Fragile Dreams

- This is a "vintage" Gizzie story that I started writing many moons ago and hope to finish. Anyway, in this George and Izzie have just broken up when Izzie learns that she is pregnant with his baby. How will George react to the news of Izzie's pregnancy, especially when he learns how precarious it is? -

Just a note: This is AU so I am saying that Izzie has never had a child before. Therefore, Hannah does not exist.-

Part 1: Don't Tell Me That it's Over

Chapter 1: I'm Fine, I'm Really Freaking Fine

So it's over. Officially and completely over. And I am okay with it too.

Really I am.

We both knew it wasn't going to last. Any relationship that starts out the way ours did is doomed to fail. He was married and I was grieving for Denny when we hooked up. The odds were stacked against us from the beginning. We tried to make our friendship into something more than it was and we failed, of course. It never could have worked out between us and I'm fine with it. I am really freaking fine with it.

Really. Really, I am.

XoXoXo

Isobel "Izzie" Stevens was supposed to be scrubbing in for surgery at that moment but instead she found her arms wrapped around the less-than-sanitary toilet bowl in the resident's lounge, feeling another knot of bile building up in her throat. Logically, she knew that she was going to be fine but her body screamed that she may as well be dying for all the pain and discomfort she was feeling at that moment.

It was just that every time she thought she had vomited up the last of the tuna on rye she had for lunch, she soon realized how wrong she was as she found herself worshipping the porcelain gods once again.

She felt her gut begin to hum again and quickly positioned herself in a crouch over the toilet bowl. She reached back to pull her long hair away from her face but she felt a strong hand already closing around her frizzy mop and lifting the strands off her shoulders.

She would have to thank whoever it was playing her knight-in-shining-armor later because she was already heaving again.

"It's okay, Iz, you'll be okay once you get it all out of your system," Dr. Alex Karev said from behind her.

"Doubtful," Izzie said when she had finished emptying what she hoped was the last of her stomach contents for the moment.

Alex ripped a paper towel out of the dispenser and handed it to her. She wiped her mouth, realizing how gross and disgusting she must look and yet not giving a damn about it.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him.

"Our favorite Nazi sent me to look for you. She said you were ignoring her million and one pages."

"Do me a favor and tell Mrs. Thing to go fuck herself." Izzie dropped down onto the dirty bathroom floor once again. It was supposed to be cleaned every five hours but Lord knew that never happened.

Izzie shook her head. "Oh god that sounded awful! You know I'd never say that to Miranda – not to her face anyway." She groaned. "I just feel so crappy. The tuna on rye I ate at lunch must have been bad."

Alex inspected the floor with a critical eye for a moment and the finding a relatively spot-free space of floor, he dropped down beside her. "Are you sure that's all it is, Dr. Model - just food poisoning?"

Izzie watched him through narrowed eyes. "What are you trying to say?" she demanded. Alex had better not dare say what she was trying so hard not to even allow herself to think.

"Well, Iz, think about it. This is not the first time in the past week you've been under the weather so to speak. Friday and yesterday you said you had a headache and some nausea and today you are vomiting. Plus Christina told me you were feeling dizzy earlier today."

"She did what?! Why would she tell you that and why the hell are you checking up on me?"

"We both care about you, obviously," he said. "If you ask me I think you aren't just feverish you are actually –"

"SICK! Just sick with the flu," Izzie immediately jumped in to stop him from saying the words she knew he had been about to utter.

Alex watched her and then suddenly reached out and pushed a strand of her flaxen-colored hair off of her sweaty forehead. "Izzie, is there a chance that you could be knocked up?"

"PREGNANT?!" Izzie yelped. "You mean pregnant."

Alex nodded, looking at her with an incredulous expression on his face.

"No, no I'm not pregnant! I can't be. I just can't. I don't have time to be pregnant. I don't have the energy to raise a child and I don't want to right now."

Izzie broke down in tears then and Alex reached out to pull her into his arms. "It's okay, Iz, maybe you really aren't after all."

Izzie looked up, unknowingly wiping a long strand of snot on Alex's green scrubs top. He flinched but didn't say anything.

"Yes I am, Alex! I am pregnant. I can't keep on denying it. I am definitely pregnant. I just know it. I feel it. A lot of my female patients say they just knew it when it happened. I know it!" she cried.

"You're a doctor. You know how this works. Are you late?" He asked, feeling inwardly sick at the idea of having this conversation with a woman he was at least half in love with. It was one thing to discuss hormonal issues with his patients, but it was quite another to discuss them with a woman he had dreamt about banging every night for literally years.

"It's late, Alex," she answered. "Eleven days late!" She was really dripping snot on him big-time on now but he tried to ignore it. He just had to avoid putting his hands in the goop.

"Izzie, there could be a lot of reasons …" Alex said, trying to comfort her and knowing that he was failing miserably at it. He wasn't good at this emotional bonding stuff.

Izzie shook her head. "Nope. I'm definitely pregnant. I already feel myself getting fat."

Alex tried to delicately think of a way to ask the important question on his mind at the moment. "So if you are pregnant, is it safe to assume that … George –" he shuddered involuntarily - "is the father?" He tried to swallow his disgust at that thought.

Izzie stared at Alex with flashing hazel eyes. "Are you freaking kidding me, Karev?! How many other married guys do you think I've been screwing?" she shouted.

He reached out a hand to her lips to try and shush her. "Calm down, okay? As revolting as the idea is of you carrying Syph-boy's spawn, you shouldn't overreact."

Izzie felt like clobbering him. He had absolutely no comprehension of what she was going through right now. "How can I not overreact, Alex? I'm pregnant; the guy is married, and just went back to his wife."

"What? Callie took George back?" Alex said in shock. He hadn't seen that one coming.

"Yes. Yes, she did. But I'm okay with it. Really I am. I am actually really freaking happy for them. Really I am," she shrieked.

Alex pulled a face. "God, you and your pregnancy hormones will be the death of society as we know it." He climbed to his feet and held out his hand to her. "Come on let's get you cleaned up – you've got a little spit-up on your coat. Then we can give you the infamous test and see if the rabbit bites it."

Izzie reluctantly reached for his hand and he pulled her to her feet. "Don't even talk about little furry things dying right now," she said. "That's the last thing I need to hear."

Alex wrapped his arm around her shoulders and led her into the main area of the lounge and over to a bed which he pushed her down on. "I am not letting you have your way with me, Dr. Evil, so don't even think about trying anything," she said warily.

"Oh please – like I would ever go down on a pregnant woman," he said, giving her a playful grin. "I just want you to sit down so you don't pass out."

"Okay," Izzie said. She looked up at him with a questioning look in her eyes. "Why are you being so nice to me all of a sudden, Karev?"

"Believe it or not I care." He chuckled. "Though you aren't making it very easy to cheer you up."

Izzie pouted. "What makes you think I want to be cheered up?"

He shook his head. "Never mind. Let me find you some clean scrubs to change into and then I'll go tell the Nazi you're not going to help with the surgery today."

"She is going to come after me with her death ray," Izzie said. "She is really going to kill me and enjoy doing it."

Alex smiled. "I'll explain everything to her; she'll just have to put aside her bullshit for once and understand that other people have problems too."

"You are not going to say anything!" Izzie snapped. "This is no one's business but my own. I don't want everyone gossiping about this and it getting back to George and Callie. Especially because …" Her voice trailed off and she looked down at her white sneakers.

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Especially because what, Izzie?"

Izzie sighed and threw her hands up in exasperation. "Because, Alex, I am not even sure I'm going to keep this baby."