A Love So Absolutely Clear {Crowen} ✔️

25: six hours

they were at the airport now. their flight was in fifteen minutes.

not a single day had passed since they realized novella was running out of time; since the scan of her body showed that her cancer could spread to her kidney, to her lungs, her liver, or wherever else it could spread to.

the flight would last approximately six hours if there weren't any complications. they knew it would be the longest six hours of their life.

currently, owen, cristina, and novella were sitting down on the seats of the airport, with their bags right in front of them. novella sat on cristina's lap, her eyes almost closed yet were halfway opened. cristina put her hands around novella's stomach, looking at her every so often just to make sure she was alright.

owen sat right next to them, making sure everything was settled. he made sure he'd rent a car for their time in california, that they would be registered for the clinical trial, and that his current job—the one he just lost—would be under his control technologically.

with novella still on her lap, cristina pulled out her phone with one hand, while the other stayed wrapped around novella. she turned it on and dialed a familiar number, then set the phone up to her ear. she waited for the ringing to stop before she said anything else.

"hey." cristina said, after the ringing had stopped and it had gone straight to voicemail. "meredith, we haven't told anybody yet, but i'm at the airport right now. all of us are leaving to go to california and we don't know how long we're staying there for. i won't get into detail, but novella needs treatment and the only place that gives us what we need is over there." though her voice was soft, she managed it keep it steady and upbeat. "please text me when you get this. we have a six hour flight so i won't be able to get back to you right away. i just wanted to let you know. bye."

she put her phone back inside her purse, and her arm wrapped around novella again.

out of the corner of her eye, she saw owen making a few texts on his phone before he turned it off and put it back into his pocket. he turned to look at her, his lips hidden and folded into his mouth, and his hand reached out for hers.

"everything's ready for us. we'll need to take a taxi or an uber to get to the car, but then we can get to the hospital straight away." he informed her, while her hand felt the warmth against his.

"okay." was all that she said. they looked at each other for a few seconds before she awkwardly looked away and then looked down to her hands that were still on novella.

he kept looking at her a little while longer, until he rallied up his force to look at something 
else.

"first class passengers of number 6005, long beach, california, please make your way to the desk to prepare for your flight." the woman on the speaker announced. cristina took a deep breath in, turning novella over so she was facing her chest. she hugged onto her neck and closed her eyes quietly. cristina stood up and carried novella the entire time.

"i'll get the luggage." owen said, gathering everything else they had and making sure they didn't leave anything behind.

"you have the tickets?" she asked, making their way over to where a line formed at the desk. he pulled them out of his pocket gave her hers.

"yep, right here." she took it from his hand acceptingly.

they hadn't talked much, recently. for the most part, it was because they were too afraid to say what they were thinking. and for part of it, they didn't feel like sharing their thoughts anyway.