She Moves In Her Own Way

97

"Cristina." A very familiar wispy sounding voice filled Cristina's ears. The voice was whimsical and calming. It was almost lulling Cristina back into the slumber from which she had awoken but Cristina fought it. She wanted to see the face of the person that the voice belonged to. "Cristina." There was that familiar voice again, trying to lull her back into the land of sleep.

But Cristina's determination won! She snapped her eyelids open to reveal her brown eyes. She blinked a few times as her vision blurred into focus. She looked around, scanning her surroundings. Grass, trees, blue sky. She was lying on the ground in the most awkward position imaginable, the blue sky above her and trees all around her, a soft bed of wet pine needles below her body. The sun beat down on her, it was very warm but a welcomed warmth. There was not a cloud in the sky to provide relief from the bright sun but the trees provided some form of cover.

Cristina turned her head to the right, all she saw was trees. There was not another person in sight. She shifted into a more comfortable position and turned her head to the left. Her brown eyes fell upon Teddy lying beside her, a mystical ghostly dream-like version of Teddy. Pale and glowing but it was still Teddy. A white dress covered her body and her hair lay perfectly around her shoulders as she smiled at Cristina.

"Teddy." Cristina reached out her hand to gently place it on Teddy's pale cheek but her hand fell right through Teddy's face, distorting her image, and landed on the wet pine needles below which provided the bedding of Cristina's resting place. Cristina frowned, confused as she looked at her hand on the ground. She looked up at Teddy's reformed face, her features had become more transparent than before. This was a hallucination. Cristina knew it but she did not want to believe it. She wanted to believe with her whole soul that Teddy was right by her side in this land that felt strange and foreign.

Teddy smiled again at Cristina and looked up at the blue cloudless sky, "It's beautiful here, wouldn't you agree, Cristina?"

Cristina now did not take her eyes off of Teddy, now knowing that Teddy was a figment of her imagination, fearing that she would disappear if she did look away, Cristina kept her eyes firmly upon Teddy's form. "Yeah." She agreed, taking a deep breath through her nose that filled her lungs with the sweet smell of pine trees. She let the air out of her lungs through her mouth.

Teddy began to giggle. "You and I should go camping here when you get home." She said in her soft sweet voice which echoed amongst the trees.

Cristina began to laugh too - Teddy's laugh was incredibly infectious. Camping! No way! Cristina was not the kind of person to camp but she did recall Teddy telling her one day that she used to go camping with her grandparents when she was a young child before they passed away. "Yes." Cristina agreed blindly, despite her brain's protests.

"Cristina!" That was not Teddy's voice. This voice was loud and less echoey than Teddy's voice. This voice sounded sore and raw as though it had been yelling a lot.

Yet still Cristina did not take her eyes off of Teddy, even to respond to the other voice that was now invading her ears, overpowering Teddy's dying laughter.

"Cristina!"

Suddenly Meredith threw herself down on the ground beside Cristina sending the ghost-like version of Teddy off up into the sky. "Oh thank god! You're the first person I have found. I can't find anyone else." She panted, her scrubs stuck to her body with sweat and her voice cracked and broke as she spoke.

Cristina watched Teddy's cloud float away and then retained her eyes to Meredith. She just stared at her. Meredith's cheeks were red and a thin layer of sweat lined her forehead, allowing loose strands of hair from her ponytail to stick to her forehead. She had dirt on her face and her eyes were bloodshot and puffy. She had obviously been crying, Her scrubs were dirty, wet from her sweat and her blood stained parts of the navy fabric.

Meredith took Cristina's hands and stood up. She pulled Cristina to her feet too. Cristina's eyes fell upon the ground and travelled to her feet. She wiggled her toes inside her black sock. She only had one shoe on, her left show was missing. "Where is my other shoe?" She asked, searching for her other shoe on the ground around them. She moved to the bushes and rummaged through them. "Where is my other shoe?" She asked again.

"I don't know. Where is Derek? Where is Lexie? Where are Arizona and Mark?" Meredith said and she began to yell Derek's name into the trees surrounding them, scaring the birds from their nests in the nearby trees, causing them to fly away.

"Where is my other shoe?" Cristina yelled. Her voice joined Meredith's in the treetops, mixing into one.

"Hey. What is with all the noise?" This voice was deep and it made Cristina and Meredith stop their yelling. This voice was very familiar. Meredith and Cristina looked at each other and then looked in the direction that the voice had come from.

The wind whistled, rustling the leaves on the trees and blowing the pine needles up from the ground, creating an ominous atmosphere that made Cristina and Meredith's muscles tense. Who could it be? They searched through the trees to see if they could see someone. They couldn't, the foliage was way too thick.

Meredith and Cristina glanced at each other nervously again, then returned their eyes to the trees. The wind continued to whistle through the trees, birds began to sing, having returned to their nests in the treetops.