Bobby comes to the aid of his old friend Paulie after Paulie's sister begs Bobby to help her brother with his drug addiction, but becomes enraged when Paulie breaks into Bobby's mother's house and robs her to support his habit.

It's September 21, 2001 and the squads continue to battle through their emotions and their misgivings about their hero status, while working double shifts and spending every free moment at ""the pile"" searching for the missing; Kim returns to work and teams up with Doc, which allows an emotionally frayed Alex to return to paramedic duty; an exhausted Sully attempts to co-exist with his prospective in-laws while he waits for an opportunity to marry Tatiana.

The police officers sort through the carnage and count their dead in the wake of a shootout between rival gangs. While Faith tries to interrogate Fyodor Chevchenko, a ruthless Russian mobster, Sully worries about the severely wounded Ty and regrets causing the incident. Tatiana chastises Sully for hassling her injured son. Faith worries about Gusler, her ineffective, frightened rookie partner, and a weary Doc gets some unexpected good news about his medical malpractice suit.

During the investigation of the gang shootout, the officers are questioned and presented with evidence which suggests that Ross was killed by friendly fire; Carlos learns that Vangie is dead and that he might be the father of the baby her sister leaves at the firehouse; on the first anniversary of Bobby's death, Kim quarrels with Jimmy over her visitation with Joey and confronts a female gang during a call; and Doc is visited by the father of a former patient whose debilitating injury may have been caused by Doc's error during treatment.