Ha! I'm back and on time! What do you say to that?

Alex: Um…wow…okay…

Look, look I did it, aren't you proud? I updated on time, no delays and no apologies needed.

Alex: Wow…just…wow

Are you okay?

Alex:….

George: Lady I think you broke him. Did you break him?

I might have. Um…I own nothing?

Chapter Thirty-Three

By Rosa241

Mark POV:

That's it.

That is officially it.

I've had enough.

I'm pretty sure my pounding on the front door would be enough to wake the dead right now but I really don't care. There's only one thing on my mind is setting this damn woman straight. For a moment nothing happens inside so I pound on the door again. This time I hear movement inside.

"Sloan? Do you have any idea what time it is?" Christina's angry voice does nothing but get my blood going even more. Pushing past her I make sure I'm in the house before she can even consider throwing me out. "What the hell! Get out."

"I need to talk to Meredith. Now." The light flickering on upstairs tells me that at least one person has heard me. Unfortunately it's not the person I need to talk to.

"Mark what?" Derek's sleepy voice is almost enough to make me laugh. Any other time I'd be on the floor by now at the sight of him standing there squinting, looking like some kind of mole, but right now I'm too angry for that to even be remotely funny.

"I'm sorry Derek but I need to talk to Meredith and it needs to happen now." The look he gives me is searching, searching for something but whatever he finds causes him to nod his head.

"Mer. Can you come out here please?" It takes a few moment before an angry Meredith descends the stairs and plants herself in front of me. By now Christina has been joined by Izzie and George who are standing off to one side looking all shades of confused.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Without giving her chance to talk I keep going. "Alex trusted you, really trusted you and you of all people know how hard it is for him to trust anyone. What the hell could be going through your mind that you'd go off at him like that?"

Somehow I manage to keep my voice level despite the fury within me.

"Really? You're the reason things are going so wrong between him and George yet you come here yelling at me? Seriously?" I'm the reason? Jesus Izzie really does have all these people wrapped around her little finger doesn't she?

"You want to know why Alex and George aren't making things work right now? You want to know the reason?" I'm aware that I'm yelling but I really don't care. "Let's take a look at the group shall we. First we've got you Meredith. You helped me manipulate things to getting those two together despite the fact that you knew, you knew, why Alex had never made a move. You knew the reason why he stayed off, something I didn't know until after, but you still forced it. You forced the man into something you had to know that he wasn't ready for and then turned on him when things went bad. He trusted you with his life and you just threw that away."

"He told you." The realisation seems to dawn on her like a sack of bricks but the moment I nod I can see the guilt flowing through her. She knows the truth now. "He told you. He trusts you."

"Yeah he told me. If I'd known all of that before all of this happened I never would have gone through with it. No way is Alex ready for this relationship. He also told me all about your little conversation last night, of course that was after Joe called me and I had to drag his drunken ass back to my apartment. Kid was so drunk anything could have happened to him." Ignoring the shock, hurt and guilt on her face I turn to another occupant of the room.

"Then there's the wonderful George O'Malley. Did it ever occur to you that there might be a reason that Alex didn't immediately jump into a relationship? Did it ever occur to you that maybe if you'd listened to what he said the night you found out about his feelings you'd have your answer?" I know he heard what Alex said that night. I know he did.

"What are you talking about?" Something in his voice still sounds hopeful. He still cares about Alex. Maybe there's hope for those two yet.

"Think back to the night you found out about how Alex felt, really think back and you'll have your answer." He needs to figure this out for himself. If ever there's a chance for those two to be happy then he needs to work this one out for yourself. Turning to the manipulative blonde in the room I can feel my anger soaring even more.

"Then we have the wonderful, innocent little angel that is Izzie Stevens. Lets give her a round of applause ladies and gentlemen." My sarcastic clapping sends a scowl across her face. "Ever since you discovered that Alex and George cared about each other you've gone out of your way to make sure they hate each other and well done you've almost succeeded. I don't know how you've managed to wrap all these people around your little finger but you've got to have some kind of secret."

"What gives you the right to come into our home and talk to us like this!?" Although it comes out angry I can hear the slight desperation in her voice. I'm not fooled and she knows it. "I think you should leave."

"And I think you should let him talk." It surprises me that someone says it but it doesn't surprise me that it's Christina. She's not blind like the others and she's kept mostly out of this. She's not a fool. Nodding my thanks at her I continue.

"Why don't we explore the reason why you're so determined to ruin anything that might happen between Alex and George. Lets see could it be that you don't think Alex is good enough for George? No, that's not why. That's what you tell everyone but it's not why. So if that's not the reason what is? Hmm…" Trailing off I can see the slight fear in her eyes. Yeah that's right girly I know why. "The real reason, the truth, is that she still has feelings for him. You still like him and it kills you to know that he doesn't care about you that way. If he turned up on this doorstep tomorrow and spilled his undying love you'd jump at the chance to be with him. But he won't do that and you know it. If you can't have him then no one can right?"

With that I make to leave, not stopping to look at any of the people who dared to call themselves Alex's friends. As I reach the door I stop momentarily to speak one last time.

"He trusted you Meredith. He trusted you and you turned on him. What you did is so much worse than the others because you know. You know what he's been through." With that I slam the door with as much force as I can and head back to the car. The anger that had fuelled my rage has finally started to ebb away and by the time I reach my apartment I'm almost calm. As I make my way to my bedroom, all too aware of the early morning shift, I stop for a second and pull the blanket up over Alex just a little bit. Leaving his zonked out form on the couch I finally slip into bed hoping that tomorrow will be a better day.

George POV:

"Is that true? Do you still have feelings for Alex?" Turning to Izzie with shock in my voice I don't need her to say a word to know the truth. Oh god…

"No. No Alex isn't the right person for you. You know that George why are you turning against me?" Turning against you? Oh my god Sloan was right.

"That's why you don't want me with Alex. You don't want us together, not because you think he's using me, but because he doesn't want you." The realisation seems to fall over me in waves and for a moment my heart stops.

What have I done?

"So wait lets just review here. Alex sleeps with Sloan who then comes here to defend his boyfriend and I'm the one in the wrong! How the hell does that work?" Before I can say anything Merediths words break through me.

"They're not sleeping together." What? No…no please tell me that's not true.

"Oh please. We all know what they're both like. He slept with Dereks wife didn't he? Why would he sleep with Alex?" For a moment no one speaks although it looks like Derek himself is torn, torn between speaking up for his best friend and knowing that it's the truth. In the end it's Meredith who breaks the silence.

"Alex has a lot of crap in his past." Her eyes stray to Derek and she looks torn as she speaks. It's like she's hesitating before she speaks again. "Seriously George his past…his past makes parts of mine look like a Disney movie."

"I don't understand." I really don't understand.

"Alex told me about his past, well parts of it, over time and in small bursts. I know enough to know that there's a reason why he is the way that he is. Alex and I we share a common theme. Terrible parents and terrible childhoods. We were made to be the way we are." I know nothing about his childhood. Nothing. How bad was his life before now if even Meredith thinks its awful? "He told me about his past because he trusts me, or at least he did. He told Sloan because he trusts him. George, Alex trusts Mark the way that I trust Christina."

With that she leaves the room and heads back upstairs with Derek following quickly behind her. Christina glances between me and Izzie for a moment, almost looking like she wanted to say something, before shaking her head and going upstairs. Izzie tries to talk to me but instead I walk away. Instead of listening to her, like I have for far too long, I do the first smart thing I've done in weeks and walk away from her.

Lying in bed long after everything is over there's only one thought going through my mind.

Did it ever occur to you that maybe if you'd listened to what he said the night you found out about his feelings you'd have your answer?

What did he mean?

What could he mean?

Alex has ignored me and walked away from our kiss despite the fact that I know that he likes me. I know that better now than I did before. If he didn't walk away because he wasn't interested then why? What made him put that distance between us?

Think back to the night you found out about how Alex felt, really think back and you'll have your answer.

That night?

What happened that night?

What did he say that was so important?

What did I miss?

The realisation doesn't come to me at first. It takes almost an hour of thinking before my brain releases the information. I'm on the verge of sleep, hovering between the darkness, when all of a sudden his words fly into my brain and I realise just how wrong I've been.

Because he deserves someone else! He deserves someone better than me. I'm damaged. Seriously I've got a whole shit load of baggage dragging behind me and it's not going away any time soon. He doesn't need the crap that I'm going to bring to his life Sloan.

Alex said that night that he thought I deserved better. I thought that when we kissed I'd put a stop to that but what if I didn't? He hasn't been pushing me away because he didn't care but because he did. He cares so much that he'd put his own feelings aside for what he thinks is my benefit. He's pushing me away because he really doesn't think he's good enough for me.

As the realisation strips away everything I thought I knew guilt flows through me.

What have I done?

Christina POV:

Well if the night Sloan came over was awkward then in the cold light of day it's even more so. Everything the man had said was true. Every word of it. Someone had to say it and it couldn't have been me. I'm too close to them all for my words to truly hit home. It needed to come from someone else and Sloan was a good candidate. He doesn't pull his punches. I like that.

What I don't like is the fact that those three babies are currently on day three of refusing to talk to each other.

Great. I'm surrounded by children. Spurred on by Sloans words I finally decide that enough is enough and at lunch I finally say what's on my mind. Thanks to the fact that he's got them all seeing the truth, I can actually speak my mind without them thinking it's just me being me. Bitter old Christina being her bitter self.

"Alright children here's how this is all going to go now." Despite their anger at each other we've all still congregated for lunch. Predictable. "Meredith you're going to apologise to evil spawn, I don't get what went down between you but if he trusted you with something the way I trust you then I know that you've hurt him. Apologise and stop feeling guilty. Fix it."

"It's not that easy." Maybe not but at least it would be a start. She doesn't argue with my words because she knows that I'm right. You'd have to be an idiot not to see that evil spawn has issues. Big issues.

"When are our lives ever easy?" Ignoring whatever she comes up with in response I turn to my next victim…friend. "O'Malley you are also going to apologise to Alex. Firstly you're going to apologise for thinking that he was sleeping with Sloan and then you're going to apologise for sticking up for Izzie when you should have been standing up for him."

"George has done nothing wrong." Seriously? Seriously she's still trying to get into his good books? Wow.

"O'Malley has done a lot wrong. And so have you. Now I know you won't apologise since you're in your own little world but you're going to back off. If George and Alex want to be together then they're going to be together. Good or bad idea it's not our place."

For a moment they all seem shocked. Shocked that I care enough to intervene and shocked that I'm right. Ever since that night Meredith and George have both avoided Karev. Not because they don't want to fix this but because they both feel so guilty and can't face him.

"Alex won't want to be with me now. I know he won't." Rolling my eyes I still can't believe how blind he is. He almost seems offended when I tell him so. "What do you mean?"

"Evil spawn is nuts about you. He wouldn't have hung on so long if he didn't. The fact that even now after you've sided against him with blondie over there he still wants you should tell you how much the man cares. If you want him, go get him. Sitting here brooding and feeling sorry for yourself isn't going to fix things." For a moment they both make no indication of having listened before they're both on their feet. Izzie stares after them, almost looking like she wants to interfere. Wisely however she chooses to keep her mouth shut instead.

The prospect of loosing George is what drove her to this in the first place. Maybe the prospect of loosing him will be enough to snap her out of it.

"I was just trying to protect him." Even now she's still trying to convince herself.

"Oh please. The only reason you don't want Karev with George is because you still care about him. You hate the fact that he's moved on from you and you hate that he's moved on to George even more. Plus the fact that you just love having George as your personal play thing." Her eyes darken at that but she's not stupid enough to say anything.

Maybe she's finally learning.

Christina: Finally I get to be awesome in this.

Well someone had to tell it like it was.

Meredith: I was only trying to help, they wouldn't have kissed if it wasn't for me.

Alex: Hey I'd have gotten round to it *withers under the mutual glares from the women* eventually.

Christina: You're a giant man child whose too scared to admit it

Listen to her cause she's kind of right.

Until next time,

Bye x