I don't know what you're talking about, it definitely hasn't been almost 2 months since I've updated....Okay, I was busy. But this chapter is fairly long for me, does that help? Oh, and I promise to have another chapter up before "I Will Follow You Into The Dark"?

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Cristina walked blissfully down the hallway. Charlotte had left, Owen had gotten closure with Walter and had spent the night making her squirm with agonizing ecstasy, and today was the day of the surgery she had selected to scrub in on—badass cardio, naturally. She found herself fighting the urge the skip to the nurse's station or keep a goofy grin off her face.
"Why're you so happy?" Izzie asked, looking confused and awkward.

"Just scrubbing in on a crazy hardcore cardio surgery…nothing that would interest you" Cristina said smugly. Izzie opened her mouth as if to say something but Meredith jogged over slightly out of breath.

"Cristina…we have to talk" she panted.

"Oh…I—" Cristina looked at her pager as it had just gone off, she had to wash and prepare for the surgery or she would be out. "I can't talk now…later."

"No, Cristina…seriously"

"Seriously…I'll talk to you later, whatever the McDreamy drama…I just can't right now…I'm in a happy place. I'm not going to mess up with Dixon by being late, she'll won't let me in the OR if I'm not on her schedule" Cristina yelled, back at them, turning the corner in a hurry. "We'll get a drink later." Meredith's eyes grew wide.

"Oh I bet we will…" Meredith sighed and propped her head up on her hand.

"Several…" Izzie chimed.

"I tried. I definitely tried. You can be my witness in court" Meredith said, staring at Izzie with a cocked eyebrow and a slightly manic expression.

"Yeah… is going to be ugly" Izzie paused. " I think I'll make popcorn" Izzie added cheerfully, as Meredith threw her a withering look.

*************

"What are you doing here?" Cristina asked, trying to sound as blasé as possible while washing up to head into the OR.

"Oh, you know perfectly well, Cristina…you chose to scrub in on my surgery after all. Did you really think anyone else was capable of handling something like this?" his eyes flashed full of arrogance and joy at her annoyance. Cristina rolled her eyes. "Besides…when I heard the wedding fell through, I just had to come by and say 'I told you so'…surely you won't begrudge me that?" Cristina threw her towel into the disposal with a snap and slammed the door closed behind her. Dr. Marlowe shrugged and continued washing up for surgery, perfectly fine with the idea that the next three hours were going to be very tense.

**************

Owen had a headache from Izzie Stevens' incessant rambling, particularly when it involved her mentioning Cristina's sexual history with some doctor that was visiting the hospital. He thumbed through some charts trying to find the one for his patient and tone her out so he wouldn't have to think about what she was saying. Izzie was sighing and leaning on the desk next to him, clearly exasperated with his inability to give this situation proper attention.

"Dr. Marlowe is here…again. Which is awkward for Cristina, I'm sure…although I can't say that upsets me much…" Owen rolled his eyes.

"Is this the Marlowe that developed the Marlowe transplant?"

"Yes! So you have heard of him…I guess I'm not surprised, I mean he's a cardio god. Used to be Cristina's sex god, actually…" Izzie let out a laugh. Owen cleared his throat. This girl had a serious addiction to gossip and he refused to feed into it. She absolutely could not keep her mouth shut. She wasn't bad in the OR most of the time, but she was incredibly frivolous. And the thing where she mentioned Cristina's past sex partners to him at work, definitely not helping him keep it professional. He put on his seriously badass look, cutting her off from her continued ramblings about the last time Marlowe showed up at the hospital and something about blue pills.

"Dr. Stevens, is Dr. Marlowe working on our patient?"

"No…but—"

"Do Dr. Yang's past sexual partners have anything to do with our patient?"

"Um…no…"

"Should you have been spending the past ten minutes blathering on about this crap or checking on our patient's test results?" Izzie opened her mouth the respond, but closed it and took the chart from him .

"And Dr. Stevens, I think you should keep the private personal information you know about your fellow residents to yourself. This hospital has enough gossip going around as it is." Izzie walked away shaking her head at the papers in front of her as she mumbled a "yes, sir". Owen took a deep breath and tried to keep some unhappy images out of his head.

**********

After several hours of surgery, Cristina was doubly exhausted from Marlowe's snide remarks during surgery about being left at the altar in addition to the length and intensity of the surgery. So a surgery that was meant as consolation or losing the solo surgery ended up just exhausting her more and bringing up some demons that she would much rather not face. She just wanted to collapse into bed…her day had cascaded downhill since finding out Marlowe was back and she hadn't seen Owen all day since they had both been busy. She sat on the bench and stared into her locker blankly. Too tired to move or think…she hated that Marlowe had to bring up Burke constantly. She was tough, but even she had trouble keeping it together when an ex was asking you to explain, to a full OR and gallery, why exactly your ex-fiance had left you. Or what about her could scare a man from even coming back to work in the same hospital. He made her relive the pain and humiliation she had felt that day and most of the time for the past few months. Pain that Owen had helped her to forget.

She heard heavy footsteps behind her and a gentle pressure on her upper back. She sighed, taking in his familiar masculine scent, and leaned back on him lightly. Cristina loved this familiarity and savored that she could sense Owen without seeing him now. He gently placed his hands on her head and lightly massed her temples, then let them drop onto her shoulders and gave her a quick kiss on the head.

"How are you?"

"Tired…" she said, closing her eyes.

"You want a drink or you just want to go home?"

"Just want to go home…" she said quietly, reaching up and entwining her hands with his, but then let out a sigh. "Oh crap, I forgot I told Meredith I would meet her for drinks tonight" Owen swung around and sat next to her on the bench.

"She'll understand if you're tired…"

"No…I'll meet up with her" a side of her mouth tugged upward for a second, then fell back down. She leaned her head on his shoulder.

"How was surgery?"

"Bad" Cristina answered simply. Owen felt even more concern, considering how Cristina had been looking forward to this surgery and how cardio made her giddy in any capacity.

"He must be a real ass" Cristina let out a low chuckle.

"Spot on" she said, nuzzling her head in closer to Owen's neck. It was an incredibly ability, really, the way he just seemed to suck negativity out of her and replacing it with…warmth. "How did you know he was here or that…well, about me and him?"

"Izzie Stevens was on my service today" Owen said with an exasperation that made Cristina laugh.

"That explains a lot" Cristina sighed again and looked at her fingers intertwined with Owen and looked at them carefully, preparing herself to breach the real cause of her mood. "It wasn't him that bothered me though it was…well, last time he came here it was right before my wedding. He tried to convince me the wedding could never happen, I'm not the marrying kind…"

Owen placed a hand around her waist and stroking it lightly, comforting her as much as he could with the light touch.

"And well, apparently he was right, and he has spent the day going out of his way to shove my face in how right he was. And I don't care about what he says…but I can't help but think that he might be right. I've been blaming Burke all this time, but maybe it really was me…"

"I'm going to punch this guy in the face" Owen said simply. Cristina laughed again. "You don't think I will? Because I will…"

"No…don't do that…you could probably kill him with a look"

"Well if you won't let me punch him…" Owen turned and straddled the bench, pulling her even closer and trapping her between his knees. "Cristina, even if you aren't the marrying kind, there's nothing wrong with that. But it's about commitment, it's not about the flowers or the giant cake or the crappy music…it's about commitment, and you can do commitment, just look at you and Meredith…so to hell with the rest of it." Cristina looked up at him with a slightly crooked smile and the hint of a tear in her eye. Owen brushed her hair back on one side and kissed her. Lightly at first, but then pulled her in deeper, as if trying to suck the venom that had poisoned the deepest parts of her soul. He pulled away and then gave her a soft kiss on the hand he was holding.

"Come on, I'll walk you to Joe's"