𝙎𝙋𝘼𝙍𝙆𝙎; 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠 𝙨𝙡𝙤𝙖𝙣

|| 4 ||

"Nothing." Cristina denied to tell him the truth.

"He's going to operate on my father." George reminded his friend. 

"George, Burke is fine. Your dad will be fine." Cristina tried to reassure him, but it was all over her face. Something was wrong, and it had been wrong for a long time. 

"You're lying. Burke is hiding something and you're helping him." George insisted.

"Leave me alone." Cristina said and walked away.

Natalie and Bailey exchanged a look. And Natalie promised herself that she was going to find out what was wrong. And if what was wrong was the reason she had been the second choice for everything the last weeks.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

That day a five year old was brought in the hospital. Mia was backed over by her mother's SUV. She had crush injuries to her abdomen and blunt trauma to her head. After a CT, she was taken into surgery. Derek was operating on her. Up in the gallery, Natalie was staring at her ring, still trying to decide if her marriage was worth saving. The fact that she still hadn't taken it out meant something to her, maybe she wasn't ready to let him go even after what he did.

"Did you ever think about having kids?" Bailey asked Addison and Callie. The four of them were sitting together looking at the surgery. But each of them had a different thing going on.

"Derek and I talked about it but I wasn't ready." Addison replied.

"I love kids. I'd have a dozen." Callie said, a small smile on her face at the idea.

"Believe me, one's enough. Unless you plan to put away the scalpel."  Bailey pointed out.

"That's why God invented nannies." Callie joked.

"I wish it were that easy." Natalie sighed, remembering all the times her mother or Isaac's mother were with her daughter instead of her because she was working. The day Amber turned 14, she let her stay alone when both of them worked. And now that it was just the two of them, Amber was spending a lot of hours alone. And Natalie hated that. She was calling her every hour to make sure that she was okay. 

"What do I do with these? Hock them? Keep them?" Addison asked them, showing the rings on her fingers.

"My mom says divorce wedding rings are bad juju." Natalie replied, remembering that she still hadn't told her mother about the divorce. And she didn't want to tell her, knowing that she was going to give her the 'you can't tear your family apart' speech.

"Your mom says juju?" Addison asked.

"She does." Natalie confirmed.

"Do you want them?" Addison asked, showing her the rings.

"I have my own to get rid off." Natalie reminded her.

"Yeah, but you still haven't gotten a divorce." Addison pointed out.

"I am well aware thank you." 

And then Bailey spoke up. "Yesterday I left for work early, and Tuck's favorite food was strained peas. Nasty green gunk, but he loved them. Ate them for breakfast. I got home from a 15 hour shift and he didn't like strained peas anymore. He only wants carrots."

"Life moves so fast. Everybody moves on." Addison said quietly.

"Amber has been really focused on this boy lately." Natalie talked next, loving how easy it was to her to talk to those women. She didn't think she'd find a good friend after what her best friend did to her. But she did. "We've been here for two or so months and she's already moved on from San Francisco. And I can't move on. I should, I was ready to and then..." She paused not sure how to finish the sentence. Not sure what to do.