Thanks for the comments guys. I'm sad that Alex is dead too but it was an idea I had that I wanted to try and explore and write. Keep the comments up. Here is a little more.

George stood at the nurses' station staring blankly at a patient's chart. He'd been staring at it for ten minutes and he had no idea why. He couldn't concentrate, he couldn't focus, he kept thinking about Izzie and Alex and what had happened. He didn't want to think about it, he was trying to use work to distract him but it wasn't working.

Christina stood at the opposite end of the nurses' station watching George. He'd been staring at the same chart for ten minutes but he didn't seem to be doing anything with it. He looked like he was trying to hide his grief behind his work but was doing a horrible job of it. That's what she'd been doing the whole evening, working. She was keeping herself busy so she wouldn't have to stop and think about what had happened. She knew what had happened; she'd been there when it happened. But she hadn't stopped long enough to think about it, to actually process it. She'd been bitching earlier about the paper work required for the Chief Resident position but now she couldn't get enough of it. The new interns all started tomorrow so she'd been reading and rereading every single one of their profiles to the point where she had them memorized. She picked up the pile of folders she'd been carry around with her and walked over to George. She came up beside him and dumped the folders on the bench.

George looked up at her, startled. "Christina." He began but he didn't have anything else to say.

"These are for you." She peeled the first six folders off the pile and dumped them on top of the patient chart he'd been aimlessly staring at.

"What are they?" He picked up the first folder and started looking through its contents.

"Intern profiles. They start tomorrow. I had to do some reassigning you have six now."

"Oh." He opened the second folder and he couldn't help but notice where it said 'assigned resident' Alex's name had been crossed out and his written in its place. He was still staring at this when Christina picked up the remaining folders and started walking off. "Christina." He called out to her. "Do you want to go get a drink?"

The thought of actually stopping scared the shit out of her. "I can't." she said and kept walking.

George watched her walk away and then down at the folders she'd just given him. He'd never read the intern profiles before, it wasn't something he had to do. But it was something he could do. He picked them up and carried them over to a table in an empty meeting room. He pulled the last folder from the pile and started reading it. On this one Izzie's name had been crossed out.

-8-8-8-

Meredith arrived home just before midnight. She was so tied. The events of the evening had taken all her energy away but she couldn't sleep. Her mind was too full. She was still trying to get her head around what had happened. She couldn't believe it had happened, it was just so wrong and sudden and unexpected. She'd dealt with a lot of death in her life and through her work but she'd never thought something like this would happen. Not to them, not like this. She walked into the living room to pour herself a drink and to her surprise she found Derek sitting on the sofa.

"What are you doing here?" She asked slumping into the sofa beside him. She was surprised he was there but it was a nice surprise.

"I heard what happened. I thought you might like some company."

"Thanks." She moved up beside him and let him put his arms around her. She closed her eyes and listened to him breath. She didn't want to talk, she didn't know what to say but she was glad he was there. She tried to imagine what Izzie must be feeling. She tried to imagine how she'd feel if Derek died but she couldn't. She rolled onto her side and rested her head on his chest. She could hear his heart beating.

"Don't you ever die on me." She whispered.

"I'll try not to." He replied pulling her closer to him.

That evening they didn't say anything more. Derek's presence was enough to put her to sleep.