Again George listened to the phone go dead in his hand. He stared at it for a moment before slipping it back into his pocket and directing his attention back to Izzie. She was lying on her side with her knees pulled to her chest. She looked very peaceful, if he hadn't tried to wake her he never would have known anything was wrong, but something was wrong.

He'd known his friend was hurting but he hadn't realized it was this bad. He didn't think Izzie would do something like this, he'd thought she was stronger, he'd thought…there were a lot of things he'd thought that now seemed totally wrong. He bent down on his knees and started picking up the fallen pills. When he was done just over half the bottle was left. He found himself wondering how much she'd taken previously and no one noticed. It was only by chance that he'd noticed this time, if he'd stopped by a few hours earlier or a few hours later he may have taken her sleeping state to be just that, he might not have tried to wake her.

-8-8-8-8-

Meredith drove to Izzie's house as fast as she could. In her mind she was already second guessing her decision to go there. If it had been anyone else in any other situation she would have told them to call an ambulance but she didn't want to take Izzie to the hospital, not if she didn't have to.

As she drove she ran everything she knew about the drug Izzie had taken through her head, she tried to remember at what dose serious side effects started to occur and how much Izzie had taken. The words 'relatively safe in overdoes' kept coming through her head but she wasn't sure she was remembering that right. By the time she pulled up in the drive she wasn't sure of her decision but she was there now. She picked up her bag and headed straight for the front door. She didn't bother to knock; she let herself in and made her way to the bedroom.

George heard Meredith before he saw her, her foot steps echoed down the hallway and then she opened the door. She didn't say anything to him as she walked in. She placed her bag on the ground and walked straight to Izzie. She knelt down beside her and grabbed hold of her shoulder.

"Iz, Iz, wake up." She said gently shaking her.

"I already tried that." George said to her. "She won't wake up."

Meredith didn't say anything back to him. Instead she stood up and grabbed her bag. She tipped it upside down and the contents spilled all over the floor. George's mouth dropped, Meredith had brought half the hospital with her.

She picked up a blood pressure pump and wrapped it around Izzie's arm, she pressed go and then grabbed a thermometer. She took her blood pressure, her temperature, her pulse rate; she wrote everything down in a note book, they were all just within normal ranges. Then she went back to the pile of supplies on the floor. She picked up a banana bag and the other bits associated with it. She knelt down beside Izzie and pulled her left arm away from the pillow, as she did she noticed Alex's ring sitting on her finger above her own. She felt a pain inside her chest as she realized that was probably why this was happening. She looked away for a second to steady herself then carefully inserted the needle into the back of Izzie's hand and taped it in place.

"Meredith what are you doing?" George asked her as she finished inserting the IV and sat the bag against the bed head.

She turned to look at him for the first time since entering the room. Her face was a shade lighter than normal, her eyes looked glassy. "What does it look like I'm doing?" She said picking up the bottle of pills and walking over to her medical supplies. "I'm taking care of her." She picked up a vial of something and started reading the labels together.

"Don't you think we should…" He watched as Meredith stuck a syringe into the vial and drew some of the liquid out, she walked over to Izzie and injected the liquid into her arm. "…take her to the hospital?"

Meredith placed the syringe on the bedside table and turned to face him. "We're not going to the hospital." She ran her hand down the side of Izzie's face and stood up.

"But Meredith," George looked back at her stunned. "She needs to go to the hospital."

"No she doesn't. We can take care of her here." She knelt down on the ground and began placing the medical supplies she'd brought back into the bag.

"But Meredith…"

She looked up at him, her eyes were glassy, she was barely holding back her own tears. "If you really think she needs to go to the hospital, why did you phone me first?"

"I…" He didn't know the answer; he wasn't sure why his first reaction had been to phone Meredith instead of an ambulance.

"What are they going to do at the hospital that we're not already doing here?"

"I don't know." He looked over at Izzie, at what Meredith had already done. "Pump her stomach."

Meredith reached into the bag and pulled out a small pump. "We can do that if you want, if you think it will help but…" She put the pump back into her bag and reached for the pills. "How long do you think it's been since she took these?"

"I…"

"Don't know?" She asked cutting him off. "I'll tell you when she took them. She took them last night, right after I left, right after I gave her that." She pointed to Izzie's hand, to Alex's ring sitting on her finger. "Pumping her stomach isn't going to help. They're not in her stomach anymore; they're already in her blood stream." As the words came out of her mouth she felt herself begin to crack, she sat down on the floor and tried to compose herself.

"Meredith…" She felt George sit down beside her.

"This is my fault," she started saying again. "Yesterday she was good, she was doing better, she ate and she laughed. I thought she was okay, that's why I gave it to her, and afterwards she said she was okay. I should have known she wasn't really okay. I should have stayed with her but she said she was…" her voice trailed off as she realized what Izzie had told her. "…going to go to sleep."

"Meredith…" She felt George put his arm around her as the first tears started to run down her face.

"We can't take her to the hospital George," She wasn't going to let him say anything. "If we take her to the hospital they'll put her in the psych ward. I don't want her to wake up in the psych ward. I know she needs help but I don't want to force it on her, she needs to realize it herself."

"Meredith…" Whatever George was trying to say he didn't get to say it. He was cut off by Izzie as she let out a loud moan. They both stopped and watched as she rolled over on the bed.

Meredith let a small smile come across her face. "She's going to be okay." She said with more confidence than before. "We just need to wait for everything to work its way out of her system."

She stood up and began taking her vitals again. As she lent over her body to take her blood pressure she saw her pull the pillow closer to her chest and she heard her softly moan

"Alex don't leave me."