dangerously ↝ a. hotchner

t h i r t y - o n e

That same day, Aaron had been whisked away to North Carolina for a case. Ana still intended on going to visit Jack later that day, but for now, she was at work. She'd just gotten done with seeing Trent, and had seen Stacey earlier in the day. They both appeared to be doing amazingly well, they were making immense progress in terms of their mental health and taking their treatments religiously.

Something was happening in the hospital, rumors were spreading like the plague and the whole neuro department seemed to be on edge. Ana had no clue what was going on. Between her previously crappy personal life and her patients taking up all her time at work, she hadn't managed to get the weekly scoop from Charlotte in, well, weeks.

"Finally. No patients." Charlotte sighed dramatically as she fell into the chair across Ana's desk.

Ana rolled her eyes, a light smile forming on her lips.

"Don't give me that look. You know you want to know what's happening in this place." Charlotte smirked.

Ana pouted, usually she'd be stubborn, but she really wanted to know what in the world was happening.

"Fine. Go ahead." She huffed, knowing she'd lost this round.

Charlotte stood up and walked over to the plush, two seater couch in Ana's office. She lay down on it, hugging a pillow to her chest, similarly to what Ana's patients would do in a session and started talking.

"So. Apparently our favorite chairman Jameson not only tried to get Oppenheimer off the board, but he also tried to fire half of the diagnostics department because the department head is actually a total bitch, but she's a great doctor. She tried to make a deal with him, cut their pay and keep all of them, but he was having none of it." Charlotte took in a deep breath, only for a second before continuing. "I'm not exactly sure what he threatened her with, but the dean was present at all these meetings and she inevitably had to make a choice, head of diagnostics leaves, or Jameson leaves."

Ana was now at the edge of her seat. "And?"

Charlotte chuckled, finding amusement in the way Ana said that she hated to gossip but actually loved gossiping. She blew a strand of hair off her face before answering. "Dunno, the verdict isn't in yet. If Jameson leaves, so does his one hundred million. If Dr Hayes leaves, this hospitals mortality rate goes way up and the hospital looses an extremely valuable asset."

"Who do you think she's going to choose?" Ana inquired.

"I got a hundred on Jameson."

Ana lifted an eyebrow as a laugh slipped past her lips. "You bet on everything."

"I bet on everything because I always win." Charlotte said confidently.

Ana shrugged, "I don't know, a hundred million dollars is a lot of money."

Charlotte scoffed, "Please, this hospital was doing fine without it and will be doing fine after it's gone. Sure, we got some fancy equipment, a few extra members of staff and whatnot. But that was for the good of our patients, not for some filthy rich ass with an agenda."

"I didn't know you felt so passionately about the subject." Ana stifled a laugh at Charlotte's enraged face.

Charlotte scowled, "This affects us all."

"This affects Oliver Jameson and Dr Angela Hayes. This doesn't affect the way we do our jobs Charlie."

Charlotte sighed, "I know. It's just so exciting! And here I thought working at a hospital was just boring paperwork and dying people."

Ana giggled, "You're silly."

"You're seeing Jack tonight." She wiggled her eyebrows at the doctor.