Chapter 18
Meredith, Cristina and Owen drives back to the house in silence, each one in their own thoughts. They are met by a full house.
"How did it go? It will be on the local news at seven." Izzy squeaks. She is very excited about the press conference.
"Good we think." Owen says and joins Cristina and Meredith who has started laughing.
"Good" Meredith says between bursts of laughter. Now they have every ones attention.
"What's so funny?" the others ask.
They collect themselves and ask them to sit down and tell them about the offers they got from the hospital.
"This is amazing, we need to celebrate" Alex says.
"We haven't accepted yet" Meredith says.
"Why?"
"Well, I haven't decided yet."
"Don't you want to live here in Seattle? Don't you and Shepherd love each other?"
"I do love him, but I don't know if I can trust him."
"Stay anyway, dump him. The contract doesn't come with a marriage clause."
"I have to think about this."
Alex returns from the kitchen.
"We need to go to Joe's to celebrate."
"Joe has a TV and if we go now we'll be there in time for the news." Lexie pitches in.
"Yeah, let's go."
Rose has been home recording RSVP's and graciously accepted well wishes when spoken to some of the callers. She is so excited that wives to other chiefs have called her. This engagement will let her socialize with them. She is daydreaming of tea parties and dinners invitations when the phone rings again. Without looking at the caller id she answers.
"The Shepherd resident this is Rose."
Derek has together with Adele and Richard got a picture of what Rose is planning. She has planned an engagement party this coming Friday, sent out invitations and booked the reception hall at the hospital. A call to the head of the reception hall gives them an estimate of 300 people and the name of the caterer. They cancel the reception hall and Adele contacts the caterer. Now they need to find out who Rose has invited so Derek calls the apartment.
"The Shepherd resident this is Rose."
"Rose, it is me, Derek."
When Rose hears Derek her hearth makes a joyful beat. He calls her she thinks.
"Hi honey." She answers with a happy voice.
"I'll be at the apartment in twenty minutes. We need to talk about this party."
He sounds so cold she thinks.
"We have so much to do before Friday. I'll be happy for your help."
"Rose there is no party, which is what we need to talk about."
No party is not what Rose wants to hear.
"What is it with you and that sluttish woman? She will be gone by Friday and our life can move on together."
"We will talk about this when I come home."
Derek hangs up and sinks back into his chair.
"She is crazy" he says looking at the Webbers.
"Do you want us to come along?" Adele asks him.
"No thank you. I can handle her. I'll fax you the list when I have it or the name of the printer."
Derek gets into his car at the same time as Rose realizes that she doesn't want to talk to him. She needs to get rid of the slut that tries to steal her fiancé. She drives past the hospital towards the slut's house and while passing Joe's she sees the friends of the slut walking together towards Joe's. She parks her car, grabs an envelope and walks after them inside, sitting down across the room looking at the slut.
Cristina is looking at Owen who has been very quiet during the evening. She is getting tired again. This pregnancy thing is harder than she ever thought it would be. Owen and Joe are having a talk and before they part Joe pats Owen on the back and smiles brightly. Owen turns back to the table. He takes a look at Cristina and her person sitting there chatting, smiling and having a nice time with their friends. He walks up and waits for them to look up at him. When they do he reaches for Cristina's hand and pulls her up on her feet. She looks at him with a big question in her eyes. He just looks at her and smiles while his right hand caresses her cheek his left hand digs into his pocket and pulls out a small green velvet box.
"Cristina… as I have said before.. you are my love and has been that since the first day I saw you… bloody and smiling on the site in Rwanda… please marry me Cristina Yang… please make me the happiest man on earth and start a family with me here in Seattle…"
Cristina is looking deep into his eyes and can feel how her hearth swells. She can't break the look into Owen's eyes.
"Yes" she says and Owen sweeps her up into his arms and twirls her around and around kissing her brain out. "Put me down… stop" she giggles.
The rest of their friends start to laugh and applause them and Joe comes up with champagne flutes for everyone. Owen realizes that he is still holding her ring and puts her down and opens the box. Cristina looks into his eyes again while giving him her hand and he puts a beautiful diamond ring on her finger.
After the celebration and toasts to the engaged couple Meredith walks up to the bar. She wonders what she shall do, what she shall decide. She is happy for her friends but she has a bad feeling about staying in Seattle. A small envelope is handed to her by Joe. Her name is written by hand on the outside. She looks around but can't see who gave it to her. The front door is closing behind a dark haired woman.
Derek is met by an empty apartment. He can see that a lot of planning is going on. It looks like a madhouse. After sorting through the papers he finds a book labeled 'Our Wedding' and opens it. On the front page is a monogram in gold 'The Shepherds'. He turns the pages and amongst pictures of dresses, flowers and stuff he finds an invitation list to the engagement party as well as to an upcoming wedding. He is shaking his head. Rose is crazier then he could ever believe. This is bad, really bad. She is delusional if she believes that he would marry her. When he looks closer he can see that she started this book about a month after he moved to Seattle. He sends as promised the list to Mrs. Webber and starts to look around the apartment. The feeling in the rooms are scary, there are pictures of them all over the place. It doesn't even look like the last time he was there. He decides to pack as much of his stuff as possible while waiting for Rose to come back.