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Meredith was in the kitchen when she heard Alex come in. She was sitting at the kitchen table holding her steaming cup of tea when he appeared in the doorway.

"Hell of a day, huh?" He said, coming in and going straight to the refrigerator to pull a bottle of beer out.

"Yeah, you could say that again."

"Well I don't see an abundance amount of baked goods, so that's got to be a good sign, right?" He said, popping the cap off the bottle and taking a long drag of the liquor.

"Depends," She said, watching him sit down at the table with her. "The silence and stillness could mean we're like in the eye of the storm. All the death and destruction may have yet to come."

Alex mulled that over as he took another pull of his beer. Before he could say anything they heard the front door open and close again.

Meredith knew all her current roommates were in the house at the moment, so she wondered who would just come in so casually.

When Cristina strolled through the kitchen door Meredith looked over at her with surprise.

"What are you doing here? I thought you couldn't wait to get home?"

"Burke's in a late surgery tonight," the dark hair intern said, moving towards the refrigerator to open it and bending down to look inside. "And Momma Burke is there with her wedding planner book."

She popped back up over the open door. "She has a wedding planner book. It's like the size of our biomechanics books, it's got little sticky notes sticking out of it and…and ripped out magazine pages all through it. I mean, seriously, who does that?"

"Normal women?" Alex said, smiling while popping his feet up on the table.

"Whatever evil spawn, like you would even know what that was. Maybe you should get some tips from George on how to land the ladies," Cristina said, smiling back.

Alex smile automatically dropped. Meredith just shook her head at the two.

"So you're dodging Burke's apartment because of Momma Burke?" Meredith asked, taking a sip of her tea.

"Yup. Just until she flies out of town with her mammoth size wedding book tied to the back of her broom," She said, her attention back to the refrigerator. "Did you drink the last beer?"

"Yup," Alex said, taking another pull of his beer.

"There's tea," Meredith offered.

"That's for wusses," Cristina said, pulling a beer out of the vegetable crisper drawer triumphantly.

"Hey, I was hiding that from you." Alex said, as he watched Cristina sit at the table with them.

"Yup, not anymore. I know where you hide your secret beer stash. I know everything. Besides your half the reason why I seriously need this."

"How was I supposed to know she was the only one in the whole hospital who didn't know that her husband was cheating on her?"

"Uh because she hadn't yet gone all crazy Darth Vador on anybody?" Cristina pointed out, sarcastically.

Alex just rolled his eyes at the other intern.

"Forget about that now, what's done is done," Meredith tried. "What are we going to do about George and Izzie?"

Cristina and Alex both turned to look at her as if she had lost her mind.

"Walk lightly around them and hope they won't notice us to come whine to?" Cristina joked. She took Alex snort of laughter as a sign of agreement.

"No really, this is serious," Meredith said, putting her teacup down on the table. "This is George and Izzie we're talking about. She's his person and vice versa."

"Yeah, his person to have a marriage destroying affair with?" Alex said, annoyed.

"We don't know that," Meredith tried.

"Right, for all we know Callie could be tending to the wounds she caused on him now," Cristina joked.

"Dude, I know who cheats on the wife that breaks bones for a living?" Alex asked, incredulously.

"Anyways," Meredith said, trying to swing the topic back around to their friends again. "Going back to George and Izzie. This could be really bad for our little group."

"Our little group?" Cristina asked, disbelievingly. "Mer, we're interns not the Jackson 5."

"I know, I'm just saying that the implication of their actions is like a higher level of freak out than the time I slept with George."

"Well that is serious," Cristina deadpanned.

"All I know is that the little fetus deserves everything he gets. You don't cheat on your wife. And especially not with your best friend," Alex bit out.

"Wow, issues much?" Cristina said, looking at the male intern with a raised eyebrow. Alex just took another long pull of his beer.

"Well, this isn't completely out of left field," Meredith said, standing up as she went over to the sink to poor her now cold tea out. "I mean I was just telling Cristina today that something weird was going on between those three."

"Yeah, but I don't think anyone could have called George and Izzie getting all horizontal with each other." Cristina said.

"In that hospital, anything can happen," Meredith said, turning around from her spot at the sink. "Especially in those elevators."

"That doesn't exactly give him the excuse to cheat on his wife," Alex huffed out. "And that doesn't give her the excuse to…"

He stopped short before finishing the sentence.

"To what?" Meredith challenged. "To have sex? To move on from Denny? To make a mistake or to fall for a best friend?"

Alex didn't answer. He looked at beer as he thought about her words.

"Do you really think Izzie fell for George?" Cristina asked, as Meredith came and sat back down at the table.

"I dunno. That's the thing we don't know the whole story here. But I do know that you just don't wake up one day and decide to have sex with your best friend. You don't put that kind of friendship on the line. Trust me I know, it doesn't work out very well if you do."

They all sat in silence a few minutes, thinking about what she just said, but the silence was broken by the sound of the doorbell ringing.

Meredith wondered who it could be at this late hour. She knew that Derek and Burke were both still at the hospital, so it couldn't be either one of them unless something had happened she wasn't aware of. She noticed the other two must have been thinking the same thing because they fallowed her into the foyer to answer the door out of curiosity.

There weren't that many possibilities of whom it could be so when Meredith opened the door to a weary looking George, she wasn't exactly surprised. She was surprised to see him so soon after what all had transpired during the day, but she wasn't surprised that out of all the places he could have gone to, that he would choose to come back there.

"Hey," George said, softly.

"Hi," Meredith replied back, not exactly sure what else to say.

For a second no one said anything. They all just stared at the man standing outside the door who seemed as exhausted emotionally as he was physically. The cold night air didn't seem to bother the tired intern as he stood numbly outside of her door, but that didn't stop Meredith from shivering from the cool air.

"She's here, but I'm not sure she's up for any visitors," Meredith said, knowing just what he was there for. "But your welcome to come in to where it's warmer."

George nodded his understanding as he stepped into the warm house. Once he was inside the light of the foyer they could all clearly see the bruise that was forming on the left side of his face.

Meredith and Cristina both winced at the ugly looking color forming on his face, Alex let out a snort of laughter. Meredith whacked him in the arm for his insensitivity to the situation.

"What? I knew she would have a wicked right hook," he retorted, after Meredith's look he added, "What? I'm just sayin'."

"Did you get that checked out? You should get a CT, you could have a complex tripod facial fracture or or.." Cristina said, her face lighting up at the idea of a possible surgery.

"No, I'm fine," George said, defeated. "It's not that serious. Or at least my broken face is fine, my broken marriage… not so much."

"Did you talk to Callie?" Meredith asked, carefully. Still not knowing exactly how to handle the situation.

"Yeah," he started. "We did… there wasn't much left to say…."

Meredith nodded her understanding. She felt bad for her friends and for Callie. What George and Izzie did to Callie was inexcusable, but they were still her friends and she hated to see them in such pain. She wished she could do something to make it better for all of them.

"You should probably get something cold to stick on that bruise or it's going to blow up to the size of Texas by the morning," Alex offered, lightly. "A bag of frozen peas works pretty well."

Meredith looked at the normally closed off male intern. She smiled softly because she knew for him that was about as close to a peace offering as he was going to get.

"Do you need…." Meredith started.

"George?" Izzie interrupted, softly from her spot at the top of the stairs.

They all turned to the blonde doctor who was looking down at George in surprise. She was now in a pair of old sweats and Denny's old sweater, which in Meredith's mind wasn't much of an improvement from before.

Meredith, Alex, and Cristina all turned and looked back and froth between the two interns, who seemed to be transfixed by each other's presence.

"Well… you guys probably want some privacy," Meredith tried, grabbing both Cristina and Alex by the arms and started dragging them towards the kitchen.

"What? Really?" Cristina said. "It was just getting good."

"Come on Cristina," Meredith warned. "Or I'll send you home to Momma Burke with her wedding planner book."

"Oh low blow, Mer. Low blow," She said, following the other doctor towards the kitchen. "Fine, we'll just be in the kitchen, you know…eavesdropping."

George stayed rooted in his spot in the foyer as he and Izzie just stood there taking each other in. For them, the rest of the world just fell away.

Izzie slowly made her way down the stairs and came up to stand in front of him. When she saw the large contusion forming on his face she lifted her hand and gently touched it with the tips of her fingers. George flinched from the pain, but closed his eyes and let out a sigh as she let her hand linger on the side of his face.

George opened his eyes again when he felt Izzie's hand fall away and watched her as she made her way into the living room.

Izzie sat down on the couch and George followed her lead. They were once again sitting side by side, not knowing what to say or do. Much in the same way they sat in the locker room the night after George finally remembered their sinful actions, when he made the imperfect rules of how they were going to handle their predicament.

Both sat in silence for a long while, neither knowing what the next step was. For Izzie she didn't know what George coming back to their house meant for her. She wondered what it meant for George. She was worried about him. She just wanted what was best for him, but she wasn't exactly sure what that was anymore. She also wondered what it meant for Callie. Izzie wondered how she was doing. Even if she wasn't Callie's biggest fan, she never meant for any of this to happen to her. The other doctor never deserved this. But neither did she. Or at least she didn't think she did, she was beginning to wonder what she had done in a previous life to deserve such bad luck in the love department.

"I'm never having sex again," George said, suddenly, breaking the silence between them.

Izzie blinked a few times before turning towards her friend and gave him an odd look.

"Um…what?" Izzie asked, a little thrown by his offhanded statement.

"First," he said, holding up his hand and counted each point with a flick of a finger. "Syphilis pandemic, then the Meredith meltdown, and last but not least, a marriage destroying affair."

Izzie swallowed hard before she turned back and looked down into her lap.

"I always thought once I got married that would be it for me. That would be the end of the line for me. I'd be set for life with my wife and I would be happy. Like my parents," he said, sadly.

"So you and Callie…" Izzie let her question drop off. She always knew that George marrying Callie was a mistake, but she hated the way it ended.

"Are over? Yeah," George stated. "Falling for your best friend doesn't exactly bode well for marriages."

Izzie's head shot up at his admission. She knew she had unexpectedly fallen for him, but he had never said that he had for her. He had never even hinted that he felt anything more than lust or friendship. She had always just hoped that he felt the slightest bit of the way she did. Hearing him say that he had fallen for her and failed in his marriage in the same sentenced thrilled her and hurt her to no end.

"George…I…" Izzie tried, but couldn't find the words to say how sorry she was that he had to go through this because of her.

George looked over at her and saw the guilt and sorrow on her face.

"Iz," he said, tenderly. "I've found that apologies don't really work here."

Izzie shook her head, sniffling. "George, I never wanted this for you. I mean I never wanted you to have to go through all of this… it's all just so messed up."

"I know," George said, smiling sadly. He looked away and thought about everything that had led them to this point.

"When I proposed to her I thought it would fix me. I thought it would somehow magically heal that hole in my heart that my Dad's death had left. I also thought it could be my chance to make my Dad proud and become the man he always knew I would be. I'd be like him and mom. Happily married and that would be it. That would be my quick fix."

"But it wasn't, was it?" Izzie asked, carefully.

"No, it was just the band-aide covering the hole."

"Yeah, I know the feeling. In fact, you ate most of my band-aide."

George blinked at her statement and Izzie thought about her words.

"Okay, forget that last part. I meant the large quantities of baked goods were my way of trying to hide my pain after Denny died."

"Do you still miss him?"

She thought about his question for a moment. "Yeah, I do."

"Does it ever let up? The missing him I mean?" He said, keeping his focus ahead of him.

"No, not really. You just learn how to live your life around it. Eventually you figure out a way to move on and keep that experience and those memories with you."

Izzie noticed he was gripping the edge of the couch with a white-knuckled clutch. She looked at the side of his face and could see the pain on his face. His jaw was clenched tight and his shoulders were tense.

"George?" She asked, concerned.

He slowly turned towards her as tears spilled out and down his cheeks. Izzie was taken back by the sight. She suddenly realized she had never seen him cry before. She had seen him tear up before, like he did for her when Denny died, but never had she actually seen heart-breaking tears running down his face. It was a sight that took her breath away.

"I really miss my Dad. And I really hate that I let him down so much with my marriage. And I really really need you to be my best friend again."

Izzie didn't hesitate to take him into her arms. She hugged him tightly as he wrapped his arms around her and let out all of the pent up emotions he had been holding back for so long.

Izzie couldn't help her own tears as she held onto him and listened to him let go. He was holding her as tight as she was holding onto him. She knew there were no words she could say that would make him feel any better, so she just stroked the back of his head to let him know it was okay. She would be his best friend. She would never give that up, no matter what happened between them. She wasn't sure of a lot of things these days, but that she knew.

They sat holding each other for a long while as George let out every regret and sorrow he had left in him. After a while he quieted down and they just sat there holding each other. Finally, George gathered himself together and pulled pack.

"I'm sorry," He shook his head, embarrassed by his break down.

"George," she said, smiling tenderly. "I've found that apologies don't really work here."

A small smile formed on his face as he heard the familiar statement.

"And you did not let your Dad down," she said, determinedly.

He looked away, as if he didn't believe her. Izzie gently place her hand on his cheek and guided his face back to her. She wiped away the tear stained tracks.

"You didn't," She said, again. "You're Harold O'Malley's son. He brought you up to be a kind, loving, and intelligent man. And you are definitely all of those things and more. You're an O'Malley. And everything in between, its just life, something we can't escape. Death, love, broken hearts… it's what life is made up of, you know?"

George nodded and gave her a small smile for her kind words.

"I just wish I wasn't such a huge part of your pain." Izzie said, sadly. George locked eyes with her and shook his head.

"Izzie, when you came to me about Denny. When you wanted me to help you with your plan… I'll admit I was scared. I was scared for you, for me, for both of our careers, for Denny. I knew we were both in way over our heads and that we were about to cross some serious medical guidelines. But I stayed. I could have walked out and told you, you were on your own with your… extreme plan. But it was my choice to stay. To take a stance with you and help you when you needed me the most. You're Izzie and I'm George. It's what we do."

Izzie shook her head and was going to protest, but George interrupted her before she could.

"There's also a fine line between friendship and something more. It's a very scary, complicated fine line. One that means a lot. If we crossed that line… it would mean risking everything in our friendship. Plus, not to mention the sharp barb-wired fence called my marriage that also accompanied this fine line. Something that I just couldn't ignore."

Izzie nodded her understanding and looked down into her lap. She had been waiting for this the moment since the day she woke up that fateful morning with a huge hangover and a sleeping George beside her.

George reached out and squeezed her hand to get her attention back. Izzie kept her gaze on his hand on top of hers.

"Just like with the Denny situation, I chose to cross the line with you. Going from friendship to something more, it was my choice. I didn't hesitate to have sex with you that drunken night. I chose to kiss you in the elevator. And today, in that elevator, that was me making a choice to be on your side again."

Izzie looked up at him. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "What does this mean?" she asked, breathlessly.

"It means that if there's a side to be on, I'm going to be on yours."

Izzie's face lit up with her smile, a look that warmed George to the core of his very being.

This time it was George who pulled her into a hug. She held onto him with everything that she was worth. She buried her face into his neck and took a deep breath. George closed his eyes as he laid his head on top of hers.

When they pulled away they were both still smiling. They sat back and rested their heads on the back of the couch, sitting shoulder to shoulder.

"So."

"So," George said back.

"Do you need a place to stay…I mean I know its kind of a crowded house right now but.."

"No," He said. "I think I'm going to find my own place. Once I get my the rest of my stuff…if it survives that is… I'll probably look for an apartment or something. It would be good to have the time to myself to figure some things out."

"Are you sure?" Izzie asked. "'Cause I'm not beyond literally kicking Alex out for your room back."

George smiled. "Thanks, but I think it would be good to get some space you know?"

Izzie shook her head understanding.

"Now about Mercy West…" George said, pointedly.

"Hey," Izzie said, holding up a hand. "After everything that happened today, I'm not beyond literally fighting you for that spot."

Hearing George laugh made Izzie's heart skip a beat.

"Hey now," George said, between laughs. "I am a manly man. I'm a strong masculine man…. who applied first!"

Izzie was the one who laughed out this time.

"Kicking," she said, motioning the air between them. "You're ass. No problem here."

"Okay, so we'll just have to agree to disagree for now." George said, finally.

"Sure, beside we still have to take those damn tests, so we'll have to see then. After that, its on manly man."

"Oh right. Tests. I forgot about those, yeah we'll have to get through those first."

They sat in silence for a few moments.

"Think Cristina and them are still eve's dropping?" George asked.

"Oh yeah," she said, sarcastically. "We're like a walking talking version of a soap opera, who wouldn't eve's drop?"

"True."

"So…" Izzie said, this time leaving the statement open ended as if she didn't know how to say what she wanted to say.

George already knew what was on her mind.

"About us," he finished for her.

"Yeah, what now?"

"We'll be George and Izzie again?" He said, but noticed her bright expression drop a little. "I mean… everything still kinda complicated right now. I just think its best if… I just need some time, you know?"

"Yeah, I know." Izzie agreed.

"But," George said, suddenly.

"I do like buts though," Izzie joked.

"Yeah, I know, I remember," George teased, smiling at her. He let out a small laugh when she blushed.

"Okay, so continuing on..." Izzie said, blushing.

George looked over at her again.

"But even though I need some time… that's not going to stop me from loving you."

Izzie looked over at him in awe. George thought her smile could brighten up even his darkest days.

"Good." Izzie said, smiling. "You'll do your space thing and take some time to breathe or whatever… and I'll wait. I'll be right here for you."

"You promise?" George asked, turning back so they were both sitting back on the couch side by side.

"Yeah, of course. You're George and I'm Izzie. It's what we do."

George smiled as he let his pinky finger reach over and touch hers in her lap. Both sighed as they finally relaxed in what felt like the first time in their lives.

The long winding road wasn't over for them. They weren't out of the woods, yet. There were still a lot of things left up in the air. But they both knew that as long as they had each other, they would find their way again.

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Fine lines are funny things. They are something that can be so easily ignored, but the out come on the other side was always glaringly apparent.

Sometimes crossing a fine line meant getting into trouble. Some lines that you crossed meant you might loose apart of yourself you'll never get back again. And crossing some lines will impact your life in such a way, that you'll never want to cross back.

Yes, Izzie knew about these fine lines. She had spent most of her life jumping over them without a second thought. But even with all the consequences she found facing her on the other side, she never regretted her decisions in the end.

If she spent the rest of her life crossing the fine lines, than she didn't care. At least she was still moving. And as long as George was on her side, she would have something to move forward towards. And in the end that was all that mattered to her.

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The End.

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