Luka Kovac takes care of a young man who has lost his hand from a gunshot.  Peter comes in to take a look at him.  Carter and Abby go to their AA meeting.  Malucci is in the ER carrying the boy’s hand around in a baggy full of ice.  He thinks that it would be great to put the kid’s gun in the severed hand and shoot Romano with it.  That way, his fingerprints would not be on the gun.  Peter tells him that when Malucci is addressing him, he will call him Dr. Benton.  He wants him to learn some respect.  Abby tells Carter that she saw that he was working on a crossword puzzle during the meeting.  She tells him that there are other meetings that he can attend other than the one there.  She thinks he should attend one with more recovering narcotic abusers in it. Abby goes in for her shift and sees Jing-Mei.  Jing-Mei asks her if she is still seeing Kovac and how he is doing, because she is concerned that he is still having a hard time about the mugger being killed.  Mark reminds Kerry that he is leaving early today for a trip with Elizabeth.  He will be getting off at 6:00 p.m. sharp.  A woman comes in to the ER looking for Abby.  She heads for the staff lounge.  On her way in, she sees Frank kicking out a homeless man  named "Mad Mike" from the ER.  He was sleeping in the linen closet again and Kerry wanted Frank to get him out.  A young girl named Theresa is brought in by her father with a black eye and some bruising from falling down.  Luka tends to her.  Jing-Mei goes to speak with someone about putting her baby up for adoption.  She cannot keep the child.  The woman at the agency asks if the father would want to keep the baby and Jing-Mei tells her that he does not even know that she is pregnant.  Kerry goes to the lounge and finds Maggie making a fresh pot of coffee.  She tells her that patients cannot be in the lounge.  The woman tells her that she is not a patient, her daughter is a doctor at the hospital.  She tells her to call her Maggie.  Her daughter’s name is Abby Wyczenski.  She stops and thinks and says that her daughter’s married name is Abby Lockhart.  A man named Mr. Patterson is brought in with a hurt back.  He hurt it surfing.  Elizabeth and Abby check him out.  It looks as if he has a herniated disk.  Frank comes in and tells Abby that her mother is looking for her.  Abby takes a look at the woman and tells Frank that is not her mother.  Kovac comes back to speak to Theresa and her father.  He tells them that she will need a complete neurological exam.  The father is worried that he is going to be fired from his job if he does not get in to work.  He goes to use the phone and Kovac asks her what is wrong.  She tells him that she is worried about her father.  When Luka checks her out, he notices a lot of bruises on her back.  Kerry has Frank call psyche for Maggie.  Kerry finds Maggie back in the lounge.  She tells Kerry what perfect bone structure she has and how beautiful she is.  Maggie does makeovers to earn extra money.  She is actually an artist.  Kerry tells her that Abby said that she was not her daughter.  This upsets Maggie and she goes into the hallway and starts yelling for Abby.  Abby goes to a phone and calls her brother Eric.  All she gets is his machine.  Elizabeth tells her surfing patient that he will need surgery.  He is worried that he will not be able to surf again, but she assures him that he will be okay.  Kerry tries to calm Maggie down and security has come to see her.  Maggie is still screaming for Abby and Abby finally comes and calms her down.  She has rode the bus all the way from Florida to see her.  She heard that Abby and Richard had separated and was worried.  Abby tells her that her and Richard divorced months ago.  Kerry comes and speaks with Abby.  She thought that she said that Maggie was not her mother.  She sees that she is bi-polar and Abby tells her that she has been since she was a kid.  Malucci is excited because another patient with a gunshot wound (G.S.W.) is being brought in.  He asks Mark and Elizabeth if he can help with the "gang-banger".  Elizabeth and Mark are going to let him assist on him.  Cleo sees Peter’s sister Jackie waiting in chairs.  She tells Cleo that her son Jesse was brought in after being shot.  Cleo runs to find Peter.  She finds him up in the OR and he walks out and heads to the ER.  Peter shoves Malucci out of the way and starts taking over.  Mark tells him that they have it covered.  Cleo tells them that it is Peter’s nephew Jesse.  Romano comes in and pulls Elizabeth aside to ask her about her surgery that she has scheduled.  He thinks she is doing it as an outpatient surgery only so that it will not hinder her and Mark’s weekend plans.  She walks back in to the room.  Carter comes in for his shift and Abby asks if he would like to take a break with her.  They go outside and she tells him about her mother.  Abby’s dad split when she was seven because he could not take much from her mother.  Maggie is an artist and was fun being around when Abby was a little girl.  Abby’s brother Eric is in the Air Force and is an air traffic controller in Florida.  Her mother lives near him in Tampa.  Maggie does not like taking the drugs to help her out; she likes being manic.  Abby tells Carter that she is not strong enough to handle being around her mother for a long time.  Cleo goes and tells Jackie about Jesse.  He was shot in the chest and is bleeding around his heart.  He is in very grave condition.  A girl  (Kynesha) comes in after hearing about Jesse and Jackie tells her to leave.  She does not want her around her son.  Theresa’s father is upset with Luka for having to wait so long.  Luka has someone with him to question her father about the bruises.  He denies that he has ever beaten her, he loves her and would never hurt his daughter.  Peter continues to work vigorously on his nephew, but it is no use.  Jesse dies and Peter cries.  Peter goes out to tell his sister.  Jackie screams and yells NO.  Peter holds her.  Jing-Mei goes to the cafeteria and sees Frank "Rambo" Bacon (nurse with Addison’s disease in Season 6, episode 129 "Under Control").  He is shocked to see that she is pregnant.  Frank is the baby’s father.  She tells him that she wants to give him up for adoption and needs him to sign some papers.  Mark is getting ready to leave with Elizabeth for their weekend, but Elizabeth has a quick back surgery to do on her patient.  She tells him that it will only take about an hour to do.  A guy named Vinnie comes in asking about Theresa.  Frank tells him where she is.  Elizabeth does her surgery on her patient and everything seems to go well.  A doctor mentions that there is a lot of fluid and she says that it is from the saline.  She leaves and they sew him up.  Abby finds her mother waiting in an exam room.  She has been drawing and it looks nice.  Dr. Legaspi comes in with Kerry to check on Maggie.  Maggie tells them that she does not like being on the lithium.  Dr. Legaspi recommends that she take a different kind of medication and Maggie agrees to.  Abby gives her mother some cash for a bus ticket back to Tampa.  She starts to cry and asks Abby why she would want to hurt her like that.  She storms out angry and upset.  Malucci goes to find Peter to apologize about making a comment about his nephew being a "gang-banger".  Peter turns around and punches him and they begin to fight.  The police tell Luka that Theresa denies the fact that her father has been beating her.  Luka goes in to speak with her again.  He tells her that some people cannot control their anger.  He then tells her that she is pregnant.  She tells Luka that is the reason they fight, because she cannot get him to wear a condom.  Luka says, your father?  She tells him no, her boyfriend Vinnie.  He is the one that has been hitting her.  An OR nurse tells Dr. Romano that Mr. Patterson is complaining about being in a lot of pain.  He cannot feel his legs.  Romano sees that he is losing spinal fluid and he tells them to get Elizabeth on the phone.  Mark and Elizabeth have arrived at their get away and the phone rings.  She is shocked at what she hears on the other end of the phone.  Cleo goes in to the exam room and helps Peter clean Jesse up.  Abby goes to the train stop and sees her mother waiting there without her coat on.  Maggie apologizes to Abby for hurting her and her brother.  Abby puts her coat around her and she tells her how much she loves her.

Reviewed by Tony Conner on 11-17-2000