Okay, so I am new to the Grey's Anatomy fanfiction scene. In fact, I'm pretty new to Grey's Anatomy itself. Just one month ago I started the series and now I'm six and a half season through it. For that reason I know this story might be absurdly late, and maybe all of the fans of Alex/Izzie have since vanished and changed sides to whomever he may end up with in season eight. It's new to me though, and after watching day after day just waiting for the two of them to work on the love that I knew they had for one another, watching it all disperse so easily just broke my heart. So, here's what I'm doing to fix my poor, broken shipper heart.

Now, there are a couple of differences in my story than to how the original series was going, nothing drastic though. First off, in order to fit my time line I'd like for you all to go with the idea of Izzie having had her first surgery in the end of August and then starting chemo in the beginning of September. All of the events that happened in the show apply up to her near death experience. George is ALIVE. Because he shouldn't have died, so he remains in this story. Izzie's hair isn't magically going to start growing back despite the fact that she is still on chemo, like it did in the show. Also, she won't be going back to work in a hospital (a place riddled with infection and diseases) when she still has such a susceptible immune system. Not sure what the writers were thinking but those two things really just don't work, medically speaking.

For those of you unaware as to how IL-2 treatments work I'd like to give you a quick crash course. The recipient of the drug is to be admitted to the hospital each time he receives it due to the aggressive nature of it. It is given out in fifteen minute increments every eight hours for 3-5 days. The patient can often be admitted to ICU depending on the severity of their side effects. If you have any more questions, or if I seem to have gotten anything wrong, please let me know.

This story is going to be updated daily from now until Christmas, revolving around each day in Izzie and Alex's world leading up to their own Christmas. I'm going to alternate point of views each chapter so, since today is Izzie's day, tomorrow will be Alex's. I'll write it at the beginning of each chapter.

Lastly, after this marathon of an author's note, I would like to say thank you for reading even if the Alex/Izzie shipper boat has long since sunk like the Titanic into the ocean. Also, if you have read/written and Alex/Izzie fanfics please send them my way. In order to avoid spoilers I haven't really searched through FF for fics on them but I would love to read any you have to suggest!

Finally, on to the story!

Izzie - December 1st 9:58 AM

I watch as the intern oncologist begins hooking up all of the necessary tubes to my central line, preparing me for the beginning of my next round of IL-2 treatment. I take a breath, preparing myself for the beginning of a very long next few days. This was my fifth treatment, but it wasn't like it ever got much easier. Is it possible to adjust to exhaustion, nausea, and near constant body aches? The treatment was hell, yet I still showed up, although, not without a bit of coaxing.

"You should be all set just-"

"Press the button if I need a nurse," I interrupt, giving the intern a kind smile. I hadn't seen her around before, perhaps she'd entered the program late. "I've been here a couple of times before." She nods and gives me a small smile in response, it was pitying, but I accepted it graciously regardless. She begins to walk toward the door but stops before she makes it all the way, grabbing a pink bucket from the supply cart and shyly setting it on the floor next to me. Puke bucket. I give her another small smile before she leaves. I pull my feet up next to me, trying to relax in the fairly comfortable recliners they gave us. I swear, they're better than the beds.

It was a slow day today. Still early in the morning so only a few of the patients were in for their treatments of the day. Maybe five of the seventeen chairs were filled. Sometimes the quiet was nice, especially when you started getting really sick, but when it first begins and you're lonely, it's nice to have all of the friends you've made around you.

"You're too nice to 'em, Izzie," the older man next to me says. He was bald, just like everyone else here, and in his late sixties. His face was wrinkled and his skin spotted with old age. He was the kind of person you thought of when you considered cancer. "They need a healthy dose of fear from us."

"Oh please, Henry," I say with a slight laugh. "Quit terrorizing everyone who comes within forty feet of you."

"I don't recall ever terrorizing you, darling," he replies with a joking smile. He was a kind old man, cranky with many, but kind on the inside, scared just like the rest of us. "Besides, couple more months and I won't be terrorizing anyone no more."

I stop and digest that for a second. Here, time lines meant either the really good or the really bad. Two more months could mean the end of his treatment, when he could be declared into remission, or it could mean the time they've given him to live. You always hope it's the first, but it usually ends up being the other one.

"That better mean what I hope it does," I say in a fake stern voice. I'd lost too many friends here to be up to losing anymore.

"You really think I'd be giving up if it weren't?" he questions, his face a picture of annoyance but he smiled with me as I reached my hand out a clutched his arm. I laughed in relief, it was always great to have the chance to watch someone live.

"That's so great Henry!" I say happily, my smile overtaking my entire face as my cheeks develop a slight ache. I'd gained a soft spot for the man over the past couple of months.

"What's great?" Alex asks as he enters the room, a smile on his own face as he approaches me, leaning down to kiss me gently before pulling over one of the far less comfortable chairs to sit in next to me.

"Henry's scans were clean!" I burst out, celebrating like they were my own scans, because even if they weren't my scans they were still a hope to hold on to, and I needed all the hope I could get my hands on. "He just has to finish up his chemo and then he's a free man."

"Nice to see ya again," Alex says, reaching over me to shake Henry's hand. "And congratulations, that is great." He takes a hand and threads it through my fingers, not looking so happy himself at the news. Did he not understand how great it was? He was probably just upset with how attached I was getting to one of my fellow patients again. I wasn't about to let it bring down my joy, however. I gave his hand a little tug, getting him to look at me where a smile still rested peacefully. He smiles for me then, looking as happy as could be.

"Never smoke, kid," Henry advises for probably the twentieth time since I'd known him. We all wanted to pass our consequence ridden body knowledge onto others. Don't smoke, eat fish, put on sunscreen, all suggestions we handed out in hopes to prevent this from anyone else.

"I am a doctor," he replies like it was obvious he wouldn't even think of it. "I need to talk to you," he says to me and I'm worried for a split second before I see the excitement in his eyes. This was a good talk.

"Uh-oh, trouble in paradise already?" Henry jokes and I laugh.

Alex rolls his eye impatiently."Alone," he adds.

"You do know where we are, right?" I question, gesturing to the room around me. I was one in a circle of chairs, with nothing else aside from beeping machines and medical supplies. "Unless you'd like me to put my IV pole between Henry and I you might just have to deal."

"Oh whatever," he says, and I know he's not really agitated because of the light that was still in his eye. "Tell me, what was the last argument we had?" he asks and I stop, trying to think.

"Where we went for lunch yesterday?" I ask, wondering if this mornings argument over whether I had to actually get up or not counted. He shakes his head. "Oh! Who was the one to use the last of the toilet paper." Another no.

"Maybe about that fake ring on your hand," Henry suggests and I gently swat his arm.

"Definitely not," I respond immediately. I couldn't help but worry over how I was sure Alex must feel about being unable to supply me with a real ring. I wasn't lying when I said I liked the one he had given me. It was different, nontraditional, just like us. "I love my ring."

Alex looks at me impatiently, still waiting for me to guess. "Think, the last real argument we had."

I stop, contemplating, because all I'd come up with was the whole sex situation and I really, really hoped he wasn't bringing that up in front of Henry whether privacy had been achievable or not. "I give up," I say.

"About the trailer," he reminds me quickly and I contemplate that. I wondered where he was going with this exactly. "Now, you didn't want to move back in with Meredith and Derek," he rehashes.

"Definitely not," I agree. No moving backward.

"And I had stated my concerns with bears roaming within spitting distance as well as my desperate desire for indoor plumbing. A man should not have to miss plumbing that much, Izzie," he accentuates.

"I got it," I confirm so he won't feel the need to carry on about our crap bucket and the morning he had to rinse his mouth with beer after brushing his teeth. It was his own fault for not getting a bottle of water from the fridge.

"Well I've found a compromise," he says proudly and passes me a flyer. It has two pictures, one of a living room and another of a bedroom. Words like "wood floors" and "spacious living areas" jump out at me as I look at it.

"An apartment?" I ask, scanning my eyes down the page in search of price.

"It can be our own space, just like you want," he says happily. "And there won't be any bears or crap buckets, just like I want." He smiles at me looking lighter than he had since my little near death experience.

"A compromise," I repeat, nodding my head in agreement. "I think it's perfect," I admit.

"Good," he says."Because I might have already put an offer on it."

"Alex!" I reprimand lightly. I can't pull it off though, caught up in a dizzy love spell as he smiles brightly. Stupid marriage butterflies. Probably didn't help that I was getting doped up on IL-2. "Well you're lucky I like it."

"I'm lucky for many more reasons than that," he says cheekily as he leans in an kisses me. " I have to get back to work, but I'll be back when I get my lunch," he promises, giving my hand a squeeze before releasing it. "Should I come find you here or your room?"

"Hopefully here," I say. It always depended on how fast the treatment started getting aggressive. I didn't want my friends to see me in here like that.

He nods before leaning down for a kiss to my forehead and then turning to leave. "I'm happy to hear you'll be okay," Alex says to Henry as he walks out the door.

"You've got a good one, Izzie," he tells me, almost like I didn't already know.

11:47 AM

I puke for the third time and it's not till I'm almost too weak to lift my bucket up for the fourth and I'm shaking from being so chilled, that I decide it's time to give up and go to my room. I ignore the nurses button, paging Cristina instead.

She shows up two minutes later, pushing an empty wheelchair my way. "You didn't make it very long today," she comments. I ignore her as I slowly pull myself up from the recliner and then lower myself into the wheelchair.

"Shut up," I respond, reaching out to grab my IV pole to pull along with me, but lose my balance as I begin leaning forward, causing me to almost fall out of my chair. Henry grabs me, still in far better condition than I am, and pushes me back lightly, rolling the pole to me himself. I smile gratefully. "You didn't tell Alex, did you?" I ask as she stops to listen to my chest before wheeling me to my room.

"No, now shh, and let me listen." I sit quietly for a minute, wanting to be in a bed where the room might stop spinning some.

"My blood pressure's low," I tell her when she finally pulls the stethoscope away from my chest.

"And your heart rate is increased." I sigh, it was hitting me quickly and all at once, and it was pretty damn awful. "I need to get you upstairs and hooked up right away," Cristina says, now in full in doctor mode. This was why I paged her.

"Maybe I'll see you tomorrow, Henry?" I ask. He only had two days of treatment before he got to go home, so I could miss him.

"As long as you get yourself better first," he tells me and I smile weakly. Now he's the one who reaches out and grips my arm for a second.

"Then I'll see you tomorrow," I lay my head back as Cristina begins pushing me out of the room and toward the elevators, breathing evenly through my nose as I try to calm my nausea as well as my shivering. My head flops down on to Cristina's hand, and I feel too tired to move it just now, so I leave it there. I know she must like me at least a little, because she doesn't order me to move.

2:13 PM

"Hey," Alex says quietly as I open my eyes slowly, trying to let them adjust to the bright lighting overhead. He leans over the bed and presses a kiss to my forehead. "Not feeling so great?" he asks, obviously knowing the answer.

"Dry," I respond, because that's how everything felt. My mouth was like a desert, not a single drop of water to be found. He holds a pink cup of water with a straw sticking out up to my lips for me to drink some, and doesn't miss a beat as he pulls out a medical chap stick from his scrubs pocket and rolls it over my lips, then kisses them gently.

"Better?" he asks softly, his face still resting closely to mine. I smile the best I can at him.

"Why am I laying flat?" I ask, finding the position uncomfortable. "Did my low blood pressure not get better?"

"It was a little too low for comfort there Dr. Bailey said so she lowered the bed and-"

"Gave me saline through my IV," I finish. He nods in response and then reaches down to bring the bed up for me so I can sit much more comfortably.

"Ready for your next dose tonight?" he asks, referring to my six o' clock dose of IL-2. I groan at the thought, my body still worn by the beginning of my treatment.

"I don't have much of a choice, do I?" I ask crankily. "I'm bored," I say next, heaving a sigh. I'd only been awake for two minutes and I already wanted to leave.

"I'd give you another wedding to prepare, but unless Sloan and Lexie stupidly decide to get married I don't think I can offer you much," he says and I smile.

"Considering Meredith and Derek got married on a post it I could always rectify that," I suggest happily. I still smiled at the very thought of my own wedding, the completely, unexpectedly perfect day that it was.

"They'd kill you," he warns, and I know how right he is. "I have good news," he tells me. I raise my eyebrows, prodding him to tell me and not make me play a silly guessing game again. "By the time you're discharged we should have our own apartment to live in," he tells me and I sit up a little straighter, the promise of a new place to live reviving my energy minimally.

"You mean we'll be there in time for Christmas?" I ask warily, afraid to get too excited in case I'd misunderstood.

"You bet," he says and I swear my face lights up like the Christmas tree I'd had stuck in my head for days.

I laugh from the joy of it, thrilled with the idea of having my own little place to decorate. "We have to go to Target as soon as I'm discharged," I declare. He raises an eyebrow at me. "We need decorations!" I almost yell in excitement. I had no life these days, decorating my own place was exactly what I needed, and, considering Alex wasn't all "dark and twisty" as the people I'd lived with on previous Christmases, I was pretty sure he'd like it. Maybe even help me if I wanted.

He laughs at my enthusiasm. "Right, what was I thinking," he replies mockingly.

I hit his chest weakly with the back of my hand. "Don't you have work to do?" I ask, as I watch Dr. Hunt walk by. "What case are you working on today?"

"I have a solo appy in an hour," he says. "O'Malley is scrubbing in."

I sigh, "Try and get something more exciting tomorrow, okay," I tell him and pat my hand against his cheek. "Now go prepare." He gets up, kissing me before he leaves. "And tell George I say hi!" I add. He didn't visit me, not like the others did.

Bailey walks in just as Alex exits through the door. "I need to take your blood pressure again," she says and wraps the cuff around my arm. "And don't you dare let it drop like it did earlier, Stevens," she warns me in a tone reminiscent of intern days.

"You got it, Dr. Bailey," I confirm for her. "Have you seen George around?" I ask, thinking of my once best friend. It was a relationship fragmented by dumb drunk sex followed by a train wreck of a relationship, but it shouldn't be. We should have been able to revive it by now. It was just like...neither of us were trying very hard.

"Oh, I've seen him around, alright," she says in a tone that suggest it wasn't in a good way. "I've seen him around plenty."

"What'd he do?" I ask nervously as I consider all of the things George could have gotten himself into trouble with.

"He messed with my patient is what he did," she snaps back, squeezing the cuff tighter and tighter until releasing it. "90 over 60," she reports and I breathe a sigh of relief. Much better. "If I beat him like I should I'll be sure to make sure you two get to be bunk mates," she assures me.

"It can't be that bad," I say. "George has good instincts." I would trust George with my life and I didn't doubt his capabilities with patients. No one else has had faith in George ever since his first day with the failure of his appy. It seemed from there that they were all proven right as he failed his boards and was almost forced to go through his intern years all over again. I never lost faith in him though, and I still believed he would show the world what a great doctor he was. How satisfying it would be to see the faces of all of those people who doubted him when he went to receive a Harper Avery or something.

"I don't care if that boy has the instincts of an ostrich before a stampede. He better do what I say, when I say it," she spews out angrily. I was sure that I was receiving the brunt of her anger toward George right now.

I add nothing more the conversation and instead just try my best to rearrange myself in a more comfortable position. It was fruitless effort in a hospital bed, really. "How's Tucker?" I ask, hopeful for some friendly conversation. Usually talking about her son made her a little more...normal.

"He's a stressed out kid, Stevens," is all she says and I sigh, this wasn't going anywhere, I could tell already. I'd just have to find something to watch on TV.

"Am I all done?" I ask as she scribbles something in my chart.

"Not quite, it's been four hours," she reminds me and tosses a cup in my direction. "Urine time."

5:42 PM

Meredith is sitting next to me, shoes kicked off and lunch tray pushed to the side as she rambles on about her current relationship trouble with Derek. I was happy to play mediator with the two of them, which is good because they seemed to need it an awful lot.

"I hardly think it's right!" she finishes, heaving a sigh of frustration.

"Have you talked to him at all, Mer?" I ask. It always seemed like such an obvious solution, but how often we forgot it was even an option, myself included. "Maybe he wasn't yelling out of your disagreement this morning but because you weren't listening."

She shoots me a glare and despite the fact that I could take her tiny little body down even with my weakened chemo filled one I still felt a small tremor of fear. No wonder Derek gave into her so easily. "You're supposed to take my side."

"I'm giving you advice," I remind her. "I can't be a partial viewer if I'm going to help you resolve anything." Oh god, it was official. I had watched too much Dr. Phil.

She wrinkles her nose at my response. "Now you just sound like my therapist." Yep, far too much Dr. Phil.

"I hardly think you need a second therapist." Cristina scoffs as she comes into my room, setting herself on the window seat as she opens her to go container of cafeteria food. "You should eat before your next IL-2 treatment starts," she doctors me and I shrug my shoulders.

"It's not like it'll stay down in a couple of hours." Cristina shrugs her shoulders and then consults Meredith, who starts from the beginning of her story, just as enthusiastic and angry as her first time around.

"Hey," Alex says as he comes in next, two paper bags in his hands. I smile in hope as he sets one on the table in front of me. "Eat," he directs and props himself down at my feet, shoving some of the things on my tray over to make room for his meal.

"Oh, he's totally out of line," Cristina comments at the end of Meredith's story.

"What am I missing?" Alex asks and I jump in before Meredith can start again.

"Meredith and Derek got in a fight this morning over something that has been omitted, so later today when they were in the OR together he yelled at her. She assumes he was doing it just because of his already existent frustration with her." It was so much shorter when I explained. I laid my head back, it was starting to ache, probably why I was so cranky.

"You left out the part where he had Lexie take over on holding the retractor and made me suction."

"That's a lateral move," Cristina comments. "You weren't gaining the world's best education from doing either." There's where the logical Cristina chimed in.

"How'd your appy go?" I ask, silently questioning about George as well.

"Good, O'Malley opened and closed for me and the procedure was nothing out of the ordinary." I nod tiredly. "Eat," he says again. I sit myself up against the pillows, Meredith reaches behind me and pulls one up to help, and I then begin pulling out the contents of the bag.

My eyes are focused on the somehow appealing looking burger in front of me, so when the doors open I don't even look up before giving my greeting. "Already, Dr. Bailey? I was hoping to eat before it started." No one answers me so I look up and smile happily at the sight before me. "George!"

"Hey," he says quietly. "I'm just uh, I'm just gonna start your IL-2 now," he tells me.

"Aren't you eating too?" I ask, despite noting his empty hands. He hangs the bag containing my toxic medicine and connects the IV, allowing it to run into my veins for the second time that day.

"Nah, I've got labs to deliver," he tells me, and I frown. My best friend hated me. Great. I had cancer and my best friend hated me.

"But...I have cancer," I say and Meredith and Cristina both groan. I smile in spite of the situation. Playing the cancer card was really fun sometimes. Not as fun as setting all of my alarms off to freak out Cristina, but still fun.

"You know," Meredith says, standing with her empty tray. "I'm done and Cristina needs to go get some of her own labs so we can just do it," she offers, her own worries over Derek's reaction in the OR seemingly forgotten now. That was what made her a good friend. Even if she was dealing with something she'd take the time to consider your problems too.

"I do," Cristina asks, looking confused. Meredith elbows her in response. "Oh! Oh, that's right I...do."

I laugh at their awful acting but it's cut short when I see George's face. He didn't look grateful, or pleased, or even like he'd fallen into submission. He looked as though someone had forced some unpleasant into his mouth, and then made him swallow it. He didn't want to be near me.

"Let him do his job, guys," I say and give George a little smile. He's too busy staring awkwardly at his feet to notice though. "Go on, get your labs," I say, sending him away. He nods in my general direction before leaving. After that everyone is silent, frozen, and they're all staring at me. Probably waiting for me to cry, or puke, or pass out or something. That's what we did these days. "What are you all staring at?" I ask nonchalantly as I take a huge bite of burger, preventing me from saying anymore. I tried my best to savor the taste now because I knew in an hour it wouldn't be tasting so good.

9:22 PM

I laugh in good humor as Derek Shepherd finishes his corny joke. He was nice enough to come visit me, but I wondered if he was just trying to win brownie points back with Meredith since she was probably still ready to bite his head off from the earlier event. I wanted to ask him to leave, the IL-2 was working just as well as always. Luckily he had only been here for a few minutes and had missed my original vomiting, but now got to see my red, irritated skin and exhausted body. I was only able to half listen to his words as my concentration dosed in and out.

I must have fallen asleep at some point for, next thing I knew, Alex was laying carefully in bed next to me, not really touching me much, probably to avoid waking me. I tug on his arm lightly to pull him closer to me, I could use the extra body heat.

"Shouldn't you go pack?" I ask groggily, not really intending to let my new heated blanket up.

"Not tonight," he says and pulls me closer, very gently, because that was how he always touched me now. I missed the rough grabs and sexy tugs. Hell, I missed sex in general. "How was your day?"

I almost want to laugh in response. "Ridiculously boring."

"Is that why you fell asleep on Shepherd?" he asks and I feel embarrassed. I'd fallen asleep not even on one of my friends, but technically, one of my bosses.

"Oops," I mutter. I didn't have enough energy to stay embarrassed. I feel the unfortunate turn of my stomach, and the risings of acids in my throat. "Alex," I croak out panicked, and he reacts just in time. He sits me up and shoves the bin under my chin as the small amounts of content remaining in my stomach spill out. I groan, almost wanting to just eat something to give my body something more it could reject. It was easier on my stomach muscles. This way I might have some abs by the time I'm done with the IL-2 at least.

He sets the bin aside and wipes my nose and mouth. He holds a cup of water for me to sip, which I gratefully do, hoping to rid of the taste as much as possible. Then, finally, we lay back down.

"Better?" he asks, and I nod against him tiredly. "Ready to go to sleep again?"

"Mhm," I manage before curling myself a little more tightly around him and falling asleep.

Thank you for reading! If anyone is still interested in reading Alex/Izzie fanfics please let me know with a review if you could. Just to reassure you all, this isn't a story that will take place around her chemo treatment. It's the first layer of the story. Also, let me know how you feel about chapter lengths. I can't imagine they'd all be this long but, just in case they might be if you want them shorter let me know. I can edit. I will try to fit in as many other characters in Alex and Izzie's days as I can so you should get a decent dose of the whole cast. Thanks again!