Title: Someday
Fandom: Grey's Anatomy
Characters: George/Izzie
Word Count: ~1000
Rating/Warnings: PG-13
Summary: For a single, beautiful moment, they were George and Izzie again; best friends, lovers, confidants, soulmates. [post S4 finale]
A/N: Written for
tombeaumontonlj for
greys_exchange.
Someday
--
Lexie rolled out of bed to the sound of someone pounding on the apartment door. Each knock made her headache worse and worse, and she stumbled to answer as quickly as possible.
“I need to talk to George.”
Izzie. Of course it was Izzie. She could tell anyone else to take a hike, but George would never forgive her for sending Izzie Stevens back home. Lexie pushed her mussed hair back with one hand, and pointed towards his bedroom door with the other.
“Thank you.”
Izzie rushed past her and into the apartment, swinging open George’s door without any sort of warning. He was sprawled across the bed, snoring. She sat down heavily on the bedspread next to him. “George.” Izzie poked him twice in the side. “George!”
He only mumbled something incoherent and pulled the sheets over his head. Izzie bounced up and down on the bed a few times. “George, it’s important. Really, super huge, breaking news kind of important.”
“It’s two in the morning.”
She pulled the sheets back. “I know!”
George let out an exasperated, I can’t believe this is happening to me sigh and sat up, turning on the lamp at his bedside. “What is it?”
Izzie took a deep breath. “I slept with Alex.”
He was wide awake now. Wide, wide awake. “You what?!”
She stood up from the bed and began pacing back and forth across the width of the small room. “I know, I know, it was bad. Not the sex, the sex was good, but it’s Alex, George, it’s Alex.”
“I know.”
“I made a mistake. A humongous, gigantic, insanely big mistake.” Izzie paused for a moment to put her face in her hands and catch her breath before sitting back down. “You should have seen it, George. He was crying.”
“You’re kidding.”
She shook her head. “I couldn’t help myself. He was sitting there, so broken and vulnerable and-”
George held up his hands. “Stop. Stop right there.” Izzie opened her mouth to protest, and he clamped a hand over her lips. “No. Don’t say anything. I’m talking now.” He lowered his hand cautiously, making sure she didn’t speak. “It’s Alex, Izz. Remember? You’ve been here before. It wasn’t good.”
“I know, I know.”
“Just… flip off that caring part of you next time.”
Izzie exhaled slowly. “I don’t know if I can do that.”
“We’ll practice. Right now.”
She stood up, taking a few steps away from the bed. “Aren’t you tired? You should go back to sleep. I’ll just-”
“Oh, no, no, no, Izzie Stevens. You are not getting out of this that easily.” George grabbed her hand and pulled her back onto the mattress. “Now, pretend I’m Alex.”
Before he could even work up some convincing tears and sad, woe is me dialog, she had already started laughing. “I can’t- I can’t do it.”
“Why not?”
She was still fighting off giggles. “You- you just… you are not Alex.”
George tried to take that in the most positive light he possibly could. “You’ll just have to get past it.”
The second her grin started to return, he channeled Bailey as best he could, raising a warning finger and giving a stern glare. She bit her lip and kept a straight face.
He thought back to his one and only drama class, taken his senior year in high school. Conjuring up his saddest memories (beloved pets, fathers, old friends, failed surgeries, drunken mishaps), he worked himself up to crying.
Before he had time to fully embrace the character of Alex Karev, Izzie had leaned forward, placed a palm on his right cheek, and kissed him. And he forgot everything in that one instant. Forgot he was pretending to be Alex. Forgot about faking his tears. Forgot about old promises and fucked up relationships. For a single, beautiful moment, they were George and Izzie again; best friends, lovers, confidants, soulmates.
It took his still partially drunken mind a moment to remember who he was, who they were, and he finally managed to pull himself away. “You were supposed to not do that, remember?” He hadn’t intended to speak so quietly.
Izzie put a hand to her forehead and sighed. “Sorry, sorry.” She raised her gaze, brown eyes wide. “It’s just… you’re not Alex.” There were no giggles this time, just weighted silence.
She stood, then, rising slowly to her feet. “I’ll go.”
Once she was halfway to the door, he managed to speak up.
“Wait.”
Izzie stopped walking and turned back around, head tilted slightly in anticipation.
“I have big news too, you know.”
She put a hand on her hip. “Can’t it wait? It’s two in the morning.”
“I know.”
Izzie rolled her eyes at his mockery and sat back down on the edge of the bed. “Fine, I’ll listen. But I don’t think you can one-up me.”
“I get to retake my intern exam.”
She dove forward, wrapping him in a tight embrace. “That’s fantastic, George. It really is.”
He pulled back, smirking. “So, does salvaging my professional life beat pity sex with Alex?”
“I don’t know… I think we might have to call this one a tie.” She held out a hand. “Deal?”
He smiled, and they shook on it. “Deal.”
Izzie yawned, then, and moved to stand. George’s hand shot out and landed on her upper arm. “You, um… You don’t have to go.”
Her eyes dropped downward for a moment, then rose again to meet his gaze. “Are you sure, George? I mean, I know we said maybe someday, and I meant it, I really did, but I just had this thing with Alex and you’re-”
George cut her off, placing a hand over her mouth again. “Just… slow down. We’ll just sleep. That’s it.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
Izzie made her way under the sheets, her back to George. He turned off the light, bathing the room in complete darkness.
“George?” Izzie whispered.
“Mm-hmm?”
“Someday, right?”
He reached forward, resting his hand over hers.
“Yeah. Someday.”
--
the end