"You should start putting the hood on."
"Why?"
"You look sexy like that." He smirked.
"So, what you're saying is I don't look sexy in a daily basis?"
"No, you do. I just love the 'hood half-on' look."
We were on our way to the Surgical Innovation Contest. His mom joined us along the way, making her random and rude comments. Jackson reviewed his notes once we sat down while I looked outside at the snow.
"Cookie?" Arizona offered.
"Don't mind if I do." Jackson took one. I took two.
"Hm.." Catherine broke a piece of Jackson's, giving the tin back to Arizona.
"They're peanut butter, yes." I said then lowly moaned.
"Make that sound again, you're gonna be popping out twins." My eyes widened at the whispering voice in my ear.
Catherine was completely oblivious to her son's inappropriate comment.
"Morning and welcome to Grey Sloan Surgical Innovation Prototypes Day. Today, we will see presentations of the proposals that were chosen in round one. Five will be selected to move on to the contest's final phase and receive a $ million grant to further their groundbreaking research. Good luck to all of today's presenters. And we will begin with Dr. Richard Webber." April announced.
People clapped and cheered as Richard made his way to the stand.
"You're on deck." April told the Avery's before she grabbed the tin of cookies and sat with the other judges.
"Can you get me some strawberries?"
"Babe, I don't know if I'll have time to come back."
I nodded then followed them to the food table, grabbing a bowl of strawberries while they talked.
"You knew we had to present today. We had a very clear deadline." Catherine threw a glare at him, going back to her notes.
"Yeah, well, cleaning up the mess you made has no clear end at all."
"What mess? What are you talking about?"
"The mess you made when you decided to waive Rebecca Froy's settlement against your grandfather, thereby allowing her to speak publicly about it, which sent our foundation's board of directors into a massive soaking of their collective britches, which I had to sop up."
"What settlement are you talking about?" He asked. She glared at him then whispered.
"Sexual harassment."
Oop..
"Close your mouth before you catch a fly. Dr. Orr! We'll talk later." She pushed his chin up, going to chat with the other doctors.
Jackson continued to look around in disbelief, sitting on the couch while until it was their turn to present. I went back to my seat, listening to their presentation.
"We can make a better vagina, you know?" Jackson said smiling.
"I'm gonna go back. That sounds wrong. Vaginas are terrific the way they are, honestly. I love 'em, you know. I came from one, so... this one, hers, actually. Hey, Ma." He nudged her. I held back my laughter.
"That's not what the script says." She muttered.
Meredith suddenly walked up, smiling and waving at everyone.
"Due to unforeseen circumstances, we are postponing the remainder of today's presentation. Please raise your hand if you ate any cookies from this tin."
"Unfortunately, the cookies in this tin were tainted with rat poison so we need to treat those of you who have ingested them as soon as possible, please."
Everyone who had a cookie gathered in the lounge. Meredith and Jo walked in, standing in front of us.
"Okay. False alarm. The cookies had marijuana in them."
"What?!"
"Yes. I didn't want to scare you." Mer shrugged.
"So you went with rat poison?"
"You scared me to death." Arizona said.
"You knew they had weed in them." We turned to her.
"Right. Yeah. I-I forgot.."
"Okay, so listen. No one goes anywhere until you're sober. Ingesting marijuana has a much stronger effect, and it lasts much longer than when you smoke it, so everyone stays here. There's no medicine, no surgery, and no patient interaction." Mer instructed.
"Yeah, I'm just gonna send some orders." Maggie said, unlocking her phone.
"No, you're not gonna send anything! Give your note to Jo."
"Wait. You're taking our phones?" April questioned.
"Everyone, give your phones to Wilson. She will handle your patients, your post-ops, and your charts. She's gonna reassess and rearrange. Phones now. Everybody stay here." She declared before leaving.
"I want a sundae.. chocolate." I said, thinking about the delicious taste.
~
I sat in the chair, eating a bag of chips while Catherine and Jackson talked. They moved to an empty room to discuss Harper.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Jackson asked her.
"Turns out there's no good time to tell your son that his grandfather is a sexual predator."
"He isn't. He was, and the accusations are accurate from Rebecca Froy.."
"Rebecca Froy's story was true. All the stories were true."
"What do you mean "all the stories"? What's that? How many stories?"
"There was many stories... some ugly, some very ugly. There was thirteen! Thirteen women... all under NDAs, all secret!" Catherine shouted.
"Shh! This is bad. This is so bad. This is indispensable.. fensible.. indefensible." He racked his brain for the right word before chuckling.
"Very funny. You're messing with me because I'm a little high, or because you're a little high."
"This is not a joke, Jackson. This is a secret you let out of the bag."
"Why was this a secret?" I asked.
"How could this even be kept a secret at all?" He added.
"Money, honey. Good God, don't be naive. A fortune was paid to silence those women."
"No. I understand that, okay? I'm saying, why would anyone protect him? Why didn't anybody try to stop him? Why didn't you try to stop him?"
"Because that's not how it worked. The hope was, for some, that, if the financial hit to your grandfather was great enough, he would stop the behavior... and he did. He did stop."
I scoffed, shaking my head while Jackson stepped back in realization.
"Oh. You did this. You covered this up."
definitely an interesting day..