AS GEORGE AND Skylar walked to the hospital, the latter drinking a coffee and the former with a bagel, George had his arm around her shoulder as they walked and talked about the date they had the night before. It was a great night, they went out to eat at a restaurant that wasn't too fancy and they had a great time. It was like they had known each their entire lives, and Skylar especially liked how the date ended when they got back to their house.

"Oh," Skylar sadly said as a bird popped directly onto her open coffee cup. "I payed like, five bucks for that." She tossed it in the nearest trash can as George waited for her.

"Ha, sucks for you," George laughed, teasingly waving his bagel in the air. Skylar hit it out of his hand before he was able to take a bite out of it. "Oh."

"Not so funny now, is it?"

"Oh, crap," He whined, watching the bird devour his ruined breakfast.

"Sucks for you," she retorted, mocking him.

"Let's just go," he rolled his eyes at her childish ways. Just as they turned to walk away, a loud thump was heard from behind them. Much to their surprise, a man fell out of the sky and onto the—now dead—bird.

"Window washer, fell from the fifth floor," Bailey informed George and Skylar as they snapped on their gloves to inspect the patient in a trauma room of the hospital. "What's your name, sir?"

"Stu."

"Obvious tib fib fracture, but, otherwise, he's okay."

"Equal breath sounds, after a five story fall he's got equal breath sounds. Unbelievable! Sky, do you wanna hear?" He squealed, speaking very quickly.

"I believe you, Georgie," she chuckled as she palpated the man's abdomen and Cristina entered the room.

"You fell from the sky—five stories—and you only injured your leg," George told the patient.

"George," Cristina warned.

"No. Don't 'George' me. A few seconds earlier he would have landed on me."

"True..." Skylar admitted. "Roll him on three, please?" She asked the nurses. "One, two, three."

As they examined the man's back, they found the squashed pigeon in his back. George's eyes widened. "My life was saved by that pigeon!"

"Let's get some X-rays and after that, you might want to get in there and look for the rest of...tweety," Bailey instructed. "Skylar, Dr. Shepherd asked for you."

"Which one?" The redhead asked, taking her gloves off.

"Montgomery-Shepherd."

"My mother died of it. My aunt. My cousin—she's 37—has ovarian cancer, all of then," Sav ranted to her husband, Addison, and Skylar in a conference room. Sav had tested positive for the ovarian and breast cancer gene. It was kind of haunting her, knowing she most likely would get it as well. And Sav had no intention of getting it either, she wanted Addison to remove her uterus and find her a surgeon to cut off her breasts. But she was having a hard time getting her husband, Weiss, to approve of the surgery. Skylar watched the couple, disapproving of the man's controlling nature.

"But you don't," he instantly disagreed. "You don't have cancer! This is crazy, Savvy."

"But I have the gene, Weiss—"

"Which gives her up to an 85% chance of getting cancer—" Skylar cut in from where she was leaning against the doorway.

"And a 15% chance she won't," Derek interrupted, entering the room and taking a seat next to Weiss. Skylar looked between him and a fuming Addison with a deadpan look. She could already tell this would not be a fun day.

"I'm not betting my life on 15%!"

"We're you even invited?"

"Weiss asked me to come," Derek answered his wife, ignoring Sav.

The man nodded, "I thought it might help."

"Help what?" Sav scoffed. "I'm sorry, Derek, 'cause I love you and I'm really glad to see you, but until you grow a uterus and watch your mother die from this disease, you don't get—you don't get a vote." Skylar had never had to go through any of that, but she could only imagine how difficult this must be for Sav. And Weiss and Derek weren't making it any better. It seemed like Sav had already made her decision and she wouldn't change it just because of a man's view on what should happen.

"It's her body, guys. In the end, it's her decision." Addison and Sav gave her a thankful look.

"Did she tell you that they were trying to get pregnant?" Derek ignored her.

"Yes, she did," Addison responded.

"Having a hysterectomy is gonna throw a wrench in that."

"Derek! We've been trying for months," Sav persistently said.

"Why give up now?" Weiss angrily asked.

"Come on. We've talked about this. There are other ways to make a family, Weiss. We can adopt, we can do—"

"Savvy."

"No!" She slammed her hand on the table, startling the group. "I'm not talking about this!"

"Let's just take a step back. Take a deep breath, and think about this."

"I've already thought about it, Derek. This...this is going to happen."

"Dr. Kepner," Addison began, handing Skylar the chart. "Get a complete history and do her pre-op labs. Get her scheduled for a double mastectomy and consult Dr. Cwynar in plastics for her reconstruction."

"Derek—" Weiss said, wanting the man to do something about his wife. Skylar hated his controlling tone and his obvious implication that the man should have the pants in the relationship.

"Addison, this conversation is not over," Derek said.

"She is my patient, Derek," Addison began before he even ended. "We're doing a bilateral prophylactic oophorectomy and hysterectomy tomorrow."

"Shouldn't he be more excited?" George asked Meredith and Skylar at a nurses' station. "I don't know, maybe he's in shock, I don't know...I mean he survived, it's huge! He's gotta realize that things happen for a reason..."

"I don't know that they do, Georgie, honestly," Skylar sipped on her coffee. She was thinking back to Sav and her surgery. Sav seemed like a nice person who was just going through a troublesome time, why did she have to get cancer?

"Oh, yeah. My ex-boyfriend moves his wife to Seattle. Reason? To torture me."

"I'm serious. You should be more excited, too, Sky! We survived." He passionately kissed his girlfriend who let out a surprised noise at the sudden contact. The kiss only lasted a second but she stared at him with disbelief and a smile on her face.

"Gross," Cristina joined them, commenting on the couple's PDA. Skylar just sent her a funny face in response which almost made the brunette crack a smile. She then turned to the blonde who was going through charts. "What's with the hello kitty on your forehead?"

"I don't wanna talk about it..."

"Zit-zilla..." Skylar ominously said, with hand gestures that made her seem like she was attacking Cristina. She was acting a bit childish today and George didn't know why, but he loved this side of her. Liked. He liked this side of her.

"George, can I sign out to you early? I have a test date, Burke is testing me," she went on.

"Well, Georgie can't stay later, we have plans," Skylar smiled at her between gulps of her coffee.

"Carpe diem," he let out.

"I've got a giant zit on my forehead and I'm beginning to look how I feel," Meredith complained. "Carpe that."

"This is the luckiest day in the world!"

All of Bailey's interns were in the locker room, the girls were just helping Cristina get ready for her date with Burke while Alex and George were just freshening up. Skylar couldn't help but think back to when she was checking in on Sav, Izzie was totally against the idea, but as a doctor, she reminded the blonde that it's not her place to convince a patient what's right or wrong, especially when that patient was vulnerable—and most of them are because they're making the decision of life or death.

"Uh, they're both really nice," Izzie said as she looked between the two dresses Cristina was holding up. One was more flowy and white, the other was tighter and a shiny purple.

"I know. I bought them," Cristina deadpanned. "But which one is right?"

Izzie shrugged, "For what? You're gonna look hot in either one."

"Well, clearly."

"C'mon, Izzie, we all know that Cristina looks hot in anything," Skylar said, looking the brunette up and down in her beautiful red dress.

Just as she said that Meredith came into the room. "Wow, you look hot," she praised. George entered behind her and wolf-whistled.

"Yeah, Burke and I are gonna talk about how hot I am over dinner. Ugh, this date is such a mistake."

"It's easy to get nervous on dates. It's especially hard if you're out of practice, so you just got to be mellow and relaxed—" George started before Cristina interrupted him.

"Yeah, I know how to date, George. I'm not you," Cristina teased, earning a glare from George.

"I know how to date. I date all the time. Just ask Sky," he said, gesturing to the redhead.

"Eh," she jokingly said, shrugging. George just playfully glared at her as he made his way to the bathroom.

"Well, I have her scheduled for the mastectomy," Alex boasted, joining the group. "And I get to stay while plastics does a trans flap reconstruction. Sky, you're on the case too, right?"

Skylar nodded. "Yep. Are you scrubbing in?" She asked and Alex nodded.

"I couldn't do it," Izzie spoke up, butting into the conversation.

"Do what? Make yourself all hot and sexy for your boyfriend like Yang?"

"Go wrestle something," Cristina rolled her eyes.

"I couldn't cut off my ovaries and breasts just because I might have cancer," Izzie continued.

"She doesn't maybe have cancer, Iz. It's 85 to 15, would you really want to take your chances on that," Skylar reasoned. Izzie just shrugged in response.

"Think of it like a hand," Cristina started. "If someone told you you'd die if you didn't chop off your hand, you'd do it."

"Except when you chop off a hand, you don't kill your sex drive, have silicone breasts, get hot flashes, and lose your ability to bear children."

Skylar shot the blonde a look. "I would rather do that than be dead by the time I'm 40 because of something I could've avoided."

"If it were me, I wouldn't even have the test. I mean, what's the point? We're all gonna die anyway, right?" Everyone stared at Meredith but couldn't keep their eyes off of one thing. She sighed, pointing to her face. "It's the Hello Kitty band-aid on my forehead. It's freaking me out."

"I say slice 'em and dice 'em. Whatever. They're body parts," Alex shrugged.

"Oh, so you'd cut off your penis?" Izzie asked, knowing that he was going to say no, but she was wrong.

"If it kept me from dying. Besides...I've got plenty to spare."

Skylar threw a pen at him, which he immediately caught and put in his pocket after looking at it. "TMI, man."

"You love me," he said, getting up in her personal space before leaving to go to his locker.

"I could do hot in my sleep," Cristina said, going back to her dress debacle. "I look hot in scrubs. I'm a hot person."

"Yeah, you are," Skylar motivated.

"Besides, he's seen me naked a thousand times."

That's when George walked out of the bathroom to hear Cristina say that. "Bad, bad images in my head," he dramatically said, wincing as he walked over to Skylar who was laughing at his expense.

"But he's never seen you outside the hospital," Meredith pointed out.

"Thank you," Cristina said, looking at Meredith. She was glad at least one person saw her point of view.

The next morning, George, Skylar, and Meredith sat outside the hospital George was upset because, after all that, the window washer had died. Meredith didn't know how to feel because her patient had cancer and when she told her husband, he said not to tell the patient. But she had an obligation so she did tell her and the patient said not to tell the husband. They had spent 60 years together and they only got a few more months, and they were spending it in Venice. Skylar's patient, Savvy, her surgery was that day and she didn't know if Sav's husband was going to show up for it or not.

"I thought he cheated fate," George said, balancing on a ledge that Meredith and Skylar were sitting on.

"Maybe he did," Skylar suggested.

"He died!" George pointed out.

"I think you can't wait for someone to fly underneath you and save your life. I think you have to save yourself," Meredith thought out loud.

"You mean the pigeons aren't going to come?" George asked, sitting down and facing the two girls.

"The pigeons aren't going to come," Meredith confirmed.

"Sometimes they do. Sometimes miracles happen," Skylar said with a bit of hope in her voice. That's when Meredith decided to go home, to leave the couple by themselves.

"I'm grateful for you," George suddenly blurted out after a minute of staring at Skylar's profile. "I just mean—you know, with all that happened today."

"I'm grateful for you, too," Skylar said with a giant smile on her face. And by giant, it wasn't giant because of the size, it was giant because of how much she felt like smiling. Sometimes she relies on her facial expressions to get the point across. She wasn't the greatest at putting her thoughts into words, most of the time she just ended up stopping in the middle of a sentence because she couldn't figure out how to word it. And when she did figure it out, it was too late because the subject had already changed. "Georgie?" She whispered, wanting to keep this short but sweet.

"Yeah?"

"You're my pigeon," she said, hoping that he would understand what she meant.

"You're my miracle, too."

It was Thanksgiving. Skylar sat cross-legged on her bed, looking down at her folded hands. A deep sigh escaped her lips. She should be happy because it was one of the first holidays that she would spend with her new, sort-of dysfunctional family. However, she wasn't able to put a smile on her face. It was the first year she would spend without her family on the holidays. She always celebrated with them, even when she was in college, she would fly back home. This year, she would miss her mom's cheesy mashed potatoes, and Libby's, one of her sister's, famous cornbread, with corn from the farmer's market that was in town three weeks before the holiday. Skylar had to admit, that she was feeling a little homesick.

When Skylar went downstairs she saw Izzie dumping a frozen turkey into the kitchen sink. The blonde was getting recipes and books out in preparation for cooking Thanksgiving dinner which everyone was supposed to help with. But nobody really wanted to help. "Skylar! I'm so glad that you're up. Can you cook?"

Skylar was about to answer when Izzie's eyes shot to the door. She rushed out of the kitchen to go to the hall where Meredith was trying to sneak out of the house. Instead of lending a helping hand, she tried to escape to work. "What do you think you're doing?" Meredith immediately spun around to face the blonde, who was standing right behind her with a recipe book in her hands. Skylar let out a deep sigh before leaving the bar stool to join the two in the hallway.

"I am—" Meredith was interrupted by the doorbell, which she used as an excuse. "Answering the door.

Looking at the blonde's bag, Izzie realized, "You're going to the hospital?" Skylar made her way toward the door. "Meredith, everyone is supposed to be in the kitchen by nine am to help me make dinner. It's Thanksgiving!" She complained. Skylar opened the door with a confused look as she found three men staring back at her.

"Is this where Georgie lives?" The oldest of the men asked.

"Georgie? O'Malley?" Skylar asked and at the man's nod she answered, "Yeah, he's probably still upstairs."

Right after she said that the men barged past her, chanting, "O'Malley! O-Ma-lley!" As they went up the stairs Skylar just stared after them in confusion.

"Should we call the police?" Izzie joked.

"Probably," Skylar replied, a faint smile on her lips. With both of them distracted, Meredith took that opportunity to sneak out of the house. The sound of a closing door caught their attention and they immediately turned around, but they were too late. Izzie looked rather angry while Skylar was feeling a bit left out.

"Meredith, I'm serious! You need to be back here for dinner at six! I mean it!" Izzie shouted before turning to Skylar.

"I'll go with her if it makes you feel better. I'll make sure she's back here in time," Skylar suggested with a bright smile on her face, hoping Izzie would let her. She did not want to spend the whole day with the blonde.

"What? But I need help," Izzie deflated with a hopeless look on her face.

"Cristina will be here in, like, 30 minutes. You'll be fine," Skylar said, slowly backing away toward the door.

"Fine. Go," Izzie waved her off. Skylar turned around with a genuine smile on her face. Luckily, she caught up with Meredith in time before she left the driveway and made her way to the hospital.

"Grey," Bailey called as she walked into the locker room and looked at her two interns. "We're working with a temp attending today," she informed. "Dr. Kent—he's subbing in from Mercy West. We need to get him oriented."

"What about me, Dr. Bailey?" Skylar asked as she stood up after finishing tying her shoe.

"You just finished a 20-hour shift," Bailey narrowed her eyes. "Go home. Go celebrate Thanksgiving with your family."

"My mom and dad are back home in Ohio," Skylar blurted out. "And my sisters. Well, one sister is in Seattle but she's celebrating with her friends this year. Which led me here. To you. To work."

"Alright, fine. Stay if you want. Go help out in the E.R and maybe get yourself a surgery," Bailey instructed and Skylar's face lit up. "No stealing surgeries! Holidays lead to alcohol, which leads to violence, which leads to people getting hurt. The stupidity of the human race. Be thankful for that." Skylar and Meredith stood up and followed the resident as they left the locker room. "And thank you for coming in, both of you. Saving me from having to choose interns to torture," Bailey added.

"Happy to be tortured," Meredith cheered.

"Not a fan of Thanksgiving?" Bailey asked.

"Not a whole hell of a lot to be thankful for."

"And you, Kepner? Besides the whole...family issues."

"Well, I'm thankful to be helping people," she answered in a tone that told them that she just wanted to assist with surgery. Bailey just rolled her eyes at her eager intern. Of course, she got stuck with the most surgery-hungry ones.

"And my daughter is in Columbus for a business meeting. A business meeting on Thanksgiving! Can you believe that?"

"Hey, I'm from Ohio. No need to be rude about it," Skylar replied in a teasing tone with a smile. She was suturing the cut on the old lady's forehead. Her grandson was waiting beside the bed, the teenager watching over everything that was happening.

"Oh, no offense to the state, dear. It's just, what kind of business meeting happens on Thanksgiving?"

"I'm sure it's really important or else she wouldn't have gone," Skylar tried to assure Mrs. Schuette.

"Will she be okay?" Her grandson, Michael, asked. "I just—I was holding the TV remote and gesturing and it flew! I swear, I did not do it on purpose!"

"Mickey, it's not your fault," Mrs. Schuette reassured, holding her grandson's hands.

"Mom and Dad are gonna kill me...I'm gonna die on Thanksgiving..."

"Michael, sit down and take deep breaths, okay?" Skylar requested, not wanting to agitate either one of them right now. "It does more harm if you continue panicking, alright?" Michael nodded and sat down on a stool alongside the bed. Skylar let out a deep breath.

The curtain behind her was suddenly pulled open, and the three of them stared at the neurosurgeon that appeared. "Ooh, that is one handsome man," Mrs. Schuette noted, and Derek smiled back at her.

"What are you doing here on Thanksgiving, Shepherd?" Skylar asked as he walked up to her.

"I needed a, uh...distraction," Derek replied. "And I might be able to wake up a patient who was minimally conscious for 16 years."

"With Meredith," Skylar knowingly looked at him. "What? Gossip travel faster than you think in this hospital. I'm not normally one to listen to it, but you're all...smiley." She and Derek had gotten closer the last few weeks. Skylar still has a bit of a grudge against him for keeping his wife a secret, but she had to admit that he was a good person to have around.

"You really are taking your time with those sutures, aren't you?" He asked, changing the subject as he quirked a brow at the intern.

"Well, Mrs. Schuette here does not want a big ugly scar on her face, does she?" Skylar smiled at the woman.

"Absolutely not," she replied. "I want whatever beauty is left on me."

"Oh god, will she have a scar?" Michael freaked out.

"I can assure you, Dr. Kepner is one of the ebay there is," Derek told the teen. "You're in good hands."

Derek examined the intern, who had her full attention on perfecting the suture on her patient's face. She sometimes reminded him of a certain someone, but even the thought of that person was enough to ruin his mood and make him want to escape the situation.

"Well, I better get going. See you around, Kepner. Happy Thanksgiving."

Skylar only hummed in response, mainly because she was too concentrated on the stitches. It only took her another five minutes to finish suturing the cut together.

"Well, Mrs. Schuette, we're done here," she placed down the tools and removed her gloves, tossing them into the trash can nearby. "I'll get you some paperwork to fill out. It basically states that you accepted help in this hospital and you recognize that you need to come back in a week to get the stitches removed. Other than that, your forehead will look like it never had to come here to begin with." The patient smiled at her and thanked her for her great service and compassion.

Skylar strolled around the hospital, with a large cup of cappuccino with two shots of espresso in her hand. She found herself absentmindedly wandering to the tunnels where she found Alex sitting on a gurney.

"Skipping Thanksgiving, too?" She spoke up, causing Alex to jump a little as he shoved the notepad in his hand aside. She walked over to him, only to notice the many medical books opened and scattered around him. The notepad that he shoved away was filled with lines of notes in scribbled handwriting that took her a second to understand.

"Yeah, yeah. I failed my medical boards. Big deal!" Alex groaned.

"Well, it is kind of a big deal," she said as she sipped her coffee. "I can help you study if you want," she suggested and he stared at her curiously. "Well, Karev, not to rub it in, but I aced every exam I took."

Alex didn't waste another second as he moved a few books aside to let Skylar sit next to him on the gurney. "Do not tell anyone else about this, Sky. I mean it."

"Why do men have such a big ego?" She questioned as she sat down. When he glared at her, she assured him, "Yeah. Yeah, I got it." She snatched over his notepad, flipping through his notes to try and transcribe them into actual English.

It was already nighttime when Skylar met Meredith again in the locker room. "I heard about the case you were working on," she said, walking toward her locker. "How's your patient?"

"He died," Meredith let a long sigh. "Derek's with his family right now."

"I'm sorry."

"You're close with him, aren't you?" Meredith spoke up. "With Derek?"

"Yeah, I hope you aren't mad at me if I am," Skylar said, hoping that the blonde wouldn't be.

"I'm not. You know, as long as you don't talk about me around him," Meredith responded, causing Skylar to lightly chuckle.

"You know, I basically assigned myself with scut work today, instead of scavenging for surgeries."

"You also helped Alex study," she added and Skylar looked at her. "He told me. That was nice of you." Both of them turned their heads to Cristina, who had just walked by. She stared at them in shock, her look similar to the two other interns.

"What are you doing here?" Meredith asked. That's when George walked into the room. He did a double-take when he saw Cristina, his eyes widening even more when he noticed Meredith and Skylar there as well.

"Oh...this is beyond bad."

"Hey, Iz," the four interns chorused as they walked into the makeshift dining room. "Sorry, we're late."

Izzie gave them a halfhearted glare and then waved them all into their seats. Alex leaned down and kissed her cheek. "At least you all made it."

"Her fault," Alex pointed at Skylar, to which she just gave a confused look. "She drives really slow. And she's addicted to the hospital. It took all four of us to drag him out kicking and screaming."

Skylar shot him a playful glare. "You do know, I have blackmail on you, right?" That shut Alex up real quick.

"So, in punishment for leaving Preston and I to cook alone, you five have to give us the skinny on what happened at the hospital today," Izzie ordered and tore a bite out of her bread roll.

Skylar swallowed her drink of water and stared at her for a moment. "I did a lot of sutures," she blurted out. "Stop giving me the evil eye, Iz. You're freaking me out."

Alex tried to seem immune to the evil eye and shrugged, "Lots of sutures and a raisin stuck in a kid's ear. Her cousin dared her."

"Guy swallowed a wishbone," Cristia offered with a frown.

"My brother shot my dad in the ass," George blurted. "I had to dig the bird shot out. Of my dad's ass," he shuddered, causing Skylar to pat his leg in mock sympathy.

Meredith grinned when Izzie looked at her. "I woke up a P.V.S. patient just by talking to him. Okay, so the fall probably did it but I was the first person he saw in 16 years. It was a good day."

Skylar stared around at the people talking and laughing at the table and smiled. Burke, George, and Alex were using their forks to illustrate as they discussed something. Izzie, Alex, and Meredith were laughing at something Cristina had said. This might not be a traditional family, she decided. But they were a family and she was more than happy to be a part of it.

Words: 4833

I decided to put two episodes into one chapter since I didn't have much to write for them as separate chapters, so I hope you like it this way.

Also, I'm trying to bring out Skylar's childish side more, and it peeked through a little here

Hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to Favorite, Follow, and Review