Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it's not mine. Unfortunately, Shonda Rhimes and ABC are in control. If I had the power... :insert maniacal laughter: .
Several hours later Cristina leaned, elbows propped behind her, against the island in Meredith's kitchen.
What appeared to be remnants of several of Izzie's baking experiments (either that was flour smeared all over the table, or one of her friends had a serious drug problem which needed to be addressed...yesterday. Probably Izzie, Christina figured...) littered most available surfaces in the room.
"Okay, now this is just disgusting." She lifted her arm to reveal a smudge of chocolate on the sleeve of her sweatshirt.
"You're one to talk, Ms. I'd Rather Buy A New Pair of Underwear Than Wash," Izzie retorted, popping a strawberry from its case into her mouth.
"Hey, who told you that? Mer?...MEREDITH?"
Meredith pushed a number of days old newspapers from the table into a trashcan. "What? Well, it's true. Plus, if you're staying for a while Izzie has a right to know what she's getting into..."
Cristina rolled her eyes and bit into a chocolate chip muffin that had been left to cool.
"Right, well I won't be here long. Just long enough to find a place, then I'm out. Maybe my old apartment's-"
"What do you mean you need a place?" Izzie questioned , "Burke gave you the apartment. It's yours. You can stay here as long as you want but then I think you should go back to hi-"
The quick look Meredith shot her told her this idea had already been vetoed.
"Or stay here."
Cristina began calmly, "First of all, I haven't even spoken to Burke. He can't just give up the apartment on Meredith's answering machine."
Meredith nodded.
"Secondly, I don't want it."
"Well, the whole message thing was weird, but-" Izzie began to rationalize, a technique which generally went unappreciated by the two girls.
"Plus, you all would drive me crazy."
Meredith and Izzie nodded in agreement.
"Hey, why didn't Burke ever get a McName?" Meredith asked as she took a seat at the table.
"You were probably worried I'd kill you." Cristina said, clearing an area on the counter before she lifted herself.
"What about McAss?" Izzie offered.
"No." Meredith shook her head.
"And it could imply that we like his ass, which we do not, because he is a McBastard who makes me fall in love with him, and get close enough to his mother that I let her TAKE. MY. EYEBROWS."
Izzie reached to sympathetically pat her friend's hand but quickly retracted it after yet another look from Meredith.
"...And then he...MCRUNS," she ranted.
"So, McBastard it is?"
"I don't know what to do."
Mark Sloan turned to greet the voice from the stool beside him. Though he'd had plenty of time to return home to change after the wedding, his ex-best friend was here at Joe's in formal attire.
He might have been puzzled as to why Derek was choosing to confide in him, had it not happened several times over the preceding...weeks? months?...how long had it been?
Since Meredith drowned, really. He realized.
He'd, in one of his finer moments, made the first move.
And with that Derek made a more concerted effort, trying his hand at helping heal the rift.
However brief, they had these encounters that reminded him of the way things had been in New York. Before he'd fallen in love with his best friend's wife, before Seattle, before any of it.
Derek would come with the problem (towards the end, he'd had many) and Mark would give the advice. Granted, he usually ended up not taking it which was probably why, in Mark's opinion, Derek and Addison were divorced today.
"Well, I don't think best man duties extend to finding him when he obviously doesn't want to be found, so I'd say you're in the clear."
"I'm talking about Meredith."
"Ahh."
It's always Meredith. Even when it isn't.
"So over? So over? Why can't we just have this conversation like a normal couple?"
Mark, thinking it best to save the smartass comments for another day, motioned to Joe for two beers.
"I just don't think I can do it anymore."
"You can."
They sat in silence.
"Just don't screw this one up."
Derek's eyes narrowed, but Mark didn't back down.
"Don't let this be another Addison. You love her, you have to fight for her. It's not supposed to be easy."
"When did you become Mr. Romance?" Derek took a swig of the beer Joe placed in front of him, nodding in acknowledgement.
Shrug.
He couldn't tell him it had been when Addison had decided he wasn't good enough, so instead he took a long drink.
"You go near Meredith, you're a dead man."
George had made it as far as the ambulance bay before he took the seat where he'd had his earlier conversation with Dr. Bailey. He'd been sitting for hours, wondering how he would tell his wife. His friends.
He'd failed.
How had he let things get this bad? How had they let things get this bad?
He'd been so distracted with his personal problems that he had failed his first-year exam. He'd worked all year long and he'd failed. How did that happen?
How was he going to tell Callie he had to stay at Seattle Grace?
(He never would have made it as far as he had without his friends. Or any of the people who had been pulling for him since the beginning.)
"George? What are you doing here?"
That voice.
Not yet. I'm not ready.
"Callie."
"What's going on George?"
A line on the concrete proved hypnotizing and he'd been unable to prevent the words falling from his mouth.
She'd taken his hand at the news of his failed exam. ("Why didn't you tell me?" She questioned softly.)
And then, somehow, he'd told her.
"I slept with Izzie."
Her grip on his hand loosened before she let go. Still, he stared at the ground.
Silence.
"I-" George began.
"I think you've said enough." Callie paused for a moment, to collect her thoughts.
"I knew-I can't believe you told me today. Chief resident...we tried for a BABY today. And you tell me now. Even if you don't love me-"
"But I do. Don't you understand? I do love you. I can't explain..."
"Even if you don't love me the least you could have done was to end this." She couldn't control the tears. "You knew-You knew how I felt about your friends. You knew how I felt about her and still..."
"We didn't mean for any of this to happen, Callie. Believe me."
"Believe you? I've believed for too long. I believed that you could love me. I believed that we could work through Izzie hating me. I believed that you'd choose me over your friends. I can't believe you anymore, George. You're not the decent guy I thought you were. You're a coward."
"It was a mistake." George was still unsure, but it seemed like the right thing to say.
Minutes later, when he finally looked up, she was gone.
A/N:
Coming up:
Our residents (and George?) return to the hospital. Mwahaha. And hopefully things should start to pick up.
Thanks to all of you who have managed to review this story already! Wow! This is my first...and the main reason I chose to write it was so I could get the characters out of my head (Insanity I tell you). Any comments, questions, advice, or criticisms are appreciated, it's how I learn!