Lover // g. o'malley

Six Days

 In the hallway, Bailey is handing out our assignments for the day. "Dr. Lopez, I would like you to stick with Dr. O'Malley for the rest of this week. No complaining, either of you. Yang and Grey, pit. Karev, Sloan. Stevens, prep Heather Douglas for surgery. O'Malley, you take the rest of the week off if you want," Bailey tells us. If George is calling off and I'm supposed to be watching him for the day, what is my job here then?

"Yes ma'am," George says.

"Might as well take today off too if you want. Spend some time with your family," Bailey says to Gerrge.

"Thank you. Dr. Bailey, as things progress with my family... well sometimes with the families, we tend to sugarcoat things. It would really help out if you were straight with me as things progress," George tells Bailey.

"Okay," she says. George walks off and I follow him since Dr. Bailey hasn't given me any further instruction on what I'm supposed to be doing. Mr. O'Malley's surgery is today and I can tell George is terrified about it.

George decided he was going to go home for the day and asked me if I wanted to come back with him. He's not the happiest with me at the moment, so I figured he must really need some company right now if he's asking me to come over of all people.

We get to Meredith's house and sit down on the living room couch. "Surgery's today right?" I ask him, trying to make a little bit of small talk.

"Yeah. I'm okay," he says.

"Yeah, I have a good feeling," I tell him, even though I'm honestly a nervous wreck. I know what it's like to lose a dad, it feels awful. I don't want George to ever have to feel like that.

"Yeah?" he asks me.

"Mhm," I say, before sitting in silence again. Maybe he just needs the silence right now.

After an hour or two of saying absolutely nothing, George wants to go back to the hospital before his fathers surgery to talk to him. When I take him there, he goes straight to his father's room and is in there for about ten minutes. When he leaves, he's crying a little bit. I don't ask why he's crying, I just hug him. "Everything is going to be okay," I whisper in his ear.

Mr. O'Malley's surgery has finally started, so I take George into the waiting room. "You're pacing," I tell him.

"Yeah. It's just, he's been in surgery for a while now," he says in concern.

"That's a good thing. That means they are being very thorough," I tell him.

"Or it means that there are some complications," George points out to me. Way to be glass half empty.

"Somebody would have told you by now if there were complications," I say.

"Right," George says sarcastically. "Nobody ever tells me anything around here."

"It's okay to be scared," I say.

"I'm not scared," George huffs.

"I'm just saying if you are scared, you can talk to me about it," I tell him.

"Again, I'm not scared," he tells me.

"Are you sure about that?" I ask.

"Hold on, follow me," he says, leaving the waiting room. We follow Bailey and George's family to Mr. O'Malley's recovery room. Everyone goes into the room except for George and I.

"He's my dad," George whispers.

"I know," I tell him.

"He's my dad," George says, beginning to cry a little bit.