Chapter 6

"Come on, look excited, Hunt! This is going to be fun." Cristina tried to convince Owen. He was looking hesitant and hadn't said anything since they arrived.

"Hmm. We have very different definitions of the word 'fun'"

"Fun is a universal word for having an amazingly awesome time! Now stop being grumpy, you sound like an old man." Cristina quipped.

"You do realize that I'm only two years older than you, right?"

"Am I sensing fear? Is Owen Hunt actually afraid of something? This is almost too good to be true."

Owen stuck his tongue out to her: "How's that for old?"

Cristina decided to ignore him, instead pulling him toward the cabin door by the sleeve.

"Come. On."

Owen decided he'd better follow her unless he wanted to get badly hurt. She looked so determined that she would have probably dragged him if he didn't cooperate. And seeing how he was at least twice her size, that wouldn't go well. For either of them!

"Jeff's an old friend of my dad. Wait here, I'll go talk to him." She headed towards the back room but abruptly turned around toward when she remembered Jeff's particularity: "And don't touch ANYTHING. He hates it when people play with his stuff. I don't want him to hate me just because I brought a newbie".

The shack was actually bigger than he initially thought. On the right of the door, six or seven surf boards were arranged. They were different shapes and sizes, with different designs. Owen made a few steps to take a closer look. They were all beautiful and extremely colourful, but his favourite was definitely a board with a little fishing hut on a beach, with the sun shining on the crystal water. It actually reminded him of Hawaii where his mum would take him for a few weeks over summer break. Every year, before they went, Owen would get really excited and tell all his friends how he would learn to surf. However, he never did get to it.

"Do you surf?" A deep voice said. Owen turned to meet the gaze of a middle aged man, who was at least a head shorter than him. However, Owen certainly felt smaller when the man started sizing him up.

"Uhh, no, not really. I was just admiring the boards. They're quite the eye catchers. But where, if you don't mind me asking, do you surf? This is Seattle after all." Owen asked.

"Haha, I don't mind at all. I never miss a chance to talk about the wonder years. I used to be an avid surfer. That is, when I didn't have this thing " he replied shaking his beer belly. " I used to travel to the best surf spots on the continent. These six boards are among my most prized possessions and this one, for example…"

Cristina politely tapped him of the shoulder: "Umm, Uncle Jeff…"

"Oh yes, sorry about that. I told you I get excited about that stuff. I'm Jeff, by the way. Jeff Rogers."

"Owen Hunt" Owen introduced himself as he shook the man's hand.

Jeff continued talking before Owen or Cristina for that matter could say anything: "So, Owen, how do you know Cristina?"

"Oh, we go way back" He answered with a grin.

"Yeah, way back to three weeks ago. He's dating Stacy." Cristina responded to Jeff's confused look. "I kind of crashed their first date. And apparently, now we're friends? Is that what you like to call it?"

"Finally, you got it. I was wondering how long it would take." Owen nudged Cristina playfully before turning to Jeff again. "But yeah, that's me, Owen Hunt, Cristina's FRIEND".

Jeff just shook his head: "If that's what you kids are calling it these days… I'll go get your equipment"

"Hey, come back here! What was that supposed to mean? Don't you walk away from me!" Cristina yelled after him. That was very inappropriate, she thought, very inappropriate.

Owen grabbed Cristina to stop her from running off to the back room. It really amused him when she got all angry about something and her ears turned red.

"Cristina, deep breaths. Although you're extremely cute when you're angry, I wouldn't want you to pop a blood vessel."

"Haha! You're soo funny"

"I try." He responded with a smile, "So tell me what we're doing exactly."

"Okay, its actually pretty simply. There are too artificial climbing walls and a real cliff in the back. By your reaction, I'm just going to go and assume you're a beginner."

"You can say that again!"

"I could but I really don't like repeating myself so try to keep up."

"Look who's the funny one now." It was Cristina's turn to nudge Owen.

"As I was saying, we'll start on the lower wall so you can get the hang of it. Jeff is going to hold your rope the entire time so when you get to the top and you're ready to go down, or if you simply get too scared, you just let go and he'll pull you down."

Owen wasn't exactly scared, per say. He didn't get scared. But it was a weird feeling of climbing up a wall for no reason, getting higher and higher with each step. As it turned out, though, it came pretty easily to him. He was fit so he could pull himself up if necessary. Of course Cristina didn't miss a chance to mock his facial expressions. According to her, he looked like he seriously needed to go to the bathroom. When they got down, Owen wanted to prove that he wasn't a wuss so he suggested going up the higher one. It was definitely harder and when he finally got the top, where Cristina had been waiting for him for about 5 minutes, he needed some rest.

"How did you get here so fast?" He asked her as he tried to catch his breath.

She simply shrugged: "I don't know. I guess I've gone up so many times, I can do it in my sleep."

"It really beautiful. You can even see the city in the distance." Owen remarked. "Don't you ever get scared by the height?"

"Not really. I actually enjoy it. Makes me feel like I'm getting away from everything. This is where I can think."

They stayed up there for another few minutes, just enjoying the silence and the slight breeze. It was getting a little warmer, indicating that it was around 12 o'clock. After they came down, Owen sat down to drink some water while Cristina went on to conquer the cliff. Owen noticed that, in addition to being bigger than the two artificial walls, the cliff was smoother, making it harder to climb. But as he watched her, Owen saw how agile she was. She moved quickly and gracefully, finding the perfect place to put her feet, the perfect way to position her body. Owen just sat on the cabin steps, looking at the woman in front of him. If he could have seen himself, he would have though he was creepy. But since he couldn't, he thought about how different Cristina was from Stacy. It was interesting how they were such close friends, in spite of being complete opposites. Well, almost complete- they were both beautiful. Stacy was more outgoing and perky. She was smiling or giggling 96% of the time. Even when something really annoyed her, she would still smile through it. Also she was constantly worrying about her looks. It wasn't as if she didn't have any brains, sometimes it was very subtle, but it annoyed Owen, especially when she looked fine to him. Cristina on the other hand. She was so… complex. Sometimes she was difficult to figure out. Especially since she wasn't a big fan of opening up and sharing. Maybe that was why he was so fascinated by her. Or maybe it was the fact that she didn't really care what anyone else thought about her.

Cristina waved down at him and interrupted his inner monologue. She looked so tiny compared to the rock. He saw her mouth moving, but couldn't hear anything, so he decided to move closer.

"What?" Owen yelled, "I can't hear you!"

"I said, 'You look funny from above!'"

"I look funny? Then maybe you should start laughing as you watch me leave. In my car. The one you came in. Taking away the only option of you leaving this forest."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Please don't leave me stranded. I can barely deal with nature in the daytime. I'm coming down and we can go grab something to eat. I'm starving."