Chapter Text
Cristina wakes up with a splitting headache in a bed that’s not her own with an arm wrapped around her waist. Cristina rolls over, eyes tracing over the slender fingers to the tanned skin of her arm to the peaceful expression on her sleeping face. One of her arms is trapped beneath her body, but Cristina doesn’t focus on that. Instead, she racks her brain for any sort of memories from the night before. She vaguely recalls meeting the blonde at the bar. Maybe they had danced? She really only recalls the feeling of the girl’s body pressed against her own, the vague scent of her perfume or her shampoo or maybe even her body wash. If she focused hard enough she might even be able to recall the sound of her voice, but her hangover headache is persistent and gruelling, sharp spikes of pain bursting behind her eyelids whenever she strains too hard.
Whatever. If Cristina’s being honest, she doesn’t care enough to remember the girl. She may not be crying over her split with Owen, but that doesn’t mean she’s recovered from their painfully awkward break up. God knows it’s going to get worse when she returns to work tomorrow. Speaking of, Cristina checks her phone, scowling at both the bright screen and the time flashing on it. Meredith had called twenty minutes ago, but she hadn’t left a voicemail which means she’s still waiting to panic.
The dark haired girl rolls out of bed, quietly and efficiently getting dressed, tugging her shirt on and the pants that had once been a good idea dutifully. Her shoes are a pain, but she doesn’t exactly want to be walking around barefoot in Vegas. Once she’s sure she has all of her things on her person, she heads for the door. Her fingers are wrapped around the handle when she hears movement from behind her. The blonde rolls over in bed, one hand grasping for the space Cristina had previously been and the other twisted underneath the sheets. Cristina escapes before she can wake up, shutting the door softly behind her.
She’s halfway back to her shared hotel room when her phone starts ringing. She answers it quickly, holding it up to her ear and wincing when Meredith’s voice blasts through the speakers. “Cristina, thank god. Where the hell are you? Our plane leaves in forty five minutes.”
Cristina runs a hand through her hair, quickening her pace. “I’m sorry, Mer. Look, I’m approaching the hotel now. I’ll meet you in our room. I’m sorry.” She repeats, hanging up.
Meredith looks pissed when she enters their hotel room, standing by Cristina’s bed where her suitcase is already packed. “You have ten minutes to shower. There’s an outfit already in there waiting for you.” She grumbles, her hands firmly planted on her hips.
“Thank you.” Cristina mumbles, quickly stripping off her clothes and darting into the bathroom. She flinches as the cold water cascades over her, but she grits her teeth and bears it. She showers in less than five minutes, and she’s dressed by the seven minute mark. “Ready.” She announces, reappearing in their room. She’s dressed casually in jeans and a plain colored shirt, tennis shoes on her feet and her wet hair pulled into a bun. Meredith has taken care of her clothes from the night before, and their bags are waiting by the door.
“Good. I called a taxi, and they’ll be here in about two minutes. Let’s go down and meet them.” Meredith says stiffly.
Their taxi is waiting out front for them, and they sit in silence all the way to the airplane. “Are you mad at me or something?” Cristina asks, turning to Meredith who sits idly beside her, flipping through a magazine.
Meredith sighs, the sound big and dramatic. “No, Cristina, I’m not mad at you. I was just… scared, okay? I didn’t know where you were, you weren’t answering your phone, and we had a flight to catch. I was nervous and worried and scared.”
Cristina bites down on her lower lip, one hand reaching up to touch the back of her neck. Her eyebrows furrow when she feels the cold press of metal against her skin, and her heart practically stops in her chest when she brings her hand down and sees the simple gold wedding band on her ring finger. “I was getting married.” She says softly.
“What?” Meredith blinks at her.
“I was getting married.” She repeats, showing Meredith her hand.
Meredith’s eyes go wide when she finally registers what Cristina’s telling her. “Oh, my god! Who did you marry?”
Cristina shakes her head. “I don’t know. I mean, I woke up this morning in bed with this woman, but I left before she woke up. Mer, I don’t remember, like, anything from last night. I vaguely remember dancing with her? Maybe. I don’t remember her name or her phone number or where she lives. I don’t remember any of it, if she even told me in the first place.”
“Shit.” Meredith breathes.
“Yeah.” Cristina agrees, twisting the band around her finger. There’s nothing big or gaudy about it. It practically weighs nothing. If Cristina hadn’t felt it against her neck, she might not have realized it was even there. Luckily she had.
The rest of the flight is passed in bouts of questioning and whispered conversations, as if any other passenger cares about the topic they’re discussing, and naps. Meredith nudges her awake when the plane lands, the two tiredly continuing their conversation from before.
“And you don’t remember anything? You’re sure?” Meredith asks for the millionth time since they got in the goddamn cab at the airport.
“Yes, Mer, I don’t remember anything. Not her name, her phone number, occupation. Not where she’s from or even if she’s actually single. Not a single thing besides what her body feels like pressed against mine.” Cristina snaps, exasperated. The cab pulls to a stop in front of Meredith’s house, and the two get out and begin unloading their luggage.
Meredith falls silent, and when Cristina meets her eyes she discovers a smirk spreading slowly across Meredith’s face. “Oh yeah?” She waggles her eyebrows teasingly, her eyes bright. “How did it feel?” She unlocks the front door, leading Cristina inside and bumping her hip against the door to shut it.
The part of Cristina that values her privacy wants to tell Meredith to fuck right off, but the part of Cristina that desperately wants to confide in people urges her to be honest. “It was great. I don’t remember much, but I feel like she’d have talented hands.”
Meredith laughs, and leads her upstairs. “C’mon, tell me all about it. We can throw on a movie and wait until we pass out. We need all the sleep we can get before we head back to work tomorrow.” She points out.
“Yeah. Hey, did you hear that there’s a new hire coming in tomorrow?” Cristina slides out of her jeans, accepting a pair of pajama pants that Meredith hands her.
Meredith imitates Cristina’s actions, pulling on pajama pants that almost match the ones she gave Cristina had they not been a different color. “Derek’s been talking about it, but he doesn’t know anything about it. If he does, he’s gotten a hell of a lot better at keeping secrets.”
“Maybe it’ll be that cardio god I’ve been begging for.” Cristina jokes.
Meredith laughs, sliding under the covers and gesturing for Cristina to join her. She slips in beside Meredith, warm and content to be with her best friend, her person. There’s nothing like quality time to help you get over a break up. Not that Cristina needs help getting over a break up, obviously. She’s one hundred percent over Owen, anyways. She never even liked him that much to begin with.
Nobody would get away with actually saying it because Cristina can’t even admit it to herself, but she misses Owen more than she wants to admit. She knows they’re never going to get back together, but that doesn’t mean the love she had felt for him had just vanished overnight. He wants kids, and she wants a career. The two don’t mix for Cristina. Not like that. It may work for Meredith and Derek who are over the moon to have officially adopted Zola, but Cristina doesn’t want kids. Not now, and probably not ever. She’s happy to have dedicated her life to her work, and she knows a kid wouldn’t be happy to have the leftover pieces of Cristina’s dedication.
Meredith reaches out, brushing her fingers through Cristina’s hair. “I think if Chief Webber finally got you a cardio god, you’d die of happiness.”
“You may be right about that.” Cristina slips further under the covers.
“Are you planning on heading to your apartment tonight or in the morning?” Meredith asks, affectionately messing with Cristina’s hair. Her touch is soothing and comforting, and Cristina’s worries wash away.
“In the morning.” Cristina yawns, her eyelids fluttering closed. “I’ll wake up early.” She drifts into a sleep that goes undisturbed until Derek gets home.
He slides into bed on the other side of Meredith without missing a beat, used to the impromptu sleepovers after years of on and off dating. “Go back to sleep.” He whispers, Meredith humming and repeating the message to Cristina.
After that, Cristina sleeps peacefully until her alarm buzzes. Cristina was a light sleeper, much to the dismay of her college roommate who would spend her nights partying and return in the wee hours of the morning to an irate Cristina who she woke up when she ran into the door three times. This was a process she repeated twice a week at least.
She gathers her luggage and slips downstairs, calling a cab and beginning the bare bones of her morning routine such as brushing her hair and teeth.
Once she gets to her apartment, she showers, taking as little time as she has to in order to get clean, thoroughly washing her hair and body with lavender scented bath products. She has plenty of time to unpack, putting her dirty clothes in the hamper and replacing her toiletries where they belong. She even has an apple for breakfast, grabbing her keys and heading out of the apartment dressed in jeans and a plain colored shirt. She’s itching to be back in her scrubs, a scalpel between her fingers and a body beneath her. She grabs a coffee before heading into work, sipping at it as she heads for her locker. By the time she gets there, her coffee is gone and she’s slipped into a sort of contentment inspired by the ease at which she feels.
If she had ever lost her groove, which she hadn’t, she had it back.
She cheerfully pulls her scrubs on, tossing her empty cup into a trash can and waiting for Meredith to arrive. The blonde arrives in a similar mood to Cristina, talking happily to Lexie while April follows sullenly behind them, waiting for her friends to arrive.
“You’re practically glowing.” Cristina comments.
“The glow of motherhood.” Meredith answers teasingly. “That doesn’t explain your glow, though.”
“The glow of imminent surgery.” She responds.
Meredith arches an eyebrow, eyes flicking down to the ring still on Cristina’s finger. “Or maybe it’s the glow of being married.”
“Wait what?” Lexie and April chorus together, exchanging a glance before they look away, resentment sparking in Lexie’s eyes. There’s a hint of an apology in them, but Cristina can see the moment she dismisses it, her eyes hardening and her jaw locking firmly.
“None of your business, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.” Cristina snipes, pulling her hair into a ponytail and making her way to the door. “I’ll wait for you by the nurse’s station, Mer.”
“Alright.” Meredith nods, already beginning to change into her scrubs. Cristina wanders over to the nurse’s station, requesting the charts for that morning’s rotation and beginning to read over them. Her eyes fly over them quickly, noting which ones are more cardio based and which ones aren’t. She may pay special attention to the cardio cases, but that doesn’t mean she ignores the cases that aren’t cardio focused. To be a great surgeon, you have to be a well rounded one. And Cristina Yang? She’s well rounded as hell.
“Hey.” Meredith peeks over Cristina’s shoulder, reading through the chart before moving to stand beside her, palms pressed against the counter. “Wanna go meet the new doctor?”
Cristina shrugs, following after Meredith as she starts to talk about the hectic morning at the house. Apparently Zola had woken up with an earache, and in retaliation she had woken the whole house up with a splitting, screeching cry. Derek had been put on Zola duty because Meredith had to get to the hospital early to check on progress at the hospital. A good surgeon is always prepared. Cristina is half listening, half filling in the details in her own head.
They take a peek at the conference room, but if anyone had been in there they were gone now. “Well, that was a bust.” Meredith sighs. “Want to come with me to the coffee cart?”
“Sure.” Cristina agrees, following her down to the coffee cart outside. They’re waiting in line when Cristina hears a voice. Something pings inside of her at the familiar sound, but she can’t quite place it.
“I don’t mean to pry, but I have seen the ring so I assume you aren’t hiding anything.” Arizona’s bright voice floats through the air as she and the girl she’s with wait for their coffees. “Are you married?”
“Er, yes, actually, but my wife is,” they turn as they get their coffee, and her eyes meet Cristina’s almost instantly. Bright green meets dark brown, and it’s like the whole world has stopped. It’s her, the woman from Vegas, blonde hair falling down her back in silky waves and pink lips dancing over Cristina’s skin. “Right there, actually.” She says before promptly dropping her coffee. It hits the ground with a splash, Teddy jolting back before it can soak her.
“Cristina?” Meredith hisses, concerned. She tugs on Cristina’s elbow, her fingers digging into her skin.
Teddy watches them curiously, her eyes bright and alert. Cristina’s first thought shouldn’t be that she’s so pretty, but it is. “Mer,” She mutters. “It’s her.”