Burke had inundated himself with work.
Doing anything he could do to keep his mind off of Cristina, to keep himself from chasing her down, for making allowances for her behaviors.
He just couldn't do it anymore, but in the same aspect he needed closure.
His eyes traced over the names on the boards, and hers was everywhere. OR 1 at 10, 0R 3 at 1, OR 2 at 3. And for every surgery he had, it seemed that hers were right next door.
Every time he saw her, she would run the other way, every time he approached her, she would dodge his conversations by being 'paged' or needing to make a phone call.
He was a little more surprised as she came up next to him, pretending to peruse her schedule, a frightened looking intern in tow.
Her gaze fell to him, lingered a moment and went back to the board, "It's a good board." She mumbled low.
He looked to her and cleared his throat, his eyes questioning if he was going to finally get his opportunity to speak.
"Dr. Bryant, go prep our first patient." She was stern. Cold.
"I see that you're terrorizing your very own intern now." He observed, a smirk upon his face.
"Yeah. It's fun. I don't understand why you ever quit." She said the words, she went through the motions, but she didn't feel anything except for numbness.
"Because I met one that stole my heart, and I couldn't bring myself to do it anymore." He replied turning to face her.
"Not here, Burke..." She shook her head at him, "Not here."
"Then where?" He moved closer to her so that nobody else would hear their conversation. "Because we need to talk about this. We need to figure things out."
She looked around them and saw that the resident's work room behind the nurse's station was open, "Follow me."
He did as she requested as the two of them ducked into the resident's workroom.
She turned to face him after building up a steely resolve in her eyes, doing her best to push him away, "We work together."
"You're observant."
"We work together and we will for at least the next four and a half years unless you plan on going somewhere?"
"I'm not leaving Seattle Grace." He confirmed her statement. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"I'm just saying we work together. We can't be all bitter, and we can't act like we hate each other, because people are just going to talk more, and we don't need that." She rambled. "We just can't act like this." She motioned to the two of them.
"What am I supposed to do, Cristina? You walked out of our home. You walked out on our relationship. And why? Because I did what I had to do to get your job back, to make you happy. I was making sacrifices for you." He tried to contain his voice as he felt that familiar frustration building within him.
"About that, I appreciate that you did it and all, really, I do...but can we not talk about it? Please."
"Why? What's wrong with me bring up the fact that I'm willing to support you, to give whatever it takes to make you happy?" He argued, raising his hands to his hips as he often did when he was frustrated.
"Because it's a reminder to me of how pathetic I am, that my boyfriend had to go and get my job back for me. That I couldn't do it on my own." She shook her head, "You don't get it do you?"
"No, Cristina, two and half years of being with you, and I still don't get it, I guess. I've told myself, 'maybe it's because her mother ignored her, or maybe it's because she didn't have anybody to count on' but even after two and half years later, I think it's just that you don't want to be helped, you don't want to be loved." He took pause of the moment, moving closer to her, "But somehow, despite all of that, I love you, and I'll never stop."
She crossed her arms over her chest, "I hurt you, Burke. I said things that I never meant to push you away, and you still come back. Wouldn't that make anybody else just stop and think for a minute that I'm not worth it?"
"You're always worth it." He protested.
"I'm not worth the heartache. Go find yourself a girl that wants children, that wants to be domesticated. One that won't make you feel like you're romantically inept, because you're not. Just...give up on me."
"I'll never give up on you, because I know that you still love me." He reached down and brushed his lips against hers, hungry for just a taste, longing to give her a reminder of why she loved him.
Cristina's hand met his cheek, and she fell deeper into his kiss, melting into his embrace. She allowed herself mere moments of happiness before she pulled away, shaking her head at him, "Burke, we can't do this."
She fled from the room, leaving him to ponder exactly what it was that he'd done to push her away again.
He looked out the doorway of the work room to see her standing at the nurse's station, looking back at him. "Come home."
"I can't." She smiled a soft, but sullen smile, "I've hurt you enough already."
She walked away from him, trying to drown out the thoughts in her head, drawing her back to him, trying to convince herself that she wasn't going to hurt him again, if she just gave it one more chance.
"I can't." She mumbled to herself one last time, before disappearing into the scrub room to prepare for surgery.