3

Cristina Yang became an intern at Seattle Grace after graduating from medical school. On the first day of the internship, she hit it off with Meredith Grey. Cristina soon fell out with her because she felt that Meredith was given surgeries because of Derek’s favoritism and her famous mother, Dr. Ellis Grey. However, Cristina apologized to Meredith and the pair soon became fast friends. Her frequent sarcastic remarks and lack of tact made it hard for people to like her, but her fellow interns gradually took to her ways and became friends with her as well. She is touched by the fact that Burke admitted to having made a huge error in a surgery. Cristina followed Burke into the on-call room, locks the door and they have sex. Burke tried to get Cristina to define their relationship, but a commitment-phobic Cristina brushed him off. She found out she was pregnant and scheduled an abortion. Unable to deal with her emotions about the pregnancy and impending abortion, she distanced herself from a bewildered, frustrated Burke, telling only Meredith about her pregnancy, as she was her emergency contact 'person'. Meanwhile, her covert relationship with Burke came out into the open after George saw them kissing and told Meredith and Izzie. After the Chief told Burke that he could only be interim Chief of Surgery if he was prepared to sacrifice his personal life, he decided to break up with Cristina. Cristina, hurt by his decision, decided against telling Burke about her pregnancy. However, while in surgery with Burke she collapsed from an ectopic pregnancy and her left fallopian tube burst. Burke was shocked to find out about the pregnancy, but Cristina reminded him that he broke up with her. Despite that, he was the only one whom she allowed to comfort her when she could not stop crying from her grief. The couple reconciled and officially became a couple. On their first official date, Cristina and Burke realized that they have almost nothing in common. Burke also noted that Cristina is “very hard to get to know” and she agreed. Although their relationship was dysfunctional, it was still going strong as they were clearly in love with each other. Their different beliefs cause more obstacles in their relationship. Burke's spirituality and superstitions differed from Cristina's atheism and science. She began looking down on Burke for beliefs she considered irrational, while Burke was hurt and angry she wouldn't accept his spirituality. Cristina’s commitment issues resurfaced when Burke surprised her with a key to his apartment. She believed they weren't ready in their relationship to live together. Cristina introduced Burke to her extremely messy apartment and lifestyle, but Burke accepted her for what she was. She eventually agreed to move in with Burke, but secretly kept her old apartment. When Burke found out, she gave up her apartment. During Burke's surgery after he was shot in the arm, she panicked and fled, her turbulent emotions preventing her from keeping him calm. This impacted her deeply, for she knew it wasn't like her at all to be controlled by her emotions in such a way. Burke discovered he had developed a hand tremor during his recovery. Cristina helped him disguise his tremor using a covert partnership. She managed Burke’s surgery schedule and scrubbed in on all his surgeries. However, her exclusivity to rare surgeries incited jealousy and suspicion from the other interns. George, after witnessing one of Burke’s hand tremors, confronted Cristina about it. She frantically denied it, but suffered a crisis of confidence and eventually confessed everything to the Chief. Cristina’s actions jeopardized Burke’s chances of becoming Chief of Surgery, and Burke saw this as a huge betrayal. Both parties refused to talk to each other after the fallout, jeopardizing their relationship. Cristina eventually broke the silence, and Burke asked her to marry him. Cristina was stunned and only accepted his proposal after eight days of hesitation. When Meredith was unconscious after falling into the water during the ferry crisis, Cristina fled after she realized she could not deal with the fact that her "person" was dying. Burke encouraged her to confront her feelings, and she burst into the trauma room and insisted that the doctors try to revive Meredith again. Meredith soon woke up, and an overwhelmed Cristina happily told Meredith that she was getting married to Burke, and Meredith was the one person she wanted to tell. Cristina's life was further complicated when her former professor and lover, Colin Marlow, arrived at Seattle Grace. In a bid to win her back, he repeatedly came onto her and tried to sabotage her relationship with Burke. On top of that, he joined the race for Chief of Surgery, so as to compete with Burke and impress her. Marlow was not convinced by Cristina's affections for Burke. Marlow humiliated Burke in the operating room by belittling Burke's knowledge of cardiothoracics, and relegated Burke to just observing the surgery. Marlow tells Cristina she had compromised herself for Burke, and was no longer the competitive and driven person he fell in love with. Cristina unknowingly let her personality gradually erode away by constantly giving in to Burke's decisions about their wedding and their relationship. This went up to the extent where she opted to go ahead with Burke's lavish wedding plans, which was the complete opposite of what she wanted. On the day of her wedding, Cristina remained plagued by self-doubt. She realized that her love for Burke was changing her into someone else. Desperate, Cristina insisted on coming to the hospital that day to make a surgical "cut" to feel like herself again. As she gathered enough courage to walk down the aisle, Burke called off the wedding. Cristina returned to their apartment, finding all of his prized possessions gone, and leaving Christina strangely relieved. wikipedia.org