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

46 | Boring Crap

"A packet?" Cristina picked up the blue folder from the kitchen counter in Meredith's old house that now belonged to Alex and Cristina, "We're gonna convince these people to give us one-hundred and seventy-five million dollars with a packet?"

"It's a nice packet." Meredith told her, her baby bump clearly visible by now.

Cristina sighed, "Guys, Owen stopped calling. If this doesn't work, he'll never speak to me again."

"Once we buy the hospital, the sneaking around stops," I assured her.

Meredith nodded in agreement, "And once Owen finds out what we did, he's gonna be the happiest of all. Derek is completely convin-"

Meredith instantly stopped talking as Alex walked into the kitchen. Closing up the packet, we all grabbed our coffee cups and took a sip. "Hey." Alex looked at us.

"Hi." Cristina smiled.

"Morning." I waved.

"Good morning." Meredith gave a small head nod.

Alex grabbed a pizza box from out of the fridge, "Okay, really? It's been a week. What the hell is going on? You walk out, no warning and now the hospital's falling apart. Yesterday a bunch of nurses walked. We lost lab techs, support staff."

"What?" Cristina asked, shock on her face.

"I mean, if you wanted to screw the Pegasus deal, success, high five." Alex told us, "But now people are saying that without a buyer, the whole place could go belly-up in a month. What are you trying to do?"

"We-" Cristina started.

Meredith held her hand up and stopped her, "Cristina."

"Fine. Whatever." Alex huffed as he grabbed a piece of pizza and headed for the door.

Once we were ready, the three of us headed out to meet everyone else at Crest Capital, where we were doing our pitch. "Okay, so this time, I'll do the Peds and Trauma stuff first," Arizona told us as we sat on couches in the waiting area.

"And then I will go into the Neuro." Derek nodded.

"Okay, can somebody else do the closing?" Callie asked, "I-I was awful last time we practiced."

Arizona looked to her, "No, you were fine."

"We really wanna end on my flop sweats?" Callie questioned.

"Derek, you do the closing," Arizona said and Derek nodded.

"I'm sorry. It should be just a few more minutes." a woman walked up to us, "Can I get you any water or coffee?"

"Coffee. And a bagel or something." Cristina said as the rest of us politely declined. With a smile, the woman took off. "I'm starving." Cristina defended herself as Arizona scoffed, "This meeting was supposed to start half an hour ago."

"Okay, he's a billionaire." Callie reminded her, "One of his minutes is worth forty of ours."

"I can't believe we got this meeting in the first place." Arizona smiled.

Derek looked to Stan, "Yeah, nice job, Stan."

"I really believe Julian Crest is our guy." Stan assured us, "He made all his money in late-stage internet mobile. Medical tech is the one area he doesn't have a foothold. Your focus on applied research, it's right up his alley."

"Yeah, well, someone should buy him a watch." Cristina crossed her arms as Meredith picked up her phone, "Who are you calling?"

"Heather Brooks." Meredith answered, "Mousy."

Cristina turned to face her, "Wait. What are you doing? What happened to not talking to anyone?"

"I left patients behind." Meredith replied, "She's keeping an eye on them. I haven't said anything to her. I'm giving her advice."

"Oh." Cristina turned around as the woman placed her coffee and bagel down.

The woman smiled, "We're all set if you'll follow me."

"Leave it," Meredith told Cristina as she reached for the food.

Standing up and grabbing my stuff, I followed the woman with everyone else to the office where our meeting would take place. In the office, we met up with two men who looked well younger than the rest of us. After sitting down and getting ourselves comfortable, we started the presentation.

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Once we had told them everything they needed to hear, Derek started with the closing words, "You are investing in an institution, a reputation, a legacy. But Seattle Grace Mercy West hospital is worth more than its past. Our plan is to build on that reputation, to make Seattle Grace a place where medical innovation is developed and delivered to the patients who need it. That is our plan. That is the future of Seattle Grace. And we invite you to be a part of it."

"Neat." the college-age looking boy in a maroon sweater told us, "We'll, uh, let you know."

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"I thought you were taking us to Julian Crest, not his daycare center" Derek yelled at Stan once our meeting had finished and we were standing outside of the building.

"You don't just walk in and talk to a guy like Julian Crest." Stan explained, "There are hoops to jump through. Those junior execs like us, they pass us up to his business development guys. We impress them, then we see the man himself."

"Oh." Callie nodded, "Will they do this before or after their nap time?"

"You were golden in there." Stan tried to encourage us, "There's no way you won't make it to the next level. I'm telling you, any second now this phone is gonna ring." Stan held up his phone and we all stared at it, "Really, any second now."

We kept staring at the phone, and just when it seemed like we were screwed, it began to ring. Stan quickly brought the device to his ear and listened for a while. "Yes, I understand." Stan nodded.

"What are they saying?" Callie whispered.

"Yes, yes, yes." Stan ignored her, "I understand."

Derek looked to him, "Understand? What do you understand?"

"Thank you. Thank you very much for your time." Stan finally hung up the phone, "You guys, you were kind of rude."

Arizona pulled her jacket tighter around her body since it was quite cold outside, "Well, what did they freaking say?"

"I'm sorry. You got the meeting." Stan smiled.

"Oh!" we all laughed, "Yes!"

Before I knew it we were back in the conference room and talking to three men and a woman who looked like they knew a lot more about what they were doing. "This would restore Seattle Grace Mercy West as the region's leader in adult and pediatric Trauma medicine. Dr. Shepherd?" Arizona smiled.

Derek nodded, "Yeah, we'll lead the way in Neuroscience...a dedicated research institute for the advances of brain mapping, with applications to the treatment of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease-"

"May I stop you for a second?" a man in a grey suite looked through the packet, "We would love to see a little bit more on the financials...income statements, profit projections, cash flow..."

"Your allocation of revenue..." another man said, "Perspective payment for MS-DRGs versus capitation income?"

We all looked to Stan as he picked up a red folder, "We've got all that. Right here. Yep. Got it."

"Marketing, customer retention plans..." the woman continued as Stan stood up and walked the folder over to them, "Is there a trend study here?"

We all kept quiet as the four of them looked through the folder. "Yep," the woman said to the man beside her before turning back to us, "One second." The woman then picked up her phone and texted someone. "I'm just running it by Mr. Crest," she told us.

"Oh." Callie nodded as we waited for the reply.

A few moments later the phone went off and the woman looked at it, "Mr. Crest apologizes, but he's leaving this evening for Dubai."

"Okay." I huffed.

"Dubai," Cristina repeated.

Just then the phone went off again. "But...he can make fifteen minutes for you this afternoon." the woman shared the good news.

"Great." we all sighed in relief.

Cristina smiled, "Thank you."

Once we got out of the meeting, we headed back to Arizona and Callie's apartment. Not long after Meredith had been on the phone with Heather, when Heather overheard that the hospital was being sold for parts and everyone was being laid off.

"Uh, it's my fault." Callie sighed, "It's my fault. Everybody's gonna lose their jobs 'cause I had a stupid idea."

"Oh, no, no. Don't." Arizona told her wife.

Derek paced back and forth, "Nobody is gonna lose their jobs."

"Everybody is." Meredith said, "Brooks heard it straight from Cahill. The hospital is liquidating. The deal is closing tomorrow morning."

"Does Owen know?" Cristina asked.

Meredith shrugged, "She didn't say."

Derek sighed, "All right, so Crest is our last meeting, and it's our only chance."

"In two hours." Meredith reminded us.

"Oh, no pressure or anything." Cristina scoffed.

I took a deep breath, "Well, if we only get fifteen minutes, then we need to make the most of them, so..."

"Right." Callie agreed, "Right, right. We can't just sit on our thumbs and let 'em read Stan's boring crap. No offense."

Stan held his hands up, "None taken. It's interesting to me."

"We need to know all of this boring crap, too." Meredith looked to Stan and he handed her one of the packets.

"All right, so we need to be able to answer every single question he could ask," Derek announced.

"Okay, well, let's divide it up." Cristina suggested, "Stan, give us all the boring crap you have."