Author's Note: Hello, hello! Yes, I know. This chapter is a long time coming. Honestly, I just had a lack of inspiration for a while and couldn't write. But thankfully that didn't last too long. Hope you enjoy reading it and let me know what you think. Reviews are always welcome! :)

Cristina closed the door of her apartment and leaned against it. Hadn't she done this exact same thing after he had kissed her that night in the alley?

Today he called her beautiful. What the hell was going on?

She needed to hop in the shower, take a nap, do some laundry, make coffee and study. But all she could do was stand against the door. The magnitude of everything hit her. The day, the interns, operating on Sadie, fighting with Meredith, Owen at her doorstep calling her beautiful. It was so much all of a sudden.

She walked gingerly to the couch and plopped down. She wanted to call Meredith and talk about this. The urge to call her friend was odd. Cristina was hardly the kind of woman who called her girlfriends to talk about men and analyze every detail of her encounter with them. She never even had girlfriends before. Perhaps the freshness of their fight was sinking over her and making her feel Meredith's absence. Perhaps she needed to talk it out. Or even dance it out.

Cristina glanced at the stereo, contemplating whether or not she should turn on the music and have a little dance party by herself. But she was tired and cold and hungry. Dancing would have to wait. As would Meredith.

With a heavy sigh she got up and walked towards her room. As soon as she turned the light on she was met with a huge pile of clothes on her bed. She needed to sort out her laundry but it would have to wait. She grabbed her pajamas and shoved everything else away. She opened up the blinds hoping that the light would prevent her from sleeping in too late. She plugged her phone into the charger, put her pager on the nightstand and sank in under her duvet. She got comfortable and closed her eyes, waiting for sleep to take over her tired and aching body.

I think you're beautiful

She squeezed her eyes shut really tight, hoping to rid her mind of blue eyes and breathtaking words.

Sleep came soon after.

Cristina woke several hours later and seriously contemplated not going into the hospital. The solo surgery was soon to be announced and her every waking moment for the past few days had been spent in preparation for it. However, the incident yesterday would have seriously compromised her chances of winning the surgery.

What would she do if she did in fact get taken out of the running? Who was to blame for that? Herself? Her idiot interns? Meredith?

Could she survive it?

She sighed heavily and threw off her cover, heading straight for the shower. She tried to wash away any memory of the previous day but it kept coming up. As did Owen and what he said.

No, Cristina thought to herself. You are not thinking about him in the shower.

Somehow the worry of losing the solo surgery was enough to make her not think about him right up until she saw him as she walked through the hospital doors. He was standing, mid conversation with Derek. They both stopped as they saw her approaching. She nodded at them as she walked past them. She was well aware that they had been discussing the incident that happened yesterday. Its as if she could feel his eyes burning into her back. And before she knew it he was walking beside her, matching her brisk pace.

"Hi." He said, his body feeling ridiculously close even though it wasn't.

"Hi."

"How are you?"

"Good." She replied, more gruffly than she wanted to sound.

"Not going to ask me how I am?" He said, smirking.

She slowed down a bit. He automatically matched his pace to hers. If anybody else looked at them, they seemed nothing more than two doctors out on a stroll. She looked at him to find him already looking at her.

I get it. She thought. Something about us. We... fit.

"How are you. Dr Hunt?"

Owen wished she wouldn't use his last name. He wished she would just say Owen, but he understood. This was her way of being familiar yet distant. And it was driving him insane.

"I am fine." He replied. "Did you get some sleep?"

"Yes."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "I meant, did you sleep well?"

"No." She said, laughing slightly. "I'm a surgeon. I don't think I've slept well since med school. Maybe even before that."

"Yeah, I know what you mean." He said. I know it very well, he thought.

Cristina saw Meredith approaching from the end of the hall. She hadn't seen Cristina yet. And Cristina wanted to prolong that inevitable encounter as long as she could. She saw Owen follow her gaze when she looked back at him. He nodded and opened him mouth to saw he would see her later when she suddenly grabbed his arm and steered him into an adjoining hallway.

"Cristina! What..-" He exclaimed.

"Lets go this way. It's the scenic route." She replied. Great save, you idiot, she thought to herself.

He gave her a bemused look and said "We are in a hospital. There is hardly anything scenic around here."

"Well, I like this way. It takes longer to get to the changing room." She said.

"Why take the longer route? You are always raring to go, get changed and get to a surgery as fast as you can." He said, chuckling. That's when he realized something was wrong. Cristina wasn't rushing to go to surgery. She was taking longer to get to the change rooms. She was avoiding something. He remembered a bit of their conversation at her doorstep. Her disgruntled reply about Meredith and he was certain he had caught a glimpse of Meredith when Cristina had steered him away.

She was avoiding Meredith.

Cristina watched his face as he no doubt worked out her excuses. She should have known she was a fool for trying to keep her guard up around him. It never seemed to work since the moment he showed up in her life.

"Something going on with you and Meredith?" He asked, getting straight to the point.

"No."

"Cristina." His voice was gentle, his eyes earnest.

"We had an argument. She should have stuck up for me and she didn't."

"And there is no way to resolve it?" He asked.

She looked at him quietly for a moment and said, "Well, no. Things usually resolve themselves, we don't do the whole thing."

"What thing?" He asked, confused.

"You know, the thing" She gestured with her hands, moving them between their bodies in a circle. "The whole I say sorry, she says sorry and then the hugging it out and talking about feelings. We don't do that."

Owen really wanted to point out that they were both adults and could easily resolve everything with one conversation but perhaps pointing out the flaws in their relationship was not the best way to get her.

"So do you have time to get some coffee?" He said, dropping the subject completley.

"No, Owen I.. I mean Dr. Hunt, I need to go, get changed." She said, starting to walk away from him. He lunged forward as he remembered something, and placed his hand on her arm.

"Wait."

She turned around and waited for him to speak.

"You are aware that they are voting for solo surgery today, right?" He asked her, looking down at her face.

"Yes."

"Okay."

She nodded and walked away from him.

The rest of the day went by too fast yet at the same time, too slow. It felt as if every breath Cristina took was causing her the kind of pain she wanted to forget. It felt like everything that gave her life was being taken away from her. In the back of her mind she was aware that she was at fault as well. Especially for not teaching her interns. She thought about what Bailey had done when she was in Cristina's position. Bailey had always been a good teacher. Cristina also knew that Meredith was trying to do the right thing, atleast the way she saw it. But Cristina expected Meredith to have her back, the way she would if the roles were reversed.

Would she? Or would she leave Meredith to fend for herself.

But right in that moment, as she handed her proverbial baton over to Karev, her heart was too ladled with grief to even acknowledge her fault.

She was vaguely aware of him, following her out of the gallery and leading her down a stairwell. Tears were running down her face, her hair was a mess but his scent was in the air and that was all she could care about. She knew exactly what was going to happen. Call it female intuition, but she knew. She had no idea where he was taking her and if she hadn't been so upset, she would have probably been a bit worried about following him to the basement. But as she felt his warmth close by, she felt safe.

And yet her heart was beating like a wild animal, locked in a cage.

He took her to the boiler room, told her why he came here and watched her laugh as the air rushed through her body. He looked at her with a smile and a twinkle in his eyes. Not dark and haunted, like his eyes usually did. As she looked up into his face, something fell into place. Like it did this morning, when she walked next to him. She forgot about the fact that he was an attending, she forgot about the solo surgery, about Meredith. She threw caution to the wind and leaned in towards him, knowing full well that he would lean into her.

And he didn't disappoint.

He kissed her with passion but the frantic need was missing this time. This was almost like their very first kiss. His arms engulfed her and moved her further in towards him. The air blew up at them, but they hardly noticed. They were out of time, out of space just like he said they would be.

He grabbed her harder around the waist, turned her around and walked her to the walk leaning her against it. His mouth never leaving hers. Cristina's hand moved further down, gripping on to his arm and resulted in a moan, whether it came from her or him, she would never know.. Somewhere she heard a pager go off. When the beeping continued, Cristina broke away from him and said "Is it you or me?"

"I don't really care right now." He replied, his voice deep and his mouth moving across her jawline then to her neck.

Cristina tilted her head back to give him access, her eyes rolling back into her head. "It could be a trauma."

"Mmmhmm it could be."

"Seriously... Dr. Hunt... You might be needed."

That seemed to get his attention. He brushed a wild curl away from Cristina's eyes. He kept a tight grip on her waist with one hand, and placed the other hand on the wall, slightly above her head. Looking into her eyes he said "I have you pinned against a wall. I think you can drop the "doctor" and just call me Owen."

Oh dear God, did he just say that, Cristina thought to herself.

And then she remembered the last time he had her pinned against the wall, several weeks ago. She remembered the thrill it had sent down her spine. And she remembered the way she felt later that night, when she was laying in bed. How she kept telling herself that this was not going to happen again. And yet, here she was. It's like she had no self control around him. She opened her mouth, ready to say something along the lines of 'This was a mistake.' when her beeper went off.

Owen chuckled, his voice sounding deeper than usual. "I guess we better head back."

Cristina nodded and followed him out of the boiler room. She watched him walk slightly ahead of her. His hair was ruffled, thanks to her. Something as trivial as that was tugging at her heart, in a way that scared her. He looked back at her and smiled before heading to the E.R. Cristina walked in the other direction, her mind already made up about him.