"What happen?" Alex asked pacing around the waiting room. He couldn't sit down, he had to keep moving, something had happened, something bad, if it was something good they wouldn't be acting like this. "What happened?" he asked again.

"Alex you need to sit down."

"No."

"At least stand still then." Shepard reached out for Alex's shoulder; he grabbed hold of it and held it tightly until Alex stopped moving. Under his hand he could feel Alex shaking a bit, in the last minute he'd managed to work himself into nervous wreck.

"What happened? Is Izzie okay?"

"There's been a development in her condition. She's okay now but she can't go home tomorrow."

"What do you mean development?" There were a hundred things development could mean, Alex's mind was racing trying to work out what that might mean. He told himself not to panic, Shepard had said she was okay in the same sentence.

"About half an hour ago she had a grand mal seizure."

"What?" Seizures weren't good, seizures were bad but they could treat seizures. "How is she now?"

"Very tired, groggy, scared. We gave her something to stop the seizure and try and help her relax. She's coping but she's terrified, she keeps asking for you."

"Oh." Alex already felt guilty enough for being late, late because he was doing something he enjoyed. Now to find out what had happened and to find out she'd been asking for him. He felt like shit. "Can I go see her now?"

"Of course." The two men walked out the room together. "Alex," Shepard began a little bit down the corridor. "We haven't told her yet."

"Told her what?"

"That she can't go home."

"Oh." Alex reached the door to Izzie's room. "I'll tell her." He said and he opened the door and slipped inside.

/\/\/\/\

Izzie lay in her bed quietly sobbing to herself. She felt so scared and so tired. She didn't understand what was happening to her. The doctors had told her she'd had a seizure but she couldn't remember it. All she remembered was laying in her room and smelling something burning and then the room was full of people and she felt like she'd just run a marathon or something.

For the last half hour the doctors had been prodding and poking her, and asking her questions she didn't know how to answers. Now she was alone for the first time, she liked it a little bit, she was glad the doctors and the barrage of questions had stopped but…where was Alex? He was supposed to be there ages ago and he still hadn't come.

Behind her she heard the door open.

"Go away."

She said without even looking to see who it was. She didn't want anymore doctors or nurses talking to her. She just wanted to be alone or with Alex. The person didn't go away though; they walked right into the room, shut the door and walked over to her.

"Is that what you really want me to do?" The person asked. She recognized the voice immediately as Alex's.

/\/\/\/\

Alex walked around Izzie's bed and sat down beside it. Her face was soaked in tears compounding the guilt he already felt for not being there. He reached over with his hand and gently wiped the tears away from her eyes.

"Dr. Shepard told me what happened. How are you feeling?"

Izzie didn't answer the question at first, she was feeling so many things she didn't know how to put them into words. Eventually she just said. "My head hurts."

Alex picked up her chart and read it. "The nurses just gave you something for the pain. It should start working soon."

She smiled at him and then they sat in silence. Alex didn't know what to say and she was too tired to keep a conversation going. After a while she did speak again. She knew what his response would be, she'd heard the doctors talking in the corridor but she still needed to say it, make sure it was real.

"I want to go home." She told Alex and as she spoke she watched his face break.

"I'm so sorry Iz," he began, "you can't, not yet."

And even though she knew he'd say that. She knew they'd never let her go home after what had just happened, actually hearing it made it real. She started sobbing again. She wanted to go home so bad. Before she hadn't minded the hospital but now that she knew there was more out there she wanted it more than ever.

As she cried Alex lent forward and embraced her. He squeezed her as tight as he could and let her tears soak into his clothes. They stayed like that, holding each other until the doctors came back.

A young intern Alex didn't recognize entered the room. She made a sound as if to clear her throat to get their attention. Alex let go of Izzie and turned to face the doctor.

"We need to go up to CT." she said, not quite addressing either of them.

/\/\/\/\/\

"I'll be right outside if you need anything." Alex told Izzie as he helped her from a wheelchair, onto the CT table. Alex had never gone up to CT with Izzie, usually he waited in her room for her to come back but she was clinging to him now more than ever. The fear in her eyes when he'd step away from her was real and he was already feeling guilty enough.

"Now just lay still." He said and he kissed her hand. "This won't take long."

Izzie smiled at him and nodded. She'd had so many CTs over the last few weeks she knew the drill of them by heart. The experience was one of the few things she could remember.

Alex left her laying there and walked in the viewing room where Dr. Shepard and a technician were bringing the images of Izzie's brain onto the screen.

"What do you see?" Shepard asked Alex as if he was a doctor on the case.

Alex looked at the image; there were a lot of things he could see. "No wonder Izzie is having problems." He thought to himself. Even though everything was healing the signs of trauma were still across her brain. He could see where the bullet entered, and the path it took. He could see the bullet and the bullet fragments lodged in various places across her brain. And he could see the beginnings of scar tissue forming around the trauma sites.

"The scar tissue." Alex said pointing to it on the screen. "As the scar tissue forms it hardens, this can interfere with the electrical signals in the brain causing seizures."

"How would you treat it?"

"I'd run an EEG to locate the specific source of the seizures. Monitor for the frequency and intensity of the seizure, attempt to control the activity with medication. If medication proves to be ineffective surgically remove the scar tissue."

"Good." Shepard turned to the intern who'd been hiding in the corner. "Set all that up. Page me if there are any further developments over night otherwise I'll see you in the morning."

/\/\/\/\/\

"Take it off! Take it off!" Izzie began wailing as soon as the doctors and nurses left the room. She'd been fighting them every step while they'd been setting up the EEG. She reached up and tried to remove the tiny electrodes that covered her head. She didn't like them on there and she didn't understand what they were for.

Alex reached over and grabbed her hands. He pulled them away from her head and held them tightly in his. "They have to stay on." He tried to sound calm but he came off a little harsh. Izzie was starting to go backwards. All the improvements in her attitude, behavior, outlook that she'd made over the last few days were rapidly disappearing.

"I don't want them."

"I know, but you need them."

"Why?"

"They're monitoring you brain. If you have another seizure they'll be able to show the doctors where it started."

"I don't want it." She tried to pull her hands away, she tried to get them off her head but Alex held her tightly. "I don't want them." She said again and she started to cry. "I want to go home."

"I know, I know." Alex took his free hand and gently began rubbing circles across her back. "Just sleep now, it'll be over soon." He soothed, hoping it would stop her fighting it. Within a few minutes she'd managed to fall asleep.

/\/\/\/\/\

The next day Alex watched hopelessly as Izzie's condition regressed further. She'd made big gains in the days following the news she'd be going home soon but she'd regressed back even further than that. She was irritable, demanding, clingy, and uncooperative. Alex wasn't the only one to notice, her therapists and the nurses who worked with her noticed and even made comments to Alex about it. Alex was lost as to what to do. He tried to boost her mood by telling her she could go home soon but it didn't work, she didn't believe him when he told her because it hadn't been true last time.

By the time 4pm rolled around Izzie hadn't had another seizure, her EEG was completely normal. Alex was at his wits end, it frustrated him to see her like this. She'd been doing so good. It felt like everything they'd been doing for the last week was a waste of time. He wanted to help her but there was only one thing he could do that could help. When her occupational therapist arrived for her afternoon session Alex excused himself. Izzie didn't want him to leave, she cried when he left but he had to leave, if he was going to help her he had to leave.

/\/\/\/\

Alex searched the floors of the hospital looking for Dr. Shepard. Eventually he saw him coming out of an OR, Alex ran after him.

"Dr. Shepard." He called out. "I need to talk to you."

Shepard stopped walking just long enough for Alex to catch up. "What is it Karev?" he asked beginning to walk again.

"It's about Izzie. I want to talk to you about discharging her tonight."

"She can't be discharged tonight." Shepard said without missing a step. "We haven't identified the source of the seizure."

"I know. That's what I wanted to talk to you about." Shepard kept walking; he didn't react so Alex kept talking. "She hasn't had another seizure. Her EEG is completely normal. What if she doesn't have another seizure, what if the one she had was just that, one random unexplained seizure. If that's the case how long are you planning on making her stay here? Since yesterday her condition has regressed dramatically. All the gains she made in the last week are disappearing. She wants to go home, she needs to go home."

"She needs to go home?" Alex had finally caught Shepard's attention. "You say her condition has regressed. Shouldn't that mean a longer stay, not a shorter stay?"

"Yes normally but not in this case." Alex was trying to find the right words to describe what he believed. "Izzie's condition dramatically improved after she was told she could go home. Since she's been told she can't go home her condition has regressed. I believe that her improvement was directly related to going home. She doesn't believe us now when we tell her she can go home soon because it didn't happen last time. I believe the only way she will improve again is to go home."

Alex finished his spiel and waited for Shepard to say something. Shepard was running everything Alex had just said through his head. He'd only seen Izzie briefly today and he'd noticed the regression. He understood what Alex was getting at.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked Alex.

"I've never been more certain." Alex replied while at the same time hoping that he really was right.

And then against his better judgment Shepard agreed. "Okay. I'll get the paper work rolling." He said and began walking off.