21

pager buzzing woke Eleanora from her sleep with a start. She was the only one of her friend who was on the  day and the night shift today, and had finally gotten time to take a small nap after 11 pm.

She yawned, kicking off of the gurney she commandeered in the tunnel. Reading it, she felt a slight panic take over her and her breath caught in her throat.

"Not again." She whispered to herself, starting towards the run. She ran fast, nurses and the other doctors on night shift moving out of the way quickly and giving her odd looks.

Coming to a sudden stop when she saw George and Callie, she spoke fast, her voice stern. "What's going on? You paged?"

George turned around, facing his best friend. Eleanora's anxiety and fear soon went away after seeing his red eyes and freaked out face.

"George?" She asked softly, stepping towards him. He took her hand and held onto it like it was his lifeline, Eleanora letting him.

"My...my dad. He's...he's here. In the hospital. As a patient." He croaked out. Eleanora let out a small gasp, her eyes widening. She looked behind him at Callie, who just nodded with a grim look on her face.

"Oh my god." Eleanora whispered, focusing back on her best friend. His eyes welled up with more tears and she quickly wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly.

The two stood there for what seemed like forever, holding onto each other tightly. Eleanora rested her head on George's shoulder, closing her eyes as she whispered to him soothingly.

"I'm here, Georgie. I'm going to help you, okay? You got me."

_______

with George as he read over his fathers charts while Alex, Cristina, and Izzie asked him questions, Eleanora was fighting off the tiredness she felt. She was supposed to be off her double shift by now, but she refused to leave George's side.

She had her arm locked with his, laying her head on his shoulder as he whispered the entire chart to himself. Alex gave them an odd look when he first arrived, but once hearing what happened, he quickly shoved any stupid jealousy or anger he was feeling to the side.

Eleanora and George were best friends. Sure, her, Meredith, and Cristina were an oddly-close trio, but Eleanora and George? Those two wouldn't make sense without the other, and you rarely found one without the other nearby.

That was something Alex had to get used to, and he still struggled with it sometimes. He knew Eleanora would never cheat on him, plus he knew she loved him and George O'Malley. But, he saw the way O'Malley looked at her when she wasn't looking. How he was soft around her, protective and just a little too touchy.

"Today is the day people!" Meredith cheerily exclaimed, entering the locker room with a smile on her face. Eleanora looked up, her nose scrunching up at the oddly happy mood her friend was in.

"Today is the day when 'dark and twisty Meredith' disappears forever, and 'bright and shiny Meredith' takes her place! You're probably not going to want to be friends with me anymore cause the sheer intensity of my happiness will make your teeth hurt. Well, Eleanora will still be my friend because we'll be on the same wavelength.But that's okay, 'cause life is good." Meredith stopped in her steps, looking at the bundle of her sad- looking friends. "What's going on?"

"George's dad was admitted last night." Izzie voices, George wincing at her words. Eleanora squeezes his arm in comfort, looking up at Meredith.

"He's fine." George mumbles, flipping through another page in the chart. Eleanora sighed, hating how he was just trying to act like it wasn't a big deal for him.

"He passed out and fractured his clavicle." Eleanora informed Meredith, George looking at her tiredly. "Callie checked out his clavicle and said it would be fine, though."

George nodded, giving her a soft smile. "Callie said he's fine. So...he's fine."

Meredith walked over, looking over the two sitting to peer at the chart. "Are those his AM labs?"

Alex nodded, crossing his arms. "He's complaining of severe abdominal pain." Cristina opened her locker to grab a granola bar, continuing the update.

"He doesn't have any peritoneal signs, so that's good."

Eleanora smiled brightly, looking at George's face from the side. "Hear that, Georgie? That's good."

All six of their heads snap up when Dr. Bailey enters the locker room, her voice worried as she looked around. "Has anyone seen-" her eyes land on George reading his fathers chart, which is what she was apparently looking for.

Her face soon becomes unimpressed, George scrambling to make up an excuse. "I was just looking at it." He defends, moving back slightly as Bailey snatched it from his hands. Eleanora slid with him, almost falling backwards off the bench before Cristina caught her.

"Don't you think reading it is more important than reading it?" Bailey asked, already flipping through it. She gives George a worried look when he stood up and untangled his arm from Eleanora's as he walked to his locker.

"You're on SCUT today." Dr. Bailey informed him, raising a brow as he turned around with a slightly offended look on his face.

"No, I won't-"

Bailey interrupted him quickly, causing Eleanora to look down in slight discomfort over the tension between the two. "Family members do not treat family members. SCUT."

George scoffed, grabbing his labcoat and pager before storming out. Everyone watched after him for a second, some with worry and some with annoyance on their faces.

Cristina quickly interjected, grabbing her own things before giving Bailey a nervous smile. "I'm scrubbing in on a surgery with Dr. Burke this morning."

Izzie and Alex both groaned, the two having been vocal about how they deemed it unfair that Cristina was practically in every surgery with Burke.