George O'Malley

~twenty five

Riley's POV

Izzie, George, Cristina and I are gathered around the nurses booth. We are discussing the subject of Meredith, and how everyone has been staring at her like a caged zoo animal. It's all about her and Derek, of course.

"She's like that rare Panda that everyone stares at" George opens a banana and takes a bite out of it.

"Please don't say that to her face" I shake my head

"Yeah, I think that Panda died alone" Izzie adds, making George raise his eyes.

George hesitates before turning to Cristina, "This could easily be you of people knew about you and...."

George doesn't get to finish saying "Burke", because Cristina yells at him to take it back.

"No. I'm just saying we should do something to cheer her up" George shrugs.

"Don't worry about it" Izzie sips her coffee.

"It's under control" Cristina nods slyly.

George and I look at each other in confusion, realizing we're on the outside of this plan.

"What? You guys didn't tell me about this" I turn to Izzie with my eyebrows furrowed.

"I'll tell you later" Izzie smirks.

Bailey, ending our fun, approaches from behind us, "Where's Karev?"

"Probably off somewhere, not kissing someone" Izzie mutters.

"Still bitter?" I ask, and she gives me a "duh" look.

Izzie and Cristina pull Meredith off to the side and announce they have something to show her after rounds. Izzie gives me the side eye, meaning I can come along if I want. Then, when Meredith doesn't answer, Cristina clarifies that Mer has gone mental because Derek didn't pick her.

"I have not gone mental!" Meredith widens her eyes at her friends who believed such a crazy thing.

"Okay," Cristina nods, "We have something to show you. Whatever you do, don't get assigned to a surgery this morning"

Izzie sips her coffee, "It's really good"

Then, we move on down the hallway and follow Bailey into the first room of rounds.

A woman in for a beating heart quadruple CABG. Whenever Burke asks questions, Cristina pretends not to know them because this man will definitely need surgery. Everyone in the room is stunned, especially Burke. So, George answers and gets put on the case.

Throughout the rest of rounds, that's how it went. One of us four girls would get asked a question, and we would pretend not to know it. My heart broke into pieces whenever Derek specifically asked me a question and I had to pretend not to know it. Alex got the Neuro case. Whatever these two are plotting better be good, because I just missed out on a Brain Surgery.

"We found a case" Izzie explains to us as we walk quickly down a staircase.

Meredith rolls her eyes, "You stole a case"

"Borrowed from Psych. The prelims-- Okay, this thing is totally unprecedented" Cristina waves her hands around as our pace down the stairs increases.

"And we found it!" Izzie cheers.

"Stole it," I remind them, "Is this even legal?"

Cristina stops me, "Found, stole, hijacked,whatever. Behind this door is the coolest medical mystery I have ever seen"

Cristina places her hand on the doorknob, and I'm praying that whatever is behind this door is better than whatever Derek had in store.

"You can either walk away, guilt free, or walk through this door, risk your place in the program, which could possibly lead to spending the rest of your life serving fries in bad clothing." Cristina explains, making my eyes widen.