Four
The OR was silent. Few nurses were in on this surgery and for that Meredith was grateful. They would pepper her with questions about Cristina and Burke. She was expected to know more, but Meredith hated to feed the gossipers. It was not her fault that their own lives were not dark and twisted enough to amuse them.
Burke had barely said a word during the entire operation. He would politely ask for a ten-blade, suction, or invite her to try her hand at it. However, when he was not looking at the heart, he would turn that intense gaze on her. Those eyes were probably one of the reasons Cristina had loved him.
She was tired of this. She could not take it anymore. " Dr. Burke, do you have something to say to me?"
He almost flinched, his eyes flashing. Caught in his game, he said, " Dr. Grey… Meredith, how is she?" His voice was full of pain, his eyes earnest and sad.
She didn't give a damn.
"You want to know how she is?" He nodded.
"You left her Dr. Burke. You left her at your own wedding. You don't deserve an answer to that question."
Men with their stupid boy-penises. They were seriously the root of all that was wrong with the world. She had never known that Burke was one of those. Meredith used to think Cristina was lucky. Her boyfriend had been mature and had the bonus of not having a wife. He had loved her and she him. Meredith had not thought that life would come in and screw with them this way, but like people say life's a bitch.
" Meredith…I—"
She cut him off. "I'm not done. I spent last night holding Cristina while she sobbed and sobbed Burke. You don't know what you did to her. She was ready. She was going to walk down that aisle and prove that—"
"If she was ready, why didn't she come?" Meredith could tell he honestly wanted to know.
"Your mama took her eyebrows away. She needed to cut so Bailey let her. Her vows rubbed off when she scrubbed in. You couldn't give her a little time, just a little time? Time is what we all need. She was ready. She wanted to be married and you took that away from her. You with your stupid boy-penis robbed us—her of her happy ending."
She watched him as he stood there. His shoulders were bowed and she could see the faint outline of a frown underneath his mask. Damn right he should feel horrible! After all Cristina had done for the wedding, he had left. This relationship of theirs was so over. It was all over. He needed to realize that because Meredith would not allow him to hurt Cristina again.
"I love her," he whispered.
"That's not enough."