Thank you for the great response. I think I'm beginning to remember the characters.


George and Mere arrived at the house about forty-five minutes after Alex and Izzie did. They entered the house fearing the worst – Izzie with her leg out the window threatening to jump. They walked all around the first floor silently, trying to find Izzie. Surprised, they found her and Alex in her bed. Alex had dozed off but awoke when Meredith tapped him.

"What are you doing?" George asked curiously in a whisper, so as not to wake Izzie.

"More importantly, what did you do?" Meredith hissed.

Alex frowned, offended. "Nothing," he insisted. "I'm tryin' to be a friend over here. She needed support, and since you two were too busy I decided to lend a hand."

"Hopefully no more than one," Meredith scoffed.

"I wasn't too busy!" George said loudly. Izzie shifted but stayed asleep. Meredith and Alex shushed him, and he continued in a whisper. "I was right behind you, remember? I went back for Meredith."

"Whatever," Alex mumbled. George and Mere stayed where they were, waiting for Alex to get up. He didn't get the hint.

"Hey, Alex, how about going home?" George said, still a little hurt about Alex's remark.

"Oh. You guys…sure you can deal with her?"

"Yeah," Meredith said sarcastically. "I think we can handle her."

Alex got up reluctantly, and both George and Meredith noticed how his arm lingered on Izzie before he got off the bed. Izzie's eyes stayed shut. No one said anything as Alex picked up his suit jacket and went out the bedroom door. George and Meredith considered Izzie's tearstained face.

"I hope she'll be okay," George said quietly.

"I hope so too," Meredith said. "Oh, Izzie. What have you gotten yourself into? You certainly have a lot to think about."

"I hope we can get her her job back."

"Hmm," Meredith said. "That's going to be hard. She really dug herself a deep hole."

"Chief'll understand," George said confidently. "It's not like she's gonna go kill somebody else to save their life."

"I hope not," Meredith said with a weak smile as she left the room. George followed her, closing the door after one final worried glance at Izzie. After they left, she opened her eyes and turned on her back. Mere was right. She had a lot of thinking to do. About Denny, about her job, and about her friends…especially Alex.


Addison frowned, as she always did, when the trailer came into sight. She despised the trailer. The small space made it harder to deal with all the tension she'd been having with Derek lately.

She opened the door and held it out for Derek, who walked in silently, not looking at Addison, very occupied with his thoughts. She tensed as the screen door slammed behind him.

He tried to go past her to the 'bedroom area' but she put her arm out, her hand resting on the kitchen counter, so he couldn't pass.

"We need to talk," she said very evenly.

"Fine," he said, still not looking her in the eye.

"What was that all about?"

"He was being rude to Meredith and I tried to get him to leave her alone," he lied.

"You know I can't believe you. You two were fighting over her, I could tell," she said knowingly, wishing very hard for him to look at her. "Damn it Derek, why can't you just talk to me? Like you used to?"

He was still surly after the fight, in which he was the loser. "Because we're not like that anymore, Addison. You and I both changed the night you slept with someone else."

"Don't bring that up now! How dare you bring that up now. That is not what we are discussing!"

"Yeah? Then what are we discussing?" he challenged.

"We're discussing the fact that you can't let go of your one night stand!"

"She wasn't just a one night stand!" His volume had increased considerably and this shut Addison up. They both stayed silent, Addison's arm still in Derek's way. Neither one looked at the other.

A question formed in Addison's head, one that she was afraid to ask. "Do you love her?" she whispered.

He looked out the window, unresponsive. "Do you love her?" she asked, louder. Still, nothing. "Do you love her?" she shouted, her face too close to his.

He looked up, finally looking her in the eye. "Yes." Addison let go of the counter, her grip had turned her knuckles white. She wiped away a tear as she pulled back a bit.

"Oh," she said simply. He wouldn't stop looking at her, with that calm, tired stare of his. She wished he would stop. She wished he would kiss her. She wished he would leave. She wished he would stay.

She turned and walked towards the bed. He didn't follow her. He opened the door and left. The screen door slammed but Addison did not react as she collapsed on the bed, crying loud enough for him to hear outside the trailer.


Meredith had trouble sleeping that night. She found herself entering George's bedroom, where she found him, too, awake. She crawled onto his bed and yawned.

"I can't sleep," she complained.

"Count or something," he mumbled, turning his back to her to look out the window instead.

"Let's count our problems, that should take awhile. One…Denny died. Two…Izzie was in love with Denny. Three…Izzie tried to kill Denny. Four…Izzie lost her job."

"Five…" George chimed in, looking out the window. "Derek is here."

"What?" Meredith said, sitting up to look over George. Sure enough, she could see his car outside. He was feet away from their front door. She threw herself on the bed and pulled the covers over her head as the doorbell rang. "I'm not here!" she insisted, kicking George. "Go tell him I'm not here."

George pulled his pillow over his ear. "Deal with your problems Meredith. It's healthier than hiding."

"Since when were you my guidance counselor?"

George kicked her. "Fine," she grumbled. "But I'm blaming you if this blows up in my face."

"Fine," he said.

Meredith hurried downstairs as Derek rang the doorbell a second time. She passed by a mirror and stopped. She looked terrible. Quickly she pulled her fingers through her hair as he rang the doorbell a third time. Afraid that he would wake up Izzie, she abandoned her hair and ran to the door. She opened it as he raised his fist to knock.

"Oh. You're…uh…here."

"I do live here."

Silence. "What do you want?" Meredith asked.

Derek hesitated. "Can we just talk?"

"Sure," she said, staying in the doorway, trying to fight the temptation to invite him in.

"So…um…tonight was…interesting."

"Yeah," she agreed, nodding slightly.

"You're not helping," he said, smiling a little. She said nothing, not really wanting to help him. "What does this mean?" He echoed his previous question (you remember, he kept on saying that after the steamy prom scene) in attempts to provoke a response.

She searched for an answer but found nothing. "I don't know."

"Help me out here, please," he said, desperate. "We need to settle this. We need to…figure this thing out and be done with it."

"No," she said slowly.

"No what?"

"We can't just be done with it. That's too idealistic. Listen to yourself. Either wayyou go, you can't just forget. If you and I together, you'll think about Addison. If you and Addison are together, you'll think about me. No matter what, Derek, you're going to lose. And I don't think I can make this decision for you. You've got to go and choose for yourself. Because I'm done with you second guessing yourself, and I'm done trying to help you."

Derek sighed. Meredith watched him. She fought hard not to think about what they had done at prom.

Finally, he turned, and walked towards his car. Meredith closed the door and leaned against it, listening to his car drive away as she slowly slid down the door.

AN: Whooooo will he pick? I don't know!

PS Yeah I do. But you don't.