a/n: I had planned on having two chapters by today but I just could not stop writing with this chapter so it runs a little long and the time jump with happen in the next chapter. I have not gotten a chance to proof read it so if there are any mistakes let me know. Anyhow, I hope you read and enjoy this long chapter. Remember reviews are love. Take care and a special thank to all those who have reviewed my story. :)
Cristina did her best to try and convince Owen that they were both ready to be at work with Ethan and Evan. She argued, saying that a week from now they would still be the same, so why not return the next day. Owen being his stubborn self and a protective father did not budge. It bothered Cristina but she knew no matter how much she argued or pried that he would not give in, this time she would have to wait it out. With that, Cristina's second day back was not so exciting. The typical busy Cardio department filled with patients suffering from various different and complex heart troubles did not stimulate her today. The diagnoses, treatment plans, and surgeries did not have the same side effect as yesterday. Today she had hopes that her twins would be watching her perform surgery from the OR gallery, or that when she was finished Ethan and Evan would be waiting for her outside of the scrub room. Last night she made plans that any free time she got would be spent with her little hunts, but this morning those plans were crushed, and today when she was not busy it was spent doing research. It had to be the first time in years where Cristina was not fully enthralled by medicine.
Owen remained home with Ethan and Evan, still refusing the help of their friends. Taking care of twins alone proved to be quite the challenge for Owen. It was more difficult than some surgeries he encountered. Two crying babies and one person to comfort them was no easy task and Owen quickly found that out. At one point he managed to cradle each twin in his arms but it took a lengthy time in trying to set one down while keeping the other safely secure in the other. Feedings were not too much trouble, thanks to the feeding pillows that supported the twins and their bottles. Burping Ethan and Evan posed to be another. He did his best to hurry and burp one, so can get to the other, but it always ended with one of them throwing up on themselves or him. He quickly learned that bathing them together was impossible. He attempted it yesterday, and knew better to try it again today, for it ended in a concert of crying. Comforting Ethan and Evan was quite the workout. Even though he was well fit, and masculine, these twins put up good fights and are resilient. When each twin wanted to be held, bounced, or cuddled with he had to place one in their bouncer and bounce it with his foot, while he cradled the other in his arms gently swaying from side to side. By the end of the day Owen knew he could not continue like this. He was trying to take on too much. Two babies at least needed two people to watch them, well at this age anyway.
When Ethan and Evan were finally down for their lengthy sleep through the night Owen collapsed on his plush king size bed, allowing the mattress and fluffy covers and pillows to comfort him. Although he was beyond comfortable lying there, he did not allow his eyes to shut and drift asleep. He wanted to wait for Cristina to get home so that he would be able to take a shower. His body was exhausted, his forehead felt sort of ashy from sweat that had dried from earlier in the day and as always it was accompanied by the awful milk smell from being spit up on. Even though he was positive Ethan and Evan would not wake up for another five hours he did not feel comfortable jumping in the shower, leaving them unattended. It was always just in case with Owen, so he lied there awake waiting for Cristina.
Owen's eyes jerked open and his hand raced for the phone before it could wake the twins. He drifted off to sleep after all.
"Hello…" he said in a rugged voice.
"Hey, its me," Cristina began through the phone, "a crash victim with a shard of glass in the heart just rolled into the trauma room, I'm gonna be home late."
Owen sighed; he really wanted that hot shower. "Alright," he said in a frustrated tone.
"I'm sorry Owen –"
"Its fine. I'll see you when you get home." Owen said quickly and placed the phone down on the receiver. He was jealous but little did he know Cristina was not excited for this surgery, she longed to be home with her family. Before he returned his head to his pillow he picked up the phone again and dialed.
"O'Malley, sorry to call so late but you got time to come and help me out with my little ones tomorrow?"
"Yeah, no problem." George managed to mumbled, still half asleep.
"Thanks, see you tomorrow morning." And Owen returned to snoozing immediately.
A few hours later, Owen's eyes were jerked open once again, this time by arms being snaked around his abdomen. Cristina made it home around 2 am.
"Hey," she said softly as her grip around him tightened. Owen rolled over on his other side to face Cristina. He missed her and pressed his lips to hers.
"Hey," he said as their lips parted ways. "We missed you today."
"I missed you guys too." With that their lips met once more, this time for a lengthy passionate kiss. When the kissing settled, they embraced, holding on to each other tightly.
"Ugh, you need to shower," Cristina said as she stopped herself from completely nuzzling in the crook of Owen's neck.
Chuckling, "I know, but you took forever to come home."
"Well take one now. You smell really bad," Cristina said crinkling her nose in disgust.
"Ahh, alright," Owen agreed as he sluggishly made his way off the bed and turned on the lamp to gather some clean clothes.
"Oh my god," Cristina said in shock, "your hair."
Owen looked puzzled. "What?"
"Look at your hair. It's like you've been electrocuted." Now laughing, "You must have had a tough day."
Owen looked at himself in the mirror and turned away. He removed his shirt and threw it at Cristina. "Shut it."
George arrived just as the sun was beginning to come up. He looked tired but he could never tell anybody no when they needed help and once again Cristina reluctantly left the house wishing her twins and Owen were coming along too.
As usual she operated mechanically at work. A piece of her was missing, that piece was her family, and through her work day and the rest of the Owen's week off she anxiously awaited the day she would bring Ethan and Evan to work.
Owen had an easier time with the twins at home, with the help of George, and Meredith, Izzie, Derek, and Alex to follow. A second set of hands definitely helped, and he got to shower during the day when they were not in fussy or upset moods. Ethan and Evan got to bathe, be comforted and burped at the same time. Owen appreciated the second set of hands and arms. When he was doing it on his own, he always felt bad having to neglect one of his son's momentarily in diaper changes or burping them, or having to choose one to cradle in his arms while the other had to be subjected to a bouncer being bounced by his foot. It made him feel silly for having been so stubborn in asking for help, when clearly his sons were benefiting from it.
To Owen's dismay but to Cristina's delight, the day finally came where Ethan and Evan would be going to work with their parents. They both found themselves packing diaper bags consisting of extra clothes, diapers, bottles, formula, wipes, baby powder, thermometers, acetaminophen, burp clothes, and blankets. Of course they both made certain they did not forget the crucial baby slings. When they were all packed up and ready to go to work, Cristina carried the bags to the car, while Owen carried both Ethan and Evan safely secured them in the backseat. Owen drove the approximate speed limit the whole way to the hospital, it frustrated Cristina but she bit her tongue.
Once Owen parked the car and turned off the ignition, Cristina unbuckled her seat belt and quickly exited the car to retrieve one of her sons from the backseat. She was excited. When Cristina comfortably placed a sleeping Evan in her sling, Owen did the same with Ethan.
"Okay, let's go see if there's any room for these guys in day care."
Cristina raised one eye brow, "What?"
"Day care. It fills up quick. Let's go see if there's any room for our guys."
Cristina pleaded. "I don't want to leave them in day care. We can handle taking of them during our shifts. Please Owen I've been waiting for this."
Not able to resist Cristina's plea, he agreed and they both made a date in the cafeteria at lunch to switch off with the twins. As they both entered the hospital the twins received a roar "aww's" in unison as they each showed off their sons. After the nurses and staff enjoyed the cute fest, Cristina kissed Owen and Ethan goodbye and went off in the direction of her Cardio department. Owen then went off into the ER.
Cristina's morning started off fairly easy with Evan. There were no emergent surgeries to be performed. The surgeries she did have for today were scheduled for after lunch. When she rounded on patients Evan was right there with her being a good little boy as he listened to Cristina explain what was wrong and the course of treatment she would be following later in the day or in days to follow. During a brief moment of free time she gave Evan a diaper change and began one of several feedings for the day. She even read aloud and shared some of the research and small discoveries she has made with him. Everything seemed to be going perfect and Cristina thought how silly Owen was being about having to carrying around babies for such lengthy hours. It was great, at least until her pager went off reading emergency. She was being paged down to the ER. Cristina quickly shut off her computer, and speed walked to the ER.
Owen's morning started off just as Cristina's did, rather simple with Ethan. While he got up to speed with recent patients Ethan remained quite, as if he were listening intently and understanding all the medical terms. Owen had a two surgeries scheduled, one with Mark, and one with Callie, but both were happening after lunch. After assigning Alex and George, he took a moment to change and feed Ethan in his office. While lightly patting Ethan's back to produce a burp he began reconstructing the trauma schedule, reassigning certain residents. When he was finished he swung Ethan diaper bag over his other shoulder and began rounding on postoperative patients, bringing them up to speed on the surgery they were going to be having today or within the days to follow. As he finished up and about to take a seat in the office behind the nurses' station his pager went off reading 9-1-1. Great he thought. Just as he predicted, here is where the difficulty of carrying a child around the hospital would interfere, and he lightly and carefully jogged to the outside ambulance bay leading to the ER.
On his way he bumped into Cristina and Evan. "Cristina, after we see what's wrong with this patient you need to page two of our friends quick."
"I know. I'm ready Owen. I'll page Meredith and George as soon as we asses what's wrong."
Owen shook his head, "George is in surgery. So is Alex."
"Don't worry Owen, I'll page someone else. Sheesh, calm down."
As they neared closer to the doors outside the sirens became louder, causing Evan to erupt in frightful cries from the loud noises. It did not take long for Ethan to follow suit. Cristina and Owen did their best to talk them down and try to comfort them as the ambulance doors swung open. When Owen saw the extent of the man's injuries he immediate gave Ethan to Lexie, along with his diaper bag. He instructed her to check with the hospital's day care to see if they were not full and if they were to watch him from the OR gallery. He did not care if Cristina did not want their sons in daycare, in Owen's mind they needed to be there, this surgery was going to take hours. He could already tell as his eyes were fixated on the long pole going through the man's body. It was inserted through the top half of his back and exiting through his lower abdomen. Cristina was just as shocked that Owen's instructions to Lexie and day care were not audible to her. She immediately instructed Graciela to book an OR. As Owen, the patient and Graciela rushed the patient inside; Cristina rushed to the nearest phone to page Meredith.
When she got no response she assumed Meredith was in surgery. She then went to the OR board to check to see who was not in surgery and to her luck, everybody she knew was. Perfect, she thought. Cristina was in dire need of a baby sitter and stat. With no other options she gave in and took off to the hospital's day care but only to find out they were full. Panic wanted to surface, but she fought it back. Her patient had serious chest injuries and that pole likely nicked his heart, he needed Cristina in that OR. Finally she decided she would muster up the strength to ask one of the nurses. Cristina Yang and nurses did not get along at all. Any favor she needed Owen asked for her. Before she could open her mouth to speak someone interrupted her.
"Yang, you need help? Need me to baby sit? I won't mind baby sitting for Dr. Hunt." Mark asked.
"Um no. Even though you're married now, I still see you eyeing nurses' behinds and that's what you'll have my son doing. Eyeing and possibly slapping butts. No thanks." Although she was in desperate need of a care taker, she would take her chances with nurses, but to her delight Callie emerged to return a chart. It looked as though she had just finished surgery.
"Thank God," Cristina murmured as she walked up to Callie. "Big favor, I need you to watch Evan. I have an emergent surgery to get to. Please Callie. Thanks." Cristina said as she gently slipped the sling off of her and over Callie. "Here is his diaper bag. I gotta run." And with that she ran off to the OR without letting Callie answer.
When Cristina made it to the scrub room she quickly rummaged for a bar of soap and started scrub furiously and swiftly. Unbeknownst to Cristina, Owen had already called time of death and was already shredding himself of his gloves and gown as she began to rinse off the soap. When Cristina realized what happened she felt guilty. If she had not been so stubborn about day care then maybe she would have made it to the OR in time to help out and save this man. It hurt her heart thinking if this man was married or worse had children he left behind. When Owen walked into the scrub room he immediately read and interpreted Cristina expression and embraced her in a bear hug.
Owen tried to comfort her. "Cristina, do not beat yourself up. This is not your fault. He was already coding before we got into the ER. There was nothing we could do. He was already gone."
Cristina started to sob, "But if I just hurried-If I-I could have-"
"Shhh, Cristina even if you had made it here on time we would still be calling time of death. There was too much damage to his abdomen and organs. The pole completed shredded his aorta. Do not blame yourself."
After several minutes, Cristina collected herself together, with the help of Owen. He always knew what to say in times like this. When they both emerged from the scrub room Lexie and Callie were standing there with Evan and Ethan, ready to hand them over. With pleasure Cristina and Owen took their sons and with nothing else happening at the moment, they settled in an on-call room to nap as family.
The remainder of the day remained a tough one. Owen was right; it was very difficult to look after babies while trying to work in a hospital. Cristina realized this very quickly. The next day they made it to the hospital very early to make sure there were spots available for Ethan and Evan to be put in the SGH's daycare.