Melancholic Beauty Chapter 1: Joy, a grey's anatomy fanfic

(my first fanfic, i love mark/izzie.)

I do not own Grey's Anatomy.

I believe.

The words echoed in her ears, over and over again. She believed it would all be okay. Meredeth would be fine. People don't always die. People live. Meredeth would live. This is what she was thinking as she stood looking through the small window in the door to Dr. Shepard and Dr. Sloan.

Shepard looked up and met her eyes. She saw the hurt, the vulnerability. But mostly she saw fear. He was scared. Well everyone was. But especially him. She could tell. Over the past few weeks she'd become really close with the resident everyone called 'McDreamy'. When Meredeth would snore he'd always be in the living room, laying on the couch, staring at the ceiling. When she couldn't sleep she'd sit in front of the fridge. At some point they would find each other, either she'd go over and sit at the edge of the couch or he'd come and sit next to her and stare at the fridge. They would talk about nothing about everything. It was nice she decided. She needed someone to confide in. George was always with Callie, Meredeth was always with Shepard. Alex was currently following Addison around. She was alone.

They seemed to develop a quick friendship, he always knew when to take the food away from her and she always knew when to just sit and be there for him and not say anything at all. This was one of those times. She opened the door, she felt Alex grab her arm. She just looked back at him and something in her eyes must have made him understand because he just nodded and released her arm. She walked through the door her head held high, she nudged Dr. Sloan on the leg, he moved, and she took a seat between the two doctors. She just sat there glassy eyed. Repeating those words in her head.

I believe.

He looked to his left at the blond intern. Izzie Stevens. She looked only forward, her eyes fixed on something he couldn't see. Her eyelids never moved, never blinked. Her eyes didn't even move, just stayed fixed. But it seemed as though she was searching. For what, he couldn't tell.

When he first saw her he thought she was the epitome of melancholic beauty. She had a body that could stop time, sure. Anybody else would just describe her as hot. But her eyes conveyed something different. Her eyes where full of so much hurt. Hurt she always tried to mask with nonsensical ramblings or witty remarks. She could have one hell of a silver tongue at times.

Melancholic beauty. Is that why she was here? Because she was the only one in this hospital who could understand what Shepard was going through. From what he'd heard of her she'd been through the same situation herself. Denny something-or- another, the love of her life, had died after he had proposed to her. Everyone may think he's just a jackass with no heart but his heart, however tiny it may be, breaks every time he looks at her and thinks about all the pain she's been through. And he hasn't even said more that 10 words to her.

He'd saw a new side of her today though. Strength. She had drilled into a guys head for chrissake. And she defiantly does well under pressure. Now that he thought about it Izzie Stevens was amazing. She didn't take any of his bullshit that girls usually fell at his feet with, she wouldn't be his personal slave even though he could get her fired, and she kept her head held high at all times.

He looked over a Derek who had his head leaning slightly against Izzie's shoulder, like his neck couldn't hold it up anymore and silent tears came down his face. For a second he thought they had something sexual together. But when he took a closer look it was more like a brother and sister or like they were best friends. She was his shoulder to cry on and heaven knows he needs one. His eyes focused back on Izzie to find that she was looking at her hands. He looked at her hands also. That's when he noticed she had a deep cut on the palm of her right hand and was bleeding slightly. She must have felt his eyes on her because she said,

"I cut it on a part of the car when I was trying to gauze up his leg." It didn't look too bad, but he knew anything on your palm was bad, the skin wasn't very thick there and when ever she flexed her fingers she probably just re-opened the wound.

"I'll be right back." He whispered and then walked down the hall to the nearest supply closet to get some gauze and needle and thread if she needed stitches. When he started to walk back down the hall he saw Dr. Burke standing above Derek and Izzie. He froze waiting for any sign that something good had happened. He saw Izzie start to tremble slightly and tears fall down her face. But then Derek smiled and hugged her and stood up hugged Burke and walked into the room. She was alive. He let out a huge breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding in and walked towards Izzie who was currently trying to stand up. As he came closer he saw tears but also the most beautiful smile upon her face. When he came to be standing right next to her she launched herself into his arms. It took him by surprise and he almost fell over. But he found balance and hugged her right back. When she released him he realized he wanted her back in his arms. But then he saw the huge smile on her face and her jumping up and down in pure joy.

"She's alive. She's alive. She's alive!" Her smile must've been contagious because Mark found himself smiling with her and shaking his head ever so slightly at her goofiness. She may be melancholic beauty at it's best but she also had a glimmer of hope and joy in her eyes that Mark found to be absolutely captivating.