Chapter Twelve

Cristina was fidgeting and she thought that the tights and black court suit that she was wearing was itchy and uncomfortable. But this was what she had to wear to court, to be honest she was more comfortable in scrubs.

She looked at her watch, in ten minutes' court would start and the judge would announce their fate. "Hey, I'm here sorry it took so long, parking was crazy." Meredith said as she pushed back her blond hair from her heart shaped face.

Cristina waved away her apology. "Don't worry about it, court hasn't even started yet." Meredith nodded and at that moment the court doors opened again and Owen came in with his own lawyer. They were talking in low whispers, Owen stopped talking when he saw Cristina, but he quickly turned away and continued talking with his lawyer. Cristina frowned and Meredith couldn't help, but noticed that she looked hurt by the gesture.

"Are you sure that you want to do this?" Meredith said as she put her hand on Cristina's shoulder.

Cristina nodded. "Yes." But the look on Owen's face was hard to erase from her mind. He had look so hurt and heartbroken and now all that Cristina wanted to do was comfort him and make him happy. But she couldn't do that because she had been the one to cause him unhappiness.

"Let's go," Cristina said. "We're going to be late."

Meredith nodded as they entered the courthouse. The courtroom was barely filled with people since it wasn't a long drawn out trial and Cristina and Owen had both agreed to come and Meredith had decided to come for moral support.

A dark skinned woman with short black hair appeared wearing the black robe and they stood up. "Everyone may be seated. I'm judge Howard." Cristina, Owen, and their lawyer sat and Judge Howard opened the folder in front of her. "This trial is to determine the custody of Valerie Theodora Yang-Hunt. Please explain your decisions and why I should grant you full custody of Valerie. Dr. Yang and her lawyer Mrs. Sawyer."

Cristina's lawyer Mrs. Sawyer cleared her throat and stepped forward. "Good morning judge Howard, my client Dr. Cristina Yang is head of cardio at a research facility in Switzerland as you can imagine, she is a busy woman. She delivered the child to term, but she has no desire to care for the child. Dr. Yang would like to give away her parental rights. She has already found a very nice couple to adopt the child and they have been given an extensive back up check."

Judge Howard nodded. "Dr. Yang, do you agree with what Mrs. Sawyer just said, do you want to give up your parental rights and give up Valerie Yang-Howard for adoption?"

Cristina didn't respond.

"Dr. Yang."

"I'm sorry," Cristina cleared her throat. "Thar is correct, I've done extensive research and I want the family I choose to have the baby and I'll go back to my research clinic in Switzerland."

Judge Howard nodded and she turned to Owen and his lawyer. "You may proceed."

Mrs. Dove stood up and cleared her throat. "Your honor, my client respects the fact that Dr. Yang does not want to have any parental rights and has no interest in keeping the child. In fact, Dr. Hunt is not even requesting Dr. Yang to pay child support. Unlike Dr. Yang, Dr. Hunt is interested in caring for the child and wants full custody."

Judge Howard nodded. "Dr. Yang, you mentioned that a family was interested in the child. Has anything been decided?"

"No, your honor."

Judge Howard nodded. "Does anyone have anything they would like to add?"

"No, your honor."

"In that case I grant full custody to Owen Hunt over full custody of his daughter Valerie Theodora Yang-Hunt. Dr. Yang you have lost full custody of your daughter, please sign any necessary papers. Case dismiss."

Cristina and Owen exited the courthouse and Cristina quickly said goodbye to her lawyer before catching up to Owen who was quickly leaving. "Owen! Wait!"

Owen looked back at her looking slightly defensive. "Look, Cristina if you're going to argue with me- "

"No, I'm tired of arguing," Cristina said. "You have full custody, is your decision now. I'll sign whatever you need me to sign, I just thought that I should apologize for everything, for the whole mess."

Owen sighed and he seemed to have softened a little. "I wish it hadn't ended like this. Believe me, but I am Valerie's father and I want her in my life. Are you going back to Switzerland?"

Cristina nodded. "Yeah."

Owen nodded, looking a bit sad. "Take care of yourself, Cristina. I mean it."

Meredith noticed that Cristina was very quiet in the car ride back and she wanted to comfort her, but she didn't know how. At least she and Owen had seemed to leave on the wrong foot and Owen didn't seem as mad as he had been at Cristina, so that had to be a good sign. "Are you ok?" Meredith asked.

After the court date, Cristina had booked a first class flight back to Switzerland and had insisted Meredith to drive her to the airport which Meredith had done so happily but that did not mean that she was not concern for her friend.

Cristina ran a hand through her curly dark hair. "I'm fine Meredith; I'm just not excited to deal with the hours long plane ride."

Meredith didn't say anything else as she parked the car in the airport parking lot. Cristian grabbed her two bags and headed towards the exit. "Well, this is it. Call me as soon as you can, don't just disappear. Cristina."

Meredith saw that Cristina looked lost, spacey and not like her usual cool and collected self.

"What?" Cristina seemed to have drifted off into her own little world. Meredith squeezed her shoulder. "Are you ok, you seem distracted."

"I'm ok," Cristina said, but her voice was trembling slightly. She suddenly started crying hysterically like on the few times that she had experience her mental breakdowns. "Oh, I don't know why I'm crying, I mean who the hell cries at airports." Her entire body was shaking. "I can't do this; Mer-I can't do this."

"It's ok," Meredith said as she hugged her. "You don't have to do it by yourself."

-End of Chapter Twelve-

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