9.09

"It was a horror show!" Callie let out, loudly, as Helena and Arizona left the kids' room, at Meredith's.

"." Arizona tried.

"We just got the girls back down." Helena explained.

"Oh, and Portland Gen has quotas now. Yeah. It's unspoken but it's understood that you have to churn out a certain number of procedures." Callie informed.

"And no research?" Meredith furrowed her brows.

"Nope. Pegasus is only interested in high-volume, high-price-tag procedures. Barely any patient interaction." The ortho surgeon told them.

"So no research, no innovation, no opportunity to do what it is we got into medicine do." Helena added.

"Well, we won't let that happen do us here." Derek shrugged.

"Oh, yeah? That's what they said at first." Callie nodded. "And then the people who fought management got fired, and the rest wore down or they left. Now, I don't wanna leave. None of us do. You guys, come on. We have to do this, we have to buy the hospital."

"Whoa, hold on." Mark urged.

"Maybe she's right." Meredith let out.

"Just wait." Arizona spoke up. "What if we don't want to?"

——

"I'm sorry, it's never been my dream to run a hospital." Arizona let out, as Helena peaked over Meredith's shoulder, who texted Cristina.

"Nothing?" Helena sighed.

"She should be here." Derek told them.

"I've been texting her." The blond informed, as the lesbian couple fought.

"Mark and I just got back to work and Derek has just gotten his hand back." Arizona argued. "Don't you want to just... ?"

"Work ? I don't want somebody telling me which patients I can and can't treat." Callie crossed her arms.

"Or putting a stopwatch on how much time I can spend with them." Mark agreed.

"There other hospitals, you know?" Helena sighed. "Maybe we should just... leave."

"Or if we ran the place we could make policy decisions based on experience." Callie suggested.

"Uh, no offense, but that's a naive way to putting it. The job is much harder than you think. I wanted it once, and I hated it." Derek informed. "We should stay the course. I made a deal with Pegasus that apparently will help the sale."

At that, the short girl mumbled. "Deal with the devil..."

"What deal?" Meredith tried.

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

"What about Hunt?" Arizona questioned. "He's pushing for the Pegasus sale, he thinks is a good deal."

"I think he thinks it's our deal..." Helena sighed, rubbing her temples.

——

All the doctor fought around Helena, the girl sitting in silence in the couch, sorting out her thoughts. Suddenly, she spoke up, the room stopping to listen.

"Look, what are we talking about here? Are we saying it's gonna take everything?"

"Yeah, everything from the lawsuit, from all of us?" Arizona agreed.

"I have no idea what it's gonna cost to buy Seattle Grace, but I can guarantee you it's more than the six of us have combined." Derek shrugged. "That's only 90 million dollars."

"I had some money before all of this. I've got about... 700 grand I can get right away." Callie suggested.

"It's true, we've got money on the IRA and-" Meredith agreed.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." Mark suggested.

"Just the lawsuit damages then." Callie decided. "And, uh, Lexie's share, maybe? Or Henry's? Is that rude of me-"

At that, Helena stiffened by Mark. Noticing this, the man put an arm around her shoulders, comfortingly.

"I mean, I would have to ask her- our father..." Meredith shook her head.

"I- Helena and I, we had decided that-" Mark struggled with his words.

"Don't worry, excuse me, yes, this is rude of yo-"Arizona reprimanded her wife.

"I'm sorry, but we can't waste time on politeness here." The tallest woman shrugged.

"We're not touching Henry's money." Helena spoke up, her tone harsher than she intended. "That's Alice's money, Mark and I agreed on that. Which maybe you could have known if you had 'wasted your time' talked to us privately, Callie. Instead of assuming I'm willing to use my son's money for something we don't even know will work."

Callie seemed taken aback by her words, blinking rapidly as the room went silence for a second. Helena Campos didn't often employ this tone, not with anyone. Especially not with her friends.

Sighing, the girl rubbed at her forehead. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for that to... look, we haven't even decided if we're doing this."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." Mark agreed, rubbing soothing circles on his wife's shoulder. "Where's Cristina?" He tried to change the subject.

"I don't know, Mer and I keep texting her." Helena informed. "But she would say yes to this."

"Yes, she'll be on board." Meredith agreed.

"How do you know?" Arizona questioned, making Mark and Derek let out, in unison.

"They know."

——

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

"It's is an investment." Callie told her wife, the two still fighting.

"Of all of our money, Callie. If your parents ever made you get a summer job you might understand-"

"Oh, come on, that is unfair." The brunette surgeon rolled her eyes at her wife.

"You're ready to bankrupt us!" Arizona yelled.

"And you're ready to let Pegasus Horizons turn us into a bunch or robots!" Callie argued back.