A/N: I finished this a few weeks ago, but have now decided to place it here. Please read and review. As always constructive criticism is appreciated.
One
The dress lay pooled around her feet, its silky material infecting her with memories, desires. Cristina was standing there sobbing, clutching to her person because right now everything she knew was cracking. Everything had changed because there was this new gaping hole in her life. Burke was gone. He had walked away from her and taken everything that mattered with him.
Except her. She didn't matter anymore.
Another sob convulsed through her. She was crying in the same way she had after her surgery. Was this another mental breakdown? Would she be able to stop? Last time his arms had wrapped around her. He had pulled her into his comforting embrace and soothed her, but Burke wouldn't be here this time. He wouldn't be here to hold her.
She collapsed on the floor and bunched the dress in her fists. Cristina wanted to tear at it, to shred this thing that had not allowed her to breathe…this thing that she had been wearing when he left her. Then she realized she was still in the slip. It was just one more piece of cloth that had choked her. It was something else that was responsible for choking her and she could not stand to keep it on.
She clawed at the corset portion, desperately trying to break free. She could not get her delicate surgeon's fingers around the ties. They were escaping her, twisting their way out of her grasping fingers. Meredith pressed her hands away before using the scissors on those as well. Cristina sighed heavily.
She was free.
Meredith had grabbed some of her clothes. Warm sweats and long sleeved shirt. Thank god they were new from the laundry. She could not handle the smell of Burke on her clothes right now. Meredith laid a comforting arm around her before leading her to the bedroom. Cristina shied away; she couldn't go in there. She would smell his scent, roll over his side of the bed and remember what she had lost.
A wracking sob took hold of her again and the surgeon part of Cristina despised this weakness. She hated the pathetic girl who was crying over a man, but that side could not convince her to stop her tear ducts. It could not convince her to ignore the pain so it sat there contemptuously glaring at her.
Meredith found her again sitting on the couch. She had brought pillows from the storage room and a blow up mattress. Burke had used those for when his fraternity brothers came over. Meredith sat there blowing it up and then put a comforter there and pillows. Cristina numbly stumbled over into the mattress and curled up. Meredith wrapped an arm around her again as more weeping arrived.
The tears were slow now, dripping from her eyelids like a broken faucet. Broken. That's what she was…broken by a man who had somehow convinced her love was worth it.