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The exhaustion hung heavy in the air, a thick fog that mirrored the emotions swirling around Blake and the other interns. They'd just finished a grueling 30 hour shift, their bodies screaming for rest. But sleep would have to wait. Meredith, perched on a barstool at Joe's, was drowning her sorrows in tequila, her heart fracturing with each passing minute. Derek's absence was a gaping wound, his choice a cruel silence.
"When you tell someone I'll meet you later at a bar tonight," Cristina muttered, her voice laced with annoyance as she tapped her foot impatiently. "How long exactly does that mean you're supposed to wait?"
"Do you think he's really not coming?" George asked.
Izzie chimed in, her voice heavy with sympathy. "It is getting a little hard to watch."
Cristina scoffed. "It was hard to watch an hour ago. Now it's just pathetic."
Blake let out a tired laugh. "You know she can hear you, right?"
Meredith spun around on her stool, her eyes glassy with unshed tears and tequila. "Who's pathetic?" She slurred, her voice thick with emotion. "You, who pretend to be my friends, are calling me pathetic, behind my back...in front of my face." She gestured wildly toward them. "Why don't you just dump the pigs blood on me now and get it over with?"
"Pigs blood?" George murmured to himself.
"It's from Carrie," Blake informed and he just made a noise in realization.
Suddenly, the tension was shattered by the sharp kindle of the bell above the door. Everyone's heads whipped around in unison, a spark of hope flickering in their eyes. But their collective sigh of disappointment was almost comical as they saw Tyler, a familiar nurse from the hospital, walk in.
