Cristina watched from around the corner as Burke climbed into his car, pausing to search his surroundings as if he could sense her presence there. He looked sad and exhausted, and her heart ached to be with him for only a moment, then she cursed herself and tried her very best to return to her steely resolve.
Her edge.
He pulled away and she waited a few more moments before she pulled her bike around the corner and parked in a far parking spot behind a large truck that belonged to someone who was obviously overcompensating for some shortcomings.
She moved through the darkness as if she expected him to come back, looking for her. As if he would know that she'd be there.
When she arrived in the apartment, she felt her edge slipping and decided that she'd move as quickly as possible, grabbing whatever she could to get through the next couple of weeks.
Clothes, toiletries and books were tossed into an overnight bag in a manner that was classically Cristina, and she did a once over of the apartment to make sure that she wasn't missing something.
She was missing him, but she couldn't take him with her. She had to leave her emotions, her feelings for him, here in their safe place, and forget about them.
She pulled her phone charger from the wall and jammed it in her bag on top of everything else and as she was leaving her eyes caught a glimpse of a yellow post it note on the counter.
C-
Please come home.
We can work through this together.
I love you.
-B
She pulled the note from the counter with a heavy heart and let out a sigh as she went to place it in her pocket, then stopped.
She had to leave him here.
She crumpled the paper up in her hand, and dropped it into the trash can and slipped out the door quiet and unnoticed.
Her ride back to the hospital was difficult, her heart battling for her to drive home, crawl into their bed and sleep, her brain reminding her that she would only be average if she gave up, and she'd never make a name for herself.
And as always, her brain won the battle as she pulled into the farthest corner of the parking lot and she quickly made her way to a basement entrance of the hospital where she would have to hide out during the day.
There was a vending machine down there where she could grab a quick bite, and a soda machine, she would've preferred coffee, but she'd have to reserve that to late night visits the ENT clinic to pilfer off of the coffee machine set up for the patients.
She tossed her bag onto an abandoned broken hospital bed tucked in the corner of a musty room and pulled a suture kit from her bag.
It was time for her to master the mattress stitch.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Burke checked the hospital call rooms thoroughly, sure that's where she'd be hiding out but he found no signs of her.
He grew more and more frustrated and despaired as the hours passed without her, and he was concerned because he knew that she wouldn't take care of herself and no good could come from her new found antics.
As he passed through the surgical unit, he spotted Meredith out of the corner of his eyes and his frustration swiftly turned to resentment.
"Dr. Burke.." she took notice of him as well and ran to catch up with him.
He walked away from her, knowing that a confrontation with her would be ugly in this very moment and he wasn't ready to make a scene.
Not yet.
"Dr. Grey, I highly recommend that you leave me alone." he muttered.
"I saw Cristina."
He stopped in his tracks, "Where? When?"
"Yesterday morning...she was really upset, I didn't know if there was something going on between you two. I know she's upset because she can't come back to work, and I apologized, and I know she has every right to be angry with me. But I'm just worried about her."
He bit his lip, drawing up every bit of will power left within him to restrain himself from doing or saying something he may regret in the long run.
He had to save face for Cristina.
"She's not fine. And we're not fine. Go back to work, Dr. Grey. Cristina can't, and if you ask me? Justice was not served appropriately." he finally uttered at her, his eyes flashing with anger.
Meredith looked down at the ground, "Fine. I'll quit the program, is that what it's going to take? Is that what it's going to take for everything to get back to normal?"
"It would take much more than that, Grey. Excuse me."
He walked away from her, saving face for Cristina.
Saving face for himself.
He had work to do, and if he got too personal before he could execute, his plan would never work.
And it had to work, or he'd never get his Cristina back.
