Carter starts back to work today.  He sees a lot of changes when he arrives: Malucci has his hair bleached blond, Jing-Mei is pregnant, and the front desk looks different.  He has a hard time getting by a security guard because his name badge is old.  Everyone, with the exception of Cleo, is glad that he is back.  Mark and Elizabeth are trying to set a date for the wedding, but they can not agree on one at this time.  Carter tries to get into his locker, but he no longer has one.  Kerry reminds him that he can not see any critical patients, no needles, not sutures, and no traumas.  Dr. Romano comes down to tell Kerry that the surgical staff, with the exception of Corday, are at a surgical conference.  Jing-Mei tells him that if he bumps into her parents, to not tell them about her being pregnant; she wants it to be a surprise.  Kerry has Abby to come down from OB to help out as a nurse.  This will help her out when she gets ready to come back as a medical student.  Peter drives to work and goes to the parking deck, but the guard there will not let him in.  He is not on her list.  She tells him that he will have to park on the street.  Mark and Malucci go up to the OR to "borrow" some of the equipment.  A man is brought in with his ears bleeding.  He has clipped them at the tips to make them look like a Vulcan's ears, like on Star Trek.  He tells them that there is a Sci-Fi Convention in town.  Kerry tells someone to call psych to see him.  Dave is curious about who the father of Jing-Mei's baby is.  She will not tell him, so he asks Carter if he is the father.  Carter tells him no.  A woman brings in two small boys.  One of them, Albert, has a hurt hand.  He tells Kerry that his uncle Charlie bit him.  Charlie is the little boy that is with him.  Albert's mom, Gloria, is raising her daughter's son.  Kerry notices that she has a bad cough, so she checks her out also.  She has Abby take the kids up to daycare as she checks the mother out.  Charlie bites Abby on the hand also.  Peter comes in and Romano tells him that his surgical privileges have been revoked, because of the Mr. Fletcher incident.  He tells Peter that he is no longer a surgical attending and that he has been fired.  He is told to go home.  A woman brings her daughter in with what seems to be strep throat.  Cleo does a throat culture and sends it to the lab.  Malucci has three business men throwing up all over the exam room.  Another boy has an insect in his ear.  The swat team comes in to get a man who was convicted of murder.  Frank has been doing police record checks on all of the patients who have been coming in.  Carter takes care of a young paralyzed boy named Dennis who is in a wheelchair.  The boy is used to taking care of himself, since his grandmother has died.  He lives in a nursing home.  He is able to put his own catheters in and this impresses Carter.  Jing-Mei takes care of a man who thinks he is going to self combust.  He wants to keep himself covered in water.  Kerry tells her to call psych.  

There are a lot of patients being brought in after a walk way collapsed at the Sci-Fi Convention.  Thirty critical patients need to be seen, but Kerry tells them that they can not handle that many.  They still get quite a bit of them though.  Kerry asks for Carter's help, but still no traumas.  Corday seems to be the only surgeon around and none of the others will answer their page.  Kovach tells Abby to put in a chest tube on his patient.  She tells her that she is only a nurse and can not do that, but he tells her to do it anyways, and she does.  Carter goes back to his young patient and he has wet himself.  He apologizes and Carter tells him that he will go get him some dry clothes.  Frank has done a criminal check on Kerry's patient Gloria.  She has written some bad checks, so Frank has the police on the way to pick her up.  Kerry gives her the medicine and tells her where to pick her boys up.  She gives her a head start and then tells Frank to quit doing background checks on the patients.  Mark has a trauma patient who needs surgery on his leg before he loses it.  Elizabeth is the only surgeon available and is already working on a patient.  Mark has done the procedure in med school, on a cadaver, and thinks he can do it with her help.  They use the intercom system to keep each other informed of what to do and what is being done.  Kerry walks in on Abby sewing up the person she did the chest tube on.  She gets on to her for doing it and then she gets on to Luka for telling her to do it.  Cleo's sixteen year old patient Moira has contracted gonorrhea in her throat.  Her mother is not there and Cleo tells her that she will not let her know.  She tells her that she needs to be practicing safe sex.  The girl tells her that she is still a virgin.  Cleo tells her that she got it another way.  Jackie thinks it is unusual when Peter comes home from work so early.  He tells her that he wants to hang with Reese, he doesn't tell her that he was fired.  Elizabeth checks out Mark's patient and tells him that he did a good job.  Cleo doesn't seem to happy to have Carter back.  He asks her if she has a problem with him being there.  Kerry. Jing-Mei and Malucci go to check on Jing-Mei's patient.  He is hiding and scared of catching on fire.  They find alcohol wipes all over the floor.  He has covered himself, but when Malucci opens the door, the man is covered with fire.  Kerry hoses him down with the fire extinguisher.  Carter takes his young patient to the roof to fly his paper airplane.  He thanks him for bringing him up.  He has never been that high before.  Carter lets him keep the scrubs.  Abby goes outside where Luka is.  She tells him that she is everybody's favorite nurse.  He tells her that she will make a great doctor.  She kisses him on the cheek.  Cleo goes home and finds Peter.  She was worried about him.  She tells him that Romano was probably just blowing off steam.  He tells her that he knows that he was serious.  She tells him to go to Anspaugh about it, but he knows that it will not help.  Carter is leaving to go home and Mark reminds him about the urine test.  He has to go to the bathroom with him and watch him pee in a cup.  Carter is bladder shy and has a hard time at first, but then we hear the cup fill.    

Reviewed by Tony Conner on 10-27-2000