A/N: So..the finale? Ah-mazing. While it wasn't as moving as last year's (but what could be?) I cannot stop thinking about all the little seeds Shonda Rhimes and company planted. Hence, this story was born! Hope you enjoy!
The Morning After: Part I
For all the time Cristina Yang had spent in that corner room at Ellis Grey's house, she felt miserably out of place now. The bed was too firm, nothing like the soft one she had shared with Owen, the cushion giving in easily to her body. The room was too small, the walls seemingly closing in on her as she willed her senses to return. The walls were not moving, and the bed was just fine. She would make do, like she always did.
Owen wanted to kick her out? Well, she would soldier on and find her own way forward. She didn't need him to breathe, to move. She didn't need him to fall asleep anymore. Or at least that's what she told herself.
The reason she was wide awake and staring at the ceiling at two in the morning was because she had a restless day. Those thoughts kept her awake. And Zola's constant crying. Cristina swore the kid had endless lung capacity.
She listened to Meredith coddle the baby, talking endlessly about God knows what. She heard Derek's name and felt the weight press heavier on her chest.
Look at them, the twisted sisters. Both abandoned by the men whom they loved and claimed to love them. It was almost poetic in its injustice.
GREYS
Both women ended up in the kitchen long before either of their alarms were set to ring. The sun hadn't even peeked out yet, hours left before the darkness would rise. Cristina sat at the table, eating a bowl of cereal. The house was silent for a change, besides the soft clang of her spoon against the bowl.
Meredith grabbed a bowl from the cupboard and sat across from Cristina. She poured herself a full bowl of cereal and flooded it with milk. Both of them chewed in silence, their thoughts keeping them company. Cristina was the first to break, her hand trembling slightly as she dropped the spoon into her now-empty bowl.
Meredith looked up, noticing a familiar emptiness in her friend's eyes. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked quietly.
"No."
Meredith nodded, propping her elbow on the table and resting her head on her open palm. Across from her Cristina asked, "How about you?"
Meredith thought for a moment but then shook her head. "No."
GREYS
Mornings were different with a baby. While exhaustion was the default position for a surgeon, no longer could Meredith simply toss a poptart into her bag and leave the house with wet hair.
She didn't even have time for wet hair anymore.
Zola needed to be changed. She needed breakfast and Meredith was fairly sure that her baby teeth wouldn't make it through a poptart breakfast. So, she popped open a Gerber which Zola proceeded to spit out onto Meredith's last clean shirt.
Meredith passed Cristina as she wandered back to her bedroom to change her shirt and murmured, "Don't try to feed Zola the mashed peas. She does not like mashed peas, apparently."
"Believe me, I want nothing to do with feeding anyone's baby," Cristina muttered. "Is there coffee?"
"In the pot," Meredith said as she stepped into her bedroom and shut the door. Cristina padded down the stairs and turned into the kitchen, frowning when she saw Zola. The baby was seated a few feet from the kitchen table, a car seat strapped to the chair in what she assumed was a makeshift highchair.
Zola grinned wide toward her, reaching out one pudgy hand. Cristina shook her head and said, "Not happening, kid. Babies and I, not really on good terms right now."
She poured herself a large cup of coffee and leaned against the counter heavily. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to trick herself into thinking that she had not just woken up from a scant two hours of sleep. A loud crash to her side grabbed her attention and her eyes snapped open.
"What was that?" Meredith yelled from upstairs.
Cristina sighed and crouched down, picking up the toy that Zola had unceremoniously thrown across the table. Meredith rushed into the room, hastily buttoning up her shirt. Once she saw that Zola was in perfect health she exhaled loudly and said, "Okay, that scared the heck out of me."
"She throws things," Cristina told her, dropping the toy onto the counter. "You might want to work on that."
"Very funny," Meredith muttered.
"And you're off by a button." Cristina gestured to the crooked slant of her shirt and Meredith turned quickly, heading back to her room and she unbuttoned and then rebuttoned the shirt. She thought of how she would have to get the carseat back in the car and then drop Zola off at the hospital daycare. And then she would have to face Chief. And Derek.
She pushed thoughts of her husband from her mind and walked out of the bedroom, grabbing her purse and the diaper bag on her way out. The diaper bag hung awkwardly from her arm, nearly spilling wet wipes onto the ground as she jutted her hip out to nudge it upright. She nearly cried with joy when she saw Cristina had readied her travel mug with coffee.
Meredith unstrapped Zola from the car seat and stepped back, staring at it for a moment as she wondered how the hell she was supposed to juggle a diaper bag, Zola, and a carseat that still had to be put in the car.
"Give me that," Cristina finally said, grabbing the diaper bag. She took the carseat, too, and said, "We are coming back for the coffee."
Damn right we are, Meredith thought as she followed Cristina to the car. Caffeine was going to be necessary to get through this day. Cristina was strangely adept at strapping the carseat into the backseat, stepping back after only a few minutes and telling Meredith, "You deal with the rest of this and I'll get our coffees."
She went back into the house, taking a moment to settle her nerves before grabbing the coffees and heading back to the car. Meredith was already at the wheel and the engine was running.
"Alright, you ready to go?" Meredith asked when Cristina slipped into the seat beside her. Cristina strapped her seatbelt and nodded. Yeah, it was time for them to go. Time to face suspensions. Time to face husbands. Time to face reality.
A/N: Do you guys like this? Let me know-next chapter is all written. While this is mainly a C/O story, I still intend on following all main storyarcs created in the finale. So, you will get a bit of all the characters which in my opinion makes it all the more fun!