The show Grey's Anatomy and the characters are the sole property of Shonda Rhimes and does not belong to me.

Chapter 21

The next morning she awoke early. This was the day she was being discharged from the hospital but Burke didn't know. She wanted to surprise him. Early in the morning her mother and step father came to visit. She asked them to wait until she was she was discharged so that they could take her home. While her mother packed her things, her step father talked briefly with her doctors. One by one her friends came to wish her well, the nucleus of the friendship they formed at the beginning of their internship was still very much in tact. Her parents took her bags and with one last look around the room that had been her home for almost a month, she left. It occurred to her on her way out that the next time she sees that room would be as a doctor. She missed her job terribly and couldn't wait to start working again but her doctor had made her promise to take it easy. At the back of her mind she was concerned that she had missed out on too many surgeries and had fallen behind the others. She couldn't help but feel a little sad leaving the hospital. There, she was pampered and catered to and now she was on her own again. For a brief moment she thought about how lucky she was to be leaving there alive and about the one person who she believed played the most important part in her recovery.

She asked her parents to make a detour before taking her home. She wanted to speak to them privately first. Her parents took her back to their hotel and called room service. Over lunch she told them everything. About Burke and about Christopher and especially about Burke being back in her life. At times the conversation between them was so intense and upsetting that she wanted to just leave, but she stayed. It was important to her that her parents understand that Burke wasn't just the man who got their daughter pregnant. Wasn't just a former boyfriend, but that he was very important to her and irrevocably, a part of her life. Her mother, already knowing about Burke's relationship to Christopher, was very surprised to hear that he was back, but she knew her daughter well, and all along she suspected that Cristina was keeping something from her. On some level she was pleased to hear the news. She was extremely proud of Cristina for the wonderful job she did in raising Christopher. But she was traditional and no matter how acceptable it had become, being an unwed single mother was unacceptable to her and she did not want her daughter or grandson to be a part of that statistic. In the end her parents had to admit that she was much smarter than they had given her credit for and they were satisfied that the young girl who left their home all those years ago was now a mature young woman who was quite capable of taking control of her own life. Mistakes she made in the past had only served to strengthen her. And the young girl who was so afraid of commitment was running no more. And so they took her home.

Burke was with Christopher in his room building trucks out of Lego Blocks when they heard the front door opening. He told Christopher to stay while he went to see who was there. Surprised and elated to see Cristina standing there, he went forward wrapped her in his arms. He was just about to ask her why she didn't tell him that she would be discharged from the hospital when he saw her parents. Cristina introduced her step father who tentatively shook Burke's hand. Her mother, as usual, was very pleasant and mentioned how pleased she was to see Burke again. On entering the apartment Cristina headed straight for Christopher's room. As she got to the door he looked up and saw her and immediately, the Lego Blocks were forgotten as he got up and ran toward his mother. She bent down and stretched out her arms and he ran right into it. She closed her arms around him and picked him up. He hugged his mother tightly and she turned around and took him to his grandparents who were now sitting in the living room.

Surprisingly, the meeting between Burke and her step father went better than she expected. She was never too concerned about her mother's reaction as she had known for years that her mother was quite fond of him. While Saul and Burke sat talking, Christopher took his grandmother to show her his room. Cristina sat by her self watching the two men talking. They were like two intellectuals discussing the important news of the day and totally ignoring her. She was becoming increasingly frustrated that Saul was monopolizing so much of Burke's time. It crossed her mind that she was always jealous of other people spending time with Burke and even after all this time nothing had changed. She felt a little guilty because she was secretly hoping that her parents would leave soon. Her wish came true sooner than she expected. After about two hours her parents decided to leave, Promising to return the next day to take Christopher to the zoo.

The moment her parents left Cristina began to feel extremely nervous and that emotion scared her. In her heart she knew that she had no reason to be, but she just couldn't shake the feeling. There were things that she needed to tell him and she wasn't sure how he would react to what she has to say. Last night, after they had said goodbyes, she had spent hours going over all he had said especially his proposal. He had told her that he wouldn't ask her again and that it was up to her. And so late last night, without him knowing, she had made her decision. He and Christopher returned to the apartment after walking her parents to their car. Lost in thought she didn't hear them come in until Christopher ran to sit in her lap and Burke sat down next to her. "I could have gotten you from the hospital." He said it as if he was disappointed in her for not telling him that she was being discharged.

"I know, but I needed to visit with my parents privately and it was the perfect opportunity."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just a little bit tired."

He looked at her and noticed for the first time how thin she looked. "Want something to eat."

"No, I had lunch with my parents."

"Want us to leave you alone?"

"No, I've been left alone for too long. Besides, I want to spend some time with my baby."

"Which one?"

She looked at him then, for a moment not fully understanding what he was asking. He looked back at her and their eyes met and held. She looked away.

"Both" he noticed a little smile on her face when she answered.

"Okay then. I have an idea " then he turned to Christopher and said "Come on sport, we've got work to do."

From the bedroom she inhaled the buttery smell of popcorn and soon afer her "babies" returned to the bedroom with a huge bowl of popcorn and Christopher's favorite movie, Madagascar.

All three of them sat on Cristina's big bed with their backs against the headboard watching the movie and eating popcorn. At one point Burke leaned over and whispered in her ear. "Much better use for this bed than having orgies don't you think."

She turned around and pokes him in his side with her elbow.

Aside from periodic outbursts of giggles from Christopher, their afternoon was relatively quiet and by the end of movie mother and son were fast asleep and Burke got up and started the process of making them dinner.

He went from kitchen to bedroom, checking on them constantly. And later on that evening when everyone was showered and changed, they sat down to a wonderful meal. For a while all their problems were forgotten and if someone had taken a photograph of them, they would portray the perfect picture of domestic bliss. Later that night after putting Christopher to bed and reading him a story, she went back to her room and spent the night in the arms of the only man she had ever really loved.

The next day Cristina's parents took Christopher to the zoo leaving her and Burke alone together for the first time in three years. Again, the feeling of nervousness overtook her and she felt unsure of herself. He entered her bedroom quietly holding the newspaper he had just picked up at her door. "Want to read?" he asked her holding up the paper for her to see.

"Not right now, I'm trying to catch up on all this mail." She indicated the pile of mail at the side of her bed. She expected him to leave but he just stood there looking at her making her even more nervous and jittery.

"Want something?" she asked without looking directly at him.

"As a matter of fact I do." He started to walk further into the room and finally sat next to her on the bed. "Why are you so acting so nervous around me?"

"I'm not acting. I am nervous."

"Why?"

"Because I have something to tell you and I don't know where to start or how you're going to react to it."

He reached over and took hand. "Cristina, you can tell me anything, I won't judge you."

"Promise me that you will listen to what I have to say and that you won't interrupt until I am finished."

"I promise." He made the promise but he wasn't sure if he would be able to keep it. He had the feeling that whatever she had to say was important.

"I was married before." She said the words quickly and immediately pulled the blanket over her head.

He was stunned, not sure if he was hearing right. He pulled the blanket away from her, exposing her face. "You were what?"

"You promised to let me finish."

"Okay, so finish."

"When I first left home to go to college I met and fell in love with a graduate student. I was very young and very naive and I thought that he really cared about me . . . Looking back now I think I was targeted . . . You see, while I lived at home, I was very sheltered, I wasn't allowed to date and I really didn't have a boyfriend . . . When we first met he showered me with attention. There was nothing that he wouldn't do for me . . . I've always had this thing about not having sex until I was married and he respected that . . . he never pressured me . . . When we first met I lived on campus and shared a dorm room with another student . . . That student and I became very close friends and it was she who introduced me to him . . . On my nineteenth birthday we eloped, got married and I moved into the house he shared with another student off campus . . . " I kept the relationship and marriage a secret from my parents because I knew that they wouldn't support it."

On our wedding night we stayed at a hotel and he . . . " She started to tremble, unable to continue.

"And he what?" He suddenly realized that this was not the happy marriage he envisioned when she first began to speak. "What did he do Cristina?"

"It was my first time, and it was my last until I met you." She covered her face with her hands.

He reached over and pulled her hands away from her face and pulled her over on the bed so that her head was resting in his lap. "Did he rape you?"

He was holding her and she could feel the muscles twitching in his arms and she realized how hard it was for him to control the anger that he was feeling toward someone he didn't even know. "It wasn't anything like that. It was consensual. But he knew that I was inexperienced and he made no allowance for that. It was awful . . . When it was over, I was left feeling numb and in a lot of pain . . . Like a piece of meat that the inspectors discarded because it was contaminated . . . He just got up left me in bed and went downstairs to the bar . . . It was like he was a different person . . . He changed so drastically. Where as before he was kind and understanding, he became very distant and although we slept in the same bed, he never touched me again . . . for the longest time I blamed myself, thinking that there was something wrong with me . . . and then I began to figure out the real reason why he was so nice to me . . . Why he married me."

"My biological father died when I was nine years old and as his only child, I inherited the bulk of his estate . . . My father was very organized and before he died he set up a trust for me. The money he left me was supposed to be given to me at different stages in my life. At eighteen, I was to receive the first installment. The year before we married, I turned eighteen . . . I was always very careful with my finances . . . I always wanted to fit in so I was never extravagant and no one really knew my background . . . Or so I thought . . . We opened a joint account and I transferred money from my personal account in California to the joint account. In less that a week the money was gone and he changed from being unattentive to simply abusive. He never hit me, but he was extremely abusive verbally . . . I transferred more money into the joint account and as soon as I did it would disappear . . . During this time I began to suspect that he was seeing someone else. There were signs all over the house . . . he wasn't trying to hide what he was doing . . . One day I went home earlier than expected, I wasn't feeling well. For some reason I got this idea to go through his things, I wanted to find evidence of what he was doing with the money . . . I came across two video tapes hidden and I was curious because we had a lot of movies but they were all on a stand next to the TV . . . These were hidden in such a place that I believed there was something on them that he wanted to keep private . . . I put the tapes in the VCR and when I pressed play what I saw made me literally sick to my stomach . . . There he was on tape making love to someone else . . . I was so naive that some of the things I saw I never knew was even possible . . . I wanted to stop watching but I started to think what if he had taped us that night, so I kept watching . . . I still didn't finish . . . It was too much and until this day I don't know if I'm on those tapes . . . I decided then that I would leave . . . So I confided in my friend and former room mate . . . It was then that she told me that she may have passed on information to him about me . . . She had found correspondence between me and my mom and my father's lawyers . . . from that she started to refer to me as her rich room mate . . . At the time she was dating a friend of his . . . so he set his sights on me . . . One day when I couldn't take it any more I asked him why he married me and he told me that the question wasn't why he married me, but how much I would be willing to pay for him to go away.

"I decided to move out but I couldn't find an available apartment until three weeks later. I tried to move back into the dorm but someone had already moved into my old room . . . So, for three more weeks I stayed . . . I decided to give him the money he wanted to leave me but when I tried to transfer the funds there was no money there. My mother had begun to notice large sums of money being transferred so she blocked my account. She always had control over my accounts and even though at the time I resented it. I came to appreciate it . . . In order to get the money. I had to tell her the truth . . . I don't know exactly what happened, but I believed that my parents paid him off and the marriage was annulled . . .

"Was your room mate the girl that he was involved with?"

"It wasn't a girl. The person he was in making love to wasn't a girl."

She heard him swear, and felt his arms tightened around her, but he was quiet and the silence bothered her.

"Say something." She pleaded with him.

He tilted her chin so she was looking up at him. "I love you."

She felt the tears stinging her eyes and she fought hard not to shed them. "Say something that I don't know."

In response he reached under his pillow and pulled out a small ring box. He opened the box and removed the most exquisite looking ring. Lifted her left hand and placed the ring on her finger.

She looked at the ring and back at him, she tried to speak but couldn't find the words, and so she reached up and pulled his head down to hers and kissed him.