Origami

Author : Margot57

Beta Reader : E Salvatore; thank you so much, you rock!

Disclaimers : Sadly, I own nothing. Shonda does.

Raiting : K+

A/N : I wanted to write another Tenry story and I said to myself, let's try to do it in English. It's short, but I just wanted to see if I could make it. I had a lot of fun while writing it, and I really hope you'll enjoy.

"What the hell is going on?"

Henry couldn't help smiling when he saw his wife entering the living room. He had been waiting for her for an hour or so, and he was starting to worry about her being so late; and now she was standing in the middle of the room, frowning and undoubtedly waiting for an explanation. The fact that there were dozens of colorful paper napkins on her dining table was definitely weird to her.

"Good evening to you, too." Henry replied, his smile never fading away.

Teddy just sighed and sat on the couch, rubbing her tired face. It was almost ten, she'd been on call the night before and she was dying for a good night of sleep… But there was definitely something wrong with her husband.

"Henry, could we please just skip the whole "you have to find out on your own" phase?"

He smiled and sat next to her, his green eyes meeting hers. When he gave her that look, she always felt like she was going to melt, even when she was mad at him.

"Have you ever tried napkin origami?" he asked in a very serious tone. Teddy frowned again, asking herself if there was a chance that her husband was still on painkillers from his last surgery… Nah, no way, it had been two weeks since the last time he had been cut up.

"No, Henry. I've never had time for… Napkin origami. Why the hell are you even asking?" she sighed.

"'Cause I spent the afternoon trying to make that damn bird of paradise, but I failed every time. You have to help me."

48 hours without sleeping made her immune to his puppy eyes, and she shook her head, a small smile on her lips.

"It's a little bit late for nursery school activities. I'm going to bed. 'Night."

"Okay, fine. But promise me you'll try tomorrow!"

His lack of insistence surprised Teddy, but she just shrugged and kissed him briefly before heading to her bedroom, leaving Henry with his napkins. Even though she loved him more than anyone else in the whole world, she sometimes found him really hard to understand… Her husband was a 42 year-old napkin-origami addict who spent half of his time in a hospital. She wondered how many women were living in the same situation as hers while pulling up the sheets.

"Breakfast is ready!"

Teddy got out of the shower and wrapped herself in a towel. She realized that she was starving and quickly put her clothes on before joining her husband in the kitchen. As usual, the table was full of pancakes, scrambled eggs, fruits, orange juice and… lots of napkins.

"This is your bird of paradise?" she asked.

"Yeah." He answered with a proud smile and she couldn't help laughing. Teddy kissed him on the cheek and grabbed a pancake.

"Henry… Can you explain to me why you're suddenly fond of origami? I'm not sure I get the point." He sighed and took an empty glass to fill it with juice. Okay, he was behaving strangely, but he had a good reason to.

"I have to wait one more week before I can go back to work. And you're at the hospital every day, so I'm bored. I'm really, really bored."

"I'm sorry. I know it's difficult for you to remain still."

"Don't worry. I still have things to do; I just bought 'Watercolors for dummies'."

Teddy coughed and almost dropped her coffee cup. Her husband wasn't able to draw a cat without it resembling an alien, so she couldn't imagine how a watercolor landscape would look like.

"Just kidding! You should have seen your face." Henry laughed.

"Well, it's a real relief. I don't want a painting of yours on my wall; it would scare me if I saw it at night."

"You're being mean, Mrs. Burton!"

"Come on! You've said it yourself; your three-year old niece is a better artist than you are." She teased him.

"One of my high school teachers once told me that I had an artistic soul, and I'm sure he meant it… Too bad he was fired during the first trimester."

Henry reached for the pan and put some scrambled eggs in his plate, deliberately ignoring Teddy's mocking smile. She was looking at one of the napkins, wondering what it was supposed to represent. A flower? A tree? She needed one more cup of coffee to figure this out.

"So… how's your hottie husband?"

Teddy smiled to Arizona who was sitting next to her in the cafeteria. It had been a tough morning, and the cardio-surgeon was happy to spend the midday break with her friend, even if she regretted the fact that Henry couldn't join them. He had been back to work for two days now, and she hadn't had the chance to see him a lot.

"He's okay. I think he's done with the origami thing." Teddy replied while having a forkful of her weird-looking mashed potatoes. It was as bad as it looked.

"Well, it was a little bit weird… but cute. Could I say wute? It would be a funny word. Or maybe ceird?" Arizona asked.

"Whatever."

They remained silent for the rest of lunch –something that was really hard for Arizona-, and she finally decided to break the silence.

"Theodora Altman, are you hiding something?" her friend asked, studying Teddy with a suspicious look.

"Can we talk somewhere else?"

"Let's go outside."

"I missed you." Henry whispered, hugging his wife closely. He kissed the top of her head and wrapped his arms around her waist, enjoying the moment.

"I missed you, too. It's been a long day."

"Yeah. But I had an amazing sandwich for lunch. With pickles and mustard. Seriously, it was deli…"

"I've got a question for you." She interrupted him, turning her head to be able to look him right in the eyes.

"Ask me anything." Henry replied with a smile. He was even more handsome when he was smiling, Teddy thought to herself.

"Are you really done with napkin origami?"

"Wait, it still bothers you? I told you it was just a free time activity. I'm not going to participate in the Napkin Origami Olympic Games."

"Well, it could be useful now."

"Really? How?" Henry asked.

"If you could learn how to fold it like a diaper… It could be helpful in something like 9 months."

"Like a dia… Oh my god. Are you…?"

"I… I found out yesterday. I know that we've never really talked about having a baby but… I love you. And I think that we can do it together. I want us to do it together." Teddy whispered, cupping her husband's face with both hands. "Just… Imagine how happy our kid will be when his Daddy shows him how to make his bib look like a bird of paradise."

Henry couldn't hide his smile anymore and kissed his wife.

"If it's a girl, I want her middle name to be Origami." he joked. His hand was now on Teddy's belly, and he could say that it would be there really often in the next few months.

END

So ? What do you think ? Have a nice week and enjoy the next episode (Henry's baaaaaaack !) :D