Cristina was sewing in the donor heart, Jackson was first assist and Teddy was observing her students, thinking to herself, with pride, that they were both excelling in this very difficult operation.
They were at the tricky part of the procedure- connecting the arteries and veins. Any mistake could compromise the blood flow and then this patient, this tiny 7 year old who had fought to survive for 2 years while they waited for a heart, would be back to square one. Cristina was so concentrated, this little girl had to live and she needed the chance to grow into an exceptional woman.
Cristina never really got involved with the patients that ended up on the OR table. They were basically a procedure to her, a series of techniques that she carried out on them. But not this one. This little girl, Anna, had been her patient through her whole pregnancy. Cristina didn't know what it was but she just felt like this little girl was special. She had enjoyed seeing her sweet face on rounds and chatting with her about the baby while she wheeled her to CT or X-ray. She had especially found it sweet when they had met Owen in the hallway and Anna, knowing he was Dr Yang's husband, had gone all giggly and shy when he had bent down talk to her about the doll she carried everywhere. Anna had been excited to see the scan pictures and when Cristina had spare moments she had sat with her and flicked through baby magazines. As much as in the past it would have pained her to admit it, she actually enjoyed this glimpse into her future in the role she had fought so hard against. She was slowly starting to believe that Owen was right- she might just be able to be a great surgeon and a great mother.
"Ouch!." a sharp pain stabbed in her back and across her baby bump. She had been getting these pains for a few days. Damn these Braxton Hicks! She thought as she adjusted her feet to change her posture. Four more weeks of this would be torture!
For the next 10 minutes or so the OR team continued to work away in silence. All that could be heard was the scraping of stainless steel instruments against each other, the steady beep of the monitors and the whirring of the ventilators.
"Damn it! Owww!" the pained cry cut through the surgical soundscape and suddenly all eyes were on the resident who was elbow deep in a chest cavity. Worried eyes darted around the room- had something gone wrong with the procedure? Had she nicked an artery or vein? Cut herself and the precious organ's tissue?
"Are you ok?" asked Jackson, scanning the heart for any signs of damage.
"Fine, just uncomfortable. You try being 8 months pregnant with a huge soldier's baby and not be uncomfortable. Suction!" Cristina hissed back, keeping her voice quiet so as not to involve the whole OR and gallery in the conversation.
Jackson was always amazed by Cristina's focus and even though they were both at the same stage in their training, he always bowed to the invisible line of authority that she had stepped over since saving Derek Shepherd at gunpoint.
Cristina's small, agile hands continued to move around the heart. Her dexterity and ease of movement was hypnotizing to watch. Like watching a talented dancer move to the rhythm of their favourite song, fluidity and grace creating something magical before your very eyes. It drew you in and left you wanting to see more.
Meredith grinned to herself, up in the OR gallery as she looked at her best friend doing what she loved. Meredith wasn't sure if she would ever get the old Cristina back after the shooting but she had and she was just so grateful. She knew who she had to thank for her friend being so happy. They had not always seen eye to eye over Cristina but Meredith had grown to love him as she knew that Owen was perfect for Cristina. He was perfect. She got up, casting one last look of love at her person before she made her way to the ER to tell her best friends' other person how amazing she was.
Just as she was about to ask the surgical technician to take Anna off bypass to test the blood flow, an intense, deep pain pulled hard across her abdomen.
"Owwww..." letting out a slow steady breath she rocked gently forward and back on her heels trying to shake the pain out of her body.
Cristina was determined to finish this repair and see Anna back into recovery. She was so close to the end of her first solo transplant, she only had to tie off the stitches and then Jackson could close.
It's just Braxton Hicks Cristina! You are hardcore! Suck it up! Her head was trying to drill these thoughts into her body as she continued the repair.
"Umm, Jackson, can you..." before she could finish the sentence she felt a gush between her legs and heard the swish of liquid hitting the OR floor. The force of the pressure and the tight pain that engulfed her lower body caused Cristina to drop the surgical instruments to the floor, double over and use the side of the OR table to support her. She took some deep breaths, wishing she had taken the birthing class seriously.
Teddy jumped back as the fluid hit her feet and splashed the bottom of her scrubs.
"What was that?" Teddy exclaimed frantically, grabbing onto Cristina's arm to step out of the puddle.
"My waters just broke. Scissors!" Pushing herself up to full height now the pain had passed, Cristina held out her hands to Bokey waiting to be handed a fresh set of the surgical instruments to continue the final phase of the transplant.
"Someone page Dr Hunt!" Teddy cried, moving forward to the operating table to take over from Cristina. "Let me take over!"
"Why?" Cristina's eyed Teddy like she was crazy. She was finishing her part of the procedure. With a defiant glance in her attending's direction, Cristina purposefully put in the final stitch and cut the sutures.
"Why!" Teddy, watching her resident sew and cut, was totally exasperated. "Cristina, your waters have just broken, you are in active labour!"
Meanwhile….
Owen was completing the ER's budget in his office. He was frustrated. He had wanted to go and watch Cristina perform her first solo transplant but these extra administrative duties were taking over all his time. He hadn't seen the inside of an OR for nearly a week and had barely been on the ER floor to see any patients. He was so proud of his wife. At 8 months pregnant she was still hungry for surgery! He had not yet managed to convince himself that she would take a whole 9 months off from cutting to stay home with the baby, but he was just going to have to take it all one step at a time. Just get to the end of next week until the maternity leave started.
There was a loud wrap at the door.
"Come in." Owen's voice commanded. The door slid open and Meredith Grey stepped over the threshold.
"Thought you might like to know that your brilliant wife has almost finished attaching the donor heart to the vessels and they are getting ready to check the blood flow and arterial pressure. She kicked that transplant's ass!"
Owen laughed. "As if she would do anything but!"
The husband and the best friend. Not an easy combination at the start, they seemed to be pulling in different directions as if fighting for Cristina like children fight for toys. But now an easy truce and a bond had formed. These 2 couples were connected- brothers, sisters and their children. As Meredith and Owen smiled at each other, they both thought how nice it was to be a part of Cristna's life and each others families.
BEEP...BEEP...BEEP!
Owen's pager was ringing on the 911 alert. He quickly reached into his pocket to check where he was needed.
OR2 emergency!
"OR2?" Owen questioned out loud as he jumped up from the desk.
"Cristina!" Meredith and Owen shouted in unison as they bolted towards the door and set off running to the surgical elevator.
"Owwww, ouch!" Cristina was leaning forward against the wall, her hands bracing her. Teddy was rubbing her lower back, trying to encourage her to breathe. She had removed her scrub cap and tied Cristina's long curls up in messy bun with a rubber band
"Jackson!" Cristina barked when the contraction had passed. "What is happening with Anna? Check the blood flow! Are the stitches holding! Tell me!" she was hysterical. Her words were coming out high pitched and strangled by the pain.
"Everything is fine. Just concentrate on your breathing. Stapler!" Jackson began to close the chest cavity, almost laughing to himself. This was the most surreal moment in his surgical career to date! At this rate they would be delivering a baby straight after this heart transplant.
"Owen, I want Owen." Cristina whimpered, the contractions were getting stronger, lasting longer and coming more frequently.
"He'll be here! Any minute, he won't want to miss this." Teddy tried her best to sound calm. Where the hell was Owen!
"I'm here!" Owen burst through the OR doors moments later, a surgical mask held over his face. "What is going on?"
Meredith was poking her head around Owen's body trying to get a view of what was happening but all she could see was a stable patient on the table and Jackson wielding a stapler with all the joy of a kid with a forbidden toy.
"Her waters broke a couple of minutes ago and the contractions are coming every 2 minutes. I haven't been able to check how dilated she is. She won't let me" Teddy informed Owen pointedly. Even in labour this woman was so stubborn and headstrong.
"I am not getting my girl parts out in front of the whole OR!" Cristina spat, just before another contraction took over.
"owwwwwww, ohhhhhhhhhhhh" leaning further forward Cristina again tried to breathe but the pain was so intense it was making her feel sick. Swallowing down the wave of nausea that threatened to join her waters on the OR floor she looked at Owen pleadingly, her eyes begging him to get these people away from her.
"Done!" Jackson put in the last staple and looked up for congratulations but the whole OR was huddled around the odd figure of Cristina Yang, badass surgeon, being screwed into submission by childbirth.
"Avery, Altman, take Anna to recovery and go update her family." Owen, reading his wife's eyes, immediately stepped into commanding officer mode. His child was going to be born right here and right now and he needed to get this situation under control.
"Grey, go and get a pack of sterile drapes and a birthing kit. Run!" Meredith was frozen to the spot; she couldn't believe she was looking at Cristina Yang in labour! A baby was about to come out of her! A real life baby!
"Grey move!" Owen shouted so loudly that the reverberation of the sound waves felt like they actually hit Meredith square in the chest and she turned on her heels and ran down the hallway.
"Cristina," Owen sat down next to where she was now kneeling on all fours in the middle of OR 2 and began to rub her back. "I need to check how far along this labour is! Ok?"
"YOU are not delivering this baby! You are a trauma surgeon! Nothing about this is ok! I want drugs!" Cristina's voice was hot with tears and pain. "This hurts! It really frickin hurts!"
"Baby I know!" Owen soothed and bent forward to kiss her head.
"YOU KNOW NOTHING!" his wife bellowed. He edged his face out of her line of fire. "This is all your stupid hardcore soldier sperms fault! My one ovary was ambushed! Owwwwwwww!"
Another contraction came and she rocked back on her knees, kneeling up shaking from the pain. She clenched her fists and began punching the front of Owen's chest, trying to beat the pain out of her body and into his.
"Tell me what you want me to do?" Owen implored her. She was actually really hurting him but he knew better than to say anything at this point. He just gritted his teeth and took it. He hated seeing her this much pain, so if it helped he would allow her anything.
"Get a vasectomy!" Cristina was crying. Tears were falling fast from her eyes.
"You can do this Cristina! We can do this!" Owen's voice was comforting, as she felt the wave of pain starting to ebb away, his voice filled her up with warmth.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and sobbed into his chest, "I am sorry!" enjoying a moments rest before the waves started crashing once again. Owen gently rocked her in his arms trying to take the pain and fear away for even a second.
The door to the OR crashed open and Meredith rushed in ripping open the packet of drapes and laying them out on the floor.
"I bought someone who has actually had a baby!" Meredith inclined her head towards where Miranda Bailey was pulling on a pair of gloves.
"Dr Hunt, sit with your back against the wall and help her sit up in between your legs." Miranda Bailey was not someone you argued with or questioned, especially when she was in her bossy mini chief mode. Owen, temporarily let go of Cristina, shuffled backwards and did as she said, helping his wife get comfortable between his thighs.
"Grey, pass me a sheet, let's give the woman some dignity." Throwing the sheet Meredith passed to her over Cristina's lower body, she talked directly to her in a soothing voice not often heard escaping from this fierce woman's lips. But for Miranda this was a special moment- Cristina was one of her babies, she had raised her and she deserved this to be a good experience, especially after the last time. Pausing a moment to stave off a prickle of emotion, Miranda centered herself and looked Cristina directly in the eye:
"Honey, I know it hurts! You are doing great. I am going to help you out of your pants and take a look, ok?"
In the grip of another contraction, Cristina managed to nod her head in agreement. She was gripping Owen's hands and pressing her back into his chest as hard as she could. It felt good to have him there; she could not have done this without him. He was her rock, he anchored her and made her believe quite frankly in miracles. He saw her for who she saw herself to be and also in ways that she never imagined she could be.
"Ok." Bailey nodded too and pulled off Cristina's pants, underwear shoes and socks. She began to take a look to see what stage they were at. She stopped while Cristina gave herself over to another strong contraction, rubbing her leg softly to show her support.
"Get me an epidural!" Cristina screamed grabbing onto the front of Owen's scrubs and wrenching his body forwards over her shoulder.
Just go with it Hunt! You survived a war, you can survive a birth! He pressed the side of his face against hers, lightly kissed her cheek and whispered. "I love you." He really didn't know what he could do but he wanted to show her he was here and if he could do this for her and take away the pain he would.
"Cristina, It's too late for that you are 10 cm dilated. It's time to push!" Bailey's head popped up from her position between Cristina's legs to deliver the news." Grey, get over here and help brace her left leg."
Meredith sheepishly came forward and did as the attending asked. "Thank God for a hostile uterus!" she muttered to herself. This was not an experience she thought she wanted to go through any time soon. They didn't call it labour ironically that was for sure!
With Bailey and Meredith bracing both her legs Cristina began to push with each contraction. She pushed against Meredith and Bailey's hands to get leverage but it didn't feel like it was making any difference. Time seemed to have stood still.
"It's crowning!" Meredith exclaimed, an hour into the pushing phase, with a mixture of excitement and disgust at looking at her best friend's private parts popping out a baby. "It has hair!"
"Push, Cristina! Push!" Owen could not keep the excitement out of his voice. Soon he was going to finally become a father and they would be a family. The fact that it was happening with this woman, the woman he loved with every inch of his being, the one who had carried him through all of his pain and made him light again, made it all the more right.
"I am pushing you son of a bitch! Shut up!" Cristina spoke through clenched teeth. She was trying to focus and her husband, whose fault this all was anyway, was not helping by stating the obvious.
She pulled in a deep breath and forced herself to push again and again and again.
"I can't do it!" Cristina's exhausted voice made Owen's heart ache as she collapsed further back against him.
Sitting her up straight and shuffling closer into her back he planted his hands around her and told her in no uncertain terms "yes you can! You are the strong one, you can do this!"
Taking strength from her husband, as she had many times since loving him, she gripped her knees and bore down as the next contraction came, "aaaaaaarghhhh, arrrrghhhhh!"
"Good girl! The shoulders are out now. One more big push now!" Bailey urged her on, knowing how annoying it had been when she had been giving birth but unable to stop herself. She was nearly as giddy with excitement as Owen!
Cristina did not have the energy to fight the cheerleading, so grabbing onto Owen's hand she pushed, she pushed hard until she felt a slipping sensation and heard a loud, high pitched cry.
"It's a boy!" Owen exclaimed his eyes full of tears, as Bailey held the baby up for them to see. He was tiny but long, with black hair and huge dark brown eyes. "He looks just like you. He is beautiful!" Owen wrapped his arms around Cristina who was lying in Owen's lap completely overwhelmed and worn out.
Bailey was rubbing the baby clean and wrapped a towel around him. "Do you want to cut the cord, Daddy!"
Owen's eyes widened at hearing that term applied to him and he gazed at his son filled with such total bliss that it took his breath away. Owen took the scissors Meredith was offering him and cut the umbilical cord, welcoming his son to the world.
"Is he ok?" Cristina murmured.
"He's perfect!" smiled Meredith as she injected some syntometrine into Cristina's thigh and began to deliver the placenta. Once it was done, she busied herself cleaning up the mess.
"Let's give you to your mama" Bailey cooed over the tiny little boy in her arms. Owen helped Cristina sit up and curled her back into his arms. And as Bailey hand her son to her, she could not hold back the tear and began to sob openly as she spoke to him:
"I know you." At the sound of her voice the big brown eyes fixed on hers and looked expectantly at what his mother was saying. "I may make mistakes and get things wrong but I will always try to be excellent for you." She bent down and kissed the soft skin of the baby's forehead and breathed him in.
Owen, listened to his wife talk to their son and could not hold back his emotion. "Thank you Cristina" he whispered into her ear and nuzzled into her neck. "I love you both so much."
"I love you too! Thank you for making me believe I could do this." Sitting in her husbands arms looking at the life they created out of real love, she felt a stab of guilt that she nearly threw all this away. Pressing her fingers lightly on her son's chest she felt his heart beat against her fingers. This was what mattered, this little boy whose heartbeat shared their rhythm. He was here and he was theirs.
The baby instinctively curled further into her. Just like his father! She thought happily.
"What a way to enter the world!" She laughed lightly. This was not the birth she had imagined but hey you adapt or die right!
" OR2! This is your OR Cristina. Where else would he have made his first appearance!" Owen chuckled as Cristina placed their son in the crook of his left arm and curled herself under his right. His muscular, bare forearm dwarfed the baby but their son wiggled contentedly in his father's arms, finally finding a comfortable position. He began to snuffle and the fell into a deep sleep with little hiccups and snores punctuating the air.
Owen ran one hand along his son's cheek and marveled at how amazing he was. This tiny boy full of possibility and innocence. Owen now knew what he had been fighting his personal war for- they were both right here in his arms. But now the battle was over and the victory tasted so sweet.
Turning his head to look at his wife, who looked tired but positively glowing, he caught her lips in a slow and lingering kiss. She kissed him back and wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. Owen just wanted to savour this moment, to imprint in deep in his memory as the moment he was totally whole again.
Squeezing both his son and his wife to him as tightly as he could never wanting to let go, he whispered to them both the three words that had defined his relationship with Cristina in the after, the three words that in relation to his family he would mean for ever:
"Take care now"