It had been days since she'd been home, she thought to herself. It had been days since she'd talked to him for more than just a few seconds, and it had been days since she'd last told him that she loved him. That she cared about him.
Reassured him that in some way that he was still a very important part of her life.
She rolled over in the call room bed and put her feet up so that they were flush against the bunk above her and let out a long sigh.
Cristina had been very successful over the past few days. She'd worked 3 call shifts in a row, just happened to be 'walking out of the pit' when three surgical cases had come in on different days, and now here she was again today.
Another day where she could go home, let Burke know that he was the only one for her or some sort of mushy crap that she wasn't good at, and possibly sleep in her own bed, or she could sit here and wait for the next surgery.
Wait for the chance, the moment that Webber would recognize that she was once again the best, and that Meredith would concede under those crushing words.
She would talk to Burke now.
She'd gotten here by herself, she'd made her way back to the hospital under her determination with only a little for him, why should she drag him through the rest of the journey.
She flipped open her phone and punched in the numbers to his cell phone and listened for his voice on the other side of the phone, and a smile spread across her face when he actually answered, "Hi."
"Cristina? Where are you?" He questioned, knowing exactly where she was.
"I...uh.." She stammered for words, "I'm busy. I just wanted to call and say hi."
What she didn't know was that he was standing on the other side of the call room door, it wasn't ever hard to figure out which call room she was in, because she typically only slept in that one if it wasn't occupied, and he was pretty damn sure she'd taken up residence there.
He jiggled the handle and found that it was locked and she yelled at the door, "Get a different one."
She paused when she heard herself through his phone, "There's some...funny feedback or something on my phone."
"Cristina, open the door." He finally sighed, hanging up the phone on her and waiting for her to open the door.
The door clicked open and she peered through the bright light at him, "What are you doing?"
"I should ask you the same, because you don't look very busy to me." He remarked dryly as he brushed past her to enter the room.
"I was just getting ready to go.."
"To sleep. To work. To do anything that doesn't involve going home, coming home with me. To me." He finished her sentence, sliding off his shoes.
"What are you doing?"
"If you can't come home and come to bed with me, I'm staying here with you tonight." He replied, pulling his shirt over his head and laying it on the bunk above them.
"You're going to stay here with me? Tonight? All night?" She questioned, a bemused grin on her face.
"What? Am I not allowed to see you? I might be second on your list of priorities, but you continue to be my first, at the moment."
"At the moment?"
"I told you that I can't be second on your list of priorities forever, Cristina. Now lay down, I'm tired." He flipped off the light behind him.
She slid into the bunk, and turned towards him as he laid down beside her, "You're not second."
"Well, I'm certainly not first, so am I third now?" He remarked, his eyes closed.
"Burke." She chided lightly, running a finger over his lips longingly. "Don't be like that."
It was only automatic for him to kiss her finger as she toyed with him, "You first."
She studied him silently, as he lay with his eyes closed, as if he didn't even want to look at her and she felt hurt inside. She continued to trace her fingers down his chin to his chest, trying to get him to open up his eyes and look at her, to say something to her. To show her some sort of affection other than an errant kiss to a fingertip.
"Will you quit acting like that if I come home with you tonight?" She whispered through the dark.
Cristina could see his eyes open through the glow from under the door and she smiled to herself and kissed him lightly on his chin, "Made you look." She teased.
But he closed his eyes again, "Cristina, just roll over and go to sleep, I just want to sleep with you."
She paused for a moment, and rolled over, pressing her body against his as his arm draped itself across her waist and his chin found its way to the crook between her shoulder and neck. "Goodnight, baby." She mumbled, then bit her lip for a moment, lowering her voice. "I do love you."
He pondered her words for a long moment, considering how to move forward with them, the things that he could say to make her think, to make her realize that he was all she truly needed and that friends, her career, money, was all just details, that what they had was the big picture.
He shifted in bed, so that she was even closer to her, his arm wrapping tightly around her body, and he moved his lips to her ear, causing her to shiver slightly, "You love me?" He whispered into her ear, then kissed her neck gently, momentarily intoxicated by her.
"Yeah, I do." She mumbled, letting herself fall into him.
He stopped, and nestled his chin back into her shoulder, "Then prove it."