Let It Go

58.

"I have a question," George stated, joining Meredith and Cristina at a table in the cafeteria. "Let's hear it," Meredith replied. George unwrapped his sandwich. "Know that nursery rhyme 'Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick?'" Meredith nodded. Cristina raised an eyebrow. "Well, if Jack was so nimble and Jack was so quick, why didn't Jack play a sport instead of jumping over a candlestick? That was just stupid." Meredith burst into laughter, Cristina snorted.

"I'm being serious!" George insisted. "He could have been a professional athlete making millions of dollars. Instead, he risks catching his ass on fire." "Maybe Jack was really short and candlestick jumping was his idea of an extreme sport with the fire and all," Meredith volunteered. "Maybe," George shrugged.

"This," Cristina said, pointing to George, "is better then your whole pigeon thing." "The pigeon saved my life!" George argued. "Of course," Cristina dismissed him. "What pigeon?" Meredith asked, glancing between George and Cristina. She sometimes hated that she'd missed out on their inside stories and jokes. They were good about filling her in but somehow it wasn't the same.

"When we were interns, George's life was saved by a pigeon," Cristina said, face completely serious. "What?" Meredith raised an eyebrow. "He was walking down the street, bacon, egg, and cheese bagel from Bodo's in his hand..." "Bodo's is good," Meredith interrupted. Derek had turned her on to the local bagel chain and she had discovered herself grabbing breakfast or dinner there at least a few times a week.

"Anyways, as George was walking along, a pigeon shit on his sandwich..." Meredith giggled. George glared at Cristina. "I hate you," he told her. "I know," Cristina retorted before continuing her story. "So George is walking down the street and out of no where, this guy falls out of the sky..." "I dropped the bagel on the ground first. Then the guy fell," George corrected. Cristina rolled her eyes. "Details," she muttered. Meredith was confused.

"A guy fell? Out of the sky?" she asked. George and Cristina nodded. "He fell out of the sky and landed on the pigeon which was eating George's sandwich," Cristina clarified. "He was washing windows and the rigging broke. He fell I don't know how many stories," George added. "He died, right?" Meredith asked. "I mean, people generally don't live when they fall several stories and land on concrete." Cristina laughed. "This is the fun part," she said.

"The man lived..." "Seriously?" Meredith interrupted Cristina again. "For a while," George grumbled. "He lived though the fall. Obviously, the pigeon did not. We picked feathers and beaks out of that man's back forever," Cristina said, wrinkling her nose at the memory. Meredith put down her cheeseburger. Crushed birds in people's backs did nothing for her appetite.

"George was convinced the bird saved his life. He walked around the hospital all day on a high and preaching about his purpose in life. Then the man died," Cristina finished. "I guess the bird did kind of save his life," Meredith mused. "It would have sucked if the man had landed on George instead of George's sandwich."

"I thought the man fell on my sandwich so I could help reunite him and his long lost love. This guy... There was this woman in billing who he was in a relationship with like, twenty years ago. He was convinced he had a new lease on life and wanted me to find this woman for him. I thought I'd go to billing, find this woman, tell her he was in the hospital and had just survived a multi story fall and she would go to his bed side and spend the rest of her life with him. She told me to tell him to go to hell and he died," George corrected Cristina's version of the story

"That's sad," Meredith stated, returning to her sandwich. "That's what I said!" George agreed. Cristina glared at Meredith. "McDreamy has turned you soft," she stated. "He has not," Meredith argued. "He has." "Has not." "Has." "Has not!" "And you call me a baby," George muttered to Cristina. "Shut up!" she snapped.