She asks if her dad's up, then has a tense conversation with Amelia about the late Rose and her incredible estate-planning skills. "Family was real important to her," Amelia says. "Don't remember much of that," Gemma bitterly remarks. The conversation goes downhill from there. Nate comes out, and Gemma rises with, "Morning, Daddy." It's obvious that Nate doesn't recognize her, and Gemma realizes this. She introduces herself and Nate blusters, "I knew that." Gemma gets coffee as Nate notices the curio cabinet and flips out with, "You know how your mother hates things out of place." "Now that I remember," she mutters. When Nate sits down, he strokes Gemma's face with, "I hardly recognize you. How old are you now?" Gemma is again taken aback, but says, "Fifty-three." Cut to Nate looking rattled over how old his daughter is.

Tig comes back in right then to tell Gemma he's got Clay on the line, and Nate does not deal well with this man popping out of nowhere. Not that I blame him. Imagine sitting in your kitchen drinking coffee when Tig materializes out of nowhere. Aside from the small percentage who just read that sentence and asked, "But is he clothed? Because in my fantasy he's not," you have to admit: a surprise visit from Tig is a pants-wetting moment. Gemma tries to smooth things over ("This is Tig, you met him last night"), and Nate tries to cover for his lapse in memory. Then he tells Gemma, "The coffee's too strong. Next time, you let your mother make it." Gemma, to her eternal credit, merely nods and says, "Okay. Yeah." And her face says a thousand different things -- pain, grief, regret, and resolution to give her dad the gift of an easy visit. What a pity this fantastic acting will be completely ignored by the Golden Globes and Emmy voters in 2011.

Zip! Back to Charming. Tara walks into administrator Margaret Murray's office, only this time she's bearing paperwork, not a satchel full of ass-whooping. Tara wants a leave of absence. Margaret says, "I saw what happened yesterday in surgery. Panic attack?" Tara admits she doesn't know what it was, because it's never happened before. Margaret says, "I'm guessing you've never watched a man get stabbed to death before either." No, but she has watched a man get shot to death, then humped the shooter while the body cooled in the corner. Still, I'm guessing that's not something she'll share at work. Margaret says that Tara shouldn't have been back in the OR that soon. Tara, completely missing the point, snaps, "Now you get your way. I'll be gone." Margaret tries again: "Dropping out for six months will hurt your career. Maybe you should take a few personal days, think about this." Tara refuses to get it -- "Why should you care about my career?" -- and for a moment, I sympathize with Jax. Margaret spells it out: She cares about the hospital, and despite all her personal baggage, Tara is a gifted doctor, so it is in Margaret's best interests as a hospital administrator to protect Tara's best interests as a doctor. Margaret leaves, and THAT is when the lightbulb goes off over Tara's head. "You mean it's possible to separate the personal and professional? That some people even find this to be a preferable way of living? I ... need to think about this."