All We Ever Do is Say Goodbye

[drownondryland]

As weird as it might be, Meredith's more comfortable with her sleep schedule when it's all over the place, mixing late starts with mornings she has to work or teach, nights at home versus nights in the clinic. Thursday is one of her mornings to sleep in, which works out when she spends the evening away. It's all over the place, but for her, there's

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[doubleomalley]

Another ten seconds, and George would have said screw everything and gone in anyway. Some things were too important for a door to keep him from crawling into Meredith's lap (figuratively speaking; George generally tried not to get punched in the face), top of that list being Izzie.

Who wasn't anywhere to be found.

There could be any number of explanations for Izzie to empty out the treehouse and disappear, any of which he would happily believe, but the truth was staring him in the face.

And it wasn't even as though he could pretend to be okay with it, imagine he'd just see her again in a few days or a month or however long it took for him to go back home too, or for her to show up again. He'd gotten used to his life with Izzie in it, whether they were friends or lovers or fighting or each other's better halves, she was part of it. Which left George realizing he'd never known, for all his sympathy, how Meredith really felt when Cristina left.

When the door finally swung open, George stared blankly at Sean for long moment. "I need -- I need Meredith. Please."

[missingthekeep]

Sean stares back for about as long before he sighs and steps back from the door with a slow nod, still annoyed but also accepting that he was apparently right when he'd suggested it was something important. Being right never seems to bode well for him. "It's O'Malley," he barks, facing the bedroom, maybe a little loud considering the place just isn't that big. "Says he needs ye."

[drownondryland]

It takes Meredith a few moments to bother getting out of bed after Sean goes, but she manages, dressing in case it's someone she has to talk to. Odds are, if someone's there, they're there to see her. Sean yelling from the next room only proves her right, and she sighs, raking her fingers through her hair as she steps into the doorway.

"George, I was -" Groggy and self-absorbed she might be, but she knows her friends and she cuts herself off mid-complaint, more alert as she heads toward him. "What is it? Are you okay?"

[doubleomalley]

George held his hands by his sides helplessly, unsure what to do or say that didn't sound as stark and awful as Izzie's gone. He'd like to think he was worried about how Meredith would feel, gaining all her friends only to have them leave again one by one, but George only cared about the ache the words caused him.

" We were going to have breakfast, but she didn't show, so I...the treehouse is empty. And she's-- her dress is gone."

[drownondryland]

There's a big difference between expecting that - and Meredith does, every day she expects it, all the time - and hearing it. That's the trouble with worrying the way she does; it's still never enough to prepare her for all the things she's so afraid of.

He says it and the reaction is immediate, impossible to ignore - expression, throat, chest all going tight. She wants to pretend Izzie just moved, but that's ludicrous; they would have helped her carry her things, even if there wasn't much, just to help her. "Her dress is gone." She's quiet a moment and then she says, "She's gone," and it isn't the question it was supposed to be.

[doubleomalley]

"Just like that," George said, remembering asking Meredith the same, if losing someone you love was always so spontaneous. He took a step toward Meredith, though that was as far as he got before he realized he didn't know what he even wanted. A hug wasn't going to do much, and Meredith would have Sean later when she needed the comfort, but George had -- right. No one.

"What am I supposed to do?"

[drownondryland]

He doesn't have to move to her; Meredith steps toward him, reaching out to wrap her arms around him. For as far back as they go, she knows, Izzie's been his person. They all matter so much to her, even after having been without them so long, but some bonds are just stronger than others and there's not a hell of a lot he can do, not with a loss like that.

"I don't know," she says. She still doesn't know how to deal with Cristina being gone. "I wish I knew, but..."

[doubleomalley]

George shook his head as he clung to Meredith, knowing she was the last of what he had from home, and he wasn't sure what he would do if she ever disappeared. He wasn't sure how she was handling everything.

"I didn't even tell her about us," he said into her shoulder. "I was going to, I finally worked up the courage to do it and she's gone."

[drownondryland]

"I know," Meredith murmurs, a hand moving to the back of his head. "I know, and so will she. Back home, she'll know eventually." And someday George will be back there with Izzie again, she knows this with painful certainty. She was the first here and it seems like it's her lot in life to be the last, to be alone. Right now, though, all she can do is try to comfort George while she still has him.