*Chapters are written based on the assumption that you all know what is going on between Cristina and Burke in Season 3. I'm not really going to write out their interactions unless it is relevant to Owen's story, which I am creating. Feel free to ask if anything is unclear or confusing. Thanks for the reviews and hope you enjoy!
*Disclaimer: Grey's Anatomy belongs to Shonda Rhimes & Co.
"Hello stranger." Beth looked up from the pile of papers she was grading to bitterly greet Owen.
Owen threw his keys on the shoe cabinet and shrugged his olive green jacket off his slumped shoulders. "Hey," he quietly returned the greeting. On the dining table was Owen's now cold dinner. His eyes glazed over to the sink to find a stack of dirty plates. "Sorry I missed dinner," apologized Owen.
Beth remained silent. She was seething inside at Owen's dismissive behavior since he had been back from Iraq. Owen took this silence to take a seat at the dining table and picked up a forkful of cold pasta.
Beth sighed as she got up from the couch. "Heat it up. The food's been out since 7." It was now 10.
"I don't care," said Owen with a shrug and pulled the plate back from Beth's hands. "I mean. Food is food, and I'm hungry." He glanced at Beth and saw her tight facial expression. "Pasta's still good," he offered to appease Beth.
Beth took a seat besides Owen and took a long hard look at Owen. "I've seen less of you since you've been back than I would when you're home from leave."
"I'm the new Head of Trauma at one of Seattle's busiest hospital. I'm still the new guy there," answered Owen as he stuffed another bite of the starchy pasta.
"What, the Head of Trauma can't even bother to call his fiancé? You guys are that busy over there?" resentfully asked Beth. Her initial elated thoughts of spending her nights with Owen after 3 years of separation quickly heaped into a large pile of frustration as Owen more often than not chose to spend his nights at the hospital.
Beth was right. Owen could have picked up his phone more to fill her in on what was going on at the hospital. He took a large swig of his beer. "Sorry Beth. Cut me some slack here. Head of Cardio was shot last week and two doctors are away on vacation. I'm being asked to pick up their shifts. I promise, once I get settled in, things will change."
Owen's tense face and bloodshot eyes were enough to convince Beth to let this conversation go. "Okay," she softly responded as she went back to the couch to finish grading her students' homework.
Owen finished the remaining clumps of pasta in two large mouthfuls and went over to the couch with his beer. "Show me what the kids are learning these days," he requested, hoping for to loosen Beth up.
Beth smiled and swung her legs over Owen's thigh as she grabbed the paper to show the students' work. Owen nodded along Beth's words but found his mind drifting far, far away. A stack of wedding magazines came into view from his peripheral vision. A throbbing headache immediately followed, drowning out Beth's words into a loud garble of sounds.
"How's Dr. Burke doing?" asked Izzie while taking a seat at their usual lunch table.
"Great! Burke and his chickens are getting along so well. Fine, just fine," wryly answered Cristina as she stabbed her salad with her fork.
"Hey, take it easy on him. Burke's just trying to get back to where he was before all this-" Meredith waved wide circles with the fork in the air, "-happened."
"Oh, easy for you to say. You're not the one with skinned chickens on the kitchen counter. First thing I see when I wake up and the last thing I see before I go to bed. Chicken is coming out of my nose and ears," complained Cristina. She felt her fork poke through a tough texture. "No!" she cried out. "Tell me this isn't chicken," she waved a fork with a chicken cube in the gang's faces. "Tofu! I asked for tofu!"
"It's not chicken," calmly responded George as he loudly sipped on his juice. "It may look like one and taste like one but nope, definitely not chicken."
"Grr…" Cristina pushed her salad aside.
"Well if you're not having the non-chicken chicken salad, it's mine Yang," said Alex as he grabbed the deserted salad.
Cristina rose from the table to get herself a non-chicken sandwich. She entered the food area and spotted a lone sandwich from afar. She picked up her pace but as she drew closer, a large masculine hand snatched the sandwich. She followed the hand that had claimed her prize and met a pair of electric blue eyes. She eyed back at the sandwich now in possession of Owen's hands.
"Does this have your name on it, Dr. Yang?" Owen playfully asked.
'Ass,' thought Cristina. 'He knew I was going for that sandwich and he still took it.' "No," coolly answered Cristina. "I can find something else."
"So you don't want it?" Owen pushed the sandwich towards Cristina.
Cristina narrowed her eyes to get a better look at the contents of the sandwich. She couldn't tell. "Only if it's chicken."
Confused and bewildered by her question, he reflexively asked, "Huh? Are you allergic to chicken?"
"Is anyone allergic to chicken?" mocked Cristina.
"Well, I'm sure poultry allergy exists," answered Owen as a loud voice yelled, 'what the hell are you babbling about?' inside his head. He shook his head and checked the sandwich. "It's turkey."
"Okay, I want it then," replied Cristina as she opened her palm for Owen to place the food in her hand.
"Guess you don't have poultry allergy," said Owen with a sparkle in his eyes and dropped it in Cristina's small palm.
Cristina's eyes zoned in on the thick band on Owen's ring finger. 'Hm, married. Wouldn't have guessed,' she thought as she replied, "No, I just hate chicken. For now." Cristina did not forget to mention, "Thank you Dr. Hunt."
"You're welcome, Dr. Yang," Owen formally accepted Cristina's gratitude and loudly chuckled at the interaction with the quirky intern as he made his way to the other food stations.
"Dr. Hunt. Mind if I join you?" asked Mark as he pulled up a seat next to Owen at the bar.
"Course not," Owen motioned Joe for Mark's order. "On me," he raised his glass and took a sip of the scotch.
"Thanks man. Looks like you know your drinks, I'll have what he's having," complimented Mark. "So what, no one waiting for you at home? What calls you here tonight?"
"It's been a long day," responded Owen, deliberately dogging Mark's first half of his question. He was assigned to a lung transplant that took 8 hours to complete due to complications in surgery. And he stopped by the gallery to catch a glimpse of Dr. Burke and Dr. Yang's coronary bypass. Now he was just purely drained and exhausted. "And you?"
"No place I'd rather be on a Friday night other than Joe's," answered Mark.
Owen agreed. Joe's was the perfect way to wind down after a long day. It was comfortable, with familiar faces, Joe, the bartender, was warm and treated the customers as if they were guests visiting his house. He relaxed considerably when at Joe's.
"So how's your second month at the loony bin?" asked Mark. "You can be honest. I'm one of the newest doctors here as well."
"Oh, are you?" Owen was surprised. He knew Mark was best friends with Derek and often caught Mark and Addison deep in conversation. "It's good. Bit dramatic, soap opera-ish at times but definitely keeping me on my toes."
As Owen finished his response, the door to Joe's jingled as the gang of the troublesome interns stepped inside the bar. Mark and Owen's head turned to meet the newcomers. "Uh oh, here comes the Fab Five," joked Mark.
"Yeah," agreed Owen. "Something tells me they are always up to no good."
"Hell yeah. Cutting LVAD wires, sleeping with the attendings, spreading syphilis throughout the whole hospital," babbled Mark. "Take my advice and stay away Hunt. Especially from the three ladies. They will pull you in, suck everything out of you and hang you out to dry. Just take a look at Derek, Burke and Denny. And one died. You have been warned."
Owen's eyes trailed the interns to their table. He had a direct view of the whole group. "Their personal lives are definitely tabloid worthy, but I think professional wise, they are a good group."
"Yeah, there's a couple of good ones in there," agreed Mark. "But more importantly, which one's your type?" asked Mark.
"Haha," laughed Owen. "None. I don't think of the doctors in that way."
"Aw, c'mon. We're not doctors right now," Mark pressed on. "We are two single men, drinking at the bar, together mind you, staring at three very beautiful ladies. You have your chirpy blondie, the twisted emo doll and the feisty hot Asian. Which one?"
Owen laughed and took a large swig of his scotch. "It's wrong we're even having this conversation."
"Fine, I'll make it easy for you. You have a girl?" asked Mark.
Owen silently nodded.
"Describe her," demanded Mark.
Owen thought before speaking. "Blond, blue eyes. Second grade teacher. Nice, swee-"
Mark cut Owen off before he could go on any further. "Yang. You are SO Yang."
"What?" Owen called out in surprise. His heart skipped a beat. He did think Cristina was the most beautiful out of the three doctors.
"Ah, too easy man," ribbed Mark. "You want something you don't have. Or rather, can't have. Us men are made up of the same materials and we are simple, my man." Mark toasted his drink, finished it in one gulped and motioned Joe for a second round, this time on Mark.
But it was not that Beth and Cristina were different. No, that was not the attraction. Cristina's laugh tugged at Owen. Her concentration at work was admirable; never once in his career did he find himself respecting and admiring an intern. Her snarky comments made Owen want to burst out laughing. But no way in hell was he going to admit this to Mark. Letting his thoughts out made them real; he was going to bury them in a deep place. Owen quickly moved on with the conversation and asked, "So who would you go for?"
/
"Shouldn't you be sitting with the attendings, Yang? Or go home to Burke and specially thank him for all the surgeries you are scrubbing in on?" asked Alex as the group took a seat at the table.
"Get your head out of the gutter Evil Spawn," Cristina remarked as she quickly motioned for Joe to take their order. "I'm scrubbing in because I'm just better than you. Don't hate because you can't be me."
"You are scrubbing in a lot lately," quietly observed George.
"Oh, cut it out guys," quipped Meredith. "Burke probably feels grateful towards Cristina for being there for him. He's just being a good boyfriend. It's not like we're not scrubbing in on other surgeries."
"Hm, maybe I should learn from you two and sleep with an attending. How about the new attending, Dr. Hunt?" asked Izzie.
"Yeah, sure beats sleeping with a patient," dryly remarked Alex as he stood up to leave. "Looks like girl talk is starting. Look George, nurses are at the bar. Gettin' me some tonight." George and Alex left the table and made their way to the bar.
"Dr. Hunt," Meredith eyed the new attending sitting with Mark. "He's hot in that scruffy, rugged, rough you up in bed kind of way."
"Yeah, he looks like he'll be good in bed," Izzie agreed.
"Ha, you have no chance with Ginger. He's married," informed Cristina.
"Married? Oh, dammit." Izzie grumbled in disappointment and sipped her cranberry vodka.
"Wait, how do you know that?" inquired Meredith.
"Why do you know that?" chimed in Izzie.
"He has a band on his ring finger," Cristina replied without thinking.
"Oh…" Meredith took a long look at Owen. "Wait a minute… Izzie we're asking the wrong question here. Why are you checking his ring finger?" slyly asked Meredith.
"Because we have something called eyes we use to see things," dryly answered Cristina.
"So you always check whether or not doctors have rings on their fingers?" teased Izzie. "I think someone noticed it. Burke won't be too happy about this."
"Shut it. Stop making a deal out of nothing." Cristina sighed as she was in no mood to joke about Burke or the new attending. All she wanted was one drink to relax herself before going home to Burke.
Meredith saw Cristina was irritated. "Well, we have to give him a McName. Not McGinger or McArmy. Too obvious."
"How about McCristina'sCrush?" incessantly teased Izzie.
Cristina shot Izzie a death grill and turned to her drink. As she raised her eyes away from the drink, she was startled to meet Owen's electric gaze from across the room. She quickly turned away feeling uncomfortable with the unexpected meeting of the eyes.
"Izzie you're onto something. He's married, off the market, but he is free to look." Meredith exclaimed in excitement, "I got it– McCrush!"
"Well, you two can stay here and crush on him all you want. I'm going home to my boyfriend who is way too cool to have a McName." Cristina left her unfinished drink at the table and hurriedly left Joe's, still a bit flustered from Owen's lingering gaze.