Chapter 55

"I am telling you, once we got these doctors talking it was a horror show." Callie says as we all stand in Meredith and Derek's house.

"Shh, I just got Sofia back down." Arizona says as she joins us.

"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." Callie says, as she tells us about Pegasus, the company that plans to buy the hospital.

"And no research." I frown looking at the paperwork Callie handed me before passing it to Derek.

"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." Callie says.

"Well, we won't let that happen to us here." Derek says.

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

"Whoa. Hold on." Derek says.

"Maybe she's right." Meredith says.

"Just wait. What if we don't want to?" Arizona interrupts. Meredith began to text Cristina as Callie and Arizona begin to argue. "I'm sorry. It's never been my dream to run a hospital." Arizona shrugs.

"Okay. Well you might not have to run it." Callie says.

"Cristina should be here." Derek says as him, Meredith, and I stand here watching Callie and Arizona go back and forth.

"I have been texting her." Meredith says.

"I just got back to work and, Derek, you just got your hand back. Don't you want to just work?" Arizona asks.

"Work where? I don't want somebody telling me which patients I can and can't treat." Callie says.

"Or putting a stopwatch on how much time you can spend with them." Meredith says.

"Yeah. If we ran the place, we could make policy decisions based on experience. Do you..." Callie begins to say.

"Uh, no offense, 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. We should stay the course. I made a deal with Pegasus that apparently will help the sale." Derek says.

What? What deal are you talking about?" I frown.

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

"What about Hunt? I mean, he's pushing for the Pegasus sale. He thinks it's a good deal. So what's he gonna say?" Arizona asks and before we know it we're all standing in the living room arguing about what we should do, well except for me I was just waiting for everyone to quiet down before I say anything because I'm not about to waste my time arguing.

"What are we talking about, like $100 million, $200 million?" Arizona yells.

"You know what we're talking about!" Derek yells.

"We have more than we're ever gonna be able to spend anyway. We have more than we'll ever be.." Callie yells.

"No, that's not true?" Meredith yells as everyone continues yelling over each other.

"But I don't know." Arizona argues.

"This is a massive undertaking. Nobody knows what it's gonna cost." Derek says.

"Hey! Everybody calm down and let's have a rational conversation instead of screaming like a bunch of children!" I yell,causing everyone to hush and the only sound to be heard is the rain and thunder as it storms outside.

"So what are you saying? Are you saying that they take everything? I mean, everything from the lawsuit, from all of us?" Arizona asks.

"I have no idea what it's gonna cost to buy Seattle Grace, but I can guarantee you it's more than the four of us have combined. That's only $60 million." Derek says.

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

"It's true. We have money in the I.R.A. and we have about..." Meredith says.

"No, let's not get ahead of ourselves." Derek interrupts.

"Well, just the lawsuit damages thenand, uh, we've got Mark's share, too." Callie says.

"Mark's share?" Arizona frowns.

"Yeah, and Lexie's maybe? Is that rude of me?" Callie asks.

"I mean, I would have to ask her fa..our, our father." Meredith says.

"Don't worry. Excuse me. Yes, this is rude of you." Arizona says.

"Okay, I'm sorry, but we can't waste time on politeness here." Callie says.

"And Mark's share is not our money. It's Sofia's. You should've talked about this with me." Arizona says.

"Um, that's what we're doing." Callie says.

"I mean privately with your wife." Arizona says.

"Where is Cristina?" I ask.

"I don't know. I keep texting her. She would say yes to this." Meredith says.

"How do you know that?" Arizona asks .

"She knows." Callie, Derek, and I say in unison.

"I don't think that it's right to spend all of our money." Arizona argues.

"It is an investment." Callie corrects.

"Of all of our money, Callie. If your parents had ever made you have a summer job you might understand." Arizona says.

"Oh, come on. That is so unfair." Callie says as I sigh and sit down on the couch since we're not getting anywhere with this discussion.

"No, you are ready to bankrupt us!" Arizona yells.

"You're ready to let Pegasus Horizons turn us into a bunch of robots!" Callie yells.

"You are ready to sink $50 million into maintaining a good vibe." Arizona says.

"So what's the alternative, we leave?" Meredith asks.

"No, I don't want to leave. This hospital is not something that we lucked into. This is something that we made and Webber hired us, and he set a tone. Hunt sets a tone, and it's something I am proud to be a part of, and it's worth fighting for." Callie says sternly before we're interrupted by the sound of a child crying. "Shoot. Sorry. Is that mine or yours?" Callie asks.

"It's mine, but she's gonna wake yours." Meredith says as she walks away to check on Zola.

"I think Callie's right. This isn't about a financial investment. It's a much bigger opportunity." Derek says.

"Right." Callie agrees.

"To stay and make the place we dreamed of work again." Derek continues.