The missing Cristina is, unsurprisingly, in the hallway outside the O'Malley room, watching the consult and trying to use her brain rays to hear through the wall. Meredith finds her but Cristina shuts her up. The Chief comes out and asks her to tell Burke he'd like to speak to him. She acts all bright, nice, and dumb, so really in absolutely every way not natural to her being, and the Chief tells her that the O'Malleys have chosen Dr. Hahn to do the surgery and that "Dr. Burke's been replaced." He leaves, and the music swells along with her worry.

She and Burke have a talk in the stairwell as she paces. Burke's not fazed at all and has the gall to tell her that Hahn doing the surgery is "a good thing if it means you'll stop obsessing." Way to treat the girlfriend who is worried about your professional career and reputation. Cristina is adamant that George must have told Richard why he wanted Hahn to replace Burke, and adds that he could even be considering her as the next head of cardiothoracic surgery. This apparently triggers her memory, and only now does she pass along the message that the Chief wants to speak to him. She again talks about lining up their stories, but he high-horses it and says it's not him to do that kind of thing. It's his "kind of thing" to not fess up to a physical ailment and to conduct surgery when he's absolutely not fit, but lying is out of the question? Sure, I get that. He says he'll tell the truth, and storms out before she can stop him.