Life, Love and the Meaning of (3/12)
Chapter Three - George
George’s eyes snapped open at the sound of his pager blaring. He fumbled for it at the waistband of his scrubs, managing to turn it off before waking anyone else. With a slight groan he rolled off the bed and stood up. The on call room was too dark for him to make out the reason for his rude awakening. As quietly as he could, George crossed the room and opened the door just enough for him to escape. The bright lights in the hall hurt his eyes; he nearly ran into a nurse.
George blinked several times until his eyes adjusted to the harsh fluorescents. Leaning against the on call room door, George checked his pager again. It was Izzie. She wanted him to meet her outside dermatology. Why is she hanging out there again? he wondered. Although, George knew, Izzie had been acting strangely for a while. He thought about that day she was talking to herself outside the clinic. Something was wrong but whatever it was Izzie wasn’t talking.
Determined to get to the bottom of Izzie’s sudden love of derm, George made for the elevator. He no sooner hit the up button than his pager went off again. Wondering what Izzie’s hurry was, his face fell when he saw it was the ER. Damn. Izzie would have to wait. George pushed the down button resignedly as Cristina appeared in his peripheral vision.
“You get paged too, huh?” she asked. George could practically hear her smiling.
“Yeah,” he replied as the elevator doors open and they entered. “You know what’s going on? Izzie’s looking for me.”
Cristina looked at him askance. “Don’t you know what day it is?”
George was pretty sure it was Tuesday but he suspected that wasn’t what Cristina meant. Although in his defense, he’d been on call for the past thirty-nine hours; his brain was a little fuzzy.
“It’s Dead Baby bike race day,” Cristina replied with more enthusiasm than was appropriate. George groaned inwardly. She had that everyone-get-out-of-my-way-surgeon-coming-through look in her eye.
That explained it. Cristina was looking for blood, guts and surgeries…really cool surgeries. There was no better day for that than Dead Baby bike race day. George sighed as the elevator doors opened. “You know, Cristina, there’s more to life than cool surgeries.”
Cristina walked off ahead of him, grinning. “Not today there isn’t.”
When they arrived at the ambulance bay, they found Meredith, Alex, Izzie, Bailey and a bunch of interns already there. As everyone passed around gowns, George looked at Izzie questioningly, but the blonde almost imperceptibly shook her head. George got the message: not here. Meredith was helping George with his gown when the Chief and Dr. Hunt arrived on the scene.
“Okay, people, you know the drill. I want good efficient work on these people today,” the Chief proclaimed. “Dr. Hunt, if you need any more help down here just say the word.”
Hunt accepted a spare gown from a smirking Cristina, replying, “Yes, sir. I’m sure we’ll be fine.”
The Chief didn’t look convinced. “That goes for the rest of you too. I don’t want any mistakes in my ER today.”
“We got it covered, sir,” Cristina assured him.
The Chief nodded and took his leave. George stole a glance at them as the Chief walked away. Dr. Hunt was tying the back of Cristina’s gown with a smile on his face. That task accomplished, the two of them stood closely together talking quietly. It sounded like shop talk to George, but they were definitely in each other’s personal space and looked quite comfortable there. George marveled at that; the only other person Cristina could handle being that close to her was Meredith.
The sight made George happy and sad at the same time. After all the Burke drama, Cristina certainly deserved a break and Hunt seemed like a stand up guy who wasn’t intimidated by Cristina’s independence or competitive streak. So he was happy for her. She’d likely force him to run labs for a month if she heard him say such as thing, but he was happy for her all the same. No, George was sad because he could feel the familial ties beginning to sever. The five of them - Meredith, Cristina, Izzie, Alex and George - were family. But as happens in all families, people leave home and develop separate lives. Meredith had Derek. Alex and Izzie were inseparable. Cristina had apparently moved on with Hunt. That left him. Alone. George didn’t like it. Not one little bit. Then the ambulances started rolling in. Time to get to work…
UP NEXT: Izzie