Burke studied the wall absently as Cristina signed discharge forms for Debbie, listening vacantly as she lectured about proper nutrition and resting and preventing infection as if she was talking to a normal patient but not Cristina.
He was amazed however at the fact that Cristina was listening and not snapping back at the nurse she despised so much.
A blur that was Debbie crossed in front of him and out of the room and he came to focus on Cristina, "Where am I taking you?"
She hadn't yet agreed on coming home, citing that it would be too hard for her to concentrate on getting up to par, because she wanted to talk to the Chief about coming back, and also citing that she wasn't going to be a dead weight around the apartment and have him pay for everything.
Cristina silently laid a piece of paper in his hands, and sat on the edge of the bed, a coy smile on her face.
"What is this?"
"Can you read?" she let out an exaggerated sigh.
He glanced down to the paper and saw that it was conditions for her coming home, with an expiration date of a week away.
One week of him playing her game, and he would be home free, it was a small price to pay for getting his Cristina back where he could watch her.
"I have rules?" he questioned, though, trying desperately just to hear the sound of her voice as number 3 indicated that he wasn't to interrupt her while she was practicing because she couldn't think if he was talking to her.
She also added that she meant that in the most loving of ways.
"You have rules, and if you want me to stay home, you'll follow the rules."
"When do they go into effect?"
"About an hour after we get home." she answered, picking her bags up from the bed.
He stepped to her side and pulled them from her hand, "I do not think you're helpless, I'm carrying your bags because I'm your boyfriend and it's what I'm supposed to do." he interjected as he pulled them from her shoulder before she could say anything, "And why an hour?"
She grinned suggestively, "Because you're my boyfriend and you're what I want to do."
That'll at least make the week a little less painful he though, following her out of the room.
He noticed the absent glances as she made her way through the surgical unit, hushed whispers from the nurses and staff, the words Grey and Yang intertangled in webs of lies and truths, and Cristina looked to the ground, "They think I can't hear." she mumbled to him.
"They're not talking." he lied to her, his heart breaking for her at the same time.
"They're talking. I've heard them talking for the past 4 days that I've been stuck on this unit. Everybody talks, and I'm the latest gossip. Crazy Cristina that nearly starved herself to death trying to come back to work. Crazy Cristina who ignores her boyfriend and blows him off to live in a call-room off of coffee and cookies so she can suture a dummy arm. Crazy Cristina is the name they've given me." she continued quietly, rage sparking deep within her.
"They're crazy then."
"But Meredith." it's as if she didn't hear them, "They talk about how far Meredith has come since the accident. How she's not at Joe's anymore, and she seems more focused, and sturdy, and she's really coming into her own. Yes, Meredith Grey will follow in the footsteps of her great mother, and I, Crazy Cristina, I will hopefully get back into the program at the same level I left off on, hopefully. Or I can come back and be an intern, and maybe...probably, because this existence is cruel, I will end up with Meredith Grey as my resident, and I will remind her on a daily basis how she has totally taken my life and ruined it because she had to have a couple of drinks."
Burke was taken aback at the self-disclosure that Cristina was giving up to him, she'd never said so much to him before in one setting, but it was obvious that the exhaustion, the anger, and the jealousy of Meredith was finally getting to her.
How saddening it was to see that she was jealous of Meredith, when it used to be that every intern the hospital was jealous of her and her potential, her edge, her knowledge.
He placed an arm around her shoulder as they left the hospital, "I'll bring you back later so you can get your bike. It's too cold for you to ride it right now."
"Rule number eight says you can't treat me like I'm fragile." she pointed out quietly.
"I have up to one hour after we get home to not follow the rules, and right now, you have to do what I say, and I say we're going to go get a cup of coffee, and I'm going to take you to get something to eat, and I'm going to waste an entire afternoon getting home, because the rules didn't say that I couldn't." he placed the bags in the back seat of their car and closed it softly.
"I need to practice." she sighed, falling against his chest. "I need to come back to work and prove their rumors wrong, Burke."
He brushed her hair away from her face, and pulled her tight against him, "You'll practice. You'll practice one hour after we get home, but right now, I'm focusing on my needs. And I need you."
She looked to him, a slight smile spread across her lips and mumbled in a barely audible voice, "I need you too."
A/N: Nope. Not the end. She's not recovered! She doesn't have her job back yet! Keep reading, keep reading!! Okay, as I update. I was going to make it dark and twisty, but you people and your happy Christmas stuff, I couldn't break your spirits. Yet.