Authors note: this is a short bridging chapter to tie up LA. I thought I was going to write a couple of chapters of Owen, Cristina and Daniel on a kind of vacation but changed my mind. So this is a little something I had started and wanted to include as the first bit is from Daniel's point of view. Hope people are still enjoying the story, am loving writing it!xxxx
It was 4am when Daniel flicked open his heavy lashes and stared at the ceiling. He let out a sleepy grizzle, in the hope of alerting someone to the fact that he was awake. His dark brown orbs scanned side to side, but the surroundings were unfamiliar. The picture he had been used to waking up to for the past 6 weeks had been replaced by this confusing mix of things some of which he knew to be his- the little blue teddy bear The bigger baby had given him- and things he thought belonged to this room, but who this room belonged to he did not yet know. He could hear the shuffle of feet on the luxurious hotel carpet and a deep cough coming from somewhere lower down to his right hand side. Usually the noises came from the left hand side and the sound of people walking was amplified by the wooden floors in his house. The footstep sounds stopped and he could see a figure in front of him, the tiny body wrapped up something that was bright, pure white, like light. He could make out the black curls as they fell forward, masking their owners face as her hands reached down into the cot, a place he imagined many other children had dreamt in, to lift him up to her eye level. The long fingers of his tiny hand grabbed a handful of the silky mass and gripped on tight. As the hands moved him towards her body and her slender arms anchored him close to her chest, his heart resting on top of her heart, his face turned into the nape of her neck, he recognised her scent dancing in his nostrils. He murmured contentedly, he was exactly where he was supposed to be-in the arms of the woman who had made him from scratch, who had opened her life to contain everything she has thought she never wanted and who he knew loved him immeasurably, unconditionally and absolutely. He was in the arms that would always be his safety- in the arms of his mother.
Cristina climbed back into the kingsized hotel bed and adjusted the bathrobe to latch her son's tiny mouth onto her breast. Her husband was snoring softly beside her and the rise and fall of his chest, with each slumbering breath, fell onto a rhythm with Daniel's hungry gulps. Sinking back into the pillows and lazily running her free hand over Owen's bare back, Cristina mused on how different her early morning routine had become over the past few years. Of course she was used to getting up in the early hours of the morning, that was part and parcel of being a surgical resident. In the before Owen, her first thoughts when she woke had been of getting to the hospital to trawl for the best cases. In the before Daniel, her waking thoughts had been making her first physical contact of that day with her husband, to re-affirm their love in each new day. Now in her after, after becoming a wife and a mother, lying in bed with these 2 men was all she wanted her mornings to consist of.
"morning." Owen stretched and rubbed his eyes before he turned onto his opposite side to be met by the sight of his wife feeding their son. He smiled sleepily at the beauty of the picture.
"morning." Cristina replied, stroking his cheek. She leaned her head down as he stretched his up to catch each others lips in a sweet kiss.
"so do you have plans?" Owen asked as he rested his head on her shoulder and stroked his son's head. He was spending the day at the conference. He and Derek were due to give their presentation once again that afternoon. Now his family were here he just wanted to put the do not disturb sign on the door and curl under the covers with them all day.
"hmm, right now my plan is to finish feeding Daniel, put him back to bed for a little more sleep and bury myself in my husband." Cristina dropped a kiss on the top of his red hair and entwined her fingers with his. Owen played with her fingers as they waited for Daniel to fill himself up.
With Daniel back in the crib sleeping soundly, Cristina snuggled into Owen's arms. They just enjoyed laying together, physically and emotionally connected, remembering all they had made it through to get to this point of being a happy family.
"Let's get in the shower, have some morning soapy sex and I'm gonna wash your hair." Owen kissed her passionately, the prologue to the guaranteed blockbuster to be told under the hot water of the hotel's power shower.
Allowing herself to be led to the bathroom, Cristina thought happily that the spontaneous trip to LA was turning out to be one the best decisions she had ever made!