Cristina left the front door unlocked and crawled into bed, and the tears finally came. She wept silently into her pillow, allowing herself to release the pent up emotions that had built up since the incident. By the time she heard Mer enter the apartment, she had cried out most of what she had inside, and she felt drained and numb.

Mer poked her head in the door.

"I'm engaged."

"I broke up with Owen."

Meredith moved to the bed and lay her head down next to Cristina's, and for a while she said nothing. She felt relieved. She had hoped for this, wanted to see her friend face reality and get herself out of danger, but she felt sad for her pain. If anyone deserved a break in the romance department, it was Cristina, and Mer had been genuinely happy when she had seen how Cristina lit up when Owen was around. Now, in her post-proposal glow, she did not begrudge Cristina her grief or her inability to celebrate this milestone in Mer's life. Some things just had to be dealt with in the moment. There would be time to celebrate later.

"You did the right thing, Cristina. You know you did."

"I know I did, but not for the reasons you think. You don't get it, Mer. You think he's a bad person for what happened."

"What am I supposed to think when I find out he's strangled my best friend? How would you feel if Derek did that to me?"

"He was asleep, Mer. He wasn't really there."

"Tell that to the Coroner, Cristina. He could have killed you! Have you looked at your neck? I know you really care for him, but this is crazy stuff... He's obviously unstable."

"He's not obviously anything. You don't know what happened to him, Mer. I don't know how he even gets up in the morning, much less comes to work and functions like he does."

Meredith stopped the words of denial that were about to come out of her mouth and took a breath. She needed to work on being a better listener. Let Cristina talk. "Well, maybe you'd better explain it to me, then. Because I can't think of much of anything that justifies choking your girlfriend in her sleep."

"And I can't think of much of anything that justifies throwing your girlfriend's engagement ring in her face, but you don't hear me harping on that, do you? You don't hear me telling you to refuse the proposal."

Meredith signed and shrugged her shoulders. "It's different. He wasn't himself that night. He had just messed up and lost a patient he'd grown very attached to."

Cristina was getting incensed. She lifted herself up off the bed by her elbow and looked down at Meredith. "And how do you think that compares to being the only survivor of an ambush, losing 19 of your close friends in a matter of minutes, watching them all die, and being helpless to do anything about it? How do you think a man like Owen might react to something like that? Do you think it might justify being just a little bit messed up afterward?"

Meredith was quiet for a few moments. She was glad she'd stopped to listen. "I'm sorry. I had no idea. I never really thought too much about what he did over there."

"Well, that's what he did. He saved a lot of lives...He's seen stuff that makes watching a serial killer's execution look like.... like buying a sandwich. Just think about what that did to you when you saw that, and how you felt afterward." Her intense gaze had Meredith looking away out of discomfort. "He's a real hero, Mer. He would have gone back over there again if they hadn't discharged him."

Cristina paused. This felt like a tirade, but damn, she was pissed. It was bad enough that she had to break up with him, but to hear people judge him without knowing the facts was just unbearable. "When I met him in the ER that first time he was so idealistic, so ready to sacrifice for his country. When he came back after his last tour, he was a wreck. He told me what happened to him, to his unit, and I honestly couldn't understand how he got through the day, much less took over as head of a department..." She had thought she was out of tears, but a few more managed to make an appearance. "He's the most incredible man I've ever known, and it just kills me that we can't be together. I still can't get my mind around it."

"You're in love with him." It sounded almost like an accusation when Meredith said it. "You're in love with Owen Hunt."

Cristina didn't deny it. She said nothing, but her eyes gave her away.

Meredith was silent while she digested all of this new information. Owen's war experiences, Cristina's feelings for him... this definitely shed a different light on things. "Well, then, isn't there anything that can be done? I mean, there's treatment for this kind of thing, isn't there?"

"There is." Cristina took a breath and tried to settle herself. She put her head back on the pillow and stared at the ceiling. The confrontational aspect of this conversation was over, and she was beginning to feel more centered. "I researched it a while back and I asked him to get some help. He wasn't ready, and I didn't push... He seems to think that what happened to him was nothing compared to what happened to a lot of other guys - you know, physical injuries. There's this stigma in the military around PTSD, and these army types tend to just close themselves off and deny they have a problem..."

"Well, he can't deny he has a problem now, can he? I mean, he's got to see he can't go on this way."

"I'm hoping the same thing. Maybe this whole incident won't be in vain if it gets him to look for help. That would at least give me something...."

Meredith smiled. "You think I should give him Dr. Wyatt's card?"

Cristina snorted. "Her? You hated her. And I told her she was a terrible shrink."

"But she wasn't," Mer corrected. "I just wasn't ready to hear what she had to say, at least not at first. But she was right about most everything in the end." Meredith smiled again and shook her head. "She's a lot tougher than she looks. She will SO kick his ass!"

"That sounds like a plan, then...." Cristina smiled back, and wiped the last tear from her face. "Now, show me that ring."