Seattle Grace Hospital – Catwalk

Cristina is standing on the catwalk looking into the darkness through the huge hospital window when Burke walks up.

"Hey" Burke brushes up against her slightly when he turns to lean on the railing. Cristina looks up and smiles "Hey."

Burke has been worried about her since he'd seen her at lunch and heard about her ranting from Bailey. He knew that she got upset sometimes about the surgery assignments but she usually handled it pretty well. He wasn't sure why today was different. "You seemed out of sorts today."

"How do you know? I haven't seen you since rounds." Cristina looks at him confused.

"Oh but I have seen you." Burke has a sly grin on his face proud of his covert observations. "When you were coming out of the patient's room with the attending from Mercy, killing your salad at lunch, yelling at Karev this afternoon at the snack cart and in the Gallery having what looked like a pretty serious conversation with Bailey."

"Should I be calling the police, McStalker"

They both laugh "So what was wrong?"

She thought he had the best smile. "It was nothing"

Burke raises his eyebrow. "You sure?"

"Yeah"

The two of them just stood there on the catwalk looking out the window for a minute. There wasn't very much traffic on the catwalk this time of day.

"I noticed that you didn't see much of Mr. Henderson's procedure?"

As though she hadn't even heard him, Cristina started talking "Sometimes it's really hard being an Attending's girlfriend."

"Yes" Burke pauses, happy that she was opening up "Sometimes it's really hard being an intern's boyfriend. You're very talented Cristina but I.."

"I know. You can't pick me."

Burke smiles, moves the hair that's fallen off of her face and asks "Are we okay?"

Cristina turns her body to face him and asks "Why did you think our relationship was worth giving up chief for?"

Burke smiles a bit surprised. They had not discussed the professional ramifications of their relationship in quite a while. If he thought about it, there hadn't been many negative consequences. They both did a good job at keeping things separate and when they did cross the line they quickly corrected their mistakes. They didn't hang on each other at work, kept their personal business to themselves and made a point to limit public displays of affection to a touch her or there, some hand holding when off duty. That's about it. And here she was asking, looking straight at him waiting for an answer.

"I knew you were worth it. The day that you collapsed in my OR I knew that you were the one for me. You were the one that I needed. I have never been as scared as I was at that moment. That moment when I thought that I had lost you before we ever had a chance to have a life together. So I decided that I was going to go after what I wanted and I just hoped that you would let me and you did. Lucky for me you were trapped in the hospital for a few days and couldn't get away"

He stopped wondering why this question was being asked now. Cristina was not impulsive. Was she having second thoughts? "Cristina, I've never regretted that decision. Are you having regrets"

"No, none. I just had a bad day." She pauses. He looks into her beautiful eyes relieved. "Do you always look to see if I am in the Gallery?"

"Yes. I want to make sure when you're not with another patient that you are observing even if you are not scrubbed in. Our relationship should not deprive you of any benefit of this program everyone is agreed on that."

In a voice that Burke couldn't quite identify, Cristina looked for clarification "Everyone?"

He could see the tension on her face but he had gone too far now to backpedal. He had purposefully kept this conversation to himself because he knew it would upset her but it was a meeting that had to take place as uncomfortable as it had been for him

"Cristina, you are a student in Seattle Grace's program and the Chief, other Attendings, Dr. Bailey and I needed to have a discussion about how to proceed with your education in light of our relationship. We had to work out case assignments, parameters, boundaries. We had a meeting shortly after I told the Chief about our relationship." In that instance, he remembered how upset she had been the day he told the Chief about them. "You still deserve all of the benefits of this program and deserve to be rewarded for your performance and hard work not penalized because we're in love." He waited for her to come back with a passionate response about not wanting allowances and protecting her privacy, never having wanted to tell the Chief in the first place.

After a moment, she reaches out and grabs his hand "So does the Chief know that you're looking for me in the gallery when you should be concentrating on the patient on the table?

Cristina now has that playful gleam in her eye that Burke loved. They both laugh and he quickly scans the catwalk making sure no one is around before stealing a quick kiss. "You have a long night ahead of you, how about I buy you a cup of coffee before I head home?"

"Okay, thanks" As Cristina and Burke walked towards the elevator taking advantage of the late hour in the hospital to hold hands, Cristina couldn't help but admit that Meredith was right. She was happy with her life now. She would have never thought it was possible and would never admit it to anyone else but this feeling was better than scrubbing in on the best surgery.

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