Disclaimer: Grey's Anatomy and all its characters are the intellectual property of Shonda Rhimes and Co.
A/N: This is what happens when there's a hiatus and I let my imagination take over.
"So, it's a definite. Mark's got his eye on Teddy now." Meredith and Cristina were eating lunch at the hospital cafeteria.
"Seriously?" Cristina looked slightly shocked by the news. Only slightly, since Mark's reputation preceded him and maybe it wasn't that much of a surprise after all. Except it was Teddy.
Teddy with the birds on her scrub cap, the deer in her backyard and the whole unrequited Bridges of Madison County love story with Owen; you could almost see the litter of kids running around the house in her eyes already.
When Cristina had first heard about it, she'd quickly passed it off as a bit of a joke. Apparently, it wasn't.
"Yup, I saw it with my own two eyes and Alex said he saw Mark get all serious-relationshippy when he asked her out to lunch."
"Lunch? Huh." Cristina started swivelling her head around as if she was looking for something, her lips pursed around the plastic spoon stuck in her mouth.
"What are you doing?" Meredith looked amused at her friend's weird antics.
"Trying to see where the flying pigs are."
Their collective giggles were overheard by Alex as he walked towards their table, sandwich in one hand, drink in the other. "What's so funny?" He swung moodily into his chair. Alex was just a little more grumpy than usual these days.
"The man whore and Snow White trying to make nice, that's what."
"Cristina!" But even Meredith couldn't wipe the grin from her face upon hearing her best friend's sharp wit come to play.
"Guy's moving on, so what?" Alex was eating his sandwich with his usual less-than-impeccable table manners. The twisted sisters looked at him with their customary expressions of mild disgust.
"So what? So Sloan isn't exactly what I pictured to be Teddy's type, that's what." Cristina bit loudly into a crisp, punctuating her point.
"People can change Cristina." Meredith interjected.
"Yeah, Yang, we can't all be robots." Alex remarked with a smirk.
Looking a little put out, Cristina folded her arms defensively, "Hey! Could we stay on the topic please?"
"Fine, whatever, I'm just saying the man's getting older, maybe he's thinking that he needs to settle down." Shrugging, Alex proceeded to slurp the last of his drink through a straw with considerable noise.
Cristina stared at Alex disbelievingly, leaning forward on the table and tilting her head in his direction as if she had found it hard to hear him the first time.
"I'm sorry, what did you just say? Mer, is it just me or has Karev gotten a bit soft since Iz-"
"Dude, shut up about her already. She's gone, end of story."
Now it was Alex folding his arms against his chest in a defensive pose, the slight pucker perpetually evident on his forehead turning into a full blown frown. With a sigh, Cristina leaned back against her chair, while Meredith nervously bit at the inside of her lower lip as she watched on.
The three of them sat in awkward silence for several seconds. Izzie's presence, or lack thereof, was still a taboo subject to bring up in front of Alex, even if it was only in jest. Cristina, who never had any qualms about saying exactly what she liked, actually felt a little bad for once.
"Look Alex, I didn't mean-"
"Whatever. Just stop talking about her in front of me."
"Okay." With that affirmative, Cristina resumed eating her lunch.
Meredith, in a bid to steer the conversation elsewhere and break the silence, decided it was her turn to pipe in. "So, how's Lexie?"
"How should I know? It's not like we're going out."
"You sleep together!"
"So? It's sex, end of story."
"You like saying that a lot, huh?" Cristina remarked around a mouthful of salad.
Alex gave her a look and she held her hands up in mock surrender. "Fine," she went on, "Lexipedia doesn't seem like her chirpy little self lately, though."
"She's fine, probably just feeling a little...under the weather." Meredith remembered Lexie's breakdown in the bathroom when she'd heard about Mark moving on. No one else had to know about that. Cristina seemed unnaturally attuned to the fact though.
"And it's got nothing to do with Sloan getting his groove on with Teddy?" A cynical brow rose at Meredith's blatant, and rather unsuccessful, attempt to cover up the truth.
The two best friends exchanged looks; Meredith's telling Cristina's not to pursue the issue further. Not right now anyway.
"You guys are boring me with your girl talk. I'm gonna go see if anyone needs me for surgeries." Alex growled, standing up.
"Touchy that one," Cristina remarked, pulling a face at Alex's retreating back, "I guess even Lexipedia sex isn't helping."
Meredith had to smile a little at Cristina's sauciness – it was just Cristina, even if deep down she did care a little more than she let on. "Everyone gets twisty sometimes."
"That's almost true. Except, you know, the Mrs. Married Happy Shepherd you."
Hearing the use of her current moniker made Meredith giggle. She was even getting okay with the addendum of Shepherd now. "Wasn't always that way, wasn't that way for a long time."
"Yeah I know. I was there." Cristina nodded as she sipped thoughtfully on her drink, "Glad it finally worked out."
Although she'd never admit it, Meredith was pleasantly surprised to hear those words coming out of Cristina's mouth.
They shared a conspiratorial grin before they parted ways, Cristina yet again on Teddy's service and Meredith on Bailey's.