Echoes of Resilience

20

"What do you mean he had a shrine of me next to his bed? Like an actual shrine?" Cristina asked with wide eyes.

"Yes, it included pictures of you, letters he had written, your stolen panties, and what appeared to be a lock of your hair." Officer Jacobs explained in a soft voice as the intern's eyes nearly bugged out of her head.

"I'm sorry, did you just say a lock of my hair?! I knew I wasn't crazy! A few weeks ago I went to sleep in an on call room and when I woke up I swore that it looked like a chunk of my hair was cut off but someone didn't believe me." She said while glaring at Arizona who was trying to avoid her eyes.

"Okay, I'm sorry! Your hair didn't look any different to me and I was unaware that Burke had some sick obsession with you so I had no reason to think anyone would sneak into an on call room and cut your hair." Arizona rambled while holding her hands up in defeat.

"Anyways, so Burke confessed to paging Izzie back to the hospital with Bailey's pager and then luring her out of camera view before killing her? Did he explain why?" Addison asked while brushing her fingers through Meredith's hair.

"One of the letters we found in his apartment alluded to the fact that he felt the only reason Cristina didn't want to be in a relationship with him was because Izzie would spread it around the hospital, that coupled with her being involved in a surgery where he ultimately lost his patient seems to be the motive behind her murder. We also found a list of any phone number registered to your name in the last six months, so Arizona was correct when she assumed that Meredith's phone number being under your name is how he managed to get her number for Derek." Addison goes to respond but is cut off by a furious Cristina.

"Wait, he actually thought I had feelings for him?! Did he think me threatening to file a sexual harassment complaint was foreplay?!"

"He lawyered up as soon as he was done telling us how he got Izzie back to the hospital so we haven't been able to talk to him since, but when we arrested him he did think it was you coming home and said that you guys could finally be together."

"Why would he think it was Cristina?" Meredith asked hesitantly with her nose crunched in confusion.

"When we arrested him, he was in Cristina's apartment. We had gotten a key from the landlord so we could catch him by surprise if our hunch was right and he was hiding out there."

"He was in my apartment?! Okay, I knew he was a little weird and kind of slimy, but are you telling me that he killed a woman because he thought she was the reason I didn't want to be with him and then once she was dead he broke into my apartment so we could start our new lives together?"

"Yes, we don't think he actually left the hospital because he saw us and was on the run, we think he was just preparing for you to come home. Any other questions?"

"Can I get my panties back?"

"The shrine is evidence so unfortunately not, I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I was just going to pour a bunch of gasoline on them and set them on fire."

"Alright then, I am going to go meet up with my partner and Agent Nicholls so we can interview Derek and I will update the four of you later on." Agent Jacobs said awkwardly while making her way out of the front door. The four women sit in silence for a few minutes until Meredith bursts out laughing, receiving questioning looks from the other three.

"I'm sorry, it's just Derek cut my hair and Burke cut Cristina's hair." She gasps out in between fits of laughter. "We both had our hair cut by sociopaths." Cristina soon joins her in her laughter while Arizona and Addison watch them with concerned looks on their faces.