Chapter 45

"Liliana Garcia, multiple rib fractures and a broken ankle. Derek Shepherd, multiple hand fractures with a median nerve injury. Arizona Robbins, open femur fracture with resultant above-knee amputation. Lexie Grey, deceased. Mark Sloan, deceased. Our lawyer says as she walks around the board room. Derek, Callie, Meredith, Owen, and I are in a meeting with our lawyer discussing the crash. Callie is sitting in for Arizona and Owen is sitting in for Cristina.

"How is the investigation going?" Derek asks interrupting the lawyer.

"Yeah, have they found out what caused the crash?" I ask.

"The investigation could take years. That's why we want to help you put this tragedy behind you." The male lawyer for the airplane line says.

"I think you mean your clients would like to put it behind them." Our lawyer interrupts.

"So I am authorized at this time to propose a one time settlement. Bayview aeronautics takes your loss seriously. Now the settlement agreement must be unanimous, and it releases Bayview aeronautics from any and all other claims, known or unknown, but most importantly it will allow you to put this painful time behind you and move on with your lives." He says sliding Derek a piece of paper. Derek begins reading over it, before we all slide it around the table to read over it. They were definitely offering us a large amount, which honestly we deserved after what we went through. After everyone read the settlement we were told that we have three days to make our decision before we are released from the meeting. That night I stayed up all night trying to decide if I should settle or not, but honestly it's a hard decision that's going to take more than one night for me to decide on.

"Hey, Alex. Why did an intern just give me a compliment on the crown moldings in my empty house? Are you still sleeping there?" Meredith asks Alex when she walks into the attending lounge where Alex, Bailey, and I are sitting. Alex ended up deciding to stay in Seattle and he's still staying at Meredith's old house even though her and Derek had moved into their new house that Derek built.

"Chicks like it better than the on-call room." Alex shrugs.

"Gross." I mumble.

"Now I have to have the place tented. Give me back my key." Meredith says.

"You don't even live there anymore. What do you care?" Alex asks.

"Key, please." Meredith says.

"Hey, you guys. Can you believe we're in the attendings lounge?" April smiles walking into the lounge.

"April." Meredith says surprised to see her. April was fired after failing her boards, so she was the last person we were expecting to see.

"What are you doing here?" I ask.

"Hunt came and got me on the farm in Moline. I was giving the pigs their breakfast, and I turn around, and there's Dr. Hunt, offering me my job back. He didn't tell you guys?"

"Did anyone else see Dr. Hunt in the barnyard?" I ask.

"When he appeared, was he glowing at all?" Alex asks.

"April." Jackson says surprised when he walks into the attendings lounge

"Hunt hired her back, we think." I say.

"It might have been Jesus." Alex jokes.

"What happened to your shirt?" I ask Jackson seeing a stain on his shirt.

"I waste coffee on it." He says as he takes it off so he can change into his other one.

"Hey, you people are attendings. You do not change clothes in front of everyone like animals or interns, because nobody wants to see all that." Bailey scolds Jackson.

"I do." I laugh before kissing him and leaving to go get ready to operate. I have a brain aneurysm to repair, which is one of my favorite types of surgery. Most surgeons hate operating on aneurysms, because they are very tricky and complex, but that's my favorite thing about them. I get a rush of adrenaline every time I operate on one. I go get scrubbed in and start surgery, before I finish successfully. I perform another surgery that day before Jackson and I head home.

"So have you made a decision about the settlement yet?" Jackson asks as we lay in bed that night.

"No. I've been thinking it over and over in my head, but I still don't know what I want to do. I mean on one hand they're offering us a lot of money, but on the other hand it's like we'd be letting them off easy. Just letting them throw us some money, like that'll make us forget about everything that happened out there." I sigh.

"I think you need to follow your heart and make the decision that gives you the most closure." Jackson says.

"You're right." I yawn.

"You want to try to get some sleep tonight?" Jackson asks.

"Yeah." I say.

"You want the lights on or off?"

"On, please." I say. Since the plane crash, I've been scared of the dark, which made me feel like a child again, but after what happened out there who could blame me? I snuggled up to Jackson, listening to his light snores as he fell asleep. I still haven't really been sleeping, but I especially had a hard time resting tonight because I keep thinking about the settlement. I just can't wait until I can put this whole thing behind me. The next morning rolled around and Jackson and I got dressed before going into work.

"Wilson, why are you staring at me?" I ask Jo who is standing near me at the front desk.

"I'm your intern for today." She says nervously.

"Great." I mumble.

"I brought you a coffee." She smiles handing the coffee to me.

"Thanks." I say taking it.

"You look really nice today." She says complimenting me.

"Wilson, I got less than two hours of sleep last night. I look and feel like crap right now, so you obviously want something, what is it?" I ask.

"I just wanted to know if I could scrub in on your craniotomy today." She smiles.

"You're sucking up to the wrong person. I gave that surgery to Nelson, go find him." I say before walking away.  I hate giving up a surgery, but like I said I'm running on less than two hours of sleep, so I figured it was best not to operate and just stick to consults today if possible .

"My wife is disabled, my daughter's father is dead. There's nothing we can do about that, but this money will pay for Arizona's rehab. It would take care of our little girl, Mark's little girl. This is a huge amount of money, it's a life-changing amount of money." Callie says. It is the end of the day and all of us are in the boardroom discussing the settlement.

"Alright, so you're saying we take it?" Meredith asks.

"I'm just saying you don't walk away from a number like this, right?"

"Well I'm still talking to Cristina, but I think she'd want to take it, yeah." Owen says.

"Mer?" Callie says.

"Yeah. I mean I guess, yeah." Meredith shrugs.

"Derek, what do you think? It has to be unanimous, what do you say?" Callie asks.