A/N: Thanks for the positive reviews, which gave me encouragement to continue this story.


He waited exactly seven days before he called her. Owen had hoped that she would have called him before that but no such luck. It was total silence on her part. He chided himself for actually wishing that she were in pain to have had the need to call him.

He practiced his greetings to sound as casual as possible. "Hey, Cristina, this is Dr. Hunt," "Hello, Cristina, this is Owen," "Hi, Cristina, how are you?" were some of his efforts. He felt like a freaking teenager, trying to talk to the girl of his dreams.

He cleared his throat before he dialled the number. She answered after three rings, "Hello, this is Cristina." His heart skipped a beat at the sound of her voice.

"Hi, Cristina, this is Dr. Hunt," he said.

"Oh, hi, Dr. Hunt. How are you?" she said.

"I'm fine. I'm just calling to see how your ankle is doing. I didn't hear from you so I decided to give you a call," he said, hoping he sounded nonchalant.

"It's been going well. I had a follow up at our student health center and they said you did a good job. It doesn't hurt that much again. They gave me crutches to help me move around," she said.

"How did you carry your backpack?" he asked.

"Eileen had to carry it for me and she was so mad because she had to carry her own, too," she said.

Suddenly, from the background, he could clearly hear Eileen's voice, "Who you're talking to, Cristina? Is it that gorgeous doctor from Boston?"

He heard Cristina say, "Shhhh" to Eileen, which was followed a giggle from both girls.

"Sorry about that, Dr Hunt," Cristina apologized.

"You know you can call me Owen, since I already call you Cristina," he said.

"Okay, Owen," she agreed. There was another giggle from Eileen in the background, followed by another "shhhh" from Cristina.

"So you're doing well," he said.

"Yup," she said. "I think I will be on my own two feet in a couple of days."

"Can I call you again?" he asked.

"Yes you can, if you want," she sounded surprised.

"Okay, Cristina, till the next time I call. Bye," he said.

"Alright, bye Owen."

He hung up the phone, satisfied that he hadn't frightened her away.

Meanwhile at the Smith campus, Cristina and Eileen were giggling away. "He wants to call me again," Cristina said.

"Really?" Eileen said. "Wow, you made an impression on the handsome doctor."

"Maybe he is just being nice," Cristina said.

"Oh, please. He can have any girl he wants. He's good looking, he has a hot bod, he's a doctor, he's a catch, Cristina," Eileen said. "He wants you."

"You think? But he is a real grown-up, Eileen. We're barely grown-ups. I can't even get into a bar or a club before they kick me out with my fake ID," Cristina countered. "There's no reason that he would want to be with me. I don't even put out."

"Hahahaha," Eileen cackled.

"I am not going to read anything to this," Cristina said. "He just wants to be my friend and that's it."

Eileen snickered at that statement.

"In any case, I have this paper to finish, so I am not going to worry about Dr Hunt at this moment," Cristina said, ignoring her friend's silly grin.

Three nights later, as she was sitting in the Talbot House double room, which she shared with Eileen, her phone rang. It was Owen.

"Ooh, he really is calling me as he said he would," she said, shaking her head. She really didn't quite believe it.

"Hello Owen," she said.

"Hi Cristina. How are you?" he said.

"I'm doing alright. You would be pleased to know that I am walking without crutches. I am walking on my two feet and nobody has to carry my backpack for me," she announced, triumphantly.

"That's great," he said.

"So what are you doing now?" she asked.

"I am on call at the hospital. I am taking a break and I decided to give you a call," he said. "It has been busy in the ER – a few broken bones, a vehicular accident, a kid that fell out of a tree with internal injuries and broken ribs, a couple of stabbings and one shooting."

"Wow, my sprained ankle doesn't stack up to that," she said.

"Hey, I am glad that you and your sprained ankle came through the emergency doors," he said. "So what are you doing?"

"I am in my bedroom at Talbot House. I am in my pjs and doing a homework assignment for psych class," she told him.

She sounded so young when she said that, he thought. Doubts about their age difference nagged at him.

His pager beeped and interrupted his thoughts.

"Hey, I gotta go now. They need me in the pit. I'll call you tomorrow," he said. He didn't even realize that he had said that he would call her the next day. It just came out of his mouth, so naturally.

"Okay, go be a doctor. Bye, bye," she said, feeling strangely warm on the inside.

The next night, he called her. And the next night. And the night after that. It almost became a ritual. He called her every night and she began to look forward to it. If she didn't answer the first time he called, he would make sure to call her later.

It became so that her day was not complete without his call. Sometimes, their conversations were long, sometimes short, depending on how busy he was. But without fail, he would call.

She would tell him about her day at school, her professors, her classes, her friends, the trouble she would get into. She made him laugh because she was so funny, smart, sarcastic and cute. He would tell her about what it was like to be a resident – the long hours, his fellow residents, the mean attendings, the cool surgeries and the strange cases.

She told him that she wanted to be a doctor, too – a cardio-thoracic surgeon. He told her that he was certain that she could do it. His vote of confidence made her happy.

Even though she knew that she was developing a huge crush on him, her logical mind stopped her from believing that she could ever be more than a friend to him – a young friend, whom he found to be amusing.

He, on the other hand, was hoping that he was becoming more than that. After all, they had been speaking every night on the phone for the last eight weeks. He had never invested that amount of time in getting to know a girl that well.

He wanted more than just a conversation every night. He wanted to see her, to have some physical contact, to smell her hair, to watch her smile. He decided that with his next day off, he was going to give her a surprise visit.

The night before his day off, he drove the 81 miles from Boston to Northampton so he could take her out to dinner. He was going to spend the night at a hotel and then, maybe they could spend the next day together. Little did he know he was going to be the one in for the surprise.


There was a sharp rap at the door at Talbot House. Eileen opened the door, only to be shocked by the presence of the handsome Dr. Hunt, who had flowers in hand.

"Hello Eileen," he said. "How have you been?"

"I am fine, Dr. Hunt. Are you here to see Cristina? Was she expecting you?" she asked.

"No, I just came to surprise her," he said.

"Ohhhh," Eileen said. "I'll just get her."

Two minutes later, Cristina and Eileen came back. It was clear that Cristina was dressed to go somewhere in a dark pair of jeans, lacy white top and high-heeled ankle boots.

"Hey," she said. "I didn't know you were coming down. You should have called me so I would have cancelled my date."

"Date?" he asked. He didn't know that she was dating.

"Yeah, I am so sorry," she said.

At that point, a young blonde guy with a couple of tattoos and piercings appeared at the open front door. "Cristina, are you ready?" he asked, barely acknowledging the presence of the other two people in the room.

"Yeah, Jeremy."

Owen watched as Jeremy placed a helmet on Cristina's head, slipped on her leather jacket and took her hand. She turned to Owen and offered her apologies with her eyes. As she followed Jeremy out of the door down the front pathway, she suddenly made an about-turn and came back into the house.

"I assume you're staying the night in Northampton. Where are you staying? We're just going to the movies and I can pop in after that," she said.

"Clarion," he said, disappointed at how his night had been going so far. He watched them roar away on Jeremy's motorcycle.

Eileen was feeling terrible for the doctor. "Clearly, Cristina had to be blind. The man drove 81 miles just to surprise Cristina and she disappears into the night with stupid Jeremy, who isn't half as good-looking as Dr Hunt," she thought.

Owen turned to Eileen and handed her the flowers. "Could you put this in a vase for her?" he asked. "Since I already have dinner reservations and if you're not doing anything tonight, would you like to come and share a meal with me?"

"Yes, yes," Eileen screamed. She ran to her room to get changed. She hoped some of the other girls would see her with this gorgeous man.

At the restaurant, Eileen could sense Owen's gloomy mood. She knew she was just a poor substitute for the person he really wanted to be with. She also knew that the conversation would eventually steer towards Cristina.

"How long has she been seeing this guy?" he needed to know.

"This is just their second date," Eileen answered. She could sense how down he was feeling, so she added, "The guys don't mean anything."

"You mean there is more than one?" he was incredulous.

"Yeah, that's why they don't mean anything. She will go out with a guy, maybe once or twice but never for the third time," Eileen explained.

"Why?" he was curious.

"Because she says by the third date, they get all touchy-feely and she's not into that. She says that's when they start becoming a distraction," Eileen said. While the fact that she was dating made him feel uneasy, knowing that the guys were not serious somehow comforted him.

His mood lifted a little after that and he consoled himself that she said that she was going to come by to see him, after her date. "After her date? What a joke, Owen Hunt," he thought.

After a pleasant dinner, he dropped Eileen back to Talbot House and drove to his hotel to await the arrival of Cristina.

He was probably there for about 30 minutes, when he heard a knock on his door. He opened it for Cristina, who was looking all chipper and cute. Her curls were loose and tumbled over her shoulders.

"Hey there now," she said.


A/N: As always, reviews are appreciated. Please leave your thoughts.