Cristina was walking with Meredith when she first saw the new addition to the surgical staff. She stopped dead in her tracks as for the first time in five years her heart began to race because of a man. Her eyes widened into saucers and she felt her hands begin to sweat. Meredith watched Cristina's reaction, which reaffirmed that Cristina, was still in love with Dr. Preston Burke.
As Burke's head turned their way, Cristina tried to look down or to the right anywhere but at him, but it was too late he had already seen her. He began to walk toward her, all the while Cristina was praying for her pager to go off. When Burke was six feet away, Cristina's pager began to vibrate as if some higher authority had answered her plea. Cristina averted her eyes from the man that had been walking toward her to the pager clipped on her pants that was currently demanding her attention.
Meredith noticing the beeping looked at Cristina. "What is it?' She asked.
"I have to go call the daycare center. They just called the nurses station to try and get in contact with me." Cristina said before she turned around to go return the call.
Burke watched the whole scene relieved and somewhat annoyed that Cristina had been paged. Instead of turning around to put his things in the locker room, Burke walked up to Meredith. "Dr. Grey, it's good to see you again," Burke said as he stopped in front of the brunette.
"Likewise, Dr. Burke. How was life in the south?" Meredith asked trying to make conversation.
"Hot and hotter. Seems like things here haven't changed too much." Burke said looking around.
"Not too much. I'm probably not the first to say this nor will I be the last but it's good to finally have you back. Everything's been slightly off since you left. It may still look the same, but it felt very different while you were away." Meredith said.
"Thank-you Dr. Grey, I really appreci…"
"Beep, Beep, Beep," the sound of Meredith's beeping pager interrupted Dr Burke's sentence of gratitude.
Meredith looked on the screen of her pager that was lit up with the phrase, CY M 911 mt a text. "I'm sorry Dr. Burke, but I have to answer this," Meredith said smiling apologetically at him.
"I understand, go."
Meredith turned around rushing off to find out the meaning behind her page. She was always overly concerned when her goddaughter was involved. Meredith found Cristina standing close to the exit; she had already changed out of her scrubs. "What's up Cristina? Is Morgan okay?" Meredith asked trying to gage the intensity of the situation through Cristina's facial expression.
"No, Morgan is sick. I've gotta' take the rest of today off. The flu has been going around the daycare so I knew she was probably going to get sick sooner or later. Will you check up on my patients for me?" Cristina said anxious to get out the door to pick up her daughter.
"Sure, no problem. Give Morgan a kiss for me, I hope she fells better," Meredith said as her friend rushed out the door.
Dr. Burke was sitting in the locker room on one of the benches with his hands on his fore head messaging his temples. He had missed Cristina so much while he was gone; he had hoped she had missed him too. Cristina's deer caught in the headlights look did nothing to boost his confidence in his decision of coming back. Maybe I should have stayed in Alabama, Burke thought. He was still contemplating the goings on of a few minuets earlier when Dr. Derek Shepard came in.
"Dr. Burke it's good to see you again." Dr. Shepard said walking to his locker and pulling it open.
"Thanks Dr. Shepard. Same to you," Burke said still looking down at the floor.
"You know, I never pinned you to be the type to come back to being an attending after having been chief for five years. I wouldn't have done it," Dr. Shepard said as he was putting stuff into his bag to take home after his meeting.
Burke tilted his head up before responding. "Well, when it came down to the pros and cons of staying there, the bad outweighed the good. I could not stand the weather, and there is more paperwork than you could possibly dream of." And a certain intern, by the name of Cristina Yang, was miles away, Burke added to himself.
"Uh-huh, is that all?" Dr. Shepard said knowingly as he pushed the locker door closed. "I have to go. I'm supposed to be meeting Addison. It was nice talking to you though." Dr. Shepard said walking out of the room and leaving Dr. Burke to be alone, once again, with his thoughts.
Burke contemplated what Dr. Shepard had said, and how he said it. When he had left he didn't think that anyone knew about the relationship that he and Dr. Yang carried on. Is that now common knowledge? Dr. Burke wondered. He knew that Cristina was not the type to let her relationship be known to others, especially those she worked with. She was a very private person. Burke looked around the room and shook his head clear of his thoughts. It was time for him to get to work.