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Disclaimer: Grey's Anatomy belongs to Shonda Rhimes & Co.
"Boys! Boys!" Karen ran into the room pulling Nathan and Noah down from their attempts to climb into Owen's bed. "Uncle Owen is hurt right now, you cannot jump on him."
"Yet," chimed in Owen, beaming from the excitement from seeing his three nephews. "When I'm better, I promise you two can stomp on me all you want," said Owen as he ruffled the curly tops of the twin's heads. "Karen, did you run into Cristina outside?"
Karen's eyes nervously darted around as she answered, "Cristina? No, you must have heard me calling out her name. I was just looking for Cristina because I had to ask her something and I wasn't sure where she was so I was asking around but no one seem to know where she was so I had to ask really loud," Karen babbled on.
The Hunts were not good liars and Karen's incessant ramblings only got worse with age.
"Cwis! Cwis!" Joel, the smallest of the three, waddled towards Owen's bed, waving his arms wildly around his head.
"Yes, Jo?" asked Owen. "Did you see Cris outside?"
"Cwis!" beamed Joel, his short arms barely past his head, still waving frantically around his head.
Owen burst out into hearty laughter as he finally got Joel's wild behavior. "Yes, Jo. The woman with the crazy curly hair is Cristina," said Owen as he lifted the small toddler onto his bed and gave him a kiss on the head. "Missed ya buddy."
"No fair mom!" The twins cried out. "Why's Jo on the bed and not us!" They pushed their lips to form the biggest pout they could muster.
"It's because Jo is not out to kill me unlike you two," explained Owen while messing with their hair. "Look at you two, almost ready to go to college."
"Ew," spat out Nathan. "I hate school. I'm never going back to school. I'm getting my third grade diploma and that's it!"
"I want to at least finish the sixth grade, bro," disputed Noah.
"If you both want a bed to sleep at night, I suggest you both finish school," advised Owen. "So where did Cristina go?" he asked Karen.
"Cwissssss!" Joel squealed in delight.
"Oh goodness. She ran away," revealed Karen.
"Why do you even bother trying?" asked Owen. "Good thing I have my man Jo looking out for me."
"Dr. Hunt," Jackson walked into the room. "How are you doing?"
"Dr. Avery," Owen acknowledged Jackson's entrance. "Thought Cristina was in charge of monitoring," contested Owen.
"Um, she had to see a patient." Jackson offered a half-assed explanation as Owen's raised brows clearly indicated he knew she was avoiding him.
Owen dropped the conversation. "Dr. Avery, my family," Owen introduced his mother, sister, brother in law, and three nephews all crowded in Owen's private room.
Jackson checked Owen's vitals and heart beat. He made a note of all the current vitals as he was very pleased with Owen's recovery rate. "Looking good, Dr. Hunt. At this rate, you can even be discharged in a week."
Owen's family all released a sigh of relief as Mrs. Hunt clutched her son's hand. "Thank you Dr. Avery," expressed Mrs. Hunt.
"No, no, please. I'm only a resident. Dr. Burke is the one to thank. He did an excellent job and the surgery was near perfect," explained Jackson.
Owen's tightened at the sound of Burke's name. As much as he owed him one for performing a complicated surgery with such perfection, he could not help but be affected by his return at Seattle Grace. Burke's return unsettled Owen and he could not help but believe it had something to do with Cristina.
Karen immediately saw Owen's face tense up from the mention of Dr. Burke. She scratched her head, thinking it odd that Owen always wore such distaste on his face whenever Dr. Burke was in the room or merely mentioned.
"Cristina, you owe me another one," said Jackson as he approached Cristina and Meredith hanging out at the station. "Dr. Hunt clearly knew I was lying."
"Hello. That's what friends are for," replied Cristina, with complete nonchalance.
"Well then I don't know how well this friend thing is going to work for us," replied Jackson. "Hunt's whole family thinks I'm the shady one here."
"Ha, so you met them all?" asked Meredith. "I took a glimpse, the boys are so cute. Never saw so many redheads in a room at one time."
"I know, it's like someone set the room on fire," joked Cristina.
Jackson and Meredith both let out a loud laugh, finding it even more amusing at the fact that Cristina was taking stabs at her own boyfriend's family.
The laughter spurred Cristina to continue, "I swear, one step in and you will turn into a redhead. Why do you think I'm staying far, far away?" Cristina noted Jackson and Meredith's laughter turning into serious looks as they both alerted with their eyes.
"We are indeed a redder than most redheads," a voice came behind from Cristina, "And trust me, I understand it is rather comical to group together 10 redheads in one room," said Karen.
Cristina's jaw dropped. It was bad enough that Burke's mother's first impression of Cristina was that she was a racist stripper. It always seemed to be Cristina's fate that she never failed to leave the most offensive first impressions.
"You heard me wrong," quickly clarified Cristina, while turning to meet Karen. "I love redheads. I've been dating one for a year and a half and love his hair. I love the color red, did I mention that?" Cristina could not find the plug to her mouth. "His red hair and his bright blue eyes. Red and blue–so complimentary to each other. I love it." Cristina clamped up, shutting herself up from further discussion of primary colors.
"Hahaha," Karen broke into a fit of laughter as she met Jackson and Meredith's laughing eyes. "Cristina, no offense taken. Please. You think that's the worst we heard? Poor Owen hated his hair so much in high school that he dyed his hair every color of the rainbow. It was only years later when he realized he never had a girlfriend in high school not because of his red hair but his blue hair!"
Cristina released her tension and let out a small laugh, envisioning Owen with blue hair. "Did he think it went well with his blue eyes?" Cristina couldn't help but ask.
"You know him so well," answered Karen. "He's a simple guy. Thought blue went best with blue. Only I wasn't nice as an older sister to tell him any better. I let him be and Cristina, it was soooo worth it," explained Karen, with a twinkle in her eye.
Cristina had an immediate liking towards Karen. She found Karen to be funny and liked that she did not offend her as much as she normally offended strangers.
"Cristina, do you have time for some coffee?" asked Karen, hoping to catch some quality time with Owen's girlfriend.
"Hey you guys can leave for dinner," announced Karen as she entered the room. "I would like some quality time with my brother."
"Honey, you need to eat too," said Mrs. Hunt with concern in her voice.
"Mom, I'm not going to die if I skip a meal. Besides, I have a date with Cristina," Karen said with a wide smile, catching Owen's surprised eyes.
"Oh, that's lovely honey," Mrs. Hunt beamed as well. "I'll take the boys out with Peter."
"Thanks mom." Karen turned to her husband, "Be back by 7? I promised to meet Cristina then."
Peter nodded and gave a quick peck. "Be well my man. I'll eat for two, just for you."
"Thanks. Remember I like my meat rare. Bye mom. Bye boys, behave!" Owen said his byes from his bed, quickly wanting to clear his room to talk to his sister about Cristina.
"So, not only did you manage to track down Cristina, you struck a date with her. I'm impressed. It took me weeks to get to where you are." Owen said in complete awe.
"Kid, you've always been too slow for me," kidded Karen.
"Seriously, how did you do it? She's been avoiding this room the whole day. Well mostly me…" Owen trailed off, still uneasy that Cristina had yet to come to his room after she overhead the conversation he had with Teddy.
"Actually," Karen chewed her lips as she was curious as well. "I was surprised too. I asked her for coffee and she said she gets off in an hour and asked to grab drinks instead. Anything I should know before I get to know Cristina?" Karen asked.
Owen burrowed his eyebrows at Karen's question. "Just get to know her. But don't ask her too many questions–she finds that annoying. Just ask the right amount of questions," he offered to Karen.
"That face you have on right now worries me," said Karen. "Something's up and you're not spilling. Why did she run away when the blonde doctor came out of your room and why is she avoiding you?"
Owen sighed at Karen's perceptiveness of the situation. Not much went past his sister and she never held back on calling him out on his mistakes. Owen hesitated, not knowing how much to share, where to begin, what is trivial and what is important for her to know.
Karen sensed Owen's hesitation. She was used to Owen clamming up when it came to spilling the beans. He was never articulate with words and only came to Karen after a giant spill. That was Owen and how he handled, or rather, did not handle situations.
"C'mon," coaxed Karen. "I really want to start off on the right foot with Cristina and I think I need to know some things before I meet her tonight."
"Ahhh…." Owen muttered, dragging out his words. "Mmm… Right before this whole shooting thing, she broke up with me." It was like Owen to start from the end and never the beginning.
"What?" Karen's eyes widened. "Wait, you two aren't even together?"
"No, no. I think we are. She said we are 'okay'. I didn't want to push my luck so I left it at that. But I think we are?" Owen was still confused. The damage in their relationship was too large for one talk to make everything fall back into place and Owen knew that too well.
"Oh, you idiot," Karen gently slapped Owen on his arm. "So why'd she break up with you?"
Owen winced recalling their week before the shooting. The tumultuous week of arguments, tears, silence and hurt. "She asked me if I loved her or Teddy… that blonde doctor." Owen pulled the words out deep within, hating himself with every word that came out of his mouth.
"Goodness," Karen feared the worst. "Please, please, please don't tell me you answered Teddy."
"Worse." Owen answered in one breath, "Icouldn'tgiveherananswer."
Karen furiously shook her head in disbelief. "Owen, for heaven's sake, I've never even heard of her! You turn into a lovesick puppy whenever you mentioned Cristina to me and mom and… I've never even heard of this blonde!"
Owen tore his eyes away from his angry sister and looked outside, reality of his stupidity hitting him like bricks falling from the sky.
"Wait… do you have feelings for this other doctor?" asked Karen, almost afraid of Owen's answer.
"I did. We served in the army together and I did have feelings for her then," explained Owen. "That was when I was with Beth so nothing ever happened. But I did then." Owen reflected on the times he struggled between loyalty to Beth and feelings for Teddy. "I was confused… Geez… I was in a desert with 18 male doctors and 1 female doctor and nothing happened between us. If that wasn't a sign of never going to happen, I don't know what is." Frustrations quickly built up inside Owen as clarity was finally pushing his way into his thoughts.
"You idiot." Karen sternly chided Owen.
"One more time, I don't think you've made that clear enough," tiredly answered Owen.
"You idiot." Karen firmly repeated. Her tone softened as she continued, "Owen… when you left for war, that was the last glimpse of the Owen mom and I knew. You came back year after year as a changed man and it saddened us that our Owen was nowhere to be found…"
Owen continued staring out the window.
"Then something miraculous happened," continued Karen. "One night… after weeks of hearing you were back in town, mom called me in the middle of the night, in tears, so excited to share that our Owen was back. Our Owen who left us to go to war was back home."
Tears sprung to Owen's eyes hearing this story for the first time.
"I-I couldn't believe it," Karen choked on her words as well. "The next time I spoke with you, you probably don't even remember–it was a short, 5 minute conversation. Just catching up, making sure the boys are well, that you are doing well. Owen, I will never forget the lightness in your voice and the last thing you said– 'Sorry I'm in a rush I have to go meet Cristina.' I could almost hear your smile from the other end of the line."
"I-I…" Owen started. "I do remember that Karen… I was grabbing my stuff from my place when I called you to check in." That was the first night Owen slept over Cristina's place after the choking incident. He was tempted to call his mom and sister after knowing that he and Cristina were finally ready to move forward.
"That's when I knew how you found yourself back home. Cristina–she's very special, even to me and mom," Karen shared with Owen. "I can only imagine what she means to you."
Owen closed his eyes, wanting to end this conversation for the truth was becoming too painful for Owen to swallow.
"And you fucked it up," Karen chided Owen once again.
"Dammit, Karen!" Owen yelled. "Enough. I know. Trust me I know better than anyone and you're not helping." Owen barred Karen the facts on his PTSD, not wanting to cause concern for Karen and his mom but he knew no matter the explanation, he hurt Cristina in ways he never intended to.
Minutes of silence lingered in the room. Owen checked the clock and saw it was 15 minutes before their meeting time. "Go meet Cristina. She's punctual so she might be waiting. Shouldn't keep her waiting…"
Karen grabbed her belongings and stood up. "Nice talking with you."
"Yeah," mumbled Owen.
"Hey, by the way," Karen stopped to declare, "I'm Team Cristina."
Owen scoffed at Karen's corny declaration.
"But I'll try and put in a good word for you," Karen left Owen to bask in curiosity and anxiety to the discussions that were in store for his sister and Cristina.
