Chapter 6

The Chief was helping Adele with her coat to leave when he looked at the dance floor and saw that Cristina and Burke were one of a few couples still dancing. Adele put into words exactly what he was thinking "Preston and Cristina make a great looking pair don't they?"

Richard paused for a moment "They certainly seem to. They've been dancing for the past hour and it looks like they're going to close out the place."

"He looks at her like she's the only woman in the room. I never knew that Preston was such a romantic."

"Neither did I. I was worried the day he came into my office to tell me about their relationship but they seem to be doing okay. I've never seen him so happy…so at peace."

"She's got quite the spirit!"

"She certainly does and I'm sure that spirit will continue to keep Preston on his toes for years."

On the other side of the ballroom, Cristina and Burke danced as they had for the past hour stopping only to have polite conversation with a few people who dared to interrupt their fun. It was about halfway through the night that they had given up any appearance of formality and Cristina stopped worrying about what people would say, opting instead to enjoy their night out as a couple. They seemed to dance closer as the night wore on and now his head was perched on top of hers which rested on his shoulder. As they danced, Cristina thought about how she was proud of herself for tonight's victories. She had survived several hours in this alligator pit they called a fundraiser with only a minor scrape at the start of the evening and she considered Dr. Moliere a feather in her cap.

She was thinking about how much fun it would be to tell this story to Meredith tomorrow when she heard Burke's favorite song starting to play. The song was "At Last" by Etta James. He loved the blues.

Years ago, he made friends with a band that played at a local bar and sometimes he played his trumpet with them. Several times she'd met him there and each time right before they were leaving, he'd ask the band to play this song, scoot her off to dance in a corner of the bar and he would sing softly to her. After a couple of times, she'd asked him why he always did it. In a totally romantic way he had told her that he thought of it as their song because he was so happy she was in his life and neither of them was lonely anymore. Not giving into sentiment, she of course fought back with the argument that she was never lonely and he was just trying to get lucky. Since that night, she'd referred to "their song" as "his move".

At last
my love has come along
my lonely days over
and life is like a song …

She pulled away from the singing Burke to look up at him "Trying to put the moves on me again, huh?"

He smiled forcing her to take note of his cute dimple "I'm ignoring that. You know you are amazing."

"I know"

"Moliere loved you."

"Of course he did. Jealous?"

"Cristina, half of the people in this room were jealous. That includes Elizabeth Riley."

"Seriously?"

"Cristina, Moliere switched our table so you could sit with him then rearranged his table so that you could sit next to him. You mesmerized the most prestigious guest, spoke to him in French, and looked stunning doing it. They had to practically drag him away from you."

Cristina stops dancing and looks up at him "They did, didn't they?" The bathroom incident was a faint memory to her now as her ego was practically bursting.

Burke pulls her closer to him and starts dancing again "Yes. Good thing he is leaving tomorrow or I might have some competition."

"Well he is the French Preston Burke!"

Burke has an edge to his voice now "He may be the French Burke but he's not your Burke. He was a little too friendly towards a woman he just met whose boyfriend was in the same room."

Cristina didn't want Burke to be upset but part of her was enjoying it "I so knew you were jealous!"

Smiling, she rested her head against his left shoulder, her right hand entwined with his hand perched against the right side of his chest. He smelled good.

Being so close to Cristina in public was nice but Burke was still preoccupied with Anton. They had had a wonderful time tonight. It was definitely better than he'd imagined. Why'd she have to be so damn beautiful. He casually asks her "So what did the two of you talk about anyway?"

Realizing that Burke was not letting this go, Cristina couldn't help but have some fun with it "Travel, food, how he wanted to have hot sex with me."

Cristina leans her head back as Burke yells "WHAT!" This time it is Burke who stops dancing and steps away from Cristina.

Seeing others looking at them she responds quietly "What do you mean what?

"What do you mean what do I mean? That's completely inappropriate. That's what I mean. Where is he?" Burke is scanning the almost empty room.

"He already left. Just calm down. People are staring. He's French. It's what they do"

She unwrapped her hand from his and put both of her arms around his waist pulling him so there was no distance between them. She couldn't help but laugh to herself as she felt the tension in his body.

"We also talked about what a great surgeon you are. I told him how people come from across the country just to have your hands touch them."

The usually unflappable Burke tries to regain his composure and change the subject "I didn't realize you were so fluent in French."

Cristina, not wanting to seem like she actually cared about the little tidbit she learned about him tonight, counters hesitantly "I didn't realize you were the most eligible bachelor in Seattle."

Cristina and Burke danced for a few minutes more, Cristina leaning her head on his shoulder as he softly sang in her ear. She loved that Burke did this although she had always been the one telling other guys that it was annoying. With Burke it was just one more thing that was different. He definitely wasn't like other guys and his singing never failed to make her stomach flutter.

I found a dream
that I could speak to
a dream that I
could call my own
I found a thrill
to press my cheek to
a thrill that I have never known

well

You smile
you smile
oh and then the spell was cast
and here we are in heaven
for you are mine at last

ooo yea
you are mine
you are mine
at last
at last
at last
at last

As the song ended, Burke grabbed Cristina's hand pulling her onto the terrace.

Cristina giggles "Burke what are you doing?"

"Getting some air"

As is her usual, Cristina protests every step as Burke leads her towards the terrace "But it's …wow it's beautiful out here. You can even see the space needle."

"You really need to trust me more." He moves back so that he is standing behind her and when she turns to look at him she feels like she could drown in the love she sees in his eyes. It wasn't anything new though. The first time she remembered feeling that way was when she'd seen him at the hospital the day after he broke up with her. It seemed like such a long time ago now. She wouldn't have called it love then but there was something that drew their eyes to one another. She used to think of it as magnetic and it was always there even when they were mad at each other. Whenever their eyes caught each other, she could feel the connection so strongly that she'd swear each time she stopped breathing just for a second.

"If you're cold, you can have my jacket?" Burke starts taking it off and is stopped by Cristina.

"Mmmm. No keep it on. I think there's room for both of us in here." He had been lifting weights recently and she could feel the firmness of his arms and the cut of his muscles as she put her arms around him under his coat and moved one hand up the front of his chest. They were just looking at each other for a few minutes when she laid her head against his chest as she started to get a little nervous because he seemed to become serious when they came outside. Sometimes she wondered how she'd gotten so lucky then she, of course, had to remind herself that Cristina Yang did not believe in luck.

Burke was more than happy to keep her warm "Thank you for coming tonight. I know that you were uncomfortable about coming here with the whole in love with your boss thing."

Lifting her head up "Who said I was in love?"

Burke raises an eyebrow "Very funny. Addison told me what happened with Elizabeth and Barbara in the bathroom."

It surprised him that she was still staring up at him. There was a time, not too long ago, that he'd be looking down at the top of her head because she would be uncomfortable with the conversation. Tonight he was happy to be looking into her beautiful eyes. She spoke softly as she rarely did with anyone other than him "I didn't mean to embarrass you. Something just came over me."

"Embarrass me? Are you kidding? I'm proud of you. They should be the ones who are embarrassed."

This was not quite the reaction she was expecting "You are?"

"Always!"

Cristina hesitated a moment then gives him a tender kiss just barely brushing his lips "I'm glad I'm here." Cristina turned back around to look off the balcony and lets out a deep sigh of relief. Burke wrapped his arms around her lowering his head to kiss her neck "I thought you were cold."

"No, I was just trying to see if I could take advantage of you. This is a hotel isn't it?"

"What, now you think I'm easy?"

"Uh let me think about that…yes!"

He gives her a playful squeeze and they're both laughing when Burke dangles a hotel key in front of her.

Cristina turns her head slightly towards him "Oh, let me guess it's just a key right? Doesn't mean a thing."

Burke puts the key back in his pocket "No, it definitely means that I am trying to take advantage of the fact that I am not on-call and am at this spectacular hotel with my incredibly sexy girlfriend." Burke goes back to softly kissing Cristina's neck.

Cristina is squirming "It is hard to concentrate with you kissing me."

"Do you want me to stop?"

"No, I like it. Does our room have this view?"

"Yup."

"Okay I'm in. But it's only because of the view. And to think that all those people tonight were under the mistaken belief that you were such the gentleman."

"Uhhuh" he squeezes her tighter and nuzzles her neck whispering "You know that I am the lucky one, right?"

"Huh?" She turns towards him still in the cocoon of his arms and he continues

"I don't know what anyone thought before we came tonight but they don't know anything if they don't realize that I am the lucky one that you chose me."

As she stood there looking into his eyes, Cristina wasn't so convinced he was right but she knew he meant it and that was enough for her. Her relationship with Preston Burke had made her happier than she had been in a very long time.