A Change is Gonna Come (II/II)
Part I here
Alex orders another beer and glances around Joe’s. It’s almost empty tonight and he knows that all the smart people are at home sleeping after making it through the first week of dealing with a bunch of moron interns.
Fuck that, he thinks, the smart people are drinking so they can deal with them for the rest of the year.
The bell over the door signifies another arrival and he sees Cristina walk inside with purpose and head straight for the opposite end of the bar.
“I don’t have cooties, Yang,” Alex calls out to her. Normally he wouldn’t bother reaching out but anybody can see there’s something going on with her and Burke. Newlyweds don’t act like wounded animals around each other. Not that he cares but he’s tired of listening to Meredith whining about it and there’s nobody else that he can screw right now so maybe if he fixes thing than he can get his fuckbuddy back.
“Last I heard, you had syphilis,” she mutters, joining him against her better judgment.
“Thanks to the miracle of modern medicine it’s been cured,” he sneers and lifts his beer to his lips.
Cristina orders a vodka tonic and picks up a peanut in the meantime. She has nothing to say to Alex and she’s not in the mood for small talk.
“Shouldn’t you be at home blowing Burke or something?” Alex asks bluntly.
“Mind your own business,” Cristina groans, glancing in Joe’s direction to see how her drink is coming along.
“I’m just saying, the last I heard married people are all over each other and stuff and you two aren’t,” he points out, “and you’re quiet. Nobody has ever been able to shut your ass up before, what gives now?”
“I don’t know why you think I’m going to tell you.”
“Well, you’re not telling Meredith.”
She shoots him a glance of curiosity. Obviously she’s missing something because Meredith is confiding in him, “Because there’s nothing to tell.”
“Whatever,” Alex shrugs, “it’s not like I give a damn.”
Cristina takes her drink from Joe before he can even put it on the bar in front of her, “Why the hell would Meredith tell you anything anyway?” she asks before taking a drink.
“Show me yours and I’ll show you mine,” he offers.
“Does everything have to be sex with you?”
“Not my fault that it’s not with you,” Alex retorts.
Cristina stirs her drink idly, staring intently at it as if it’s somehow going to help her stop thinking, as if it will fix everything.
“Do I really strike you as the type of guy who’s going to tell everybody about your thing?” Alex asks, “Look, the only thing I care about is Meredith not caring about your shit. That’s it.”
“Tell me why you care about Meredith,” Cristina says, the words almost foreign in her mouth. The concept of Alex caring about anything about himself outside of the isolated incident with Izzie is just wrong.
“She has issues with Shepherd and I have issues with chicks, it works,” Alex explains as succinctly as he can, “it’s nothing.”
“Burke wants a wife,” she mumbles in response.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard but when you marry somebody, you become their wife. It’s kind of a new thing,” Alex answers sarcastically, “so he’s already got one.”
“I am not a wife. I’m not a child rearing, house cleaning, meal cooking, person. I’m a surgeon.”
“Did he tell you that you couldn’t be a surgeon anymore?”
“No.”
“Then I fail to see the problem,” Alex pauses to wave Joe down for another drink. “Look, I honestly don’t care what your deal is because it sounds pointless. You’re supposed to get cold feet before the wedding but either way, I don’t want to talk about it. So will you just talk to Mer?”
Cristina traces her finger along the condensation on her glass. Meredith isn’t the person she wants to talk to right now but she has no idea what to say to the person she does want to talk to, “Since when have you two been…” she makes a face. The idea of the two of them is just disgusting to her.
“At the reception,” he smirks.
“Did you even bother getting a room?”
“Nope.”
“Nice,” Cristina mutters, lifting her drink to her lips once more. It’s going to take a lot more than one drink to help her get over the fact that for the first time in her life she’s jealous of Alex Karev.
---
Burke stands in front of the board, examining his busy schedule for the next day. He picks up a marker and writes Cristina’s name in on all five procedures. It’s a long day but he knows that she can handle it.
It’s the only way he can be close to the woman he loves these days.
There are no words to apologize for the things that he said. He tries to process exactly what was going through his mind at the particular moment that he said those things to her and the only thing that he can come up with is that he was trying to save her from herself. As if she wasn’t an adult, as if she didn’t understand what she was doing.
It took her eight days to say yes; she knew exactly what she was getting into.
More than that, he loves her for being her. The panic in his own head took over and he’ll never be able to find a way to explain that to her. It will never be enough of an apology. Despite their shared love of their career, he wants to go back to Hawaii and to the blissful ignorance that they shared.
“Preston,” Addison greets from behind him, “you’re here late. You’re not on call this evening are you?”
A faint smile turns up the corner of his lips, “No, I’m not. I’m simply making sure that things are in order.”
“It looks as if they are,” she pauses for a moment, “you should go home. You can’t enjoy being a newlywed standing in front of this board.”
The faint smile fades from Burke’s face and he clears his throat. He’s a gentleman and he’ll never tell her the full story, but she is a friend so he divulges a little, “That’s not exactly going according to plan.”
“I’ve heard as much. Word travels faster when you’re Chief,” Addison admits. “I know there was an issue. I was there. But whatever it was, Preston, it can be fixed. I can attest to that along with a handful of scrub nurses. ‘I give you me’? No man says things like that without meaning it.”
“It’s hard to hear something like that when the precursor is something akin to ‘I thought that you may be this one day’,” he answers, “I deserve her anger. I simply don’t know how to make up for it.”
Addison lays a hand on her friend’s arm, “I don’t know Yang like you do,” I say, “but I know that somewhere deep down that she has a second x chromosome and all she needs to hear is those vows. Really hear them. You two love each other. Don’t let go of her.”
“I almost let go of her once,” Burke says gently, “I’d be a fool to do it again.”
---
George’s words replay in Callie’s mind over and over again. She’s tried to make it stop, tried to wrap her mind around the concept so somewhere in her brain a neuron will fire and she’ll be able to form some sort of words in response to George’s but she’s getting nowhere.
“Callie,” George says her name almost hesitantly. She looks like she’s going to snap any second and he knows that he deserves it, “Callie, say something.”
There’s still no response.
“I was drunk,” he repeats, “it wasn’t intentional and I told Izzie that I was going to fix this. That she needed to stay away. I couldn’t- I love you. I don’t want to lose you.”
The last six words finally penetrate the barrier that his admission had created and something in her snaps, “You don’t want,” she echoes.
Only then does George realize that wasn’t exactly the best choice of words.
“You don’t want,” Callie repeats, “you don’t want it and so it shouldn’t happen, right George? Just like you didn’t want this relationship and then you did and then you didn’t again? You didn’t want to commit and then you did and then you wanted to go to Vegas and get married and so we did and then you wanted to get drunk one night with your best friend and whore it up with her and now you don’t want this to end?”
Her voice rises with each phrase until she’s yelling and then just as suddenly she falls quiet, “Get out. Get out now and don’t you ever come back.”
“Callie,” George starts, his voice trembling slightly, “I said-“
“Your sorry isn’t good enough,” Callie says with a shake of her head, her brown eyes narrowed, “get out.”
George doesn’t move and despite an overwhelming urge to leave herself, Callie picks up the phone and dials the front desk, “Yes, may I have security please? I have an unwanted guest in my suite that refuses to leave.”
This gets George’s attention and he suddenly stands, gathering his jacket and fumbling about, “Callie, this is ridiculous,” he argues, stopping to try to work his shoes on, “I’m not some-“
“They’re on their way up George. These elevators aren’t slow. If you don’t want to go to jail, I recommend shutting up and getting the hell out.”
Callie watches with her arms crossed as George face plants just outside of the door to the suite and though she wants to laugh at him, she doesn’t.
At least she’s not suppressing an urge to ask him if he’s okay.
---
“This whole hospital has gone to hell,” Derek states plainly, sitting on the edge of Addison’s desk.
“You’re sitting on my budget,” Addison replies, not looking up from her laptop, “and I take that statement very personally.”
“No, I don’t mean you. I mean personally it’s going to hell. Professionally it’s great. Keep up the good work, Chief,” Derek adds emphasis to the word and if Addison didn’t know him, she’d think it was sarcasm and not jealousy.
“Still regretting giving up this position, are you?”
“Yeah,” he admits, “maybe a little. But I’ve seen the inside of an OR today.”
“It’s a good thing when I don’t see the inside of an OR. It means there are no premature infants in need of life saving surgery,” Addison points out.
“Admit it,” Derek prods, “you miss spending countless hours in the OR.”
Addison looks up at him finally, pulling her red rimmed reading glasses from her face. The pointed expression on her face fades and a more unreadable one replaces it, “Richard did it. He managed to get into the OR and run this department. I will too. I’m still new at this. I’m still trying to figure everything out and with losing Mark and trying to-“
“What? It’s not possible.”
“Richard was in the OR all the time,” Addison argues.
“No, not that. Losing Mark. He’s not actually leaving is he?” Derek asks, afraid that it’s too good to be true.
“Yeah,” she answers, shuffling through a pile of papers on her desk. She finally finds what she’s looking for and pushes it in Derek’s direction, “he’s breaking contract and paying a huge tail but I’m sure he doesn’t care. He’s going to LA.”
“I don’t believe it,” he says with a shake of his head, “this is the best news I’ve heard all week.”
“He used to be your best friend,” she says, snatching the resignation letter back from Derek’s hands, “you should at least tell him goodbye.”
“I have no desire to.”
“Derek, I get that you didn’t forgive me and that you didn’t want to and all of that,” Addison starts, “but he’s been your friend forever. Do you really want to lose that?”
“He never once apologized,” Derek rebukes in a voice only a little less than sanctimonious, “he never stepped up to admit that he had done something wrong. He never stopped trying to get in the way when we attempted to fix things. I don’t care how long we’ve been friends. He’s made no attempt at fixing this and there’s no need for me to try.”
Addison looks back up at Derek intently, “You realize that you never apologized to me for the thing with Meredith? That you never once said ‘sorry’ about leaving a pair of panties in your pocket or humiliating me the way that you did?”
Derek opens his mouth to argue but he’s cut off before he can get two words out.
“I have work to do, Derek,” she says with finality and doesn’t bother watching as he leaves. There are some moments, sparse as they may be, where she thinks that she misses him. Moments where she thinks that if Meredith Grey had never gotten in the way that the change of pace that Seattle brought about would have fixed everything.
Then there are moments that Addison remembers no matter what, she was still married to Derek Shepherd and that Derek would always be Derek, no matter what city he lived in.
---
“Who is she?” Meredith asks, eyeing the quirky little brunette across the cafeteria.
“What?” Cristina glances up from her plate, “Who?”
“That girl. The one that stalks me and looks around corners but runs in the opposite direction if I ever start to walk towards her. Who the hell is that?”
“Some intern I gave up to George. Three,” Cristina shrugs and drops her fork onto the tray.
“She’s not just some intern,” George says defensively, “her name is Lexie-“ he takes the opportunity to shove a large bite of his sandwich into his mouth to muffle her last name.
It works.
“Well, Lexie needs to stop stalking me. I don’t care what she’s heard and if it’s true but I don’t need a creepy creepy stalker right now. I have enough problems.”
“I thought you dumped your problem? You should be problem free,” Cristina mocks, “unless you’ve got a problem down there from sleeping with the new problem.”
“Shut up.”
George’s brow furrows, “Who are you sleeping with now?”
“Now? What kind of a question is that? You act like I’m sleeping with somebody new every week,” Meredith says defensively, “I’ll have you know that Derek and I are-“
“I didn’t say that and you are being overly defensive. You picked up guys in bars, it’s not like you can really sink any lower.”
“She’s sleeping with Alex,” Izzie announces unceremoniously as she drops her tray at the table, “she has sunk lower. Much lower.”
Meredith looks at Izzie wide eyed, “You were supposed to keep your mouth shut!”
“Yeah and so were you,” Izzie shoots back at her with venom dripping from each word, “that didn’t stop Callie from kicking me off her service and saying she was going to do everything she could to keep me from ever seeing the inside of an OR again.”
“Actually,” George tries to interrupt but is quickly cut off.
“I didn’t tell her! And you had no business bringing up the fact that I’m sleeping with Alex!”
“I already knew,” Cristina interjects in an amused tone, “it is low. Even for you, Mer.” The new spat is at least distraction from her own issues for a minute.
“You knew and you didn’t tell me?” Izzie asks.
“Since when do I tell you anything?”
“But it’s Alex. That’s good gossip. You don’t keep that quiet.”
“Apparently since Meredith told Callie you slept with George,” Cristina smirks, picking up her fork to stab a piece of her salad.
“Shut up, go home and put your apron on for Burke, I’m tired of your moping.” Mer hisses at Cristina, “and Izzie, I did not tell Callie. Why the hell would I tell Callie?”
“Guys!” George snaps, “I told Callie.”
Izzie’s face goes from bright red with anger to sheet white in a matter of seconds, “Oh. Sorry.”
Meredith shoots an ‘I told you so glance’ at Izzie, oblivious to Cristina’s expression.
“And I can’t believe that you’re sleeping with Alex,” George adds then falls silent, making note of the look on Cristina’s face.
“What?”
Izzie kind of nods at Cristina, “I think you broke her.”
Cristina slides her gaze to Izzie for only a second and then back at Meredith before standing up, “Unbelievable.”
“What?” Meredith asks, glancing around, “what did I say?”
“I don’t know. I heard something about an apron and shutting up,” Izzie quips before taking a drink of her soda, “that could have something to do with it.”
“Yeah, that was kind of wrong, Mer,” George adds.
Meredith looks at George in disbelief, “You’re going to tell me that something is wrong? You who cheated on your wife with Izzie is going to tell me that I’ve done something wrong like you’re some pinnacle of moral whatever?”
George falls quiet and starts pushing mashed potatoes around some sort of over processed meat product, muttering to himself.
Silence falls over the three of them and Meredith looks back in the direction of the brunette sitting with the other interns.
Now she has a creepy, creepy stalker and no person to complain about it to.
---
Cristina shifts under Burke’s gaze and tries to pay attention to the surgery. Yesterday and the day before was just the stupid puppy dog eyed thing going on, the attempt at a silent apology for being himself and an even more pathetic attempt at getting her to talk.
Today she was convinced that he was picturing her naked.
“Dr. Yang,” he announces in that authoritative tone of his that she loathes and loves all at the same time.
“Dr. Burke,” she responds, making it clear through her tone that she’s annoyed with his little game today.
“You’ll be performing the anastomoses on this patient, I’ll assist.”
You are completely invisible, she thinks, but I’m not stupid.
“Yes, sir,” she answers turning to Bokhee for the instruments. She carefully follows his instruction, using the sutures that she’s both looked up in the books on her own and learned from him. His hand nears hers but never touches, more from caution than restraint.
His eyes turn into embers as he watches her, guides her in a low voice when she needs him (which isn’t much) and then watches as she asks for antegrade flow to assess her work. Burke knows that in a few short years she’ll be a brilliant surgeon, world renowned.
People will come to Seattle Grace for her care.
When she’s satisfied with her work, he gently releases the heart and begins the delicate work of decannulating the heart and then lets her place the pericardial patch. They close and too soon, his time with her is over again.
After he drops his facemask into the trash, he dips his hands beneath the faucet, “This isn’t exactly what I pictured our marriage to be,” he admits in a low voice, “seeing you only at work. Giving surgeries as the only way to give of myself. This isn’t what I want, Cristina.”
“I told you that I’m a surgeon, not a wife,” Cristina answers coolly, scrubbing at her own hands. She feels like she can’t get out of the room soon enough and that she wants to stay all at the same time.
“My girlfriend was a surgeon too. And yet she came home at night, at least most of the time.” Burke answers, keeping his voice low, “I fell in love with that woman. That’s the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. Nobody else.”
Cristina grabs a couple of towels to dry her hands and turns her back to drop them into the trash. She doesn’t know what to say to him because she doesn’t know how to feel about any of it. There’s logic and then there’s this stupid emotional crap that she never paid attention to before him and it’s playing a tug of war in her head and she can’t seem to shut it up for two seconds.
“Cristina,” his voice is soft and sad. She can’t turn around and look at his face because she knows that she’ll break more easily than she wants to.
Burke repeats her name again and when he sees her motionless before him, he decides to resort to more effective tactics. His grip is firm on her shoulders when he turns her and there’s a small sound that leaves her mouth, the first syllable of his name or so he thinks, before he devours it. She fights him for only a moment and gives into the kiss, returning it with the same fervor.
There’s a curious housekeeper mopping the area around the OR table and a scrub tech bearing witness to the entire scene but it doesn’t stop him from pulling her body firmly against his. Every part of him aches for her, needs to feel her curled against him while they sleep or writhing beneath him as they make love. Things aren’t right without her and he needs her to know that.
He wants to know that she feels that way too.
Another sound leaves her mouth this time and now he can tell it’s his name, recognizes the tone of her voice. It would be so easy to give into what she wants, what they both want, take her into his office or a call room and let desire take over but he has a bigger plan.
Burke pulls his lips from hers, the heated kiss leaving hers nearly swollen, and he brushes a soft kiss against her forehead, “Come home tonight,” he murmurs and leaves her standing dumbfounded in the scrub room.
---
“So you’re actually doing this?” Addison asks, looking at the emptied office, “You’re going to leave because I was being a paper pushing, bureaucratic bitch?”
The words still sting.
“Yes,” Mark answers coldly and then he stops, “no. Yes and no.”
“Mark,” she murmurs, laying her hand on his arm. They may have never worked out but she still cares about him. There’s a big place in her heart reserved for the man in front of her, even if he had his own issues.
“Addison, stop,” he says, pulling his arm away, “I came to Seattle because of you. I came to Seattle for you. We didn’t work out and now there’s no reason for me to stay. It’s about more than this Chief thing or the budget thing. I don’t belong here. Seattle is not home for me.”
“Then why not go home to New York? Re-open your practice?”
A boyish grin spreads across his beautiful face, “I have a reputation in New York.”
“And you have a clean slate in Los Angeles,” Addison says with a shake of her head. “You’ll never change.”
“I don’t have a reason to right now,” he shrugs, dropping the last stack of articles into his box.
“Mark?”
“Yeah, Addie?” he asks, glancing up.
It’s the same hopes that she has for herself but she shares them for him too. She knows that maybe one day he really can be a good husband and a good father. Just not for her, “I hope you find your reason to change.”
---
“D-doctor Yang?” A small voice stammers her name from behind and she doesn’t have to turn around to know it’s an intern.
Cristina really does enjoy them all being terrified of her.
“Can’t you see I’m busy?” She asks, browsing a website that’s clearly not work related.
“I-I can and I apologize but I know that you know Dr. Grey and I just had a couple of questions that I wanted to ask you, if I could,” the voice says again and if Cristina didn’t know any better, she would assume that it was a starving orphan behind her with a voice that small.
She turns to face the voice with narrowed eyes and sees Meredith’s creepy creepy stalker standing behind her, “Three,” Cristina says flatly.
“Lexie,” the woman corrects but then quickly adds, “but you can call me three if you want. That was my nickname. Growing up. Three.”
“Shut up,” Cristina says, holding her hand up, “what do you want?”
“Dr. Grey, Meredith…she’s your friend isn’t she?” Lexie asks, “I’ve seen you with her a lot.”
“Depends on what day of the week it is.”
“Well, I just…I wanted to know because I’m kind of…related to her. I’m…you see, our dad is the same dad,” Lexie stammers slightly.
“So you’re what the rest of the world refers to as sisters,” the sarcasm of the statement temporarily cancels out the realization and then Cristina’s eyes widen almost imperceptibly, “you’re Meredith’s sister,” Cristina repeats.
“Ye-yeah. And she seems really nice but I feel like every time I try to talk to her that she doesn’t want to talk to me. There’s this look on her face.”
“That’s her normal face. Talk to her anyway,” Cristina shrugs, reaching to pick up a People magazine, “she loves family.”
A smile of relief spreads over Lexie’s face, “Really? That’s great. That’s good. Thank you. Thanks, Dr. Yang.”
“No problem,” Cristina says through a forced smile, watching as Lexie runs off and then she shakes her head, “sucker.”
---
“Not tonight,” Meredith says, feeling Alex’s eyes on her as she changes out of her scrubs.
“Yes tonight,” Alex scoffs, “what kind of arrangement is this if you’re giving me the ‘I have a headache’ crap?”
“It’s an arrangement where I have other issues going on right now and I don’t want to go home and sleep with you. That’s not going to fix anything.”
“It will feel good,” his tone is self-assured and he knows that Meredith agrees. She agreed three times last night.
“It’s not going to solve anything.”
“Fuck solving anything,”
Meredith looks at him in disbelief, “Cristina is mad at me again, George and Izzie aren’t speaking because of George and Callie and now you’re breathing down my back to get laid when all I really want to do is…I don’t know what I want to do. But I know that I don’t want to have sex with you tonight!”
Lexie stood frozen in the doorway of the resident’s locker room, her eyes wide, “Maybe this isn’t a good time.”
“And I have a creepy creepy stalker!” Meredith snaps, “What the hell do you want?”
“I’m…I just wanted to come say hi. Because I’m your sister. And Dr. Yang, she said that you really love family and that you’d want to talk to me and so...here I am. To talk,” Lexie rambles on, “but you look like you’re already talking so I’m just going to-“
“Cristina told you I loved family?” Meredith questions before Lexie can make her escape.
Alex snorts, “Yang may be a pain in the ass but she’s got a twisted sense of humor.”
Meredith shoots an angry glance in Alex’s direction before looking back to Lexie, “I don’t do family. At all. So whatever Dr. Yang told you, just ignore it. And by the way, Dr. Yang loves interns. And hugs.”
“Lame,” Alex remarks.
“Yeah, that was kind of obvious,” Lexie says quietly.
Meredith looks between the two of them with disgust before grabbing her bag and pushing past Lexie to make her quick exit.
“So I’m going to guess that she’s not a big family person, huh?” Lexie asks quietly.
“You’re pretty smart for an intern,” Alex says, giving her the once over. “What’s your name again?”
“Lexie. Well, Alexandra but I tell everybody to call me Lexie,” she says, eyeing the guy in front of her, “what’s yours?”
Alex walks casually over to the door and holds it open for her, “That’s for me to know and you to find out.”
---
“You’re still here?” Derek asks from the doorway of her office, “Have you moved at all?”
Addison pulls her hand away from her face, her cheek red from the countless hours of pressure, “I’m still here. And I’ve moved. Once, I think.”
“It’s time for you to move for the night,” Derek answers, walking over to closer her laptop lid despite her best efforts to shield it, “whatever is here, it’s not life or death and it will be here tomorrow. I know you and I know you’re trying to be perfect in the first month of being Chief but it’s not necessary, Addison. Sleep. Sleep is necessary.”
The sound of her empty stomach interjects itself into the conversation.
“And food,” he adds with a smug grin, “come on. I’ll get you dinner that doesn’t come out of a can or the hospital cafeteria.”
“You’re going to get dinner?” Addison asks suspiciously, “Are you going to poison it?”
Derek laughs slightly and puts an arm around her waist to usher her out of the office, “No. Just think of it as an apology for panties and absenteeism in New York.”
“So you don’t have to say the words.”
“I didn’t say that I wasn’t going to say the words,” Derek says quietly, “but I figure if I’m going to swallow my pride that it may go down better with some Mediterranean cuisine from that little place on Third Street that you like so well?”
More intrigued about the possibility of an apology than dinner, Addison agrees, “I think it would probably go down much easier.”
“Good.”
---
There are remnants of a candle light dinner for two on the table when she gets home and he’s doing dishes with a pathetic look on his face. She stands by the door for a moment, taking it all in before she drops her bag and walks over to the table to pick up his plate and silverware to put it next to the sink.
“There’s some dinner if you’re hungry,” Burke says casually, taking the dishes from her.
“I’m not hungry,” her voice is uncharacteristically soft.
“Okay.”
Cristina lingers next to him at the kitchen counter. She has no words to say but she knows that she doesn’t want to spend another night in an on-call room (the hospital is dead) and Meredith’s house is not an option (she should be bonding with her sister right about now) so this is the next best thing. Her fingers trace against the top of the granite counter until his hand moves over hers. It’s unusually warm from the heat of the water and she looks up at him seconds before their lips make contact.
This is why she came home.
Burke’s arms wrap around her waist as her fingers curl around his neck and she kisses him voraciously. Her free hand is already working one handed at the buttons of his shirt and she’s simultaneously trying to drag him backwards towards the bedroom but he’s not moving. His firm grip on her hips result instead on her lower back meeting the edge of the counter, a bruise in the making.
Her fingers slide down over his bared chest and stomach to the bulge in his pants and she rubs firmly against it, lets him buck against her hand. When he groans her name she decides to quit torturing him and unbutton his pants and dip her hand inside, granting him skin on skin contact.
He drags his lips over her neck and murmurs a soft ‘I love you’ against her ear and she doesn’t want to hear it right now. Right now, Cristina wants angry sex, merciless fucking until they’re both so drained and exhausting that speaking the truth isn’t considered a heart to heart, it’s considered a moment of weakness.
Cristina digs her nails into his shoulder and he gets the message loud and clear and backs her harder into the counter, reaches down to grab one of her legs and wrap it around his hip, grinding against her roughly. He tears off her shirt and sends it sailing somewhere, her bra following in the same direction. He moves his mouth over her breast, laves her nipple with his tongue, sucks and bites until she cries out and tries to push him away.
Burke makes quick work of her pants and panties, pausing in between layers to remove his own clothing. He kicks away his pants and his fingers find her folds, rubbing her clit and partially pushing inside her, leaving her breathlessly begging for more. He lifts her to sit on the counter and pulls her legs apart before dropping to his knees. His dark eyes move over her body, taking in the beauty that is Cristina; the way ebony curls tickle her porcelain shoulders, the staggered breath that causes her pert breasts to rise and fall erratically. To him, she’ll never be anything less than perfect. Slowly, he kisses up the inside of her knee, flickers his tongue out against the soft flesh of her inner thigh until finally, finally, his lips and tongue are right where she wants them.
Her fingers curl into his hair and she holds him against her as he attacks her clit with is tongue, swirls around the sensitive flesh. His fingers find a rhythm that matches the gyrations of her hips and she grows wetter by the second. His tongue sweeps down to taste her and then back up to her clit once more, this time nipping gently at it and closing his lips around her until she’s crying out and jerking hysterically. Just as her walls begin to tighten, he eases a third finger into her to bring her to orgasm.
Strength leaves her body as he continues to move through her orgasm, not letting up while she’s begging for him to stop. She drops from her palms to her elbows, her body trembling in his grasp. Her chest heaves and she sees him watching the heavy rise and fall of her breasts with embers for eyes. She shudders one last time and feels the full weight of his body press against hers as she lazily opens her eyes. Their gazes meet and he lifts her from the counter and presses her back against the cold refrigerator instead, the head of his impressive length threatening entrance.
Burke takes her with one hard stroke, burying himself as deep as her body will let him and maybe a little bit more. A few more hard thrusts and he’s filling her to the hilt and holding on for dear life. Cristina kisses his neck between cries and moves her lips over his ear to breathlessly whisper, “I love you too.”
---
Going to Joe’s wasn’t exactly Meredith’s first choice.
Somehow, in the scheme of things, Meredith realizes that she’s gained a support system in a way. She has her person, she had Derek, and she had her friends when they weren’t all obsessed with sleeping with married men or avoiding the wife they cheated on. Everything is different right now and it’s definitely not in a good way.
No, going to Joe’s was not her first choice tonight but when she couldn’t find Cristina and Izzie was obsessing over George, and Derek…
Well, Derek wasn’t even an option anymore.
The sound of giggling in the corner of the room draws Meredith’s attention up from her glass of tequila and she sees Alex clearly hitting on a drunken Lexie. Her eyes narrow and she tosses back the rest of her drink before walking towards the pair.
“What the hell are you doing?” her voice slurs more than she wants it to, “That’s my sister.”
“You weren’t claiming her twenty minutes ago,” Alex says, “or me.”
“Because we’re not a thing, Alex. You just wanted to get laid.”
“Yeah, and I still do, so-“
“Whoa, whoa, wait- I know that you’re…I don’t…” Lexie looks helplessly at Meredith, “I wasn’t trying to,”
“Please, are you going to tell me that you had absolutely no clue what he was doing?” Meredith questions angrily.
“Well, no. I mean, maybe. But I wouldn’t have slept with him,”
“Then you can pay your own tab,” Alex snorts, “I’m getting out of here.”
“You’re not going anywhere!” Meredith snaps at him and grabs onto his arm, “I’m not done talking to you.”
Alex pulls his arm away from her hand and straightens his jacket, “We’re not a thing. I just wanted to get laid.”
Meredith watches as he walks away and turns back to her supposed sister, “You aren’t allowed to sleep with him, I don’t care what you say.”
“Why? It’s not like you’re a thing,” Lexie shoots back at her, “and like I said, I wouldn’t have done it. You obviously care about him.”
“Alex? I don’t care about Alex?”
“Really? Because you were pretty pissed about him trying to sleep with me.”
“Look, I don’t know what you’re trying to do or why you’re here but I don’t care. Just…you are not my sister and I am not the person you’re looking for. He is not my boyfriend and I don’t want one but I swear to God if you sleep with Alex, you’ll wish that you were wherever you came from.”
“Here,” Lexie interjects, “I came from here. Seattle. Well, kind of. See, I was from Boston. I moved back to Seattle. Because I was born here. But I lived in Boston. Anyway, I was doing a residency at Mass Gen and-”
“I don’t care,” Meredith snaps, not willing or wanting to hear her side of the story, “There are at least four other surgical residencies in Seattle.”
“And this one is the best and I deserve a chance at being the best,” she argues with Meredith, “and I’m your sister. How can you just walk out on family?”
“How?” Meredith asks angrily, “Why don’t you ask your father? I’m sure he can give you lessons.”
Lexie looks stunned and Meredith takes the opportunity to walk away from her. She has absolutely nothing to say to the girl who stole her father and her life. She probably doesn’t even know the first thing about what it was like to grow up a true Grey, a Grey who doesn’t do feelings and happy shit.
Other than genetics, they have absolutely nothing in common.
---
Derek walks alongside Addison in silence, trying to digest the evening he’s had. He glances over at Addison who looks just as pensive as he feels and he chuckles, “We’re both deep in thought or so it seems.”
“Yeah,” Addison says distantly, “I just guess that sometimes I miss this.”
“This?”
“Us,” she clarifies, “we were good together. When we were actually together.”
Derek nods gently, “We were good when I wasn’t absent.”
“You don’t have to apologize again. We’re past that.”
He stops midstride and takes hold of her hand, “What else are we past, Addison?”
The sincerity in his voice is obvious and Addison is left speechless. She’d thought about it before, what she would do if she had another chance with Derek, if they would actually be able to pull it off. Despite the words they’d shared over and over, the arguments she had, there was a large part of her that would always love Derek no matter what.
“I’m not asking for everything to change right this moment,” he assures her, “I just want to know if there’s anything left. If I have a chance to make it up to you. To really make it up to you,” Derek reaches out and brushes a strand of garnet hair from her face, “What would you say if I said I wanted to try again? No distractions.”
“I guess I would say that we just have to take it one day at a time and see where it goes,” she finally says.
“One day at a time,” he echoes, “I think I can do that.”
Addison smiles faintly and continues walking, her hand in his, “I think I can too.”
---
“I’m not cuddling,” Cristina mumbles tiredly, “I’m just not moving because four is a lot. On top of the other,” she falls silent trying to count the number of times he’s produced mind shattering orgasms.
“I believe there were eight,” he says in a low voice against her ear, voice dripping with suggestion and a faint hint of pride in his capabilities.
“Those,” she agrees in a mumble, “I’m not moving because of those.”
Burke chuckles softly and lifts her fingers to his lips, “Of course.” His arm drapes around Cristina and he pulls her even closer, “I love you,” he murmurs for the hundredth time this evening, “I know that there were things before the wedding and that the things I said-“
Cristina shakes her head, “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Don’t talk,” he says then, “just listen. I just want you to know that I love you. Not some woman that cooks and cleans. Not a wife. I want Cristina.”
She looks over her shoulder at him and then shifts so she’s facing him instead, “Fine.”
“Okay,” he responds idly, tracing his finger along her jawbone.
“You realize that I’m going to make you pay for that little stunt for the rest of your life, right?” she asks, “You’re definitely not getting off that easily.”
Burke laughs softly, dropping a kiss against her shoulder and lowers his voice again, “I’m more than willing to put in the time.”
Cristina mock groans and stretches out slowly beside him. Her breasts brush against his chest, “I have a headache.”
“Then allow me to cure it,” he murmurs suggestively, his body shifting completely over hers.
“Again?” She asks, her hands running up the backs of his toned arms. The tone of her voice is purely annoyed but the way she presses her hips into his and wraps her legs around him contradicts that tone.
Though she may find it to be a personality flaw tomorrow, she’ll never say no to him.
---
Meredith pushes open the door of the on call room and finds Alex sleeping, his arm hanging off the bed and knuckle scraping the floor beneath him. She locks the door and then turns to face him again, waiting a few minutes to gather her thoughts before kicking his hand, “Wake up.”
Alex jumps at the sudden intrusion and sits up, wiping his chin, “What the hell?”
“You were going to sleep with her,” Meredith says bitterly.
“So? It’s not like it matters to you.” He answers, reaching for his scrub top. The top leaves his hands and Meredith tosses it aside. He grins smugly and looks up at her, “You’re jealous.”
“I’m not jealous.”
“You’re jealous otherwise you wouldn’t be making a thing out of it.”
“It’s not like this is a relationship,” Meredith retorts, untying her scrubs, “it’s a thing.”
“Should it be an exclusive thing?” Alex questions and he’s surprised by his own question but for Meredith he’s willing to do it. She’s just as messed up as he is. This was inevitable.
“Do I look like I want syphilis?”
Alex pulls her down to the bed and crushes his lips to hers, “Fine. Then it’s an exclusive thing.”
“No sleeping with Lexie.”
“Exclusive means that I’m only sleeping with you, dumbass.”
Meredith pushes him back onto the bed and crawls over to him, “You’re talking way too much.”
Alex flips her over and pins her wrists to the bed, “You started it,” he says before roughly kissing her. It’s a thing but it’s still not a thing and it’s something that both of them can live with.
---
“Are you sleeping in the cafeteria?” Meredith balks, sliding her tray onto the cafeteria table, “You do realize that we have rooms with beds and pillows here, right?”
Cristina buries her face in her arms, “I can’t go near a bed, he’ll know. He has ways.”
Meredith’s brow furrows, “Who are you talking about?”
“Burke,” she mumbles into her arms, “he’s all newlywed on me.”
“That’s way too much information,” Izzie says, plopping down across from Meredith, “I didn’t need to know that.”
“Then go sit somewhere else,” Cristina mutters, “and shut up and let me sleep.”
Meredith smirks, “Not getting any sleep either?”
“Because that’s such a hard life,” Izzie says, rolling her eyes.
Cristina shares a look with Meredith before burying her face in her arms once more. There’s no need to discuss what happened with Burke because clearly it’s better and that’s all that really matters on the subject, “So how’s the sister?”
“You mean my creepy creepy stalker?” Meredith asks, “She’s a creepy creepy stalker and I’m not interested in having a sister. By the way, your little joke was totally unacceptable.”
“It was good.”
“It was wrong.”
Alex sits at the table and flashes a dirty look at Meredith before shoving a fry into his mouth. Izzie catches it and scoffs, “You two are disgusting. I can’t believe you’d actually sleep with him.”
“Shut up,” Alex smirks at Izzie, “you know it’s good. You’re jealous.”
“It’s still disgusting. And wrong.”
Meredith shrugs, “Then we’ll be disgusting and wrong.”
“Slept with any married men lately?” Cristina adds, lifting her head.
“That joke is off limits,” George announces, taking his seat at the table. “Did you know that when you file for divorce and have absolutely nothing it still costs thousands of dollars to get out of it?”
“Told you that you shouldn’t have married her,” Izzie says pointedly.
George casts a sideways glance at Izzie and then looks at Cristina, “So you’re good with Dr. Burke now. That’s good, right?”
“How do you know I’m good with Burke?” Cristina asks, lifting her head.
“Because he’s in a better mood,” George shrugs, “I’m his guy, remember?”
Cristina rolls her eyes and lays her head back down for what she hopes is the last time, “I would have been better off trying to sleep in the on call room.”
Meredith smiles and wrinkles her nose, “That’s what you get for telling Lexie I wanted a sister.”
“You should have been there she told Lexie you wanted hugs,” Alex chimes in, “dude, it was so obvious.”
“She wouldn’t have tried it. The interns are stupid but they’re not that stupid,” Cristina groans as she sits up, finally giving up on getting sleep.
“Dude, you look rough. Amateur.”
Meredith kicks Alex underneath the table, “Leave her alone. She’s still in the honeymoon phase or whatever. They’re all in love.”
“Or in a continuous state of having sex,” Cristina mutters, “who thought there could be a thing as too much sex?”
“There isn’t. You’re just sick,” Izzie snorts, “very, very sick.”
“Or getting laid. Maybe you shouldn’t have cut the LVAD wire,” Cristina mocks and reaches to steal a fry from Meredith.
“I have work to do,” Izzie announces ceremoniously and stands up.
“Oh, is there a new heart patient on the floor?” Cristina continues prodding, “try to pick one that’s less critical this time. You may be getting laid in six months, give or take, depending on the procedure.”
“Cristina,” Meredith chides softly.
“What? I’m tired.”
“Go sleep. I’ll play interference with Dr. Burke,” George offers, “besides, he’s in surgery right now anyway.”
Cristina ponders it for a couple moments only and then stands up, “Thank you. Seriously.”
George waits until she’s gone and then laughs, “He doesn’t have any surgeries until this afternoon. He should be finishing up clinic just about now, actually.”
Alex quirks a brow and looks over at George, “I’m impressed, O’Malley. You’re not as much of a fetus as I thought you were.”
“Thanks, I think.”
“It’s a good thing, George,” Meredith assures him and then glances down when her pager goes off, “Oh, that’s my craniotomy. I have to go deal with Derek. He’s acting weird lately. Like he’s completely okay with us being broken up.”
“That’s because he’s back with Dr. Montgomery,” George announces, “or at least that’s what Callie said.”
Meredith wants to care but she doesn’t care at all because for all the changes that have happened in the past month, everything feels right.
Alex orders another beer and glances around Joe’s. It’s almost empty tonight and he knows that all the smart people are at home sleeping after making it through the first week of dealing with a bunch of moron interns.
Fuck that, he thinks, the smart people are drinking so they can deal with them for the rest of the year.
The bell over the door signifies another arrival and he sees Cristina walk inside with purpose and head straight for the opposite end of the bar.
“I don’t have cooties, Yang,” Alex calls out to her. Normally he wouldn’t bother reaching out but anybody can see there’s something going on with her and Burke. Newlyweds don’t act like wounded animals around each other. Not that he cares but he’s tired of listening to Meredith whining about it and there’s nobody else that he can screw right now so maybe if he fixes thing than he can get his fuckbuddy back.
“Last I heard, you had syphilis,” she mutters, joining him against her better judgment.
“Thanks to the miracle of modern medicine it’s been cured,” he sneers and lifts his beer to his lips.
Cristina orders a vodka tonic and picks up a peanut in the meantime. She has nothing to say to Alex and she’s not in the mood for small talk.
“Shouldn’t you be at home blowing Burke or something?” Alex asks bluntly.
“Mind your own business,” Cristina groans, glancing in Joe’s direction to see how her drink is coming along.
“I’m just saying, the last I heard married people are all over each other and stuff and you two aren’t,” he points out, “and you’re quiet. Nobody has ever been able to shut your ass up before, what gives now?”
“I don’t know why you think I’m going to tell you.”
“Well, you’re not telling Meredith.”
She shoots him a glance of curiosity. Obviously she’s missing something because Meredith is confiding in him, “Because there’s nothing to tell.”
“Whatever,” Alex shrugs, “it’s not like I give a damn.”
Cristina takes her drink from Joe before he can even put it on the bar in front of her, “Why the hell would Meredith tell you anything anyway?” she asks before taking a drink.
“Show me yours and I’ll show you mine,” he offers.
“Does everything have to be sex with you?”
“Not my fault that it’s not with you,” Alex retorts.
Cristina stirs her drink idly, staring intently at it as if it’s somehow going to help her stop thinking, as if it will fix everything.
“Do I really strike you as the type of guy who’s going to tell everybody about your thing?” Alex asks, “Look, the only thing I care about is Meredith not caring about your shit. That’s it.”
“Tell me why you care about Meredith,” Cristina says, the words almost foreign in her mouth. The concept of Alex caring about anything about himself outside of the isolated incident with Izzie is just wrong.
“She has issues with Shepherd and I have issues with chicks, it works,” Alex explains as succinctly as he can, “it’s nothing.”
“Burke wants a wife,” she mumbles in response.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard but when you marry somebody, you become their wife. It’s kind of a new thing,” Alex answers sarcastically, “so he’s already got one.”
“I am not a wife. I’m not a child rearing, house cleaning, meal cooking, person. I’m a surgeon.”
“Did he tell you that you couldn’t be a surgeon anymore?”
“No.”
“Then I fail to see the problem,” Alex pauses to wave Joe down for another drink. “Look, I honestly don’t care what your deal is because it sounds pointless. You’re supposed to get cold feet before the wedding but either way, I don’t want to talk about it. So will you just talk to Mer?”
Cristina traces her finger along the condensation on her glass. Meredith isn’t the person she wants to talk to right now but she has no idea what to say to the person she does want to talk to, “Since when have you two been…” she makes a face. The idea of the two of them is just disgusting to her.
“At the reception,” he smirks.
“Did you even bother getting a room?”
“Nope.”
“Nice,” Cristina mutters, lifting her drink to her lips once more. It’s going to take a lot more than one drink to help her get over the fact that for the first time in her life she’s jealous of Alex Karev.
---
Burke stands in front of the board, examining his busy schedule for the next day. He picks up a marker and writes Cristina’s name in on all five procedures. It’s a long day but he knows that she can handle it.
It’s the only way he can be close to the woman he loves these days.
There are no words to apologize for the things that he said. He tries to process exactly what was going through his mind at the particular moment that he said those things to her and the only thing that he can come up with is that he was trying to save her from herself. As if she wasn’t an adult, as if she didn’t understand what she was doing.
It took her eight days to say yes; she knew exactly what she was getting into.
More than that, he loves her for being her. The panic in his own head took over and he’ll never be able to find a way to explain that to her. It will never be enough of an apology. Despite their shared love of their career, he wants to go back to Hawaii and to the blissful ignorance that they shared.
“Preston,” Addison greets from behind him, “you’re here late. You’re not on call this evening are you?”
A faint smile turns up the corner of his lips, “No, I’m not. I’m simply making sure that things are in order.”
“It looks as if they are,” she pauses for a moment, “you should go home. You can’t enjoy being a newlywed standing in front of this board.”
The faint smile fades from Burke’s face and he clears his throat. He’s a gentleman and he’ll never tell her the full story, but she is a friend so he divulges a little, “That’s not exactly going according to plan.”
“I’ve heard as much. Word travels faster when you’re Chief,” Addison admits. “I know there was an issue. I was there. But whatever it was, Preston, it can be fixed. I can attest to that along with a handful of scrub nurses. ‘I give you me’? No man says things like that without meaning it.”
“It’s hard to hear something like that when the precursor is something akin to ‘I thought that you may be this one day’,” he answers, “I deserve her anger. I simply don’t know how to make up for it.”
Addison lays a hand on her friend’s arm, “I don’t know Yang like you do,” I say, “but I know that somewhere deep down that she has a second x chromosome and all she needs to hear is those vows. Really hear them. You two love each other. Don’t let go of her.”
“I almost let go of her once,” Burke says gently, “I’d be a fool to do it again.”
---
George’s words replay in Callie’s mind over and over again. She’s tried to make it stop, tried to wrap her mind around the concept so somewhere in her brain a neuron will fire and she’ll be able to form some sort of words in response to George’s but she’s getting nowhere.
“Callie,” George says her name almost hesitantly. She looks like she’s going to snap any second and he knows that he deserves it, “Callie, say something.”
There’s still no response.
“I was drunk,” he repeats, “it wasn’t intentional and I told Izzie that I was going to fix this. That she needed to stay away. I couldn’t- I love you. I don’t want to lose you.”
The last six words finally penetrate the barrier that his admission had created and something in her snaps, “You don’t want,” she echoes.
Only then does George realize that wasn’t exactly the best choice of words.
“You don’t want,” Callie repeats, “you don’t want it and so it shouldn’t happen, right George? Just like you didn’t want this relationship and then you did and then you didn’t again? You didn’t want to commit and then you did and then you wanted to go to Vegas and get married and so we did and then you wanted to get drunk one night with your best friend and whore it up with her and now you don’t want this to end?”
Her voice rises with each phrase until she’s yelling and then just as suddenly she falls quiet, “Get out. Get out now and don’t you ever come back.”
“Callie,” George starts, his voice trembling slightly, “I said-“
“Your sorry isn’t good enough,” Callie says with a shake of her head, her brown eyes narrowed, “get out.”
George doesn’t move and despite an overwhelming urge to leave herself, Callie picks up the phone and dials the front desk, “Yes, may I have security please? I have an unwanted guest in my suite that refuses to leave.”
This gets George’s attention and he suddenly stands, gathering his jacket and fumbling about, “Callie, this is ridiculous,” he argues, stopping to try to work his shoes on, “I’m not some-“
“They’re on their way up George. These elevators aren’t slow. If you don’t want to go to jail, I recommend shutting up and getting the hell out.”
Callie watches with her arms crossed as George face plants just outside of the door to the suite and though she wants to laugh at him, she doesn’t.
At least she’s not suppressing an urge to ask him if he’s okay.
---
“This whole hospital has gone to hell,” Derek states plainly, sitting on the edge of Addison’s desk.
“You’re sitting on my budget,” Addison replies, not looking up from her laptop, “and I take that statement very personally.”
“No, I don’t mean you. I mean personally it’s going to hell. Professionally it’s great. Keep up the good work, Chief,” Derek adds emphasis to the word and if Addison didn’t know him, she’d think it was sarcasm and not jealousy.
“Still regretting giving up this position, are you?”
“Yeah,” he admits, “maybe a little. But I’ve seen the inside of an OR today.”
“It’s a good thing when I don’t see the inside of an OR. It means there are no premature infants in need of life saving surgery,” Addison points out.
“Admit it,” Derek prods, “you miss spending countless hours in the OR.”
Addison looks up at him finally, pulling her red rimmed reading glasses from her face. The pointed expression on her face fades and a more unreadable one replaces it, “Richard did it. He managed to get into the OR and run this department. I will too. I’m still new at this. I’m still trying to figure everything out and with losing Mark and trying to-“
“What? It’s not possible.”
“Richard was in the OR all the time,” Addison argues.
“No, not that. Losing Mark. He’s not actually leaving is he?” Derek asks, afraid that it’s too good to be true.
“Yeah,” she answers, shuffling through a pile of papers on her desk. She finally finds what she’s looking for and pushes it in Derek’s direction, “he’s breaking contract and paying a huge tail but I’m sure he doesn’t care. He’s going to LA.”
“I don’t believe it,” he says with a shake of his head, “this is the best news I’ve heard all week.”
“He used to be your best friend,” she says, snatching the resignation letter back from Derek’s hands, “you should at least tell him goodbye.”
“I have no desire to.”
“Derek, I get that you didn’t forgive me and that you didn’t want to and all of that,” Addison starts, “but he’s been your friend forever. Do you really want to lose that?”
“He never once apologized,” Derek rebukes in a voice only a little less than sanctimonious, “he never stepped up to admit that he had done something wrong. He never stopped trying to get in the way when we attempted to fix things. I don’t care how long we’ve been friends. He’s made no attempt at fixing this and there’s no need for me to try.”
Addison looks back up at Derek intently, “You realize that you never apologized to me for the thing with Meredith? That you never once said ‘sorry’ about leaving a pair of panties in your pocket or humiliating me the way that you did?”
Derek opens his mouth to argue but he’s cut off before he can get two words out.
“I have work to do, Derek,” she says with finality and doesn’t bother watching as he leaves. There are some moments, sparse as they may be, where she thinks that she misses him. Moments where she thinks that if Meredith Grey had never gotten in the way that the change of pace that Seattle brought about would have fixed everything.
Then there are moments that Addison remembers no matter what, she was still married to Derek Shepherd and that Derek would always be Derek, no matter what city he lived in.
---
“Who is she?” Meredith asks, eyeing the quirky little brunette across the cafeteria.
“What?” Cristina glances up from her plate, “Who?”
“That girl. The one that stalks me and looks around corners but runs in the opposite direction if I ever start to walk towards her. Who the hell is that?”
“Some intern I gave up to George. Three,” Cristina shrugs and drops her fork onto the tray.
“She’s not just some intern,” George says defensively, “her name is Lexie-“ he takes the opportunity to shove a large bite of his sandwich into his mouth to muffle her last name.
It works.
“Well, Lexie needs to stop stalking me. I don’t care what she’s heard and if it’s true but I don’t need a creepy creepy stalker right now. I have enough problems.”
“I thought you dumped your problem? You should be problem free,” Cristina mocks, “unless you’ve got a problem down there from sleeping with the new problem.”
“Shut up.”
George’s brow furrows, “Who are you sleeping with now?”
“Now? What kind of a question is that? You act like I’m sleeping with somebody new every week,” Meredith says defensively, “I’ll have you know that Derek and I are-“
“I didn’t say that and you are being overly defensive. You picked up guys in bars, it’s not like you can really sink any lower.”
“She’s sleeping with Alex,” Izzie announces unceremoniously as she drops her tray at the table, “she has sunk lower. Much lower.”
Meredith looks at Izzie wide eyed, “You were supposed to keep your mouth shut!”
“Yeah and so were you,” Izzie shoots back at her with venom dripping from each word, “that didn’t stop Callie from kicking me off her service and saying she was going to do everything she could to keep me from ever seeing the inside of an OR again.”
“Actually,” George tries to interrupt but is quickly cut off.
“I didn’t tell her! And you had no business bringing up the fact that I’m sleeping with Alex!”
“I already knew,” Cristina interjects in an amused tone, “it is low. Even for you, Mer.” The new spat is at least distraction from her own issues for a minute.
“You knew and you didn’t tell me?” Izzie asks.
“Since when do I tell you anything?”
“But it’s Alex. That’s good gossip. You don’t keep that quiet.”
“Apparently since Meredith told Callie you slept with George,” Cristina smirks, picking up her fork to stab a piece of her salad.
“Shut up, go home and put your apron on for Burke, I’m tired of your moping.” Mer hisses at Cristina, “and Izzie, I did not tell Callie. Why the hell would I tell Callie?”
“Guys!” George snaps, “I told Callie.”
Izzie’s face goes from bright red with anger to sheet white in a matter of seconds, “Oh. Sorry.”
Meredith shoots an ‘I told you so glance’ at Izzie, oblivious to Cristina’s expression.
“And I can’t believe that you’re sleeping with Alex,” George adds then falls silent, making note of the look on Cristina’s face.
“What?”
Izzie kind of nods at Cristina, “I think you broke her.”
Cristina slides her gaze to Izzie for only a second and then back at Meredith before standing up, “Unbelievable.”
“What?” Meredith asks, glancing around, “what did I say?”
“I don’t know. I heard something about an apron and shutting up,” Izzie quips before taking a drink of her soda, “that could have something to do with it.”
“Yeah, that was kind of wrong, Mer,” George adds.
Meredith looks at George in disbelief, “You’re going to tell me that something is wrong? You who cheated on your wife with Izzie is going to tell me that I’ve done something wrong like you’re some pinnacle of moral whatever?”
George falls quiet and starts pushing mashed potatoes around some sort of over processed meat product, muttering to himself.
Silence falls over the three of them and Meredith looks back in the direction of the brunette sitting with the other interns.
Now she has a creepy, creepy stalker and no person to complain about it to.
---
Cristina shifts under Burke’s gaze and tries to pay attention to the surgery. Yesterday and the day before was just the stupid puppy dog eyed thing going on, the attempt at a silent apology for being himself and an even more pathetic attempt at getting her to talk.
Today she was convinced that he was picturing her naked.
“Dr. Yang,” he announces in that authoritative tone of his that she loathes and loves all at the same time.
“Dr. Burke,” she responds, making it clear through her tone that she’s annoyed with his little game today.
“You’ll be performing the anastomoses on this patient, I’ll assist.”
You are completely invisible, she thinks, but I’m not stupid.
“Yes, sir,” she answers turning to Bokhee for the instruments. She carefully follows his instruction, using the sutures that she’s both looked up in the books on her own and learned from him. His hand nears hers but never touches, more from caution than restraint.
His eyes turn into embers as he watches her, guides her in a low voice when she needs him (which isn’t much) and then watches as she asks for antegrade flow to assess her work. Burke knows that in a few short years she’ll be a brilliant surgeon, world renowned.
People will come to Seattle Grace for her care.
When she’s satisfied with her work, he gently releases the heart and begins the delicate work of decannulating the heart and then lets her place the pericardial patch. They close and too soon, his time with her is over again.
After he drops his facemask into the trash, he dips his hands beneath the faucet, “This isn’t exactly what I pictured our marriage to be,” he admits in a low voice, “seeing you only at work. Giving surgeries as the only way to give of myself. This isn’t what I want, Cristina.”
“I told you that I’m a surgeon, not a wife,” Cristina answers coolly, scrubbing at her own hands. She feels like she can’t get out of the room soon enough and that she wants to stay all at the same time.
“My girlfriend was a surgeon too. And yet she came home at night, at least most of the time.” Burke answers, keeping his voice low, “I fell in love with that woman. That’s the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. Nobody else.”
Cristina grabs a couple of towels to dry her hands and turns her back to drop them into the trash. She doesn’t know what to say to him because she doesn’t know how to feel about any of it. There’s logic and then there’s this stupid emotional crap that she never paid attention to before him and it’s playing a tug of war in her head and she can’t seem to shut it up for two seconds.
“Cristina,” his voice is soft and sad. She can’t turn around and look at his face because she knows that she’ll break more easily than she wants to.
Burke repeats her name again and when he sees her motionless before him, he decides to resort to more effective tactics. His grip is firm on her shoulders when he turns her and there’s a small sound that leaves her mouth, the first syllable of his name or so he thinks, before he devours it. She fights him for only a moment and gives into the kiss, returning it with the same fervor.
There’s a curious housekeeper mopping the area around the OR table and a scrub tech bearing witness to the entire scene but it doesn’t stop him from pulling her body firmly against his. Every part of him aches for her, needs to feel her curled against him while they sleep or writhing beneath him as they make love. Things aren’t right without her and he needs her to know that.
He wants to know that she feels that way too.
Another sound leaves her mouth this time and now he can tell it’s his name, recognizes the tone of her voice. It would be so easy to give into what she wants, what they both want, take her into his office or a call room and let desire take over but he has a bigger plan.
Burke pulls his lips from hers, the heated kiss leaving hers nearly swollen, and he brushes a soft kiss against her forehead, “Come home tonight,” he murmurs and leaves her standing dumbfounded in the scrub room.
---
“So you’re actually doing this?” Addison asks, looking at the emptied office, “You’re going to leave because I was being a paper pushing, bureaucratic bitch?”
The words still sting.
“Yes,” Mark answers coldly and then he stops, “no. Yes and no.”
“Mark,” she murmurs, laying her hand on his arm. They may have never worked out but she still cares about him. There’s a big place in her heart reserved for the man in front of her, even if he had his own issues.
“Addison, stop,” he says, pulling his arm away, “I came to Seattle because of you. I came to Seattle for you. We didn’t work out and now there’s no reason for me to stay. It’s about more than this Chief thing or the budget thing. I don’t belong here. Seattle is not home for me.”
“Then why not go home to New York? Re-open your practice?”
A boyish grin spreads across his beautiful face, “I have a reputation in New York.”
“And you have a clean slate in Los Angeles,” Addison says with a shake of her head. “You’ll never change.”
“I don’t have a reason to right now,” he shrugs, dropping the last stack of articles into his box.
“Mark?”
“Yeah, Addie?” he asks, glancing up.
It’s the same hopes that she has for herself but she shares them for him too. She knows that maybe one day he really can be a good husband and a good father. Just not for her, “I hope you find your reason to change.”
---
“D-doctor Yang?” A small voice stammers her name from behind and she doesn’t have to turn around to know it’s an intern.
Cristina really does enjoy them all being terrified of her.
“Can’t you see I’m busy?” She asks, browsing a website that’s clearly not work related.
“I-I can and I apologize but I know that you know Dr. Grey and I just had a couple of questions that I wanted to ask you, if I could,” the voice says again and if Cristina didn’t know any better, she would assume that it was a starving orphan behind her with a voice that small.
She turns to face the voice with narrowed eyes and sees Meredith’s creepy creepy stalker standing behind her, “Three,” Cristina says flatly.
“Lexie,” the woman corrects but then quickly adds, “but you can call me three if you want. That was my nickname. Growing up. Three.”
“Shut up,” Cristina says, holding her hand up, “what do you want?”
“Dr. Grey, Meredith…she’s your friend isn’t she?” Lexie asks, “I’ve seen you with her a lot.”
“Depends on what day of the week it is.”
“Well, I just…I wanted to know because I’m kind of…related to her. I’m…you see, our dad is the same dad,” Lexie stammers slightly.
“So you’re what the rest of the world refers to as sisters,” the sarcasm of the statement temporarily cancels out the realization and then Cristina’s eyes widen almost imperceptibly, “you’re Meredith’s sister,” Cristina repeats.
“Ye-yeah. And she seems really nice but I feel like every time I try to talk to her that she doesn’t want to talk to me. There’s this look on her face.”
“That’s her normal face. Talk to her anyway,” Cristina shrugs, reaching to pick up a People magazine, “she loves family.”
A smile of relief spreads over Lexie’s face, “Really? That’s great. That’s good. Thank you. Thanks, Dr. Yang.”
“No problem,” Cristina says through a forced smile, watching as Lexie runs off and then she shakes her head, “sucker.”
---
“Not tonight,” Meredith says, feeling Alex’s eyes on her as she changes out of her scrubs.
“Yes tonight,” Alex scoffs, “what kind of arrangement is this if you’re giving me the ‘I have a headache’ crap?”
“It’s an arrangement where I have other issues going on right now and I don’t want to go home and sleep with you. That’s not going to fix anything.”
“It will feel good,” his tone is self-assured and he knows that Meredith agrees. She agreed three times last night.
“It’s not going to solve anything.”
“Fuck solving anything,”
Meredith looks at him in disbelief, “Cristina is mad at me again, George and Izzie aren’t speaking because of George and Callie and now you’re breathing down my back to get laid when all I really want to do is…I don’t know what I want to do. But I know that I don’t want to have sex with you tonight!”
Lexie stood frozen in the doorway of the resident’s locker room, her eyes wide, “Maybe this isn’t a good time.”
“And I have a creepy creepy stalker!” Meredith snaps, “What the hell do you want?”
“I’m…I just wanted to come say hi. Because I’m your sister. And Dr. Yang, she said that you really love family and that you’d want to talk to me and so...here I am. To talk,” Lexie rambles on, “but you look like you’re already talking so I’m just going to-“
“Cristina told you I loved family?” Meredith questions before Lexie can make her escape.
Alex snorts, “Yang may be a pain in the ass but she’s got a twisted sense of humor.”
Meredith shoots an angry glance in Alex’s direction before looking back to Lexie, “I don’t do family. At all. So whatever Dr. Yang told you, just ignore it. And by the way, Dr. Yang loves interns. And hugs.”
“Lame,” Alex remarks.
“Yeah, that was kind of obvious,” Lexie says quietly.
Meredith looks between the two of them with disgust before grabbing her bag and pushing past Lexie to make her quick exit.
“So I’m going to guess that she’s not a big family person, huh?” Lexie asks quietly.
“You’re pretty smart for an intern,” Alex says, giving her the once over. “What’s your name again?”
“Lexie. Well, Alexandra but I tell everybody to call me Lexie,” she says, eyeing the guy in front of her, “what’s yours?”
Alex walks casually over to the door and holds it open for her, “That’s for me to know and you to find out.”
---
“You’re still here?” Derek asks from the doorway of her office, “Have you moved at all?”
Addison pulls her hand away from her face, her cheek red from the countless hours of pressure, “I’m still here. And I’ve moved. Once, I think.”
“It’s time for you to move for the night,” Derek answers, walking over to closer her laptop lid despite her best efforts to shield it, “whatever is here, it’s not life or death and it will be here tomorrow. I know you and I know you’re trying to be perfect in the first month of being Chief but it’s not necessary, Addison. Sleep. Sleep is necessary.”
The sound of her empty stomach interjects itself into the conversation.
“And food,” he adds with a smug grin, “come on. I’ll get you dinner that doesn’t come out of a can or the hospital cafeteria.”
“You’re going to get dinner?” Addison asks suspiciously, “Are you going to poison it?”
Derek laughs slightly and puts an arm around her waist to usher her out of the office, “No. Just think of it as an apology for panties and absenteeism in New York.”
“So you don’t have to say the words.”
“I didn’t say that I wasn’t going to say the words,” Derek says quietly, “but I figure if I’m going to swallow my pride that it may go down better with some Mediterranean cuisine from that little place on Third Street that you like so well?”
More intrigued about the possibility of an apology than dinner, Addison agrees, “I think it would probably go down much easier.”
“Good.”
---
There are remnants of a candle light dinner for two on the table when she gets home and he’s doing dishes with a pathetic look on his face. She stands by the door for a moment, taking it all in before she drops her bag and walks over to the table to pick up his plate and silverware to put it next to the sink.
“There’s some dinner if you’re hungry,” Burke says casually, taking the dishes from her.
“I’m not hungry,” her voice is uncharacteristically soft.
“Okay.”
Cristina lingers next to him at the kitchen counter. She has no words to say but she knows that she doesn’t want to spend another night in an on-call room (the hospital is dead) and Meredith’s house is not an option (she should be bonding with her sister right about now) so this is the next best thing. Her fingers trace against the top of the granite counter until his hand moves over hers. It’s unusually warm from the heat of the water and she looks up at him seconds before their lips make contact.
This is why she came home.
Burke’s arms wrap around her waist as her fingers curl around his neck and she kisses him voraciously. Her free hand is already working one handed at the buttons of his shirt and she’s simultaneously trying to drag him backwards towards the bedroom but he’s not moving. His firm grip on her hips result instead on her lower back meeting the edge of the counter, a bruise in the making.
Her fingers slide down over his bared chest and stomach to the bulge in his pants and she rubs firmly against it, lets him buck against her hand. When he groans her name she decides to quit torturing him and unbutton his pants and dip her hand inside, granting him skin on skin contact.
He drags his lips over her neck and murmurs a soft ‘I love you’ against her ear and she doesn’t want to hear it right now. Right now, Cristina wants angry sex, merciless fucking until they’re both so drained and exhausting that speaking the truth isn’t considered a heart to heart, it’s considered a moment of weakness.
Cristina digs her nails into his shoulder and he gets the message loud and clear and backs her harder into the counter, reaches down to grab one of her legs and wrap it around his hip, grinding against her roughly. He tears off her shirt and sends it sailing somewhere, her bra following in the same direction. He moves his mouth over her breast, laves her nipple with his tongue, sucks and bites until she cries out and tries to push him away.
Burke makes quick work of her pants and panties, pausing in between layers to remove his own clothing. He kicks away his pants and his fingers find her folds, rubbing her clit and partially pushing inside her, leaving her breathlessly begging for more. He lifts her to sit on the counter and pulls her legs apart before dropping to his knees. His dark eyes move over her body, taking in the beauty that is Cristina; the way ebony curls tickle her porcelain shoulders, the staggered breath that causes her pert breasts to rise and fall erratically. To him, she’ll never be anything less than perfect. Slowly, he kisses up the inside of her knee, flickers his tongue out against the soft flesh of her inner thigh until finally, finally, his lips and tongue are right where she wants them.
Her fingers curl into his hair and she holds him against her as he attacks her clit with is tongue, swirls around the sensitive flesh. His fingers find a rhythm that matches the gyrations of her hips and she grows wetter by the second. His tongue sweeps down to taste her and then back up to her clit once more, this time nipping gently at it and closing his lips around her until she’s crying out and jerking hysterically. Just as her walls begin to tighten, he eases a third finger into her to bring her to orgasm.
Strength leaves her body as he continues to move through her orgasm, not letting up while she’s begging for him to stop. She drops from her palms to her elbows, her body trembling in his grasp. Her chest heaves and she sees him watching the heavy rise and fall of her breasts with embers for eyes. She shudders one last time and feels the full weight of his body press against hers as she lazily opens her eyes. Their gazes meet and he lifts her from the counter and presses her back against the cold refrigerator instead, the head of his impressive length threatening entrance.
Burke takes her with one hard stroke, burying himself as deep as her body will let him and maybe a little bit more. A few more hard thrusts and he’s filling her to the hilt and holding on for dear life. Cristina kisses his neck between cries and moves her lips over his ear to breathlessly whisper, “I love you too.”
---
Going to Joe’s wasn’t exactly Meredith’s first choice.
Somehow, in the scheme of things, Meredith realizes that she’s gained a support system in a way. She has her person, she had Derek, and she had her friends when they weren’t all obsessed with sleeping with married men or avoiding the wife they cheated on. Everything is different right now and it’s definitely not in a good way.
No, going to Joe’s was not her first choice tonight but when she couldn’t find Cristina and Izzie was obsessing over George, and Derek…
Well, Derek wasn’t even an option anymore.
The sound of giggling in the corner of the room draws Meredith’s attention up from her glass of tequila and she sees Alex clearly hitting on a drunken Lexie. Her eyes narrow and she tosses back the rest of her drink before walking towards the pair.
“What the hell are you doing?” her voice slurs more than she wants it to, “That’s my sister.”
“You weren’t claiming her twenty minutes ago,” Alex says, “or me.”
“Because we’re not a thing, Alex. You just wanted to get laid.”
“Yeah, and I still do, so-“
“Whoa, whoa, wait- I know that you’re…I don’t…” Lexie looks helplessly at Meredith, “I wasn’t trying to,”
“Please, are you going to tell me that you had absolutely no clue what he was doing?” Meredith questions angrily.
“Well, no. I mean, maybe. But I wouldn’t have slept with him,”
“Then you can pay your own tab,” Alex snorts, “I’m getting out of here.”
“You’re not going anywhere!” Meredith snaps at him and grabs onto his arm, “I’m not done talking to you.”
Alex pulls his arm away from her hand and straightens his jacket, “We’re not a thing. I just wanted to get laid.”
Meredith watches as he walks away and turns back to her supposed sister, “You aren’t allowed to sleep with him, I don’t care what you say.”
“Why? It’s not like you’re a thing,” Lexie shoots back at her, “and like I said, I wouldn’t have done it. You obviously care about him.”
“Alex? I don’t care about Alex?”
“Really? Because you were pretty pissed about him trying to sleep with me.”
“Look, I don’t know what you’re trying to do or why you’re here but I don’t care. Just…you are not my sister and I am not the person you’re looking for. He is not my boyfriend and I don’t want one but I swear to God if you sleep with Alex, you’ll wish that you were wherever you came from.”
“Here,” Lexie interjects, “I came from here. Seattle. Well, kind of. See, I was from Boston. I moved back to Seattle. Because I was born here. But I lived in Boston. Anyway, I was doing a residency at Mass Gen and-”
“I don’t care,” Meredith snaps, not willing or wanting to hear her side of the story, “There are at least four other surgical residencies in Seattle.”
“And this one is the best and I deserve a chance at being the best,” she argues with Meredith, “and I’m your sister. How can you just walk out on family?”
“How?” Meredith asks angrily, “Why don’t you ask your father? I’m sure he can give you lessons.”
Lexie looks stunned and Meredith takes the opportunity to walk away from her. She has absolutely nothing to say to the girl who stole her father and her life. She probably doesn’t even know the first thing about what it was like to grow up a true Grey, a Grey who doesn’t do feelings and happy shit.
Other than genetics, they have absolutely nothing in common.
---
Derek walks alongside Addison in silence, trying to digest the evening he’s had. He glances over at Addison who looks just as pensive as he feels and he chuckles, “We’re both deep in thought or so it seems.”
“Yeah,” Addison says distantly, “I just guess that sometimes I miss this.”
“This?”
“Us,” she clarifies, “we were good together. When we were actually together.”
Derek nods gently, “We were good when I wasn’t absent.”
“You don’t have to apologize again. We’re past that.”
He stops midstride and takes hold of her hand, “What else are we past, Addison?”
The sincerity in his voice is obvious and Addison is left speechless. She’d thought about it before, what she would do if she had another chance with Derek, if they would actually be able to pull it off. Despite the words they’d shared over and over, the arguments she had, there was a large part of her that would always love Derek no matter what.
“I’m not asking for everything to change right this moment,” he assures her, “I just want to know if there’s anything left. If I have a chance to make it up to you. To really make it up to you,” Derek reaches out and brushes a strand of garnet hair from her face, “What would you say if I said I wanted to try again? No distractions.”
“I guess I would say that we just have to take it one day at a time and see where it goes,” she finally says.
“One day at a time,” he echoes, “I think I can do that.”
Addison smiles faintly and continues walking, her hand in his, “I think I can too.”
---
“I’m not cuddling,” Cristina mumbles tiredly, “I’m just not moving because four is a lot. On top of the other,” she falls silent trying to count the number of times he’s produced mind shattering orgasms.
“I believe there were eight,” he says in a low voice against her ear, voice dripping with suggestion and a faint hint of pride in his capabilities.
“Those,” she agrees in a mumble, “I’m not moving because of those.”
Burke chuckles softly and lifts her fingers to his lips, “Of course.” His arm drapes around Cristina and he pulls her even closer, “I love you,” he murmurs for the hundredth time this evening, “I know that there were things before the wedding and that the things I said-“
Cristina shakes her head, “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Don’t talk,” he says then, “just listen. I just want you to know that I love you. Not some woman that cooks and cleans. Not a wife. I want Cristina.”
She looks over her shoulder at him and then shifts so she’s facing him instead, “Fine.”
“Okay,” he responds idly, tracing his finger along her jawbone.
“You realize that I’m going to make you pay for that little stunt for the rest of your life, right?” she asks, “You’re definitely not getting off that easily.”
Burke laughs softly, dropping a kiss against her shoulder and lowers his voice again, “I’m more than willing to put in the time.”
Cristina mock groans and stretches out slowly beside him. Her breasts brush against his chest, “I have a headache.”
“Then allow me to cure it,” he murmurs suggestively, his body shifting completely over hers.
“Again?” She asks, her hands running up the backs of his toned arms. The tone of her voice is purely annoyed but the way she presses her hips into his and wraps her legs around him contradicts that tone.
Though she may find it to be a personality flaw tomorrow, she’ll never say no to him.
---
Meredith pushes open the door of the on call room and finds Alex sleeping, his arm hanging off the bed and knuckle scraping the floor beneath him. She locks the door and then turns to face him again, waiting a few minutes to gather her thoughts before kicking his hand, “Wake up.”
Alex jumps at the sudden intrusion and sits up, wiping his chin, “What the hell?”
“You were going to sleep with her,” Meredith says bitterly.
“So? It’s not like it matters to you.” He answers, reaching for his scrub top. The top leaves his hands and Meredith tosses it aside. He grins smugly and looks up at her, “You’re jealous.”
“I’m not jealous.”
“You’re jealous otherwise you wouldn’t be making a thing out of it.”
“It’s not like this is a relationship,” Meredith retorts, untying her scrubs, “it’s a thing.”
“Should it be an exclusive thing?” Alex questions and he’s surprised by his own question but for Meredith he’s willing to do it. She’s just as messed up as he is. This was inevitable.
“Do I look like I want syphilis?”
Alex pulls her down to the bed and crushes his lips to hers, “Fine. Then it’s an exclusive thing.”
“No sleeping with Lexie.”
“Exclusive means that I’m only sleeping with you, dumbass.”
Meredith pushes him back onto the bed and crawls over to him, “You’re talking way too much.”
Alex flips her over and pins her wrists to the bed, “You started it,” he says before roughly kissing her. It’s a thing but it’s still not a thing and it’s something that both of them can live with.
---
“Are you sleeping in the cafeteria?” Meredith balks, sliding her tray onto the cafeteria table, “You do realize that we have rooms with beds and pillows here, right?”
Cristina buries her face in her arms, “I can’t go near a bed, he’ll know. He has ways.”
Meredith’s brow furrows, “Who are you talking about?”
“Burke,” she mumbles into her arms, “he’s all newlywed on me.”
“That’s way too much information,” Izzie says, plopping down across from Meredith, “I didn’t need to know that.”
“Then go sit somewhere else,” Cristina mutters, “and shut up and let me sleep.”
Meredith smirks, “Not getting any sleep either?”
“Because that’s such a hard life,” Izzie says, rolling her eyes.
Cristina shares a look with Meredith before burying her face in her arms once more. There’s no need to discuss what happened with Burke because clearly it’s better and that’s all that really matters on the subject, “So how’s the sister?”
“You mean my creepy creepy stalker?” Meredith asks, “She’s a creepy creepy stalker and I’m not interested in having a sister. By the way, your little joke was totally unacceptable.”
“It was good.”
“It was wrong.”
Alex sits at the table and flashes a dirty look at Meredith before shoving a fry into his mouth. Izzie catches it and scoffs, “You two are disgusting. I can’t believe you’d actually sleep with him.”
“Shut up,” Alex smirks at Izzie, “you know it’s good. You’re jealous.”
“It’s still disgusting. And wrong.”
Meredith shrugs, “Then we’ll be disgusting and wrong.”
“Slept with any married men lately?” Cristina adds, lifting her head.
“That joke is off limits,” George announces, taking his seat at the table. “Did you know that when you file for divorce and have absolutely nothing it still costs thousands of dollars to get out of it?”
“Told you that you shouldn’t have married her,” Izzie says pointedly.
George casts a sideways glance at Izzie and then looks at Cristina, “So you’re good with Dr. Burke now. That’s good, right?”
“How do you know I’m good with Burke?” Cristina asks, lifting her head.
“Because he’s in a better mood,” George shrugs, “I’m his guy, remember?”
Cristina rolls her eyes and lays her head back down for what she hopes is the last time, “I would have been better off trying to sleep in the on call room.”
Meredith smiles and wrinkles her nose, “That’s what you get for telling Lexie I wanted a sister.”
“You should have been there she told Lexie you wanted hugs,” Alex chimes in, “dude, it was so obvious.”
“She wouldn’t have tried it. The interns are stupid but they’re not that stupid,” Cristina groans as she sits up, finally giving up on getting sleep.
“Dude, you look rough. Amateur.”
Meredith kicks Alex underneath the table, “Leave her alone. She’s still in the honeymoon phase or whatever. They’re all in love.”
“Or in a continuous state of having sex,” Cristina mutters, “who thought there could be a thing as too much sex?”
“There isn’t. You’re just sick,” Izzie snorts, “very, very sick.”
“Or getting laid. Maybe you shouldn’t have cut the LVAD wire,” Cristina mocks and reaches to steal a fry from Meredith.
“I have work to do,” Izzie announces ceremoniously and stands up.
“Oh, is there a new heart patient on the floor?” Cristina continues prodding, “try to pick one that’s less critical this time. You may be getting laid in six months, give or take, depending on the procedure.”
“Cristina,” Meredith chides softly.
“What? I’m tired.”
“Go sleep. I’ll play interference with Dr. Burke,” George offers, “besides, he’s in surgery right now anyway.”
Cristina ponders it for a couple moments only and then stands up, “Thank you. Seriously.”
George waits until she’s gone and then laughs, “He doesn’t have any surgeries until this afternoon. He should be finishing up clinic just about now, actually.”
Alex quirks a brow and looks over at George, “I’m impressed, O’Malley. You’re not as much of a fetus as I thought you were.”
“Thanks, I think.”
“It’s a good thing, George,” Meredith assures him and then glances down when her pager goes off, “Oh, that’s my craniotomy. I have to go deal with Derek. He’s acting weird lately. Like he’s completely okay with us being broken up.”
“That’s because he’s back with Dr. Montgomery,” George announces, “or at least that’s what Callie said.”
Meredith wants to care but she doesn’t care at all because for all the changes that have happened in the past month, everything feels right.