Chapter 12

As she waited for Owen to arrive, Cristina tried to decide what she would say to him. She couldn't just ignore the kiss. Or could she? No, even she knew that was a bad idea. As confused as she was about her feelings for Owen, she knew that she definitely didn't want to hurt him like that. At the very least he deserved an honest conversation.

Cristina groaned and ran her hands through her hair. Honest conversations, especially where feelings were concerned, weren't her strong suit. Vague implications and sarcastic remarks-now that was what she was good at.

Eventually, Cristina noticed Owen's car approaching and put her shoes back on. Owen pulled up in front of her and rolled down his window.

"Hey," Cristina murmured. Hey? You're really going with 'hey'? Nice.

Owen just looked at her for a few seconds before saying, "Come on. Let me take you home."

So the ride back to her apartment wasn't so great. Scratch that. It was horrible. Cristina felt the tension in the car and the man unspoken questions between them. Plus Owen kept giving her quick glances every time they stopped at a red light. Of course, her response was to lean against the window and pretend she couldn't see him.

Once they got to her apartment, Owen turned the engine off and looked at Cristina.

"Cristina, what happened? And don't tell me everything is fine because I can tell you're not fine."

"I…I don't know. Nothing happened. I just…" Cristina didn't how to put what she was feeling into words. She could feel her eyes tearing up but desperately tried to blink the tears away.

Owen leaned over and gently wiped away a tear that had escaped and was rolling down her cheek. At the contact, Cristina flinched and Owen automatically retreated.

"I'm sorry. I just want to help. Tell me what I can do to make this better. Talk to me."

At his words Cristina couldn't hold back the tears anymore and started sobbing. She wasn't exactly sure why she was crying, but she was crying nonetheless. It had been a long and confusing night. She wasn't sure what she had expected from her date with Preston but it definitely wasn't that. And Owen had gone ahead and kissed her. And he was so perfect, always the gentleman, even when she was acting like a lunatic, refusing to even look him in the eyes. Come on, Cristina, get it together.

She managed to quiet down, enough to apologize to Owen and thank him for the ride.

"I'm so sorry for this. I'll call you tomorrow, I promise," she said, as she got out of the car and headed towards her front door. However, she wasn't expecting to hear a car door opening and shutting.

Cristina turned around to see Owen walking towards her.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm coming with you. You shouldn't be alone when you're this upset."

"No, you don't have to…"

"It's okay, you don't have to tell me anything unless you want to. I just want to be there."

Cristina just stared at him, knowing what to say. When Owen saw that she wasn't protesting his presence, he gave her a small smile and said,

"Come on, let's go inside. It's getting cold out here."

Inside the apartment, Cristina took her shoes off. Beside that she wasn't completely sure what they were supposed to do. She was still a bit stunned that Owen had decided to stay and didn't know how to tell him how grateful she actually was for his company. Well, if I can't tell him, maybe I can show him.

And with that Cristina walked over to Owen and without saying a word, she kissed him. At first he didn't respond, so she started pulling away, slightly disappointed in his reaction. Or lack of one. But Owen wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back in while kissing her hungrily on the mouth. Cristina moved on hand to his shoulder for support and ran the other one down his back, receiving a small shiver from Owen. At that Cristina smiled and ran her tongue along his bottom lip.

For the second time, Cristina was disappointed when Owen pulled away from her and loosened his hold, allowing her to step back on the floor.

"Cristina, wait. Hold on for a second."

Cristina looked down, embarrassed: "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to jump on you like that. I just thought that you wanted to. You kissed me before and now you're here so I just…"

"Hey, look at me," he said as he cupped her cheek. "Believe me when I say that I do want this. I've thought about this for a while. But that's not why I came here tonight. And I want to make sure that you want to kiss me because you want to, not because you're upset."

"I do want to kiss you. I'm pretty sure. I mean…I'm just so confused right now."

"And that's perfectly okay," Owen continued, wrapping Cristina in a hug. "It's been a rough night for you. Why don't we get you to bed and we can talk about this in the morning?"

Cristina nodded, her head still buried in Owen's chest. "Thank you," she whispered.

Owen kissed the top of her head. He let her go and wrapped his hand around hers, gently pulling her towards her bedroom.

As Cristina started pulling her dress down, Owen quickly turned away, his ears turning a light shade of pink.

"You know, you don't always have to be such a wimp," Cristina commented with a smirked when she noticed Owen.

"You must be feeling better if you're making fun of me again."

"Come on, I need help unzipping this dress anyways. If it's going to protect your innocence, promise I'm wearing underwear."

"Shut up and give me the damn dress," Owen growled as he finally turned around.

Cristina was laughing as she took off her dress completely and turned to face Owen. She was silenced, however, by Owen's intense gaze. He was slowly looking her up and down, his eyes darkening as she watched. She was ready to jump him right then and there. Instead she quipped:

"Quit gawking, you perv, and grab me the pajamas on the chair."

Owen cleared his throat and looked away in search of said pajamas: "Ugh, right, sorry. Here you go."

Cristina got dressed and jumped into bed.

"Right, so I'll be right outside on the couch if you need anything," Owen said as he turned off the lights.

"Owen, wait. Can you stay with me?"

Suddenly, Cristina felt a dip in the bed and heard Owen's voice right next to her ear: "Sure. If that's what you want."

In the dark, Cristina found Owen and put her head on his chest, wrapping her arms around him. She heard his sharp inhale and asked: "You okay?"

"Never better," came his quiet response.

After a few minutes of laying in silence, Cristina turned her head up a bit.

"Are you still awake?"

"Yeah. Are you?"

Cristina grinned and poked his ribs gently: "Don't be a dork. I want to tell you something. About my date."

"Sorry. I'm listening."

"Well, thing's didn't end that great between Preston and me last time so it was probably stupid of me for agreeing to the date in the first place," she sighed. "But I as mostly curious about what he had to say. It turns out he's actually moving back to Seattle. And he wants us to get back together."

"WHAT?!" Owen half-yelled.

"Oh, hold your horses there, Romeo. Things obviously didn't end well, since I had to call you for a ride"

"Oh right. Of course," he replied apologetically as he relaxed back into the bed.

"Preston wanted the same Cristina he left behind, but didn't seem to consider for a moment that I might have changed. I also realized how self-centered he is. I ended up shouting at him. In front of the whole restaurant." Cristina covered her face with her hands. "Ugh, it's so embarrassing, no that I think about it."

She felt Owen laughing and poked him once again: "Hey! Don't laugh at me!"

Owen began stroking her arm: "I'm not. I'm just picturing you yelling. Sounds very sexy."

"Perv. I think I think I preferred you when you were covering your eyes at the mention of the word 'bra'," Cristina laughed with him.

"But seriously, Cristina, I'm proud of you for standing up for yourself. You deserve more than some jerk trying to control you."

Cristina settled back down on Owen's chest and closed her eyes: "Yes, I guess I do."

And with that, they both drifted off to sleep.