It's New Year's Eve, and Richard tries to show Mere a new suture but can't do it because his hands are shaking so badly, so he offers to talk her through it. Given that the shakes were too obvious to ignore, he tells her then that last night was his last drink, and as such the shaking will stop soon. Mere says that's good, and then actually goes so far as to ask if she has to stop drinking tequila because she really likes it. Aren't we past her trying to make light of this, given that he has tremors? As a grown woman, can't she see that alcoholic or not, mentioning her own drinking is at best super inappropriate and at worst unsupportive and makes him think it's really not that bad, so he goes back to it? I don't get why her good sense took a leave of absence for the holidays.

Lexie and Mark are huddled together in their apartment while Sloan obliviously reads on the sofa. Lexie's had enough, and she says that as Sloan has shown no signs of leaving, Mark needs to talk to her or no more sex. She's finally gotten to him where it counts, and Mark walks up to his daughter and asks what she is reading. Sloan is a tad (just a tad) smarter than I thought, and she knows this is the beginning of the conversation where he asks what her plans are. She starts to get teary as she moans that she knows they don't really like her, and Lexie is freaked out because she's, "kinda, like, hotter than her," but... she's pregnant. Sloan, not Lexie. They haven't given this girl one redeeming characteristic so far, so my reaction is to roll my eyes up into my head -- if they hadn't proven Mark's paternity I'd figure she was just taking him for a ride. That said, I won't believe this pregnancy until I see a positive test. She claims her mother kicked her out and she has nowhere else to go, so Mark holds her and tries to soothe her and say it's going to be okay.

Nicholas is back in the hospital and things are bad; Arizona tells his parents calmly that they'll have to tube him to help him breathe. However, Derek runs in with his superhero cape fluttering behind and tells Arizona to just bag him as they have finished the instruments. He hands over the release forms to the parents and they sign in a daze while Arizona jokes about his timing and Derek says he likes to be dramatic. It would be more charming if there didn't seem to be more than a grain of truth there, given his ego.