⇢ CHAPTER 24

changing clothes in the intern locker room in preparation for April's small gathering, Holly closed her locker door as she bent down to tie her shoes and Mark slowly walked inside.

"Hey," Holly smiled up at the attending she considered a friend, "what are you doing here?" Finishing tying one shoe, Holly brought up her other foot and barely glanced over at Mark, who had eyes full of sorrow for his redhead friend, "I'm gonna go meet my sister and her friends," She stood on her two shoes and looked up at him, "Lexie's not here."

"I know." Mark nodded, "Holly--"

"'Holly'?" Holly chuckled, frowning her eyebrows, "What happened to 'Red'?"

Mark sighed, "Holl--"

"It's not George!" Lexie yelled, running into the locker room and Holly frowned her eyebrows more.

"What--?"

"We thought John Doe was George." Lexie answered, slightly out of breath as she shook her head, "But he's too tall to be George. John Doe can't be George."

✧

"He wrote in my hand." Meredith explained, which caused everyone to talk all at once in confusion.

"With a pen?" Mark asked from beside Holly.

"What did he do?" Holly questioned.

"No, he grabbed my hand and squeezed it," Meredith recalled, "and he wrote with his finger."

Derek, who was on the other side of Holly, frowned his eyebrows, "He wrote with his finger?"

"You know," She gestured by doing the action on herself, "in my hand. He wrote '007'."

"Well, give..." Bailey walked forward to grab Meredith's hand as the others stood frozen.

"I don't understand." Derek admitted, shaking his hand and Holly nodded.

Bailey wrote '007' with her finger while Meredith didn't look and Bailey sighed, "Okay, what did I write?"

"Joe?" Meredith shrugged.

"N-No!" Bailey shook her head and the others groaned, "No, I did not write 'Joe'."

"Are you kidding me?" Holly rolled her eyes.

"Are--Are you serious?" Cristina shook her head at her friend.

"Grey," Webber reprimanded, "do you mean this may not be O'Malley?"

Mark scoffed, looking at his two friends, "This is funny."

"Some kind of dark humor, I guess." Holly shrugged, agreeing with Mark before groaning, "I have to get to my sister's thing, this is ridiculous."

"Did anyone try and call O'Malley?" Webber reasoned and immediately the other doctors grabbed their phones.

"I'm telling you," Meredith responded, "he squeezed my hand."

"Just sh-shut it." Bailey lectured, "You don't get to talk anymore. You don't get to talk ever again."

"I could've sworn it was George." Meredith sighed.

"I got voicemail." Cristina spoke as she brought her phone back to her pocket.

"He's not answering." Holly replied as she exhaled deeply before called again.

"He has a freckle on his right hand." Callie spoke up from the group, "It's shaped--"

"Like Texas." Holly finished, smiling as she nodded her head and Callie nodded back.

"I used to tease him about it." She looked at Holly, who still held the phone to her ear, "I'll check."

Holly anxiously held her breath as she continued to hold the phone close to her ear and Callie opened the door and walked inside. Holly shrugged, looking at Derek and Mark, "I'm gonna go, George is with his mom--" Holly froze as she saw Callie sob after turning John Doe-- George's hand over to see the Texas birthmark.

Holly felt her world crumble as she saw Callie sobbing and her hold on her cellphone became loose as it fell to the floor. The other doctors turned around as they tried to mask their emotions from the loss and Derek placed a hand on Holly's shoulder as she muttered, "No, no. No, no, no."

The other doctors watched with mournful eyes as they saw Holly walk over to George's side, grab the hand Callie held to see the birthmark and practically saw her heart break.

"No." Holly shook, backing away from George and Callie turned around, her eyes, through their own tears, widened as Holly began to have a breathe heavily through choked sobs, a panic attack ensuing.

Holly, who had only experienced panic attacks rarely since high school, one of the worst attacks being when she forgot her homework at home in middle school, brought a hand to her chest as she struggled breathing through her crying.

"Holly--" Callie placed a hand to the girl's shoulder as the Chief closed the curtain, allowing the two mourning women privacy and made the other doctors work, "Holly, breathe with me."

"I-I-I c-can't." Holly cried, wheezing as she inhaled and exhaled rapidly and shook her head, "I-I can't." She fell to her knees, sobbing harder as Callie tried to have her breathing regulate with George's braindead body in the background. 

✧

Refusing to leave George's side after her breathing calmed down thanks to Callie, Holly's head barely went up as Callie entered the room after going out to get some air.

"Arizona lost her brother in the army because there weren't enough doctors." Callie spoke lightly, "Said she couldn't stop eating donuts after a while to cope." Callie sighed, continuing after her small rant didn't catch the attention of Holly, who kept holding onto George's hand as she ran her other hand up and down his arm, "George's mother's trying to find you." Callie sniffled, wiping off a tear, "She said you should be the one to decide if he should donate his organs or not."

Holly's head popped up and Callie saw her red tear stricken face, "I-I can't--"

"She said," Callie inhaled deeply, "she said that you should be the one to decide what to do."

"I can't, Callie--"

"You can." Callie assured, grabbing Holly's arm in support, "You can because George would've wanted you to decide, too."