At night, Meredith is walking around in the living room with Zola. Her voice over talks about how some things are supposed to happen, while others can be changed by doing one little thing differently.
Cristina and Owen are lying in bed, both awake, backs turned towards each other.
Richard finds a completely lost Adele in the kitchen. He takes her back to bed.
Callie and Arizona are sleeping in peace.
Meredith puts Zola back in her crib, after which she crawls back into bed. She falls asleep wondering what her life would’ve looked like if she was raised differently, if her mother never would’ve gotten sick and if she’d have had a good father. That question is answered.
Meredith is woken up by the voice of her mother. She gets dressed and walks down to the kitchen, where her mother is dressed and ready to go to work. She asks if Meredith rides with her, or with her father. Meredith decides she’ll go with her dad. “Who’s coming with me?” Richard asks as he enters the kitchen. He kisses his daughter on the forehead while Ellis warns them both not to be late, as it sets a bad example. Richard gives her a kiss.
They arrive at Seattle Grace Hospital where a meeting is being held. The attendings, including a pregnant Addison and a very The Time Warp-like Bailey, gather in Ellis Grey’s (the Chief of Staff) office for the morning meeting. Callie arrives with three children in the waiting room next to it. Owen comes out of the office to greet his kids and his wife. Callie had no other option, as the daycare hasn’t opened yet. They enter the office together.
Bailey’s eyes get big as Ellis Grey enters. She immediately starts by saying that she has looked at Seattle Pres’ numbers, and that she thinks they can absorb them, like they did with Mercy West. That way, each department can have new residents and equipment. Addison interrupts to congratulate her on her third Harper Avery Award, which she received for having developed her own whipple technique. The others applaud and compliment her. Ellis says there will be some press today and then starts asking each department head for their plans. Owen, as Head of Trauma, replies first. Then Derek, who only has one surgery planned. Ellis reminds them all that if they’re not innovating, they need to generate. Surprisingly, Callie is now Head of Cardio, and she tells that Yang will be doing a solo thoracic aortic aneurysm. She and Arizona then disagree over another patient’s course of treatment. Ellis sides with Torres, as she came up with an innovative fix. She tells Derek that that is what she wants. Dr. Bailey will be doing an extended whipple. Meanwhile, Owen and Callie’s daughter is pressing her face against the window. Owen walks out of the room. After a short patient history, Ellis says she’ll take over Bailey’s case. While Addison does the neonatal update, Richard calmly tells Bailey that what Ellis just did is not a reflection on her. She probably just wants a surgery to take her mind off the Harper Avery she’s just been awarded. Bailey does her best to withhold her tears. Ellis thanks them all.
Meredith shows April her engagement ring, which she got last night. She knows it is hard for April, but she assures her she will find someone. And Charles is really into her. Jackson smiles as he hears this. April knows this and starts to say something about Charles, but stops as he walks in and greets her. April asks Meredith if she told anyone else. Beside her parents, but she hadn’t because April is her person. April says they’re gonna be the next Shepherds. “Screw that, we’re going to be the next Webbers,” Meredith smilingly says. Meredith then starts telling the proposal story, but is interrupted by Cristina entering the locker room. She has bangs and is disliked by everyone in the room. The disliking is mutual. A cheerful, nerdy dressed Alex comes in. He’s Chief Resident and tries to motivate them all. When Meredith hears about Yang’s solo surgery, she figures out she’ll be doing Torres’ post-ops then. April is on Addison’s service, while Charles is on Derek’s. He proposes they could be the next Shepherds, but April declines the offer.
Everyone walks out, except Meredith. She stays behind and starts kissing Alex passionately. They had a rule about kissing in the hospital, but the ring just makes her look extra good. Her mother loved the engagement, as she adores him. Alex says that took her a while, but Meredith says she knows he was a jerk before he met her. Ellis didn’t know there was a good guy in there, but Meredith did. She loves the engagement, and him as well. They continue kissing.
After the meeting, Owen takes the kids to daycare. Addison joins Callie and comments he’s good with the kids. She asks how he’s doing. He’s better and she thinks they’re past it. That’s great, Addison says, because she heard it can be a hard road coming back. None of them knows what he went through out there, but Callie says he does Skype with some of his old buddies that are still in Iraq and this guy, Teddy, seems to be helping him through it. And he hasn’t had another episode since that one. So anyway, he’s good, and they’re good now. Addison says she doesn’t know how she does it with the kids, but Callie gestures at her belly and says she’ll find out soon enough. Callie says she and Derek will be fine, as they’re perfect together. As she walks away, Addison smile fades.
Richard tells Derek that all Ellis is saying is that she wants him to use his full potential. They arrive at the elevator, where Richard greets his daughter. Richard asks about a clinical trial, but Derek says he has no time for that as his baby is coming. Richard thinks it’ll do him good. He leaves, leaving Meredith and Derek alone together. Meredith enthusiastically greets him, but barely gets response. As she begins to try to start a conversation, he walks away. “What an ass,” she says.
In the ER, Jackson and Owen take on a junkie’s case. Paramedic Nicole brings in the girl, who has tattoos and piercings all over her body. They found her in the street and presume an overdose. The girl is shaking. Just as they want to lift her off the gurney into a hospital bed, she goes into v-fib. They shock her, which normalizes her heart rate. Owen says the girl is all Jackson’s. Jackson orders labs and turns the girl’s head, revealing it’s Lexie.
Meredith joins a group of journalists listening to Ellis offering them to come up to the gallery during her surgery and take a few shots of the technique in action. As the journalists disperse, Meredith compliments her mother and asks if she can scrub in, as she’d love to see the procedure first hand. Ellis asks why, as Meredith’s focus is cardio. Scrubbing in on her mother’s whipple won’t get her a cardio fellowship next year. Ellis blamingly brings up Yang’s solo surgery. Meredith says that that came in last night, when she wasn’t there. Ellis says that is because she was too busy getting engaged and says that that is over now and asks if she wants to do the surgery, Ellis can ask Dr. Torres to give it to her. Meredith declines the offer, as she can get it herself. “There you go,” Ellis says.
Alex meets Bailey. He’s stoked for their whipple today. Bailey silently objects. Alex tells her to speak up, just like Ellis did earlier that morning. Bailey says they’re not doing a whipple today, as she had it taken from her. Alex tells “Mandy” that they had talked about this. She can’t let people walk all over her, she has to stand up for herself. Not if it’s Ellis Grey, Bailey says. Alex gets excited, as watching Ellis Grey operate is great. He says they need to get in on the surgery. “We create our own destiny,” he says. He rushes off and urges her to follow him.
Lexie wakes up. Jackson greats her and says she’s finally stable now. He asks for her name, or anything, so they don’t mix up her pee with somebody else’s. “You got my pee?” she asks. “Yeah, you were kinda giving it away for a while there,” he replies. Lucille Ball, Lexie says, making him smile. He comments she’s funny, which is how she makes her living. He says they’re gonna get her worked up and send her on her way. She asks him where she is. She smiles and sighs as she hears the hospital’s name.
April is delivering a baby and tells the mother, Theresa, not to push. Addison comes in and asks April what’s going on. Addison feels around and asks April to order a 3D-ultrasound and prepare an OR for a crash C-section stat. She also needs to have her husband paged.
Callie rushes into her patient’s room. Arizona tells her the kid detached the connector to the artificial lung, so she had to clamp off the cannula to stop the bleeding. She told Callie this was a bad idea. Callie wants to book an OR to reconnect the device, but Arizona says it’s too dangerous, he needs to go back on ECMO. The kid’s mother asks if he’s worse now that it’s not working, but Callie watches the monitor and asks Arizona to stop. His sats are higher than they’ve ever been. She asks the kid if it’s hard to breathe, but it’s not. Arizona tests his breathing with a breathing device. He’s breathing better than he ever has done before. From the sound of his lungs, it may look like a transplant is not necessary anymore after all. The mother is thrilled and hugs Callie, saying she loves her. “I think I do too,” a smiling Arizona says, hugging her as well. Callie reflects momentarily on the effect of Arizona’s hug.
Bailey tells her patient and his wife that the Chief of Staff took over the surgery. They don’t understand why. Alex steps in and tells them to think of it as a huge upgrade. They’ve just been handed the keys to a Jaguar, while they’d been driving a civic. Ellis walks in and introduces herself. She explains the procedure quickly. She gives them consent forms and gives them no time to ask questions or whatsoever. Before Ellis leaves, Alex asks her if he can scrub in. Of course, she’d love to have him. “See, you have to speak up for yourself,” Alex says to Bailey, after which he leaves. Barry, the patient, asks if Bailey can explain what that woman just said. However, Bailey has noticed something in the chart and wanders off.
Cristina wakes up Lexie by shining a flashlight into her eyes. She tells Lexie her heart stopped again. Because of all the cocaine she’s enjoyed, she needs a surgical implant. Cristina gives her an informative brochure in case she has any questions about the surgery. Cristina walks away. Jackson asks if there’s anyone he can call. Lexie replies her parents are dead. Her mother died of a stomach thing and her father killed himself. Lexie smiles and says she does have a half-sister, who works as a doctor at this hospital. Jackson asks her who it is, but Lexie says her sister doesn’t know her, and she wouldn’t want to.
Charles and Derek walk into Addison’s OR, responding to her page. They look at the ultrasound. “That is a massive tumor!” Charles remarks, not aware that the mother is still awake. Addison explains to her what’s going on and April says that the Shepherd’s are the best team she could ever have. Addison delivers the baby and Derek immediately starts taking care of her.
Looking at the scans, Addison and Derek start fighting. They’ll need to operate simultaneously, and it’ll take all day. Addison sarcastically apologizes, since he didn’t plan on spending all day with his wife. He says he’ll see her in the OR. “It’s a beautiful day to save lives!” she yells after him.
Meredith meets Richard in the scrub room and tells him she needs to steal a surgery from Cristina Yang. Yang is always stealing surgeries, he justifies. “Girl gives me the creeps,” he says. Meredith says Ellis is operating, but that she doesn’t want her to be in there. Richard reminds off her of when she learned to ride a bike. After an accident, it was her mother who made her get back on her bike. And then she learned to ride a bike. Ellis just wants her to succeed. Richard offers her to scrub in on his surgery, but they agree she probably shouldn’t. She lies her head on his shoulder.
April, Jackson, Alex, and Meredith are watching Cristina stitching a banana in the cafeteria. Cristina has already done two solo thoracic aortic aneurysm surgeries. Jackson asks if she ever eats with anyone, ever. No, April says, because that’s what happens when you screw an attending. Jackson makes a virgin joke about April, but Meredith comes up for her person. Meredith reveals that Burke had to leave the state after his sexual encounter with Yang. Alex says Yang is so crazy she’ll probably go ‘full-on Izzie’ and shoot up the hospital one day. Meredith and Alex tell Jackson Izzie was a crazy girl in their class, who was sleeping with a patient, and then she stole a transplant heart for him. Until Meredith turned her in to her mother and got her fired. April comments Meredith is brave. Alex kisses his fiancée as Jackson asks how many people washed out of their year. After Izzie, there’s O’Malley, who failed his intern exam and was never seen again after. Meredith gets up to go and steal Cristina’s surgery.
At another table, Miranda is explaining to Callie that Ellis’ plan won’t work, as she will try to use the iliac veins, but they won’t be useful due to the patient’s extended thrombosis. Callie isn’t paying attention; she’s watching Arizona talk to Dr. Atterman, some ortho surgeon. Callie states that she wanted to go into ortho, but she didn’t because Ellis told her she was good for cardio. Meredith comes over and she asks if she can do the thoracic aortic aneurysm surgery, as Yang has already done two, while she has only done one, so it’s only fair. Callie says she knows what her residents need, and thus refusing. Meredith comments that her mother suggested she ask her, which makes Callie change her mind. She proposes she and Yang split it, so she and Yang can do it together. Meredith thanks her and walks away. “Whatever Ellis Grey wants,” Bailey says, to which Callie agrees. Bailey says Yang won’t like it, but it’s better than kicking her off the case. “Bitch scares me,” Callie says looking at Yang.
Jackson finds Lexie packing up her stuff and says ‘Lucy’s got some splainin to do’. She says she’s just going. He objects, as she’ll die if she doesn’t have this procedure. He knows it’s scary, but she knows what’s going to happen. She cites the brochure, using her photographic memory. He’s impressed and comments she should go to med school. He says she should see all of this as a second chance. She’s smart, beautiful and sharp, and she can turn things around. He brings up her sister and says she can have a whole new family. “Let’s start by fixing your heart,” he concludes. She starts crying and hugs him.
Cristina is eating a banana and then sees Meredith’s name has been added to her surgery on the surgery board.
She enters Alex’s office to ask what Meredith Webber is doing on her aortic aneurysm, only to find April and Alex making out. She smiles as the two start panicking, and closes the door.
Alex is putting his shirt back on as he races after Cristina. He tells her that she can’t tell anyone. Cristina comments that surgery is hers and he can’t just throw his girlfriend on it. Alex says he’ll make sure Cristina never sees the inside of the OR again if she tells anyone. Cristina simply states he needs to get Meredith’s name off the board. Alex says he didn’t change the board, Torres did. “Where’s Torres, then?” Cristina asks.
In surgery, Addison tells Derek he needs to have lunch with the president of the Bryson school tomorrow. He asks why they’re talking about it now, so she tells him it’s because he’s never home. She derides him for sleeping in the trailer and planning a house he’ll never actually build. The patient deteriorates. Derek thinks Addison made a mistake, but she didn’t. She tells him to concentrate on what he’s doing.
Ellis is in the OR, preparing. Alex is scrubbing in and Bailey finds him. She tells him the iliac veins may not be suitable for grafting and asks him to tell Ellis. He asks why she didn’t tell her, and refuses to do it himself as it’s her patient and he doesn’t want to tell Ellis that she’s wrong. Bailey does say that Ellis read the chart, which convinces Alex that she knows what she’s doing. Bailey asks him to tell her anyway, but he doesn’t listen as he enters the OR.
Cristina is on her way to Owen. Jackson is following her and asks when she’s going to do Lucille’s AICD. She says that she is not, because she has surgery. He’ll have to do it, but he refuses because she did the consult. Yang asks Owen where his wife is, but Jackson interrupts her and tells her about Lucille. Owen orders her to do it, as she was the consult. Cristina keeps on saying she won’t give up her surgery, making him burst out and smash a window as he tells her to back off. The whole ER looks at him, shocked. He flees into a trauma room.
Cristina follows him and grabs some bandages for his hand. He won’t need stitches this time. Cristina thought his PTSD was supposed to be getting better. He asks why she keeps helping him instead of reporting him. They share a look until she says she does so because she’s a doctor. He asks her not to tell Callie. She leaves for surgery.
In the OR, with journalists watching from the gallery, Ellis asks Alex where the wedding will be. He and Meredith thought about Hawaii, but Ellis doesn’t feel like going to a destination wedding. She runs a hospital, so she can’t just dash off. She says she’ll book the Rainier Club, as it’s gorgeous. He says it’s great as Ellis discovers the iliac veins are completely thrombosed and thus completely unusable. She asks if he knew about this. He lies and says no. The reporters are taking pictures. Change of plans: they’ll use the renal vein instead. Ellis is furious and asks to have Bailey paged stat.
While Callie reads a magazine, Cristina and Meredith are fighting over the course of treatment. The patient is already sedated. Callie suggests they should have thought of a surgical plan before the actual surgery, but Cristina says she didn’t know that Meredith would be in there with her. Callie warns them not to make her come and do it. They both ask for the 10-blade.
Owen finds Avery, who backs away as Owen approaches. He’s on his way to reserve an OR to put a pacemaker into Lexie’s heart. Owen tells him someone made off with an armload of drugs from the dispensary, with his ID card. Jackson now notices his ID card is gone and he rushes over to Lexie’s bed and notices that she’s gone.
Ellis asks Bailey if she knew the patient had thrombosis. Looking at Alex, Bailey says she did. Ellis looked at the patient’s chart, but asks why the fact that his thrombosis wasn’t in there. Bailey says it’s because she had chosen to use the jugular vein. The information was in the medical records though. Ellis says she had to use the jugular eventually, because the patient had been under far longer than optimal. “That’s why I picked the jugular,” Bailey comes to her own defense, making Ellis even more furious. Alex is ready for the graft, but accidentally nicks the carotid artery. Ellis looks up at the gallery and snaps “you people are trying to kill me”.
Addison and Derek are scrubbing out. She wants to know what she has to tell the mother, but he snaps he will go and talk to her himself. She brings up the preschool again, but he dodges and says he’ll stay late to look into this clinical trial. One more reason for him to stay out of the house, she says. Addison hopes things will change when the baby comes, but he says nothing’s going to change. She asks if he even wanted a baby. He does. She specifies she’s talking about this baby, with her. Charles and the other staff are watching them from the OR. She asks him if he loves her. He looks down and says of course. “Can you say it without looking at the floor?” she asks. He can’t.
Callie says there are only three minutes of circulatory arrest left. If the patient endures more, the organs will starts dying. Cristina blames Meredith for having taken too long. They’re done, so the patient can get back on bypass. Meredith however says no, as there’s a leak. Cristina opts to find it and throw in a stitch, but Meredith wants to do an internal graft. Callie sides with Meredith and asks Cristina to move her hands. Cristina does so, but immediately goes back in when Meredith is struggling with the instruments for a second. She found the leak and asks for suture.
Derek asks Ellis if she has seen his wife. As a matter of fact, she has. She just threatened to quit. She asks him to wash his dirty laundry at home, not in her OR. He says there are two sides to every story, but she’s not interested in his side. Richard and she had very high hopes for him, but he’s a disappointment. He doesn’t publish, doesn’t teach, and he has a terrible attitude. His nickname is not very flattering either. She tells him to get it together, because if it comes down to a choice between him and her, he needs to be very clear on who she’ll choose, implying she’d choose Addison.
Charles comes into the locker room and tells Meredith and Alex they do not want to be the next Shepherds. However, they’re all too busy listening to Meredith’s story of Cristina sticking her hands back into the patient. Cristina comes in and says her patient is awake and doing great. Jackson says that’s great, cause OD girl bolted. Meredith and Cristina start arguing and Cristina says Callie only sided with her because she is the Chief’s little girl; Torres is a pathetic lackey. Meredith brings up Burke. “Good one”, Cristina says. “However, if she wants to get personal, why doesn’t she ask what Prince Charming and Virgin Mary like to do in his office?”. Alex starts to deny, but April starts crying and apologizing. Meredith rushes off. “Just shoot me now!” a disgusted Charles says.
Arizona tells Callie their patient is doing great. He can go home by the end of the week and has been taken off the transplant list. They shake hands over Callie’s amazing work and Arizona calls her amazing. They agree they should get drinks sometime to celebrate. They share an intense look as Callie’s daughter comes running over. Callie is then forced to leave with her kids, but they agree to have drinks sometime.
Richard is comforting his crying daughter and asks her what happened. She can’t talk about it. Ellis comes in, saying that she’s heard what happened. Ellis says she should be upset and humiliated. She says Meredith can’t let anyone show her up in her OR, ever, revealing that she’s unaware of the real reason why Meredith is crying. Meredith says she shouldn’t have been in that OR, as she wasn’t prepared. Ellis asks why she went in. Meredith says it’s because Ellis pushed her. Meredith says Ellis is not mad because Meredith embarrassed herself, but because she embarrassed her. Ellis closes the door after Meredith leaves. As Richard asks what’s wrong with her, Ellis tells her she wants him to fire Bailey, tonight, as she made a complete fool of her. She looked like a total failure. She starts crying too because she was humiliated in front of all those people. Richard comforts her and tells her she can’t control everything, even though she wants to. Ellis asks if Meredith is all right and admits she doesn’t know how to talk to her, so she asks him to do it. Ellis admits she’s horrible with her, but she just wanted her to do the best she could. Richard knows. She thanks him and he continues to comfort her.
Owen finds Cristina and thanks her for today. She tells him to tell his wife and get some help. Owen says she’ll leave and take the kids with her, as she’s afraid he’ll hurt one of them. “Aren’t you?” she asks as Callie and the kids come over. Callie asks Owen about his hand. He lies and says that a junkie patient knocked him into a tray of instruments. Callie says they should get home so she can take a look at it.
In the ER, Mark comes in carrying Lexie. She was lying in the street and he almost ran her over.
Mark is performing CPR. Cristina and Jackson have stepped in too. They manage to revive her. Mark asks nurse Ruth where he can find Dr. Shepherd. “Which one?” she asks.
Richard finds Meredith, who tells him he doesn’t need to come cleaning up after her mother again. He does it every time, and it’s beneath him and pointless. Meredith finally figured out why she can’t do anything right for her mother. She wants everyone around her to be ordinary, so she can be extraordinary. She wants everyone around her small, and that’s what she’s done to him. Meredith is not planning on letting her mother do it to her too.
Derek finds a crying Addison in a lounge. He doesn’t know what’s wrong with him. All he knows is that the baby’s coming and that he wants it. It may change things. She’ll get happier. They’ll take it one step at a time so they can make it work. Addison then reveals it’s not his baby. Mark comes out of the bathroom, shirtless. He’s washed the junkie blood off of it. “This is awkward,” he says. Derek shakes his head.
Meredith sees how Cristina and Jackson are trying to revive Lexie again. She steps in and proposes they crack her chest. Cristina says it’s not indicated as she OD’d, but Meredith says she’s going to anyway, so there’s nothing to lose. She asks for a chest tray. Cristina steps in and they crack her chest together.
Bailey gets on an elevator. Alex is in the corner, crying. He says he screwed up. He had a good thing, he had a chance to be better and he screwed it up like he does every time. “I just lost my job. Do you see me crying?” she asks, finally having found her strength and not being shy anymore. She has no idea what to do next, but she’s not hiding whimpering about it. Now she asks him what they say. “We create our own destiny,” they say together. That’s exactly what she’s going to do, and he should too.
Jackson tells Meredith and Cristina they lost the patient, but they tell him to shut up and refuse to give up. They manage to get the girl back.
Later that evening, Meredith and Cristina are drinking tequila at Joe’s. Cristina says they don’t have to do that thing where she says something, and then Meredith says something, and then someone cries, and there’s a moment or whatever. Meredith happily agrees. It’s just that nothing is turning as Meredith thought it would. She doesn’t even recognize her own life. Cristina knows what she means. Cristina then says she should go and have some sleep. She suggests Meredith do the same, as she looks like crap. “I look better than you!” Meredith says, but Cristina replies that that’s not possible. She leaves. Derek is sitting at the bar as well and asks her what his nickname is. McDreary, she replies. He laughs and agrees that that’s his life. She proposes that tonight, he’s just “a guy in a bar”. Then she’s just “a girl in a bar”, he says. She is, and she drinks tequila. He smiles and orders another tequila for her. They cheer.
