The Good Samaritan Chapter 7 and 8
Alert! Alert!
I wasn't able to post chapter 7 in my journal because it's entirely too long. But, seriously, it's one of my favorite chapters that I have written. So...if you want to read it...you'll have to go to my Fanfiction.net page there and read it.
Here is the link:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3375611/7/
It's entitled "Betty Crocker and Old Wounds." I hope you enjoy it!!!
Now, here is chapter 8! I’m trying something new with this chapter. All of my other chapters have only revolved around Izzie and Mark. Well, this chapter, I am involving some of the other characters. Please don’t shoot me if I didn’t capture their voices just right. I’m trying something new.
This chapter is somewhat of a filler, but it’s laying down some important ground work for future chapters. I hope you like it!
Thank you all for the wonderful and kind reviews you gave me! You have no idea how much they mean to me!
Thanks!
SC
*** All characters belong to ABC and Shonda!
Chapter 8: Peeping Toms and Snack Breaks
Izzie turned over in her sleep and snuggled deeper under her fluffy comforter, her eyes briefly opening as she rolled over onto her back. She lay there as a brief moment of realization washed over her, her body prickling with awareness. There was someone standing by her bed, looking down at her, watching her sleep. Her eyes opened slowly, afraid of who she would find . . . an ax murder? Or maybe the weird, balding man that lived with his 80 year old mother in the house next door (whom Izzie also happened to think was a bit of a peeping tom?)
She let out a breath in relief as she looked at the pair of legs beside her bed, her eyes traveling up to the familiar face that went along with the legs. She always did have an overactive imagination which she liked to think it was a part of her creativity. But still, Izzie couldn’t help but confess to herself, their next door neighbor was a little scary.
“Meredith, do you have any idea of just how creepy you are?” She said groggily. Her arm reached clumsily for the clock on her bedside table. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she groaned as she took in the time. “My God . . . it’s only 7:30 in the morning. Go away.”
Meredith stood over her, looking at her curiously. “Why is there a man asleep on my couch?” Her voice grew louder with agitation and disbelief. “And why does that man strongly resemble McSteamy!?”
“I found him in a bassinet outside of our door when I got home. He had a bow and everything.” Izzie said sarcastically as she turned her back to her roommate and tried to resume her slumber. “Go away and let me sleep!”
Meredith grabbed one of her pillows and hit her in the head with it. “Izzie! This is serious . . . and more than a little . . . strange.” Meredith climbed into the bed beside her roommate and snuggled underneath the covers. “Did you sleep with him? Because if you did . . . it’s kinda weird that he’s asleep on my couch and not in your bed. But if you did sleep with him . . . why didn’t he just go home instead of shacking here and well, you know, sleeping on my mother’s sofa?”
Izzie sat up glaring at her roommate for ruining her plans of sleeping in. “No, I did not sleep with McSteamy.”
“Well, that’s good. I’m glad to hear you haven’t taken to my habit of sleeping with inappropriate men.” Meredith sat up, fluffing her pillow and leaned back against it. “But why, exactly, is McSteamy asleep and drooling on my couch?”
Izzie stretched the muscles in her body, annoyed that she had to deal with this on a day where she actually got to sleep in. She also was further annoyed at the fact that her roommate had returned home earlier than expected-much earlier, which in turn was forcing her to deal with, well, this. “What are you doing here, Mere? I thought you’d still be with McDreamy connecting with Mother Nature and eating trout and granola for breakfast.”
Meredith narrowed her eyes in annoyance. “He has a craniotomy at ten and wanted to get to the hospital early. And he only made me eat trout for breakfast once and it really wasn’t that bad. You’re still avoiding my question.”
Izzie rolled her eyes and crawled over Meredith, looking for her slippers. Finding them under her bed, she slipped her feet into her bunny slippers, and answered her. “We baked a cake.”
She ignored the look of shock on Meredith’s face and headed for the bathroom. Meredith followed her, close on her heels.
“You baked a cake? With McSteamy!?” She asked loudly, her voice laced with disbelief.
“Shh!” Izzie turned around to her and frantically pointed her finger down to the floor below them, trying to remind her friend of their houseguest. She didn’t want Mark to wake up and overhear their conversation about him which would only make this awkward situation more awkward. She quickly walked to the bathroom.
She tried to shut the door, but Meredith beat her to it and slid into the bathroom. “Ok, so you baked a cake. What kind of cake?”
“Chocolate.” Izzie began brushing her teeth hoping to send the message that she didn’t particularly care to talk about their current topic of conversation.
“You baked a chocolate cake. With McSteamy . . . who is currently asleep on my couch.” Meredith said putting the bits of information together and cocked her eyebrow, still baffled by her roommate’s involvement with the plastic surgeon. “But . . . why did you bake a cake with him and why is he still here?”
Izzie spit the foaming toothpaste into the sink and rinsed her mouth out with water. “There was an accident last night and we both witnessed it. It was pretty gruesome,” she said as she turned off the water while trying to decide on the details she wanted to share with her roommate. “. . . he was really affected by it and so was I. So we baked a cake ..”
Meredith nodded her head, but she was still trying to make sense of it all. “Ok . . .”
Izzie walked past her, but stopped at the door and turned around. “And we also consumed the whole fifth of Jim Beam. Besides, friends don’t let friends drive drunk. ”
She turned to go but was stopped by Meredith’s hand on her arm and turned to her annoyed.
“You’re friends with Mark Sloane!? When did this happen? When did this start?”
“It’s a phrase, Meredith.”
Meredith started shaking her head, knowing something was up and that there was a lot more to the story than she was telling. “You’ve been on some pretty horrific cases, Izzie. Remember the twenty year old burn victim with 90% of his body needing skin grafts from two months ago? That case affected everybody, especially all the doctors on it.”
“Your point?” Izzie grabbed her floss and started to floss her teeth, trying to ignore Meredith and focus on her dental hygiene routine instead.
“You were on that with Sloane . . . I don’t remember you baking with him during that case. There was a bottle of tequila we shared and killer hangovers, but there was no baking with McSteamy.”
Izzie threw the used floss into the waste basket, and turned around to Meredith, slightly peeved. “What are you getting at, Mere?”
“There’s something going on with you . . .”
“There is nothing going on with me. I’m fine. Perfect.”
Izzie sighed as she took in her friend’s concerned expression. It was a look that both Meredith and George wore whenever they were worried about her. They’d been wearing it off and on for the last five months and sixteen days. It was a look as if they both expected her to shatter and they were waiting by the sidelines, with a broom and dust pan in their grasp, just waiting to put the pieces back together again with crazy glue.
She was tired of those looks they gave her and she was done with being handled with care.
“I’m sorry, Iz. I’m just a little baffled.” Meredith turned towards her friend and leaned against the wall. “I thought you didn’t like Sloane . . . at all, and then I come home to find him asleep on my couch, and . . .” Meredith shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know what to think.”
Izzie grabbed a hair band and pulled her hair into a pony tail. Looking in the full length mirror on the wall next to the door to check her hair, her eyes connected with Meredith’s. “Honestly, I don’t either.”
Meredith lowered her brows in thought and started slowly. “So . . . are you . . . friends with McSteamy then?”
Izzie let the word float around in her head, testing it out. When she thought about the definition of ‘friend’, the words trust, support, and honesty sprang to mind and she knew, that all three of those were had been put into action between she and Mark. She’d been honest with him, especially when he didn’t want to hear it. She’d supported him last night and he’d supported her that night on the bench. And . . . she had shared one of her deepest secrets, and fully trusted him with it.
Izzie’s brown eyes met Meredith’s. “Yeah,” she said softly. “Yeah, you could call us that.”
“How long have you been friends with him?”
“I don’t know. A few weeks . . . maybe close to a month?”
Meredith’s eyes grew large in surprise. “A month . . . you’ve been friends with him for a month!? How did I not know this?”
Izzie shrugged her shoulders and turned around. “You’ve been busy, Meredith . . . and happy with your McDreamy going on dates and nature walks. And to be completely honest, I really don’t feel like going into all the particulars. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go check on Mark and make sure he’s ok.”
She walked away, leaving a very shocked and confused Meredith alone in the bathroom. As she reached for her toothbrush and toothpaste, she couldn’t help but wonder how Derek would have reacted to finding his ex-best friend sleeping on her couch, especially the part where he spent the night baking a cake in her kitchen with one of her roommates. Now, that would have been a very interesting start to their morning.
******
“Something’s up with Izzie.” Meredith sat down in a chair and balanced her container of fruit on her lap. She looked over to the old man to make sure her added presence hadn’t disturbed him.
“Something’s always up with Izzie. That’s her style.” Alex said as he bit into his apple, while reading about the latest procedure in neonatal surgeries.
Meredith sat there frustrated as she looked across the room at Alex and Christina. It was just the three of them working the early shift and they all had a break. Izzie and George were on the schedule to come in later and would be on call for the night. “No, I mean it. She’s . . .” She took a bite of her cantaloupe trying to describe it exactly, this thing that was going on with Izzie. “Ok, you know how vocal she is whenever something’s bothering her, right?”
“Yes, she’s very vocal. Almost too vocal. There have been times when I’ve wanted to strangle her.” Christina looked up and thought about her statement. “Basically whenever she opens her mouth.”
“Exactly! Well, not the bit that involves strangulation . . . but you’re right. She’s vocal, always, no matter what. Seriously, haven’t you guys noticed?”
“Noticed what?” Alex and Christina chorused together. Meredith could tell they weren’t nearly as concerned about their friend as she was.
“That she’s been quiet lately . . . less vocal.”
“Yeah and it’s been nice.”
Meredith threw a glare at Christina. “It’s odd . . . it’s very, very odd and un-Izzie like. I’m worried about her.”
Alex looked up from the medical journal and shrugged. “Listen, I’m sure she’s just been worried about her and O’Malley and how she can dig herself out the hole she’s created . . . she’ll be back to normal in no time.”
Meredith considered his words thinking that that may be a part of the issue, but it just didn’t cover everything. “Well . . . how do explain the fact that I found Mark Sloane sleeping on my couch?”
Both Christina and Alex looked up at that.
“Izzie had a sleepover with McSteamy?” Christina asked, her eyes huge.
“She slept with Sloane?” Alex didn’t bother hiding the disgust.
Christina looked at Alex, annoyed. “He’s hot. I’d do him.”
Alex sent Christina a glare and he turned to Merdith wanting further explanation. She swallowed. “Well, she told me that they didn’t sleep together-
“She must be stupid,” Christina muttered.
Meredith ignored her. “But they did . . . bake a cake together.”
“What?” Alex asked, slightly choking on his apple.
“ ‘They baked a cake’ . . . is that some new kind of metaphor for getting stoned or something?” Christina asked confused.
Meredith rolled her eyes. “She said that they witnessed some major accident together and that they needed a form of therapy, so they baked. But that’s all the details she gave me. And you know Izzie . . . she loves details.”
“She made him bake? I’ve lost the little respect I had for Sloane.” Alex said as he took brought his bottle of water to his lips.
“I can’t picture McSteamy baking. I wonder if she made him wear an apron. She made Burke wear an apron,” Christina muttered, a little disgusted at the memory of Thanksgiving.
“She says that they’re friends.”
Alex laughed. “That’s impossible. Sloane doesn’t have any friends.”
“ Well, she says that they’ve been friends for a month.” Meredith sat the plastic cup on the ground and sat back. “How is it possible that none of us noticed that she’s become friends with McSteamy when we’re supposed to be her friends?”
Meredith slumped down in her chair and continued. “I just don’t understand why she’s turned to him when we’re right here . . . have we really been that absorbed in our own lives that we haven’t noticed her hurting?”
They were all silent as they looked at each other.
“We’re her family . . . and I think we’ve been neglecting her. What if something is seriously going on?”
“Meredith, I’m sure things are fine and you’re just making this an issue out of nothing. If there was something bothering her, we’d know because she’d tell us. She’s not the kind of person where you have to pull things out of her. She’s open and honest with her feelings.”
“Evil Spawn’s right. It’s Izzie . . . she likes to bake and do kind things for people. She’s considerate . . . it’s what she does. Maybe she’s just telling the truth that they baked because . . . it was ‘therapy’ or whatever.”
Meredith looked at Christina. “Maybe you’re right. But . . . there’s something going on between them. I can tell. I noticed that she made him breakfast before I left. He was sitting at my counter, with her right beside him, and they were eating scrambled eggs.”
Christina got up and stretched. “I think you’re worrying over nothing, Meredith.”
Meredith watched Christina walk out of the room and turned to Alex. “You know Izzie, you two had a thing. Do you think I’m just making an issue out of this?”
Alex closed his journal and looked at her. “Izzie’s smart and Sloane’s an egotistical ass that sleeps with anything that wears a skirt. She can handle him.”
“I know she can. It’s just that, something’s different with Izzie . . .” Meredith mumbled to herself, a little annoyed that she was the only one who could see that something was going on with Izzie.
After a few moments of silence, Alex stood up and headed for the door, and opened it. But just before leaving, he turned back to Meredith and looked at her. Softly he asked, “Would you be bubbly and perky if the six month anniversary of your fiancé’s death was coming up in a couple of weeks?”
His eyes met Meredith’s, as he tried to make her understand. “ She’s coping, Meredith. She’s not going to bitch to everybody about her feelings like she usually does. She lost Denny, the guy she was in love with. She’s handling it . . . just let her do it in her own way . And as much as I dislike her having anything to do with Sloane, it makes sense.”
Meredith’s brows rose in confusion. “What do you mean by that?”
“He’s the only one who wasn’t here when Denny died. Sloane hasn’t been tainted with his death . . . he doesn’t remind her of it.” He broke his gaze and left the room, leaving Meredith with the old man, to think about what he just said.
Meredith closed her eyes, trying to ignore the realization and the feeling of powerlessness that was hitting her. “Damn, Izzie. You’re hurting and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
The old man’s gasp for air seemed to agree with her.
*****
I wasn't able to post chapter 7 in my journal because it's entirely too long. But, seriously, it's one of my favorite chapters that I have written. So...if you want to read it...you'll have to go to my Fanfiction.net page there and read it.
Here is the link:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3375611/7/
It's entitled "Betty Crocker and Old Wounds." I hope you enjoy it!!!
Now, here is chapter 8! I’m trying something new with this chapter. All of my other chapters have only revolved around Izzie and Mark. Well, this chapter, I am involving some of the other characters. Please don’t shoot me if I didn’t capture their voices just right. I’m trying something new.
This chapter is somewhat of a filler, but it’s laying down some important ground work for future chapters. I hope you like it!
Thank you all for the wonderful and kind reviews you gave me! You have no idea how much they mean to me!
Thanks!
SC
*** All characters belong to ABC and Shonda!
Chapter 8: Peeping Toms and Snack Breaks
Izzie turned over in her sleep and snuggled deeper under her fluffy comforter, her eyes briefly opening as she rolled over onto her back. She lay there as a brief moment of realization washed over her, her body prickling with awareness. There was someone standing by her bed, looking down at her, watching her sleep. Her eyes opened slowly, afraid of who she would find . . . an ax murder? Or maybe the weird, balding man that lived with his 80 year old mother in the house next door (whom Izzie also happened to think was a bit of a peeping tom?)
She let out a breath in relief as she looked at the pair of legs beside her bed, her eyes traveling up to the familiar face that went along with the legs. She always did have an overactive imagination which she liked to think it was a part of her creativity. But still, Izzie couldn’t help but confess to herself, their next door neighbor was a little scary.
“Meredith, do you have any idea of just how creepy you are?” She said groggily. Her arm reached clumsily for the clock on her bedside table. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she groaned as she took in the time. “My God . . . it’s only 7:30 in the morning. Go away.”
Meredith stood over her, looking at her curiously. “Why is there a man asleep on my couch?” Her voice grew louder with agitation and disbelief. “And why does that man strongly resemble McSteamy!?”
“I found him in a bassinet outside of our door when I got home. He had a bow and everything.” Izzie said sarcastically as she turned her back to her roommate and tried to resume her slumber. “Go away and let me sleep!”
Meredith grabbed one of her pillows and hit her in the head with it. “Izzie! This is serious . . . and more than a little . . . strange.” Meredith climbed into the bed beside her roommate and snuggled underneath the covers. “Did you sleep with him? Because if you did . . . it’s kinda weird that he’s asleep on my couch and not in your bed. But if you did sleep with him . . . why didn’t he just go home instead of shacking here and well, you know, sleeping on my mother’s sofa?”
Izzie sat up glaring at her roommate for ruining her plans of sleeping in. “No, I did not sleep with McSteamy.”
“Well, that’s good. I’m glad to hear you haven’t taken to my habit of sleeping with inappropriate men.” Meredith sat up, fluffing her pillow and leaned back against it. “But why, exactly, is McSteamy asleep and drooling on my couch?”
Izzie stretched the muscles in her body, annoyed that she had to deal with this on a day where she actually got to sleep in. She also was further annoyed at the fact that her roommate had returned home earlier than expected-much earlier, which in turn was forcing her to deal with, well, this. “What are you doing here, Mere? I thought you’d still be with McDreamy connecting with Mother Nature and eating trout and granola for breakfast.”
Meredith narrowed her eyes in annoyance. “He has a craniotomy at ten and wanted to get to the hospital early. And he only made me eat trout for breakfast once and it really wasn’t that bad. You’re still avoiding my question.”
Izzie rolled her eyes and crawled over Meredith, looking for her slippers. Finding them under her bed, she slipped her feet into her bunny slippers, and answered her. “We baked a cake.”
She ignored the look of shock on Meredith’s face and headed for the bathroom. Meredith followed her, close on her heels.
“You baked a cake? With McSteamy!?” She asked loudly, her voice laced with disbelief.
“Shh!” Izzie turned around to her and frantically pointed her finger down to the floor below them, trying to remind her friend of their houseguest. She didn’t want Mark to wake up and overhear their conversation about him which would only make this awkward situation more awkward. She quickly walked to the bathroom.
She tried to shut the door, but Meredith beat her to it and slid into the bathroom. “Ok, so you baked a cake. What kind of cake?”
“Chocolate.” Izzie began brushing her teeth hoping to send the message that she didn’t particularly care to talk about their current topic of conversation.
“You baked a chocolate cake. With McSteamy . . . who is currently asleep on my couch.” Meredith said putting the bits of information together and cocked her eyebrow, still baffled by her roommate’s involvement with the plastic surgeon. “But . . . why did you bake a cake with him and why is he still here?”
Izzie spit the foaming toothpaste into the sink and rinsed her mouth out with water. “There was an accident last night and we both witnessed it. It was pretty gruesome,” she said as she turned off the water while trying to decide on the details she wanted to share with her roommate. “. . . he was really affected by it and so was I. So we baked a cake ..”
Meredith nodded her head, but she was still trying to make sense of it all. “Ok . . .”
Izzie walked past her, but stopped at the door and turned around. “And we also consumed the whole fifth of Jim Beam. Besides, friends don’t let friends drive drunk. ”
She turned to go but was stopped by Meredith’s hand on her arm and turned to her annoyed.
“You’re friends with Mark Sloane!? When did this happen? When did this start?”
“It’s a phrase, Meredith.”
Meredith started shaking her head, knowing something was up and that there was a lot more to the story than she was telling. “You’ve been on some pretty horrific cases, Izzie. Remember the twenty year old burn victim with 90% of his body needing skin grafts from two months ago? That case affected everybody, especially all the doctors on it.”
“Your point?” Izzie grabbed her floss and started to floss her teeth, trying to ignore Meredith and focus on her dental hygiene routine instead.
“You were on that with Sloane . . . I don’t remember you baking with him during that case. There was a bottle of tequila we shared and killer hangovers, but there was no baking with McSteamy.”
Izzie threw the used floss into the waste basket, and turned around to Meredith, slightly peeved. “What are you getting at, Mere?”
“There’s something going on with you . . .”
“There is nothing going on with me. I’m fine. Perfect.”
Izzie sighed as she took in her friend’s concerned expression. It was a look that both Meredith and George wore whenever they were worried about her. They’d been wearing it off and on for the last five months and sixteen days. It was a look as if they both expected her to shatter and they were waiting by the sidelines, with a broom and dust pan in their grasp, just waiting to put the pieces back together again with crazy glue.
She was tired of those looks they gave her and she was done with being handled with care.
“I’m sorry, Iz. I’m just a little baffled.” Meredith turned towards her friend and leaned against the wall. “I thought you didn’t like Sloane . . . at all, and then I come home to find him asleep on my couch, and . . .” Meredith shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know what to think.”
Izzie grabbed a hair band and pulled her hair into a pony tail. Looking in the full length mirror on the wall next to the door to check her hair, her eyes connected with Meredith’s. “Honestly, I don’t either.”
Meredith lowered her brows in thought and started slowly. “So . . . are you . . . friends with McSteamy then?”
Izzie let the word float around in her head, testing it out. When she thought about the definition of ‘friend’, the words trust, support, and honesty sprang to mind and she knew, that all three of those were had been put into action between she and Mark. She’d been honest with him, especially when he didn’t want to hear it. She’d supported him last night and he’d supported her that night on the bench. And . . . she had shared one of her deepest secrets, and fully trusted him with it.
Izzie’s brown eyes met Meredith’s. “Yeah,” she said softly. “Yeah, you could call us that.”
“How long have you been friends with him?”
“I don’t know. A few weeks . . . maybe close to a month?”
Meredith’s eyes grew large in surprise. “A month . . . you’ve been friends with him for a month!? How did I not know this?”
Izzie shrugged her shoulders and turned around. “You’ve been busy, Meredith . . . and happy with your McDreamy going on dates and nature walks. And to be completely honest, I really don’t feel like going into all the particulars. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go check on Mark and make sure he’s ok.”
She walked away, leaving a very shocked and confused Meredith alone in the bathroom. As she reached for her toothbrush and toothpaste, she couldn’t help but wonder how Derek would have reacted to finding his ex-best friend sleeping on her couch, especially the part where he spent the night baking a cake in her kitchen with one of her roommates. Now, that would have been a very interesting start to their morning.
******
“Something’s up with Izzie.” Meredith sat down in a chair and balanced her container of fruit on her lap. She looked over to the old man to make sure her added presence hadn’t disturbed him.
“Something’s always up with Izzie. That’s her style.” Alex said as he bit into his apple, while reading about the latest procedure in neonatal surgeries.
Meredith sat there frustrated as she looked across the room at Alex and Christina. It was just the three of them working the early shift and they all had a break. Izzie and George were on the schedule to come in later and would be on call for the night. “No, I mean it. She’s . . .” She took a bite of her cantaloupe trying to describe it exactly, this thing that was going on with Izzie. “Ok, you know how vocal she is whenever something’s bothering her, right?”
“Yes, she’s very vocal. Almost too vocal. There have been times when I’ve wanted to strangle her.” Christina looked up and thought about her statement. “Basically whenever she opens her mouth.”
“Exactly! Well, not the bit that involves strangulation . . . but you’re right. She’s vocal, always, no matter what. Seriously, haven’t you guys noticed?”
“Noticed what?” Alex and Christina chorused together. Meredith could tell they weren’t nearly as concerned about their friend as she was.
“That she’s been quiet lately . . . less vocal.”
“Yeah and it’s been nice.”
Meredith threw a glare at Christina. “It’s odd . . . it’s very, very odd and un-Izzie like. I’m worried about her.”
Alex looked up from the medical journal and shrugged. “Listen, I’m sure she’s just been worried about her and O’Malley and how she can dig herself out the hole she’s created . . . she’ll be back to normal in no time.”
Meredith considered his words thinking that that may be a part of the issue, but it just didn’t cover everything. “Well . . . how do explain the fact that I found Mark Sloane sleeping on my couch?”
Both Christina and Alex looked up at that.
“Izzie had a sleepover with McSteamy?” Christina asked, her eyes huge.
“She slept with Sloane?” Alex didn’t bother hiding the disgust.
Christina looked at Alex, annoyed. “He’s hot. I’d do him.”
Alex sent Christina a glare and he turned to Merdith wanting further explanation. She swallowed. “Well, she told me that they didn’t sleep together-
“She must be stupid,” Christina muttered.
Meredith ignored her. “But they did . . . bake a cake together.”
“What?” Alex asked, slightly choking on his apple.
“ ‘They baked a cake’ . . . is that some new kind of metaphor for getting stoned or something?” Christina asked confused.
Meredith rolled her eyes. “She said that they witnessed some major accident together and that they needed a form of therapy, so they baked. But that’s all the details she gave me. And you know Izzie . . . she loves details.”
“She made him bake? I’ve lost the little respect I had for Sloane.” Alex said as he took brought his bottle of water to his lips.
“I can’t picture McSteamy baking. I wonder if she made him wear an apron. She made Burke wear an apron,” Christina muttered, a little disgusted at the memory of Thanksgiving.
“She says that they’re friends.”
Alex laughed. “That’s impossible. Sloane doesn’t have any friends.”
“ Well, she says that they’ve been friends for a month.” Meredith sat the plastic cup on the ground and sat back. “How is it possible that none of us noticed that she’s become friends with McSteamy when we’re supposed to be her friends?”
Meredith slumped down in her chair and continued. “I just don’t understand why she’s turned to him when we’re right here . . . have we really been that absorbed in our own lives that we haven’t noticed her hurting?”
They were all silent as they looked at each other.
“We’re her family . . . and I think we’ve been neglecting her. What if something is seriously going on?”
“Meredith, I’m sure things are fine and you’re just making this an issue out of nothing. If there was something bothering her, we’d know because she’d tell us. She’s not the kind of person where you have to pull things out of her. She’s open and honest with her feelings.”
“Evil Spawn’s right. It’s Izzie . . . she likes to bake and do kind things for people. She’s considerate . . . it’s what she does. Maybe she’s just telling the truth that they baked because . . . it was ‘therapy’ or whatever.”
Meredith looked at Christina. “Maybe you’re right. But . . . there’s something going on between them. I can tell. I noticed that she made him breakfast before I left. He was sitting at my counter, with her right beside him, and they were eating scrambled eggs.”
Christina got up and stretched. “I think you’re worrying over nothing, Meredith.”
Meredith watched Christina walk out of the room and turned to Alex. “You know Izzie, you two had a thing. Do you think I’m just making an issue out of this?”
Alex closed his journal and looked at her. “Izzie’s smart and Sloane’s an egotistical ass that sleeps with anything that wears a skirt. She can handle him.”
“I know she can. It’s just that, something’s different with Izzie . . .” Meredith mumbled to herself, a little annoyed that she was the only one who could see that something was going on with Izzie.
After a few moments of silence, Alex stood up and headed for the door, and opened it. But just before leaving, he turned back to Meredith and looked at her. Softly he asked, “Would you be bubbly and perky if the six month anniversary of your fiancé’s death was coming up in a couple of weeks?”
His eyes met Meredith’s, as he tried to make her understand. “ She’s coping, Meredith. She’s not going to bitch to everybody about her feelings like she usually does. She lost Denny, the guy she was in love with. She’s handling it . . . just let her do it in her own way . And as much as I dislike her having anything to do with Sloane, it makes sense.”
Meredith’s brows rose in confusion. “What do you mean by that?”
“He’s the only one who wasn’t here when Denny died. Sloane hasn’t been tainted with his death . . . he doesn’t remind her of it.” He broke his gaze and left the room, leaving Meredith with the old man, to think about what he just said.
Meredith closed her eyes, trying to ignore the realization and the feeling of powerlessness that was hitting her. “Damn, Izzie. You’re hurting and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
The old man’s gasp for air seemed to agree with her.
*****