The After

Chapter 6

Over the next couple of weeks, Cristina was making steady progress with her PTSD. Her nightmares had subsided, she was feeling less on edge all the time and she was gradually becoming more like her old self. Which didn't go unnoticed my Owen, he had seen her gradually coming around, and was over the moon to see her starting to feel better. He could see her witty, sarcastic self coming back and every time she smiled he couldn't help but grin himself. He had missed her. She had helped him through his darkest days and he would do the same for her, as long as it took.

Cristina, was 11 weeks pregnant now, and had the slightest bump, it was barely noticeable to anyone but her and Owen. Owen marvelled at the change in her body, he couldn't keep his hands off her bump, even though there had been no movement yet, he was determined to feel it with her when it happened. Cristina still had the misfortune of morning sickness, almost every day, and had started to get the most peculiar cravings, which Owen readily ran off to get for her no matter what the time of day.

Cristina and Owen were sitting on their sofa as Owen rubbed her feet, he had just come home from work, and she had spent the majority of her day reading baby books, apart from her venture to the hospital to meet her friends for lunch, she had been doing that a lot lately. Owen smiled at her as she munched on her latest craving, peanut butter on pickles.

"I don't know how you eat that" he said teasing her.

"Hey, don't knock it 'til you've tried it" she retorted. She tried to force it into his mouth, but he swatted her arm away. He ended up with a face full of peanut butter and her pickle went flying across the room.

Cristina started laughing hysterically as she looked at his peanut butter covered face. He couldn't help but join in, he loved her laugh, oh how he'd missed it.

After recovering from their laughing fit, Cristina grabbed a tissue and wiped the peanut butter off his face, giving him a kiss when she was done. He wrapped her in his arms and enjoyed just being with her. He loved having her in his arms, it felt so natural. They stayed like that for a while, both lost in their own trail of thoughts. Owen was the first to break the comfortable silence.

"I was thinking, maybe we should start telling people" he said looking into her deep brown eyes.

She hadn't really thought about it, she'd told Mer and Callie and he'd told Derek, quite frankly she was surprised Callie had kept it to herself and it wasn't all over the hospital by now.

"Yeah if you want" she replied simply. "I suppose I could tell the rest of the gang at lunch tomorrow" she suggested.

He nodded, "Okay, I guess I'll tell Teddy and the other attendings then too" he agreed.

"As long as no one tries to hug me or feel my bump" she muttered. Owen laughed, he liked that he was the only one allowed to touch her tiny bump (well except for Mer of course.)

"I'll tackle them" he joked, earning a smile from his wife.

"I was thinking.." she began, her turn now to share her train of thought, "Maybe I should get a job, I can't spend the next 7 months just sitting around" she said softly.

Owen's heart leapt as he heard what she had said. "Your old job is still there waiting for you" he said, slightly too eagerly.

She shot him an apologetic look, "No, I was thinking about trying something else, you know less stressful" she uttered.

He looked at her sadly, at least she's getting out of the house he thought to himself.

"I asked Joe and he said I could work there" she added. She noticed Owen's expression quickly change to a look of horror.