Cristina was bored. She had been waiting around for their board meeting to start for what felt like forever. It was supposed to have been at 9 am this morning, then it got pushed back to 11:30 when Callie got called into surgery, then back to 2:30 when Arizona had an emergency come in. Now it was almost 6 and the meeting still hadn't started. They were going to try again for a 6:30 start time, but Cristina wasn't holding her breath.
Cristina took another bite of her yogurt and surveyed the cafeteria. The dinner crowd was always much slimmer than the lunch one. There wasn't anyone she was particularly interested in talking to, which was how she felt most of the time these days. She sighed and slumped down in her chair and put her feet up on one of the other chairs at the table she was sitting at.
Suddenly, she heard a familiar voice coming towards her from behind.
"Okay, now let's go over this one more time so I can be sure you've got this."
"Yes, Dr. Ross."
"You don't wake me up…?"
"-unless the patient is dying." Cristina smiled to herself; it was nice to hear that Bailey's five rules were still getting passed down to each new intern class. She wasn't so sure that her habit of nicknaming was a good thing to get carried on, though. The intern Shane was talking to sounded utterly defeated. They had stopped walking and were standing about 10 feet behind her.
"Get out of here, Q." Shane said roughly. Cristina heard the intern scurry off. She peeked over her shoulder and watched Shane walk towards the counter to buy some food.
It had been two weeks since she had put him on her service. He was an excellent resident- very hard working and conscientious. She had been letting him help with Dr. Russell's lotus valve trial, which freed her up to work on some research of her own. She had decided to look into reviving the stem-cell project Teddy had been working on before she left. It was still in the planning stages, but hoped she could get it up and running in a couple of months. In the meantime, Shane was taking care of all the grunt work that Russell gave her that she didn't want to do. Shane's work was always delivered on time and in excellent form. She could tell that he appreciated the importance of what he was doing. There was definitely prestige attached to the project and it had great buzz in the medical community, and yet, she could tell that his heart wasn't in it. He was still pining for neuro. She wasn't sure if he would ever get over it and she definitely wasn't sure if he was ever going to latch on to cardio. For now, she figured it was good to keep him engaged. Someone in his position could easily get disillusioned and fade away into oblivion. He was a good doctor, maybe a great one. He just needed to find a new inspiration.
When he was done paying for his food, she waved him over to her table. He smiled as he walked toward her. "Good evening, Dr. Yang," he said as he set down his tray, and then sat down.
"Hey, so what was that all about with your intern?"
"Oh," Shane said as he rolled his eyes. "He woke me because one of his patients was drooling!"
"What?!"
"He thought she was foaming at the mouth!"
Cristina burst our laughing. "Wow," she said. "That is…wow!"
"I know," Shane said, allowing a smile to creep onto his face.
Cristina sat up and leaned forward. "So, why did you call him 'Q'?"
Shane shrugged. "That's the nickname I gave him."
"You know his name, don't you?"
"Sure! He just reminds me of this TV character." Cristina gave him a puzzled look. "It's- you've probably never seen it…."
"Hmmm." Cristina was concerned. He didn't seem like the kind of person who would give people nicknames like that. Yes, she thought. I'm prone to nicknaming, but it's part of my charm! For some reason, it didn't seem as charming coming from Shane. "When was the last time I called you Happy."
"Well, I guess it's been a couple of weeks-"
"That's right." she said. "That's because I know your name now." She didn't say it was only because he had become important enough for her to learn his name. "I think you need a break," she said.
"What?" Shane said, stopping his fork halfway to his mouth.
"From me, from this," she waved her hand around. "Just for a couple of days." Shane put the bite of food in his mouth, then pouted. "You need to get your hands dirty. Report to Kepner tomorrow."
"But you're doing a pneumonectomy tomorrow and I've never seen one before!"
Cristina was happy to see his enthusiasm, but tried not to let it show. "You'll have plenty of time for pneumonectomies. You need to be well-rounded. A little trauma would do you some good!"
Shane scowled and took another bite of food. He ate quietly for about a minute while Cristina scraped every tidbit of yogurt out of her cup that she could, then he spoke. "Is this because I gave my intern a nickname?"
Cristina eyed him suspiciously. "Did you give all of your interns nicknames?" Shane ducked his head down and went back to eating. She watched him for a long moment. "I just know that you're trying to find your way, but I don't want you to lose who you are." Shane paused for a moment, then kept eating. He was a lot like her in some ways- an excellent student, very driven and competitive, a hard worker, but he was also very different- he had an easy smile and a natural instinct for patient care. She didn't want him to start emulating her too much. "Besides, you really shouldn't think of working with Kepner as punishment. She's a badass trauma surgeon."
After a couple more scrapes, Cristina was finally satisfied that her yogurt all gone. She looked at her watch. It was 6:05. She stood up.
"Gotta go get ready for my meeting." Shane nodded. "Kepner! Tomorrow!" she called out as she walked away. She really didn't need to get ready for the meeting; she was just tired of listening to him chew.
She made her way down to the administrative hallway and sat on a chair in the hallway outside of the boardroom where they would be meeting. She pulled out her phone and texted Meredith. Talk?
A few seconds later, she got her response. Got to get kids fed before meeting.
"Typical," she mumbled to herself. Just then, she caught something out of the corner of her eye. Owen was walking toward her from down the hall to her right. He was walking briskly, with purpose. He was wearing his lab coat over a light blue shirt and slacks. He wearing the navy blue tie she had bought him for his birthday two years earlier. He looked neat and put together, as usual. Very chiefly, she thought.
He was staring down at his phone as he walked, but when he got about halfway down the hall, he glanced up, then did double take. He looked right at her and smiled broadly. She couldn't help smiling back. As their eyes locked, it felt like the world slowed down. She could have sworn he was moving toward her in slow motion. When he passed her, he nodded his head toward her, then suddenly things were back to normal speed. She watched him walk away from her down the hall and imagined how fine his backside must be looking under that lab coat.
He was headed toward his new office, which was down at then end of the hall. He hadn't wanted Dr. Webber's old fishbowl office, so they had converted one of the smaller conference rooms. She had heard that he was using Webber's old furniture, which had been in storage for the last couple years. She had heard the office was actually bigger than Webber's old one. She just hadn't seen it, yet. It frustrated her, but she hadn't had any professional reason to go in there.
Cristina reached back and adjusted her ponytail. She was looking forward to seeing him in their meeting and it was not a coincidence that she had chosen to wear her hair up to show off the back of her neck. She felt like she had hardly seen him in the last two weeks. She figured he must have found a new place to live, because she was sure that he hadn't spent the night at the hospital lately.
She, on the other hand, had been spending a lot of nights at the hospital. She had been working extra hours and devoting extra time to her research to help keep her mind off the Owen situation. It seemed like Shane was there just as much as she was, maybe more. He was always hanging around ready for her to give him a new task. She needed to watch that he didn't burn himself out.
Cristina decided to close her eyes and visualize the surgery she was going to be doing in the morning. Crap, she thought. I'm going to have to pick a different resident to scrub in. She had started to get used to always having Shane in her OR.
Cristina started her visualization as she always started each surgery- by asking for her scalpel. She could image how the cold metal felt in her hand.
After a couple of minutes, Cristina heard a noise down at the end of the hall to her left. She turned her head slightly that direction and barely opened her eyes. What she saw made her open her eyes all the way and furrow her brows. Jo Wilson standing by Owen's office. Actually, she had just come out of it and was carefully closing the door behind her. It stuck Cristina as seriously weird. What could she have been doing in there with out him?
Cristina shook off her uneasy feeling and closed her eyes again. She picked up visualizing the surgery right where she had left off when she had been interrupted. She was soon deep in thought and tipped her head back to rest it on the wall behind her. She was just about to spread the ribs when she heard something again. She opened her eyes just in time to see Jo go back into Owen's office.
What the hell? she thought. She stared down at the end of the hall willing it to give her answers. She looked at her watch. 6:15. The rest of the board would start congregating soon. She tried to shake off her uneasy feeling again and closed her eyes. She had time to visualize spreading the ribs before the meeting, but seriously, what were they doing in there? She opened her eyes and stared down the hall. The only time she had spent any significant time in the chief's office when she was a resident was when she was in trouble. Maybe she's in trouble, she thought to herself. That thought comforted her as she closed her eyes yet again.
She had imagined a beautiful incision and now she saw herself picking up the rib spreaders and if Jo had gotten into serious trouble, she would have heard about it. She found herself staring down the hall toward Owen's office again.
"Uggg, I give up," she mumbled to herself. She got up and started pacing around. It was 6:20. He was going to be here at 6:30 and she would see that everything was perfectly normal. He would smile that amazing smile he had given her in the hall earlier and everything would be fine. Everything will be fine, she reminded herself. She paced into the boardroom and turned on the light. She got the phone off of the counter and set it in the middle of the table. She sat down in her usual seat. She used her feet to push herself away from the table and the next thing she knew, she had rolled herself to the door and was sticking her head out of it looking down the hall toward Owen's office.
"What are you doing?" she heard a voice call out from her right. She turned her head in the direction of Callie's voice.
"Just…waiting."
Callie stopped right in front of her and crossed her arms. Cristina's chair was completely blocking the door. "Do you think you can wait inside?"
Cristina stood up and was nearly nose-to-nose with Callie. She wanted to think of a snappy comeback, but this whole Owen thing had thrown her off her game. So, she just said, "Okay," and rolled her chair back to its rightful place.
"Are you okay?" Callie said.
"Yep," Cristina said as she sat in her chair. She crossed her arms and stared at the table. Callie got the hint and didn't engage her. She just sat down in her usual seat and started looking at her phone.
After a couple minutes Jackson showed up, followed by Arizona. Callie greeted Jackson, but not Arizona. Cristina didn't greet either of them. Jackson dialed up the Shepherds and they all exchanged pleasantries except for Cristina. She wasn't in the mood. It was 6:35 and Owen still wasn't there.
"Shall we get started?" Jackson said. "Where's Hunt?"
"Oh, he'll be-" Arizona was interrupted when the door suddenly opened.
"Sorry, guys," Owen said as he closed the door behind him. He quickly took his seat at the end of the table.
Cristina felt like a large stone had been dropped into the pit of her stomach. Owen's appearance had changed significantly since she had seen him in the hallway earlier. His lab coat was gone. His tie was loose. His sleeves were unbuttoned and had been partly rolled up. His hair seemed mussed up. Cristina stared down at the table in front of her wishing she could crawl under it and disappear. She hadn't allowed herself to actually think it until this moment, but now it looked like it might be true. Was Owen fooling around with Jo Wilson? Everything around her melted into muffled haze as she felt herself becoming consumed with sadness.
"Okay, Dr. Hunt is here now," Jackson said for the benefit of Meredith and Derek, "Let's get started."
"Is Cristina there?" Meredith called out from the phone. Everybody turned and looked at Cristina. It took her a moment to realize it and another moment to pull herself to the surface so she could speak.
She cleared her throat. "Yeah," she managed to squeak out. She could feel everyone take their eyes off of her one by one. Finally she could tell from the corner of her eye, that Owen was the only one still watching her. She wasn't going to look at him. She couldn't look at him. She had to hold herself together.
Jackson started the meeting and she finally felt Owen's eyes leave her. It was the beginning of the academic year, and with it there was always new research projects to discuss and consider. The discussion was pretty lively, but Cristina was bogged down in her own thoughts. How could he? she thought. He was the one who had said if they wanted to date other people they would call off his plan. Maybe he hadn't had a chance to tell her, yet. But then why didn't he tell me in the hallway, earlier? she thought. Maybe he didn't know yet, then. Maybe that little trollop was waiting in his office to ambush him-
"What to do you think, Cristina?" Everyone was staring at her again. She wasn't sure who had spoken to her.
"Remember?" Callie said, gently. "We talked the other day about combining our resources on the stem-cell research." Cristina turned and looked at Callie, who was looking back at her with great concern. Cristina tried to quickly pull herself together.
"That's right. Our research would utilize a lot of the same tools. We could add other specialties and eventually become one of the leading centers for stem-cell research." From the way everyone was looking at her, she got the feeling that she had just repeated what Callie had just said. She allowed herself a quick glance at Owen. His brow was furrowed with concern. She sat up straighter. "I've spoken to Altman and I have her blessing to pick up the research where we left off. She has moved on to other projects in her new position."
"Cristina and Teddy really did an amazing job when they designed that project," Owen said. "I'm really pleased Cristina wants to revive it." He smiled at her and she stared blankly back at him. He looked taken aback, but Cristina didn't care. She felt betrayed and she didn't need him to try and curry favor with her by backing her project. Owen was staring down at the table in front of him. She could read confusion on his face. She looked away quickly when he glanced up at her.
Nobody else at the table seemed to notice the nature of their exchange, as the meeting continued to buzz along at its previous pace.
Suddenly, it struck her. Owen would never hook up with Jo. Never in a million years. She chided herself for even thinking it. She trusted him completely. There had to be some other explanation, she just had no idea what was going on in his life and clearly it was making her crazy.
Cristina did her best to stay focused and participate the discussion, but didn't have much luck. She tried to make eye contact with Owen, again, but it never happened. Eventually, she realized that after that one exchange he never directly addressed her again. She hoped the look she had given him wasn't too severe and that he didn't think she was mad at him.
As soon as the meeting was adjourned, Owen bolted from the room. As everybody else filed out, Cristina addressed the phone on the table. "Ok, going to hang up on you guys, now."
"Actually, will you pick up the phone for a minute?" Meredith said.
"Sure." Cristina picked up the receiver and sat back down in her chair.
"What is going on with you?" Meredith demanded.
"What do you-?"
"Don't try to deny it. I can't tell you're upset, so just tell me."
"Hold on." Cristina got up and closed the door. After she sat back down, she picked up the phone, but didn't say anything.
"Are you there?" Meredith asked.
"Mm-hmm."
"Talk to me!"
"I don't know what to…" A lump had formed in Cristina's throat. She took a deep breath and released it slowly. "Something's going on with Owen and I don't know what it is and it's making me insane!"
"Well, what happened?"
"He was just- it's nothing, I know it's nothing. It's not even worth mentioning, I never should have thought it, it's nothing, it really is just nothing and I never should have thought it and I'm not even mentioning it."
Meredith paused then said, "I think you're right."
"I am? Wait! About what?"
"This is making you insane."
Cristina groaned. "I just -it doesn't make sense and I hate it!"
"I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation, Cristina," Meredith said. "In fact, I know there is. I really…I don't like keeping secrets from you, but Owen is trying so hard and there are some things that he's done- that he's doing, that he's going to tell you about as soon as he's ready, or he thinks you're ready…but if he knew about this- if he knew you were feeling like this-"
"Well, he doesn't know and he's not going to. Please don't say anything to him; I don't need you to interfere. I can handle this, I'm fine."
"Cristina, what did you see?"
"Nothing. Everything is fine. I'm fine, Owen's fine, we're all good, here, so I'll talk to you later."
"When are you coming to see me?"
"Soon, I promise. Okay, I've got to go."
"Call me when you get home!"
"Yeah, okay, maybe, bye." With that she hung up the phone. She covered her face with her hands and sobbed quietly for a couple of minutes. She felt guilty for doubting him. There was no excuse for it. She missed him so much; she could physically feel it, like an ache that she couldn't really define. It enveloped her whole being.
They had to figure out things out. She didn't see that there was any other option. She just didn't see how, yet. She was sure he was going to figure out that he wanted kids. but she didn't know how she would fit into that life. She just knew that she didn't want to be on the outside looking in. She didn't how much longer she could take it.
"One step at a time," she said out loud to no one. First, she decided that she wanted to apologize to him for being rude to him in the meeting. She wanted to respect his wishes about them keeping things professional for now, but she felt like she had behaved unprofessionally toward him and needed to let him know things were okay between them.
Cristina took a moment to collect herself. She was going to see if he was still in his office and she didn't want to look like she had been crying. She should stop by the restroom first, she thought as she got up and walked toward the door. She took a deep breath before she opened it and stepped through. She immediately noticed that someone was also coming out of Owen's office. It was Alex. He backed out into the hallway and then a moment later, Owen appeared. He was holding a kid. It was a boy who looked to be about six or seven. He appeared to be asleep, as his head was resting on Owen's shoulder. Cristina felt her mouth drop open.
Owen and Alex exchanged a few words, then they parted ways with Owen heading away and Alex coming in her direction. He took several steps before he looked up and saw her. He stopped in his tracks and she was pretty sure she could see him curse.
When he started walking toward her, he was practically running. When he reached her, he said, "Close your mouth, we need to talk." He grabbed her arm and guided her back into the boardroom.
The alarm on Owen's watch went off at 6am. He rolled over to where it lay on the bedside table and turned it off. He stood up and stretched. The bed was a little softer than he liked, but he was getting used to it. It had only been a week, after all.
Owen brushed his teeth and got dressed then quickly made his bed. When he opened his bedroom door to go out to the kitchen, the Palladino's cat, who the boys called Fang, but their mom, Heidi, called Daphne, greeted him by rubbing up against his legs. Owen bent down and scratched her behind her ears and he heard her purr appreciatively before she ran into the kitchen. Owen followed her and gave her a can of food before starting the coffee brewing. While he drank his coffee, he caught up with current events on his tablet, then checked his e-mail. He had a message from Ken Powell, a contractor he had worked with on the firehouse. Ken had done excellent work for him before and Owen felt like he could trust him. That was very important because he wouldn't be around much to oversee the work. That was one downside of the commitment Owen had made for the next three months. The plus sides were 1) having a place to stay while the most disruptive parts of the remodeling was done on his house; and, more importantly, 2) the chance to get hands on experience in what it was like to have kids.
It had only been 10 days since the night that Owen had gotten an unexpected call from his army buddy, Mario Palladino, who was currently deployed as a medic in Afghanistan. Mario had gotten a frantic call from his wife saying that her mother had been in a serious car accident and had been taken Grey-Sloan. Owen had left his office and got down to the surgical floor just in time to see April and Callie wheeling her into the OR. She had two broken legs and a broken collarbone. She also had some internal bleeding that they needed to get under control right away. The injuries didn't appear to be life threatening, but she was going to need to have significant reconstruction done on one of her legs.
Owen went down to the lobby and found Heidi. She sobbed all over Owen's shoulder when he greeted her with a hug. Mario and Owen had been new recruits together and even though they had eventually ended up in different units, they had always kept in touch. Whenever their schedules allowed, they would try to get together when Mario was home on leave.
Owen kept Heidi and Mario updated on Heidi's mom's condition throughout the night, and when she was out of surgery and in the clear, Owen gave them the good news. He expected Heidi to be relieved, but instead she started sobbing all over again. Owen took her phone from her and Mario explained.
Heidi had gone back to school to study fashion a couple years earlier and had won a prestigious internship in New York City for that fall. They had it all planned out for Heidi's mom to stay with their two boys while she was away, but now, that clearly wasn't going to happen. It would be quite a while before her mom would be back on her feet, and Heidi was due to leave in two days. She didn't know how she could make arrangements for them in such a short amount of time. Owen offered his help then and there. He moved into their guest room that night. The next day he got a crash course in their lives and the day after that, he and Heidi took the kids to their first day of school, then he dropped her off at the airport.
At 6:45, he heard the first of boys' alarms go off. Mario had requested that Owen treat his sons like little soldiers. He said his wife was a wonderful mother, but that the boys could use a little more structure to their routine. Heidi has said they could do what they wanted as long as they boys didn't end up with buzz cuts, so after a long series of text messages, Owen and Mario had come up with a plan. Phase 1 was tightening up their morning routine. Owen had been going through the morning routine with the boys every day so far, but today, he was going to see how Nick, the elder of the two, did on his own.
Nick, was 11 years old and had just started sixth grade. He had light brown hair and blue eyes like his mom's. He was a quiet boy. Mario said he was sensitive and something of a perfectionist. Owen didn't think Nick had warmed up to him, yet.
Owen stayed in the kitchen and listened to see what Nick would do. About 10 minutes after his alarm had gone off, Owen finally heard Nick's bedroom door open. He heard him go into the bathroom for a few minutes, then he want back to his room. At 7:05, he came out and stood in the doorway to the kitchen.
Owen smiled as he walked toward him. "Right on time! Good morning, Nick."
"Good morning," Nick replied dully. He looked like he was about half asleep, but he was dressed and had combed his hair. Owen walked around him with a critical eye. "Your appearance passes inspection, good job. Let's check out your room." Owen and Nick went down to Nick's room. The first thing he took note of was that the bed was made. It wasn't as neat as it could be, but this the first time he had done it without being reminded, so Owen was pleased. Owen surveyed the rest of the room, checking in the closet and under the bed. All the dirty clothes were in the hamper. "Everything looks to be in order, good job." Nick nodded.
Next, they went to the bathroom. Owen could tell that he had brushed his teeth and washed his face. "This is pretty good, Nick. Just make sure you don't leave any globs of tooth paste in the sink."
"Aww, man!" Nick said. He went over and scraped the toothpaste off with his finger, then washed his hands. "So close," he mumbled.
Owen patted him on the shoulder. "Overall, you did a really excellent job, this morning. Let's get you some breakfast."
Nick was just finishing eating, when Owen heard Tony's alarm go off. Owen made his way down to the six-year-old's room and stuck his head in the door. "How are you feeling, buddy?"
"Great!" Tony replied with a huge smile. He was already out of bed and was attempting to make it, which for him meant pulling all of the covers up so they covered his pillow.
"That's great to hear," Owen said, smiling back. The previous day, Tony had thrown up in the car on the way to his karate class. His friend's mom, who was giving him a ride, took a detour and dropped him off at the hospital. Unfortunately, she brought him to the ER instead of the front entrance like Owen had asked. There was a great deal of confusion when she had pulled into the ER bay asking for a Dr. Owen and saying she had a sick kid for him, but not letting the ER staff take him out of her minivan. She was not about to get charged for an ER visit and she said as much to Owen in a frantic text. By the time he got there, Arizona had been paged, and there was a debate going on among the residents about calling Social Services. For the second time in as many weeks, Owen found himself being apologized to by Jo Wilson. She had been the first one to talk to the woman and she said she should have been able to put the pieces together since Alex had told her what he was caring for some kids. Owen didn't blame her and he told her so, but he did ask her if she would sit with Tony in his office while he took care of some things around the hospital and while he was in the board meeting. She had been happy to do it.
Owen wasn't mad a Jo, but he was perturbed that so many more people knew what was going on in his personal life. He just didn't want the word to get back to Cristina, yet, and now chances of that happening had skyrockted.
A couple of minutes before the meeting was supposed to start, Tony had gotten sick again, mostly all over Jo. Owen had taken off his lab coat while he started cleaning up, and paged Alex to come and take over. Owen knew he had looked like a mess when he had finally made it to the board meeting and he hoped nobody had smelled anything foul on him.
Cristina had given him an odd look when he had spoken up about her stem-cell project. He hoped something about him hadn't offended her, but also had wondered if she was upset because he was late to the meeting. He knew well that she hated it when he was late. She had seemed fine just a little while earlier when he had seen her in the hall. Owen wondered if she had heard about what had happened in the ER. He didn't think she would react to the news with anger, but then he didn't really know that for sure.
Later that evening, during his daily Skype chat with his parents, Tony had confessed that he had eaten a bug on a dare while he waiting to be picked up after school. After some questioning, they determined that he had eaten a roly-poly. Once they had assured him that he was not going to die, Tony was suddenly starving and ate a late dinner before he went to bed. Owen was relieved that Tony seemed fully back to his normal, chipper self the next morning.
Owen shadowed Tony as he went through the rest of his morning routine. By the time they had made it to the kitchen and Owen sat Tony down with his breakfast, it was time for Nick to head out to catch his bus. Everything was running on time and according to plan. Owen followed Nick to the front door and then out onto the porch. There, he stopped. Nick had requested that Owen not accompany him to the bus stop. Owen agreed, but he always stood on the front porch so he could keep an eye on Nick until the bus came.
"Hey," he called to Nick as he crossed the yard. "What do you want for dinner tonight?" It was Wednesday, the one day of the week that neither of the boys had any after school activities. "We can make whatever you want."
Nick paused and thought for a long moment. "Pizza."
Owen laughed. "You got it." Nick smiled at him then walked away. As soon as Owen saw Nick get on the bus, he went back in to check on Tony, who was only about halfway through his breakfast. He was a notoriously slow eater, which was why Owen budgeted twice as much time for him to eat as he did for Nick.
While Nick favored his mother, Tony was a mini-Mario all the way. He had dark brown hair and big brown eyes. He was outgoing and exuberant.
Owen sat down across the table from Tony. "Nick requested pizza for dinner tonight. Is that alright with you?"
"YES!" Tony hollered, with a fist-pump for emphasis. "Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum," he continued chanting as he bounced up and down in his seat.
Twenty-minutes later, Owen walked Tony to the bus stop. They only had to wait about 2 minutes for the bus to arrive and as soon as Tony was safely on his way, Owen took off on his morning run. When he got back to the house, he took a quick shower, then grabbed something to eat on his way to the hospital.
After he parked his truck, he instinctively pulled his phone out of his briefcase to check for messages, but found that the battery was dead. With all the hubbub going on with Tony being sick, he had forgotten to plug it in to charge for the night.
Owen marched through the hospital straight to his office. As soon as he sat at his desk, he plugged his phone into its charger. It immediately sounded a new message alert. It was a text message from Alex that had been sent late the night before. It said, "Cristina knows about the kids."
Oh, hell, was all Owen had time to think before he heard a knock on his door. "Come in!" he called out as he slumped back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. He wondered how much Alex had told her and what her reaction had been. He had hoped to see her reaction in person. He looked up and saw Cristina sticking her head in the door.
"Is now a bad time?" she said.
"No! No, come on in!" Owen sat up and started to awkwardly straighten some things on his desk. As Cristina walked to the chair in front of his desk, she looked all around curiously. Owen realized this was the first time she had been in here. As she sat down, he folded his hands neatly in front of him on the table. "So, what can I do for you?"
Cristina was still surveying the room and when her eyes fell back on him, she got a strange expression on her face.
"Oh," she said. "This, um, isn't, a professional conversation."
"Okay," Owen said. He relaxed his shoulders, not having realized he had them hunched up. Just then, their eyes locked. As they gazed into each other's eyes for a long moment, Owen felt himself getting less tense. He could see a nervous air that Cristina had about her when she first sat down melt away from her.
Finally she spoke. "I know it's been less than a month, but can we skip to the part where we're friends, now?"
"Of course," Owen said, his face breaking into a huge smile. Cristina smiled back. Suddenly, Owen remembered the text he had just read. He cleared his throat. "So, I hear that you heard about the kids I'm taking care of."
"Oh, yeah, well, I saw you with one of them last night and Alex filled me in." Owen was having trouble reading her expression, but she didn't seem particularly troubled. "I think it's really great that you're able to help out Mario and Heidi," she added.
"Yeah, me, too," he said. "I hope you weren't too surprised by what you saw."
Cristina smiled. "I was at first, but, like I said Alex filled me in."
"Do you have any questions about… anything?"
Cristina's face turned serious as she thought for a moment. "No," she said. "I'm just really glad that you have this opportunity." Just then Owen identified what he hadn't been able to define in her expression. It was a hint of sadness.
Owen wanted to tell her that she didn't need to worry. That no matter what he decided about having kids he would always want her. He felt like it was too soon, so what he managed to say in that moment was, "Me, too." He smiled at her and she smiled back.
"So," she said brightly, "I have surgery now, but are you free for lunch?"
"Of course," Owen said, he smile broadening.
"Great! I'll meet you in the cafeteria." She started to get up to leave, so Owen jumped out of his chair to go open the door for her. He held the door open as she walked through, but just before she crossed the threshold she stopped and turned back to face him. "Since we're transitioning to a new phase of 'the plan,' do we need to shake hands on it or something…" Her voice trailed off as she stared deep into his eyes.
Her face was mere inches away from his. He could tell she had washed her hair that morning; the smell of her conditioner was making him light-headed. Her lips were full and pink and shiny with fresh lip-gloss. He tightened his grip on the doorknob to keep from throwing her up against the wall and kissing her, but then he realized that his lips were slowly being drawn towards hers like a magnet.
Cristina snapped out of the trance first and stepped back. "I guess not, never mind," she said. Owen moved his lips, but he couldn't speak. She smiled at him sympathetically as she turned and walked away. Owen closed his office door, then slammed his forehead against it a little too hard.
"Ow!" he exclaimed. It smarted, but he didn't care. He was all smiles.