She Moves In Her Own Way

16

Teddy's apartment (formerly Teddy and Henry's apartment), like Cristina's apartment, was very clean and everything had a place where it belonged. Teddy kept her apartment very clean. There were equal amounts of both Teddy and Henry's belongings decorating the apartment. Like Cristina's apartment, Teddy's apartment was also decorated with neutral colored furniture, except for the walls which were a pale blue color (Henry's chose the paint and Cristina thought the color was rather ugly and did not match the rest of the apartment). The apartment was smaller than Cristina's, there was only one bedroom and no dining room. The living room and kitchen was open plan with a kitchen island in the middle of the room to divide the two. The bathroom was half the size of Cristina's. There were a few pictures of Teddy and Henry hanging on the walls and a picture of them sitting together on a beach on the small coffee table beside the couch. Teddy's graduation certificate from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School hung on the wall, Henry had found it when he was looking through one of the boxes under the bed one day while Teddy was working and he framed it and hung it on the wall for everyone to see because he was proud of her. Teddy had asked him to take it down multiple times because she thought it was embarrassing, but deep down she thought it was adorable that he was proud of her... proud of a woman in such a well paying job... some men would have been jealous... Henry was nothing like those other men... he was supportive and proud of her career.

"I think I have some empty boxes in the closet in the hallway." Teddy said, wasting no time. She did not want to drag this experience out any longer than it had to be. She knew her emotions would be all over the place and she would relive lots of memories while going through Henry's belongings which she did not want to prolong any longer than she had to.

"I'll help." Callie offered, after removing her jacket. She placed it on the back of the couch.

Teddy nodded in thanks and led Callie down the short hallway to the closet at the end. She pulled the door open, the closet was filled with a few jackets. Teddy pulled out two jackets, a brown one and a green waterproof one, both of which had belonged to Henry. She dropped them onto the hard laminate flooring beneath their feet and reached behind the rest of the jackets for the cardboard boxes. She pulled out six flattened cardboard boxes and a sixth one from the shelf at the top of the closet. She pushed the door closed and sighed.

Callie carried all of the flattened cardboard boxes for Teddy and Teddy carried Henry's two jackets to the living room where Cristina was looking at Teddy's graduation certificate on the wall and Arizona had made herself comfortable on the couch.

Callie sat the flattened boxes on the floor and Arizona, who had already removed her jacket and laid it beside Callie's on the back of the couch, moved from the couch to help Callie put the boxes together as Teddy passed them a role of sellotape and a pair of scissors from a drawer in the kitchen. She joined her two friends and Callie passed her one of the boxes once it had been erected. Teddy scribbled 'Goodwill' on the four sides and the top of the box with a black permanent marker. She pulled both of Henry's jackets off of the back of the couch and folded them carefully and neatly, with one hand, into the box.

"Cristina, can you take the pictures of Henry and I form the photo frames and put them on the coffee table?" Teddy asked, pulling Cristina from her thoughts and back to reality, as she labeled another box with the word 'keep'.

"Huh?" Cristina turned from staring at Teddy's graduation certificate to look at the woman herself who was looking at her. She had almost forgotten why they were here. "Oh... yeah." She took the 'keep' box from Teddy after crossing the room while taking off her jacket which she sat on top of Teddy's on the back of the couch.

An hour passed and Teddy, Callie, Arizona and Cristina had filled three of the boxes for Goodwill with most of Henry's clothes, except Teddy's favorite green sweater of his which she had found at the back of the closet in their bedroom. Teddy had held the soft green fabric to her face and took a deep breath, it still smelled like him. Instead of putting it in the 'keep' box, Teddy had pulled it over her head and down her body, with tears filling her green eyes. The sweater was too big for her but she didn't mind.