Chapter 2

I have no interest in Grey's Anatomy and my use of the characters is done without consent. No copyright infringement intended.

She awoke feeling disoriented and dazed. Her head hurt so badly she felt as if someone was beating drums in her head. She felt strange, her bed felt strange, and her surrounding . . . She jumped up suddenly, this was not her bed, it was not her apartment either. She looked around frantically. This was definitely not her apartment. The place looked sterile. Everything seemed to have a place and everything was in its place. The room was sparsely furnished with furniture that was simple but seemed to be expensive. It was spotless, not a very warm place but certainly not cold either. She looked at the other side of the bed, there was a pillow but no indentation and that side of the bed was still neatly made. She let out a sigh of relief, whomever the apartment belonged to, did not spend the night in the same bed as she. One thing was certain this was not a woman's apartment. The place definitely lacked the feminine touch. Where am I she thought to herself, and how did I get here? She ran her fingers through her hair and noticed that she was wearing a shirt which was much too big for her. What happened to my clothes? Whose shirt am I wearing? All questions she asked herself without any answers Trying hard to remember where she was and how she got there, her mind drifted back to the night before and gradually her memory began to return.

She remembers leaving the mixer to find Meredith at the bar. She remembers drinking more than she should and getting sick afterwards. She remembers trying to find her bike in the parking lot. She remembers being assisted to a car by someone. She still remembers the scent of him. He smelled good, and he promised to take her home. She remembers throwing up and being held by arms that were so strong. She remembers the soothing voice of the stranger asking where she lived and if he could give her a ride. She remembers someone gently washing her face and coaxing her to drink coffee, and then . . . oblivion

That was the last thing she remembered, until waking up a few minutes ago in this strange bed. She tried to get up but she was still very groggy. Somewhere, someone was making freshly brewed coffee and the smell permeated the room. She was trying again to get out of bed when he entered the room. She blinked and rubbed her eyes, blinked again, not believing what she was seeing. He stood at the door holding two steaming cups of coffee in his hands. Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, he appeared much younger, less intimidating. As he entered the room, she sank back further into the pillows as if to be as far away from him as possible.

"So you're awake?" he asked her sarcastically

At the sound of his voice she quickly pulled the sheets up about her. "Where am I?" She was trying desperately to remember.

"Good question Dr. Yang. Where do you think you are?"

"Somewhere I'm not supposed to be." She said under her breath but he heard her.

"Well to answer your first question, you're at my home."

"How did I get here?"

He seemed surprised by her question. "You don't remember?"

"I was sick, you saw me in the parking lot and said you would take me home. This is not my home."

"I said that I would take you home. I didn't say whose home. Besides I don't know where you live."

"You could have asked me."

He handed her a cup of coffee, "Here, drink this, it will help."

"I don't want your coffee. I want to go home."

"There's the door." He indicated the direction to the door with his hand.

She started to leave the bed only to remember she was wearing his shirt. " Where are my clothes?"

"Right now they're in the dryer."

"And this?" she indicated the shirt. "How did I get into this?"

"How do you think you got into it? I changed your clothes." He noticed the look of alarm on her face. "Come on Dr. Yang, don't be alarmed, I'm a doctor, remember, I see naked bodies every day."

"I don't care how many naked bodies you see. You had no right to undress me."

"You had no right vomiting in my car either but you did, and on me and on yourself. You may have been too drunk to notice how awful that smell was but I wasn't."

"You should have left me in the parking lot." She was embarrassed by his comments. She hated vomit and could only imagine how he felt.

"I should have, but I took an oath once. First do no harm."

"Well, I'm not your patient."

"I didn't think of you as my patient, more like a stray cat who needed to be rescued before it harms itself."

"You should have left my clothes on, who knows what else you did to me."

He was insulted by her comments and anger flashed in those dark eyes.

"Dr. Yang, I took your clothes off because they were wet, with vomit and they smelled awful. I was not going to let you sleep in my bed like that. As for what else I did to you, if I did anything other than take care of you last night, you would know. Trust me on that."

She looked away from him, thinking about what he said. For some reason she believed him. He didn't seem the type who would take advantage of a woman.

"If I was incapable of telling you where I lived you could have checked with the hospital."

Dr. Burke looked at her and shook his head "I am sure the chief of surgery would be very interested in knowing that one of his newest interns was found in the hospital parking lot drunk the night before she is supposed to start working."

She became very quiet, the magnitude of her predicament finally sinking in. She realized that he was right and that she should be thanking him instead, but she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of acknowledging that he was right.

"I wasn't drunk. I just didn't eat anything all day yesterday and . . . "

"Save your excuses Dr. Yang, there's nothing you can say that can justify your actions last night. For someone who said she didn't eat anything all day, you certainly had a lot in you to regurgitate."

Cristina was on the verge of crying but she was determined not to get emotional in front of him. "Look. I'm sorry I ruined your night. I'm sure your girlfriend isn't happy about it."

"She is not my girlfriend." His reaction surprised her, she assumed that the woman he was with the night before was his girlfriend. She didn't see any rings so she was sure they weren't married.

"Too bad, you make a perfect couple."

"How's that?"

"You both look down your nose at people and you each seems to be your own favorite person."

"You are very judgmental, aren't you?" He handed her the coffee. "You are in no position to judge anyone."

"I call them as I see them."

"I wish I could stay here and chat with you but I have to go to work so here are your options. You can tell me where you live so that I can take you home or I can call you a cab."

"You can take me back to the parking lot so I can get my bike."

"I have the keys to that death trap you call a bike and I have no intention of giving it back to you until you're in a position to ride it."

"How did you get my keys?"

"During your drunken stupor you mentioned something about a motor cycle. It wasn't too hard to find. It was the only one in the parking lot . . . I took the keys so you couldn't sneak back there and try to ride it."

She resented the tone he took with her. "I told you I wasn't drunk. And you don't get to tell me what I can or can't do, you're not my boss yet."

"No, I'm not your boss, Dr. Yang, but last night I was your babysitter. Because of you I didn't get much sleep and I'm due at the hospital in thirty minutes. You are due there in three hours. Get dressed, go home and show up for your first day of work on time."

The arrogance in Dr. Burke was at the forefront again and Cristina didn't like it one bit. "Don't talk to me that way. I didn't ask for your help."

"And you're ungrateful too."

He picked up a notepad from his night stand and started to write something on it and handed it to her. " This is the phone number for the cab company and my address. You'll need to tell them where to get you. There is breakfast on the table and there's a lot more coffee. I suggest you eat something and drink as much of that coffee as you can. Down the hall is the bath room. A shower might help."

"You're too kind." She was in awe of his kindness but couldn't help being sarcastic.

He didn't like her attitude. She appeared to have no idea of how dangerous a position she was in the night before. "When you go through the front door just close it, it will lock on it's own. You will not be able to get back inside without a key so be careful."

He started to walk away then turned back to speak to her.

"One more thing. When you get to the hospital, last night never happened, this morning never happened. I don't know you."

"Hmm, but you've seen me naked, Dr. Burke, I spent the night in your bed, I'd say that's knowing me."

"I don't know you but I know your type" He looked at her accusingly. "You are the type who would do anything to succeed. Anything, including paying unnecessary compliments to your future boss just to have an edge over your peers. Unfortunately you picked the wrong boss to kiss up to."

"I wasn't kissing up to you. I don't need to kiss up to anyone to succeed. I didn't get here by kissing anyone's ass."

"This is not med. School anymore, Dr. Yang. All that theory you've learned in school you'll have to put into practice here, on real human beings. Your carelessness can cost someone their life. Being drunk the night before you start work is careless."

His speech finally hit home. She realized how compromising her situation was and decided to swallow her pride. "It won't happen again."

He stared at her with those intense dark eyes before answering. "Make sure that it doesn't." And with that he left.