Izzie Stevens walked into the resident's locker room after a long day of visiting patients, unknotting her hair from it's ponytail as she sank onto the bench. Residency was hard, harder than her internship, in the way that she was actually expected to know things. People treated her like an actual doctor, and, okay…Maybe she was an official doctor now, but on days like today, it didn't feel that way.

"Hey, Izzie," Meredith said, plopping on the bench beside her. "How's it going?"

"Tired," Izzie grunted. "It's been a long day."

"I know the feeling."

"When's Addison coming back to work?" Izzie asked.

"Not sure yet, we were going to talk about it soon," Meredith answered. "But she'll probably be staying with us for a while."

Izzie nodded. "That's cool." She stripped off her scrub top to reveal the tank-top underneath. "You wanna go out tonight? I need to blow off steam. I'm totally frustrated."

"I can't tonight. I promised Addison I'd come home after work and we'd hang out. She's probably going crazy all alone, and I think you're right…She should try ooming back to work soon, just to get into the normal swing of stuff."

"Okay," Izzie answered, gathering her extra clothes and makeup and heading for the bathroom. "I'll see you later then, when I get home."

In the bathroom, Izzie put on a nicer top and braided her hair to fall neatly down the center of her back. A couple of passes of the makeup brush, and she could almost pass for a human being. Making sure her pager was securely on her jeans, she left the locker room and headed out of Seattle Grace to Joe's Bar.

Once she was actually in front of the bar, Izzie realized how weird it was that she was going in alone. Izzie wasn't really that big of drinker, at least not a solo drinker. Drinking socially was a completely different story. Rather than actually enter the bar, Izzie found herself sitting outside on a bench.

I miss Denny. She thought to herself. There, I admit it. But it doesn't make me feel better. It should make me feel better. It would be different if Denny was here. But…I think I miss George most of all.

Almost as if her thoughts were magic, George was suddenly on the bench beside her after almost two weeks of absence. He was unshaven, his hair unkept, and his eyes had the glassy consistency of one who hadn't slept. "Hey there, Izzie."

She was so shocked at his sudden appearance that it was all she could do to squeak out, "Hey."

"So…" he started, dragging the toe of his shoe through the dirt, "you probably heard by now that I'm not a doctor anymore."

Izzie shook her head. "No, I didn't know any…You just disappeared."

"I failed my intern exam. They want me to take my first year over again…I don't know how to do it over, you know?"

Izzie shrugged, "Just do it, I guess, George. That's all you can do."

"It's embarrassing."

"No shit," Izzie replied. "But you are supposed to be my best friend, George, my best friend, and you left with no explanation whatsoever."

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

Without any thought on her part, all of Izzie's frustration channeled into one action and she found herself slapping George across the face. "You cheated on your wife, George, you slept with me, and it was a mistake, but then you just left, George, you just left."

"Callie left me."

"Because you," Izzie waved a hand in the air, "I don't know, disappeared for two weeks?"

"Because I told her," George responded. "I told her that I love you more."

Izzie couldn't believe it had taken her the entire conversation with him to realize how drunk George was. "You love me more…and you left me without a word."

"Izzie, you have to understand, I…"

Izzie grabbed her purse and stood to her feet. "I don't need to understand, George, I need to walk away before I say something I will regret in the morning."

Izzie walked back to the Seattle Grace parking lot and her car, leaving George sitting alone on the bench. She fumbled in her purse for the keys, and made it into the drivers seat before completely bursting into tears. Life as she knew it was changing beyond her control, and Izzie didn't know what to do to make it better.