"Let's go home." Owen spoke softly to his son as he clipped him into the infant carrier, ready to safely take his place in the back of the truck.
Cristina was sitting in the wheel chair that Bailey had insisted was part of hospital protocol for escorting patients off the premises for discharge. Cristina had tried to argue that labour was not an illness and that she was staff, not a patient. But seeing that Bailey would not budge she forced herself into the wheelchair and allowed her husband to place her overnight bag on her lap, just before he picked up the car seat and the family, accompanied by Bailey, made the first steps into their huge new life together outside of the Walls of Seattle Grace Mercy West.
As Owen clipped the car seat into the back seat of his truck, checking and double checking his precious boy was secure, Bailey placed the overnight bag in the boot and opened the passenger side for her resident.
"Ok then." Bailey felt she had to mark this moment with a speech but for once words failed her. Her intern was grown, she had raised her right and she knew that Cristina and Owen would raise their baby right.
Without so much as a second thought, Cristina bent down and hugged Miranda Bailey. For a split second Bailey stood stiff, her arms glued to her sides, taken aback by the demonstrative gesture by Cristina Yang. But as Cristina whispered "thank you so much for everything," Bailey softened and hugged her back, just like a proud mother hugs her child when they have done something so wonderful that you just want them to feel how much you love them and how much you believed in them.
"Right...well..." Bailey broke away, any longer and it would start to get soppy and Bailey did not do soppy. "I do not want to see you in this hospital until your leave is over, unless it is to go for lunch with your friends or bring that beautiful boy to visit. You hear me! Go and be a mother, the OR will still be here with a list of surgeries waiting."
"Yes, Dr Bailey." Cristina actually meant it. Surgery was the last thing on her mind at the moment. She just wanted to get back to their home and spend some time with the men that had filled up her life.
Owen drove home slowly, turning round at every stop sign to check on his backseat passenger.
"He is fine." Cristina told him every time he did it. It is cute really, she thought as she placed her hand on Owen's on top of the gear stick. He already is an amazing father.
"I know. I'm just checking." Owen's tone was slightly defensive. He resolutely gripped the steering wheel at 10 and 2, determined to drive the rest of the way to their firehouse without doing his best impression of an excessively anxious parent.
Pulling into the underground car park, Owen quickly yanked up the handbrake and jumped out of the car. He opened Cristina's door and lifted her out of the truck, kissing her tenderly on the lips before placing her feet onto the pavement.
"We left here yesterday to go to work as a married couple and now we are coming home as parents." Owen hugged Cristina close and spoke into the curls that hung around her neck.
Cristina leaned back to look into his eyes, sparkling deep blue with anticipation and full of excitement for the road ahead, running her fingers through his hair, she pulled his head down to kiss him once more, telling him as her lips slowly broke contact with his, "you can have the pleasure of the first dirty diaper at home!" She wrinkled her nose playfully pecked another kiss on his lips as they curled into a small smile and moved to lift her baby out of the car ready to take him into his new home.
Owen unlocked the door and carried the bag across the threshold. He held the door open for Cristina and Daniel to step into the warmth of their home. Once all three were inside he shut the door, closing out the cold November night and the rest of the world. All that existed was a mother, a father and their day old son.
"I am going to make us some dinner. Why don't you put him down in his cot?" Owen was pulling off his jacket and hanging it up on the coat stand by the sofa.
"I read that you are supposed to take your baby into every room in your house when you first bring them home. It helps them to settle or something. So come on Daniel, let me show you around." As she spoke Cristina shrugged of her jacket, moving Daniel from one arm to the other to get her own arms out. She let the coat drop in a heap on the floor, kicked off her shoes and padded her way towards the kitchen.
Owen rolled his eyes. Motherhood had not fixed the untidy streak in his wife! He hung up her coat, picked up her shoes and placed them by the stairs and followed his wife into the kitchen to see what was in the refrigerator.
"This is the kitchen, but daddy will tell you more about that because mummy doesn't come in here much." Cristina spun around 360 degrees to show her son a panoramic view of the kitchen she and Owen had restored in the once derelict space she had purchased for them to make a home. Satisfied that the baby had taken everything in, she walked towards the bathroom.
Owen stayed in the kitchen and noted that Meredith had stocked up their refrigerator. He knew this because she had left a note, reading Babies, mummies or daddies can't live on cereal or tequila! Enjoy! Love M, D And Z.x
He pulled out some salmon and some salad, flicked on the oven and set to work fixing dinner for his wife.
"Ah now the bathroom, this I think is where you were made, here in this shower. And Daddy spent one night, a long time age now, holding mummy's hair back as she was very sick. Now drinking is very bad, I want you to remember that." Daniel's tour was continuing. Cristina was sure that he was taking it all in. His heavy lashed brown eyes were focusing on different points in each room. Closing the bathroom door, she walked through the open, airy space and sat down on their bed. She could not wait to sleep in it after a night in a very uncomfortable hospital version.
"This is where mummy and daddy sleep. This is daddy's guitar- if you ask him nicely he will play songs for you but don't touch it without asking ok?" Daniel let out a little grunt, which Cristina took to mean an agreement about the guitar. She looked at him for a moment, seeing his eyelids drooping shut. "Now onto the most important place in our home." she knelt up on her side of the bed and lent over the side of the cot that stood next to it. The yellow covers with tiny bears on were fresh and bright, a few of the smaller toys they had been given at the baby shower sat in the end keeping it warm until it's rightful occupant came to take his permenant place. "This is your bed. Now we will be here right next to you all night. And when we are not here we will be in the next room so just call put if you need us alright."
Cristina lowered Daniel onto the soft mattress and held her arms around him until he stopped fidgeting. Gently pulling herself away from him, she climbed down off the bed and stood looking at her little sleeping boy. He looked so innocent and helpless. The fact that he was reliant on them for everything made Cristina shudder. Responsibility. She had the weight of it on her shoulders every time she stepped onto the OR, but this was different. With this responsibility the stakes were even higher than life or death. They had to raise a great man, to help Daniel achieve his dreams, realise his full potential and feel unconditionally loved. It was scary, really scary but here she was Cristina Yang, leaning into the fear, taking the risk and hoping for the best.
"He is fine." Cristina felt Owen's arms snake around her waist and she lent back into his chest as he joined her in gazing at the product of their all consuming love for each other. Owen was holding the little blue bear that Zola had bought to them yesterday at the hospital and Cristina took it and turned it over in her palms.
"I know. I just like looking at him." Cristina admitted honestly. With Owen she could not keep anything back any more, she wanted him to truly know her whole heart.
"Me too. I feel like I am missing something when I can't see him. He is just amazing isn't he?" The question was rhetorical. They just stood at the side of the cot and watched him sleep, the rise and fall of his tiny chest was almost hypnotic. They didn't notice that they had been standing there for the best part of 10 mintues.
"So what do we do now?" Cristina wondered out loud as she bent down and dropped the little bear under Daniel's fingers. As she stood up she pulled Owen's arms tighter around her waist. His muscular arms crossed over each other now her stomach was on its way to moving back to being flat again.
"We go and eat dinner and then try and get some sleep before he wakes up for his next feed." Owen took Cristina by the hand and led her back towards their kitchen table where he had set them each a place.
"Take care now." Cristina left the 3 special words with her special little boy, to comfort and protect him as he slumbered, so he would always know that his parents loved him.