A plane soaring overhead transitions us back to Nebraska. Abby plops down on the hospital steps, where Maggie already sits, and hands her a soda. "All they had was Diet Shasta," she says. "They still make this?" Maggie grimaces, staring at the can. "I hope so," Abby giggles. Hee. Silence. Abby finally tells Maggie that she's probably going to have to testify, and that she needs Maggie to stand beside her on this and keep Eric out of the brig. "I'm with you," Maggie promises. Abby looks sad. "I'm sorry," she says. "I'm just scared for him, and I'm angry. I'm angry at you for having to do this again and you didn't do anything." Maggie knows better -- she calls Abby out for being angry at her for giving Eric the disease in the first place. "I know you feel like a mother to him. Why shouldn't you? You practically raised him," Maggie says. "But I'm his mother and I gave it to him. I gave it to my son. All I can do now is...try to be his mother." Abby nods. Wow, Sally Field made it through an entire episode without devouring everything around her. That's rather unusual. They must've told her up front that Cheadle's getting the Emmy™ push this year.

As Maggie excuses herself to go find them a hotel room, Abby's cell phone rings. "Did you find him?" Carter asks. "Yeah, I found him," she sighs. "They might court-martial him, but I found him." A car pulls up near Abby as Carter asks what all she told them about his illness. "They already knew," she sighs. "Long story." As a figure gets out of the car, we hear Carter ask how Abby's holding up, but we're not just hearing him through the phone -- he's there, exiting a rental car, standing before his girlfriend. She looks up, snaps her phone shut with a gleam in her eye, and rushes into his arms, sobbing and thanking him profusely for understanding that she does need him and appreciate him. Oh, wait, no, that would have been what happened on any other show. Actually, she just looks at him with an expression blanker than Nathan's surgical future. God, I'm sick of the enigma of Abby and Carter. Does she like him? Doesn't she? I don't care, as long as the writers pick a side and make Maura Tierney play it.