As a kid, George was picked on a lot, mostly because he was small and had a certain lack of physical strength. But as he got older and learned how to take the time to work out, people stopped messing with him. Maybe it was because the people his age finally learned how to grow up and stop belittling their peers just so they can feel better about themselves but it also could've been because he hit his asshat of a neighbor, Mike Wilden, in the face with a stick. And when he went to college, he mostly stuck to himself and didn't spend enough time on campus besides from classes, so nobody really had the time to give him crap about being smart or being on the shorter end of height for a male.
George had thought that his time spent being bullied was over and that he'd finally be able to move on with his life and be whoever he wanted to be; that was until he met Alex Karev. From the first time they bumped into each other at the luncheon, George knew exactly what kind of guy Alex was.
Alex was the guy who stepped on other people to get what he wants, Alex was the guy who stole his neighbor's dog so that he could get a money reward, Alex was the guy that got a girl pregnant and then told her to get an abortion and leave him alone; George just knew it. His second meeting with Alex wasn't any better. They had been forced to do rounds together, no matter how much they didn't want too. Alex talked the least amount possible and when he did talk, it was to say something rude and demeaning; exactly what George expected.
By the time they were done, both of them were practically fleeing from each other but as luck would have it, Dr. Bailey was in a particularly bad mood (Alex's fault) and decided to pair them together on Pediatrics.
George had kept an eye on Alex, hoping to avoid him scarring the kids for life and because he wasn't in the mood to continuously check kid's vitals, too monotonous for his taste. Alex had yelled at two kids, threatened one, and raised his hand at another; George interfering just in time so as not to draw attention to the two of them. He sometimes wished he didn't worry about other people too much and could let them get in trouble but it just wasn't in his nature.
At the end of their shift when they were about to leave, Alex told George, "You can stop following me around, O'Malley. I only have one more kid before I leave and trust me; I'm not ruining my chances of getting out of here as fast as I can by doing something stupid." It was almost nice, if he weren't doing it for himself that is. George went to the locker room, changed, and was about to leave before realizing that Alex had yet to come back even though he was simply checking a bowel obstruction. Fearing the worst, George ran back to the pediatric ward and was going to open the kid's door when he heard Alex talking. Correction, Alex wasn't simply talking, he was telling a story. It wasn't anything extravagant, just the generic bed time story about a prince and princess but for Alex, it was a whole lot more than that.
Standing outside the door where he couldn't be seen, George listened as Alex told the little girl a story, her laughing every once in a while or asking a question about the story and couldn't help but think about occam's razor. Occam's razor is a medical term meaning that the most obvious diagnosis is usually the answer, kind of a short cut for doctors but George couldn't help but think that wasn't the answer here. Maybe Alex wasn't the kind of person George thought he was.