Christmas wedding bells are in the air, but Bailey is trying desperately to silence them. Ben really wants a winter-holiday-themed wedding for the two of them but she isn't interested in having a big wedding for her second go round. Fortunately, she's got some actual medicine to keep her busy -- a patient she's had for years comes to the hospital to receive a new liver but as happens with lots of transplant recipients, he's been in this situation before and had everything fall through. The liver arrives but after they do the transplant the man's body begins to reject it and they realize that it's not going to work. When they tell him afterward he's at peace with it and concludes that it wasn't meant to be; that affects all of the doctors because he's one of those awesome people who actually deserves to have many more years ahead of him.
Cristina had been assisting with the surgery since there had been a cardio element and throughout the day Bailey saw her actually teach her intern as well comfort Smash (in her own way) after he broke down in tears at the patient's bedside. Combined with the fact that Cristina gave Bailey thoughtful wedding advice (if the wedding is important to Ben, just go with it since it's totally not something worth fighting over in the grand scheme of things), Bailey realizes and delightedly points out to Cristina that she changed while she was in Minnesota.
Cristina tries to deny it at first; she's still mad that Owen is so hostile towards her and they have a spat where he reminds her again that they want different things and each time they try to ignore that, it bites them in the ass. He's in the middle of a crappy day as well meeting with the lawyers regarding the lawsuit against the hospital. Richard warns him to be wary but Owen isn't worried and just marches in and tells the truth. Unfortunately, what he learns is that he was the one who signed off on the hospital switching their transportation contract to a cheaper company with a history of mechanical issues. A new Board member who had been in the meeting stands up, though, and assures Owen that they support him 100%. He finds this a little odd and eventually realizes that everyone's goal is to focus on his conflict of interest (Chief of Surgery who signed off on the new contract, married to one of the doctors suing the hospital who could benefit financially from his mistake) in hopes that the case will be thrown out of court. He calls them on it but they just calmly remind him that he signed a confidentiality agreement so he can't discuss this meeting with anyone, least of all Cristina. It's unfortunate timing that this is right when Cristina finally comes to accept that she has changed and she does want him back, so she calls him to the firehouse so that they can talk… and he declares that he wants a divorce.
April's period is late and she handles it with the same grating panic that's accompanied each step of her relationship with Jackson. They do a blood test since those results will be the most accurate and as the day goes on and they talk about it, Jackson realizes he's okay with it if the test turns out positive. Not only that, he is actually pretty stoked and as he convinces April that he's serious, he tells her that he'll marry her and they will have an awesome life together raising their child. She gets really excited at the idea too but then is even MORE excited when the test comes back negative and she exclaims at length about how they dodged a bullet. Jackson has finally had it with her comparing sex/life/etc. with him to fatal occurrences, so he tells her that it's over.
It's Arizona's first day back at work, and Callie and Alex are feeling extremely overprotective and quietly try to make sure that no one makes a big deal, mentions the leg, or does anything that might unintentionally freak her out. Their plan goes fairly well even though she does start to feel like something a little weird is going on, but at the end of the day and a long surgery standing for hours Arizona takes a wrong step and crashes to the floor. Alex shoos everyone else out of the room and runs to her side, thinking she's sobbing and embarrassed, but it turns out she's laughing at herself and can handle a lot more than he had thought. Callie comes home to find her happily playing with Sofia, and while she still seems terrified that Arizona's mood will change, she allows herself a smile and a moment of relaxation. She's not finding that relaxation at work since she keeps coming up with different possible procedures to try and fix Derek's hand and he keeps shooting each one of them down.
Meredith has a patient who turns out to have a nasty brain tumor but the new neuro guy declares that it's inoperable. She shows Derek the scans and of course he believes that he could do the surgery (if his hand was healed) so she uses that to convince him he needs to at least try to get it fixed. After Callie has spent the entire day doing yet more research he tells her to throw it all out, but that's because he wants to look for new solutions that might have a better chance of working. And he's going to want his hand in tip-top shape no matter what because it will help with all of the diaper changing and baby holding he will be doing since it turns out that MEREDITH is the one who is actually pregnant!
Can two people really be meant to be? Meredith voice-ponders the idea while the doctors are in a staff meeting where many Soulful Glances are exchanged, especially between Jackson and April. Cristina stares impassively at her estranged husband as he wraps things up by announcing that it's Arizona's first day back. He thinks that she should be heartily welcomed while Callie thinks it would probably be best if no one made a big deal about it at all. As everyone turns to leave Owen has just one more tiny little thing to say, which is that everyone now knows that a group of doctors have filed a lawsuit against the hospital. He tells everyone that this absolutely doesn't affect the staff as they are to all just keep taking great care of the patients and continue supporting each other. After everyone else files out Cristina walks up and tells him that he did a good job, but she's got some bite behind the statement and I'm not sure if she's mocking the situation or just him for what he said. He looks like he'd rather be trapped in a bathtub full of cockroaches than in this conversation and asks what she wants, so she quickly asks him what he wants to do with the firehouse now that she is no longer living there. He just replies that it's her house and she should do what she likes.
Callie wants everyone to act normal to the point of disinterested in Arizona's arrival but she's doing lots behind the scenes to make Arizona feel like it is just any old day. This includes having Heather lurk around a corner with a wheelchair should Arizona need it. Her feeling is that Arizona will get tired and sore but she won't ask for the chair unless it's nearby. When she walks up (serving up Kerry Weaver realness with her cane) Callie greets her happily but runs off immediately to go work on Derek's hand. Alex doesn't seem super interested in all of Callie's machinations; he greets Arizona with his usual underexcited demeanor but actually seems glad to have her back when he immediately starts running through a list of all their patients. Heather lingers behind them, pushing a wheelchair that's squeaking like a prop in a horror movie.
Ben may be in med school but he's miraculously also had time to plan his dream wedding and he's driving Bailey crazy via the phone over the idea of a Christmas-themed event. She has no interest in going through a big wedding a second time, especially if it means inviting people who already came to her first wedding and bought her gifts. Richard, however, tells her he'd happily come AND buy her a new wedding gift. April has been standing nearby and chimes in about her dream wedding which involves releasing butterflies when she says "I do," and having mints printed with "Mint to Be" on there. Why not "Mint for Each Other"? Maybe the price is per letter. They might be small mints. Bailey looks like the mints might make her vomit and declares she wants to get married at the courthouse, followed by a cocktail party. There's talk about Ben trying to get his deposit back on the venue but the real point of that conversation is to drop the date so that April can realize what it is and freak out.
Meredith and Cristina are walking and talking about Owen; Cristina wasn't impressed by his, "We're all one big happy family" speech because she feels he's treating her pretty much the opposite of that. Mere realizes that something is up with her Person and asks what exactly Cristina is looking for from Owen given that she left him. Cristina isn't exactly sure, but she knows she doesn't want what she's getting right now. April runs up looking for Jackson and they have a laugh, figuring she's looking for some "Jackson action."
Callie really was going to work on Derek's surgery and she shows him a very fancy CG illustration of the surgery she is proposing, but he does not share her giddy enthusiasm and wants to know what else she's got. She does have other ideas but they are delivered with much less gusto and Derek shoots everything down before she can finish explaining. To be fair, they do sound imperfect in terms of how much function he might be able to regain, or they are far too untested for his liking. He takes off, leaving Callie sad and frustrated.
When one of my childhood cats died (no, seriously, stick with me here) our remaining cat actually picked up a few of the first one's mannerisms and habits in a very sweet yet eerie way. In the same way -- but not eerie -- Cristina keeps showing how much of Feeny's personality rubbed off on her. Today it's by taking a moment to sit on a bench outside with her face to the sun. Smash and Stephanie are gaping at her when Bailey walks up and interrupts her to ask a heart valve question about an upcoming surgery. Cristina has Stephanie (dwarf name: Grumpy) rattle off the answer. From all of the preparations that Bailey organized it sounds like a VIP is arriving and when an ambulance pulls up we meet her extremely cheerful and wonderful patient named Graham, who is there for a new liver. Graham's husband Hank gets out of the ambulance with gift bags for all of the doctors and then walks in with Bailey to talk wedding details.
Are we still trying to make Princess Intern relevant? I know nothing at all about Stephanie/Grumpy and yet I find her more interesting than Duchess Catherine, who is the intern focused on the most. She's really cute, yes, but let's give her something to do other than be a slightly passive-aggressive sad sack. I dislike her so much that it's becoming insulting to the actual Duchess of Cambridge to keep calling this one by her Lifetime movie name. "Jo Wilson" it is, then. Or Sad-Sack Dwarf. She tells Mere about a patient who was knocked into a perfume stand at the mall and cut his hand. Rather than stitch him up herself, she paged plastics since the guy is "difficult." Mere is unimpressed since a doctor needs to be able to handle difficult patients and she walks right up to examine him herself. As she begins, though, he reaches around and without a shred of embarrassment, grabs her ass. The man's daughter is horrified and begins to yell at her dad who, it seems, does this kind of thing a lot. After getting grabbed a second time Mere calls time on the exam and walks off with Jo, who lamely claims that she tried to warn Mere. Jackson then shows up to consult and Meredith delightedly tells him to watch his ass. Before he can do so, however, April urgently pulls him away to talk.
Once they are in a room alone, she tells him that she's late and it takes him an unrealistically long time to realize that she means she's Late-late and all that that implies. His face goes from confused to shocked while tries not to burst into tears over being four days late for the first time in her life.
April begins to completely melt down, which might be more affecting if we hadn't seen this same type of thing every week each time she and Jackson had sex. And look, unexpected pregnancy is a completely fair reason for a freakout, but I've got April-freakout-fatigue. Jackson tries to reassure her that she's not pregnant but she's adamant that her body is a clock. As someone whose body is more like one of those funhouse clocks that can turn any way at any time and has a goofy assortment of symbols on the face and cartoon characters popping out on springs, I have never been able to relate to this. They agree that April has to do a test immediately but a blood test will be more certain and will also take longer so that the tension can drag out through the entire hour-long episode. They leave to go draw her blood but when they get into the hall she's pulled away to see a kid who was just brought in after a horseback riding accident. Jackson tells her to text him when he's ready, so she runs off to actually practice some medicine. Callie then comes up and enlists Jackson to help out with finding a career-saving surgery for Derek's hand. He tries to get out of it but she won't accept that and pulls him away.
Richard compliments Hunt on his speech but since Hunt's panties are permanently wadded up these days, his response is to ask Richard if he wants anything. Hunt is about to meet with the hospital's attorneys and Richard wants to make sure he's ready; Hunt seems almost insulted at the idea he might not be. He tells Richard that he's just going to tell them what happened, as if he's about to go have coffee with a friend to hash out a simple misunderstanding. Richard just lightly warns Owen that the hospital is a business and in a situation like this, Owen should be careful that they don't back him into a corner. Owen is confident that he'll be fine and pulls so much attitude that Richard immediately backs off and agrees, telling Owen to just ignore him. He was only Chief for years and might have valuable insight into this type of situation, after all.
Owen walks in to the meeting and there are three attorneys, the apparently leader being a relatively young, smarmy guy. There's also a woman and then another man who never says a word. As they get started, another woman walks into the room and takes a seat against the wall to observe. Her eventual introduction is a little weird since Owen gestures to her a lot throughout his interview so I'll introduce her now as Roberta Thompson, the newest hospital Board member. The first thing they do is hand Owen a confidentiality agreement to sign which he does with only the quickest of glances. The conference room is like a really unfun Vegas: what happens there, stays there. They make a point of reminding him that this means he can't discuss things with Cristina and he tersely tells them that it's fine. They then ask why the docs were on the plane in the first place and he says that Boise requested their help since the Seattle docs had performed a similar conjoined twin separation surgery a few months earlier.
Bailey and the gang are in Graham's room and go over his issues which include end-stage lung disease and valvular heart disease. Graham is so positive and charming that I can only watch his scenes with a feeling of dread about his chances. Due to medical hoo-ha he has to have the liver transplant and the heart surgery at the same time as he would not have made it through each of them individually with how they are related. As they talk, Hank very sweetly fusses around Graham and puts a knit blanket on his bed so we know that they are in luuuurve. Cristina is pleasantly surprised to find that Stephanie seems smart, and Bailey is pleasantly surprised to see Cristina's pleasure. Graham has been here before and Hank wants reassurance that this time he will really get the liver and the doctors tell him that this should be it.
Meredith and Derek are acting like interns and making out in an on-call room but Mere does actually want to talk about important adult business. Derek finally heaves a sigh and tells her he's not sure why he should bother with the surgery at all since he's wanted more time to fish and even bought Zola her own pink fishing pole. That's the best he could come up with? "I'm scared." It takes some practice but becomes pretty easy to say. Mere presses him and he finally gives a real answer which is that all of the solutions presented so far are only half-fixes and he might not even keep the function he has. Mere just insists that there will be a surgery that will work and they just have to find it; he is shocked that his once dark and twisty wife has turned into such a legitimate optimist and seems a little bummed that she won't just let him slide into a life of fishing.
Cristina is teaching Stephanie a procedure on a surgical dummy when Smash and Bailey storm in and raise hell about Stephanie actually doing part of the procedure. Bailey is too attached to the guy to allow an intern to work on him -- she points out that he's been waiting for a liver for so long that he was married to a woman when he first got on the list. Cristina finally agrees and teases Bailey about becoming such a romantic; she then turns around and admonishes Stephanie for looking outright sulky about having her procedure taken away.
Arizona is checking out a kid who is stone-faced and silent and very un-kid-like as she tries to be her usual chatty self. She finally gives up and heads out of the room; when she does, Alex hands the boy $10. The kid is decidedly not quiet or shy and calls Alex out on having promised $20. When Alex makes an excuse the kid says that he'll just tell Arizona that Alex didn't want him to say anything about her leg. Alex miraculously finds some more cash and hands it over with a sneer at the savvy little dude.
Out at the nurses station Arizona asks if the kid is always that quiet and Alex brushes off that he's just weird. They get a call from April downstairs asking for a consult on her horse-riding accident kid; both are going to go but Arizona convinces Alex to go ahead since she's moving a little bit slowly. As she makes her way down the hall Heather and her squeaky chair follow and Arizona finally notices that she's got a high-pitched, whiny shadow. When Arizona turns on her, Heather lies that she got lost, turns and pushes the chair the other way down the hall.
In the ER, Alex does an ultrasound on the kid who turned out to be wearing expensive sneakers while riding, which is how his foot slipped through the stirrup and he got in his accident in the first place. April wants to get a CT but Alex tries to get her to hold on for a moment until Arizona can make it downstairs. April is not to be messed with on a day when she thinks there's a Punishment Bun in her oven and she wheels the kid out. When Arizona finally makes it in a couple of moments later she seems somewhat defeated to find just an empty room.
Cristina is taking her teaching seriously, and puts Stephanie through her paces as she gives Graham an ultrasound. Smash runs in and once again his lousy poker face gives away that he's good bad news, though it could be worse -- the plane is delayed an hour. (Of course, this makes me wonder if the plane has crashed but it turns out it really is just delayed.) Hank is sure this means doom and only gets more and more upset as Graham maintains that he's sure it happened for a reason. He points out that everything happens for a reason and his example is that he'd never have met Hank if his ex-wife didn't want to move to Seattle to be closer to her family. But mention of the ex and the 30 years Graham spent with her pushes Hank off the edge, and he yells that he doesn't believe any of this mumbo-jumbo because he himself was alone and sad for 30 years before meeting Graham, while Graham was scared and trapped in his marriage. Hank is terrified that something is going to fail with this liver and he won't get the 30 years he wants with his love. Graham, despite having a completely different outlook, knows that Hank is terrified and tries to soothe him while Smash promises they will get the liver if he has to go pick it up himself.
Mere goes back to the ER to report to Grabby McAssy that his scans are clear and he's free to go but as she talks to him, he reaches out and grabs her boobs with a frat boy-esque, "Nice!" Mere pulls his hand away as the guy's daughter lays into him and she notices something; she reaches over and touches her pen to his palm and each time she does so, he grabs it. She asks some questions and finds out that this has been going on for three years but before that, McAssy was McNormal. Mere pulls Jo aside and tells her that this kind of reflex and lack of inhibition could be caused by a brain tumor and she's to order a CT right away and page neuro. Jo tries to kiss her ass by telling Mere how smart she is but Mere shuts her right down and Jo takes it like a pro and decides to just do her job... HA, no, I'm kidding. She looks put out that she did the wrong thing, yet again.
Cristina runs up to Owen so that he can sign off on a surgery for her but as soon as that's done, he very obviously tries to get away from her as fast as he can. Cristina is sick of it, and once again asks why she's there. She knows now that he pushed for her hiring but he very clearly doesn't want her anywhere actually near him. He gives her some bullshit answer about how he runs a hospital and she is a great doctor, so it's a business decision. When she presses him, asking if that was really the only reason, it's like poking a sleeping bear. He throws it back at her and wants to know what she wants since she moved away and told him to stop calling. When she doesn't have a good answer he rather cruelly reminds her that they want different things, and each time they try to ignore that they hurt each other. He points out that nothing has changed, and she can only give a tiny impassive nod in response.
While Bailey eats lunch she gripes about twig reindeer -- which I have to admit I love -- and icicle lights, and Callie tries to act like she doesn't love those things either. She and Jackson are supposedly doing research to save Derek's hand, but Jackson is more interested in worrying about his possible fatherhood. Interestingly, he makes a comment about how love can make you do stupid things, and while I haven't ever doubted that he's in love with April it's interesting that he's finally said whether he realized it or not. The others don't catch it -- Callie just tells him to get back to work. Arizona comes in to say hi and to let Callie know she's doing an exploratory surgery and will be late. Bailey can't believe she'd do that her first day back and starts to comment about how long she'll be on her feet but Callie not very subtly shakes her head and shuts her up. She then changes the subject back to the Christmas wedding and everyone seems to forget the momentary weirdness. Jackson finally gets a text from April to meet her in an exam room, so he bolts while Callie yells after him. I love how every time you see a text message on an iPhone on TV, there's no message history there at all -- just a single bubble with the latest one. Though I suppose if we saw Jackson and April's history it would all be messages similar to this one asking him to meet her in an empty room somewhere, for much more enjoyable activities than a pregnancy test.
Before Jackson can get there, Mere runs into April and quickly realizes that something is wrong. April cries to her that she had a plan that included having a husband, a "Mint to Be" wedding, and that she had planned to tell that husband that she was pregnant with a t-shirt that said, "World's Greatest Dad." Mere figures out what's going on but at least April finally admits that she doesn't know for sure yet. Mere just smiles and tells her that plans never work out the way you meant them to, and this is especially of true with plans for babies. She goes on that you can try and try to get pregnant and don't, and then once you stop trying then it happens when you least suspect it. And if you're this recapper, you don't suspect anything at this point because this is totally what happened to them with Zola. Jackson then comes in so Mere leaves them alone, and the two possible parents put their arms around each other and walk off to go do the blood test.
The attorneys have now gotten into the meat of their interview with Owen, and they ask him who made the decision to use Skytrip as their charter company. Owen is very comfortable telling them he has no idea who made the decision or how long ago that happened. Owen, you're a grown man with life experience. How can you sit there and smugly think you're just going to tell the truth and this is all going to be peachy? Slowly, it's revealed that the hospital switched to Skytrip to save money despite that company subcontracting out to other companies with a history of mechanical issues. Four incidents since 2010, as it turns out. Owen's voice falters a little as he says that he's in charge of a surgical staff, not the budget, and then he turns to Roberta and starts yelling at her, demanding to know what fucking idiot would approve this type of thing in order to save money and wouldn't even check the company's safety record before signing a deal with them? The female lawyer pointedly slides a piece of paper over to him that shows that the idiot is in fact... Owen.
His bravado now completely gone, he tells them that he doesn't remember the approval specifically but he did it and he figures the step would be for him to resign. Roberta finally jumps up and introduces herself, which is weird, since Owen kept talking at her and gesturing to her as representing "the hospital" when he was talking earlier. In fact, he does tell her that they've met before. Roberta says that he's an amazing Chief of Surgery and he wouldn't be as good at that job if he had to worry about all sorts of little piddling budget details like airplane safety records. She admits that a mistake was made that cost people dearly -- including his wife -- but the Board is throwing all of their support behind him. Owen is still so sick at the revelation that this is partially his fault that he doesn't realize yet that something smells really funny about this show of support.
Jackson draws blood from April in a darkened exam room so that it feels that much more depressing and dramatic. Both of them aren't sure what to say, though April supplies that she should have been on the Pill and Jackson agrees that they were both kind of stupid about it. She then tells him in her tiny voice that she can do this by herself since she knows it isn't what he wanted. Just as Jackson realizes she means "raise a baby" and not "draw my blood" they are interrupted by Alex and make a bunch of lame excuses as they jump up. April leaves to go tend to her patient while Jackson stares contemplatively at the blood that might change his life.
Bailey is wrapping up her part of Graham's surgery and can't stop complaining to Cristina about Ben's womanly obsession with the details of their nuptials. She's appalled when Cristina's response is to say that it's only a wedding, figuring that she would have been the one person to support Bailey's obstinacy. But Cristina points out that she didn't care about the wedding at Meredith's house but did it for Owen. Her advice to Bailey is to wear the big dress, because there will be bigger battles. Bailey, still smarting from Cristina turning on her, shoots back that clearly that philosophy worked sooooo well for her and Owen.
Unsurprisingly, April can barely hold herself together during surgery on the poor stupid horseback-riding, sneaker-wearing kid. She rants and raves, comparing horseback riding to sex in a very obvious way, finishing with the unfortunate conclusion that you might as well just ride bareback. Um, no, kids, don't ride bareback. I mean, you can actually ride a HORSE bareback, but best to use protective gear when doing April's type of riding. Arizona manages to ignore April and stops to take a quick stretch break; when she steps aside, Heather starts sneaking towards her with a regular old chair but this one also has squeaky wheels. Are there any seats in this hospital that might just roll along silently, or did those get taken away because of budget cuts too? Arizona finally yells at her to stop stalking her with chairs and Alex gives a tiny nod so that Heather knows she can actually lay off. This doesn't go unnoticed and Arizona gives Alex a glare.
Meredith heads back to the ER where Jo reports that McAssy does in fact have a tumor, but that the neuro doc says it's inoperable so they are sending him home. She gazes at father and daughter and talks about how sad it is that the daughter thought her dad was a dirtbag but now that she knows the truth, it's too late... and then she turns around and realizes that Meredith is gone and gives another stinkface. Seriously, show, let's give her a point of being here. Every other intern has proven to be more interesting and I'm still disgusted at the idea that she's being groomed as Alex's new love interest because she has nothing to bring to the table except a great aura of disappointment.
OMG! Nurse Bohkee actually gets called by name! Granted, it's by Stephanie who admonishes her for having the wrong kind of something-or-other ready for Cristina. Girlfriend, Bohkee rules this joint and I'd be careful what tone you take with her. Cristina offers Stephanie the chance to close him up herself and Bailey freaks out, but Cristina stands up for her intern and says that she's been practicing for days and she's sure she is prepared. Unfortunately for Stephanie and her smug mug, Smash then notices a lot of bleeding and things get very tense as he and Bailey try to stop it.
Horseback kid's surgery is over and as the docs all finish up in the OR, Arizona turns to leave to talk to his parents when she takes a bad step and crashes to the floor. Instead of, oh, HELPING the person who just fell, they all just stand and gape at her until Alex orders everyone out. From behind all we can see is her shaking and she begins to talk about how proud she was about getting through the day. Alex is down by her side, terribly worried since it looks like she is crying, when she turns around and he sees that she's laughing at herself for putting all of her weight on a left foot that she doesn't actually have. She's also highly amused by the look on his face but awesomely, he just starts to laugh at himself too and then helps her up. He's probably also relieved to know he doesn't have to bribe children anymore when she's around.
Despite Bailey and Smash's best efforts, the bleeding won't stop and then Bailey begins to yell desperately, pleading for Graham's liver not to do what it is doing. She shows Smash how it's begun to look like tin foil, which means the body is rejecting it. Showing that she has no idea how to choose a moment, Stephanie asks if this means she doesn't get to close and even Cristina gives her a "WTF?" look over her mask. If Cristina thinks you've been thoughtless, that's a bad sign.
As Callie works, Jackson obsesses over his phone and jumps sky high when he gets a text that just turns out to be from his mom. Callie grabs the phone away from him and calls him on acting like a lovesick teenage girl but Jackson has a pretty good comeback when he points out that Derek is just going to shoot down every proposal they come up with since he obviously doesn't want to actually do the surgery. Callie thinks that Derek just doesn't know what he wants -- he's scared and wishes this never happened, so now it is their job to come up with a plan that will help ease his fears and convince him that everything will turn out okay. It's a great pep talk and she grins, seeming to finally believe it herself, and has no idea that she just gave Jackson an idea about his maybe-pregnant kinda-girlfriend. He runs back out of the room again.
Meredith is doing her own bit to get Derek back into surgery: she has him look over McAssy's scans and he declares that he could totally remove that tumor. He tells Meredith he'll page Clemens (the current NotShepherd) (maybe always the NotShepherd but I can't be bothered to remember the poor dude who actually finds some brain tumor inoperable. PISH.) and walk him through the procedure. Mere points out that the guy won't do as good a job as Derek and when Derek agrees, she tells him that this is why he has to get his hand fixed. Derek just smiles at her like a child who tried to make a joke.
Jackson runs and finds April so that he can pull her into another empty room and announce that he's in, "All the way." She's totally confused, while he's pumped up and tells her that this wasn't what they planned but they can get married and be awesome parents and he's in and excited and isn't this just the best? She is hesitant but into the idea and when he convinces her he means it, she starts getting excited too. He tells her that she herself was the one who said that something that feels this good can't be bad. Oh dear. All over the world, some teenagers just decided some probably unwise moves are justified in the name of young love. She's shocked that he wants this but thrilled that she'll get her wildflower-and-butterflies wedding and he's actually really cute as he promises her that they can have whatever wedding she wants. She asks if he's sure they can do this, he is, and they jubilantly make out. The one question neither of them asks is... what if she's not actually pregnant? Because there is no way after all this buildup that the two of them are just going to ride off into the Mint-to-Be sunset.
Owen finds Richard and asks him how he knew that the meeting would take a terrible turn; Richard reminds him that he was Chief for 11 years and he knows how the attorneys look for a scapegoat when it comes to a lawsuit. Owen is a little confused, then, as he reports that they supposedly have his back and he wonders why that would be. Richard thinks for only a moment before figuring it out; he reminds Owen that he's married to someone on the other side, and asks if they seemed unhappy about that. A light finally clicks on in Owen's ginger head and he thanks Richard and leaves.
Back in Graham's room, Bailey has broken the bad news and Hank is having a hard time accepting it. Bailey promises that he will go back on the list but points out that given his age and condition... Graham finishes up over Hank's pleas that he's a sick man and they should give the liver to someone that can make it last. When he asks, Bailey admits that he probably only has a week. Smash has a little snotsicle forming from one nostril as he tries to keep it together and when Graham accepts the news with grace, he loses it. He tries to leave but Graham makes him stay and tells him that he's had a good life full of people who love him, so Smash isn't allowed to cry for him. Even Cristina looks stricken at how amazingly Graham is accepting his fate. He tells Hank that they've got this week and they'll make it count, and then everyone cries.
April finds Jackson sitting outside in the dark and walks up with the results in hand, far calmer now that there is a plan. She sits, reads that she's not pregnant, and is quietly stunned for only a moment before overreacting to this in much the same manner she has about everything else. She starts thanking God and cheering that now they don't have to get married, and wow did they dodge a bullet! She is so wrapped up in herself again that she doesn't see Jackson's sad face and it doesn't occur to her that he still doesn't like relations with him to be compared to fatal incidents of any kind. She tries to backtrack and tells him that now they can just go back to normal dating, only this time she'll go on the Pill. Jackson, though, is so very done. He tells her not to bother, and that he thinks that this was a sign that they need to stop. She is finally stunned to silence and just agrees when he says it's for the best. He then gets up to go back to work with Callie.
Outside of Graham's room, Cristina calls a still-snuffly Smash over ("Weepy"), places her hand on his arm and tells him gently that it's no big deal, but never do that again. "It's gross." I seriously love Cristina With Feelings. She's still her badass self but just with this new layer of humanity that's made her a more awesome version of her old self. THIS is how you do character development, people. Bailey notices this too and teases Cristina for obviously caring for both Smash and Stephanie, and for Bailey enough to give her surprisingly good wedding advice that she's planning to take. Cristina tries to deny it but Bailey is certain that something in Minnesota changed her.
Callie is nearly delirious from studying hand surgeries when she finds Derek rifling through her paperwork; she wanted him to wait until she could put together a proper plan and present it to him. She's been busting her ass, talking to surgeons all over the world to try and come up with something and finally yells that the surgeons she should be talking to is HIM. He gives her an infuriating smile and tells her that they are going to throw all of this out and start over with new studies to try and come up with a new approach. She's pleased that he finally seems to truly be on board and thinks they can start now but he gives her the night off to actually get some rest first. She's visibly relieved at the idea and thanks him.
Meredith finds Cristina out on a bench pondering her life, and she asks Mere if she's changed. She's upset because Owen claims nothing has changed but she thinks that SHE might be what is now different, and is distressed that he will never know since he refuses to talk to her. Mere points out that her wanting him back proves that she's changed and Cristina knee-jerk replies that she doesn't. But after a moment, she admits that in fact she does. Meredith replies supportively that both of them have changed, and that's actually a good thing. And a completely shocking thing, because it really is true. I mean, who would have thought that Meredith would turn out to be actually kind of awesome? Not me, my friends, and yet here we have it.
Owen storms back into the conference room and points out to the smarmy attorney that his conflict of interest doesn't seem of much concern to any of them. The attorneys start to stutter but Owen just rolls right over them as he explains that he booked the plane that crashed and therefore his wife could benefit financially from his negligence -- he's figured out that they are hoping that the judge will therefore throw the whole thing out. Roberta jumps in to redeliver her line about supporting him 100% but the attorney shakes his head and she stops. Owen sees this too, but the lawyer reminds him that he signed a confidentiality agreement that is punishable with fines and termination. Poor Owen's life is really dictated by forms he signed without too much thought right now. Owen just nods, wishes them goodnight, and leaves.
On her way out, Bailey sees Richard and tells him that he will in fact be getting a Christmas-themed wedding invitation but that said, he is not to buy her a gift. Richard teases her with the idea of a waffle maker and she grins and admits she does love a waffle. I am surprisingly ambivalent about waffles, given my love of breakfast carbs in general, but I adore the smell of them. It would probably be a waste to get a waffle maker just to make my apartment smell delightful while I eat pancakes or something, wouldn't it? Damn. Richard tells her it's going to be fine, and also promises to have Bailey's back no matter what.
I miss Joe. Whatever happened to Joe? The interns are all hanging out at his bar playing darts and giving Smash shit for crying in front of everyone. Alex walks in and makes note of Jo laughing (for once) before joining a depressed Jackson at the bar. He asks if April is pregnant because he's got half a brain and was able to easily figure out what was going on earlier. Jackson says that it's not his business, but no she's not. Alex considers this something to celebrate and Jackson chooses not to correct him. He does tell Alex he's no longer allowed to call April weird. Alex points out that she is, and Jackson readily agrees, but he wants Alex to stop saying it. Alex seems to accept this with no problem and then glances back one more time at Jo. Ugh.
Callie gets home and is shocked to hear laughing and delighted squeals coming from inside her apartment. She opens the door to find Arizona and Sofia in Arizona's wheelchair, having a dance party. Callie is happy to see this but still treading super carefully as she asks Arizona about her day. She panics when she hears that Arizona fell down but Arizona calmly tells her that then she got back up, and it's all deep and meaningful and whatnot. Callie gives her a kiss and agrees to finish making dinner; while she makes a salad she watches her wife and daughter and allows herself another smile that maybe her family is coming back together again. Mere's VO suggests that maybe she does believe that some people are meant to be.
Meredith is sitting on the sofa when Derek gets home and she fidgets like a nervous cat as he tells her that McAssy was referred to a surgeon at Seattle Pres. Mere is like yeah, yeah, please look at the shirt I bought Zola. OH! He's not super interested in baby clothes but he pulls it out and she grins at the shock on his face. Sure enough, it's a small pink shirt that says "World's Best Big Sister." She tells him that she's only at 3 weeks and she shouldn't say anything since she's still got a hostile uterus and super horrible things happen to them all the time. She hasn't even told Cristina yet. But Derek just beams at her that it's all going to be okay, good things happen to them, and this pregnancy is one of them.
She VO-supposes that maybe it's up to us to show up and just be meant for each other -- or, as I like to picture Tim Gunn saying, "Make it work." Cristina is nervously waiting at the firehouse which is all sad and half-packed, and she jumps up when Owen comes up the stairs. She thanks him for coming and says that they need to talk, but when she opens her mouth to say what she's been thinking, he tells her flatly that they should get a divorce. She tries to stay calm as she asks if that is what he wants and it takes him a while to look at her -- because I'm pretty sure this is entirely for the sake of the lawsuit and is in fact not what he wants at all despite his horrible attitude -- but he finally does glance up and says that yes, it is. After a few moments, she finally just gives a small nod and leaves Owen an even more tortured soul than he's been the past few months.
Lauren S is a writer who lives and works in Atlanta where she and her cats are Mint to Be. She wants everyone to know: "The views expressed in my recaps and anything else I might write on TWoP are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer."