A/N: Hey everyone! I know, it's been forever since I updated, and I'm so very sorry! I made this chapter a bit longer to make, and I've already begun working on the second part, so it should be uploaded by Monday for sure. I hope you enjoy this chapter! Most of it may seem a bit off topic, but I have a plan that I'm pretty sure will surprise you guys :)
Disclaimer: I really really wish I owned Grey's Anatomy. So, if anyone is looking for a good gift for me, keep that in mind :)
Meredith walked into the room to find Izzie and Alex lying next to each other in Izzie's bed, both of them fast asleep. She lifted Izzie's chart off of the table beside her bed and wrote down her sleeping friend's current vitals, deciding that taking her temperature could wait until she had woken up. She turned around and exited the room with a smile, relieved that all of the events of the previous evening had dissipated, and her friends were finally able to get some much needed sleep.
Meredith turned to the left and began to walk down the hall, only to be interrupted by the one and only Derek Shepherd.
"Hey," she said, walking up to him. He nodded and smiled at her in return, then reached for the chart she had been holding and flipped through it.
"How's she doing?" he asked, handing the chart back to Meredith.
"Asleep. Which is good, I guess." Both of the doctors were silent for a moment, then Meredith broke the silence as she let out a breath and said, "I can't believe this is happening. I mean, it's Izzie. She's bright and shiny and..." then trailed off, once again at a loss for words.
"She'll be okay. Maybe not as bright and shiny," he said, smiling at her, "but she'll make it. She's young, and she's tough."
"Yeah. But I'm not sure anyone's tough enough to make it out of this mess in one piece." Derek pushed a piece of Meredith's hair behind her ear and kissed her forehead.
"That's what friends are for. You have to help her pick up the pieces."
"Yeah." Meredith sighed and rested her head on Derek's chest, wishing that she could stay there all day. Just then, her pager went off. "It's Lexie, I- I gotta go," she said, receiving a reassuring look from Derek before she hurried towards the ER.
When she arrived in the emergency room, she found Lexie running frantically from room to room and doing her best to maintain a calm demeanor. Meredith walked up to her and placed her hand on her half-sister's shoulder, hoping she could get Lexie to slow down for a moment. Instead, her touch surprised the intern and she jumped, then turned around with a stunned look upon her face.
"Lexie, what's up."
"Everyone's gone- all of the doctors who are supposed to be here, every single one of them left. And I don't know what to do because I'm not a doctor-I mean, I'm an intern, but I'm not really a doctor, and-"
"Lexie, slow down."
"No, it gets worse. Then, on the way out, apparently my weird patient ran into a shelf, and it fell on another patient-"
"It fell on a patient!?" Meredith exclaimed, sounding as incredulous as she looked.
"Yeah. See, this is bad, I knew this was bad," Lexie said, bringing her nails up to her mouth and gnawing gently on one.
"Well, it's definitely not good. Where's the patient."
"The one that left or the one that-"
"The one that's still here," Meredith said, her impatience becoming increasingly noticeable in her tone.
"In that room," Lexie said, pointing to the room behind her and to the right. Meredith began walking in that direction, and all the while, Lexie continued to inform her of the situation. "We sutured up all of his cuts, and we gave him a CT scan, I think he's okay. I just- no one was answering my page so." She took a breath and sighed as Meredith turned around to look at her once again. "I tried."
"Lexie, you did a fine job. Relax. Besides, someone should have answered your page. Now go and deal with the other patients, I'll deal with Mr.-"
"Petreson."
"Petreson. Okay," Meredith said, plastering an unnaturally large grin upon her face and walking the rest of the way into the room.
The man lying in the bed look as though he was around 30. He was 5'10" and about 170 pounds. He had pale skin, brown eyes, and dirty blonde hair. He was neither handsome nor ugly. He was very plain. From the tip of his head down to his toes, there was nothing that really made Mr. Petreson stand out. He was, for lack of a better phrase, exceedingly average.
"Mr. Petreson," Meredith said smiling at the man. "I'm Dr. Grey. I wanted to check in and see how you were doing."
"Dr. Grey. I thought the last doctor was Dr. Grey."
"She is, we are related. Well, we're technically half sisters. My father is her father but I don't really know her." Mr. Petreson smiled as Meredith struggled to explain the situation.
"I have some of those too. Actually, two of them. Half siblings I've never actually met. We share a last name and father, but nothing else."
"Exactly. Except I have to share a workplace with mine."
"Were you from the first or second family?"
"First-"
"Me too. And I always kind of hated my Dad's other family – can't imagine seeing them everyday."
"Yeah, well. I'm not always what you might call nice to her," Meredith said, as her forced smile turned into a genuine one.
"Nobody's perfect," he said smiling. There was a lull in conversation as Meredith picked up his chart and looked at the first page.
"So, Mr. Petreson-"
"Please, call me Joey."
"Okay- Joey, so what brought you in here today."
"Well, this man ran into a shelf-"
"No, I mean, what brought you in here in the first place?" Meredith asked as she flipped to the last page of his chart and took out a pen.
"Oh, sorry. I hurt my ribs," he said, moving his hand to his lower left ribs. "No big deal though. Probably didn't need to come to the emergency room."
"And how did you injure your ribs?"
"It's stupid- I was, well. I was working at my desk, and I leaned back to pet my dog, and the chair tipped over."
"Ouch," Meredith said making a face, and jotting down notes in Joey's chart. "Did you injure anything but your ribs?"
"No, that was it. I suppose I got lucky."
"Yeah. Well, it appears as though the injuries you sustained were mostly minor. If it's all right with you, we'd like keep you here over night for observation-just to make sure everything is okay. And the bill I'm sure will be on us, so don't worry about that." Joey nodded and Meredith put the chart down, then began to walk towards the door. However, before she left he stopped her saying:
"Doctor Grey. Don't worry, I have no intentions of suing the hospital. I don't care much for cops," he said smiling in Meredith's direction. She smiled back and exited the room, waving on her way out.
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In Izzie's room, Izzie and Alex were still asleep side by side on her bed, when Izzie's eyes suddenly shot open. Her body tensed up, and she inhaled sharply, then let the breath go shakily, and inhaled again. This continued for around 15 seconds before Alex opened his eyes and regained a high enough level of consciousness to figure out what was going on.
"Iz." He sat up, looking into Izzie's terror stricken eyes. "Izzie. Izzie, calm down, it's okay, it's all okay." He swung his legs around and got off of the bed, standing beside Izzie's bed once again. "Iz, look at me. You're having a panic attack okay. I need you to look at me." Alex took Izzie's face in his hands and moved it slightly so her eyes were looking directly into his. "Okay, good job. Now breath Izzie. Come on, breath with me. In, out……"
To Be Continued....
A/N 2: So, what did you think? Please let me know! I do love reviews, and they make me update so much faster :) I also had an idea for a few chapters from now that I would love comments on. What if I worked the fact that Izzie has a daughter that almost no one knows about into the conversation. After all, it would probably be in her medical records that I'm sure Seattle Grace would want a copy of her medical records from her previous doctor.... I thought it might be interesting.
Discussion topic/spoilers: So, for any of you who are not quite as obsessive as me and do not know this, apparently it's not going to be a merder wedding that takes place in a few episodes. And, Ausiello has recently informed us that it is not Cristina and Owen either. So, that leaves two possibilities that I can think of: A couple made up of a 24 year old, and well, Mark, and Alex and Izzie. What do you think? Could there be a Lexzie wedding in store for us this season?