believing that she had died, but her body never made it back. Somewhere between Mark and Meredith vehemently calling out for search and rescue to pull Lexie out from under the plane, and getting sedated, Lexie had gotten lost.

Later, after waking up in Seattle angry at her missing sister, Meredith had screamed at numerous people to get her little sister. Losing Lexie was bad enough, but to not be able to bury her, to give her the proper funeral she deserved seemed wrong. With each member of the search and rescue team, they spoke to it became increasingly clear, no one could find Lexie. The original team had looked under the plane and couldn't find her. Cristina had stayed awake nearly all of the 72 hours in the woods and swore not even a wolf had crossed her eyesight.

None of it made sense.

The missing fourth-year resident was not in any shape to just get up and walk away, so none of her disappearances made sense. Mark swore up and down that he had felt her pulse slow to a stop while holding her hand and promising her the future they both knew was never coming. Even in his weakest state, he knew he never felt a pulse on her neck or wrist. Julia had fallen by the wayside within moments of Mark waking up in Seattle, he felt like a cheater for even considering the option of staying with the other doctor.

In the first week of month three, Seattle Police Department had declared Lexie dead. Citing her injuries, the other doctors described and the wreckage of the scene as reasons she couldn't have walked away. For the following few months, Mark and Meredith had kept careful track of any brunette patient matching Lexie's description entering any emergency room in the relative crash are.

In month six, Derek pleaded with them to call off the search. He firmly believed that this search would end up killing Mark too, and he couldn't watch his wife fall any further. He missed the younger surgeon who he had considered a younger sister by the time of her death, and his breath caught in his throat every time Zola said "that's not how Lexie does it" or called out for her missing aunt, but he knew he needed them to stop this or it would kill them both. Derek couldn't afford to lose another person when they had all already lost so much. So in month seven, they held a funeral.

The day of the funeral both Meredith and Mark announced at one point or another their refusal to go. In his apartment, Mark had chucked a plate at Derek's head when he told him they had to go.

-Flashback-

The plate smashes against the wall as Derek suggested once again Mark needed to change. His last suggestion had caused Mark to fling the piece of dishware at him. "I'm not going. This is ridiculous; she could turn up any day. I'm not going to a funeral to bury an empty casket." Mark explains frustration clear in his voice.

Derek sighs, he'd called Cristina to deal with Meredith and immediately drove himself over to Mark's apartment. This day was hard enough on him, and for two of the people he cared about most in the world, this was their worst nightmare. "Mark, you told me yourself you felt for a pulse and didn't get one. You need to go. For Lexie." He pleads to hope that he can get Mark out of the apartment.

Somehow Mark had decided he could handle giving the eulogy, but it looked increasingly with every passing minute that couldn't happen. "I've messed up so many things; surely I could have messed that up too." He rationalizes running through every mistake he had ever made.

With an exasperated sigh, Mark lets all of the air out of his lungs and collapses to the ground. His elbows rest on his needs so his arms can support his head. There's no mistaking his vulnerability or the tears in his eyes. "She was 27; she wasn't even 30 years old. We wasted so much time and if-" Mark's voice trails off. "If I had stopped being an idiot sooner she would have known that I loved her. She would have been sitting next to me on the plane. She would have been right next to me. We could have gotten married. I should have told her sooner I still loved her." Reaching up one of Mark's hands wipes at his eyes.

"You loved her. She knew." Derek promises, for a moment the image of Lexie crying in the hallway at Meredith's mom's house crosses his mind.

"I need to go today," Mark says knowing he can't ignore it. The funeral would happen with or without him.

Nodding, Derek places a hand on his friend's shoulder. "You need to go." He agrees sadly. Derek wishes that he didn't have to make his friend go today, but they both knew if Mark skipped this he would grow angry with himself later.

"I just don't want to say goodbye yet."

-End Flashback-

Having known Mark nearly all of his life Derek expected Mark to react to Lexie's death with whoring around, drinking or blowing off responsibilities. He could have never expected Mark would work every day and remain the dedicated father he was. Mark went to work every day, got in earlier, stayed later, and only took time off to spend with Sofia.

The little girl had remained a saving grace of sorts; Mark poured every ounce of energy he had left into the girl. While Derek and Callie could see the bit of Mark that seemed dead, Sofia knew no better. The attention from her father had remained constant.

Little did Derek know Mark still had alerts out just in case something happened. The hospitals in the area around the crash site knew what to look for, and the city morgues had details. He called, not every single day like he had before they declared her dead, but still often enough. Mark couldn't bring himself to give up hope and now he just wanted to bring Lexie home. While Mark secretly held out the belief that someday he would see Lexie alive again, the rational doctor part of him knew with her injuries he would never see Lexie alive again. Either way, he wanted to bring her home, he wanted to bury her and be able to be buried next to her someday.

Mark wanted answers. Someone couldn't just disappear. So until he had answers, he would keep looking.

AN: And that's chapter one. It's a little more of a preface, but I promise if you stick around you won't be disappointed. Drop a review and let me know what you thought!