Chapter 12

SEATTLE GRACE

RESEARCH LAB

"I know I'm the one who wanted some degree of secrecy," Dr. Austin told them. "This strikes me as a little ridiculous side."

"I'm sure at some point in your career you needed to do something like this to make sure your ass was covered for something," Meredith said. "This is the best way to do it."

Before the lunch had been scheduled George had reminded all of them just how suspicious Yang was going to be if she figured out where Austin was the same time all her 'friends' were. So Meredith had arranged for some time in the lab doing her research project because she knew that Yang would let it go immediately. In a sign as to just how far apart they were drifting, she had dismissed her most recent project as a lie meant to cover something more important. That her 'person' was capable of caring about anything other than the progression of her career was inconceivable to her because she couldn't see anyone doing that either. And the idea that one of the best cardiac surgeons in the country would spend any time there even as a joke was something she couldn't begin to comprehend.

"Do I even want to know what you're working on down here?" Austin said as she looked at some of the equipment down here.

"You wouldn't believe it if she told you," George said. "I understand why she's doing it, and I'm still not completely onboard."

"Maybe when we're not about to completely deconstruct the behavior of someone we began our careers at this hospital with, then we discuss our side hustles," Stevens said.

Alex looked at his fiancé. "Damn, I am starting to rub off on you, Iz," he said affectionately.

"I wasn't being funny," Stevens said. "Look, I know this conversation has to happen for Cristina's sake, if no one else's, but that doesn't mean I feel any better about. Especially as someone who spent quite a bit of her time here feeling everybody was looking at her like she was a lab rat."

"If it makes you feel any better, Dr. Stevens, I feel as awkward about this as you do," Austin confessed.

"Why? Isn't talking dirty about your colleagues in private something that you're supposed to do when you become a great surgeon?" Karev asked. "It certainly is here."

Austin looked uncomfortable. "It's different from my perspective. When I was coming up in the ranks, you got used to the toxic sexism in the workplace. You were told to have a thicker skin to deal with all the unflattering remarks everybody was making about you and not always even with the decency to do so while you were out of the room. I got taught this lesson a little too well and have been known to do it very publicly with far too many of my fellow colleagues – and basically anyone else I met. As a result while many med students and residents admired me whenever they worked with me, I'm pretty sure most of them hated my guts."

"That's to be expected of people of your generation," Meredith said. "My mother had to deal with it just as much as you did, and she didn't have nearly the flaws you did."

"I want to think that I've mellowed a bit as I've gotten older," Austin admitted. "And that people can learn from the mistakes I've made. That involved learning to punch up less and to stop punching down. And I don't think I can talk about your friend without doing a lot of the latter."

"She does have a habit of bringing out the most competitive bits of your nature," George said. "Sometimes that can be a good thing. She also has the potential to be one of the greatest surgeons ever, which is also a good thing." He hesitated. "The problem is, she knows it and is not afraid to do anything to get there."

Austin thought for a moment. "I assume most of you know my resume," she began. "Including my four years at Chicago Hope."

Meredith had an idea what she was about to talk about. "How closely did you work with Jeffrey Geiger?"

"No one worked 'closely' with Jeffrey Geiger. Otherwise, you might start to develop radiation poisoning," Austin said bluntly. "He was there when my career at Chicago Hope began and he was there where it ended. Literally, in the latter case. He fired me and quite a few of my colleagues all in one sitting before any of us could take a breath or without even bothering to tell us why." She looked at Meredith. "Did your mother ever have the misfortune of working with him?"

"She viewed with him with total contempt," Meredith said. "Not for his personality or how he treated people but because he was the best surgeon in the country and he had the nerve to give up his career for family."

Austin's eyes grew distant. "I was in the room when that happened too," she said. "Allan Birch, the attorney for the hospital had been shot by a gangbanger. We'd removed the bullets and he was in recovery when he suffered a pulmonary embolism. We took him back in the OR and he died on the table. Geiger collapsed into tears right there. I was just as sad too. The next day, he went on a leave of absence to take care of Allan's adopted daughter. "

"My mother thought he was weak," Meredith said. "Which makes perfect sense. The idea of sacrificing your career for the good of someone else – even if that someone is your own daughter – is something Ellis couldn't comprehend, much less empathize with." It was very hard not to recognize the bitterness in Meredith's voice at this.

"It's odd. It's one of the few things I ever respected the man for, maybe even envied him because of it," Austin admitted. "Just a few days earlier he'd been ranked the number one cardiac surgeon in the country. And he was willing to let that all go to raise another's man child. At the time, I wasn't even willing to temporarily sacrifice my career to raise my own. That took a kind of guts I'm not sure I ever had."

"As admirable as that is, I don't think you mentioned the man to praise him as a father," Alex said. "Because I assure you, Christina would have the same opinion of that decision as Ellis Grey did."

Austin looked a little puzzled at this. "Is there something about her relationship with Preston Burke I need to know about?"

Everyone looked at Meredith. "It's not like that's one of those secrets we don't tell," Stevens reminded her. "Half the hospital watched what happened."

Meredith then reluctantly told Austin about how, after Christina had gotten pregnant with Burke's child, she had asked Meredith to come with her to the clinic to have it handled. Her decision to keep her pregnancy a secret backfired when Yang had suffered a miscarriage in the middle of an operating theater, and Preston had learned about her condition a few hours later.

"Now I don't want to go into detail on your position on this issue," Karev told her. "It's a third rail issue and it's kind of irrelevant. What I do want to know is what you think of her decision to do this and that the person she chose to tell was not the father of the child."

"We are going to debate that at some point." Austin looked at Meredith. "Were she and Burke still together then?"

"They'd broken up a couple of weeks ago," Meredith said. "I did think she should have told Burke, but honestly I don't think she would have told anyone if she could have helped it."

"How is Yang's pregnancy relevant to this discussion?" Austin asked.

"I think, in a sense, it's another part of the puzzle," George said. "Christina had a right to do whatever she wanted. But I was close to Preston and he deserved better than to find out about Christina's condition after she collapsed in his OR. The fact that she didn't think twice about telling him…"

He trailed off.

"I get that Yang doesn't have the traditional feelers for compassion or empathy the way some doctors don't," Austin said slowly. "There is an arrogance about being a great surgeon that many of us have. I had it to a large extent, and Geiger had it in spades. The difference is, both of us had done the work to become the best, and that our patients trusted us because we were the best. There's a critical difference between us and Yang."

"I think I know what you're getting at but could you spell it out anyway?" Stevens asked.

"Everyone in Chicago Hope – with one critical exception – loathed Jeffrey Geiger," Austin said. "With good reason. He treated his fellow surgeons, the nursing staff and quite a few of the residents and med students like utter dirt, that they had to genuflect beneath his greatness. There were only one of group of people he treated respectfully and kindly: the people he was going to be operating on. With good reason. When you're trying to perform the most cutting edge surgeries in the country – and he did quite a few of them, he was one of the first surgeons to transplant the heart from a baboon into a human and performed heart transplants on infants – you cannot act like an entitled asshole in front of the patient. You do that, they will be terrified and they'll refuse the surgery that might save their life."

Meredith nodded. "Christina has aced every test that she's taken and performed every surgery asked of her, but she'll always get a failing grade in bedside manner."

"This is forgivable, and even understandable for a med student, an intern or even a first year resident," Austin agreed. "I've worked with Yang on three procedures in the past week. Any time there's a reason not to be in the same room with the patient, she'll find it no matter how thin. The last time, I came as close to ordering her to stay in the room with me when the patient had valid concerns. Yang could barely be bothered to make eye contact with the man, much less answer his questions."

"We were all pretty rotten at that the first couple of months," Karev pointed out. "But it's not like there are good results when you focus too much on a patient."

"I know," Austin told them. "And I'm honestly not entirely sure how some of you still have your jobs."

"Jack has chewed us about that on multiple occasions," Stevens said sadly.

"Honestly, I wasn't entirely talking about you, Iz," Karev reminded her. "Need I remind you how badly things ended up going all those weeks I spent with Eva?"

Austin looked confused. "Seriously? Jack didn't put a flea in your ear on that?" George asked.

"Maybe it's because of his first wife," Meredith pointed out. "It's not like what happened between you two is something he can easily throw stones at."

"Me either," Stevens admitted. She looked at Austin. "A story for another day. It doesn't end as tragically as mine, but it doesn't end much happier for the participants."

"I get that sometimes that involvement with our patients can lead to complicated situations," Austin told them. "I'm not going to pretend my track record is immaculate in this regard either. But there has to be a middle ground between wanting to violate the rules to help your patient and treating them like a slab of meat they can't wait to slice into. Yang still seems to see patients as procedures, not as human beings, and I'm frankly a little astounded that everyone seems inclined to recognize her genius as a surgeon over her incompetency as a decent medical professional."

"Jack called on this bullshit over a year ago," Karev reminded her. "Not gonna lie, I'm pretty sure all of us resented being considered that we were barely competent doctors and for all intents and purposes needed to start from scratch. There are two differences between the rest of us and Yang. We eventually accepted he was right, and we all chose to learn from our mistakes. Christina did neither."

Meredith nodded. "She spent the next six months bitching against Jack the whole way and chafing against everything he said or did. I'm not going to lie, I commiserated with her a lot of the time, and I probably empathized with her more than the rest of you. But at the end of the day, I probably am a better doctor because of everything Jack made us do. Christina just kept counting the days until it was over, and the minute it was it was as if the whole experience left no impression."

Izzie hesitated. "I haven't wanted to ask this question until now. But I think it's time. When I was going through chemo, how'd she handle it?"

This was something of a sore point between Karev and Yang in particular. Every time Christina had visited Izzie during her recovery, she had limited her questions to Stevens' treatment and chart. At the time most of them had figured this was the only way that Yang could deal with someone she knew being critically ill – to treat her like she would any other patient; that her clinical detachment was serving as her coping mechanism.

But when Stevens had announced that she was coming back to her residency full-time, there had been a very clear change in how Christina treated her. Suddenly Yang was visiting less often and had less to say to her or Alex. It was as if the only reason she'd been willing to visit with Stevens in the first place was because she was visiting a colleague, and now that she wasn't going to be working with her, she wasn't obliged to go through the niceties. Alex had actually thought worse of her: she'd only cared about Stevens because she thought of her as competition, and now that she was going to be her rival for any of the same positions, she didn't have to pretend to be friends with her.

Pointedly, neither of them had asked Meredith directly about this. Now was the time.

"She didn't change her routine one bit," Meredith said. "I mean, neither did the rest of us. We had our residencies to go through and I know that George and I were leaning on them as a way to keep us from having to worry about you during those first few weeks."

"Yeah, but every few hours I was trying to pull you two aside," George said. "There were a couple of times I thought I was going to emotionally collapse. I'm man enough to say I cried in the halls more than a few times worrying, and I'm not ashamed cause I saw Mer doing it too." He sighed. "But if Christina ever got emotional, she did a great job hiding it."

"She's Christina. That's what she does best," Karev said bluntly. He looked at Austin. "Was Geiger that restrained in his emotions?"

"Just the opposite," Austin said. "It's not the same thing. At least part of the reason for Geiger's personality had to do with some of his own demons. His best friend once told me that he didn't think Jeffrey Geiger could function outside of the OR. The man was in a world of emotional pain and it manifested in horrible ways everywhere else. A few months before he went on a leave of absence, his competency was called into question by the medical board. I'm honestly not sure how he got away with his license intact."

The residents were understandably curious but didn't think this was the time to ask for details. Meredith decided to settle on the main question. "Was he mentally unstable?"

"There was trauma involved." Austin was quiet. "I don't see any harm in telling you as its part of the public record. A couple of years before I started working there his wife, Laurie, was institutionalized because she had a psychotic break. They had an infant son." Austin gathered herself. "One night she drowned him."

They all took this in. "That would fuck anyone up pretty badly," Karev acknowledged.

"Aaron – he was his best friend – told me that Jeffrey was in a world of pain before that," Austin said. "He lost count of how many times he asked him to get help because it was clear after a while Jeffrey was never going to get it."

"That's one thing they do seem to have in common," George said. "Christina's never going to get help because she doesn't think she needs it."

"She does seem to be unable to recognize people with those kinds of problems," Meredith said. "Remember last year she was in that relationship with Hunt?"

"The trauma surgeon?" Austin said. "Did she dump him at the altar too?"

"It never got that far," Meredith said grimly. "He spent much of his first year here going through PTSD. Christina found out something was wrong with him and didn't tell anybody – until he tried to strangle her while he was asleep. He went into therapy the next day but she'd broken up with him twelve hours earlier. I don't think the two of them have had a conversation outside of a procedure since then."

"Is everybody who works for this hospital messed up this badly?" Austin asked, only somewhat rhetorically.

"It seems to be just the surgeons; the nurses and the ER doctors seem to be fully functional," George told them. "Of course, we don't spend enough time with them outside of work to know. For all we know, half of them are addicted to painkillers and the other half of them raid the morgue to sell human organs to make ends meet."

"That would be on brand for us," Meredith looked at Austin. "Come on. You're telling me none of the hospitals you worked at didn't have these kinds of reputation?"

"Yes, but ours were basically because the surgeries we did were so experimental at the time, we were basically considered mad scientists," Austin told them. "Aside from Geiger, the most damaged doctor at our hospital had a gambling addiction that made him difficult to deal with. And even that never stopped him from doing things like a cross-hand transplant."

"Whereas all the great surgeries we performed are pretty much dwarfed by the messes we've made," Stevens admitted. "Christina pretty much proved that point when she basically performed major heart surgeries under Burke's name."

"That alone should have gotten her fired," Austin said. "According to Jack, she tried to use that as a case for advancing her career. I would never have done that and Geiger would have demanded her head on a platter. He wouldn't have been entirely wrong.""

Which brings us back where we started," Alex said. "And I think were entitled to answers now."

Austin shook her head. "I don't like ratting out other surgeons, let alone another woman. Especially one who clearly has the potential to be one of the best. But Christina Yang is reckless, has no regard for authority and doesn't want to take direction or advice. She's already proven herself to be a liability to this hospital. An argument could be made – and it wouldn't take much work – that the last two heads of cardio have resigned as a result of Yang's actions."

"You're giving her too much credit for Hahn, but I can see why some people might think that" Meredith admitted. "So as the new head of cardiac surgery if you tell Weber you want Christina gone, he'll listen to you."

"How much of a fight would he put up?" Austin asked.

And because Dr. Austin had been incredibly honest, Meredith went further than the others thought she ever would when it came to Christina Yang. "He's been ridiculously loyal to most of us, even when it might have come at the expense of his career. But the last couple of years haven't been good for Seattle Grace. And as Chief of Staff he has to put the good of the hospital first. If you force the issue, I think he would let her go."

Austin looked at her friends. "How much does your opinion count for his decision?" she asked them.

George chose to speak up. "We're still only residents. He may consider some of us surrogate children, but his job and his marriage have been hurt because he's put us ahead of that. He can't keep doing that. He might take Meredith's opinion more seriously than the board's, but if you were to go them with your concerns, they'd overrule him."

"They'd also fire him," Austin reminded him.

"He's been considering retirement since we got here; he'd probably thank you for it," Meredith said. "But it wouldn't go that far. Jack and Juliet have already raised the issue multiple times; there's a point where you have to listen to your fellow attendings. So if you say the word, Christina will be fired."

She looked at Austin. "But you knew that already. That's not why you wanted to talk to us. You know you can end Christina's career with a word, you called us because you want to save it."

Austin considered this. "You know, you might already be a better doctor than your mother. She would never be willing to go this far to try and salvage someone she thought was beyond repair."

Meredith flushed a little. "I may not be as close to Christina as I was when he first started out, but I know she's a great surgeon. And I think there's a real person in there somewhere. I'm not going to give up on here, even if she seems to be giving up on me."

"That's the reason you're here," Austin said. "I may be a great surgeon, but I've never been a good teacher and I certainly haven't been a good friend. I want to see if I can help Christina but as someone whose spent too much time around addicts and people willing to climb the ladder, I also know all too well that sometimes you can be blind to the people trying to help you. And even at my best, my efforts to help people often end up being completely botched from the get-go."

"I was Christina for most of my career," Austin added. "Career-oriented at the expense of friends, family, even my own daughter. I was so focused on getting to the top of my profession that I never had any idea what to do when I got there. I'm not even sure how seriously Christina may be taking me considering the fact I reached the top of my profession twice and both times ran away from it, literally the first. Given what your mother thought of Geiger after he quit, she probably had a similarly low opinion of me when I fled the country with my daughter rather than accept a job as chief of surgery."

"Oh, she would get taking your daughter from her father fine," Meredith said bitterly. "She would have said your mistake was not to have a job waiting for you when you got there."

Austin looked at Meredith. "I have to ask: is there any chance Christina's family made her the way she is?"

George answered. "Her parents are perfectly normal and loving human beings. Based on the little I've seen of them, I'm pretty sure she doesn't know how she's their child." This was harsh for him, so he shrugged. "You've met my brothers. A lot of the time, I thought the same thing. But my dad knew that I was meant for better things than my brothers. I'm willing to bet Mrs. Yang thinks the same for her daughter. The difference was, I listened to my dad. I can't say the same for Christina."

"Do you have a solution or at least the beginnings of one?" Stevens asked. "Because none of us have a clear picture."

"I might," Meredith said. "It will involve some work and it may take a while. I see you have Yang ready to scrub in on your next surgery." Austin nodded. "I need you to scratch her from me and have me scrub in. But I need you to wait until as close to prep as you can."

"That's not going to be an issue. What excuse do you want me to give her?"

"None. In fact, I need you to brush her off for even asking the question."

"Is this to help Christina or make me feel better?" Austin said with a straight face.

"Nothing gets to Christina more than being treated like she's just another resident," Karev answered. "But I'm not entirely sure how this helps things."

"This is where it's going to get tricky," Meredith said. "And it's almost certainly going to piss Derek off."

MONTGOMERY RESIDENCE

"Not that I don't regret a home-cooked meal that I don't personally have to cook," James was telling Addison, "it just seems a little weird to be rewarded for…"

"…helping me?" Addison said, as she turned over the steaks.

"I was going to say running a con, but I'm not gonna argue with a doctor," James said.

"You've rarely used your power for a more benevolent end," Juliet reminded him.

Addison had held off telling James about her therapy until she was making a celebratory dinner for him. Juliet and Jack had held off telling him because they understood this wasn't a secret to tell.

"There are more than a few ironies in your parents' situation that pertain to me," James said. "Starting with the fact, given how much money they come from, they are definitely the kind of people Sawyer would have targeted in my old life. There's also the fact, based on what you've told me about them, that not even you would have minded that much if they had lost a bit from one of their charity drives."

"I wouldn't go that far, but keep going," Addison said.

"But of course the true irony is that my particular brand of con would not have the kind that would have worked because your mother…how do I best put this?"

"Batted for the other team?" Addison said bluntly.

"I would have been a little more delicate, and said I wasn't her type?"

"Delicate? You?" Juliet said with her eyebrows practically at her forehead.

"There's a first time for everything," James admitted.

"Well, taking money from my parents wouldn't make anybody feel better, certainly not me," Addison said earnestly. "And it's not like the man you used to me would get anywhere near their circle, anyway. No offense."

"None taken," James admitted. "I had to be very particular with the kind of people I conned anyway. Most of the ones I worked on wouldn't have had the resources yours would have. They'd have sniffed me out before I got through the front door."

"Jokes about larceny aside, do you think I'm doing the right thing?" she asked.

James grew surprisingly sober. "You're asking the wrong man," he said. "My entire life was based entirely on my parents being dead, and that basically destroyed me."

Juliet looked at James. "Do you remember that much about them before that night?" she asked sincerely.

James looked taken aback. "You know, I don't think anybody ever asked me that before. I spent so much time angry for what had happened to them that I'm not even sure I have any good memories of them before that night."

Addison knew about why James had done what he did but little more than that. "If you don't mind my asking, how soon after they died did you…?"

"The day of my parent's funeral, I started writing that letter," James hesitated. "I've told the survivors and Blondie this, but I haven't shared this part with any of your colleagues. But since you just bared your soul.." He held up his hands. "My uncle saw what I was doing. I tried to hide it from him, but he asked and I gave it to him. He said that I understood why I was angry but 'what's done is done.' Then he asked me to promise I wouldn't finish writing that letter. And I lied to him. I don't know for sure if it was the first lie I ever told to an adult, but it was definitely the most important."

"I'm sure you've been told this by some people, but a trauma like that will do a nightmare on a person's head," Addison said. "Maybe you might have been able not to finish that letter. Maybe you could have managed to direct all the anger you felt about your parent's death in a different and less ferocious direction. But it would have probably come out some other way."

"That speculation, or you have more to base it on then that?" James asked.

"You spend enough time with expectant mothers who stay addicted to drugs all through their pregnancies or couples who are clearly together only for the children, you know at some point they've been through something and this is how they're showing it," Addison said. "Maybe you'd have ended up a CEO of Fortune 500 company, but you had a gambling addiction and were on cocaine to get through the day. Maybe you'd have been a suburban husband with the perfect family, but you'd have shouting matches with your wife every night after dinner and your kids would be terrified with you. Hell, here's a wild idea; maybe you'd end a top notch police detective but every time you heard about a con, you'd track him down on the hope he was your 'Sawyer' and if he wasn't, you'd tune him up in back of a garage or he'd end up dying resisting arrest."

"I think you're stretching it a bit with that last example, but your basic premise is sound," Juliet agreed. "I mean, maybe if you hadn't written that letter, you wouldn't have ended up on Oceanic 815. But there's as just as much of chance you could have ended up in an alley somewhere, bleeding out from a gunshot wound after one too many drinks, you picked a fight with the wrong person who said something that you thought was a slight against your mother."

"Well, I am talking to two successful professionals whose personal lives was really messed up by their parents, so I am inclined to take you seriously on it," James said. Then he turned more serious. "How much did you talk to John when you were in LA?"

"Not as much as the rest of your friends there, but I've heard enough to know that some of you think that you may not exactly had a choice when you got on your plane," Addison said carefully.

"He must be getting mellow in his old age if he's being that subtle about these days," James said. "On the island, most of us thought he was crazy because he was a lot less subtle about why we were there. It was not until we got back to civilization that we realized that he might have had a point."

This was territory that Addison was not yet confident she wanted to talk about. She was already halfway convinced that she hadn't had much real choice about the kind of romantic partner she'd be because of how she was raised. Her new friends had been very delicate about the subject – probably because they were still coming to grips with it – but it was pretty clear that because of what had happened on the island, they were a lot less sure about the idea of how much control anyone had over their fate. She changed the subject – slightly.

"There's this short story I remember reading growing up," Addison began. "I don't remember the title, just that it was written by Philip K. Dick." She looked at James. "I know you're a reader. You ever read his work?"

"Some of his short stories. I know Blade Runner is loosely based one of them, as well as half a dozen other films," James said. "Tell me the details. Maybe I'll know it."

"There's this man. He's just lost a run for some political office, and through a series of encounters, he runs across this man in a suit and hat." Addison said. "And through that encounter, he comes to learn that every major decision man has made for a very long time has been made by…"

"…An Adjustment Team," James finished. "I don't remember the collection, but I know the story. Certain people…because it's a short story you don't have to go into details as you would in a novel or a movie… have been working 'behind the scenes', so to speak to 'adjust things so that man doesn't ruin everything. But the joke is, the men who are adjusting are only given orders to change certain things. They usually don't know the full scope of the plan any more than we mere mortals. And there always seems to be someone higher up the food chain who knows more of the picture than they do."

Juliet looked at Addison. "Which part of that story scares you more now? The idea that there might be somebody manipulating your actions. Or that they might not even really know why they're doing it; only that there's some higher power that wants it done?"

"Actually, I know the answer to that one," James said. "Having spent even a short while in the company of Ben, I find it far more unnerving that at some point he was doing all his manipulations because he was following the orders of someone higher up the food chain."

"The answer for me is all of the above," Addison pointed out. "I don't like the idea that I became a cheater because of the environment in which I lived. The idea that I have fewer choices that I may have liked because someone else was pulling the strings, I don't want to even consider that."

"It's not a comforting thought," James agreed. "I've been leaning as hard against the idea for as long as I can but facts are facts. Many of those of who came back have been brushing against everyone else who did since before we got on the plane. When we even try to hint at this idea to some of your colleagues who know are story, they are adamantly against it. Which shouldn't shock us that much. They do believe in science over faith after all."

"And I guess I'm no different," Addison told them. "My environment and my upbringing made me who I am. So I have to find a way to change that and the best way to do break the cycle is to make sure the people who were the cause of that aren't involved with my family going forward."

"All I can say is be sure," James said. "You may hate your parents – you have a good reason – but once they're gone, they may never come back. And I'm not the only survivor who'd say as much."

Just then, James' cell phone rang. He picked up. "Yeah? Yeah, I knew who it was. I just don't know why you'd call me of all people." He nodded. "Hang on. Let me put you on speaker."

"Addison, Juliet, hi," Meredith said.

"How'd your meeting with the other Kate Austin go?" Juliet asked.

"Not what I expected. She still thinks there's something to salvage from Christina's career, and so do I."

Everyone exchanged glances. "Does she have any idea as to how you might do that?"

"I think so. It's not going to be easy, and Christina may end up hating me for it for a while, but long run, I think it's worth it," Meredith said slowly.

"So why did you reach out to me and not Jack?" James asked.

Meredith hesitated. "You were on a con artist before you came back to civilization," she said slowly.

James got it very clearly. "And you want to run one on Christina."

"I've been accused far too often of wearing my heart on my sleeves, and the only person I've been able to fool is myself," Meredith said. "If I'm going to have a chance to pull this off, I need to learn from an expert."

James hesitated. "Ok, two things. First of all, I'm not always the best teacher. On the island, I got conned as many times as I pulled one off."

"Hopefully, you learned from your mistakes."

"That's asking a lot," Juliet muttered audibly.

"The other thing, the last woman I taught how to con, she ended up throwing me in prison when she found out who I was," James said.

There was a longer pause. "I'm not that vindictive, and I'm still working off half a million dollars in student loans," Meredith finally said.

"I'll take that as at a yes," James said. "When do you want to get started?"

"You know where I live?"

AUTHOR'S NOTES

I admit this is mostly a Chicago Hope-Grey's Anatomy chapter, so I'll fill you in on some more details.

Jeffrey Geiger was played by Mandy Patinkin, who left the series halfway through Season 2. His character's exit happened exactly as described here as well as the general nature of who he was during Season 1. Given what we know about Ellis Grey, I find it very believable she would loathe Geiger for the exact reason described here, and why Austin might now consider it admirable. His backstory about his son and wife were made clear from the pilot of the series, though how much of that was the root cause of his demons was never clear. (I haven't ruled out the possibility of him showing up later on in this story or a future one, for the record.)

Yang's romantic history is essentially canon, as far as her history with Preston Burke goes. I've altered it slightly in regard to Hunt's character, I haven't decided if it will change. I don't remember seeing much of Yang's family during the five seasons I watched the series; I don't know if there's more to it than that. Based on what we know about the O'Malley family, it's possible George felt like that more than once in his life.

The characters on Chicago Hope were, by and large, not as dysfunctional as the ones on Grey's (that's one of the reasons I consider the latter a superior series, for the record) The doctor Austin is referring to is Jack McNeil, who was played by Mark Harmon and who I'm relatively comfortable saying was, next to Geiger, the most damaged. (Though to be clear, even at his worst, he was still far more functional than Geiger was.)

I do believe Austin might want to help Yang and I know Meredith would. Meredith is, after all, her person. That will probably end up filling out much of the rest of the story (though not right away). Meredith thinks the best way to help her is to try and find a connection and we know from the series; Christina had a lot of trouble adjusting to Meredith's relationship with Derek.

I had James and Juliet talk to Addison about her parent's infidelities because both would have a different perspective: Juliet on how her parent's divorce ruined her relationships and James' about the danger of what it's like when your parents are gone. (And yes, the inevitable flash-sideways reference. I had to.)

For those of you less familiar with the reference, I am referring to Philip K. Dick's short story The Adjustment Team which was turned into a pretty good movie called The Adjustment Bureau. I'm less sure of the general plot of the story and am basing it more on the plot of the film Which I do recommend. The themes are very similar to the ones at the center of Lost. The idea about some larger plan that no one knows the full path and that there's someone higher-up that we don't know about is central to both shows.

James and Meredith Grey? The next great con team. Though it may be a little while before I get it started.

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