Everett Ramos is a resident surgeon at Mercy West Hospital in Seattle, Washington. She's on the uphill climb to becoming one of the best orthopedic surgeons in the world, studying alongside her best friends and hoping one day to make a difference...
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CALLIE WANTS them to buy the hospital.
Everett isn't entirely sure where her friend got this crazy idea from, but she'd forced them to all come together to propose this grand scheme that since they're the ones who practically stole the money from the hospital's budget, they might as well do something worthwhile with it.
Outside, the storm rages on, as dramatic as the operatic section of a major movie, crashing cymbals, pounding drums, screeching violins, and the singers that get higher the longer they hold their note, whistling through the leaves on the trees like Mother Earth has destined all along. Inside, Zola snores quietly on Everett's lap, head tucked into her shoulder, thumb stuck between her teeth.
Lightning flashes across the sky just as Arizona gets back from laying Sofia down, allowing Callie to continue her rant about the doctors at Portland General and how Pegasus is a cancer spreading through the hospital system, tearing apart nerve endings and ruining their chances of survival.
"I am telling you," once Callie starts it's hard to stop her. Everett isn't even sure how she convinced them to gather here, starting on the helicopter landing pad at the hospital and now in Derek and Meredith's lovely new house, enjoying their comfortable sofa to go with the uncomfortable mood. "Once we got those doctors talking, it was a horror show!"
"Shh!" Arizona shushes her. "I just got Sofia back down." The two toddlers have not taken to the storm very well, constantly being woken by the rolling thunder and bright flashes of lightning.
"Oh, and Portland Gen has quotas now." Callie hands over the pamphlet she picked up from the hospital on the way out to Meredith, who's sitting beside Everett, drinking tea. Her lips turn down in a frown. "Yeah, it's unspoken but it's understood that you have to churn out a certain number of procedures."
Derek is standing by the fire licking up the sides of the fireplace. Everett's wet clothes are hanging in front of said fire, leaving the Fellow in sweatpants Derek would never be caught in and Meredith's Dartmouth sweatshirt. Derek reaches for the pamphlet in his wife's hands.
"And no research?"
"Nope. Pegasus is only interested in high-volume, high-price-tech procedures. Barely any patient interaction." Zola gurgles in her sleep, burrowing closer into Everett's body. She keeps her arms loosely around the body of the sleeping toddler, trying to make sense of what Callie is telling them. She wants them to buy the hospital. "So, no research, no innovation. No opportunity to do what it is we got into medicine to do."
