Owen jumped in his car and turned over the engine. It had been a long day in the pit. Lots of trauma cases, long difficult surgeries and a mountain of charting. Owen just wanted to get home, eat and curl up on the couch with his wife. Cristina had been off today and it felt strange not to have seen her around the hospital. He supposed he would have to get used to it once she went on maternity leave. He smiled to himself, as he pulled out of the parking lot, in 6 months time he would have 2 favourite people to curl up with each night.
Owen walked up the steps into the firehouse. Half way up he heard the sound of crying. Picking up the pace he took the remaining stairs 2 at a time, worried about what had happened.
"Cristina!" he called out urgently, following the sound into the kitchen. It was there he spotted his wife- crumpled in a heap on the floor in front of the oven. With his heart in his mouth he asked "what's wrong? What happened?"
Pushing her black curls off her face, she tilted her head up to meet her husbands worried gaze, her brown eyes full of tears and sobbed.
"I wanted to make dinner for you...I went to the store...bought a chicken...put it in the oven...and forgot to turn it on!" as the last words in the sentence came out she began to cry and her tiny body heaved with gut wrenching tears.
Owen laughed out loud, shaking his head at the drama over a chicken. He walked over to her and sat down on the floor next to her. Lifting her up to a sitting position, with a smile on his face, he said "don't worry about it, I will order us a pizza or Thai whatever you want ok?"
The smile on her husband's face was like a red rag to a bull. Sucking in her breath, she narrowed her eyes, clenched her fists and boomed "it is NOT ok! why are you laughing? You think it's funny that I can't get a simple thing like flicking a switch right?"
Owen sat still, wiped the smile off his face and just let his wife rant. He was getting used to the mood swings and through trial and error was finding the best way to ride them out was not to fight back. One of the by products of cristina's pregnancy he could not say he was enjoying! Her growing bump, her increased sex drive for sure! But the emotional roller coaster not so much.
"cristina.." Owen soothed gently and rubbed her back.
His touch just inflamed her more. Shrugging him off she dragged herself to her feet. She stood over him jabbing her finger to punctuate her words.
"you don't get it, do you? What will happen when the baby is hungry and you are not here? What then? Babies can't eat cereal out of the box Owen!"
She spat his name out like it offend her. Owen sighed, his vision of a peaceful night on the couch with his wife ebbing away. Getting up on to his feet and he began to gently inch towards his wife, with his arms outstretched. He tried again. "Cristina." he whispered.
As she saw him walking towards her, the anger turned into sadness. She was going to disappoint him, she would not be the mother that he or their child deserved.
Just as Owen approached her to take her in his arms. She pushed both hands hard against his chest and shoved him backwards. The force of the gesture took him by surprise and he ricocheted off the counter top, bumping his elbow.
"ouch! What the...!" Owen rubbed his elbow and looked at his wife completely confused.
"this is all your fault. You and your hot sex getting me pregnant. You and your romantic lines telling me I could be a good mother." howled Cristina the tears falling down her cheeks once again.
"you telling me you would stay through it all and now look at me! Look at what you have done to me! I did not give you permission to do this! Now you are going to leave me because I can't switch on an oven!" not waiting for an answer Cristina ran in to the bathroom, slammed the door, climbed into the bathtub and cried her heart out.
Owen busied himself in the kitchen for 10 minutes getting some dinner ready on a tray.
Perching the tray on his forearm, he rapped on the bathroom door. "Cristina, I'm coming in."
Opening the door he spied his wife lying in the empty bath. He couldn't help but grin at the sight. Her eyes were all puffy, she was pouting and twisting a curl between her thumb and finger. She looked like a little girl in a sulk over a broken toy.
Setting the tray on the tiled floor, he Climbed into the tub behind her, he sat down and positioned her so her back was leaning against his chest. He squeezed her between his thighs and she responded by snuggling back against him. Running his hands over their baby bump she interlaced her fingers with his.
"I'm sorry. It's the hormones," cristina said contritely.
"I know." Owen dropped a kiss on her curls. "you need to stop worrying, it's not good for the baby." Cristina nodded slowly.
"I just don't want you to be disappointed in me. I love how you have always believed that I could be excellent even when I didn't but now I feel like this is something that I am going to fail at." She could feel the tears at the back of her eyes, she wiped her hand across her face and pulled Owen's arms around her more tightly.
"listen to me" Owen spoke softly into her ear. "we are a partnership. We are doing this together. I will not let you fail, just like you won't let me. We are going to figure this all out. I am not going anywhere Cristina. You and our baby are the most important people in my life."
Feeling the tension drain from her body, Cristina turned her head over her shoulder and caught Owen's lips in a soft kiss. Resting her cheek on his chest she mumbled "I love you."
"I love you too, more than yesterday but less than tomorrow." Owen rested his chin on the top of her head and for a few minutes they sat in the bathtub just enjoying being with each other.
When cristina shuffled to change position, owen Reached over the side of the bath down to the tray and handed Her the box of cereal.
"let's have dinner. I'm starving. I don't really like chicken anyway!" they both laughed and plunged their hands into the box of their favourite heart happy cereal.