Day 5
Cristina sat silently in the locker room, trying to remember what her scrubs used to feel like against her skin.
She was numb. She couldn't feel anything the same anymore.
Her eyes glanced up at the interns, the people she worked with surrounding her and she made a face, "What the hell are you people looking at?" She muttered angrily, rising from the bench.
"Cristina, you shouldn't be here." Meredith was the first to speak. "You need to take some time off."
Cristina shook her head, anger already burning through her for the oncoming confrontation, "I don't need anything off. Time of is for weaklings. For people who care. I don't care."
She felt the bile rising in the back of her throat as she uttered the words, but she shoved it back down along with the emotion and the pain, focusing on the task at hand.
She had to work.
"Cristina, I would've taken time..." Izzie began, but was interrupted by George's elbow in her side.
"Shut it." George hissed at her.
The opening and closing of the locker room door brought their attention away from her and she let out a long sigh, looking from behind Meredith to Bailey, who's face was obviously tear streaked and she fell behind her co-workers again, "Grey, you're with Dr. Montgomery, Karev with Sloane, Izzie, you're in the pit, O'Malley, scut."
Her voice was uncharacteristically soft, her words hallowed with sadness and the interns departed quietly, not questioning their assignments, not voicing the implied emotion stirred within her.
"Dr. Bailey, what's my assignment?" Cristina questioned her, unable to look her in the eye.
"Cristina, what are you doing here?" She shook her head, her clipboard dropping to her side.
"I'm here to work, Dr. Bailey. I'm an intern. It's what I'm supposed to do. Are there any cool surgeries today? Maybe something neuro, because I'm really worn out on cardio."
Bailey stood amazed in front of this girl as she rambled off words at fifty miles a minute, knowing that she didn't mean any of them. "Cristina. You need to go home. You need to go home and take time off." She spoke slowly, setting her hand on her arm, but Cristina jerked away.
"I don't need to go home. I need to work." She protested, "Don't tell me what I need, I know what I need. I need to work."
Bailey frowned, and felt the tears sting the corners of her eyes as she knew exactly what it was that Cristina needed.
She needed Burke.
But Burke was gone, and he'd left this poor girl in his aftermath. This girl that had no heart, no soul, and no emotion, and he gave her those things.
Then he left her.
"Cristina Yang, you will not work until I say you can, and I think you'll find that Dr. Webber will agree with me." She puckered her lips, putting on a fake and very transparent display of anger, "You will go home, and you will stay home."
Bailey yanked open the door to the locker room, finding her interns standing there, "Grey! Take Yang home, now. And stay with her for the love of God."
Meredith shuffled back into the room and grabbed Cristina's arm, "You heard her, Cristina...we have to go home."
"Why do I have to go home? I'm perfectly fine to work!" Cristina protested, angrily, nearly screaming at Bailey. "Just let me fucking work! Just let me do my fucking job!"
Webber appeared in the doorway of the locker room, Dr. Shepherd behind him and Webber pushed through, "Dr. Yang. Leave my hospital or I'll put you on suspension and you won't work for a month."
Cristina froze under his gaze, her mouth open in protest and she shook her head, "You people are pathetic." She muttered, yanking open her locker and pulling her bag from it.
She stalked past the interns, the attendings, the nurses all looking at her, pity in their eyes and she only grew more livid.
She heard the whispers, the rumors that rang so eerily close the truth that it hurt.
'Have you heard that she hasn't shed a tear since he died?'
'She's cold anyway. If she cried it'd probably be icecicles.'
'I heard that Shepherd prescribed the wrong antibiotic, something that made his heart muscle weaker or something. Whatever it was, I don't see how she could hang out with his girlfriend.'
'Cristina Yang is a robot'
Cristina came to a halt to glare at the eyes following her every move, her airway constricted, and she choked out, "Can't you people just mind your own fucking business? Seriously? There are people in this hospital that are sick...that are dying! Can't you fucking pay attention to them!"
Meredith grabbed her arm, "Cristina." She spoke in a hushed tone, "We can go back to my place."
"No, I'm going back to my apartment." The words burned her lips.
Her apartment.
It wasn't theirs anymore. Nothing would be theirs anymore. Their time had run out.
And it was time for her to face reality.