9.11

"Jackson Avery really has a bigger say than all of us in running this hospital?" Arizona questioned, sitting with the group in a meeting room. Helena went through the paperwork in her hands, Mark seating by her.

"That can't be true, can it?" Cristina scoffed, seating down too.

"Well, he's a voting member of the management team and he also represents the Harper Avery foundation." Derek shrugged.

"And their 175 million bucks." Callie added.

"As opposed to our 15 million a piece." Arizona added.

"Stan says that he not only has the deciding vote, but he can veto ours." Mark informed, scoffing. "I raised the kid, and now he's practically my boss?"

"That is ridiculous. He's a fellow." Cristina let out.

"So are we." Helena shrugged.

"But he's a plastics fellow. And we're ." The woman answered.

"Hey, excuse you, plastics is hardcore." Mark let out, a bit offended.

"Sure it is, Helena placed her hand on top of his. "Look, let's not overreact, before we even see how it goes."

"Yeah, I mean, it's Jackson. He's not some corporate stranger, he's one of us." Meredith agreed.

"No, you're right." Derek nodded. "He's a smart kid, he's gonna follow our lead."

"No, no. We made this plan." Callie shook her head. "We pulled it together. Look, I'm grateful to Harper Avery for an infusion of cash, but I'm not gonna let some... some..."

"Plastics fellow?" Cristina suggested.

"Hey!" Mark let out, once more.

"Plastics fellow, tell me how to run my service cause his mommy said he could." Callie agreed.

"That is true, I mean, in our residency Jacks sucked at peds and neonatal. He shouldn't dictate how it goes. Especially when this fell into his lap, l-like some sort of- of Boy King..." Helena muttered, shrugging.

"Preach." Arizona let out.

"But let's be nice. I'm guessing he wasn't expecting this either, it's not on him, it's on Catherine." She suggested. "Catherine practically threw him to the wolves here. I'm sure Jacks will just try to make the best of it."

——

"So we're agreed that the peds and adult ERs will be combined to save personnel?" Arizona questioned, everyone agreeing.

"I'm sorry, guys." Jackson barged into the room. "I was running on time, and then my last rounds' patient turned into a crier."

He opened a box of donuts, the room falling into silence. Then, as a sort of olive branch, Helena smiled softly at her friend, the only one reaching to take one.

"Uh, we were discussing the reopening of the ER and the trauma department, Jackson." She informed, taking a bite of the pastry.

"Oh, yes. Uh, I'm not ready for that just yet..." He shuffled through some paperwork.

"If you need more time with the material we can go ahead-" Derek suggested.

"No, no, I've read it. It's just that the foundation feels that the ER is not a forgone conclusion. They need a site visit, a chance to look over the numbers." He explained, the room going tense. "It could be a month before the decision."

"Ok, knows we plan on getting our level one trauma designation back, right?" Arizona questioned.

"They know that's the idea."

"It's the fact." Callie corrected.

"I think we should table this until we can bring in Owen. He'll have a lot of thoughts on this too." Cristina suggested, the room agreeing.

"T-that's the other thing." Jackson started.

"What thing?" Mark spoke up, as Helena tilted her head.

"Ok... Since we are starting fresh the thought is that new leadership would be good for morale." He tried, carefully.

At that, the room fell silent, as Helena put her donut back down on its napkin, sliding it slightly away from her. Sure, Owen wasn't the closet person to her, but he was still one of them. And he was a damn good chief, too.

"Like a new Chief of Surgery?" Mark questioned.

"Oh, no way." Callie let out.

"Firing Owen?" Meredith tried.

"Ok, we're not firing Owen." Cristina scoffed.

"Yeah, it's not happening." Helena agreed.

"Well, the foundation thinks-" Jackson started.

"Your mother." Callie corrected,

"The Harper Avery Foundation-"

"Your , Avery. Just say it." Callie argued.

"It's a recommendation." He stated.

"It's an inappropriate one." Cristina scoffed.

"Tell your mom that. This is bull-" Callie argued.

"Owen is a good Chief. Why would they wanna fire him?!" Helena let out, clearly puzzled.

"And this is going nowhere." Arizona sighed, getting up. "I have surgery..."

"Yeah. Me, too. We should come back to this." Derek left too, along with Mark.

"Look, I don't care who is giving you your marching orders, this thing with Owen? It's not happening." Cristina told him, left behind with her people.

"Say what you want, but without the Harper Avery foundation, none of us are here." He let out.

"And we appreciate that. We know that you were thrown into this, too. It's just-" Helena started.

"No one expected them to come in and start dictating policy." Meredith finished, the short girl nodding.

"Yeah, well, no one asked you to sue the hospital into bankruptcy either." The man let out, clearly annoyed.