It is the Fourth of July
holiday and Carter is on his way in and he is riding a bicycle. Luka meets
him over at the bike rack. Luka asks him why he is coming in so early because
his shift doesn’t start for a while. Carter tells him that he has been having
a hard time sleeping. Luka asks him if he has spoken with Kem and Carter
tells him that they have communicated via instant messages and emails. Luka
asks how they are both doing and Carter acknowledges, "I'm here aren't I?"
Abby is getting ready for work
and Neela is eating cereal on her sofa and watching the television. Abby goes
to get some milk, but quickly realizes that Neela took the last of it. Abby
asks her how her job search is going and offers to drive her to speak with
Weaver. Neela does not show any interest in that plan. Neela offers to go
pick some groceries up, but tells Abby that she will need some money. Luka is talking with Howard
about a patient that he is working on. Luka has sunglasses on and does not
seem to be hearing what Howard is telling him. Frank is all decked out in his
Fourth of July outfit. He is dressed in red, white and blue stripes and looks
a little like “Uncle Sam”. Carter compliments him on his outfit. Carter is
with Malik and they see Ray, with a towel drying his wet hair as if he has
just come out of a shower. Morris has three new med. Students with him.
Everyone seems concerned for the students, especially after Sam tells Carter
about a mistake Morris had made earlier. Howard continues to speak with Luka
with no reaction. Morris walks away and Sam goes up to Luka and removes his
sunglasses to find him fast sleeping.
Dr. Carter now has the
students that Morris had earlier. Pratt is now n and Carter hands the
students over to him. Pratt gives them all a chart and tells them that the
first one to kill a patient has to buy him lunch. Carter is surprised to see
Pratt back so soon after his accident. Pratt tells Carter that July is his
favorite month. Carter asks him how Jing-Mei is doing and he speaks as if he
hasn’t spoken with her in a while. A paramedic comes in and Carter goes to
help. A gang-banger is brought in and is very agitated. Carter gives the
patient to Pratt. Luka is on his way out and gives Carter his last patient.
Sam sees Luka leaving and he asks her if they can get together later. She
tells him that Alex has a soccer game later, so Luka tells her that he will
call her and then he leaves. Ray is starting his shift and Carter gives him a
drunken patient that he will have to baby-sit. Ray isn’t too happy about it,
but he bets Frank forty dollars that he will have him out of the ER in twenty
minutes. Ray borrows two medical students from Abby to help him out.
Neela is actually out job
hunting, but her previous job experience does not help her out. She applies
at a coffee shop, but the people there are not interested in someone who does
not have any coffee shop experience. One of the new med. students inquires
about Abby to Frank to see if she is dating anyone. Frank replies by telling
him that the two of them are seeing each other, but they are looking for a
third. The student walks off and Abby walks up to Frank not knowing what he
just said. Frank asks her what she would do if a med. student asked her out
and she tells him that she would ask for a psych. consult. Abby and Ray work
on two bicycle accident victims. One is really mad at the other for
destroying their $6000 bike. One of the new med. students, Penny, is having
trouble with a drunken patient. Carter sees it and helps by getting her
stethoscope away from him. As soon as Carter walks away, the drunk patient
takes it right back from her. Pratt is still working on the gang-banger and
the patient keeps telling him that he has not been hurt and he wants to
leave. Carter tells Pratt not to let him leave. Pratt says that he will call
the guy’s brother to see if he can talk him into staying in the ER. Carter
walks out of the room and sees that Penny is still struggling with the drunk.
Abby checks in on Ray and his bike patient. She sees that he seems
disoriented and suggests that Ray get a head CT. Ray tells her that he does
not need one. Carter comes in to check on them. Abby tries to tell Carter
about the guy needing a head CT, but Malik comes in to get Carter. Ray, Abby
and Carter go to assist a victim of a liquor store robbery. Carter tells Abby
to run the trauma. The patient is a biker who was trying to stop the hold-up
and his girlfriend is with him. Ray seems disappointed in the fact that Abby
was asked to run the trauma.
Dr. Dubenko comes in to check
on the biker who was shot in the liquor store. Nobody really knows who this
new doctor is. After checking the biker over, they see that he no longer has
any brain activity. Dr. Dubenko tells the girlfriend that there isn’t
anything that can be done to save him. She is the only family that he has.
Carter sees Pratt sitting out in the hall and tells him that if he has time to
sit, then he has time to see patients. You can see that Carter is upset about
the previous trauma. Ray is on the phone with his bike rider patient’s
employer. They want a drug test done on him, but Ray does not want one done. Abby thinks that he needs one, so she tells Sam to order one without Ray
knowing it. Neela continues to search for a job. She goes to a clothing
store, but she is still not qualified. Howard is suturing a patients hand and
Carter walks in. Carter sees that Howard is taking a lot of time and Howard
tells him that it is important for the length to all be the same. Someone has
set off a stink bomb and Malik and Frank try to get patients moved around to
other rooms. Carter sees that a medical student has placed a cast incorrectly
on a patient and tells him that it will have to be redone. Dr. Corday has
come down only to find that Dr. Dubenko has already been assisting Pratt on
his gang-banger patient. She does not agree about the course of treatment.
Dr. Dubenko gets the final word and takes the patient up to surgery. Carter
sees Ray and wants him to start clearing the board faster. Ray asks Sam about
why his bike rider hasn’t been discharged and she tells him that they are
still waiting on the tox screen that Abby ordered.
Carter goes to get a soda out
of the machine and he begins to hear a baby cry in the waiting area. You can
see that he is thinking of his own baby that died and see that it is still
bothering him. Carter sees a med. student trying to give a patient some
medicine and Carter hurries to stop him. The student tells Carter that Pratt
had done something similar earlier, but it was for a different reason. The
students says that the patient presented with chest pains, but Carter finds
out from the young patient that he had done some bench pressing earlier, which
is what actually is causing the pain. Carter is upset and goes to find
Pratt. Carter finds Pratt sitting again. Carter tells him what happened and
Pratt defends himself. Carter sees that Pratt isn’t ready to be returning to
work and tells him to go home. Carter will find someone else to cover for
him. Abby finds Carter and tells him of the results of the biker who was
shot. He had HIV and they will need to tell the girlfriend. They will not be
able to donate his organs.
Carter tells Frank to call Kovac to see if he can
finish Pratt’s shift. Abby invites Carter to go with her to a meeting and
then to get a bite to eat, but they are interrupted by Ray before Carter can
answer. Ray is mad at Abby for ordering the tox screen on his bike
accident patient. He tells her that the results came back normal and the
test was unnecessary. He tells her to treat her own patients and to
leaves his to him. Carter tells Abby that she needs to learn to work
with Ray.
The biker’s girlfriend comes
back to the ER and she has a man with her. She tells them that the man has
been waiting for a liver and has the same blood type as her boyfriend. He is
also HIV positive. Ray orders some tests and Sam tells him that they are
unnecessary. This upsets him to know that she will take unnecessary orders
for tests from Abby, but not him. Sam sees Luka walking in and wonders what
he is doing back. He tells her that he is coming in to cover the rest of
Pratt’s shift. A patient is brought in and Luka goes to tend to her. It is a
twenty-three-year-old Asian woman who was found in a park. Luka asks Sam and
Howard to help with the patient. They are not certain on what happened to the
woman. Sam sees that the woman has been strangled.
Dr. Corday sees Kerry outside
of the hospital and tells her that she has been trying to get in touch with
her all day. Weaver tells her that she has been in meetings. Kerry tries to
brush her off and Corday insists on asking about Dr. Dubenko. Elizabeth is
upset that she wasn’t told about his being hired. Kerry tells her that she
should be going to more of the meetings. Kerry tells her that they need to
work it out. Carter tells Dr. Dubenko about the HIV transplant, but Dr.
Dubenko tells him that he can’t do it. Carter sees Dr. Corday and tells her
about it and mentions how Dr. Dubenko did not want to do it because of the
legality of it. She is still upset about her conversation with Weaver and it
shows. Luka leaves Howard with the strangled patient and tells him to come
and find him if anything happens. Sam gives Howard the woman’s chart and goes
after Luka. Alex is there and they are surprised to see that he is not at his
soccer game. Luka offers to take him and Sam will meet them later.
Neela is still searching for a
job. Her inexperience is not helping her at all. Carter tries to convince
Dr. Corday to do the transplant surgery on his HIV patient. She is still
concerned about the legal repercussions and he tells her that the law is going
to be changed soon. She is also worried about what Weaver will think about
it. She finally agrees to do the transplant. Sam speaks to Abby about what
Ray had said, but Sam agrees with what Abby did. Carter walks by with his
transplant patient and seems to be happy about it. Abby reminds him about the
meeting and dinner and he tells her that he will have to take a rain check.
She mentions that she can see how he is throwing himself into his work and
that losing a child must be hard. It hits a nerve and Carter walks away.
Howard comes out and tells Abby that the strangling patient is having trouble
breathing. Susan comes in with her new baby. His name is Cosmo. Susan asks
Carter how things are going and Carter tells her about the twelve new med.
students. She has to run to the restroom and Carter offers to watch the
baby. Howard is going over procedures out loud and is flustered. Chuck has
come in to find out what is keeping Susan so long. He is concerned about the
germs that the baby could pick up in the hospital. Susan leaves with him.
Penny is still struggling and calling consults when they are unnecessary.
Abby sees that Howard is not right. He keeps running the same procedure out
loud over and over again. Sam was not able to find Luka, so Abby has to work
on the woman alone. Howard is not able to assist in a timely manner. He drops
the tray and walks out of the trauma.
Luka is at Alex’s soccer
game. Alex’s team does not win and Luka tries to make him feel better by
offering to help him practice. Alex tells him that he already has a dad. You
can see by Luka’s expression that the words hurt. Abby asks Carter if he has
seen Howard and Carter tells her that he hasn’t. Abby finds Howard outside.
She mentions to him about having OCD. He walks away and does not admit to
having the disorder. Carter is flustered and has to get away, so he heads
into the doctor’s lounge. He finds Chuck in their and he is nursing Cosmo
with a contraption wrapped around his chest. Carter finds it strange and
walks back out into the ER. Ray apologizes to Abby and offers to buy her
dinner. She does not accept. They head into the corner store and Neela is
working there. Luka and Alex are at his place and they are playing video
games. Sam comes and Luka offers her to stay, but she tells him that she will
have to talk to Alex about it. She decides that they better go home. Carter
is looking for Ray and Chuny tells him to go to the roof. She tells him that
she thinks he lives there. Carter finds Ray on the roof playing his guitar
and relaxing in a chair. Carter can see that he has the grill going. Ray
invites Carter to eat with him. Ray mentions that he heard about the loss of
Carter’s baby. Carter shrugs it off by asking Ray about living at the
hospital. Ray tells him that you can’t beat the rent. The Fourth of July
fireworks go off in the distance.
Reviewed by Tony on December 21,
2004
