a/n: This chapter speeds up a little. Please read and review (they keep the fic alive) :)
As months wore on Ethan and Evan amplified in nearly everything. The features of their father were becoming more prominent and their eyes becoming more reminiscent of the deep blue ocean. Their auburn hair was growing in nicely and looked as though it was growing feathered, again just the same as their father's. The full lips they shared with Cristina were plumping in nicely, and all the medical talk she was sharing was making them take a liking to medicine at an early age.
By the age of 7 months Ethan and Evan were crawling, upgraded to stage two foods, eating pureed meats, and soft solids with the four teeth they now owned. At home Cristina and Owen had to rip open packets of safety locks for the cabinets, place baby gates to block the twins from going in unwanted and unsafe areas of the house. They no longer changed poopie diapers, by the end of 6 months they began sitting them on their small toilet seats any time they hear them push. The clean up was definitely much easier, which delighted their parents. Fortunately for Cristina and Owen, the crawling happened at home on their day off. Ethan and Evan had already mastered rolling and were eager to figure out just how to get around on their belly. It started off as an army man crawl, which amused Owen and brought him back to the military days and his training. After a few days of that they finally lifted up off the ground and began to crawl, and since then they've been going and going. To both his and Cristina's delight, they conquered this milestone and at home and were able to capture the first time on camera.
As another month passed the life of a surgeon had Cristina and Owen, once again missing another feat their twins would accomplish. Not only that, but now that Ethan and Evan were older, more alert and aware of their mommy and daddy they became attached and leaving them in daycare was a difficult task. Ethan and Evan would grasp their mommy and daddy's shirts not wanting to go into the arms of the familiar care takers. Cristina and Owen were always reluctant to leave them crying, it always broke their heart, but with great strength they were forced to put their emotions aside once they put on their navy blue scrubs. In the midst of another lengthy shift, they only got a brief moment with their sons' before the sounds of their pagers detached them from their quality time. They resented their pagers at times like this. It was a little after noon when Ethan and Evan decided to stand up for the first time. Cristina and Owen had just left to meet a trauma in the pit. They were sitting on the floor playing with large plush building blocks when they decided to use them as leverage to get up. It surprised the care takers and thought the twins were going to take steps but they just stood there. Owen and Cristina wished they could have been there to see it first hand but at least there was still time to witness their first steps.
One moment that every parent wants to witness is their child's first steps, and Cristina and Owen missed it. It pained their chests' that they were missing such moments. Of course they were proud of Ethan and Evan, cheered them on and followed them around at home ready to catch them if they fell. As parents they were excited for their sons' but having to hear another person describe their first steps to them was no fun, and soon started moping during their shifts. Cristina no longer felt like she was experiencing her version of the best of both worlds. As always, the real head honcho of the hospital, Bailey took notice. She once again acted in the role of a therapist and had a pep talk with them explaining to them that it happens and of course brought her own personal experience into it with missing little Tucker's first Halloween, and his kindergarten graduation. With that they started to cheer up and began taking what they could get, and when they did miss significant firsts with Ethan and Evan they didn't let it affect them as much.
In the months leading up to Ethan and Evan's first birthday they made great development. They were walking by nine months, their vision almost near clear, the use of their hands became more agile, now grabbing objects and snatching food off of Owen and Cristina's plates at dinner time. Ethan and Evan now pointed to the things they wanted or books they wanted to be read to. Their little coo's and ah's turned to babbling and then jabbering that sometimes sounded like real worlds, which excited their parents, and made their day when they first uttered the words "mama" and "dada". By the time Ethan and Evan were one year olds, they graduated to solid foods, and were nearly running. Cristina and Owen now had to put objects higher and out of their reach because they took a liking to seeing things crash to the ground and shattering into pieces. They still enjoyed the A-B-C's sung by their father, and to their liking the children's book became longer. Cristina continued to read from her journals, and even though Owen found it odd he never said anything, the twins continued to lay with her on the bed and watch heart surgeries. At one point Owen caught them poking and sliding one of their drumsticks on their stuffed animals, attempting to do surgery on them as in the videos. Owen instantly knew just how smart they were going to be.
On the morning of Ethan and Evan's first birthday party Cristina and Owen were decorating and preparing for the festivities with their friends later in the early evening. They took the day off, cleared their schedules, bumped surgeries and performed some early to possibly have no hospital or medical interruptions on this special day. They planned a small party for Ethan and Evan and only a small group of their friends were attending: Izzie, Alex, George, Meredith, Derek, and all their children. A lot had to be done for the kids and they decided to start early.
The twins took a great liking to the classic disney pixar movie Toy Story. They both loved the movie from beginning to end and it kept them quiet and could sit there for hours watching it over and over. Ethan and Evan went crazy over their favorite characters, Ethan loving the cowboy Woody and Evan going nuts over the space ranger Buzz. With that Cristina and Owen spent the morning decorating half of the large living room with Woody and all things cowboys and the other half with Buzz and all things of space and spaceships. They finished decorating and setting up the games for the kids by early afternoon and settled on the dinning room table to start assembling party favor bags filled with candy.
"Cristina, stop picking at the candy. You are going to eat all of it. Those are for the kids." Owen said as he snatched a batch of bite size chocolates away from her.
Cristina licked her fingers. "What? They're good," she said as she tried to grab more chocolate.
Owen lightly swatted her hand away. "Cristina. Think of the children." That made her chuckled. Not too long along she would have snorted and took the chocolate anyway, but being a mother definitely brought something out in her that she didn't know was there or capable of.
When they finished Owen had to beg Cristina to follow him into the kitchen to help prep and prepare the food for later on.
"Why do you want to me to help you cook? Clearly you remember that I don't."
Owen laughed. "Oh I remember ever time I cook. And we're just going to prep, just cutting veggies and stuff so I don't have to do it later."
"I don't know how to chop. You know this."
"Cristina, stop being so difficult and help me. If you can use a scalpel you can use a knife." He said as he rubbed her shoulders as they walked to the counter.
Owen went into the fridge and retrieved veggies, poultry and meat.
"We're cutting chicken?" Cristina asked, her facial expression hoping he would say no.
"No. I'm going to season and marinate it." Owen answered as he handed her a chef's knife. "Here, dice and slice some onion and tomato for me. Please."
Cristina nodded and began her version of slicing and dicing.
"Cut the stem of the onion first." Owen corrected and went to making his marinades for his chicken and meat. When he glanced back over at Cristina and her chopping he had a few more request. "Cristina you have to peel it before you cut it." So she did and then continued with her cutting. "Cut them into small pieces, those are too big." Owen said.
"Yes iron chief. Anything else?" Owen chuckled. "If you don't like my cutting skills then you come over here and do it."
Owen stopped was he was doing, cleaned off his hands to go plant a warm kiss on Cristina's cheek. "I love the way you chop onions."
Cristina smiled. "Oh, right."
The food preparation was finished within twenty minutes, mostly thanks to Owen, but he always enjoyed having Cristina at least trying in the kitchen and she was great sarcastic company, which he loved. From food preparations they decided to go to a local party store to get their balloons blow up, when they returned they began wrapping the numerous toys, and clothes they purchased for their first birthday.
Cristina and Owen were grateful to Meredith and Derek, who took the boys last night. It gave them time to finish all preparations. They wanted the setup for their party to be a big surprise to Ethan and Evan; because once they saw their favorite cartoon characters they would go nuts.
Everyone arrived on time. Ethan and Evan went crazy over seeing giant decorations of Woody and Buzz, as did the Meredith and Derek's two boys, Robbie and Chase, and Alex and Izzie's 4 team of wrestlers, all boys too.
Cristina and Owen greeted Ethan and Evan with a loud shout of "Happy Birthday!" and gave them big bear hugs and several kisses. They were all elated for this day, their very first birthday.
Owen had already started cooking and barbecuing out back when his pager went off. "Damn it." He muttered in frustration.
"What's up?" Alex curiously asked.
Owen sighed. "Patient is on the way to the hospital. Multiple GSW's to the abdomen."
"Here," Alex gestured to the spatula, "go, and try and hurry back."
Owen immediately found his sons' apologized and said he would be back as soon as possible. He apologized to Cristina, kissed her goodbye and said he would try and make it back in time to sing happy birthday.
With one important person down at the party, Cristina and company did their best to entertain the kids. She started with food, and then games. When the kids became eager to peek at the cake she put on a cartoon movie and finally took an opportunity to kick up her feet with the rest of the adults.
A few hours elapsed and Cristina was running out of ideas with all the games and prizes already given out. Just when she was about to give in and start with the cake and presents she received a call from Owen saying he was in his truck and on his way. She breathed a sigh of relief, let everyone know and sat down on the kitchen table with Meredith.
"It's been 30 minutes since he called." Cristina was annoyed. "It does not take this long to get here."
"Maybe there's traffic."
"At this time? I don't think so." Cristina began biting her nails as a knot was slowly forming in her stomach. "I tried calling four times Meredith and nothing. Where the hell is?"
Meredith squeezed Cristina's hand. "He'll be –"
Meredith's words were cut off by Derek's pager, causing both her and Cristina's head to dart in his direction. He quickly grabbed it and silenced the beeping and read the page. His facial expression spoke volumes to Cristina. The knot in her stomach became bigger and worry and anxiety rushed through her body.
"Its Owen, isn't it?"