A/N: I have neglected this story a bit. I do apologize.

Cristina looked at Meredith getting ready for her graduation. They were in one of the restrooms at school, where Meredith was putting on her graduation gown.

Cristina was the only one among all of their friends, not graduating. She envied them so much. She still had another semester to do because of that darn accident.

Meredith looked at her. She knew her friend felt miserable about being left behind.

"Hey, Cristina, you will get here, soon enough," Meredith said.

"You're all leaving me," Cristina said, sadly. "You're going to Boston, Jackson is going to Chicago, April is going to New Orleans and Alex is going to Houston. So what is going to happen to you and Derek, now that you are moving clear across the country?"

"Well, we are going to try a long-distance relationship and see if it will work," Meredith said. "I have my doubts but Derek already has tenure here and he is not giving that up. But I need to get experience so this is why I am going."

She looked at her friend. "But it seems that you're not going to move from Palo Alto, after you graduate? You are engaged to be married. Owen is obviously staying here so that kind of limits where you can apply for jobs."

"I know," Cristina said. "But I do love him."

"Hmm," Meredith said.

"What do you mean by that? That 'hmm'" Cristina said, more than curious by her friend's statement.

"Well, before the accident, before the memory loss, I was under the impression that you were going to be looking outside of this area for a job. It's not like if we could have all stayed here. Palo Alto is lovely but it's not like we are all going to get jobs around here," Meredith said, as she fixed her cap on her head.

Cristina stayed silent. Did she really think all of that before the accident?

"How do I look?" Meredith asked.

"Beautiful and smart," Cristina said. She looked so woeful as she said it, so Meredith gave her a hug.

"Don't worry, you're going to get here soon enough. You've made great progress after the accident," Meredith said. "Okay, let's just go down to the auditorium."

The two girls headed down to the auditorium. Owen was already there. As one of the faculty members, he was on stage with all of the other professors. Meredith headed down to the section where the graduates were, while Cristina found a seat among the general audience of friends and family, who were all armed with cameras, each of them hoping to get the best shot of their loved one.

Owen looked for her in the audience from the stage. He spotted her head of raven curls. He gave her a small wave; she waved back to acknowledge that she saw him. That was all they could do because the ceremony started right after.

Cristina had to admit that it was a great ceremony. The guest speaker was a former alumnus, who had made good in the corporate world and was now CEO of his own start-up billion-dollar company. He had been an MBA graduate of the school. She decided that if she could, she would like to chat with him.

At the reception afterwards, Cristina sidled up to Owen and asked if she could be introduced to the guest speaker. He agreed and they went to introduce themselves to the young CEO, with the curly brown hair and the light brown eyes.

"Mr. Marzowski," Owen said. "That was a rather inspiring speech you gave to the graduates."

"Thank you," Stuart Marzowski said. "So you are one of the members of the faculty?"

"Yes, I am. Owen Hunt. I teach finance. And this young lady is Cristina Yang, a PhD student in finance and she wanted to meet you," Owen said, shaking the young entrepreneur's hand.

Marzowski looked interestedly in Cristina's direction. "Ah, a PhD student. So you're going to be an academic."

"Well, maybe," Cristina answered. "But I was thinking of exploring my corporate options. I was thinking that I could have a chat with you about it, as a former student of this school."

"We might not be able to get much talking done at this function, since this is basically a meet and greet with everyone. But if you want to have a chat, just call my office. Luckily for you, our head office is in Palo Alto. Just tell my executive assistant, Jacinta that I told you to call," he said, smiling. He handed her his business card. "I am pretty sure that there are lots of opportunities for bright, young people in a company like mine. We can chat about it. I will await your call."

He touched her on the arm.

"Thank you, sir," Cristina said, gratefully.

"You don't have to call me sir. Call me Stu," Marzowski said.

"Okay, Stu," Cristina said. Just then, the Dean of the school came over and asked Marzowski to meet some of the school's main benefactors.

"Ooh," Cristina said. "This is going to be exciting. I get a private appointment with a leading CEO. That is awesome."

Owen wondered what had just happened right in front of him. Was Marzowski just being helpful and cooperative to Cristina? Or did he just hit on her? He smiled at Cristina. She seemed so thrilled about it all.

The next week was spent in saying goodbye to all of her friends. They had a farewell get-together at one of their beloved bars.

They all piled into their favorite booth and ordered a round of beers. Her friends were all eager to be starting their new lives in cities far away from Palo Alto. Cristina felt so alone. Meredith noticed her forlorn face.

"We can always keep in touch," Meredith said. "There is always Skype, so we can see each other, still, even though we are thousands of miles away."

"Yeah," Alex said. "We need to keep in touch. We're going in totally without any friends in these new cities, so we need to keep all our old contacts alive."

"Okay," Cristina said. "I know you guys are trying to make me feel better. I am happy for you. I really am. Ooh, I have some awesome news. Remember Stuart Marzowski, the speaker at your graduation." Everyone nodded. "Well, I have an appointment with him."

"How did you swing that?" April asked. "The man runs a billion-dollar empire and he is willing to meet with a student. He must want something else."

"What?" Cristina said. "Why should he want something else?"

"Oh, April," Meredith said. "Don't rain on her parade. She got an appointment with one of the hottest, youngest CEOs in the country. That should be interesting."

"I didn't really notice if he was hot," Cristina said.

"Oh, come on," April said. "Cosmopolitan named him as one of the top 10 bachelors in the country. You should have seen that shirtless picture they had of him on the beach."

"Leave her alone," Jackson said. "She's an engaged woman. Stop torturing her about hot CEO billionaires."

"Yeah," Alex said. "Let's just drink to the last time we are here together."

The five friends clinked their beer bottles together, each of them, taking a swig of beer.

Cristina was waiting in Marzowski's outer office. The blonde administrative assistant, Jacinta, took a look at the nervous, young student. Cristina's legs were shaking.

"Don't worry, honey," she said. "He doesn't bite."

"Okay, I know that," she said. "Just a little bit of nervous energy, I have here."

Jacinta smiled at her. It was rare that the CEO ever saw students. There must be something special about her, she thought. She noted the long, dark ebony curls, her flawless skin and her tiny body. She wondered if that had anything to do with it. She did know that her boss had a weakness for brunettes.

Just then, her phone buzzed. "You can send Miss Yang in," Marzowski said.

"Yes, Mr. Marzowski," Jacinta said. She hung up the phone and told Cristina she could go in. Cristina picked up her handbag and her folder and entered the office. It was not quite what she expected. His youth was clearly evident because there were video game machines, a foosball machine and a bicycle hung up on one of the walls. The furnishings were all very contemporary.

"Wow," she said. "I never expected your office to look like this."

"Well, I am not my stuffy, old dad," he said, coming forward to shake her hand. "So how are you, Miss Yang?"

"I am doing very well. It is indeed kind of you to see me, Mr. Marzowski," she said, shaking his hand.

"Oh, please call me Stu," he said.

"Well, then you have to call me Cristina," she said, with a smile.

"Okay, Cristina. Have a seat. Let's just get down to this. You're looking for corporate opportunities for someone like yourself," he said.

"Yes," she said. "I have reasons that I want to stay in the Palo Alto area and there may not be many academic positions available to me, if I stay here. So I am looking to see if there are corporate positions that may interest me."

"Okay, do you have your CV?" he said. She opened her folder and handed it to him.

"You're a very impressive student but not much on the work experience side, except for academic positions," he said.

"Yes, I know," she said in an apologetic tone.

"Don't worry about that. Companies like ours tend to pluck young people straight from college, if they are bright, young and innovative. You are far more qualified academically than many of the people here, so that is a plus for you," he said. "So are you interested in just finance?"

"Well, that is where my training has been but I am open to new areas," she said.

"How about this? Every summer, we take a lot of young people on internships to learn all aspects of the company to find out what they like. Do you want to part of that program? It doesn't pay much as a regular job but you do get to experience a lot of the company. Maybe you can find out what you like," he said.

"You're offering me an internship? That would be wonderful," she said.

"So you're going to take up this offer," he said. "Good." He got on his phone. "Jacinta, can you direct Miss Yang to the human resources department. Tell them that she is going be part of our summer internship program."

He got up and ushered Cristina to the door. "Jacinta will take care of you, Cristina. So I will see you here on Monday."

"Yes, sir," she said.

"No, no," he said. "Not sir."

"Yes, Stu," she said, as she left his office. He found himself watching her, as she walked away.

Later that day, she was so excited to tell Owen the news. "I have an internship at Marzowski's company. He offered it to me when I was there, earlier today."

"That's wonderful, baby," Owen said. "What are you going to do?"

"Well, they are going to put me in all of the different departments over the three-month period. Maybe I can figure out what I like," she said.

"So does this mean you are going to abandon going into academics?" he asked.

"No, but I have to be realistic. There aren't that many academic positions available, especially if I want to stay here with you," she said.

He smiled and pulled her close as she rested her head on his chest. "I know that you're doing this for me. All your friends have left for positions, elsewhere and I know it is hard for you."

"Yeah, but maybe I have been narrowing my scope a little bit too much. I guess I should get out there and see what else is available," she said.

"Okay," he said, even though he felt a little uneasy about how she got this internship.

Over the weekend, Cristina and Owen went shopping. Though the atmosphere at the high-tech company was casual, she needed to get business casual clothes. She really couldn't be seen, wearing her ratty jeans and t-shirts that she could get away with wearing at school.

On Monday, she got dressed in a pair of black trousers and a crisp, dark blue shirt. "How do I look?"

"Beautiful," he said. He dropped her off at her place of work. She waved at him, as she went into the building.

He waved back at her and tried to convince himself that this was the best thing for her.

A/N Please leave your comments and reviews. I do appreciate them.