*Again and Again: As long as I have Erin, Kevin's Biggest Fan and Milee reading this story, I promise I will update and see the story to end of Season 5!
*Zoe and Zach: The story was mainly written to let everyone know the sex and names of the twins. I would love to continue the story as well. Any family CO stories written by me will be a continuation of Zoe and Zach.
*Finally, regarding this story, I've always wondered what it would have been like for Cristina to meet Owen 'in the before.' So this story takes place at the end of Season 2, after Burke gets shot. Cristina and Burke's story will follow true to the show. I am throwing Owen in the Season 3 mix and will create his story. This chapter is quite detailed but the story will breeze through Season 3 once I have everyone acquainted with the plot. Give it a shot and let me know if I have your attention. Thanks!
*Disclaimer: Grey's Anatomy belongs to Shonda Rhimes & Co.
"What happened?" Owen stormed into the ER immediately after receiving the 911 page.
"Sho-ooting. Dr. Bu-urke. Shot. With a gun," stammered Nurse Rebby.
Owen ran as fast as his legs would allow to the ambulance bay to find Miranda applying pressure to the gunshot wound. "Dr. Hunt!" Miranda cried out in relief.
"Christ," cursed Owen. "Keep applying pressure, Dr. Bailey. Is there an exit wound?" shouted Owen as he knelt in front of Burke. "Dr. Burke, stay with me!" instructed Owen as he saw Burke coming back and blinking, trying to register his surroundings. It took three men to place Burke on the gurney. "Get him into Trauma 1!" ordered Owen.
"Chief? How bad is it? It looks bad," Cristina ran into Richard in the ER, exuding excitement from the incoming trauma. "I'm here. I can help. If there's anything surgical, I can help."
Richard took in the excitement for a brief second before making the connection that her loved one was laying in front of the hospital, bleeding out from a GSW. He needed her to stay away until he could get a clear understanding of what just happened to his number one attending. "Why don't you go run Trauma 2, Dr. Yang? Find me if you need help. And get consults," instructed Richard, making sure to keep Cristina occupied and away from the chaos of it all.
"I'm on it!" Cristina ran off in pure excitement.
/
"Don't take your hand off," ordered Owen as he pushed his way through in the crowded ER. "Chief!" he called out to Richard.
"You have got to be kidding me," exclaimed Richard in disbelief. "What the hell happened?" Richard's voice boomed throughout the ER.
"You're asking me?" responded Owen. "Quite the initiation I'm getting here at Seattle Grace."
"Well, welcome to Seattle Grace Hospital, Dr. Hunt," answered Richard as he guided the doctors into Trauma 1.
"Hey wait," Miranda gently pushed down Burke from the gurney.
"I'm fine," Burke stubbornly got up.
"No, you're not," refuted Owen as he forcibly pushed Burke back down on the gurney. "The bullet's still lodged, we don't know what's going on inside. Stay still."
"I'm fine. Let go. I'm fine!" Burke called out in disorientation. "I have a patient that I have to go check on."
"Patient?" questioned Owen in frustration. "You are the patient. Lay down! You've lost a lot of blood." Owen noted Burke's limp right hand.
Burke held Owen's stern gaze as he laid back down on the gurney. "And you are…?"
It did not escape Owen that they were already introduced, twice. First time was a formal introduction and second time was over an argument they had over the course of treatment for Mrs. Lee this morning. They also sat together at the attendings table at lunch and Burke made quite a point earlier in the day that he was right the day before. Owen raised his eyebrow as he replied, "Dr. Hunt. I run Trauma here."
Richard calmly said to Miranda, "Page Shepherd."
"Take over compressions." Cristina released her hands and doubled blinked, making sure she was not conjuring up the image of Burke laying on a gurney in Trauma 1. She purposely made her way around and brusquely opened the door. "You're shot?" calmly asked Cristina.
Owen looked up from the wound as the door burst opened revealing the Asian doctor with the headful of unruly ebony curls. He distinctly remembered her sitting at the interns' table during lunch.
"He's shot?" Cristina asked once again, this time in a more alarmed voice.
"Yang, we got it," assured Miranda.
"It's okay," also assured Richard.
"That guy shot you," panic and anger flashed in Cristina's face as she turned away just as quickly as she entered Trauma 1.
Owen took in the expressions of concern, panic, shock and anger that flashed in a span of one second on the intern's face. He was sure she was an intern and from his minimal introduction at Seattle Grace, she was the best intern in her year. Intern who was an overachiever with the attending who was highly regarded as arguably the best attending on staff? No, he quickly dismissed the notion. Couldn't be more than a doctor being concerned for another doctor, which was completely understandable. But he couldn't help but question his interest in the intern's expressions.
"Entry upper right shoulder. Could be lodged in the spine," informed Owen to Derek upon his entrance.
"Dr. Burke?" asked Derek. "The bullet is in dangerous property here. We need to check your hand function. Try and squeeze my fingers, okay?"
Owen, Derek and Richard all held in their breaths as Burke directed his energy to his hand. His right hand was limp against Derek's hold and stood still. Outlook was grim.
"They moved my guy upstairs," announced Cristina as she entered the room once again. "How is he?" she asked.
"Wait outside," softly advised Miranda.
This time the concern was too obvious for Owen to miss. He quickly picked up how all the doctors were careful when talking to Cristina about Burke. Cristina and Burke were an item, he concluded and shook his head in disapproval at the unprofessional nature of the romantic relationship between an intern and an attending.
"I'm not going to wait outside. Burke?" Cristina pushed through the doctors and reached out to softly grab Burke's right hand.
"Can we have a moment?" Burke asked Derek to clear the room for him and Cristina.
"Only a moment," answered Owen. "We need to find out what is going on. I don't want to waste any time, okay?" Owen made it a point that Cristina met his eyes.
Cristina gave a silent nod of the head and leaned towards Burke as the room cleared out.
Once outside, Owen quickly pulled out his Blackberry and promptly texted Beth. "Trauma just came in. Sorry won't be home tonight." He pressed send and shut his phone off for the night.
"Shepherd, uh doesn't know if he can fix my hand," Burke pensively spoke. "Maybe I'll wait it out. See if this numbness subsides," stated Burke, fully knowing this hope was fruitless.
"Yeah," Cristina whispered.
"Or I can let Shepherd operate," Burke stated more rationally.
"Yeah, yeah." Cristina was not sure what she was agreeing to. The implications of either options were too true and frightening.
"I could lose all hand function." Burke stated what Cristina could not say with words but clearly screamed with her scared eyes. "What if I can never operate again?" asked Burke in a shaky voice.
"Yeah." Once again, Cristina agreed to something that had no solution.
"I nee-ed," a strangled voice came out of Burke. "I need…" Burke tried again. "You said you were here. For me." Burked needed Cristina's affirmation she was still there with him. "Cristina… I need you to tell me… what you think I should do." He needed her now more than ever. For once, he needed her to tell him how to move forward with his life. He couldn't take the step so he needed Cristina to take it for him.
Cristina froze. The lump she tried swallowing grew twice its size and was forcing its way up. Any words spoken at this point would just end up in loud sobs. There was no answer she could give Burke. Not now at least.
"I…" Cristina choked out. She diverted her attention to his monitor. She tore her eyes from Burke's broken eyes. "I-I told Dr. Bailey that I would be back." She was running away. Just for now until she had an answer for Burke. "Okay? I-I told her that I wouldn't be long. I'm going to think about it, okay?" Cristina hurried her words and rushed out of the room. She turned the corner and ran into the closest on-call room she could find. She ran in and locked the door behind her and let out the breath she didn't even realize she was holding in.
/
Owen found a dark on-call room to take a breather before Burke made up his mind about surgery. It was only his second day at Seattle Grace and already he was mired in a shooting. He thought he had left it all in the desert. Apparently, fate seemed to always bring him in the center of the chaos. He twisted his band around his finger, feeling guilty for his lack of involvement in the planning of the wedding. The last two times Beth tried to get Owen to talk about the wedding, he had brushed her off stating he was tired. Even when he was not tired, the idea of wedding drained all the energy from his body. He knew he was pushing and felt heavy guilt.
Without preamble, the door opened ajar flooding bright hospital light into the dark on-call room. Owen instinctively leaned back at seeing the intruder. Cristina, the intern he had noticed his first day, closed and locked the door so quickly she failed to notice Owen was occupying the lower bunk. She leaned against the door and exhaled a sigh so heavy Owen could not help but be dragged down as well.
Cristina took several short breaths to fill her lungs with air. She inhaled large amounts of oxygen to get blood back in her brain. She needed to think. Despite her breaths coming back to normal and brain finally processing some thoughts, she could not prevent the tears from forming. The damned tears had a mind of its own.
Owen, surprised at the unlikely intruder, kept his silence. Although Cristina was the one to barge in an occupied room, Owen felt as if he was the intruder in the room. He kept quiet not wanting to scare her. But once he saw the tears flowing freely down her delicate face, he could no longer pretend he was a ghost in the room.
"Ahem," Owen cleared his throat as gently as he could.
Cristina flinched at the sudden noise and blinked her tears away to locate the source of the noise. 'Crap' she thought as her eyes focused on Dr. Hunt sitting on the lower bunk. "Ss-sorry, Dr. Hunt," muttered Cristina. "I-I thought the room was empty," said Cristina, although she realized she never even bothered to check. "Sorry."
"Don't be," quickly offered Owen. "Seems like you need the room more than I do." Owen tried to lighten up the mood.
Cristina turned her body to leave the room when she was stopped by Owen's question. "So has Dr. Burke made his decision?" asked Owen.
"No. Not yet," answered Cristina. She unlocked the door but before she could gather strength to leave the room she couldn't help but turn around to meet Owen's imploring eyes. "Y-you… you've seen many GSW cases," Cristina rationalized, aware of Owen's military background. "You are Bur- Dr. Burke's doctor so you've seen his films. What's… your take?" she couldn't help but ask the doctor she barely knew but strangely felt he could provide the answer for her.
"My experience tells me GSWs vary case by case. And I am his doctor, I am not allowed to make decisions for the patient," replied Owen. He wanted to strictly be the doctor in this case.
"Fine," answered Cristina. "Then from one doctor to one another. What is the probability of regaining movement without surgery?"
"Dr. Burke has a pseudo aneurysm in the subclavian artery. He's already feeling numbness so the damage has already been done. Wait a few days, risk the aneurysm getting bigger, which can spread the numbness to his whole hand." Owen stated the mere facts to Dr. Burke's case. "Dr. Shepherd can do the surgery. Relieve the compression on the nerves." This was the most he could offer to the scared intern in front of him. Mere facts but this was enough, he was sure, for the smart intern.
Cristina knew the science too well to argue with Owen about the complications that could arise during surgery. There were always risks involved. No matter what. She nodded. "Thank you, Dr. Hunt," she replied.
"You're welcome, Dr. Yang," answered Owen as he glanced at Cristina's backside before the door closed and darkness once again took over the room. The scene that took place before him made the small on-call room feel strangely vast, like an open meadow unexpectedly struck by a flash of lightning from the cackling sky. But just as quickly as the lightning struck, it was even quicker to leave, leaving Owen with an uneasy feeling he could not place. He turned his phone on to check in with Beth, somehow hoping that that would relax the tension in his body.