The After

Chapter 23

The doctor left the room, leaving Cristina and Owen alone together in the quiet exam room.

Cristina was still staring blankly ahead looking pretty miserable.

Owen hated seeing her like this, but there was nothing he could do about it. He could only begin to imagine the sort of trouble he was going to have the following weeks trying to keep her in bed. He had known Cristina for years and the only time he had seen her willingly take time off work was during her post shooting break down.

Looking at her now it was clear that she wasn't going to take this well.

He approached her and gently stroked her arm.

"Hey come on it's not the end of the world" he said.

Her head snapped up and a look of disbelief was revealed on her face.

'Okay wrong thing to say' he thought to himself.

"Not the end of the world?!" she hissed, "Owen, he put me on bed rest for 10 freaking weeks"

"I want this baby Owen but my career is important to me and I can't afford to fall behind, I need to be the best and I can't do that from bed."

Owen smiled sadly at her and took one of her hands in his, "Cris I know this sucks, but all that matters is that you and our baby are healthy"

"Easy for you to say no ones stopping you from operating" she mumbled in response.

He moved a hand up to cup her face, "You're not going to fall behind Cristina, listen I don't know how yet but we'll figure something out okay?"

The certainty in his voice and the pleading look he had on his face made her ease out of her foul mood slightly but the cloud still hovered over her head and she imagined it would remain there until she got a scrub cap on her head and blood back on her hands.
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They got back into the car and Owen began to drive.

"Do you want to go home?" he asked unsure whether another few days with his family was something she would want right now.

She really wanted to go home, she wanted to see Mer, she's the only one who would understand just how awful her prescribed treatment was. She wanted to moan about it and feel crappy without having to feel guilty for wanting to go against what was best for her unborn child, Mer would get it she always did.

But she knew how much Owen was enjoying being with his family and she was enjoying seeing a new side of him.

"No it's fine, as long as there's a bed I should be all set at the cabin" she said sarcastically.

He smiled at her appreciatively and brought her hand to his lips to kiss it.

"I kinda thought we were having a baby today" he said after a few moments of silence.

Cristina glanced away from the window to look over at him, "You sound disappointed" she said with a laugh.

"Well I know she's not ready to come out yet but I getting so excited to meet her."

Cristina couldn't help but smile at him and her bad mood faded away a little more at his words.

"But I can wait 10 more weeks, so you stay put" he said taking his eyes off the road to talk directly to her bump.

"It would've been a disaster if she came today, we are so not ready" she said

"I know" he said smiling over at her, "when we get back home, we'll get organised so if she decides to make a surprise entrance we'll be prepared....But that won't be for weeks because you are going to do what the doctor said"