thirty-seven

Alana explained to the surgical staff in the O.R. room, as new cameras have been installed around the hospital. Allison couldn't help but not like these new rules, "On the other side of the camera is a remote physician, an extra set of eyes to help reduce mistakes, improve patient care, and maximize physician hours. Now the initial program..."

Allison zoned out as Alana continued to talk. Wishing she was anywhere but in that room.

"And of course, ultimately reduce costly litigation." Alana finished up her explanation, causing Allison to put her focus on her once again, "So does that answer your questions?"

"With disturbing clarity." Cristina nodded, with a fake smile.

"All right. Let's move on then." Alan gestured to the supplies behind her, "As you can see, this O.R. has been arranged with maximum efficiency, specifically for the O.R. turnover. Now what are the main causes for bottleneck? The layout of the O.R. supplies, equipment and instruments...because every second counts and you need the more efficient approach." Alana looked around the O.R. seeing if the doctors were paying attention before speaking again, "Your average time between surgeries is 37 minutes. With these new O.R. procedures, I'd like to see that cut in half." Allison and Jackson rolled their eyes, as Alana dismissed them, "Thank you everyone."

"Closing the E.R. should count down on time." Cristina commented as they headed out the O.R. with Jackson and Alex behind Cristina, Meredith and Allison. "We won't have any patients."

"How does Hunt feel about that?" Jackson asked, as they continued to walk down the hallway.

"Oh, he says he's not gonna do anything about it until it actually happens." Cristina rolled her eyes.

"Oh, it's happening." Alex scoffed, "He can't be a trauma surgeon without an E.R. Is he gonna leave town? Cause if you go with him, I'm screwed. I'm kind of depending on your rent check." Alex paused before looking at the back of Allison's head, "Yours too, Allie."

"Way to make this all about you." Cristina rolled her eyes.

"The E.R. is not going to close." Meredith tried to assured them as Allison nodded her head, "Derek has a plan."

"Where is Derek?"

"He spent the night with Kepner." Meredith grinned.

***

"For the millionth time, Jo and I are not into each other." Alex rolled his eyes and Cristina and Allison scoffed.

"Oh, please." Cristina retorted as she referenced the animal noises Jo and Alex were making fun of her and Owen, "You and ponytail-McGee were canines in heat last night." Meredith sighed as she entered the attending's lounge and sat down on the couch, "Literally."

"I'm so glad I was out." Allison spoke as she put on her lab coat, "Sounded like everyone was having sex except Alex and his girlfriend."

"Where were you?" Jackson asked, interestedon where she was, since he didn't see her at the house.

"I was out with Micheal." Allison nodded, before looking away.

"You two are, like, one drink away from crazy monkey sex." Cristina nodded her head as April walked in with three burritos in her hand, "Just stuff her turkey. You'll feel better."

"I feel fine." Alex shook his head, "Look, I'm not screwing my ex every night" Alex called out Cristina before looking at Jackson, "And I'm not taking advantage of interns on someone else's sofa. You're gonna pay to have that thing disinfected."

"Not taking advantage." Jackson denied, "It's a really nice sofa, though."

"Hey, Apes." Cristina greeted the red-head, who stood at the doorway.

"Hey, heres a question." April said, "Whatever happened to good old-fashioned romance? No stuffing of turkeys or disinfecting sofas, but, you know, what about nice normal dates where people talk, share a meal, get to know each other, and then wind up together, not because they're monkeys but because they have genuine feelings in a committed way. I mean, what is so wrong with that, huh?"

Meredith eyed April's burritos, "Are you gonna eat all of those?"

***

Allison sat behind the Nurse's station typing away in the computer while Meredith and Cristina leaned against it. Alex, Jo, Jackson and Stephanie approached the trio.

"Every time I touch this thing." Meredith complained, tapping the tablet in her hands, "It deletes another patient."

"It deletes a patient?" Cristina asked.

"It deleted mine, so I just stopped using them." Allison shrugged.

"Here." Jo reached out to grab the tablet, as she said it happened to her the same morning, as Meredith passed it to her, "Let me see..."

Meredith looked around to see two random people with cameras following Alex and Jackson, "Who are your stalkers?"

"Oh." Alex moved his head to look at the photographers before answering Meredith's question, "The new guys are looking for a hospital show pony—a face for the brochure."

"Yeah." Jackson nodded before he gestured at Alex, "Karev's my competition."

"Mm." Stephanie hummed causing Allison to look away and look at Alex, "If you can call it that."

Jackson chuckled, "You can't."

"Bite me, pretty boy."

"And why are there no women in the running?" Meredith asked raising a brow.

"Oh there was. I turned them down." Cristina nodded as she pointed to her face, "This face only goes on the Nobel brochure."

Meredith laughed as Alana's voice was heard, showing potential buyers a tour of the hospital, "And here we have a fully centralized electronic records system. Everything you need to know about any client at anytime. Smart, streamlined, efficient—"

"Oh, efficient." Meredith shook her head, "It would be more efficient if it didn't keep deleting my patients."

Callie's voice was heard from the conference room, "Sing it, Grey!"

***

Jackson paged Allison to the empty E.R. to help with a patient, a patient April was going to bring in secretly to the hospital although they were no longer accepting trauma patients, Allison wheeled in a gurney full of medical supplies with Jackson in the empty E.R. as Jo looked around the room.