Jimmy's recovery complicates his return to the firehouse as he tries to take on too much, causing discord amongst his fellow firefighters over his all-consuming need to prove his abilities have not been lost. Meanwhile, Alex Taylor joins the firehouse and arrives with some baggage of her own.

The ordeals of an elderly friend prompt Sully to consider his own loneliness; Alex regrets revealing that she discovered Jimmy on the eve of his wedding having sex with an old flame who happens to be Lombardo's current girlfriend after the news spreads like wildfire throughout the squad; Jimmy and Brooke get married.

A secret threatens to destroy Jimmy's relationships at work and home; Sully makes a date with his pretty neighbor; Bosco gets violent after his mother is beaten by her boyfriend.

Faith, Bosco, Carlos and a wounded Doc find themselves trapped in an abandoned tunnel and unable to reach Central on their radios; the firefighters get into mischief during a long lull between calls; when the C.O. can't raise Bosco on the radio, Sully tries to cover for him.

Doc and Carlos attend a stress debriefing; Carlos meets up with Bosco when he's ordered to attend sensitivity training.

The firefighters take on a rival firehouse for touch football bragging rights; Brooke files for divorce; Jimmy worries that he may be a father again.

Ty, Sully, Bosco, and Faith rush to the scene of a school shooting; Sully and Tatiana ponder their future together; Kim continues to struggle with her depression.

On September 10, 2001, Ty and Sully are in Atlantic City on the eve of Sully's wedding to Tatiana. Kim sinks deeper into depression. Bosco searches for anything to do after someone lets out the result of the Giants game he had taped to watch after shift. Jimmy keeps trying to catch up on some sleep after nursing a sick Joey.

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

No one can find Bosco after a sexual assault suspect is found dead. While Bosco spends time with family, Yokas, Ty and Sully try to clear him as a murder suspect. Still locked in a custody battle over Joey, Jimmy and Kim meet with a court-appointed evaluator and plead their cases. Alex tries to stay busy to avoid dealing with her feelings about her father's death.

Bosco tries to protect an old ESU sharp shooter from spiraling out of control. Faith contemplates taking the sergeant's exam. Davis and Taylor have a steamy affair. Doc feels the guilt over a mistake that made a boy a paraplegic.

Rescuers find the body of Alex's father, and he is given a hero's burial; Faith and Bosco tail a convicted rapist released on appeal, certain that he will rape again; dissatisfied by Tatiana's explanation of her whereabouts the eight weeks she was missing, Sully investigates further and uncovers some astonishing and heartbreaking facts about his wife; after Chevchenko threatens to kill him if he doesn't roll over on Faith and Sully, Frankie tells Swersky that the raid on Chevchenko's numbers business was a hummer bust, leading Chevchenko to threaten a lawsuit and have another angry confrontation with Sully.