Chapter Ten

He had grabbed her from across the table, pulling her into a tight kiss. At first she was so surprised at his actions, she could not move, could not react, could think. Colin Marlow, her ex was kissing her. After a few seconds, she jolted back into reality and furiously tried to break his grasp, but he was holding one of her arms and the other was pressing her face into his. She could not break free of him. He would not let go.

Suddenly, she was free, gasping for clean hospital air. When had Evil Spawn and Meredith gotten here? She had blinked and now Evil Spawn had pulled Colin off of her. His face, Evil Spawn's that is, looked ugly and angry. He was yelling something at Colin, but she couldn't hear. She couldn't hear what Meredith was saying either because she could see Burke, who always looked so handsome in his rainbow colored scrub cap, walking away.

He was walking away from her like she had walked away from him. When had he come? Had he been watching the entire time? He was too far away to hear anything but Colin's yells; nothing of her quiet, pointed responses could have floated to the cafeteria. But he could still see and he had seen something she had never wanted to happen. Something that would take a lot more than foot-sex to erase.

She whirled around and saw Bailey coming down the stairs in full on Nazi mode. This was not good. At least the sound was coming back now that Burke had gone. She could no longer stare at Burke's back; he was gone. Everyone was yelling and the sound was crashing down now, voices over voices, a cacophony that overwhelmed her.

"Unhand me! I am Colin—"

"Dude, you kissed Yang. People don't touch Yang. They just don't."

"She's my person and you kissed her! What the he—"

"Look at her, she's just standing there—"

"She doing Karev too?"

"I can't believe you touched her. Ass!"

"Don't know, maybe she sure likes her—"

"Karev get your hands off—"

" Burke is going to slaughter—"

"I said get your—"

Sound so much sound, so much noise, so much screaming and confusing. No, she could not deal with this. They were still yelling, continuing while she stood there, confused. All this yelling, all this screaming and anger. She could not stand, could not stand Evil Spawn's sardonic comments laced with anger, Bailey's barked orders, or Meredith's righteous indignation. It was just too much.

"Shut it," she said quietly, almost a whisper. Anything to stop the noise, this barrage of sound, but no one stopped. "SHUT IT!"

Everyone fell quiet, their eyes turning to stare at the girl who had just been kissed by her ex. Their eyes bore into her, cold eyes, mocking eyes, pitiful eyes. They were waiting for her to speak. She knew that, but now that they were all quiet…she did know what to say. Any harsh, cruel, cynical Cristina comments were lost in the image of a fading back. Right now, in this moment, Cristina Yang was absolutely speechless.