alaska | grey's anatomy

⇢ CHAPTER 18

Lexie nodded as Mark passed the chart to Izzie and Holly began, "Lex, did you hear what's going on between Megan, Pierce and Steve?"

"Oh, my God." Lexie's eyes widened as she turned to face her friend, "I cannot believe--"

"Awesome job." An intern imitated Mark as they spoke, not trying to hide their mockery of Mark and Lexie, "She probably quizzed him in bed last night."

Holly rolled her eyes and shook her head as Ryan added, "She gets to work on blowhole because she gave Sloan a--"

"Shut your mouths!" Izzie outburst, having had enough of hearing the interns call Dave 'blowhole'. Everyone stared at Izzie and she sighed, passing the chart to Lexie, "Finish the chart. I'll be back."

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"What the heck do we do with them?" George asked Meredith as they stared at Steve, who had a bloody hand, Pierce, who had a bruised eye, and Megan, who couldn't stop crying,  at the end of the hall. 

"Can we shove them in a locker?" Meredith groaned.

"I guess we should just talk to them." George shrugged, "Or page Holly."

After waiting less than a minute, Holly appeared down the hall as she ran to the two, "What happened? Wh--What's the emergency?"

Meredith pointed behind her at the three interns, "What's the story there?"

Holly scoffed as she glared at George, catching her breath, "You paged me 9-1-1-- I was waiting in line for coffee, George."

George cringed, "Sorry... we'll make it up to you if you tell us what's going on with--" Meredith gestured behind herself again, "that."

"Okay." Holly sighed, "Megan and Pierce--"

"Wait." Meredith stopped Holly as she looked at George, "We're professionals, and that's clearly personal. Besides," Meredith shrugged, "we'll just waste time. We'll never get to see the solo surgery or the face transplant."

"Oh," George hummed as he looked back at the interns, "that's a-- yeah, that's a good point. I guess, well, we should-- we should just ignore it then."

"Yeah," Meredith nodded as Holly groaned, "we should just ignore it. It's the professional thing to do."

"So I ran up here for nothing?" Holly glared at the two.

"Sorry, Kepner." Meredith cringed, "George'll get you your coffee."

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"Yeah, okay." George noted as he checked his chart with Meredith as Holly drank her coffee beside them, updating herself on the solo surgery she'd be observing, "And I've got 2011 and 2007." He paused, "Mer, there is something wrong with Izzie."

"Uh," Meredith jotted down something on her chart, "what do you mean?"

"I don't know." George shook his head, "All I know is that there is something wrong."

"Well," Meredith started, "you know, George, we're already drowning in intern drama. We don't need resident drama, too. If it's a problem, she'll tell us. Until then, just ignore it."

Holly chuckled, "Sounds like sound advice." 

The noise of squeaky intern shoes caused all of their heads to turn as they saw Steve run up the stairs. "I repeat," Meredith spoke, "ignore it."

"What in God's name is going on?" Dr. Bailey asked as she walked up to the trio.

Holly shrugged, sipping on her coffee as Meredith answered, "It's a personal issue, and we are just trying to give them their privacy."

Bailey chuckled, "Oh, do you think for a second I wanted to get involved with your little intern dramas?"

George laughed, "We were not this bad."

"Oh," Bailey listed, "uh, getting married in Vegas, shaking up with attendings, cutting L-vad wires?" Holly snorted from the back and Bailey called her out, "And now the interns were cutting themselves up for procedures and dating residents." 

Holly nodded as she grabbed her chart, "That's my cue to go."

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Holly stood in the back by herself since Ryan was pulled aside by George and Meredith to find out the drama between Steve, Pierce, and Megan and Steve was also dragged out to settle the drama.

"You ready, Dr. Yang?" The anesthesiologist asked as he was about to inject the drug to their patient.

"Wait." The patient alerted, "I'm sorry." She looked at Cristina, "I need one thing from you before I go under." Cristina took a step closer, "Now I haven't asked for much. You haven't answered my questions, and I understand that you're busy, but I'm scared. I don't want to die. I want to go on a tour of Russia with my friends next year. I may just be a batty old lady to you, and this may be a silly little procedure, but I need you to tell me that it's gonna be okay. You're my surgeon, after all."

Cristina assured, "This isn't a silly procedure, to me, Ms. Sully. And I will get you through this."

"Okay." Ms. Sully nodded, "Thank you." She exhaled deeply, "I'm ready now."

Cristina stared at the exposed skin of Ms. Sully and the instrument tray for a long time, causing Holly, Bailey, and Alex to glance at her in confusion. Cristina inhaled sharply, looking forward at Alex, "Izzie has stage IV metastatic melanoma that has spread to her brain, liver and skin. She may only have months to live, and she's resisting treatment." She looked over at Bailey, "She needs help." Holly and Bailey had their mouths slightly agape and Alex was frozen as Cristina exhaled, "Scalpel."

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While Bailey informed Meredith and George about Izzie's condition, Holly helped Izzie get comfortable in her room before going off to find George.

Holly jogged up to George, who was staring outside of a window at the resident's lounge, "George..." She approached him slowly, placing a hand on his shoulder, "Izzie's--"

George wrapped his arms around Holly as he buried himself in her neck, crying softly as he relayed the news Dr. Bailey told him, "I-Izzie has cancer."

Holly wrapped her arms around George's shaking body as she rubbed his back, "I'm sorry."

"I didn't--" George sighed, holding onto his girlfriend tighter as his voice cracked, "I didn't even know she was sick."

"It's okay." Holly exhaled deeply as she got comfortable in his arms, "S-She's gonna be okay."

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these are sad times :{{{