Fanfiction: The Beginning After : CH 3

[athebeach-13.livejournal.com]

Title: The Beginning After  - Chapter 3
Author: athebeach_13
Rating: PG
Word Count: 7,800 words
Summary: One-shots of Cristina & Owen based on each episode of Season 7
Disclaimer: All characters are unfortunately property of ABC. No copyright infringement is intended – for non-commercial entertainment purposes only.
Author's Note:I have to give a huge thank you to the fantabulous crazyflirtca for beta-reading this. This chapter takes place after 7.03.

"Dr. Hunt?"

Not another one. Owen paused mid-step on the way to his office and turned to face yet another eager intern.

"Yes?" he asked, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice and failing. It had been like this all day: interns asking him to sign off on procedure after procedure. What the hell is a sparkle pager? he thought. All he knew was that this damn contest was making his life miserable.

"Mr. Smith, the man you operated on this morning, has been complaining of chest pains. May I order a chest CT on him to—"

"You want to order a CT because he's complaining of chest pains?"

"Yes," the intern confidently replied.

"Do you think that maybe the reason that Mr. Smith is complaining of chest pains might be due to the fact that we had to crack his chest open this morning for an emergency bypass?"

"Uh…" the intern nervously wavered.

"Increase his morphine dosage and page Altman if his pain increases. He's her patient, now."

The intern's shoulders slumped, defeated. "Yes, sir," he mumbled.

Before one more intern could ask him to sign off on yet another useless procedure, Owen quickly snuck into his office, quietly shutting the door, and locking it.

"Who are you hiding from?"

Owen smiled. His mood instantly brightened at the sound of his wife's voice. "No one," he said, turning around to see Cristina sitting on the chair next to his desk.

She cocked her eyebrow at him. "Uh huh."

He shrugged, caught. She could read him like a book and he didn't mind in the least. He sat down in his chair and faced her. She looked exhausted. "How are you doing?"

"Fine." Her reply was flat and emotionless.

He tried a slightly different tactic. "How was your day?" This should at least get her a little response out of her, he thought.

She shrugged and continued to half-heartedly play with the pen on his desk. "Fine."

"Fine?"

She looked up at him. "I don't want to talk about it."

Owen nodded back at her. He didn't want to press her further. He knew she had been with Shepherd all day and that she was probably spent. He grabbed a chart off of his stack of paperwork. "I just have to finish these charts and then we can go home."

"Okay."

"Or you can go home now if you want to. I'll be right behind you."

"No," she quietly replied. "I'll stay."

"Okay." He returned his gaze to his paperwork in front of him, immediately noticing that she had already filled out the majority of the forms already. All that was needed was his signature and the course of treatment. He looked back up at her. "Thank you."

"For?" she raised her eyebrow in question, before looking down at the papers he was gesturing to. "Oh…I was here. So—"

"Thank you."

Cristina gave him a little smile. "You're welcome. So who are you hiding from?"

"What?"

"When you came in—who were you hiding from?"

"Oh," he groaned, rubbing his temple automatically at the mere thought of the contest. "Interns."

"Interns?"

"Yeah, interns. What the hell is a sparkle pager?"

She instantly perked up. "The sparkle pager contest is going on?"

"I guess. What is it?" Was he the only one in this whole damn hospital who thought it was absolutely insane to order a barrage of useless tests to win a pager with 99 cent jewels glued on? Army training or not, this couldn't be normal.

"Only the best contest ever."

"And…"

"What?"

Owen leaned back in his chair in exasperation. "What is it?"

"If you win it, you get first dibs on all the surgeries. It's the best prize ever."

"Did you win it?"

Cristina scowled back. Okay, I'll take that as a no. "You should have." She grinned back.

They both sat in silence, as he tried to quickly finish his paperwork. It had been a long day. All he wanted right now was to sit on the couch with Cristina in his arms and relax.

"What's this?"

Owen looked up to see what she was asking about. Oh, you weren't supposed to see that, he thought. Someone had been bored searching through this , there was no use in denying what it was. The flyer was pretty self-explanatory about what he had been up to. "Some place I found."

"Some place?"

"Just a place that I came across. It went on the market a couple days ago."

Cristina flipped the flyer over. "So where is it?"

"It's—"

"It's only a block away from here," she announced, reading the flyer.

"I know." Owen said, trying to suppress his excitement. It actually wasn't just "some place." He'd been eyeing the house for almost a year now. When he'd found out that it had gone on the market, he'd jumped at the opportunity.

"Did you go look at it?"

"Yeah, I walked it twice. It's actually a shorter distance to the hospital than our place now."

"But did you go in?"

Owen nodded. "Of course."

"And…?" Cristina pressed, raising her eyebrows for him to elaborate.

He really wasn't expecting this reaction from her. "It's great. There's a view of the bay from the second floor. It's probably three times the size of our place now. It's got a large master suite for us and then three other bedrooms for our ki—" He coughed and corrected, "—friends."

Cristina didn't react to his slip. "Why didn't you tell me about it?"

Because I thought you'd say no. "Just wanted to check it out before I showed it to you. You know, make sure it was okay."

He watched her read the flyer over again and over again. It was driving him crazy that he couldn't tell what she was thinking. Her face was a complete blank.

After a few minutes, she looked up, directly into his eyes. "Make an offer."

"What?"

"Make an offer. Buy it."

"Really?"

Cristina nodded back at him, a small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "Yes, really. It's perfect."

He could feel his smile spreading wider across his face. "Okay. I'll make an offer first thing tomorrow."

"No. Do it now." She reached over and grabbed his cell phone, placing it in his hand.

"They're closed," he said, putting the phone back on his desk.

Cristina picked it up again and handed it back over to him. "Leave a message, then."

He couldn't help but laugh at her enthusiasm. "I promise I'll do it first thing tomorrow."

"Okay," she said, smiling.

This seemed to pacify her and she went back to looking at the flyer, flipping it back and forth. He was about to tell her more about it, when she suddenly got out of the chair and sat in his lap.

"You found us a house."

Owen shrugged nonchalantly. "I only—"

Cristina silenced him with a kiss. "Thank you."

"No, thank you," he said sincerely, but his response only earned him a playful eye roll. Hell, he'd thank her everyday of his life for being a part of his if he could.

"The roommates will be happy."

"Yes, they will."

"And you won't have to live in a sorority anymore."

Thank god. "No, I won't."

Cristina paused, deep in thought. "I am going to miss one thing, though."

"What's that?" he asked.

"Breakfast."

He laughed. "I can make you breakfast."

"Okay, good. Because I can't cook. You know that, right? I think I mentioned that to you before we got married."

He played along. "It was in the prenup, remember? I'm required to cook for you, everyday."

"Okay. As long as you remember."

Owen leaned forward and gently kissed her back. "I'll never forget."

Cristina broke away from the kiss and leaned her forehead against his. "Want to go home?"

"You have no idea."

"Then let's go." She stood up and grabbed her coat off the chair.

Owen reached around and pulled her close to his side as they walked out of his office. It may have been a hell of a day, but he was going home with his wife on his arm and the promise of a new home fresh on his mind. Maybe it's not such a bad day after all, he thought as he closed the door.

…

All throughout dinner, Cristina hadn't been able to stop talking about the house. Or potential house. Whatever. They were getting a house. She couldn't pinpoint what it was about having their own house that made her so excited but just the mere thought of it brought a smile to her face. And even though she wouldn't admit it, she had known that Owen had been quietly looking for a place since before they were engaged. While she hadn't been too enthusiastic about leaving their place these past couple months since the familiarity of their apartment was comforting in a small way, their roommates' little strip show last week was the last straw—even for her. They needed their own place and now they finally had one.

As they reached the front door, Owen pulled out of their embrace to grab his keys. He opened the door for her and she was instantly overwhelmed by the smell of Callie's cooking. Okay, that was a downside of leaving. But then, her thoughts went back to the flyer in her pocket and her momentary gloom instantly vanished. Yeah, I'll get over it.

"Hey guys!" Callie cheerfully greeted them.

"Torres." Owen nodded and walked back into their bedroom.

Cristina went over and sat on the counter, watching Callie pull her casserole out of the oven.

"You want some? I made more than enough."

"It's okay," she said. "Owen and I grabbed something on the way home."

Callie shrugged. "Okay. I'll put the leftovers in the fridge if you change your mind."

"Thanks."

Callie set two place settings on the counter and began to serve. Shortly, Arizona emerged from their bedroom.

"Smells delicious, Calliope," Arizona said, sitting across from Cristina at the counter.

"You two will be happy to know that you can now have this little love shack all to yourselves. We found a place."

Arizona's fork paused mid-air. "Uh…Callie, you didn't tell them?"

"No, you said—"

"Tell us what?" Owen asked, joining them at the counter.

"We're moving out," Arizona announced.

Callie nodded and stood beside her girlfriend. "We found a place. So you guys can stay," she added with a smile.

"That's nice of you to offer," Owen said, moving beside Cristina, "But we already found a place. We're going to make an offer on it tomorrow."

Arizona smiled and shook her head. "You really don't have to do that. Just keep this one."

"Uh, here's a thought; we could both move out." Really, it wasn't that complicated, Cristina thought.

Arizona smirked back at her.

"So what'd you guys find?" Callie asked.

"A house right next to the hospital, about a block away," Owen said.

Arizona pointedly glanced back at Callie. "Uh…where is it, exactly?"

Oh, hell no. Don't you dare say it, Cristina thought, but Owen spoke before she could.

"On Market Street If you went to the front of the hospital and made a left. It's a block over on the right."

Owen hadn't been halfway through his directions, before Arizona had begun rolling her eyes. "You have got to be kidding."

"What?"

Callie sighed. "That's the place that we were looking at."

"Well, he's making an offer on it tomorrow. Guess you have to find another one," Cristina triumphantly replied.

Arizona held out her hand. "Wait a second, no. We don't have to find a new place. Who says that we have to find a new one?"

"The realtor told me that no one's made an offer on it yet," Owen calmly stated.

Arizona, however, was quickly losing her cool, Cristina noticed.

"That's because we were going to!" she snapped back.

"Move on," Cristina dryly replied, mimicking the motion with her hand.

Arizona narrowed her eyes in anger. "No, we're not 'moving on'. That place is perfect."

"And that's why we're making an offer on it."

Callie interjected. "This is absurd."

Cristina smiled, quirking her brow. "I agree."

"That's not what I meant."

"I know."

"Look-" Arizona barged back in the conversation. "My furniture gets delivered in one week and since you two, until tonight, haven't even looked for a place—"

"We looked," Owen growled.

Wow, he's getting a little wound up, Cristina thought. This was going to be—dare she say—fun. Mostly because she knew that her guy was going to win.

Arizona, however, didn't notice Owen's change in attitude, and continued to argue. "Really? Couldn't tell. It's only been—what? Three weeks since you got married?"

"We've had things to deal with."

"Zona…" Callie said, the warning in her tone very evident.

Arizona looked over at her girlfriend and flippantly rolled her eyes. "I don't care."

"Obviously," Cristina interrupted, drawing the glare of the blonde surgeon. "That's why you've been going around the whole hospital trying to get people to kick us out. You dubbed me the what? The um….petrified wife? No, that wasn't it. Traumatized wife. Yeah, that was it."

"Excuse me?" Owen's jaw visibly clenched as Arizona's dropped open.

"I am…uh…" she stammered.

Busted? Sorry? Annoying as hell? Oh, whatever, Cristina thought and forged ahead. "So you see, Owen here went and found a place that he could house his 'traumatized wife' in, so we wouldn't have to bother you anymore. So really, you should be thanking him."

Looking at their embarrassed faces, Cristina realized that she should probably be more hurt for what Arizona had said about her, but strangely, she wasn't. She really didn't care. All she wanted now was a win. She hadn't had a win in such a long time, and she wasn't going to back down now. She determinedly stared back at the pair. Callie cracked first.

"Arizona, we can just—"

"Oh, no, no, no, no. You are not gonna let her pull the sympathy card on you. We're getting that house." She turned back towards Cristina and Owen. "Despite what you've said, you still haven't signed for it."

Are you kidding me? She's unbelievable. "We will tomorrow."

"Not if we sign it first."

"No. You're not." Owen sharply replied.

Both of the women reflexively took a step back at his tone. Cristina inwardly smiled. That's my Owen.

"We're getting that house," he said, as if stating a foregone conclusion.

The room went silent. Cristina watched Arizona's lip twitch and mentally counted down the seconds until she couldn't resist retorting back. For someone who had lived with them for so long, she clearly hadn't figured out that she wasn't going to beat Owen when he was in this sort of mood.

5…4…3…2—

"Well, we'll see about that now, won't we?"

Owen took a deep breath and looked down at the floor for a moment before looking up. "How 'bout we just call it a night. We can discuss this in the morning."

"There's nothing to discuss."

"I agree." Cristina snapped back at Arizona. She shrugged at Owen. What? I couldn't help myself.

"We'll discuss this in the morning," Owen repeated.

Callie nodded back at him and tried to gently drag her girlfriend back towards their bedroom. "Okay."

Owen nodded back. "Okay."

What the hell was this? A truce? That was no fun. She looked at Owen, trying to silently will him to "get back in the ring," but instead, he just shook his head and gestured towards their bedroom. She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Bitches," she muttered under her breath.

"Agreed," Owen mumbled back.

And she smiled.

…

Owen walked out of the bathroom, drying his wet hair. He was about to ask Cristina if she was ready to leave, before he stopped, noticing that she was strangely pressed up against the door, apparently eavesdropping. He walked over and lightly coughed, so he wouldn't startle her. "What are you doing?" he asked, kissing the side of her neck.

Cristina whipped around and shushed him. "They've been scheming all morning trying to rearrange their schedules so they can go and sign before us," she urgently whispered.

"Well, the office doesn't open until ten. It's only seven. Plus, the realtor's office is only a ten-minute drive from the hospital, so you have nothing to worry about," he whispered back.

"I really want that house, Owen."

Owen paused, taken aback by the neediness in her voice. "I'll put in an offer today. Don't worry."

"No. I really want that house."

"Okay—"

"Promise me you'll get it."

"I promise I'll get you that house."

Cristina still looked worried. "We can't let them get it."

Owen leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "I won't let them get it."

"Okay," she nodded, slightly smiling.

He was about to open the bedroom door when she suddenly reached out and grabbed his hand.

"Wait!"

Owen stopped, confused. He looked over at her. Cristina's eyes were suddenly alive with excitement.

"One of us has to be there in person to sign it, right?"

"Yes…" he said.

"So, what if we made sure that they had to stay at the hospital all day? Keep 'em swamped with cases so they'll never be able get away."

Her excitement was contagious. "We could do that," he mischievously replied.

Cristina paced the room, keeping her voice to a slow, conspiratorial whisper. "I could get Mer to page them, too. Alex, maybe. Kepner, for sure, if I say that McDreamy wants her to do it." She looked back up at him, beaming with excitement. "We could do this. We could totally do this!"

Owen smiled back at her. He hadn't seen her this excited about anything, in well…a long time. He wasn't naïve about the realities of her post-traumatic stress, but to witness her like this, it gave him hope that maybe she was feeling better. Or at the very least, he could give her this little bit of happiness. I am buying her that house, he thought. Today.

She hadn't noticed him quietly watching her as she continued to scheme and ramble on about her plan. "And then, when I have them pinned down, you can run over to the realtor's and sign!"

"You're starting to talk like a general I used to know."

Cristina stopped pacing and threw up her arms. "Well, we need a strategy."

Owen nodded appreciatively. "I know. I like it."

"We're going to get that house."

"Yes, we are."

With that, Owen handed her coat, and they both exited the room. Their roommates were already on their way out and paused in the doorway.

"Good morning," he said to them.

Both of the women leaned back into the room and gave them a curt, "Morning," before quickly leaving, slamming the door behind them.

"They can't honestly think that they have a chance against us."

Owen laughed at his wife's comment. One: because she was unintentionally hilarious. Two: because she was right. "Well, I guess they'll find out who they're dealing with soon enough, huh?"

Judging from the look of competitive determination that appeared on Cristina's face, he might as well have rung the ringside bell of a wrestling match.

"Damn, straight," she replied, and then left the room on a mission.

Owen smiled. Her fire is back, he thought, and then quickly followed her out of the apartment.

…

"Hey! There you are."

Cristina looked up from her charting to see her best friend walk towards her. Her acknowledgement was brief. She didn't have time for small talk. She needed to fill out these charts as fast as possible, so she could get out of here.

Meredith set her charts beside Cristina's and leaned against the counter. "Have you seen Alex anywhere? I've been paging him all morning and…Why are you filling out those charts so fast?"

"I need to finish these charts so I can get home," she replied without looking up.

"Why do you have to go home? Do you need something? Because I could—"

Cristina glanced up from her frantic charting. "No, I don't need to go 'home' home. I just need to get out of here."

Meredith gave her a sympathetic smile. "Okay, it's okay. We could just…um…take a break outside?"

"No, I'm fine. I just need to leave so I can sign the papers to our new house."

"You got a house?"

"Not yet," she said. "And especially not yet if our roommates have anything to say about it."

Meredith furrowed her brow. "I'm not following."

"The house? Turns out that Callie and her girlfriend are trying to get it, too. They just sprung that on us last night. Nice, huh? Especially after they went around the entire hospital trying to find people to kick 'traumatized' me out."

Meredith winced.

Why was it that everyone thought that she hadn't heard about this? She practically lived at nurses' stations now. Thus, she basically knew everything that happened in the hospital.

"Bitches."

"Agreed." Cristina handed her a chart. "Hey, could you fill this out?"

Meredith took it without question and began filling it out. "So when do you have to go over and sign the papers?"

"As soon as I'm finished with your husband's paperwork."

"Sorry."

"It's fine. I'm almost finished."

"Can't you call the realtor and tell them that you're going to sign today so they don't take any other offers?"

Cristina waved her hand in annoyance, as she continued to write. "Yeah, I already tried that. She says that it's whoever gets there first to sign. And that person is going to be me. There is no way that I'm letting either of those two beat me to it."

Meredith smiled. "Want some help?"

"Sure. Oh, I almost forgot," she paused, reaching over to grab Meredith's pager.

"What are you doing?"

She dialed in the number that she'd been paging since she walked through the front doors this morning. "Paging them. Don't worry, you can blame it on me when they find you."

"It's okay. Maybe they'll put me on their service when they get here. I need to cut."

Probably not, Cristina thought, but she said nothing.

"Need anything else?" Meredith asked, handing over a completed chart.

"Nope. Just as long as I can get out of here soon, we'll be okay. Owen's been trying to keep them here as long as he can, while I just keep paging them until I can leave. I've been doing it all morning with the interns' pagers."

Her friend broke into a laugh. "Want me to get Alex to help ,too, when I find him?"

"Sure. Wouldn't hurt," she said. "But, I think that the Queen of Peds has him wrapped around her little finger with surgeries though."

Meredith frowned. "Ah, crap. Sorry, I forgot about that."

"It's okay. Owen bribed Avery with his first choice of surgery if he keeps Callie occupied all day."

"I want a surgery," she whined.

"You can have mine," Cristina offered. "Tell your post-it husband to put you on his service instead of me."

"He's just trying to help."

Cristina sighed. Everyone was trying to help. Why couldn't they just figure out that she was screwed up and let her be? "I know."

"Cristina?"

Cristina turned around at the sound of Teddy's voice.

Meredith put a hand on her shoulder and muttered, "I'll talk to you later. Page me if you need anything else."

She nodded at her friend's offer and then asked Teddy, "Yes?"

"Are you assigned to a case today?"

"I'm on Shepherd's service, today."

"No, I switched Avery out for you."

That can't possibly be right. "Uh, well, you're going to have to talk to Shepherd."

"Already did," Teddy stated, handing her a stack of charts. "2218 and 2290 need work-ups done. Page me when you're finished."

Confused, Cristina could only mutter, "Uh…okay?" as she grabbed the stack of charts.

"Don't."

Both of the women turned around in surprise at Owen's order.

"What?" she asked, looking at Owen in confusion.

"Don't take those charts. You're not on her service today. She's lying." He redirected his glance and stared hard at Teddy. "Aren't you Teddy?"

"No, I'm not…" Teddy stuttered, while looking down at her pager. "I…I talked with Dr. Shepherd this morning and asked to place Dr. Yang on my service today and he agreed."

"He agreed? Just like that?"

"Yes…he did."

Wow, she's a terrible liar, Cristina thought.

Owen seemed to agree with her sentiment, and he cocked his eyebrow at Teddy. "Then, why is it that you can't look me in the eye while you're saying that?"

"I can look you in the eye," she protested, looking down at her pager. Again.

"Teddy," Owen growled.

"What?"

"You're on their side!"

"They're my friends."

"We're your friends, too."

Teddy's shoulders slumped, and she shrugged apologetically. "Sorry."

"So, I'm not on your service?"

She looked over at Cristina. "No, I'm sorry. But, I would really like to have you back."

Cristina weakly smiled back, as she watched Teddy leave. While she probably should be grateful that Teddy wanted her back on her service, she felt nothing but ambivalence. She didn't want to step into an OR yet, and Teddy would make her. There wasn't much of a decision to be made.

Cristina was about to resume charting when Owen muttered, "We need to talk," under his breath. He gently grabbed her arm and pulled them into the nearest linen closet.

"What?"

"We need to come up with a strategy."

"I thought we had a strategy; keep them here."

"Yeah, but now they're playing dirty. I've been paged to every corner of this damn hospital, and I haven't been able to do anything to them."

"I've been paging them all morning with the interns' pagers," she offered.

Owen smiled. "Good. But, we're gonna have to come up with a better strategy, so they can't sneak away. So far, Avery and Karev's been tracking them and they said that they haven't been able to leave yet."

"I wouldn't take Alex's word for it. He might be lying. He's Arizona's guy."

"Not when two Seahawk tickets are on the line. He's my guy today."

"Playing dirty, Dr. Hunt?"

"Maybe," he shrugged.

Cristina smiled and playfully caressed his cheek. "Aww…my husband is finally catching on." She laughed, pulling away. "So what now? Are you going talk to Shepherd so he lets me leave?"

"Yeah. I'll page you once I do, and then—"

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Cristina looked down at her flashing pager, glancing at the message. "Crap."

"Who is it?"

"Arizona," she groaned.

"You have to take it."

"No, I don't."

"Yeah, you do. I don't want to get you into hot water with the Chief."

Did the man ever break a rule in his life? "She obviously doesn't need anything. I'm not even on her service," she protested.

He shrugged. "Still…"

"Ugh, fine. But then, what are we going to do about getting out of here to sign the papers?"

"Well, no one is signing any papers if we're all still here at the hospital. Answer that page, and I'll talk to Shepherd about letting you leave. If anyone asks any questions while you're gone, I'll cover for you."

She thought for a moment. There really wasn't any other option. Finally, she nodded, agreeing, "Okay."

"Okay." Owen smiled and gave her a quick kiss goodbye.

…

Cristina exited the elevator walking at what could only be described as a snail's pace. It didn't exactly take a genius to figure out that Arizona had paged her to this floor for absolutely no reason other than to stall her. She wasn't even on her service. Heck, she really wasn't sure why she was even answering this page in the first place. God, Owen's Dudley-do-right attitude is rubbing off on me.

She walked over to the nurses' station and found an available nurse.

"Where's Dr. Robbins?"

The nurse looked up from her computer and looked around the room. "Umm…she must have just left. But she left these charts for a Dr. Yang. Is that you?"

No. "Yes. Do you know if there are there any other residents on this floor? Or interns?" Someone who could do this other than me? she thought.

The nurse simply shrugged and went back to work.

With a groan, Cristina picked up the charts and looked at the neatly written post-it on the sleeve: I need post-ops done on all of them. Please.

The "please" was just taking it too far. What a bitch. She opened the first chart. Tommy Thomas. Six years old. Post-op for an appendectomy. Who the hell would name their kid Tommy Thomas? Whatever. She closed the chart and headed towards the room.

Inside, she found the young boy playing with his Gameboy. Well, at least he's distracted. "Hi, uh…Tommy. My name is Dr. Yang, and I'm going to check your wound."

The little boy looked up at her, giving her a quick, appraising glance and then resumed playing. "No."

"No?"

"You can't come near me."

Oh, for the love of god. She walked over to the bed and began to lift his sheet. "It will just take a second and then I'll be gone."

The boy recoiled from her touch and began screaming, "No!"

Cristina clenched her jaw. "Okay. Tommy. I need to take a look at your dressing, because if I don't something bad will happen."

This got his attention. "What will happen?"

You'll get about ten cc's of the highest strength sedative I can find, she thought. But before she could look for the medication, a thought suddenly popped into her mind. Genius. "Well, it's kind of a secret," she whispered. "We can't really tell anyone."

The little boy's eyes got wide. "Tell me."

"Oh, I don't know. I don't think I can."

"Tell me!" he yelled.

"Okay. Only if you promise not to tell anyone."

The boy nodded furiously and Cristina leaned down to whisper in his ear. The more she elaborated, the wider his eyes got. Finally, she pulled back and smiled to herself as she left the room. She felt a temporary pang of guilt, but then quickly thought, Aww hell…she's already kicked me out of Peds, anyways. What else can she do?

…

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Owen looked down at his pager. That was the second 911 paged he had received to the Peds floor in the past two minutes. His thoughts immediately went to the little girl he had operated on yesterday.

Once on the floor, he immediately spotted Robbins' blonde head of hair and rushed over to her. "You paged me 911? Is it the Collins' girl?"

"No, she's stable," Arizona casually replied as she continued to write notes in a patient's chart.

"So, what's the problem, then?"

Arizona suddenly looked up from her chart. She looked livid. "The problem? You want to know what the problem is?"

Uh, yes, he thought, remaining silent.

"Your wife is what the problem is. I have a floor full of terrified kids and parents that are ready to sue because of what she said to them!"

Oh, this is going to be good. He tried to keep his voice even. "What did she say?"

"Oh, hmm…where do I start? How 'bout over here. Follow me." Without waiting for his response, Arizona turned on her heel and walked towards a patient's room on the corner. Owen could hear the child's screams from across the room.

A red-faced mother intercepted them at the door. "Dr. Robbins. What the hell is going on? We left the room for one minute and then when we came back, Tommy was screaming and hasn't stopped crying since. He keeps sobbing about a monster in the bathroom that's going to eat him."

Owen had to quickly turn his head and cough to mask his chuckle and smile.

"Mrs. Thomas, I apologize," Arizona said, putting a sympathetic hand on the mother's arm. "There must have been some sort of misunderstanding, but I'll get this fixed right away."

"You better! Because this is completely out of line. If this so much as—"

"Don't worry. I'll handle it. Dr. Hunt here and I will handle it. Okay?" Arizona gave Owen a look and then walked over to the young boy, who was curled up in bed, tears streaming down his face. "Hi, Tommy. Can you tell me what's wrong?"

Tommy pointed towards the bathroom in terror. "There's a monster in the bathroom!"

Arizona sat down on the bed, strategically blocking the boy's view of the bathroom. "Now, Tommy, there isn't a monster in the closet. We have special people who came and scared all the monsters out of the hospital. Absolutely no monsters live in this hospital. Isn't that right, Dr. Hunt?" she said, glaring back at Owen.

"Yes, Tommy," Owen emphatically agreed. "Dr. Robbins is telling the truth. I have never seen a monster in this hospital. I promise."

Tommy shook his head furiously back and forth, crying. "No! That other doctor said that there was a monster that ate kids in my bathroom!"

Oh, Cristina, this is so good and yet, so, so bad, he thought.

"Well, she was wrong, Tommy. Wasn't she, Dr. Hunt?" Arizona pointedly asked Owen.

"Very, very wrong, Tommy."

Arizona turned back to the young boy. "But you know what, Tommy? Dr. Hunt said that he'd stay here and watch over you all day so you feel safe, okay?"

"Wait – what?"

The boy looked up gratefully at Owen. "You will?"

"Uh…" Oh, this was taking it way too far, he thought. Owen took a step forward so he could speak to Arizona out of the boy's earshot.

Before he could, Arizona stepped forward and nodded at the boy. "Yes, he will. As long as you want him."

"I have an ER to run," he angrily whispered under his breath.

Arizona turned around and smiled. "And I have an entire Pediatric floor. You can thank your wife later." She stepped towards the door. "Okay, I have to go, but Dr. Hunt's staying, okay?"

Both the boy and his mother happily nodded.

"Wait!" Owen called out.

"Bye," Arizona said, and left.

Okay, time to get this settled quick. Owen walked back over to Tommy's bed. "Okay, Tommy, I promise you that there are no monsters in here. See?" He walked into the bathroom and made a grand show of opening and closing every drawer and closet. He looked back at the young boy nodding at him. Success? Maybe?

He went back over to the boy's bedside. "And I promise you that you're going to be just fine with your mom here. Okay?" He began to slowly move towards the door. "I have to go check on something and I'll be back later."

"No!" Tommy wailed.

Okay, not a success. Damn it.

"It'll come back if you're not here."

Owen glared at Arizona smirking at him through the glass. "No, it won't. There's no monster."

"Yes, there is!"

"Okay, you know what…" Owen sighed in exasperation. He didn't know how he was going to get out of this one. Suddenly, he spotted his "out" strolling down the hallway through the glass. He motioned for him to come in. "Tommy, this is Steve. He's a professional monster slayer. He's killed lots of monsters. Haven't you, Steve?"

Tommy looked at the intern in awe. Steve looked at Owen in bewilderment.

"Really?"

"Really," Owen said, silencing Steve's protest with a look. "And he's going to stay here and protect you. Will that be okay?"

Tommy glanced at the bathroom and then at Steve. "Okay."

"What?" Steve squeaked out.

"Don't ask questions," Owen hissed back. "Give me your chart and stay here. Clear?" He then gave him the same stare his first C.O. had given him ten years ago. It had the same effect: the silent nod.

Owen smiled. Success. He turned back to the boy's mother. "Mrs. Thomas, it's been a pleasure. I'll check back soon, okay?"

The woman grasped his hand in gratitude. "Thank you, Dr.—"

"Hunt."

"Dr. Hunt." The woman smiled.

Owen quickly left the room and didn't even glace back at the undoubtedly wide-eyed Steve. Once out of the room, he saw Derek smirking at him by a nearby nurses' station. Someone must have been enjoying the show. He walked over to his friend, shaking his head.

"What was that about?" Derek asked.

"That? Cristina told a kid that —it's a long story."

"Does it have something to do with the little contest you're in?"

"Contest? Uh…"

"Meredith told me," he shrugged. "So what's the deal? I thought Torres and Robbins wanted you two to move out?"

Owen raised his hand in frustration. "I know! They did. And we were always going to. I just wanted to wait until Cristina, you know…"

Derek gave him a sympathetic smile. "I understand. So how'd they find out about the same place?"

He couldn't help but sigh in frustration. "I don't know. They just told us last night. Hell, I just told Cristina about it last night. I wanted to check it out first before I told her, you know? And now they're telling us that we can keep the apartment and they'll move out."

"Are you going to do that?"

Owen shrugged. "Two weeks ago? Sure. But now, Cristina really wants this new place. She hasn't been this enthusiastic about anything in a while. So I have to get it for her. She deserves something to make her happy."

"So what's the contest, then?"

"There is no contest. It's whoever can sign the damn contract first. I've been trying to get away all morning, but the pit's been swamped. I know Cristina's on your service, but the girls have been paging her all morning, too. I've been trying to keep those two in the hospital, but it's not exactly easy. I can't lose this for her, Derek."

"Do you need any help?"

"Sure. I'll take all the help I can get."

Derek smiled. "Well, in that case, I might have a couple ideas. Here," he said, gesturing toward the hallway, "walk with me."

…

"Hey, I've been paging you."

Cristina looked up at Derek from behind the nurses' desk that she had been hiding at for the past hour. "I know."

"Were you planning on answering them?"

"The first one—yes. The tenth one—no."

Derek raised his brow in amusement. "Did it occur to you that maybe I needed you and that's why I was paging you?"

She shrugged. "Possibly. So I'm here. You found me. Congratulations. What do you want?"

He handed her a chart over the desk. Great. Another write up. "Shunt repair. You're scrubbing in. Prep 793, please."

"What?" Her hands suddenly became clammy with sweat. This had to be some sort of joke. They had come to an unofficial agreement last week that she only operated on corpses. Dead guys were okay. Surgeries in the OR were not. She handed him back the chart. "No. I can't."

"Don't worry."

Don't worry? "No, I can't do this."

"Yes, you can."

"No, I can't. Page your wife."

"You're on my service."

This was ridiculous. It was already three o'clock. She couldn't perform a surgery with him for a multitude of reasons. "I have to be somewhere," she finally confessed.

Derek gently smiled. "I know."

He knew? What? "You know?"

He nodded at her. "I talked with Owen."

"So why'd you book me for surgery, then?"

"Because you're on my service."

Oh, he was intolerable. McDreamy my ass. "Have you ever heard of being a 'team player'?"

"Yes."

"And…"

"And what?" he innocently asked.

And this guy was a brain surgeon. Terrifying. She gestured with her hands, "Why'd you book me for a five-hour surgery, then?"

"Because I need a resident and you're mine for the day."

Cristina bit her lip. He really wasn't going to budge. God, she was going to have to call it in. "I'm asking for a favor here, Shepherd. I saved your life. You owe me this."

"I owe—"

"Yes, I went there," she interrupted. Damn, I had big plans for that favor, too.

Derek smiled and shook his head, handing her back the patient's chart. "I'll see you in twenty minutes, Cristina."

"Seriously?"

Her reply went unanswered, as he turned and walked away, shaking his head. This was just…unbelievable, she thought.

Cristina angrily snatched the chart off the counter but not before she spotted Callie across the hall, laughing. I bet she put him up to this. Cristina glared back at her and stormed off. Bitches.

…

As he watched her walk past his trauma room, Owen could barely suppress his grin that was threatening to cross his face.

"Where's Hunt?" Callie called out to no one in particular. Someone must have signaled his location because she quickly walked directly to his room and poked her head in. "You paged?"

"Uh, yes, I did." He directed his attention back to the patient. "Follow the light, please," he asked the young man.

"For what? This?" She pointed to his patient. "You paged me for this?"

He kept his head down. Keep it cool. Enjoy the moment.

"Haha. Weak, Owen. Sprained ankle. There ya go. Now, do you need me for something else? Like to diagnose a case of the sniffles or can I go now?"

Owen finished examining his patient and turned around, assuming his most innocent face. "Oh, I didn't page you for this. Dr. Nelson needs your assistance. Follow me." He reached over to grab the patient's chart and walked into the adjacent trauma room.

Once in the room, he handed Callie the chart and lit up the x-rays on the light board.

"This guy is still alive?"

Owen nodded. "Alive, stable and about to be operated on in OR 5 by you and Nelson."

"But his entire back is broken!"

"Which is why Nelson needs you in OR 5."

Callie couldn't stop glancing between the x-rays and the chart. "This…this is at least a fifteen-hour surgery!"

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! he thought to himself, but outwardly, he casually shrugged. "Let me know how it goes. Good luck."

"You! You! This….You planned this with Shepherd!"

"You think that I would have Shepherd ask Nelson to go out of his way to rearrange his schedule to fit in an extremely complicated surgery at the drop of a hat?"

"Yes."

Owen smiled back at her. "You have a very active imagination, Torres."

Callie scowled back at him, ripping the x-rays off the board. "Oh, it's on, Hunt. You think this is funny? Just you wait. I have plans that you couldn't even dream of."

"I look forward to the challenge then."

He thought she was going to retort, but instead, she shut her mouth, glared, and slyly gave him the finger as she walked away. Yep, I'm buying Derek beer for a month for this one, he thought.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Owen looked down at his pager. Ah, hell.

…

Cristina sighed, as she searched through her bag for her apartment's keys. She was exhausted. I wonder if Owen's back yet. She hadn't seen him since their little clandestine strategy session in the closet. A huge mass casualty car crash had come in a couple hours later (she'd heard from the nurses) so she assumed that he had been in surgery ever since. Not that it mattered.

Finally locating the key, she opened the door and trudged through, throwing her bag in the direction of the couch. Owen ducked and caught it midair. How'd he beat me here?

"Sorry," she apologized, placing her keys on the counter.

"Oh, look who it is!" Arizona sarcastically yelled from the kitchen. "Monsters, Cristina? Do you have any idea how many parents I had to calm down and try not to sue the hospital for negligent care because of your little stunt?"

My little stunt? How 'bout her little stunt. She was the one who paged me to her floor. "A lot?"

Owen walked over and took her jacket from her, whispering in her ear, "Outstanding stunt, wife."

"Try more than 'a lot.' Try the whole damn pediatric floor!" Arizona continued. "I think I should make you attend the meeting that I'm undoubtedly going to have to have with the Chief tomorrow."

Cristina shrugged. "You paged me." You get what you paged for.

Arizona was about to retort but Callie's sudden appearance through the front door interrupted her.

"Well, that was a fun way to spend my day," she announced. "Thanks guys! Can't wait to do it again, tomorrow."

"Yeah, can't wait," her girlfriend chimed in.

"Then find your own place," Cristina stated. Really, what part of "we're getting that house" did they fail to understand?

"We found a place," Arizona replied.

"Well, you're gonna have to find a new one."

"No, we don't," the women replied in unison.

"Really?" Cristina asked.

Arizona smirked. "You can't stop us from getting that house, Cristina."

"Actually, I can." Before her roommates could reply, Cristina walked over to the couch Owen was sitting on and pulled a stack of papers out of her bag. She smiled triumphantly, waving the stack at them.

Owen took one look at the papers, instantly realizing what she had done, and launched himself off of the couch to kiss her. He pulled away, laughing, and asked, "When did you? How did you…?" He shook his head in bewilderment and happiness. "It's ours?"

Cristina nodded. "It's ours," she said, smiling back. "Apparently people like cash offers. Did you know that?"

He laughed and kissed her again.

Their happy embrace was quickly interrupted by Callie, who reached over to grab the papers out of her hand. "Wait, let me see those. You're bluffing. You were in surgery with Shepherd all afternoon!"

Was supposed to be in surgery all afternoon, Cristina silently corrected. It turned out that Shepherd wasn't that bad of a guy after all. Sure, she'd wanted to shear off his coveted locks the moment he'd told her that he'd assigned her to a surgery, but he'd surprised her. After finally building up the courage to enter the scrub room, she'd discovered that Meredith was already scrubbing in as her replacement, so she could sneak out the back and sign the papers. Surprisingly, McDreamy actually lived up to his nickname today.

"So how'd you sign that?" Callie asked again.

Cristina smiled, as Owen took back the papers from their soon-to-be former roommate. "Doesn't matter, now. Does it?"

"But…but…how?" Arizona whined.

"Isn't it obvious? I win all the contests."

 

Comments

[raachel2008.livejournal.com]

Looove it!! And my dislike of Arizona has been growing at warp speed so yes, well done team Yang-Hunt!

[athebeach-13.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! So glad you enjoyed it :)

[burketina-love.livejournal.com]

So perfect. Cristina really needs to get her groove back its just getting to be sad. Loved this fic though, def everyone portrayed perfectly, and loved your Cristina, we need her feistyness back on the show. Can't wait to read more of your work

[athebeach-13.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Yeah, I hope Cristina gets her feistiness back soon, too

[karlotita.livejournal.com]

:) Loved it.

But you need to update more often. Seriously :)

[athebeach-13.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'll write as fast as I can :)