Miranda Bailey

"I am going to walk in there and tell the truth. I deserve it and if any one of them has the misguided impression that there is any choice at all in this matter, I will set that person on the righteous path before he or she can reveal him or herself as a moron."

- Miranda Bailey

Miranda Bailey is a general surgeon and the current Chief of Surgery at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. She is married to Ben Warren and has one son, Tuck, with her ex-husband, Tucker Jones. During her internship at Seattle Grace Hospital, she was very quiet and had no confidence, until she was mentored by Richard Webber. While in her residency, she was known as The Nazi to her interns, due to her tough and no-nonsense personality. However, she later dropped the nickname after operating on a real Nazi.

Early Life
Although Bailey has rarely spoken about her childhood, she has said that growing up she liked Star Wars, took dance classes, played the oboe in the school band, and believed in Santa until the age of eleven.

She did not attend homecoming because the boy she liked never asked her out.

Her mother (Elena) was very protective of her because she had lost another daughter before Miranda Bailey.

Internship
At the beginning of her internship, she met Debbie, a nurse at Seattle Grace, who taught her how to be respectful to patients, as well as superiors and her fellow interns. She also told Bailey to not "piss off the nurses", and warned her of the consequences if she did so.

While working on a patient about to have open-heart surgery, she became increasingly cranky and ordered Debbie to get her coffee. Debbie got her coffee, but she got her revenge and had Bailey do scut for an entire month.

Her first solo surgery was an appendectomy during her intern year on Alicia Tatum, but it turned out Alicia's appendix was perfectly healthy. Alicia was a mystery; every test they did on her came out negative. She was sent home but came back, and Miranda diagnosed her with porphyria. She scolded Dr. Baylow for being careless, and Richard sent her to his office. He made it look like he was angry with her, but he actually told her she was going to make "a hell of a surgeon".

New Interns
Her reputation as "The Nazi" preceded her as her interns were seen nervously discussing her after learning about their assignments on their first day of work.

Pregnancy
Bailey kept her pregnancy news private from others, as she didn't want to get her personal life caught up in her professional life. She later admitted the pregnancy to Chief Webber, after he asked her about whether or not she was accepting a fellowship at Seattle Grace.

Becoming Chief Resident
The position of Chief Resident was initially given to Dr. Torres. The Chief justified his decision by saying he didn't want Bailey to get caught up in the paperwork, and that she was too good a surgeon for that. Bailey was not entirely happy with his decision. After seeing Callie struggling due to the situation with George, Bailey elected to be her number two. She called the shots for the day, helping the residents with their patients and the doctors with their problems. Chief Webber realized that she was the one doing the amazing work, and as such gave her the position of Chief Resident.

Interest in Peds
At first, Bailey disliked Peds, because she couldn't see kids suffer, but after working with Arizona on a case, Arizona said she was perfect for the job. It took some time for Bailey to notice, but Peds was in her interest. When Bailey considered a pediatric surgery fellowship, her then-husband Tucker gave her an ultimatum: him or the job. She decided to leave him but also didn't accept the fellowship because she was becoming a single mom.

Izzie's Cancer and George's Death
During the point in time when Izzie Stevens, her former intern, and resident, was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma that had spread to her liver, skin, and brain, Dr. Bailey was with her all the way, as her doctor and her friend. When all of her friends, and her new fiancé, Alex Karev, were too afraid to go visit her, Dr. Bailey was supportive, and a very motherly figure to Izzie. At one point, before her very risky surgery, Izzie gave Bailey a green knitted scarf which she had made during her cancer treatment. She gave it to Bailey because Bailey had supported her throughout her cancer treatment.

Meredith discovered that their John Doe patient was actually George O'Malley. He was later pronounced brain dead in surgery. Everyone was devastated, especially Bailey, who said that she needed to stop caring so much because it was interfering with her life.

Starting to Date Ben
Ben and Bailey started going out after Miranda's divorce. Miranda had some inhibitions, as she had only ever had sex with her ex-husband, she had a child, she was divorced, but Ben didn't care. Ben was as headstrong as Bailey and they balanced each other out, but she was busy putting herself back together with "tape and glue" after the shooting, so they broke up, following the revelation that Ben was out golfing the day the shooting happened so he wouldn't have memories of that day.

Fling with Eli
Bailey had a fling with a headstrong male nurse by the name of Eli. Ben told her that he thought she wanted him to wait for her after she broke up with him and that she was unclear. She ended things with Eli and resumed her relationship with Ben.

Serious Relationship with Ben
After agreeing to move in together, Ben invited Bailey to lunch, but she got paged on a once in a lifetime case. They fought while she was operating and she found out he wanted her to do the crossword puzzle. She dropped everything to show him how childish it was and said the crossword was too easy. She got to a 14-letter answer with the clue: My question to you. He revealed that he made it and it took months to do. He was asking her to marry him. Later, she came to him in nothing but a trench coat and thong and proposed to him, but they didn't immediately get engaged because Ben told her he was offered a surgical internship at UCLA.

Plane Crash Aftermath
When she heard that there was a plane crash, she brought Zola to Meredith. When they were on the plane, which was transporting her, Richard, and the sedated plane crash victims to Seattle, she said that she wished they sedated her too.

Wedding to Ben
Bailey was very nervous about this wedding, as she'd been married and divorced before. Her wedding got delayed because of Adele Webber, who had undergone emergency surgery, which was performed by Bailey. Ben didn't mind waiting for her. Much later than expected, Miranda and Ben got married.

MRSA Infection
Three of Bailey's patients returned with post-operative infections. It was initially believed to be the fault of Leah Murphy, who was ill but assisted on Bailey's surgeries.

However, following the arrival of the third patient, whose surgery Dr. Murphy had not assisted on, it was apparent that the problem was more serious and the CDC was alerted.

Following the investigation, it was deduced that Dr. Bailey was contaminated with MRSA, an aggressive infection which resulted in the deaths of all three patients.

The infections were transmitted due to the replacement of surgical gloves instituted via Pegasus policy, which possessed microtears.

Following the investigation, Dr. Bailey became reclusive and refused to operate, testing herself repeatedly for MRSA. It was only when Meredith was critical post-natally did she step in and save her.

Ben's Return and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Following her experience with MRSA, Bailey was more cautious in surgery. This came to a head when her husband, Ben quit his surgical residency to return to Seattle to be with his family.

After Bailey was informed of this, she began to show signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) which caught her husband's attention.

While casually speaking to Derek he mentioned that her condition could be affecting patient care. Derek, being a member of the board, was required to investigate and report these claims, which he did with the help of Owen.

They came to the conclusion that she was unfit to continue performing surgery and required psychiatric help. Dr. Alma, an occupational therapist, was assigned to shadow her and clear her when she deemed Dr. Bailey ready.

After the first two days, Dr. Alma tested Bailey's control over her condition and recommended that she take the medication she had been prescribed.

After a conversation with Richard Webber, Bailey finally agreed. The medication was effective and she was cleared to return to surgery.

Becoming Chief
When Owen decided to step down as Chief of Surgery, Richard told Bailey she'd become his successor. Catherine refused to just appoint Bailey right away and demanded that she be tested against an outside candidate of Catherine's choosing. Upon hearing that, Bailey stated she felt sorry for the other candidate because she'd wipe the floor with them.

Her confidence took a hit when the candidate turned out to be Tracy McConnell, who immediately proved to be very capable and popular with the other doctors. Ben convinced her not to back down. Bailey gave her speech in her OR and told the board members that she deserved the job because she'd do anything to make the hospital the best it could be, while it'd only be a temporary project for Tracy, who jumps from challenge to challenge. The board members voted and Bailey was appointed Chief of Surgery.

Hospital Explosion
Bailey initiated the Code Orange when she heard that Alison was raped by Keith, and they had not been having consensual sex. When there was an explosion, and Meredith, Arizona, and Eliza were blocked from entering the hospital, Bailey cleared them, saying that fire trumped rapist on the loose. She later helped with the evacuation and was surprised to see Nathan, who was in the OR, just exiting the hospital when they evacuated the OR ages ago. After Eliza forgot to alert the police about Stephanie going missing, Bailey fired Eliza, saying that the hospital doesn't produce surgical robots. They produce human beings who know when not to follow the rules too strictly, which she came to realize Eliza couldn't do.

Ben's Career Change and Heart Attack
When Ben told her that he was going to be a firefighter, Bailey began to ignore him and their relationship was strained.

On the day of her son's school presentation, Bailey went to Seattle Presbyterian Hospital and told the nurse that she was having a heart attack. She was admitted and Stuart, an intern, said that she wasn't showing any signs of a heart attack and that the test results looked fine as well. Later, Dr. Larry Maxwell arrived and asked if she was having any stress, but Bailey told him that it wasn't because she was a woman who can't handle her feelings. She requested for a cardiac stress test and a second opinion, but Maxwell ignored her and asked her some other questions instead.

After Bailey called Maggie to come over to Seattle Pres, Dr. Gregory, a psychiatrist, believed that her condition was psychological rather than physical, but Bailey refused to play into that theory. Maggie and Richard arrived and found Bailey doing CPR on a coding patient. As soon as she was done, she collapsed and they had to take her to surgery. Bailey was doing well for a while, but her pressure dropped and Maggie inserted an intra-aortic balloon pump. Maggie asked Maxwell if he did a cardiac stress test and began to argue with him over Bailey's care because if he did the stress test, he would have seen the condition before it became emergent. Maggie then planned to perform a keyhole procedure. Before Bailey was put under, she asked for Ben and said that she needed her husband.

After surgery, Bailey woke up. Ben arrived at the hospital and explained to Bailey that he quit his job at the fire station. Bailey told Ben to call his boss back and said that working as a firefighter was terrifying, but life was terrifying and was too precious to waste doing anything less than what makes him happy.

With Richard and Ben at her side, Bailey called her mother Elena and told her she had a heart attack and that it was scary, but she was okay. Elena knew she was because she was her Mandy.

Stress Sabbatical
On the morning of Jo and Alex's wedding, Bailey received a big check from the TrailBlazer. She and Ben were among the guests to follow a faulty GPS link, landing them at the wrong location and wrong wedding. When the bride's mother collapsed, Bailey and Ben took her to the hospital. Bailey got some scrubs and had Vik page whomever from cardio was on call. Everyone on call was all busy, but as a gift from God, Teddy Altman appeared with her luggage. She just arrived from Germany. Bailey had her scrub in so they could repair her abdominal aortic aneurysm. In surgery, Bailey talked about how her being at the wrong wedding saved this woman's life, only mere months after she nearly died herself. She changed her lifestyle to a more healthy one, but she did resume her life as if nothing had happened. Upon learning Teddy wasn't there for the wedding, Teddy revealed she had come there looking for a job, but Bailey didn't respond.

After the successful surgery, Teddy apologized for putting her on the spot, but Bailey said it was just one more sign that it was time for a sabbatical from the Chief job. She wanted to have time to innovate and fall in love with the OR again and spend more time with her loved ones. She had tried to ignore the voice of the patriarchy in her head telling her she couldn't rest because she was a woman, but she decided to listen to her own voice and take the sabbatical after all. She then offered Teddy the position of interim Chief. Teddy was interested, but their talk was cut short when Ben came to say it was time for a wedding. They organized a wedding in the chapel for the couple whose wedding was cut short by the collapse of the bride's mother and set up a video chat so the mother could watch the ceremony from the ICU. The next day, Bailey found Teddy waiting for her in her office. Teddy had decided she wouldn't be staying in Seattle after all and therefore wouldn't accept the job. Word got out and throughout the day, several attendings put their name in the mix for the job.

As she showed him her innovative hyperbaric medicine lab, new Head of Ortho Atticus Lincoln helped her realize that she didn't want someone too good to replace her so that she would be missed and welcomed back with open arms. Bailey then spent the day in the hyperbaric chamber to get away from people pitching themselves for the job. Meredith found her and brought up Jo's plan to create a surgical innovation fellowship for her. Since she spent quite a lot of money on the hyperbaric chamber, the hospital couldn't afford both to hire Alex back and fund the fellowship. Bailey later witnessed Jackson put the hyperbaric chamber to good use to debride Nisha's wound in there for a better outcome. However, Nisha passed away due to an infection.

Richard later visited Bailey in her office and she explained to him that she wasn't giving him the job because she didn't want to add to his plate with his struggles after Ollie's death. After he left, Jo and Alex came back and Jo pitched why she was the future of medicine. Bailey was impressed and saw a solution to all her problems. She hired Alex back and appointed him interim Chief and decided to fund Jo's fellowship with her own money from the TrailBlazer. That also meant she would be running the fellowship instead of Meredith, which was the perfect opportunity to find both joy and tranquility. No longer being Chief took some adjusting, like losing her personal parking spot. She checked in with Alex and both tried to hide their nerves, but Alex assured her he had this and told her to go de-stress. She assured him that she trusted him with the job. Alex had messed up the OR schedule, so Bailey fixed that and invited Jo to scrub in with her so they could discuss her fellowship. However, Bailey kept hearing that the nurses had been understaffed during first shift, so she ran out to fix that. She ignored the research Jo sent her and went to the Chief's office to verify some of Alex's work. She found he had spent the entire quarter's budget on his first day. Bailey stayed and helped him to rectify his mistake, but she was starting to think that having him replace her was a mistake.

While Bailey and Maggie took care of Natalie Forrester and her family, who had been brought to the hospital by Andy, Ben, and Dean. She found out that Ben had a burn, which he tried to hide from her. She was not amused. She later cleared Andy and Dean to take off, which was required per a new policy and chastized them for letting Ben damage his surgical hands. Bailey later watched Evan Forrester say goodbye to his wife while his son Max was still in the dark. Despite Evan's misguided attempts to spare Max from the pain, Max had found out that his mother was dying and he ran off into the city.

Plagued by worries over Ben, Bailey couldn't sleep, so she got to work early and started working on Jo's idea for cancer killer cells. She wrote whiteboards full of possible approaches, which they had to narrow down to fit them all in one year. Alex came to fetch her and Jo for a surgical consult on Nina Sullivan, who had a yet-undiagnosed cause of abdominal pain and came to the hospital for Meredith, who was out for the day. Bailey and Jo convinced her they were as good as Meredith and after a thorough work-up and a process of elimination, they figured out the diagnosis and resolved the problem surgically. Later, Jo found Bailey in their lab. Bailey told her that she had applied the process of elimination to her own life, too, to remove stressors from her life, but she was still stressed. She then suggested Ben's new job was the source of her stress.

Soon after, she found a paper detailing Ben's death benefit at home. At work, she flourished as a mentor to Jo. They revived a liver from a deceased donor using normothermic perfusion. Alex ordered them to shut it down since it wasn't UNOS-approved and a failure could risk their standing with the organization, but they performed the procedure behind his back because case reports from Europe had Bailey convinced it would work. They did not face any consequences because the procedure was successful. Throughout the day, she had sent Ben worried texts since she - again - had not heard from him all day, but all of them were left unanswered. Privately, she measured her blood pressure, which was way too high. She then texted Ben that they needed to talk on his next day off. She took a day off so they could spend his day off together. While she wanted to talk, he was happy that they could spend the day together and they had sex. Afterward, they had breakfast on the couch and she talked about how seeing Jo and Alex balance their work-life with his being Chief reminded her of her and Ben. He knew it had been hard on her since his job change and said it was time for them to re-connect. He was wondering what they could do to do that, but she couldn't ignore what she had to say any longer. She told him that stepping down as Chief hadn't helped to lower her stress and blood pressure. She told him that worrying about him and if he would come home at night was not helping. She needed a break from that, too. She explained that she needed time to get well and work on herself. She promised she wasn't trying to see other people or keep him from Tuck, but she hoped that she would stop worrying about whether he would come home or not if she knew that he wasn't coming home. While he thought that that was just the first step to a divorce, she desperately told him that she needed to try because she couldn't breathe every time she thought about him getting hurt. She was afraid that being married to him was killing her. He packed a suitcase and she assured him that it wasn't final. He left after kissing her goodbye.

Despite their sabbatical, Ben returned to the house to board up the windows in preparation for the windstorm. With Alex unable to make it to the hospital, Bailey briefly resumed her role as Chief. She benched Richard upon hearing that he had been arrested after demolishing a bar. She made a speech in the ER to announce that they were a brick house that the storm couldn't blow down and that they would stay open for traumas. The crowd applauded and she was glad to see she still got it. Richard later vented his concerns to her that Catherine was having an affair with Tom Koracick. Bailey scoffed at the idea and then informed him of her own marriage sabbatical. He said the worrying wouldn't stop because she asked Ben to stay away. He told her that fixing the inside from the outside wouldn't work and that she needed to get real help. Afterward, Bailey joined Taryn on an elevator to take Phoebe Moss up to the OR to procure her organs for Cece Colvin. However, a power outage trapped the elevator between floors.

Bailey and Taryn had to keep each other calm and stop themselves from catastrophizing while ventilating Phoebe manually. She started pulling her fingers again. Eventually, they were rescued by Jed Lundberg and Jackson. They had to climb out and took Phoebe to the OR. During the procedure, Alex came to inform them that Jed's legs had been crushed when the elevator started working again mid-climb. Bailey ordered Alex to take over for her so she could go help him out and lead the hospital. Alex later found her in his office and told her she could have her job back if she was going to treat him the way she did. She told Alex that she was in crisis and didn't trust herself to finish the procurement. She then received a reassuring text from Ben to tell her he was safe and she broke down crying. She then begged Alex not to quit as she needed more time to straighten things out. He agreed to help her with whatever she needed.

Richard telling her she needed to seek help led her to go back to her therapist. Faithfully doing her exercises, she made progress and began noticing again when she was pulling her fingers. At work, Teddy asked her for a job again, but Bailey directed her to Alex. Bailey and Maggie later watched Catherine's last surgery before her own spinal surgery from the gallery. Maggie practiced talking about her feelings with her and said that Catherine, Jackson, and Richard were delaying the inevitable by not talking about the tumor. Bailey told her the storm would come when it did, which was part of her exercise to stop trying to control things she couldn't control. The storm came after surgery. Bailey wanted to enter a lounge, but Maggie stopped her from going in because Catherine, Richard, and Jackson were fighting in there. Everyone came to terms with it and they made up for the surgery. Bailey sat down with Richard in the gallery and stayed with him during Catherine's surgery. When the surgeons had to flip Catherine on the table, Richard couldn't bear to look at the risky move, so Bailey informed when it was over.

Bailey and Ben remained separated through the holidays. Ben dropped off presents for Tuck on Christmas Eve. She had also written Ben's name on the presents she had got Tuck herself, but she promised to also give him Ben's gifts. He told her he was on call on Christmas, so they might see each other in the pit. On NYE, Bailey contemplated calling Ben but decided against it as it might seem like a booty call. A few weeks later, they ran into each other in the ER and she followed him outside. She told him her heart was ready for him to come back. She felt lonely without him when Tuck was at his father's and the fence needed some repair work. He told her she had broken his heart, so he wouldn't come home for the fence. She then told him that she was focusing so much on her physical health since the heart attack that she had neglected her mental health. Her meds needed to be adjusted, which is why she had been off. She told him she was being treated, but he didn't respond and left for an emergency. A few days later, on Valentine's Day, she came home and found Ben working in the front yard. He told her that she had told him to follow his bliss, but then she turned on him and left him over it. If he were to come back, he needed to know that that would never happen again. He said he should have realized something was wrong with her and brought up that he never followed through on building her the treehouse, which she asked for as a place to de-stress. She then noticed he was building her that treehouse and promised she would never call time-out on them again. They went inside and celebrated Valentine's Day in the bedroom.

With her home life back on track, Bailey grew increasingly impatient to get her job back, but there were still two months to go. She noticed that Alex had started a weekly free breakfast for the interns to boost morale. Much to her dismay, she discovered that a display with pictures from all past and present Chiefs had been installed in the cafeteria, with Alex's picture last. The pictures continued to bother her. She told Richard that Alex was praised in an article for the hospital's innovation while that was actually all her doing. Richard told her that's how it goes sometimes and shared a story of how she performed emergency surgery on a long-time patient of his, who now sent her a basket of pears every year. However, as soon as he was gone, she switched her picture with Alex's. At the end of the day, she tried to get Alex to give her her job back, but he had become good at it and insisted on finishing out the contract. Begrudgingly, she told him she was proud of him for standing up for himself like she had taught him.

While Meredith was breaking the hospital's longest surgery record, Bailey helped out in the ER with the mass overdose victims. When Betty was discovered amongst the teenagers, she was diagnosed with an aortic dissection. Teddy decided to operate and Bailey forbade Owen from tagging himself in. At the end of the day, Ben and Bailey left together. Bailey said the world is a scary place, no matter how well you raise your kids. Ben told her to focus on the beauty of the world with him for a moment.

On the night of Catherine's party, Catherine enticed Bailey to drive there in the back of a limo with her. Bailey had been warned Catherine might try to ditch her party, but she couldn't resist the party. Bailey appreciated the luxury and Catherine pointed out she had the money to buy nice things for herself outside of taking care of business, like fixing the garage door and paying off her car and property taxes. Bailey was reluctant to indulge because she didn't know how the TrailBlazer would be a success, but Catherine told her that money comes and goes and you need to let yourself enjoy it before it's gone. She convinced Bailey to buy the expensive C7500 TurboMix, pointing out the joy it would bring her. Catherine then had the limo pull over. She didn't want to go because people would congratulate her like it was all over, but she was not cancer-free. She didn't want to celebrate living in constant dread. Bailey told her she needed to learn to spend joy like she had learned to spend money. She shared that she no longer trusted her heart and might drop dead tomorrow. But they were alive and people loved them, which was cause enough to celebrate. As soon as they arrived, the guests gathered for a speech, but that was interrupted by Owen and Tom's fight and a supposed fire in the kitchen. Everyone was evacuated. Ben responded to the call and after the penthouse was cleared, he offered Bailey a ride home on the aid car.

With 22 days left on the contract, Alex had Bailey cover the ER since both Owen and Teddy were out on personal days. She told him she was looking forward to no longer having to take orders from him. With her resuming the position coming closer, Bailey started to look into the DeLuca research on external gestational sacks that Alex had approved. She thought it was an ethical slippery slope and she hated that she would have to handle in a few weeks. She advised Alex to look into Vincenzo DeLuca's mental health issues. Later, she ran into Helen Karev in the cafeteria and during their chat, Helen revealed she had extended her stay because she was scared of flying back and didn't dare to ask Alex for help. Bailey later informed him of this. Alex thought she was on a crusade against people with mental illness, but she pointed out she was someone with mental illness herself, so she knew how hard it could be to ask for help. She needed help herself not too long ago, which is why she asked him to stay on as Chief. Later, Alex asked Bailey to take over as Chief for 2 days so he could fly back to Iowa with his mother. Still able to relax shortly before taking back over, Bailey spent the day playing Tetris in one of Maggie's mood rooms. She took a short break to quiz a math whiz on math problems.

On Bailey's last sabbatical day, she and Ben found out that Tuck was "just talking" to a girl named Kelly. As they dropped him off, they saw him put his arm around her. Ben and Bailey took a break after he dropped a patient off at the hospital and she said they needed to talk to Tuck about respect, consent, and condoms so that he could properly enjoy his butterflies and first love. Ben offered to take that off her plate as his father gave him the talk and it worked. Bailey later stood among the wall of women to support Abby Redding.

Resuming Her Job
On her first day back, she paged Alex because she couldn't find the compliance reports for the medical board, which were due tomorrow. He had no clue what she was talking about and left. Levi then also dumped a few STEM students on here, who were to learn about leadership, something she had approved months ago. As she guided them around the hospital, they ran into all kinds of awkward situations and people yelling and making mistakes. She apologized to the students and proposed they reschedule for a less hectic day, but they told her they had learned a lot from the way she handled the situations. She then also discovered that Alex had been handing off paperwork to the interns. She later showed Richard the results of that. They both thought it was an amazing idea, but they agreed Alex could never know they did.

When Tucker found out that Tuck was also calling Ben "Dad," he had some angry calls with Bailey. Meredith asked her for advice on how to tell her kids that she was dating Andrew, which Bailey already knew about from Richard. Bailey told her that kids already know on some level and advised her to just make sure they knew she still loved them and that she was not going anywhere. Bailey settled the "Dad" issue by telling Tuck to call Ben by his name again as it hurt his father's feelings. Later, she comforted Warren Sterman, a long-time patient of hers, as he grieved the death of his grandson, caused by a mistake by Nico Kim.

Bailey identified Lucas Ripley when Levi arrived with him at the hospital. Later, she was approached by both Ben and Teddy with concerns about Jo's wellbeing. They went to look for her and found her sobbing in Lori Carter's arms. While Ben comforted her outside, Alex told Bailey that Jo had come back from Pittsburgh a changed person and that he didn't know what to do with her. When the Olympia United Medical Group discovered the insurance fraud committed by Meredith, their representatives held an emergency meeting with Bailey and Catherine. They went over the case together all day and paged Andrew to ask for details on the case. Andrew took the fall for Meredith, after which he was arrested. Bailey then found Jo lurking outside the room. She asked her if she could work today because many attendings were out and her star resident was just arrested. Jo said she could. Bailey and Catherine then settled the Gabriella Rivera case by telling Luis Rivera that the Foundation would pay for everything. After the meeting, she informed Richard of what Andrew had done, after which he ran off instead of joining her to the ER. As Bailey and Jo waited for an ambulance together, Jo told her they needed to talk later. Bailey and Richard operated together and she shared her suspicions that Andrew was just covering for Meredith and that he hadn't pulled it off by himself as he was too smart not to realize he was risking every employee's insurance and the Rivera family's asylum. As soon as she got herself out of the hyperbaric chamber, Meredith went to Catherine and Bailey and told them the truth. Alex and Richard came in to back her. They failed to report it but they couldn't bring themselves to put Luis through any more misery after everything he had been through. Bailey then fired all three of them. At the end of the day, Bailey watched as Jo checked herself into the in-patient psychiatry ward. As they walked off, Alex asked her if he was still fired, to which she replied it hurt her more than it did him.

With her three top attendings fired and DeLuca in jail, Bailey had to get Owen for an incoming trauma despite his daughter just having been born. A week later, she witnessed as Catherine took Tom into a private meeting. Another week passed by and Bailey found out that Catherine had hired Tom as her Foundation's Chief Medical Officer, meaning he would oversee all of the Catherine Fox Medical Centers' Chiefs, including Bailey. Bailey thought Catherine would stand by her. Catherine pointed out that doing so had created a big rift between her and Richard. She found she had less energy than before the cancer, so all small problems would be taken to Tom now instead of to her. Bailey was angered. Andrew showed up with a cocky attitude, knowing she needed help, which didn't help to calm her down. She spent a full week being angry, which exhausted her. She ran into Teddy in a lounge, who confessed she hated maternity leave and vented her fear that she was a bad mother. Bailey told her she had hated maternity leave, too, and that she was an excellent mother.

Tom's promotion left her without joy at work so she indulged in doughnuts instead of her usual green smoothies. Ben gave her a pep talk to go find herself joy. She had noticed the residents had been sulking around since she fired the three attendings, so she reminded them that she shaped Alex and Meredith into the surgeons they are today and offered to shape them, too. She gathered the residents for the case of Wade Foltz, who needed an axillary-bifemoral bypass, and organized a skills lab for the toughest part of the procedure, promising that whoever finished first with good results would get to do that part in the actual surgery. Andrew beat out Taryn by mere seconds but Bailey chose Taryn instead. She also offered Jo full control over her fellowship to prevent her from quitting and accepting the same offer from Alex at Pac-North. Bailey hushed Andrew when he objected in the OR and later made him step in when there was bleeding from the suture line. Afterward, Bailey spotted Meredith in the waiting room with Robin as they went to check on Wade. Later, Andrew confronted her about sidelining him, suspecting she did so because of his relationship with Meredith. She clarified she wanted to give Taryn a taste of the adrenaline and fear that makes you a surgeon and warned him that he was making this personal. She suggested he think about his career and let go of certain loyalties. At the end of the day, Jo came to tell her she had considered her offer but wanted to be appointed attending general surgeon instead, using Alex's counteroffer in her negotiation. Bailey approved and hired her. At home, she told Ben about having found joy that day and how Tom was shocked in the nads by Owen, which made her laugh.

When Shirley Gregory came in for her ALPPS procedure, Bailey showed confidence in Jo by letting her perform the procedure under her supervision despite Jo only ever having observed it. However, Shirley only wanted to be operated on by Meredith, so Bailey had to agree to let Meredith follow the procedure through video chat to get Shirley to consent. Bailey had to assist to repair a bleeding but Jo pulled it off successfully. Bailey hung up on Meredith as soon as Jo was done. Afterward, she found a disappointed Dahlia crying in a hallway and found out that Dahlia resented her for firing Meredith, who was the sole reason she, like many others, had worked so hard to get herself matched to Grey Sloan. Understanding Dahlia wasn't open to learning from anyone else, Bailey fired her so she at least had something in common with her hero.

Miscarriage and Fostering Joey
When a patient refused to be treated at Grey Sloan and was taken to Pac-North, Bailey learned that Meredith had published an article that trashed Grey Sloan. Bailey considered this a public attack and discovered it had sent the residents into mayhem, including the Chief Resident quitting on her. She appointed Andrew as Chief Resident to clean up the mess his girlfriend had made as he had failed to warn them about it before it came out. Bailey felt very hot and Jo suggested that her heart was in distress because of the stress caused by the article. Worried she might be right, Bailey fetched Maggie for a cardiac work-up, which revealed her heart was fine. Maggie suggested it was hormonal and drew blood to run a full panel. Knowing her mother went through early menopause, Bailey got emotional and asked Ben to sit with her and allow her to feel her feelings. Later, Meredith came by her office and told her that she had not meant for the article to come out like this. She said she had just pitched some ideas and the website published it this way, while she had never directed any comments towards the hospital itself, but rather at the medical system as a whole. Bailey shut down Meredith's suggestion to write a retraction since they never get read. Meredith stressed she would never attack her beloved hospital that taught her everything. Bailey recalled the many hours she had sacrificed from her family to be a mentor and friend to Meredith and said Meredith could apologize all she wanted but that the damage had been done. She asked Meredith to leave. Maggie later came by with her blood results. Bailey was indeed perimenopausal but also pregnant, which came as a shock.

Bailey tried to tell Ben about the pregnancy when he came home from an exhausting shift but he fell asleep as soon as he lay down on the bed. At work, Bailey took the case of Carly Davis, who had a carbon monoxide poisoning from a suspected suicide attempt. Jo recognized Carly from her residential treatment and joined her and Bailey in the hyperbaric chamber. Bailey learned Carly was in fact one of her therapists, which resulted in Jo panicking and having shaky hands, which was ironic as Carly was the one who taught her tricks to keep her nervous system calm. Jo applied the techniques, including reciting a list of things you know by heart, but it didn't work. She feared she would never completely get better if even the person who helped her out of her depression could still attempt suicide. As she started to spiral, Bailey blurted out she was pregnant, which helped to calm Jo down. As Carly slowly improved, Jo asked her about the pregnancy. Bailey informed her Ben didn't know yet. She further said the pregnancy wasn't planned and that it terrified her but could also make her happy. Since Bailey started to panic, Jo had her recite Tuck's bedtime routine as a baby, which surprisingly helped. After solving Carly's case, Bailey offered to take the case off Jo's hands but Jo wanted to see it through. Bailey told her she watched Jo teeter on the edge, bring herself and Bailey back from that, and saved Carly's life in the process, which all told her Jo would be okay. After learning that the carbon monoxide poisoning had been an accident, Jo established a boundary and handed the case back to Bailey. Later, Bailey informed Ben she was in an emergency. He rushed to the hospital and found her. She eased his panic and told him about the pregnancy. While shocked at first, he was delighted and picked her up to twirl her around. In his excitement, he told some nearby staff.

Around Halloween, Bailey's hormones started to get the better of her. She didn't want to cry at work, especially in front of Tom. She cried when Tuck sent her a picture of his costume. She also had cravings and started to think about how breastfeeding, which she had read was recommended now, would interfere with her career. She took her concerns to Amelia, who taught her some tricks to hold back tears. She worked on a case with Teddy and Tom. Teddy was worried that she was a bad mother because she hadn't provided amazing self-made costumes for her kids. Bailey assured her no one equated good costumes to good parenting and advised her to just focus on spending time with her kids. After the successful surgery, Bailey confronted Tom about his continuous complaining about Halloween. He apologized and shared with her the story of how Halloween was his and his son David's thing and how David died a few weeks before he could ever put on his Stormtrooper costume, which just hung on David's bedroom door for months as Tom couldn't bring himself to take it down. While Amelia's tricks had helped her throughout the day, she couldn't stop herself from sobbing. Tom awkwardly comforted her. Afterward, Bailey went to see the parade in the peds ward and learned that Teddy had dressed up her babies as zombies, which made Bailey suggest she buy costumes next year. The firefighters at Station 19 threw a surprise celebration for Ben and Bailey's baby, where Bailey learned that Jackson was seeing Vic. Travis Montgomery gave a speech to congratulate the pair though he ruined it by calling it a late-life pregnancy. While enjoying the food, they went around the table with each firefighter stating a wish for the baby. Afterward, Bailey and Ben lied down on top of the engine and talked about their baby possibly being a girl. She told Ben she felt safe there. She liked knowing there are heroes out there in the dangerous world and knowing them personally.

A few days later at Meredith's trial, Bailey was surprised to see that most of Meredith's former colleagues showed up to support her. While testifying, Bailey denied being close to Meredith and stated that Meredith lost the qualities that had made her promote Meredith to Head of General Surgery. She also confirmed a list of incidents involving Meredith to be true. She found out Richard had cheated the system to get Meredith a spot at Seattle Grace and she scoffed as Richard later took the blame again for Meredith's tampering with Derek's Alzheimer's trial during his testimony. During a break, she confronted him and he reiterated that it was his decision to make. She pointed out he had a habit of going around the system for Meredith no matter the consequences. Richard thought he was jealous but admitted he gave Meredith special treatment due to his history with Ellis, making him consider her family. Bailey said they could have come to her for help. Richard thought that would have led to Catherine firing her. She finally told him that their actions had cost her her hospital with Tom being in charge now, her best surgeons, and most importantly, her closest friend. She admitted she felt betrayed by someone she raised. He pointed out her testimony made him feel the same way as he thought she'd stand up for Meredith as he had. After the break, Bailey barged into the room and talked about how Meredith had been breaking the rules since day one, and even though she deserved to be fired over it, she did not deem it fair for her license to be taken away. She concluded Meredith was too good of a surgeon and had worked too hard to get to where she was. Her second testimony and Alex's bringing together a whole group of patients whom Meredith had operated on convinced the panel to let her keep her license. Bailey then told Meredith she could have her job back, which Meredith accepted. They hugged it out.

The Monday after, a few hours before getting an ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby, Bailey found out Pruitt Herrera had been admitted to the hospital with symptoms suggesting his cancer was back. She ran some tests to confirm. Meanwhile, she convinced Amelia to get an ultrasound, something Amelia had been putting off because she was afraid of what it might reveal given her history. Pruitt's tests came back, revealing a highly aggressive testicular lymphoma. While she was talking about his poor survival odds, he told her she was bleeding. Carina was called and she did an ultrasound while Ben was making his way to the hospital. As he arrived, Pruitt and Carina expressed their condolences and gave the couple some privacy. Together, they cried over their loss. After the initial grief had worn off a bit, Bailey decided she needed to work and told Ben to go drink with buddies. On her way to her office, she ran into Amelia, who asked about the ultrasound. Hiding the truth, Bailey told her the baby was a girl like she had expected and headed to her office, where she broke down crying after all. She cried over the ultrasound pictures before heading home. While she was trying to get a hold of Ben, she came across Joe's bar, where the Station 19 crew was working to extract a car that had crashed into Joe's bar, trapping everyone inside. Dean Miller informed her that Ben was among the people inside though not hurt. She deduced some of her staff were trapped, too, and pressured Dean to get them out. He told her she was wasting his time by barking orders at him while she was not his Chief. He made her step back behind the tape. The crew got everyone out. Ben was unharmed and hugged his wife. He admitted he was blaming himself for the miscarriage as he figured it happened due to the stress that his job was causing her. She told him it was not his fault, pointing out that it happened when he wasn't on duty. She then decided to go back to work and had him update her on her injured residents.

Together, they arrived in the ambulance bay as the trauma doctors took in the residents. Bailey granted Ben privileges to help out. Inside, she retreated in a supply closet to gather herself. She found Levi crying in there. She pulled him up and told him their friends needed them. They headed out to work. Owen and Richard came to help out, too. Ben checked if Bailey was okay but she just stated she had operated on her residents before. Richard told her Ben had called him, implying he knew about the miscarriage, but she only told him to help out wherever he could. Together, they operated on Taryn Helm, who had an internal bleed. She froze as she had to open up Taryn's chest to get better visualization so Richard swiftly took over from her. They saved her together and lingered in the OR afterward. He informed her all the residents had made it through their surgeries. She was relieved and finally let the grief over her miscarriage sink in. She told Richard she had handled losing her best surgeons and friends but couldn't handle this loss of her daughter. She had a hard time accepting that, unlike she and her colleagues had done for injured residents, there was nothing she or anyone else could try to save her. As she said she could only stand there and let the loss happen, she broke down in Richard's arm. Later, Richard and Meredith came by her office with tissues and doughnuts to comfort her. Meredith said she felt lonely when she had her miscarriage so she knew Bailey needed some company.

Bailey took some personal time to grieve the loss. On her first day back, Andrew updated her on all the injured resident. As he took her to Suzanne Britland, they ran into Tom, who commented on her taking time off while the majority of the residents were out. Bailey told him she had other services cover their absence and joined Andrew in Suzanne's room. Suzanne had developed a mysterious condition after an appendectomy. Suzanne crashed in the CT machine due a cardiac tamponade but they managed to bring her back. She and Andrew assured Suzanne later that they would find out what was going on. Bailey had Andrew create the war room and reach out to other doctors to get their opinion. Later, she ran into Tom, who again commented on her taking a vacation. She then told him she was grieving her miscarriage. He sympathized with her, having been through two miscarriages with his ex-wife. He said it is not as easy to get over as people make it seem, which is why he had developed a habit of lighting a candle on what would have been the kids' birthdays. Bailey took his advice and lit a candle in the chapel.

A few days later, Bailey had to go tell Joey Phillips, whom Ben had rescued the day before, that he would have to be separated from his siblings, who had been placed in the foster system. She overheard that Tom was doing interview with Pac-North staff to determine who would be hired at Grey Sloan. Bailey wanted to make recommendations but he turned her down, knowing she would recommend the people she had impulsively fired. Afterward, she checked in on the residents in the war room on Suzanne's case and told them to go shower. Finally, she went to see Joey and delivered the bad news. She tried to ease the pain by promising to call social services and find out as much as she could about his siblings' situations. She was told that they try to keep siblings together, though Joey wasn't reassured by that as his siblings weren't his actual siblings but rather kids who had run away from their foster home together. As she and Jo operated on Joey's arm to restore blood flow, Bailey brought up his history of bouncing around the foster system after his parents died in a car accident. Despite being a straight-A student who had taken care of his siblings on his own for months, Jo doubted that he would ever be adopted as 17 year olds are generally viewed as adults who can fend for themselves. After surgery, the two of them watched Joey sleep. Jo hated how he had nowhere to go, though she was hopeful that he would turn out okay like she and Alex had. Later, Bailey sat down with Meredith and they talked about her breaking up with Andrew and having grown up. Jackson came to inform them that Richard had refused to return to Grey Sloan under Koracick's terms. They gathered the top attendings, who all agreed to quit unless Tom agreed to their terms. Tom conceded.

On Richard's first day back, Bailey told him to train the new set of residents from Pac-North. She admitted that was her way of comforting him with his marriage ending soon. She also invited him to dinner but he just walked off. Later, Meredith came into Bailey's office as she was having hot flashes. She voiced her concerns over Andrew's behavior regarding Suzanne's case. Bailey called him into her office and told him Meredith would be taking over the case from him so he could finally sleep. Meredith's first decision was putting Suzanne back on her medication, which Andrew and Dr. Riley had stopped as they believed it was masking her symptoms. Andrew aggressively objected to the decision, but Bailey told him to walk away before saying something he would come to regret. Eventually, Andrew found the right diagnosis and Meredith set up the treatment. Later, Cormac Hayes informed Bailey that Joey was refusing to do his PT. Bailey arranged a visit from his siblings, who assured him their foster homes weren't bad. She ordered pizza for the kids. As she left the room, she was told by a resident that Richard had let them go home, despite it being not even 5 o'clock. She sat down with Richard, who told her that those residents weren't Grey Sloan caliber. Having them there felt like Catherine had won. She understood and wanted to help him. He told her he was bone tired, which she said sounded like depression. He said he would be okay and left.

As a snowstorm hit Seattle, Bailey continued to spend time with Joey in his hospital room to help him study for his GED. She was mad upon finding out Andrew had taken off on foot to retrieve a donor liver at Seattle Pres and got upset with Link for discharging Joey in the middle of a blizzard. She knew Joey had declined to talk to a social worker about his options. She dropped by Joey's room and he told her that, having turned eighteen, he had decided he didn't want to risk ending up with crappy foster parents again. She pointed out he could also end up with a great family that could help him get his high school diploma and find a career that he loved. He didn't think that was in store for him. To prove him wrong, she took him on a tour of the hospital to point all different kinds of jobs. In the ER, they came across Owen and Teddy rushing to save a pregnant woman. Bailey and Joey comforted the woman's wife. Joey followed Bailey as she went to get an update and witnessed how the doctors had managed to save both the woman and her baby. As they watched one mother with her baby in the NICU, Joey admitted he was impressed. Bailey then blurted out that Joey should come home with her, having an extra room and extra love to give. She told him about her son and her husband. He agreed to her offer and they hugged. That night, Ben came home with dinner and was surprised to see Joey in his living room wearing his clothes. Bailey told him they should talk.

Her unilateral decision angered Ben, who went to sleep on the couch. The next morning, Bailey found a letter from Alex in her mail. He wrote that he wouldn't be returning to Grey Sloan. He thanked her for being a great teacher who also let him grow up. As Alex brought up his difficult past and his turning into the guy that Bailey had trusted to run her hospital and keep her secrets. He also wrote that he had decided to stay in Baldwin City to complete the family Izzie had started by using their embryos to have twins. He asked Bailey if she would be willing to write a recommendation so he could apply for a job of Chief of Peds at Shawnee Memorial. He ended his letter by thanking her again, which he knew was small and lame compared to what she had done for him. Ben came home and found Bailey with the letter in her hand. She informed him that Alex had left everyone behind to be a father. She then said it was a matter of luck that Alex became the person that he is today. He survived his home and foster homes and turned into a father and fine surgeon, all by chance. She didn't want Joey's future to be a matter of chance. Ben then agreed to keep Joey, saying that he had just wanted for them to talk it over. Bailey apologized and they agreed neither of them would make big decisions again without consulting the other.

At work, Bailey found Richard objecting to having his furniture from Pac-North moved into his office. He left to go teach a skills lab, leaving Bailey to handle the dispute with the movers. She arranged for his old furniture to be moved into his office instead but he got mad at her for assuming what he wanted. He told her he would handle it and started throwing stuff on the ground as she left. In the ER, Andrew asked Bailey if he could treat patients now that he had agreed to start seeing a counselor. She denied his request, which surprised him, as he thought she would need the help with Richard handing off his entire service. That was news to Bailey, though she stuck with her decision regarding Andrew. She went to see Richard in his empty office. He apologized and said the slightest things set him off lately. He then formally told her he was stepping back from surgery. He wanted to start something new and said having his old furniture reminded him of his old self and cluttered his mind. Bailey argued that the hospital needed him but he simply said he wanted to step away while at the top of his game. She sat down with Meredith in the attendings' lounge, where Meredith was missing Alex cheering her up after a hard day. Bailey related to the feeling. She recalled Richard's speech to the interns and how she dreamed of being the last one standing. However, now that she was the last one standing, the feelings of victory had worn off and she just felt lonely sometimes. She then informed Meredith that Richard was stepping back from surgery.

Andrew convinced Bailey that he was ready to return to work and she allowed him to treat patients again starting with shifts in the clinic. On Meredith's busy pro bono surgery day, Bailey was paged to the clinic by Andrew, who suspected his patient was a human trafficking victim. He made his case stating that Cindy's supposed aunt was answering his questions for her. While Bailey thought he sounded crazy, she went to assess the situation herself. She deemed Cindy and Opal were actually family and told Andrew he was off the case. She also sent him home and told him to meet her in her office the next morning. However, Andrew was persistent and took Cindy to surgery to keep her away from Opal, who ended up finding Cindy anyway. Andrew then went off the rails and physically blocked Opal from getting to Cindy. He drew a crowd as he yelled at Opal to get away. A code violet was called. As his colleagues, including Bailey, arrived, he asked them to form a human chain around Cindy to protect her. Instead, his colleagues formed a human chain around him, indicating they thought of him as the danger, while he yelled at them in an attempt to make them see things his way. Security took him to Bailey's office, where Andrew quit his job rather than accept a suspension. After a talk with Meredith, he agreed to take the suspension if Bailey agreed to call the human trafficking hotline. Bailey agreed and made the call. She was told not to scare the suspects away but found that Opal and Cindy had disappeared, making her fear that Andrew had been right.

Bailey gathered with some other staff in a conference room at Grey Sloan to watch a livestream of Richard's presentation on his PATH pen at the Surgical Innovation Conference in Los Angeles. They all witnessed as he gave an unfocused talk about a cure for cancer with a messy presentation with simple hand-drawn pictures. Maggie and Cormac escorted him off the stage and called 911.

Bailey, Meredith, and Amelia assembled a war room to find out what was going on with Richard. Bailey ordered several tests before gathering other doctors. Bailey presented a list with diagnoses that needed ruling out or had been ruled already. During a talk with Richard, they found out he thought Catherine had been at the Conference with him. They added hallucinations to his symptoms. Later in the day, Bailey found Andrew in Richard's room. She reminded him of his suspension but he claimed it was a social visit. She also had him forward her the list that Lauren had sent him. Catherine pushed the doctors to work her. Maggie and Meredith did some cognitive tests on him, which went horribly bad. Maggie was convinced he had some type of rapidly-progressive dementia, though they had yet to find a cause. They returned to Richard's room and found him gone. They spread out to find him. Meredith found him in the OR about to cut himself open. She guided him back to his room. He thought he was at Seattle Grace and wanted to start rounds with the interns. He mentioned Adele, which greatly worried his doctors.

The doctors switched off keeping him company. While playing cards, Richard blanked and stopped playing. As he further declined, the doctors kept looking for the reason behind the decline. After a week, Catherine decided it had been enough and she wanted to take Richard home. However, as they were discharging him, Richard mentioned his feet and hands were numb, convincing the doctors to perform an EMG, which revealed that his whole body was breaking down, thus ruling out dementia. The search for a diagnosis continued. Meredith and Bailey went to do a nerve biopsy but Andrew came barging in, knocking over the instrument tray to force them to stop and listen to him. He suspected Richard was suffering from cobalt poisoning caused by his hip replacement. Meredith drew some blood, which confirmed Andrew's suspicion. Andrew asked to scrub in on the hip replacement. Bailey initially denied his request but Meredith pointed out he had made an incredible save, convincing Bailey to let Andrew scrub in to just watch. Bailey went to fetch Link, who was with Amelia giving birth, and convinced him to go perform the surgery. Amelia then asked Bailey to stay with her. Honoring their Pregnancy Club, Bailey stayed with her and helped her through the delivery, much like George had done for her. Later, Link arrived in the room and Bailey showed him his son. She left the new parents and went to check up on Richard in the ICU. He was stable but still unconscious. He later woke up with normal cognitive function.

Personality
Miranda Bailey has two completely different sides, sometimes she is extremely loving and kind, others she is tough and keeps true to her nickname the Nazi. She usually gives advice to others, being very direct.

Although known for her strict personality, Bailey has an excellent bedside manner.

As a resident, Bailey was well-known amongst the attendings for being no-nonsense and unafraid to call them out for what she perceives to be ineptitude. She took time to warm up to new attendings and famously disliked Derek Shepherd, Erica Hahn, Mark Sloan, and Arizona Robbins for various reasons after working with them for the first time.

Tucker Jones
She married Tucker Jones c.1995. They had been married for ten years and trying to conceive for seven when Miranda announced her pregnancy with their first child. Her son, William George Bailey Jones, was born during a bomb scare at Seattle Grace while her husband was in surgery with Dr. Derek Shepherd, having crashed his car on the way to the hospital. George O'Malley helped her through labor, and she thanked him by naming her son William George Bailey Jones (although he is nicknamed "Tuck" after his father).

Due to her working as a surgeon, Bailey rarely spent time at home, putting a strain on their marriage and following an incident where Tuck was hurt at home, their relationship was strained even more and although they stayed married, Tucker went on dates.

On discovering Miranda had applied for a pediatric surgery fellowship, Tucker gave her an ultimatum: the fellowship or their marriage. Miranda decided to leave her husband, believing a marriage should never come to an ultimatum, but also declined the fellowship.

Sam Bennett
While she was still married, he flirted with her. When she came to L.A., he almost kissed her. She stopped him and returned home before anything could happen between them.

Ben Warren
After her divorce from Tucker was finalized, Bailey started seeing Ben, an anesthesiologist.

But after the shooting at Seattle Grace, she broke off her relationship with him, saying she had to put herself back together.

When drunk, she confessed that she still missed Ben.

During their time apart, Bailey dated another man, but after Ben found out, he decided to fight for her and things ended between Bailey and Eli.

After things ended with Eli, she got back together with Ben.

Ben tried to propose to her through a crossword puzzle which didn't work out like he planned, and in the end Miranda herself asked him to marry her twice.

On the day they were supposed to get married, Bailey got caught up with Adele Webber when she and Richard found out that Adele was coughing up blood and had been rushed to the hospital. They turned the limo that was taking them to the wedding around and went to the hospital instead.

Bailey and Meredith operated on Adele, before returning to her wedding and tying the knot with Ben.

After their marriage, Ben had gotten a surgical internship at UCLA and had to leave. Their marriage was strained while he was at UCLA, but Ben came to Seattle to vist Miranda every once in a while. Later, Ben quit his job because he felt he didn't see Miranda or Tuck, his stepson. Miranda was not very happy at first, but he did not want to give up surgery and got a job at Grey Sloan Memorial.

Ben operated on a man in the psych ward with a clipboard and operated on a pregnant women without proper consent in a hall and she died. He was put on probation for 6 months by Miranda. Instead of not doing any work, he acted as an attending anesthesiologist which angered Miranda because she felt that he wasn't taking his probation seriously, but she couldn't do anything about it, as she wasn't in control over the anesthesiologist department.

He later became a firefighter, which scared Miranda as he was the one running into the fire, not running away. Because of the stress of his job, one day when he was going to work, she told him to drop her off at Seattle Presbyterian hospital. She told him that it was a meeting and blew him off, so he just dropped her off and drove to his job.

When he was told that she was having a heart attack, Ben dropped his hot dogs and ran to the hospital, freaking out. He was with her when she woke up, as was Maggie Pierce and Richard Webber. Ben told her that he would quit for her but Miranda told him not to, as his job did stress him out, but she knew that this was what he wanted to do.

Eli Lloyd
Eli, a nurse, asked her out, and the two dated for a while, even to the extent of sleeping together in the on-call room, something which Miranda never actually thought she would do, given her stellar reputation.

After Ben returned, she dumped Eli. Even before Ben returned, Miranda admitted she wasn't looking for a long-term relationship with Eli.

Meredith Grey
Miranda had a strained relationship with Meredith in the beginning because of Meredith's relationship with Derek, but they soon became friendly. They also worked on a medical trial to try to cure diabetes together, although Bailey refused to allow her to help at first because of what happened with Derek's Alzheimer's trial. Eventually, Bailey became close with Meredith, even demanding that Meredith be a bridesmaid in her wedding to Ben. After the wedding, they remained close.

Cristina Yang
Bailey said that Cristina was the one intern she didn't have to worry about.

Izzie Stevens
Izzie was not her favorite in the beginning. Then when Izzie cut Denny's L-VAD wire, Bailey really had a disliking for her. When Izzie got cancer, Bailey softened up. Bailey once accused her of being too "attached" to her patients.

When Izzie went under for brain surgery for her cancer, she had been knitting a scarf earlier. Before Izzie went down, she told Bailey that the scarf was for her.

George O'Malley
Bailey said George was her favorite of her interns. She also named her son after him. He coached her through her labor and delivery, allowing her to work through the stress of her husband's car accident.

When George told her he was joining the army, Bailey freaked out, and with the help of other doctors, they staged an "intervention" to stop him from going. Owen told them that it was his choice, but they started blaming Owen for him joining the army because he encouraged George a lot with trauma surgery and talked about his experiences in the army.

Alex Karev
She thinks Alex was made to be a peds surgeon. After learning of Alex's past from his younger brother, Bailey says she is impressed Alex became a doctor, due to his troubled upbringing. She also remarks on how impressing her is not an easy feat.

Richard Webber
Webber has been her mentor since she was a resident, and has encouraged her to become the person she is today. Bailey looks up to Webber.

Others
Through the rest of that residency year, Bailey had to adjust to becoming a parent and reconciling this with her desire to continue her career as a surgeon. Her professional confidence was shaken when Izzie Stevens cut Denny Duquette's LVAD wire and Denny subsequently died after his heart transplant; Bailey felt that she wasn't in control of her interns and that the incident was ultimately her fault. She was criticized for the events at a Morbidity and Mortality conference, with one colleague questioning outright her competence at juggling career and motherhood. While her confidence has been somewhat restored since then, she still feels bad about not spending enough time with her son, once making a late-night call to sing "God Bless the Child" to him. During her pregnancy, she was upset that her interns had driven away two residents and no one wanted them. When she returned to work, she was making sure that her colleagues knew that she hadn't gone soft because she had become a mother.

Following severe injuries to her son and several arguments over the state of their marriage, Bailey and her husband separated because her husband believed that she placed her job at the hospital before her family and that it led to Tuck's injuries. Bailey's relationship with Erica Hahn is quite strained. Although Erica saved her son's life, she temporarily stopped the surgery until Bailey left and when Bailey asked Erica for help on a surgery, the whole day Erica was quite negative and kept putting Bailey down.

Career
Miranda Bailey, a graduate of Wellesley College, is an attending general surgeon. She says she was the only female intern in her year, but she was the best and she won the first solo surgery. She was also previously in charge of the five interns Meredith, Cristina, Izzie, Alex, and George (although Alex was not originally hers). Her colleagues used to refer to her as "The Nazi" because of her tough personality and blunt attitude although she behaves almost in the exact opposite way with patients and has a great bedside manner.

Although she was often harsh with her interns, she has been shown to provide both support and advice when they need it; practicing "tough love." For instance, Bailey stayed by Cristina during her pregnancy scare and her initial recovery; she also held Izzie's hand when Izzie was giving bone marrow for her daughter. She cares about her patients and is a committed surgeon. When she first learned about Meredith Grey and Derek Shepherd she became brisk with her but it was to prove Meredith had no favor. She protected her while she was looked at by all the Seattle Grace when Derek choose Addison over her, she admitted he had put himself between two remarkable women.

Disillusioned by how little she can help patients as a surgeon, Bailey decided to open a free clinic at Seattle Grace. She faced initial difficulties getting support from the attendings, but after talking with the Chief, managed to get their agreement to work there. The Denny Duquette Memorial Clinic has since opened, paid for using part of the $8.7 million bequeathed to Izzie by Denny Duquette, and Bailey is satisfied that the clinic will change people's lives for the better. She competed for the post of Chief Resident, but she found out she lost to Callie Torres. Dr. Richard Webber has indicated that she could eventually become Chief of Surgery.

Miranda became a 5th-year resident and decided to be Callie's "number two," as Torres was lacking in performance as Chief Resident. The Chief saw Bailey pick up the slack, and delegate exceptionally well, and eventually realized that Miranda was covering for Callie. He fired Torres from the position and told Bailey that he made a mistake in not giving her the job in the first place. He also apologized for taking Dr. Bailey for granted. At this Miranda broke down in tears hugged the Chief. This is an example of the emotional baggage the "Nazi" carries and shows one of her very rare emotional moments. Miranda helped save the life of a white supremacist paramedic despite his racist treatment of her. When closing his stomach after the surgery, she comments to George that the incision will need to be aligned better, thus ruining the paramedic's large swastika tattoo on his stomach. During the surgery, she declared that she didn't want to be called the Nazi anymore.



Dr. Bailey was nearing the end of her surgical residency in General Surgery, and Richard Webber had planned for her to become a general surgery attending. Although for a while she claimed she was growing tired of appys and gall bladders and nothing excited her but while treating a child that almost died, she wanted to stick with general surgery. Unfortunately, she had been assigned to another child. While treating the child, both Dixon and Robbins said she was a true pediatric surgeon because of her disregard of rules, her personal interest in patients and taking the time to explain surgeries to the patients and the children. Privately, she told Arizona how she felt when her son Tuck was admitted and said, because of how she felt, it would make her bad for pediatric surgery. But in contrast, Arizona told her that in her opinion it made her uniquely qualified. Eventually, she decided to pursue a pediatric surgery fellowship, despite the Chief's disagreement. Armed with letters of recommendation from Shepherd, Sloan, O'Malley, and a disappointing letter from the chief, she is very excited about Addison's letter of recommendation, labeling her the "the most promising peds surgeon I've ever had the pleasure of working with". Even though Arizona claims the Chief is the major factor in the decision, the implication of Addison's referral should make a much larger difference than any other doctor she could have, as Addison is a world-class neonatal surgeon, hopefully outranking most other letters of recommendation Bailey has.

Bailey eventually gains the pediatric surgery fellowship, and even the Chief signs on and agrees with it, but Bailey is unable to take the position and asks for a job as a General Surgery attending, after making the decision to leave her husband, as a fellowship for 2 years of long hours is not healthy for a single mother.

As a general surgery attending, Bailey spearheads an initiative to reduce post-operative fistula formations. After introducing a new protocol that involves the removal of a drain on day 3 versus day 5, the formation is reduced by 30%.

With Richard stepping down as Chief of Surgery, Miranda appeared livid, when Owen Hunt was ushered into the position, however, she eventually supports this decision. Bailey later admitted that she thought she would have eventually become Chief of Surgery after him.

Along with stepping down from his position, Dr. Webber passed on his clinical trial on diabetes to her. Along the way, Richard kept insisting that Bailey have Meredith Grey help her, which she refused because she partly blamed Meredith for Richard's downfall. Eventually, Bailey hit a rough patch in her own research and begun shutting out Webber from their lab of mice. Though she employed April Kepner to assist her, it was not until Meredith began working on the case that the problem was finally discovered. Meredith discovered that parts of her mother's research were wrong and that the first few devices installed in their first patients would eventually become ineffective. After Teddy's husband Henry Burton dies, the trial was not mentioned again.

Bailey later pursued a new project of genome mapping that will arm doctors the necessary information to treat diseases at the source rather than treating the symptoms as they arise. A while after, because of defective gloves, she unintentionally infected three of her patients with a staph infection and was investigated by the CDC. While her name was eventually cleared and her infection was eradicated and all three patients died, she overheard Richard telling a patient that the one doctor who caused the infection had been isolated. This affected Bailey greatly, causing her to lock herself in her genome lab, shutting out the other doctors, particularly the board and Richard, for a day while she obsessively mapped her own genome over and over again. She was drawn out only by her husband, Ben, but she still refused to perform surgeries, until she had to operate on Meredith.

After Owen decided to step down as Chief of Surgery, Richard suggested Bailey as his successor to the board, but Catherine didn't want him to just give her the position. They agreed on her bringing in one outside candidate, Dr. Tracy McConnell, but Bailey convinced the board to choose her by talking about how passionate she was about the hospital. As of now, Bailey is one of the few female Chiefs of Surgery.

Notes and Trivia

 * Bailey was the only female intern in her year. She also won the first solo surgery.
 * Bailey states in Deny, Deny, Deny that her cystic fibrosis patient has been her patient for at least five years, despite being a 4th-year surgical resident at the time.
 * Bailey believed in Santa until the age of eleven.
 * She knows a lot about Sci-Fi, notably Star Wars, and a collector of Judy dolls, seeing as how she could identify each doll and their accompanying accessories.
 * She hates bad liars.
 * Bailey was always nicknamed The Nazi, but the nickname stopped when a racist patient with a tattoo of a swastika who came in for a surgery refused to let her operate on him alone.
 * Bailey often says Va-jay-jay instead of saying vagina.
 * Bailey has changed her hairstyle more than any other character.
 * The reputation of Nazi precedes Bailey, and the "Nazi" is said to have "balls the size of Texas".
 * Sandra Oh originally auditioned for the part of Bailey, not Cristina.
 * Her original character description was "Tiny, blonde, with curls."- in reference to the Nazi's preference of Aryans, who had blonde hair and blue eyes.
 * She has arachnophobia, the fear of arachnids such as spiders and scorpions.
 * Her new nickname is "BCB", which means Booty-call Bailey because of her frequent "contacts" with Ben Warren whenever he came to Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital from LA.
 * Bailey officiated Callie Torres and Arizona Robbins' marriage.
 * She refers to the hospital shooting as the worst day of her life.
 * Derek Shepherd and Meredith Grey named their son Derek Bailey Shepherd in her honor.
 * Bailey played the oboe while in high school and also took dance classes.
 * She likes extra crumb topping on her macaroni.
 * She enjoys extra thick strawberry milkshakes.
 * She likes waffles.
 * She's afraid of snakes, large spiders, and sharks.
 * She is the first female Chief of Surgery at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital or any of its predecessors.
 * Although not stated directly in dialogue, Bailey is board certified in general surgery, as George, during his second-time as an intern, was calculating Bailey's required OR time to sit for boards during her fifth and final year of residency.
 * During her fourth year of residency, Bailey applied for five fellowship programs, including Seattle Grace's; however, this has not been brought up since as Bailey considered a pediatric surgery fellowship the following year, which she subsequently turned down, in favor of being a general surgery attending when she completed her residency.
 * Bailey is the only character to have said Preston Burke's middle name (Xavier) on-screen.
 * She refers to her interns as her "babies."
 * Bailey lost her virginity to her ex-husband, Tucker Jones.
 * Bailey would like to have her way with Idris Elba.
 * When Bailey appointed Meredith Head of General Surgery, it was implied that Bailey was the unofficial department head of general surgery when she was an attending under Richard Webber and Owen Hunt.
 * She's 4'11". Hence, she has been known to stand on a stool when performing surgery.
 * Her favorite places to have sex in the hospital are the OR galleries after-hours, a spare patient room on the fourth floor, and the library.
 * She drinks her coffee black.
 * Bailey was the first character to appear in every Grey's Anatomy Universe show. She was the only one until Amelia Shepherd made an appearance on the Station 19 episode Born to Run.
 * She and her family live at 1017 Hawthorne Ave. Seattle, Washington 98105.
 * She is the character with the most appearances in the Grey's universe.
 * She does not have any pets because she thinks they smell like feet.

Notable Episodes
These episodes are Bailey-centric or are otherwise very informative about her life.
 * It's the End of the World
 * As We Know It
 * Forever Young
 * Lay Your Hands on Me
 * There's No 'I' in Team
 * Invasion
 * Right Here, Right Now
 * The Time Warp
 * Sanctuary
 * Death and All His Friends
 * Sleeping Monster
 * Walking Tall
 * There's a Fine, Fine Line
 * You Can Look (But You'd Better Not Touch)
 * (Don't Fear) the Reaper


 * Breathe Again
 * Let's All Go to the Bar
 * Help Me Through the Night
 * Fight the Power

Memorable Quotes

 * George: Oh, Dr. Bailey, I can see the top of his head, he's got a lotta hair! Oh, he's cute.
 * Miranda: O'Malley?
 * George: Yeah?
 * Miranda: Stop lookin' at my va-jay-jay.
 * George: [looks away] Yes, ma'am.


 * Miranda: He was dying and I created something out of thin air. I took a virus that kills into something that heals. And I saved his life.


 * Miranda: On their death bed, nobody wishes they'd worked more. That's the traught little phrase people tried out when they want to play hookey, or spend too much money, or shame working parents for missing their kids' soccer game for a board meeting. On your death bed, no one wishes they'd worked more. Tell that to the people who love their work. It's not about whether you spend your life in a boardroom, your bedroom, or a beach with a mai tai in Maui, when you look back on your life, the only thing that matters is: Did you spend it doing what you love, with the people you love? Were you happy? Did you make the most of this beautiful, terrifying, messed up life? Did you let go of all the things that held you back? So you can hold on to what matters most.


 * Miranda Bailey: I have five rules. Memorize them. Rule number one: Don't bother sucking up. I hate you. That's not gonna change. Trauma protocol, phone list, pagers, nurses will page you. You will answer every page at a run. A run! That's rule number two. Your first shift starts now and lasts 48 hours. You're interns, grunts, nobodies, bottom of the surgical food chain. You run labs, write orders, work every second night until you drop, and don't complain. On-call rooms. Attendings hog them. Sleep when you can where you can, which brings me to rule number three. If I'm sleeping, don't wake me unless your patient is dying. Rule four: The dying patient better not be dead when I get there. Not only will you have killed someone, you woke me for no reason. We clear? (Meredith raises her hand) Yes?
 * Meredith Grey : You said five rules. That was only four.
 * Miranda Bailey: Rule number five: When I move, you move.

Appearances
Miranda Bailey Miranda Bailey Miranda Bailey