Luka chats with a frail, pale redhead on a gurney. She's short of breath and suffering from chest pains, the sudden onset of which followed a few days of grogginess. She reminds me of Miranda from Sex and the City, so that's what I'll christen her. Miranda apparently fainted after a bout of dizziness, and has been taking fertility drugs. They jointly exposit that she's been on them for ten days, being as today's the tenth, and it's a smug moment that smacks vaguely of "aren't we clever for getting the date right?" Luka looks knowingly at Abby and orders up a spate of tests, while Miranda freaks about whether the fertility drugs have risked her health. Luka calmly explains that she has fluid in her lungs, which could signal the presence of a blood clot. Miranda whitens, impossible as it seems. She's actually transparent. Luka trots off to be pretty somewhere else, leaving Abby to ask Miranda for contact information. This becomes the reveal that Miranda is single, and chose a scientific fertility process because she "got tired of waiting around for Mr. Right." Abby's head jerks up a fraction, and her mouth twitches. "I know that story," she murmurs, smiling.

Exiting Miranda's room, Abby draws the curtain and rejoins Luka. Gingerly, she notes how little she's seen of him lately. "I've been working nights," Luka says. The exchange is awkward, filled mostly with one-word answers: Luka's Christmas was "quiet," for example. He's also made a resolution for 2002: buy dinner for The Lawyer Fairy, who stopped by and gave him an out clause that lets him flee to make a movie overseas. As such, Luka will be volunteering for Doctors Without Borders for two months, living in Bosnia. The Lawyer Fairy deserves a promotion for that one -- perhaps demigod status would suffice. Meanwhile, do we really think Romano and Weaver are okay with Luka just taking off, leaving them short an ER doctor for eight whole weeks? I think Weaver would rather eat wax. Abby's completely taken aback by Luka's decision, and slightly stunned that his do-gooder disease -- the one that so fucked him over with Neecole -- has become full-blown. Luka shares that the change of scenery sounds really appealing, which elicits an empathetic mouth-twitch from Abby.