Previously on ER: Elizabeth discovered that her mom and Mark's dad were doing it; Carter was all Whose Life Is It, Anyway? refusing help as he recuperated from getting stabbed in the damn back; Finch and Benton went on a date; Mark discovered that Holling had been hiding his lung cancer from him.
David "Holling" Greene and Mark "E. Post" Greene are tinkering with a very aged slide projector. Holling asks if Mark got a bulb, and Mark tells Holling he's lucky Mark found it, because the particular model in question has long since been discontinued. Holling nostalgically remarks that they probably haven't looked at the slides in twenty-five years, and that Mark's mother used to make Holling take his camera everywhere. Mark ignores him and says that he's made Holling an appointment with an oncologist. Holling's face falls; he abruptly gets up and reminds Mark, "I told you I didn't want that." Mark implores Holling at least to talk to the oncologist, and now it's Holling's turn to ignore him and ask for the bulb. Mark takes it out of the box (and not without Holling's chiding him not to get his fingerprints on it), and Holling says, "In San Diego, they said the cancer was incurable." Mark points out that that doesn't mean it's untreatable. They futz with the projector some more; Holling tells Mark to plug it in and, holding a slide up to the sunlight, says it's from their trip to the Grand Canyon. Mark plugs in the slide projector, and the bulb pops. Heh. Holling glares balefully at his bald, ineffectual son, and says, "You must have bought the wrong bulb."
Isabel "Mama" Corday is packing up her suitcase, ably assisted by Elizabeth "Mewl, Britannia" Corday. She starts to empty a dresser drawer, first pulling out a lone man's sock. (That is, a lone sock, not the sock of a lone man.) Tartly, she asks what she should do with it, and MC giggles girlishly and asks her to return it to Holling. Elizabeth grumbles, "Do you suppose he wore only one sock home?" MC non-sequiturs, "He's a sweet man. Much like his son." Hey, I didn't know Mark had a brother! Elizabeth asks, "Does that mean you approve?" MC says, "I more than approve," and that Elizabeth glows when Mark's around, adding, "You two belong together." Elizabeth beams, and ruefully asks, "Since when have you been an expert on relationships?" MC says she's enjoyed being single, and has no regrets: "What about you, Elizabeth? What will make you happy?" Serenely, Elizabeth asks, "Do you really want to discuss this as you're about to leave?" MC sort of shrugs, and Elizabeth suggests that, since MC's plane leaves so late, MC drop by the hospital for coffee. MC agrees. Elizabeth hauls a pair of plaid boxers out of the dresser and brats, "Mother?" MC laughs and asks Elizabeth to return those as well. If Elizabeth finds a cock ring in there, I am so out of here.
A pair of legs, assisted by a pair of crutches, appears in the door to the ambulance bay; the camera pans up to reveal that both pairs belong to John "Pincushion" Carter. He crutches in, and Haleh says, "Welcome back, Carter." Ha! Yeah, lookin' good, Mister Car-tair! Peter "Rabbit" Benton is standing at the desk, glances up at the sound of Carter's name, and asks how he's feeling. Carter heartily says that he's "ready to go." Benton tells Carter he saw his MRI, and that Carter is recovering well. Carter confidently says that he plans to ditch his crutches in a week or two, and Benton cautions him to take his time. Jing-Mei "Deb" Chen comes around the corner and greets Carter by thoughtlessly clapping him square on the back -- you know, where he was stabbed -- and then realizes her mistake and quietly tells him she's there if he needs her for anything.
Carter crutches into the lounge, which is empty, fumbles with his crutches so they fall down on the floor, picks them up with what seems to be Herculean effort, and opens his locker door. There's a small mirror at eye level on the inside of the door; he looks at his reflection and sees that his face is covered in sweat. He wipes it off with the palm of his hand and...well, there may have been more, but then the strobe-filled opening credits started and I suffered a grand mal seizure, so I can't be sure.
Haleh stomps up to the desk with a stack of file folders and asks Randi whether she's seen Abby. Randi ruefully replies, "Not lately." Haleh says that labs are back on two of Abby's patients, and then glances beside her at Mark, putting on his lab coat, and remarks, "You're late. Deal with this," before stomping off. Haleh, don't go! Mark asks where Luka and Weaver are, and Randi tells him that since they're on later, Mark is "the man." Ew. He picks up the folder and starts to truck purposefully down the hall, but is stopped in his tracks by an old lady in a wheelchair who querulously asks, "Have you checked my X-ray yet?" Just then Abby "Lisa" Lockhart breezes past him, and he asks her to take the old lady, but she replies that she has four patients already. Mark pretty much blows off the old lady, and Conni points out that they've got a lot of angry patients waiting. Mark says, apparently apropos of nothing, "It's Saturday. Everyone shows up when the clinics are closed," and Conni looks very annoyed and suggests, "Well, you tell them that." Randi calls Mark to the phone to talk to Holling, who's asking after the phone book in Mark's apartment. Oy, not this again. Someone get Holling another girlfriend to occupy his mental energy -- stat! Chen asks the room at large where the xeroform is, and "Dr." Dave Malucci locates it and immediately asks her what she's doing that night. She flirtatiously tells him that she's washing her hair. Oh, lord. Whatever the opposite of "zing!" is, that's what just happened. Chen passes by Mark, still kvetching at Holling, and hooks up with Chuny, who's pushing a wheelchair containing a very attractive young gentleman in dark blue scrubs. Chuny tells Chen that his name is Frank Bacon, he's an ICU charge nurse, and he passed out "in the unit." He wanly protests that he feels fine now, and asks if he may go back to work. Chen says they have to examine him first. Haleh crosses her path to get directly in Mark's face and yell, "Three patients left without being seen!" Mark gets his lazy ass off the phone in time for Haleh to say, "You got. To do. SOMETHING." Mark gets all Patton with a cordless phone, a rolling cart, and my last nerve. Hey, how'd that get in there? Oh, yeah -- it got stuck to Mark's shoe when he was stomping on it. Anyway, he describes what they're about to do as "power rounds." Carter crutches along near the desk, and Mark gently asks if Carter would like to join them. Carter declines, saying that "paramedics are bringing an OD in." Mark asks if Carter's ready for that, and he says he is, so Mark lets him get to it.
The first stop on Power Rounds is at the bed of a young woman whose nose won't stop bleeding. Mark phones orders directly to Randi at the desk. Uh, if this is more efficient, why don't they do it all the time? I mean, I know I'm neither a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. I'm just sayin'. The bed contains an older man with "ascites"; Mark hands off his chart to Lisa. The bed is Frank Bacon's, and Chen says she's already got him; Chuny gives Mark the bullet: "Cute guy with syncope; he's off peeing for me." Whatever floats your boat, I guess.
The Power Rounders head into the hall, where Lydia is pushing the gurney of a girl who is doing a really admirable job of looking sick and miserable. Mark asks where she's going, and Lydia explains that Romano wants "thin cuts through the mandible before he discharges." Mark stops the bed and asks Chen and Dr. Dave whether they've ever seen a tongue blade test. They haven't, so Mark takes a tongue depressor out of his pocket and tells the patient to bite down on it as hard as she can; he then instructs Chen to "give it a twang," which she does. It vibrates for a few seconds, and the patient confirms that it didn't hurt. Mark says that indicates that there's no fracture, and that Lydia should therefore cancel the CT. Hey, wasn't this the kind of behaviour that really ticked off Mark when Hawkeye did it? ["That was, in fact, excessively folksy." -- Sars] Cool, just checking.
Conni, Carter, Carol "Priss" Hathaway, and a bunch of paramedics are hoisting the OD'ed guy onto a bed in a trauma room. Doris -- who has cut her hair into a much shorter, way sassier style -- says that they found empty Benadryl packs in his bathroom. Adam -- the patient -- is slurring, "I just want to die!" Carol asks if he took anything else, and he moans, "Leave me alone!" Carter orders a bunch of tests, and Conni asks him to "scoot over" so she can "put on the dynamap." Carter peevishly asks why Conni can't do that on the other side, and she points out that the IV is on the other side. Carter crutches very slowly to the opposite side of the bed. Randi appears in the doorway to tell Carol she has a call from her nanny. Carol yells at Randi to tell the nanny to hold, muttering to Carter, "She's new." Carter tells her to take it, so she does. Excuse me, but...a nanny? On the salary of a single nurse in a county hospital? Is there some kind of government-subsidized nanny program in the U.S. of which I'm not aware? Or maybe she got the money from Doug? Or considers it a worthwhile expense now, since she knows eventually she'll be able to put the twins in day care at the hospital? In any case, she picks up the phone and, as the rest of the staff works on Adam -- who is clearly in some distress -- suggests that the nanny try "the bouncy seat" or "running the vacuum" to stop one of the twins from crying. Adam pushes at Carter and tells him to "get away," and promptly starts crashing, at which point Carol finally gets off the phone and returns to the task at hand. Carol asks Carter if he's okay, and he says he is, and calls for some soft restraints for Adam. Carol, Carter's not the one on the bed. Get on the trolley.
Lisa works on her patient, Kim, and notes that he has a lot of fluid in his abdomen. He growls, "So the colon cancer spread?" She confirms that it has. He says his doctors had told him that might happen if he didn't respond to "the chemo." Still feeling around, she suggests they tap his belly, and he winces and says, "It's pretty tender." Going for "cheery," she chirps, "Can I interest you in some morphine?" Dr. Dave, working on the nosebleed patient behind Lisa, practically falls over from eavesdropping so intently. Kim says, "Really? Last time they wouldn't give me anything until my labs came back and I saw a surgeon." Lisa opines, "Nobody should sit around in pain." At this, Dr. Dave sidles over and appreciatively says, "I see you've been paying attention on rounds." She thanks Dr. Dave and takes off to get Kim some morphine, just as Chen comes in to attend to Cute Frank the ICU Nurse. He's sitting in bed, using the table to make up "the April nursing schedule." She tells him that he should be "on the monitor," and he insists that he's fine, but she insists that he doesn't have a choice, so he obliges her by sitting back in bed, and obliges me by taking off his shirt. Hel-lo, nurse! Chen reads his blood pressure from his chart, and glances up in the middle to be caught off-guard by the sight of his naked, sexy torso, but manages to get both numbers out with her professionalism mostly intact. Frank tells her ninety over sixty is a normal blood pressure for him: "You know, all those years of triathlons and stuff like that." Chen primly informs him that they still have to monitor him. Frank says he knows why he fainted; he ran twelve miles to work, and skipped both breakfast and lunch. Damn. Dr. Dave, observing Chen's ministrations to her totally hot patient, makes this weird frog face. Chen offers to get Frank something to eat from the cafeteria, but he declines, saying he never eats there. Chen stares at Frank's bare chest some more, and, to cover, asks what's on his chain. He says it's a Roman coin, and that he found it "while [he] was diving in the Mediterranean." Dr. Dave scoffs to himself. Chen, overcome by the proximity of such a fine example of masculinity, fumbles with the leads on the monitor, and Frank offers to help her with them. She giggles. Her professionalism gets up and goes out to the ambulance bay for a smoke. Dr. Dave asks Chen if she needs any help, and she quickly tells him she's got it under control. Dr. Dave, it's not like you ever had a shot, so just get over yourself.
At the desk, Mark's back on the phone with Holling, explaining why Holling can't go to Schaumburg to get a part for the slide projector. Elizabeth, standing nearby, deduces that they're "having a difference of opinion," and Mark bluntly corrects her: "He is driving me crazy." Elizabeth says that her mother is behaving unpredictably too, and that it was only when she was packing to leave that she "wants to be a parent." Mark ignores her and complains that Holling "won't listen; he won't even discuss treatment options." Elizabeth's face falls and she asks, "For what?" "His emphysema," Mark lies. Elizabeth asks if it's worse, and Mark says he thinks it is. Just then there's a commotion at the ambulance bay, and a couple of paramedics bring in a patient with fifteen minutes of chest pain, and a history of angina. Mark tells Randi to get the patient on a monitored bed, and Randi curtly informs him that they're full. Elizabeth suggests that they "close to criticals," but Mark insists that they can handle it. Going to the board, he shuffles a couple of patients and then tells the paramedics where to stick the patient. (No, not there.) Then he goes to get a refill on his coffee. Because that's important.
Mark heads into the lounge, where Carol has evidently just finished expressing the milk of human kindness from her boundless bosom. She puts two bottles into the fridge in time for Lily to call her back to Adam....
...who is seizing. Carol appears and Adam stabilizes, then crashes again. Whilst in the process of working on him, Carter's face contorts with pain, the precise cause of which isn't clear. Carol anxiously asks him if he's okay, and offers to go get Mark, but Carter toughs it out, saying he can handle it, and sends Conni to arrange for dialysis.
In the adjacent trauma room, Mark, Elizabeth, Lisa, Lily, and assorted paramedics are attending to the victim of a gunshot wound. A cop who accompanied the patient theorizes that the shot was the result of "a drug deal gone bad." Elizabeth orders a head CT, but Mark tells her not to bother since "there's grey matter everywhere." It's funny he should say that, since that's why my revisited breakfast looks like, too. Thanks, ER! Elizabeth orders measures that will keep the body alive, saying, "We've got an organ donor here." Lisa puts in a central line, apparently for the first time; Mark talks her through it. She's up against the bone, so Mark tells her to take the needle out and re-position it. Elizabeth, quietly and urgently, reminds Mark that they need the line in now, and Mark gently replies, "Give her a chance; this guy's brain-dead." Lisa shakes her head and says she's not getting a flash. Elizabeth says they're not "perfusing his organs," and kindly apologizes to Lisa and tells her she'll have to do it. Mark exhales passive-aggressively, but doesn't say anything. Lisa steps aside, catches Mark's eye and holds her hands out at her sides as if to say, "I'm sorry, but, come on!" Mark nods. Elizabeth is oblivious to this exchange. Lily has found the patient's driver's license; he's eighteen-year-old Robert Jackson, from Naperville. Hey, that's where Bob Odenkirk is from! Lily hands the cop the driver's license, and Elizabeth tells the room at large to find Robert's parents so that they can give consent for the hospital to harvest his organs. Elizabeth successfully gets the line in.
On the other side of the doors, Carter is arguing with the renal specialist over the state of Adam's kidneys. The specialist -- who looks a bit like Squeak from BASEketball (yeah, I've seen BASEketball -- what of it?) -- tells Carter that in cases of Benadryl overdose, there's no indication for dialysis, adding, "Look it up," which, in medical circles, is equivalent to saying, "Whip it out." Carter says he read a case in the Annals of Emergency Medicine in which a patient was treated using "hemoprofusion." The specialist says it won't work. Carter says they should try it. The specialist says he's not going to put Adam "at risk for hemolysis and charcoal embolism for an unproven procedure [Carter] read about in an emergency journal." Carter pouts, and shifts on his crutches. The specialist's pager goes off, and he excuses himself, but not before asserting, "This is not a renal case." Carter looks defeated, and says, "Like hell, it isn't." Carol offers to "push more bicarb," but Carter says it won't help. A machine beeps, apparently indicating a "run of seven." Carter says he doesn't intend to stand by and watch the patient arrest: "I'll write the dialysis orders!" Carol, holding the chart, condescendingly tells him, "A nephrologist has to do that." Carter cockily says that the article he read explained exactly what to do. Yeah, well, I read a magazine article about a plane once, but that doesn't make me a pilot, Carter. Maybe you should finish your physiotherapy before you start moonlighting as an internist. Carol reluctantly offers that Weaver once did hemoperfusion on an OD patient, and Carter seizes on this information: "Then we should do it. I know this'll work." Carol, having had her resolve broken down by years of working with Doug Ross, hands over the chart and says she knows a dialysis nurse who won't question the order. Carter takes the chart, looking grateful.
Mark charges out in the hall, closely followed by Lisa. He asks her if she wants to "run this," and she takes a breath and replies, "If you'll back me up." Out by the desk, a man on a gurney has his gown pulled off his bare chest; that orange goo you always see on hospital shows is all smeared in with his chest hair (and there goes lunch), and Chen, assisted by Haleh, is getting ready to use the paddles. Mark and Lisa watch as Chen charges the paddles, yells, "Clear!" and...sets the man's chest on fire. Well, I'll admit that I didn't see that coming. Haleh apparently didn't either, because she kind of shrieks. Chen yelps and hands the now smoking paddles back to her. Mark yells that someone should turn off the oxygen, and smothers the fire with a small sheet. The patient is still in v-tach, so Mark tells Chen to start compressions. At this point, Frank comes around the corner and complains, "Oh, it smells!" Ooh, yeah, it would -- burning hair and burning human flesh and hospital. I don't even want to entertain the notion. Mark calls for two prep razors and, as Chen continues doing compressions, Frank offers to shave the patient's left side while Mark does the right. They get to shaving, Lisa goes for the paddles, and Mark calls Frank "Rambo" and asks him why he isn't in the ICU. Chen admits, "He's my patient," and then says she thought his name was Frank. He explains that Rambo was his nickname from Desert Storm. Chen's professionalism comes back in from the ambulance bay to relieve Chen of her panties. Lisa makes with the paddles, shocks the patient, and gets him back to normal sinus rhythm. Lisa looks positively shocked at this result, and glances around as if to say, "Huh? Who da man?"
As we come back from the break, Carter is crutching along and telling Mark what he's doing with Adam. Mark tells Carter to keep him posted, and then goes into Robert Jackson's trauma room, where Elizabeth, Lily, and a couple of other random nurses are working to get his pressure up. Mark tightly tells her that "if it's brain-stem failure, [she doesn't] have much time." Elizabeth testily says that she knows, and that it's for that reason that she needs to get him to the OR. She asks if anyone's found Robert's parents, and the cop says the driver's license is a fake. Elizabeth suggests that he might have been reported missing, and the cop says that they've scanned his photo and sent it out, but that, so far, nothing's come back. Elizabeth tells him to keep trying, since they really need the kid's parents' consent. The cop nods, and takes off. Lily says that the pressure's up to ninety. Mark tells Elizabeth that, "even with consent, it could take hours to line up the procurement teams," and implores her to "be realistic." Having apparently already weighed the pros and cons, she points out, "I could save five lives with his organs." "Or he could arrest first," Mark reminds her. "I won't let that happen," she declares. He glares at her. Mark, I really have to side with Elizabeth, here. Kids (who are of legal age): Sign your organ donor cards! Your organs won't do you any good after you're dead, or brain-dead, so you might as well make them available to the living.
Carol's back on the phone telling her nanny how to...well, nanny. Where did she find this idiot -- a street corner? Anyway, Carter calls her over, so she hangs up and goes over to Adam's bed, where dialysis is about to commence. Carol reaches across the bed to hand Carter something, and he winces in pain and grabs the railing of the bed to steady himself. She quickly apologizes and says she shouldn't have made him reach, and he he thinks he's contaminated his gloves. The dialysis nurse -- Dori -- asks if Dr. Krupp (presumably the pissant-y specialist) is using zitrate (sp?). Carter and Carol exchange a look (because that's not suspicious), and Carter curtly says, "No." Dori says that Dr. K. usually uses heparin, and that she had better page him, and, on her way out, asks when he said to check ACT. Carter says that the nurse should check it "thirty minutes into the run." Carol sets her jaw and turns away, and Dori says that she'll check that too, because Dr. K. is very particular about his orders. Carol wearily stops her and explains that "these aren't his orders." Dori angrily says that she won't do this without his orders. Carol tells Dori to look at Adam's monitors and see that what they're doing is helping him, and Dori replies, "I'm going to lose my job! " Carter says, "We're saving his life!" "No. We're stopping," says Dori. Carter offers to take full responsibility for what they're doing (like, duh). Just then Mark comes in and asks what the problem is. Carter quietly reminds him that he told Mark what they were doing, and Dori spits, "Did he tell you nephrology refused to sign off?" Carol tells Mark that it's working, and that Mark should let them finish, but Mark is having none of it and tells Carter to crutch out. Okay, he said "step out," really. Dori looks very smug. Mark tells Carol to monitor Adam's vitals and keep the dialysis going, and assures Dori that he'll talk to the renal service.
Mark flies out into the hall to put a hurting on Carter: "You have a problem with another department, you come to me." Carter says that the patient is improving, and Mark says that's great, but that Carter didn't give Mark the whole story: "Let me break the rules. That's what I'm here for." "I can handle this," Carter says, feebly. Mark tells Carter that it's only his first day back, and that he doesn't have to prove anything. Before Carter can answer, Chuny calls Mark away; she's accompanied by the paramedic with the excellent braids whose name I can never remember, and the paramedic is carrying a baby. Before hooking up with them, Mark tells Carter to keep him informed about everything they're doing to Adam.
Braids hands Mark the baby and tells him she's six months old, with fever and vomiting, now lethargic after a seizure, and that they couldn't get a line. Mark asks where Finch is, and Chuny tells him it's her day off. Mark asks the baby's mother whether she's ever had seizures before, and she says no: "She's a very good baby." Uh. So babies who do have seizures are bad babies? I know she's under stress, but that was a very strange remark. Anyway, the vomiting started after she woke up from her nap. Mark says that Estrella (for that is the baby's name) looks dehydrated and calls orders to Chuny. They set her down on the bed and immediately a machine starts beeping, and Chuny says Estrella is "tachy at one-sixty." Mark orders a bunch more tests. Mrs. Estrella asks, in Spanish, what's happening, and Chuny answers in Spanish, but since I can't speak Spanish, I don't know what they said, so I'll guess:
Mrs. E.: Who is this enormous penis and what is he doing to my daughter?
Chuny: I could tell you some stories about that giant penis, but I won't. The cute pediatrician went away, so you're stuck with this knob. Sorry.
Mark pulls out a needle and Mrs. E. asks what he's doing with it. Mark explains that he needs to get fluid into Estrella's bones to rehydrate her (ew) and Mrs. E. quietly begs, "Please don't hurt her." Mark asks Chuny to take Mrs. E. to chairs and bring her back after Estrella's spinal tap. Mrs. E. objects and cries and Chuny hustles her out. Then they show Mark giving a spinal tap to a small, soft-looking square of baby skin. THAT'S NOT RIGHT.
Frank has his shirt off again. Yay! He's hooked up to a machine, from which he determines that he's still in "normal sinus rhythm." He asks Chen how much longer he has to stay in bed, and Chen says he'll have to wait until she gets his electrolytes back. He asks what his patients are supposed to do, and she says she called his unit and told them he was taking a sick day, so they called in a replacement for him. He grins and says, "Well, then, I guess I'm your prisoner." Chen gives him a look like, "You're damn right. Now, where did I leave those handcuffs?" Lisa, standing behind her, asks whether Chen has seen Mark, who was supposed to help her with Kim's paracentesis. Chen says he's in trauma, but that she can help her. Lisa introduces Chen to Kim, and then runs through what she's already done to prepare. Chen says it's fine. Lisa asks what tests she should order, and Frank answers instead. Chen smirks and thanks him. Lisa says, "There's your fluid," and they watch as it drains into a jar. Chen says it looks like Lisa has "good flow," and leaves, telling Lisa to call her if she needs anything. Lisa turns to Kim and says, "That wasn't so bad." Kim, who's started wriggling in pain, says, "Actually, it's starting to hurt." Lisa offers to re-adjust Kim's catheter, but when she touches it, Kim yelps, "Hey!" Frank, leaning out of his bed, says, "Uh oh. If I were you I'd order an upright chest film, stat." Lisa looks alarmed.
In a trauma room, Mark has lost Estrella's pulse. They start compressions. Chuny asks what the problem is, and Mark says it could be septic shock, or meningitis. He's in the process of shocking Estrella with little wee paddles when Carter appears at the door. He offers to come back later, but because Mark is passive-aggressive, he does not take Carter up on the offer, but rather, asks him, testily, what he wants. Carter says that Adam is doing better, but that he could still use (in Carter's opinion) more dialysis. Mark tells him to give Adam another half-hour of dialysis. Mark, pay more attention to the teeny baby you're shocking!
Frank is sitting at the desk, working on a computer, wearing his gown. Dr. Dave, eating something out of a bedpan (possibly shit, given the grin we've all seen him sport from time to time), tells Frank that patients aren't allowed behind the desk, but Randi tells Dr. Dave that since Frank is a nurse, she gave him permission. Dr. Dave reluctantly relents. Chen finds Frank there and fondly chastises him for being out of bed. Frank says that some of his labs were back. Dr. Dave tells Chen that her "patient has low sodium." Frank attributes that result to four litres of water he drank after his workout. Chen hustles Frank back to bed until the rest of his tests are back; he comments, over his shoulder, "I think she wants to keep me here." Dude, who wouldn't? Dr. Dave continues picking at his meal and says, "That guy's a piece of work, huh?" Randi replies, "And you're not?" Dr. Dave asks what that's supposed to mean, and she points out the fact that he's eating Cap'n Crunch for dinner, out of what she calls "an emesis basin." Carol tears into the doorway and asks Randi whether her nanny called again. Randi says she didn't, which frees Carol up to observe what Dr. Dave is eating, and from what he's eating it. Dr. Dave explains that there was nothing in the lounge but a box of cereal and (wait for it) "a jar of milk." Realization floods over Carol's face and she snarls, "A jar of milk?" He says, "What?" and she snorts, "Oh, God, Malucci!" Note for the slow: Dr. Dave has been eating Cap'n Crunch moistened with her breast milk. Hey, if the glands that produce lactation are as big as Carol's heart, she should have no problem coming up with more.
Estrella is still crashing. And suddenly Yosh is there, to deliver all the lines he won't have in this episode. Lily comes to the door to tell Mark that the brain-dead patient -- the non-Robert Jackson -- is crashing, so Mark goes in to take care of him.
Elizabeth has bandaged up non-Robert's head and tells Mark what she's doing. Mark manages to monitor both situations by calling orders into each room from the doorway that connects them. As Chuny shocks Estrella, per Mark's orders, he tells Elizabeth that her patient's brain stem is "mush," and asks, "Are you going to call it?" Elizabeth defiantly tells him that she isn't: "There must be a way to make him a donor." Mark says there isn't -- not without his consent, and then calls orders to Chuny. Elizabeth suggests that they could get a court order, and Mark says that, in a case like this, they couldn't. Elizabeth says that she'll keep his pressure up until the hospital can find his family. Mark passive-aggressively yells, "FINE!" and goes back in to Estrella.
Benton shows Kim an X-ray, and explains, "The black stripe is air under the diaphragm. The needle perforated the colon." Kim remarks that "it hurts like hell," and Lisa -- rather ineffectually, if you ask me, says, "I'm really sorry." Benton gives her a look like, "That and a quarter will buy you a cup of coffee, Forces of Nature," and tells Kim that "perforation is a known complication of the procedure." Kim scoffs, and, with some resignation, asks what they can do now. Benton says that they can operate to repair the defect. Kim asks how long he'd have to stay in hospital if they do. Benton says it'll be a week's stay in the hospital, and a two-month recuperation after that. Kim chuckles bitterly and says, "Doc, they don't expect me to live that long!" and then asks what'll happen if he decides not to have surgery. Benton says that the hole could seal up, but that it's more likely that he'd develop peritonitis, and die. Lisa sure looks sorry. If I were Kim, I sure wouldn't care how sorry she was.
Estrella is still flat-lining. Yosh runs in and says that her CBC and lytes are normal. Mark mutters, "What the hell is wrong with this baby?" and then tells them to start "pacing at one-eighty." Long story short, the good thing that should happen, doesn't, and Mark finally calls it, and tells them to clean up the baby before he brings in her mother.
Kim tells Benton he doesn't want the surgery. Benton starts to say, "It's the only way --" but Kim cuts him off and says he understands, but that he doesn't to go through surgery again. Benton looks at Lisa, who resolutely avoids looking back at him. His pager goes off, and he tells Kim that they could treat him with antibiotics and hope for the best. Kim nods. Benton apologizes and excuses himself. Lisa goes after him and asks, "Aren't we supposed to fix our mistakes?" Benton says, "Usually," and adds that Kim has end-stage cancer, and that surgery would only prolong his suffering. Benton adds that Lisa has to respect Kim's wishes, and Lisa squeaks, "But he's going to die because I made a mistake!" Benton reminds her, "He's going to die anyway." Lisa frowns.
Chuny calls Mark into a trauma room. Mrs. E. starts talking rapidly in Spanish. Chuny quietly asks, "You want me to give her something?" Mark says no. Mrs. E. implores Mark to help Estrella. He wearily says, "Pilar," and Pilar (formerly Mrs. E.) says that Estrella's still warm, and that there must be something he can do. Mark tells her they tried everything, but Pilar isn't getting it, and begs him to use the machines, or blow in Estrella's mouth to revive her. Mark firmly says that they can't, and Pilar sobs, "Yes, you can! Yes, you can! You're a good doctor!" Flights of fancy aren't going to bring back your daughter, Pilar. Mark says, "Pilar. She's dead. I'm sorry." Pilar cries. Mark comforts her. Even I am not going to make jokes about a dead baby.
Malik brings in a vagrant named Mr. Bartlett, found under the El, who promptly tells a passing Mark to kiss his ass. Ah, a vagrant after my own heart. Mr. Bartlett's gurney slams into one containing a rule-out CVA, Chen's patient. Chen is accompanied by Frank; Mark asks about his work-up, which Frank assures him was fine, and Chen explains that Frank saw the ER was "getting slammed," and offered to help. Mark goes on his merry way, and Lisa jogs up to him and anxiously tells him that there was a complication with her colon cancer patient. Mark says that Benton told him, and reminds her that he had planned to help her. Lisa says that, because he was busy, she asked Chen instead. Mark says that Lisa didn't give Chen Kim's complete history, because if she had, they would have tapped the mid-line, and the bowel would never have been, as he puts it, "perfed." Lisa sighs, and says that Kim has spiked a fever, and she thinks he's septic. Mark tells her to make sure Kim is comfortable now. Lisa tells him she wants to stay with Kim, because he has no family, and Mark tells her that she can't, since she's needed to attend to patients (like, duh), and that after her shift, she should go down to pathology to practice procedures. Lisa pouts off, and Dr. Dave calls Mark over to see "a live one"; apparently the patient was feeding his friend's gila monster when it bit him and clamped on to his hand. Dr. Dave asks if they'll have to kill the animal, and Mark replies, "Only as a last resort." Blah blah blah reptilecakes, they use clamps to get the gila monster off, and Dr. Dave catches it in a bucket. Point? I don't know either. It was a pretty lizard, though.
Elizabeth is still taking heroic measures to keep the potential donor alive. When Mark comes in, she gives him non-Robert's vitals, and he tells her that the heart won't last much longer (he's already crashing), and that the patient is a DNR. She refuses to call it. He reminds her that they're too busy for her to be wasting her time on a lost cause, to say nothing of tying up a trauma room and a passel of nurses. Yeah, really -- I'm no longer on your side, Ginger. Elizabeth refuses some more, insisting that non-Robert's parents "would want some good to come out of this tragedy." No sooner has she delivered the line than they recover normal sinus rhythm. Lily asks Elizabeth if she wants a lidocaine drip, and she declines, saying she'll do it, and, looking at Mark, tells Lily to "go help the other nurses." Mark yells, rather angrily, "Don't keep flogging him! I mean it! He's a DNR!" She says nothing. He leaves. Way to be authoritative, Mark. Except for the -- well, you see where I'm going, here.
In the hall, Carol tells Mark that the labs are back for trauma two, and that the tox screen is positive for amphetamines. Mark reads the results and moans, "Oh, man....It's a baby." Horrified, Carol asks, "Someone killed their [sic] baby with amphetamines?" They stop in front of the doors to trauma two, where Pilar is still sitting on the bed, cradling Estrella in her arms. Ouch. Mark and Carol enter the room (why is she there? She didn't have anything to do with this case! Where's Chuny? ["Chuny doesn't have kids and thus isn't allowed to wield the Parallel-Plot Sledgehammer the way Carol is." -- Sars]) and Mark tells Pilar about the tox screen. Pilar chokes, "My baby died from drugs?" Mark nods, and asks whether she knows anyone who might have given Estrella anything. Pilar emphatically says that no one has drugs at home. Carol asks if Pilar has any friends or relatives who use drugs. Pilar looks down. Mark and Carol look at each other, and Mark asks Pilar what she's thinking. Pilar hesitates, then says, "I work two jobs. Sometimes I get so tired I take something to stay awake, but I never bring drugs...home." Carol asks if she's nursing the baby, and Pilar sobs, and nods. Mark explains that the drugs were transmitted to Estrella through Pilar's breast milk. Carol shakes her head in a way that eloquently communicates her thoughts -- "Stupid bitch!" -- without her having to go to the trouble of delivering her judgment aloud. Pilar moans, "I love my baby! I would never hurt her! God forgive me, I would never hurt her! I didn't know! I really didn't know!" Carol's usual judgmental expression doesn't change; Mark, at least, has the grace to look sorry.
Elizabeth is out of trauma and on the phone, leaving a message for Mama Corday that she won't be able to see her, so MC should page her when she gets the message. Yosh, overhearing, tells Elizabeth that he forgot to give her a message she had received: MC took an earlier flight. Ooh, burn. She mulls this for a moment, but is distracted by the sight of a grim-looking Mark walking past. She asks him if he's all right, and he says he is, and asks if she's still taking care of non-Robert. She says she is, they briefly kvetch about their respective parents, and take off in opposite directions.
At the desk, Frank is ordering tests on various patients listed on the board; Chuny cheerfully inputs orders into the computer. Mark asks her how it's going, and Frank pipes up, "Don't worry, doc; I'm moving the meat, man." Hee hee! If this is their way of introducing Frank as a permanent member of the team, I am all for it. I mean, I like Yosh and all, but damn. Lisa comes up to the desk and mildly bitches Chuny out for not giving Kim enough (in her opinion) morphine. Chuny tells her Kim was asleep the last time she checked him, and Lisa tersely tells her to check more often: "I don't want him in any pain." The ambulance bay doors open and two paramedics bring Holling in on a gurney; he called 911, short of breath. Mark asks why Holling didn't call him, and Holling growls, "There's nothing you could have done over the phone." Apparently he'd started feeling these symptoms a couple of days ago.
In the trauma room, Holling tells Mark it's probably nothing more than a chest cold. Holling gets himself onto the trauma room bed, and grumbles that if he knew he'd be causing such a fuss, he'd have seen the doctor on Monday. Mark patiently tells him to be quiet so that Mark can listen to his breathing. I will take this moment to say that, I like Holling -- I do -- but his bare chest is not quite as attractive to me as, say, Frank's. I'm just sayin'. Mark says that Holling seems to have fluid in his lungs, halfway up, and asks, "Why did you wait so long?" Holling growls, "Don't scold me!" Elizabeth strides in and asks what's wrong, and Mark replies, "Huge pleural effusion. Needs a thoracentesis." Holling looks like, if he had the strength, he'd hop right off the bed and box both their ears, but he doesn't, so he just gets increasingly crotchety. Elizabeth looks alarmed at the diagnosis, and Holling grouses, "He wants to stick a needle in my chest. You're a surgeon -- I think you should do it." Elizabeth glares at Mark for a moment -- apparently realizing that he'd lied to her about Holling's condition -- and then diplomatically tells Holling that she doesn't think that's a good idea. Holling says that Mark doesn't think a doctor should treat his own family, and Mark assures him that he's done this procedure "a hundred times." Holling declares, "I want Elizabeth to be my doctor," and Mark yells, "Fine!" and passive-aggresses himself straight out into the hall.
Lydia runs up to Mark outside Holling's trauma room and tells him, "The lizard guy's crashing." Mark runs up to his bed and determines that "it's gila venom," and makes with the orders. Suddenly Frank's there, assisting.(like Visa, he's everywhere you want to be), and while he's working, he says he smells smoke. Lily says that's her hernia patient, and Mark instructs her to go tell him to knock it off. Haleh comes in to tell Mark that a bad cocaine overdose has just rolled in, so Mark leaves to treat her. When he gets to the OD's bed, Hernia Guy angrily gestures with his cigarette that he's been waiting for five hours. Mark tells him to get lost and leans over the OD patient, calling out order. Randi runs up to tell him that a psych patient on the third floor getting ready to jump. He tells her to clear a trauma room, and Frank says, "I'm on it." Damn, no wonder this guy collapsed! Chen strolls up to tell him that the son of her stroke patient wants to talk to an attending, and before he can answer, Lydia appears to ask if Mark wants a foley on Lizard Guy. A skillet flies through my office window and narrowly misses my head; taped to it is a note reading, "Mark Is Stressed!" Sure enough, Mark yells, "Why are you asking me? Just do it!" Haleh says she can't get an IV, and asks Mark to put in a central line. Mark protests that the patient has good veins, and that Haleh should be able to get the IV in, and Chen -- who apparently has never heard of the practice of "taking a message" -- leans in and asks Mark, "How about my stroke patient?" Right on schedule, Mark loses it: "Can't you see that I've got two critical patients here? Why can't you just deal with it?" Chen makes a totally unwarranted "whatever" face. From the desk, Randi calls, "The guy just jumped!" Mark looks like he would like to join him. (Do it!)
A begowned Holling is leaning forward to allow Elizabeth to swab his back, and saying, "They said it was a stage-four lung cancer. Doctor said it couldn't be cut out or cured." Elizabeth says that sometimes chemotherapy can shrink tumours and lengthen survival, and Holling mutters, "I know all about that." She asks if he's interested, and he says, "Mark sure seems to be." She asks what Holling wants, and he says, "I just want to live out the last couple of months as normal as I can. I don't want to be hooked up to a bunch of tubes puking my guts out, all for the sake of a few extra miserable weeks." You know? Like you're doing with poor old brain-dead non-Robert? Hello? Elizabeth tells him that when she gets the fluid out, Holling will feel a lot better. "Ready when you are," he says gamely, and winces a little when the needle goes in. Poor Holling.
Benton passes through the desk in his coat; Frank tells him he should wait, since a fresh trauma's coming in, and Benton tells him to page Elizabeth. Carter, hunched over at a computer, asks if Benton's "late for something," and Benton says he is, and books. Oh, God. Not FinchBot 3000 again. Lisa, also at the desk, shuffles through some papers, and Frank tells her he's sorry about her patient. Lisa says, "What patient?" and Frank says he's referring to the "belly tap in curtain 3," who "expired." Lisa wonders rhetorically why no one told her about it, and takes off to investigate. Kerry Weaver "2000: For your 2000 body parts" crutches in from the ambulance bay, accompanying a gurney containing the psych-patient would-be suicide, who needs a chest tube, among other things. As the gurney passes the desk, Frank offers to help, and Weaver politely declines, and quietly asks Mark, "What's Frank doing here?" Mark says it's a "long story." Carter crutches along behind, and Weaver asks how he's doing; he winces, and says he's fine. Weaver asks for the background, diagnoses broken ribs, calls for X-rays, yada.
Chen appears in the hallway, calling Frank's name, and finds him back on the floor, out cold. He's breathing and has a good pulse; Chen supposes that he "vaso-vagalled." He's still hot, though.
Carter crutches in to the trauma room as Weaver and Mark work on the attempted suicide. He totally has gloves on the hands propelling his crutches, as if that's sterile. Anyway, he asks if he can help, and Mark tells him they're okay. Carol offers to let him "run the hemocue." Playing Mom against Dad, Carter asks Weaver if he can help her "up there," and she repeats Carol's instruction. Yosh calls Carol to the phone; the baby's crying again, like, fire the crappy nanny already, good God! Carol asks Yosh to take over for her, picks up the phone and proceeds to sing "I Can't Give You Anything But Love." On the phone. To a baby. With a trauma underway not two feet away from her. Okay, Weaver did tell her to take the phone, but still. As Carol's rather tuneless voice drones on in the background, and Mark and Weaver toil over the patient, Mark glances through the glass to the trauma room, where fluid is draining out of Holling's lungs. He pauses, stricken, then returns to his own patient.
At the desk "Livin' La Vida" Luka Kovac has just started his shift. And so has Sars, if you know what I'm sayin'. As Mark contemplates the board, Luka comments, "You had quite a day, huh?" Mark sighs ruefully, nods, and tells Randi he'll be suturing. Luka offers to pick up some of Mark's patients (and in the background, you can faintly hear Mark's patients saying, "Yeah! Take us!"), but Mark tells Luka just to take the new ones. Carol wanders up, awkwardly holding very large twin girls in plush fuschia snowsuits that make them look like the fifth and sixth Teletubbies. Dr. Dave, clueless as ever, tells her that pedes is full, and she informs him that these are her girls. Luka asks whether Carol's nanny's sick, and she tells him that she's just new, and the girls were fussy, so she had the nanny bring them in. Luka says they look "content," and Carol says they're always happy after she's nursed them, and that they'll be in the lounge. They are pretty cute. Not as cute as Carlos, of course, but cute. Chen makes an "aw!" as they go by, and behind her, Frank apologizes for having caused her so much trouble. She tells him it was no trouble at all, and tells him to feel better. Dr. Petty -- whoops, I mean "Dave" -- asks what's wrong with "Supernurse." Chen tells him (though it's really none of Dr. Dave's bidness) that Frank's being admitted to medicine, and that she diagnosed Addison's Disease. Hey, Frank: Don't be a stranger. Dr. Dave compliments her on the "good pick-up," and she tells him she plans to go up to the fifth floor later, to keep him company. Dr. Dave laughs. Dude: Give. Up.
Lily runs into non-Robert's trauma room, closely followed by Mark, just as Elizabeth is calling the time of death. Lily leaves to get the death kit. Elizabeth tells Mark, "Such a waste. His organs could have saved so many lives. I couldn't do a thing." Mark tells her, "You didn't have a choice." Elizabeth asks why they couldn't find his family, and Mark offers that he was probably a runaway. Elizabeth bitterly says, "He's someone's son. His parents don't even know he's here." "They may never know," says Mark. Whatever. Yosh comes in and asks Elizabeth to sign a discharge order. She asks for whom, and Yosh answers, "Dr. Greene's father." Elizabeth glances at Mark, and says she'll be right out. Mark waits for the dressing-down, and gets it; she sternly asks why he didn't tell her about Holling's cancer, and he replies that Holling didn't want anyone to know. He checks: "You told him to follow up with oncology," leaving out the "I assume" part. Elizabeth tells Mark that Holling doesn't want to. Mark sighs, and asks about chemotherapy. Elizabeth says that she gave Holling his options. Mark says, "It can improve the quality of his life," because, you know, being a surgeon and all, Elizabeth might not know that. He says that Holling will listen to her. She says that it's Holling's decision, and that she has to respect his wishes. Mark gets in her face and reminds her that Holling is his father, and that he wants to help. Elizabeth tells him that he should just be there for Holling. Mark, frustrated, says, "I won't just sit there when there's something more I can do." With your dad, you mean. Because you took exactly the opposite position with non-Robert. Just sayin'.
Lisa gloves up in pathology. The pathologist explains that the patient donated his body to the medical school for use in an anatomy class, but that very often, the hospital keeps fresh cadavers for students to practice procedure. The pathologist pulls back the sheet to reveal that the corpse -- obviously -- is Kim's. Lisa gazes at his face, and then takes the pathologist's instruction with regard to putting in a central line. Lisa makes with the needle, but stops before actually puncturing his skin, and nervously laughs, "I'm sorry, I don't think I can do this." The pathologist says, "You're doing fine," and Lisa explains, "He was my patient." The pathologist blinks, and says, "You want to stop?" Lisa takes a deep breath, and tries again. Good for Lisa.
Carter goes through his paperwork at a desk in the hall. Weaver approaches him and brightly says, "Crazy day, huh?" He nods. She asks if he's still in a lot of pain. "It's not too bad," he lies. She says it seemed like he was having a hard time getting around in trauma, and that the first day back can be rough. He says that it gets a little easier every day. She asks if he's talked to anybody "about what happened," and he nods diffidently in a way that says, "No." "And your family's been supportive?" "You know, really, Dr. Weaver, I'm okay," Carter evades. She suggests that he might "benefit from a tens unit, or from acupuncture," and he dismissively thanks her, and says he'll let her know. She takes the hint, and leaves him alone.
In his coat, Mark walks up to the desk, where Elizabeth is on hold. Off-screen, Holling calls, "I can take a cab if you have something else planned." Mark tells him not to be "ridiculous," and says they're going home. Mark and Elizabeth exchange an utterly chemistry-free meaningful look, say "goodnight" to each other, and he walks over to Holling, observing that Holling's shoes are untied. Holling says that he can't bend over "after that needle thing," so, in an oddly disarming gesture, Mark squats on the floor and ties his father's shoes for him. Elizabeth watches him do it, and seems to tear up a little.
Benton and Cleo "3P0" Finch play pool and then make out. Whatever.
Carter watches as someone stirs a saucepan. Then we hear her voice: "If I'd known you were coming, we'd have served a late dinner." Yay, it's Gamma! Carter says, "Soup's fine." "You're looking well, John," she lies. He thanks her, and says that he started back to work today. She asks if he shouldn't have given himself a little more time off, and he answers her with his mantra: "I did okay." He chews something, and looks like he's about to cry, and admits, "Actually, it was kind of tough. I didn't know if I was going to make it through the day. I felt -- I don't know -- afraid." She sits to him and asks, "Afraid of what?" He says he was afraid he couldn't handle it, and she remarks, "But you did." He eats soup. She says, "I know we've had our disagreements about your career, but I can see now that medicine is what you love." He looks at her, then looks away. She reminds him that, when he was in high school, he used to stop by, and she'd make cocoa, and they'd talk. Carter wipes his mouth and, smiling, says he remembers. She notes that they "haven't done this in a long time." "I know," he says. She clasps his hand.
Mark and Holling look at slides. Holling appreciatively says, "This is a fancy machine," and that if he'd known Mark could borrow it from the hospital, he wouldn't have bothered with the old one. With each slide, Mark asks where it took place, and Holling tells him; they scroll through a trip to Santa Barbara, during which Holling taught Mark to swim underwater. Then there's a camping trip, and a shot of Holling and Mrs. Greene planting the garden. Mark recalls that they used to make him pull weeds, and Holling tells a story about Mark's wanting to plant a watermelon tree. The last shot is of a young (and kind of creepy-looking) Holling, and a very Children of the Corn-ish wee Mark. As "Bookends" plays, Holling says, "I thought this was the vacation box. Why'd your mother take this one, anyway?" Mark muses, "I guess she liked what she saw."