⇢ CHAPTER 66

the waiting room as Arizona strategized what the group would present for the meeting before she frowned her eyebrows at what Jackson had told her on the phone, "Your mother?"

"" Jackson sighed from the other line, ""

"Because we all left." Holly concluded, taking a deep exhale before she nodded at Arizona and covered the speaker on her phone, "I'll talk about Neuro with Derek." She went back to speaking to Jackson, "Well, she's just worried for you--"

""

"She's your mother, Jackson." Holly reminded with a chuckle, "Whether you want her to or not, she's going to stress for you."

Jackson sighed again, ""

"Holly," Derek waved over the redhead as the surgeons walked away with the receptionist, "let's go, it's time."

"Oh." Holly nodded, "Jackson, I--"

"" Jackson exhaled, missing Holly more as time went on without seeing her for the entire morning and last night, ""

Holly pursed her lips as she looked down at the floor and cleared her throat, "I-I'll call you back."

Jackson nodded although she could not see him, "."

✧

After a meeting with the junior executives and a long wait for a callback, Holly sat next to Meredith and Callie as she fidgeted the pen in her hand to calm her nerves and Arizona continued to sell their proposal, "This would restore Seattle Grace Mercy West as the region's leader in Adult and Pediatric Trauma Medicine." Arizona smiled, "Dr. Shepherd? Dr. Kepner?"

"Yeah," Derek nodded, "we'll lead the way in Neuroscience."

"A dedicated research institute for the advances of brain mapping," Holly added, "with applications to the treatment of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease--"

"May I stop you for a second?" A man from the executives side asked as he looked through the papers, "We would love to see a little bit more on the financials-- income statements, profit projections, cash flow..."

The surgeons smiled as if they knew the words flowing out of the others mouths and another man piled on, "Your allocation of revenue-- perspective payments for Ms-Drgs versus capitation income?"

The surgeons cleared their throat and stared at Stan, hoping and praying he had the papers in his folder before he nodded and confirmed their thoughts, "We've got all that..." He stood up and walked over to hand the folders to the executives, "right here."

"Marketing," A woman on the executive side asked, "Customer retention plans-- is there a trend study here?" Stan simply stared at her as he handed the folder before nodding and walking back to the table.

Holly looked at the others reviewing the papers in the folders before she whispered, "There's no way they didn't make up fancy words when they asked Stan for things."

"No kidding." Cristina agreed in a hushed voice with a nod. 

The surgeons once again looked anxiously at the executives before the woman nodded, "One second." She clicked buttons on her phone as the surgeons tilted their heads, "I'm just running it by Mr. Crest."

"Oh." The surgeons chorused and nodded before leaning back in their chairs, waiting for a notification beep-- and when it rang, they sat back up.

"Mr. Crest apologizes," The woman began and Holly looked down, defeated, "but he's leaving this evening for Dubai."

"Oh." Derek and Arizona sighed, realizing they were not getting a chance to speak to the man.

"Dubai." Cristina repeated, her eyes moving to the group.

"Wow." Callie whispered, impressed by the destination location.

"Du-bye." Holly enunciated, resting her head on her palm before another chime ran through the room.

"But..." The woman informed, "he can make fifteen minutes for you this afternoon."

The surgeons all chuckled and smiled in relief, "Great. Thank you."

✧

"Oh, God." Holly exhaled, pacing around the room along with Derek after they heard from Brooks the hospital would accept a deal where they would, essentially, ruin it, "Why did I agree?" She whispered to herself, "This is--"

"Uh," Callie shook her head in disbelief, "it's my fault. It's my fault. Everybody's gonna lose their jobs 'cause I had a stupid idea."

"Oh, no," Arizona shook her head, not wanting to get ahead of themselves, "no, don't."

"Nobody is gonna lose their jobs." Derek assured, trying to calm Holly down which only made the surgeons stare at him.

"Everybody is." Meredith corrected as Derek threw his wife a look and Holly brought her hands to her head, "Brooks heard it straight from Cahill. The hospital is liquidating. The deal is closing tomorrow morning."

"Does Owen know?" Cristina questioned.

"She didn't say." Meredith shrugged.

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

"In two hours." Meredith reminded.

"Oh," Cristina sarcastically smiled, "no pressure or anything."

"Okay," Arizona nodded after Callie groaned, "if we only get fifteen minutes, then we need to make the most of them, so--"

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

"None taken." Stan assured with a shrug, "It's interesting to me."

"We need to know all of this boring crap, too." Meredith agreed, leaning over to grab a folder as Holly exhaled.

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

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

"Ooh," Holly hummed once she saw the papers, "I'll take the statistics of the--"