Chapter 5
By greyeyedgirl
A/n: I know the last chapter was pathetic. Blah blah blah. Sit back and enjoy.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cristina clutched Carlos Mathers' chart under her arm, peering carefully around the door to Burke's hospital room. Perfect. He was out on his walk through the hospital, in an attempt to gain back some of his strength.
Cristina looked both ways before ducking into the room. She didn't want to think how Meredith would react if she found out Cristina was in here. She'd probably get mad and ask Cristina why she didn't just ask her how Burke was doing. Cristina rolled her eyes at the thought. It was very, very important that Meredith did not find out. Because if Meredith did ask her that, Cristina would be required to say something snarky, which would undoubtedly lead to Meredith's eyes filling with pain, before she finally cracked and had a total nervous breakdown. At this point, Cristina would welcome it. At least Izzie would have some company.
Cristina headed to the machine in the corner by the bed, punching some information into the computer system. In seconds she could see Burke's films, and she carefully checked over them, going as quickly as she could. She felt her breath intake.
There was slightly less damage from the aneurysm as before. The wound was starting to heal itself. She could see now that the nerves were not damaged but simply swollen, which would explain Burke's tremors. But if that were true, his shaking wouldn't even last till the end of the week---
She heard a noise outside the door, and panicking, she ducked into the bathroom, slamming the door just seconds before Burke shuffled into the room.
Picking up his glasses that'd he left behind, Burke frowned, picking up a paper from Carl Mathers' chart from off of his hospital bed. Looking at it confusedly, comprehension dawned, and he let out a small smirk. He looked over towards the bathroom, where the door was closed tightly. He was positive he had left it open.
Almost chuckling, Burke forced out a loud cough, then made a point to make noise as he exited back into the hallway. Cristina slowly started counting to herself, waiting until all was silent. A decent amount of seconds later, she exited, looking around cautiously. Not even noticing the paper that had slipped out of Carl Mathers' file, she dipped out of Burke's hospital room, before scurrying down the halls.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Burke's going home on Friday," George announced cheerfully, sitting his lunch tray down on the table. Cristina didn't let herself move as she remained hunched over a medical textbook, her eyes traveling down the page as she absorbed this new information.
"He won't be able to return to work for a couple of weeks. He's going into a rehab program in Olympia, it's supposed to be one of the best in the country." George shoved a handful of french fries into his mouth.
Cristina slowly moved her head away from her book, not averting her eyes from the text, as she put her mouth on the straw of her drink and took a sip. "Do you have a point, George?"
George smiled at her excitedly. "Well, Burke's only broken up with you until he gets better, right? So if he'll be home on--"
"Who told you that?" Cristina demanded, slamming her book and standing up. "Uh, what?" George said, gazing up at her like he was scared she was going to pull an Izzie.
"That! About the---the---" Cristina frowned, staring. "Do I have to spell it out for you, George?"
George looked nonplussed. "Uh…oh! Oh, um, Meredith mentioned. She said to be nice to you. But she seemed kind of distracted, and she was looking towards the elevator."
Cristina glared at him. "I gotta go," she said, picking up The Textbook of Surgery and hurrying back into the hospital, leaving George to take care of her tray and diet pepsi.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
After lunch, Cristina picked up the rest of Mr. Mathers' labs and headed back to his room. She met Dr. Hartford outside of his door, who smiled at her broadly, opening the door and letting Cristina go through first.
"Estas a tienes suerte estoy clemente a tucon la acrobacia estupido tiras mes pasado con tus hermano y entonce olvidando mencionar a mi que tienes uno-" Elisabeth Lopez's Spanish was fast and fluent, as Carl grinned at her, looking amused.
Elisabeth stopped, seeing his grin. "You!" She said, switching back to English as the doctors continued into the room. "Sitting there laughing, like-"
"Um, excuse me," Cristina said, interrupting. "Your boyfriend's labs are back. His tumor is growing and it will start infiltrating vital nerves soon, so we need to get him to surgery as soon as possible. His surgery has been bumped up an hour, that was as soon as we could get him in."
Dr. Hartford took over. "As for now, we will continue to keep you on your anesthetics, which we'll slowly start weaning you off of in the next few hours, so you'll be able to have the proper anesthesia dosage before we operate. I just want to say, Mr. Mathers, your chances are excellent, I'm a specialist in this field and I have a very good success rate-"
"When will he be able to come home?" Elisabeth interrupted.
"He will be pretty weak for awhile, heart surgery takes a lot out of you. He'll need to stay in the hospital for about a week, though in a few days he'll be transferred from the surgical wing. He'll need bedrest at home for a few weeks, and someone will have to bring him for post-op every day. But in three weeks or so, he'll be starting to really get back to normal." Sara smiled encouragingly.
"Thank you, doctors," Carl said smiling. He reached for Elisabeth's hand and held it for a moment, grinning up at her.
Cristina exited the room, though Dr. Hartford stayed behind to talk to the patient more. Pushing her hair off her face, she walked down the hallway and somewhat subconsciously past Burke's room. She could have went the other way and not passed his room, that would have actually been the faster route to the elevator. She sighed, glancing through the blinds quickly and, she hoped, nonchalantly, then stopped, seeing him laying in bed, with George standing next to him grinning and chatting away. Burke smiled at something George said, and Cristina hurried down the hall.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
a/n: A slightly longer chapter than the last one. BTW, since I speak about 4 words of Spanish (and 3 of those are curse words) I had my sister translate the Spanish part. Since she's taken and passed Spanish I, Spanish II, and Spanish III, she SHOULD have a good grasp on the language. Somehow though, I doubt any of what she put is right. In the chance it isn't, that SHOULD translate, in English, to Elisabeth saying: "You're lucky I'm even forgiving you, with the stupid stunt you pulled last month with your brother, and then FORGETTING to mention to me that you have a-" Sorry if what she put is wrong. I can easily supply her email address, and you can yell at her. :D
Anyway…I have a point to this story. I promise. Remember…I don't write unhappy endings! Oh, and happy Fourth of July to my American readers! And to the non-Americans…lol, I hope you have a good Tuesday, too:P