To be perfectly honest, Meredith didn't want to fight Faith for the position of Chief. While it would have been an honour to have been considered for the position under normal circumstances, the circumstances under which Meredith took over were less than ordinary. She had been about to leave, about to start a new life with her boyfriend in Minnesota, and within minutes it was all torn out from underneath her feet. Bailey had passed her the position of Chief without even asking her if it was a position that she wanted in the first place. So, when Faith gave her an out, gave her the opportunity to give it back with no repercussions? She had jumped at it. Who in her position wouldn't?

The first thing she had done when she had gotten away from Faith was call Nick. No answer, big surprise. She couldn't blame him for being pissed at her. She had left him, or rather told him to leave. He hadn't wanted to be in Seattle, so she had set him free, let him go and live his life where he wanted to be. Just because she was trapped didn't necessarily mean that he had to be, after all. Still, she did miss him, so she booked herself onto the first available flight out of there, back to him. She would have to ask Amelia and Maggie to watch the kids, but she was sure they wouldn't mind. Maybe she could even win some points with Faith by bringing Nick back with her to help out until she was set up with a full staff again.

Speaking of Faith, the new Chief of Grey Sloan seemed familiar. She was sure that she hadn't met the woman before, but there was something eerily familiar about her. She knew Richard, but that wasn't unusual, many people knew Richard. Meredith figured that they were very similar in age, so why didn't she know her? She wasn't in her intern class, and she didn't remember her from her childhood in Seattle, so who was she and why did Richard talk to her about Maggie? Did he recommend her for the Chief position? And why would she take it? The hospital was evidently failing, who would want to take it over when it was in such a position?

The more she thought about the other woman, the more questions she had. She didn't have time to think about all of that at the moment, she simply wanted to get to Minnesota and apologise for the way she had treated Nick. She loved him and had thought she was doing what was best for him, but she had hurt him. She hadn't even gone home to pack a bag, choosing to head straight to the airport after she had called Amelia to ensure that she and Maggie would watch the kids. She made it to the airport by the skin of her teeth, just barely arriving to the desk before check-in closed. She had to rush through security, although that was easy when all she had with her was a handbag.

Her gate was already announced when she got through, so she headed straight to it. Faith and Seattle could wait, right now she needed to focus on getting Nick back.

Meanwhile, back at the hospital, Faith was realising how much Richard had left out of his explanation of the demise of the hospital. OB residents moonlighting as General Attendings, two Trauma surgeons on the run, horrific press about their former residency program, no peds attendings at all... Faith had an awful lot of work to do, and she definitely would need to be calling in as many favours as she physically could. It was a truly awful situation, and she would have to work some serious magic to get this hospital back on track.

She knew she could ask some of her extended family for some help. Jackson had recently found out about her and had actually backed her to become the next Chief of Surgery for Grey Sloan. She was sure he and April would come and help out until she could interview for replacements for them. That was a good start to her plan. OB wise she had Carina Deluca, and Jo Wilson in her residency, but she was sure she could convince Addison to come out and help for a while, it wasn't like she hadn't come to help Grey Sloan before… Three surgeons down, many, many, more to go.

First thing was to actually call her stepbrother for help. He had offered to come out and introduce her to everyone, but it wasn't worth it, she hadn't wanted to be introduced as Richard's daughter. The pair had been texting that morning anyway, about how best to go about making the change, so she had dialled the number with ease.

"Faith, hey, did introducing yourself go okay?" His voice was cheerful at the other end of the line and quite frankly she wanted to cry. He had known how bad it had been too, and he hadn't told her.

"It went fine, we knew Meredith wouldn't mind handing over." Her tone was sharp and yet she knew she couldn't snap at him, not if she wanted his help.

"Then, what is it? You don't call me to catch up..." He was on to her, of course he was. They weren't that close at all.

"I need you and April to come back to Seattle for a while… Just until I can fill the vacancies in Trauma and Plastics. I don't have enough surgeons to rebuild the program right now and it would certainly be easier with you two who know how it works. I've got Grey agreed to stay on for six months so I figure that's how long I have to fix this."

"Faith… I have so much history there... I've only really been gone for 18 months; I haven't done what I left to do yet."

"Short term. You'll be doing me a massive favour… Please, April is like my only hope for Trauma right now."

"Fine, I'll talk to her but it will only be short term. Maximum six months, like Grey."

A sigh of relief. "Thank you. You're the best stepbrother in the world." She grinned, even though he couldn't see her. "But people can't know that just yet. I don't want people to think that I'm just here because my father got me the job. Not even Maggie knows who I am right now."

"Of course, my lips are sealed and so are Aprils, if we come."

"Thank you. Let me know." She hung up the phone and leaned back in her desk chair. It was time to meet some more of her staff.