I am pleasantly surprised at the attention this story is getting. There will be lots of George/Izzie coming right up. I was just laying the groundwork. Thanks for reading. Here's more.
Chapter 3: Rumor Has It
"So, Alex, you're not going to tell anyone, right?" Izzie said, sitting up in the bed and staring at her fellow intern.
Alex rolled his eyes. "Oh please. Who would I even tell?"
"George?" Izzie suggested, rolling her own eyes.
"Why the hell would I do that?"
"Because you want to like, punish him ..."
Alex quirked an eyebrow. "Punish him for what?"
"For loving me; for having me; for captivating my soul," Izzie said as she rested her chin on her knees.
"Jesus, Izzie, watch soap operas much?" Alex asked, standing and walking to the door. "Look, I'll check on you in a bit. The Nazi will come after us both if I don't pick up the slack."
"Yeah, okay," Izzie said. "I think I'm just going to go home anyway."
"Okay, well… best wishes and all."
Izzie smiled thinly. "You are so not good at this condolences stuff."
"Condolences? Who died?"
"Maybe me," Izzie said, clutching her abdomen protectively.
XoXoXo
Izzie grabbed her backpack out of her locker and started for the door when it suddenly burst open and nearly smashed her in the face. "Watch it!" she immediately barked.
"Sorry, Iz," Meredith Grey immediately apologized. "We didn't see you there." She was with Cristina Yang and they both had undeniable curiosity etched across their faces.
"Yeah, it's fine," Izzie said, trying to slip past the door but the two of them made a great force-field against attempted escape.
"We heard you're sick," Cristina said. "I hope you're not contagious."
Meredith elbowed Cristina and she yelped a little as Izzie rolled her eyes. "I'm not contagious. What I have is not catching ..."
"So it's not the bubonic?" Cristina quipped. "That's the rumor going around ..."
Izzie shook her head. "Why is everyone so concerned about me being ill? It happens to the best of us at one time or another."
"We just want to make sure you're okay," Meredith said. "Is there anything we can do?"
"You can move out of my way," Izzie said impatiently. "Other than that, no. I am the only one who can solve this problem."
Cristina stared at Izzie, seeming to visibly be stripping away the last remnants of Izzie's sanity and self-protective shield. "Sounds familiar," Cristina finally said.
Izzie shifted from foot to foot nervously. "What sounds familiar?"
"Izzie, not that it's any of our business but you wouldn't happen to be pregnant would you?" Cristina asked.
Izzie stiffened on the spot. "You're right, Yang, it is none of your business."
"So I'll take that as a 'yes'."
Izzie felt like grabbing Cristina by her bony neck and throttling her but resisted by sheer force of will. "Did Alex tell you?" she barked.
Meredith shook her head. "No. We really thought you were just ill with the flu until Cristina zeroed in on the truth right now."
"How did you figure it out, Yang?" Izzie asked. "Am I emanating some pregnancy pheromones only other women can smell?"
Cristina wrinkled her nose. "No, but you are emanating the smell of vomit. Stand back a bit."
"Then how did you know?" Izzie asked.
"You had that weird look in your eye. The one I had when I realized Burke had knocked me up."
"That was a totally different situation," Izzie protested, crossing her arms almost defensively.
"Not really, Iz," Cristina said. "We both ended up exactly where we never thought we'd be ... Now whose the father?"
"None of your damn business," Izzie said and forcibly pushed past her pseudo-friends and out the door, headed for home.
XoXoXo
"Georgie-Porgy, you're never going to believe what I just heard," Nurse Olivia Harper said, hurrying over to him.
George looked up from the chart he was scribbling in at the hub and tried to feign disinterest for even he was not insusceptible to partaking in hospital gossip - even from the woman who had given him syphilis at one time.
"I am not interested," he said.
"Yeah right. This is juicy stuff."
George sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "What is it?"
"Word around the hospital is that Izzie Stevens is expecting," Olivia said with a smirk.
George swallowed hard. "Expecting? Expecting what? A package or -"
Olivia giggled. "A bambino or bambina," Olivia said and mocked rocking a baby.
George felt like he had been sucker punched. "Seriously?"
"Uh uh."
"Where'd you hear that?" He asked, immediately trying to process all this information but it was just piling up too damn fast.
"Okay ... Well, I admit it. I overheard Izzie and some of the other interns gabbing it up in the on-call room."
"Oh?"
"Yep. I would love to know who the daddy is," Olivia said with a smirk. "That part Izzie wouldn't tell anyone."
George nodded as Olivia fairly skipped off, happily having administered a dreadful blow to George. George was sure if he was the father, Izzie would have told him right away. And she had been spending an awful lot of time with Alex Karev lately. In fact, hadn't he just seen the two of them all snuggly-buggly in the on-call room?
George immediately jumped to his feet, hurrying away from the hub, feeling like he was going to puke his guts out.
XoXoXo
Izzie had driven home, again in near tears, and walked into the living room of the house she shared with Meredith. Once upon a time a whole 'nother bevy of people had occupied the living space but that was no more. George had moved out when he reconciled with Callie...
George, George, George.
"Just stop thinking about him, Izzie, just stop," she commanded herself.
She flopped down onto the sofa in the living room after taking off her coat and turned on her side, quickly falling into a dreamless sleep.
However, she was awakened what seemed like mere minutes later by the ringing of the doorbell. "What the hell?" she murmured, rubbing her blurry eyes.
She climbed to her feet and padded down the hall to the living room. As soon as she opened the door and saw who was standing there, she wished she wouldn't have bothered.