Izzie could not wipe the smile off her face, she felt really good, for the first in a long time she felt like she was really doing something good, she felt like she was achieving something worth while. She'd had the most amazing afternoon, when she'd left the school she'd walked back to Kate's home and they spent the entire afternoon talking.
It was a great conversation; they talked about the future, about life and over coming obstacles. Izzie told her the rest of her story, she talked to her about the people she'd met in her life and Kate told her the rest of hers. They cried a little bit, there were a few moments where everything got too emotional but for the most part there was an excitement, an energy to everything they said. When she finally left they had some action plan worked out, they had an idea of where they needed to go, of how they were going get there, how they were going to get Kate into college.
It was a good plan, it had a few holes in it, a few things they still needed to work out but they had a good idea. She walked down the street and waited at the first bus stop she came to; she waited for the bus and hoped on the first one that arrived.
****
Carrying a plate of butter chicken and rice Alex walked over to a table in the middle of the college's cafeteria and sat down. He'd had a good morning, he'd listened to a team of doctors from the Portland Children's hospital present the results of their clinical trial into the benefits of in-utero intervention in the treatment of spina bifida. It had been a fascinating and exciting discussion, the trial had shown mixed results and they were looking at expanding it into Washington. Seattle Grace had the best neonate unit in the state which meant they were the perfect candidate to host the trial. He couldn't wait to get his hands on some of that, he loved the in-utero surgeries, there was something magical about repairing someone who wasn't even born yet, who wasn't even a full person. He loved it and the thought of it just made him giddy.
His morning had been great but now he had to work out what he wanted to do in the afternoon. There were more sessions that he wanted to see than he physically had time to. He pulled out his conference guide and began trying to cull his list of sessions. With a black pen he began crossing out all the ones he defiantly wasn't interested in. He was half way down the list when he heard someone call his name.
"Karev!" He heard someone call, "Alex Karev, is that you?"
He looked up and his mouth dropped, standing next to his table were his two best mates from med school.
"Conner, Jason," He stood up and gave them both the half shake half knuckle greeting they'd perfected over the years. "What are you doing here?"
"Same thing you are." They sat down at his table and pulled over his conference guide. "Some of the best minds in the country are here we weren't going to miss it. How have you been? Last I heard you were saving lives in a bar or something."
"Yeah," His other mate laughed, "What was the headline, 'Seattle's latest hero' or something, gave the guys back home a real thrill seeing that."
"Yeah," Alex let out a half chuckle and looked up at his old friends. So many things had changed since he last saw them, he didn't want to talk about that night. "How have you guys been? You still throwing yourselves into plastics?" He asked changing the subject.
"Yep," Both his friends held up their hands in a manner he'd once done himself. "We're riding these babies all the way to the bank." They let out a chuckle and for a moment everything went quiet. "What session are you going to next?" One of them finally asked.
"I don't know," He pulled back his guide and stared at the mess of black lines he'd already made. "I'm tossing up between a few."
"Yeah?" His mates gave him a smile. "If it helps at all we're going to listen to Dr. Mark Sloan, the man is a legend over in New York, he's the one that all the celebrities go to for their face lifts."
"Yeah that doesn't help." He reached for his fork and began shoving food in his mouth.
"No?" His friends looked at him a little surprised. "I thought you were riding plastics all the way to the bank too."
"I was but not anymore." He kept eating his lunch and waited for his old friends to say something. They didn't, so he kept talking. "I'm tossing up between this talk on neonatal pacemakers and this one on new therapies for treating epilepsy."
"Neonates and epilepsy?" His friend pulled the guide back and stared at the two sessions he'd pointed to. "The epilepsy one isn't even surgical what are you interested in these for?" They gave him a strange confused look, asking him to explain himself.
"I'm specializing in neonates," he began "and the other session is for my fiancé, she's been having some problems with the condition."
His mates looked back at him more confused than before. He could see by the look on their faces they weren't sure what to grill him on first, the fact that he'd given up plastics for babies, or that he'd got engaged.
"Whoa ," One finally said, "I never thought I'd hear those words come out of your mouth Karev. What happened? Did you save her life or something?"
"No," Saving Izzie's life was one thing he hadn't done; it was the one thing he wasn't able to do. "She was a doctor at the hospital."
"Oh right!" His mates began to nod like they understood. "She's the head of neonates right?"
"No," Alex shook his head and shuddered a little at the thought of him and Addison. She was his mentor and he had no interest in her in any other way. "Izzie was in our year, we interned together."
"Oh," His mates again nodded like they understood. "Is she here somewhere?"
"No," There was a hint of sadness to his tone, it was something he felt but not something his friends heard. "She's not practicing anymore."
"Oh, she couldn't hack it?" His mates looked at each other and half laughed.
"No," He shook his head, "She got sick." He didn't want them talking bad about Izzie but he didn't want to explain himself to them either. "What about you two?" He asked changing the subject. "Are you both still playing the field?"
"Yep!" They both looked at him with massive grins on their faces, and he couldn't help but think they hadn't changed a bit since college. "You don't happen to have any single friends do you?"
"None that I'd set up with you two." He let out a chuckle of his own. There was no way he was going to let these two set foot anywhere near his friends. They were exactly like he used to be and he didn't want his friends reminded of that person.
"Aww, are you're friends too good for us or something."
"They're not your type." He let out another chuckle and shoved some more food in his mouth.
As he ate the conversation slowly died off and changed, he listened as his too old friends checked out woman after woman; he listened as they made lauded remarks, and asked the ladies if they wanted to catch up later. It was a conversation he'd become accustomed to at college but it had been a long time since he'd used it. He didn't need it any more and the longer it went on the more grateful he became of that.
"Do you guys still enjoy talking like that?" He asked when he'd finally finished eating.
"Yeah." They looked at him a little strange. "Why wouldn't we?"
"I don't know," He paused to try and think of a reason. "It's just so college."
"Nothing wrong with a bit of college." His friends started laughing and then the bells finally started ringing to say the next sessions were about to start. "Looks like that's our call to leave." They both said standing up. "It was great seeing you again Alex, we'll be expecting a wedding invite in the mail."
"Sure thing," He called after them and then he looked down at his timetable and forced himself to pick a session.
***
Izzie sat on a seat half way down the bus and for a moment she closed her eyes. She'd had a good day but now that it was starting to slow down she was suddenly very tired. She closed her eyes and started counting, she didn't want to fall asleep, she knew enough to know falling asleep here was a bad idea but she needed to close her eyes, she felt better with her eyes closed.
The bus started moving and she kept counting, when she reached one hundred she opened them again, just to see where she was, see how much further she had to go. When she opened them though what she saw was not what she was expecting. The street looked completely foreign, the houses and buildings were dirtier than before and when she saw the number on the bus stop she was passing she realized with horror the mistake she'd made, she was going the wrong way.
"Excuse me," She stood up and started walking to the front of the bus. "I think I'm going the wrong way. I need to get to the ferries." She told the driver. He looked at her and started laughing.
"Yeah lady you're going the wrong way, we're no where near the ferries." He sniggered as he pulled the bus over at the next stop. "Cross the road and wait over there, should be another bus soon going the other way."
"Okay, thanks." She stepped off the bus and crossed the road. She sat down at the bus stop and she waited, and waited and waited.
Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, minutes pasted and no bus came, there was no one else at the bus stop and again she started swearing. She didn't know where she was, she had no idea and as the minutes ticked by she began to get worried.
Forty, fifty, one hour past and she was still waiting, it was almost dark and starting to rain.
"Come on," She whispered under her breath and she tried to pull her coat tighter around her, the temperature was dropping fast and she was getting cold. A violent shiver ran through her body, it was so strong she could hear the seat beneath her shacking and tears began to run down her face.
She'd wanted to do this on her own but now all she wanted to do was get home, she wasn't enjoying herself anymore. She reached into her handbag and began looking for her phone, she wrapped her hands around the smooth black plastic and pulled it out. She was going to phone Alex and tell him what happened, she was going to admit defeat and ask for help but as she went to dial the number she realised the battery was flat.
For a moment she stared at the black screen trying to process what it meant. She tried to tell herself to think, to stay calm, not to panic. She told herself she wasn't stuck, that she could get out of this she just had to think. It worked for a while as the thoughts ran through her head she stayed calm but as every thought ran into a dead end, the fear began to build.
"The bus is going to come," she told herself. "It's going to come."
Positive thinking was the only thing she had left, the only thing to keep her in control. It worked for a little while, for a few more minutes she stayed calm but the fear and anxiety kept building and then there was a bang. It sounded to her like a gun shot but it could have just been a car backfiring what it was exactly didn't matter just the noise. The noise pushed her over the edge, flicked the switch in her brain from pause into fast forward, and she lost control.
***
Alex bounded up the steps leading to the apartment two at a time. He wanted to get home, he wanted to see Izzie. He'd ended up going to the session about epilepsy treatments and he'd found out some really exciting news. A few of the drugs he'd been following through clinical trials had just been approved for general use and they appeared to be much superior than the current lot of medications she was taking. He wanted to tell her all about it and he wanted to hear all about her day. From the sound of the voicemails she'd been leaving him it had gone well.
He reached the front door and opened it with the key. He was expecting to walk in and find the TV blearing and Izzie in the kitchen cooking but the apartment was eerily quiet and dark.
"Iz!" He called out hoping he might get some reply but he already knew she wasn't there. He reached for his bag and pulled out his cell phone, he checked his messages, the last one she'd left was almost three hours ago and she said she was coming home, she should be home. He dialled her number and waited, it went straight to voicemail and he swore. This was exactly what he was afraid might happen.
He sat down on the sofa and ran his hands through his hair. He wanted to phone the police, he wanted to file a missing persons report but he was fairly sure he'd be laughed at and told to wait until she had been missing for more then a couple hours. He was sure they couldn't help him and really what was he going to say to them, that his fiancé said she'd be home and she isn't, when phrased liked that it wasn't an entirely unusual thing. He wanted to run off and start searching for her but he wasn't sure where to start and if she came home and he wasn't there, it could cause a whole lot of new problems.
"Iz. Shit," He whispered to himself, "What have you done?" He pulled his cell phone out again and began dialling numbers. He phoned every person he could think of who Izzie might have called, no one had heard from her and as the minutes ticked by he started to worry more. It wasn't like her to go completely off the radar; it wasn't like her not to tell him where she was at.
He started walking small circles around their apartment, he tried to think what to do but for now there was nothing he could do, nothing but sit and wait.