(no subject)
One. Fifty.
Seven.
Izzie flopped down on the office chair next to Cristina's, who was eyeball-deep in a heart transplant patient's file. Izzie sat and stared at her for a long while, until finally Cristina had to look up. When she did, Izzie said, "You're not okay, you know that, right?"
"Oooh, that's deep, Izzie," Cristina replied. "Again, for the record, I am fine."
"Burke left you at the altar," Izzie protested. "Don't you want to..."
"No, because it's fine. I'm fine," Cristina proclaimed. "Can we stop now? I'm kinda reading here." She went back to her file.
Izzie went back to staring. The silence hung thick in the air. Then, Izzie said, "If I tell you something, Cristina, will you talk to me?"
"Talk to you? I am talking to you. See, right now. Talking." Cristina looked up again. "Tell me what?"
Izzie chewed her lip for a moment. "Okay. I - "
Meredith appeared in the doorway. "Derek hates me."
"He doesn't hate you," Cristina said. It again sounded like a programmed response.
Meredith started digging under a fingernail. "He does. He hates me."
"Why would he hate you?" Izzie asked.
"You were there. All that stuff I said. He hates me now." Meredith slumped in the doorway.
"You were upset. It was an upsetting day." Cristina noticed Izzie's expression. "But we're over it. We're all fine now. Including Derek. And me." Cristina also noticed Meredith's raised eyebrow. "Especially me. Fine and dandy." She closed the file and started out of the room with a bit a speed, ducking past Meredith.
Meredith shook her head. "Derek hates me."
Izzie put her face in her hands. "I love George."
Meredith smiled a bit. "Yeah, we all do. Missed seeing him today."
"No, Mer, you - you don't get it," Izzie said. "I love George."
"Oh," Meredith replied. "I mean...oh..."
"Yeah," Izzie said as her beeper went off. She looked down at it, a little disappointment creeping into her eyes. "I gotta go. It's that transplant patient that I'm sharing with Cristina."
"So you and George, it's like love-love?"
"Yeah," Izzie replied sadly. "And I'm afraid that it's just me that's in it."
Meanwhile, George O'Malley had never been happier as a doctor.
Really.
First day of internship, second time through...
Cake. Fudge cake with inch-thick whipped buttercream icing.Izzie's fudge cake, he thought, the one she made for him, without a reason at all. What a masterpiece...
...and now she won't even talk to him?
Izzie and her silence left his mind as quickly as she had entered it, because he was crazy busy. Cuh-ray-zee busy.
He knew every answer to every question during seven a.m. rounds. He was on fire when it came to diagnoses. He jumped in first on every cool injury to roll into The Pit:
The guy whose shoulder had four nails fired willy-nilly through it? His.
The woman with the quarter-pane of jagged glass jutting from her leg? Ditto.
The frat boy whose heart was racing, skin was clammy, and eyes wouldn't focus? One more notch for Doctor O'Malley's belt!
He was working incredibly hard, but the adrenaline was gushing through him, so he was floating six inches above the ground, feeling not an ounce of pain.
As for his fellow interns, however...they were more than a little unhappy. Most of that was because he knew every answer, had been on fire with sutures, and..did he have to win every good Pit battle?
It was as they were turning a corner that one of them hooked his arm from behind. He turned to see who had stopped him.
His eyes met those of Lexie Grey. She had very nice eyes, he decided. Very welcoming and kind.
"You're kicking butt today," she said warmly.
George's face exploded into a wide grin. "Yeah! It's crazy!" he whispered. "I feel - just - wow, you know?"
"Oh, yeah...I can tell," Lexie said. "It's just..."
"What?" He felt like he was zipping around the room, and had to make an effort to focus.
She tried to be tactful. "You're so good at this..."
"Well, I have done it before."
The man wasn't seeming to follow her, so she decided to pin it down for him, as gracefully as possible. "My point exactly. And you're so eager to show that you can do these things that you're..."
"Oh," George said, suddenly a bit shame-faced. "Oh! I'm being Cristina." He frowned.
"Who?" Lexie asked.
He looked at her for a moment, then had another realization shoot through him. "Right," he said. "Sorry. Sometimes I forget that not everybody knows who I know."
That made her smile. "Me, too."
George shrugged. Offered a sheepish grin. "And I'll hang back a little."
"Only if you think you should," Lexie replied. Then she grinned. "Sometimes us rookies need help from you old guys."
He chuckled at that, and they continued on their way. This particular Grey was certainly not like the other.
It was then that they crossed paths with Izzie and Cristina. Izzie took one look at him and sped past. Cristina froze, almost like she'd been struck by lightning.
"Izzie?" George asked the blonde blur, but found only air.
"More people I don't know?" Lexie tried to joke, but met only silence. "Wow," she said. "Tough hallway."
George just looked at Cristina, still not quite believing his eyes. "So you couldn't stay away from old Seattle Grace, huh? Doctor Burke's on a two-week solo honeymoon?"
"Burke...he's...he's..." was all she could get out before she dissolved into tears.
George caught her in his arms and held her, suddenly understanding, and feeling like he'd just been sucker-punched, right in the gut.
"Is she okay?" Lexie asked, her voice flaring with concern.
"No," he said softly. "No, she's not."
...to Two. Twenty. Eight.