A/N Be warned there's a rather sudden perspective change in the middle of this chapter. Just be aware when you cross the line. Also, thank you for your continued support! :)

Owen sighed. He and Cristina would not be able to have lunch together that day.

He was in the gallery watching her operate and she had just discovered that the damage was worse than expected. It was going to be at least another two hours until she was done. She looked up at him with apologies in her eyes. He smiled and nodded at her.

In the two weeks since they had decided to be friends, lunchtime had become the bread and butter of their relationship. For an hour a day, they would sit across from each other at a table in the cafeteria and talk. It wasn't much, but it seemed to be all they had time for and Owen had come to depend on it. Being with her- seeing her face and hearing her voice- recalibrated him. All the stress he was under seemed to melt away in her presence and he always went away feeling refreshed.

They talked about everything that was going on in their lives- hospital happenings, her research, his new house, their friends- except they didn't talk much about the kids Owen was caring for. He didn't think much about her lack of curiosity at first, but lately he had realized that whenever the kids did come up in conversation, she never probed. She would acknowledge what he said, then change the subject. It was starting to feel like an elephant in the room to him.

Owen got up and left the gallery. He went to the refrigerator in the attending's lounge to retrieve his lunch, but then instead of going to his office or the cafeteria, he went back to the gallery. He was going to have lunch with her, after all. He loved watching her in action, especially in cases like this one where things didn't go according to plan and she had to improvise. Improvisation was one of the things he loved about trauma surgery and he couldn't pass up the opportunity to watch her play it by ear. She had her own unique style and she often managed to surprise him.

After he was done eating, Owen made a round of the surgical floor to make sure every thing was in order and to check the surgical board. When he was done, he went to his office and started looking at some financial reports. They would be finalizing the budget for next year, soon. After about two minutes, it was clear to him that he wasn't going to be able concentrate, so he grabbed a pile of things he needed to sign and headed back to the gallery.

When he got there he was surprised to see that Cristina had completely changed her approach to the repair. He was upset that he had missed what had happened to cause the change and made a mental note to ask her later.

Owen settled down in the back row of the gallery with his paperwork. He stuck to the random routine stuff that didn't require much thought, so he could keep one eye on the surgery.

Cristina was done with the repair at about 2:30. She allowed someone else to close for her. Owen packed up his stuff and dropped it by his office before heading down to the scrub room.

"Hey!" he said as he closed the door behind him.

"Hey, yourself," Cristina replied with a smile. Owen suddenly became acutely aware that they were alone together in the small scrub room. They hadn't been alone together since the day she had come to his office and asked it they could be friends. They always chatted when they crossed paths around the hospital and, of course, they had lunch out in the open for all to see in the lunchroom. It was easy to be just friends in that environment. It was easy to talk about topics that were easy to talk about and avoid the messy things and the uncomfortable things. He leaned against the sink as she scrubbed out.

"So, I stepped out in the gallery for a few minutes and when I came back you had completely changed your approach. Why was that?"

Cristina bit her lip. She often did that when she was searching for words. "I can't give you a quick answer to that," she said. "Are you up for a late lunch? Or a second lunch?"

Owen smiled. "I wish I could, but I have to head out pretty soon."

"That's right! It's Wednesday." Cristina said, giving him a suspicious glance mixed with a smirk. "You always leave early on Wednesday."

Owen sighed inwardly. What he said next was going to dampen her cheeky mood. "That's right," he said. "Neither of the boys have any after school activities on Wednesdays, so I try to be home when they get off the bus." Cristina's smile remained fixed in place, but she stared intently at her hands. Owen knew her scrub out routine, she should be done by now. "So," he continued, "we have extra time after homework to have fun and, AND, the best part is, we make individual sized pizzas and you can have any toppings you want." Cristina glanced at him quickly and smiled. She turned off the water and dried off her hands. "You should join us some time," he added.

Cristina tossed the towel she was using into the bin, then leaned against the sink and crossed her arms. She stared at the floor in front of her for a long moment, then turned her face toward him and said, "Yeah, maybe."

Owen smiled broadly. "I'll make sure to stock up on parmesan cheese just in case." Cristina laughed. Over the years, he had often teased her about the vast quantities of parmesan cheese she would dump on her pizza.

"You better," she said, her cheeky smirk having returned. Owen started to move toward her, then stopped himself. In the past he would have rewarded her smirk by putting his arms around her and kissing her on her cheek, or more likely on her lips. He was suddenly aware that there was no lunchroom table keeping him from touching her and reminding him they were just friends.

He took a step backwards. "I better get going," he said.

"Okay," she said. She turned again and looked deep into his eyes. Owen took another step backwards and put his hands behind his back.

"Okay," he said. He turned and escaped from that room as quickly as he could. As he strode back to his office he decided that they had to start seriously moving forward. They needed to get out of the lunchroom and start having deeper conversations. He needed to turn her 'maybe' into a 'yes.' He could sense her reluctance and her fear and he had to figure out how to breakthrough it. He hoped the right opportunity would present itself, soon.

Saturday morning, Owen took the boys to flag football practice. He watched Tony's team practice and when it was over, the two of them went over to watch Nick's team. Owen angled his chair so he could watch the practice and keep an eye on where Tony was playing with one of his teammates.

He had been sitting there for about a minute when he noticed one the kids on Nick's team waving at him as he ran down the field. "Hi, Dr. Hunt!" It was Ethan Dawson, the boy that Owen had watched over at the hospital when both of his parents were injured in a car accident they day after they had moved to Seattle. Ethan's father, Paul, had survived, but his mother had succumbed to her injuries. Owen smiled and waved back at him. He felt a pang of mixed feelings. His relationship with Ethan was what had caused, or at least exposed, the rift between he and Cristina. Now, it felt like that had happened a lifetime ago.

Just then, the coach called a five-minute break. Nick ran over and Owen handed him his sports drink bottle.

"Looking good out there," he said to his older charge.

"Thanks," Nick said. He was sweaty and out of breath. He raised one of his hands to shade his eyes as he surveyed his surroundings.

After a minute or so, Owen heard someone calling his name. "Dr. Hunt! Dr. Hunt!" Ethan was coming toward them followed by his dad.

"Hi Ethan, Paul," Owen said, acknowledging the two of them. Owen put his hand on Nick's shoulder. "Do you know Nick?"

"Kind of," Ethan said.

Owen gently squeezed Nick's shoulder. "Sure, we're teammates," Nick said. He smiled at Ethan, who smiled back, broadly.

"Hey, Tony!" Owen called out. "Come here for a minute!"

Tony ran over and stood next to Owen. "Hi, I'm Tony!"

"Tony, this is Ethan and his dad, Mr. Dawson."

"Uncle Owen's not my dad and he's not my uncle, but he's taking care of us because our parents are busy in far away places."

Owen chuckled. "That pretty much sums it up."

Just then, Nick and Ethan's coach blew his whistle to indicate that their break was over. They ran back onto the field.

Tony looked up at Owen. "Can I go back and play?"

"Sure, buddy, just don't go too far." Owen watched Tony as he scampered off to rejoin his friend, then he turned to Paul. "How are you doing?"

Paul was staring off into the distance, presumably watching Ethan. "I'm doing all right," he said with a smile.

"Has your recovery gone okay? If you don't mind my asking…"

"Yeah, I'm doing really well. Dr. Yang did a great job. It's been- I won't say it's been easy, but I'm a lot better now. I started my new job this week."

"That's great," Owen said. "How's Ethan doing?"

"Pretty good, I think. He's made a couple friends in his class. I think he's adjusting pretty well."

"That's great."

The two men stood and watched the practice in silence for a couple of minutes before Paul spoke again. "I really appreciate you watching out for Ethan while his mom and I were…while I was out of commission. He still talks about you."

Owen smiled. "It was no problem. We got to be good pals," Owen said. "He's a great kid. A little hard to keep up with sometimes…"

Paul smiled. "They do have a lot of energy at that age. So, if you don't mind my asking, what did the little guy mean by 'busy in far away places'?"

Owen smiled. "Nick and Tony are the sons of an old Army buddy of mine. He's deployed and their mom got an internship in New York that she couldn't pass up. So, I'm staying with them for the next three months."

"That's really great. Do you have any kids of your own?"

"No," Owen, still smiling. It felt awkward not to elaborate, but he didn't know what could add at that moment.

"Uncleowenuncleowen!" Tony and his friend were running toward him. Tony had his hands cupped. "Look at this bug I found! Do you know what it is?"

"It was good to see you," Paul said.

"You, too," said Owen. "We'll see you around." As Paul walked away, Owen leaned over so he could look at the bug. "That's a moth, Tony. It is NOT edible."

A little while later, the coach blew his whistle once again and all the kids ran off the field. They said their goodbyes then they got in the Palladino's minivan to head home. It hurt Owen's soul a bit to drive that thing, but it was the best thing to use with the boys. He hated to admit he was getting used to it.

On the drive home, Nick piped up from the middle row. "Hey, how do you know that kid?"

"His parents were patients at the hospital."

"Where's his mom?"

Owen paused. No way to sugarcoat it. "She passed away. We tried our best to save her, but we couldn't."

"Oh," Nick said. "I'm sorry."

"Thank you," Owen said. "That is one of the hard things about being a doctor."

They rode in silence for a few minutes before Nick spoke again. "I've never heard him talk to anyone before. He doesn't really have any friends on the team."

"I'll be his friend!" Tony called out from the back of the van. Owen smiled.

"I will, too," Nick said. "Even though he's not from my school or in my grade."

Owen pulled into their driveway and turned off the van. He turned around to look at them. "That's really nice of you, boys. Did you decide which movie you want to watch?"

"STAR WARS!" Tony screeched. The original Star Wars movie was the only one of them he was allowed to watch, so far.

"Is that okay with you, Nick?"

"Of course!" he said with a grin.

Just as Owen was getting the boys settled down with lunch and the movie, his phone rang. "Hey, good timing!" he said after he answered it.

"Good timing is one of my talents," Cristina replied.

"We're almost there," Cristina said. She looked over at Shane, who was driving. He looked back at her and scowled. She hadn't told him where they were headed. He's going to be seriously confused when we make their first stop, she thought with a bemused smile. "How was your morning?" she said to Owen.

"It was good," Owen replied. "Took the kids to flag football and they seem to have worn themselves out, at least for a while. They're eating lunch, now."

"Oh, no," Cristina said.

"What?" Owen said. She could detect a tone of alarm in his voice.

"If you feed them, they'll become un-worn out and you'll have to wear them out all over again."

Owen laughed. "Well, I kind of have to feed them. They'll wear themselves out again later at the birthday party they're going to…and, oh, um, they'll have cake there-"

"-which will un-wear them out again," Cristina said, finishing his statement.

"That's pretty much the name of the game," he said with another laugh. She couldn't help smiling. She loved hearing him laugh. She loved making him laugh even more. It was one of the many perks of being his friend, even though it didn't quite make up for the perks of being more than his friend. It would have to do for now.

"Oh!" She called out suddenly.

"What!?" Owen said.

"Turn here! Turn here!" Shane slammed on the breaks and turned onto the road that led to the trailer. She could practically see smoke coming out of Shane's ears. She had been telling him for days that he needed to get out of the hospital, and when he didn't comply, she said he had to go to an event with her. As an added bonus for herself, she made him drive. She hadn't told him where they were going, because she knew he would refuse to go. It wouldn't be long now before he knew all.

"Sorry, just keeping Shane on course," she said to Owen. "Is that the Star Wars theme music I hear in the background?"

"Yep, the boys are watching one of the movies."

"Which one?"

"The first one."

"Please say you mean 'A New Hope' and not 'The Phantom Menace.'"

Owen was quiet for a moment. "Well, it's 'A New Hope,' of course."

"Oh good, at least they're being brought up to have good taste."

"Whoa, whoa, hold on," Owen said. "Have you been a Star Wars fan all these years and I never knew it?"

"Uh, yeah! It's not like I was hiding it or anything."

"You're going to be the death of me," she heard him mumble.

"Dr. Yang," Shane said. "What- what is that?" They had driven into the clearing where Derek's trailer sat, or lay. The Shepherds hadn't decided its fate, so it was still lying on its back with its door pointed to the heavens. Shane parked the car a ways back from it.

"It's a trailer! Don't worry, it's not our final destination, but I am going to need your help." Owen had asked her to stop by the trailer and look through it one more time to see if he had left anything there. He hadn't been back there since the day he discovered its unfortunate state.

"How am I supposed to get in there?" she asked Owen. One of Cristina's ulterior motives for bringing Shane along was that Owen said she might need help getting in and out of the trailer, and now she could see why.

Owen described how he had climbed up on top of it to get in the door. They hung up and she got out of the car. "Come on, Shane!"

As they walked toward the trailer, Shane said, "The original three Star Wars were definitely the best, but for what it's worth, I didn't think 'Revenge of the Sith' was all that bad."

Cristina scoffed. "That's not worth much, Trekkie."

Shane stopped in his tracks. "Wha-? Uh, how did you know?"

"You named one of your interns 'Q,' now come on and climb up on this thing." Cristina climbed up on the trailer first as Owen had told her to and Shane quickly followed. They gingerly walked over to the front door.

Shane eyed her suspiciously. "If you're not a Trekkie, how do you know about 'Q?'"

"Ok, let's see if we can get this thing open." Cristina used the key Owen gave her to unlock the door and when the two of them opened the door, they were nearly knocked over by the smell of cleaning supplies. Just like Owen had said, there was a chair just below the opening. Shane helped her climb down onto it.

It took Cristina a moment to get her bearings in the sideways trailer. She wished she had brought a flashlight because it was pretty dark down there. After a moment, Cristina carefully stepped down off of the chair. It was seriously weird to be walking on the wall.

"Do you need to me to climb down there, too?" Shane called down to her.

"Nope. I've got this. You can just wait up there until I'm ready to get out."

"OK, he said. She heard him sit down a little ways from the door.

She called Owen back. "Okay, I'm in. Anything in particular I need to look for?"

"No. Between the firehouse and the trailer and now the Palladinos, I'm not entirely sure where all my stuff has ended up. I didn't have time to be very thorough that day."

She decided to start at one end of the trailer and work her way across it. She crawled through the opening that led to the bedroom area. "My god, Owen," she said. "I'll never understand how you lived in this thing for so long. I mean, I'm sorry this happened to the trailer, but you've got to admit you getting your own place is a silver lining."

"Oh!" Owen said, as if he had just thought of something.

"Oh, what?"

"You still need to see my new place! Do you want to go with me to see the house, tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?" Cristina didn't have plans. She going to have to meet the kids Owen was caring for sooner or later. She was thinking that it might not be a bad idea to have the kids around as chaperones while he gave her the tour. She felt like it was important for them to keep their boundaries for the time being while they worked things out, but she also found herself fantasizing about falling into his arms pretty often these days. She'd just started thinking about how she had nearly jumped him in the scrub room earlier in the week, when Owen spoke.

"Yeah, I'm going to drop the kids off to visit their grandmother at the rehab center for couple hours tomorrow afternoon. They went there last weekend with their mom and there is a really nice rec room with a ping-pong table and stuff. They're looking forward to it."

"Oh!, Cristina said. "Their mom was here last weekend?"

"Yeah, she flies back to visit every other weekend."

Cristina was incredulous. "How come you didn't you tell me?"

"You never asked." He was right about that. She hadn't asked him about last weekend because she had assumed he was just hanging out with the kids. Now she was wondering what he had done on his own all last weekend, but it would have been awkward to ask him just then.

"What time?" she asked instead.

"Pick you up at 12:45? We can bring lunch with us, if you want."

"Yeah, okay, that sounds good." She had heard so much from him about the house during their lunches, she was actually anxious to see it. "I'm going to let you go now so I can look around in here. I'll give you whatever I find tomorrow."

"Great! Have fun at the barbeque. Say 'hi' to the Shepherds for me."

"You got it. Bye, Owen."

"Bye."

Cristina found a few odds and ends of Owen's stuff in the trailer: sock and a razor, among other things. She was making a final sweep through the trailer, when something sticking out from under one of the drawers that had fallen out of the dresser caught her eye. It was a little leather pouch that he kept some of his valuables in. She sat down on the wall and opened it.

First, she pulled out the tie clip that had been his grandfathers. It was gold and had an eagle flying off of it. There was also a tiny Swiss army knife that his dad gave him when he was a kid. The rest of the items were round. She remembered that he had a few unusual coins that he had acquired over the years. When she dumped them out into the palm of her hand, she got a shock. In amongst the coins was Owen's wedding ring. She felt like the world stopped as she sat and stared at it. She was overcome with emotion. She thought about the day she had put it on his finger and the day not so long ago that she had watched him take it off. She wiped a tear from her cheek. She'd loved being married to him. She understood why they had to end their marriage due to the lawsuit and even why Owen had seemed to need it for a new start, but deep down she wished they hadn't done it. She stared at the ring and got lost in memories.

"Are you okay down there, Dr. Yang?"

Cristina snapped out of her reverie and quickly put the items back in the pouch before shoving it in her pocket. "Coming right up!"

A little while later, Cristina found herself in Meredith's living room. The two of them had gone inside so Meredith could feed Zach. Meredith and Derek had invited a bunch of their friends over for a barbeque. They were both starved for adult interaction, but it was tough to get people to make the trip out to the woods. Finally, they had resorted to bribing people with food, as Cristina had bluntly put it, and the plan had worked.

From their vantage point by the window, they could see all the action. Derek and Alex were standing by the grill drinking beer and trying to act manly. Callie and April were sitting on a blanket by the sand box watching Zola and Sophia play. They were watching them like hawks to be sure they didn't ingest too much sand.

Shane and Richard were sitting on the porch deep in conversation. Cristina was glad to see that. Shane had nearly turned the car around and gone home when he realized they were at the Shepherd's house. Derek had hurt him deeply when he had told him he didn't have the right kind of talent to be a neuro surgeon. Shane pouted and refused to talk for about the first 30 minutes they were there, but now he looked relaxed. She was sure Webber was laying some good wisdom on him.

"I was surprised you showed up with him," Meredith said. "I'm pretty sure I said there were no residents allowed."

"It was a last second decision. His sickly I've-been-in-the-hospital-for-3-days-straight pallor was depressing me."

"Like you can talk. I've heard you are just as bad, lately."

"At least I make it a point to go outside once in a while and sit on a bench for a few minutes and get some fresh air! Did you know his group of residents hangs out by the dumpsters? The dumpsters, Meredith. It's bizarre and the air out there is not at all fresh!"

Meredith chuckled. After a moment, she said, "I really shouldn't have been surprised you brought him. You do have a history of bringing home strays."

Cristina scoffed. "I do?"

"You do. You brought Lexie to my house one night a long time ago she was a frazzled intern," Meredith said wistfully. "That was…that was the first time she danced it out with us. I know that you did that for her, but it helped me to start- to start to give her a chance."

"I did it for you, too," Cristina said. She watched her friend blink away tears as she stared out the window. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Meredith spoke again.

"Shane is lucky. He's really lucky that you've taken him under your wing. Lexie learned a lot from you. Not just medicine, either, you helped her build her confidence. She admired you so much."

Cristina didn't know what to say. She didn't think of herself as a particularly good teacher back then, but Lexie had been an amazing student. It suddenly occurred to Cristina that Meredith had probably been thinking a lot about Lexie since she had been secluded out here. When else would she have had time to grieve?

"Anyway," Meredith said brightly. "What's the latest on you and Owen?"

Cristina thought about the ring in her pocket. She didn't want to talk about that just yet. "Well," she said, "he invited me to go see his house."

"Reeeeally," Meredith said. "And when will that happen?"

"Tomorrow."

"Ooo, so you're going to meet the kids?"

"Nope, they're going to be visiting their grandmother."

"Huh," Meredith said. Zach had finished nursing and was fast asleep. Meredith rearranged her shirt then cradled him in her arms. "How is it going with them?"

"What do you mean?"

"Owen and the kids. Have they been getting along? Is it going okay so far?"

"I don't- I don't know."

"Doesn't he talk about it?"

"He doesn't- well, no, not really."

"Isn't that odd? I mean, isn't that kind of an important part of his whole plan thing- to decide if he wants kids? Why wouldn't he talk about it?"

"I don't ask!" Cristina said a little too loudly. "Okay? I don't ask because I know he's doing just fine- GREAT, in fact. It is totally natural for him. It's like-it's like-he's a frog and someone threw him in water! I don't ask. I don't need to." Cristina crossed her arms and turned her face away from Meredith.

Just then there was a commotion outside. Derek and all the others were running toward the sand box. April was holding Zola and Cristina could see blood spreading down her shirt. Cristina jumped out of her chair and ran outside. "Hey! Wait for me!" Meredith yelled after her as she went to lay Zach down.

As soon as she was outside, Cristina could hear Zola screaming. Derek was holding her now and was walking quickly toward the house. April and Callie, who was holding a screaming Sophia, were trailing behind him.

"What happened?!" she said as she met up with Derek, then fell in step with him.

"She tripped and hit her mouth on the edge of the sandbox," April said.

Meredith met them on the porch. As soon as she saw her, Zola lunged out of Derek's arms toward her. "Shhh, it's okay, baby," she said soothingly. Zola had buried her face in Meredith's neck and she tried to turn her so Derek could see into her mouth as she screamed. "Can you tell what happened?"

Derek put his hands on her cheeks. Cristina was standing beside him and craned her neck to try and get a look in her mouth. "Hey, hey, hey!" he said, softly. "I know it hurts, but you're okay, sweetie." Zola gradually stopped screaming as she stared into Derek's eyes. Alex handed him a paper towel and he wiped the blood from Zola's chin. The bleeding had slowed down significantly and after a few moments, Zola's breath was still jerky, but she was calm. She put her head on Meredith's shoulder and wrapped her arm tightly around her neck.

Everybody breathed a collective sigh of relief. "She bit her lip, but it doesn't look that bad," Derek said.

"That's where most of the blood came from, but she also knocked one of her teeth loose," Cristina chimed. "I'm pretty sure it needs to come out. You'll want to make an appointment with a dentist for Monday. Just feed her soft foods until then and give her some kind of over the counter pain med. I'd go ahead and extract it myself if I had the right tools." Everybody who had gathered around stared at her.

"So, what, are you a dentist now?" Alex said incredulously.

"Um, no," she said. "But, it's super easy. I've seen it done."

"Okay, then," Meredith said. "Come on Zola, let's get you get cleaned up. April, I'm assuming you'll want to borrow a fresh shirt?"

"Yes, please," April said gratefully.

Twenty minutes later, everybody had been cleaned up. Cristina and Meredith were back in their seats by the window, but now Meredith was cradling her older child, who had fallen asleep in her arms.

The people outside were grouped differently now. Richard was by the grill with Derek, no doubt giving him grilling advice. Callie and Alex were on the deck with Sophie, who was sitting at the table scribbling with crayons, and April and Shane were walking around the back yard, talking and laughing. The two of them got along really well. Shane hadn't complained at all about being on her service. Cristina figured it was because with Kepner, he got to do more surgery and less paperwork, but maybe it went deeper than that. Maybe he was destined to be a trauma surgeon.

Suddenly, the silence she and Meredith were sitting in started to feel awkward to Cristina. She thought about what she had said just before Zola got hurt. She knew that Owen was doing fine with the kids, because she knew him so well. If he was overly stressed out or having a bad time of it, she would be able to tell. He seemed normal, though. On the happy side of normal, actually. It was just as she predicted: he was a natural at it.

She could see out of the corner of her eye that Meredith staring at her. She was sure Meredith wanted to grill her on the Owen situation. She sighed. "Go ahead and ask."

"Twice," Meredith said. Cristina looked at her with surprise. "Twice recently you have offered to do procedures on my children that I'm pretty sure you're not qualified for!"

"Okay…"

"First, you offer to circumcise Zach, and now you want to extract Zola's tooth!"

"It's not that I want to, per se, I just could…"

"Let me guess: this is also because of Saul, your not-really-a-dad step dad?"

"Yep. He was one of the top oral surgeons in Beverly Hills." She paused. She was about to admit something to Meredith she never had before. "He used to let me watch his surgery tapes."

Meredith chuckled. "Seriously?"

"Yes. While you were watching Ellis Grey do whipples, I was watching Saul Rubenstein extract wisdom teeth."

"Well, I didn't really have a choice, but it's awesome that he let you do that. Between that and taking you to brises to watch circumcisions, which, I still can't believe, by the way, it sounds like he had something to do with you becoming a surgeon."

"Not- I mean, he didn't have anything to do with me wanting to be one." She had never had any interest in what Saul did until after her father's death.

"Well, it sounds like he at least encouraged your interest."

Cristina had never really thought about it that way before. "Yeah, he did," she said. She had always thought of Saul as her mother's husband. Saul was just always around. He didn't really interfere, but he did manage to act as a buffer between she and her mom, two very strong-minded females. "I think he partly did it to keep me out of my mom's hair. When my dad was alive, I only spent half of my time at their house. Once I was there full time…well, he kept she and I from killing each other."

"But you still wouldn't describe him as a parent?"

"No, he just…wasn't. He left all the parenting decisions and discipline and such to my mom, though I think he probably made some of his opinions known behind closed doors."

"Did you ever wish he was more dad-like?"

"No, I only had one dad. That's how I wanted it."

"Well," Meredith said, "you were lucky. I know that some people are made to handle single parenthood beautifully, but my mother was not one of them. I bore the full brunt of her crazy head on and no kid should have to do that. I wish she'd had someone to talk to behind closed doors and, you know, cart me off to inappropriate religious ceremonies to give her a break-"

"The ceremony itself was not inappropriate at all!"

"Whatever, count your blessings."

Cristina pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. She didn't know what to say, so she changed the subject. "So, you come back in two weeks?"

"Yep. I go back two weeks from Monday. Derek goes back two weeks after that."

"Good."

"So, you think Owen's going to decide he wants kids?"

Cristina sighed. "Yes. It's obvious and it's totally what I predicted."

"You predicted it?"

"Yes."

"Mmm-hmm," she said skeptically. "So, what about you?"

"What about me?"

"Yes. You agreed to his plan. You agreed to it apparently already knowing what he was going to figure out, so what about you? Have you figured anything out?" Cristina rested her forehead on her knees. Meredith continued, "Maybe the better question is what did you predict you would figure out?"

Cristina sighed. "I don't know. I thought that letting him go to be free to have the life he wanted was- was the best thing I could do for him. It's just- I want him. I want to be in his life, I just don't know how." She raised her head. "You should hear him when he mentions those kids. He always lights up. He's-he's all in, going home early to spend time with them and making tiny pizzas with them…"

"There's a place for you to fit in. Don't be afraid to explore it. Also, just because he's having a good time right now doesn't mean-"

"Trust me," Cristina said. "I know him."

Meredith shook her head. "I don't get the point of this plan if you already know everything and you don't talk about anything."

"We can, we will, I'm just- we're just-"

"You're scared."

"I'm not ready quite yet."

Just then, Derek popped his head in the door. "We're almost ready to eat!" he said.

The rest of the day was spent laughing and talking with the group, but the whole time, her conversation with Meredith was nagging at Cristina in the back of her mind. She had nothing to be afraid of, she kept telling herself. If she wasn't afraid, then there wasn't any reason to avoid the topic. She would ask him about the kids tomorrow. I can do this, became her mantra.

Owen picked Cristina up right on time. Cristina had spent all night and all morning telling herself she had no reason to be nervous, but as soon as she saw his truck pull up in front of Alex's house, she had butterflies in her stomach.

They stopped and got food from their favorite Tai restaurant, then headed to the house. When they got there, Owen hopped out of the truck to come around and open her door for her. When he gave her his hand to help her down, she felt a little chill go up her spine. They rarely ever touched these days and it never went without notice. Once she was safely on the ground, he gestured toward the house. "So, what do you think?" he said.

Cristina made a conscious effort not to let her jaw drop open. "It's bigger than I expected." Cristina realized that she must have tuned Owen out when he was talking about the house more than she thought. She had missed the fact that it was three stories high.

"Oh, yeah?" Owen said.

"Yeah," Cristina replied. "Also, it's, uh, yellow."

"It is," Owen said crossing his arms and turning toward it with a critical eye. "I've gone back and forth on whether or not I want to repaint it. It was white then I was a kid."

"When you were a kid?" Cristina asked, turning toward him.

"Yeah, I used to ride my bike down this street on my way to my best friend's house. I always liked this house."

"You remember it?"

"Sure! You've got to admit it stands out."

Cristina looked up and down the street. He was right. The other house were also large, but they were much more modern. This one was Victorian style, with a huge wrap-around porch on the first level and a matching one nearly as big on the second. It was quite yellow, with white trim and accents.

"So anyway, I've been debating on the color, because it is a little bright. I could take it back to plain white, or maybe gray, but then I think this color is growing on me."

Cristina was staring at it intently. Suddenly she was speaking what she was thinking. "It's…the color of urine from the healthiest of kidneys."

"What?!" Owen said, bursting out laughing.

"That's not- hey, that's not a bad thing!"

"Oh, I'm definitely changing it, now."

"What? No, you don't have to! Don't mind me."

"It's perfectly alright," Owen said with a chuckle. "Come on, let's eat on the front porch. It's a beautiful day and I don't have a table, yet." The two of them sat on chairs that were on the porch and enjoyed their food. They chatted about the usual things. They covered some hospital business, then she filled him in on the barbeque.

"Oh!" She said suddenly, "Here's your stuff!" In addition to her purse, she had been carrying a bag containing the objects she had found in the trailer. Most of them, anyway. She handed Owen the bag and subconsciously held her breath as he looked through it.

"Yep, just as I thought: bunch of random junk. Thank you for doing that."

Cristina released her breath. "No problem!" She had not given Owen back the small leather pouch and she was relieved that he didn't miss it. She wasn't ready to let go of his wedding ring, just yet.

Their topics of conversation never got around to the kids, but Cristina was still determined to bring them up.

When they were done eating, they started the tour. First, he showed her the outside of the house. It was clear that it hadn't had the best maintenance in recent years, but the parts that had been worked on so far looked really nice. She loved the backyard with its nice shady trees.

Finally, it was time to go into the house. Before opened the door, Owen paused. "There a lot of construction going on in here right now."

"I can handle it."

"Remember the first month we were in the firehouse?" Cristina had nearly lost her mind that first month with all the dust and painting and other annoyances that came with remodeling.

"Ugg, yes that was horrible!" She exclaimed. Owen looked a tiny bit taken aback. "I just mean the remodeling part was horrible, of course," she added quickly.

"No," Owen said, "that's okay. You were going through an extremely difficult time back then." It was true. Cristina had been deep in the throws of her PTSD, unable to go in the OR and questioning her future as a doctor. She had probably gone over-the-top with complaining about the remodeling at the time, because it was a distraction from the bigger issues she was dealing with. Through it all, Owen was always there to make her feel safe and he had been incredibly patient with her.

"I never would have survived it if it weren't for you."

Owen smiled, "Oh, come one, it wasn't THAT dusty!"

Cristina laughed, "You know what I meant."

"I do,'" he said, They looked in each others eyes for a long moment, then he turned and put his hand on the doorknob. "So, are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be!" Cristina said.

It indeed reminded her of the firehouse only on a much larger scale. There was no furniture. The living room was half painted and it appeared that it was the holding place for debris. The kitchen was totally gutted. All the cabinets had been torn out and there was a half-finished island in the middle of it. Eventually, they made it to the back of the house, which was where the most serious construction was going on.

"I decided to move the master bedroom down here," he said. "The previous owner used the den back here as a bedroom, so I decided to expand it to include the space that used to be the office and build in a proper bathroom. There was previously just a half bath on this floor." There was stuff in the way, so she couldn't go look out of it, but Cristina could tell the windows had a nice view of the back yard. The master bathroom was totally blocked off.

The second floor had two bedrooms, a living space that would be converted to an office, and a master bedroom that would be converted to a large casual living space. There was an air mattress on the floor of one of the bedrooms.

"Is that where you slept last weekend?" she said incredulously.

"Yeah," he said. He laughed at the expression on her face. "Don't look so horrified! What did you think I was sleeping on at the firehouse?"

"A bed!" she exclaimed. She figured he would have bought himself one by now.

"It's on order," he said with a smile. "It'll be ready by the time the master bedroom is done."

"What is it being custom made or something?" she asked half-joking.

"Yep," he said with a cheeky grin.

"Owen Hunt, I'm intrigued!"

"Mm-hmm, you'll have to stay that way for a while, yet," he said as he led her out of the room.

"Tease," she mumbled.

"What was that?" he asked.

"Never mind. So, what did you do here all by your lonesome last weekend?" she asked as they climbed the stairs to the third floor.

"Oh, I wasn't lonesome for much of it. I spent a lot of time with Ken going over plans for the house. He was kind enough to do on the weekend since my time is so limited. You remember Ken who worked on the firehouse?"

"Yep," Cristina said. At the time she had called him OhmygodtheykilledKenny to Meredith, but never to Owen.

The third floor had two small bedrooms. He led her into the one on the right first. "This is going to be the music room. I'll keep my guitar up here and also set up my drum kit."

"You have a drum kit?"

"Yep. It's been in the attic at my mom's for way too long."

"Are you sure you don't want to use one of the rooms on the second floor?" This was the first of the bedrooms Owen had told her his plans for. The rest of them, he had just described as bedrooms.

"Yep," he said. "I figure up here the noise won't bother anyone-"

"Your music never bothered me!" She used to love it when she would come home and find him strumming away on his guitar.

Owen smiled broadly. "I know," he said, "but this room also has this amazing view." She followed him over to the window. You could see downtown Seattle over the treetops.

"Wow," she said.

"It's even more beautiful at sunset." The two of them stood side-by-side and looked out the window for a long moment. She had to admit it was a spectacular view.

"This is a great house, Owen. I really, I can see why you love it and I think I can see where you're going with it."

Owen turned toward her and smiled. "I'm glad."

"It's a big house."

"It is. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with all of the space, yet."

"Really?" she asked.

Owen looked back out the window for a long moment. "Really," he finally said.

His response was not terribly convincing. As they stood in silence, she decided to ask the question she had been worrying over for the last 24 hours. She took a deep breath, "So, how is it going with the kids?"

"Really well. They're a lot of fun," Owen said. Cristina nodded. She was trying to think of a follow-up question when he spoke again. "We ran into Ethan yesterday."

"Seriously?" she said.

"Yeah. He's on Nick's flag football team. He was there with his dad."

"Wow. How did he look?"

"Paul?"

"Yeah."

"Just fine. Physically, anyway. There was a sadness about him, though."

"Well, I'm sure. He lost his wife."

"Yeah." Owen gave her a significant look and she got goose bumps. Her mind jumped to his ring, which she was holding on to for safekeeping, or so she told herself.

"How about Ethan?" she asked.

"I only saw him for a minute, but he seemed okay."

"Hmm," she said. "I hope so. That's- it's really tough, what he's going through." Cristina knew too well what he was going through. She could still feel the pain of losing her father acutely at times. She wrapped her arms around herself. Owen hesitated, then stepped over to her and put his arms around her. After a moment, when she rested her head on his shoulder, he stroked her hair. They stood like that for several minutes, neither of them speaking. Cristina felt safe and peaceful and she didn't want it to end, but finally, she pulled back. "Thank you."

"Of course," he replied, stepping back.

Cristina sighed. "Well, I'm glad you're having a good time with the kids."

Owen nodded. "We're getting along really well." He dropped his eyes to the floor. He was acting like he was examining something on the top of his shoe, but she was sure he was working up the courage to say something.

"When I- Seeing Ethan just-" He sighed. "I'm getting along great with the boys and I got along great with Ethan. Last night I was thinking, Ethan is a great kid- a really great kid, but I wonder if part of what I- reason I was thinking-"

"If it was less about him and more about his situation?" Owen nodded. "He was-It looked like he was going to be in dire straights," she said. "With his father not responding and his grandmother not willing to take him and nobody stepping up… It wouldn't take much of a savior complex to want to help him and you've got a huge one."

"Hey!" he said in mock offense. She smiled at him warmly. It made sense. On the one hand, him wanting to jump in and save Ethan, really was probably about wanting to step in and save the day. On the other hand, he was seeing what normal everyday life was like with kids and was enjoying it.

"So what do you think that means? Going forward, I mean," she said.

"I'm not sure, yet," Owen said. Cristina believed him.

A little while later, Owen dropped Cristina back at Alex's house. After they said their goodbyes and she started to leave, she stopped and spun around.

"Hey!" She said.

"Yeah?" Owen was just about to climb back in the truck. He had hopped out to open her door.

"Am I still invited to pizza night on Wednesday?"

"Of course!" he said with a huge smile.

She smiled back. "Great. I'm putting it on my calendar for this week."

"Sounds good. Lunch tomorrow?"

"Of course!" she replied. She was smiling from ear to ear as she walked toward the house.

When she walked in the house, Alex was sitting on the couch in the living room watching TV. "Hey Dr., uh, Colgate!" he said awkwardly.

Cristina laughed. "Is that the best you can do?" she called as she walked up the stairs.

"Dr.- Dr.-"

"Just give it up, Alex!" she called from the top of the stairs.

Cristina went into her and shut the door. She got Owen's leather patch out of her drawer and sat on the bed. She would have to give it back to him eventually. Once he realizes it's not at the firehouse, he might get worried, she thought. But if I give it back to him now I'll have to explain why I kept it.

She fished his ring out of the pouch and put it in the palm of her hand. She couldn't put the reason she kept it into words just then, she just knew that she needed to have it. She felt like they had made good progress that day. She lay down on the bed and drifted off to sleep feeling more hopeful than she had in a long time.