Author's Note: Oneshot. Gizzie. Set around Season Four, before Crash Into Me. Izzie-centric and fluffy. The fragment of a song at the beginning belongs to 'Who wants to live forever?' by Queen. Um, this was completely random and I have no idea where it came from. I want to thank my friend Dai for suggesting the song, which helped a lot with the writing of this oneshot. This is for her.

There's no chance for us.
It's all decided for us.
This world has only one sweet moment set aside for us.

Back in a time when they were together, she laughed more, and it was almost always because of him. He would say something only they could understand, or he would make a funny face or tell a silly joke and she would throw her head back and laugh, joyful, and he would secretly confirm that he didn't need anything else to exist, anything but those precious, blissful moments together.

Back in a time when they were together, every time they went to bed she would lay on her side and yawn loudly while one of his arms was around her waist, and he would nuzzle his nose against her shoulder and laugh at her loudest yawns – for some reason he found them funny and adorable at the same time. Sometimes she would turn around and face him, and she'd look at him silently for a moment before playfully hitting his chest. Your nose is cold! She'd protest. It's making me shiver! But it wasn't his nose what made her shiver – neither was his nose what made goose bumps pop up everywhere all over her skin, for that matter: it was the very presence of him, laying next to her, the touch of his skin brushing hers. And he would always say Ouch loudly and jokingly make a sad – puppy face which would make her kiss him and apologize for the punch – even when he had deserved it: his nose was always cold.

Back in a time when they were together, sometimes he watched her while she cooked. He would just lay against the kitchen counter, trying his best to act nonchalant, smiling that smile of his (which she always told him not to do, because being observed like that was very distracting, but he never obeyed, something she was secretly grateful for.) Occasionally he offered to help her baking something, though most of the times he somehow managed to ruin the baked goods – he was so clumsy. (And she loved it.)

Back in a time when they were together, she didn't have any nightmares at all. For some reason, knowing that he laid next to her, feeling his arms protectively wrapped around her and the warmth of his body, and listening to his calm breathing patterns seemed to sooth her to a peaceful sleep.

Back in a time when they were together, sometimes she would stay up late simply listening to his heartbeat, and wondering why she'd ever thought that doing that was stupid, and how hadn't she realized before that it was her favorite sound in the world.

Back in the time when they were together, she felt both vulnerable and invincible at the same time. She could cry her eyes out during the day, maybe, but when she came home, and they were alone together, all she had to do was letting herself go inside of his embrace, losing herself in his eyes, and just like that, all pain was gone. All guilt was gone. All vulnerability, gone. All the crap she had had to bear with during the day, forgotten like it had never existed. She felt safe. Especially when he wrapped his arms around her and they hugged tightly, as if he tried to separate her from the cruel, violent world for a while and have her as near as humanly possible, since the closest they were to each other, the farthest the problems and risks seemed to be. She knew – because he'd told her repeatedly, and because that kind of things is easily noticeable – that he would protect her, always. That he would never let anything bad happen to her. That he would sacrifice his life for her if needed. She had said she wouldn't allow it – If you're gonna give your life away for me, then I might as well kill myself, since life's not worth living without you; and you don't want that, she'd said – but she was sure that she was willing to do the same for him, even when she was aware of the fact that George was the bravest person she'd ever known, and that she would never be able to top that.

Back in a time when they were together, she smiled more. They both did. It was almost hard not to when by just looking at each other they found enough reasons to be happy.

Back in a time when they were together, she didn't have so many fears. The only thing that truly scared her to the point of pushing the thought out of her mind in order not to go crazy was the possibility of something bad happening to him. Living without him – she figured that would be her personal Hell.

Back in a time when they were together, she didn't need many things to be satisfied. He was enough. She didn't mind Cristina stealing surgeries from her, Alex being a jerk or people gossiping about her in the hospital hallways. She didn't care about anything else, because she didn't need anything else but him.

Back in a time when they were together, she felt loved. Not wanted (because she had always been wanted by men) but truly loved. There was a huge difference between those two concepts, an abyss, actually, that she had never really noticed. She hadn't felt adored before. He was around her all the time, ready to share a moment of laughter or wipe away her tears; getting her a coffee, kissing her on the cheek when he passed her by on a hallway (and on the lips when they met on an elevator), buying her sweets, hugging her and reminding her that it didn't matter how long, stressful or exhausting the day was, at some point they were going home together, calling her loving nicknames, they were just some of the ways he used to show his affection. He was like that. He would do anything to make her happy.

Back in a time when they were together, sometimes he would call her beautiful so many times during the day that she'd lose track of it. When she asked him why he did that, he answered that the truth was still the truth no matter how many times someone said it out loud. "Truth doesn't get old, Izzie." Every time he'd say those words she would look at him in silence for a while, blushing slightly, a shy grin on her face before muttering something like You're strange, George. Then she would pause and add You're an angel, which caused him to be the one to blush slightly.

Back in a time when they were together, thinking about Denny or Hannah didn't hurt that much; it made her nostalgic and sad but it wasn't the excruciating pain she'd felt before, and she was 100% sure it was all because of George.

Back in a time when they were together, it was all about worship with him. Every time he kissed her she felt free, clean, redeemed, as if the touch of his lips could wipe all her mistakes and all the madness she'd gone through off of her in a matter of seconds. He had that way of looking at her, like she was some sort of goddess that he wasn't worthy of, a goddess he had to adore from a distance. Every time they made love, he treated her with such devotion, as if she were some fragile creature which perfection needed to be handled slowly and carefully, to preserve her from any harm and with such passion at the same time, a kind of electrifying passion that she'd never experienced before.

Back in a time when they were together, she knew he would do anything for her: she could ask for the world and he would get it for her on a silver plate.

Back in a time when they were together, he used to wake her up by sweetly, slowly kissing her neck, or her lower jaw, or her forehead. If she resisted to get out of bed and buried her head on the pillows, he would say something like "Okay, you asked for it" and start tickling her side, which would make her burst into laughter and run off towards the bathroom to lock herself in it, but halfway through he'd always catch her, wrapping one of his arms around her waist and using his other hand to softly trace her features before pressing his lips against hers. That was the moment when she usually surrendered and let him fully envelope her with his arms and carry her to the kitchen, where the breakfast he had made for them laid on the table waiting for them.

Back in a time when they were together, they were always in a good mood, no matter how long or stressful the day had been.

Back in a time when they were together, they watched a lot of movies, snuggled against each other in Meredith's couch, and they took lots of pictures of each other.

Back in a time when they were together, she thought more about the future, and less about the past. The images of them getting married, starting a family, buying a house to make it a home and growing old together invaded her mind all the time, filling her with hope and great expectations and undeniable desire of beginning their future together right away.

Back in a time when they were together, she'd ask herself the same question thousands of times: "Is this real, or am I dead and in Heaven?" Because it all seemed too good to be true.

Back in a time when they were together, she started thinking that love was the actual medicine, the only medicine- "What we do in the hospital", she reflected, "… cracking people's ribs open, stitching them up, covering bullet holes, that's just butcher work. That's nothing compared to the curative power of love."

Back in a time when they were together, she never saw him sad. And that made everything perfect.

Back in a time when they were together, she wasn't familiar with feelings of emptiness, uncertainty, fear, loneliness. She knew who she was, she knew what she wanted and she wasn't letting go of what she had.

Back in a time when they were together, she had learned that the shade of blue of his eyes was very similar to the color of the sea when there's a storm, and it had become her favorite color.

Back in a time when they were together, it seemed like luck was finally on her side. On their side.

Back in a time when they were together, she had thought that what they had was perfect, and that it would last forever.

But like many other times in her life, she had been mistaken.