In the Summer's breeze
A/N: Set in a future in which Burke and Cristina bumped into each other at a conference.
A/N 2: No S7 stuff about Cristina's baby. She divorced Owen though, the reason is not important.
Oh, and Alex has his own apartment.
WARNING: CHARACTERS ARE OOC.
Cristina closed her eyes and let her body slip back into the still cold sand of the beach. She felt numb, but at the same time every time the breeze from the sea hit her face she felt alive. She had taken five days off of work, and as soon as her last shift ended she drove to an isolated beach in the nearby and checked in in a little bed&breakfast.
Now, on the third day, she was starting to feel like she made a decision. The most important decision of her life. But, as her ex-bastard-hated-almost-husband meant to tell her but never did, she was steady, she was sure. She was ready. She was going to have a baby. Her, Cristina Yang. She was going to work hard and convince herself that her baby wasn't a mistake, because she refused to think her future son or daughter was a mistake. Even if it was. She wasn't drunk, she wasn't forced to. She met her ex-almost(really almost) husband and as always, one thing led to another. It had to. So now, she was going to have this bundle of joy that entwined her to a man she didn't love anymore, but who – in those poor two hours – managed to make her heart beat faster, like an aflutter hummingbird. So that made her thing that maybe she was in love with him, but she didn't love him. She didn't even know if she was going to tell him about their baby, but she still had two days to figure that last detail out.
Of one thing she was sure – either way the baby's name was going to be Summer or Reese.
Oh, and Addison Montgomery ex-Shepherd was not going to be her doctor, no matter how much everyone venerated her.
Month one
"Where's doctor Miles?" she asks, her heartbeat almost audible in the sterile room she suddenly feels so extraneous.
Alex smirks in his usual and causal (mocking) half-smile, checking the chart he's holding to make sure once again of why his colleague and friend is there. "I accidentally read your chart and I had to see it with my eyes, Yang. So tell me, who's McDaddy? You had a meeting with your ex-husband?"
No, with my almost-husband who once left me in a crowded church, Cristina thinks. "None of your damn business." she states instead, glaring at him for a brief instant.
"Come one, patient-doctor secret."
"You don't know the concept."
"I do!" he exclaims loudly, as if it is the most important thing in the world.
"Whatever. Can we just get this over with?"
x
He corners her again a week later, pushing her not so gently in a supply closet. "Have you told Meredith?"
"No." she rolls her eyes, annoyed. She kinda tries not to think about it, because Meredith will judge. She wants to concentrate on the baby instead. That fells just right.
"Why?"
"Meredith would judge." she's more serious now, and for a moment the walls she built around herself break.
Alex shrugs. "Whatever, Yang. I have nothing better to do these days and you're the perfect rumor to spread. I'm waiting for you to tell the others so that I can start the betting."
She's taken aback in surprise. "Bets about what?"
"The Daddy think, the sex..." he trails off seeing the frightening look on her face. Not knowing what to do, or say, he turns around and leaves.
Months two
She looks tired (exhausted), on the edge of a breakdown. He's watched her in te last few days, finding out she's been working non-stop.
He approaches her somewhere, putting on his best indifferent face.
"Take it slow, Yang. You should try to apply the concept of altruism once in a while."
His remark is cruel, sharp, rude, totally right. Cristina slowly turns around and stares, kinda defiantly, somewhat softly. A remote shade of uncertainty. Gratitude.
"I haven't done this before." she says after a long pause during which she accurately debates whether to let him in on not.
"Have you scheduled another appointment with Miles?" he asks without looking at her.
"No," she rubs her temple, noticing her headache is getting worse. "Do you mind doing it?"
"Okay," he tells her, a little unsure. "I'm free now, come on."
It maybe happens too fast, and she's not ready. Hearing the heartbeat, seeing that thing that ridiculously looks like a peanut and that is in her uterus and that is her baby. The previous time she had all the time to prepare herself.
"The heartbeat's strong." Alex points to the flickering. "And here it is. Everything's good. But seriously. .Slow." and this time he doesn't say it harshly, but in a more caring way. And Cristina thinks that it might be time to tell Meredith she's gonna be an Aunt.
x
"What's wrong?"
She's hyperventilating in the middle of the hallway. Everybody's looking at her, because she's Cristina Yang and she doesn't freak out.
"Cristina? Can you hear me?"
When she hears his voice above all the others, a spark of something lightens her eyes.
She grabs his wrist frantically, but her body lacks the strength she needs to pull him somewhere. "He's here." she says, because he's still the only one who knows. Who can understand.
And actually, he's left to wonder if she means Hunt or maybe Avery or someone else, but he gets what she's telling him and hurries to drug her away from the crowd.
"I won't ask you who he is." he tells her as he makes her sit down on a bed. "But if you need me to kick his ass..."
And that's it, that changes everything. She leans forward, she kisses him passionately.
Surprisingly, it's not rough nor hard nor breathtakingly fast. It's sweet. It's new. It's meaningful.
"It's Burke's." she says when it's over, spelling it clearly into his bare chest.
"I hope for you it's a girl." he only says.
Month three
Alex isn't sure if Cristina has told Burke, since he's gone before he could even see him, but now that Meredith knows he feels less involved and he likes it. He's not oppressed anymore and for the first time since their sex thing he can breathe again.
But then he's in the on-call room near OR3 and she's there too, and she doesn't even look up from what she's holding when she hears someone enter. And Alex feels like the ultrasound she's looking at is leading him to her... Before he knows it his feet are moving and he's sitting down beside her, and she glances up at him.
"Everything looks fine." he tells her, taking the picture in his hand.
"It's addictive. To look at it, I mean. I'm doing an ultrasound a week although everything is fine so that I can have a new picture of the baby."
He shrugs. How can he know what to say? He's Alex Karev, Evil Spawn, and he doesn't do babies, relationships or even friends. Okay, so maybe he can be a good friend if he wants to, but she's Cristina Yang. She's like the dog that barks and bites.
"Should I tell him? Because I don't want to." she mumbles.
"He's an ass, Yang. Why would he deserve to knows?" he caws out.
But he knows that, if he were him, he'd want to know.
Month four
When she walks out of Miles's offices, he's there waiting for her. She's surprised, and for some reason her right hand moves to her belly. She has a baby bump now, but since she's thin she's still able to hide it wearing scrubs.
Alex stands up, with the indifferent look he likes to have. "Meredith couldn't come. She didn't want you to be alone since today you would've been able to find out the sex."
He's lying, she thinks, because Meredith doesn't know how far along she is. He must have counted the weeks.
"I didn't want to know the sex."
"Oh."
"I'm sure you can tell, looking at the ultrasound."
"What about you? Are you gonna stop looking at the pictures?"
Cristina shrugs, and it's probably in that instant that Alex realizes what he's doing there, in front of one of his closest friends, the woman who once saved his wife's life and the one who can kick anyone's ass without feeling guilty.
"I'll settle for hearing their heartbeat."
"Fine. I have surgery now."
"Bye."
"Wait!" he turns around, a little uncomfortable about what he's about to say. "Can I have a look at the ultrasound?"
"Here. Keep it."
x
Later that night, he sits on the bed and takes it out of his coat pocket. Then he smiles, because he doesn't know how Cristina feels but he is really happy and involved now.
Month five
She's really showing now, and she can't miss Owen's dirty looks and people's whispers. And she feels pissed when she hears about a bet and she wonders if Alex started it.
She's also officially at the point of the pregnancy where all she thinks about is sex. And there's a moment – a tiny, split, horrible second – in which she almost calls Burke, because he's the baby's father, dammit!
"How are you feeling?" Meredith yawns, handing her a styrofoam cup of decaf coffee as she sips her own real one.
"I don't know. This 'coffee' sucks. I can't understand why I have to drink decaf."
"You know why, Cris."
"It annoys me. And I need S-E-X."
Meredith stares at her strangely. "Why did you spell it?"
"The baby has ears."
x
"Dr. Karev, are you in for a betting?" a young nice nurse asks him.
"About what... Sarah?"
"About Dr. Yang's baby. Who do you think the father is?"
Alex feels anger rise, and he can't believe only a couple of months earlier he would have accepted with a smirk. Hell, he would have started it himself. "This needs to stop." he says serious. "I don't wanna hear about Dr. Yang's baby from people who should mind their own business!" with that, he angrily walks away, telling himself it's okay to feel amazed by Cristina's baby.
Month six
When she enters the residents lounge at the end of her last shift before maternity leave and she sees him there, shirt-less, flawless, fresh and smooth, she thinks she's officially gone crazy. She swallows, but despite everything she makes a step forward, then two.
"Yang." he says, surprised, when he sees her. She's showing her pregnancy a lot more than the last time they properly talked, and it suits her, he thinks.
"The betting stopped. And... I heard it was you who made it stop. And... thank you, I guess."
Alex lets his sweater fall to the ground and he walks by her. They both feel a shiver when he runs his fingers through her curls; Cristina's feverish under his gentle touch.
Their lips crash and they close their eyes, pushing themselves against one another and pulling the other closer. Alex zones out for a minute when she passes her tongue on his neck, feels ecstatic when she abandons herself in his arms.
Cristina moans louder when Alex slips his fingers in her panties, and when he then leads her to a more comfortable place.
The silence that surrounds them makes them feel even more connected and although it all seems a fairytale they know it's real.
"I want you to deliver him or her." she tells him as she once again cups his face in her hands.
"The baby'll be mine too." he mumbles. "Just a little bit."
Month seven
Alex puts down the paintbrush and looks at the walls satisfied. He painted them of the lightest shade of pink, and he draw stars and a smiley moon on the ceiling. He even brought pink curtains, and for the first time in his life he can say he likes the color – it has a meaning down.
x
"So you and Alex."
Cristina stops shoving chips in her mouth, she swallows slowly, then talks. "We just, I don't know. It feels great. I can't say I understand my feelings, but it could be a great thing, right?"
Meredith shrugs. "You'll yell at each other every other day, but you do look good together. Alex seems different."
"He's always been involved with my pregnancy. He was the first one to know, he made a few ultrasounds for me... he felt like he had to help me in te beginning, until the point where he really did care."
"You were friends before, he's always cared."
"We've never been close. But now... I don't know what it is, Mer. But I think I like it. I like him."
Month eight
"What are you doing with my stuff Karev?" Cristina runs both her hands through her curls, staring skeptically at her – well, boyfriend? She doesn't know what he is or what they are, but they've been seeing each other for over a month, talking almost every day and making unshared plans in their heads.
"You're moving in with me." he answers, his eyes still set on what he's doing – folding her clothes and putting them in the boxes scattered around the room. When Cristina looks into some of them, she sees her few make-up and toiletries, along with some other things she kept on her nightstand.
"Am I now?"
"Yep. My apartment is a little smaller than yours, but it's in a better place and I've already painted the nursery so..."
"You have?" Cristina sounds pleasantly surprised, and Alex smirks slightly because she's so different from the person he used to know.
"I have, but you can't see it. The walls will tell you if it's a boy or a girl, and we don't want that, do we?" he blinks, approaches her and places a gentle kiss near her eye. "I feel like I love you right now."
"Right now?" she questions.
"Yeah."
"Well, then, right now I'm almost sure I love you too."
"Almost?"
"Yeah."
"Yeah."
Month Nine
"Alex!" she screams from the bed, squeezing his hand so tightly that he's not sure he'll ever operate again. "He or she is coming, and, and, tell me!"
"What, Cristina? What do you want me to tell you?"
"You can start to push, ma'am."
"No! Alex, tell me. Are we having a boy or a girl?"
Alex is not sure why he tells her. She'll find out soon anyway. Maybe it's because she said 'we', and surely Cristina appears so beautiful to him right at this moment. And as he holds her hand he doesn't ever want to let her go. He caresses her palm, and smiles. "We are having a little girl, Cristina."
x
"What do you want to name her?" he asks, his eyes fixed on the tiny baby Cristina is holding.
"Summer." she answers firmly. "You can choose the middle name, if you want."
"Okay then... Hello Summer Francesca Yang, welcome to the world." he places a little kiss on the top of her head.
"No," Cristina says.
"No?"
She looks at him softly, and smiles. "She's yours." she simply says.
THE END
Not my best work, I recognize that. I like some parts and hate others – and I feel like I could have written in all better.
If you like this kind of one-shots and are interested, I'll let you know I'm planning another one 'year by year'. I haven't started it yet though.