Cristina Yang was tired. It had been a long, hard day at Seattle Grace hospital and all she wanted to do was go home and sleep. She wanted to sleep and never wake up, because she knew that tomorrow would be exactly the same as today; surgeries, boring routine check-ups, and avoiding Owen Hunt.
Possibly for this exact reason, Cristina did not run in the other direction when the elevator doors opened, revealing the ex-army man himself. Instead she stood outside the door, coffee in one hand and purse in the other, cursing. But she didn't run. The doors began to slide shut, so she stuck out her foot and skillfully slid into the elevator.
Owen tried to hide the look of surprise that had come across his handsome face. He knew Cristina had been trying her hardest all day to avoid him (she was far too obvious), and couldn't understand why she had suddenly given up. They stood side-by-side awkwardly, trying not to look at each other. When finally the doors slid open again and Owen exited, Cristina let out a sigh of relief and relaxed her posture.
It was then that Meredith entered the elevator, looking as giddy as Meredith Grey could. Cristina was sure this had something to do with her long-time boyfriend Derek Shepherd. She was happy for her friend, in her own way, but she didn't want to hear about Meredith's love life. Not when hers sucked and her heart ached.
"What's with you?" Meredith asked, noticing that her friend was not listening to her. Cristina turned her head and gave Meredith a pathetic look.
"Hunt," was all she said. Meredith adopted a look of sympathy.
On the car ride home, Cristina had trouble concentrating on the road. It was raining in Seattle, like always, and there was a large amount of rush hour traffic. While waiting for the cars in front of her to move, Cristina's thoughts found their way to her least favorite subject at the moment: Owen Hunt.
She suddenly found their encounter today incredibly embarrassing and wished she had run away from the elevator, or at least said 'hello' to him. It wasn't Owen's fault he was damaged. It wasn't his fault he had choked her…was it?
Swallowing her overwhelming desire to turn around and find Owen, Cristina turned up the radio and tried dancing it out, like she and Meredith had done on countless occasions. She soon found, however, that when you're seat-belted in you can't rock as much and therefore less stress is relieved.
Her apartment was empty when she reached it, just as she expected it to be. Skipping food, Cristina went straight to bed. Despite her extreme fatigue that comes with the job of surgeon, she still found she had trouble getting to sleep. She couldn't get Owen Hunt off her mind, and she kept seeing his surprised face when she got in the elevator and how he seemed like he wanted to say something to her the whole ride.
The next day, as luck would have it, Cristina was assigned to trauma. It was a fairly slow day and after checking up on her patients, Cristina found that she had nothing to do. She sat on the bench outside the trauma doors, welcoming the cool air. It felt refreshing, but it also reminded her of the steam room Owen had shown her. She immediately regretted her decision to sit outside.
She regretted it even more so when Owen came out the doors. Again he looked surprised to see her, as though he expected her to move across country and get away from him. He sat down next to her and she didn't move. She wanted to get up so badly and leave him outside in the cold. But another part of her wanted to remain there with him, to forgive him for what he'd done, and to try to move on with him. Torn, she remained on the bench silently. Tension danced in the air like electricity, surrounding the broken couple.
"I'm sorry," Owen said quietly. There was so much sadness and self-loathing in his voice when he spoke. The words tickled her ears like the soft wind that was blowing.
"I know," she replied finally. Run! she thought to herself. But not a single part of her body wanted to get up and run away. She was tired of running away. "How's your therapy been?" she added casually, as though she were commenting on the weather.
"Fine, it's been fine. It's really been helping, actually. I feel better…safer," Owen admitted. Cristina chose to ignore his hint. Instead she nodded.
"That's good. Better is good." She stood up to leave.
"Cristina," Owen suddenly said, sounding desperate and miserable. He made a grab for her had. For a moment, his warm skin touched hers, but it was only for a moment. Then she had left, trying to deny the tears that threatened to fall, shining in her eyes like diamonds.