Preston Burke had the perfect life.

For years it had been so frustrating, waiting for her to take steps. Sometimes it seemed like she decided to move several steps forward in a day and then wait six months for anything else. He kept waiting for the next step, waiting for things to move. It was never stagnant- Cristina always kept everything interesting, but he just wanted more.

He was always ready for more.

Things were slow at first. She had opened up, she had asked him to stay and he did so willingly, and maybe a little too much in the beginning. Enough so, that she asked him to go home one night- every night, for almost two weeks before she asked him to stay again. Nearly eight months later, she was complaining about her furniture and saying he should move his in instead. He can remember the way she laughed when he was going to take the old furniture back to his apartment. He'd become so unsure of what she was going to do next that he was actually afraid to give up his apartment.

After they moved in together, the past that he had spent so much time yearning to go back to was nothing more than an afterthought. They had been happier than ever. They found a love in cooking together. Well, he cooked and she teased him mercilessly. Never in his life had Burke burned so many dishes, but he enjoyed ruining every one of them. They'd sit on the couch and drink wine and simply hold each other. Sometimes they'd slow dance in the living room to Etta James and Duke Ellington, their hands sliding over every curve and sensitive spot on each other's bodies until they were aching with a desire that couldn't wait any longer to be fulfilled.

Cristina learned what it truly meant to be in love.

When she finally let him move back into the apartment, she had just assumed that they'd be together whatever and that was that. As she started to receive offers at the end of her residency and she began to take interviews on the opposite coast, she couldn't help but notice a small droop in his shoulders and the happiness seem to fade a little. She didn't understand what was happening until he mentioned maybe finding a new place.

She'd just assumed that he would go with her and when she explained that, she would swear that he'd never held her so tightly in his life. So they chose a weekend, checked out a few places in Boston. By the time they flew home on Monday morning, they were the proud new owners of a townhouse in Boston just a few miles from the new hospital they would call home.

Even though most everything came easily to them, they still had their dark days. Jane had made clear several times over that she would never accept Cristina and it always turned into a vicious argument. Burke was clearly a mama's boy and it took many years for Cristina to finally accept it. The first time she was civil to Jane, it left the haggard old woman speechless. Instead of carrying on about Cristina leaving her barren of grandchildren and wasting her son's life, the woman settled for glaring at her across the table and staying silent.

Despite their newfound life together, Cristina was still insistent upon working too many hours and drinking with Meredith. She still liked red meat and would rather sleep in and just dance around rather than wake up before the sun and jog with Burke. At first he fought her on it, saying he wanted her to live a long and healthy life, to which she retorted some sarcastic comment about joggers being hit by cars and then who would live longer- so he quit pushing so hard. When they'd shop for groceries he'd buy her steak and make it once every couple of weeks instead of not at all. When he'd jog he'd go later and sometimes she'd go with him.

It was astonishing to them that when they just slowed things down how easy compromise was.

Compromise was what led them to marriage. It was Burke who had suggested it, to which Cristina replied 'It's about damn time' and it left him with a silly grin on his face for days after. He bought a smaller ring and asked her to humor him, she said yes. She asked for something simple, maybe not the courthouse but maybe outside and maybe only a few people, and he told her that he'd marry her in a closet if it was what she wanted.

In his vows, he promised that he wasn't going to 'screw it up' and that he'd always be at her side and a lot of eloquent things that she'd never be able to come up with. Originally, she'd planned to use traditional vows, but instead she stopped just before her vows and he was nervous for a moment, wondering if he'd said the wrong things. Instead, she began to speak what she was feeling and despite the fact it was full of stammering and barely audible it was something he'd treasure forever.

It had all started with a cup of coffee. No matter how turbulent and tumultuous and trying it had been, it had started with something simple and it never ceased to amaze him how it led to this.

He held the love of his life in his arms, stroking his fingers through her soft curls and he smiled to himself. She snored softly and stirred slightly and he laid his beautiful daughter down in her bed and bent and kissed her forehead before leaving her bedroom.

When their bedroom door opened, Cristina dropped her medical journal and jerked the reading glasses from her face with a panic stricken expression. He'd bought them for her weeks ago when he knew that the fine print of the medical journals was becoming too much on her eyes. Instead of telling her to wear them or telling her that it was going to make it harder for her to see in surgery, he merely left a pair on her journals and hoped that she would use them.

"I was wondering when you were coming to bed." She muttered as she casually set the glasses and journal aside.

Biting back a smile at her using the glasses, he instead slid into bed beside her and pulled her into his arms. "I was just thinking." He answered softly.

"What? You can't think with me?" Cristina questioned, her eyes closing as he held her. After all these years, it was amazing the way he felt. She could stay wrapped in his arms forever.

"I told you years ago that it's impossible for me to think in your presence," He murmured before he bent to kiss her softly.

Cristina grinned against his lips, remembering the night clearly. It was the first night she had really asked him to stay. She kissed him back passionately, her fingers sliding up over his cheek and then over the back of his neck. When they pulled away, each recognized the warm gazes and the wandering hands.

Despite the years, nothing had changed.

Burke bent to kiss her softly once more, but she laid a finger over his lips, "Baby?" She murmured softly.

Though he never thought it possible, he knew that he loved her more in this moment than he had the day before or the day before that. "Yes?" He asked just as softly, his eyes lingering on hers and his lips brushing the tips of her fingers.

She smiled up at him softly, almost imperceptibly, that night still lingering in her head. "I love you too."

-end-