"You know what your problem is? Your problem is that you always have to be right. If you didn't have to be right all the time, this wouldn't have happened."

"You're drunk, Grey."

Meredith set down her beer and held a finger up, "I…am not drunk. I'm only slightly inebriated. What tequila connoisseurs such as myself would call a buzz. I'm irritated and frustrated with what you've done to my person."

"I'm trying to fix it." Burke answered honestly, pulling the beer away. She'd obviously had more than enough. He glanced around the bar again, trying to casually look at the door.

"She isn't coming. I told you she wouldn't come. She's probably holed up in her apartment again. She's hiding from you."

"I wasn't looking for her," He lied, taking a drink of his own beer.

"Right. And I'm not slightly inebriated." She retorted. "Anyway, as I was saying, you should listen to her every once in a while. Despite the fact that Cristina is emotionally retarded and completely incapable of talking about her own feelings, she really does know what she wants."

"I kn-" Burke started, but he found his mouth covered by her tiny hand.

"I was not done talking yet." She said, leaving her hand in place. "And you don't know. She told you she wanted the whole city hall thing. If Cristina actually tells you what she wants? Like lays it out for you and everything? That means that she wants it. Quit questioning it and do it. End of story. It's not brain surgery." She paused for a second, "Or heart surgery. Whatever."

Burke reached up and pulled her hand away from his mouth with a gentle force, "I'd give her anything she wanted if she'd quit avoiding me."

"You're paying dues." Meredith shrugged, reaching past him for her beer.

"I think I paid them when she left me back in Baltimore." He answered, glancing at the door again.

Meredith's beer nearly slipped from her hands. "Do you seriously think that you've paid your dues. You have no idea what you did to her. I've never seen her like that. I've never seen her like she is now. She couldn't breathe. What you did deserves so much worse than just being left in Baltimore. You barely even deserve her."



"If that's the case, then why are you helping me?" He asked with a cocked eyebrow. He had never even dreamt of Cristina being that upset after he'd left. He felt stupid now as he pondered it. He knew that she loved him.

He just didn't know how much.

Meredith pondered his question for a long moment before she finally answered, "Because you make her happy. In her own weird Cristina way, you make her happy. You're like surgery. A really good, bloody surgery."

"I know that's not the case. Cristina's career takes precedence."

"But you don't know. Quit assuming you know, dammit!" Meredith snapped at him, slamming her emptied beer bottle against the bar. "You're not always right."

Burke looked down at the ground. "I'm not trying to be right. I want what's best for her."

"So you're saying that when you left her that you thought there was somebody better for her? That you weren't good enough for her?"

"Well, no-" He stopped, unsure of what he was supposed to say. He don't know if he was surprised more by the fact that Meredith was able to reason in this state or that her reasons actually made sense.

"Then why the hell can't you just stop questioning it?"

"Becau-"

"Because you always have to be right!" She finished his sentence, "Now quit being right. You go find her and grovel. Tell her you're wrong. Tell her that you don't care how long she takes. Tell her that you don't deserve her and that you love her and you'll wait forever."

Meredith knew that she didn't even honestly know if she was talking to him anymore. She began to wonder if she was telling him everything that she wished somebody would tell Derek, but it sounded good and so she kept on it.

At least one of them would get their happy ending.

Burke was quiet for a long moment, trying to decide what he should do. He didn't want to push her away, but he didn't want her to run either. He needed to at least talk to her. "Call her."

"Oh no. She's not going to find out I was a part of this."



He looked at her in doubt, "So you're helping me, but you're not?"

"Yes."

Burke shook his head. He never could understand either one of them. It's like they had a secret code that came with no means of translation. Everything they said made absolutely no sense to him. He wondered if other women would even understand them. "Grey, just shut up and call her."

Meredith looked at him angrily, "I need her right now. And if she finds out that I'm helping you, we'll both be screwed. And I don't want to be screwed. I can't afford to be screwed."

"Don't do this for you." He answered in a low voice. "Do this for Cristina. Call for her. Not for me, not for you, but for her. How am I supposed to tell her that I'm wrong if you won't call?"

She looked at him with a slight pout on her face, her eyes softening a little. "I hate you," She finally muttered dialing the phone. Cristina was going to kill her, but he was right. She wanted her person to be happy and this was a start to it.

"Thank you," He mumbled putting down some money for the tab and stepping away as she was on the phone.

Meredith hung up her phone and called after him, "Aren't you going to wait for her?"

"I'm waiting." He answered. He just wasn't going to wait for her where he could be seen.

After only a few minutes, Cristina made her way inside Joe's and found a seat next to Meredith's. She sighed as she climbed up onto the barstool and shrugged her jacket off. "This had better be good. There's a possible aortic dissection in the pit and if I came over here to save you from Jose when I could be saving a life, you're going to be my next patient."

Meredith snorted, "Like you care about saving a life. You just want to suture a dissected aorta."

"And your point?" Cristina asked before calling out to Joe for her drink.

"The point is that you'd much rather be saving me than saving a life." Meredith grinned and wrinkled her nose.

"You're beyond wasted, aren't you?" Cristina observed, "Have you been drinking by yourself?" She asked before glancing around.

"No!" Meredith said, grabbing her arm. She didn't want her to see Burke if he didn't want to be seen. Maybe he chickened out and she wouldn't get in trouble. "Don't look that way!" She faltered, trying to 

save herself, "There's a guy….and he's really really ugly..and looking at you. Just…look straight ahead or he'll think you're interested."

Cristina narrowed her eyes, "What are you doing?" She asked, looking in the direction that Meredith told her not to anyway. "You're hiding something aren't you?"

"No."

"You sound guilty."

"I sound drunk." Meredith quipped, "Remember, you're saving me from Jose."

She looked back at her friend doubtfully before taking a long sip of her drink. Cristina felt like she was being set up. "I'm going back to the hospital after I finish this." She muttered, "And after I get you in a cab."

Meredith started to protest but her phone vibrated on the bar and she picked it up. It was a text message from Burke telling her to get Cristina to dance and she narrowed her eyes. She quickly typed in a response and put her phone down. "Where were we?"

"Who is that?" Cristina questioned.

"Derek." She answered quickly, before taking a gulp of her beer. She felt as if she were on an express train to hell. Or maybe she would be on an express gurney to surgery after Cristina found out what she was really up to.

"I thought Shepherd was in surgery when I left." Cristina answered slowly, "Meredith, what are you doing?"

Meredith sighed as her phone buzzed again and she glanced at it. He was practically begging her to get Cristina to dance. "It's Alex." She finally lied. "I'm sleeping with Alex."

"Okay, I officially find you disgusting." Cristina muttered, tearing a peanut shell to bits. "Why would you do that?"

"Why not? He's obviously very good at what he does if he's slept with that many people." Meredith was making herself sick. She finished another drink and slid off the barstool, "Come dance."

"Not now." She answered, waving her hand dismissively. "You go dance. Wear yourself out so I can put you to bed. Like a toddler."

"Cristina," Meredith whined a little. "Please."

"Will you go home after this so I can go back to the hospital?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll do whatever you want. Just dance with me. Well, not with me. It's a good song!"

Cristina groaned as she reluctantly left her seat and worked through the crowd of people. She hated dancing with Meredith in public, especially when she was drunk. It often drew unwanted attention and disgusting bald guys with bad breath. She half heartedly danced at her friend's side, her eyes continuing to glance up towards the clock. She wanted to go back to her possible aortic dissection.

Meredith glanced over Cristina's shoulder and saw Burke advancing towards them. She froze a little and then put her hands over her stomach. "Oh. I..uh…I think I'm going to be sick. I'll be right back."

Before Cristina could even respond, Meredith had scampered off and she turned around to see Burke standing right there. She looked up at him warily, "You did this, didn't you?"

He smirked a little, "Possibly."

Cristina stepped back, trying to keep her distance. "I should have known. She can't lie to save her life."

"You should give her credit," Burke replied with a smile, "Grey isn't nearly as much of a lightweight as I would have imagined her to be."

"I'm not interested in making small talk. I really need to go, I have things to do. You got her drunk, you get her home." She answered coldly, starting to brush past him.

Burke took hold of her hand and pulled her back so that her body was pressed into his. "One dance," He murmured. "That's all I want."

Cristina's breath hitched in her throat at the way he pulled her against him. She tried to pull herself away. "No."

His arm snaked around her waist and he held her tightly. "Please."

She looked up at him helplessly. "What are you trying to do?" She asked, not moving.

"Honestly?" He asked, his other hand reaching up to brush a curl from her face.

"No, I want you to lie to me." She retorted, doing her best to remain unaffected.

"I'm trying to make you open up to me again," He answered softly. "I'm trying to give you your space without letting you get too far away. I'm trying to make you see how much I love you without really 

being able to show you. I'm trying to make you realize that I know I was wrong without being able to talk to you. But mostly, right now? I'm just trying to get you to dance with me."

Cristina found herself speechless as she stared up at him, her lips slightly parted. He always said these things and it made it so hard for her to think. Her mouth felt ridiculously dry and she finally answered in the smallest of voices. "One dance. And then I'm going."

"That's all I want," He murmured in response.

His arms wrapped around her and they moved together, his cheek resting atop her head. He could feel the drunken patrons of the bar staring at them as they slow danced to an upbeat song, but he didn't care. The world ceased to exist when she was in his arms.

Before this evening, he would have insisted that he knew that the world slowed for her too. But he had decided that he was going to try a different approach. He wasn't going to know anything anymore. He was going to ask. He was going to wait. He was going to do all the things that Meredith had told him to do.

Burke was willing to do anything to get the woman he loved back in his arms forever.

To get back the moments where the world stopped for both of them.