Chapter 2
"I'm coming! Keep your pants on!" a very grumpy Teddy yelled at whoever was pounding on the other side of her hotel room door. She threw the covers off her legs and slowly extricated herself from Owen's embrace.
Now standing, she grabbed her robe from the chair beside the bed and began pulling it on as she made her way to door. As she tied the belt loosely over her baby bump, she glanced out the peephole and let out an audible sigh. On the other side of the door was Tom Koracick, and Teddy didn't have enough energy to argue with Tom's wounded ego at, yes the clock was right, 5:45 in the morning. But at this point, the trauma surgeon didn't really have another option, so she softly opened the door, internally praying that Owen didn't wake up.
"I'm sorry. I didn't think about the fact that I would be waking you up." Tom said, glancing at Teddy's disheveled hair and robe. "My flight just landed and I came straight here. Can we talk? I feel horrible about our fight."
"Look, Tom," Teddy began as she ran her fingers through her hair. "I don't really think there is much to be said. You said some very hurtful things, but things I needed to hear because they were true." She paused, pressing a hand into her side as the baby protested being up before the sun. "You were right. I am and pretty much always have been in love with Owen but I tried to put that aside because I thought that being with Amelia is what he wanted, but I was wrong."
A soft smile crossed the blonde's lips as she recalled the texts from Owen that had been waiting on her when she arrived back in Seattle. "When I landed in Seattle and went to Grey-Sloan yesterday, I ran into Owen. We had a long talk, and I realized that I can't keep lying to myself or to you. It's not fair to you or me or this little girl," she said, placing both hands across her every growing belly. "And you shouldn't want to settle for me because like you told me before I left, you deserve more than to have to play runner up to another man."
Tom stared at Teddy for a second and then started to speak. Before any words could escape his lips, his eyes darted up to look over Teddy's shoulder. Teddy instantly knew that he had seen Owen, and she hoped that the man was still sleeping.
"So you 'talked' with Owen," Tom sneered, "and what? He just happened to trip and fall into your bed? God, Teddy, do you take me for a fool? I knew that your feelings for me weren't the same as for Owen, but damn. I thought that you had more respect for yourself and for me than to just sleep with the man who broke your heart and then went back to his ex wife."
Teddy's jaw could have hit the floor from her shock at the neurosurgeon's words. "First of all, not that it's any of your business after everything you said to me, Owen and I didn't sleep together. I got pulled into a surgery. Owen brought me home after I finished, and we had dinner. I fell asleep while we were watching a movie. Second of all, Owen is the father of my child and your over-simplified assessment of our relationship is so out of bounds. Yes, he did got back to Amelia after Germany, but what you failed to mention is that I sent him away in the first place. And furthermore, it doesn't matter how he got there because he showed up. He showed up for me like he has always done for the last fifteen years. I'm sorry that you don't like my decision, and I'm even sorry that I led you on knowing that my feelings for Owen were something I would never be able to let go, but it's how I feel and right now that's more important. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to bed."
Tom opened his mouth to speak again, but he didn't get a chance to say anything before the door closed in his face. Teddy, eyes closed, pressed her back against the door and released a sigh. She knew that this wouldn't be the end of the argument with Tom, but for now she was going to crawl back into bed with Owen and relish being happy.
As she began to make her way back to the bed, she glanced at Owen and realized that he was awake, sitting up against the headboard, a smirk playing across his lips. "How much did you hear?" Teddy asked as she threw her robe back on the chair,
"Enough." Owen replied. "I woke up when you got out of bed, but I figured you just had to use the bathroom. When I heard the door open and Koracick's voice, I almost sat up then, but I decided to wait and see how he was going to play his hand."
"And if he had gotten loud? Were you going to come to my rescue?" Teddy questioned, one eyebrow raised. "Be my knight in dusty camo?"
Chuckling as she plopped down on the bed next to him, Teddy paused before she continued, "I do feel bad, sort of, for doing all this to him though. He didn't have any idea the history he was walking into when he asked me out."
Owen reached out and brushed a stray curl from Teddy's forehead. "That may be true, but the second that he realized that you returned a fraction of the feelings he saw that I have for you, he turned up the charm and did everything in his power to make me look like an ass. He definitely succeeded at Avery's. Although I will admit that my temper got the better of me. I just couldn't stand to look at his condescending face anymore."
Laughing at her daughter's father, Teddy turned and stretched out next to Owen. She leaned her back on the headboard and rested her head on his shoulder. "I wish that we had both thought things through more," the blonde sighed as she laced her fingers in Owen's. "I wish," she continued, "that I hadn't gotten so angry at that night in Germany. If I had just listened to you explain yourself back then, I could have saved both of us so much heartache, stress, and sleepless nights. I just…"
Owen, recognizing the downward emotional spiral that she was on, shifted, wrapping his arms around Teddy and enveloped her in a searing kiss. He grazed one hand up and down her arm as the other tangled in her blonde locks to anchor her lips to his. Finally, when oxygen became a necessity, he pulled his lips from hers; both gasping for air.
"Listen to me," he began, still panting and trying to catch his breath. Looking into Teddy's eyes, he continued, "regretting the past and wanting to relive it won't change anything. It might have made something simpler, but then there would be no lesson learned. That lesson for me was to not take the ones that I love the most for granted and to be honest with my feelings because it's so much easier in the long run. You can turn over all the what if's in the world but, we are here together, and at the end of the day, that's the most important thing."
The tears that had begun to well up in Teddy's eyes before Owens kiss were now cascading down the woman's face as she listened to Owen's words. She knew, in her heart, that he was right. She couldn't go back and change the past. She could only affect the future. She took a cleansing breath, her voice shaky and full of emotion. "I love you so much, Owen Hunt. I love you for knowing me so well. I love you for your pragmatic sense of humor. I love you for knowing just what I need to hear, even if you know that I don't want to hear it. But most of all, I love you for believing that we are here for a reason and for reminding me that a hard fought past has the promise of a beautiful future." She spread her hands across her belly. "Our beautiful future starts with this little girl and with Leo and with our family. I know we have so much to talk about and figure out, but no matter what, all I know is that I want to grow old with you, Owen Hunt. I want to love you until the day I die because you are my once in a lifetime kind of love."