Author's Note- Thank you so much for the lovely reviews, they were very encouraging. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well and again, I would love to hear your thoughts. :)

Owen took a deep breath, squeezed his eyes shut and tried once again to sleep. Sleep didn't come easy to him these days and he was used to it. Having a drink or two usually helped the unwanted images and sounds from appearing every time he closed his eyes. But he couldn't drink while he was on call. And today, every time he closed his eyes, he was not met by his usual demons. He was met by Cristina's face.

It was, of course, a much welcome distraction. Except he kept remembering their last conversation. He had come down hard on her. And on everyone else, but especially her. When Dr. Webber had asked him to watch the second year residents, he had gone out of his way to make sure that he was not favoring Cristina. He didn't want to tell the Chief that she was excellent and that she should be awarded the solo surgery. He wanted so badly for someone else to be better or just as good as she was. But it was so damn hard to notice anyone else or their skills when she was in the room.

Perhaps its because you are attracted to her, said the annoying voice in his head. And because you kissed her. And because if she hadn't stopped you that night, you would have had her.

Owen rolled over, pushing his face into the pillow and let out a little groan. He was so glad that he hadn't gone further that night because there was no way he would have been able to work with her so closely now and not want to have her. That kiss had made everything hard enough already.

But she was excellent and he had told her so. Her bedside manner needed a lot of work and she really needed to learn how to call people by their names. He remembered she had called her intern "Three". Now Owen knew what it was like to be in command and he liked the heady feeling it had always given him, but he never ever used nicknames as demeaning as a number.

But she had asked for and remembered the patients name which made him think that she most probably knew her interns names as well. So why did she feel the need to call them by numbers? Maybe she just wanted to establish her authority. Perhaps she wanted to distance. He had seen the look on her face when she had talked about her Dad. There was a vulnerability to her when she had finally looked up to meet his eyes as she had said "That's why I do this."

But then the softness was gone and immediately replaced by that very distinct, determined look she always had. She went on to say "And that's also why I win all the contests." and Cristina Yang was back.

It wasn't uncommon to meet surgeons who were more on the unattached side. Most of the times you had to be unattached in a way, just so you could be objective when it came to the saving lives part. But you also needed to care, to remember why you got into this is the first place. The most hard was trying to find a good balance of the two. Most surgeons had to work on one or the other more. Then of course, the arrogance. Surgeons as a bunch tended to have that arrogance. And its hard not to. Having your hands inside a persons' body, fixing them, healing them could easily make you arrogant. It can easily make you feel invincible. Humility would be sure to follow soon enough, after losing that battle between playing God and trying to save a life.

You did not have to be a genius to see that Cristina had a wall, no a fort surrounding her. She picked and chose what and who she cared about. But she did not let on more than she knew, Owen concluded. She was one hell of a woman. And he felt bad. He had hoped to teach her a lesson. He had not expected that he would be hearing story about a dead parent. She did not let people in easily, yet she told him something very close to her heart. Something that drove her to become who she was today.

And Owen felt lucky that he knew something others did not know.

Owen turned around and lay flat on his back, giving up on sleep. He opened his eyes and a plan was forming in his head. He already knew that he was attracted to her but he wanted more. So maybe he could change his mind about getting to know her.

It would be just an attending getting to know his resident. And if she happened to return his feelings, well then... that would be just perfect. At the very least, they could be friends.

Or not.

We'll see, Owen thought as he sat up, smiling to himself.

Cristina dragged herself into the hospital, covering up a yawn with her hand. She was exhausted and it was an ungodly hour of the morning. She had scrubbed in on a surgery with Bailey late last night and as a result had slept less than usual. She could have just slept in the hospital but she had been dying to sleep in her own bed. And having an apartment across from the hospital made leaving it much more tempting than before.

But her sleeplessness was nothing that couldn't be fixed by coffee. She took a sip from her flask and headed towards the elevator waiting for it to come down. It opened up a couple of seconds later and Cristina was surprised to find it empty. Usually you would end up running into someone you were trying to avoid in the elevators at the hospital.

Not today, Cristina thought to herself as she pressed the button for the floor she wanted, and backed up all the way to the railing.

And as luck would have it, just as the elevator doors were about to close, a hand stopped it and in came Owen.

Spoke to soon, Cristina thought as she made shifted a little making room for him.

"Good Morning" He said, giving her a slight smile.

Cristina picked that very moment to take a sip of coffee just to avoid having to talk to him. She nodded and returned his smile with an equally cautious one. She was hoping she wouldn't have to see him for a little while. She hadn't seen him since she had told him about her Dad. Why had she done that? Why had she needed him to believe that she was not as heartless as she usually seemed? They were silent for about thirty seconds and she was hoping they would stay that way for the rest of the ride, but he broke the silence by saying "I'm sorry."

"Why?" Cristina asked, utterly confused.

"I didn't mean to upset you the other day." He said, looking sideways at her.

"You didn't." She kept looking ahead. She really did not want to talk about this. Once was hard enough.

"Oh. That's good." He continued. "But I know that could not have been an easy thing to talk about and I am sorry that I was harsh and that you had to tell me that in order to.. um.. - "

"Justify my actions?" She finally looked him in the eye and he was met with a cold look.

"No, I was not going to say that." He turned towards her, his eyes pleading. He could tell he was walking on eggshells and he needed to make things right with her.

"Its fine. I know what you were trying to say." She looked back ahead.

He instantly missed her gaze, even though it had been cold and withdrawn.

The elevator opened and Cristina walked out, with Owen following her closely.

"So we're good?" He asked, as he grabbed a chart from the nurse's station and opened it.

She looked up at him as if trying to decide whether he was serious. Good? When had they not been good? Did he really think he had upset her so much? Why did he care? None of the attendings ever cared this much.

"Yes, we're good." She answered.

"Good."

They both looked at each other, feeling the gap in their conversation yet now knowing how to move forward. Something was happening between them as their eyes silently conversed.

Cristina broke the silence first "I have pre-rounds."

"Yeah, I do too." He said, clearing his throat

They both nodded and went their ways.

Owen sighed as he walked down the hallway, his walk commanding and purposeful as always. He must be an idiot to think that this was going to be easy.