I keep forgetting that this fic exists even when it's all finished!
Enjoy and let me know what you think!
Sunrise
Owen didn't know how to proceed. It had been a nightmare night, he made decisions that he believed were appropriate considering that he was the Chief of Surgery, but now he was dealing with the consequences of his decisions, no matter how correct they were.
Henry was dead, and Teddy was broken.
Owen's feet were glued to the ground, he couldn't stop looking Teddy through the small window of the morgue door. She was there, lying on her husband's chest, now stiff and cold and that only a few hours before it was warm and filled her with so much peace and warmth after having made love in an on-call room.
Her body was shaking due to crying and the echoes of her whimpers bounced off the walls of the cold and dark room.
"Talk to me, please." Owen listened as Teddy cried in front of Henry's body. "You have to get up, we have to go home, you have to go to med school!"
Owen couldn't take it anymore. He turned around, but ran into a nurse.
"Dr. Hunt, we know what Dr. Altman is going through something very painful, but we need the room, we need to do another autopsy."
Owen nodded solemnly. "I got this."
In spite of himself, Owen turned back to face the door. Opening it slowly, he entered the cold room.
"Teddy?" Owen called her name in a soft whisper, but she didn't answer his call. He walked a few steps to where she was and stood behind her, putting his hand on her shoulder, feeling her entire body tremble. He wanted to hug her so desperately. Wrap her in his arms and let her know that she was not alone and that everything would be fine, but, above all, ask her, beg her to forgive him.
"Don't touch me!" Teddy hollered, snapping Owen's hand away from her and laying again on Henry's cold chest.
"Teddy, please." Owen pleaded. "We have to leave the room. The nurses need to prep it. Come on, let's go to a quiet place."
"I won't leave him… he died alone, without me by his side, without my hand holding his, without me kissing his forehead and all thanks to you!" She cried. "I won't go anywhere, and much less with you." Teddy answered harshly and Owen's heart shattered into thousands of pieces.
"You know it wasn't my fault. It was no one's fault. Just look at his chart, not even the best cardiothoracic surgeon in the world could've saved him." Owen tried to convince her that it wasn't his fault, nor hers, nor Cristina's. It was no one's fault that Henry was dead.
"I could've saved him!" Teddy yelled in pain.
"You know you couldn't have." Owen replied in a soft voice. Teddy was upset, mad, hurt, for now most of her actions would be mostly irrational and driven by grief.
"Get out of here!" She growled under her breath, looking at Owen with eyes full of anger and pain. "I don't want to see you. I don't want to hear you. GET OUT!"
Owen knew it was a lost battle from the moment he entered the room. Teddy was in the worst state that a human being could be. So with all the pain in his heart he nodded slightly and left Teddy alone in the room with Henry's corpse.
Though hurt by Teddy's reaction, he understood. He loved her, she was his best friend, his person, and it hurt like it was his own pain for what she was going through. Before leaving her alone, she asked the nurses to keep an eye on her and let him know about her whereabouts at all times. He was afraid to leave her alone, he feared what she could do in such a vulnerable state.
Meanwhile, inside the room, Teddy was still crying next to Henry's body, until two nurses entered and forced her out. Giving her only a plastic bag with her husband's belongings.
Teddy was in a catatonic state, she left the room, yes, but not before putting up a fight with the nurses and clinging to Henry's cold arm. In the end it was useless.
Teddy took the bag and pressed it against her chest tightly. His shirt had been discarded in the ER, there was only his jeans, his shoes, his socks and his wallet. His clothes still smelled like him. She cried over Henry's belongings as she wandered through the hospital corridors without a fixed course.
While walking she could feel the pity of people who saw her passing by, whispering behind her back, waiting for her to crumble into a thousand pieces. When she realized, she had reached the hospital entrance; the warm rays of dawn hitting her cold and trembling body.
Teddy took a few seconds to close her eyes and take in the sun's rays. Henry was a morning man, he loved to get up early, make breakfast and go jogging. He loved the sunrises, they were his favorite thing in the world. They day they had gotten together, the first thing they both did was talk, talk for hours until dawn. When Henry noticed the first rays of sun, he turned enthusiastically toward the window, pulling Teddy by the hand with him, standing there and hugging her from behind and watching the sunrise.
"I love sunrises." He confessed on that occasion. "Every time I can, I get up to contemplate them, a new day, a new day for me. I never know when it'll be the last sunrise."
On that occasion Teddy had shut him out, she didn't want to think about the last day by his side. In her mind they had a lifetime ahead. She never imagined that their time together would be so short.
Opening her eyes, she looked directly at the sun, letting herself be blinded by the luminous rays, it was a beautiful dawn, one that Henry would surely have loved. She didn't know what to do, where to go. She needed to be alone. After all, she was sure that that would be her future from now on, loneliness...
