Let Your Love Show - Part 3
Title: Let Your Love Show - Part 3
Pairings: George and Callie
Author: Sarah
Rating: this part is PG-13 for some language.
Summary: the gang copes with the aftermath of the events of "Wishin and Hopin." Yeah, I write things I wish George would say on the show. It's my favorite thing to do.
Part 1: http://community.livejournal.com/ga_fanfic/381053.html#cutid1
Part 2: http://community.livejournal.com/ga_fanfic/385743.html#cutid1
Special "Thank You" to burningeden for the inspiration for this chapter. Yay!
I hope everyone likes it. I will now return to my corner to study the TCA cycle. Happy reading!
Callie and Izzie sat in silence for a few minutes, neither knowing what to say or how to act. They were united in their current dislike for Alex Karev, but beyond that not much common ground existed. Callie flipped through a few charts, making notes and marking pages for review by her attending, while Izzie fidgeted silently, shifting from one foot to the other and fiddling with her pager. Unable to stand the uncomfortable silence any more, she took a deep breath and tried to break the ice.
“Callie, Alex shouldn’t have said what he said. I didn’t say anything to him. I mean, I wasn’t talking to him about you. And George. I wasn’t. Damn it, this is awkward.”
“It is,” Callie agreed, not looking up from the chart. She really didn’t want to talk to Izzie about this. About anything. Izzie had hurt her feelings and her pride yesterday, and she hated that the other woman’s disapproval got to her. “Let’s just keep this about work,” she thought to herself.
Placing the chart on the desk in front of her, Callie looked up at Izzie, her expression unreadable. “OK, Stevens. I don’t have any surgeries scheduled for today. That means we’re on chart review for the rest of the morning. I want you to go through my charts and cross-check orders for completeness and accuracy. Any discrepancies you can flag and I’ll take a look at them after lunch. Update the progress notes to reflect that you’ve evaluated all pertinent lab results, medication changes and physical assessments. After lunch you can go through the notes from the resident who covered my patients while I was out of town last week. Any questions?” Callie finished and started to walk away.
“Wait,” Izzie stammered.
“Yes?” Callie turned back to her crossed her arms impatiently. She needed to get away from Izzie for a little while. All of the feelings of uncertainty and betrayal she had felt the day before were bubbling back up, threatening to overwhelm her. She felt her right hand shaking a little bit and stuffed it in her pocket.
“What IS it, Dr. Stevens?” She praying her voice didn’t shake.
“Stop calling me Dr. Stevens. I’m Izzie, I’m George’s best friend and I want to talk to you about George. Can we please just talk about George for a minute?” she finished, looking at Callie.
“You have got to be kidding me!” Callie exploded, “Look Izzie, I didn’t ask to work with you today out of some secret desire to have a heart to heart with you. I didn’t ask to work with you at all! I didn’t WANT to work with you because you treated me like crap yesterday. But I CAN work with you, because I’m a professional. A professional who doesn’t want to discuss her marriage with her husband’s surly alleged best friend. So, no! We can’t talk about George. I’ve heard all I’ll ever want to hear from you on that subject.”
“Callie, I’m trying here,” Izzie was getting a little frustrated herself. Why was Callie being so obstinate? Didn’t she want George’s best friend to like her?
“You’re trying? Are you joking? You’ve never tried with me, never. From the moment I met George you were grilling me about my intentions to my face and making fun of me behind my back. You with your sly little hand-washing jokes and talking shit about me to George’s mother! You don’t think I saw your face fall every time I walked into a room with George? You don’t think I noticed how giddy you were when I slept with Sloan? I made mistakes sure, but you’ve always been right there, ready to pounce on them and point them out to George. And yesterday was the worst of all, because what you said to me wasn’t really insulting to me so much as it was hurtful to George. So he can’t afford to buy me a huge ring? Do you think I care? Not a bit, I love him! But thanks to you pointing that out, he got humiliated in front of a room full of people! Some best friend you are. So if you are ‘trying’ then you’re trying too late! It’s a day late and a dollar short and I don’t want to hear it. So don’t bring it up again,” she finished, drawing in a deep breath and turning to walk away.
Izzie could only gape at her retreating back. She was stunned, angry and confused. She watched as Callie moved away from her down the hall, turning before she entered the stairwell to bark, “Get busy with those charts, Stevens!”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
George waited impatiently in the cafeteria line, wondering where his wife had gotten off to. He had paged her earlier in the morning to ask her to meet him for lunch at noon, and she had agreed, but she was nowhere to be found. “She’ll be here soon,” he thought, piling his tray with food: chicken, coleslaw, all her favorites. Pulling out his wallet to pay for lunch, he noticed a note she must have stuck inside it that morning. The wording was simple: “G - love you, CIT” but it warmed his heart to think she had gone to the trouble to hide that away in there for him to find.
As he approached the cash register he smiled at the older woman working the line. She was one of the volunteers who regularly manned the cafeteria and always very friendly to him. She winked at him and placed an extra cookie on his tray. “That’s for your wife. Congratulations on your marriage.”
“Thanks Edna,” George smiled warmly and picked up his tray, scanning the cafeteria. Where was Callie? He saw Meredith, Izzie and Cristina sitting in one corner of the room and wanted to steer clear, but the room was crowded. An empty table about ten feet away would have to do. Nodding hello to Meredith, he made his way to the vacant table for two and sat down, his back to the wall so he could watch for Callie. He was beginning to worry about her, so to distract himself he pulled out his pocket pharmacology book and thumbed through the section on anti-cholinergic medications and their effect on bowel disorders. A shadow crossed over him and he looked up happily, expecting to see his beautiful bride. Instead, it was Nurse Olivia. He couldn’t hide his disappointment. “Oh, it’s you.”
“George, I want to apologize for what I said yesterday. I shouldn’t have called Callie toxic to your face. I should have kept my opinions to myself.”
“Yes, you should have. But you know what, Olivia? I don’t care what you think. It’s fine. Think whatever you want. I just don’t want to hear it.”
“George, listen to me. Can I sit down?” she pleaded, ignoring him as he shook his head and sinking into the chair across from him. “It’s just that…I’m…we’re…we’re worried about you. I mean, your dad just died. You’re in mourning. And you run off and marry some big-haired, bossy, orthopedic bimb…” she broke off in shocked silence as George stood up abruptly, pushing his tray back angrily at her.
“Stop it Olivia. Just stop it. Not another word out of your mouth. You think you can come in here and insult Callie to my face? Who the hell do you think you are? You think that YOU, Syph Nurse, can come in here and call the woman I love a bimbo? You don’t get to do that! No one gets to do that!”
“George, I’m…I’m just concerned about you” Olivia stuttered, her face flushed.
“Save it! I don’t want your concern. I don’t need your concern! I’m with the woman I love and I’m perfectly fine.”
“You don’t look perfectly fine George. Sit down, please,” she begged, looking around hurriedly, clearly embarrassed.
“I was fine Olivia. I was fine until you came in here and acted like you know me well enough to try to talk to me about my life. You don’t! You want to know something about my life? Well here it goes: when my father died, I thought I wanted to die too! I didn’t know how to exist, how to breathe without him. I felt like I had been dropped into a dark black pit and I didn’t even have the energy to try to crawl out. And Callie! Callie reached down into that pit, into the darkness and took my hand. She pulled me up, pulled me away from the edge and made me feel like it was possible to keep going. She’s the only reason that I’m standing here today and you don’t get to talk about her like that!”
“George…I, you’re not in your right mind, clearly…” Olivia tried to interrupt but George was having none of it.
“Shut up. Just stop it. Stop talking. Stop talking to me. Stop talking about Callie to your little friends. Because she is me. We’re two halves of the same whole and when you insult her, you insult me. I love her more than anything and I don’t want to hear it. So. Just. Stop.”
George pulled himself up and looked around. The room was silent. Everyone had heard. He locked eyes with Meredith; she was beaming proudly at him. Cristina managed to give him a thumbs up, but Izzie wouldn’t meet his eyes. Head down, she stared at her untouched tray. Olivia was in tears, but George didn’t care. Picking up his book and his food, he walked straight out of the cafeteria, head held high, doing his best to ignore the curious stares. Alone in the corridor, he slumped back against the wall. What the hell was wrong with people? And where was his wife? He needed to talk to her, needed to see her face. Something must have been bothering her for her to stand him up. That was it! He knew where she liked to go when she was upset, so he headed, resolute to the stairwell. He’d find her and everything would be all right, he thought, pushing open the door and beginning his descent to the basement. He didn’t even notice Izzie following behind him.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Callie was right where George had expected her to be, curled up on a crate left behind in the corner when she’d moved out of the hospital basement. She sat up quickly when she saw him and wiped her face with the back of her hand, sniffling a little. She was crying. George’s heart broke and he rushed to her side, leaving the cafeteria tray on a shelf by the door. Kneeling next to her, he gathered her in his arms and pulled her close. “What’s wrong, baby?”
“I’m fine, George. What time is it?”
“It’s almost 12:30. We were supposed to meet for lunch and you didn’t come. I knew something was wrong, and from the looks of it I was right. You’re sitting down here crying, so don’t expect me to believe that you’re fine,” he chided her gently. “I’m your husband, I know better,” he finished, kissing her forehead softly.
His gentleness was more than Callie could take in her fragile emotional state. She hadn’t planned to tell him any of this. She’d come down here to hide after her confrontation with Izzie and had just lost track of time. Now he was here, holding her and kissing her and saying everything she needed to hear. Leaning into him she wrapped her arms around his neck and held on for dear life, choking out muffled sobs into his shoulder, her tears soaking his shirt.
George wrapped his arms even more tightly around Callie, rubbing her back and stroking the back of her head as he soothed her. She’d been working with Izzie today and now she was crying in the basement. It was easy to connect the dots. Izzie had treated her badly and she was hurt. It was up to him to stand up for her. He’d go and find Izzie this afternoon and end this. This was over. No one was going to hurt his wife. He wouldn’t stand for it. Thinking quickly, he decided not to mention the argument with Olivia. Callie might feel like the entire hospital was against them and he wanted to spare her the pain and embarrassment. All he could do right now was make sure she knew how much he loved her.
He held her until her sobs subsided and her breathing returned to normal. “I’m sorry,” she started, but he didn’t let her finish.
“Don’t apologize. Don’t apologize for Izzie. She’s never been nice to you, never! I’ve been a fool to let it go on this long. I hoped I had taken care of it yesterday, but clearly she didn’t get the message. I will make her hear me, and if she doesn’t, then we’re done with her. It’s that simple. I won’t abide someone who doesn’t respect my wife. I love you and you are the single most important person in my life. You come first, no matter what. I love you so much,” he finished, hugging her again.
“I love you too, George,” she replied, kissing him. “Thank you.”
“Are you hungry? I bought us lunch and Edna sent you a cookie,” he smiled at her. “Hang on, I’ll get it.” Standing he started across the darkened room to grab the tray of food and ran smack into…Izzie.
“What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be here. Have you been eavesdropping?” he asked, disgusted. “Get out!”
Hearing the commotion, Callie emerged from the darkened corner, coming to stand beside him. Protectively, he stretched out his arm in front of her. “Leave Callie alone, Izzie,” he warned her, his voice a low growl.
“George, Callie…please,” Izzie begged. “Just listen to me. I’m sorry, OK. I’m sorry for everything.”
“It’s too late,” George interrupted her. “We don’t have anything to say to you. You’ve had your chance. I was coming to talk to you, but no - you have to sneak down here and listen in on us. I can’t believe your nerve. Where do you get off?” he stopped, shocked when Callie put her hand on his arm to silence him.
“Go on Izzie,” she stated cautiously, still wary of what might come out of Izzie’s mouth but somehow compelled to hear the young woman out. “Last chance. Final offer.”
“You don’t have to listen to her Callie,” George argued, wrapping his arm around her waist. “Izzie was just leaving,” he stated pointedly, looking at his former friend.
“I want to hear what she has to say,” Callie said firmly. There was something in the young woman’s pitiful expression that spoke to her. She could relate to desperation. She turned to her husband. “Please, George. For me.”
Looking at Izzie she warned her, “you’ve got 30 seconds, Stevens.”
Gratefully, Izzie nodded, fighting back tears. “I’m sorry. I’m just so, so sorry. Callie, you were right. I’ve never been nice to you. I’ve never given you a chance. I’m a terrible person and I can’t say anything in my defense. George, I was horrible to you yesterday. Horrible to both of you. I didn’t understand why you did it but now I think I do. You two love each other the way I loved Denny, the way your mother loved your father, George. I’m just so sorry and I don’t blame you if you never forgive me, but if you can find it in your hearts to…well I wouldn’t deserve it but I’d be so, so grateful to both of you. I don’t want to lose my best friend and his wife,” she sniffled, the tears flowing freely.
George’s expression didn’t change, but Callie stepped forward, placing a hand on the younger woman’s arm. “Izzie, it’s OK. I forgive you.”
“Really?” Izzie sobbed, grabbing Callie and hugging her. “Thank you. I won’t let you down.”
Callie gently pulled away, slightly uncomfortable at the prospect of hugging Izzie Stevens but managed a smile. “We’ll work it out,” she stated calmly, looking at George. His eyes were hooded, his face a mask. What was he thinking?
“Come over for dinner tonight,” Izzie exclaimed impulsively. I’ll make you a cake and we’ll celebrate your marriage. We’ll have Derek and Meredith and whoever else you want. It will be fun. Come on, let me do this for you,” she pleaded. “Please?”
“OK,” Callie smiled, despite herself. She wanted to believe Izzie was sincere. “We’ll come, won’t we George?”
“If you want to,” he answered quietly, stroking her hair. His eyes followed Izzie carefully, not certain he wanted to trust her again. She could talk a good game but often fell short in the execution. He didn’t want to risk her hurting his wife again.
“Great! Eight o’clock, OK?” she bubbled. “OK! I’m gonna go now…let you two have some time alone. Thank you Callie. I’ll be upstairs working on your charts. George, I’ll see you tonight. Thank you!” she chirped, before fairly bouncing out of the room.
George looked at his bride. He didn’t want her to do this just for him. “Are you sure you want to do that? You don’t have to. I was ready to kick her to the curb.”
“I’m not 100% sure,” Callie admitted. “Something she said just spoke to me. Maybe it was the look on her face, I don’t know. She seemed like she meant it. She doesn’t want to lose you, George. I can’t blame her. She needs you.”
“I need you,” he stated, pulling her into his arms and swaying softly with her. “I need you. No one else.”
“You’ve got me,” she murmured, holding onto him for dear life. “You’ve got me, George.”
Pairings: George and Callie
Author: Sarah
Rating: this part is PG-13 for some language.
Summary: the gang copes with the aftermath of the events of "Wishin and Hopin." Yeah, I write things I wish George would say on the show. It's my favorite thing to do.
Part 1: http://community.livejournal.com/ga_fanfic/381053.html#cutid1
Part 2: http://community.livejournal.com/ga_fanfic/385743.html#cutid1
Special "Thank You" to burningeden for the inspiration for this chapter. Yay!
I hope everyone likes it. I will now return to my corner to study the TCA cycle. Happy reading!
Callie and Izzie sat in silence for a few minutes, neither knowing what to say or how to act. They were united in their current dislike for Alex Karev, but beyond that not much common ground existed. Callie flipped through a few charts, making notes and marking pages for review by her attending, while Izzie fidgeted silently, shifting from one foot to the other and fiddling with her pager. Unable to stand the uncomfortable silence any more, she took a deep breath and tried to break the ice.
“Callie, Alex shouldn’t have said what he said. I didn’t say anything to him. I mean, I wasn’t talking to him about you. And George. I wasn’t. Damn it, this is awkward.”
“It is,” Callie agreed, not looking up from the chart. She really didn’t want to talk to Izzie about this. About anything. Izzie had hurt her feelings and her pride yesterday, and she hated that the other woman’s disapproval got to her. “Let’s just keep this about work,” she thought to herself.
Placing the chart on the desk in front of her, Callie looked up at Izzie, her expression unreadable. “OK, Stevens. I don’t have any surgeries scheduled for today. That means we’re on chart review for the rest of the morning. I want you to go through my charts and cross-check orders for completeness and accuracy. Any discrepancies you can flag and I’ll take a look at them after lunch. Update the progress notes to reflect that you’ve evaluated all pertinent lab results, medication changes and physical assessments. After lunch you can go through the notes from the resident who covered my patients while I was out of town last week. Any questions?” Callie finished and started to walk away.
“Wait,” Izzie stammered.
“Yes?” Callie turned back to her crossed her arms impatiently. She needed to get away from Izzie for a little while. All of the feelings of uncertainty and betrayal she had felt the day before were bubbling back up, threatening to overwhelm her. She felt her right hand shaking a little bit and stuffed it in her pocket.
“What IS it, Dr. Stevens?” She praying her voice didn’t shake.
“Stop calling me Dr. Stevens. I’m Izzie, I’m George’s best friend and I want to talk to you about George. Can we please just talk about George for a minute?” she finished, looking at Callie.
“You have got to be kidding me!” Callie exploded, “Look Izzie, I didn’t ask to work with you today out of some secret desire to have a heart to heart with you. I didn’t ask to work with you at all! I didn’t WANT to work with you because you treated me like crap yesterday. But I CAN work with you, because I’m a professional. A professional who doesn’t want to discuss her marriage with her husband’s surly alleged best friend. So, no! We can’t talk about George. I’ve heard all I’ll ever want to hear from you on that subject.”
“Callie, I’m trying here,” Izzie was getting a little frustrated herself. Why was Callie being so obstinate? Didn’t she want George’s best friend to like her?
“You’re trying? Are you joking? You’ve never tried with me, never. From the moment I met George you were grilling me about my intentions to my face and making fun of me behind my back. You with your sly little hand-washing jokes and talking shit about me to George’s mother! You don’t think I saw your face fall every time I walked into a room with George? You don’t think I noticed how giddy you were when I slept with Sloan? I made mistakes sure, but you’ve always been right there, ready to pounce on them and point them out to George. And yesterday was the worst of all, because what you said to me wasn’t really insulting to me so much as it was hurtful to George. So he can’t afford to buy me a huge ring? Do you think I care? Not a bit, I love him! But thanks to you pointing that out, he got humiliated in front of a room full of people! Some best friend you are. So if you are ‘trying’ then you’re trying too late! It’s a day late and a dollar short and I don’t want to hear it. So don’t bring it up again,” she finished, drawing in a deep breath and turning to walk away.
Izzie could only gape at her retreating back. She was stunned, angry and confused. She watched as Callie moved away from her down the hall, turning before she entered the stairwell to bark, “Get busy with those charts, Stevens!”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
George waited impatiently in the cafeteria line, wondering where his wife had gotten off to. He had paged her earlier in the morning to ask her to meet him for lunch at noon, and she had agreed, but she was nowhere to be found. “She’ll be here soon,” he thought, piling his tray with food: chicken, coleslaw, all her favorites. Pulling out his wallet to pay for lunch, he noticed a note she must have stuck inside it that morning. The wording was simple: “G - love you, CIT” but it warmed his heart to think she had gone to the trouble to hide that away in there for him to find.
As he approached the cash register he smiled at the older woman working the line. She was one of the volunteers who regularly manned the cafeteria and always very friendly to him. She winked at him and placed an extra cookie on his tray. “That’s for your wife. Congratulations on your marriage.”
“Thanks Edna,” George smiled warmly and picked up his tray, scanning the cafeteria. Where was Callie? He saw Meredith, Izzie and Cristina sitting in one corner of the room and wanted to steer clear, but the room was crowded. An empty table about ten feet away would have to do. Nodding hello to Meredith, he made his way to the vacant table for two and sat down, his back to the wall so he could watch for Callie. He was beginning to worry about her, so to distract himself he pulled out his pocket pharmacology book and thumbed through the section on anti-cholinergic medications and their effect on bowel disorders. A shadow crossed over him and he looked up happily, expecting to see his beautiful bride. Instead, it was Nurse Olivia. He couldn’t hide his disappointment. “Oh, it’s you.”
“George, I want to apologize for what I said yesterday. I shouldn’t have called Callie toxic to your face. I should have kept my opinions to myself.”
“Yes, you should have. But you know what, Olivia? I don’t care what you think. It’s fine. Think whatever you want. I just don’t want to hear it.”
“George, listen to me. Can I sit down?” she pleaded, ignoring him as he shook his head and sinking into the chair across from him. “It’s just that…I’m…we’re…we’re worried about you. I mean, your dad just died. You’re in mourning. And you run off and marry some big-haired, bossy, orthopedic bimb…” she broke off in shocked silence as George stood up abruptly, pushing his tray back angrily at her.
“Stop it Olivia. Just stop it. Not another word out of your mouth. You think you can come in here and insult Callie to my face? Who the hell do you think you are? You think that YOU, Syph Nurse, can come in here and call the woman I love a bimbo? You don’t get to do that! No one gets to do that!”
“George, I’m…I’m just concerned about you” Olivia stuttered, her face flushed.
“Save it! I don’t want your concern. I don’t need your concern! I’m with the woman I love and I’m perfectly fine.”
“You don’t look perfectly fine George. Sit down, please,” she begged, looking around hurriedly, clearly embarrassed.
“I was fine Olivia. I was fine until you came in here and acted like you know me well enough to try to talk to me about my life. You don’t! You want to know something about my life? Well here it goes: when my father died, I thought I wanted to die too! I didn’t know how to exist, how to breathe without him. I felt like I had been dropped into a dark black pit and I didn’t even have the energy to try to crawl out. And Callie! Callie reached down into that pit, into the darkness and took my hand. She pulled me up, pulled me away from the edge and made me feel like it was possible to keep going. She’s the only reason that I’m standing here today and you don’t get to talk about her like that!”
“George…I, you’re not in your right mind, clearly…” Olivia tried to interrupt but George was having none of it.
“Shut up. Just stop it. Stop talking. Stop talking to me. Stop talking about Callie to your little friends. Because she is me. We’re two halves of the same whole and when you insult her, you insult me. I love her more than anything and I don’t want to hear it. So. Just. Stop.”
George pulled himself up and looked around. The room was silent. Everyone had heard. He locked eyes with Meredith; she was beaming proudly at him. Cristina managed to give him a thumbs up, but Izzie wouldn’t meet his eyes. Head down, she stared at her untouched tray. Olivia was in tears, but George didn’t care. Picking up his book and his food, he walked straight out of the cafeteria, head held high, doing his best to ignore the curious stares. Alone in the corridor, he slumped back against the wall. What the hell was wrong with people? And where was his wife? He needed to talk to her, needed to see her face. Something must have been bothering her for her to stand him up. That was it! He knew where she liked to go when she was upset, so he headed, resolute to the stairwell. He’d find her and everything would be all right, he thought, pushing open the door and beginning his descent to the basement. He didn’t even notice Izzie following behind him.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Callie was right where George had expected her to be, curled up on a crate left behind in the corner when she’d moved out of the hospital basement. She sat up quickly when she saw him and wiped her face with the back of her hand, sniffling a little. She was crying. George’s heart broke and he rushed to her side, leaving the cafeteria tray on a shelf by the door. Kneeling next to her, he gathered her in his arms and pulled her close. “What’s wrong, baby?”
“I’m fine, George. What time is it?”
“It’s almost 12:30. We were supposed to meet for lunch and you didn’t come. I knew something was wrong, and from the looks of it I was right. You’re sitting down here crying, so don’t expect me to believe that you’re fine,” he chided her gently. “I’m your husband, I know better,” he finished, kissing her forehead softly.
His gentleness was more than Callie could take in her fragile emotional state. She hadn’t planned to tell him any of this. She’d come down here to hide after her confrontation with Izzie and had just lost track of time. Now he was here, holding her and kissing her and saying everything she needed to hear. Leaning into him she wrapped her arms around his neck and held on for dear life, choking out muffled sobs into his shoulder, her tears soaking his shirt.
George wrapped his arms even more tightly around Callie, rubbing her back and stroking the back of her head as he soothed her. She’d been working with Izzie today and now she was crying in the basement. It was easy to connect the dots. Izzie had treated her badly and she was hurt. It was up to him to stand up for her. He’d go and find Izzie this afternoon and end this. This was over. No one was going to hurt his wife. He wouldn’t stand for it. Thinking quickly, he decided not to mention the argument with Olivia. Callie might feel like the entire hospital was against them and he wanted to spare her the pain and embarrassment. All he could do right now was make sure she knew how much he loved her.
He held her until her sobs subsided and her breathing returned to normal. “I’m sorry,” she started, but he didn’t let her finish.
“Don’t apologize. Don’t apologize for Izzie. She’s never been nice to you, never! I’ve been a fool to let it go on this long. I hoped I had taken care of it yesterday, but clearly she didn’t get the message. I will make her hear me, and if she doesn’t, then we’re done with her. It’s that simple. I won’t abide someone who doesn’t respect my wife. I love you and you are the single most important person in my life. You come first, no matter what. I love you so much,” he finished, hugging her again.
“I love you too, George,” she replied, kissing him. “Thank you.”
“Are you hungry? I bought us lunch and Edna sent you a cookie,” he smiled at her. “Hang on, I’ll get it.” Standing he started across the darkened room to grab the tray of food and ran smack into…Izzie.
“What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be here. Have you been eavesdropping?” he asked, disgusted. “Get out!”
Hearing the commotion, Callie emerged from the darkened corner, coming to stand beside him. Protectively, he stretched out his arm in front of her. “Leave Callie alone, Izzie,” he warned her, his voice a low growl.
“George, Callie…please,” Izzie begged. “Just listen to me. I’m sorry, OK. I’m sorry for everything.”
“It’s too late,” George interrupted her. “We don’t have anything to say to you. You’ve had your chance. I was coming to talk to you, but no - you have to sneak down here and listen in on us. I can’t believe your nerve. Where do you get off?” he stopped, shocked when Callie put her hand on his arm to silence him.
“Go on Izzie,” she stated cautiously, still wary of what might come out of Izzie’s mouth but somehow compelled to hear the young woman out. “Last chance. Final offer.”
“You don’t have to listen to her Callie,” George argued, wrapping his arm around her waist. “Izzie was just leaving,” he stated pointedly, looking at his former friend.
“I want to hear what she has to say,” Callie said firmly. There was something in the young woman’s pitiful expression that spoke to her. She could relate to desperation. She turned to her husband. “Please, George. For me.”
Looking at Izzie she warned her, “you’ve got 30 seconds, Stevens.”
Gratefully, Izzie nodded, fighting back tears. “I’m sorry. I’m just so, so sorry. Callie, you were right. I’ve never been nice to you. I’ve never given you a chance. I’m a terrible person and I can’t say anything in my defense. George, I was horrible to you yesterday. Horrible to both of you. I didn’t understand why you did it but now I think I do. You two love each other the way I loved Denny, the way your mother loved your father, George. I’m just so sorry and I don’t blame you if you never forgive me, but if you can find it in your hearts to…well I wouldn’t deserve it but I’d be so, so grateful to both of you. I don’t want to lose my best friend and his wife,” she sniffled, the tears flowing freely.
George’s expression didn’t change, but Callie stepped forward, placing a hand on the younger woman’s arm. “Izzie, it’s OK. I forgive you.”
“Really?” Izzie sobbed, grabbing Callie and hugging her. “Thank you. I won’t let you down.”
Callie gently pulled away, slightly uncomfortable at the prospect of hugging Izzie Stevens but managed a smile. “We’ll work it out,” she stated calmly, looking at George. His eyes were hooded, his face a mask. What was he thinking?
“Come over for dinner tonight,” Izzie exclaimed impulsively. I’ll make you a cake and we’ll celebrate your marriage. We’ll have Derek and Meredith and whoever else you want. It will be fun. Come on, let me do this for you,” she pleaded. “Please?”
“OK,” Callie smiled, despite herself. She wanted to believe Izzie was sincere. “We’ll come, won’t we George?”
“If you want to,” he answered quietly, stroking her hair. His eyes followed Izzie carefully, not certain he wanted to trust her again. She could talk a good game but often fell short in the execution. He didn’t want to risk her hurting his wife again.
“Great! Eight o’clock, OK?” she bubbled. “OK! I’m gonna go now…let you two have some time alone. Thank you Callie. I’ll be upstairs working on your charts. George, I’ll see you tonight. Thank you!” she chirped, before fairly bouncing out of the room.
George looked at his bride. He didn’t want her to do this just for him. “Are you sure you want to do that? You don’t have to. I was ready to kick her to the curb.”
“I’m not 100% sure,” Callie admitted. “Something she said just spoke to me. Maybe it was the look on her face, I don’t know. She seemed like she meant it. She doesn’t want to lose you, George. I can’t blame her. She needs you.”
“I need you,” he stated, pulling her into his arms and swaying softly with her. “I need you. No one else.”
“You’ve got me,” she murmured, holding onto him for dear life. “You’ve got me, George.”