Chapter 7: Meredith and Derek

George voiceover: "We hate to see our friends hurt so it's a natural instinct to want to fix whatever has gone wrong because don't want them to be in pain. But sometimes things are out of our control and we can't fix them.

George got up from the chair he was sitting in as he heard Meredith's start her constant snoring. After much convincing from him, Robin and Cristina Meredith agreed to try and get some sleep. George had agreed to stay in the on call room to make sure she actually fell asleep. He walked out the door and quietly shut the door behind him.

"How is she?" Robin asked as she walked up to George.

"She finally fell asleep, how's Derek?"

"He has a pretty high fever but he's stable for the moment,"

George nodded.

"How are you? I mean considering Patrick is still in the quarantine room,"

"I'm fine," Robin said hoping she sounded convincing.

George rolled his eyes.

"I swear you and Meredith use that word so much it should be illegal,"

Robin just smiled in response.

"I'll be okay,"

George just nodded and hugged Robin.

Alex slowly opened his eyes to find Izzie still sleeping peacefully with a small smile on her face. He rubbed his eyes and looked up at the clock. It read: 7:00 A.M. They had been under quarantine for a full twenty four hours. He looked over in Izzie's direction and noticed she was starting to wake up so he looked away. Izzie felt herself wake up and groaned as she reluctantly opened her eyes and her gaze automatically went to Alex who was looking at her with amusement.

"I'm shocked, is Izzie Stevens actually not being Miss Perky first thing in the morning?" Alex asked teasingly.

Izzie smiled and said "Well I'm usually more perky because I got to sleep in a bed instead of on a locker room floor,"

"You have a point sleeping on the floor can make a person grumpy," Alex said rubbing the back of his neck.

Before Izzie could say anything she noticed Cristina walking into the locker room with a protective suit on.

"What's wrong Cristina?" Izzie asked standing up.

"It's Derek…he caught the virus,"

"How's Meredith?" Izzie asked.

"We just got her to sleep after trying since midnight,"

Izzie just nodded.

When Cristina was halfway out the door Izzie decided to speak up.

"Hey Cristina thanks for us updated and have you spoken to Burke yet?"

"You're welcome and no, I haven't spoken to Burke yet," Cristina replied rolling her eyes as she walked out of the room.

A few minutes later Izzie spoke up.

"Meredith must be miserable right now,"

Alex looked at Izzie and recognized the look she got when she got really worried.

"It'll be okay Izz, Derek and Meredith will be okay," Alex said hoping to reassure Izzie.

"You don't know that Alex, if Derek caught the virus what says one of us won't?"

Alex sighed because he didn't know how to reassure Izzie on that one.

"We hardly came into direct contact with the patient we'll be fine,"

Izzie looked at Alex with a look he couldn't quite place, it was a look of fear and…Concern? He wasn't sure.

"I hardly came into contact with the patient Alex, you had a lot of contact with the patient," Izzie said trying to hide the worry in her voice. It obviously hadn't worked, that was apparent by the smirk on Alex's face.

"Oh god here goes the ego!" Izzie muttered.

"You're worried I might catch the encephalitis Lethargica virus and get really sick aren't you?" Alex asked his smirk growing even wider as he saw Izzie's face turn red.

"Okay, what if I was worried about you? You just ruined it when you went all egotistical jerk on me," Izzie said walking away from Alex and heading towards her locker.

"I'm always an egotistical jerk you should know that by now," Alex said as Izzie removed her scrub top.

"You weren't always a jerk…At least with me anyway,"

"Okay yes, when I was with you it was easier not to be a jerk," Alex said walking around to his locker and grabbing a new scrub top as Izzie walked away from her locker.

"What about Denny or Nick you acted like a jerk--" Izzie started but was cut off by Alex.

Alex sighed and before he knew what he was saying words started spilling out of his mouth

"I know I was a jerk when Denny was admitted to the hospital but that was only because I was jealous and dare I say hurt,"

Izzie sighed trying to hide her surprise since Alex had shown nothing but jealousy towards Denny or at least that's what she had seen but then again maybe she missed something.

Alex waited for Izzie to lash out at him but to his surprise she didn't.

"I should've figured it out, that you weren't just jealous you were hurt because I picked him instead of you,"

Alex shook his head.

"You were in love with him I didn't understand why but you seemed happy so after a while I just tried to deal with it, even if I didn't like it,"

"But the night of prom when you picked me up and carried me out of the hospital--" Izzie was cut off by Alex.

"But nothing, you remember when you said Denny was twice the man I'd ever be?"

Izzie nodded.

"I knew there was truth to that otherwise I wouldn't have cheated on you with Olivia right before I found out I'd failed my board exams so I backed off even though I knew I still lov--cared about you," Alex said catching himself.

Izzie smiled slightly and thought the syph nurse.

"I remember when I found out Meredith was helping you with your board exams I didn't know who to be angrier at, Meredith for helping you or you for cheating on me,"

"I think you were angrier at me," Alex said smiling slightly.

"Yeah considering I just broke down crying when I was trying to help you study,"

Alex just smiled.

After a few minutes Izzie spoke up again.

"Now about the whole Nick thing…"

"Yeah about that--" Alex said preparing himself to tell Izzie what he had heard.

"I'm not ready to hear about that yet but I'll tell you when I am,"

Alex sighed.

"But you do understand this isn't something I just made up?"

Izzie nodded.

"I understand,"

With that they sat back down but instead of sitting away from each other they sat next to each other. In silence.