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Meredith walked down the corridors of the hospital. She moved briskly, she didn't make eye contact with anyone, she didn't want anyone to stop her and try to talk to her, she didn't have the energy to deal with anyone or anything else. She was on her way to see Izzie. In her hand she held all the information regarding Alex's funeral. In the end his mother had taken care of almost all of it, the location, the flowers, the music, she seemed to have very set ideas on how she wanted things done. Meredith didn't have a clue how she wanted things done, she'd never organized a funeral, her family didn't do funerals.

What they'd come up with was nice, a simple service, minus all the trimmings, at the church where they'd been married. At first Meredith had fought the idea of holding the service at the same church. She'd thought it would be a cruel thing to do, it would make a painful moment more painful but his mother had convinced her it was the most appropriate place to hold it.

"They chose the church for a reason in the first place." She'd pointed out to her. "It must mean something to them and…" she added "it's not like they have ties to any other church." It was true, she couldn't remember a single time when Alex had stepped into a church and on the occasions when Izzie had felt the need to pray she'd always gone to the hole in the wall the hospital tried to tell people was a chapel.

For a moment she'd considered holding the service there. But it didn't take a lot of thought to decide that was a bad idea. They only wanted the people that mattered at the service, they didn't want random hospital people to show up just because it was there and they could. She hoped Izzie would like what they'd done and would be okay with it. She hadn't mentioned the possibility of his body going back to Iowa when it was all done. She still didn't really like the idea and didn't think that Izzie would like it either. She thought that if she gave her more time the news might be easier to take, she might be in a position to better comprehend it.

She reached the door to Izzie's room. She knocked on it quietly, waited a moment and when there was no response she walked in anyways. The first thing she noticed when she entered was Izzie was sitting up in bed. This was the first time Izzie hadn't been asleep, or at least laying down when she'd arrived. She thought that was a good sign but then she noticed the tears running down her face and she saw the piece of paper sitting on her lap. A knot tightened around her stomach as she realized what the paper was.

"Izzie." She said placing the papers she held on the bench beside the bed and sitting down next to her.

Izzie turned to look at her but she didn't say anything. She tried to use her arm to wipe some of the tears away.

"Come here." Meredith put her arm around her and puller her closer. Izzie rested her head on her shoulder and the tears started flowing again.

Meredith didn't ask her why she was crying. It was a redundant question. All Izzie seemed to do for the last two days was cry. Eventually she'd either fall asleep or start talking on her own. So far she'd only fallen asleep, she hadn't talked about anything yet. Meredith reached forward and picked up the form which was sitting on Izzie's lap. She already knew what it was. It was the form Alex's mother had been waving in her face earlier that day. She'd said quite clearly when they'd met that morning that it wasn't up to her where Alex's body went it was up to Isobel and if she wasn't going to talk to her about it she sure as hell was.

"I'll make her see." She'd said. "He doesn't belong here. He needs to come home."

The burial was the only part of the funeral yet to be finalized. She looked at the form, she noticed the 'I' Izzie had managed to write. She wondered what his mother had said to make her write that much.

Izzie rested her head on Meredith's shoulder and let the tears continue to flow. She didn't want to be crying but she couldn't help it. All her body seemed capable of doing was cry. She noticed Meredith pick up the form. She watched her read it and when she was finished she started talking.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She asked quietly.

"I didn't want to bother you. I thought I could make her change her mind." Meredith reached over to the bench and picked up the funeral information. She placed it across both their laps. "I had everything else organized. I was going to talk to you about it now. I didn't think she'd come so quickly." She paused for a moment before continuing. "You don't have to sign it. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do. The decision is yours."

"I know." Izzie adjusted her position on the bed and took the form. "I want to sign it but I don't know how."

The response surprised Meredith. She hadn't expected Izzie to give up Alex's body so easily. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." She paused to work out what she wanted to say. "She wants his body. I want him. They're not the same." She looked at the form again, at the 'I' she'd already scrawled. "I just don't know how to sign it."

"I don't think it matters." It probably didn't and deep down Izzie knew that but it didn't change the way she felt.

"It matters to me." She felt Meredith put her arm around her and hug her again.

"If you're sure just do what comes naturally, don't think about it." She said and she handed her a pen.

Izzie grasped the pen in her left hand. It felt awkward, nothing about this was natural she had to concentrate to form every letter. Slowly she began writing I s o b e l … When she'd finished writing her first name she closed her eyes and just let the pen write. When she opened her eyes what she saw was illegible. She couldn't read the letters; she couldn't tell what she had written. Tears started to well up in her eyes again and began falling onto the page.

"It's okay." Meredith told her and she took the pen and paper from her hand and placed them with the rest of the papers she'd brought in. "I'll take care of it tomorrow."

"Thank you," Izzie whispered. "I think I just want to sleep now."

"Okay." Meredith slipped off the bed and lowered it back down. She adjusted the pillows and watched as Izzie curled into a ball. "Would you like me to stay?" She asked but Izzie's eyes were already closed.

"No, I'll be fine." She whispered but she already sounded like she was off in some far away place.

Izzie listened to the sound of the door closing behind Meredith. She opened her eyes and watched the clock on the far wall. She waited ten minutes and then paged for a nurse. The nurse who arrived was new, young, probably out of school less than a year. Izzie asked the nurse for a sedative, she told her which one she wanted and exactly how much of it she needed. When the nurse told her she'd have to check with her doctor first, she told her that really wasn't necessary, that she'd been taking it all week and she couldn't sleep without it. She told the nurse that she'd just be wasting the doctor's time if she bothered him with such a trivial matter and that she should just give it to her. The nurse walked out the room and returned less than a minute later with the exact drug she'd asked for. She injected it straight into her IV and within a few minutes she was sound asleep.