What a morning! The page she received from the hospital after leavingthe apartment was like a gift from God. She had got to scrub in on 3 different procedures which she considered her reward for having to deal with all the drama her life had produced in the past couple days. Nothing better than an invasive brain surgery to get your mind off your troubles. Christina was smiling at that thought as she walked past the nurse's station. She then caught sight of Burke leaving the men's room and sighed as they're argument replayed in their mind.
"Just Mind your own Business!"
"Mind my own business? Did you really just say that?"
She was going to have to fix this. But how? She couldn't tell him the truth, could she? She was a very private person, and she didn't want to dredge up the past. She sighed once again, she was even lying to herself. She was scared of telling Burke, scared of ruining the flawless image he had of her. She wasn't flawless, she knew that, but she also knew that Burke, in that very romantic part of his mind, thought she was. She had never cared what people thought of her, till now. She cared what he thought.
As Burke was leaving the restroom he looked up only to see Christina. What surprised him was the slight smile she had on her face, well until she noticed him, then the smile disappeared. He knew he had decided to wait till she came to him, but when it came to Christina he always seemed to break these kinds of promises.
He slowly walked up to her, grabbing her by the elbow and leading her down the hall to an open on-call room. Much to his surprise she didn't fight him, which was a good sign. Maybe she had cooled off, surgeries always did tend to put her in a better mood.
Burke closed the door behind him as they entered the room.
"Christina listen…" he began.
"I'm sorry." She blurted out.
"No, I'm sorry. I'm just so worried about you…"
"There's nothing to be worried about." She interrupted again. "I overreacted earlier, and I'm sorry, but I'm just so sick of everyone hovering. I'm honestly fine. I was a little shocked with Devon showing up, and it threw my game for a bit, but I'm fine now. I'm over it."
"Christina, you're not fine. I'm going to the chief." He decided out loud as he ran his hand through his hair. Christina was outraged.
"What do you mean you're going to the chief?" she asked carefully.
"I'm going to see if I can get him transferred out."
"No you're not!"
"Christina look at what he's doing to you! And it's only been one day!" he argued.
"Can you imagine how that would look for me? Everyone would be talking about how I got my attending boyfriend to kick my ex out of the hospital. I'm sick of being the top story on the gossip mill around here!"
"I don't care Christina. I'm doing it." He said finally. She paused to look up at him. She hated when he acted so superior to her, like what he decided was always final.
"Burke, you do this and we're over." She said in a low voice but loud enough for him to hear. Burke couldn't believe his ears.
"What?" he said incredulously.
"You heard me."
"Have you lost your mind?"
"Burke this is my problem, let me deal with it." And with that she walked out the door, once again, without looking back.
7:00am Intern Locker room
"You what?" Meredith said in disbelief.
"I told him we'd be over if he went to Webber." Christina explained from where she lay on the locker room bench.
"Christina, is Devon really worth this? Why not just let Burke kick him out? I know I don't really know the story on you two, and I'm not saying you have to tell me, but anyone can see that Devon is scum."
"You don't get it, Devon will…" Christina trailed off when she realized she was about to say too much.
"Devon will what?" Meredith asked.
"Never mind." Christina said quickly causing Meredith to sigh.
"Well are you gonna go home? You have the day off."
"I can't go home, Burke's there. See this is why I wanted to keep my apartment, situations like these, it would really come in handy right about now." Christina mumbled agitated. Meredith looked down at her beeper that had just gone off.
"I have to get down to the Pitt." She said as she stood up. "Christina, go home and talk to Burke. He loves you, you just have to let him help you. That's what boyfriends are for, so you don't have to fight the battles on your own."
"I can fight my own battles." Christina said defiantly.
"I know you can. He knows you can. That's not the point. The point is you don't have to. I'll see you later." Meredith said as she exited the locker room.
Christina continued to lay there thinking about what Meredith had just said to her. She hated to admit it but her friend made a legitimate argument. Burke loved her, and that wasn't going to change. But was she ready to let him in completely? She had spent years building walls, and he had spent months carefully destructing them one by one. Was she ready to let this last one fall?
"So I had a very interesting conversation with Dr. Burke this morning." Devon's voice pierced through her thoughts. She hastily sat up from the bench to face him. "He told me that if I gave you so much as a paper cut he would mess me up so bad that my mother wouldn't recognize me. It was all very romantic, he claimed he loved you more than I could ever imagine, that part was a little dramatic but.."
"I'm telling him Devon." Christina interrupted as she stood up.
"Excuse me?" he asked, not thinking he heard her correctly.
"I said I'm telling him. I'm not letting you ruin this for me too. You've done enough damage in my life already." This caused Devon to laugh evilly.
"Oh you don't want to do that Chrissy, you have no idea how much more damage I can cause." He responded as he approached her.
"I DON'T CARE!" she screamed in his face. "I'm through being scared of you. You want to beat me unconscious again like you did the night of our graduation? Go ahead, but this time you won't have the drunk excuse to fall back on!"
She saw the look of blind rage transform him expression as he grabbed her by the throat and held her up against her locker. She closed her eyes once when she saw him pull back his fist, and just waited for the blow to come. Her head exploded with pain when he finally made contact with her cheek. She opened her eyes as he released her and allowed her to sag to the floor. Despite the pain her throbbing cheek was causing her, she didn't miss the panicked look on Devon's face.
"Damn it Chrissy! Now look what you've made me do!" he accused her. Then the sound of voices approaching made him panic even further and he quickly exited through the back door of the locker room as the main door flew opened.
"You're just jealous I got to scrub in on a cooler surgery!" Christina could hear George's voice as he and Izzie entered the locker room but couldn't muster the energy to stand yet.
"No I'm very satisfied with my…. Oh my God! Christina!" Izzie exclaimed as the two rounded the corner of the lockers and saw her. Christina struggled to stand and finally did with Georges's help. Her face had already begun to swell and a dark bruise was now forming.
"What happened?" George asked concerned.
"Nothing, I just had an ugly walk down memory lane."
"I'm calling Burke." Izzie said as she started to leave.
"Izzie No!" Christina shouted.
"Christina…" Izzie began to argue.
"I'm going home to talk to him now." She explained as she allowed George to prod at her injury. George stopped to comment.
"Christina, now is not the time to lie."
"I'm not lying George!" Christina snapped. Izzie and George paused to look at each other.
"Ok, but we're driving you there." George finally said.
"Let me go get some ice for that before we leave." Izzie said as she rushed off.
Christine sat down on the bench and stared at the ground with only on thought going through her mind. God, Burke was going to be pissed!
Burke/Christina's Apartment
Christina was feeling a bit of déjà vu as she once again stood outside the apartment with her hand poised on the doorknob. George had wanted to come up to the apartment with her to guarantee that she actually went in but she had finally convinced him it wasn't necessary. And it wasn't, she made her decision much quicker this time and entered the apartment quietly.
"Burke?" she called out to him.
Burke looked up from the vegetables he was chopping for his omelet. After their encounter in the on-call room he had decided to return to his prior plan of waiting for her to come to him. He didn't expect it to come this soon however and was thrilled to hear her voice.
"Christina?" she heard him call back from the kitchen. Burke hurried out of the kitchen to meet her but as he rounded the corner he caught sight of her face and stopped dead in his tracks. His hands became fisted at his sides as he took in the sight of her swollen and bruised cheek. He stared for another second and then slowly turned back around and headed back into the kitchen.
Christina was very confused by his reaction. She had expected him to be angry, even more than angry, fuming. But what was he doing? He hadn't even said a word to her! He had actually turned around and left her standing there.
It all made sense to her seconds later when he came back out the kitchen door holding the large kitchen knife he had just been using to chop his vegetables.
"I'm going to kill him." He said voice filled with rage, as he walked toward the door.
Hope that was suspenseful enough for you guys. I love a pissed off Burke! He's so Hot! lol, Ok it'll be a couple days before the next update cause I'm headed down to NY but hopefully these two chapters will hold you guys over. Don't forget to review! I love feedback:)
