Chapter 3 – Tomorrow's Another Day

"What've we got, O'Malley?" Bailey began, rubbing her disdended belly, sounding exhausted. George snapped his eyes away from an oblivious Meredith and flipped through the chart. After dinner the night before, George had avoided Meredith at all costs, afraid she'd bring up his strange behavior. But, all the housemates were on call today, and avoiding was not an option.

His patient was still asleep from the exploratory surgery she'd undergone a few hours ago.

"Carlotta Miles, 24, suffered from intense back pain for three days before collapsing in a supermarket in convulsions. A cyst is pressing apart her 4th and 5th vertebrae, leaving her with no mobility below her waist."

Meredith's brows went up in a moment of surprise. A cyst between her vertebral column? It wasn't rare or anything, she'd just never had one before. Her eyes left George's face, as he continued answering Bailey's questions, to the face of the unconscious woman. An IV and oxygen flowed into her, and her hair was in a high, messy ponytail, but she was undeniably beautiful. Not many women can pull off the hospital bed look, but Ms. Miles was like a porcelain doll lying there with flawless skin and dark eyelashes.

The group started moving again, Alex, Izzie, Christina and Meredith followed Bailey like little ducklings out of the room. George stayed with Carlotta after receiving instructions on how to care for her. He gave her another shot of painkiller into her IV and scheduled MRI's and CAT scans and a consultation with Dr.Burke.

When he set her chart back on the foot of her bed, she stirred. George went to her side, talking to her as he lifted her eyelids and shone his penlight at her pupils, watching them dilate.

"Good morning, Carlotta, how are you-"

She batted his hand away and rubbed her eyes, cursing under her breath.

"Jesus, what the hell? You trying to burn my corneas?"

George furrowed his brow, he didn't take kindly to insults from patients. "Sorry, Ms. Miles." She opened her eyes and looked around. "Are you awake, now?" George said, a little more bitterly than he meant to.

"Yes, I am, thank you." She matched his tone. All of a sudden, she remembered why she was here. Carlotta wrapped her arms around her face for a moment, and when she put them down there were tears on her face. "I can't move my legs." She told George calmly, maybe a little pleading.

"I know."

After giving a now silent Carlotta an MRI, George had to wait another hour until the CAT scan machine was free. That gave him time for a donut and some coffee. He entered the cafeteria with his sights set on the coffee bar. Snapping a cap on his cup, he heard Meredith address him.

"Hey, George."

He spun around too fast to look nonchalant, but tried hard anyway.

"Oh, hey Meredith."

"How's your case?" She asked, not looking at him as she filled her cup.

"Crabby. Yours?"

"Old and vegetative."

"Oh, sorry."

"Ditto. So, about last night-"

George winced and interrupted, "There's nothing to talk about, Meredith, really."

She furrowed her brow, "I was going to thank you againfor putting up with me. Guilty conscience?"

"Oh...uh, no. Nevermind." George fidgeted with his cup under her scrutinizing eyes.

"Fine. Don't tell me." Meredith smiled smugly, "Izzie'll get it out of ya."

George watched her walk away, each quick, determined step she took was a knife in his gut. He wanted to call out for her to stop, shout across the room how much he loved her, but he just sipped his coffee and made his way back upstairs to Carlotta Miles.

Carlotta was lying down in her bed, flipping through a magazine she held above her. She looked over in surprise when George walked in. She took him aback when she grinned.

"Hello again, doc. O'Malley, right? Sorry I was apain in the assearlier, I'm just not a real morning person." She shrugged.

"I figured that out." He smiled, maybe this wouldn't be as bad as he thought. Carlotta looked away for a moment to smile, then lifted her eyes and her hand to him.

"Carlie."

George shook her hand. "Nice to meet you."

"So tell me Dr., what's wrong with me, anyway?" Carlie had to force herself to ask the question, and masked her horror with a smile and a light voice.

"Well, the back pain you experienced was caused by a small tumor that has developed between the plates of your vertebrae. Luckily, it's only small and there's a good chance once we remove it, you'll regain mobility in your legs."

Carlie took in this information and nodded. "There's a chance I may never walk again?"

"A slight chance."

"Sit down, Doctor O'Malley." She commanded gently, and he obliged. Carlie smiled at him, though her eyes were shining with tears. "I haven't talked to my brother in two years. We never really got along all that well, but there were some good times. And he's my brother, you know? I don't know what I'm trying to say, it's just been really heavy on me for a while. I guess being in the hospital scares me...I needed to get it out of me."

"I'm listening."

A tear slid into her hair, and when she spoke again, her voice quivered. "He's a year older than me, and so is my best friend Jackie. I guess they'd been dating for a few months before they told me. She was my only friend. Sad as it is, she was my only friend. And I just felt like he was taking her away from me, and she was abandoning me. I felt so alone. I still do."

George had no comfort to speak to her. He didn't know what to say. So, he just reached out to take her hand and rub his thumb over her palm gently. Carlie squeezed her eyes tight, trying not to sob.

"Dr. O'Malley, we're done with the MRI." Meredith said from the doorway. George looked back at her in surprise, pulling his hand away from Carlie's as if he'd been caught cheating. Meredith gave him alingering look before turning away. The emotions that were clear to George were sympathy, curiosity, and maybe a little bit of pain.

They'd shifted Carlie from her bed to a gurney, since she couldn't sit up in a wheelchair, and George was pushing her down the hall to the MRI when she reached up and behind her to smack his chest.

"Ow, what the H, Carlie?"

"What was with that girl doctor?"

"You mean Dr. Grey? Nothing."

Carlie laughed, "Oh, please O'Malley, I'm a girl, I can just see these things. So, gimme the scoop!"

"There's no scoop." He said through grit teeth, and Carlie laughed again at his discomfort.

"I'm sorry Doc. I don't mean to pry, I'm just bored."

In an unexpected moment of poignancy, George looked down at her. "No, you're just lonely. And it's George."

She reached up to smack him again with a smile.

Her pen was poised above the papers, her thoughts about her patient interrupted by a sudden image of him. Sitting by her side, holding her hand. George was a wonderful doctor with great bedside manner. He comforted all of his patients, gave them all hope and took away their worries. So why was she so disturbed?

"G-r-e-y." Addison spelled out for her as she set her stack of binders next to Meredith at the Nurse's station.

"Huh? Oh, right." Meredith signed her name at the bottom of her papers and shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she tried to concentrate on the rest of the file. Addison stood calmly beside her, studying her own paperwork.

"A woman gave birth last night to conjoined fraternal twins. Their hip bones were fused together."

Meredith looked at Dr. Shepard, almost in awe. Not of the story she related, but the manner in which she related it to her. Nonchalantly, maybe friendly, almost as a peace offering. Meredith found that when she looked at her, with her red hair in a modest pony, sneakers instead of heels today, and blue scrubs just like everyone else, there was no pain in her heart.

"Were you able to separate them?"

"Dr. Shepard and I were able to successfully separate them." Addison replied, referring to her husband. Meredith smiled softly and nodded a congratulations. Addison gave her a smile before walking away. Meredith watched her go, wondering on the strange feeling she got.It was alack of feeling, rather. She felt nothing when she looked at Addison. No jealousy, no pain.

Meredith smiled. The worst was over.

It's pretty obvious I know nothing at all about medicine, so I was just making stuff up. I'm not too worried about those minor details, the major thing here is the relationships between those involved. So I hope you're not offended I didn't take time to research or anything. Anyway...

-Aleks