I ran after George outside. "George!" I yelled at him. He stopped running and turned around. I walked closer to him. "What's wrong?" I ask.
"Nothing. Rachel, you're a great person, but I still have feelings for Meredith. Strong feelings. It was an in the moment thing with you and I, and I don't want you to think I'm using you for anything," George admits.
"George no it wasn't. I see the way you look at me at home and in the hospital, all the time. I know you like Meredith but has she even shown any interest in you unless she wants something? No, she hasn't George. I didn't want to say this anytime soon but I like you, a lot," I confess. George just stares at me in shock.
"Rachel I'm sorry but I need to give my feelings for Meredith a chance here. I have always liked you too, but I really like Meredith," he says.
"Well, that's fine George. But when Meredith ends up breaking your heart, don't come crawling back to me, because I don't ever see her hanging out with you or defending your name," I tell him. I walk to my own car, that I was finally able to afford, and I drive over to Joe's. After a long day, I could use some tequila shots. I arrive at Joe's and Cristina and Meredith are already there at the bar. I order a shot of tequila and start talking to them. Of course, George shows up. I don't think he knew I was going to be here, but I just started talking to Cristina again once I saw him. He sits down next to Meredith.
"All hail, the champ is here!" Joe yells. Everyone in the bar cheers except for me. I silently clap so nobody questions me. George blushes in embarrassment while scrunching his nose a little bit. "So, my guy Alex finally got what was coming to him."
"George knocked him down in one single punch. You should've seen it Joe," Cristina says excitedly.
"Yep," I mumble while taking a shot.
"I don't really want to talk about it right now," George says.
"Brag, champ, brag. You earned it," Joe says while patting his shoulder.
"Can I just have a beer please?" George asks. Joe hands him a beer and says it's on the house.
"Let's play a game of whose life sucks the most. I'll win. I always win," Meredith suggests. Kind of a dark game to play at a bar but alright.
"I got rejected today," I tell them while secretly glaring at George. He looks at me with a hurt look on his face.
"Oh you think that's bad? Derek is married," Meredith tells us. I drop my jaw in total shock and George spits out his drink.
"Joe, I need more tequila please," I order. He gives me two more shots, I thank him.
"See, I told you I'd win this by a long shot," Meredith brags. George and I still look at Meredith in total shock. I knew this Derek thing was too good to be true but he was married the whole time? I never would've seen that coming.
"No, you really didn't win Mer. Also, George you have beer dripping from your nostrils," Cristina points out. George wipes his nose with a napkin.
"Did you even hear me? I said Derek is married. As in pigheaded, adulterous, liar married. Nothing you say could come close to topping that," Meredith says.
"I'm pregnant," Cristina confesses. George spits out his beer again while I slam my two shots of tequila. Meredith looks at Cristina in confusion, while she just nods her head. I go to order more shots when I hear Joe grunting and holding his head. Next thing I know, he falls over on the ground.
"Ok. Maybe Joe wins this time," I tell them while the four of us run behind the bar to help him. Joe tries to get back up but I stop him. "Joe, lie back down."
"You called the gurney patrol?" he asks, still holding his head.
"Just sit back and relax. We have to take you to the hospital to run some quick tests," Meredith tells him. Joe shakes his head.
"Tests? I don't need tests. I'm fine!" Joe yells.
"Dude! You collapsed! On the floor. This is your bar. You know how filthy this floor is," Cristina says.
"Radial pulse is strong," Meredith says.
"Minor skull contusions," I say.
"You're sleeping with someone?" Meredith asks while checking on Joe.
"What? Who?" George asks clueless.
"Why is that such a shock to everyone? Even George managed to get some quick action," Cristina says. This makes me laugh a little bit.
"Correction. George got some syphilis," he says agitated.
"How could I not know you were sleeping with someone?" Meredith asks Cristina.
"Forget this," Joe says. I think we all forgot about him on the floor by the looks on our faces when he talked.
"Joe!" I yell.
"The hospital is right across the damn street. I can sure as hell walk across the street by myself," Joe says, clearly pissed off at us. He stands up.
"No, I got him. Joe!" George yells while taking him outside to wait for an ambulance so he's not alone.
George, Izzie, and I are all standing at a desk when Meredith and Cristina walk up to the three of us. I don't even talk to George, let alone look at him. I know I'm being kind of petty about this but I was just able to accept the fact I like him. I know he likes me too, he just has to see Meredith isn't interested in him. But I know by then, it will be too late. "Why are you back here tonight, don't you have a date with McDreamy?" Izzie asks Meredith.
"More like McMarried," I tell her.
"McWhat?" Izzie asks with a very confused look on her face.
"I just came here to check on Joe," Meredith huffs.
"Do you think he's going to be okay?" George asks her.
"You think he's going to need an operation?" Cristina asks eagerly, looking for any chance she can to operate. Before Meredith could answer her, Derek walks up to us at the desk.
"Operation, yes. Okay, hard to tell right now. Basilar artery's blown up like a balloon. Subarachnoid bleeding. Aneurysm the size of a whole golf ball," Derek informs us. We all give him dirty looks in response.
"No way to clip something like that," George mumbles.
"Not without magic fingers anyway," Cristina quips.
"Or a standstill operation," Derek suggests. We all give him dirty looks again, except Cristina this time. She looks at him in awe. She's a sucker for surgery and cutting.
"You're doing a standstill? He's doing a standstill?" Cristina asks in shock.
"I would like to try to. First I need some additional patient history, overnight labs, and a cerebral anigo," Derek says. He hands the chart over to Meredith.
"I'm drunk," Meredith tells him. She walks away and Derek tries to follow after her. I grab the chart out of her hand. We all stand in front of him and stop him from going after her.
"McBastard," Izzie whispers. I smirk at her. Derek just leaves in the opposite direction.
Meredith goes home for the day and Cristina was paged by Burke so George, Izzie, and I all go to the locker room together. "I'm not really a violent person. I'm a pacifist. But, you know, he just kept pushing and pushing. He pushed me, so I pushed back," George tells the story for about the tenth time so far. I look over at Alex in the back of the room, but it doesn't even look like he's paying attention at all. "I was pushed," George continues.
"You know what, if Alex tries to lay a hand on you, just tell me George, I'll be able to take care of it," Izzie says loud enough so Alex would be able to hear her say that. I silently laugh at her. The thought of Izzie fighting Alex would be a pretty funny sight to see.
"I don't need you to take care of it Iz. If Alex starts something I'll be able to handle it myself. I know I can handle it," George says, trying to brag.
"Yeah right," I mumble. I wasn't assigned to anything right now so I went upstairs with Izzie to sit on the empty gurneys in the hallway. We sit down and Alex comes up a few minutes after we do. Neither of us acknowledge him, we just fix our charts in silence.
"Who's Halloran?" Alex asks, breaking the silence.
"Patient in 4115. Red hair? Hot wife who knits all the time? He had the colectomy," I told him.
"Ah, colon dude. That's right. Who's Monterroso?" he asks.
"4238. The hot mom with the really cute kids. She spiked a post-op fever last night. You spent two hours monitoring her," Izzie informs him.
"Hernia chick, that's right," Alex says. I roll my eyes at him. If I don't include the word "hot" anywhere in the sentence, Alex will have absolutely no idea who I'm ever talking about.
"You have been treating these people for the last week. How could you not even know their names?" I ask him. Alex just shrugs.
"Surgery is the only specialty where we don't waste time to get to know the patients and their life stories. They're slabs of meat, we're butchers," he says.
"That's an awful comparison," I let him know.
"They're still human beings. You do know what a human being is, don't you Evil Spawn?" Izzie asks him. I laugh.
"I'm not evil. Unless evil turns either of you on," Alex flirts while winking at both of us.
"Do you ever wake up in the morning, realize nobody likes you, and, I don't know, care a little bit?" I ask him.
"Oh. I think somebody likes me," he taunts. I laugh and Izzie and I both roll our eyes at him. I get a page from Derek that Joe's surgery is starting so I rush to the gallery to watch. I walk in with Bailey at the same time, the gallery is packed today so I sit in the back row. George is also sitting in the back but on the total opposite end. I'm at the seat closest to the door. Alex enters the gallery and sits in the seat right next to me. "Oh, sure. I'm the guy with the heart of stone and you bring snacks into the gallery," Alex says while taking a pretzel off of my tray.
"It's a working lunch," I tell him while giving him the rest of my pretzels that I don't want.
"Snacks to watch Joe die," he says while putting a handful of pretzels into his mouth.
"He's not going to die. They'll bring him back," I tell Alex. I hope they're able to bring him back anyway.
"He is going to die. No pulse. He's going to be dead," Alex says, which makes me pretty nervous. Joe is a really nice guy and I don't want anything bad to happen to him.
"It's a granola bar, pretzels, and a bottle of water Alex. Not a super-size bag of popcorn and a box of chocolate movie mints," I tell him while showing him my granola bar and water bottle.
"That's it. Dead! Excuse me!" George yells while running right past us, still running out of the room. Everyone just looks at him confused, and then turns back to watch the surgery.
I finished my snack in the gallery and Alex is still bothering me while I'm trying to watch Joe's surgery take place. "You know, I'm very sweet once you take the time to get to know me," Alex confesses.
"No you're not," I blew him off. I really just want to make sure everything in the OR is going smoothly and Joe is okay right now. I have no interest in talking to Alex at the moment.
"We could be good friends," Alex suggests.
"Alex. Never, ever, ever," I tell him truthfully.
"Why not?" Alex asks me.
"Give me one good reason why we could be good friends? What about you is evenly remotely human in the slightest?" I ask Alex while taking a sip of water from my water bottle.
"It's going too slowly," Alex says, changing the subject to Joe's surgery. I slightly smile now that the conversation has finally changed topic.
"I hope Joe can pull through this," I confess to Alex.
"He can. He will. He has too," Alex assures me while rubbing my right shoulder.
Joe's surgery was successful, thank god. After his surgery, I watched Alex take a chair and sit down with him in his hospital room. It makes me smile, seeing Alex being nice for once, even though I really hate to admit it. George walks by and Alex steps outside of Joe's room. "O'Malley!" he yells at George. Oh dear god, is this another fight now. George stops to look at me but I just shrug my shoulders at him. He walks over to Alex. "I heard what you did champ," Alex says while hugging George. I cross my arms and raise an eyebrow at the two of them hugging. Of course, I have no idea what's going on at all since I didn't talk to George all day, but apparently something pretty good had to have happened for Alex to be hugging somebody.
I go outside to sit on the bench outside of the hospital and get some fresh air. It's been a rough couple of days and I just need some time to breathe and relax. Alex sits down next to me. "Is something wrong? You haven't really been talking to anybody today except for me, which is very odd for you," Alex laughs.
"Yeah everything's fine. You heard about Meredith, that just makes me really upset for her," I lie. Alex gives me a look which tells me that he knows that I'm lying, but he's choosing not to say anything about it. Instead of saying something, I put my head on his shoulder and he puts his arm around me.
"You realize this constitutes hugging?" I ask him. We both laugh. We had a conversation a few days ago about how we hate hugs with Meredith and Cristina once.
"Oh shut up. As Meredith would say, I'm your person," Alex says. We sit like that on the bench outside for a little bit longer.
A/N!! I'm sorry this chapter is kind of boring but I needed a fill in for the first chapter of season two. I'm going to write Taylor in soon but I'm not sure if I want her as a main character or someone who only shows up for a few chapters? What do you guys think? Also, I was having a hard time making Derek Rachel's person since Rachel and Meredith are good friends and room mates. However, Derek and Rachel will still be good friends. For this chapter, I'm experimenting with Alex as Rachel's person and so far I really like it, let me know how you guys feel about that!! Remember to vote and comment any suggestions you may have for this story. Comments are motivation :) (2595)