"owwww! That hurt! What the f..." Cristina was leaning on the nurses station, filling in a patient chat, when she felt someone tugging hard on her ponytail. Spinning round, ready to give whoever it was what for, she was stopped in her tracks by the sight in front of her.

A questioning look broke over Cristina's face as she saw her husband cradling her god daughter Zola. The big brown eyes of the child lit up when she saw Cristina briefly smile at her, her chubby hand still clenched in the fist that had been yanked out of Cristina's hair when she had turned around.

"What are you doing with her?" Cristina enquired as Zola popped her thumb in her mouth and snuggled back against Owen's shoulder. Subconsciously Owen began to sway side to side, rocking the little girl in a gentle rhythm. Zola cooed quietly in his arms.

"Meredith is getting stuff ready for tonight and Zola was making more mess than actually helping. So she asked me, as she knew tour shift was ending, if we could keep Zola and bring her over with us later. All her stuff is in my office."

Cristina groaned. The baby shower she did not even want was tonight! Meredith had insisted that they were doing it, so Cristina set some ground rules. The hospitals men were to attend as well, she did not want an oestrogen fest. She had also banned Lexie from any involvement in the planning, she did not want anything cute or girly- no balloons, no scrapbook station and absolutely no glitter pens!

"she likes you!" Cristina observed, moving closer to this sweet pairing. She reached out her arms and snaked one around Owen's waist and placed the other hand on Zola's back. I am going to have to get used to him not always being able to hug me back when the baby comes. She thought to herself with a mixture of excitement and sadness. I am going to have to share him!

"she has good taste!" Owen smirked and dropped a kiss on the forehead of his wife. Owen's pager beeped into action, forcing Zola to bolt upright in his arms, her eyes wide in shock.

"it's ok honey" Cristina soothed, in the singsong voice people use around babies, taking Zola's hand in her's. The baby gripped her finger and Cristina was taken aback at how this tiny gesture felt so comfortable. "uncle Owen needs to go and do some of his special magic, but you and me are going to go and prepare ourselves for an evening of hell!

Owen smiled at how natural his wife was with this little girl who had become part of their lives so quickly. He could not wait until their baby arrived and he got to see her like this everyday.

"see you both at 6pm, ready for a fun shower!" Owen spoke these words teasingly against Cristina's lips as he kissed her goodbye.

"the only fun shower are ones that involve you naked. Not onesies and breasts pumps!" she quipped after his retreating figure.

"ok!" Owen agreed as he popped his head back around the corner with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

Shaking her head smiling, Cristina turned her face to Zola and said "come on let's go and make some mischief in uncle Owen's office!". As if she totally understood what her godmother had said Zola giggled and bounced in Cristina's arms. Walking down the corridor Cristina instinctively cuddled the little girl closer to her heart.

After getting changed into her black maternity jeans, a black and purple vest and a purple cardigan, Cristina sat at Owen's desk flipping through his presentation for the medical conference waiting for him to finish in surgery. Zola was strapped into her stroller, chewing on a plastic toy.

"ready to go?" Owen stuck his head around the door of his office, his body not daring to cross the threshold as he knew Cristina would try to engage him in some diversionary tactics to avoid leaving.

"are you sure we have too?" Cristina whined. " we could drop Zola on the doorstep and knock and run!"

"we are going! Think of the gifts!" Owen gestured for Cristina to bring Zola outside the room.

"you drive a hard bargain Dr Hunt!" Cristina moaned as she pushed Zola's stroller through the doorway.

"yes I do!" Owen murmured as he dropped little kisses down her neck.

"Down boy! That is what got us into the mess in the first place!"

it was a clear, warm night, one of the 5 Seattle gets all year, so they decided to walk the 7 blocks from the hospital to Meredith's house. Owen pushed Zola with one hand and held Cristina's hand with the other. They walked in easy silence and Cristina mused that this actually felt nice- the husband and baby thing. She was a simple girl after all, who knew!

As they walked Owen felt totally content. When he had been out in the desert he never dared to hope he would make it home and now the home he had made in Cristina was everything to him. It had pulled him out of the darkness, fixed him and now he was more than the son who went off to war. He was the husband and father who was loved and needed. She had made him whole again and given him the huge life he thought Iraq had stolen away. Owen pulled Cristina under his arm and kissed the top of her head.

"what was that for?" Cristina asked as she tucked herself tighter against his chest.

"I just love you." Owen's voice was muffled by her thick curls.

They turned into Meredith's driveway and Cristina stretched over to press the bell. Owen whispered nervously in her ear as she stood crossed armed next to him waiting for the door to open.

"Cristina whatever is behind this door had nothing to do with me!"

The door was flung open.

"Happy baby shower!" everyone was popping streamers and tossing pink and blue balloons in the air as Cristina and Owen stepped through the door. Zola burst into tears! Callie rushed forward and took her from Cristina's arms before she dropped her. Owen and Cristina stood frozen, their eyes darting around the room taking in every detail. aside from the streamers and balloons Cristina saw a table with Polaroid cameras, onesies, scrapbooks and GLITTER PENS!

Owen braced himself for Cristina's reaction. Feeling her take in a huge breath, here it comes he thought to himself. Remember, hunt you survived a war, this is just a baby shower!

"Meredith..." Cristina's tone was low and dark.

Sensing a twisted sisters blow up, the guests started to edge away towards the kitchen. Lexie, fearing the worst grabbed a large bowl of jelly babies and began stuffing handfuls into her mouth. She knew Cristina would be gunning for her next.

Over the tops of their wives heads, Owen and Derek eyed each other nervously.

"beer?" Derek mouthed silently with an incline of his head towards the kitchen.

"oh yeah" Owen mouthed back nodding vigorously.

Both men started to inch away from their wives, but the women were too quick for them. Like ninjas they shot out their arms and grabbed their husbands by the wrists, tightening their grips and anchoring them to the spot.

"it looks like Barbie and ken threw up in here!" Cristina hissed.

"I may have let Lexie help" Meredith wheedled "just a little bit."

"I knew it" Cristina spat "just give me the gifts! I am going home!"

"no, no you are not! Just let me fix this. Ok?" Meredith sprang into action. "Owen, take Cristina into the kitchen, get some drinks and go out into the backyard."
As if taking an order from a commanding officer, Owen frog marched his wife towards the kitchen. Cristina grumbling about not being listened to all the way

"you!" pushing Derek towards the living room. "go and get Zola's toys and play mat and take them and her into the backyard too!" laughing at his wife's panic Derek made towards Callie and took his daughter upstairs to find the toys.

Everyone was looking around nervously. "Ok, no time for just standing let's go." Screeched Meredith. "Lexie put down the jelly babies and stop crying...Jackson, Alex burst all these balloons...Mark take all the gifts out into the garden...Callie, Arizona April drinks, food outside now!...Teddy take the cameras...Dr Bailey (she still could not call her once resident Miranda) pillows, blankets...and Chief...kill the glitter pens."

After a momentary pause to take in what Meredith was saying, they sprang into action. 15 commotion filled minutes later the house looked like there had never been any signs of a baby shower there and everyone was sitting on pillows and blankets under the stars and fairy lights in the garden some drinking beer, some ginger beer, watching Owen and Cristina unwrap presents.

Sitting next to Owen amongst a pile of gifts- which included a breast pump, diaper service, activity gym, soft toys in varying sizes, Seahawks, Harvard and Stanford jerseys and an anatomy Jane-Cristina began to relax, this was more a shower she could tolerate. There had been the usual jokes about her not being maternal on any way and Owen had been called "Mr. mommy" a few times by Mark and Derek, but it was all in good humour. Owen believes I can do this! I trust him! Cristina told herself silently.

"thank you all." Cristina looked around at the people she had come to consider her family over the past 7 years and felt strangely moved that they were all here tonight to celebrate this unexpected twist in her life. Blinking back tears, she still had to be nothing but hardcore to them, "now, enough baby stuff, this is supposed to be a party! Which around here means drinking lots of tequila and dancing on tables! "

A little while later the party was in full swing, Callie, Arizona and Teddy were dancing madly in the middle of the garden, the chief, Alex and Jackson were playing poker and April and Lexie were engaged in drunken girl conversation.

Cristina had barely spent anytime with Owen, he was too busy chatting and joking with everyone, enjoying the attentions being an expectant father bought. Smiling at the fun being had at her baby shower, Cristina wandered inside to make herself the coffee she had been craving for the last hour. Thinking to herself with amusement, I am so soft core!

"your husband certainly has a way with the tiny ladies." Meredith came in to the kitchen to have a few quiet moments with her best friend. "Zola can't get enough of him."

Peering through the low kitchen window, Cristina took in the scene. Zola was sitting on her activity mat flapping her arms up at Owen to be picked up. Owen bent down and scooped her up in his arms. As soon as she was at chest height, Zola wrapped her chubby arms around his neck and rested her chin on his shoulder. Instinctively Owen began to rub her back and rock her gently, all the while continuing his conversation about the Seahawks with Mark and Derek. Zola's eyes began to droop closed and in a sleepy gesture one hand made it's way to hold onto Owen's ear and the other moved to her mouth and she sucked her thumb hungrily.

"our baby is so going to like him best." Cristina sighed. Deep down, seeing how wonderful he was with Zola made her feel proud. She was happy that Meredith could finally see that he was a good man.

"no they won't!" Meredith laughed as she took the chair on the opposite side of the table.

"I never thought you and I would be sitting here talking about husbands and babies. This is all very grown up!"

"I am glad you changed your mind." Meredith said quietly. The best friends had not talked about the abortion issue since Cristina had told her she didn't go through with it. Meredith had been worried about her reasoning but did not know how to talk about it with her "you did do it for you though right? Not just for Owen?"

"no! You don't get to do this now!" Cristina shook her head and made to get up from her chair.

"yes I do!" Meredith's defiant tone made Cristina stop in her tracks. "Derek and Zola are the loves of my life but you are still my soul mate. I need to hear you say you are doing this for the right reasons!"

"of course I am doing it for Owen, I love him and he wants this so much." as Cristina uttered the last words Meredith made to interject but Cristina held up a finger to silence her as she continued, "but I do want this a baby too. I do! I never would have with anyone else, you know that you were there...last time." Cristina's words stopped flowing and she stared down at the table top.

Meredith reached across the table and took Cristina's hand in hers. She squeezed it willing her person to continue.

"I just didn't know how to want something I never thought I wanted you know?" Meredith nodded, she got it, other people did not get the twisted sisters coded way of speaking but she knew exactly what Cristina meant. "I am terrified of loosing it all and being alone gain but life without risk is not really living, right?"

"right!" Meredith agreed as the best friends grinned at each other. "you have changed! I love you Cristina Yang. I'm going to hug you now."

Laughing out loud, Cristina stood up and held her arms open for Meredith to fall into.

As the complicated women stood hugging each other tight in the kitchen, their less complicated husbands stood in the doorway looking on.

"you'd better hope that baby is a boy Hunt or we will be here in 20 years time watching the twisted sisters Mark 2!" Derek laughed lightly as he turned to Owen who was still cradling Zola, even though she was now awake.

"boy or girl, I think the twisted sisters are going to have heirs to the throne of dark and twisty!" Owen clapped Shepherd on the back on a gesture of playful commiseration, chuckling quietly.

Zola giggled, screwing up her face, as if the thought of having her very own "Cristina" was the best idea in the whole world.