Blood Money

Ivy brushes her hair as Jackson brushes his teeth, "The judge might have a decision today."

He spits out the toothpaste in his mouth, "Yeah, you ready?"

"I don't know. I mean, this was never about the money for me. It was about doing the right thing but we're suing our work place. Our home away from home. It just feels wrong," Ivy tells him.

"We all know that. It's not like you purposely went out of your way to sue the hospital. You wanted justice for your family. No one can fault you for that," Jackson reminds her, pulling her in for a hug.

"You're right. Now let's go so you can give Webber the cookies."

"I can't believe my mom baked."

○○○○

Ivy stands in the elevator with Derek as Owen runs in, "Morning."

"Morning," Ivy smiled.

They sat in silence for a couple of seconds before Owen broke it, "Hey, I heard there might be a judgement today. I hope it works out for you."

Derek shakes his head, "No, you don't. A judgement comes down that quickly, it means the hospitals negligent. It means you did something wrong. Which you did."

"Derek!" Ivy exclaims, slapping his shoulder.

"Well, you've obviously been thinking that for a while. I'm glad you... finally got it out in the open. And for the record, I really do hope it works out for you," Owen tells him as he exits the elevator.

Ivy waits for the doors to close and the elevator to start moving before she stops it and turns to Derek, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

He scoffs, "Our brother is dead because of a decision he made. Our sister in law is dead because-"

She laughs, "You want do that? You want to play the blame game? My best friend. My PERSON was shot because of a decision you made. But I don't blame you. You have no right to blame him for a making a decision you probably would have made to. So enough."

Ivy turns around and starts the elevator. She gets off and makes her way to the intern locker room where she meets up with Jackson. They walk into see Edwards grabbing Murphys boobs.

"No, it was like a move up the front."

Ivys not in the mood for any of this, "Ahem. Now that you all are ready to focus on medicine instead of each others boobs. And let me be clear, lets not ever have a repeat of this. Murphy, you're with Avery. Ross, you get the other Shepherd, heads up, he's in as good a mood as I am. Wilson, post-ops with Yang. Brooks, with Grey. And Edwards, lucky you. You're with me."

She turns away and walks out as Jackson says, "Murphy, let's go. We've got a facial reconstruction. Edwards, good luck."

"Lets go, Edwards! We've got ortho today," Ivy shouts.

Edwards quickly runs after her. They are about to enter the ortho wing when Ivys phone buzzes. Looking at it, she stops, "Never mind. You're on scut and scut only until I get back."

Ivy quickly runs to the locker room and changes, there she meets up with Cristina and Meredith.

○○○○

Ivy sits next to Cristina with her head in her hands as Callie runs in, "Did I miss it? Damn it. I'm sorry. I got out of the O.R. as fast as I could, but I didn't think it was gonna happen today. Oh, God. Was it bad? It wasn't?"

Arizona tells her wife, "We won."

Derek further explains, "He said the airline company had a history of mechanical problems with the plane. It was in public record, and the hospital should've known."

"He found the hospital negligent," Meredtih says.

"So we won. When's he gonna tell us about the award? I mean... I hate to be all about the money-" Callie starts.

Cristina interrupts her, "He already did."

Arizona starts, "He's giving us $15 million."

"Whoa."

Ivy drops the final part, "Each."

They meet with their lawyer as Meredith asks the first question, "So what happens now, the hospital hands us a check for $15 million?"

"Oh, well, their insurance company does, and it'll probably take some time to get through all the bureaucratic rigmarole, but, yeah. Pending appeal, the insurance company will issue each of you a big check," she smiles at them.

"In the meantime, I have a ping-pong ball to hit," Derek says.

Arizona agrees, "Yeah, I gotta get back, too. I have James Leggetts surgery."

Derek asks, "Oh, how is James?"

They all get up, Ivy saying silent as Callie asks, "Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Why is everyone rushing off? This is a momentous event. Shouldn't we do something like celebrate or...okay, maybe celebrates too strong a word. Dinner. We should have a dinner. Come on. We've been sitting in rooms with each other other months talking about this, and we just won. Whats wrong with sitting in one more room with-with food in front of us?"

"You wanna know what's wrong with that? The fact that this... this isn't really a win. It's a payoff. It's blood money. Saying hey any emotional or physical or mental damages done to you are worth 15 mil. The lost of your family is worth 15 mil. But guess what? It's not. I didn't want to not take the money when we were offered because it was to small amount. I wanted to be able to sue Bayview for their crappy airline. To use the results of the investigation against them and not our own people. So no. I will not go to a dinner. This may end the reliving for you, Callie. But for me, for me, I relive it every night. Every time I scrub in, I relive it. So, no. No dinner for me I have to work," Ivy rants before quickly leaving the courthouse, wiping the tears trailing down her face.

○○○○

Ivy walks through into a conference room to see Jackson watching Derek and Ross play ping-pong, "Oh, never mind."

As she goes to back out, Derek calls out, "Wait. Ivy, come back."

"What do you want, Derek?" She asks, sassingly.

"Will you please come to dinner tonight? It would make Callie happy," Derek tries.

Ivy pretends to think, "What time is it?"

"8."

"Oh, can't. Thats about the time every night that my leg decides to either go completely numb or burn. So, no. Besides, I don't live my life to make Torres happy," Ivy rolls her eyes.

"Dinner for what?" Ross asks, before seeing the glare Ivy shoots him.

Derek sighs, "We were told the judgement today. We won. Each of us are getting $15 million."

Jackson walks over to his girlfriend, "You okay?"

She lays her head on his chest, "No, I just need- I just need to go on with my new normal without dealing with the money being at the forefront of my mind all day. I want to go home tonight and- honestly, I don't know."

"Okay, tonight. I will get us Chinese food and rent a movie. We can cuddle on the couch and just relax," Jackson tells her, massaging her neck.

"Sounds like a plan. Now, I'm off to find a case and hopefully, not snap at any more attendings today," Ivy sighs, leaving the room.

Jackson looks at Derek, "What attendings did she snap at?"

Derek laughs, "Uh, me in the elevator. Brought up the shooting. And Callie. After she suggested a dinner for the survivors."

"Yeah, well. She's not having as easy a time adjusting to her new life as she shows. She has nightmares almost every night. Some of them are Lexie and Mark blaming her for their deaths. Others, it's Reed blaming her for her death. Some, it's being burned again, this time, being awake the whole time. And those are just the ones she's told me about. It hurts her to scrub in cause of the burns on her arm. I can't do a skin graft, the remaining skin is too damaged. Ivy is trying to be strong for everyone else. She thinks that if she shows to much weakness, you'll send her back to psych. I'm glad she snapped at you and Torres. She's finally feeling her feelings."

With that, Jackson walks out to his surgery, leaving Derek to think over what he said.

○○○○

Ivy sits in the attendings lounge when Derek walks in. She doesn't acknowledge that he's there, just stares at the wall.

Derek sighs before sitting next to her, "When did you stop telling me everything that scared you?"

Ivy chuckles softly, "Since that became everything."

"Ivy-"

"No, Derek. For weeks, I wouldn't look at my leg or arm. Jackson had to change the wrappings on them because I was afraid to see the burns. I'm afraid to fall asleep at night. I won't unless Jackson is holding me. I'm afraid to say when I'm not together because I'm afraid I'll be sent back to psych. I'm afraid to see a serious trauma because I'm afraid I'll think it's Lexie or Mark or hell even you. I'm constantly afraid to say something and piss someone off and it get me fired because I'm seen as a liability. I scare the interns so everyone knows I'm still me. But I'm afraid that I'm not. I'm not going to sit here and argue with you."

"Ivy, you could have told me. I wouldn't have sent you back to psych. I'm still your big brother that you can rely on. I'm on your side," He tells her.

She nods, standing up, "I'm still not doing to that dinner. I'll stay in with Jackson and have our calm night. I need it after... well, the past year. Who knows what the rest of this year will bring us."

○○○○

AN: this part focused a lot on how Ivy is mentally dealing with everything, including as far back as the shooting.

No matter what, I don't really see her blaming Owen fully. There will be some times where she does hold him to fault but not the extent that Derek is and she definitely calls him out on it.

I have so many thoughts on how I want Ivy to go off on Cahill and now I just need to think of which would be the best way.

I also know exactly how I want Ivy to go off on Callie and I'm so ready for it.

QoC: how do you think Ivy is going to handle the attending meeting with Cahill next part?

Thank you for all the reads and votes and comments!!