Thanks for the reviews, keep them coming. :). I'm going away for a week or so, so it'll be a little bit until the next update.
Meredith sat in a small coffee shop with Alex's mom. Spread out across the table between them were pamphlets and brochures on various funeral homes and transportation companies. They were trying to organize everything but were having a huge problem agreeing. Meredith wanted everything done in Seattle while his mother was insistent that he be taken home to Iowa.
"He needs to come home." His mother began. "He needs to be with his family, where he grew up."
"He hasn't been there for four years. His home and his family are here now."
"You're just a substitute family. You're not his real family. You've known him four years, what about the other twenty nine? "
Meredith sighed. She was trying to work out legally whether it was Izzie or his mother who had the final say. But even if it was Izzie she didn't really want to put it to her. She'd promised her she'd take care of everything and she didn't think Izzie would be strong enough at the moment to handle it anyways.
"We need to say good bye. Izzie needs to be able to say good bye. She's in no state to be traveling at the moment. We need to do things here."
There was a long pause as a waitress brought them over their drinks. She placed them on the table and made a quick retreat. They both took their time adding sugar. They were both trying to think what to say next. What they could possibly say to convince the other that they were right. But in this situation neither one of them was right. It was Alex's mother who finally offered some kind of compromise.
"What if we had a service here and then after the service we take him back to Iowa. A lot of his friends and family are still in the city because of the wedding. Isobel could say good bye and he could still be buried at home."
Meredith made a point of taking a long sip of her drink. The compromise sounded alright. It was a step forward from what they'd been saying all day. But she didn't want to say anything just yet. She didn't want to agree to it incase she could do something better.
"That might work." She finally said. "I'll ask Izzie what she thinks."
"Alright." His mother sighed. She looked disappointed that Meredith hadn't flat out agreed with her. "I'll start making arrangements for the service."
"Sure." Meredith nodded and she took another sip of her drink. Neither woman said much more while they sat at the table. They were both lost in their own thoughts.
-8-8-8-
Izzie lay awake in her hospital bed. It was early morning, she could just see through the window in her room the last threads of a sun rise. She closed her eyes and tried to fall back asleep. All she wanted to do was sleep. When she was asleep she could be with Alex. But her body didn't need anymore sleep. All she'd been doing for the last thirty six hours was sleep, and cry, and cry herself to sleep.
She quietly cursed at the intern who'd woken her up. Why did they insist on sending them on pre-rounds if they weren't going to teach them some bedside manner first? Don't slam the doors, don't turn on the light. Even if the intern had done that though they still would have woken her up. Why did they insist on doing pre-rounds on sleeping patients? Why were they pre-rounding on her anyway? She wasn't interesting; she'd already had her surgery. She wondered if they knew who she was, probably, maybe that was why they were doing it. They wanted to keep tabs on her.
Behind her she heard the door open and the sound of half a dozen people entering her room. She heard the intern who'd woken her in the morning speak and she heard George. George, who was meant to be her friend but who hadn't visited her yet. She kept her back to them and pretended she was asleep as they spoke about her condition.
She waited until they were gone and then she pressed the call button for a nurse. The nurse who came was an older woman she didn't recognize, that was probably a good thing. She asked the woman for something to make her sleep. She lied and said she hadn't slept all night. The nurse looked at her chart and then said she'd have to ask her doctor. She left and Izzie didn't think she'd come back but ten minutes later she did. She handed her two pills and told her to swallow them.
The pills weren't as effective as the sedatives they'd been injecting into her IV but they did work. About twenty minutes after she took them she felt herself starting to fall asleep. As she drifted off she wondered who her doctor was. If she was her doctor she wouldn't be giving herself sedatives. She knew they weren't good for her and she was only suppressing her grief but she didn't care. If they were willing to give them to her she'd keep taking them. She just wanted to sleep.