Hi everyone, sorry for the slow update, I had some very sad family news that has delayed things a bit – but writing is helping me through it.

Glad you're all enjoying the story so far, have made this chapter slightly longer to apologise for the delay. Really appreciate the reviews – thank you.

…..

The presentation is going well, Owen thought to himself as he stood up on that stage.

He had always been great at commanding an audience, it's what made him such a good chief of surgery, but he had to admit that spending time with Cristina last night had given him some extra swagger. After all, she had basically admitted to him that he was still the love of her life – as she was his.

He saw Burke in the audience and felt childishly smug as he ran through his presentation. Yeah pal, she never loved you the way she loved.. loves me.

His imagination was running away with him. He didn't know what last night meant, but all he knew was that their connection was still there, still as strong as it had ever been. All these years he had tried to suppress it, put her in a tiny box in the corner of his mind and try to move on.

He knew it couldn't go anywhere – or could it though? The biggest thing that tore them apart was his desire for a child (which he now had) and her need to be a medical titan (which she now was). They had grown up and were probably mature enough to try and make their lives intertwine again. She was clearly happy being in a long distance relationship, so perhaps that's something they could do? Both being surgeons had substantial financial perks, so they could afford to fly back and forth to see each other. Teddy was fully back in the dating game so there was no risk of awkwardness there. Family comes in many forms nowadays so having another strong woman in his daughter's life could only be a positive thing surely?

He was getting ahead of himself.

As his presentation drew to an end, and everyone got on their feet he was scouring the crowd to see her face. He could see Karev, Shane Ross, even Stephen in the crowd but not her.

She said she'd be here.

….

"Oh Cristina, how could you be so stupid. I'm also going to KILL Alex for failing to stop this."

She sighed down the phone to her person. "Not helpful Mer. I technically didn't DO anything – we just hung out. There were no shenanigans of any kind."

Cristina could practically hear Meredith's eyes roll down the phone.

"You and I both know that you and Owen cannot simply just hang out. Not even a divorce or dating other people was enough to keep you apart. You literally had to go to another time zone to…"

"Yes okay Meredith point taken," She bit back. "But you and I both know that you only get one true love in your life, and I can't just ignore the fact that Owen is that for me."

"I know." Meredith paused, her tone softening. "You know, the other night I had a dream that me, you, Derek and Owen were all hanging out. Nothing special – we were just having drinks at Joe's, talking about surgeries – you were teasing Derek about how boring Neuro was, our husbands trying to talk us out of doing more Tequila shots…." Cristina could almost hear Meredith choking back tears down the phone… "And it was like everything was right and normal again with the world. But it's not, and it will never be that way again. But at least I can be comforted with those memories, as should you be. Don't tarnish them by trying to create a reality that you can't sustain."

She knew what Meredith was getting at, but her words were just making her more confused than ever.

Meredith tragically had the love of her life taken away from her. She had no choice but to cling on to happy memories and accept her lot in life. Owen was still alive. His heart was still beating, and beating for her. Since Derek died Meredith had often said she would give anything in this world for just a few more moments with him; it seems silly to throw away that connection with the love of your life when they are still alive in this world.

"Hello? Cristina, are you still there."

"I can't breathe with him here Meredith." She gasped. "I agree with everything you said just now – really I do. I've spent the past 5 years creating a life that I want, making the sacrifice worth it. And after the longest time I found that I could breathe again, and in Stephen I found something else real in terms of a relationship. But he's only been here 4 days and already I can't breathe. He's all I can think about."

…

As she marched into the presentation hall she spotted Owen in an instant. He was surrounded by a plethora of surgeons, all patting him on the back and asking him questions about his presentation.

It didn't take long for his eyes to meet hers. She could see the relief, but slightly hurt expression in his face – he definitely would have expected her there in the audience.

Feeling electricity course through her veins at just the mere sight of him she felt even more resolved about what she had to do. Signalling him out of the room she made her way back up to her office, knowing that he'd follow her.

Staring out of the window, she could hear the door close behind her, but she couldn't bring herself to turn around.

"So, I kinda killed it up there. I think I did Grey Sloan Memorial proud." Owen said softly. "Were you in the audience? I couldn't see-"

"You have to leave." She whispered, still staring out of the window.

"Excuse me?" Owen let out a small chuckle – not fully taking in what she had just said.

"You shouldn't be here. This is a mistake. You need to get on the next flight back to Seattle and just leave and everything can get back to normal." She was speaking straight to the point. She couldn't afford to let her emotions override her in this conversation.

"Cristina…. I don't understand. You want me gone?"

She remained silent, which only caused Owen's temper to rise slightly.

"Look, if you're going to order me to leave you could at least have the decency to look me in the eye and have an adult conversation – I thought we'd moved past the silent treatment with each other."

She continued looking out of the window, but could feel him walking closer towards her.

"I know it's weird. But it's also not. Last night was… it felt right Cristina, like coming home again. And I know it's scary and I know it is far from simple – but YOU brought me out here so –"

"Oh for god's sake Owen I didn't bring you here." She turned around to face him, the hurt and shock in his face was breaking her heart, but she continued anyway.

"I didn't have a say in who gets invited to this – I have a whole team who decides these things. Trust me, your invitation came just as much as a shock to me as it did for you."

"Wow. Well thank you so much for clearing things up." The sarcasm barely concealable in his voice. "Here I was thinking we'd reached a good place – it was you Cristina, YOU who came to see ME last night, and then once again you pull the rug out from underneath me and tell me you don't want me here."

"Of course I WANT you here." She tried her best to keep her volume down, but all of her supressed emotions came flooding out. "That's the problem. Ever since I heard you were coming you have been ALL I can think about and it's killing me."

Owen's eyes started to fill with tears.

"I tried everything I could to keep you at arm's length. Christ sake I even wore my hair down because I know you like it when I wear it up." She was bordering on hysterical now.

"I re-arranged my schedule so I didn't have to see you and Meredith drafted in Karev to keep us apart – but one look at you and I you are all I can think about."

"I had to cross a whole continent to learn to live without you Owen. And FINALLY I get to a place where I can, and you show up and all of a sudden I'm a giddy teenager again. I can't even make love to my boyfriend without closing my eyes and willing it to be you instead. So I'm asking, please, please go and let me breathe again."

Cristina squeezed her eyes shut in a desperate bid to keep the tears from falling, but to no avail – and she felt a familiar hand gently wipe them from her cheek.

"Just breathe Cristina, breathe." Owen hushed in an attempt to calm her down – and all it took was a look in in each other's eyes before their lips met each other's again.

Just like coming home.

…

Navigating each other's bodies was like second nature, instinct.

Even though it had been five years, it was like a well-rehearsed dance – their bodies just fit together. Biology and chemistry taking over, with no room for thought except for pleasure.

It was like the past five years hadn't happened, and just evaporated into thin air. He wasn't a father of a new-born baby, with another failed marriage behind him living in Seattle, and she wasn't in charge of a prestigious medical centre in Switzerland. They were just Cristina and Owen.

The sex started off as hurried and frantic at first, as if every minute could be their last. Clothes were ripped, skin was scratched and bitten with ferocious intensity – but soon it became slow, sensual and so completely overwhelming that when they both came tears were streaming from both eyes. They both knew no-one could ever have that effect on each other in this lifetime.

They lay there for hours on the sofa in her office, stroking each other and drifting in and out of comfortable sleep. Not one of them saying a word for the longest time – until Cristina felt compelled to break their blissful silence.

"Owen, I don't know –"

He pressed his lips gently against hers in a successful attempt to silence her.

He stroked her hair. "Cristina, ssshhh. I don't know what lies beyond the walls of this office. I don't know what we both want. I don't know what this means. But I do know that I love you, and you love me. And right in this second we're here. Together. And I don't want to think about the future or be responsible right now. Can you not think with me?"

Cristina kissed him back and gently positioned herself on top of him to signal her mutual agreement.

….

"What do you mean you haven't seen her all day?!"

"Listen Mer, I have better things to do than keep tabs on Yang all the time. I'm smashing it here by the way. My presentation went amazingly well, and I've managed to secure so much funding for GSM's paediatrics ward - you're welcome by the way."

"Alex, we're not talking about you right now. We're talking about Cristina. We had a conversation about Owen earlier and I'm worried she's back-sliding."

Alex was so bored of this conversation already.

"Relaaaaaaaaax Mer. Jeez. I was at Hunt's presentation this morning – he also smashed it – and Yang was nowhere to be seen."

"But that was like five hours ago Alex. I was on the phone to Cristina at the time. Have you seen Hunt since then?"

"No, like I said I'm networking and getting money for our hospital."

Without hesitation Meredith hung up the phone and grabbed a suitcase. She was going to Zurich.