1I have no interest in Grey's Anatomy and my use of the characters is done without consent. No copyright infringement intended.

Catalyst Chapter 14

Dr Bailey looked around the patient's room one more time. She was not in a good mood, and one of her interns was missing. She had given everyone their assignments and now she had to apologize to Dr. Burke because Cristina, whom she was to assign to him, could not be found.

"What do you mean she's missing Dr. Bailey?" He tried to keep the concern out of his voice but inside he was a little bit panicked.

"I don't know Dr. Burke, Cristina is not tardy, she's rarely ever late. I sent Grey to look for her."

"Don't worry Dr. Bailey, maybe she's just caught in traffic. It's not that urgent. We could wait a few minutes."

Bailey was surprised, "Cristina, Caught in traffic, The girl is here before anyone else every morning, she practically lives here. Something's wrong, it's not like her."

Bailey's innocent comments made him more concerned and he began to wonder if something might have happened to her after she left him. He thought it might be possible that she had met in an accident. The more he thought about it, the more worried he became but he had to remain calm and not appear overly concerned. As he stood there talking to Bailey, Meredith came back and informed them that Cristina had just arrived and was in the locker room changing her clothes.

"Well did she say why she's late." Bailey asked

Meredith looked confused "I don't know Dr Bailey, she seems ok to me, but when I asked she mumbled something about conserving water."

Bailey was miffed, " Conserving water, she chose this morning to become environmentally friendly."

Bailey was too angry to notice the smile that suddenly appeared on Burke's face and he walked away leaving the two women still trying to figure out what Cristina really meant.

She rushed in the OR almost out of breath and although he was wearing a surgical mask, something tells her that he was smiling. She had no way of knowing just how happy he was to see her. The morning had started off badly but now that she was there, everything was falling into place.

He told her to be prepared because the surgery was going to be long and difficult but she didn't understand just how difficult it would be until four hours later when they finally closed the patient's chest.

He was right. The surgery was long and difficult and twice they almost lost the patient, but he eventually pulled through and all the other doctors and nurses in the OR commented on Burke's

diligence and patience in his effort to save the patient's life. Cristina marvelled at his skill and as they went to scrub out she tried to talk to him but other doctors came in the room and she could say was "good job, Dr. Burke."

His only comment was "Thank you Dr Yang, " before washing his hands and leaving the room. She didn't see him again for the rest of the day, but she had other things on her mind. Meredith had called her several times during the night and because she was at Burke's and her phone was off, she didn't notice. Now she had to face her for lunch and she wasn't sure what to say to her.

When she walked in the cafeteria Alex was seated at their usual table but Meredith, Izzie and George were missing. She got her lunch and went to sit with Alex who took one look at her and said "Rough night Yang? You look tired"

"Leave me alone evil spawn. I'm not in a good mood."

"Then you're yourself then, I've never known you to be in a good mood."

"Shut up Alex or I'll stick this fork into you."

"Is it just me or do you just hate all men?"

"Leave her alone Alex." Meredith's voice came from behind her. Sitting down at the table Meredith turned to Alex, "Alex can you leave us for a few minutes. I want to talk to Cristina alone."

"Why You two had a lover's quarrel and now you wanna make up? I'm done here anyway, so see you later."

Alex left the table and Meredith sat down next to Cristina. "Dr. Bailey is mad at you."

Cristina hanged her head, "I already apologized to Bailey."

"How about to me?' Meredith asked " I left you three messages last night and you never called me back; then this morning you showed up for work with some lousy explanation about conserving water. What's going on with you, Cristina?"

"Are you my mother now?" Cristina asked annoyed.

"I'm your friend, and you've been very secretive lately, if you're in any kind of trouble I'd like to help."

"I'm not in any trouble Meredith, I went out last night and when I got back it was too late to phone you."

"Since when did lateness ever stop you from phoning me?"

"Maybe I've developed a conscience."

"Maybe you've developed a secret." Meredith countered.

Cristina didn't answer and after a while Meredith told her, "I'm going to find out you know."

"Find out what"

"Whom you're sleeping with."

"I'm not sleeping with anyone."

"No, is that why your lips look like you just got an injection of collagen?"

Cristina's hand instinctively went to her lips causing Meredith to laugh, " so you are sleeping with someone. Is it serious?"

Cristina considered the question for a moment, "I think it's serious, at least on his part, I don't know what to do."

"Well do you love him?"

"What's love got to do with it" She laughed nervously and then she decided to trust Meredith just a little but intentionally misled her so that she couldn't guess who it was. He is someone with a lot of authority, someone I can't name.

"Do I know him?" Meredith asked quietly.

"No, Meredith, this is not a McDreamy situation" Cristina answered, "of course you don't know him" and she surprised herself at how easy it was for her to lie if it meant protecting him.

"Well at least you're not seeing anyone from the hospital, especially if he is in a position of power . . . It hasn't been easy for Derek and me. It's not easy sneaking around even in your own house . . . It gets tiring."

"Do you love Derek?"

"Of course I love him, question is, am I in love with him?"

"Well are you?"

"I wish I knew the answer to that. Question, but I don't . . . Anyway, this is about you . . . and your mystery man, He isn't an axe murderer or anything like that, is he?"

"You, whose favourite recreational pastime is to pick up boys at joe's, . . . if you haven't picked up an axe murderer yet, why would I?"

Meredith' stared at Cristina with a look of horror on her face, "that was so uncalled for . . . Sometimes Cristina, it's the good girl that gets the bad guy."

"And sometimes," Cristina responded, "the good girl gets the guy."

"So he is the guy! ...You're in love with him."

"What? Of course not, he's just . . . " She broke of in mid sentence, Meredith's question caught her by surprise. She had never though about her feelings for him, never thought that it could possibly be love. She couldn't have fallen in love with him. She didn't fall in love. She had sex and for him she cared more than she had with anyone else, but it couldn't possibly be love. The more she tried to rationalize her feelings to herself, the more it became obvious to her. She was in love with him.

Without saying a word Meredith sat quietly watching her. Observing the different emotions as passed quickly across her friend's face, and she knew the exact moment that Cristina realized that she was in fact in love with her mystery man.

They looked at each other and all Cristina could say was "I'm screwed!"

The hour passed and they barely touched their lunches, but the afternoon wasn't wasted for both left knowing a little bit more about the other, and in essence solidifying their friendship.

The afternoon drifted by slowly. She hadn't seen Burke since the surgery that morning and wasn't sure if she wanted to see him again that day. Her realization at lunch only served to make her more anxious. She spent the rest of the afternoon doing what she considered babysitting one of Shepherd's young patient. The girl had been admitted to the hospital because she had attempted to climb out of her second floor bedroom window, after being grounded by her parents. She slipped and fell hitting her head on a rock in the garden below. The girl suffered some brain damage and was closely observed to ensure that her condition didn't worsen. She had completed that task and was on a short break when she observed him standing at the nurses station talking to Bailey. She tried to avoid him by turning in the opposite direction but he had seen her and as soon as Bailey left he came after her.

He caught up with her just as she was about to enter the on call room and after looking around to make sure that no one had seen them, he entered the room and locked the door. She was sitting on the bed and as he got closer she got up and started to pace around. He reached out and pulled her into his arms. She didn't resist, didn't feel like fighting him. For what seemed like an eternity he just held her and she had a strange feeling that he knew how she felt about him. But how could he she thought, when she had only found out herself. She could feel him take a deep breath and then he said "You gave me a scare this morning."

"How so?"

"You were late for work and no one seems to know where you were . . . I thought maybe you'd had an accident."

"That scared you?" She asked quietly, surprised that he was so worried about her.

He tilted her chin so that she could see his face, "yes," he answered "that scared me."

She looked away but he continued holding her. "I had to go home for a change of clothes and then on my way back there was an accident and traffic was tied up for a long time; That's why I was late."

He didn't say anything but she heard his quick intake of breath and felt his arms tightened around her. "Stay with me tonight?"

"I can't. I'm on call tonight." For the first time she felt a small conflict between her work and her personal life, and again surprised herself by secretly wishing that she could pass off her duties to someone else.

"We'll miss you."

"We?" She asked curiously.

"Hmm, me and my big feet."

Without thinking she laughed out loud and to stop her, he quickly placed his hand over her mouth, then when she quieted down, he replaced his hand with his lips. The kiss was gentle and light and she responded in kind. Then reluctantly, knowing that they both had to get back to work he ended it, but he couldn't bring himself to let her go so easily, so he continued to hold her. And then without any warning he knew the moment was right and so he told her. "Cristina"

"Hmm."

"I love you."

He felt the shiver as it cursed through her body. It scared her that much to hear those words. But he knew it was the right time to tell her. Just as much as he knew that it was time to leave her alone to contemplate what she just heard. And so he kissed her again and quietly left the room.