Outside it's a nice, warm night, the kind that promises a spontaneous outing, the kind we plan the least but remember the best, but inside Meredith's house —and the rest of the interns, and more and more people, why deny it— the mood is very different. The writing of Cristina's vows for her wedding turns out to be a disaster, relying on Cristina's reluctance to have a big wedding and Izzie's odd interruption about something about 'being lucky enough to love a person and having that person love you back and cherish your love'. Maddox thinks she has detected a few glances focus on Izzie, and she looks away uncomfortably, so, to avoid further discussion, the brunette assumes that the blonde is talking about Denny, and Meredith confirms it seconds later, although the tension is already chewing in the air for reasons that no one quite understands.

As Maddox plops down next to Callie, who unintelligibly writes down some ideas for Cristina, the brunette thinks she seems to really know little of what's been going on in her friends' lives the past few days. She detects more nervousness in Cristina than usual, but assumes it's because she's getting married in less than twenty-four hours, and someone like the young surgeon is not ready to move on to be what her parents expect of a wife. She doesn't know what's going on in Meredith's head after the afternoon they've spent, and especially after retaking the exam to become a resident. She has decided not to ask any questions about it and, as she has promised before, to wait as long as necessary. And what about Izzie's outburst, Maddox thinks as she rubs her forehead, interspersed with glances directed at the blonde and Callie, who brainstorms, though not too much in Cristina's style.

"How's your love life going?" Maddox decides to ask Callie quietly as the others wrap Meredith in a white cloth that pretends to be the wedding dress.

Callie shrugs, still not looking up from the paper. "To tell you the truth, I don't know myself. Sometimes I get the feeling we're rushing into things. I love George, but between the doubts and that he's decided to transfer to Mercy West's program..."

"What?" Maddox frowns. Callie's wine glass is too tempting at that moment to refuse to take a sip. "George is leaving Seattle Grace?"

"Didn't he tell you guys? I thought..." Callie's gaze drifts momentarily, and Maddox can see it end on Izzie, who at that moment laughs heartily as Mer spins around on herself. "Well, surprise then. He got his acceptance letter the other day, and I don't think Bailey liked it one bit. She says that trading Seattle Grace for Mercy West is an ungrateful gesture."

"But why is he leaving?"

The young ortho girl just shakes her head, so Maddox leaves it at that. The news has caught her by surprise, so that just sends her mind racing forward, lucubrating different theories as to why the boy would want to leave the hospital. The first thought that pops into her head is because his father's death is still fresh, and perhaps walking those halls still brings back bad memories. However, the look on Callie's face tells her that there is something else behind all this, and Maddox wonders if it is possible that Callie's doubts are based on something George has said or done.

However, as she promises herself, she drops the subject. She pours Callie another glass of wine because she has inadvertently finished hers, and returns to sit beside her to scribble phrases that would be too cheesy for Cristina but the greatest of loves for Izzie. Maddox notices the other surgeon's gaze is on her paper and covers it with her hand when she notices in an amused gesture.

"How's your love life going?" Callie asks this time, smiling and raising her eyebrows playfully.

"It's going well, thank you so much for asking"

"Come on! Tell me details."

"You don't want to know details," Maddox turns to answer, sending her a subtle look.

"I do."

"See?" interjects Meredith from the hallway, having caught Callie's words and looking at Cristina. "It's as easy as that."

Maddox laughs easily and quickly hides behind the wine glass, looking again at Callie, who is still expectant. "Okay. This morning, after I took the exam —by the way, thanks for the cards, I managed to impress Addison with them— I went to pick her up from the neonatal ward and..."

"You brought her lunch?"

The young Easton blinks. "Well, if by taking her lunch you mean locking us in the towel room and—"

Callie rises like a spring, a disgusted grimace on her face, which makes Maddox chuckle. "Okay, okay! I got that. I didn't mean those kinds of details. I was referring to everyday things in a couple's life. For example, I know this has only been going on for months, but have you guys thought about renting an apartment or something? She can't live in a hotel forever, and you need to get out of this Gamma Tetha fraternity if you don't want to end up as unstable as all of them."

"Well, no... I hadn't thought about it. Being an intern, you barely get out of the hospital, and the truth is, she spends a lot of hours stuck in there too. Maybe now that I can be a resident... it's time to think about it, right?" Maddox asks Callie, who nods slowly, as if she's teaching her a lesson. "I don't know, sometimes it confuses me. I mean, we clearly have a relationship where we're both happy. But I feel like her life isn't here in Seattle. That she came all the way to Washington looking for Derek, and not having him back, Seattle is just passing through."

"Finding an apartment together may decide the future of this. If you don't talk about your future plans, it's clear you'll never know what the other wants, and what you expect from all this."

"As you say, we've only been together a couple of months. I don't want her to think that telling her that we can move in together is a sign that I'm going to propose to her. I'm not!" Maddox adds quickly as she sees Callie's face. "I don't want to get married. At least not yet. The age difference is an issue, but I guess she won't want to get married either, will she? She just got divorced. Oh my God," Maddox holds her hands to her face. "You're confusing me, Torres."

"Addison is not a child. She knows perfectly well that moving in with someone doesn't mean signing a contract to share the rest of your life with someone else. I'm just saying it's a good way to see if you're on the right track. Living together brings couples together a lot."

"Or it destroys them."

"Don't be Cristina," Callie mumbles. "Anyway, it was just a thought. If you're not ready, don't do it. There's no rush, Maddox. The important thing is to enjoy the ride. Are you okay with this?"

Maddox thinks about it before answering. It's clear that the standard of living Addison is used to is not hers, and certainly, if she becomes a resident, it can't be either —Addison earns the same a month as she does in about a year, so she can't expect anything from it. Still, Addison has never made any complaints; she's adjusted to her plans, her difficult schedule, her intern and almost-still-teenage problems, and has never said anything bad about it. In response, Maddox has tried to accommodate the gynecologist: taking her out to dinner, long conversations at her hotel over a glass of wine, furtive plans inside the hospital.

Maddox thinks about waking up every day and seeing Addison next to her and doesn't quite know how to feel, but butterflies fly in her stomach.

"Yeah, I'm fine like this," Maddox suddenly realizes she's practically being subjected to an interrogation, and frowns. "Hey, you wouldn't know things I don't, would you?"

Callie raises her hands in defense. "I don't know anything you don't know. Addison and I talk, yes, but there's nothing I'm keeping from you. Look, Maddox, I'm telling you this as the first person who was there for Addison when her head was struggling with everything. She came back here for Derek, but if she stays, it's because of you. You're not a game to her. I know you know that, but I want to be clear. Seattle Grace is fine for her, but she's been sleeping in a hotel room for months because of you."

"Don't you think it'll be a little soon to propose all this?"

"Cristina's marrying Burke."

"Got it."

"I heard someone was a bit worried around here?" Maddox asks aloud, leaning against the door frame.

The little girl, lying in bed with the sheets up to her armpits, lifts her head when she sees Maddox appear in the room. Her face lights up, as if she has seen an angel, and both her mother and the nurse smile to themselves. "Are you a princess?"

"Actually, I am," Maddox replies, approaching her. "I'm both a full time princess and a doctor here. Do you like my dress? I'm using it for a wedding today."

The girl opens her eyes wide. "Your wedding?"

"Not mine, a friend's wedding. Look, it matches your clothes. See?" Maddox lifts up a part of her skirt and compares it to the girl's light brown dress. "You're also dressed up for the occasion, but I heard you didn't like it here. Is that true?"

The little girl nods, pouting her lips. Her mother intervenes, stroking her hair and turning to Maddox as she speaks. "Liz has to have surgery. Pain started a couple hours ago and while the doctors were running tests, they found out it was appendicitis."

"I'm scared."

"Oh, but you have nothing to worry about," Maddox adds in a jovial tone. She picks up a stool and pulls it close to Liz's gurney, who looks at her intently. "My name is Maddox, I'm almost twenty-five and when I was your age, I also had to get an appy. Appy is what we doctors call what's happening to you. It's very easy and it won't hurt anymore. Besides, this is a secret, but when I had surgery, my mom bought me a present for being so brave," Maddox says in a whisper, as if no one else needs to hear it. "Do you think you're going to be that brave?"


"Of course!" Liz exclaims, raising her little fist. "Mom, the princess says I'm going to get a present after this."

Maddox laughs and shares a look with the mother, who laughs and nods as well, grateful.

"Did the princess reveal the secret?" A voice from behind her startles Maddox, who rises suddenly, aware that the dress may wrinkle on her and that if she doesn't leave soon she'll be late. Arizona Robbins enters the room with a stack of papers in her hand, and although she was already smiling as she entered, her smile freezes for an instant when she sees that who is in the room is Maddox. "Well, then the princess thinks you're brave and old enough to keep the secret, yes?"

"Dr. Robbins," Maddox greets solemnly. She's not sure how friendly she should be with her because the authority in senior surgeons with Maddox is dwindling. "I think Liz is ready for surgery. I was passing by to say goodbye, actually."

Arizona hands the papers to the patient's mother for her signature, and explains the procedure in the easiest way that comes to mind. She assures her that nothing is wrong, that an appendicitis is routine and that the chances of a complication are small, close to none, and although Liz doesn't understand a thing, her mother's smile and sigh of relief are enough to calm her considerably.

"This is not your patient," the blonde surgeon comments to Maddox as they leave the room.

"Oh, yeah —I know," Maddox hesitates. "I was assigned to this floor this morning and I heard the kiddo arrive and whine, so I thought I'd come by to try and calm her down."

"Oh, I wasn't scolding you. I was just making an observation," Arizona justified. "And you did great, by the way. When she was assigned a room she was on the verge of crying. Now she's just thinking about what her mom will buy her when she gets out of here," the blonde smiles reassuringly at her, and Maddox lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding. "I heard the test results were out. How did you do?"

"You're actually the first person I'm showing it to," Maddox acknowledges, holding out the envelope with her score.

"A 100%? Wow," Arizona opens her eyes wide, impressed, and smiles broadly. "You better be ready. With this mark every attending in this hospital is going to fight for you. Now get going. Wedding, right? Everyone's talking about it."

"Yeah, yeah," Maddox trails off. "I'll be here tomorrow morning to see how the appy went."

"Nice seeing you around, Dr. Easton. Oh, and the kid was right: you do look like a princess. That's a very pretty dress," Arizona smiles at her, and the dimples in her cheeks make the smile on Maddox's face freeze momentarily. "Have fun!" Maddox wonders if the blonde does it on purpose or is it her way of being friendly. Either way, she bids her farewell and tries to get to the front door as quickly as possible, where Alex and Izzie are already waiting for her.

"Took you long enough," Alex protests loudly.

"You're not riding with Dr. Montgomery?"

"Oh, she will be riding," the boy laughs sarcastically, and Izzie's face denotes that she has caught the boy's joke.

Maddox pats him on the shoulder which is enough to get him to shut his mouth. "I am. I'm waiting for her to come out of surgery. You'd better get going. Someone will literally rip someone else's eyes out if the dress doesn't get there in time."

"I'm here, I'm here!" Maddox exclaims, bursting through the door at high speed and grabbing the skirts of her dress so she doesn't trip. Callie closes the door behind her, sending her a scowl as if berating her for leaving her alone during this time. "Sorry, there was traffic and Addison took longer than I expected for the surgery."

"My God, stop fucking around on my wedding day!" Cristina complains, visibly upset for a reason unknown to Maddox. The brunette ducks her head, feeling scolded, and Cristina sighs. "I had the vows written down in my hand but I've scrubbed in and now I don't have them and nothing can go worse!" She adds as if in apology.

"You're Cristina Yang, you don't need to have your vows in the palm of your hand," Maddox replies, and Cristina turns as if those were the words she needed. "What?"

"Go on! Say something that is going to help me," Cristina seems to lose her temper at the drop of a hat, and the young intern babbles, turning glances to Callie, Izzie and Meredith to find some help, but the first two are completely lost, and Meredith, the only one who could help, doesn't seem to know what to say. "Say what I would say to you if you were me."

"Uh, okay. Okay, I got this. Stop whining! This is your wedding day. You will go down that isle and you will get married. If I have to kick your ass every step of the way to get you there. You will walk down the isle and you will get married. Do you hear me, Cristina? We need this. We need you to get your happy ending. This is not about me, or Mer: this is about you. You don't need to prove anything to know that you can do this."

Maddox suddenly falls silent, on the one hand frightened that she has gone too far with her speech and has pushed Cristina back, and on the other hand feeling a bit small compared to her friend: older than her and about to get married. Cristina stares at her for a few moments, as if taking in every word she's said, and when the silence is so tense it could be cut with a knife, she nods, "Okay, I'm ready."

"Alright then," Meredith murmurs behind her back, and Izzie and Callie set off. Meredith hands her the rings, Callie brings her the bouquet of flowers she has almost thrown on the floor in her tantrum, and Izzie makes the final adjustments to her bodice.

The young Easton girl feels happy, and it is a strange happiness, something she has never experienced before, perhaps. She is the youngest in a huge group at the hospital, but she feels included. No one here treats her differently because she skipped a grade, or because she has a mother with cancer, or an almost-missing brother, or a military father. At Seattle Grace they treat her like one of their own, despite the age difference between her and many of them. At Seattle Grace she has found the closest thing to love she has ever experienced in her life. It's a silly happiness, a happiness she feels attending the first wedding in her life that isn't something familiar, something she's been invited to of their own free will, and Maddox smiles without hiding it.

However, something is wrong. The music has stopped playing in the chapel, from which only a door separates them, which at that instant is opened by Burke. The four bridesmaids turn away from Christina to give them some privacy, although none of them quite understands why the groom is there instead of waiting for her at the altar.

"I'm ready. I'm fine. Maddox talked me down. Really, I'm fine. Go, go, go, I'll be right behind you."

"I'm sorry," is all Burke says. The girls' faces fall at his words.

"Oh, I can do this. I know I had a moment where I freaked out but now I'm fine. I can do this, come on."

"But you don't wanna do this. I'm up there waiting for you to come down the isle, and I know you don't wanna come. I know you don't wanna come but that you'll come anyway because you love me. And if I loved you —if I loved you—, not the woman that I'm trying to make you be, not the woman that I hope you'll become, but you. If I did, I wouldn't be up there waiting for you. I would be letting you go."

Maddox puts her hands slowly to her mouth, aware of the surprise on her face. She looks around for some explanation from the other girls, or something to make her think this is a prank or a hidden camera, but Burke's expression is too serious.

"I'm wearing the dress. I'm ready. And maybe I didn't want to before, but I want to now. I really think I want this."

"I really wish that you didn't think. I wish that you knew."

And those are the last words Maddox hears coming from Burke in at least ten years. Burke exits the chapel through the back door, head bowed and without sending one last glance at Cristina, who stands still, transfixed, in the middle of the chapel. Her eyes crystallize, her lips half-open, but she says nothing; and none of the others know what to say, so they prefer to remain silent. With a glance, the bridesmaids agree that it is time to announce to the guests that the party is over.

Cristina runs out the same door Burke has left, as if hoping for one last chance, and Izzie chases her with her eyes, but Meredith and Maddox stop her, aware that Cristina doesn't need anyone behind her now. They don't know where she'll go, but wherever she goes she'll be fine: she's Cristina.

"It's over. You can all go home," Meredith announces at the altar. Derek looks at her sadly from his place as best man, as if he somehow expected that, as if he somehow relates the young blonde's words to their own relationship. Maddox watches the scene, still dumbfounded and speechless, and avoids Addison's gaze on her, because she knows she's looking for her from the third pew. "It's over. So over."

The attendants still can't believe it, as they stand stunned watching as Meredith walks down the aisle and heads to the back of the church, where Callie, Izzie and Maddox are waiting for her. None of them know what to say, but, in the distance, Derek and Addison know that neither of them will be spending the night with their respective partners.

"Cristina needs us," Meredith says quietly as the guests are vacating the pews, still unable to come to terms with what has happened. Some of them linger longer near the altar, as if the family is trying to find some explanation for what happened.

Maddox nods solemnly. "Then we'll be there. We'll be there for her."