The conference room felt like a courtroom, the air thick with the scent of high-stakes litigation and expensive coffee. Richard Webber sat at the head of the table, flanked by hospital legal and a silent, stony-faced Miranda Bailey. Across from them sat the "Original Five," looking like a row of convicts awaiting sentencing.
Christopher stood at the back of the room, leaning against the doorframe. He hadn't slept. He still had a smear of trauma blood on his cheek, a dark badge of the lives he had managed to save while this house of cards collapsed.
"Someone cut an LVAD wire," Richard said, his voice a low, vibrating thunder. "Someone committed aggravated assault on a patient and stole an organ from the UNOS list. I want a name. Now."
Silence. Izzie was shaking so hard her teeth were literally chattering. Meredith looked ready to take the fall, her "martyr complex" ticking like a time bomb.
"It's a fascinating mystery, Chief," Christopher interrupted, his voice a cool, sharp razor that sliced through the tension. "Almost as fascinating as why the hospital's security protocols allowed an unsupervised intern into a high-risk ICU room during a mass casualty event."
Richard turned his glare toward him. "Wright, stay out of this. This is an internal disciplinary hearing."
"Actually, it's a theatrical performance," Christopher drawled, pushing off the wall and walking toward the table. "You want a scapegoat so the board doesn't pull your funding. But let's look at the facts: the monitors in that wing were malfunctioning due to the power surge from the storm. The nursing staff was stretched thin. Any one of these 'children' could have made a clerical error in the dark."
"A cut wire isn't an error, Christopher!" Bailey snapped.
"In a court of law, Dr. Bailey, it's a failure of oversight," Christopher countered, his eyes flickering toward the door. He thought of Jack. He thought of the way a lawyer would dismantle this room. "If you fire them, you admit liability. You admit that Seattle Grace is a place where interns run wild while Attendings are busy... what was it, Derek? Trying to find a 'miracle' for a spinal bleed?"
Derek stiffened. Christopher was playing a dangerous game, using his own heroism from the previous day as a shield for the interns' gross negligence.
"I was in the room," Christopher lied, his voice dropping into a terrifyingly calm monotone. "I saw the arrest. I saw the scramble. It was chaos. If you want to punish someone, punish the system that failed to provide a Lead Resident to supervise them during a code red."
The room went dead silent. Christopher had just blamed the entire administration to protect the girl who had broken the law. He looked at Izzie. She was staring at him, her eyes wide with a mixture of terror and undeserved gratitude.
"Get out," Richard whispered, his face purple. "All of you. Wright, my office. Now."
Christopher didn't flinch. As the interns scrambled out, he caught Meredith's eye. I just bought you time, Grey, he thought. Don't make me regret it by falling in love with a vet in the next episode.
He walked toward Richard's office, his heart hammering. He was officially a co-conspirator now. He had saved the interns, but he had just put a massive target on his own back.