Benton is unable to find a job after Romano negatively influences local hospitals. He reluctantly agrees to accept Romano's demeaning offer of a per diem job at County with no benefits. Kovac and Abby are attacked by a mugger with a steel pipe. Injured, Kovac protects Abby and smashes the robber's head on the ground repeatedly.

Benton and Cleo clash over his deceased nephew's girlfriend. They finally agree to call a social worker. Benton confesses his love to Cleo. The spinal surgery malpractice suit is settled by employing a technicality: the equipment used was later recalled by the manufacturer. But Corday now doubts her abilities as a surgeon.

Cleo and Carla clash after Reese gets hurt while in Cleo's care. Weaver and Kovac cannot save the life of a developmentally challenged woman's only caregiver. Abby goes to a therapy session with Maggie. Later, Abby confesses to Maggie that she is afraid to bear children because they might be bipolar like her mother.

Dr. Susan Lewis arrives, looking for work in the Chicago area again. Greene hires her, over Weaver's objection. Chen nervously attends a risk management review, accompanied by the unforgiving Weaver, to discuss a patient who recently died under Chen's supervision.

Benton commits perjury on the witness stand in order to gain custody of Reese. When Romano refuses to give him a more even schedule, Peter resigns and seeks a job at the clinic where Cleo is newly employed. Benton is granted custody of Reese and he and Cleo decide to move to the suburbs together. Meanwhile, Carter's father visits for Christmas with the news that he's getting divorced, Weaver and Sandy Lopez finally go on a date, and Abby catches Nicole in the maternity ward, recovering from an abortion.

An accidental overdose brings Drs. Green and Corday's baby into the ER.

Just when the ER is understaffed and swamped, two children who were brought in turn out to have full blown smallpox. The entire ER must be locked down. The staff needs to improvise while they battle not only the disease but also frayed tempers.

After another hospital shuts down, the ER is flooded with patients. Dr. Pratt resuscitates a heart-attack victim who had been pronounced dead.

Abby is distressed when her mother interferes with Eric's treatment at a psychiatric hospital. Pratt treats a frightened young girl who has been injured in an auto accident and desperately wants to hide a secret. An unhappy Luka forms an unlikely bond with a lonely elderly woman who makes him a surprising offer. Chen is overcome with upsetting memories when a baby is abandoned in the emergency room. Pratt takes action after Leon is fired from his menial job.

Dr. Romano seizes control of the ER and manages to offend everyone. Dr. Kovac asks Dr. Corday's help in the quest to bring a sickly Croatian boy to the U.S. for medical treatment.

Confident second-year resident Pratt wants to prove his abilities when he works the graveyard shift (11 p.m. to 7 a.m.), but his heroics sometimes backfire. Pratt shows contempt for a man, Ed Gamble, who presents no symptoms of disease but temporarily loses his speech.

To everyone's amazement, Lewis makes a date to share a home-cooked dinner with the elderly Ben Hollander, her depressed patient who is going blind.

Carter misses his pregnant girlfriend who has returned to Africa. A family of four is rushed to the emergency room after suffering carbon monoxide poisoning from their faulty furnace--forcing the claustrophobic Neela to accompany a newborn baby into an extremely uncomfortable hyperbaric chamber.

Kovacs stops to help a woman and her son whose car broke down. Steve is getting close to Alex, and Sam panics. Abby is looking for her letter whether to see she passed her boards. Pratt shows off his new Chrysler. Elgin tries to build a connection between him and Pratt. Jing-Mei might be battered by her senile father.

Carter, Pratt, Kovac and Abby are dealing with a woman and her three children who've jumped from a three floor apartment trying to escape from the father. Meanwhile Dr. Lewis becomes Chief of Emergency Medicine, Howard quits his internship and Dr. Corday is facing dismissal.

Gang members kidnap Abby hoping she can save one of their members with a gunshot wound. Ray starts treating a patient, but when she requests a new doctor, he gets offended.

A soccer mom finds herself completely aware of everything going on around her, but is unable to move or speak after suffering a stroke.

Morris is named the new chief resident, which makes nobody really happy, except Morris. Meanwhile Luka and Sam are having communication problems, Carter gets a promotion Susan really wanted and Ray finds out a 14-year old who always comes in for free drugs has been raped.