A Love So Absolutely Clear {Crowen} ✔️

27: the circle game

"now look at this." cristina pulled out a single teddy bear that had two heads from her purse. novella laughed and took it from her hand.

"your father and i got it while doctor patel gave you your treatment." she told her. novella stared at it and continued to laugh, then set it to her chest and hugged it tightly.

"it looks so funny!" she hollered, showing the bear to cristina and owen then hugged it again. "this head is going to be called sawyer and this one is tom."

"you like it?" she asked, with a smile on her face.

"ya. thank you." novella said.

"see, owen i told you she'd like it." cristina turned to him. he had a confused look on his face.

"how was i supposed to know she was going to like a two-headed teddy bear?" he asked, bewildered. cristina sighed.

"because i would've liked a two-headed teddy bear, yet my mother always gave me little porcelain dolls whose heads i'd cut off." she reasoned with him.

"fair enough." he watched while novella held the bear in her arms like she was holding a baby, and smiled softly.

the car-t cells were put into her body the day before, and though they weren't sure if it was helping, at this time, they were past feeling sad and scared all the time. they tried their best to be how they were before. like nothing ever happened.

they were still hiding from their seattle life. nobody from novella's school knew what had happened to her. helen was either at their house with lolo or booking a flight back to beverly hills. their co-workers were left with no information whatsoever, and while they didn't want it to be that way, they didn't want to do anything about it either.

as far as they knew, owen was taking care of it technologically and ordering sloan what to do through his phone. he hadn't told teddy about what was going on, but chances were she knew all about it. the entire hospital was likely to know as well.

cristina had talked to meredith a few times while they were in california, but the conversations were only about cancer or work, and cristina wasn't interested in talking about that all the time. she wanted to escape the reality that was her life, and therefore didn't talk to much people about anything.

but so far, nothing good was happening, and nothing bad was either. doctor patel showed them novella's scan and thankfully, no cancer had spread to another one of her organs but he had informed them if they waited any longer, it would have. at least they were grateful for that.

"i miss lolo." novella sighed, looking at the teddy bear in her arms and hugging it tightly.

owen tilted his head. "honey, he's with grandma at home. you can't see him right now because you're sick." he explained, rubbing her knee slowly.

"we haven't talked to grandma in a long time." she told them. cristina looked at owen and then back to novella.

"i know you miss seattle, but we'll only be here a few months and then when we get back, you can surprise everyone by saying that you're all better." cristina tried. "but for now you need to stay here so they can treat you."

"okay." she breathed, setting her teddy on her lap. "i'm hungry." novella rubbed her stomach in circles.

"do you want me to go and get some food from the cafeteria?" owen asked her. she nodded her head.