Trama

As Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's pass, Miranda is visited by her father, William, who disapproves of her choices in life; meanwhile, Mark and Lexie must cope with the shocking arrival of a woman from his past, and Thatcher Grey questions the Chief's recent behavior as Meredith comes to his defense.—ABC Publicity

It was Thanksgiving Eve and Meredith met with the chief. He wanted to say something about "what happened the other night," referring to seeing Meredith notice him drinking at the bar. He said "it isn't what you think." He admitted he self-diagnosed himself with alcoholism, but he actually thought he had "situational depression" because of Meredith's mom. "Well, she escalated my drinking, too," Meredith said. The chief asked Meredith if she'd told anyone about his drinking and she said no. He then said Meredith had extraordinary skills and offered to be her mentor. He asked if she'd ever done a two-layer continuous suture for something that sounded really fancy and complicated. She said she hadn't. Then Voiceover Meredith said, "Sometimes the best gifts come in really surprising packages."

Hunt and Cristina were getting it on when Cristina got a page from Teddy and left. Derek told Meredith he thought the chief was using her to get to him.

Cristina went right into a surgery where a woman's heart had failed so badly that Teddy said they had to get it out immediately. She didn't know how they would replace it, saying, "We're going to have to figure it out as we go." Cristina explained to the woman's boyfriend that a machine was pumping blood through her vessels. He didn't understand how she could live without a heart. They'd only gone on four dates, and the guy was a little freaked out, but decided to stay because the woman had no family.

Callie overheard Bailey on a phone call lying to her mother about Tucker and the baby being fine. She hadn't told her parents she'd gotten divorced.

Lexie, Arizona and Derek were treating a boy with a bloody nose. Derek was going to have to do an operation on the boy's brain to solve his problem.

A buxom blonde came into the hospital looking for Sloan. She found him, saying her name was Sloan Riley. She said she was "pretty sure" Sloan was her dad.

Sloan and, well, Baby Sloan stared each other down without saying anything. Callie came into the room with supplies for a paternity test. In surgery, Lexie wondered about Sloan's daughter and about how she wasn't much older than Sloan's potential kid. Derek couldn't fix the little boy's brain and he said the best he could do was a temporary fix. Lexie and Arizona were upset that they were just going to "send him home to die."

Hunt and Teddy shared an awkward moment outside as they waited for an ambulance to arrive. Derek and Arizona told the little boy's parents that the only way to get access to the part of the boy's brain he had to get at was through the sinus, but there were no instruments small enough to get through the boy's small nasal passages. The mother wondered who invents such things.

Sloan continued staring at Baby Sloan without speaking. Derek came in and asked Sloan to make the little boy's nasal passage operable.

Cristina said their lunch in the cafeteria was the best Thanksgiving ever. Alex and Cristina mocked Meredith for getting private lessons with the chief. Back at the apartment, Lexie was chopping celery and Callie and Arizona were in the kitchen when Sloan came in and said that Baby Sloan was right about her heritage. He was her father. More good news: Baby Sloan was moving in with dad for a while. Lexie accidentally cut the tip of her pinkie off.

It was now Christmas Eve and Meredith was getting another lesson from the chief, who said he hadn't seen skills like hers since her mother. Meredith told the chief he should make up with Derek.

Lexie pretty much had full sensation back in her pinkie. Sloan hadn't talked much with his daughter, who Lexie called a "vapid, vapid girl," but nonetheless encouraged him to talk to her. He went to talk to Baby Sloan and before he could speak she said, "What are you looking at, you old perv?" Sloan said nothing and turned away.

Bailey was home when her dad popped in and asked if it was true that she and Tucker were getting a divorce.

Teddy and Cristina's patient was awake and talked about how weird it was that she didn't have a heart beat. She said she used to climb mountains and remembered the sensation of her heart beat pounding in her ears. Then she said she was getting tired. Cristina told her to hang on until New Year's Eve because there was a lot of brain death and she could land a donor heart. She asked to go outside. Cristina was skeptical, but Teddy told her, "We can do that."

Sloan told Derek he felt guilty about his daughter. He said he knew that Baby Sloan's mother was pregnant, but he gave her a couple hundred dollars and skipped town. He thought -- "hoped" -- she'd gotten an abortion. Derek told Sloan he was a different guy now.

Callie met Bailey's dad and after some small talk she told him she was dating women and her family had a hard time with that fact. She was trying to soften the blow of Bailey's divorce.

Cristina and Teddy were wheeling their patient outside and Teddy started telling a story of how Hunt tried to rally his troops back in Iraq on Christmas by getting them a snow machine. The snow melted as soon as it hit the sand, so Hunt had them put blindfolds on and put their faces to the machine. One soldier from Minnesota cried, she said, because it felt so much like home.

Bailey's dad said he'd been a proud father her whole life. Then, he said, as he watched from the gallery as she repaired "some fat man's hernia," he said he was ashamed of her because she traded her husband and the father of her child "for this." He told her she'd "made a terrible mistake." She said she broke her family and set her son up to fail. He said he raised her better than that.

Cristina watched as their patient stood in the lightly falling snow with her head tilted back. Hunt came out to see and Cristina said she didn't understand it. Hunt said, "It's Christmas. Teddy's always been a sucker for Christmas." Suddenly, the girl bent over and fell to the ground.

On Christmas Day, Bailey and Cristina told the heartless patient that part of her bowel had died. It was a side effect of not having her own heart pumping blood through her body.

Derek and Sloan were explaining to Meredith how they were planning to operate through the sinus on the little boy's brain. They said they were still working on getting the right equipment. Bailey came in and asked Meredith and Derek for an invitation to their home for Christmas. She wanted to prove to her father that she had a life. They agreed. Arizona then came in and said the chief was cutting their funding for their equipment. The doctors asked to have their bonuses used for finishing the prototype. The chief broke the news that there were no bonuses. Derek said he'd write a check, "How much?" Arizona said she'd split it. They both looked at Sloan, who'd said nothing. He said, "I have a teenager, what if she wants to go to college?" Arizona asked him if he'd met his daughter. He agreed to split the cost. As they left the room, the chief apologized to Derek for trying to fire him. Derek said nothing and walked out of the room.

Back at the house, Hunt and Teddy had a mini "I'm totally in love with you" moment while Hunt played guitar and the chief and Arizona sang, "Baby, It's Cold Outside." In another part of the room, Lexie incredulously asked Baby Sloan why she got her dad a snow globe of Seattle for Christmas.

"What? He likes Seattle," Baby Sloan said.

"I gave you 50 bucks," Lexie replied. "Where's my change?"

Derek told Sloan the kids were bickering. Sloan admitted he hadn't talked to his daughter yet. Thatcher was at the party and asked Meredith about the chief's drinking. She told Thatcher the chief's alcoholism was a misdiagnosis. Thatcher wasn't buying it and said that the chief's drinking could become catastrophic. Meredith asked Thatcher if he was drinking when he abandoned her and started a new family. He said he wasn't and Meredith said, "Well, then, we can't blame all the world's evils on alcohol."

The heart patient was being operated on with just a local anesthetic because she couldn't handle a general. When the patient started crying, Bailey led the doctors in a sing-along of "Let It Snow," and reluctantly joined in.

Back at Meredith's house, Bailey explained the procedure and her father told her not to talk about bowels at the dinner table. Everyone went silent. Bailey went into a speech about her child being healthy and well loved, and staying in an unhappy marriage was not the life she wanted to model for her child. She told him that he and her mother showed him was true love looks like, and she wasn't going to settle for less. No one said anything. Bailey continued by saying that her happiness was being able to repair a woman's bowel that day, which made it appropriate dinner conversation. The other doctors smiled, but still said nothing. Arizona passed the green beans.

On New Year's Eve, the chief was teaching Meredith and suddenly said, "Last night was my last drink. The shaking will stop soon." She said that was good and confirmed that it didn't mean she had to stop drinking tequila. He laughed, but only for a moment.

Back at Sloan's apartment, Lexie told him his daughter showed no signs of leaving. She demanded that he talk to her, "or no sex for you." Baby Sloan revealed that she was pregnant and her mom kicked her out of her house and she dropped out of school. She cried and Sloan hugged her and said she would be OK.

Derek and Arizona's little boy was in serious trouble when Derek came in and said they needed to get him to surgery immediately. The instruments were finished.

Teddy told Cristina that their patient needed a heart "yesterday." Cristina told the woman, Kelsey, that tonight was their best shot.

In surgery, Derek carefully worked the tiny instruments up the boy's sinus to clip the issue in the boy's brain. Sloan guided him and within a few moments, Derek did what needed to be done just in time for a quick countdown to midnight. All the doctors and nurses joined in and congratulated each other.

In the E.R., Cristina caught Hunt looking at Teddy. Cristina walked away. Hunt pulled Teddy into a room and yelled at her for springing the news that she was in love with him. He asked why she never said anything before. She said she'd loved him "every single day." They appeared to be about to kiss when Hunt said he was in love with Cristina. Teddy left the room and ran into Cristina, who was very excited that she'd just called brain death on an 18-year-old girl who was in a car accident. She'd set up an O.R. for Kelsey, "That is why New Year's Eve is my favorite holiday." Teddy told her, "Stop it! This is not a celebration."

She pulled Cristina to the room where the 18-year-old car accident victim's father was crying over his daughter's bed. "This is not a celebration," Teddy repeated.

New Year's Day arrived and Cristina told Kelsey her vitals were stable and "everything looks great." Kelsey had her boyfriend feel her new heartbeat. He pulled out a ring, saying that even though they'd only been on four dates, "We went through a war together, we went through this together, and we came out the other side. I think if we can get through this, we can get through anything."

She agreed to marry him and the guy's war analogy hit close to home for Cristina, who went outside to find Hunt. She told him she was "insensitive sometimes, but I'm not oblivious." She said she didn't want Hunt to be with her because he felt like he owed her something. He kissed her in his aggressive Hunt way and said he was with her because he loves her.

Bailey had another run-in with her dad, who said he was disappointed that Bailey went and got a divorce without telling him. He said he was never judging her, just worrying about her. He'd spent New Year's with little Tucker and said the kid was a little spitfire. "He doesn't seem any worse for wear."

Joe at the bar paged Meredith, who showed up to find the chief stumbling and dancing with a drink in hand. Voiceover Meredith wondered if the best gift she could give was to "hold a secret for a friend." The chief saw her and drunkenly boasted about what a star Meredith was, "just like her mother." He told Joe to get her a drink -- "Tequila!" And he asked for another "club soda."

All the while, Voiceover Meredith said, "The joy, supposedly, is in the giving. So when the joy is gone; when the giving starts to feel more like a burden, that's when you stop. But if you're like most people I know, you give 'til it hurts. And then you give some more."