This Puzzle of Mine

chapter 21 – not hiding

As George opened the door to the, what he thought empty supply closet he got a minor shock seeing Christina on the floor. He looked oddly at his friend as he shut the door behind him.

"What are you doing, bambi?" Christina glared at him when he sat down beside her on the floor.

George smiled slightly at the ineffectual insult. 15 years ago he would have cared and thrown something back at her which of course wouldn't have effected her. "What are you doing?" he paused as Christina sighed and rolled her eyes. "Hiding?"

"No... " she muttered.

"Okay..." George nodded and looked at her. "Did Burke get a hold of you?"

"No, and if you think that's why I'm hiding," Christina made a face. "Then you're wrong, cause I'm not even hiding..."

"Ehm, no he wasn't who I meant... You know... eh..." George stopped. "So how did the surgery go?"

"I didn't do any surgery... I post-poned it..." she confessed.

"So now you're hiding?" George repeated himself. "I'm hiding though... I am hiding, hiding I am... Hi-"

"You know what? Stop questioning me!" Christina looked at him with her dark, tiny, sometimes very scary eyes. "You're bothering, and I'm not- oh stop with the sad puppy eyes!"

"I'm not!" George smiled.

"Stop say I'm hiding then, cause I'm not!" she waved a hand through the air. "You might be hiding, but I am not!"

"And that sounds very convincing..." George picked up his stethoscope and started to play with it between his fingers. "I'm hiding... from... her. Not that.. she's looking for me or anything... You know, I walked away and they, she didn't even notice. No one did. It's like if I'd walk up to them and say 'Hey, where's George?' they'd be all 'George who?'... I mean I'm George! I buy Izzie's tampons, I used to buy Meredith's..."

Christina looked oddly at George. "And you think buying their tampons would get you attention?" George nodded slightly. "You're disturbed... No wonder why you ended up with syph-nurse..."

George smacked Christina on her arm. "Hey! Don't talk about my wife like that... Anyway. Still, it's not me who's sitting in a closet, pretending that I'm not hiding..." George paused as Christina looked down, rubbing her forehead. "I've missed her so much, but I... I can hardly talk about her, you know, let alone with her... She's standing there and you try, you try to say something and she looks at you and you-"

"... You freeze..." Christina sighed quietly.

"Yeah, exactly... You-?"

"And if you tell a soul you're a dead man." Christina gave him a murders glare. "The hunters, charge, kaboom! Dead, bloody, bambi all over the floor. Got it!?"

"Got it!" George exclaimed happily as they exited the closet. "I absolutely do... Absolutely, do I... Do I? Aboslutely! I-"

"I get it, bambi..." Christina shook her head as they made they're way through the hallways.

"You get that I got it... And I get that you got that I got it..!"

"Okay, what's with the happy, smily thing?"

"I'm just happy that you're all warm and squshy..." George put an arm around Christina who quickly removed it.

"I'm not warm and squshy..." she muttered angrily.

"Sure you are!" George cheered.

"Whatever..."

"Yeah!"

-------------------------------------------

Meredith looked around, feeling the tears creep out of the corners of her eyes even though she tried to stop it. She couldn't see a familiar face, not an unfamiliar either. The corridor was literally deserted. Everyone were somewhere else, somewhere she wasn't.

Again just to be sure, she took another look down the hall and too the side to see if there would be someone, somewhere she knew. Mark wasn't there, and Skye was gone as well. Izzie had followed Zadie down even if it wasn't her job and she had yet to return. George was nowhere to be found.

Everybody was gone, except for Meredith.

Standing there, feeling the tears rise she breathed faster and faster with every breath. As the first tear entered and rolled down her face she covered her mouth with her hand to stop herself from screaming. She didn't know what to do, she just stood there unable to move, unable to think, unable to do anything.