Hey guys! So, after 3.09 I was desperately craving some IzzieGeorge closure, and since we didn't get it in 3.10, I decided to write it myself.
Also, I am a hugeeee AlexIzzie fan, so of course I had so include a little of that! ;)
This is kind of like a really long one shot, and will be done in two parts.
So I'm gonna shut and let you read now! Please enjoy, and review if liked it! Feedback is my crack, seriously. ♥
Title: Flours
Author: sillybillyxo
Pairing: GeorgeIzzie friendship, GeorgeAlex friendship, heavily implied AlexIzzie.
Spoilers: Set at the end of 3.09
Summary: Overwhelmed by his guilty feelings from his fight with Izzie, George endeavors to make up with her with a little help from Alex.
Rating: Probably T.. a bit of swearing. Nothing major.
Disclaimer: I do not own Grey's Anatomy, nor am I making any money from the writing of this fic
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Flours
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Frustrated and emotionally exhausted, George flung his tired body down onto one of Joe's familiar bar stools.
"A shot of Jack, Joe," George ordered hastily as he lay his head in his hands. It had been one hell of a day; the kind of a day that came with problems only alcohol was capable of fixing. And that was exactly how George planned to drown today out of his memory – by drinking.
But today hadn't been one of the regular, run-of-the-mill bad days that George was used to having to flood out of his memory. He hadn't been late for rounds, he hadn't contracted syphilis, and he hadn't even forced to buy tampons today. No. Today had been a much, much worse kind of bad day than George was used to.
His Dad was in the hospital, having been diagnosed with not one, not two, but three different disorders. George's family had always stressed him out, but having them all together in his Dad's hospital room had brought his stress levels to a whole new level. Plus, despite the oh-so comforting words of everyone around him, George was not so sure his Dad was going to be "fine". Actually, he was presently fearing quite the opposite, and with good reason. George had learned fast since coming to Seattle Grace that the word fine was never associated with anything good. The word fine seemed to carry a curse, and it was really a word George could do without hearing for the rest of his life.
On top of that, two of George's best friends had not only betrayed him, but the entire hospital today. George just didn't get how Cristina and Burke could have done that. How they could have kept such a huge, life-threatening secret from everyone. He couldn't fathom how it had happened. One day, everything had been normal. George had been "Burke's guy" and was crashing on his couch. Then, all of a sudden, Burke is about to take George's fathers life into his own shaky hands without being fully qualified to do so. Today it had all blown up when Cristina had finally gone to the Chief and told him the truth, and although he was very angry at them right now, George was even more scared. No one knew what the repercussions of this secret coming out were going to be, and although they had betrayed him, he still cared about Burke and Cristina. George was scared for them, and he couldn't help but fear the worse. Then again, he had been doing that a lot lately.
Then there was Callie. Callie: the one girl who, for the first time in his life, made George feel appreciated. Made him feel loved. The one person who seemed to genuinely care about him, and what does she do? She cheats on him. With Mark fucking Sloane. And yes, George could admit he hadn't treated her perfectly in the past, but really – what choice did he have? His best friend was going through hell, and he needed to be there for her. If Callie couldn't understand that, that was her problem. Izzie's fiancé had died, and…
Izzie.
The knot in George's stomach twisted even tighter at the thought of her. Recalling what had happened between them today, he felt sick. Memories of the horrible things he had said to her came flooding back, and he squeezed his eyes tightly shut, willing them to vanish.
Yes. It had been a bad day for George. A very bad day.
The clinking sound of Joe resting George's shot down onto the counter in front of him luckily disrupted his thoughts. Hungrily, he raised the glass to his lips, preparing himself to drink when, out of the corner of his eye, something caught his attention. Alex had slid into the barstool next to him.
Figuring he would most certainly need it now, George downed his shot, slamming it down on the counter and signaling his dire need of another.
"O'Malley," Alex nodded, greeting him with a half-smile. From the look on his face, George could tell Alex wasn't in the mood to pick a fight with him tonight. His expression seemed to mirror George's own – Alex looked drained.
It was a huge relief, actually, as George wasn't in the mood for fighting either. Plus, George actually liked Alex when he acted like a half-decent human being. It was a feat many thought him incapable of, but George knew better.
"Hey Alex."
Joe replaced the empty shot glass in front of George with a full one, and then turned to Alex.
Alex ordered before even having to be asked. "I'll have what he's having."
Joe cocked an eyebrow, looking back and forth between the two interns and noticing the looks of exhaustion plain on both their faces. "Geeze guys, rough day or what?"
Alex and George looked at each other, exchanging knowing glances. Everyone at the hospital had been pretty sapped about finding out what happened with Burke and Cristina.
"Something like that…" Alex chuckled in response.
Joe left to the back of the bar, deciding not to press the issue any further. Alex turned to face George and finally broke the thick silence between them.
"Man, I'm sorry about your Dad," Alex said uneasily.
"Thanks. You really don't have to say that, but thanks," George replied, only slightly surprised at Alex's usually uncharacteristic compassion. Despite what everyone thought of him, George knew how Alex could be.
"Yeah, well…" Alex trailed off. "You know… he's gonna be fi-"
"Fine?" George finished, cutting him off. For what seemed like the first time in ages, the corners of his lips tugged upwards into a smile. "Fine? Seriously?" Alex was smiling now too, realizing is mistake. "Did you seriously just try to make me feel better about my dad by using the f-word?"
Unable to contain themselves, both interns broke out into an uproar of laughter. The full effects of the exhausting and frustrating day they had was hitting them hard.
Alex strained to compose himself. "It's just - It's just what you say, you know?"
George nodded, smiling back. "I can't believe you just used the f-word." But thinking about the word fine had him thinking of Izzie. Izzie was the ultimate abuser of the word fine. If anybody had put the curse on the word fine, it was Izzie.
"You know what's funny?" George said. "I'm more worried about Izzie than my Dad. I'm more worried about her than Burke, Cristina, Callie, or my very sick Dad. Isn't that so funny? I mean, I have all this important stuff going on right now, and all I can do is sit here and think about how shitty I feel for what I did. I mean, I can't believe I did that to her. God, I feel so shitty," he blurted, concluding his rant and staring into the still full glass of murky alcohol in front of him.
Alex's expression immediately changed; the amusement on his face was immediately replaced by a defensive anger. "What? What did you do to Izzie?" he demanded, fists clenching as he spoke.
George solemnly forced himself to meet Alex's gaze. "I played the Denny card.
I was scared and frustrated and I wasn't thinking, and I brought up Denny. I pretty much called her a bad doctor, right in front of my parents. God, I can't believe I did that. Why did I do that?" George said, talking to himself really more than Alex.
"What? What the fuck, Bambi?" Alex seethed.
"I know!" George pushed the shot away from his face, the smell suddenly becoming overwhelming; the sick feeling had returned to his stomach. "I feel like the shittiest friend in the world."
Alex looked away from George, gripping the counter of the bar in frustration. "Why the fuck did you say that? Seriously. That's the last thing she needs right now."
George groaned, rubbing his temples. "I have no idea. I was just trying to protect my Dad, and I didn't know what else to do. She had somehow convinced them to switch the surgery back to Burke! I didn't know what else to do, so I guess I panicked."
Alex seemed to understand, but still shot him a disgusted look. "It's no excuse."
"I didn't mean what I said. I mean, of course I didn't. I think she's a great doctor."
"She is a great doctor," Alex cut in, warranting himself a bemused look from George.
"You really care about her, don't you?"
Alex tried to suppress his grin, the slightest hint of a blush forming on his stubbled cheeks. "Yeah. Yeah I think I do. Well - I know I do. I just -" Alex sighed, rubbing his temples. Talking about Izzie had never been easy for him. "She's Izzie, you know?"
George smiled. "Yeah, I do know."
Alex looked down, trying to avoid George's questions by focusing his attention picking open a peanut shell.
"For what it's worth," George started. "Izzie loves you. I know she does. She just-"
"Can't?" Alex finished for him. "I know, she told me." He stared back down at the shell in his hands and sighed. "She doesn't love me."
"Oh yes she does."
"Yeah?" replied Alex, deciding to play along. "And just how do you know that?"
"Because she told me."
Alex looked up abruptly, having been startled by what George had said. Izzie had never even told Alex she loved him, but she had told George?
"After you slept with Olivia, she told me. She told me she was in love you. That's why she couldn't just let it go and move on. That's why she was so mad at us for even being civil to you. She was in love with you and you cheated on her."
Alex formed a fist around the shell he was holding and cracked it. "Biggest fucking mistake of my life…" he muttered.
"I really hated you for doing that."
"I really hated myself for doing that," Alex sighed, eyes still to the floor. "I still do."
George watched Alex as he took his anguish out on the shells in front of them, cracking them into small pieces under the weight of his fingers. He finally gathered the courage to ask Alex the question he had always wanted the answer to. "Why did you do it?"
Alex looked up in surprise, debating on whether or not he should even bother answering. "Honestly?" he asked.
George nodded. "Because I was scared. I'd never felt that way about anyone before. My whole life I've only ever loved two people – my mom and my sister. Every girlfriend I ever had was just someone to fuck, someone to be seen with, something to do on a Saturday night. No one had really ever meant anything to me before, you know? No one had ever really mattered."
"Izzie," Alex continued. "She was so different from everyone else. She fucked with my head. She was kind and she was a good person, and what was even weirder is that she saw good things in me. No one ever really sees good things in me, and it scared the hell out of me, so I pushed her away. And when she caught us, when she caught Olivia and me together, the look on her face just stuck with me. Right then, I knew I loved her, and that I fucked up - bad."
"And now I'd do anything to take it back." Alex picked up the shot Joe had finally placed in front of him, downing it quickly. He allowed the burning sensation of the alcohol to linger in the back of his throat while George silently took in everything he had said.
"You love her?"
Alex smiled. "Yep. For the first time in my life, I love someone. I love Izzie… Only now it's too late. Ironic, isn't it?" he trailed off.
"It's defiantly not too late."
"O'Malley, please. She may have thought she loved me before, but then she met Denny," Alex spat out his name. "She fell in love with Denny. Real love. What she may or may not have felt for me was nothing compared to what she felt for him. He asked her to marry him and she said yes. If he hadn't died, she'd be walking down the aisle now. She'd be Izzie Stevens-Duquette."
Alex sighed again. "I'm not half the man Denny was, and I never will be. She said it herself."
"You know," George started. "I know Izzie pretty well. I know her better than she even knows herself. And, I know why she said yes to Denny. "
"Uh, so does everyone George. Because she loved him."
"She didn't say yes. Not at first anyways. He made this huge proposal-speech, declaration-of-love-thing, and she just walked away. She wasn't even going to say yes until she realized something."
Alex stared at George, not quite understanding where he was going with this. "What did she realize?"
"That Denny didn't make her feel like a "pretty girl". That's why she wanted to marry him. He didn't objectify her, he didn't love her for her looks, and Izzie knew that he would never, ever hurt her. He was a safe choice, and she said yes."
Alex just stared at George blankly. "Well, don't you get it?"
"Uh, no," Alex replied.
"Denny was the opposite of you, Alex! You weren't the safe choice, you hurt her in the past, and you defiantly made her feel like a "pretty girl". She wanted the opposite of you; she wanted to forget you. And the difference is, if it were you proposing, she never would have hesitated. So trust me, Alex, I know Izzie. I know the way her mind works and I know that, as much as she tried to deny it, it is defiantly not too late."
Alex sat there, at a complete loss for words. He was desperately trying to process everything that had just been said, mainly trying to figure out if it could really be true.
"Wow," Alex started. "I, um, I never really thought of it that way…"
"I can tell," George smiled.
"But she stole a heart from UNOS for him. She put the medical career she worked so hard for at a major risk…"
"I'm not saying she didn't love him. I know she loved him. But if you don't think she would have done the same for you, you're crazy. If it were you in that hospital bed, Izzie would have stolen a helicopter and held Dr. Hahn at gunpoint until she got you a heart. She would have done anything."
Alex just stared off into space. It was hard to fathom, but George actually could be right. Izzie really could still be in love with him. Maybe it wasn't too late for them.
"So, just give her some time to heal.," George continued. "In the meantime, just be a good friend to her. I know you two will end up together eventually – you have to, because your…" George paused. "Your Alex & Izzie."
Alex broke into a smile – a real, genuine smile that George had only seen him bear a handful of times since they had met. He actually looked happy, and George really hadn't seen Alex look happy for a very long time, now that he thought of it. In fact, the only times George had ever seen Alex happy, he was with Izzie.
"O'Malley, I mean, thanks for saying that," Alex tried to cover his grin with the back of his hand, suddenly aware of his vulnerability. "I hope your right about all of this."
George smiled confidently. "Don't worry. I am."
"Just be there for her, and everything will work itself out." As soon as the sentence left his lips, George immediately felt his sick feeling come on again.
"The way I wasn't today," he groaned.
Alex's smile dropped almost as soon as it had come as he remembered what George had told him earlier. "Fuck, man. Did you at least apologize to her?"
"Yes! Of course I did. I waited on the couch for her to come home until 10 o' clock tonight. When she finally got in, I tried apologizing, but she said I 'didn't get to apologize to her'. She said 'maybe tomorrow'. I didn't know what else to do," George whined. "She went upstairs to bed and I came here."
George thought of Izzie's face when she had come home that night. What hurt the most was that she wasn't even mad at him; at least anger George knew how to deal with. When George looked into her eyes, they were sad, and the fact that it was his fault this time killed him. It wasn't Alex or Denny or any other guy who had broken her; this time it was George – George had betrayed her.
George slid his face behind his hands again. "Fuck. I really screwed up," he groaned.
"You need to fix this," Alex said.
"I tried!" George replied. "I can't fix it. It's unfixable! Izzie hates me and it's all my fault."
"George!" Alex uttering his first name was enough to make George bring his face back up.
"Listen to me," Alex continued. "Izzie needs you, okay? She needs you right now. And yes, you fucked up, but Izzie is having a rough time and she needs a friend. She's hurting and she can't do this alone. So you need to quit whining like some damn temper tantrum throwing two-year old! Prove to her how sorry you are, dammit, and make her forgive you."
"How do I do that?"
"I don't know! Buy her flowers or something."
George raised an eyebrow. "Flowers?"
"How should I know what to do? You're the girl here, remember?"
"Hey!" George retorted.
"Just do something nice for her and she'll forgive you. She's Izzie. That's what she does, she forgives people. Just turn on the charm, O'Malley."
"Alex, if I knew how to 'turn on the charm', as you call it, don't you think I would be back together with Callie by now? I suck at 'the charm', and I really suck at apologies. You have to help me."
Alex sat in silence for a moment, trying to think. "Okay, well, I do know one thing you could do," he said reluctantly.
George seemed hopeful. "You do?"
"Yeah. It's perfect, too. It's just… I was planning on doing it for, to her to win her back when Denny first came to the hospital. But you know, then she completely broke up with me in the most humiliating way possible, so I decided against it,"
Alex paused, but quickly regained himself. "But it's awesome. And better yet, it's simple. Cheap, sweet, and perfect for Izzie. Nothing too special, but it shows you care, you know?"
"I'll let you in on it, but you have to promise me one thing first."
"What?" asked George.
"You have to promise you will take care of her for me, and that you won't hurt her again," Alex said, surprising even himself by the seriousness of his tone.
"You mean, take care of her until you two get back together, right?" George grinned and despite himself, Alex smiled too.
"I promise."
"Well, okay then. Here is what you do…"
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Wow! That was a bit longer than I expected, but the next part will most likely be shorter. Thanks for reading guys! And please review!
♥ Love sillybillyxo
