♤Season 9, Episode 17♤
Angela sighs, reading over the books for the new board as Arizona asks, "Jackson Avery really has a bigger say than any of us in running this hospital?"
"It makes since. It's what he's been basically trained for since he was a kid. He is an Avery," Angela shrugs.
"Well, he's a voting member of the management team and he also represents the Harper Avery Foundation," Derek explains.
Callie adds, "And their 175 million bucks."
Arizona sighs, sitting down, "As opposed to our $15 million apiece."
"According to Stan, not only does he have the deciding vote, he can veto ours."
"That is ridiculous. He's a fellow."
"So are you and Grey," Angela comments.
Cristina sneers, "But he's a plastic's fellow. And I'm me."
Angela rolls her eyes, "There's nothing wrong with plastics. You make digs at the specialty again, you'll see just how miserable I can make your fellowship and how much being you will suck."
Meredith tries calming everyone down, "Well, let's not overreact. I mean, it's Jackson. He's not some corporate stranger. He's one of us."
Derek agrees with his wife, "No, you're right. He's a smart kid. He's gonna follow our lead."
"Why would he? We couldn't get the backing of anyone else because we didn't know how to run a hospital. Jackson's an Avery. He's literally been groomed for this his entire life. We should follow his lead."
Callie shakes her head, "No, no, we made this plan. We pulled it together. Look, I'm grateful to Harper Avery for an infusion of cash, but I'm-I'm not gonna let some-some plastics fellow tell me how to run my service because his mommy said he could."
"Are any of you listening to me? We don't know how to run a hospital. He does. That plastics fellow knows more than all of us combined. Not another word until he comes in."
They listen to her and stay quiet until Jackson walks in with a box of donuts, "I'm sorry, guys. I was running on time, and then my last rounds' patient turned into a crier."
He opens the box of donuts on the table, Angela grabbing one, "Thank you. Everett threw up all over himself right as we were going out the door so I didn't have time to grab breakfast today."
"Uh, we wanted to start with discussing the reopening of the ER and the trauma department," Meredith tells Jackson.
"Oh, yes. Um, I'm not ready for that just yet," Jackson paws through the files in front of him.
Derek offers, "If you need more time with the materials, we can go ahead-"
Jackson stops him, "No, no, I've-I've read it. Uh, it's just that the Foundation feels like the ER is not a forgone conclusion. They need a site visit, a chance to look over the numbers. It could be a month before the decision."
Arizona lets out a little chuckle, "Okay. The Foundation knows we plan on getting our Level-1 Trauma designation back, right?"
"They know that's the idea, yeah."
"It's the fact," Callie corrects.
"I think we should table this until we can bring in Owen," Cristina comments, "Uh, he'll have a lot of thoughts on this, too."
Angela nods, "I agree."
Jackson speaks up amongst the words of agreement, "That's-that's the other thing."
"What thing?" Angela asks.
"Okay," Jackson takes a deep breath, "Since we are starting fresh, the thought is that new leadership would be good for morale."
They catch on to what he's saying, "Like Chief of Surgery leadership?"
Callie shakes her head, "Oh, no way."
Meredith clarifies, "Firing Owen?"
Cristina shakes her head, "Okay, we're not firing Owen."
"Okay, well the Foundation thinks that-"
"Your mother," Callie interrupts.
"The Harper Avery Foundation-" Jackson tries to ignore Callie.
"Your mother, Avery. Just say it," Callie doesn't let it go.
Angela kicks Callie's leg from under the table, "Torres, enough."
Jackson loses his temper a little, "It's a recommendation."
"It's an inappropriate one," Cristina comments.
"Oh, tell your mom that. This is bull-" Callie continues.
"Enough! Obviously we are getting nothing done," Angela says, dismissing them.
Derek, Callie and Arizona pack up and leave as Cristina stands, "Okay, I don't care who's giving you your marching orders, this thing with Owen is not happening."
Jackson shrugs, "Say what you want, but without the Harper Avery Foundation, none of us are here."
Meredith acknowledges that, "And we appreciate that. But no one expected them to come in and start dictating policy."
"Really? I did," Angela sighs.
"Yeah, well, no one asked you to sue the hospital into bankruptcy either."
They stop and look at Jackson, Meredith asking, "For the plane crash that killed Lexie?"
"And Mark?" Angela asks, a small break to her voice.
He doesn't say anything as they leave the room.
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Brooks finds Angela buying a coffee, "Dr. Karev. It's UNOS. They found a heart and lungs."
Angela almost drops the coffee, Brooks quickly grabbing it before it can fall to far as Angela answers the call, "Dr. Karev here."
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Seeing Owen walking out in his everyday clothes, Angela stops him, "Whoa, what the hell is going on?"
"Avery wants a change in leadership, Shepherd blames me for the crash and you didn't have my back," Owen says, trying to move past her.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Who the hell says I don't have your back? I've had your back since the day we stepped out into that field in Afghanistan. This is a new board with doctors with egos as big as the moon," Angela reminds him, "How the hell did you find out about the recommendation for new leadership anyways?"
Owen sighs, "Cristina told me."
Angela groans, "She shouldn't have told you. She needs to separate her relationship with you from her work cause it's gonna get her in trouble. Look, I have a heart and lungs coming in today but this conversation isn't done."
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Angela is the last one to arrive at the emergency board meeting, "Okay, so, Owen quit. Why the hell would you tell him, Cristina?"
"Wait. Wait. You told him?" Callie address Cristina.
"That he might be getting fired? Of course I did," She sees nothing wrong.
"Nothing was decided, and besides, we weren't gonna let Avery get rid of Hunt," Derek reminds her.
"Avery has his own agenda. No, warning Owen is the least we can do," Cristina argues.
Angela sighs, "Cristina, you're a board member, not his wife or girlfriend even. I get you feel guilty for going behind his back, but sometimes you have to play dirty to get results," Her pager goes off, "I have a heart-lung transplant coming in."
Cristina looks to her, "Oh, can I have in?"
She looks at her like she's insane, "No. Not after today."
Callie adds, "Karev's kid just got a kidney from UNOS."
"Two transplants in one day?" Meredith asks.
"Three with Kepner's DCD," Angela reminds.
"Three? That doesn't happen," Meredith shakes her head.
"Well, it did and the ORs are fully booked. We have half the nursing staff and no transplant coordinator," Arizona sums up.
Derek asks, "Who was handling all that?"
"Hunt!" They yell.
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Angela talks with Mr. Schulz with Brooks, "They're going to get the donor heart and lung as we speak. We should have you in the OR this afternoon."
He sighs, "Oh, not a minute too soon. You should've seen what I coughed up this morning. I swear to God, the thing had hands."
"Dr. Karev," A man's voice calls to her from the door, "I was hoping I'd catch you."
"Hey, you get your fat head out of my door. Bad enough I gotta watch you go by my window 80 times a day while you walk your stupid laps."
"I just wanna know if Dr. Karev knows about the pepperoni pizza you've been smuggling in here."
Angela and Brooks share a look as the men continue, "Snitch all you want. I'm not gonna be here much longer."
"No kidding. You're dying? Hey, there is a God, and he's heard my prayers."
Brooks explains, "Uh, Mr. Schulz is getting a heart-lung transplant."
"A heart? Well, he doesn't need a heart. He's got junky lungs. I've been on this machine for three months, and you're giving that bastard my heart?" Herman leans against the door.
"You're not look too good, Herman. Somebody might be dying today," Schulz teases.
"Shut up."
Angela finally intervenes, "Mr. Crump, please calm down. When someone has, in your words, crappy lungs, it puts a stress on the heart because of the pulmonary hypertension. So a heart-lung transplant-"
Herman points, "You're gonna have pulmonary hypertension unless you get a supervisor down here."
Brooks comments, "That doesn't make any sense."
"I am the supervisor for this department so you'd be speaking to me. I'll come by shortly."
He walks off as Brooks and Angela walk out of the room, "So why do they hate each other so much?"
"They were neighbors. Crump's wife left him for Schulz like a decade or so ago."
"No," Brooks says, like they were high schoolers gossiping.
"Mm-hmm. And then she ended up leaving him too for some other neighborhood guy."
"No."
Angela chuckles, "Yeah. I gotta go talk to Crump. Keep checking on the OR schedule."
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After talking with Cristina, Angela finds inspiration.
"It's called a domino-transplant. Because you guys are the same blood type, we will put the new heart and lungs into Mr. Schulz, and then take Mr. Schulz's original heart and give it to Mr. Crump."
"So his heart in my body?" Herman asks, "No gonna do it."
Angela smiles, "It's the best solution in this case."
"The best solution is a 62 year old getting a 70-year-old's hand-me-downs?"
Brooks doesn't really help, "Technically, all donor hearts are hand-me-downs."
The attending goes with math, "Mr. Schulz's heart is 80% functional. Your's is only ten."
Schulz chuckles, "Yeah, you hear that? 80%. You'd be lucky to get a ticker like this one."
"I'd be lucky if you dropped dead right now and I got the fresh heart."
"Mr. Crump," Angela starts, "You should consider this opt-"
"Look, I would rather croak than have this bastard's old lump of meat in my chest," He gets up.
"Hey! This day just keeps getting better and better," Schulz laughs.
Brooks helps Crump, "Okay, sir. You need to sit down."
He fights against her to keep walking, "No, I need to get out of this room."
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Angela stares at the OR board, "I like puzzles. I know it. I can solve this puzzle."
Seeing a pattern, and looking at the numbers, Angela manages to figure out the board before printing the necessary documents and going to find Jackson, "Sign this."
"What is it?" He asks, looking at it.
"Approval for a domino-transplant surgery that the head of the board needs to sign and that's you," Angela explains as Bailey and Webber look on.
"I need to know what everything is first."
Angela sighs, "Patient A needs heart and lungs, Patient B needs a heart and Patient C gave organs up after they died. Patient A is getting-"
Jackson interrupts her as April passes by, "Hey, April. Here, take these."
"What are they?" April asks.
"Hunt left before he could coordinate the recovery teams for your DCD patient. So it's just a list of which organs are going where," Jackson explains, holding the documents out to her.
April glares, "Yeah, well, he's not my patient anymore, per his request-"
Angela sighs, interrupting her, "Jackson, please sign. I have two grumpy old men that might kill each other if I don't move forward soon."
He takes the documents and a pen while telling April, "Just handle it!"
Callie looks over Angela's shoulder, "Hey, make sure you sign your own name and not your mom's."
"Torres, walk away before your wife has more limbs than you," Angela warns before taking the papers, "Thank you."
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Angela approaches Herman, "You find me a real heart yet?"
"I treated soldiers for most of my career. I watched men and women bleed out in front of me because they needed a new heart or kidney but we didn't have them out there. I have an actual heart that can save your life and get you out of here and you just want to throw it away. I don't care what happened between you and him but I know you'll both fight a lot better, and farther away from here, if you take the heart. I get that some things feel like it was yesterday, but use this to your advantage."
"What do you mean?"
"Take his heart that he's viewing as just throwing away, and out live the bastard with it."
He mutters, "There's, uh, there's really enough juice in that heart to get me to his funeral?"
She nods, "There's enough juice that you could dance on his grave."
Herman smiles, nodding.
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After performing her domino-transplant, Angela grabs Everett from the daycare as after signing some paperwork, she's heading home, "Okay, thank you, Doctors."
"Well, that's it, then," Arizona says, smiling.
Cristina nods, "We're officially the new Board of Directors. For better or worse."
"Congratulations, everyone," Meredith says as they all stand.
Angela picks Everett up, out of his carseat and moves around once he starts fussing as Jackson says, "Actually, I'd like to share a list of a few things I think are our top priority."
Callie sighs, "You mean that the Foundation thinks."
"No, I don't, actually....mean the Foundation or my mom or these stupid protocols," He throws the binders in the garbage, "I mean me."
Angela nods, sitting with Everett propped up so he can see everyone as he looks around, "Okay, let's listen. Be open-minded."
Jackson starts, "Number one, I move that we reinstate Owen Hunt as Chief of Surgery, effective immediately. Dr. Hunt has agreed to this."
"There were some conditions," Derek reminds him, making Angela wonder what she missed concerning those two.
"Which brings me to my second point," Jackson nods, "We are reopening the ER. We will be a Level-1 Trauma Center again. That will be top priority once Owen Hunt is here to share his input. From now on, the Foundation will follow our lead. We will tell them our decisions as we make them."
Callie agrees, "Well, hear, hear."
"Yeah, no, that sounds good," Arizona nods.
Jackson smiles, "I've got one more thing."
Meredith tells him, "Maybe you shouldn't push it."
He stands, ignoring the advice, "We are building a new hospital. And that was your vision, not mine," Jackson starts walking around, passing by Angela and Everett and tickling the baby's stomach causing him to giggle, "My priority is to make sure your vision comes true. And while it is important that we become a leading center for research and innovation. We have to remember something-we are now officially a hospital run by doctors. That should mean something. It is our responsibility to be the best doctors we can possibly be so that those who come after us can strive to be their best. So...with that in mind, I move to rename the hospital."
"Again?" Cristina asks.
"Why would we do that?" Meredith questions.
"To-to what?"
Callie snarks, "Let me guess. The Harper Avery Hospital?"
Angela shakes her head at Callie, "Torres, you were doing kind of good."
"No. I propose that we give this hospital a name that can honor the very reason we've come together and been able to do this. A name that exemplifies the spirit of this hospital, but also the depth of our dedication."
He holds up a piece of paper that says:
Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital
Angela covers her mouth when she sees it. Kissing the top of Everett's head.
"All in favor?"
"Aye," Meredith says while everyone else nods.
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AN: I just realized when rewatching this episode that now, every single one of the original board members are gone which makes Jackson's speech hit a little harder.
I feel like Angela would be a little more understanding to Jackson as they've bonded and had conversations about Jackson's childhood, so she knows that he's more prepared for this than anyone else possibly could be.
QoC: how do you think Owen and Angela will rebuild their friendship?
Thanks for all of the votes and reads and comments!!!