Chapter Two
The Loneliness Creeps In
The house was everything a person could want. Set in one Seattle's finest neighborhoods, it stood three stories tall, a wonder of glass and stone. Beautiful to look at, but cold and empty. It suited Isobel quite perfectly. She wasn't sure when she had stopped being Izzie. Perhaps it had been the night she destroyed George's marriage. She had been sitting in Joe's, drinking, feeling alone and sorry for herself. It had seemed as though everyone had someone. Everyone but her. She was alone. Until George had walked in. It had taken him four shots of tequila before he would talk to her. Then it had all spilled out. His fear that she was right, that he had jumped into marriage to quickly. A disapproving father in law had been the real cause of his anxiety, not some fear that he had made a mistake. If she had been a real friend, she would have known that. Instead, she had been selfish. They had gone through two bottles of tequila and talked trash about commintment before leaving. It had been a quick fuck in the back seat of his car. Lasting a grand total of four minutes. Afterwards, when had been laying on her naked, her only thought had been George had come to his senses. There had been thoughts about the repurcussions, or what it was it going to do to their friendship. Those came the next day.
Isobel steps into the dark interior of the house, laying her keys on the white marbel topped table to her left. Slowly, one finger at a time, she peels the gloves off, laying them next to the keys. The coat was next. Carefully removed from her slender body and hung neatly in the closet next to the table. One had to look closely to find the closet. The door was made look like part of the wall. A trick to fool people into thinking nothing was there. So similar to her life.
She walks down the hall, her heels clicking on the blond hardwood floor. The clicks sounded almost like gunshots. She pauses in the archway to the livingroom. Like the rest of the house, it was done in all white. Cold and uninviting. Again, she thinks about how similar her home is to her life. It isn't a pleasant realization. Realizing she was cold, empty, and alone. Her eyes start to burn. Stumbling to the sofa, she sits on the edge of it, burying her face in her hands. The tears won't come, though. Just dry, wracking sobs. She allows herself this moment of self pity. There is no one to see, no one to judge. Which was the point really. There was no one. She had no one. And there wasn't anyone to blame but herself.
As suddenly as the weakness had come, it was gone. She straighten's her body, squaring her shoulders back. Taking a deep, cleansing breath, she lets it out slowly. There was still a trace of weakness, burning her with questions of where the others were. She had seen them all at the cemetary. All but Derek Shepherd. No suprize that he hadn't been there. Nobody had seen him years. Not since the night of Kelly Daniels death...
"Dr. Shepherd? She's bleeding out." Alex looked up, frowning behind his mask. He had packed as much gauze as he could. They had to find the source of the bleeding. "Dr. Shepherd!"
Derek doesn't seem to hear him. There is a far off look in his blood shot eyes. "Baby girl. Seven pounds. Nine ounces. Spitting image of her mother." His tone was bitter. He looks over at Alex. "They named her Ellis. Ellis Sloan."
Alex looks across the operating table, where Izzie stands. "What the hell is talking about?"
Izzie frowns, shaking her head. "Meredith had her baby today."
"Yeah. So. He wants to congratulate them, he can do it later. This patient is going to die if we don't get the bleeding to stop. Now!" He looks at Derek again. "Dr. Shepherd..." His voice trails off as the patients heart rate starts to plummet. "Dammit! Shepherd, either get your head out of your ass and do something, or have them page someone who can!"
Derek had refused to page someone else. The patient was his. He would save her. In the end, the only thing he did was kill her. It wasn't until later on, when the family sued, that his problem surfaced. It had started the night Meredith left him. There had been an arguement. One of her ex-lovers had shown up, wanting to pick up where they had left off in Boston. It was more than Derek could take. The life Meredith had led before him was more than he could handle. The things he had said to her...
"I didn't know he was coming!" Meredith yells, her cheeks flushed. Her lipstick was still smudged from where Dominic had kissed her. She hadn't wanted or asked for the kiss. The moment she opened the door, his arms had been around her, his mouth covering her's.
"You invited him!" Derek yells back, rubbing his hands through his hair. Bits of the dark tresses stood on end, giving him a wild look. "Don't say you didn't. I heard him. You invited him to Seattle. To fuck!"
Meredith shakes her head, tears pouring down her cheeks. "No!. Yes. Maybe. I don't remember. I haven't seen him in so long...I might have invited him. If I did, it was before I met you!"
She hadn't meant to listen in on the arguement. To hear Derek calling Meredith a whore. It had been the same night she had let George fuck her. She opened the front door, needing to shower. Needing to feel clean again, instead of like a dirty whore. That was what she heard when she walked in. Dirty whore. The words had been meant for Meredith. They applied to her, though. She was a dirty whore. Meredith had screamed for him to get out. To get out of her house. To get out of her life. Derek had shoved past her, not seeing her, in his rush to exit. Meredith had needed her that night. Needed her to be a friend...
"Can you believe him?" Meredith sinks onto the bottom step, wiping tears from her face. She shakes her head, sniffling a bit.
Izzie frowns. "Yeah. Actually I can. What else is he suppose to think? That's what they call women who sleep with other women's husands." The words fell off her tongue. They weren't meant for Meredith. They were meant for herself.
She had lost two friends that night. George and Meredith. A double blow. Triple really, when the next day Cristina shunned her as well. The only person who had been willing to talk to her, to be her friend, had been Alex. In typical Izzie fashion, she had thrown his friendship in his face. He had tried again, several times, eventually giving up. Thus sealing her fate. A life of loneliness and regrets.