Code Blue | Grey's Anatomy // Book 2 // COMPLETED

48 | Under New Management

"Jackson Avery really has a bigger say than any of us in running this hospital?" Arizona asked as we all sat in one of the conference rooms in the hospital, getting ready for our first meeting as a board of directors.

"That can't be true. Can it?" Cristina scoffed as we all grabbed a package that Arizona had.

Derek sighed, "Well, he's a voting member of the management team and he also represents the Harper Avery Foundation."

"And their one-hundred and seventy-five million bucks," Callie added.

"As opposed to our fifteen million a piece." Arizona sat down at the table with the rest of us.

"According to Stan, not only does he have the deciding vote, he can veto ours," Derek informed us.

We all stared wide-eyed. "That is ridiculous. He's a fellow." Cristina dropped her papers onto the table.

"So are you." Meredith reminded her.

"But he's a plastics fellow. And I'm me." Cristina protested.

"Well, let's not overreact." Meredith tried to calm us down, "I mean, it's Jackson. He's not some corporate stranger. He's one of us."

Derek nodded in agreement, "No, you're right. He's a smart kid. He's gonna follow our lead."

"No. No." Callie interjected, "We made this plan. We pulled it together. Look, I'm grateful to Harper Avery for an infusion of cash, but I'm-I'm not gonna let some-some..."

"Plastics fellow?" Cristina filled in the words.

Callie nodded, "Plastics fellow tell me how to run my service 'cause his mommy said he could."

"Preach." Arizona looked through the mountain of papers we had.


Sighing, we got on with our meeting. "Okay, so we're agreed that that the Peds and adult E.R.s will be combined to save on personnel?" Arizona asked.

"Yeah." we all agreed.

"I'm sorry, guys." Jackson burst into the room with an armful of stuff, "I was running on time and then my last rounds' patient turned into a crier. Pow." he set a box of doughnuts in the middle of the table.

We all stared at him for a moment before going back to writing down what we had talked about. "Uh, we were discussing the reopening of the E.R. and the Trauma department." Meredith filled Jackson in.

"Oh, yes." Jackson sat down at the head of the table, opposite Derek, "Um, I'm not ready for that just yet."

"If you need more time with the material, we can go ahead-" Derek started.

"No, No, I've-I've read it." Jackson told us, "Uh, it's just that the foundation feels like the E.R. is not a foregone conclusion. They need a site visit, a chance to look over the numbers. Could be a month before a decision."

"No!" I piped up, "I'm a Trauma surgeon. I need an E.R. in order to be a Trauma surgeon."

Arizona motioned for me to calm down a little, "Okay. The foundation knows we plan on getting our level one Trauma designation back, right?"

Jackson nodded, "They know that's the idea, yeah."

"Uh, it's the fact." Callie corrected him.

"I think we should table this until we can bring in Owen." Cristina suggested, "Uh, he'll have a lot of thoughts on this, too."

We all looked to her, "Yeah."

"That's-that's the other thing." Jackson sat back in his chair.

Derek glared at Jackson, "What thing?"

"Okay." Jackson paused, "Since we are starting fresh, the thought is that new leadership would be good for morale."

Cristina's face dropped, "What, like, uh, Chief of Surgery?"

"Oh, no way." Callie shook her head.

"Firing Owen?" Meredith asked.

"Okay, we're not firing Owen." Cristina declared.

Jackson sighed, "Okay, well, the foundation thinks that-"

"Your mother." Callie cut in.

"The Harper Avery foundation-" Jackson ignored her.

"Your mother, Avery." Callie said again, "Just say it."

"It's a recommendation." Jackson rose his tone.

Cristina smirked, "It's an inappropriate one."

Callie looked to Jackson, "Oh, tell your mom that. This is bull-"

"And this is going nowhere." Arizona stood up, "I have surgery."

"Yeah. Me, too." Derek packed up his things, "We should get back to this."

I grabbed my bag, "I have a pretty light schedule. Oh wait, wanna know why? It's because I'm a Trauma surgeon and we have no freaking E.R.!"

"You know, I don't care who's giving you your marching orders, this thing with Owen is not happening" Cristina looked to Jackson as we all packed up.

"Well, say what you want, but without the Harper Avery Foundation, none of us are here," Jackson told us.

"And we appreciate that." Meredith assured him, "But no one expected them to come in and start dictating policy."

Jackson huffed, "Yeah, well, no one asked you to sue the hospital into bankruptcy either."

Meredith stared daggers at him, "For the plane crash that killed Lexie?"

After leaving the room, I helped with a few consults on a few somewhat emergent patients before being paged to one of the staff lounges. "Hey, what's up?" I walked in.

"Why do we need an emergency meeting?" Meredith arrived seconds after me.

Callie turned to us, "Hunt quit."

"What?" Meredith asked.

"You can't keep throwing that plane crash in his face," Cristina said as she and Derek walked in.

"Oh, don't make this my fault." Derek scoffed, "He walked out. You shouldn't have told him."

Callie looked to Cristina, "Wait. Wait. You told him?"

"That he might be getting fired? Of course, I did." Cristina told us.

Derek sighed, "Nothing was decided, and besides, we weren't gonna let Avery get rid of Hunt."

"Avery has his own agenda." Cristina reminded us, "No, warning Owen is the least we can do. We went behind his back long enough."

Arizona stepped up, "Cristina, we should probably keep what's said in here private."

"Well, then count me out." Cristina picked up her pager that just started going off, "I have a heart-lung transplant coming in."

"Oh, well, Karev's kid just got a kidney from U.N.O.S." Callie said.

"Two transplants in one day?" I asked.

Callie nodded, "Three with Kepner's D.C.D."

"Three?" Meredith sighed, "That doesn't happen."

"Well, it did, okay?" Arizona was stressed out like the rest of us, "And the O.R.s are fully booked. We have half the nursing staff and no transplant coordinator."

"Who was handling all that?" Derek asked.

"Hunt." Callie and Arizona answered.

Derek nodded, "Oh."