we live out our lives on the surgical unit. seven days a week, fourteen hours a day. we're together more then we're apart.

"george, izzie! move your boxes out of here and up to your room!" madelyn yelled.

"jeez, mads. don't have to be so rude about it." izzie mumbled.

"oh, i'm sorry. i didn't realize it was okay to leave boxes all over the hallway when i'm just trying to get to the kitchen! you moved here over a week ago, why are they still here?" madelyn ranted.

"i've been busy. with, uh, work. i've been busy with work." izzie argued.

"okay, there. every single one of these boxes better be unpacked by the end of the week, or i'm beating both your asses to the ground. you hear me?" madelyn finalized.

"i hear you." izzie mumbled, before walking away.

madelyn was making her way to the kitchen, when there was a knock at the door.

she slowly made her way there, maneuvering her way around the boxes.

she opened the door, and saw alex standing on the other side.

"hey." she said, stepping aside to let him in. it was raining, like it always is in seattle.

"you said you needed a ride?" he asked, stepping into the house.

"yeah. meredith let these two dumbasses live here and i don't have a car, but mer does and she's driving these two to work, and i don't really trust them to be on time." madelyn explained.

"no worries." alex smirks.

"one second. i'll go grab my stuff."

madelyn walked up the stairs, passing izzie.

"why's alex here?"

"cause he's my ride."

"he's an ass."

"actually, he's not as bad as you think."

"whatever. why can you just ride with meredith and george and i?"

"cause, i don't trust you guys to be on time." madelyn said, picking up her bag and walking back down the stairs.

"you ready?" alex asked.

"yeah." madelyn said, before walking out the door.

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"fools on bikes, killing themselves. natural selection is what it is." bailey ranted to the group of interns.

"what's up with the nazi? is she off her meds?" alex joked.

"you never heard the race?" madelyn asked.

"chief, 'dead baby' bike race started twenty minutes ago." bailey warned.

"all right, people! 'dead baby' bike race day!" chief announced to the staff.

"every year, this bar," madelyn started.

"dead baby bar." meredith corrected.

"every year, they hold this underground bike race." madelyn finished.

"don't you wonder why someone would name a bar something so disgusting." izzie commented.

"keep your panties on, nancy drew." christina joked.

"the race is completely illegal and,"

meredith cut madelyn off.

"crazy. bike messengers racing against traffic, trying to beat each other for free shots of tequila."

"all-out, no-holds-barred competition sounds like fun." alex commented.

"the race doesn't even have any rules. except eye-gouging. no eye-gouging."

"we're going to be trapped in the pit band-aiding idiots, when we could be up in the o.r." christina complained.

"what kind of people engage in a race that has, as its only rule, that you can't rip out the eyeballs of another human being?" george questioned.

"men, georgie, men." alex joked.

"i need someone to get up to the o.r. the chief needs a right hand." said bailey, walking up to the group.

everyone's hand shot into the air. bailey scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"george." she sighed.

"okay, people. the rules of trauma. don't mingle with the e.r. interns, they don't know their ass from their esophagus. sew fast, discharge faster. get bodies up to the o.r. and don't let me catch you fighting over patients, got it?" bailey instructed.

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"unidentified john doe, mid thirties pedestrian, hit by a motorist swerving to avoid a bike. gcs three. pupils fixed and dilated. atropine given for a pulse in the fourties. b.p. one-eighty over one-twelve. pulse ox ninety-eight." madelyn reported to shepherd and burke.

"chest shows widened mediastinum and head c.t. revealed cerebral edema. he's got seventy of mannitol, dexamethasone ten, and a gram of phenytion." izzie continued.

"get him to the o.r.?" madelyn asked.

derek shook his head.

"is he gorked?" burke asked.

"looks like it." derek said in a hushed voice.

"the bike race claims his first victim." burke paused,

"i'll make my triple-a repair after all." burke said before leaving the room.

"uh, doctor shepherd? he's not going to the o.r.?" izzie asked.

"no. do an eeg and comfirmatory tests. if he doesn't respond in six hours, declare him." derek directed, walking out of the room.

"declare him. declare him what?" izzie whispered to madelyn.

"brain dead."

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"how are you doing?" alex asked, approaching madelyn.

"shitty. i have to wait six hours to see if my patients brain dead, which he probably is."

"that sucks. how you liking izzie and george?"

madelyn let out a sigh.

"don't get me wrong, love izzie and george, but i really liked being left alone when i was at home, and at least mer understood that, but now i have to deal with two more people, who are constantly fighting and nagging mer and i." madelyn ranted.

alex nodded understandingly.

"well, if you ever need a place to, well, you know, get away or whatever. i have a couch in my tiny apartment."

"thanks karev. i might take you up on that offer soon, cause they are going to dive me crazy."

"no problem."

"you're not too bad, you know."

"what?"

"well, everyone kinda thinks you're an ass, but you aren't that bad." madelyn chuckled, nudging alex with her elbow.

"why would they think that?"

madelyn gave alex a look, and he rolled his eyes and continued eating his salad.

"don't worry, alex. they'll come around."

"whatever."

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