Meredith perched on a bench in the resident's locker room, undoing her ponytail and sliding her shoes off onto the floor.
The door creaked open and there was someone sitting next to her on the bench before she could even look up.
"Hey, Mer,"
Blinking rapidly, Meredith took him in. "Hey, George."
Using the toe of his shoe like a pencil, George drew several lines on the tile floor before saying, "I've decided to repeat my intern year."
"Good," Meredith nodded, not sure what else to say. George was foreign now, and entirely new being that she wasn't even sure she really wanted to know.
"Yeah, I guess," he continued, "I just don't want to be sitting around the house all day, you know? I don't really have much else to do."
Don't really have much else to do, huh? Meredith laughed to herself, rolling her eyes inwardly at the irony.
"You'll be seeing more of me, then, and I really have missed you, Meredith. Like, we used to spend all of that time together, and then…"
Meredith pulled off her scrub shirt to reveal the tank top underneath and whipped the shirt into her locker. "I'll see you around, George. I've got to go."
"Okay," he answered. "See ya."
Meredith stood up before turning to look again. "And maybe…George…you should talk to…Izzie."
She grabbed her purse and bolted from the locker room, not really in the mood to socialize anymore.
0oooooooooooooooooooooo0
Izzie hated being in the park after dark. It made her nervous to think all the bad guys possibly lurking in the bushes. But as dusk came and went, she continued throwing small pieces of bread from her plastic bag into the pond and counting the ducks.
"Ducks…are simple," she said to no one in particular, as she shredded another piece of bread. "Eat, swim, float and sleep. Repeat. And now…I'm talking to the ducks. I. Am talking. To the ducks." Izzie's laughter edged towards borderline hysterical as she littered the water's surface with more little pieces of bread.
"So…God. If there is such a thing…if there is a God," Izzie rambled as she crumbled up her empty bag and aimed for the trash can. "I mean…seriously. If anyone up there can hear me…Yeah. A little help…That would be really nice right now. I don't…I want…I'm pregnant. Life is messy. The past is messy. I hate it, I hate everything…I wish I was a duck. So yeah…help. Help would be good."
"Iz…I knew you'd be here."
Izzie couldn't hide her face turning forty two shades of pink as George sat beside her. "What are you doing here?" she asked. "How much did you hear?"
"Enough," he replied, answering her question without really answering.
"I'm pregnant," she said, spitting it out without really thinking. Like ripping off a band-aid, only more painful.
George bit his lip, nodding. "I heard."
Izzie's face flushed again as she muttered, "I was talking to God. And ducks. And last time I checked, you are neither, and you weren't supposed to hear that."
"It's okay, Izzie."
"Not really."
Izzie rose to her feet and tried to pull away, but George grabbed her arm. "Sit down, Izzie, let's talk."
"No," she stated adamantly, trying to shake him off. "I don't want to talk."
George steered her into sitting back down on the bench. "What are we doing here, Izzie, we should be able to talk…we should,"
"Things changed," she interrupted, "the night we tried to make it all about something else. Sex changes people, George. Death changes people. People change."
"We're…having a baby, Iz. A baby."
"I'm having a baby. I'm having a baby, George." Izzie twirled a strand of hair around her finger angrily, fighting the urge to rip it out. "You wanted nothing to do with me until right this moment, and all of a sudden…"
"It's not that I didn't want anything to do with you," he argued, "I just…I had…I have a lot going on, and my priorities were wrong…And I let you down, Iz. I said it before, and I'll say it again. I'm sorry, Izzie. You have to know that."
She nodded.
"So…What are we doing? What is it…six weeks? Is it a boy or a girl?"
"Six weeks," Izzie confirmed. "We won't know for a while longer if it's a boy or a girl, it's too early to tell." Izzie leaned forward to stare at the ground as she added, "You don't have to do this, George, you don't have to be there. So soon after…"
"Yeah, Izzie, yeah…I do."
Izzie let her gaze drift off into the ducks, and when George reached for her hand, she found herself unable to pull away.