"Burke!" she screamed jumping in front of him. "Stop it! You're acting crazy!"
"Get out of the way Christina." Burke responds evenly.
"Burke put the knife down."
Burke looks down at his hand. "Your right, I don't know what made me go for the knife." He said placing it on the table. "I'll just kill him with my bare hands." Burke pushed past her and reached for the door.
"Burke!" she shouts again, this time grabbing his hand.
"Christina look at what he did to your face!" he screamed angrily.
"I know, but Burke…… I'm ready to talk now." She said after a long pause.
Burke let out a long breath in attempt to calming himself, and then took his hand and brushed it lightly over her swollen cheek.
"Ok but after, I'm going to the chief."
"I'm going to go speak with Webber myself in the morning. Ok?" she said.
Burke just nodded.
They sat facing each other on the couch. Burke was waiting patiently as Christina worked up the courage to speak.
"Christina, we've been sitting in silence for ten minutes." He said softly.
"Ok, ok. I'm just thinking of the best way to tell this story."
"Just start at the beginning Christina." Christina rolled her eyes at him but began anyways.
"Ok well we started dating half-way through our first year at medical. At first it was purely physical, but we started getting pretty serious a year in. We both sucked at relationships, and the competitiveness of medical school put extra strain on our relationship. We stuck it out though and everyone was convinced we'd end up getting married." Christina paused to look at Burke. He was having a tough time squelching the jealousy he felt at the thought of her marrying someone else.
"Continue." He encouraged.
"As you know, the last year of medical school is always the toughest." Burke nodded. "Well Devon didn't deal with pressure well and he began drinking pretty heavily. I know I should have noticed, but you know me, I was so wrapped up in myself and school that I didn't pick up on it. Then when the rankings came out before graduation, and he found out I was ranked first and he was ranked second he lost it."
"He hit you?" Burke asked.
"No! He just lost it. He told me I didn't deserve it, blah blah blah."
"So you broke up with him?"
"No."
"You didn't break up with him after that?" he asked incredulously. Christina looked away from him.
"Burke, I was comfortable with him. After 3 ½ years, you get used to someone, you become afraid of change. And… I was weak." He could tell that was a very difficult admission for her to make.
"You're not weak." He said as he grabbed hold of her hand and gave it a squeeze.
"I was then. Anyways, the night of our graduation we were all at an after party. Everyone was wasted and I was sitting talking to Devon's best friend Jeremy. It was loud and so Jeremy was leaning in close to my ear so that I could hear him. Devon saw us, and he was already 12 beers in, so he came over and made a huge seen. I took him into one of the first floor bedrooms to try and calm him down. At that point he was so far beyond controlling that I got fed up, I told him it was over, and I turned to leave. The last thing I remember was feeling this severe pain shoot through my head and then I thought it was raining because my hair was suddenly drenched. I found out later that he smashed a beer bottle over my head and that moisture was all the blood pouring out." She stopped and closed her eyes at the memory.
"What happened then?" Burke asked.
"I woke up a week later in the hospital. Apparently he didn't stop after the beer bottle. He beat me into a week long coma causing 23 bone fractures. Doctors say it was a miracle I survived." This time it was Burkes turn to close his eyes. He was doing everything he could to control the rage building inside him at the moment. When he opened his eyes he saw the tears streaking down Christina's face.
"I'm so sorry about yesterday Burke." She rushed out between sobs. "I was just so scared when I saw him. And then I didn't know what to do when he came in and threatened me last night…"
"Shhhh, Shhhh. It's ok. Come here. He said as he lifted her into his lap. "You don't have anything to be sorry about sweetheart." He said as he stroked her hair and she drenched the front of his shirt with tears.
He rocked her back and forth until she calmed down.
"Christina? What happened in the locker room last night?" he finally asked.
"I lied to you, I'm sorry." She mumbled into his chest.
"It's ok Christina, what did you lie about?"
"He slammed my head into the locker, that's why my head was bleeding." She explained.
"Why didn't you want to tell me Christina?" Christina looked up at him, searching for the right words.
"Burke, there are some things that you don't know about me. About my past. He threatened to tell you these things, and I was scared."
"Scared of what?"
"I don't know, scared you wouldn't love me. Scared you'd be disappointed in me, or think less of me."
"Christina, I don't care about your past, I love you…"
"I know." She interrupted. "I realized that it didn't matter when I was talking to Meredith earlier. And I was going to tell you everything when I got home, but then I ran into Devon in the locker room again. I told him I was telling you, and he got angry, to say the least."
They sat in silence as Christina let the last of her tears fall. Ten minutes later Burke realized that she had fallen asleep in his arms. He slowly stood up and carried her to their bedroom. There he carefully tucked her in, kissing her forehead and whispering 'I love you' as he finished.
He then made his way to the front door grabbing his jacket from a nearby chair as he went. Lastly he snatched up his keys, and was out the door and headed to the hospital.
