The Importance Of Trust
Chapter 11
"It's Teddy again," Cristina told Owen, looking down at her pager.
Still in the on-call room, Cristina and Owen had fallen into their previous, but long-forgotten routine of lying in bed and just starring at each other.
"This isn't like you at all. Am I going to get in trouble for not forcing you answer her page?"
Cristina smiled, "No."
"Not that I don't enjoy this," Owen motioned the small air space between the two of them. "But I am worried about you."
"Don't be," Cristina saw Owen's eyebrows went down in disapproval. "I just don't feel like dealing with Teddy or surgery right now."
"Hence the morgue."
"Exactly."
"Cristina," Owen begged.
"But see, you got me out of the morgue and miracles upon miracles, got me talking." Cristina softly placed her hand on his check. "No reason to worry."
"If there is no reason to worry, why don't you go up a couple more flights of stairs to the surgery floors, show your face, and at least hang out with your friends that aren't operating."
"Are you trying to get rid of me?" Cristina lightly snapped at him.
"Yes," Owen said little too quickly. Disapproval and annoyance appeared on Cristina's face and she moved from lying on the bed to sitting on it. "Nooo," Owen hurried to sit up next to her and put his hands around her to prevent her from moving any more. He kissed her check. "I just don't want you hiding out here-"
"Hiding out?" Cristina interjected, appalled. "I am not hiding out here."
Owen could barely get in a "Cristina," as she continued.
"Plus you are one of my non-surgery-operating friends." Owen nodded, said nothing, and started to rub her arm with his thumb. "I am hiding out here," Cristina finally admitted.
"I bet Alex could use some company." He paused, letting the idea sink in. "I am not trying to get rid of you, I will come with you if you want me too."
"Fine." Cristina rose from the bed and walked to the door. Owen followed her and put his hand on top of her hand that was moving the handle. "Hey! I thought you wanted me to leave."
"Kiss?" Owen offered.
Cristina smiled and put her arms around his neck, letting him lean in. The kiss wasn't that long, but it was long enough for Owen to put his arms all the way around her and make his point.
"Goodbye," Cristina said once his lips left hers. With Owen's arms still around her, she took each arm off of her with attention to one arm at a time, much like a robot.
"You don't want me to come with you?"
"Nope." Cristina boldly told him and opened the door. "Resident bonding, remember?"
"Right…" Owen watched her leave, feeling a mixed emotion: something between pride and sadness.
Back in his office, Owen went back to trying to concentrate on paperwork and post-opts. Much like before, a thousand questions and worried thoughts passed through his head. The most frequent one being:
Maybe I should have stayed with her in the on-call room. Maybe she wasn't ready to come out yet.
And after that:
Harper-Avery Award winner? No wonder she was so depressed during the merger. Should she be an Attending? Is that something she could handle?
Owen was so deep in thought that the knock on the door didn't even register in his mind.
"Owen?" Teddy voice was filled with worried at his non-response time. Owen looked at her for a spilt second and then looked back at his loads of paperwork. "Hey," she repeated.
"Hi," Owen said, already questioning her motives. He again tried to put his mind to work on post-opts and discharge papers, but her presence wasn't helping. Annoyed, Owen said, "Can I help you with something?"
"Um," Teddy started, straightening up. "Yeah. I'm looking for Cristina. I have a case that I think would interest her and she's not answering her page."
Owen expected her answer. He quickly responded, "Then take the hint."
"But with Avery out today, I was hoping to have her assistance."
Owen stood up from his desk and grabbed his doctor's coat, as if to hint to Teddy that the conversation needed to end. "There are other residents besides Avery and Yang. You have to get used to not getting what you want and accepting it. Stop fighting everything."
"Yang?"
"Yes, Dr. Yang. That is what Attendings should call Residents when speaking about them in a professional manner. Your professional relationship with Dr. Yang is none of my business-"
Shocked, Teddy said over him with slit eyes. "None of your business? Are you freakin' kidding me?"
He turned on her. "Are you freakin' kidding me?" Owen angrily put his lab coat on and almost violently grabbed his clipboard from his desk.
"Excuse me?" Teddy asked, appalled.
"If Yang is not answering her page then deal with it. Don't come to me, her boyfriend, asking where she is." Owen paused, debating whether to go on. "We both know that's not why you're here." Owen looked at her condescendingly. "You're here because you want some reassurance or some insight into what happened at lunch today."
"Well, as her Attending, don't you think -"
"If you have an issue with what happened then you need to bring it up with the Chief. Don't come to me hoping to dig up some dirt."
Teddy couldn't believe what she was hearing from her supposed best friend's mouth. "Dirt! Never! I am just concerned!"
"Well, share your concerns with someone else." He walked out of his office and motioned to her to do the same so he could lock his door. "Grow the hell up, Altman."
Teddy watched his back move further and further down the hall. "Altman?"
Her shock at Owen's behavior made Teddy unable to move for many seconds. When her feet did finally move, she moved back – instead of forward - leaning against the wall, realizing now that something huge had permanently broken between the two of them. There was no point in even trying to savage whatever they could have had back.
When Teddy regained her composure, she made her way to the nurses' station, hoping to find her patient's chart and a resident or two to assist her.
The first thing Teddy heard when she rounded as hospital corner to pick up patients' charts at the nurses station was Cristina's laugh.
"Lexie tried to play the resident-stripper?" Meredith continued the conversation with Cristina, Alex, and Owen. "Doesn't she know that the only resident who can even attempt to do that is Cristina?"
Cristina was sitting on the edge of the nurses' desk with Owen behind her, hands around her waist, laughing into her hair.
"Hey, in Lexie's defense," started Alex. "It wasn't that bad – kind of sexy in a way – and it never really worked for Cristina either."
"Hey! My failed attempt was entirely not my fault. At least I can undress without my coat knocking over a lamp."
Cristina's comment finally shut Alex up. The rest of them still roared with laughter. Owen kissed Cristina check in an attempt to stop laughing, but that didn't work either.
What did work, however, was Teddy approaching the desk – an outsider to their inside joke.
"Yang, can you prep 2219 for me? We head into the O.R. in two hours." Teddy handed Cristina the chart and typed the new patient information into the computer.
Cristina hesitated. She felt better, sure, but anything could happen and anything could be said during a long procedure. She looked to Owen for approval, but all he did was raise his eyebrows at her.
"Okay," responded Cristina and she bounced off the nurses' station desk – out of Owen's arms. With a kiss on Owen's check as a departing goodbye, she was about to walk away when she heard:
"Oh. My. God." Teddy exclaimed. Cristina turned around to see her Ex-boyfriend walking towards the nurses' station.
"Seriously?" Cristina exclaimed – the smile leaving her faced.
Both Meredith and Alex both smirked as Teddy continued, "That's Colin Marlow."
"I thought you didn't care about big-name surgeons," Cristina quickly whispered to her before Colin reached them.
"Hello." Colin gave Cristina a smile. Owen noticed Colin only had eyes for Cristina as he leaned on the edge of the nurses' station, his fingers centimeters away from Cristina's left arm, flaunting his ass to on-lookers.
Not knowing what to do, Cristina avoided his eyes as she opened her patient chart to study it.
"You're Cristina Yang, right?" Colin asked her innocently. Finally, she lifted her eyes to his and met them for the first time in over a year. Once their eyes met, and locked, both of them couldn't move.
"Hi," Cristina finally said.
"Hi," Colin said slyly. Disapproval was already in her eyes and Colin tried to regain his composure. "I heard about the hospital shooting. I am glad to see that everyone made it out okay."
"Not everyone did." Cristina said quietly with meaning in her eyes. "Is that why you're here?"
"No," Colin told her, before pulling out a small package with a medical journal on top of it from his briefcase and putting them in front of her. "Your picture on the cover doesn't do you justice."
"Wipe that smirk off your face." Cristina took the package and the magazine without looking at them "What picture?"
"I received an advanced copy. I wanted to deliver it myself."
Cristina slowly looked down at the medical journal's cover. It read:
Scandal in Seattle: Dr. Preston Burke Stripped of Harper Avery
"What the hell?"
Colin took the journal from her and placed it upside down on top of her patient's chart so that no one else could read it, and nagged, "Package first, package first."
"Okay! Okay!
The small, heavy, orange package had thick black writing on it that read:
Dr. Cristina Yang H. Avery Association
"The youngest recipient ever," Colin said politely as Cristina turned the package over so that nobody could read the writing. "You deserve it."
Cristina's mind went blank.
"How-" Cristina started.
"I sometimes work for his Association – as a two-time winner myself. I asked to handle your case after I heard what happened."
"When-"
"You have many people on your side. Don't ever take that for granted."
Cristina stood there speechless, just starring at him, waiting for him to say something inappropriate.
After realizing she wasn't going to respond, he continued to hold her eyes as a crowd of on-lookers began to form. Colin then said, "Burke came to see me."
Disbelief joined the shock on Cristina's face. "What?"
Colin brought his hand to her shoulder and as he tucked a lose curl behind Cristina's ear, he said, "He's sorry. He wanted me to tell you that."
"Cristina," Owen injected. "What - ?"
Cristina brought her hand to Colin's to remove it from her hair.
Before she could rack up the nerve to speak, Colin continued. "He told me what happened. It really is a quite amazing tale and frankly, it didn't surprise me at all." He paused and said in a different tone. "I didn't understand it before, but now…But now I understand, and I commend you for it."
"Understand what?" Cristina asked in confusion, still starring at her package.
"I thought you were compromising yourself for his ego," Colin said quietly to Cristina, aware of the on-lookers now. "And I guess you were a little bit. But now – now I know you were doing it to boost your own career as well." Colin searched Cristina face and found a slight smile on it somewhere. "I'm glad Cristina Yang didn't disappear after all."
A visible smile now appeared on Cristina's face now, her hands playing with the edge of the package.
"So," Colin offered his hand to Cristina, who reluctantly took it. "Congratulations."
"Thank you," Cristina said, not removing her hand from his.
"Anytime, lovely," Colin raised her hand to his lips to kiss it for a brief, polite moment. "Anything, Anytime," he said and let go of her hand.
Colin smiled one last time before turning and walking away.
Teddy was the first to speak, "You know Colin Marlow?"
Owen then said, "What was that, exactly?"
Cristina quietly handed Owen the orange package to answer his question as Meredith said, "Go after him."
"What? No!"
"You're going to regret it," Alex added.
Meredith pushed her a little. "Come on, he was totally polite and appropriate. The least you can do is say 'thank you.'"
"I said 'thank-you,'" Cristina argued.
"Go, Yang," Alex said in his usual ass-jerk tone.
A moment went by in silence and Cristina tried to calm her mind in order to think straight. She watched his black coat move further and further away…
"Colin!" She yelled after him and ran from the nurses' station. Colin turned around, dropped his briefcase and opened his arms.
Once she reached him, Colin pulled her into a hug. His arms encircling her back so tight that she could not escape. He whispered into her hair, "I missed you, young lady."
But once he finally released her, Cristina put her hand on his arm, squeezed it and said, "Thank you," once more.
Unable to hear anything, Teddy eyebrows rose as she looked at both Meredith and Owen. "I guess they know each other."
Owen was left with a blank expression on his face. He flipped the package over and opened it. Only then did a huge smile appear on his face.
A gold plaque mounted on maple wood the size of a small paperback novel read:
Harper Avery Award of Excellence
Cardiothoracic Surgery
Dr. Cristina Anne Yang
2008