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In which Cristina and Teddy find out the other likes girls, in a really unexpected way.
Cristina, along with the other residents, had a game.
The game was called “Worst Patient of the Month”. Together with Meredith, Alex, Jackson, Lexie, and April, the six of them would each present a patient that brought them horrible amounts of suffering during the last week of the month, and they would vote collectively on who, among the six, was the worst one. The winner received free drinks at Joe’s for the next week, and while Cristina didn’t want to brag (who was she kidding, she loved to brag), she had managed to rack up a two-month winning streak that she really didn’t want to get rid of anytime soon. Cardiac patients were never the nicest.
So on one boring night shift, when she saw two elderly Karens covered in rainbow paint and complaining of chest pain down at the ER, it didn’t take much encouragement to rush over to them.
Cristina knew she had a winner on her hands.
“Hi, how may I help you ladies today?” She asked, looking down at them with the tightest smile she could offer. The two elderly women looked her up & down with judgmental stares, then whispered in each other’s ear.
“She looks normal.”
“Mhm. Chinese though.”
Cristina wanted to interrupt with an “Actually, I’m Korean,” but was way too tired from the stress of her shift to potentially start a fight.
The two women looked at her again, the brunette one speaking up. “Yes, we’ve both been experiencing chest pain since this morning. The nurse is taking forever to log our details in-”
“Oh, that’s alright. We can get those later, chest pain is quite serious. I’ll get you both wheeled up to a hospital room and call my attending, alright? A nurse will be there to check your stats shortly.”
“But we have a few more questions to-”
“The nurse will be able to answer most of your questions. See you later.”
And as the nurses wheeled away the two women in wheelchairs, both still blabbering about the temperature of the air conditioning, Cristina let herself smile secretly.
She was so going to win this month.
---
“They don’t…. Look very pleasant.”
“Believe me, they aren’t very pleasant to listen to either.” Teddy flipped the pages of both women’s charts, brows furrowed in confusion.
“Jesus. They both have so many overlapping conditions it’s a miracle they haven’t dropped dead yet.”
Cristina should not have silently cheered with glee at that moment, but she did anyway. "Should I prepare the OR?"
"No, not yet. Let's check on them first." Teddy shuts the chart closed as the two women walk into the hospital room, both Karens waiting impatiently.
" About damn time ," The blonde one muttered.
"Good morning!" Teddy greeted, in that usual cheerful manner of hers. "Gillian Murphy and Marjorie Pennington, is that correct?" Both old ladies nodded.
"Alright, if you both could sit still while me and Dr. Yang check your stats, that would be great." The elderly women grumbled but begrudgingly complied with the request, sitting up as Teddy and Cristina began taking their temperature.
"May I ask why you both are covered in varying shades of paint?" Teddy began, Cristina silently glaring at her. As much as she loved her mentor, it was taxing to hear her talk to patients, as she really did just prefer the comfortable silence.
But when Teddy looked up at her and winked, pure joy and kindness radiating from her emerald eyes with a look that said "trust me", Cristina couldn't help but swoon.
Damn her for having the biggest crush on her mentor. It wasn't very useful in situations like these.
Marjorie, the brunette woman, began talking animatedly, eyes sparkling with the promise of an interesting story. "Oh, I've been waiting forever for one of you to ask-"
Gillian interrupted. "No, no, let me tell the story!" Marjorie glared at her, then kept her mouth shut as Gillian began taking over. "We were casually having lunch at the golf club over by Hilton Street-"
Marjorie interrupted. "And when we finished, Gillian and I headed out to the deli to pick up some salami, when all of a sudden-" Cristina began rolling her eyes, already exhausted by the entire story.
"There were people dressed in rainbow colors on the street, throwing rainbow paint everywhere, making a whole mess, to celebrate something called pride ?" Both Teddy and Cristina froze all of a sudden, pausing the checkup.
"Oh, it was appalling. I politely asked one of the participants what was going on, and they had the audacity to tell me that this was some sort of parade for…. gay people. I nearly fainted from the shock of it all," Gillian exclaimed, seemingly horrified even talking about the topic.
"Aren't those…. weirdos already given enough rights as it is?" Marjorie shook her head, while Teddy's face distorted into something akin to disgust and confusion.
"It's difficult enough seeing them everywhere, much less having an entire month dedicated to people of their kind. Anyway, the both of us decided to voice our complaints, and-"
Cristina could see Teddy's hand visibly shaking as she placed the stethoscope over Marjorie’s heart, and while Cristina didn't know the exact reason for it, the feeling was mutual, as she was also quite close to losing it herself.
"And they pelted us with paint." Gillian looked at the fabric of her stained clothes, shaking her head. "They looked like animals. It was lucky I reported them to the police before I was screamed off the street-"
"I'll stop you right there." Teddy suddenly said. Both women looked at her in confusion, and Cristina was also quite surprised. She had no idea what her mentor was about to do.
Teddy turned to face the two nurses in the corner. "Please transfer these two women to another cardiothoracic doctor, if I may ask. Although, with their disgusting attitude, I wouldn't be surprised if no one accepted them at all."
Cristina raised her eyebrows. She was surely not expecting that .
Teddy turned to face the two women again. "LGBTQ+ people have been fighting for equal rights since the 1900's. And even now, in our modern times, most states and countries do not give them the right to marry, adopt a child, and plenty of other rights heterosexual people have from birth."
"Pride month is meant to celebrate, appreciate, and continue the fight for the entire community to finally be recognized as real people. You people," She pointed at the two elderly women, who were quite shocked, "Are the reason our goals haven't been achieved yet. And as a bisexual woman-"
Wait, what?
Cristina's mind could not have been working any faster.
"-I am personally disgusted by you both. Please, nurses, escort them out, and God forbid I ever see the two of them in this hospital ever again, because I don't know if I am capable enough to conceal my anger any longer." The young nurses nodded quickly, and quickly wheeled out the two old women, who were beginning to complain.
"We could sue you for this," Gillian began. "We can sue the entire-"
"Oh, bite me," Teddy said finally as they left, and sighed as she threw their charts down on the hospital bed.
Cristina could barely process what happened, let alone say a word. Teddy, only realizing she was in the room after she looked up, quickly walked towards her.
"Oh god, Cristina, I'm so sorry ." She began, fixing her coat. “That was horribly unprofessional of me-”
"You like women?" Was the first thing that came out of Cristina's mouth.
Teddy looked visibly confused. "What-"
"You- You're bisexual?" The blonde opened her mouth to respond, and then closed it, letting go of Cristina's arm, which she didn’t even realize she had been holding.
"I- yeah."
There was silence for a while.
"I haven't told anyone in the hospital. My- my last relationship with a woman was a long time ago, and she was sort of the love of my life, and then she died- " Teddy was speaking so fast, and Cristina was frozen , because Teddy was bisexual and that meant she also liked women which meant she possibly liked her -
"Anyway, I went into the army because of her, and it's a really long story, and I know I'm your mentor and your friend and I probably should've told you but I just didn't know how to because Owen and everything that happened-" Teddy was full on blabbering now, and Cristina pressed a finger to her lips before she said anything further.
"Shh." Teddy was visibly taken aback.
"You don't have to explain anything to me." Teddy's shoulders relaxed.
"Except one thing." Her eyes whipped back to stare at Cristina, slowly putting her finger off her lips.
"Anything." The atmosphere in the room had suddenly changed. Her mentor towered over Cristina, and she was right there , so close she could almost taste Teddy's scent.
"Are you still bisexual?"
Teddy sighed pointedly, and turned around in frustration. "Cristina, just because my last relationship with a woman was decades ago, doesn't mean I don't stare at one every once in a while, especially if they're attractive-"
"No, no, no." Cristina waved her off. "You don't get what I mean."
Teddy turned back to her.
"I meant, if say, a certain woman had been looking at you like that for the past year or so, and really wanted to ask you out but had no idea if you were into women or not but knows now that you are, in fact, into them, would you say yes? To a date?"
Teddy, who's eyes went from shocked to understanding to joyful , decided to play Cristina's game.
"And who might this woman be?"
Cristina hadn't been making eye contact with Teddy until this moment, shyly looked up, her eyes glowing.
"I may have forgotten to mention,"
Teddy's eyes sparkled back, in that beautiful way Cristina adored. "Continue."
She took a step forward.
"I'm bisexual too."
There was silence for a moment, and then all of a sudden, Teddy giggled with glee, closing the distance between her and Cristina.
She tucked a strand of hair behind Cristina's ear. "You should've said something earlier."
"Well, I had no idea, did I-" Cristina shut up when all of a sudden soft lips were pressed against hers, and Cristina had to tiptoe to match her height as she was kissing Teddy Altman, and it felt like her entire world was rapidly spinning out of control.
In a good way, of course.
She was frozen until Teddy pulled her closer and now the kiss was deeper as she kissed her back, full of love and desperate grasping at each other's coats. Cristina had never felt more complete in her entire life.
They separated. She spoke first.
" God , you- you taste like the sun."
Teddy smiled. "And you taste like the mint gum Alex gave you earlier." Cristina playfully pushed her away and the blonde laughed, pulling her closer once more to whisper in her ear.
" If I had known you liked women the day you said you would give up Owen for me, I would've kissed you right then and there. "
Cristina couldn't help but respond. " And if I had known you liked women the minute you entered this hospital, I probably would've given Owen up much earlier. "
" So how do we go from here? "
Cristina pulled away. "We finish up our last few patients of the day,"
"No homophobic ones this time," She nodded.
"And then we go to Joe's, get drunk, and you can have your way with me at your apartment afterwards." Teddy's eyes sparkled with approval. "Deal?"
"Deal. I rather like straightforward Cristina," She said as Cristina began walking out of the room.
"Oh I am anything but straight, Teddy. See you later." The last thing she heard before she closed the door was a choked laugh.
----
A week after the entire incident, two things happened.
1. Cristina and Teddy announced their relationship to everyone after three rounds of shots as Joe’s. Meredith and Derek snorted, Callie and Arizona shook their heads and said " We know! ". Mark and Lexie gave them supportive grins, and Owen, while momentarily shocked, was more or less fine with the confession.
2. Teddy made all the residents vote Cristina as the winner for Worst Patient of the Month, saying quote "No one should have to deal with homophobic Karens and not win." Alex countered this by saying "She got a girlfriend out of it!" But quickly shut up once he saw the look on Teddy's face. Cristina got the free beers, and she shared every single one with her girlfriend (naturally).
Cristina may still hate homophobes. But homophobia did, in fact, get her a girlfriend, so the outcome of it all wasn’t exactly horrible, she figured.
What a way to celebrate Pride Month.