Day One

Burke brushed his lips across Cristina's forehead as he pulled the sheets that she'd kicked off of her unclothed body during what little sleep she did get, and she stirred slightly under his lips, a smile turning up the corners of her mouth.

"Good morning." He mumbled, kissing her again, trying to make up for time lost.

"Is it morning already?" She mumbled, her voice still thick with sleep and her eyes came to focus on him.

"It is."

Her heart swelled deep within her chest as she studied his face and found the cold and uncaring glare that she'd nearly grown accustomed to in the past days were gone, and his loving eyes that she'd accustomed herself to had returned. "Keep talking." She finally said to him, her fingers tracing down his cheek and over his lips.

"Keep talking?" He raised an eyebrow and kissed her fingertips.

"That's what I said."

"Why do you want me to keep talking?" He lowered himself next to her on the bed and pulled her into his arms.

"I could give you the mushy reasons why, or you could just accept that I want you to talk to me, and then talk."

"And if I asked for the mushy reasons?" He trailed his hand painfully down her side, her body responding unwillingly to his touch.

"I'd say that I thought you knew me better than that." She put her hand over his, forcing it to come to a halt, and she relaxed a little.

"Thought I'd try." He shrugged.

"What are we doing today?"

"You have the next 8 days off. Do we really need to do anything?" He lowered his voice and began to move his hand up and down her curves once more, enjoying the response he could make her elicit with such little effort.

"I'm a workaholic with a God complex. Lazing in bed and around the house is not my forte." She reminded him, shivering slightly as his hand snaked his way over her hip and down the top of her thigh.

"Who said we were lazing in bed?" A familiar wicked grin spread over his face and she sat up in the bed pushing his hand away, "We're not doing that all day either."

He pulled her back down to him and kissed her, his hand firm on the back of her neck as he fought to commit the feel of her lips against his that had faded in the week that he pushed her away.

She broke from the kiss and shook her head lightly as she studied him, then placed a softer kiss in his lips, leaning over him, wishing that he'd continue to push her over that edge where she couldn't resist anymore.

His hands found their way to her waist and he pulled her on top of him, their mouths still locked in a heavy kiss.

"I said we couldn't do this all day." She whispered breathlessly.

"I don't see you fighting it." He contended, as his hands rediscovered her curves, painstakingly working their way to her chest.

"That's beyond the point. You're the strong willed one."

"And you're the stubborn one."

She reached back down and their mouths met again as his hands found her breasts.

The shrill ring of the phone drew their attention away from each other and they let out a collective sigh.

"You get it." She mumbled pulling herself off of him.

"What are you doing?" He asked watching her traipse across their room naked, his eyes unable to pull themselves from her body as he rose from the bed, advancing towards the living room.

"I'm taking a shower."

"A cold one?" He joked as he picked up the phone, "Hello?"

It was Bailey requesting that Cristina forego a day off, 'just for today' to assist on Mr. O'Malley's surgery.

He had requested her.

They couldn't have a whole day together to just enjoy each other without the hospital somehow coming between them.

Secretly he hoped that she would turn down the offer, but he knew Cristina all too well, and he knew that hoping that she would choose to stay home from work when requested to come and scrub in on a surgery was fairly unreasonable.

Instead, he gathered her scrubs and the pink undershirt that she favored and laid them out across the bed, then prepared her a travel mug with fresh coffee in it.

When she emerged from the bathroom and found her scrubs laid on the bed, she bit her lip, trying to refrain from smiling. The hospital had come through again, reprieving her from a painful day of talking and sharing feelings regarding what had happened as of late.

She knew that she could only distract him from the self-disclosure that she'd have to give into at some point for so long.

Cristina pulled the scrubs on and clipped her wet hair back and moved into the living room quietly, almost afraid to say anything.

"Mr. O'Malley is having surgery today. He requested you." Burke held out a mug of coffee for her.

"Burke, I'm sorry..." Her voice trailed off, "We still have a week, a week together, no matter what the circumstance."

To make up for a week lost, he thought to himself.

"It's okay, Cristina. The hospital called for you. It's not like you called the hospital." He assured her.

She grabbed her keys from the bureau by the door and pulled the door open, "I'll be home as soon as possible."

"I'll be waiting."

He watched as the door closed, wishing that it would open up and she'd say those three little words to him that meant so much. Wishing that he could hear them from her just once.

They still had a week. He told himself, they still had time.