Chapter 2
Seventeen days. It has been seventeen days since I took my intern exam..and seventeen days since I've seen George.
Izzie thought to herself as she headed towards the locker room that held the five interns she'd been assigned.
Once she reached the locker room she stopped in her tracks once she saw the interns she was assigned to---One in particular.
Seventeen days. That was exactly how many days it had been since George had seen Izzie and Seventeen days since he heard her tell him that she loved him.
He looked in Izzie's direction and listened as she rattled off the five rules he'd heard Bailey recite two years earlier.
George was an intern. Izzie was a resident---his resident. Saying that repeating his intern year was going to be kind of difficult was a freakin' understatement.
"What are the patient's current symptoms?" Izzie asked looking at her interns expectantly.
After an extended silence George was finally the one to speak up.
"Eric Thompson, age twenty eight, diagnosed with stage three small cell lung cancer was admitted due to respiratory distress"
Izzie nodded and glanced in George's direction.
"What do we do to relieve his symptoms"
"We put him on a morphine drip and observe him for the next twenty four hours"
"Very good Dr. O'Malley you're on the case," Izzie said handing him the chart, her hand brushing slightly against his causing them to share a brief look.
George just gave a slight nod in Izzie's direction.
After that Izzie gave George some instructions as to what to do then, left the room her four other interns following behind her.
"What was up with you and Dr. Stevens?" Eric asked.
George looked up from the chart he was reading.
"Nothing, why"
"I just got the impression you two were---" Eric was cut off by George.
"No, we're just friends and we had a disagreement. That's all"
Eric nodded obviously unconvinced.
"Right, that's why you two were looking at each other the way you were"
"You're pretty persistent aren't you?" George asked.
"Yeah I've always been that way, I found out very quickly that is a good trait to have as a surgical intern and also a really bad one"
George gave a surprised expression.
"You're a surgical intern"
Eric shook his head.
"No not anymore, last year was my last year as an intern. I was supposed to transfer over here from Mercy West for my residency...Or at least until I got sick"
George just nodded sympathetically but thought I know what that's like.
"I'll be back later to check on you okay"
Eric nodded and George left the room standing outside the door shutting his eyes for a few seconds.
George sighed as he remembered Bailey explaining his options to him...
"It's inoperable," Bailey said quietly.
"What are my options?" George asked, his voice coming out stronger than what he had expected it to.
"Your best option is most likely Chemotherapy given intravenously"
George nodded.
"Okay if that's my best option I'll do it but, I don't want anyone else to know about this yet. I need time to process what's going on"
Bailey opened her mouth to protest but then she remembered he wasn't her intern anymore but her patient and she had to respect what he wanted.
"Okay but we need to start treatment as soon as possible"
George opened his eyes again and walked down the hall so he could try and finish everything he had to before lunch.