Doug wants Carol to set a date for the wedding.  She is not in a hurry for a wedding; she has already done all that before with Tag.  She just wants to take her time and just enjoy being engaged.  Romano and Elizabeth discuss Allison Beaumont.  Elizabeth is worried about Allison's vocal cords.  Dr. Swift comes to the ER.  He works for Synergix (S.P.G.) and is there to help out.  Dr. Carter and Benton are both having to give lectures to a bunch of med students, per Dr. Romano's instructions.  They are more interested in hearing about foreign items found in the rectum or people dying than what Carter has to tell them.  Carter tells them why he left surgery for emergency medicine.  Dr. Ellis and Kerry meet with Anspaugh about Synergix taking over the ER.  Kerry tries to convince him how much better it will be.  Anspaugh wants to know if they have discussed it with Mark and Kerry tells him that she will.  She then goes to Mark trying to convince him how good it would be and how Anspaugh is behind them.  It seems as Ellis West can get Kerry to do anything that he has on his agenda.  They would make a very evil pair.  Allison uses Elizabeth's laptop to communicate with her.  She wants her vocal cords repaired, but Elizabeth tells her that they need to repair her leg first.  Helen, Carol's mom, comes to see Carol at the ER.  She is upset because Doug had come by her house asking for Carol's hand in marriage.  Helen still hasn't forgiven him for how he had treated Carol before.  Carol calls Doug and kind of gets on to him.  He later comes in to work in the clinic to help out on his day off, because he thinks carol is upset with him.  Anspaugh comes to Mark to ask him for a favor.  He wants him to take care of his 13 year old son Scott, who is having stomach pains.  He tells him that he has had cancer and that he wants some test run to see if it has come back.  Mark asks Jeanie if she would help him, but she tells him that she doesn't think Anspaugh would want her anywhere near his son.  She helps him out anyways.  We find out that Scott has a sister and that his mother had died a year earlier with Cancer.  Scott does not want to be poked by a needle.  Jeanie tells him that if he will let her draw the blood, that he will not even feel the needle.  He reluctantly agrees to let her, and he doesn't feel any pain.  Elizabeth goes to see Dr. Kotlowitz to find out if he can perform a risky surgery on Allison's vocal cords.  He comes back to the ER with her and they bump into Dr. Romano.  They know each other already.  Romano takes Lizzy aside and really chews her out.  He is mad at her for going over his head.  Elizabeth was only thinking of the best interest of her patient, but she is Romano's patient he tells her.  He later apologizes and agrees to let Dr. Kotlowitz to the surgery.  Anna finds a toy that a patient must have left.  Cynthia tells her that it is a Tomacachi and shows her how to tend to it.  Cynthia offers to put it in the lost and found, but Anna tells her that she will just look after it until someone comes to claim it.  Later on, a little girl comes to claim her lost Tomacachi.  Cynthia tells Anna that it has wings and that it must have died.  Anna is upset and starts banging it on the desk in front of the little girl.  An elderly woman, Mrs. Riley,  is brought in to the ER from a woman who found her that brings her meals.  Carol looks after her.  The woman is forgetful and can't remember certain things.  Carol gets her into a hospital gown and sees the word WHORE written on her back like a patient she had seen a few days prior.  Mark and Carol call the investigator, but the woman still does not know what is going on.  Dr. Anspaugh comes and thanks Jeanie for helping out with Scott.  She was glad to do it.  Scott tells her that he knows the tumor is back.  Carter can't seem to keep a student of his interested in emergency medicine.  She would rather go see Peter perform surgery.  Carter starts to wonder if he has done the right thing leaving surgery to go into emergency medicine.  Carol is speaking with Mrs. Riley and she starts to remember the event that led up to her assault.  She remembers leaving the key in the door and a man walking in.  She starts to cry and Carol comforts her.

Reviewed by Tony Conner on 09-17-2000