The Heart of the Matter

Derek asked Meredith out on a weekend getaway for 48 uninterrupted hours of sex but she has to find someone to cover her duties for her. Alex agreed to cover for her, but she has to take his old intern, Norman, for the day as exchange. Meredith teached Norman the protocol in telling patients that they are dying, but ended up breaking the news to the wrong patient, the one who came in to have a mole removal. When they tried to look for the patient, they found out that she has already left the hospital. Norman managed to get her back to the hospital, but she had already quitted her job, dumped her boyfriend and purchased a one-way ticket to Iceland. Later on, the hospital lawyers managed to convince her to accept compensation and She left happily.

Derek, Cristina and Lexie attended to a football player who sustained a cervical fracture during a game. The patient needs to be attached to a traction halo in order to realign his spine, but his harsh and critical father was making his recovery more difficult than it already is. Derek and Lexie bonded over and talked about Meredith. Cristina tried to stop their budding friendship and became extremely harsh on Lexie. But Derek tells Cristina that until she became a better resident and teacher, she will not be allowed to scrub in on his surgeries. During the surgery, Lexie she started to panic when Derek told her to perform a cauterization, but Cristina stepped in & taught and guided Lexie, that made Derek decide to let her participate in the surgery.

George, Bailey and Callie treat a woman who injured her ankle while exercising. Despite her injury, she still wants to get back to her weight loss regime as soon as possible for her boyfriend, who is appalled that the doctors wanted her to gain more weight before they operate. something which does not escape Bailey's eyes was Callie who was distracted at work . The patient's condition worsen after starting to bleed from a duodenal ulcer, coupled with her anorexia, she died on the operating table.

Callie confronted her boyfriend and Bailey has to keep her from losing control. George told her that she can't just forgive him because what he did was unforgivable. She then admitted that she does not forgive him.

Izzie felt guilty and later apologized to Callie, but she refused to let her seek forgiveness and called her a "traitorous bitch." Alex also told her that he got disappointed when she told her what happened because she told him that she was not ready for a relationship after Denny, had an affair with George so shortly after. At home, Izzie cried on her bed. Alex came in and gave her a box of tissues and told her to keep it down.

Derek decided to call off the get-away with Meredith. Meredith was about to put the blame on Lexie but Derek stopped her saying that all they talked about were the things that Meredith does not want him to say. She denied it. He told her that he wants to marry her and have children and saying those to her makes her want to flee in the opposite direction. Derek wanted a lifetime not just 48 uninterrupted hours and he is prepared to wait for her to be ready for that... or until someone better comes along.

* * *

Forgive and forget. That’s what they say. It’s good advice but it’s not very practical. When someone hurts us, we want to hurt them back. When someone wrongs us, we want to be right. Without forgiveness old scores are never settled. Old wounds never heal. And the most we can hope for is that one day we’ll be lucky enough to forget

Let the truth sting

The new intern's were really amazed with George's performance and Alex overheard them in the elevator. Knowing that he is just a repeater, tried to react but Lexie stopped him.

Chief and Mark decided to do a cutting-edge hemiglossectomy and tongue tissue transplant which could retain the patient, Connie’s ability to talk though they were not that really sure of the procedure. Derek managed to finish the tongue surgery and criticized them for performing a surgery they were unsure of how to perform.

Cristina found out that Meredith and Derek are still having sexual relationship, upset that Meredith thinks she is too weak and fragile to handle the truth. She decided to get back at her by acting upset and sad, playing on Meredith’s pity, in order to get her surgeries. Meredith falls for it trading her hemiglossectomy for Cristina’s interns. Meredith later on discovered that Cristina has been faking to get her surgeries, and told her that she wants to stay up all night talking about her feelings, which caused her to cave and admit she was faking.

Meredith went at the pit and supervised Lexie in giving an intubating procedure on a DOA patient. Lexie got angry at Meredith when she felt that Meredith did not tried her best to save the patient, Meredith retaliates by sending her to the clinic to help Bailey. Lexie emotionally requests that Bailey allow her to work away from Meredith. Bailey confronts Meredith and reminded her of her duty to teach the interns. Meredith learned that Lexie is under the belief that she hated her mother the way she did her father, she brings her the hospital report on her mother's death and explains to her how her mother died. She also admits that she was fond of her mother.

Alex was assigned to a new intern, Dr. Norman Shales, who happens to be an old man and former pharmacist.

Bailey went to Callie and admitted that she had difficulties grasping with the "pecking order" and not being number one anymore. She makes amends with Callie and agreed to help her and work together in the future.

Unable to contain the truth anymore, Alex cruelly informed the other interns that George's skills were result of failing a previous internship which he had been trying to hide.

George went home and confessed to Callie that he had slept with Izzie.

***

The truth is painful. Deep down nobody wants to hear it... especially when it hits close to home. Sometimes we tell the truth because the truth is all we have to give. Sometimes we tell the truth because we need to say it out loud to really hear it for ourselves. And sometimes we tell the truth because we just can't help ourselves. Sometimes, we tell them... because we owe them at least that much.