thirty-eight

Callie informed them her experienced in Portland Gen, the hospital her and Richard Webber went to go see since Pegasus bought their hospital.

"I'm telling you, once we got these doctors talking, it was a horror show." Callie spoke to the group.

"Shh." Arizona shushed her wife, as she walked towards the group, "I just got Sofia back down."

"Oh, and uh, Portland has quotas now." Callie continued, in a lower voice, "Yeah, it's unspoken, but it's understood that you have to churn out a certain number of procedures."

"And no research?" Meredith asked, looking at one of the brochures.

"Nope." Callie shook her head, "Pegasus is only interested in high-volume, high-price-tag procedures. Barely any patient interaction. So no research, no innovation, no opportunity to do what it is we got into medicine to do."

"Well," Derek answered as he passed the brochure to Allison, "We won't let that happen to us here."

"Oh, yeah?" Callie scoffed, "That's what they said at first, and then the people that fought, management got them fired, and the rest wore down or they left." Allison looked at Derek and then back at Callie who continued talking, "Now I don't want to leave. None of us do, you guys, come on. We have to do this. We have to buy the hospital."

"Whoa." Derek's eyes widened, "Hold on."

"Maybe she's right." Meredith shrugged, agreeing with Callie.

"Just wait." Arizona shook her head, "What if we don't want to?"

"What?" Callie frowned at her wife, as Meredith continued to call Cristina, since she was the only who wasn't present.

"I'm sorry." Arizona said, "It's never been my dream to run a hospital."

"Okay, well, you might not have to run it." Callie tried to reason with her.

"Cristina should be here." Derek commented, as he, Meredith, and Allison watched the couple argue.

"I've been texting her." Meredith said, eyes now glued to her phone.

"I just got back to work." Arizona pointed out, "And Derek, you just got your hand back, don't you just want to work?"

"Work where?" Callie asked, "I don't want somebody telling me which patients I can and can't treat."

Allison agreed, "Or putting a stopwatch on how much time you can spend with them."

"Yeah." Callie nodded, "If we ran the place, we could make policy decisions based on experience. Do y—"

Derek shook his head, "Uh, no offense, but that is a naive way of putting it. The job is much harder than you think. I wanted it once, and I hate it. We should stay the course. I made a deal with pegasus that apparently will help the sale."

Meredith looked at her husband as she and Allison spoke at the same time, "What...deal?"

"Nothing, it's stupid. But maybe that's how we make it work, from the inside."

"What about Hunt?" Allison asked, "He's pushing for the pegasus sale. He thinks it's a good deal. So what's he gonna say?"

Soon, everyone stood in a circle as they all argued, "What are we talking about? Like a few 100 million, 200 million?"

"You know what we're talking about." Derek said.

"We have more than we're gonna be able to spend anyway." Callie sighed, "We have more than we'll ever be—-"

"No, that's not true." Meredith disagreed.

"I doubt we have kind of money to buy the hospital." Allison agreed with Meredith.

"This is a massive undertaking." Derek argued, "Nobody knows what it's gonna cost."

"So what are you saying?" Arizona questioned, "Are you saying that they take everything? I mean, everything from the lawsuit, from all of us?"

"I have no idea what it's gonna cost to buy Seattle Grace." Derek shrugged, "But I can guarantee it's more than the five us have combine. That's only 75 million."

"I had some money before all this." Callie nodded her head, "I've got about...700 grand I can get right away."

Allison sighed and nodded, "My aunt, she can offer some money."

"It's true." Meredith agreed, "We have money in the I.R.A. and w-we have about—"

"No." Derek refused, "Let's not get ahead of ourselves."

"Well just the lawsuit damages then." Callie said looking at Arizona, "And uh, we've got Mark's share too."

"Mark's share?" Arizona glared at Callie.

"Yeah, Mark's share and Lexie's maybe?" Callie asked as she looked at Meredith, "Is that rude of me—-"

"I mean." Meredith stuttered, "I would have to ask her f—our—our father—"

"Don't worry." Arizona apologized on Callie behalf, as she looks at her wife, "Excuse me. Yes, this is rude of you."

"Okay, I'm sorry." Callie apologized, "But we can't waste time on politeness here."

"And Mark's share is not our money." Arizona pointed out, "It's Sofia's. You should've talked about this to me."

"Um, that's what we're doing."

"I mean privately with your wife." Arizona corrected, not wanting to invest Mark's share into buying the hospital when they agreed the money is for Sofia's future.

Callie looked at Meredith, "Where is Cristina?"

"I don't know." Meredith shrugged, "I keep texting her. She would say yes."

"How do you know that?" Arizona, rose a brow.

Everyone in the room look at one another, speaking at the same time, "She knows."

"I don't think that it's right to spend of our money." Arizona argued.

"It's an investment." Callie explained.

"Of all our money, Callie. if your parents ever made you have a summer job..."

Callie sighed in disbelief, "Oh, come on. That is so unfair."

"No, you are ready to bankrupt us." Arizona argued, clearly not fund of the idea.

"You're ready to let Pegasus Horizons turn us into a bunch of robots." Callie rebutted.