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Meredith was filling out a chart when Cristina walked up and leaned heavily on the nurses' station desk while Olivia sat behind a monitor behind the desk.
"So are you ready for Callie's surgery?" Meredith asked turning to look for another file on the chart rack.
"Yeah," Cristina said, unenthusiastically.
Meredith looked over at her friend curiously.
"What's this?" She said, gesturing to the other doctor's somber mood. "Where's the inappropriate excitement? Where's the cold and competitive side? Where's the unnatural pre-surgery high? It's a possible double amputee case. I thought you would be biting at the bit for it. What happened?"
"George and Izzie happened," She said, grudgingly. "Now I have to go into surgery with the scorned wife and it's going to be all awkward and weird. God I hope she doesn't want to talk about it. I'm a surgeon not a quack doc. I don't do consoling, I cut."
Meredith smiled at her friend.
"Who knew Dr. Cristina Yang would ever dread a surgery."
"I know, right? Damn George and Izzie for ruining a perfectly good surgery."
"Have you heard how Callie took finding out about them?" Meredith asked, going back to looking for a specific chart.
"Well I haven't heard gun shots yet so that's got to be a good sign, right?" Cristina joked.
"You know who isn't taking it well?" Olivia said, making both interns turn towards her and notice her for the first time. "Alex. I heard a few lockers in the locker room got the bad end of the deal when he heard George and Izzie doing…well you know."
Meredith cringed when she thought about the other male intern who was just starting to get over Izzie.
"Oooh I guess this is a blow to the old macho ego for Alex," Cristina said, smirking.
"More like a complete blow out," Olivia agreed.
"Poor Alex. But he's been putting in a lot of his time with Ava and moving on from Izzie, so I'm sure he'll be fine," Meredith said, bent over the chart rack still looking over charts. "Has anyone seen Mrs. Harris' chart? I swear its no where to be found."
Olivia stood up and went over to the rack that Meredith was hunched over and went straight to the chart she was looking for, she handed the surprised intern the chart.
"Who would have ever thought George would cheat on his wife with Izzie of all people?" Olivia said, shaking her head.
"Seriously. Bambi must be a real Viking in the sack. You gotta give him props 'cause his track record is hot in this hospital," Cristina snorted. "I mean he's landed the both of you…who's next?"
Both Olivia and Meredith turned towards her and looked at the dark hair intern with suggestive smiles.
"Ooh don't even go there, syph nurse and the dirty mistress leader," Cristina warned, pointing at both of them.
Before they could retort back they all noticed Callie coming down the hallway.
"Oh. Scorned wife alert. Gotta go." Cristina whispered, quickly as all three women turned and briskly went in different directions.
"Yang!" Callie called out.
Cristina stopped in her tracks and cursed under her breath before slowly turning around to the approaching doctor.
"Did you all just…bolt when you saw me coming?" She asked, narrowing her eyes at her.
"Ha! No no of course not. Meredith just had to run off to do doctor stuff with a chart she lost earlier and Olivia ran off to do nurse stuff…whatever that is."
Callie watched her for a second as if to determine to believe her or not.
"Uh huh, well Bailey asked to let you in on the possible double amputee surgery, so you better be ready. If the bacteria has spread deeply on both of his legs we'll have some serious cutting to do."
"Oh yes, I am. Done the research. Practiced the procedures. Definitely ready."
Callie nodded. "Good. Then go prepare Mr. Carlyle for surgery. We'll be taking him back soon."
"Right." Cristina said, glad to have the chance to get away from any potential awkward moments with the other doctor. "I'll go do that now."
As she was turning to leave Callie called out once more.
"Oh, Yang?"
Cristina rolled her eyes before turning around to the other doctor.
"Have you seen George anywhere?"
Cristina sucked in a breath of air before answering.
"Uh. No. No, actually I haven't seen him anywhere."
"Hmm. Okay, well I'll see you in the scrub room." She said, nonchalantly.
Cristina studied the dark haired doctor as she turned to leave. Cristina's eyes went wide when she realized something.
"Oh. You don't know, do you?"
Callie turned back. "What? Know what?"
"Oh…well...uh…" She thought about George and Izzie. She could tell the other woman what was going on. What everyone else in the hospital already knew. She deserved to know. She was about to be a wife herself, so she should feel some compassion. She thought about George and Izzie once more before swallowing hard and continued.
"…well… George is stuck in one of the elevators. He has been for most of the day."
Callie thought about what she had just told her and a small smile spread across her face.
"Really?" She asked, her face brightening up from the news. For her it meant that her husband hadn't skipped out on their lunch. "Wow. How come no one has told me yet?"
Cristina just shrugged her answer. She felt bad for the other doctor, which surprised her. She didn't really have any connection with the woman other than George and the fact that she was about to be a new wife herself. Seeing her bright expression at the thought of her husband proving her wrong in her earlier accusations, only to really be more right than she would ever know, made something shift inside of Cristina.
"Well maybe I can stop by the control room and check up on him before the surgery." Callie said, mostly to herself.
"No, you can't!" Cristina blurted out.
Callie looked at her with a furrow brow.
"Why not?"
"Well… I just think that it would probably be best if you came and explained the surgery to Mr. Carlyle before he goes down to the surgery room."
"Why can't you do that? You're the intern."
"Yes! Exactly," she explained. "I'm the intern. There's a chance he's going to loose both of his legs today, he'd probably like to hear a little assurance from the actual surgeon herself, you know?"
Callie thought about her words for a moment.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Let's go so we can get this surgery over with, so I can go check on George."
Cristina just nodded as Callie passed by. She sighed heavily as she followed the orthopedic doctor down the hallway.
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Cristina stood behind Callie as she explained the procedure to Mr. Carlyle and his wife. Alex stood beside her with Mr. Carlyle's chart in hand.
"So you're saying he might loose both of his legs if this infection is bad enough?" His wife asked, concerned.
"I'm afraid so," Callie said, regretfully. "We will try of course to get most of the bacteria out, but if the infection has spread to the bones, than I'm afraid there isn't much we can do for his legs."
The worried wife looked at her husband, who looked like he was over whelmed from all of the information.
"Maybe we should go for a second opinion," Mrs. Carlyle said, apprehensively to her husband. "Maybe there's another way to fix this with out the possibility of taking both of your legs."
"It's too late in the game," Alex informed her pointedly. "If you had come in when you first noticed the problem, you could probably afford the time to fix the situation."
"I'm afraid Dr. Karev is right. At this point and time the best thing we can do is wait and see what we find in surgery. We'll try our best to save his legs, but prepare yourselves if it's too late." Callie said.
"You know it's funny," Mr. Carlyle said, speaking up for the first time since they had started explaining how the surgery would go. "I've always had problems with my legs, ever since the very start. The doctor's tried putting braces on them when I was a kid, which of course prompted cruel ridicule and torment on the playground. But I got through that. I grew up and while I wasn't exactly running 5k's with them, I was doing okay. Or at least I thought I was doing okay. But the problem was always just been laying right beneath the surface the whole time."
"You're medical history with your legs is probably why the infection spread so quickly," Cristina explained to the devastated couple.
"Damned from the very beginning, huh?" Mr. Carlyle laughed out, bitterly.
Cristina and Alex both looked over at the orthopedic surgeon.
"Mr. Carlyle, let me assure you that we will be trying all that we can to save them. The infection may not be as deep as we think. Or we may be able to stop the infection all together and still keep your legs. Don't loose hope just yet." Callie said, confidently.
"Right. Well I guess we'll have to do like you say, wait and see what you find in the surgery room. We can't save anything unless its all out in the open," Mr. Carlyle said, looking over at his wife giving her a reassuring smile. "So let's do it."
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Izzie and George sat side by side with their backs to the wall. They were now fully clothed and back to looking like they were only best friends.
More hours had inched by since they had lost themselves in each other and they were now just staring ahead at the metal doors in front of them. They hadn't heard from Bailey or anyone else in the hospital for hours now. Izzie looked at her watch and noticed the hospital was well into its night shift and yet they were still stuck in the elevator. She wondered if everyone had forgotten about them, but every once in a while they would hear the slight rumble of thunder, a reminder of the reason why they weren't out yet.
She looked over at George who was beside her, his shoulder touching hers, his legs extended out beside hers. She tried to read the emotions on his face but there were none. He was just staring blankly in front of him. He looked calm. Or maybe numb, she couldn't decide which emotion he was feeling.
It was just as well. She couldn't tell which emotion she was currently feeling either. She felt a little numb herself.
It was funny how having incredible sex could relieve the intense tension between two people, especially for people who weren't use to having intense tension between them.
Izzie turned her attention back to the doors in front of them. She thought about how they had come to their current state. They had gone from silence, to a screaming match, to a completely different type of screaming match, to now where they were back to silence. A complete circle but somehow this silence was different from the one that they had started out with. She didn't feel like they were back at the beginning. More like at a plateau and it was either time to jump or turn and go back.
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