Thanks so much for the reviews, there really keeping me going. Took a bit longer to pull this chapter together. Please Review.
Disclaimer: I do not own Grey's or any of its characters.
Izzie did not realize how much attention she had been receiving from the staff of Seattle Grace. The nurses loved her, the doctors were impressed by her, the patients soon fell into easy conversation with her but Cristina Yang and Alex Karev hated her.
She had soon struck up a friendship with Nurse Olivia whose sister lived near Izzie in New York. Izzie did not know this but by gaining Olivia's approval she had gained the approval of the entire nursing staff. And Izzie liked them all; they were friendly, helpful and told her stories about Derek and his work. Izzie was delighted to hear them praise her brother and she was brimming with pride at all that he had achieved since leaving New York. She also heard about Mark and his achievements (or notches on his bed post) from the nursing staff, strangely enough she was happy to hear that Seattle had not changed Mark, in fact something would be wrong with the world if Mark was not sleeping with nurses. Hearing that the nurses now had a club against Mark gave her perfect ammunition to tease him with later.
Izzie had met a nervous Dr. George O'Malley, Dr. Callie Torres, who allowed her to watch as she realigned a bone on a car crash victim, and Dr. Owen Hunt who kindly showed her around the ER. They were extremely welcoming she guessed as they were on strict orders from the Chief to look after her.
But there was one Doctor that Izzie was dying to meet but had not yet gotten the chance to, and that was Dr. Meredith Grey. She had learned from Olivia that Meredith had left hours ago so Izzie would just have to wait. She did not want Meredith to think she was like any of Derek's other sisters who were quite frankly a pack of bitches.
She wanted to get to know Meredith; she could not help but feel protective of her older brother as he had been through so much with Addison but from what Izzie had heard about Meredith she was confident that they would get on fine. She decided the best way to get to know Meredith would be to talk to her alone, without Derek hanging around. Maybe they could go out and grab some dinner tonight, deciding on this Izzie went to find Derek to see if he could set it up.
Derek looked up from his desk as he heard Mark barged into the room.
"You ok?" he asked as Mark threw himself into a chair.
"Karev is an ass."
"Sure." Derek responded sounding uninterested. Mark and Alex had never really gotten on well since Mark had come to Seattle Grace, Derek did not know why and he did not care either. He was just grateful that his hangover had turned into a slight headache.
"He did not let Izzie scrub in with him earlier."
"Maybe he feels threatened by her? You know another Neo-Natal surgeon steeling his thunder. Or maybe she would be too much of a distraction for him in the OR, models can have that effect on men."
"Yeah or maybe he's just an ass." Mark huffed. If Izzie knew that he had given out to Alex earlier she would kill him. Izzie liked fighting her own battles; she did not need help probably because she never received help when she was younger.
"Who's an ass?" Izzie asked as she breezed into Derek's office.
"No one" Mark grumbled.
"Mark's just having a rubbish day." Derek explained "So what do you make of the hospital? Do you like it?"
"Yeah it's great. I have still got to see the OR but I'll get someone to show me later." Izzie smiled and then added "How's the hangover?"
She received another grumble from Mark but a smirk from Derek.
"Much better, but I don't think I'll risk eating for a few hours." Derek explained.
"Right, well I was thinking that tonight Meredith and I should go out for dinner, it'll give me a chance to get to know her without you two hanging round."
"What's wrong with us hanging round?" Mark asked forgetting his bad mood.
"Everything, I want to get to know the girl Derek is marrying without an audience. You think she would be up for it?" Izzie directed her question at Derek.
"I'll give her a call in awhile." Derek said as there was a knock on the door and Dr. Bailey entered.
"Dr. Shepherd, Dr. Sloan I hope I'm not interrupting?" Bailey asked politely as she looked at Izzie.
Derek immediately recognised Baileys tone, polite and soft, it only meant one thing and that was that Bailey was up to something.
"No, come in. This is my sister Dr. Isobel Stevens. Izzie this is Dr. Miranda Bailey one of Seattle Graces finest doctors." He beamed as Izzie and Bailey shook hands.
"Nice to meet you Dr. Stevens, welcome to Seattle Grace." Bailey said as she turned her attention back to Mark and Derek passing them two folders. "I'm just dropping by to show you my new proposals for a free clinic, and I don't care what you think on the subject, I know you objected the last time, just read over it and sign, that's all I ask."
"Do you have a copy I could look at too?" Izzie asked as Bailey backed out of the room.
"Sure." She said handing Izzie a copy "I hope you will do all in your power to make them sign."
"I'll try." Izzie replied and with a final nod Bailey was gone.
Mark and Derek both dropped the folders on Derek's desk.
"Are you not going to read them?" Izzie asked surprised.
"Nope." Mark replied making his way out of Derek's office. "I'm not giving up my free time to some clinic and it will never get funding anyway."
Izzie looked at Derek who was nodding in agreement she then looked back at the six pages Bailey had just handed her.
"She must have spent ages preparing this. You should read it. A free clinic sounds like a really good idea." Izzie stressed as she followed both Derek and Mark out of the office knowing that neither of them were listening. Mark mumbled something about feeling tired and left for an on-call room for a nap but Izzie managed to corner Derek not realizing that once again Karev and Yang were watching them.
"You should read it." She repeated again.
"I will, I promise." he said as he looked into her eyes. "Iz, you ok?"
"Yeah, it's just she's trying to do a good thing. People who want to do good things should get the support they need to do good things." Suddenly she realized she was not talking about Bailey, she was talking about herself. She had wanted to help in the OR earlier and she should have gotten the chance. Now she was pissed off, but at least she knew how to fix it.
"I'll read it." Derek said as he gave his sister a tight hug.
On the far side of the room Alex and Cristina were fuming.
"They're sick." Cristina grunted as they continued to watch. Just then Izzie turned and saw Alex. A bright smile reached her face and she walked towards the two doctors.
"Hi, how did the surgery go?" she said in the nicest voice she could muster. It was clear to Izzie that these two doctors did not like her but she did not care, all that mattered was getting back into the OR and being as nice as pie was the only thing she could think of right now.
"Fine. You moved one of the babies?" he asked accusingly while Cristina smirked beside him.
"Yes, the Chief said I could. And you'll be happy to hear that the baby is doing so much better now." She quickly flashed an even brighter smile at Cristina.
"Well I think I better go and check on them." Alex quickly gathered his things and walking away from Cristina and Izzie. Izzie was getting sick of Alex's attitude as she found herself running once again to catch up with him. Just then she saw Meredith walking along the hall towards them.
"Oh there's Meredith, I just want to have a word with her." Izzie said to Alex but as she began walking towards her brother's fiancé she felt a hand grab her wrist and before she knew it Alex had pulled her into a small room and closed the door behind him.
"Why are we in here?" she asked in a surprised voice.
"The Chief asked me to show you round the hospital."
"This is a linen closet." She exclaimed looking at rows and rows of freshly laundered sheets.
"Yeah, so now you know where to get sheets and pillow cases." He said knowing that he seemed crazy but he needed to keep her from breaking Meredith's heart. Her confused expression made him rush on, "You see at Seattle Grace we all help each other out, it's important to know where the linens are." God he cringed, he sounded ridiculous.
"Ok, um seen as you have shown me the linen closet, what are my chances of seeing the OR?" Izzie asked hoping this strange behaviour in the doctor was some kind of weird sign that Dr. Karev was warming up to her. Maybe she would ring Addison later and find out if he had ever shown her the linen closet.
"Sure." He muttered and a long silence followed.
"So, can we go now?" she asked hoping he'd say yes. There was very little space and they were standing really close together and Izzie was getting the impression that Alex felt just as uncomfortable as she did.
"Yeah, let's just wait another minute." He said hoping Meredith would be gone by then.
"Um, ok." Izzie said while she struggled to think of something to say. Rolling her eyes she realized it was just her luck to get stuck with a doctor who hung out in a linen closet.