Alex was still starting out at the city when he heard the door to the roof open. Dr. Shepard waked toward him. His face was void of any expression. Alex couldn't read him. Shepard sat down next to him but didn't look at him.

"I've been looking for you," he said. "About Izzie, she's made it through the surgery."

Alex nodded. "What's her condition?"

"Critical but stable. We stopped the bleeding but we couldn't remove the bullet."

Alex nodded again. He was trying to get his head around what was happening.

"What is her prognosis?"

Shepard didn't answer at first. He thought carefully about how to structure his answer. Alex wasn't like other family and friends of a patient, he was a doctor, a doctor who didn't like things sugar coated. "It's hard to tell sometimes with brain injuries. She's in a coma at the moment. She might not wake up. If she does there will probably be brain damage but there might not be. We'll know more in a few days."

Alex nodded again. The two men sat in silence looking out at the city. Alex was thinking about how quickly thing could go from grand to what they were now, a mess that was incomprehensible. Shepard was trying to imagine how Alex must be feeling. He liked the guy and wanted to help him but there was nothing that he could say that would help.

Eventually Alex spoke. "Can I go see her?"

"Of course." The two men stood and walked off the roof. They took the elevator down to the second floor ICU. When they reached the third floor Alex asked if they'd phoned her mother yet. Shepard said "No. I thought you might like to be the one to phone her." He handed Alex his phone and a piece of paper with the number on it.

Alex took the phone and dialed the number. He wasn't sure what to expect on the other end of the line. He'd never spoken to Izzie's mom and Izzie had only mentioned her once.

"Hello?" The woman on the other end of the line sounded tired and grumpy.

"Is this Mrs. Stevens?"

"Who is this? Do you have any idea what the time is?" It was 5am but Alex had lost all concept of time several hours ago.

"My name is Alex Karev. I'm a doctor at Seattle Grace hospital. I work with your daughter. She's been in an accident. You need to get down here as soon as possible."

"What happened? Is she okay?"

A lump formed in Alex's throat, he swallowed it and kept talking. "Please Mrs. Stevens just come down to the hospital. We can talk about it then." Alex wasn't ready to have this conversation and over the phone was the last way he wanted to do it.

"Okay. I'll be there in a few hours." She said and the phone went dead. Alex handed the phone back to Shepard and the two men walked off the elevator together.

"She's just down here." Shepard said as they walked down the corridor towards the ICU. As they came closer to the room Alex saw, Meredith, Christina, Bailey, and Burke all walk out and head down the corridor away from them.

At her door Shepard stopped and told him to brace himself, that things looked very bad. Alex shrugged he'd seen ICU patients before, he knew what they looked like and it had never phased him. Shepard opened the door and they walked in. Seeing Izzie wasn't like seeing other ICU patients. With others he had distance, no emotional attachment, they were just charts. Izzie was so much more than a chart to him, he loved her and seeing her like that made him feel sick to the stomach.

He felt tremendous guilt over the situation. He felt guilty because he hadn't been there to protect her. He'd let this happened to her. He sat down next to her bed and took her hand. Her hand was cold, Izzie never had cold hands. He tried to use his own hand to warm it up but his weren't much warmer. She'd always been the one to warm his hands. After a while he fell asleep. He didn't want to sleep but he was so exhausted.

He was woken up three hours later by a woman who he'd never seen before but knew exactly who she was. She was Izzie's mother and they were the spitting image of one another. She was tall, blond, and had dark brown eyes.

"Hello." She'd said tapping him on the back. "I was wondering if I could have a moment alone with my daughter."

Alex stood up and left. He found a seat in the corridor and waited. Izzie's mom was in the room for twenty minutes. When she walked out she came over to Alex. Her eyes were red like she'd been crying.

"I've said my goodbyes." She handed Alex a piece of paper with her phone number on it. "Only phone me again if she dies or gets better." Then she walked away.

Alex stood in the corridor shocked. He couldn't believe her mother would do that. But then again he could. He'd seen family do worse things to each other. He walked back into Izzie's room and took his seat next to her bad again. Someone had to sit with her he thought, she wasn't going to be able to do this on her own.

a/n: I hope you liked it. Please review and there will be more on the way shortly.