Cathy seeks a second opinion, causing a strain on her relationship with Dr. Todd; Sean learns about his sister's cancer while adjusting to life with a pregnant Rebecca; Adam sees a therapist against his will.

Cathy finds that her experience with the great Dr. Atticus Sherman isn't anything like she thought it would be. In addition to not appreciating his bedside manner, not believing that he pays any attention to her file, or not believing that he sees her anything more than another nameless face in his office, Cathy learns he is conducting a clinical trial, about which she learns from another of his stage 4 patients, an extremely positive woman named Nadine, in which he has no space for her. Meanwhile, Cathy and Sean's relationship is still strained over the fact that she kept her illness a secret from him for so long. As such, he is functioning even less well than normal, which means that Cathy is replacing him in many of Rebecca's "baby partner" functions. Rebecca makes an unusual request of Cathy, and further tells Cathy of a decision that doesn't sit well with her. And Cathy's return to work, where everyone now knows of her illness, places both her and Adam in an uncomfortable position.

Cathy and Paul experience frustration in the bedroom. Cathy and Paul need to set patient/caregiver limits, and Rebecca is put off by Sean.

A fellow cancer patient intrigues Cathy; Adam's downward spiral continues.

Paul still not having a job places a strain on his and Cathy's financial situation with mounting medical bills. Paul has to make a decision to wait for the perfect job, to do freelance work without insurance, or take any job that has insurance. He is hoping that a meeting with his old friend Jimmy will lead to the first of those three. Cathy makes a unilateral decision for some one time immediate cash. In the process of getting that money, Cathy ends up spending the day with Lee, that day which takes an unexpected turn for her. Meanwhile, Adam makes another decision on how best to relieve his sexual frustration since Mia still wants to take things slow. Adam's actions result in him needing to turn to someone to get him out of a jam. That someone ends up being Sean who offers his own form of a solution to the problem.

Although he still hates his job, Paul settles into life at the electronics store. He bonds with a fellow employee, a young Ukrainian immigrant named Mykail, who in turn bonds with one of his customers. While Paul still struggles with his job situation, that struggle which includes reporting to a barely of age weaselly assistant manager, Cathy aims for an extra job at the school with more pay as the girl's swim coach. She is able to convince the principal to give her the job at least temporarily until the principal can find or wants to find a more permanent coach. Cathy believes she is both well suited to the job, and something she needs in her life right now. The only aspect she doesn't like is dealing with "stage" parents, one in particular who thinks he can do the job better than her. Meanwhile, Adam brings something into the house that threatens both his relationship with Mia as well as Cathy's position as swim coach.

Cathy receives two minor pieces of bad news on her latest check up. The first is that none of the drugs' listed negative side effects have afflicted her, which to her means that the drugs aren't working. The second is that she has high blood pressure. Despite Cathy disregarding it upon Sean's suggestion, Cathy takes Lee's advice to visit an acupuncturist - his acupuncturist - to treat the high blood pressure. The acupuncturist has slightly better news: she immediately relaxed, which means a drop in blood pressure, when Lee entered the room. The acupuncturist attributes that relaxation to her and Lee being soul mates, which to Cathy can only mean in the spiritual but non-sexual sense seeing as to Lee's homosexual orientation. But those homo/heterosexual boundaries between Lee, Cathy and Paul are tested, as are Cathy's notions of what it means truly to be one's soul mate. Meanwhile, Mykail is anticipating his first date with Andrea and what he hopes will happen.

It's Thanksgiving, and Cathy and Paul are hosting their first ever Thanksgiving dinner with their new extended family, which includes not only Adam and Sean, but also Rebecca, Andrea, Mykail and if he accepts Lee, which he does. Cathy wants it to be a non-traditional meal in that besides the free-range, organic turkey Sean is in charge of getting, the rest of the meal will consist of whatever she feels like making, which includes a special dessert from Lee's childhood. The dinner has the potential to be marred in many ways, which includes Paul contemplating confronting Mykail about what he saw Mykail do at the store. But many of the dinner attendees truly do have something to be thankful for, which is for Cathy the fact that the drugs seem to be working, which she hesitates to tell Lee if only because the same has yet to happen for him. Some of those other thankful items will be truly more so if the reaction from a significant other matches. But some unexpected things happen over the course of the day, both good and bad.

Rebecca and Sean both have less than traditional ways to deal with Rebecca's miscarriage. Partly because Sean decides to go off his meds so that he can feel the true pain associated with it, Sean and Rebecca's methods of mourning end up being somewhat incompatible. Something that Rebecca and Sean do in combination about the miscarriage directly affects Cathy. In addition, it also makes Cathy realize that she has been so busy dealing with the life part of her illness that she totally forgot about the death part, namely making arrangements for what will happen to her body post-mortem. Meanwhile, Adam has joined an on-line support group called Kids of Cancer. After several on-line discussions with fellow kid of cancer "Poppy K", he suggests they meet to which Poppy wholeheartedly agrees. Poppy ends up being nothing like Adam imagined, which may not be a totally bad thing. And even though Paul asked for a part of the cut Mykail gets from lifting and selling items from the store, he begins to feel more uncomfortable about it when he sees the extent of Mykail's thefts.

Following their Thanksgiving fallout, Cathy and Lee reconcile, with Cathy vowing to be honest with him about how things are progressing with her health. She sticks to that vow as her news is generally positive, while his continues to decline. But Lee tries to remain upbeat, focusing on living. As such, Cathy decides to help him with his bucket list in whatever way she can. Meanwhile, Adam decides to continue hanging out with Poppy, in part to understand the thing he noticed on her arm when they first met. Poppy's decision on the where to hang out catches Adam off guard: her high school reunion, where she wants to show her former classmates that she didn't turn out the loser as they probably expected. Adam tries to help her achieve that perception. And Sean continues to deal with Rebecca's miscarriage in his own way, especially now that Rebecca has left him to go home to Chicago.

In her day life, Cathy runs into Dr. Sherman and his much younger second wife, Gia, who invites Cathy and Paul over for dinner. Not wanting to offend the person who is potentially saving her life, Cathy accepts. From dinner, Cathy learns a little bit about how to live in the face of death. It is difficult for Cathy to watch Lee give up on life as he decides to drop out of this trial, the latest failure of many in terms of trials. Based on what Cathy finds hidden in her kitchen, she tries to convince Lee to fight for his life. Cathy and Adam lead a campaign to find a missing Sean, who they are more concerned about now that winter has arrived. Adam learns the God that is Sean among the homeless. Based on Paul's assertion that Mykail is losing his freedom because of his obsession with Andrea, Mykail decides on his future. And one of Mykail and Paul's "under the counter" customers pays them in something besides cash, which adds some spice to stodgy Paul's life.

Cathy, Paul and Adam are getting ready to head to Italy for the Christmas holidays using Paul's cut from the electronics store thefts. They still haven't found Sean, but they feel they need to focus on themselves as a family. They are also leaving behind Andrea who is in engaged bliss to Mykail, with who she will spend the holidays. Owen tells Paul about the imbalance in store inventory, which leads to a revelation from Mykail which could affect his relationship with Andrea. Adam spends time with Poppy before he leaves. But he also finds out some information about Poppy's reality, which ultimately makes him understand why she acts the way she does. And Dr. Sherman asks Cathy to be "show and tell" to one of his classes. She tries to make her reality and the students' reality a little closer together. And just before the Jamisons are ready to head to the airport, Cathy receives a telephone call from Lee, who has an important pre-Christmas request from her.

Cathy believes the two best Christmas presents she received this year are Sean returning home after missing for three weeks while he went to find himself following Rebecca's departure, and watching Lee die peacefully in front of her, which has now made her not afraid of death. Taking a play from Lee, Cathy decides to finish what Lee didn't and couldn't: run the Minneapolis New Year's Eve Marathon, despite she not having trained for it at all. Her new mantra is to use her body while she still can. But the race entries have closed already which means that she has to find a creative way to enter the race. Adam receives an offer of reconciliation of sorts from Mia, which may interfere with something he feels is more important in his life at this time. And Cathy finds out about Paul and the electronics store parting company and the reason why. As this affects their health insurance, Paul goes on his own mission to ensure they get from the insurance company what they deserve.