*Author's Note: Thank you so so so much for your reviews on "Fragments"! I appreciate it so much because it's been forever since I've written fanfic. Anyways, this story is more of a...textual description of the last minute of Owen/Cristina from 5x15. What he said was so beautiful I wanted it in written form. Plus it ended so abruptly, I wanted Cristina's moment as well. It's a bit choppy. Annnd...end long note. (Please review with yayness or constructive criticism!)
Owen Hunt was damaged goods.
He had seen too much, been through too much to ever return to the Before. Before was a haze. Before was draped in Beth and normalcy…far and unreal to him now. He had seen the look on her face, hopeful, believing that she could fix him, that he hadn't been lost to the darkness that people shudder away from.
Owen Hunt is not lost, but he is living in the stark reality of the After. The After does not have room for the painful farce of sunshine. Cristina understands. She squares his shoulders, pushes him through the darkness and holds his hand along the way. No pretending. No sugar.
He catches sight of her hair first, falling to her shoulders in one black wave after another. His pulse quickens as his hand loops around her arm and pulls her against him. She needs to know that…
"I call her, alright. I call my mother, once a week. I haven't told her I'm back. She thinks I'm calling from…" His mind flashes back to scorching winds and burning sand.
"I keep the conversations short because I can't bear for her to know that the son she sent off to war is gone." His earnest gaze drops to the floor. A pause. "He's gone."
"And if I just got in my car and drove the 6 miles to see her, she'd be so…" He still can't meet her eyes. "Sad. And she would look at me the same way that Beth does now, like I'm not there." You must know. He moves closer, urgent. "The only time I don't feel like a ghost is when you look at me."
The words are scrambling over themselves now, trying to push their way out. "'Cause you look at me, you see me. You see me." I'm damaged but I still exist. I breathe. I kiss. I cry. I smile. "This is me." He touches his chest. "This is me." She had to know that she that she had brought some measure of peace, some reason to hope that the After was possible. "Please Cristina, see me." The plea catches in his throat. "See me," he whispers.
Time seems to stretch and ebb. He feels empty, spent. Look at me. She stares down at the ground and then….her eyes lift to meet his. Searching. He holds his breath and waits as she studies him. A moment passes. Two. Three.
Her hands reach to tenderly cup his face. "I see you." She smoothes the worried furrows from his brow. "God damn it, but I see you." He turns to press a kiss against her palm before gathering her into his arms. She can feel the relieved sigh against her hair. This is what she had agreed to, wasn't it? The yes to his second chance. And the truth of the matter is that he sees her to, the softness, the depth. And so she surrenders herself to his embrace and begins to let the past go.
The End.