Chapter 47
"Wow.. that was..." Jackson says as he tries to catch his breath.
"So...so...so amazing."I say also trying to catch my breath. We were in an on call room and we've been having sex all morning as usual.
"You wanna go again?" He asks.
"Yeah." I say, before we start again until my pager goes off. "Dammit." I mumble.
"Just ignore it." He says still kissing me.
"I can't, it's time for my tumor surgery." I sigh kissing Jackson before I get up and put my scrubs on. I leave the on call room and go to my patients room to explain the surgery process and what the recovery will be like, before going to the OR to operate. I love being a fellow and being in charge of my own cases, but I'm not going to lie I do miss operating with Derek and I hate that he can't perform surgery at all, but I don't believe this is permanent. His hand is going to get back to one hundred percent it has to. I get scrubbed in and begin operating. The tumor isn't super complex, so it only takes five hours.
"Hey you, what's wrong?" I ask Jackson seeing him in the hallway after taking my patient to recovery.
"Read this." He says handing me his phone.
"Oh god, I think I'm scarred for life." I say handing him his phone back. I guess Webber got his Avery's mixed up in his phone because he accidentally sent Jackson an email that was definitely meant for his mother.
"Believe me so am I." He says before we see Webber in the hallway. "I need to go talk to him." Jackson says.
"Okay, I'll be at the front desk." I say before walking away.
"Why are you standing at this desk socializing when you're supposed to be checking my patients vitals?" I ask Heather Brooks, who's on my service today. She stands there looking terrified as her friends scramble away.
"I'm sorry, it's just that I checked on your patients 30 minutes ago and everyone was fine so I thought..." She says.
"I don't care what you thought. If you were competent you would know that a patients vitals change by the second especially after brain surgery, so right now your best bet is to get away from me and go do your job." I say.
"Yes ma'am." She says speed walking away.
"Oh not fair, you are the scariest one. That was supposed to be me." Cristina says. Cristina ended up moving back to Seattle and it's her first day back today.
"Hey, what can I say? You have to be scary if you want your service to run smoothly, especially with these interns. They're so unfocused." I sigh.
"Well I'll establish dominance, maybe I'll use one of the classics." Cristina says.
"How was Owen?" Meredith asks Cristina.
"You mean Chief Hunt, the husband formerly known as Owen is now just my employer. He gave me the orientation packet."
"Brian Danzingers sedated his B.P.'s down a little." Meredith says as Alex hands her a chart.
"Yeah, tox screens negative, his L.F.T.s and I.N.R. are elevated. Did you get a good look at his liver?" Alex asks.
"Oh, the prodigal Yang returns. We've missed you." Jackson says joining us at the front desk.
"Yes, hi. Blah, blah pleasantries. Hey, what do you know about the new cardio chief, Jeff Randall?" She asks him.
"Russell. Nothing?"
"Yeah, no one named Jeff has ever done anything substantial." Cristina scoffs.
"Hey you realize, we're both not busy right now?" I whisper in Jackson's ear making him smirk.
"We have to go. We have a patient to consult on." Jackson lies before we go to an on call room. We stay in there for awhile, until it's time for me to go meet everyone in the conference room, because we're talking to our lawyers today.
"At this point it's about assessing the emotional damages, so we'll need to hear everything." The female lawyer says before Cristina walks in.
"You must be Dr. Yang. Glad you could be here, have a seat." The male lawyer says.
"Dr. Hunt, I guess you won't be necessary as proxy anymore." The female lawyers says.
"Uh, I'm here more out of support for my staff." Owen says.
"Yeah, I don't mind if he stays." Derek says.
"Today, we'd like to get some statements about continued physical, but also mental or emotional difficulties you might have suffered since the crash." The male lawyer says.
"What if we don't have any?" Cristina asks.
"Well, why don't we talk. We'll see what comes up. Almost anything can be helpful to monetize your injuries."
"How do we do that?" Meredith asks.
"We use a formula. It's your medical bills plus pain and suffering equal to three times your medical bills, plus flat rate hard tissue injuries, plus loss of income, plus lost earning capacity, plus any other foreseeable harms for each of you. So we're talking about a sizeable award." The female lawyer says.
"Yeah." Callie says under her breath.
"Far more substantial than the settlement they offered you." The male lawyer says.
"Where's all the money come from?" Derek asks.
"Well, we're looking at the possibilities now. Uh the charter company, aircraft manufacturer, parts manufacturers, the pilot, of course. The ground crew at sea tac." The male says.
"Jerry? Did you say Jerry?" Meredith asks.
"Who's Jerry?" The female lawyer asks.
"The pilot." Derek answers.
"He was up there with us." I say.
"He broke his back, he's paralyzed now." Cristina says.
"You're gonna go after him?" Meredith asks.
"Well, if we find he was negligent shouldn't we?" Callie asks.
"You know, I'm sorry I can't help. I've got no residual injuries and I've gotta go run someone's service for them, so you know good luck." Cristina says before walking out.
"Folks listen, you have a special bond. You've been through something horrible and survived it together, but as far as the pilot is concerned, you need to stop thinking of him as one of you and start thinking of him as one of them." The female lawyer says making us all frown. After that everyone is released except for Derek and Callie who have to stay and talk about Derek's hand injury. I go do consults before going into another surgery, after I finish I spot Jackson in the hallway again.
"What's wrong this time?" I ask Jackson who has a look on his face. He just hands me his phone.
"Oh my god, you've really got to stop letting me read this stuff. That was descriptive." I say handing him his phone back. He forwarded Richards email to his mom and his mom obviously didn't realize Jackson was the one who forwarded it by what she replied.
"I need someone to suffer through it with me"
"Haven't I had enough suffering to last me a lifetime already." I joke.
"How did the meeting with the lawyers go?" He asks.
"The same as all the others. I have to meet back up with them again soon to talk about all my pain and suffering." I sigh.
"I know you can't wait for this to be over." He says.
"Yeah I really can't." I say as we walk into the locker room so we can change out of our scrubs. Afterwards Jackson waits in the waiting room while I join everyone in the conference room to meet with the lawyers again.
"Thank you all for the cooperation today. Next step is for us to file a complaint against the other parties." The female lawyer says.
"Can we leave the pilot out of this?" Cristina asks.
"The man is a paraplegic now."
"Yeah, I agree. We should take him off the list." Derek says.
"Wait no. What if he was drunk or sleep and..." Callie says.
"No, we talked to him." Meredith shakes her head.
"Dr. Hunt I'm gonna have to ask you to step out now. This is only appropriate for the victims of the crash." The female lawyer says.
"Oh, okay." He says before walking out.
"Folks, we're not going after the pilot. We need to investigate him to make our case, but the damages we'll be seeking will be far greater than what that pilot could be accountable for or the charter company for that matter." The female lawyers says.
"We'll be going after bigger fish." The male lawyer says.
"More and more, it's looking like the best strategy will be to look for fault with the hospital itself."
"Boise." Meredith says.
"No, this hospital. The people who put you on the plane." The female lawyers says glancing out the window where Owen stood, leaving us all speechless. I don't for one moment regret proceeding with the lawsuit, but not knowing what it's going to lead to is scary, I guess only time will tell.