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

47 | Bidding On Our Future

Mr. Crest walked around his office as we did our presentation. "As an academic medical center, we are currently at four-hundred and eleven beds," Meredith explained to the man who seemed to not care at all.

"But once we're restored to a level one Trauma center, that number will rise to five-hundred," Arizona added.

Derek nodded as people walked in and out of the office, "Right, increasing revenue streams for both acute and long term care."

"Pause." Mr. Crest held his hand up as a man handed him some papers, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. This is in Chinese. Literally in Chinese. Tell Simon I need these in English before I go back in there. And have Alyse cancel my teatime at Canterwood."

"Right away." the man took off.

Mr. Crest turned back to us, "Sorry. Go."

"Yeah, we're all very-" Derek started.

"Did-did Sandy take my luggage already?" Mr. Crest yelled, "I need my charger thingy."

"So we're passionate about patient care and medical advancement." Derek continued, "We want to be the premier hospital in the U.S. for both."

"Your bags are at sea-tac already." a woman walked in, "Should we bring them back?"

Mr. Crest shook his head, "No, that's silly."

"Mr. Crest, here it is." another woman handed him something; no one caring that we were obviously having a meeting.

Mr. Crest looked to us, "No you. You're great. Keep going."

Derek sighed, "All right, we would comprise the managing board, and with you being the primary shareholder, you could-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. Stop. Go back." Mr. Crest told Derek, "I thought you were looking for an outright buyer. You want to run this?"

Derek nodded, "We do."

"But we all trained and worked there," Cristina assured him.

"Yeah, we know the place better than anyone," Callie added.

"We've invested ourselves-" Meredith started.

"Yes." Mr. Crest smiled, "Invested yourselves. I love that. You have totally done that. The Shepherd method of Viral Glioblastoma treatment...Dr. Grey, your name was on that, too, right?"

Meredith nodded, "It was."

Mr. Crest looked to Callie, "You wrote the book on, uh, scaffold-free cartilage fabrication." he looked to Cristina, "First in your class at Smith. Berkeley, and Stanford." then he looked to me, "Flew through your internship faster than any Surgeon in the country." then to Arizona, "And Tim Kenner at Hopkins won't shut up about you."

Arizona smiled, "Oh, well, um, clearly, you've done your homework."

"Yeah, I did." Mr. Crest crossed his arms, "What I found is, there's not a manager in the bunch. No administrative leadership experience. You gotta have someone who can keep the lights on."

"Dr. Shepherd was the Chief of Surgery," Meredith informed him.

"Yeah, for about ten minutes." Mr. Crest sighed, "The you stepped down, own volition, no reason given. What my gut tells me is, you didn't like it. Surgeons like surgery. I know when I find something I don't like doing, I don't do it well."

"They're ready for you." a blonde woman popped her head into the office.

"Sorry. I have three meetings before I get on a plane." Mr. Crest told us, "Thank you all so much for coming to me with this. I respect your passion. I share it. But I'm not feeling this. Get someone on your team with some real administrative experience, and we can talk."

With that, Mr. Crest grabbed his bags and left the room.

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"This is what I've been saying," Arizona said as we stepped off of the elevator.

"We have the experience." Callie sighed.

Arizona looked to her, "Well, he doesn't think so. So we're-"

"Don't." Callie stopped her, "Don't do that. Don't do that, okay? There's still something we can do. What can we do?"

"He wants experience, let's get Richard," Meredith said.

"What about the guy who's Chief now?" Cristina wouldn't shut up about Owen.

I turned to her, "Well, we can't tell Owen."

"What the hell difference does it make now?" Cristina asked as she marched off, "We need him."

"All right, so if we get Richard and Owen, then what? Do we get another meeting?" Derek questioned.

"Crest is leaving for Dubai tonight." Stan reminded us.

Arizona thought for a moment, "Well, then we do it before he leaves."

"Uh, okay." Callie sighed, "Well, we can't all march into the hospital."

"Well, I'll go." Meredith volunteered, "I'll go get Richard."

"Okay." Callie nodded as Meredith took off.

The rest of us waited for an hour or so, but before we knew it, Meredith and Cristina returned with Webber. "I'm sorry. I told you. He's not available." one of Mr. Crest's assistants told us.

"Rita, I'm right here." Mr. Crest walked up from behind, "Hey, guys."

"This is the leadership you asked for." Derek motioned to Webber, "Richard Webber."

Mr. Crest shook Webber's hand, "Pleasure."

"Richard was Seattle Grace's Chief of Surgery for twelve years." Derek explained, "Um, can we have a moment to talk to you?"

"I have to be on a plane is twenty." Mr. Crest told us, "Can you guys ride with me?"

Webber nodded, "That's fine. Yeah."

"I only have room for two of you." Mr. Crest said.

Derek and Webber got into the helicopter with Mr. Crest as the rest of us watched them take off from the helicopter pad. "Not fair!" Callie yelled after them.

"So what do we do now?" Arizona asked.

"We go pick them up," Meredith answered.

Getting off of the roof, we exited the building and headed to the airport where they would be dropped off.

"Do you see them?" Cristina asked as we got out of Meredith's car.

"There." Meredith pointed as Derek and Webber walked towards us after getting out of a car themselves.

Arizona watched them, "Do they look happy?"

"I can't tell." Callie sighed.

"Sad?" I guessed.

"I can't tell," Callie repeated.

Once Derek was close enough for us to see him clearly, he shook his head, indicating that the deal was a no go. Disappointed and angry, we all went to our homes and started looking for new jobs. Of course, my first choice was Cleveland, but I didn't email them quite yet. I wasn't ready to accept the fact that my time at Seattle Grace was over. All of my friends would be gone and I would have to make new ones.

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The next morning, I got a call from Webber to meet at a building that I had never been to before. Driving up, it looked like a hotel or something. Once I was in, I found Callie and Arizona. "What are you..." Jackson walked in.

"Folks!" Webber called to us, "You're right on time. Come on."

Following Webber into what looked like a conference room with a bunch of tables, Derek, Meredith, Cristina, and Owen were already there. "Mom, come on." Jackson walked up to his mother who was also there, "What is happening?"

"Have a seat." Catherine told him, "I'm about to tell you. Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Webber's brought to my attention the fact that all of you have been looking for an investor to partner with you in purchasing Seattle Grace Mercy West hospital. It is my pleasure to tell you that the Harper Avery foundation would like very much to take you up on that offer."

"What?" Cristina asked as I smiled wide and Meredith laughed.

"We have only one condition." Catherine continued, "Only one. Since the foundation will be putting up the majority of the funds, we would like a representative of our choosing to sit on your board of directors."

"Well, yeah..." Callie agreed and we all nodded.

"My dears, we only have a couple of hours to make this bid." Catherine told us, "Do you want to do this thing or not?"

Cristina nodded, "Yes."

"Of course." I chuckled.

Arizona and Callie hugged as everyone stood up. "Wait, you woke me up at the crack of dawn to tell me you're coming to Seattle to be my boss?" Jackson asked his mother, "That doesn't-"

"Oh, no, no, sweetheart. You misunderstood." Catherine said, "The foundation is electing you as our representative. We're the majority shareholder. That means you are in charge."

Cristina tapped us all on the shoulder as she made a confused face as to what Catherine had just said. "Wait. What?" Jackson asked.

Catherine smiled, "Now give your mama a kiss, Jackson. She just bought you a hospital."

Jackson turned as we all stared at him. Jackson was not who we had expected to be on our board of directors and to run the whole damn hospital.