"You don't get to tell me how to do my job! You're not an attending! You're just sleeping with one!" Cristina yells.

"I'm not sleeping with one, Cristina! I'm in a relationship. A real relationship with Derek! A relationship you refuse to accept! Why is it that you can't just be happy that I'm happy?" Meredith yells back.

"Happy? This is happy? You just threw me under a bus to the chief! I'm the most talented and driven resident in this program, and now you made me look bad!" Cristina says.

"I didn't rat you out! The chief asked me and I didn't tell him anything other than the fact that I didn't feel qualified to make that determination. I didn't see the supposed incident and I didn't really have any way of defending you. I told him that as far as I knew, you were always a professional! What more did you want me to say? And why do you always assume that you are more driven and talented than anyone else here? I'm equally driven and as far as talent goes…" Meredith says as Cristina cuts her off.

"Driven? Is that what you call it when you stab your best friend in the back? And as far as talent goes, you're not your mother, Meredith. You dropped a kidney on the floor! You are NO Ellis Gray!" As the words leave Cristina's mouth, she knows she has gone one sentence too far.

Meredith is silent for a moment. She turns her back to Cristina who freezes where she is. Meredith looks over her shoulder at Cristina and says, "Neither are you…" before she walks down the hallway.

"Dude! That was cold! I can't believe Yang pulled the mommy card!" Alex whispers to Izzie.

"Yeah! That was insane. Maybe I should go see if Meredith is okay. I should probably do that. I mean…she's probably…" Izzie thinks out loud and Alex laughs.

"You love this stuff…girl drama. Go check on Meredith. But don't be too long. I'll be waiting for you at home," Alex laughs.

"I'll be there. And you love girl drama too. You're going to ask me for all the details when I get home," Izzie says, smiling back and kissing Alex briefly on the lips.

(Break)

"Derek! Did you hear? Your girlfriend took out Yang in front of the whole hospital!" Mark says, slapping Derek on the back.

Derek laughs. "I learned a long time ago not to meddle in that friendship. If I go to Meredith and tell her she's totally right and that she should be furious with Yang, then when they down tequila shots and forget all their drama, I'm sleeping on the couch. I'll just let this one die down. It always does," he says.

"I don't know. Yang told Meredith she was no Ellis Gray. Implied she had no talent. Even brought up the dropped kidney…I heard the whole thing. It was pretty brutal!" Mark says, smirking and clearly enjoying himself.

"You're having too much fun Sloan. Go find the girls locker room if you want to gossip. I've got work to do," Derek says, heading out of the on call room.

"I know exactly where the women's locker room is! I've been invited there many times!" Mark calls after him, defensively.

(Break)

Izzie walks into the supply closet thinking she will find Meredith in there, but instead finds Lexie looking for butterfly needles.

"Nobody needs that many butterfly needles. You aren't doing anything crazy like taking out any appendix again, are you?" Izzie asks.

Lexie shakes her head. "No. I'm just kind of hiding. I'm avoiding Cristina."

"Did you hear…" Izzie starts to ask.

Lexie nods. "Yeah. That's why I'm avoiding Cristina. I figure she'll be in a worse mood than ever, and I just want to stay out of her way, until this all dies down," she says.

"What started this whole fight anyway? I mean, I know Cristina was pissed when Meredith got assigned to the guy with the artificial heart, but it wasn't really Meredith's fault, and I thought that…" Izzie asks, thinking outloud.

"Can you keep a secret?" Lexie asks.

"Sure," Izzie says, sitting down.

"Well…after the whole appendix thing, we all thought that Yang might have gotten the picture. You know…that she needed to teach us. Well, she got more and more brutal to everyone. I mean, everyone except me. I feel like as much as she is rude to me, and treats me like dirt beneath her shoe, she respects my photographic memory. She gives me slightly more opportunities than she gives the other interns," Lexie begins.

"Don't take Cristina personally. She…" Izzie stops abruptly as Lexie holds up her hand.

"Let me finish. I can't believe I am telling you this. I don't even really know you. But you said you can keep a secret…right? You won't tell anyone…right?" Lexie asks again.

"You're not going to make me swear in blood, are you? I know how you interns like to cut each other…" Izzie asks.

Lexie glares at her, "Not funny yet. Maybe in a year it will be, but it's about as funny as you cutting that guy's LVAD wire. Anyway…so Cristina's been awful to all the interns, but especially to Sadie. I mean, Sadie misses a lot of stuff, but she started late, and Cristina has been just brutal." Lexie starts.

"Okay, Lexie, this is a really nice story, but if I'm supposed to feel bad for Sadie, you might want to share your secret with someone else. I've been sharing a bathroom with that girl all week and I can tell you that she's a slob who throws her stuff all over the place and totally…" Izzie stops as Lexie cuts her off again.

"I know. She is a slob. Her locker's next to mine. But that's not the point, Dr. Stevens. One day, Cristina made her put in a central line on this guy who was unconscious, but didn't show her how to do it. Sadie missed the vein, and Cristina totally humiliated her. She berated her in front of everyone and then started firing questions at her about the guy's condition. Sadie got all flustered and couldn't answer anything and she actually broke down. I mean, she lost it. She was cowering in the corner, and Cristina was still firing questions at her and and no one did anything until I stepped between them and Cristina to stop," Lexie explains.

"Wow! Yang really is a hard ass, isn't she," Izzie says, laughing.

"This kind of went beyond hard ass. I know she hates Sadie because of her past with Meredith…whatever past that is..I don't know. But this was out of control. But the thing is, that Sadie isn't blameless either, Sadie is always late for rounds, she doesn't ever study, and she goes out of her way to piss Cristina off," Lexie says.

Izzie nods and looks at her watch, wondering if this story has a point.

"The thing is, the next day, Sadie calls all of us together and asks us if we are her friends. We all said yes, because you know…interns have to stick together. So then Sadie tells us that she wants us all to write a letter complaining about Cristina and threatening to go to the hospital board if action isn't taken against her. The letter says that Cristina provides an unfit working environment and verbally abuses us. It also detailed the incident with Sadie, but it was kind of exaggerated. I mean, don't get me wrong, Cristina was mean. Cristina's mean a lot of the time. But she didn't do a lot of the things that Sadie said she did. But she made us all sign the letter. I didn't want to, Dr. Stevens, but the pressure…" Lexie's voice trails off as she tries to decide whether or not she should tell Izzie the rest of the story.

"So you signed a false document against Cristina because of peer pressure? How old are you? 12?" Izzie asks, disgusted at the lack of integrity that Lexie has displayed.

"I know it sounds awful but there's more." Lexie says.

"I sure hope so…" Izzie replies.

" You really won't tell Meredith…or anyone else…right? Oh my god. I can't believe I'm telling you this. I mean, like…this is so crazy," Lexie pauses as Izzie waits.

"Well, half of the interns were so fed up with Cristina that they signed on the spot. The other half didn't want to. We tried to talk her out of the whole thing. She said it was all or nothing. We all had to sign or the deal was off," Lexie says.

"What deal?" Izzie asks, confused.

Lexie looks down. "She told everyone that she could make everyone copies of all the Ellis Gray diaries. All of them. And then she told everyone that Ellis' surgical and career secrets were in them. The rest of the interns were so hungry for that information that they signed on the spot. I was the only hold out," Lexie says.

Izzie stares at Lexie, horrified by the deception that Sadie has wielded. "So you didn't sign?" she asks.

"No. I didn't. Not at first. But then Sadie caught me later in the locker room. She said that she'd do one more thing for me if I signed. She said that being at the top of the class, I lent credibility to the cause if I signed. She handed me a book that she hadn't shown anyone else. I didn't know what it was. She told me it was Meredith's diary. She found it in her room and photocopied it. She told me that it contained everything Meredith really thought of me. She told me I could have it if I signed," Lexie says, looking down.

"So you signed?" Izzie asks, not hiding her disgust.

"I did. I signed. I'm not proud of it. But you don't understand…" Lexie tries to explain.

"You're right. I don't," Izzie says, as she pushes past Lexie and leaves the intern standing alone in the supply closet.

(Break)

Cristina stands in the morgue. She gets ready to slice through the flesh of a corpse. She volunteered to harvest kidneys for intern training. It seemed ironic considering the recent accusations that the interns made against her, but she couldn't think of anything better than being alone in the morgue right now. As she takes her scalpel and slices the flesh of a 72 year old man who died of emphysema, she waits for the calming effect that surgery usually has on her to take place. She notices her heart rate doesn't slow down the way it normally does. She makes another incision and waits again…Nothing. She tries a third time. When she feels no relief, she clenches the scalpel in her hand and stabs the corpse in the chest repeatedly as she yells, "I am a loyal friend, goddamn it!"

Dr. Owen Hunt walks in the room and yells, "What the hell are you doing? That man is already dead and his family has entrusted his remains to this hospital to be treated with respect. How dare you defile him like this?"

Cristina clenches her teeth. "I am harvesting kidneys for intern trainings, and I'm having a very bad day, so if you are here to make my day worse, please just leave," she says.

"A bad day? Why? Because of that little adolescent screaming match in the hallway with your little girlfriend? A bad day is when you are walking through the desert in the middle of the night and a land mine blows up next to your best friend and he's calling to you for help but you can't help him because…Well…let's just say, you don't know what a bad day is," Owen says.

"I don't need this!" Cristina says, dropping her scalpel and storming out of the morgue.

"You forgot your kidneys," Owen calls after her.

(Break)

George sees Izzie standing by the nurse's station reading through her charts. He sits down next to her and asks, "So…did you talk to Meredith?"

Izzie looks up, startled. "No! Why?" she asks, defensively.

"No reason…I saw Alex and he told me that you were going to try to find her and see if she was okay. I mean, after that whole thing with Cristina I thought…"

Izzie relaxes a little bit, realizing that he doesn't know about the petition, or the diaries or anything else. "No. I've been working all day. I'll catch her at home tonight," Izzie says.

"It's weird, seeing the two of them avoiding each other in the hallways. I mean, those two…they were inseparable. I guess…I thought…I don't know. It's just weird," George says.

"We were like that," Izzie says.

George nods in agreement. "We were," he says. After a pause, he adds, "I'm still your friend, Iz. I'm always here for you if you need me. All you have to do is say the word," George says.

Izzie rolls her eyes. "Friendship is overrated. Besides…when we were really friends, I didn't have to say the word. You were just here," she says, and walks away, leaving George standing alone.

(Break)

"Dr. Stevens. You'll be assisting me in my jaw reconstruction tomorrow. I expect you've read up on the procedure?" Mark asks.

"Yes. I have. I'm ready," Izzie says, confidently.

"Good. Don't be late," Mark says.

Lexie sees Izzie walking away from Mark and gets nervous. Did she say something? Did she tell him about the diaries? About her betrayal of Meredith? Why is he looking at me like that? Why did I tell Izzie anyway? She's Meredith's friend…of course she's going to tell. Why would she protect me? Lexie wonders.

"Hey! Little Grey!" Mark calls.

"What? What do you want?" Lexie asks, defensively.

"Woah…someone's touchy today. I just wanted to see if you heard how Big Grey was doing?" he asks.

"Why? What did Izzie tell you?" Lexie asks.

"That's she's ready for my surgery tomorrow. That she wants to sleep with me. Well…she didn't tell me that in words, but I see it in her eyes," Mark says, seductively.

"You're disgusting," Lexie says, rolling her eyes.

"You love it," Mark says, smiling.

"Did Derek say anything about Meredith…I mean about me or anything…I mean…" Lexie stammers, not sure how to present her desire for information.

"Little Grey…can I give you some advice?" Mark says.

Lexie doesn't say anything which Mark takes as a green light.

"You want a relationship with Big Grey. Back off. Derek is like my brother. We've had our problems…and when I wanted him to come back to me, I pretended he was a chick and played hard to get. I played him like a drum…it worked," Mark says.

Lexie sighs. "It's so much more complicated than that. You wouldn't understand," she says.

"You think? You'd be surprised what I can understand. I'm good to talk to. Try me," Mark says.

Lexie shakes her head. "I-I can't. I have to go," she says, and runs away abruptly.

(Break)

Meredith lies on her bed staring at the ceiling.

"Death!" Sadie says, jumping on Meredith's bed and laying down next to her.

"I feel like death…" Meredith sighs.

"You look like death too. Come on. Let's go out and celebrate!" Sadie says, bouncing up and down on the bed.

"Celebrate? What is there to celebrate? This goes down in history as one of the worst days of my life." Meredith points out.

"You're the hero of the interns. You told off the wicked witch!" Sadie says, smiling.

Meredith smiles wryly. "Why doesn't that make me feel better?"

"I don't know. But I know this…I have a bottle of tequila downstairs!" Sadie says.

"I don't want any tequila…I just want to sleep," Meredith moans, putting the pillow over her face.

Sadie softens. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asks.

Meredith shakes her head. "No…But thanks for asking. You're a good friend," she says, taking Sadie's hand.

Sadie smiles and squeezes Meredith's hand. "Hang in there, Death. It'll be okay!"

Izzie knocks on the door. "Mer?" she says, opening the door and seeing Sadie lying in Meredith's bed.

"Oh. She's here. Okay….ummm…well…I'll come back later. Just wanted to see how you were," Izzie says, backing out of the room, awkwardly.

"Thanks, Iz!" Meredith calls after her.

(Break)

Lexie enters her house and fingers the binder that Sadie had given her. She opens it, but does not look at it. She knows that with her photographic memory, she won't be able to forget anything she reads and she isn't sure she wants to know everything that is in the photocopies of Meredith's diary.

George walks into their apartment. "Studying already?"

Lexie slams the binder shut. "Yeah. Studying…Can I ask you a question?" Lexie asks.

"Sure," George shrugs, putting his bag down.

"Do you think that honesty is always the best policy?" Lexie asks.

"In most cases? Yeah. I think so," George says.

"But what if telling the truth would hurt the other person? What about then? Do you just do it anyway and hope for the best? What if…"

"Lexie! Stop! I'm sure whatever it is isn't that bad…I'm sure it's no big deal. Just come clean. I mean…you took out someone's appendix for fun last week…how bad can anything else be after that?" George quips.

Lexie sighs. She's not going to make him understand. She smiles politely. "You're right. Thanks George," she says.

************************************

THANKS FOR READING!! Those of you who have read my stories before know that I love getting reviews and will always respond to them. PLEASE review and let me know what you like and don't like. I really appreciate it!