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am telling you, once we got these Doctors talking, it was a horror show!" Callie told the group, her voice raising. They were all at Derek and Meredith's discussing Callie's idea of buying the hospital.

Eleanora thought she was absolutely

"Shh!" Arizona hissed to her wife, joining the group. Eleanora walked in beside her, both of them just returning from Zola's room where her, Sofia, Luca, and Elijah were all sleeping. "I just got Sofia back down."

Callie nods, sending her wife an apologetic look. Eleanora moved to sit on the end of the couch, Mark perched on the arm of it. He's uncharacteristically quiet, listening to Callie share her story.

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

"And no research?" Meredith asks, reading through one of the pamphlets Callie handed out. Eleanora put her own hand out, Meredith passing it along to her friend.

Eleanora opened the pamphlet, her eyes dancing across the words on it. Her brows furrowed and nose scrunched up the farther she read, glancing up when Callie answers Meredith's question.

"Nope! Pegasus is only interested in high-volume, high-price tag procedures. Barely any patient interaction. So no research, no innovation, no opportunity to do what it is we got into medicine to do!"

"Well, we won't let that happen to us here." Derek told her. Mark nodded, speaking up lowly so he wouldn't wake the kids in the other room.

"When have we been known to lie on our backs and just let people walk over us?"

"Oh, yeah? That's what said at first." Callie scoffed, looking between Derek and Mark as she shook her head. "And then the people that fought management got fired, and the rest wore down or they left."

It goes quiet, Eleanora passing the pamphlet to her husband. She leans forward, placing her elbows on her knees and rubbing her hands down her face.

The entire situation was too stressful for her. There were too many options, none of them preferable. All Eleanora wanted to do was , find research and projects that made her happy and excited.

This hospital business was not something she wanted to deal with.

"Now I don't want to leave. None of us do." Callie finally spoke up, her face serious. "You guys, come on! We have to do this. We to buy the hospital."

"Whoa, hold on!" Derek interrupted, Mark huffing.

"Well, maybe she's right." Meredith whispered to her husband. Eleanora looked up, chin resting in her hands as she watched everyone.

"Just, wait!" Arizona states. Everyone turns to look at her, the blonde woman taking a few breaths before speaking. "What if we don't want to?"

Callie raises a brow at her wife, complete disbelief on her face. Eleanora motions towards Arizona, nodding her head. Everyone looks at her, Eleanora finally speaking up lowly.

"I-I don't want to own a hospital, either. I mean, that's a lot of work that would take away from surgery, f-from . I didn't go through years of college a-and residency that kicked my ass to become a hospital owner."

"Are you serious?" Callie scoffed, focusing mostly on her wife. However, she sent Eleanora a look, one that made Mark straighten up in his seat.

"I'm sorry, it's never been my dream to run a hospital!" Arizona snaps, everyone starting to speak above the whisper level from before.

"Okay, well, you might not have to it." Callie points out. Mark rolls his eyes, giving a dry chuckle as he stands up.

"So you want us to invest millions of dollars into a hospital and then just pass it off to someone else, Torres?"

"I just got back to work." Arizona told her wife, Eleanora shaking her head. She stands up and walks behind the couch, putting her hands on the back and leaning forward a bit. "And, Derek, you just got your hand back. Don't you want to just work?!"

"Work where?" Callie asked, rolling her eyes. "I don't want somebody telling me which patients I can and can't treat."

"Or putting a stopwatch on how much time you can spend with them." Meredith adds. Eleanora straightens up again, crossing her arms across her chest. Her and Derek lock eyes, having a silent conversation as Callie continued.

"Yeah, if we ran the place, we could make policy decisions based on experience. Do y—"

"Sorry, no offense," Derek interrupted, pulling his eyes away from Eleanora's, "but that is a naive way of putting it. The job is much harder than you think. I wanted it once, and I hated it. Mark can second that it's hard, even though he had an ego surge."

"It's not easy, and it's not as simple as ." Mark agreed. Eleanora spoke up, shrugging.

"We should continue with the course we're on. Derek and I made a deal with Pegasus earlier tonight that apparently is going to help with the sale."

"What....deal?" Meredith asked her husband in confusion, Mark turning to his wife with the same confused look in his face.

"Deal?"

Eleanora gave him a nervous look before looking over at Derek. The older neurosurgeon sighs, speaking up.

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

"What about Hunt?" Arizona asked, everyone looking at her now. "I mean, he's pushing for the Pegasus sale. He thinks it's a good deal. So what's he gonna say?"

_____

are we talking about, like $100 million, $200 million?" Arizona screams, everyone now arguing about the price tag. Eleanora huffs, running her fingers through her hair.