Title: "Falling"

By: Limoonbunny

Rating: uhh...PG 13

Pairing: A tiny smidge of George/Alex but it seems like more of a Friendship piece.

Summary: All it takes is one brief moment to realize that you care about someone, and one brief moment is all it takes to carry them away again…

Disclaimer: Yeah yeah yeah….I don't own any of these characters and I am not making any money off of this.

Everything happened so fast, too fast for Alex Karev to even comprehend. One minute he and George were wrestling with an unruly patient in the stairwell and the next minute he was thrown against a wall, and George was thrown down the stairs.

Security chose that moment to show up and with their collective force they subdued the patient, but Alex paid them no attention his eyes were glued to the steps, where seconds before, George had stood.

People were swarming the hallway to sedate the patient and lead him away, and still others were scrambling down the steps to get to George.

Alex was vaguely aware of someone asking him if he was alright, but he just shook them off and stood up, scrambling to the steps. People were surrounding George's unmoving form, yelling things orders to one another. He knew he should go down and help, because god damnit he was a doctor and it was his fault that George was lying there, but…seeing George lying at the bottom of the steps, he can't think of a single medical procedure, and it frightens him.

He feels someone tugging on his arm, trying to pull him away. But he can't move, can't even breathe, because that's George lying there, that's his blood spreading on the ground. The hands pull him even harder and this time he allows himself to be led away.

Something happens, Alex is sure of it, because one minute he's being led out of the stairwell, and the next he finds himself lying on a gurney with Izzie standing over him, trying to stitch his cheek, but her hands are shaking so much that she doesn't even want to try yet.

Alex looks up at her, with her tear stained face "How's George? Is he alright?"

A few more tears slip down her face, and she doesn't answer right away, and Alex's eyes widen and he jumps off the gurney. He can vaguely hear Izzie calling him, but he doesn't acknowledge her, he is intent on finding George for reasons he can't even explain to himself. He realizes that he is in the ER and heads for the nearest trauma room. He can hear the commotion in there and he pushes the door open.

He sees a flash of George's dark curls before the young man is swallowed again by doctors and nurses and Izzie is pulling on his arm again. Bailey walks over and Alex wants to ignore her but she says George's name and Alex immediately tunes into what she's saying.

"…They're gonna take him up for a head CT, they think he's got a concussion, and they want to make sure he didn't do anything worse. And his leg looks like it's broken and maybe a few ribs."

The three of them step out of the way to let the gurney pass them, and Alex sees George again, there's a tube down his throat and a nurse is pumping air into his lungs. There's blood on his forehead and they have his neck immobilized.

Bailey watches the gurney roll by then looks up at Alex. "Let Izzie stitch your forehead you idiot." Then her eyes soften a little. "I'll go up with him and let you know the moment we find anything out."

Alex nods dumbly and allows Izzie to lead him away again, and this time her hands don't shake as she stitches him up.

Izzie sits with him while they wait for Bailey to come back down, it seems like hours pass before Bailey comes back down to tell them that George is still unconscious, and his CT shows only a little bit of swelling.

"As soon as he wakes up we'll be able to assess him better. You can go up and see him, but only one at a time. Don't let me come up and find out that there's a hoard of you crowding that room or I will find somewhere else for all of you to be." Bailey continues gruffly as she turns and walks out.

Alex again allows Izzie to lead him up to George's room. George's other roommates are standing outside the door, Christina is stony faced, and Meredith looks like she's been crying. Izzie graciously allows him to go in first and despite his haste to get to George, he finds himself reluctant to go in, but Izzie gives him a push, and he finds himself over the threshold.

The room is dim, and he makes his way over to George's bed with care. The light above the bed is on, casting a sickly fluorescent glow over George's still form.

His leg is in a white plaster cast, his head is swathed in bandages, and there are IV's and wires attached to his body, but at least the tube is gone from his throat.

Alex walks over, still hesitant, George looks so young lying there in the white hospital bed, and he wonders briefly if anyone has thought to call George's parents, but then as he stands over the bed, the thought is gone, and he is focused solely on George.

"What have you gotten yourself into Bambi? Huh? Why'd you have to jump on that guy, I could have handled it." Alex finds himself saying, even though he knows it's a lie.

"All of the girls are out there crying over you, you know. They're all worried, even the Nazi is worried. You gotta wake up now, so I can tell you dirty jokes and you can blush like a little girl, and so…so…Damnit George, I'm no good with things like this. I don't know why or when, but somehow you've become important to me, you wormed your way past those walls that I put up, with your little lost puppy looks, and your stupid jokes…So you gotta wake up George, 'cause I don't care about just anybody."

Alex took George's hand in his, mindful of the IV, and squeezed it gently. Then he sat down in the hard plastic hospital chair and settled into wait.

Meredith, Izzie and Christina stuck their heads into the room about ten minutes later, curious as to why Alex hadn't come out yet. What they saw made them all look at each other in surprise. Tough, cool Alex "I am the macho-ist man in the whole world" Karev, was asleep with his head resting on George's bed, and their hands entwined with each others.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" came a voice from behind them, they all jumped guiltily and turned around.

Bailey stood behind them glaring. "Don't all of you have patients? Or do I have to find you something else to do."

All of them knew that unless they immediately went to attend to their patients they would have a lot of rectal exams in their future, so they all scurried in different directions, like a flock of frightened birds.

Bailey smirked slightly, and walked quietly into the room to check on her two interns.

Well what do you think? I'm pretty new to this fandom and I've only seen a few episodes, but I thought I'd give it a try. Let me know what you think, and if I should change anything.