Owen too seemed to have noticed the mess of black curls sprawled at a table with what appeared to be a drunken Meredith, intoxicated Izzie and a frustrated-looking George. He was slightly surprised that Jackson wasn't with them as he had learnt from gossip-hungry nurses that Cristina and Jackson had grown increasingly close over the two years. This thought was followed by a twinge of jealousy that ran through him although he knew he had no right to be feeling it. The fact she was here shouldn't even affect him at all; he had Teddy. No correction, he chose Teddy. Yet, he felt instinctively drawn to her, a desire burning within him to hold her once again. He fought with this desire and with a great deal of self-control as he instead decided to follow his better judgment and head towards the bar.
"What is he doing here?" slurred Cristina drunkenly. The other two heads turned and stared at Owen who was sitting by himself at the bar with his back to them.
"It's a bar, Cristina. He's allowed to come here. It's eleven and half the hospital is here," replied Izzie, downing her fifth drink.
"Seriously, we should go. I think you've all had more than enough to drink," said George, clutching his beer nervously.
Meredith rolled her eyes in a drunken manner, "It's a girls' night. None of us have anyone to screw so we're allowed to get drunk. So stop talking and drink."
"I am so not a girl," muttered George, finishing his beer before signaling for another one.
"Shouldn't you all be at home?" asked Joe, walking up to their table to refill their drinks.
"Nope. None of them have anyone to screw. And I need to get drunk," replied Cristina placing an emphasis on the last word as she waved her empty glass.
"You seem drunk enough already," said Joe, peering at her. After a brief moment of indecision "Alright, last round. Then I'm calling a cab if you need one," he decided before walking off.
After Joe had left to serve the next customer, Izzie turned to Cristina, deciding to pick up where their previous conversation had left off.
"So, what's with you and the pig-murderer? I thought you and Avery had a thing," Izzie said as she reached for George's beer.
"Why do you care? Go screw yourself. Actually, go screw Evil Spawn. Oh that's right. You can't." Cristina shot back.
"What about me?" said Alex as he drew near their table, ignoring the drunken surprised looks radiating at him.
"Just the fact that you ditched hot sex for surgery," slurred Meredith.
"Shut up, it's not like McDreamy didn't do the same for his man-whore friend," Izzie defended Alex.
"I traded shifts with Reed since the ER is pretty empty and there were no big traumas are coming in. Look, I'm sorry Iz. How about I take you home now?" offered Alex, giving her an irresistible smile.
"I'm done for the night then. And Cristina, I'm going to find out all the juicy gossip about you and Avery so you might as well tell me now," hiccupped Izzie before Alex placed his hand at the small of her back and gently guided her to the door.
"It's not fun drinking with just the two of us," grumbled Cristina as they finished off their drinks.
"Hello. Three people. George. Male," retorted George.
"Yeah whatever, Bambi."
"Mer, I'll give you a lift home?" asked George, grabbing his jacket.
"Yeah sure," she answered. "Are you going to be alright by yourself?" Meredith looked at Cristina, slight concern taking over her intoxicated features.
"Yeah. Go ahead. Make sure she gets home safely, Bambi," came Cristina's disinterested voice as she cracked open another peanut.
"Okay. Goodnight then," Meredith replied, leaning heavily on George who guided her slowly towards the exit.
In the corner of his peripheral vision, Owen noticed a drunken Meredith being supported by George heading towards the exit. Ten minutes ago, he had seen a severely intoxicated Izzie exit with Alex. After a split moment of indecision, he decided to sneak a quick glance over his shoulder at the booth.
Cristina sat there by herself, toying with her empty glass and the peanut shells on the table in front of her. She checked her watch. 11:37 pm. She knew she should probably head back; Jackson would no doubt be asleep already. It had been a long and mentally exhausting day. She sighed as grabbed her phone and stood up. Nothing could have prepared her for the loss of coordination as the world around her spun from the amount of alcohol she had ingested. Before she could hit the floor, secure strong arms had wrapped themselves around her, steadying her, holding her. She looked up and her surprised brown eyes met a pair of concerned blue ones. Her ability to speak had left her completely.
"Cristina," his soft voice came from somewhere beside her ear as his set of strong secure arms were still wrapped around her. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," came Cristina reply as she tried to extract herself from Owen's arms. He resisted at first, but released her from the hold in his arms, almost unwillingly. As the support provided by his arms disappeared, her world began to spin for the second time but she managed to steady herself on the table behind her, waving away the arms that reached for her again.
"Are you leaving now? I'll walk you home," said Owen quietly, his blue eyes staring intensely at her.
"No." responded Cristina quickly, avoiding his piercing stare. "I mean, yes I'm leaving, but I don't need you to walk me home."
She paused for a second, as dozens of thoughts filled her mind. Everywhere she went and everywhere she turned, he was there. Chasing her and catching her. Why couldn't he just leave her alone? She didn't want him. She couldn't want him. She deserved better.
He didn't move or leave. Instead he simply gazed at her with his tortured yet determined ocean blue eyes which were filled with his unspoken words and silent pleas.
"Alright, whatever. You and your stupid savior-complex. And right now, I'm the drunk little girl who can't walk herself home," grumbled Cristina sarcastically after seeing the determination in Owen's eyes which showed he wasn't going to back down anytime soon.
In spite of himself, Owen found himself smiling slightly as he wrapped an arm firmly around Cristina's thin waist, gently guiding her towards the exit and providing stability and support to Cristina's spinning world. He enjoyed this feeling of déjà vu mixed with contentment. It was then that he realized how much he had missed even her stupid, smart-ass sarcastic comments.
As they stepped outside the warm bar, the cold winter wind swirled around them. Cristina shivered involuntarily. She had left her coat in her apartment as the walk from to the hospital was a fairly short one. Owen seemed to have noticed this slight shudder running through her body as he quickly shrugged out of his thick leather jacket leaving him with only a thin long-sleeved shirt between his warm body and the cold bitter wind. She raised her hands, protesting slightly as he pulled the jacket around her, but she gave in once enveloped in the welcoming warmth of his jacket.
"Thank you," she murmured as the heat from the jacket warmed her cold body.
"Don't mention it," Owen's polite response.
They walked in silence for the remaining two hundred metres to Cristina's apartment, each lost deep in their own thoughts.
The warmth from the entrance of Cristina's apartment building welcomed them as they drew near their destination. The elevator ride up to Cristina's floor was deafeningly silent. There was so much Owen wanted to say, yet he found himself completely tongue-tied as he stood awkwardly beside her in the enclosed space.
"So…" began Owen.
"So…" echoed Cristina.
"Look. I know I messed up."
Silence.
"Say something, Cristina. Anything," he pleaded
Ding.
The opening of elevator doors ended their conversation.
As they neared the door, Cristina began fumbling for her keys; the effect of the amount of alcohol she had consumed could be seen in her stunted and uncoordinated movements as she tried unsuccessfully to fit the key into the lock.
With his free hand, Owen wordlessly took her hand into his and guided it gently towards the lock, turning and until a click was heard.
The door swung open to reveal an empty living room door to Owen's relief as Avery was a hoop that he wasn't quite to ready to jump through yet. The alcohol was finally taking a toll on Cristina now the high from it had worn off now leaving her thoroughly tired and exhausted with her eyelids growing heavier and heavier by the second. With his arm still wrapped around her thin waist, Owen guided her gently towards her bedroom. Her apartment reeked and overflowed with memories he had been so keen on forgetting two years ago.
Flashback
His world was spinning slightly as he strode past the elevator doors heading towards Cristina's apartment. As he knocked on the door, Teddy's words echoed in his head; 'she was willing to trade you for me. If I stayed she said I could have you.' Hurt rippled through his torso. He knew Cristina was surgically driven, but this was an unexpected blow for him.
The door swung open to reveal a slight worried-looking Cristina.
"Where have you been? You just disappeared." Unable to meet his tortured blue eyes, she instead turned around and walked towards couch. "I left you like ten messages. Are you drunk? I mea-"
Before she knew it, Owen had spun her around to face him and his lips hungrily engulfed hers. This passionate interaction lasted only for a few seconds as Cristina pushed him away before he could deepen the kiss.
"Wait. What, what, what?"Her expression showed she was completely unprepared for his sudden display of affection.
Owen breathed heavily as numerous thoughts rushed to the surface of his mind. "You make me sad," he stated simply. Cristina's bewildered look showed her incomprehension. He found himself voicing all the thoughts that had flooded his mind that night.
"You think that a good surgery is going to make you feel. You think that a successful career is going to make you happy. You think that you know things, know things and nothing else matters, no one else matters. People do matter. I matter. We- We matter." His eyes had grown more and more determined with each word. "So you don't get to toss me aside. I won't let you." He had inched closer and closer towards her, towering over her as if this would make his words sink in.
A range of emotions flickered across Cristina's face as Owen watched on. Before he could regret his outburst, Cristina's hands cradled his face as her lips found his, devouring them greedily.
Two pieces of the puzzle clicked together forming a moment of complete bliss and perfection.
End of Flashback
He smiled involuntarily at this memory as he set down a glass of water and a few aspirin tablets on Cristina's bedside table. It felt refreshing to embrace these memories as opposed to burying them in surgeries and sex which was exactly what he had been doing for the past two years. He had somehow managed to get the drunken and drowsy Cristina into her bed and although she was fully clothed, she was snoring lightly already. She looked so peaceful lying there, her usually cold and detached expression was gone and it was instead replaced with a small sad smile. He reached over and tucked a stray curl back in place. He had missed her. There was no point denying this. He had missed her smile, her feisty attitude and even her smart-ass comments. It was moments like these that made him wish he could turn back time and start over again. He crouched there soaking up this beautiful sight, not knowing if this was the last time he would be alone with Cristina before she left again.
He heard footsteps approaching and he instinctively placed his body between Cristina and the door. The door swung open to reveal a drowsy looking Jackson Avery.
Avery's eyes widened as he took in the sight before him. Owen Hunt was crouched beside a fully-clothed sleeping Cristina. Still recovering from the shock, he motioned wordlessly for Owen to follow him. Sparing a final glance at Cristina's peaceful sleeping figure, he turned and followed Avery out of the room.
"One minute, Hunt," called Jackson as Owen headed for the door. "Look, I don't know what happened tonight or why you were with her and I don't want to know."
"Nothing happ- " Owen began.
Jackson raised his hand to cut him off. "I get that you have… history with her. But you hurt her. I watched her cry herself to sleep every night for the past two years. She thought could hide her pain from everyone, but I saw. I saw how you hurt her; I saw how you broke her. She's suffered through these two years and I don't want to see her suffer any more."
"What's the supposed to mean?" challenged Owen.
Cold sapphire blue eyes clashed against a pair of determined emerald green ones.
"Stay away from her. Give her a chance to be happy," replied Jackson simply as steely blue eyes glared at him.
"And you can make her happy?" was Owen's skeptical retort.
"More than you," snapped Jackson who immediately regretted his words after seeing a look of hurt flicker across Owen's face. "Look I'm sor-" he began.
"No. You're right. I didn't make her happy when I could." His tortured ocean blue eyes saddened as he spoke. "And now I can't anymore."
"I'll look after her," promised Jackson.
"How many more days?" This was shortened from the question how many more days until I won't see her anymore that was left unspoken in Owen's mind.
"Five, I think. Once the lymphoma patient is in the all-clear, we'll probably leave again. I'm not sure where though."
"Nurses are under the impression that Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore will be her final destination," pressed Owen cautiously.
"Actually, I wouldn't be too sure," laughed Jackson. "She can't seem to settle down in one place for long. She follows all the rare and complicated surgeries offered by my grandpa so we spend most of our time travelling from one side of the country to the other," he explained after seeing the confused look on Owen's face.
"I should get going."
"Wait. Here," said Jackson as he tossed Owen a jacket folded on the coffee table. "It's pretty cold out there. Left yours at the hospital?"
"Something like that," Owen struggled to conceal a grin as he shrugged on the jacket. "Nice seeing you again. Bye," he said before shutting the door quietly behind him.
After Owen left, Jackson let out a sigh of relief. He had not expected their interaction to be easy and nor had he expected the tortured look in Owen's eyes. It had been a long day for everyone. He walked quietly to Cristina's room and watched her as she snored lightly, fast asleep. She still wore that sad smile on her face, but the detached emotionless demeanor was gone. He hadn't seen her look so peaceful in the two years they have left Seattle. His mind flashed back to their first night together in Washington, just over two years ago.
Flashback
The setting sun was casually framed by the white framed glass window. Jackson tossed the keys carelessly on the table located near the door. Their luggage had already been delivered.
"This is it?" came Cristina's slightly jetlagged voice from behind him.
"This is it. Or you can call it home seeing as we're going to be staying here for the next two weeks," he replied, as his eyes scanned his surrounding. There was a white, spacious three-seater sofa with vibrant red cushions to his right. To his left was an extremely modern and classy looking kitchen equipped with not only a microwave, but also an oven.
"The bigger room is mine!" Cristina's voice came from somewhere down the hallway as she had explored the spacious apartment.
"Whatever, Yang," he replied as he rolled his eyes at her childish comment before moving to explore his own room.
A few hours later, Jackson was lying on his bed with medical journal in one hand and his phone in the other, his mind elsewhere. Dinner had been fairly uneventful; just another cozy pizza shop with their own booth, beer and garlic bread. Cristina had seemed somewhat normal. The crying and heartbroken Cristina had disappeared during the plane trip and had instead been replaced by a colder, emotionless one. She still had her arrogant attitude and cocky comebacks to his arguments, but he noticed that her smile never reached her eyes and her laughter sounded somewhat hollow and broken. Knowing Cristina, he decided that the best option was to keep his mouth shut rather than ask if she was okay. He sighed, unsure of what his duties as her only 'friend' were. He considered calling Meredith for advice, but he decided against it as he doubted Cristina would appreciate his interference.
Sleep wasn't going to come easy for his troubled mind so he decided to grab a glass of water before trying to sleep again. As he passed Cristina's room, he heard the sound of quiet muffled sobbing coming from the small gap left by the half-closed door. He stood there, unsure of what to do. Against his better judgment, he inched the door open a bit more and peered in cautiously through the gap. Half-lying on the floor next to the bed was Cristina whose body shook and rippled as waves of hurt and grief ran through her. Within seconds, Jackson had scooped her into his arms, rocking her back and forth gently as tears flowed freely from those chocolate brown eyes.
It was then that he realized the extent of the damage left by Owen Hunt.
End of Flashback
