Meredith parked her car in her designated parking spot, and walked up to the door of the small yellow house she had converted into her practice. Her secretary greeted her, and gave her messages.

"Your four o'clock cancelled, but rescheduled for next Friday at eleven, and Hayden called, saying he will be here to pick you up to go out for lunch, and that he'd be home early tonight." Ingrid, the plum woman in her twenties with kind hazel eyes and a mass of haywire red curls said.

"Thanks Ingrid. Send my nine o'clock to exam three okay? I'll be in to see them in a few minutes. Meredith walked down the hallway and up the stairs at the back of the house to her private office. This gave her a few minutes to think and collect herself and push old memories out of her mind.

The only thing Meredith forgot was that her April issue of Seattle Medical Journal was lying on her desk, and on the cover was a tall man in his forties, with wavy brown hair and the dimples in his cheeks she could never forget. There, the subject of the article: NUMBER ONE MAN IN BRAIN SURGERY was the biggest ghost of her past, Derek Shepard.

"Come on babe, you gotta get up." A woman said softly, nudging the sleeping figure beside her. A loud grunt came from the sleeping man, and then a muffled:

"But I don't wanna. It's cold outside!"

"God, you sound like a whining six-year old Derek." The woman, who had short black hair and startling green eyes, simply shook her head and walked to the bathroom.

Derek slowly sat up in bed. He was still living in Seattle, and still working at Seattle Grace Hospital, and they were mad rumours spreading around the hospital that he was up for Chief of the hospital when Dr. Webber retired this fall. Derek loved SGH; he loved Seattle so much, that he had chosen to stay here, even after Addison had moved back to New York, and divorced him. In the end, he had chosen the idea of a relationship with Meredith over a solid, albeit boring and predictable relationship with Addison. But now he had a great relationship with Cara Gingham. The relationship had the perfect balance of steamy, hot sex and balanced with a strong, solid friendship.

"Derek, do you have any early surgeries?" Cara asked innocently, her head around the door of the bathroom, her eyes wide and playful.

"No, I actually don't sweetheart, but why are you asking me this?"

"I don't really know…..want to have a shower with me?" Cara, asked, a smile tugging at then ends of her mouth as she tried to stay in character. Derek got out of bed, kissed his girlfriend and followed her obediently into the washroom.

Izzy Stevens sat numbly on the subway, with all the business men and women commuting to work, tapping the floor of the subway restlessly. Her moving leg was hitting the man next to her, and he looked at her from over his newspaper. She tried to grin sheepishly, but it came out as a pathetic half-smile, and turned so her leg was not touching his, and continued to tap-tap-tap away. She was wearing head to toe black, unusual for her, anyone who really knew her would know. Her long blonde hair was lying flat against her head. She hadn't taken much time getting ready today; she had on only a tiny bit of lip gloss, and the remainders of her black kohl eyeliner from the night before. Her blue eyes were rimmed with red, and her cheeks were pink. All-in-all, she looked like crap.

Her cell phone buzzed and she pulled it out of her pocket. She answered it, with a sigh.

"Hello, Mrs. Karev." Izzy said slowly, as if she was exhausted.

"I know. I'm hanging in there. How are you doing?"

Izzy waited for the passionate reply.

"I know it's tough. I'll come by after work, and we can talk. I'll take care of everything Mrs. Karev; you just stay and deal with this the best that you can okay? See you at seven."

Izzy sat farther back into her chair and looked up at the roof of the subway. The fluorescent lights were blinding her, but she couldn't look away. She needed to feel some pain.

How could this happen? Izzy thought to herself.

He was a brilliant doctor, he was doing good things. He was going to go to Africa and fix a cleft palate on a little girl Kia.

Izzy blinked, pushing her tears back into her head, for she could not cry on the subway. And now, now he can't help Kia! Instead he will rot away in the ground of the local cemetery. How could that drunk driver not see him? How? Why did he bother to drive after drinking so much?

It was too much, Izzy could not fight her tears anymore, and she let them fall down her face slowly, because the one man she had actually let down her guard to, the one man who could make her smile and laugh when she was crying, the one man who completed her was dead.

George was woken up by the loud ringing of his phone. He switched on the lamp on his night table, much to the dismay to the woman beside him, and answered the phone.

"What? Oh my God. Of course I'll come." George nodded and then hung up the phone.

The woman beside him, his wife Ginny rolled over and looked in her husband's eyes, her face filled with concern as she saw the worried and sad face on her husband's face.

"What is it?" She asked, reaching her hand out and touching George's arm lightly.

George ran his hands over his face, and then said slowly, "one of my friends when I was a resident, well her husband just died."

Ginny gasped, and then moved closer to George. "He was hit by a drunk driver while crossing the road after a twenty hour shift at the hospital. He died pretty much on contact, and the funeral's tomorrow. They both stayed in Seattle. I said I'd go."

Ginny nodded. "I understand. Do you want me to come?"

"Someone has to stay with Alexis and J.J."

"My mom will watch them for three days. You don't want to go alone."

George nodded. "Okay. We'll leave tomorrow afternoon." He clicked the light off and got back into bed, and fell asleep.

Okay that's chapter two….hope you like it