Fanfiction:The Moments After (4/7)
Jun. 29th, 2010 12:53 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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in_the_afterTitle: The Moments After (4/7)
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
athebeach_13
Rating: PG-13ish
Pairing: Cristina/ Owen
Summary: Owen and Cristina following the Season 6 finale
Disclaimer: All characters are unfortunately property of ABC. No copyright infringement is intended – for non-commercial entertainment purposes only.
Author's Note: A huge thank you to my fabulous beta-reader Shli -crazyflirtca ! Also for the cat lovers out there - there is a brief anatomy scene with cats so just a head's up.
Chapter 4
3 weeks
Cristina was furious. She was furious and embarrassed and a hundred other emotions that she didn’t want to give voice to right now. All she knew was that the absolute last thing she wanted to deal with today was this jammed door lock that she couldn’t to force her key into. She was about to kick the door down when it suddenly swung open revealing a bewildered Owen on the other side.
“Uh, hi?”
Cristina mumbled a curt, “Hi,” and walked by him without saying another word.
She made her way into the bedroom and forcefully threw her bag onto the bed. Her head was killing her. She quickly debated her options as to how she should remedy her headache. In lieu of Advil, Cristina instead headed into the bathroom and turned the shower’s lever to the highest temperature available, letting the hot steam fill up the room. The pain medication would have to wait - she needed a glass of wine and a long, hot shower first.
With her black hair completely in knots after being confined under her scrub cap all day, Cristina reached up and expertly untangled the strands before stepping into the shower. Once under the searing hot jets, she closed her eyes, letting the water pound down on her and relieve the tension in her head and shoulders. Slowly, she felt the tension in her muscles and the brewing anger within her begin to recede.
---
With the building’s hot water supply finally exhausted, Cristina exited the steam-filled room and went into the bedroom to change. She smiled as she noticed a newly folded change of clothes neatly placed on the bed. As she threw Owen’s t-shirt over her head, she heard a loud clang of metal pots echoing down the hall. Intrigued, she walked out of the room into the kitchen where Owen was checking on something baking in the oven. Whatever it was, it smelled divine.
Owen closed the oven’s door and turned to look over at her, “Do you want to talk about it?”
“No.”
He gave her an understanding nod and went to grab some plates out of the cupboard. “Did you eat anything yet?”
Cristina shook her head. Frankly, she couldn’t remember if she ate anything at all today, but the smell enveloping the room was making her stomach growl.
Owen gestured towards the oven, “I made some lasagna. Would you like some?”
Thankful for his offer, she softened her voice in response, “Please.”
“Okay.”
Cristina silently watched as Owen went about setting their plates and silverware on the bar stool counter. After a few minutes, he pulled the finished lasagna out of the oven and served both of them.
She gave him an appreciative smile as she took her first bite. “Thank you.”
Owen returned her smile. “Of course.”
The meal was eaten in silence. Cristina was still not ready to think about – let alone talk about – the day’s events, and thankfully, Owen did not press her. Once they were finished, Cristina grabbed their plates and threw them into the sink. As she was throwing the last of the leftovers in the trash, she noticed the distinct smell of formaldehyde coming from somewhere in the adjoining room.
Curious as to what the source of the smell could be, she walked around the other side of the doorway and ran into an extremely large cooler. She opened the large cooler and spotted several bright orange biohazard bags filling the container to the brim. Confused as to what Owen could be storing in bags, Cristina peeked back around the corner and asked him, “What the— ? What’s in the container?”
Owen walked over to see what she was referring to. “Oh, don’t go in there.”
With her curiosity piqued by his embarrassed expression, Cristina paused for a moment and then opened the cooler anyways.
“Oh my god. Why do ….” Finally able to take her eyes off the container’s contents, she demanded, “Owen, why the hell do you have dead cats in a bin?”
Owen ran his fingers through his hair and shrugged. “I was um…operating.”
“You were operating? On dead cats?”
He nervously scratched the back of his neck as he explained, “Friend of mine – he’s a vet. Remember the pig guy? Well anyways, we were talking today and he mentioned that he was dropping off some cats off at a local high school for an anatomy class and wanted to know if I wanted some. I said sure and he brought these over this afternoon.”
Cristina tried to lower her raised eyebrows, but they remained frozen in an upward unbelieving state. She wasn’t one to judge a scalpel-hungry person who wasn’t able to operate, but a cooler full of dead cats? That was just bizarre. “Umm….”
Owen gave an exasperated sigh, “I’ve been going out of my mind not being able to do anything here, so I figured I could at least…”
“Operate on Frankenkitty?”
“Well, what else…?”
Cristina looked at the surgical supplies on the counter. “Can I have one?”
Judging by the shocked look on his face, this was not the reaction he was expecting. His gaped mouth made Cristina crack a smile for the first time that day. She gestured back over to the cooler with her eyes and asked again, “Can I?”
Owen stuttered in response, “A cat….uh…yeah, sure….Of course.”
----
Owen took two cats out of the bin and set up two little surgical fields on the table. While he prepared their little macabre anatomy project, Cristina poured herself a glass of wine and watched him in amusement. With his setup finally complete, Owen pulled out the chair for her and held out a scalpel.
Cristina smiled at him as she grabbed the scalpel out of his hand and began working on her cat. The ridiculousness of the situation, along with the warm buzz of alcohol in her veins, allowed her to finally think about what happened in the OR earlier in the day. She still didn’t know what happened. Well, she did know what happened, she just didn’t know why it happened.
The minutes ticked by in silence as Cristina practiced stitches on her cat – the same stitch that she had frozen on in the OR. She was still in disbelief that it happened. She was the strong one. She wasn’t supposed to be susceptible to anything like this.
The realization that she had frozen up while working on an aortic tear both terrified and angered her. Teddy’s sympathetic gaze after she’d quietly dismissed Cristina from the OR only embarrassed her further. So, she repeated the same stitch over and over again to make sure she’d never to do anything like that again. As she reached over to grab more thread, she noticed that Owen was silently watching her.
“Did Teddy call you?”
“What?”
Cristina re-threaded her needle and looked back down. “About the thing. How did you know?” she mumbled.
“Meredith called earlier.”
Cristina clenched her jaw. Of course her person would be worried about her, but she still didn’t like anyone talking about what happened. Biting the inside of her lower lip, she asked, “Did she tell you what happened?”
Owen gently replied, “Yes”.
Cristina let out a frustrated huff. Suddenly, the event flashed back in her mind, triggering all of the anger and frustration that went with it. She looked up at Owen to explain, “I don’t know what happened. I was in the OR and… I don’t know.” She paused for a moment and then quickly grumbled, “The Chief suspended me for a week, and I have to start mandatory sessions with our favorite person before I can go back.”
“Do you want me to go with you?”
“Maybe.”
Cristina propped her head up on her elbow and shut her eyes with a sigh, “I don’t know what happened today. I just…froze. I couldn’t finish a stitch and got myself kicked out of the OR. End of story.” She opened her eyes again and shook her head in disgust. “I don’t want to talk about it right now. I just want to operate on my cat.”
Owen gave her an understanding nod and handed her over more stitching. “Okay.” Grateful for his understanding, Cristina silently took it from his hand and grumbled a “thank you.”
Several minutes passed by in silence, with only the metallic ‘tick tick tick’ of the antique clock echoing throughout the room. Finally, Owen tentatively broke the silence. “If it makes you feel any better, I understand what you’re…”
Cristina looked up with a glare. “You’re talking about it. I told you – I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Okay, okay. I just wanted to say that I know what you’re going through. What it feels like. How you get frustrated and angry...”
Cristina felt Owen’s words coming way too close to tapping into the feelings she was trying so hard to suppress so she tried to ignore him. Instead of acknowledging his words, she re-threaded her needle and returned to stitching her cat.
“I just want to say that I know. They want you to put a name on what you’re feeling, but you can’t describe it.”
Cristina clenched her jaw and tried to force down her rising emotions.
Owen paused to reach out and grab her wrist. The light contact caused her to look up at him as he continued. “It gets better. I promise. When you talk about it, it does. It will be horrible, and you’ll hate it, but just remember that it gets better.”
As she looked into Owen’s sympathetic eyes, Cristina slowly felt her anger and embarrassment slowly fade away. She could tell he was trying his best to reach out to her, and she really did appreciate it. The fact that he had been through it too did make her feel better. Whatever “it” was. Ironic that they would face the same problem together, but at least they didn’t have to go through it alone.
Owen lowered his voice and whispered, “It gets better. I promise.”
She gave him a small appreciative nod and glanced back down at her numerous rows of stitches on her cat.
“You’ll go with me? To Dr. Wyatt?”
Owen nodded, “I have a session on Tuesday. I can call and tell her that we’re both coming. She may want to talk to you by yourself, but I’ll wait outside.”
Cristina looked down at his hand still encircling her wrist and gave it a small squeeze. “Thank you.”
---
After an hour of practicing stitches, her cat was indeed looking like Frankenkitty with the parallel lines of sutures up and down its side. With a sigh, Cristina finally put her needle to look up and asked, “So what else having you been doing with them?”
“Timed operations.”
“What?”
With a glint of mischief in his eye, he nodded back at her. “Timed operations.” Before she could respond, he walked into the kitchen and grabbed the kitchen timer off the counter and two beers out of the fridge. As he sat back down he explained, “Make an incision to each other’s cat. First one to close up wins. Quick and dirty.”
Cristina didn’t have to think twice. He had her at “timed operations” and the mere hint of competition. Owen picked the wrong day to challenge her to a contest. Her badass army surgeon was going down. “You’re on. Prepare to cry like a—” Before she could finish her sentence, Owen grabbed his scalpel and stabbed her cat.
Taken off guard by his cheating behavior, she exclaimed, “What the hell?”
Her outburst caused him to lean back into his chair and throw his head back in laughter.
Cristina seized the opportunity while he was leaning away from the table to grab her scalpel and give his cat three deep incisions, “Take that!”
With the contest suddenly on, Owen quickly righted himself in his chair, picked up his needle and thread and began to sew in earnest. When he was finally able to catch his breath from laughing, he asked, “So when’s the other twisted sister going to clear me for work?”
Cristina kept her gaze down, focusing on quickly stitching up her cat. “She said Monday, but if you don’t stop calling her, she’ll make it another week and give your case to Bailey.”
Owen grumbled. “Fine.”
“It’s your own fault that you had to have that second surgery. I told you not to pick up those boxes.”
“I know, I know. We’ve been over this several times.”
“I just wanted to remind you…”
“…that you were right, and I was wrong. Got it.” After a moment he asked, “How is she doing by the way?”
“Who?”
“Meredith.”
“Better than I expected…I was a little worried at first that she might get all dark and twisty, but she’s actually doing really well. I never thought that I’d say this, but I think post-it married life suits her.”
Owen chuckled while he continued to stitch, “That’s good. That’s good. Derek seems to be doing better too.”
“McDreamy? Yeah, I heard that he’s finally out of bed. Probably couldn’t handle not being able to wash his hair another minute.”
“That...or else he has to get back to work to make back all the money I’ve been winning from him.”
Cristina looked up from her cat for a brief moment, “Money?”
Owen shrugged, “What else are we going to do? I’m operating on dead cats, and he’s been stuck in a bed with only a TV. The Mariners are playing, and I’ve discovered that ‘pretty boy’ is quite possibly the worst sports gambler ever, so I’m having a little fun. It’s not the Seahawks, but hey, you have to make due with what you can.”
She gave him an appreciative smirk. “I like it. You know, I think I may be rubbing off on you.”
Owen looked up with a little grin. “Maybe a little.”
“Well, now you have my company for a whole week. I bet you can figure out something else to occupy your time with.”
He quickly picked up on her underlying meaning and lowered his voice in a knowing tone, “Oh, I think I come up with many things to pass the time with you.”
Just as he was about to lean across the table to kiss her, Cristina threw up her hands with a triumphant yell, “Done!”
Owen stopped, confused at her sudden outburst, “What?” He looked down noticing her stitched up cat. “Oh, hell.”
Unable to resist the temptation to tease him, Cristina gave him a mocking frown. “Ahh….poor baby. So, are you going to start crying like a little girl because you just got your GI Joe trauma surgeon ass handed to you by a cardio goddess?”
Owen looked at her and arched his brow, as if he was deep in thought. Taken aback by the sudden change in mood, she watched as he slowly got up out of the chair and stood behind her. Cristina was about to turn around when she felt him lightly caress her cheek and seductively whisper in her ear, “Well, no, but what I have in mind might involve some crying though… although it’s more the kind that involves you crying out my name.”
Suddenly, Cristina could care less about who won the contest. She rose out of her chair and had barely turned around before Owen grabbed her in a fiery, passionate kiss.
Out of breath, she broke away from his embrace. “Well, I guess that works, too.”
Owen smirked and captured her lips once again as they both began to undress each other in earnest. Stumbling into the bedroom, with a trail of shed clothing marking their path, they both fell into bed, laughing.
---
She had to say that for the record, Owen had some great ideas. Rather than crying like a little girl, what Owen had had in mind was three rounds of passionate lovemaking during which he had completely erased all of her bad memories from earlier that day. Despite her need for a hard and fast release to numb the pain, Owen had gently taken the lead and had slowly and masterfully made her feel completely surrounded by his love.
Completely satiated from their lovemaking, Cristina laid her head on Owen’s chest and lazily stroked his chest with her finger. There was something so peaceful and comforting by his simple gesture of twirling her curls in his fingers that she said, , “You know, maybe while I’m being forced not to operate this week, we could go look for a place.”
When he didn’t immediately reply, Cristina lifted her head off his chest and propped her head up on her elbow. He was looking back at her in shock, like this was something they had never discussed before. Did she really have to remind him that this was his idea in the first place? Besides, they had practically lived together for the past six months anyways.
Cristina lifted her eyebrows to signal that she was still waiting for his answer. “You…want to get a place together?” Owen stuttered.
“Yeah, I do. Don’t act surprised. If I remember correctly, this was your idea.”
Owen broke into a smile. “Really?” She could tell that he was trying really hard to contain his excitement, but was failing miserably.
Cristina nodded. “Yes, really. We should get a place together.”
Owen’s smile grew even wider – if that was even possible. “Okay. We’ll look for a place together then.”
“But I’m not moving into the woods.”
His smile dissolved into a confused frown. “What?”
“Oh, I’ve seen how excited you get when you talk to McDreamy about his McMansion in the middle of the wilderness.”
Owen shrugged, “Well it’s…”
“Not going to happen.” Cristina gave him a pointed look to signal the end to that discussion. She had witnessed his enthusiasm discussing the McMansion’s building plans with “Mo” and “Curly” many times and there was no way in hell Meredith was getting a neighbor anytime soon.
“How about down by the water?”
Cristina shrugged. “Depends. Better not be by Snow White’s cottage.”
“What?”
“Teddy. Snow White. Her and the little collection of forest creatures she always talks about. I like the woman, but sometimes you have to wonder.”
Owen gave a hearty laugh. “Got it. No woods. No magical forest creatures.”
With a nod, he threw on his boxers and walked out into the living room. A few moments later, he came back with a flyer. “Take a look at this.”
Slightly intrigued by the paper in his hand, Cristina asked, “You have somewhere in mind?”
“Of course.” Owen slid back into bed and handed her the flyer of a gorgeous home on the waterfront. “I wasn’t going to ask you to move into my apartment. It’s too small for both of us. Take a look at this place. It’s down by the water overlooking Elliott Bay. There’s four bedrooms and a deck that we can relax on. We’d have to drive to the hospital, but it’s only a five-minute drive. I tested it. Three times.” Cristina was about to comment, before Owen flipped the flyer over in her hand. “Plus, check out the view”.
To say that she was “kind of” liked the house in the flyer would be the same as if she said that she “kind of” liked surgery. The house was absolutely stunning. Slightly rugged, with a definite modern touch, it was a perfect combination of their two styles. She had no idea how he found it, but it was.... suddenly, Cristina looked down and noticed the asking price.
“Have you seen how much they’re asking for this place?”
“Don’t worry about the price. Do you like it?”
“Of course. It’s gorgeous. But Owen, that’s a hell of a lot of money and-”
Owen interrupted her midsentence, “Don’t worry about the money. Let’s just say that when you’re a single guy working in the middle of the desert for seven years, you don’t have that many things to spend money on.” He smiled and gave a little shrug. “I have more than enough saved up. The important thing is if you like it. We can go look at it this week if you want.”
His enthusiasm was proving to be contagious. Cristina couldn’t help but smile as she pointed out, “Well, it just so happens that I have time to do that.”
He looked as if she had just made him the happiest guy on earth, literally beaming with excitement – so much so that she could almost feel it rolling off him in waves. But it wasn’t just his happiness that she was feeling, it was hers, too. She was surprised how much she wanted this. Cristina smiled as she leaned down, “You’re going to buy me a house?”
Owen rolled on top of her and gave her a slow, deep kiss. Cristina could feel him smile against her lips as he pulled slightly away, whispering into her mouth, “I’m going to buy us a home.”
Author:
athebeach_13 Rating: PG-13ish
Pairing: Cristina/ Owen
Summary: Owen and Cristina following the Season 6 finale
Disclaimer: All characters are unfortunately property of ABC. No copyright infringement is intended – for non-commercial entertainment purposes only.
Author's Note: A huge thank you to my fabulous beta-reader Shli -
crazyflirtca ! Also for the cat lovers out there - there is a brief anatomy scene with cats so just a head's up. Chapter 4
3 weeks
Cristina was furious. She was furious and embarrassed and a hundred other emotions that she didn’t want to give voice to right now. All she knew was that the absolute last thing she wanted to deal with today was this jammed door lock that she couldn’t to force her key into. She was about to kick the door down when it suddenly swung open revealing a bewildered Owen on the other side.
“Uh, hi?”
Cristina mumbled a curt, “Hi,” and walked by him without saying another word.
She made her way into the bedroom and forcefully threw her bag onto the bed. Her head was killing her. She quickly debated her options as to how she should remedy her headache. In lieu of Advil, Cristina instead headed into the bathroom and turned the shower’s lever to the highest temperature available, letting the hot steam fill up the room. The pain medication would have to wait - she needed a glass of wine and a long, hot shower first.
With her black hair completely in knots after being confined under her scrub cap all day, Cristina reached up and expertly untangled the strands before stepping into the shower. Once under the searing hot jets, she closed her eyes, letting the water pound down on her and relieve the tension in her head and shoulders. Slowly, she felt the tension in her muscles and the brewing anger within her begin to recede.
---
With the building’s hot water supply finally exhausted, Cristina exited the steam-filled room and went into the bedroom to change. She smiled as she noticed a newly folded change of clothes neatly placed on the bed. As she threw Owen’s t-shirt over her head, she heard a loud clang of metal pots echoing down the hall. Intrigued, she walked out of the room into the kitchen where Owen was checking on something baking in the oven. Whatever it was, it smelled divine.
Owen closed the oven’s door and turned to look over at her, “Do you want to talk about it?”
“No.”
He gave her an understanding nod and went to grab some plates out of the cupboard. “Did you eat anything yet?”
Cristina shook her head. Frankly, she couldn’t remember if she ate anything at all today, but the smell enveloping the room was making her stomach growl.
Owen gestured towards the oven, “I made some lasagna. Would you like some?”
Thankful for his offer, she softened her voice in response, “Please.”
“Okay.”
Cristina silently watched as Owen went about setting their plates and silverware on the bar stool counter. After a few minutes, he pulled the finished lasagna out of the oven and served both of them.
She gave him an appreciative smile as she took her first bite. “Thank you.”
Owen returned her smile. “Of course.”
The meal was eaten in silence. Cristina was still not ready to think about – let alone talk about – the day’s events, and thankfully, Owen did not press her. Once they were finished, Cristina grabbed their plates and threw them into the sink. As she was throwing the last of the leftovers in the trash, she noticed the distinct smell of formaldehyde coming from somewhere in the adjoining room.
Curious as to what the source of the smell could be, she walked around the other side of the doorway and ran into an extremely large cooler. She opened the large cooler and spotted several bright orange biohazard bags filling the container to the brim. Confused as to what Owen could be storing in bags, Cristina peeked back around the corner and asked him, “What the— ? What’s in the container?”
Owen walked over to see what she was referring to. “Oh, don’t go in there.”
With her curiosity piqued by his embarrassed expression, Cristina paused for a moment and then opened the cooler anyways.
“Oh my god. Why do ….” Finally able to take her eyes off the container’s contents, she demanded, “Owen, why the hell do you have dead cats in a bin?”
Owen ran his fingers through his hair and shrugged. “I was um…operating.”
“You were operating? On dead cats?”
He nervously scratched the back of his neck as he explained, “Friend of mine – he’s a vet. Remember the pig guy? Well anyways, we were talking today and he mentioned that he was dropping off some cats off at a local high school for an anatomy class and wanted to know if I wanted some. I said sure and he brought these over this afternoon.”
Cristina tried to lower her raised eyebrows, but they remained frozen in an upward unbelieving state. She wasn’t one to judge a scalpel-hungry person who wasn’t able to operate, but a cooler full of dead cats? That was just bizarre. “Umm….”
Owen gave an exasperated sigh, “I’ve been going out of my mind not being able to do anything here, so I figured I could at least…”
“Operate on Frankenkitty?”
“Well, what else…?”
Cristina looked at the surgical supplies on the counter. “Can I have one?”
Judging by the shocked look on his face, this was not the reaction he was expecting. His gaped mouth made Cristina crack a smile for the first time that day. She gestured back over to the cooler with her eyes and asked again, “Can I?”
Owen stuttered in response, “A cat….uh…yeah, sure….Of course.”
----
Owen took two cats out of the bin and set up two little surgical fields on the table. While he prepared their little macabre anatomy project, Cristina poured herself a glass of wine and watched him in amusement. With his setup finally complete, Owen pulled out the chair for her and held out a scalpel.
Cristina smiled at him as she grabbed the scalpel out of his hand and began working on her cat. The ridiculousness of the situation, along with the warm buzz of alcohol in her veins, allowed her to finally think about what happened in the OR earlier in the day. She still didn’t know what happened. Well, she did know what happened, she just didn’t know why it happened.
The minutes ticked by in silence as Cristina practiced stitches on her cat – the same stitch that she had frozen on in the OR. She was still in disbelief that it happened. She was the strong one. She wasn’t supposed to be susceptible to anything like this.
The realization that she had frozen up while working on an aortic tear both terrified and angered her. Teddy’s sympathetic gaze after she’d quietly dismissed Cristina from the OR only embarrassed her further. So, she repeated the same stitch over and over again to make sure she’d never to do anything like that again. As she reached over to grab more thread, she noticed that Owen was silently watching her.
“Did Teddy call you?”
“What?”
Cristina re-threaded her needle and looked back down. “About the thing. How did you know?” she mumbled.
“Meredith called earlier.”
Cristina clenched her jaw. Of course her person would be worried about her, but she still didn’t like anyone talking about what happened. Biting the inside of her lower lip, she asked, “Did she tell you what happened?”
Owen gently replied, “Yes”.
Cristina let out a frustrated huff. Suddenly, the event flashed back in her mind, triggering all of the anger and frustration that went with it. She looked up at Owen to explain, “I don’t know what happened. I was in the OR and… I don’t know.” She paused for a moment and then quickly grumbled, “The Chief suspended me for a week, and I have to start mandatory sessions with our favorite person before I can go back.”
“Do you want me to go with you?”
“Maybe.”
Cristina propped her head up on her elbow and shut her eyes with a sigh, “I don’t know what happened today. I just…froze. I couldn’t finish a stitch and got myself kicked out of the OR. End of story.” She opened her eyes again and shook her head in disgust. “I don’t want to talk about it right now. I just want to operate on my cat.”
Owen gave her an understanding nod and handed her over more stitching. “Okay.” Grateful for his understanding, Cristina silently took it from his hand and grumbled a “thank you.”
Several minutes passed by in silence, with only the metallic ‘tick tick tick’ of the antique clock echoing throughout the room. Finally, Owen tentatively broke the silence. “If it makes you feel any better, I understand what you’re…”
Cristina looked up with a glare. “You’re talking about it. I told you – I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Okay, okay. I just wanted to say that I know what you’re going through. What it feels like. How you get frustrated and angry...”
Cristina felt Owen’s words coming way too close to tapping into the feelings she was trying so hard to suppress so she tried to ignore him. Instead of acknowledging his words, she re-threaded her needle and returned to stitching her cat.
“I just want to say that I know. They want you to put a name on what you’re feeling, but you can’t describe it.”
Cristina clenched her jaw and tried to force down her rising emotions.
Owen paused to reach out and grab her wrist. The light contact caused her to look up at him as he continued. “It gets better. I promise. When you talk about it, it does. It will be horrible, and you’ll hate it, but just remember that it gets better.”
As she looked into Owen’s sympathetic eyes, Cristina slowly felt her anger and embarrassment slowly fade away. She could tell he was trying his best to reach out to her, and she really did appreciate it. The fact that he had been through it too did make her feel better. Whatever “it” was. Ironic that they would face the same problem together, but at least they didn’t have to go through it alone.
Owen lowered his voice and whispered, “It gets better. I promise.”
She gave him a small appreciative nod and glanced back down at her numerous rows of stitches on her cat.
“You’ll go with me? To Dr. Wyatt?”
Owen nodded, “I have a session on Tuesday. I can call and tell her that we’re both coming. She may want to talk to you by yourself, but I’ll wait outside.”
Cristina looked down at his hand still encircling her wrist and gave it a small squeeze. “Thank you.”
---
After an hour of practicing stitches, her cat was indeed looking like Frankenkitty with the parallel lines of sutures up and down its side. With a sigh, Cristina finally put her needle to look up and asked, “So what else having you been doing with them?”
“Timed operations.”
“What?”
With a glint of mischief in his eye, he nodded back at her. “Timed operations.” Before she could respond, he walked into the kitchen and grabbed the kitchen timer off the counter and two beers out of the fridge. As he sat back down he explained, “Make an incision to each other’s cat. First one to close up wins. Quick and dirty.”
Cristina didn’t have to think twice. He had her at “timed operations” and the mere hint of competition. Owen picked the wrong day to challenge her to a contest. Her badass army surgeon was going down. “You’re on. Prepare to cry like a—” Before she could finish her sentence, Owen grabbed his scalpel and stabbed her cat.
Taken off guard by his cheating behavior, she exclaimed, “What the hell?”
Her outburst caused him to lean back into his chair and throw his head back in laughter.
Cristina seized the opportunity while he was leaning away from the table to grab her scalpel and give his cat three deep incisions, “Take that!”
With the contest suddenly on, Owen quickly righted himself in his chair, picked up his needle and thread and began to sew in earnest. When he was finally able to catch his breath from laughing, he asked, “So when’s the other twisted sister going to clear me for work?”
Cristina kept her gaze down, focusing on quickly stitching up her cat. “She said Monday, but if you don’t stop calling her, she’ll make it another week and give your case to Bailey.”
Owen grumbled. “Fine.”
“It’s your own fault that you had to have that second surgery. I told you not to pick up those boxes.”
“I know, I know. We’ve been over this several times.”
“I just wanted to remind you…”
“…that you were right, and I was wrong. Got it.” After a moment he asked, “How is she doing by the way?”
“Who?”
“Meredith.”
“Better than I expected…I was a little worried at first that she might get all dark and twisty, but she’s actually doing really well. I never thought that I’d say this, but I think post-it married life suits her.”
Owen chuckled while he continued to stitch, “That’s good. That’s good. Derek seems to be doing better too.”
“McDreamy? Yeah, I heard that he’s finally out of bed. Probably couldn’t handle not being able to wash his hair another minute.”
“That...or else he has to get back to work to make back all the money I’ve been winning from him.”
Cristina looked up from her cat for a brief moment, “Money?”
Owen shrugged, “What else are we going to do? I’m operating on dead cats, and he’s been stuck in a bed with only a TV. The Mariners are playing, and I’ve discovered that ‘pretty boy’ is quite possibly the worst sports gambler ever, so I’m having a little fun. It’s not the Seahawks, but hey, you have to make due with what you can.”
She gave him an appreciative smirk. “I like it. You know, I think I may be rubbing off on you.”
Owen looked up with a little grin. “Maybe a little.”
“Well, now you have my company for a whole week. I bet you can figure out something else to occupy your time with.”
He quickly picked up on her underlying meaning and lowered his voice in a knowing tone, “Oh, I think I come up with many things to pass the time with you.”
Just as he was about to lean across the table to kiss her, Cristina threw up her hands with a triumphant yell, “Done!”
Owen stopped, confused at her sudden outburst, “What?” He looked down noticing her stitched up cat. “Oh, hell.”
Unable to resist the temptation to tease him, Cristina gave him a mocking frown. “Ahh….poor baby. So, are you going to start crying like a little girl because you just got your GI Joe trauma surgeon ass handed to you by a cardio goddess?”
Owen looked at her and arched his brow, as if he was deep in thought. Taken aback by the sudden change in mood, she watched as he slowly got up out of the chair and stood behind her. Cristina was about to turn around when she felt him lightly caress her cheek and seductively whisper in her ear, “Well, no, but what I have in mind might involve some crying though… although it’s more the kind that involves you crying out my name.”
Suddenly, Cristina could care less about who won the contest. She rose out of her chair and had barely turned around before Owen grabbed her in a fiery, passionate kiss.
Out of breath, she broke away from his embrace. “Well, I guess that works, too.”
Owen smirked and captured her lips once again as they both began to undress each other in earnest. Stumbling into the bedroom, with a trail of shed clothing marking their path, they both fell into bed, laughing.
---
She had to say that for the record, Owen had some great ideas. Rather than crying like a little girl, what Owen had had in mind was three rounds of passionate lovemaking during which he had completely erased all of her bad memories from earlier that day. Despite her need for a hard and fast release to numb the pain, Owen had gently taken the lead and had slowly and masterfully made her feel completely surrounded by his love.
Completely satiated from their lovemaking, Cristina laid her head on Owen’s chest and lazily stroked his chest with her finger. There was something so peaceful and comforting by his simple gesture of twirling her curls in his fingers that she said, , “You know, maybe while I’m being forced not to operate this week, we could go look for a place.”
When he didn’t immediately reply, Cristina lifted her head off his chest and propped her head up on her elbow. He was looking back at her in shock, like this was something they had never discussed before. Did she really have to remind him that this was his idea in the first place? Besides, they had practically lived together for the past six months anyways.
Cristina lifted her eyebrows to signal that she was still waiting for his answer. “You…want to get a place together?” Owen stuttered.
“Yeah, I do. Don’t act surprised. If I remember correctly, this was your idea.”
Owen broke into a smile. “Really?” She could tell that he was trying really hard to contain his excitement, but was failing miserably.
Cristina nodded. “Yes, really. We should get a place together.”
Owen’s smile grew even wider – if that was even possible. “Okay. We’ll look for a place together then.”
“But I’m not moving into the woods.”
His smile dissolved into a confused frown. “What?”
“Oh, I’ve seen how excited you get when you talk to McDreamy about his McMansion in the middle of the wilderness.”
Owen shrugged, “Well it’s…”
“Not going to happen.” Cristina gave him a pointed look to signal the end to that discussion. She had witnessed his enthusiasm discussing the McMansion’s building plans with “Mo” and “Curly” many times and there was no way in hell Meredith was getting a neighbor anytime soon.
“How about down by the water?”
Cristina shrugged. “Depends. Better not be by Snow White’s cottage.”
“What?”
“Teddy. Snow White. Her and the little collection of forest creatures she always talks about. I like the woman, but sometimes you have to wonder.”
Owen gave a hearty laugh. “Got it. No woods. No magical forest creatures.”
With a nod, he threw on his boxers and walked out into the living room. A few moments later, he came back with a flyer. “Take a look at this.”
Slightly intrigued by the paper in his hand, Cristina asked, “You have somewhere in mind?”
“Of course.” Owen slid back into bed and handed her the flyer of a gorgeous home on the waterfront. “I wasn’t going to ask you to move into my apartment. It’s too small for both of us. Take a look at this place. It’s down by the water overlooking Elliott Bay. There’s four bedrooms and a deck that we can relax on. We’d have to drive to the hospital, but it’s only a five-minute drive. I tested it. Three times.” Cristina was about to comment, before Owen flipped the flyer over in her hand. “Plus, check out the view”.
To say that she was “kind of” liked the house in the flyer would be the same as if she said that she “kind of” liked surgery. The house was absolutely stunning. Slightly rugged, with a definite modern touch, it was a perfect combination of their two styles. She had no idea how he found it, but it was.... suddenly, Cristina looked down and noticed the asking price.
“Have you seen how much they’re asking for this place?”
“Don’t worry about the price. Do you like it?”
“Of course. It’s gorgeous. But Owen, that’s a hell of a lot of money and-”
Owen interrupted her midsentence, “Don’t worry about the money. Let’s just say that when you’re a single guy working in the middle of the desert for seven years, you don’t have that many things to spend money on.” He smiled and gave a little shrug. “I have more than enough saved up. The important thing is if you like it. We can go look at it this week if you want.”
His enthusiasm was proving to be contagious. Cristina couldn’t help but smile as she pointed out, “Well, it just so happens that I have time to do that.”
He looked as if she had just made him the happiest guy on earth, literally beaming with excitement – so much so that she could almost feel it rolling off him in waves. But it wasn’t just his happiness that she was feeling, it was hers, too. She was surprised how much she wanted this. Cristina smiled as she leaned down, “You’re going to buy me a house?”
Owen rolled on top of her and gave her a slow, deep kiss. Cristina could feel him smile against her lips as he pulled slightly away, whispering into her mouth, “I’m going to buy us a home.”
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