She Moves In Her Own Way

13

The next day, while at work at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital, neither Cristina nor Teddy mentioned Teddy's nightmare from the previous night to anyone or even to each other, it was as if it had never happened. They went about their day, doing consultations and Cristina carrying out operations with Teddy's supervision, as if Henry wasn't dead and as if Teddy hadn't almost been hit by a car a few days earlier, with three small differences to their usual work routine.

The first difference to their usual routine included Teddy avoiding the operating room - operating room three, specifically - where Cristina had operated on Henry and Henry had died. Teddy had talked everyone into letting Cristina operate on Henry without waiting for the oncall cardiothoracic attending, claiming Cristina was a machine and wouldn't care if she was operating on her husband or not, and now Teddy regretted making that decision. She didn't regret letting Cristina operate on Henry, she trusted Cristina with her own life, but she did regret not waiting for the oncall attending. If they had waited for the oncall attending, she wouldn't hate Owen for telling her Henry was dead, but then again maybe she would hate Owen. he had made the decision to keep her in the dark while she operated on her own patient instead of telling her straight away and letting the oncall attending take over. Instead, Owen had put the needs of the hospital over Henry and she hated him for that, she despised him with every fiber of her being for making that decision. Teddy hated Owen Hunt because he kept her husband's death from her. If they had waited for the oncall attending, Teddy wouldn't have had to see the broken look in Cristina's eyes as she explained everything that had happened in the operating room. Teddy wouldn't have put Cristina through that. If she could go back in time to that day and do everything over again, she would have made the decision to wait for the oncall doctor, just to avoid seeing the look in Cristina's eyes. But Henry might not have survived long enough for the oncall doctor to get to the hospital. But Teddy never wanted to see the look in Cristina's eyes again... ever again. Hindsight is a wonderful thing... isn't it? Just wonderful!

Teddy avoided OR 3 with every cell in her body. She didn't even look through the small window of the door as she walked past to see who was in each operating room the way she used to. She didn't go into the gallery of OR 3 to observe any cardiothoracic operations that may be taking place. If she and Cristina were assigned OR 3, Cristina would perform the surgery, no matter how complicated or difficult, on her own without Teddy's supervision or assistance, not that Teddy could assist her in any way with one arm. Cristina was a fifth year resident, after all, performing surgeries on her own was not uncommon and pretty soon she'd be sitting her Boards to become Teddy's cardiothoracic fellow, so why not get a head start on that now? What  harm could that do?

Cristina did not mind this change to their routine at all. She did not mind any of the changes to their usual routine actually as she did not want Teddy to get upset at work in front of everyone. That would be so bad and Teddy would be so mortified that she might not show up to work the next day. Cristina definitely did not want that. Cristina definitely did not want to lose Teddy as a mentor. Teddy was the best mentor Cristina had ever had at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital. Cristina cherished Teddy and would do anything to keep her in Seattle.

The second change to their usual routine involved Cristina performing all of Teddy's surgeries with only her mentor's supervision, excluding of course the surgeries that took place in OR 3, as Teddy could not operate one handed... although Teddy definitely would have tried it had Cristina not talked her out of it. Teddy was glad Cristina had talked her out of operating one handed, though, that was a legal battle just waiting to happen and that wouldn't be good for either Teddy or the hospital. A legal battle was the one thing Teddy could not deal with on top of everything else. That and Owen Hunt. She couldn't deal with Owen Hunt right now either.

The Third change to their routine involved Teddy avoiding all of the elevators in the entire hospital. Teddy had first met Henry in an elevator in that very hospital. She couldn't remember exactly which one she had met him in, but she'd always remember meeting him for the first time. He had been in the process of making his way to his girlfriend at the time to ask her to marry him so that he could use her insurance to pay for his upcoming surgery. He had asked Teddy how he looked and Teddy first thought was 'handsome', even in the hospital gown, but Teddy had kept this thought to herself. Their first encounter had been a little awkward but Teddy didn't mind that at all.