Hey guys. So in the evident lack of intelligence, and also because I haven't written a Fan Fiction in what feels like forever (I've been on a semi hiatus, insane school work thing and being sick) I forgot to include any sort of author's note or disclaimer, sorry about that! I know that I haven't waited a while to put up the second chapter, but I already have 14 pages written so I might as well put them up. Just a little note that Alex and Izzie will get together eventually, but it wouldn't be Grey's Anatomy if there wasn't tons of angst, arguments and tears, now would it?
Iheartalexnizzie: Thanks so much! I like Molly too :) I'm glad you do as well, since she's a pretty important character.
A-Cheery-Melody: Thanks for the review! I really appreciate it. Haha well you'll just have to wait and see. I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Izzie was awoken with a giggle. Molly, was perched on the edge of her bed, Wesley on her lap, making funny faces at Izzie. "Sorry," Molly laughed.
"You're not sorry," Izzie smiled sleepily.
"You're right." She said. "Thank you. For staying."
"I pinky swore, didn't I? You hungry?"
Molly shrugged. "Hospital food's yucky. It tastes like dirty old socks." Molly made a face. "Plus, I should be outta here soon, right?"
"We're not sure yet, sweetie."
Molly nodded. "Okay," she said quietly. Her thumb self consciously went into her mouth. The door opened, and Bailey appeared.
"Hey Molly!" Bailey said, smiling widely. "Izzie treat you okay?"
Molly nodded. "Yup. I like Izzie lots and lots. She's nice."
"How much did you get paid to say that?" Bailey asked.
"Five bucks," Molly giggled. "Just kiddin'" she said.
"Good. Izzie has to go now, for a little while, she hasn't slept in a while. But would you like her to come back later?" Bailey asked. Molly nodded vigorously.
"Yes pleasy cheesy," she said.
"Alright, sounds good." Izzie said goodbye to Molly, pinky swore to come back, and then left with Bailey.
"God," Izzie murmured, lifting her hand to her cheek. "She's.."
"I know. We can.. I know.. it was what Denny had. You don't have to, Izzir If you don't want to."
Izzie shook her head briskly. "No. Keep me on the case. Please."
"Alright. Get some sleep Stevens. You look like you need it." Bailey said, thus dismissing Izzie.
Izzie passed George as she was leaving the hospital. She waved to him sadly. He smiled at her. "Hey Iz," George called, "nice work on the polyostotic fibrous dysplasia surgery. Everyone's talking about it."
"Thanks George." Izzie waved goodbye and left the hospital. Normally, she'd savor a few hours of sleep, but home on the couch, the remote in her hands, flicking through cheesy Primetime soap operas and reruns of Maury, filled with screaming men and sobbing women, all Izzie could think about was Molly. Molly, who was all alone in that hospital room, waiting for a heart to find her.
And it all felt too familiar to Izzie. Too much like Denny. All that waiting, loneliness, love, brokenhearted, bathroom floor. So Izzie flicked the TV off, ran a brush through her knotty blonde curls and went back to the hospital.
"Izzie?" Izzie turned around, and saw Alex, pushing a shaky older woman, with tinted purple hair, in a wheel chair.
"Hey," Izzie said, yawning.
"Iz," Alex said. "You've been here for like three days straight. Go home."
"Nope. I'm well rested," Izzie assured him, stifling another yawn.
"Yeah," Alex said sarcastically. "You look the picture of health."
"Hey," the woman poked Alex in the shoulder. "Hurry the hell up. I'm supposed to be playing bingo tonight, but with all you clowns deciding to open me up, Gloria will have to go alone."
"Mrs. Patterson," Alex said, smiling at Izzie, "you have very advanced lung cancer. It's in your best interest to have this surgery now."
"Yeah, yeah," she waved her hands away dismissively. "But Gloria will have a cow if I'm not there."
"Alright Mrs. Patterson." Alex said. "Then let's get you into the OR, get rid of your cancer and we'll have you playing bingo with Gloria soon."
"I don't beleive you," Mrs. Patterson said. "That's what they told my friend Mable. She came out minus a friggen foot!" Alex made a face to the top of Mrs. Patterson's head.
Izzie giggled. "Mrs. Patterson, I can assure you that you won't come out minus a foot."
Mrs. Patterson shrugged. "So," Alex asked, "where are you heading now?"
Izzie bit her lip. "Molly. This little girl, with," she swallowed. "Cardiomyopathy."
Alex nodded. "Sucks," he said.
"Excuse me," Mrs. Patterson said, "would you please stop talking to your girlfriend long enough to consider the fact that I need surgery in order to play bingo with Gloria."
"She's not-"
"Whatever. I've heard it all before. Let's go." Alex gave Izzie a smile, before wheeling Mrs. Patterson into the elevator.
Izzie stopped for a moment. Sometimes she wondered why she let herself become so attatched. In between drunken rages and hungover mornings, she used to tell Izzie that she'd never become a doctor. "Not because you're no good Cricket. Because you'll be in love with all the damn patients, and want to make their lives better. You'll never surive when they die."
Izzie sometimes thought about calling her mom, telling her she was wrong. "I fell in love with Denny Duquette. We were going to get married. He proposed to me, and then I cut his LVAD wire, he got a new heart, and I changed my dress three times and then he died. And it sucked, really bad. But I survived." It would make no sense at all to her mother, but she wanted to tell her sometimes. Just like when she became a resident. She wanted to call her mom and tell her that just because she'd been raised in a trailer park, beat up by the majority of her mother's boyfriends, and paid her way through medical school by being an underwear model for Bethany Whisper, didn't mean she couldn't pass her internship at Seattle Grace Hospital and become a resident. Just because of all that, didn't mean that she couldn't save a girls face, save someone's life. Many people's lives.
Izzie shuddered, trying to erase memories of lonely nights and bruises from men that sometimes were old enough to be her granfather. She took the stairs to Molly's room, and found her in almost the same position she'd been in last night, except that Wesley was sitting beside her, and there was a Life magazine propped up on her knees. She was staring at it with crinkled eyebrows, her lower lip sticking out a little bit.
"Hey Molly," Izzie said. She suddenly felt like an idiot for showing up here.
Molly looked up and waved. "Hi."
"What'cha reading?"
"I don't know. One of the nurses gave it to me, 'cause they thought I looked lonely. But I don't know how to read. Plus this is a boring magazine. I like books, buc'xept I like looking at the pictures." Molly gave up and let the magazine fall to the floor. "Don't you do other stuff? Like surgeries?" Molly asked, playing with Wesley's paw.
"Nah," Izzie said. "Mostly I just creep out the patients."
Molly laughed. "They pay you to do that?"
Izzie smiled. "I do surgeries, so many surgeries that I'm supposed to be at home for a little while relaxing."
"Then why aren't you? With your best friends?"
Izzie smiled at Molly's conception of best friends. "They work here too. And I wanted to come see you!"
Molly thought about this. "You feel sorry for me, don't you?"
Izzie was taken aback by this. "It's okay," Molly said. "I just want you to know that you don't have to come here and talk to me and stuff, just 'cause you feel sorry for me. Just so you know."
Izzie took a deep breath in. "I do feel a little sorry for you, Molly. Because I think it must suck, to be really young, and to be all alone. And I also think you're a really special little girl, that doesn't deserve to be sick and alone. So I want to sit here with you and let you know that you're not alone, and that things do get better. Okay?"
Molly stuck her thumb in her mouth and nodded. "'Kay. So, who's your best friend?"
Izzie laughed, but Molly looked hurt, so she straightened her face. "I don't really have a very best friend."
"How come?"
"Well, I used to. His name was George-"
"Ewey gooey. Your best friend was a boy!" Molly exclaimed.
Izzie remembered that Molly was only five. She nodded. "Yup! When you get a little bit older, boys aren't so ewey gooey."
"If you say so."
"So, we were best friends for a pretty long time, but then some stuff happened that made us not so good friends."
"Did he take your cookie at lunch time? Once, my friend Stacy did that to me, she took it right from my napkin, and I didn't talk to her all day."
"Well," Izzie said, "I guess you could say that I took his cookie away from him."
Molly wagged her finger. "That's not nice. Does he hate you now?"
"I hope not," Izzie said. "I really hope not."
"I don't think he hates you," Molly told her. "You're too nice to hate. So do you have any other friends? Girls," Molly smiled.
"Well I have a friend named Alex, he's a boy too-"
"Oh brother. You didn't take his cookie too did'ja?" Molly asked.
"Not exactly. We like each other very much, but he isn't exactly my best friend. And he hasn't been acting too nice to me lately. He sort of took my cookie I guess. Meredith, she's a girl you'll be happy to hear, she's my friend. But not my best friend."
"Why not?"
"She has her own best friend." Izzie said, regretfully realizing how immature she sounded.
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that just 'cause she has her own best friend, that you two can't be best friends as well," Molly said.
"I guess so," Izzie said.
"That all?"
"Hm..Cristina is my friend too, but we're not best friends either. Her best friend is Meredith."
Molly nodded wisely. "Dr. Stevens, it sounds a little to me, like you're real lonely too. Because you have friends, but you took one of their cookies, the other one's being mean to you, and Meredith and Cristina already got each other. Are you lonely?" She asked.
Izzie thought about it for a minute. "I guess I am."
"Well, we can both be lonely together," Molly declared. "Okay?"
"Sounds good to me," Izzie said. And they pinky swore on it, because this seemed to be their thing.