A/N: This is a Cristina/Burke story. It will focus on those two, as they are my favorite characters on the show. This is not a one-shot, but an ongoing story. If you'd like me to update fast, I suggest you review! I'm not kidding...if I get few reviews, I won't update fast, whereas more reviews less time between updates. LOL...I know...I'm baaaaaad...
This first chapter is for Britty Weasley...because yes, I do remember you! And now, you have another chapter of mine dedicated to you! Aren't you lucky? (wink, wink)...PS...you'll probably recognize who sings the title of this fic!
For anyone interested, the song of choice for this chapter, since music is so important to the show, the song will be Laura Veirs "Magnetized". I like it, and I think it fits the general mood of this chapter.
The most important days of our lives, don't start out that way. They start small, with innocuous things, with everyday things. After all, no one expects the Spanish Inquisition. At least, that's how the old joke goes. Being a surgeon, even the small things are life or death, just not your own. Frequently, doctors don't know how to handle their own mortality, so they ignore it. It's the important days of our lives, when it can't be ignored, but must be confronted.
Cristina Yang was good. She was good at everything. Except relationships. Especially relationships. It wasn't her fault, though. It was her parent's fault for not being affectionate enough. Yeah, that was her excuse, and she was sticking to it. Preston didn't understand that. Preston who, you ask? Preston Burke, M.D. and future chief of surgery for Seattle Grace Hospital. Her boss's boss's boss. Okay, so he wasn't Chief, yet, but Cristina had faith in him. It was all part of the girlfriend duty.
Another part of the girlfriend duty was getting up early on the day of said boyfriend's big evaluation and making him breakfast. Cristina couldn't cook, so she really got up early and ran out to the IHOP down the street and got him pancakes. Preston loved pancakes. Don't ask Cristina why, because breakfast to her was a gallon of coffee. Still, she did what she could.
Approximately thirty minutes after she got up, and a good twenty minutes before the alarm would go off at 5:30 to tell Preston to get up, Cristina was back and unpacking the bags. Strawberry pancakes for Preston, and bacon skillet for her. Double mocha latte for her, and just plain coffee for Preston, courtesy of Starbucks. His coffee went in the microwave to stay warm, while her's went down the hole and into the abyss that was her stomach. Cristina grinned and laughed as the euphoria that was caffeine spread through her body and ended in a vague tingly in her digits. It was then that she noticed it. The quiet of the apartment and her body. It was a feeling. A vague, general, "today is a big day" feeling. Something was going to happen.
Cristina's cell phone chose that moment to ring and scare the hell out of her. The overly irritating ring tone that George had secretly installed on it, "I Need A Hero" by some 80's icon, was too loud in the quiet kitchen and Cristina grabbed and answered it before it could wake Preston, who was a light sleeper, probably because of his years as a doctor and having to wake at the slightest disturbance.
"What?"
"We can't get Meredith out of bed." Cristina levied herself up onto the counter and sighed. Déjà vu...again. She'd thought they'd gotten over this last time it'd happened, a month ago. Suddenly, a thought occurred to Cristina. Meredith had had a "feeling" too. She'd almost died that day. She and Preston had almost died. This was not a good sign.
"So? What do you want me to do about it?"
Izzie sighed and Cristina could hear the grin over the phone. "Remember what you did last time? Came over and yelled at her and got her to get up? Could you do that?"
Cristina sighed, and a flicker of movement near the bedroom caught her attention. Preston, shirtless and rumpled from sleep, stretched and yawned, looking very much like a lion of some sort as he stood there. He caught sight of her, fully dressed and sitting on the counter speaking on the phone and smiled. She loved his smiled.
"Cristina?"
"What?"
"Well, can you?"
Cristina sighed and slumped down, watching as Preston caught sight of the food on the table and grinned, that evil grin of his. He walked silently around the table until he was standing in front of her.
"I could," Cristina answered, cocking her head as Preston leaned close and gently brushed her lips with his. For a few seconds, she leaned in; enjoying the touch...then she remembered who she was on the phone with. Cristina jerked back and pushed a laughing Preston away. "Why can't you do it? You saw me do it before. It's not that hard."
Preston sat down at the table, pulling his newspaper towards him, which Cristina had grabbed on her way back in. He opened the paper, simultaneously cutting off a bite of pancakes as he did. He really was poetry in motion. Even as Cristina half heard Izzie and George arguing through the phone, she was studying his movements. She did it everywhere they were together. He always moved so smoothly, like he'd thought about what he was going to do for an hour before he actually moved, though it couldn't be true. Sometimes, especially in surgery, she felt like an oaf, a big clumsy oaf with no coordination at all. Then, they'd get home in bed, and she'd know that together they were smoother than they were apart. With them, it was like everything was already set up, and they were just following through. It was...contenting.
Cristina sighed. "Just go up there and kick her...hard...in the butt. She'll get up."
Preston could hear some screeching come out of the other end of the phone, and saw Cristina move it a few inches away from her ear. She was grinning, a rare occurrence before six a.m. It was a welcome sight. He'd need all the amusement he could today. The interns had evaluations monthly, so they were used to the stress of such situations. Attendings had yearly evaluations, and they were a lot more serious. Such things could make or break careers and jobs. If your mortality rate was too high, or if you had too many complaints, you could be fired. On the other hand, if your record was impeccable then you could get a raise. Preston was in between those two things. He'd always had good surgical records; his mortality rate was a lot lower than most. However, this year two things affected this evaluation the bad way. One, an error in judgment on his part of a past surgery came to light, via a towel in an elderly woman's chest, and two, his relationship with an intern. Cristina. Not that he regretted the second one. No, he regretted nothing of this relationship, except the loss of their child. Now that, he regretted most of all. Of course, Preston didn't doubt for a second that they'd have the chance for another. Maybe several more. This was it for him. She was it. Now, if he could only get Cristina to admit it.
Cristina loved Burke. Yeah, she could admit it...to his sleeping face. Much like he thought he did to her. So...technically...they were sleeping in love. They were awake in lust. Eh...worked for Cristina.
"Why don't you just yell at her? She hates to be yelled at," Cristina said as she hopped off the counter. Cristina could tell that in a few moments Preston would be looking for his coffee, so in a fit of domesticity she retrieved it from the microwave for him. She set it down in front of him and moved to sit down across from him. As George and Izzie argued over who would yell at her, Preston pulled Cristina into his lap and kissed her neck. Now, she couldn't even focus on what was going on.
"Your skillet is getting cold," Preston said as he nuzzled Cristina.
"Yeah...sitting around does that to food."
"Who's on the phone?"
"Izzie and George. Meredith won't get up."
"So?"
"They don't want to make her."
"And?"
"And that's where I come in. I go over, I yell, she gets up, we all make it to work only half an hour late."
"MMMmmm...how about you and me stay here and be late anyways."
"I woke up early to make you this breakfast so you'd be well-fed for the big meeting."
Preston laughed. "You made it?"
"Okay...so I bought it. Same diff. I still got up early."
Preston turned Cristina so that she was straddling him in his chair. "I appreciate it. Let's be late."
Preston started to unbutton Cristina's blouse, and smiling she let him. Then she remembered the phone in her hand. Slapping Preston's hand where it'd begun to wriggle up under her bra, Cristina brought the cordless to her ear.
"Guys?"
"EEEEEEEEEWWWW! You're having sex with Dr. Burke while we're on the phone!" Simultaneous yells could be heard.
"Oh, shut up. I am not having sex with Burke!" Cristina said, grinning at the crestfallen look on Preston's face. "I'm getting ready to come over there so we can get Meredith up."
"Now I'm heartbroken," Preston moaned as Cristina disconnected the call and began to button up her shirt.
Cristina laughed. "Be heartbroken, but I gotta go. Your suit is still hanging by the door, and ignore the wet towels on the floor in the bathroom. I'll pick them up when I get home." Cristina grabbed her purse and keys, as well as her helmet and her ID badge off her other jacket. "Be nice, today, Dr. Burke." Cristina leaned over on the way out and pecked Preston on his cheek. She was out the door before he could do more than wave, causing off a careless, "Love you," over her shoulder.
It was only as she got on her bike that she realized what she'd done. She'd just told Dr. Preston Burke that she loved him. Oh, now that was just the biggest slip of the tongue.
The convenience store was very quiet in the pre-dawn light. The two men with the guns were just as silent, but in a different way. They were silent in a deadly way. They held mini-Uzis on the small Korean shopkeeper, silently urging him to empty the till faster. One of them was sweating, the ski mask making it difficult to function in the humid heat of a Seattle summer morning. They needed this money though. They had to have it.
The big one's name was John Gravies. Everyone at the local pub called him Big John, with good reason. At six foot eight, he towered over most people, and the huge muscle mass he had intimidated the rest. The smaller man, much smaller at six feet tall, was his younger cousin, Brian Gravies. Brian was the sweater.
Together, they'd concocted a plan. They were going to rob a convenience store, and use the money to pay off the loan sharks that Brian owed money to. He hadn't meant to get so deep into debt. It took money to keep up with his cousin though. When the time had come to pay up, he hadn't had enough. They'd broken his knee cap. They said if he didn't have the money by tonight, they'd break the other one and a bone again each night until he paid them. Without much choice, he'd turned to the very man that caused this, his cousin.
John had had no idea what his cousin was getting into. He was smart, into stock, and had the money to afford the motorcycle life he lived. He'd never thought of how Brian was keeping up with him. Then, after being told, all he felt was rage. Even he hadn't enough money to pay off the loans Brian had taken. This little robbery was a return to his roots. A return to where he came from. Crime. Pain. It was all one and the same.
"Put the money in the bag!"
The teller was shaking, his old hands not quite making it through the stress. With a gasp, a handful of money slipped to the floor. "I so sorry! I so sorry! I get! I get!"
Big John watched as the small man bent out of sight, supposedly to pick up the money he'd dropped. It was only a last second intuition on Brian's part that saved Big John's life. Thinking he'd impress his cousin by being bad ass like him, Brian stepped in front of John, to threaten the teller a little, not seeing the Korean man jumping up with a shotgun until it was too late. The shot was so loud that for a few seconds, none of them could move. Then the teller was cocking the gun again, and Big John was desperately pulling Brian out of the store. The teller shot out a rack of chips, the front window, and Big John's truck's headlight before they could get away.
Looking at his cousin, his only family, bleeding on his front seat, Brian's eyes open in spite of the pain made the decision for him. Big John would do anything to save his cousin's life.
And that's the first chapter of this story! I hope we can all see where it's going! I hope we'll all enjoy where it's going!
