AN: This chapter takes place during "Cheat Day"…with a more climactic takedown of Salen involved with not just the surgical department. However, to be honest…I have no idea how that system really works and would have actually went if it was more climactic. I know about the education system and the childcare system since I'm a preschool teacher, but not so much about hospital boards and the whole pension thing since I found it confusing. I'll do my best. Enjoy :) In addition, the speeches given at the pension that are shown are just some snippets because I didn't want to write in repetitive full speeches.

Shaun and Lea decided to have Violet sleep in her nursery crib tonight (she did fuss a little bit when they put her down, but it was going to take a while for her to get familiar with it; the white noise machine did help) while Shaun sat upon their bed, typing on his laptop and researching new residency programs (hopefully) nearby to apply to. He also checked his email to discover a health notification from the director of Violet's daycare, informing all the parents that there had been four reported cases of pinkeye in the center.

Shaun and Lea were starting to transition her and get Violet, who had just discovered her hands and feet, familiar with her big crib. She was going to alternate between sleeping and/or napping in the pack 'n' play travel crib (which would then be used for traveling or as a playpen) and the nursery crib.

It was 15 minutes to midnight (and it had been almost four hours since Shaun quit his job) when he was interrupted by a soft knock on the open door, which turned out to be Lea, who had been sitting in the living room since they greeted each other once Shaun arrived home.

"Shaun?" Lea softly simpered as she walked in followed by Dr. Glassman. Shaun figured that she must have called him as soon as he came home and told her that he quit his job, which was a complete shock to Lea.

"Oh, hello, Dr. Glassman," greeted Shaun. "If you're here to talk about our argument…"

"I am, kind of, in a way," sighed Glassman, which then lead to a brief pause between everyone in the room.

"Working under Salen was making me into a bad doctor, so I quit," shrugged Shaun defeatedly. "I became a doctor to save people, not to impress people. I'm creating a spreadsheet of residency programs. I have 12 metrics. Also, four kids at Violet's daycare have been infected with conjunctivitis. So, we need to be aware if Violet starts getting any signs or symptoms."

"That's terrible," Lea trembled fearfully, knowing that small children weren't always the best at staying hygienic due to their habits of not keeping their fingers out of their nose, not keeping their hands out of their pants, or not keeping things out of their mouths. She hadn't checked her email just yet, but she knew that she got an email about that as well since it was set up that both Shaun and Lea receive emails from the daycare. "We'll be on the lookout."

Lea just looked at Glassman, non-verbally communicating to him that she was reminding him how this seemed easier said than done for him.

"Well, Shaun, that's a problem," cautioned Glassman.

"That four children at the daycare got conjunctivitis? Yes, that is concerning because one of them could have been in the infant classroom."

"No. Well, I mean, yes, that is concerning, but it's not what I was actually talking about," Glassman fumbled awkwardly as he went off-topic. "My point is that there aren't a lot of programs around that are going to take a resident at your level. And also…you're somewhat vulnerable because of the ASD."

Oh, shit, thought Shaun with a hangdog expression. At the moment he quit, he didn't fully consider the consequences of his choice. He also wasn't fully sure if Lea's job alone would be enough to provide for Violet and pay for rent, daycare, and everything. He also remembered how many residency programs he got rejected from before Glassman offered him to come work at St. Bonaventure. Shaun wondered if being autistic knocked him down to the bottom of the acceptance lists for those programs.

"I've already quit, but I'll be fine being a stay-at-home dad since that means more time with Violet," conferred Shaun with defeat, shutting his laptop and then scooting towards the edge of the bed, his legs hanging off the edge.

"We got a plan, Shaunie," Lea chimed in, sounding hopeful as she explained what was going to happen. "We are talking to an investigative reporter for a story on the damage that Salen has done to St. Bons. It'll put pressure on the Pension Fund that's financing the hospital takeover. The deal doesn't close for eight days. We still have time to stop it."

"Okay."

"However, we think you should apologize to Salen and…ask for your job back," suggested Lea. "I mean, if you want to be a stay-at-home dad, that's great, but I know you also love being a surgeon."

"Apologize," repeated Glassman. "Save your career."

Shaun sighed. "She will not say yes."

"Oh, she will say yes. You're on the poster. What's she going to do?" Glassman chuckled softly. "Drag you out of the hospital kicking and screaming? It'd be a PR disaster."

"I have nothing to apologize for, she does," defended Shaun.

"We agree, but if we pull this off, it is only for eight days," said Lea.

"But what if you don't?" Shaun wondered.

There was a pregnant pause as Lea wasn't sure how to respond since she had no idea what they would do if they didn't pull this off.

"If we don't, then we rethink," answered Glassman.

"I…will focus on the medicine," decided Shaun.

Glassman nodded and Lea kept her lips pursed.


Early the next morning after a night of being stupefied by the fact that Shaun quit his job, Marcus and Salen were sitting at the dining table of Marcus' home drinking some steaming hot yerba mate tea.

"We've got a morale problem at the hospital," he reminded her about once again. "Maybe it's just aftershocks from what happened with the baby, but I'm hearing a lot of complaints. Even the board is unhappy."

"Which is why I plan to replace them as soon as the deal closes," she said as she picked up her plain white mug to take a sip.

"Well, good doctors are a lot harder to replace than board members. And I'm very sad to see Shaun go," Marcus mourned as he poured himself more tea. "He was an asset to this hospital."

"Any employees we lose, we'll find others better aligned with Ethicure," solved Salen quickly.

"We've got a lot of great people at St. Bons, and I'd like to make an effort to keep them," pleaded Marcus. "Without them, it isn't the same."

"How is your morale?"

"I'm fine."

"I know yesterday was tough; the tracheal transplant. I hope you aren't doubting yourself," confided Salen. "Are you still on board?"

"Shaun warned me and I didn't listen," sighed Andrews as he took a sip of his tea.

"You took a risk, and your patient is better off for that."

Marcus nodded in a charlatan agreement.

"And now you and I are going to make this the most successful hospital in the Bay Area," exulted Salen with a smile.

Marcus was still on her side and siding with her, but the fact that a lot of the employees at St. Bons didn't like what was happening was slowly making him question everything. However, he wasn't switching or even choosing sides just yet.


Instead of simply not showing up the next day like everyone else expected since Salen had tweeted a "Farewell to Dr. Murphy" thread on the hospital's Twitter feed and then the word was spread, Shaun astonished almost everyone at the hospital when he showed up without warning.

"That's not how it works," Shaun rebutted in response to the patient saying he would give his liver back to his donor, turning around and then gasping in a panic as soon as he saw Salen giving him the death glare through the window.

Crap, he thought. She was really looking terrifying right now.

He apprehensively tried to walk past her and ignore her as he walked out of the patient's exam room and shut the door behind him.

"What are you doing here?" Salen prodded with suspicion.

"I work here," Shaun replied in a mousy manner, still walking away and trying to avoid Salen.

"That's not what I took away from our conversation last night," recounted Salen.

"Last night, I wanted to quit. Today, I don't," Shaun insisted.

"You need to leave," dragooned Salen, sounding scary. "Now."

Shaun turned around nervously yet with bravery. "No, I won't," he refused.

"It's not a suggestion. Bye-bye," Salen turned around and walked away.

"No," Shaun asserted firmly, which stopped Salen and even caught the attention of other people in the hallway. "I am on the poster. You will not drag me out of the hospital kicking and screaming. It would be a PR disaster, so I'm staying whether you like it or not." Shaun roasted Salen using Dr. Glassman's words. Coward, Shaun completed in his head, but not saying out loud.

Salen sighed in defeat.

"I have to go to work," gloated Shaun before he walked away.


"Grace's scans look normal. No placenta accreta or placenta previa," observed Claire, jotting down notes as she, Asher, and Jordan looked at the patient's, a pregnant surrogate, scans in the residents' lounge.

"Okay," agreed Asher, who was sitting in an armchair with Jordan in a chair next to him.

"I love what she's doing," relished Jordan. "Carrying a child for a woman who can't."

"I'd love it more if Grace wasn't getting paid for it," condemned Asher.

Jordan turned her head and looked at him with shock and slight disgust while Claire just turned around and stared at Asher with confusion.

"She created five families. Do you really have a problem with that?" Jordan questioned.

"It's not just me. Commercial surrogacy is illegal pretty much everywhere but here," he objected. "It's exploitative."

"How is it exploitative?" Claire asked.

"Funny how everyone gets really concerned about exploitation when it's women's bodies. Meanwhile, football players give themselves brain damage every Sunday, and it's glorified," countered Jordan.

"Also, what about commercial sperm banks? Any concerns about those?" Claire rebutted. "I actually think it's messed up how much it can cost for someone to just make a baby in this country when just raising a kid here is already expensive. Society expects women to have babies but they also make it super expensive to raise children while also making it too expensive for some people to even get pregnant."

"Um, point taken," sighed Asher. "But why would someone risk pregnancy or even go through a high-risk pregnancy just for someone else's baby?"

"I definitely see your point on that, but if it was her choice to go through it and wasn't coerced, then I don't see a problem with that," shrugged Jordan playfully. "She's not being forced to do it and this wasn't against her own will. And just to be curious, if you ever decide to have a kid, how will you do it? Are you going to 'just adopt'?" She asked inquisitively while air-quoting.

As a gay man, Asher was socially infertile, meaning that even if his plumbing might have worked just fine, he couldn't have kids the traditional, expected way…which was via the heteronormative version of sex. Queer or even single people who wanted children but had no desire for a relationship couldn't procreate for free. Some agencies even barred them from adoption.

"Maybe, but it's not guaranteed and because of the long waiting period of like seven years and the whole background check stress and all the heartbreak I could face when I'm not chosen, I don't think I could put myself through that," he answered honestly as he rubbed his temples. "Also, I haven't really decided if I want any children just yet or even if I don't want any."

"But if you decided that you did want children, how would you do it?" Claire queried. "Because isn't surrogacy one of the few options for gay men?"

Asher sighed. "I don't know. I could find someone on Modamily or CoParents who also wants a kid so badly and decide to just co-parent with them after giving them my sperm sample or maybe my partner's for an IUI," he hypothesized. "Maybe if I also have a partner and I'd be fine with a three-parent co-parent system. Because doesn't it take a village to raise a child?"

"Wow, it sounds like you've got it all figured out," chuckled Claire. "And yes, it does take a village to raise a child."

"Wait, is that something people actually do? Just find a parenting partner without even forming a romantic relationship?" Jordan was marveled and surprised by what she had learned, letting out an amused chuckle.

"Yes, people have actually done that. Look it up," confirmed Asher. "But, I'm not going to worry about that right now because I'm nowhere near making that kind of decision just yet."

"Fair enough. But do you think that it's unfair how some LGBT couples and even some straight ones already have to pay a lot of money to have just one child if they want one…no matter if it's a biological child or a child to adopt?" Jordan wondered.

"Yes, I really do…and I also think it's unfair that many states still prohibit LGBT couples from adopting," added Asher before deciding to change the subject from babies to Ethicure. "You know, it's not too late to change your mind about this Salen and Ethicure stuff. You should join us."

"Speaking of telling other people what they can and can't do…" Jordan sighed.

"You don't have to," reassured Claire.

Asher rolled his eyes and shook his head in disbelief as Jordan and Claire got back to concentrating on the patient's scan, with Claire noticing something abnormal.

"Um, look at this," she said.


Dr. Lim, Dr. Park, Dr. Glassman, Asher, Claire, Lea, Nurse Martel, and Nurse Villanueva were in the break room having a Zoom meeting with more than 100 other St. Bonaventure employees - doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists, techs - as they all munched on pizza and discussed their strategies in taking Salen down.

"I've had to send children to community transition care units because of how she's minimized pediatric beds," Dr. John Colson, the head of the pediatric department, groused.

"Seriously, that's his testimony?" Glassman tested.

"It's the start of his testimony," confirmed Lim.

"The plan being to bore them into submission?" Glassman questioned.

"My plan is to let them know exactly what she has done and how it's impacted the greater community," explained Lim. "And so far, I think we're getting some good stuff."

Nurse Villanueva, Lea, and Claire smiled back at Audrey. And it was true. There was so much juicy yet appalling information related to Ethicure policies Audrey had gathered from people throughout almost every single department. There was so much crucial information that could be used against Salen.

It wasn't just the pediatric department that was dealing with a bed shortage. Neonatologists and NICU nurses also were venting about bed and equipment shortages.

Many of St. Bons' OB/GYNs and L nurses spoke out that the c-section rate and even the use of forceps/vacuum deliveries at St. Bonaventure had alarmingly spiked rapidly since Ethicure's takeover because Salen had installed a maximum 30-hour labor policy.

Many of the hospital's custodians, cooks, orderlies, security guards, and maintenance people had many complaints about their salaries being cut massively to where it wasn't enough to pay their rent or provide for their families.

More than three-quarters of the nurses at St. Bonaventure reported feeling overwhelmed due to so many surprise overtime shifts along with nurse shortages in almost every ward, and Salen was refusing to have additional nurses hired. In addition, the nurses also experienced cuts to their salaries.

Others from the pharmacy department reported many instances of expired medications they were instructed not to toss out.

"Infant fatality. That's our plan. Let's stick to that," insisted Glassman.

"We can't prove that. But what we do have are doctors, nurses, and stories of systemic neglect," reassured Audrey.

Right on cue, Salen suddenly waltzed in spontaneously and fashionably.

"Smart play. That's what I would do," she crowed, sounding annoyingly cheerful.

Audrey sighed in aggravation. God, damn it. How is she able to know about everything? She wondered.

"I'm sorry but we're going to have to mute ourselves for a while," she divulged to the entire chat as she muted herself, hoping this intrusion from the leach would be quick. "Yeah? What play is that?"

"Getting that investigative reporter to write a takedown piece about me and using that to pressure the Pension Fund," answered Salen.

Everyone in the room shot Salen the death glare.

"Dr. Wolke, Dr. Park, Dr. Browne, it's time for you three residents to get back to work. Nurse Villanueva, same for you," demanded Salen.

"I'm not leaving," Alex protested.

"Neither am I," chimed in Nurse Villanueva.

"Me too," agreed Claire.

"Me three," added Asher.

"Gutsy, coming from a second-year who already killed a patient," simpered Salen as she intrusively got herself a plate, continuing to intrude into this conversation.

Asher and Glassman's eyes drifted uncomfortably and awkwardly toward Salen.

"And you really ought to take lessons from your girlfriend, Alex," she said to Park. "She knows how to play the game. Same with you, Claire."

Park and Claire just frowned at Salen.

"Dalisay, you need to realize that nurses don't work for the pay. They do it for the patients," she chorused condescendingly.

Nurse Villanueva just scoffed.

"Audrey, Lea, Aaron, and Jerome, I'm so sorry. But I have to terminate your employment immediately," declared Salen. "And I'm also going to have to later say the same things to Patrice, Kirsten, Veronica, Sam, Greg, Jennifer, Cynthia, and Roberta."

Audrey didn't need to guess, and she already knew that Salen was referring to Dr. Gromski, Nurse Baxter, Dr. Nguyen, Dr. Eshagian, Dr. Gulino, Nurse Chen, Dr. Kohler, and Nurse Ocampo. Not only had they joined Audrey in her rebellion, but they were also in the chat right now. They were all muted, but they were going to find out about this eventually.

This also led Audrey to decide to adjourn the meeting instantly without any explanation.

"Go," commanded Glassman to Asher, Nurse Villanueva, Claire, and Park, and then the four medical professionals got up and left the room.

"That's your plan? Make us look like disgruntled former employees? You think that's going to stop us from going public?" Audrey provoked.

"No, of course not. But…I think this research will," smirked Salen as she pulled out some files of written evidence and gave each of them direct eye contact as she explained her reason for firing them. "Aaron, despite your generous salary, you were a no-show for months. Making wine in your garage and vacationing in Montana. All after years of intervening to excuse your protégé Dr. Murphy's erratic behavior. Audrey, you hired your boyfriend. That is classic nepotism in a nutshell."

Audrey sighed in annoyance.

"Lea, you secretly changed hospital metrics to help your fiancé. What a nice example to set for your daughter. Such a good mother you are," Salen said with patronizing sarcasm.

Nurse Martel glared at Lea with shock as she slumped down further into her chair shamefully.

"Jerome, you violated protocol when you went behind everyone's back - the team and the patient's family - and gave a blood transfusion to a minor without parental consent. You knew he was a Jehovah's witness."

"His parents were Jehovah's witnesses and he was 17-years-old. His friend said that he was rebelling against his parents," Nurse Martel defended. "It's ridiculous. The age of consent should maybe be lowered just a little bit. A 16-year-old and an 18-year-old are pretty much the same places developmentally. It's not like someone automatically becomes rational and wise once they turn 18. He was running out of time and I didn't have time to go through all that legal stuff."

"That's still a violation. Right now, you've only lost your jobs. Go public, and I release all of this," threatened Salen, gesturing to the files displayed.

The four of them looked at Salen. How could you! They all thought. Lea was wondering if Shaun would still have his job because if they both were jobless, then how would they provide for their daughter?

"Cheat day," she resounded, proudly holding up a pizza and taking a bite before strolling out happily with a face of evil.


Once the word got out that Salen had just fired 12 employees and threatened them further, Dr. Andrews immediately marched over to find Salen and confront her about it.

Dr. Glassman was fired for being absent and protecting Shaun. Dr. Lim was fired for hiring Mateo. Lea was fired for interfering with Shaun's scores. And it wasn't just them.

Dr. Patrice Gromski, an OB attending, was fired for not performing unnecessary c-sections or interventions Salen had insisted the department do when low-risk patients were laboring past the 30-hour labor policy.

Kirsten Baxter, a NICU nurse, was fired for ditching work because she needed a lot of mental health breaks related to the harm Ethicure was doing to babies in the NICU as a mother-to-be. Dr. Veronica Nguyen, a neonatal attending, was fired for covering for Nurse Baxter's "unexcused absences" and allowing her to do it.

Dr. Sam Eshagian, the head of oncology, was fired for publicly writing a long, brutal diatribe about Ethicure and Salen on St. Bonaventure's Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages.

Dr. Greg Gulino, a psychiatric resident, was fired for going behind the department's back and writing a prescription for an uninsured patient, whom Salen refused to allow him his needed medication because his insurance didn't cover it.

Dr. Cynthia Kohler, a pediatric attending, and Jennifer Chen, a PICU nurse, were fired for defying Salen and not following Ethicure protocol by siding with Shaun and Lea's threats of getting her sued for pushing for a still-sick Violet Murphy to get discharged when she was just extubated...along with a few subsequent patients.

Roberta Ocampo, an ER nurse, was fired for muttering "Fuck you" under her breath when she didn't realize that Salen was listening.

Jerome Martel, an ER nurse, was fired for secretly giving a blood transfusion to a minor whose parents were Jehovah's witnesses.

"You're threatening to ruin their careers? 12 employees!" Marcus raged, storming into the room. "These are good doctors and good nurses and good employees."

"Who have decided to try to interfere with my company. You can't expect me to just accept that," objected Salen.

"Many of the people you just fired have children that they need to provide for," confronted Marcus.

"Jerome, Audrey, and Aaron don't have children they need to provide for and Sam, Patrice, and Cynthia's children are adults now," rebutted Salen. "They can provide for themselves."

"But Cynthia now has two ailing elderly parents she is caring for and Sam's kids are 19 and 21 and still rely on him and their mother for financial support. Lea has a baby and so does Greg. Veronica is a single mother. Roberta is widowed with three children all under the age of ten. Jennifer has a teenager with cystic fibrosis who has also been a patient here before. And in case you didn't remember, Kirsten is seven months pregnant. I've backed you at every step because I believe a great hospital could be profitable, too. But blackmail is unacceptable," reasoned Marcus.

"And many of these people have a partner that is still providing for their kids. But too bad for Veronica and Roberta. Anyway, think big picture. We just lost the president of the hospital," cajoled Salen. "And these employees' sob stories don't justify their wrongs."

"Yeah, you're running this place."

"Short term. The future is wide open for both of us."

Marcus still wasn't convinced as he was appalled by what his girlfriend had just done. However, it would feel nice to be chief of surgery again for a while.


When it came to the plan, five people - Nurse Hawks, JL, Dr. Colson, Nurse Dhanoa, and Nurse Baxter - had dropped out of the rebellion. The reporter was still on board and they still had a good story. Dr. Lim decided that they were going to invite the reporter to the actual pension fund meeting to denounce Salen in front of the investors.

It made sense for some people to drop out, especially Nurse Baxter as she was about to have her baby and had already been through too much, but Salen's threats didn't stop the other allies who had joined Dr. Lim…even if it would hurt their careers or even cost them their jobs that they worked for to provide for their families and support themselves.

Although, Lea was still conflicted about being involved in this given that she had a baby and wasn't sure if Shaun getting to keep his job was guaranteed and also the fact that she just got fired. Other people who joined the rebellion felt conflicted as well (especially if they had just been fired), but still decided to join and try to take Salen down.

After being told to go back to work after being told by Salen to be more like his girlfriend, Alex approached Morgan down the hall to inform her about how many employees were just fired. "So…" he began.

"I heard. You're lucky to still have a job," she sighed.

"Well, I'm not sure if it's just luck or you," probed Alex. "Salen suggested I learn to play the game like you do."

"She's right," affirmed Morgan.

"I didn't realize being a doctor was a game."

"Why are you obsessing about this?"

There was a brief, long silence.

"We have a meeting," concluded Morgan before she walked away, which then made Alex suspicious. He knew Morgan very well, and the words "game" that correlated with Salen and Ethicure could mean that Morgan did something a bit manipulative.


It was nighttime when Jordan, Claire, and Asher were still trying to figure out a treatment plan that would save both Grace and her baby. With Dr. Lim no longer an employee at this hospital, Dr. Rendón (whom Asher had also failed to convince to join yet Dr. Lim kept begging him to respect his wishes) had taken over as the attending for this case.

"We could try Ifosfamide," suggested Jordan, scrolling through her laptop for answers.

"Dr. Lim, Claire, and the others are speaking out at the annual Pension Fund meeting in two days," solicited Asher in an attempt to get Rendón and Jordan to join the rebellion.

"Not now, Asher. Can we focus?" Claire grumbled, hoping that he would drop this. Of course, she wished that Mateo and Jordan would join, but she still respected their choices. She could understand why some people were hesitant to participate. For instance, Nurse Rivera told Claire that she was a Dreamer protected under DACA, so it made sense that she didn't want to participate for her own safety despite wishing she could. In addition, she was afraid of the threats Salen could make.

"Please help us find a chemo regimen for Grace," begged Mateo. "And for the last time, I can't do it. Anyway, pass on the Ifosfamide. It can cause preterm labor."

"We could go with Adriamycin," proposed Asher. "And I'm going to speak out with them."

"That's going to blow up your whole career," warned Jordan.

"Blow up your whole life," added Mateo.

Claire just ignored what Jordan and Mateo had said.

"It wouldn't be the first time. I was caught trying to slip antibiotics into a patient's IV when she had a DNR," Asher imparted. "Shaun caught me before I succeeded and told me to just let her die, so we did."

"Well, good," said Mateo, raising his eyebrow, shocked that Asher would commit such a violation while also relieved that he was stopped from doing it. "It's not worth it to lose your career over violating a DNR."

"Please come with us. Jordan, you're great at sales. Dr. Rendón, you joining us would be really great," beseeched Asher. "Help us persuade the Pension Fund. Sometimes you got to stand up for what's right."

"Easy to say when you have no arrest record," sneered Mateo.

Jordan nodded in agreement.

"Um, whatever you guys say," shrugged Claire.

"Oh, come on! What happened to you, Dr. Rendón?" Asher scoffed. "When you first started working here, you weren't afraid to stand up to Salen or Andrews even when you already had an arrest record and even after that warrant got dropped. And now you are? Is this a good way to support your girlfriend?"

"Asher, Salen just fired 12 people with no mercy. I can't risk it. What Dr. Rendón does and does not stand up for is my choice and his choice," vindicated Jordan. "And our friends should respect us for that."

"Asher, let it go," sighed Claire calmly. "Let's focus on the patient."

Mateo sighed as he thought about everything, wondering deep down inside if standing up to Salen would be good after all. Should he just continue to try and survive? Or should he fight back and try to defeat Salen. "Let's get back to work and come up with something," he agreed with Claire. "I'll think about this later."

Unfortunately, they couldn't waste any more time thinking about anything to do for Grace because their pagers immediately started chiming in harmony.

"Grace is crashing," announced Claire.

They all got up to rush out and tend to their patient.


Back at Shaun and Lea's apartment after they had a dinner of takeout Indian food (because they were both too tired and upset to cook dinner tonight), the couple was sitting on their living room floor with Violet, who was positioned on her back on the safari-themed cotton muslin playmat, grasping for the crinkle and rattle toys dangling from the birch wooden arches of her activity gym.

It had been a rough day. For instance, Ryan, Shaun's patient, who had received a donor liver from his best friend six months ago, had a seizure, neck pain, and a rash. What made this even sadder was that Ryan had a little girl who wasn't that much older than Violet. It was hard for Shaun to imagine Hazel (the name of Ryan's daughter) growing up without her loving father.

However, nothing made this day much worse than Salen firing Lea, Dr. Lim, Dr. Glassman, Nurse Martel, and eight other people as a grudge against being rebelled against. Some of the others included were the neonatologist who helped deliver Violet, the NICU nurse that cared for Violet during her short time in the NICU, and also the pediatrician and one of the PICU nurses that helped treat Violet's pneumonia and bacteremia. Nurse Chen was Shaun and Lea's favorite nurse during that scary time.

"I can't believe Salen actually fired me," grumbled Lea tearfully as she let Violet pull on her fingers with her tiny fists. "I mean, yes…what I did with your scores was wrong and I should definitely be punished for that, but…now both of our careers are on the line. We have a child that depends on us. Salen could hurt me in tech and she could hurt you in surgery. Am I making a wise decision by rebelling against her?"

Shaun didn't know what to say about that as he was still debating whether or not he should get involved in the rebellion and put his job at risk when Lea already lost hers when they had a child they needed to provide for. "We'll figure it out," he said nervously, the palms of his hands resting on his knees as he looked at Violet. "What do you think I should do? Park said that whatever happens, he knows I'm on your side. Should I get involved?"

Lea looked away from a gurgling Violet and then looked back at Shaun. "I guess don't get involved so at least one of us still has a job for now," she recommended, sighing. "Someone still needs to provide for Violet. Or maybe get involved if you want since Salen's policies could have killed our daughter, but I think it's better if you didn't. I don't want to tell you what to do or micro-manage you, but…"

"What are we going to do if we both lose our jobs?" Shaun trembled with the important question. "We can't afford for both of us to be stay-at-home parents."

There was a brief silence to where the only person making noise was Violet with a soft little coo. Shaun and Lea continued to glare at their daughter, who was pretty much the main reason why they were debating whether it was safe for both of them to get involved with Dr. Lim and Claire's rebellion. If both of them were going to get involved, then it was a good idea to create a bunch of back-up plans.

Lea sighed. "Well, I guess we'll have to move in with my parents or with Donnie until we get back on our feet if we both lose our jobs along with everyone else. That unfortunately means moving to a different state. I don't like it, but…if everyone else has their careers ruined, who else are we going to stay with if they also struggle financially? Are you still going to get involved? It's your choice."

After hearing Lea's safe plan along with putting more thought into it, Shaun finally made his decision. "No," he decided.

"Okay," nodded Lea, reaching out her hand to clasp Shaun's. "I'm just so scared."

"Me, too," agreed Shaun, which was then followed by some fussing noises from Violet. "We should get her ready for bed. It's 6:02."


That night, Mateo, Claire, and Ravi had joined Audrey at the karaoke bar, where they pity-drank tequila and IPAs in response to Audrey losing her job.

When it came to Mateo and Claire's patient, Grace, she had a uterine vessel rupture, which had now further complicated the course of her treatment plan. The tumor was more aggressive than they thought. Therefore, they possibly couldn't save both Grace and Amanda's (the person Grace was being a surrogate for) baby. In addition, Claire and Mateo were also pity-drinking to that.

"A pity toast," puled Audrey, her voice breaking as she raised her glass of a bronze IPA. "To me."

"And to us as well, for what's going to happen to our patient," sighed Mateo sorrowfully. "Cheers. Well, actually...jeers. You know what, let's say 'jeers' instead."

"Jeers," the four of them chanted and chuckled in unison as they clinked their glasses together and then chugged down their drinks in silence, listening to nothing but other patrons' conversations or whatever song other patrons were singing along to. Right now, the guy singing karaoke was obviously hammered and off-key singing along to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", right at the "Scaramouch" and "Galileo" part with an overly high-pitched voice; probably much higher than Freddie Mercury or Brian May (or whoever sang those parts of the lyrics in the original recording, they had no idea) ever sang on the "let me go" part.

As soon as the tipsy guy finished the song and then everybody applauded, the silence between the four friends was finally broken.

"I'm in," declared Mateo with his final decision, changing his mind. "I'm joining the revolt."

The other three looked at Mateo with shock and bewilderment.

"What? Are you serious? Are you sure?" Audrey asked with concern, aware that the reasons some people at the hospital didn't want to join was for their own financial safety, reputation, job security, immigration status, criminal record, or lack of certain privileges. "You said that you wanted to stay out of trouble."

"Yes, I'm sure," decided Mateo straightforwardly, looking Audrey directly into her brown eyes before reciting an infamous quote. "The world won't get destroyed by those who do evil. It will get destroyed by those who sit by and do nothing. You're going to need more help."

"But, you could lose your job. And it might be hard for you as someone with an arrest record to find a new job," warned Claire candidly, who was leaning into Ravi.

"I know, and I'm terrified of that. And if we lose, we'll all be hurting our careers together," enunciated Mateo. "Audrey, you helped me start a new life here in California and give me the courage to face the legal system about my arrest, and now it's my turn to help you make things right."

"But what are you going to do if you lose your job, Teo?" Audrey asked, putting down her drink and taking his hand into her own.

"I guess I'll try to apply somewhere else and if that's impossible…maybe leave the country again and go back to Guatemala or try moving to a more utopian-like country like Norway or Sweden and get a job there. I don't know. But I'm willing to at least try and take this tyrant down," he determined with slight confidence. "I'm scared, but...I won't just sit by."

"What inspired you to change your mind?" Ravi asked curiously.

"Asher. He reminded me how much I had changed since Salen came along," replied Mateo. "I want to at least try to stand up for what is right instead of miserably live through this Ethicure tyranny. My job as a doctor is to help people and let them live their lives, not to satisfy CEOs that want to make money and have me act as their pawn."

Audrey smiled with satisfaction as she pecked her boyfriend on the lips, glad that Mateo was finally joining her and Claire yet also worried about the cost for him and also for her and the other employees. "That's what I'm talking about. Let's kick some Ethicure ass at that Pension Fund."

"Yeah. Let's toast," proclaimed Claire, raising her glass once again. "To Ethicure, because Ethicure sucks!"

"Ethicure sucks!" They all repeated with laughter as they toasted.


The next day, Shaun, Morgan, Park, and Andrews were in his office discussing Ryan's possible diagnosis along with some possible treatment options. Shaun suggested an autoimmune disorder, which Andrews thought made perfect sense since his ESR also happened to be elevated. However, it was hard for Shaun to concentrate on the patient right now because of the three-way feud going on between Alex, Morgan, and Andrews about Salen and Ethicure.

Apparently, Alex was pissed off because Morgan had done something unethical with this patient named Nira and it was causing fierce tension between them.

"ESR is a nonspecific inflammatory marker," contradicted Alex about the case, standing up and giving Andrews a dirty look. "Wouldn't matter if it was through the roof."

"Dr. Park, are you taking offense at the diagnosis?" Andrews questioned.

"Salen fired 12 people, including some of our friends," fumed Alex.

"I didn't know about that in advance and I didn't support it," defended Andrews, standing up.

"And do you support it now?"

"It doesn't matter what he supports. He's not the CEO," huffed Morgan.

"No, he's just her bagman and her puppet," chided Alex. "We're all her pawns."

Shaun just sat there, awkwardly trapped in the middle of everything. He believed very well that Andrews' relationship with Salen was threatening his objectivity and Shaun definitely disapproved of every single thing Salen did, but he couldn't think of what to say to all of them about this whole thing regarding this Nira woman, something Shaun had no knowledge about.

"Salen came into this hospital because it was going bankrupt," justified Andrews. "It could have become condos."

"And now it's become Salen's ATM machine and a lot of patients have reported being dissatisfied with their care because of the policies that forced some to be discharged when they weren't ready. Ever since that baby died, Nurse Baxter decided that she's not giving birth here at St. Bons and some employees said they don't even want their own loved ones as patients here, at the hospital they work at. Did you know that Nurse Chen is looking for a new doctor and a different hospital for her son to receive care at? I don't blame them. I myself wouldn't want Kellan being a patient here even if it's from complications from an asthma attack because of all the damage Ethicure has done," Alex denounced. "You call all of those improvements?"

"You have been against her from the moment she came in," Morgan rolled her eyes, referring to Salen. Sometimes, Shaun couldn't understand why Morgan felt the need to defend Salen or even impress her. She had definitely lost some of her morality since Salen came into the picture. And Alex was definitely right about the fact that many of St. Bonaventure's employees hoped their loved ones would never be treated here because Shaun himself didn't want Violet or Lea to be patients here...and Lea didn't either. With Salen's inhumane policies and how they have affected some patients, there was no way Violet was ever coming here again as a patient, especially after Salen almost had her discharged when she was in no condition to be. Claire, whose father was now cancer-free, agreed that she wouldn't want him as a patient here.

Alex scoffed. "Just proven right."

"You're not facing reality," barked Morgan. "The takeover is happening. Someone has got to keep the hospital running."

"You think you're being realistic? You're being complicit!"

"We should start Ryan on corticosteroids for the autoimmune…" Shaun suggested, desperate to get back to the topic of the patient.

"Don't you see how being her apologist is corrupting you?" Alex tried to reason with Andrews.

"Dr. Park…" Andrews scolded, giving him a "don't start with me" look.

"You took a woman's vision away to get your hands on the clinic!" Alex harangued Morgan as he turned towards her, pointing his finger.

"Not. Fair," she huffed.

"And you still stand by her after she kills a child. You know her policies also might have killed Violet if Shaun and Lea didn't threaten to sue?"

The fight continued on as if Shaun wasn't here, and Shaun was already getting distressed by listening to it.

"Be quiet!" He yelled, which caused everyone in the room to finally shut up and get back to the topic of the patient.

"Dr. Park, do you have an alternative diagnosis?" Andrews asked seriously and angry, trying to hold it in and not lose his cool.

"No," exhaled Alex.

"Okay, then. Start Ryan on corticosteroids," decided Andrews, and then everyone in the room started to get up and leave in silence.

"That's it. I'm done," settled Alex, throwing his arms up.

Everyone stopped walking and then turned around to look at Park.

"I'll finish up with my patients and then submit my resignation. Take this job and shove it up your ass," he snarled, and he stomped out of Andrews' office, which left Andrews and Morgan speechless.

At the same time, Shaun received a text from Lea who was at home with Violet as she saw no point in taking her to daycare today.

LEA: Meet me and Vi at Charlotte's Cafe for lunch please. I heard some great things about this place.

Shaun immediately texted back, thinking that maybe his joining the rebellion would make things better. He couldn't be a coward and just sit back and helplessly watch everything.

SHAUN: Okay.


"So, how has work been today so far?" Lea asked as she and Shaun waited for her food to arrive. As promised, Shaun met up with her and Violet (who was lounging in her carseat, which was propped up on a chair between her parents, as she sucked on her pacifier) downtown at Charlotte's cafe, which seemed like a nice place. It was pretty fancy for a simple cafe; lamps on the tables, pictures displayed across the wall. Lea ordered a salad and a sandwich while Shaun ordered nothing as he was in no mood for food right now.

"Park is leaving and so is Nurse Villanueva," shared Shaun solemnly, not hiding his disappointment over his colleagues quitting. He learned about Nurse Villanueva's decision when she walked into Andrews' office and right when he, Park, and Morgan walked out and Shaun received Lea's text, Villanueva declared her two weeks notice of resignation as she said she couldn't take Salen's bullshit anymore.

"What? Why?" Lea inquired, guessing that it was probably the same reason Shaun wanted to quit.

"Park can't handle working here anymore when the hospital is an ATM machine and Villanueva can't take anymore of this bullshit," Shaun sadly recited the words his co-workers used when he explained their reasons for wanting to leave St. Bonaventure.

"Oh," she sighed, shooting a quick glance at Violet and giving her foot a quick squeeze. She also needed to find another job because she doubted that Shaun would be able to support Violet financially all by himself, even with a surgeon's salary. "But...you know, if I get a job here downtown, this would be a good place to meet for lunch. They have great French pancakes. They're kind of eggy, but…"

"I should join you," decided Shaun immediately after putting a lot of thought into it since Alex and Dalisay announced their soon-to-be resignations.

"Of course, that would be great," nodded Lea. "Because I'm sure going to miss having lunch together in the hospital cafeteria. I already do."

"I'm talking about the rebellion," corrected Shaun.

Lea sighed, wondering if Shaun should risk his professional future. "Are you sure?"

"Lea, I'm the poster boy. It made Salen take me back. It could make the difference," implored Shaun as he watched Violet clutch onto Sophie la Girafe, a teething toy that was a gift from Dr. Andrews. Also in the diaper backpack was Dr. Ted, the gift from Dr. Glassman.

"It'll make a difference, sure, but…"

"That's good enough."

"Shaun, I've thought a lot about it. You are so close to finishing your residency," reasoned Lea. "One more year and you can go wherever you want. Are you sure?"

From her carseat, Violet let out a soft fuss as the pacifier slipped out of her mouth and rolled down her chest. Lea quickly picked it up and put it back in, which made Violet straightaway calm again for her parents to continue their conversation.

"Dr. Glassman, Park, Lim, Claire, and Nurse Villanueva. They've stood up for me so many times from the very beginning," confided Shaun. "Dr. Nguyen helped deliver Violet and took care of her when she needed to be monitored in the NICU for a bit. Dr. Kohler and Nurse Chen helped save Violet's life and helped us stop Salen from discharging her when she was still sick. Nurse Baxter was very kind to us when Violet had to be monitored in the NICU. You've also stood up for me so many times."

Lea smiled happily as she listened to Shaun's speech that spoke positively about her and the other people at the hospital.

"Now I want to stand up for all of you and help you, too," he finished with a sigh of relief. He was really determined right now.

Lea nodded with a grin. "Okay. I believe in you."

Shaun wasn't just doing this for his friends and his fianceé, but also for the other employees at St. Bonaventure as well. Some of them helped bring Violet into the world and some also helped save Violet's life when she was sick. He didn't want to just sit back and watch and not stand up for his friends and colleagues in return when they also needed it.


There was a long silence between Jordan and Asher as they sat in the resident's lounge as both of them were still tense with each other about Jordan's reluctance to join the revolt against Ethicure, especially now that Dr. Rendón has changed his mind and joined. Claire was waiting outside on her phone as she was dealing with some stuff related to Ethicure.

"Okay, can you make fun of my beard or eye bags or my manscaping habits or anything?" Asher badgered, trying to break the awkward silence. "I hate this."

"How many times did I say I didn't want to get involved with this Salen stuff? But you still kept pushing," she seethed.

"Yes, I wanted you on my side," begged Asher. "Dr. Rendón is now on my side. Why are you being such a coward?"

"You act like I'm scared of a fight."

Asher just continued to stare at Jordan, confused by what she had just said as he didn't think she was scared of a fight at all.

"I'm a Black woman in one of the top surgical residencies in the country. Do you know how hard I had to fight to be here? I don't have the same luxury as you do. And yes, I know you're gay and Jewish and I'm sure you experienced anti-Semitism and homophobia before, but…" Jordan hesitated to finish after she wondered if those words might have come out the wrong way, especially with the "are Jews considered white" debate. "I'm sorry, it's probably not appropriate to compare persecution and oppression histories because I know anti-semitism is probably a form of racism…but still, you're a man and you're light-skinned. You don't experience colorism and you don't experience racism the same way I do. And before you say this, yes, Claire is also Black, Mateo is Latino, Dr. Park, Lim, and Nurse Villanueva are Asian, and other people who are participating are people of color, but I still don't want to risk it. Some people are just trying to survive. I'm not scared. I'm exhausted because I still find myself code-switching."

"I never thought of it that way," sighed Asher with guilt. "I'm sorry."

Sure, Asher was gay and Jewish, but he still had light-skinned privilege. Even as an ex-Jew estranged from his family, he still didn't just toss aside and deny his knowledge of everything his ancestors have gone through and that they were still an oppressed group. Whenever people would say that "Jews are white-privileged" or something similar, he just felt like he had to remind them that many white supremacy groups are also anti-Semitic. It was true that he and other Ashkenazi Jews might have looked white and had some experience with having functional white privilege, they didn't technically have full "white privilege" when it came to their ethnic and religious identities, especially since their ancestors have long histories of being persecuted and oppressed plus the fact that definitions of the social construct known as "whiteness" changed and morphed over time considering that Italians and even the Irish were once considered "not white" and how some Middle Eastern ethnic groups were starting to be defined by the census as "white" despite their protests. It was so complicated.

He grew up in Brooklyn, which had a lot of Jewish neighborhoods and communities, but he still witnessed anti-Semitism. One of his high school classmates, who was also Jewish, had a giant swastika spray-painted on his car in the school parking lot along with an anti-Semitic slur. Also, his first college roommate was a Holocaust denier. He knew that because he saw him unpack books by David Irving and he could hear him talking about it, which made Asher absolutely offended and uncomfortable. Although he left his family and was no longer religious, he still didn't feel safe around him. So, he asked his RA if he could have a different roommate.

But despite all that sociological stuff, Jordan was right that he didn't experience oppression the same way black people did. For instance, he never worried about being racially profiled while out in public.

"Thank you," Jordan smiled softly before pausing. "And I think I know who Grace is fighting for."

"What do you mean?" Asher question inquisitively. In fact, he still couldn't figure out why Grace was still willing to put her own life on the line for someone else's baby. Compared to pregnant patients who were willing to risk their lives for their own babies that they were going to raise, he didn't question that at all, and that never made him scratch his head. But since Grace was a surrogate, he couldn't wrap his head around it. "We don't even know her."

"She said she didn't have any children of her own," elucidated Jordan.

It took a while, but now Asher was finally following what Jordan was trying to say. "But you had to have given birth before you became a surrogate."

"Yeah," nodded Jordan.


As soon as Jordan and Asher shared their theory with Claire and Mateo, the four of them conducted some research on Grace and then found out that she had a son. They discovered a news report from 2008 about a young mother in Oakland whose three-year-old got hit by a car because she was distracted. In fact, the mother's name was Grace Cooper...and she was 19-years-old at the time. Today, that mother would have been 33-years-old, the exact age that the patient named Grace Cooper is now, who mentioned she was from Oakland. Also, according to Grace's medical records, it was true that she did have five pregnancies in all, but her first one was documented to have happened in 2005, which likely would have been the year that the child from the news report would have been born. In addition, Grace's second pregnancy didn't happen until 2014, which was a large gap compared to the two to three year gaps of the rest of her subsequent conceptions that would later occur in 2017, 2019, and then 2021 (the year the conception of her current pregnancy occurred).

It all added up. The patient Grace Cooper and the Grace Cooper from the archived news report had to be the same person.

Claire decided to talk to Grace about it alone in hopes to talk some sense into her. Claire considered herself pro-choice and believed that Grace had a right to her own body (whether to terminate a pregnancy or keep/continue one or get pregnant), but the fact that Grace was doing this to fulfill someone else's happiness and putting her life at risk (without even thinking about her own well-being) made Claire think that a little bit of counseling was necessary. She wasn't thinking about herself at all, which was something she really needed to do considering that Amanda, the woman Grace was doing this for, was begging for Grace to not put her life at risk just to make her happy...and Amanda wanted a baby so bad.

"I know what happened to Willem," sympathized Claire as she walked into Grace's room. The patient's face displayed an expression of disturbance, distress, and shock as soon as the doctor mentioned that name. "It wasn't your fault."

"What kind of a mother loses track of her baby at a playground?" Grace sniffed, guiltily staring straight at her feet and avoiding eye contact with Claire. "I know, a bad mother."

"A 19-year-old who is overwhelmed," accurated Claire empathetically.

"I wasn't overwhelmed," sighed Grace. "I wasn't paying attention. I was arguing on the phone with my boyfriend. And I turned…I turned my back. The crash was so loud. So now…I give babies to people who actually deserve them."

"Killing yourself…won't bring Willem back," rationalized Claire.

"But it will let another baby live," rebutted Grace.

"You have value as your own person, not just in the children you carry," Claire continued to reason with her, trying to convince her to not treat herself like a human incubator.

"I lost myself…when Willem died. This is what brought me back," Grace continued to cry. "It is the only thing that means anything to me."

"You're being too selfless, which to be honest, you're also being selfish right now," Claire bluntly stated, realizing that Grace needed some brutal honesty. "This isn't just about you. It's also about Amanda, your friend, who loves you."

"I'm trying to help her…"

"No, you're not listening to her. She does not want the price of her child to be your life. That's not actually just too selfless, but also selfish because nobody wants to get a baby they always wanted in a way like that," Claire encouraged before giving her medical advice. "But you don't have to terminate. But let us do the cystoscopic surgery. It could let Amanda have her baby…and you in her life."

Grace exhaled sharply and then inhaled sharply. "Okay," she nodded nervously.

"And after that, maybe take a break from being a surrogate for a while and find a therapist or a support group. Spend more time doing things for yourself. Something that doesn't involve making other people happy," suggested Claire. "You're a strong woman, Grace."


That night at 9:00, Lea was home at her apartment with Violet, trying to finish writing her Pension speech for tomorrow with Diego's assistance over Zoom after putting Violet to bed by rocking her to sleep while also declining five calls in a row from her parents. Shaun, meanwhile, was hanging out at Glassy's place. She had told Glassman about Shaun's decision, so he asked Shaun to talk with him at his home.

However, it was hard for her to concentrate on writing the speech when the only thing she could think about was the impact of the worst-case scenario, which was both her and Shaun losing their jobs and then going broke after never being able to find new jobs after being blacklisted and then not being able to provide for Violet...and then having to move to Hershey to live with her parents.

Yet this time, when Lea was getting an incoming call from her mother, she didn't ignore it because she kind of wanted someone to talk to right now. Also, if she didn't answer it now, her parents were just going to keep calling anyway.

"Hold on, Diego," sighed Lea. "I'm going to mute myself and then turn off my camera for a while. My mom is calling me."

"Okay, take your time," he said, deciding that he could wait patiently while also take care of some personal things. "I also need to put Rocco to bed because I didn't realize I was keeping him up past his bedtime. Priscilla would have done it, but she doesn't feel good and is asleep in bed."

"That's understandable," Lea sighed before she muted herself and turned off her camera before she picked up her phone to answer. "Hey, Mom," she exhaled with exhaustion, rubbing her eye with one hand while tapping her pencil on the table with the other.

"Hi, Lea," greeted Pam happily, which was odd considering that it was almost midnight on the East coast on a Sunday night. To be fair, Lea's mother was pretty much a night owl and she didn't have to go into her workplace until 10:00 am. "Your father and I have tried calling you all day. Why haven't you answered?"

"I'm sorry," sighed Lea. "It's just that Shaun and I have been stressed out lately."

"Because of the company that purchased the hospital?"

"Yes, and the new policies actually just killed a baby, and now Dr. Lim, Shaun's boss, is fighting back...and so are other people," answered Lea, who hadn't kept the most recent information flowing to her parents recently and didn't want to tell her mom that she was joining the rebellion as well. Even though she was now a parent, she wasn't in any mood for a parental lecture right now. And also because I just lost my job, our wedding almost got canceled for good, and a few kids at Violet's daycare got pinkeye.

"Oh, my god. That's awful," sighed Pam on the other line, sounding appalled. "You also told me that the takeover happened right after Violet was born and also that the new owner wanted her discharged when she was still sick? I'm guessing that's what happened to the baby?"

"No. The baby was premature and all the medicine that would have saved her was expired, so it didn't work," clarified Lea, not wanting to go into too much detail. "Shaun was pretty shaken up about that case because he was involved in delivering that baby."

"That's horrible. Your father and I would have sued if that was you or Donnie...or even if that was your father or your grandparents," she sputtered, sounding speechless.

"Shaun and I would have sued, too," agreed Lea. She also wondered if Salen would have done the same thing to her and Shaun by lying to them about everything if Violet had died despite their threats and their knowledge of Salen's shenanigans, which is exactly what she did to Alma and her boyfriend (who had no idea of Salen's shenanigans).

"I remember, you told me you both threatened to sue when Violet was sick. Speaking of Shaun and Violet, how are they? How is wedding planning? It's only a few months away," Pam asked inquisitively. "Is Shaun home right now or is he working a shift? We got that photo you and him sent us of Violet playing with her feet and also the one with her rolling over. She's getting big too fast."

"Yes, she is. It's hard to believe that she's already four months old, but she is still a baby, so it hasn't been that long. Anyway, Shaun is, um...working a long shift," lied Lea, wondering if now was a good time to spill the beans that she and Shaun were in hot water with their jobs, but declining to share anything. "I just put Violet to sleep and I'm working on a presentation to the board. Also, wedding planning is going...fine."

"Well, that's too bad, because I wanted to say hi to both of them," gushed Pam.

"How is Donnie?" Lea asked curiously, needing a quick distraction. "Is he still with Raul?"

"Yes, I think they're getting serious," beamed Pam with excitement. "Anyway, your father would like to talk to you. He's still awake."

Lea could hear the noises as her mother transferred the phone over to her father.

"Hey, Lulu," Mike greeted from the other end. "How is everything?"

"Fine," sighed Lea. "Again, just tired and stressed with everything going on. Wedding planning, life."

"Cool," he said. "Anyway, we really want to visit sometime soon. We haven't seen Violet in person since she was born. When would be a good time?"

"What?" Lea's mouth dropped open in absolute shock. She sure hoped that they weren't dropping in unannounced during this stressful time. Sure, she kind of did want them to visit their granddaughter, but she didn't really want to start making plans right now until this whole thing with Ethicure was hopefully over soon. "Um, I don't know. I want to think about it first."

"Honey, are you okay?" Lea heard her mother, as the phone was probably on speaker. "You sound upset."

"I'm fine, Mom," groaned Lea as she sugarcoated everything that was going on, thinking of some excuse so she could hang up. "I'm just tired. And I really need some sleep. Can I talk to you guys later?"

"Sure, Honey. Have a good night, and please call us if you need anything," bid Pam.

"Okay. Bye, Dad. Bye, Mom."

"Bye, Lea," they both said in unison before ending the call.

As soon as the call was disconnected, Lea sighed in exhaustion and then got back to talking to Diego over Zoom.


Meanwhile, at Dr. Glassman's place, he and Shaun were having a talk at his dining table later since Aaron had concerns about Shaun's decision to participate in the Pension Fund. He wasn't quite sure if Shaun was making a wise, safe decision.

"Are you sure you want to do this? Have you even thought about the consequences?" Aaron probed.

"Yes, I'm sure," replied Shaun.

"Salen's going to fire you and then come after you publicly," he warned bluntly, knowing how career-damaging this could be since Lea's career was already in hot water along with 11 other employees at the hospital. "Your reputation will be tainted."

"I don't care," Shaun brushed off.

"Well, you should care, Shaun. Think about what Salen is going to use. Your outbursts in the hospital, your low scores, the complaint that Nurse Hawks made against you…"

"I am a good surgeon. I don't believe I'll never work again. Also, how come everyone else can risk their careers, but I can't?" Shaun questioned.

"You're an excellent surgeon, Shaun. That's the point. You can't risk that," Aaron reasoned.

"But you can? Lea can? Dr. Lim can? Claire can? Dr. Rendón can?"

"Yes. Yes. Yes. We can. You're exceptional. What you've accomplished is remarkable. We can't risk that. Not to mention that you and Lea have a kid and one of you is already without a job right now. What are you going to do when both you and Lea are out of a job and then blacklisted by Salen?" Aaron theorized. What he was saying did sound ableist, but there was also some unfair, uncomfortable truth since it took so many match rejections for Shaun to get hired at St. Bonaventure.

"That's not fair," Shaun restated. "Dr. Rendón has an arrest record that includes assault, and he decided to do this. Dr. Lim isn't pressuring him at all to stay out of this. Other people particpating in the rebellion also have children who depend on them, and some of them don't have a partner. They're also willing to risk their careers. How come I can't?"

There was a long silence between the two of them since Shaun did have a point about that, but that didn't stop Aaron from worrying about Shaun. "Well, you're like a son to me, Lea is like a daughter-in-law, and Violet is like my granddaughter. I want the best for you all and I want you to succeed. It will be hard to find another residency program nearby that will take you in. And if one residency program does take you in? What if it's too far away from Lea and Violet? It's the truth. You're autistic and there are social shortcomings to that. I don't like it, but that's reality," avowed Aaron. "I just think it's important to be realistic?"

However, that didn't stop Shaun from finalizing his decision because he wanted to make his own decisions. He was no longer a helpless child that constantly needed protection. He was a grown man; almost 30-years-old with a fianceé and a child. "I'm an adult, Dr. Glassman," Shaun asserted firmly.

Aaron sighed as he rubbed his cheek. Yes, Shaun was a grown man and he should probably support his decision, but that didn't stop him from worrying about him like a concerned father. "Have you actually thought about it and made a backup plan. Seriously, what are you and Lea going to do when you're both jobless and blacklisted? What are you going to do if you're not a surgeon? That's always been what's most important to you."

"It's not what is most important to me. Not anymore. That's what I used to think…until I met Lea and then we had Violet. Nothing matters more to me than them. Also, if I lose you from the hospital, if I lose Dr. Lim and Dr. Park and Claire and Lea and Nurse Villanueva and even Dr. Rendón…I don't want to work there anymore," concluded Shaun.

Aaron looked at him for a few seconds, but he finally understood that Shaun really wanted to do this. He thought it out thoroughly and knew the consequences that could happen.

"Okay," sighed Aaron as he moved closer to Shaun with his laptop. "Let's write that speech to the Pension Fund."

"No, thanks," declined Shaun. "I will do that alone. I can do it myself. You write your own."


Back at Park's studio apartment (he lived with Morgan for a while after his break-up with Heather and then moved out to an affordable, available studio apartment), Alex was alone working on his speech for the Pension Fund. He worked hard on it as he tried to write it without any disruptions…only to be interrupted by a video chat request from Mia and Kellan on his phone, which he decided to answer because he also really wanted to talk to someone right now that wasn't Morgan (he was still pissed at her about that patient) despite his burnout and exhaustion.

As soon as he hit the green reply, the image of Kellan and Mia's faces appeared on the screen.

"Hey, buddy," he greeted with soft enthusiasm and a weak smile. "How's college?"

"It's fine," replied Kellan. "Did I tell you that I'm already counted as a junior this semester because of my AP and dual credit classes and my summer classes?"

"I think you did, and I'm proud of you," praised Alex. "But it's also hard to believe that you're already a junior in college when it's only your second year. I wish I had the opportunity of AP classes and dual credit when I was in high school."

"I know," crowed Mia, who was sounding much more enthusiastic about this than he was.

"Anyway, Dad. How's the rebellion against taking Salen down?" Kellan asked inquisitively. "Are you taking that tyrant down?"

"Rebellion? What rebellion?" Mia asked.

"Oh, I'm rallying against the hospital's new owner, so I'm writing a Pension speech to take her down," explained Alex. "Her policies have done a lot of great harm."

"Are you talking about that same person who pretended to be a patient?" Mia questioned. "And the same person who likes to pop up everywhere?"

"Yes," confirmed Alex.

"Oh," sighed Mia.

"Yeah, Dad told me she also crashed Shaun's fianceé's c-section," informed Kellan. "Anyway, how has your speech writing been going so far?"

Alex sighed. "Honestly, I'm stressed and terrified. Salen just fired 12 employees, including Lea, Dr. Lim, and Dr. Glassman. I'm also thinking of resigning soon because of Ethicure."

"What?" Kellan was stunned.

"Yes. And with joining the rebellion, I could lose my job over this because she has already blackmailed the employees that got fired. And it's not just that. Andrews has become Salen's puppet," gulped Alex.

"That's just terrible," cringed Kellan. "Are Salen and Andrews still dating?"

"Yes, and I think she has ruined his objectivity."

There was a brief silence before Mia decided to change the subject.

"So, how are things going between you and Morgan?" She asked curiously.

Alex didn't want to get into the whole thing yet, and he didn't want to tell his ex-wife and son everything until the results of that Pension Fund were in. He would tell them later.

"Things are going fine," he fibbed. "And as much as I would love to talk to you, I need to finish this speech because the Pension Fund is tomorrow. Can we talk later?"

"Of course," understood Kellan. "Well, good luck tomorrow. I love you."

"I love you, too." Then Alex ended the call and thought about the moment Violet Murphy got pneumonia.

Since Shaun and Lea threatened Salen with a lawsuit (doctors may have made the worst patients, but they were the best loved ones of patients when it came to unethical policies) to stop her from discharging their extubated and stable, but still sick baby who still had a fragile respiratory status and an infection, he had dreaded something worse happening due to every new, inhumane policy made by Ethicure...and that happened when budget cuts killed a baby due to expired medication.

Those moments also made Alex think about when Kellan was first diagnosed with asthma and also the moments he had gone to the hospital for asthma attacks. When Kellan was first diagnosed, he was five-years-old. He had experienced a series of coughing fits often triggered by certain things that resulted in him needing breathing treatments every night. It wasn't long before a specialist diagnosed him with asthma. There were also a few times Kellan had to go to the ER because he didn't have his inhaler with him, and all of those moments were scary for him and Mia.

He couldn't imagine what would have happened to Kellan if the hospitals he went to had Ethicure's policies.


Back at Audrey's apartment, Claire and Mateo were writing their Pension speeches, not wanting anything to distract them as they wanted their speeches to be perfect and informative.

"Is this even a good plan?" Audrey, who was sitting by the coffee table and typing on her laptop queried. She was finally starting to have second thoughts about her whole rebellion, despite it being her idea.

"Yes, I think it is," shrugged Mateo, who was sitting on the couch with his laptop in his lap while also fretting about Grace and the cystoscopic surgery. "I think it's good that I mention my work in other countries and how those hospitals compare to Ethicure's policies. I'm also including some data about other developed countries and comparing that to the US and Ethicure."

"I'm not talking about what we're going to include in our speeches," sighed Audrey, pushing her laptop to the side and then rubbed her temples nervously.

"What do you mean?" Claire, who was sitting at the dining table, questioned as she put her pen down (she was writing her speech by hand) and was also nervous about what could happen to Grace during the surgery tomorrow morning.

"We're going to lose," she dreaded, staring nervously straight into space. "We're fucked. Maybe this was a bad idea. What if they're right? What if we're risking everything and losing everything and we never get hired again? What if some of the employees resent me for this because they're jobless and blacklisted with no futures for their children? Was it a good idea to try and change things from the inside?"

"No, we can do this," reassured Mateo, reaching his arm out to touch Audrey's shoulder. "We're going to win. And I promise that they won't resent you because their decision to join was their choice. Shaun and Lea definitely will not resent you."

"I agree, I have faith," said Claire with confidence. "Also, you're the one who decided to start this whole thing, and I think it's good that you did."

"What if this is just false hope and toxic positivity?"

"Hey, Audrey," consoled Mateo. "Remember, rebellions like this are what can help things change. It's how we change things. We don't just sit by and wait for it to happen."

Audrey thought a little bit and then let her doubtful second thoughts go. "You're right. Let's get back to work. I'm almost done with my speech. And if we lose, then we'll try to figure something out. All of us."


Marcus had just finished the cystoscopic surgery on Grace with Mateo, Claire, Asher, and Jordan. She had a bleed during the surgery, but they were able to save both Grace and the fetus.

"Speakers list for the pension fund's annual meeting. Glassman and Lim, that's hardly a surprise. Park, Browne, Lever, Williams, Kohler, Villanueva, Castillo, Garcia, Gulino, Martel, McGinley, Chen, Dilallo, Fryday, Sotomayor, Blaize, Rendón, Reznick, Gromski, Robinson, Strickland, Rajput, Ocampo, Eshagian, Rodriguez, Nguyen, and Murphy? I mean, there is actually much more than just them," read Salen as she walked in to meet Marcus after he completed the surgery.

Marcus didn't say anything as he continued to give Salen the death glare.

"Did the surgery go okay?" She manipulated, trying to change the subject and distract Marcus.

"Don't change the subject. Those doctors and nurses speaking out at the pension meeting…I think they're right," he insisted. "We should go meet with them right now."

Salen shook her head. "I'm not hiring them back."

"At least hear them out. Their concerns, their suggestions. Let's come up with some compromises and get them to agree to not be at the meeting," suggested Marcus.

"Marcus, you're being incredibly naive."

"You may lose," he warned.

"It's possible," agreed Salen.

"You'll lose more than this hospital," he warned further, in which he finally made a big decision about their relationship. This was the last straw as he couldn't lose his morality.

"I know," she nodded. "And that's not going to stop me."

"And you already have lost something, because I'm breaking up with you," he decided, which was a very difficult choice to make, but his colleagues at St. Bons helped him see what was right. "It's over. We're done. Shaun is right. You are making me into a bad doctor. And the fact that your policies could have killed one of my residents' children..." He couldn't even finish the sentence as his voice broke.

Salen didn't even show any heartbreak or even cry. Instead, she just gave Marcus a stoic look and said nothing. This told him that business always came first before love when it came to her values.

"I need to go get ready for tonight," she finally said, walking away without any remorse.


Before heading to the Pension Fund meeting after work, Shaun and Lea picked up Violet from daycare and then met up with Kat, the babysitter for the night, at their apartment. Kat was going to watch over Violet while Shaun and Lea went to the Pension Fund.

They discovered Kat on Sittercity. She was a single mother to seven-year-old twin sons (who were tagging along with her for the night, which Shaun and Lea didn't mind one bit) and she was also a teacher for two-year-olds at KinderCare and was once an infant teacher as well. She was CPR and first aid trained (she said that was actually a requirement for childcare workers). She liked to earn extra money babysitting.

"All the medical stuff is in the bathroom cabinet and the diaper cream is in the drawer under the dresser, which is also the changing table. The fish food is in the drawer where the bowl is. Albert and Poppy need to be fed at 5:00 pm," informed Shaun as he adjusted his tie as he and Lea gathered everything they needed.

"Noted," nodded Kat as she bopped Violet in her arms and tried to comfort the fussy baby, who didn't like that her parents were leaving her with a stranger…and her parents were also nervous about leaving their daughter with a stranger for the first time.

"You can eat anything you want in the fridge, which is also where all the breast milk I pumped is and I also labeled them with dates," briefed Lea as she slipped her checker-patterned jacket on. "You and the boys can watch whatever you want on the TV, but stay out of our room," instructed Lea as she eyed the boys, who were sitting on the couch playing with their pop-its. "We also have Disney Plus, so there are plenty of kid-friendly things for them to watch. They can watch as much Bluey or Cocomelon as they want. Whatever their favorite things to watch are."

"It's Paw Patrol," corrected one of the twins as he popped his square rainbow pop-it.

"Okay, whatever you like," chuckled Lea as she slung her purse over her shoulder.

"Don't worry, Bodhi and Leo are usually very well-behaved and quiet and Violet will be in good hands," reassured Kat, who continued to comfort a crying Violet, who had definitely and positively developed stranger danger. As a mother and a daycare teacher who worked with babies and toddlers, she has seen many small children with separation anxiety and stranger danger. So this wasn't a new thing for her.

"Oh, it's okay, sweetie," consoled Lea from a distance.

"We'll be back soon," added Shaun. "She also might be getting conjunctivitis because the daycare person told us that today she was rubbing her eyes more than usual and she said Violet was also very cranky today. There have also been a few cases of conjunctivitis at the daycare. So, I'd be careful and we'll pay you extra."

"Okay, I'll be on the lookout," quavered Kat.

"Goodbye, Violet," bid Shaun after he walked up to Violet to kiss her goodbye on the forehead followed by Lea doing the same thing.

"Bye, sweetie."

"Good luck. I hope you guys win this thing," wished Kat with a sigh as Shaun and Lea walked towards the door and blew kisses at Violet. "I hope it all goes well."

"Thank you," obliged Shaun before he and Lea nervously shut the door behind them after Kat reassured them for the final time that Violet was in good hands.


Not only had Morgan joined and spilled the beans about her patient, but also Jordan, JL, Dr. Fremes, Dr. Colson, Nurse Baxter, Nurse Dhanoa, and Nurse Hawks had joined in at the last minute...although they had no time to give speeches for the Department of Public Health to hear as they were present. It started out with Dr. Andrews defending everybody while also saying that he created a contract saying that he would become president of the hospital if Dr. Lim and her allies won.

"I've made mistakes personally and professionally," he said. "But I have to say that dating Salen has made me lose touch with my morality. And when she fired my employees and threatened their careers, I couldn't stand by anymore. I had just realized that I was nothing but her puppet."

And then, it was a long moment with dozens of epic speeches from healthcare workers of all departments...along with many rebuttals from Salen and her lobbyists and lawyers. Some speeches of the healthcare workers contained statistics and facts and other speeches got a bit personal. Some used both facts and personal stories.

"Salen asked me to improve all the hospital software, which basically just meant that she wanted me and the entire IT department to create some unnecessary rewriting of codes, which took me and the rest of the IT department days to complete when we still had other tasks to do. She also made us switch to some outdated equipment and made cuts to backup servers just to squeeze in some budget money for things like coffee and a water wall. Because of the outdated technology, we've lost some vital data. We had a cyberattack last year and the IT department even saved the hospital and the patients, but once Ethicure came along, I and the rest of the IT department became even more fearful of another cyberattack and the consequences that would result because of all the cuts Salen has made. And that's not the only thing. Salen also forced the IT director and a surgical resident to come to Ethicure orientation when they were on family leave and when their baby was sick and on a ventilator," vented Diego Castillo, the vice IT director and Lea's assistant. "She claims that she didn't realize she had tagged them in that email, but I also think that when she saw those two exhausted parents, especially the mother who was two weeks post c-section, walk in and barely stay awake, she probably should have noticed."

"When I learned that the hospital was being purchased by Ethicure, I was recovering from a c-section and learning to breastfeed my daughter. When the transition started, my baby got sick and needed to be put on a ventilator, and right after she was taken off the ventilator, my fiancé and I were told by Salen that it was time for her to be discharged. If we didn't threaten to sue and if my baby did end up getting worse and died, then the revolt against Ethicure would have probably happened much earlier. It's not just the patients and doctors and nurses that have been harmed. There have been a lot of negative impacts of Ethicure on the IT department, such as outdated technology and how I and my colleagues have not been able to recover some important data that we had lost, an issue that has been made worse since Ethicure's takeover. The equipment we currently have has malfunctioned even more than we typically expect. Also, because of the budget cuts to the IT department, our system is now three times more vulnerable to cyberattacks. This doesn't just harm the IT department and the hospital itself, but it also harms patients and it could even kill them. Whatever harm happens to the IT department, can also cause harm to the patients and cause many lives to be lost," preached Lea before finishing off with a confession. "And I, unfortunately, have to admit that I've tampered with my fiancé's client satisfaction scores. It is something I regret and I will accept any consequence. The reason why I did it is because I read so many mean, negative reviews that used offensive slurs. But I have to say, judging a doctor solely on user reviews is not a good performance evaluation method."

"Due to the policies that Salen Morrison had instilled, we are experiencing so many cuts that have made things much more stressful than they already were even pre-Ethicure. I've done some research, and only 3% of the hospitals owned by Ethicure have enough staff in their pathology departments to deal with the workloads they're facing…and St. Bonaventure is unfortunately one of the 97% that doesn't. Even before, we already had a shortage of pathologists, but when Ethicure took over, some employees in my department were moved to different programs at different hospitals without their consent. None of their transfers were their decisions. Results are also taking longer than ever to get out, and it's already stressful enough due to the demand of having to make lab results faster reported to doctors and their patients…and that's practically impossible when we're dealing with staff shortages. It's a huge burden because there have also been cuts to our efficient technology in pathology. Resident burnout is a thing and has happened even prior to Ethicure, but I have had higher reports from residents, fellows, and attending pathologists of burnout. One of my residents even had a panic attack while working," explained Dr. Carly Lever, Shaun's ex-girlfriend and the head of the pathology department.

"Since Salen installed a 30-hour maximum labor policy, the rate in cesarean sections and unnecessary interventions like vacuum and forceps deliveries at this hospital had gone up drastically, especially in low-risk patients. Salen said that those interventions can save lives, which is true, but they also increase the risk of complications," reported Dr. Gromski. "The reviews for St. Bonaventure's maternity ward post-Ethicure have been negative. One patient left a review saying that she was traumatized because she was forced to have a forceps delivery just because she had been pushing for an hour and had already been in labor for 28 hours. I was the person who assisted with that delivery, and both me, the L nurses, the patient, and her husband were against the forceps delivery and I was forced to do it because Salen was watching me. In addition, Salen made a lot of cuts to the maternity ward and to maternal health, which is actually one factor in the United States being the developed nation with the highest maternal mortality rate…and if Salen's policies continue, it will only get worse at St. Bonaventure. A neonate already died because of expired medication, and it's only a matter of time before a mother here dies in childbirth. And speaking of that, I hate to say that we've had a slight increase of reports of pregnant patients experiencing complications that were close to killing them and their babies."

"I agree with Dr. Gromski about the unnecessary c-section rate and also the rate of maternal mortality in the United States. I've always wanted to keep the c-section and intervention rates in my department appropriate and only recommend the use of them if actually medically necessary," Dr. Elizabeth Garcia, the head of the department of obstetrics and gynecology and also the person who assisted Shaun's solo c-section in quarantine, agreed. "There have been many issues and struggles with practicing obstetrics and gynecology in the United States, such as inadequate reimbursement and shortages of OB/GYNs, but it's been made worse since Ethicure took over. I believe medicine has started to become less about health and more about the business of seeing too many patients in too short amount of time to make a positive impact. If insurance companies are giving smaller reimbursements, then doctors opt to pack in more patients to fill the gap of lost income, which results in establishing what can feel like an assembly line of patients to doctors. Also, I can confirm that the decisions of my attendings, residents, and nurses, have been further influenced by their fears of getting sued and even getting fired. In addition, Salen installed a new rule by not allowing patients' insurance to cover their births at this hospital if they were assisted by a midwife. That is unacceptable and only encourages a bigger divide between midwives and OB/GYNs."

"The oncologists in my department have reported having to spend three hours weekly interacting with health plans, but the nurses and clerical staff spend much larger amounts of time. This describes the cost to practices over and above the costs of care to the uninsured and the cost to manage preauthorization and prior approval," stated Dr. Eshagian factually, who had written and said a lot of negative things about Ethicure publicly. "Ethicure's policies that require physicians to ask permission from a patient's insurance company before performing a treatment have had so many negative effects on patient care here. I even have some data provided by the IT department. This all applies to St. Bonaventure post-Ethicure. 37% of physicians have faced a 20% rejection rate from insurers on first-time preauthorization requests for tests and procedures. 57% faced a rejection rate of 20% from insurers on first-time preauthorization requests for drugs. 46% have difficulty obtaining approval from insurers on more than or at 25% of preauthorization requests for tests and procedures. 63% have had to wait several days to receive preauthorization from an insurer, and that same number applies to getting preauthorization from an insurer for tests and procedures. 13% wait more than one week. 64% have difficulty determining which tests and procedures require preauthorization by insurers. Also with Ethicure, we've been forced to turn patients and their families away, some of them children, because their insurance doesn't cover it. That is despicable."

Dr. Marina Blaize, the oncologist who helped treat Dr. Glassman's cancer, got a little personal and emotional in her speech, getting teary-eyed. "I and my other fellow oncologists have had to turn patients away just because they either didn't have insurance or because they didn't have the right insurance to cover the cancer treatment we provide for them. These are patients with cancer, some of them are even aggressive types of cancer that spread really fast to where they might have less than a year to live. These aren't just patients that have cancer, but there are also loved ones of patients that are emotionally harmed by this. Some of these cancer patients were youth or even children who should have had their whole lives ahead of them. That is horrible. Before Ethicure took over, we treated any cancer patient whether they were insured or not. We would inform them about the costs, but we would let them pay later. I lost my father to an inoperable glioma in his spinal cord when I was 13-years-old. When he was diagnosed back in 1979, the prognosis was that he only had a year to live. And the doctors were right. All because he didn't have the right insurance. That is what inspired me to become a neuro-oncologist. I wanted to give people a shot at life, and the fact that I can only give it to certain people based on what kind of insurance they have or whether or not they have insurance has made me not like this job. If our job is to treat patients no matter what, then who are we treating? Just rich people?"

"My department has experienced a lot of cuts made by Ethicure, including screenings for skin cancer, especially aggressive ones that are better when caught early," told Dr. Tomás Rodriguez, the head of dermatology. "Dermatologists play a critical role in reducing the burden of skin cancer, preventing both death and morbidity, but most policymakers like Salen Morrison do not understand the critical services we provide. Our strength lies in our unity and identity as dermatologists. We're not just skin doctors that remove ingrown hairs, which is something Salen told one of my residents. Dermatologists aren't useless."

"Never in my many years as an anesthesiologist have I ever been told that a patient has been discharged right after surgery…even while they were still unconscious," testified Dr. Connie Williams, the head of anesthesiology. "Due to some shortages because of Salen's cuts, off-call anesthesiologists have had to fill in…even when they were in no physical condition to go to work due to being sick. My daughter herself is a registered nurse, and when I told her about Ethicure's policies, she was shocked. Because the public hospital she works at was nothing like this one. In addition, my old friend from college, who lives in Sweden and works as a doctor, was also appalled by what he heard of Ethicure. I have also seen a lot of expired medication since Ethicure more than ever, and despite my concerns, I still used them when there were no backup batches. When I expressed my concerns to Salen about them before the baby died, she dismissed me. She refused to take responsibility."

"My husband and I are proud Filipino nurses, and I should mention that Filipino nurses have always been on America's frontlines. During the pandemic, we both had tested positive, along with family members, while also worrying about bringing the virus home to our son while we dealt with inadequate staffing and mandatory overtime…and not to mention racism…while working at different hospitals. Inadequate staffing and mandatory overtime were actually struggles nurses have experienced even before Ethicure, especially during COVID and even pre-COVID. That was a concern I voiced to Salen after orientation, but instead of improving these issues to make our lives easier like she promised, she only made them worse," enunciated Nurse Villanueva. "This has had an even bigger impact on patient care, fostering medical errors, and even driving nurses away from bedside manners. Studies have shown that too much overtime can have negative impacts, which then have more negative impacts on the patients. Nurses have been even more underpaid and even more overworked. This has also had a negative impact on my mental health."

"Salen's policies that involve discharging patients when they are not ready are harmful to everyone. It doesn't matter how 'stable' they are. And it's not just 'discharge them as soon as they're stable', but also 'discharge them because their discharge papers are finished, even when the patient isn't looking so good'," reasoned Nurse Rachel Strickland, a labor and delivery nurse who was involved in Violet's birth. "I've been a nurse that specialized in labor and delivery at St. Bonaventure since 2008, and I have never worked under discharge policies like this. Just recently in December, because a patient in the maternity ward's discharge papers were already filled out and signed, Salen insisted that the patient be discharged even when she was showing obvious signs of HELLP syndrome. I saw it, other nurses saw it, and her OB/GYN saw it. We were all against this patient being discharged. That patient almost died as she was brought back to the hospital hours later. She, in fact, did have HELLP syndrome. As a nurse and a mother myself, I believe that is inexcusable, especially since those kinds of dismissive attitudes towards mothers can play a factor in maternal mortality, especially in mothers of color."

"It's not just inadequate staffing and mandatory overtime that has gotten worse since Ethicure's takeover, but also the fact that we have faced a shortage of personal protective equipment," mentioned Nurse Martel. "We need PPE to protect ourselves from exposure to illness and chemicals."

"The way that Salen pops up everywhere and noses into other people's business is a nuisance," remarked Nurse Eve Fryday. "It's hard for medical professionals to concentrate and make rational decisions when someone like her is looking over her shoulder. She also barges in at inappropriate times, like when an employee is pumping breastmilk for her baby or when they're making personal calls. In conclusion, I would also like to report behaviors of spying and blackmail in Salen Morrison. For instance, while I was on break and making a call to my husband and venting to him about something, Salen had been apparently eavesdropping on my conversation. In addition, I should also mention that she has no idea how medicine or healthcare really works. It is insulting for doctors and nurses to be lectured by a person who has no experience in medicine how to do our jobs."

"I'm going to share my experience with Ethicure as a 'client' and the parent of a patient. My son has cystic fibrosis, and he has been a patient here at this hospital pretty much since I gave birth to him in 2007 and also since he was diagnosed with CF in early 2009," shared Nurse Chen, sounding angry and pissed off. "Two months ago, I had to rush my 14-year-old son here to the hospital when he had a pneumothorax in the middle of the night, and as soon as he was stabilized, Salen already started throwing the discharge papers in my face. He wasn't even conscious yet. And I'm not the only employee at St. Bonaventure who has had discharge papers shoved in their face when their child was still sick. That also happened to Dr. Shaun Murphy and Lea Dilallo, whose baby daughter was one of my patients. Just like them, I had threatened to sue when Salen did this to me. I can also say that this also happened to other patients as well. I am declaring that Gus will no longer be receiving treatment or appointments at St. Bonaventure if Ethicure's inhumane, unethical policies continue."

"I've been a nurse for 20 years and I have also taken a lot of verbal abuse as a nurse from both patients and doctors. I was also once almost stabbed by a patient," declared Nurse Ocampo. "Salen Morrison is a manipulative liar who only cares about making money. Like the other nurses said, the problems of mandatory overtime and inadequate staffing have only been worsened since Ethicure. She has done nothing to make improvements."

"After she fired me and Nurse Baxter, Salen made threats, telling me that she would also shut down the NICU if I continued this rebellion, which would not only just create a lack of neonatal care, but also create the loss of jobs to the rest of the department," informed Dr. Nguyen. "I had also addressed my concerns about the shortages of incubators, but she dismissed me and the concerns of the other fellow neonatologists and NICU nurses. Because of this, we have had to make the department of obstetrics and gynecology transfer laboring mothers in premature labor to different hospitals because all the incubators were full."

"Salen's policies on the psychiatry and mental health department have only increased the challenges that already came to this profession," Dr. Lynne Sotomayor, the head of the psychiatric department said. "Less and less patients have access to our care because her policies have created more and more barriers financially for the patients. For instance, she got rid of our telemedicine system, which benefits patients in many ways. Seriously, I expected more from someone with ADHD. I thought she would be more understanding and would actually want to improve the mental health system."

"Yes, it is true that I broke the rules, but that patient with postpartum depression really needed help," sighed Dr. Gulino as he gave his speech. "My wife struggled with PPD after our son was born and she is still struggling with postpartum depression right now yet she is getting better with the help of therapy and medication. Anyway, Salen's policies on time limits with each patient along with the shortage of mental health care professionals have forced us less time with the patients or even understand them, which was been very stressful not only for them, but also for us."

"Salen's policies have created a bed shortage in the pediatric department. We've had to send children to community transition care units because of how she's minimized pediatric beds. I've been fired for refusing to discharge patients when they were in no condition to be discharged just yet," asserted Dr. Kohler, the pediatrician who treated Violet when she was extremely sick. "It started with a two-week-old baby with pneumonia and bacteremia. Her parents, who were employees at St. Bonaventure, had even threatened to sue if their baby died, and that convinced Salen to not discharge that baby. However, it didn't stop there. When I treated a five-year-old with complications from a UTI, Salen wanted me to discharge her, and she was discharged because she had coerced that poor girl's parents behind my back. But that little girl was brought in later when she got worse because we figured out that it had spread to her kidneys and that included sepsis. There was also a 10-year-old treated for a bowel obstruction that had postoperative ileus, and he was also discharged by Salen behind my back. I refused to discharge them. If those patients died, I can't imagine what lawsuits Salen would be facing. Those patients were discharged too early, but they got lucky. Some were lucky enough to have people coerce Salen into not discharging them."

"There are reasons why the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires an expiration date on prescription and over-the-counter medicines. The expiration date is a critical part of deciding if the product is safe to use and will work as intended. The reason why is because using expired medical products is risky and even harmful to patients, not just less effective in treating a patient. Plus, protocol is that expired medication gets disposed of, and Salen still insisted that I keep it all in stock. And then expired PGE led to a baby's death," asserted Dr. Patrick Robinson, the recently promoted head of the pharmacy. "Expired medicines are also not just a risk to the person they were prescribed for and can injure children and pets if taken by mistake. To make things worse, Salen lied to the grieving mother about Dr. Fremes resigning, when she actually fired him and manipulated her into signing a contract that involved him being the fall guy. Dr. Fremes said he'll take some blame and won't adjudicate his responsibility and I will not adjudicate mine, but it is not acceptable that Salen never accepted any blame for this like a responsible human being and she even tried to hide it, which is despicable and inexcusable. She is at the most fault."

"Salen had made a lot of cuts in infrastructure and PPE that protect radiologists from cancer-causing chemicals. Just recently, Dr. Cintia D'Souza, one of the residents, reported that one of her colleagues was forced to leave an x-ray because there wasn't enough protective equipment for everyone involved because they were out of stock," exposed Dr. Ramandeep Rajput, the head of the radiology department. "That shocked me to the bone. There have also been massive cuts in things like mammography, ultrasound, MRI, x-rays, CT scans; budget cuts as high as 30%, which is too much. That's higher than what Medicare cut from radiology in 2021."

"She has harmed not only patients, but the doctors as well. She has exploited disabled healthcare workers like me, Dr. Murphy, Dr. Reznick, Nurse Guerra, Dr. Elayyan, and Nurse Nowlin," ranted Dr. Jason McGinley, a paraplegic ophthalmologic surgeon who was also exploited for his disability by Salen. He wasn't the only other one. It also happened to Dr. Reznick (who didn't really care too much), a nurse with schizophrenia, a doctor with Ehlers-Danos syndrome, and a nurse with IBS. "None of us even asked to be exploited like that and she didn't even warn us that it would be in our contracts. I do not want to be used as inspiration porn. Those are major HIPAA violations. When it comes to mental conditions like autism and schizophrenia and also some illnesses like IBS, which is what some employees whom I will not name have, they did not deserve to be outed like this considering the stigma associated with those disabilities and also some embarrassment they might face."

"I hate to say this, but Ethicure has caused me to lose some of my morality. One of my indiscretions has come back to haunt me about a patient," Morgan came clean bravely about Nira Joseph, wanting to make things right. "Salen had bribed me to not inform the patient of alternative treatment just so she could gain more clients for Ethicure. However, I am also at fault. My patient came to the clinic for a routine exam, during which I found an eye tumor that was impacting her vision negatively. She had two options for treatment. One was the cost-saving surgery that was also risky and could make her lose some of her vision. The other was an experimental technique that would preserve her full vision yet it would cost the hospital a lot more. The patient was working for a company that was interested in signing a large employee healthcare contract with St. Bons. I used this as an opportunity to impress Salen. In conclusion, the patient lost 50% of her vision because I gave her the cheap option. After the Pension Fund is over, I will release this information to the patient."

"The purpose of the clinic was to give patients the care they needed, and Salen wanted to take that away and turn this into a cash machine," Dr. Glassman recounted and then gave a lecture about how people like Salen are unfit to run hospitals. "You can't run hospitals like they're a business. Hospitals include life or death situations, and it's horrendous that it is now being treated like a cash machine. These 'clients' aren't buying furniture, they're here to have their lives saved. Also, Salen has no medical degree, which means she is completely out of touch with how medicine works. When you make certain institutions run primarily by corporations, it creates a lot of inhumane things. And it's not just healthcare. You shouldn't run government like a business, you shouldn't run prisons like they're a business, and you shouldn't run education like a business. For instance, private prisons in this country run by corporations have a system that likes to keep people locked up just so they can make more money. Does that sound familiar to you? Hospitals trying to limit the number of patients by making budget cuts."

"Before I begin my speech, I need to say that I empathize with Lea, Dr. Murphy, and Nurse Chen about having your sick child being hospitalized. My son has asthma, and he has had some asthma attacks that have led to hospital visits at some points during his childhood. For me and his mother, it's one of the scariest things we've experienced as parents, and it's a scary experience for any parent, and the case of that preemie who died because of expired medication also hurts me as a parent as well as other doctors and nurses as well; it didn't matter whether they were parents or not," professed Dr. Park, speaking straight from the heart. "However, unlike Dr. Murphy and Nurse Chen and also countless other patients and their loved ones here at St. Bonaventure since Ethicure, never have I ever been told that my son was being discharged when he was still having breathing troubles and needed to be monitored. I've also been told to discharge a patient - a mother and her newborn, who both turned out to have complications anyway later - seconds after the c-section. And it's happened to people I work with as well, like Dr. Murphy and Nurse Chen, who fought like hell to keep their children from being discharged too early. If employees here at St. Bonaventure - medical professionals, healthcare workers - say that they would never want their loved ones or even themselves to be patients here under Ethicure, what does that say about Ethicure's true colors?"

"First of all, I would like to thank Nurse Chen for sharing her personal experience. As someone who has lost a sister to complications from cystic fibrosis, I would be angry if my deceased sister was ever a patient under Ethicure's horrible policies and suffered," empathized Mateo before he continued his speech. "Her death was just a tragedy, not both a tragedy and an atrocity like the death of that baby was. I've worked in hospitals in rural areas of developing countries, and the owners of those hospitals would fight tooth and nail for better conditions like infrastructure and running water for the patients. They would never make cuts on that. I have acquaintances I still keep in touch with, and they believe that Salen making cuts was inexcusable. We have also dealt with medicine shortages and also shortages for medical supplies, and again, the owners would fight tooth and nail for those things. The reason for those shortages were not because the owners wanted to save money. Bureaucrats have no idea how hospitals really work."

"My brother Steve said that whenever people want you to do something they think is wrong, they say it's reality. Sometimes, it's used as an excuse to not do the right thing. Salen did a lot of terrible things. She exploited disabled employees including me. Her budget cuts and discharge policies killed patients including a baby, and they could have killed my daughter, who was a patient at St. Bonaventure when she had serious pneumonia and bacteremia. My fianceé and I had to threaten to sue Salen in order to stop our daughter, who was only two weeks old and was not yet had her immunizations except for her first HepB dose, from being discharged right after extubation when she still had a fever. And that is not the only case of premature discharge. There is the case of the patient with HELLP syndrome that Nurse Strickland mentioned and also the patient with placenta previa who was an inmate doing life because she was falsely accused of murdering her first baby. If both that mother and her baby were discharged, then the baby would have died and the mother would be found guilty yet again despite being innocent; she also would have died. In addition, Salen and Dr. Andrews dating has threatened his objectivity. Not too long ago, I had to perform a risky surgery that almost killed a patient because Andrews felt so much pressure to impress Salen. He didn't take any of my concerns or Dr. Browne's concerns seriously. That drove me to quit. She is turning him into a bad doctor. It's not just the doctors and nurses and the patients who are negatively affected by Ethicure, but also the janitors, orderlies, security guards, and maintenance people because of the drastic cuts to their salaries. She also made me take on a case while I was on family leave. That's my best summary of the harm Ethicure has done," summarized Shaun as he professed every word from his many-times revised and edited speech.

"Salen's policies are not the worst of what she has done. The worst is actually that she tried to cover herself up and place the blame on Dr. Fremes. She lied to that mother," began Claire before she preached a lot of rhetoric in her speech. "She said that we serve clients at Ethicure, which is not the purpose of being a healthcare professional at all. Patients are not clients or customers. For one thing, patients are not on a vacation, they are in a life-or-death situation. Most people try to keep themselves out of hospitals. They are not buying a sofa or getting a pedicure. A lot of the times, they find themselves in situations that nobody ever wants to be in, which is, again, life or death situations. They are not buying a product in which they can demand a positive outcome. In addition, like what the IT director mentioned, I've also noticed that Salen's ranking system has been driving doctors apart. Patient satisfaction does not always correlate with the quality of the 's ranking system focuses wholly on the communication aspect, which is not fair to neurodivergent doctors or doctors with cultural differences. Judging a physician's performance wholly on user reviews, some which might be subjective, is not a good performance evaluation method. Being a good doctor is not just about bedside manner or how much time that is devoted to patients, which yes, is important, but something I think Ethicure has put too much focus on with treating patients as clients. I'm saying this as someone who was ranked number one in the surgical department. We must approach each patient with humanity, not customer service."

Dr. Lim was the last person to give her speech.

"Ethicure is far from ethical," she asserted angrily and articulately. "Salen has done a lot of unethical things that should get have gotten her fired. She has blackmailed, spied on, and fired or even threatened to fire without due process on many of the employees. She knew private things about many of the hospitals employees. In order to take control of the hospital, she wandered off when she was a patient and even manipulated her doctors and tricked them. She has coerced and promoted medical malpractice and messed with the pharmacy budget and also the budgets of a whole bunch of other departments. She ordered and vetted alternative suppliers of medicine on short notice behind the backs of surgeons, anesthesiologists, and the pharmacy. She gaslighted, lied to, and took advantage of the grieving parents of the dead newborn…while the mother was still hospitalized and in a state of shock and grief. She did that to cover her own ass and throw Dr. Fremes under the bus. Tell me. How does that make Ethicure ethical? And just like Dr. Browne and Dr. Glassman stated, you shouldn't treat healthcare like big business patients are patients, not clients."

While the board and the Department of Public Health was ready to present their final decision, everyone who joined Dr. Lim sat tightly and apprehensively as the head of the Department of Public Health got ready to declare what was going to happen. Shaun and Lea clutched hands tightly while Mateo and Audrey and Alex and Morgan did the same.

"Because of Salen Morrison's unethical practices, I'm going to have to ask her to resign her position of ownership of San Jose St. Bonaventure hospital, sign away her rights, and also for the reinstatement of Nurse Kirsten Baxter, Nurse Jennifer Chen, Nurse Jerome Martel, Lea Dilallo, Dr. Samuel Eshagian, Dr. Aaron Glassman, Dr. Patrice Gromski, Dr. Gregory Gulino, Dr. Cynthia Kohler, Dr. Audrey Lim, Dr. Veronica Nguyen, and Nurse Roberta Ocampo," she stated.

Right after she said her final statement, some of Audrey's allies cheered quietly while others sighed with relief. In addition, the reporter was releasing all of Salen's shenanigans to the public and to the court.


After the Pension Fund was over, everyone contentedly busted out of the building in their friend groups as they made celebratory dinner plans with each other or with their families at home. For instance, the nurses made plans to go to that pizza place whatever the outcome (for celebration or for pity), but Nurse Villanueva declined because she just wanted to go home to her family and celebrate with them.

"We are definitely going out for drinks tonight," celebrated Mateo excitedly with an enthusiastic clap, wrapping his arm around Audrey as they walked out with the rest of the surgical team plus Morgan and Lea.

"Hell yes to that!" Audrey cheered.

"Oh, yeah!" Claire agreed, high-fiving Audrey while also jumping up and down with her like a bunch of party animals at a sleepover before finally settling down. "That bitch has finally gone down!"

"So, are you guys coming with us?" Mateo asked the rest of the group. "We would love some company."

"Well, I'm definitely coming with you guys," declared Aaron, mixed with excitement and calm relief. "I want to have more fun. I definitely need to."

"Asher and I are coming, too," joined Jordan.

Asher nodded in agreement. "Yep."

Morgan sighed solemnly. Although she was happy that everything was on its way to going back to normal, she was still feeling guilty about Nira. Sure, she wanted to celebrate, but part of her joining in was only to drown out her guilt. "I'll come, too."

"Me, too. Are you guys coming?" Alex invited, referring to Shaun and Lea.

"Yeah, when was the last time you two came out drinking with any of us?" Jordan questioned, and she couldn't really remember the last time Lea went out for drinks with her.

The answer to that question: Shaun and Lea (well, mostly Lea since Shaun wasn't that much of a party person) haven't had a night out alone or went out to have fun with friends since Lea became pregnant with Violet. The last time she partied with drinks was poker night with Dr. Glassman and his buddies on the day she saved the hospital from a cyberattack. The next day, she noticed her period was late, then she took a pregnancy test that turned out positive.

Before Lea or Shaun could answer, both of their phones chimed, revealing a text from Kat, which was sent an hour after she sent a text telling them that Violet was fine along with an attached photo of Violet asleep in her crib.

KAT: It looks like Violet might have pinkeye. She woke up crying, and when I went to pick her up, I noticed that her eye is a little red and crusty. You mentioned she had been rubbing her eye.

"Crap," sighed Lea, closing her eyes in frustration.

"Why? What happened?" Claire asked, sounding worried.

"Kat, the babysitter, just texted us. Violet has conjunctivitis," answered Shaun, and it didn't really surprise him that Violet got infected with pinkeye.

"Oh, poor thing," pitied Alex. "Does that mean you're not coming?"

"Yes," replied Shaun. "We'll pay Kat extra because she might get pinkeye from Violet…and so might her children. And Lea and I might get it, too."

Everyone looked at the couple in disappointment, but they also understood their devotion to their daughter.

"Well, you guys go enjoy your victory party," beamed Lea softly.


After the victory party was over, Alex and Morgan drove toward Morgan's home in complete silence and tension (just like the atmosphere between them at the bar) in Alex's blue car…except they weren't going to be spending the night together. He had moved back in with Morgan for a while after they went to Guatemala, but after a few weeks, he found a place of his own.

"I'm going to sleep at my place tonight," Alex decided, which made Morgan wonder if this was a break-up.

"Okay," sighed Morgan, who was in the front passenger seat, as she pulled out a sheet of paper from her bag and then handed it to Alex, who immediately started reading it…and the further he read, he saw that it was an admission of misconduct. In the locker room this morning, she told him that she was going to make things right, which was a step in the right direction.

"You sent this to Nira?" Alex questioned.

"Mm-hm," nodded Morgan.

"This is an admission of misconduct," he stated. "I mean, I'm already proud of you for telling everyone the truth, but it's also good to let the patient know."

"Well, you know me. Go big or go home," chuckled Morgan.

"I hope you didn't do all of this for me," muttered Alex.

"No. I did this because of who I am with you," explained Morgan. "Less selfish and egotistical."

Alex gave her a smile as he unbuckled his seatbelt and stepped out of the car to open the door for Morgan, nonverbally saying that he was changing his mind about spending the night at his place.

"I'm proud of you," he praised once again as they walked into her home, holding hands.

AN: So, this was exhausting to write, and I'm kind of disappointed in this chapter because I just summarized the entire battle...but I hope you enjoyed some of it, especially the speeches. To be honest, I really wanted to get this chapter finished and skip this one. Basically, I've bitten off more than I can chew for this specific chapter. Anyway, in the next chapter, there will be a short time jump of four weeks.