A/N: This is the last chapter of this fic. Thank you so much for your support! I am really glad to see you guys liked my idea. I still have some ideas for this story that I haven't written into this fic. Maybe I will write some one-shots with them later. PS: This chapter is the PRESENT timeline.

Chapter 8 (Part 2)

"Stina! Klisstina! Week up!" Cristina was in her sleep when she felt a pair of soft, little hand squeezing her face. The voice pronouncing her name wrongly sounds like little Bailey, but it is so distanced and soft. She tell herself that she was hallucinating and went back to sleep. The noise stopped momentarily, before another voice came.

"Auntie Cristina! Wake up!" Okay, this sounds like Zola now. This time the voice was louder and closer, but still sounds like delusion to Cristina. She waved her arms irritatingly, then curled up and went back to her sleep.

Her bedroom door opened abruptly. Meredith marched in and flipped her blanket away. She slapped Cristina's thigh and shouted, "Cristina! Wake up!"

Cristina opened her eyes reluctantly. She searched for her phone beside her pillow to look at the time.

"What the hell Mer? It's 8 in the morning! I thought you are off today! Just let me sleep a bit more…" She mumbles as her body dropped back onto the bed.

"No! We have important things to do! You have to wake up now or I am going to kick your ass. Seriously!" Meredith crossed her arms in front of her chest, looking at Cristina angrily.

"Jeez! Alright I am up! Grumpy!" Cristina was confused by her friend's unusual grumpiness. She climbed out from her bed and walked to the washroom with a big yawn.

When she reached the kitchen, the kids are already eating breakfast, Meredith was busy feeding Ellis while flipping the pancakes.

"I thought you say we are in a hurry!" Cristina sat down on a chair and bite on one of Zola's toast.

"We are, but I have to feed the kids first! Why are you still your pajamas?"

"I don't know what to wear if you don't tell me where we are going."

"Okay fine, um, it's Alex and Jo's wedding today. I hung a dress for you behind your door just now, go put that on."

"What? Alex and Wilson? They didn't say anything about wedding last night! And aren't they not supposed to see each other before wedding?" Cristina asked suspiciously.

"They… they assumed I told you about this, I guess. And you know, Alex don't really give a crap about traditions." Meredith avoided Cristina's glare by focusing on her pancakes. As Cristina grew more suspicious, Meredith was saved by the phone call.

"Oh hey Maggie!"

"Yes I know, the kids are having breakfast now. We and leaving in… em, 20 minutes or so."

"Okay then, I will see you at the chapel!"

"Great, tell Alex that we are sorry, and we are rushing now. Okay, bye!"

She put down her phone and gestured to Cristina, telling her to get dressed while she feed Ellis with another spoon of apple sauce.

Cristina rolled her eyes and went upstairs to change. Zola swallowed the cereal in her mouth and asked, "Mommy, I don't remember Uncle Alex and Auntie Jo are getting married today! Aren't today the wedding of Auntie…" Her mouth was covered by Meredith's hand. She peeked at the stairs to see whether Cristina is there. Luckily, Cristina has already went into her room, she didn't hear anything Zola said.

"Shu… Zozo, this is a secret between mommy and you! Just pretend it is Uncle Alex and Auntie Jo's wedding alright? Don't ask any question okay? Good girl." Meredith squatted and talked to Zola. Zola nodded her head slightly, and Meredith gave her a kiss on her forehead. "Have you finished your cereal? Okay, then go put on your dress, you can do that by yourself right?"

"Mer… Why is this dress looked so… it's like the dress of a bridesmaid!" Cristina walked downed the stairs and twisted in her dress uncomfortable.

"Yeah… yeah! We are Alex's, um, best men! Right, we are his best men! But then he said he… he don't want us to wear a tux cause it's just so creepy. So we are wearing a bridesmaid dress instead." Meredith blinked her eyes innocently as she lied. Cristina gave her another suspicious look while she tried her best to put on a guiltless face. Luckily Cristina did not question her, she took Ellis from Meredith's arms and let her go change.

Meredith smiled at her best friend thankfully and quickly went upstairs. She put on a turquoise satin dress and braided her hair hurriedly. Her phone rang again as she was about to leave the room, she closed the door and picked it up.

"What?"

"We are coming, stop urging us! You are not my boss anymore, stop ordering me around!"

"I told her its Alex's wedding. She believed me. Our plan will work don't worry!"

"Right, I will see you there. Bye!"

She hung up the phone, check her make up one last time and stepped out of her bedroom.

"I still can't believe Evil Spawn is actually getting married. Is Wilson out of her mind?" Cristina asked Meredith for the countless time.

Meredith rolled her eyes again and replied her with the sentence she has been repeating throughout the ride, "They love each other. Stop questioning! You should be happy for Alex to finally settling down!"

"Fine I will stop." Cristina mumbles and looked out from the window instead. The car turned left and stopped in front of the courthouse. Cristina got off the car and opened the backseat door for the kids. She held Zola's hand as she followed Meredith to the room Alex is going to get married in.

Meredith pushed the door opened, and the man standing at the end of the aisle, next to the judge is not Alex. It's Burke. He is wearing a black tux, like the one he wore at their wedding. He smiled at Cristina and walked towards her slowly.

She couldn't move her body. She couldn't breathe. She can't tell whether it is her hallucination or reality. She let go of Zola, who ran back to her mother immediately.

She reached her throat unconsciously, like that choker was still on her neck. Seeing him in the same tuxedo as ten years ago reminds her of the devastating pain she felt when he walked away.

'I'm up there waiting for you to come down the aisle, and I knew you don't want to come.'

'I know you don't want to come but that you'll come anyway because you love me.'

'If I loved you, not the woman that I'm trying to make you be, not the woman that I hope you'll become. If I did...I wouldn't be up there waiting for you.'

'I would be letting you go.'

'I really wish that you didn't think. I wish that you knew.'

Not a single day in the past ten years had she forgot what he said to her on their wedding day. From time to time she still dream of that day, when she walked into their apartment and found out that he has gone. He vanished from her life, like he had never existed.

'He's gone.'

'His trumpet was here. His entire Eugene Foote collection... His grandmother's picture was by the bed. His lucky scrub cap was hanging on the door. He's gone.'

'I'm...I'm free. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.'

'Take this off! Take this off! Please… I can't…'

He reached her and grabbed her hands. "Cristina." He murmured her name. She looked into his eyes and asked, "I thought… this was Alex's wedding?"

"No." He chuckled. "That was a lie."

She turned to look at Meredith angrily, but he turned her around to face him again.

"Don't be angry with Meredith. It was my idea. This is my surprise for you. This is OUR wedding day, not Karev's."

"Oh you are out of your mind. You are married!"

"Not anymore." He grinned at her. "Edra and I got a divorce. I am officially single now."

"Preston! I thought you are coming home on Friday!" Edra opened the door and found her husband standing outside their house. He was supposed to be in Zurich giving a talk to the young interns this week.

He entered their house. It was as neat as usual. He used to find his house cosy and warm, but today everything makes him feel guilty. As he is going to destroy his happy family in a few seconds. He clenched his briefcase tightly and said, "Edra, I have something I needed to talk to you about."

His wife doesn't seem to know what is coming. She sat down beside him on the couch and waited for him to speak. He took out a file and gave it to her. She opened it curiously and couldn't believe what she saw.

"Divorce papers…? You are divorcing me?" Edra asked her husband. Her beloved husband. She was shocked to see these papers. She had always been the dream of most women: beautiful, well-educated, wealthy, married to a successful husband and have two adorable kids… Her life is perfect. And divorce isn't a term that would come up in a perfect person's perfect life.

"I am sorry. I am. But…"

"What did I do wrong? Why do you have to divorce me?" Tears ran down her cheek. Burke sighed and decided to tell her the truth.

"You did nothing wrong. I did. I am the one who is wrong. I cheated on you, for three years." He confessed to his wife. She couldn't believe what her husband just said. She couldn't believe her wonderful family was already gone three years ago.

"Is… is she someone I know? Is she someone from the hospital?"

"You… kind of know her. It was Cristina." She grasped in shock. So her husband has been going back to the hospital frequently because of her, not because he wanted to make sure his hospital is running smoothly.

"I wanted to know everything." She demanded. "What is so special about her? What is the thing that she can give you while I can't?"

"Edra…" He sighed. He really don't want to tell her everything about Cristina. He has hurt this woman so much already, he doesn't want to hurt her further. But he know Edra would never be satisfied if he don't tell her everything. He had no choice but to tell her everything.

"Cristina… she was my fiancée ten years ago. We were about to get married, but I left her at the altar, because I think I am her burden. The way I love her… it's consuming, and at the end it is suffocating, for both of us. She bent herself just please me and mama, she changed herself for me. She became the woman I wanted, but she is no longer the woman I fell in love with. That is when I realized I am nothing but harmful to her. I have to set her free. I believed that, if I love her, I should have let her go." He paused, closing his eyes to swallow the pain he endured when he walked out on her, the love of his life.

"So… you realized you made a mistake, and you hire her to your institute, so that you can be with her whenever you want?" Edra wiped away the tears on her cheek and tried to act strong. But the tears wouldn't stop falling down.

"No. Quite the contrary, I didn't thought I would be with her when I invited her to Zurich for a talk. I told her I would step away from the institute, because working with her again will ruin my life and my family. I decided to leave, and I am going to leave. But when we do the final surgery together, I found out that nothing had changed my love for her. She is standing opposite to me, I couldn't fight the urge to hold her in my arms and tell her how sorry I am for walking out on us. We tried to end this, we know it is wrong. But we can't. I guess the decision of hiring her here really ruined my family."

"Have you… ever loved me? Or am I just the rebound girl?" This is the only thing she wanted to know. She is a smart woman, and she understands that there is no way she can save her marriage now. All she wanted to know is, did this man, the father of her kids, had ever truly cares about her. If not, her life will be so pathetic and ridiculous. She looked at him pleadingly, hoping to hear something she would want to hear.

"Yes. I have loved you. You are my best friend for the last couple of years. And I loved our family. "

"Just not as much as you loved her."

He avoided her glaze out of guilt. He whispered, "…Yes."

Edra closed her eyes and let her tears flow out of her eyes, running down her cheeks freely. Then she took a deep breath and signed the papers in front of her swiftly. She handed them to Burke with a faint smile. "I want you to be happy, and I want you to be with someone you love."

He took the papers from her, and gave her the last hug, as a friend. "Thank you, and I am sorry."

"So you are getting married with me. Here. Today?"

"Yes. Unless you don't want to." He raised his eyebrows and said.

"I… wait, let me figure this out first. This is THE courthouse. I thought you always wanted a fairy tale-like wedding in a dreamy church"

"We had tried to get married in a church, and that didn't work out. So I figured maybe we should do it the way you like it, a small ceremony with our close friends." He grinned victoriously to Cristina.

"How long have you been planning this? And Mer has been helping you?"

"Not really. I planned the wedding for two months, and I think most of the people in this room are involved."

"You went behind my back for two months?" She screamed disbelievingly. Now she finally got the chance to scan around the room and see who is there. Mer and Alex are here, of course, sitting at the first row with the kids, Jo, Bailey, Ben and Richard. Her mother and step-father, as well as Burke's parents are sitting on the first row of the left side. Most of the guests are people working at Grey-Sloan, the other attendings are sitting together at the second and third row, and the interns and residents who are close with them are also here, like Stephanie and DeLuca. She look to her left side, and was surprised to see Addison holding a little boy in her lap. Addison smiled warmly at her, and focusing on her child again. The wicked witch of Cardio, aka Erica Hahn, was also there. She was sitting next to a woman who seems to be her wife.

"You invited Erica Hahn?" She whispered.

"Well, I don't like that woman either, but she invited me to her wedding. It's a courtesy to do the same." He answered honestly.

"And Addison. I didn't know you two are friends."

"I ran into her once in Paris. Since then we have been calling each other and chatting when we are free."

"It's about time to start the ceremony, right Preston?" Jane Burke cleared her throat and said loudly, reminding Burke and Cristina that they have been whispering for too long.

Meredith stood up and ran to Burke's side, handing him a ring and dragged him to the altar. "Cristina, go to the back of the room and walk down the aisle… no, the hallway. Do you need a prep talk?"

"No, I don't need it this time. I am steady and sure what do I want."

"Great." Meredith smiled at her and gestured for Cristina' step-father, Saul, to walk her down the aisle.

"Cristina. I know I am not your father, but you have always been my daughter. I am very glad to see you finding your right person. I am very proud of you and… I am grateful to be the one walking down the aisle with you." Saul whisper to Cristina as they walked. She looked at her step-father and hugged him when they reached where Burke and the judge are standing.

"Thank you, Saul. I am also very grateful to have you being my step-father." Saul hugged his daughter back tightly, and give her hand to Burke.

"Today, we gathered here to witness the marriage of Preston Burke and Cristina Yang. Do you have a vow prepared?" The judge started the ceremony and is waiting for them to read their vow. Out of everyone's expectation, both Burke and Cristina had nothing to say.

"I thought you had a vow!" Cristina whispered to Burke irritatingly.

"I thought you have one too! How come you don't have one?"

"Yeah, I must be insane to prepare a vow on my friend's wedding, no, my friend's FAKE wedding."

"You could come up with one just now! You are always proud of your last-minute preparations."

"Can I remind you that I only got the news of ME getting married 20 minutes ago? What about you? You've got plenty of time."

"I don't think we needed one."

"What?" Cristina is confused. Last time when they TRIED to get married, he was so pissed off when he knows that she didn't want to do a vow. Ten years later, they just miraculously doesn't need one anymore?

"In the last ten years, I realized that words means nothing when it comes to love. What matters is how I show you my love. I prepared a beautiful vow for you last time, I said I will cherish you and love you in the vow, but I didn't do what I promised to do. This time, I am not going to drown you with meaningless words, I am going to attain my promises with action. That's why we don't need a vow this time." He stared into Cristina's eyes and muttered to her seriously. She couldn't control the grin on her face.

"How about we just skip this part?" The judge stopped their endless staring into each other's' eyes by proceeding to the next section of the ceremony.

"Preston, do you take Cristina as your lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish until death do you part?"

"Yes, I do." He announced to everyone in the church with a huge grin on his face. He slid the ring onto her fingers.

"Cristina, do you take Preston as your lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish until death do you part?"

"I do." She whispered with a gentle smile, and put the beautiful platinum ring onto his finger.

"By the authority vested in me by the State of Washington, I now declared you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride."

All the guests stand up and clapped for them. Burke pulled Cristina into his arms and landed a kiss on her lips. They have been waiting for this day too long.

THE END