Chapter 13: Exes & Arguments

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Neither of them wanted to go to that 4 o'clock meeting with their exes.

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4 o'clock came extremely fast for both Meredith and Cristina. From the time Dr. Bailey had left them, both of them had their fingers crossed for an emergency so that they could get out of spending an extremely uncomfortable hour with their exes. However like Cristina had presumed, fate did indeed hate them, and at 4:03, they had no choice but to go to the meeting or risk being killed by Dr. Bailey.

Cristina and Meredith dejectedly walked towards the conference rooms where they were supposed to meet Burke and Derek. Cristina stopped in front of Conference Room 1, while Meredith made her way next door.

"Good luck", Meredith whispered, and taking a deep breath, she quickly turned the door knob and made her way inside the room.

Cristina vaguely heard Meredith wish her good luck, all she could think about right now is how she was supposed to spend 20 minutes with a man who she was doing her best to avoid. A man who she hadn't seen for 6 months, who had left her on their wedding day leaving her brutally broken.

Knowing that it wouldn't be long before Burke comes out to look for her, she willed herself to calm down, and taking a deep breath, she turned the door knob and made her way in, the sickening feeling in her tummy intensifying with every step she took.

Burke looked up from the file he was reading when he heard the door open and saw Cristina walk in and slam the door behind her.

"Dr. Yang, nice of you to finally show up", Burke said, mentally hitting himself the second the words left his mouth. This wasn't how their conversation was supposed to start. Now, Cristina would get snappy, and any hopes of having a civil conversation flew out of the window. Damn this woman, always gets the worse reaction out of me, Burke thought dejectedly.

"Oh I'm sorry Dr. Burke, I didn't know waiting for five minutes was so painful for you", Cristina snapped, sarcasm dripping from every word.

"I'm sorry Dr. Yang, I didn't mean to say that", Burke tried to apologize.

"Yeah, yeah whatever. I'm stuck in here with you because of this stupid meeting, so let's get over with it already okay? Can I please see the case's history", Cristina asked with forced politeness.

"Of course", Burke handed her the file knowing that it would be useless to talk to her right now.

After about 5 minutes, Burke couldn't take the silence anymore.

"So, that kiss in front of the OR? What was that about", Burke asked casually, asking the question that had been plaguing his mind ever since he saw the scene in front of the OR.

"I fail to see how me kissing a guy is any of your business", Cristina snapped without looking up from the file.

"It's not. I was just wondering if the guy was your boyfriend, or is kissing random guys a new habit of yours?" Burke asked, tired of her snappy attitude.

"Are you calling me a slut", Cristina asked incredulously, stunned at Burke's audacity to ask a question like that.

"I don't recall saying anything of that sort", Burke answered. This conversation was headed in the entirely wrong direction.

"Really? Because I swear I heard you ask me if kissing random guys is a new habit of mine. I am sure that counts as you calling me a slut", Cristina said angrily.

"I'm sorry it if sounded that way to you Dr. Yang, I can assure you that I didn't mean it like that", Burke said, desperately trying to control the situation before it got too out of hands.

Ignoring Burke, Cristina continued, "And why the hell do you care if the guy's my boyfriend or if I kiss random guys in the hallway. It's none of your business who I kiss, or who I go out with. You are nothing but my colleague, whatever we had ended on that day you decided to walk out on our wedding day."

"I was just curious", Burke explained lamely.

"Well let me satiate your curiosity. I am dating Jacob, the guy you saw me kiss is my boyfriend", Cristina said, smirking at the emotions that flashed on Burke's face at Cristina's words, the most prominent of which was hurt.

"Your boy-boyfriend?" Burke asked, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Cristina his Cristina was dating someone other than him.

"Yes, boyfriend. You know the person you used to be before you ditched me at the altar", Cristina said coldly. She knew she was being mean, hell she was being downright cruel, but at this point, she didn't care. In her eyes Burke deserved nothing but a cold shoulder from her after what he had done to her.

Noticing the extreme coldness in her voice, Burke snapped, "Why are you acting like this? Like you can't stand being 10 feet around me. I know that you probably don't like the fact that I am here, and that I really hurt you when I left you at the altar, but can you just please make eye contact with me for one second. If you do that, you might realize that I am just as hurt as you are."

"Did you seriously just ask me why I'm acting like this? I don't just dislike the fact that you're here, I hate it. I can't stand being around you for a second, the only reason I'm here is because I'm being forced to. You did more than just hurt me when you left me at the altar, you broke me, you broke my trust, and you made it impossible for me to trust anyone else. I gave my whole self to you and what do you do? You break it a million different pieces. My friends had to pick up the pieces of what you had broken. My friends were there when you weren't. You left without a word, without saying good bye. In less than 12 hours not only had you broken me, you completely switched your lifestyles. You moved all the way cross country, started a new job, and left all your past behind. Don't stand there telling me that you are just as hurt, because I had to suffer way more than you. While you started a new life in Boston, I was stuck here. I was stuck in this hospital with all the memories and my past haunting me everywhere I went. I had no name, no reputation. I was a first year resident trying to make an image of myself. Dr. Hahn hated me for the first couple of months; I had to fight tooth-and-nail to get into her good graces. I had to pretend I was over you at work but at night I wouldn't be able to sleep because you weren't there next to me. I hated the pitying look I got from my friends, Dr. Bailey and hell even the chief himself", Cristina said, halting for a second to gather her thoughts.

"I was finally healing, after 5 months, I found myself getting better, I found myself not missing you all the time. I realized that the fact that you weren't here was the best part because it made it a little easier for me to get over you and our relationship. And just when things start to look up for me, the chief post that stupid news clipping about you winning the Harper Avery award. Every progress I had made up until that point about moving on, came crashing around me when I saw your picture on that clipping. It felt as if I had gone back to the night of our non-wedding, but this time there was anger mingled with the hurt. You know why? Because not once in that article did my name appear. I helped you with all your research, I performed your surgeries when your hand had the tremors, I was your right hand man, but not once in that whole article did you put my name. I did all you asked of me without a word, I spent nights researching on your surgeries, and never claimed the credit, it was always you who got the credit, and the one chance you get to recognize my effort, you blow it off. Why does it always have to be about you?", Cristina asked blinking away the tears that had appeared in her eyes as she thought about the sleepless nights she had spent after that article had came out.

"I didn't know it would affect you so much", Burke mumbled, not knowing how to answer to her rant. He didn't know that not mentioning her in the article would have hurt her so much.

"Of course you didn't. You didn't know anything about me, how would you know what would affect me and what wouldn't", Cristina said sarcastically.

And for the first time since she came into the room, she turned her head and made eye-contact with Burke.

"Let me ask you a question Burke. Had I been in your place and you in mine, how would you have reacted? What if it had been me that left you at the altar on our wedding day, moved all the way across the country without a word, and then returned six months later. How would you have felt? Would you have wanted to see my face ever again? Would you have ever forgiven me?" Cristina asked gauging the reactions of Burke's face.

Burke listened in shock as Cristina laid the situation in front of him. How would be have felt if Cristina had done all that to him? As Burke mentally pictured the situation, he realized with a sinking feeling that he would never want to see Cristina ever again, had she done something like that and he sure as hell would have never forgiven her.

When Burke didn't speak, Cristina's expression turned into a satisfied one as she said, "Your silence spoke volumes Burke. Now do you realize where I am coming from? Now you know why I can't accept you back in my life, you would have done the same thing had our situation been reversed. You have no right to complain about the way I am treating you, because in my eyes that's the only way you should be treated. And don't stand there pretending that you have any idea what I went through in the past six months, because you don't have a clue. So while you might be sorry for what you did, sorry just isn't good enough, not now, not ever", Cristina finished with an awful finality in her tone.

But before Burke could say anything, the door was opened revealing Dr. Hahn.

"Was I interrupting something?" Dr. Hahn asked looking at the tense look on Burke's and Cristina's face.

Regaining her cool, Cristina quickly turned to Dr. Hahn and said, "No, nothing at all Dr. Hahn, I was just reviewing the case's summary."

"Alright then, we shall proceed from here. Dr. Burke would you like to stay?" Dr. Hahn asked Burke.

"No, I don't think that would be a wise decision. I am going to leave you two to continue your meeting", Burke said, his eyes fixed on Cristina while she did everything she could to ignore his intense glare.

"As you wish", Dr. Hahn said trying to ignore the increasingly awkward atmosphere in the room.

Once Burke had left, Dr. Hahn turned to Cristina and said, "I don't believe that nothing transpired in this room while I wasn't here. Your personal problems are none of my business, but if you would like to take a couple of minutes to compose yourself, I can leave for five minutes, I don't want you to be distracted during while we are discussing the case."

"No, that won't be necessary Dr. Hahn. I am fine, I've been fine, and I am not stopping now," Cristina said determinedly.

Knowing that Cristina won't change her mind, Dr. Hahn took the seat Burke had vacated a minute ago and began the meeting.

A/N: First let me say how incredibly sorry I am for the late update. Like I mentioned in the last chapter, my school life has been completely crazy, which is why you had to wait such a long time for another chapter! However, my last project is due of Wednesday so hopefully updates will be much faster after that. Once again, I am really sorry. This chapter isn't as long as my other ones, but I wanted to keep the conversation real instead of stretching it with repeated stuff. For those of you who saw 4.14, you know where I got the Harper Avery award stuff. I loved Cristina's role in the episode it was so real and I really wanted to strangle Burke for doing that to her. Also, I would like to thank all my wonderful reviewers for your wonderful reviews! As always, for the next chapter, at least 10 reviews. If I get 10 by tomorrow, I'll do my best to post the next chapter. With that said, enjoy the chapter and please, please, REVIEW!

Important- Please read: I want to know if you want a chapter with MerDer. I can have a MerDer scene in the conference room. I had the scene planned out for this chapter, but it would have been incredibly long, so I decided that if you want it I can make the next chapter full of MerDer angst! Otherwise, next chapter we see some sense being knocked in Cristina from a very surprising source. So tell me what you want!!