George and Alex head downstairs to a young rookie cop who got shot in the chest. The guy is in tons of pain, and comments through gritted teeth that the movies never tell you how much getting shot actually hurts. Oh, come now, movies are all about the truth -- now go rescue someone from a burning building before you're taken care of so that you can really earn your stripes! The two boys start bickering with each other over who gets to be the rookie's doctor, until the ER doc tells them to cool down while they've got the Seattle police force watching them through a window. George delivers an overly-cheery thumbs up for the gang and then they page Burke. Alex tries to assert that just he is taking the patient, but George insists that both of them will bring him up. Who would have suspected that this young suffering hero would eventually thank a pissing contest between two interns for his survival? But he's going to be grateful very quickly.

The Chief is in Ellis's room, telling her she can go home. She smiles, telling him that she still has patients, but he firmly tells her no. As he turns to leave, she spits out that she's thinking of leaving Thatcher and that if she did that, he could leave Adele and they could find jobs together after their residency. An embarrassed Richard tells the nurse in the room to go prepare some meds (and presumably not to spread it around that the demented, formerly brilliant surgeon's fantasy life revolves around the married Chief of Surgery) and once alone, he takes Ellis's hand. He reminds her gently that all of this already happened 21 years before. She just continues as if she hasn't heard, and he looks gutted.

Meredith finds Derek and tells him that his wife is looking for him. He has the gall to reply that this is hard for him, and Meredith cuts him off. She announces that she's "not going to be the girl who begs for him or breaks up a marriage." Like the shot of the helicopter, this is also a moment to remember for later. Probably a wee bit more important, though. Meredith finishes by telling him that no matter what, she's out, and with that she goes to see her patient.