Meredith and Derek prep the professor for surgery and when a nurse comes to inform them that the patient's wife has arrived, Mere goes out to find her.

In the other OR, Jackson comes in as they are getting ready to go to work and is shocked to see Cristina, draped in a gown and finger still acting as a cork. Teddy brings him up to speed and tells him she wants some "backup"; Cristina bluntly tells him that she's not sure if Cristina can handle it. She's blunt, but she's not bitter -- even she knows it's a fair concern, though she seems to be in pretty good shape. As Jackson goes to scrub in, Cristina nods to herself like she's giving herself a silent, internal pep talk.

The waiting room is almost as chaotic as the scene at the school, and Mere is directed to a woman who is physically shaking, sitting by herself. This is the professor's wife, Mrs. Sturgeon, and Mere calmly tells her what's going on but Mrs. S. is stuck on the word "surgery." I suppose it's just as well since the rest of the info is about how they were going to remove part of her husband's skull. She wants to come with Meredith to the OR since her husband is afraid of hospitals and nearly panics when Mere tells her sadly that she's not allowed. Mere promises to give her lots of updates and then grabs a girl waiting nearby and asks her to sit with Mrs. S., telling them that it will be a long day and they have to take care of each other.

Arizona gets on the intercom in the gallery and tries to suggest options to Stark that don't involve cutting off the girl's leg but Stark just snaps back at her, asking if she has privileges there anymore. She thinks it doesn't matter and when Alex agrees, Stark boots him off the case. They've managed to incense the tiny man even more so than usual, and he hollers that she's unprofessional and he's done talking. One might argue that "unprofessional" is being too lazy to do one's job and hacking off a teenager's LEG to shorten a surgery, but to each his own, right? Arizona takes total exception to all of this, yells at Alex to block Stark so that he can't get to the patient, and sprints downstairs. Awesomely, Alex jumps into a defensive stance, hands up, in front of an aghast Stark.