Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy or anything else mentioned in this story.

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At 613 Harper Lane, sharing a house with two – occasionally three or four - women wasn't very complicated. Even when they walked around in their underwear and begged you to buy tampons for them. Sure, it was annoying when they walked in on him when he was taking a shower, but he got used to it eventually. They didn't seem to mind when he went into the bathroom to get something while they were showering. And if George had to pee badly enough, he could just use the powder room in the basement…granted that he remembered to save the flushing for later.

But the crapartment is a far cry from the Queen Anne Hill mansion. Never had sharing a single bathroom been so hard.

George O'Malley stands outside the closed bathroom door, listening to the water cascading from the showerhead; the noise isn't very good for his present predicament. Studying has taken a toll on his diet; he's living on Hot Pockets and gallon upon gallon of iced tea.

He's regretting all that iced tea right about now. George rests his forehead against the door, his full bladder aching. Lexie had just gone into the bathroom about ten minutes ago, and she usually takes fifteen minutes to shower.

There's no way he's going to wait another five minutes to pee. The Intern Exam Redux (as Lexie had appropriately dubbed it while helping him study) was tomorrow, and he can't take any unnecessary time away from his books…but it's awfully hard to focus on the material when your abdomen feels like it's about to explode.

He takes a deep breath and turns the knob. Slowly, very slowly, he opens the door. No creaking. Good. The shower curtain (one of the few things not pilfered from the hospital) is dark blue, so he doesn't have to worry about Lexie seeing him enter, only hearing him. The shower water mutes his entrance extraordinarily well.

The steam assaults him as he slinks through the door, and he leaves the door open a crack so that he can breathe. He smirks, proud of his sneakiness. He's just like James Bond, only he doesn't like martinis and he isn't such a cunning linguist.

He moves Lexie's towels off of the toilet lid, raises the seat, and assumes the position. Maybe it's the adrenaline, but it doesn't take long for his bladder to empty. Gently, he closes the lid and replaces the towels. He would flush later, after Lexie was finished. Mission accomplished, he thinks to himself as he turns and tiptoes toward the door.

"Just like a star across my sky…"

George freezes in mid-step, heart beginning to hammer. His breath hitches and his eyes widen. Has he been caught?

"Just like an angel off the page…"

No, he's still safe. He lets out a long, silent breath, relieved that he won't have to face the wrath of Lexie Grey caught in the shower. She's only singing, still oblivious to his presence. He gingerly set his foot down and turns to look at the blue of the shower curtain.

"You have appeared to my life, feel like I'll never be the same," Lexie sings. George listens, entranced by her voice. Somewhere in the back of his mind, it registers that Lexie's voice is nice.

"Just like a song in my heart," she continues. No, George thinks, not just nice. Lexie's voice is good. Not operatic by anyone's standards, but she can definitely carry a tune.

"Just like oil on my hands, honor to love you…" A moment of epiphany, then. George recognizes this song. It was popular around the time of his infatuation with Meredith, and, as a matter of fact, it played on the radio the day he finally decided to stand up to her.

That went well, George mentally scoffs. After that one night (which he still reveres as the greatest humiliation of his life), nothing ever turned out right for him. Callie, Denny dying, his dad dying, marrying Callie, cheating on Callie, Izzie, failing the intern exam, ending it with Izzie, losing the faith of his mother, finding out that he only failed the exam by one point; it seems to him like that entire chain of events was set off by that horrible night of failed sex.

And now here he is, an intern once again, far behind his good friends. Of course, he doesn't mind the company of Lexie or the other interns; in fact, he rather likes them. Still, they aren't Izzie or Meredith or Alex or even Cristina.

But he's going to fix it, starting tomorrow, he swears to himself. He's going to get a perfect score on his exam – something even Cristina failed to do. He's going to make things right with Callie and Izzie, and maybe finally have a chance to move on from both of those train wrecks. He was given another chance to pass his intern year, so why shouldn't he be given another chance to be a good guy?

Before George has a chance to pull himself from his thoughts, the white noise of the showerhead stops abruptly. George panics and turns to bolt but it's too late, because Lexie has already whipped back the shower curtain and she's already seen him in the room and she's standing there looking at him, staring at him, mouth agape and doe eyes incredulous. She's dripping wet, and her dark hair is plastered to her neck and increasingly reddening cheeks.

The next thing George realizes, adding to the overall mortifying atmosphere, is that she's completely naked.

The moment of concentrated awkward hovers for a good six seconds – more than long enough for George to take in all of Lexie – until she finally dives into the safety of the shower stall and covers herself with the curtain, hollering at him to get out. Not bothering to look, George immediately turns on his heel, runs for the door, remembers too late that it's only open a crack, and slams face-first into its grainy edge. He crumples to the floor, grabbing at his cheek, holding the gash that he's sure is bleeding. Groaning and swearing under his breath, he makes sure to open the door properly this time and crawls out like a soldier wounded in battle.

He would have to find the box of Band-Aids in the kitchen. He definitely isn't going to go into that bathroom until Lexie is more than finished, that's for sure.

Hours pass. George continues to study. Lexie helps him.

They don't address the incident once.

--

The next morning, George is walking towards the nurses' station on the surgical floor, approaching Meredith Grey as an intern for hopefully the last time. It's seven-thirty, and his exam is scheduled for noon.

He knows the huge, bright green Band-Aid on his face is attracting many stares. But it's the best he could do…Lexie happened to buy a box of the multi-colored ones for their kitchen emergency supply.

Meredith is resting nonchalantly against the counter, elbows on the flat surface, studying a chart. She takes a long drink from her cup of coffee, which was probably a hearty breakfast on-the-go courtesy of Derek Shepherd. George stands next to her, letting out a loud, long sigh. Meredith looks up at him, then back down at the chart, then back at him more curiously. Call it intuition, but he knows what her question is going to be before it leaves her lips.

"Why do you have a big green Band-Aid on your cheek?"

"I ran into a door," he replies simply. She quirks a long, thin eyebrow and leans toward him, waiting to hear more. The potential hilarity of the accompanying story is too tantalizing for her to resist.

George hesitates for a moment, biting his lip, too ashamed to meet her expectant gaze. At least, he speaks.

"So I kinda saw your sister naked yesterday?" he says, still looking at the ceiling instead of at his resident, ending the statement with an upward inflection so that it sounds more like a question.

Eyes widening, Meredith sticks her fingers in her ears and briskly walks away from him, abandoning her chart and her coffee. She had judged wrong. There are certain things she just doesn't want to hear.

--

This story idea occurred to me randomly one day, and it seemed like something so perfectly George and it would be good if I could write it correctly. But the farther I got with it, the more it seemed like a similar scene in the movie Elf. That wasn't my intention, but it happened anyway. Oh well, more love for Elf.

The song used is "Like A Star" by Corinne Bailey Rae. I used it because it plays I the episode Yesterday (2.14) just before the scene where George and Mer (fail to­) do it.

Thanks for reading!