Owen's heart was breaking, seeing Cristina this way. In front of everyone else, she acted so tough, so brave, even when Owen knew something was killing her inside. It's why people call her a robot, because she shows no emotion. A few times when a certain case had made Cristina feel something, the two of them had talked about it, but never before had Cristina let herself fall apart.

Owen had heard about the case she was on, and when she had muttered the words, "I miss my dad," he figured it couldn't have gone well.

"Shh..." Owen said softly, rubbing her back as he held her tight. They'd moved from their standing positions to him sitting on a bed with Cristina on his lap. "It's okay, shh.. Cristina, I'm here..."

Cristina pulled herself even closer into him. This was why she had need Owen over Meredith at the moment, she though, because he knew her so well. Right now, all she really wanted was the warm embrace of his arms, and not a bunch of crap about how her father was in a better place. Eventually her crying stopped, and slowly Cristina pulled away to look at Owen. "Thank you, I..." Concern was spread across Owen's face, and he reached out to wipe a tear away from her cheek. "I'm okay..."

"You're not okay, Cristina."

"I am –"

"You're not. Have you ever cried for your dad before?"

Cristina didn't answer right away, looking down at her hands. "I didn't want to. I told myself I couldn't do that, I had to stay strong. I just never really... after, all I did was work towards becoming a doctor. There was never someone to tell me it was okay to let go... I was too young..."

A single tear fell from Owen's eyes as he heard what Cristina had to say. "I'm so, so sorry this has happened to you, Cristina. You didn't deserve these years of pain."

Cristina nodded, a few more tears falling down her face. Putting her head back on Owen's shoulder, Cristina closed her eyes.

Owen looked down at her, trying to decide what to say next. "You never deserve any bad things that happen. No one does. But this is something that no one should go through, to lose the one person that should be with you forever. I can't say I know how you're feeling, but it hurts me to see you like this. If there was any way to make everything better, I would do it, anything, just to take the pain away from you. But I can't, and that pains me too. Unfortunately, you will have this for the rest of your life, but Cristina, you have to let yourself feel. It's unhealthy to hold it all in."

"I don't know how..."

"You don't have to cry. You don't have to talk about your feelings. That's not you, I know that. But every now and then, you have to let yourself think about your dad, good and bad things. And I'll be there every time, whenever you need time to grieve your dad."

Cristina looked up at Owen again, before leaning forward to kiss him softly. It was a short kiss, but Owen got her message from it. Then Cristina wrapped her arms around Owen again, falling asleep.

Owen laid Cristina down on the bed, crawling in beside her, holding her body tightly to his. Cristina was asleep within minutes, all the stress from her outbreak finally catching up to her. It took a few minutes, but Owen fell asleep too, Cristina in his arms. The two of them would make it through everything together.