Cristina got up around 7:30, straightened herself out enough to round on her patients, then want back the on call room and slept until 10. By that time she was starving, so she went down to the cafeteria to find some breakfast. She was pleased to see that they had put out pumpkin-cranberry muffins for the first time. It was a sign that fall really had arrived. They were a particular favorite of both her and Owen, so she grabbed a couple extra to take to him. If he'd already had some, she would stash them in her locker for later. After she was done with her breakfast, she headed to Owen's office.

She realized she didn't know for sure if he was in, so she stopped by his assistant's desk first.

"Hey, Eileen!" she said. "Is Dr. Hunt in?"

"Yep! He sure is!" Eileen said.

"Wow, you're perky today."

"Well, it's Thursday! I love Thursdays because it's the one day of the week Dr. Hunt doesn't give me a huge pile of papers to file when he comes in."

"Is he still doing that?"

"Yes. I feel like I spend half my time filing all of his cra- paper work."

"Hmmm," Cristina was not pleased to hear this. She had hoped his obsession with baking up and cataloging everything he signed would have died down by now. "Is he in his office?"

"Probably."

Cristina went down to his office and knocked on his door. She didn't hear any response, so she decided go in and leave one of the muffins on his desk. As soon as she opened the door, she froze. He was asleep in his couch. He was on his side half curled up. She closed the door quietly behind her, set one of the muffins on his desk, then stood and watched him sleep.

He didn't look entirely peaceful. His brow was a little furrowed. She wondered if he'd had a bad dream or if something has been troubling him. He had looked so forlorn the night before when she left him standing in the hall outside the on call room. She knew that he wanted to sleep with her- actually sleep with her- but that he knew his desire to sleep with her- metaphorically- would be difficult to control. She missed his touch so much. They hardly ever had any physical contact, and when they did it never went without notice. He had given her a kiss on the cheek the night before when he thanked her for staying behind and it had totally turned her on. She never would have imagined a simple kiss on the cheek could do that to her.

She had fun the night before- more than she thought she would. There were maybe a few awkward moments right after she got there. The older boy barely looked at her at first, but once they had settled in, it was easy. Owen was so good with them and such a natural. It was so cute when he told Tony to sit on his bottom in his chair.

She felt a little bad that she had such a strong reaction to Nick talking about watching Star Trek. She knew that Owen understood and she hoped he hadn't worried about it too much before she had explained. She hadn't wanted to get into it there at the house because she didn't know what would happen. She might have fallen apart and cried her eyes out and disturbed the kids. She definitely would have wanted Owen to hold her and comfort her and she knew where that could have led.

Just then, Owen's face started to move. He was dreaming. She always loved to watch the facial expressions he made while he dreamt. Sometimes, he would even mumble.

It certainly seemed like he was getting used to the rhythm of his life with the kids. He had said that he didn't know what he wanted, yet, but he seemed so comfortable with this life. Except, she suddenly remembered, that he wasn't getting the OR time that he used to. She wondered how long he could keep that up. She, of course, went batty when she was away from the OR for too long. Owen wasn't exactly like her in that regard, but after watching him operate the night before and seeing how much life and fire it infused into him, she was afraid it might be an issue for him eventually.

She watched him sleep for another minute or so. She didn't want to disturb him, but part of her would not have minded if his eyes had fluttered open. Finally, she went ahead and left. She was pretty sure it was totally creepy to watch him sleep for that long, anyway.

Cristina had pushed her morning surgery back to the afternoon, so she spent the rest of her time until lunch catching up on her dictation and reviewing some of the research Shane had done for her stem cell study. It was while she was doing this that she realized she hadn't seen him that morning. She took off looking for him.

She couldn't find him anywhere and eventually ended up in the cafeteria. It was almost noon, so she decided she may as well wait there for Owen. She spotted April and Callie at a table together and went to join them.

"Hey!" she said as she approached them. It looked like April was almost finished eating, but Callie had just started. They both looked tired, no doubt they had been up late the night before, too. "You guys look a little rough around the edges."

They both glared at her. "We're not interns anymore," Callie said. "I actually need sleep to function, now."

"Yeah, you can't reschedule your surgeries when you're a trauma surgeon," April mumbled, glaring in Cristina's general direction.

"Speaking of interns, have either of you seen Dr. Ross?"

"Nope," Callie said.

April closed her eyes. "He ended up…assisting…Dr. Robbins last night, I think. But, then he-"

"Really? How come he didn't work with you?" Cristina said.

"I don't know," April said. "He wasn't around when I went into surgery. What- why do you even ask?"

"You've been working with him a lot lately, that's all."

"He works with you, more."

"I know." Cristina still suspected that Shane might be destined to be a trauma surgeon, so she decided to probe a little and see if April was thinking the same thing. "So, April what's your impression of Dr. Ross?"

April groaned. "I do not like him, okay? He's really nice, he's great with patients, he's a good student, and, yes, okay, sure he's not at all bad looking, but I don't think of him that way. I don't know why he keeps asking to be on my service, but I don't think it's because he's into me, either." April punctuated her statement by angrily stabbing the last bit of lettuce that was on her plate.

Cristina and Callie looked at each other with their eyebrows raised.

"Okay, well, the reason he keeps getting put on your service is because I am putting him there and furthermore, I was asking what your impression of him was as a surgeon." April looked up sheepishly from her plate. "As a surgeon," Cristina repeated.

April's cheeks flushed red. "Well, you could have said that."

"I had no idea you would take it any other way!"

April sat up straighter and gave herself a more business-like air. "As a surgeon?"

"Yes," Cristina said, "and more specifically, do you see him ending up as a trauma surgeon."

April stared down at her plate as she thought for a minute. "I don't think so," she finally said. "He's good, really good, in fact, but he tends to be a little bit too…meticulous. Time is of the essence in trauma and sometimes you have to do what works quickly rather than taking the time to make it pretty, if that makes sense." Cristina and Callie nodded. "I don't think he has a natural instinct for that."

"Okay," Cristina said. Shane's attention to detail was one of the things she appreciated about his work, but she could see where it could be a detriment at times.

"Also, I don't think he is enough of a team player."

"Really?" Cristina was surprised to hear that.

"Well, he's got a fierce competitive streak and sometimes it seems like he would rather prove he can do something himself than give someone else the chance- even when it would be in everyone's best interest."

"Hmm." It seemed that she may have been wrong about Shane, after all. For her part, she appreciated his competitiveness because it drove him to go above and beyond in learning new skills. It was one of the things she enjoyed about working with him.

"Is that why you keep putting him on my service? Because you think he might be a trauma surgeon?"

"Well, yeah. All his life he dreamed of being a neurosurgeon, and since Derek shot him down on that, I thought maybe trauma could be his new thing."

April shook her head. "And by the way, before you interrupted me, I was going to say that Dr, Hunt sent Shane home this morning when he saw how many hours he had worked so far this week. He won't be back until tomorrow."

"Okay, thanks."

April piled all of her empty lunch stuff and trash back onto her tray. "I'll see you guys later," she said as she got up to leave.

"Okay," Callie and Cristina said in unison.

"What was that all about?" Cristina said when April was out of earshot.

"Huh?" Callie said, just before taking a bite of her sandwich.

"All that stuff about how she doesn't see Shane 'that way'? I mean is she denying it because she is in denial or is it really not true?"

Callie swallowed her bite. "Well, it's probably not true, but there have been rumors."

"Really?" Cristina was intrigued. Since Meredith was on leave and she always ate with Owen, she suddenly realized she was behind on all the juicy gossip.

"Well, she's on the market, again."

"She is? Wait, I thought she was engaged!" April's engagement was not something easily forgotten after the spectacle it had been.

"He broke it off when he realized she was still into Jackson."

"No!"

"Yes! And then she tried to get back with Jackson, but he turned her down because he felt like she had jerked him around. Oh yeah, and because he's dating that resident."

"Wow." Cristina shook her head. Who knew sweet little April was capable of such drama?

"So anyway, there have been rumors floating around that there's something going on between her and Shane and they must have gotten back to her somehow. Through Alex, probably, I'm pretty sure he's the one that started them."

Cristina laughed. "Why would he do that?"

"Because he loves getting her goat. It's driving Jackson crazy, too."

"That's horrible!" Cristina had laughed so hard she had tears in her eyes. "I can't believe I haven't heard any of this! Where have I been?"

"Over in the corner with Owen- not that that has excluded you from the rumor mill."

"Excuse me?" Cristina suddenly turned serious.

"Relax," Callie said. "Some people just think Shane has a crush on you because you two are together so much. I don't think they think you're into him."

"You don't think they think that?"

Callie shrugged. "I mean, someone in this hospital probably does, but I wouldn't worry about it."

Cristina rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, I won't." Even if it did get back to Owen, he would know it was pure rumor. "Speaking of Owen, I saw you up in the gallery for awhile last night."

"Yes, the whole hospital was buzzing about it. I had to see it for myself!"

"He was on fire, wasn't he? I don't think he made a single wrong move," Cristina said proudly. "What was the buzz about?"

"Owen being in the OR was enough! It's pretty rare these days."

"Yeah, it is," Cristina said, frowning.

"Turns out a lot of the new intern class had never seen him operate before. Some of them didn't even know what his specialty was."

"That's horrible! I knew he wasn't operating much, but I didn't think it was that bad!"

"He goes down to the ER often enough, but he rarely takes a surgery himself. He just assesses and assigns the cases. I was surprised to hear that he took one last night."

"It's not right. It just isn't right."

"What does he do in there all day?"

"Budgets and paperwork- he still obsesses about everything he signs because of the plane crash."

"I thought he was moving on from that."

"He was. Oh, and that medical supply research. That presentation he did a while back was only the first half."

"Oh, crap."

"I know."

"But, I mean, it must be partly because he is taking care of those kids, too right?"

"Yes," Cristina sighed.

"Well," Callie said, leaning forward, "one of the crazier rumors floating around is that he got an office and stays in it all the time because something horrible happened to him during the storm, like he got electrocuted, too, or something, but he's keeping it under wraps."

Cristina looked down at her hands.

"Oh! Oh, god, I didn't mean- I know you guys broke up that night, but-"

Cristina held up her hand and shook her head. "We broke up, but I did not break him."

"Of course you didn't." Callie didn't know exactly why they had broken up. At least, Cristina hadn't told her.

"I've got to go talk to him." Cristina sprang from her chair and headed toward Owen's office. He was due to meet her in the cafeteria about 10 minutes, but she didn't think this conversation should be held in public.

She did not break him, but she was going to do what she could to fix him. She marched up to his office door and knocked on it.

"Come in!" Owen said from within. She opened the door. Owen was sitting at his desk, surrounded by papers as usual. He looked tired. "Am I late?" He pulled up his sleeve to look at his watch.

"No, no you're not. I just wanted to talk to you, um, in private."

"Okay." Owen stacked up a few things, then gave her his full attention. She sat in the chair across his desk from him.

"I know I said this last night, but I wanted to tell you again that you were really amazing in surgery last night," she said.

Owen ducked his head and smiled modestly. "It was- I was just doing my job."

"Exactly. Exactly, that's right! You are a surgeon and you've barely been doing any surgery lately."

"I am the Chief of Surgery. Surgery is only part of my job. I have a lot of other things to do."

"I know, it just... seems out of balance lately. This is a teaching hospital and we've got an intern class that has been here for a month and a lot of them saw you operate for the first time last night!"

"I teach," Owen said a bit defensively. "I teach every day."

"In the OR?"

Owen rubbed his eyes. "Cristina, please, just-"

"I'm worried about you! Last night in the OR you were- you were on fire and you had color in your cheeks and you can't tell me that it didn't feel good to jump in and do that surgery."

Owen nodded. "It did," he said. Then, he dropped his eyes and started shaking his head.

"Is something wrong, Owen?" He kept looking down. "Did something happen with the kids?" She felt a pang off fear.

"Kind of." He glanced up at her and must have read the concern on her face. "They're…they're okay."

"Please tell me what happened." He was starting to freak her out.

Owen sighed. "Tony woke up during the night last night and he noticed that I was gone. He looked in my room and he saw someone in my bed that wasn't me and he was terrified. It took my mom almost an hour to get him back to sleep."

"Oh, no."

"He was…out of sorts this morning. He was grumpy and clingy. I would have kept him home from school if he hadn't perked up after breakfast."

"Owen, this wasn't your fault. You didn't know he would miss you."

"I know."

"You can't beat yourself up about this." The last thing Owen needed was something else to feel guilty about.

"I know," he said, firmly. "I know, but this just happened a few hours ago. Can I have a little time?"

"Of course you can," Cristina said, sitting back in her chair.

Owen rubbed his eyes, "I'm sorry for- if that sounded like I was snapping at you, I just heard the same things from my mom all morning."

"It's okay, Owen." As they sat in silence for a moment, it occurred to her that something didn't add up. "Tony knows your mom, right?"

"Yes, she's helped out with them a couple of times."

"Why do you think he got so scared?"

Owen was quiet for a long moment. "My mom said it was because he misses his mom. We've been fine, we've been- I thought everything was fine, but this whole situation has been stressful for him and I guess it's been building up."

"His mom will be back for the weekend tomorrow, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, that will help."

"It will. I just wished I had noticed sooner so we could have avoided this."

Cristina thought about when she was a kid. After her dad died, she was a basket case. She barely slept or ate and she cried all the time. One night after about 3 weeks, she overhead her mom and Saul talking about taking her to a counselor or to a psychiatrist to get her drugs to take. It spooked her, so the next day she started acting normal. Her mom and Saul were so happy that they never questioned it. She became quite skilled at pushing aside her feelings.

"Well, now that you know, you can help," she said. "You've got to talk about it. It's not healthy for kids to bottle things like that up."

"Okay," Owen said, cocking his head to one side. It was the look he always gave when he was curious and wanted to delve deeper into a topic. She wanted to keep the focus on him, for now.

"But," she said, "you've also got to spend more time in the OR."

Owen shook his head. "Not right now. I've got too many other things to do and the kids- I've been doing fine up to now with how I'm managing my time."

"You are a surgeon. You've got to use those skills! They're a part of you! You need more balance."

"I'm not like you, Cristina. I don't have to operate. I'm balancing more than I ever have before and this is how it has to be, right now"

Cristina sighed. He had over two months left with the kids. She didn't know if he could, or should keep up this current routine for that long.

"You would have more time for surgery if you spent less time on paperwork," she said quietly. She watched Owen closely to see how he would react. He was staring down at his desk, but she could tell he had tensed up. She didn't want to tell him what to do, especially not when he was already upset about something else. She chose her words carefully. "What I mean is, you are doing a lot of things for other people right now because you care and you want to protect them. I just want to make sure you're getting what you need, too."

Owen cracked half a smile, then went back to staring down at his desk. The tension was gone, but he still looked dejected. After a few moments, Cristina had to break the silence.

"What are you thinking about?"

"How to get Tony to trust me again."

Cristina sat up straight and leaned as far over the desk as she could. "Okay, so here's what's going to happen: Tonight when you put Tony to bed, he's going to ask you if you are going to leave during the night. You are going to say that you don't know, but if for some reason you have to, your mom or Cristina will be there. He'll ask you again tomorrow night and the next night and the next night after that for who knows how long, but one day he'll stop. He's going to be fine. We're all going to be fine."

"Would you really do that? Would you stay with them?"

"Sure. If I wasn't on call and you didn't need me at the hospital."

Owen closed his eyes and dropped his chin to his chest.

"Can I hug you?" Cristina asked after a long moment.

Owen lifted his head. His eyes were red, but he smiled at her and nodded.

They both stood up and met at the side of the desk. Owen enveloped her in his arms and she rested her head on his chest. He had done the same for her when she had been upset on Saturday and the hug he had given her had helped immensely.

She knew the hurt he was feeling about what had happened was fresh and that it would fade over the next few days, but she found herself desperately wanting to kiss away his worries.

"What if we put the plan on hold for five minutes?"

"Hmm?"

Cristina pulled back and took his face in her hands. As she ran her fingertips over his stubble, she started to feel turned on. After a moment, she saw a flicker of recognition in Owen's eyes. He really was adorable when he was slow. He smiled broadly and pulled her a little closer, but then his smile faded. "Are you sure?" he asked.

When she looked up into his eyes, she knew it wasn't a small question. They had been in a kind of state of limbo. They still had work to do and she couldn't proceed with this if she didn't think that they would figure it out. In that moment, it struck her that she couldn't imagine her life without him, and not figuring it out wasn't an option. "I'm sure," she said.

"Okay," Owen said with a smile. Cristina knew she had an equally silly grin on her face. "So, that was five minutes, right?" he said with a sparkle in his eye.

"Hmm, I'm not sure…" She snaked her arms up around his neck and pressed her lips against his for a moment before deepening the kiss. When she finally pulled back, she said, "Maybe it was ten minutes?"

As soon as she had released his lips, they had gone straight to her neck. "Mmm, maybe 15," he mumbled. She felt his hands start to move over her body as he sucked gently on her neck.

She started unbuttoning his shirt and backing up toward the couch.

"or 20…"