Izzie stepped hesitantly into Meredith Grey's room, preparing for the worst and hoping she'd be wrong. Cristina had beaten her to Meredith's room, and she'd pulled an empty bed next to her best friends. Izzie paused in the door, leaning against the frame and listening to their conversation. "I was with her, Mer… when she coded. I had to see her…" Cristina's voice broke, and Izzie knew she was crying. The emotionless and brutally honest intern that had won them over by showing her human side to them, the strong and unbreakable Dr. Yang was breaking down before her very eyes. Izzie almost couldn't take it. "One minute, we were sitting there and having a conversation about your condition… and the next thing I know, she whispers my name and then… I should've known. I should've done something…"

"It's not your fault, Cristina. You're a doctor, and you're her aunt… but you're not God. You had no way of knowing," Izzie stepped into the room with tears rolling down her cheeks. "She's going to pull through this, right? She's strong and stubborn… she can't give up, can she?"

Cristina shifted her body closer to Meredith's and patted the bed next to her, inviting Izzie into their sleepover. "I don't know. I love her, so I want to say she will. I want to believe she's too young to die and she's too smart to quit… but we have to be honest. We're doctors, for God's sake. We've seen children and infants come in here and leave in caskets. It's possible that she won't make it." Cristina squeezed her eyes shut, and it looked to Izzie like she was trying to forget she was a doctor. To forget she had to be semi-logical when the only thing she wanted to do at that moment was to believe whole-heartedly that her only niece would make it out of this alive.

"No, she'll be okay." Meredith chimed in as she turned to look at her friends; "She has no choice. She knows Derek needs her, and she wouldn't let him down."

"We all need her!" Cristina said, a look of hurt on her face, "Did you ever think that maybe Addison wants her turn now?" She paused, a look of shock and disgust creeping across her face, "I just sounded like Izzie and it's really creeping me out…" Izzie slapped her playfully on the arm as Meredith nodded in agreement.

"I want to go check on her," Izzie said, "especially since George is supposed to keep me updated on her and…"

"So have you guys finally told each other you're in love?" Meredith winked at Cristina as Izzie blushed.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Mer…"

"Yes you do! Of course you do. You honestly can't think that we'd believe you're that clueless…" Meredith's eyes grew wide as she looked at her friend, "you didn't know, did you? All these years and you had no clue how he felt?"

"I'm going to check on Grace…" Izzie leapt from the bed and rushed for the door.

"How did she not know?" Cristina laughed at Izzie's retreating figure.

"And if you knew… A real friend would've said something!" Izzie shouted from down the hall, only fueling the flames of their laughter.

"Honestly though… how could she not know? I mean… back in the day, I knew. I didn't want to, but I knew how George felt. A small part of me did, anyway. And I do regret what I did to him, still, because we're not how we used to be."

"None of us are, Mer. We all grew up. We're not the interns anymore. Now it doesn't matter that Izzie used to be a model and was constantly peppy and annoying. It doesn't matter that you slept with the married attending." Cristina paused with a small smile as her hand rested on her stomach, "And it doesn't matter that I only have one fallopian tube, apparently, because now we're finally having the child I was too afraid to have before."

"You're going to be a good mom, Cristina."

"Do you think so?" Cristina looked nervous, apprehensive; "Because sometimes I worry I'm not sensitive enough. What if I have this beautiful little girl, and she comes home from school and wants to talk about some crush she's gotten on some boy? I really don't know if I'll be able to talk about things like that… I don't know what it's like to be that into boys as a teen. I was the book girl, the smart girl... the girl you'd give your homework to. I wasn't the one who had crushes… I'm scared."

Meredith looked into her eyes, "What you'll do is send her to visit her Aunt Izzie, who definitely remembers what it's like being 16 and having crushes on every boy that crosses her path. And when she wants to know what to do after she makes mistakes… huge mistakes that she thinks will ruin her life… for those you send her to me. I wrote the book on life-altering mistakes. When she needs to know how to prepare for tests, or where she should go to college, or how to be strong under pressure, she'll go to you. You'll be great, and where you're unsure, you've got 6 other people waiting in the wings to take over."

"Mer, there's only 5 of you. Burke, Derek, George, Izzie and you."

Meredith just smiled, "And Gracie."


Izzie saw George sitting on the ground, his hands holding his face. A part of her wanted to turn around, to run back to Meredith's room and avoid the possibilities that were before her, but instead she ran to him. "George!"

His head popped up, his face showing every emotion possible as he stood. "What…"

"Bailey cleared me to stay with Mer and help watch her and her vitals, but Cristina's up there and I had to… I had to be here." She stepped forward hesitantly, closing the gap between them. "How is she?"

"They haven't told me yet. Derek's in there… not operating, obviously, he can't stop shaking. He's standing off to the side, trying to be strong…" George let a tear slip down his cheek. He looked away from Izzie, not wanting the woman he loved to see him cry.

Izzie gently turned his face back, almost laughing at his expression of confusion. She bit the smile, and closed her eyes, leaning forward into his lips. The hospital around her faded away; she no longer felt the pain in her heart for her niece and her friends; she could no longer smell the medicinal scent that clung to the walls. She only knew the sensation of his lips against hers, of his hands touching her face, the way his face felt in her fingertips. She pulled back, keeping her eyes closed.

"What was that?" George whispered, looking into her peaceful face.

"That was me realizing what I haven't for far too long. I should've known. I should've listened to my heart. You know... my stomach… it always did these weird somersaults whenever you'd walk into the room… but I thought it was just me being excited to see you. And my heart, my god, that really should've tipped me off. It pounds, literally pounds, when I think about seeing you. Or when I really do see you. I can feel it in my toes it beats so hard… Why didn't you tell me?"

George smiled, "I was afraid. I didn't want you to not love me back… I didn't want to lose you. So I let it sit for years. I wanted to tell you so many times…"

"You should've said something. We could have had years. We could be…" she paused, afraid that saying the wrong thing might panic him, "… married with kids or something. Who knows! But you kept quiet, and everyone but me knew how much I loved you. I'm blind…"

"Do you think we'd be married with kids? Seriously?" George smiled at her, the idea of Izzie as his wife, and holding an infant in her arms with a toddler grasping her legs. Izzie, the instant homemaker, mother to everyone but wife to none… she was thinking about the possibility of being his forever.

They momentarily forgot the desperate situation that was playing out just a few feet away. Behind closed doors, their beloved niece fought for her life. It was a battle they all hoped she would win… but could one more thing go right for their family? Was it too much to ask? Derek rushed out of the operating room in a daze, tears streaking his tired, worn face. "Guys… She's okay…" he smiled, something he feared he would never be able to do again. "She's alive."

"Thank God!" Izzie exclaimed, running to embrace her friend. "What happened?"

"Her body was under a lot of stress, and her injuries were causing her lots of pain…"

"Which is why she was given a morphine drip…" George interrupted.

"Except that, for some reason, she never used her drip. She refused the medication, which pushed her body into shock and forced her into survival mode. Since her body was already weakened, her heartbeat increased at such a rapid pace to try and recuperate. That of course just made things worse and she crashed. Her heart began to fail, and her brain pressure increased. The doctors, they did a magnificent job. They didn't quit on her…" Derek paused to smile at his friends, "And neither did you guys. I'm going to go tell Cristina and Mer the good news!"

George didn't say anything. Words weren't enough. He just kissed her again, longer and deeper, with more emotion. "We should go up there too. Tell them…"

"Oh, they know…" Izzie laughed as pink crept into his cheeks. "They didn't get to you?"

"Did Grace tell them? Or Derek?"

"Oh, god… you mean everyone knew before us?"

"No, just before you!"

She kissed him… she didn't know why it had gotten so comfortable to do that so quickly. Logically you'd think it would take a while to warm up to the idea of kissing your best friend…. Someone you'd known for over 16 years. But it felt so right and natural, that she couldn't believe she hadn't been doing it her whole life.

"George… before we go up there… there's something I have to tell you. About my past…"

"Sure. What is it?"

She took a deep breath, "I had a child, when I was sixteen. I put her up for adoption and I haven't seen her since. I just wanted to tell you… I haven't told anyone about that."

He grabbed her hand, "Let's go see our friends, and celebrate our niece…."

"You don't have anything to say?"

"No. It doesn't change who you are, or how I feel about you. You were young, you made a mistake, but you handled it the only way you knew how, and you have had to live with that decision alone for over 20 years. What can I say? It's not going to change the situation… So, no, I don't have anything to say about it. Except that I love you."

"You're nuts, you know that?" Izzie smiled and shook her head. How did everything always go wrong and right, all at once? "Come on, let's go celebrate."


Derek walked into the room crying, and immediately both women began to weep. "She's gone?" Cristina cried, her hand flying to her mouth in disbelief. She and Mer had still been discussing her future… and now they were seeing their niece before their eyes, her fragile body broken and not moving. Deathly still…

"No… she made it. She's all right…" Derek smiled, rushing to Meredith's bedside to embrace her gently. "She's going into recovery now."

"Don't you ever do that to me again!" Cristina didn't know where the anger came from at that moment, but it was there and it was strong. Maybe it was just all of the stress, the fear and the fact that it was out of her control. That must've been it. She saw the confusion on Derek's face, and she felt bad, but she was still angry...

"Cristina… relax. It's going to be okay now. We've got six people looking out… waiting in the wings." Meredith rested her hand on her friends stomach, "Don't take it out on him, okay?"

Cristina just nodded before responding, "It's time for me to go find Burke…"

As they watched her get on the elevator, Derek asked, "What exactly was that about?"

"It's not my news… You'll have to wait until she's ready…" Meredith smiled at him, "So she's good…"

"She's perfect!"

Meredith just nodded, and he continued, "So, what I had to tell you before… I don't know if I can do it."

"You should. Whatever you have to say… well, I can keep a secret, so whatever it is, it won't leave this room."

Derek sighed, "That's just it. When I say it, it won't be a secret. It'll never be a secret again."

"Well…"

"I'm in love with you…"

"Oh. My. God." Izzie and George waited outside the door, jaws ajar.

"This is some celebration..."