Weaver books, and Lisa rolls her cart on into a trauma room, where Luka "Death Works a Holiday" Kovac is hunched over the bed, going through charts. Lisa stops dead (heh) in the doorway at the sight of him, and then pushes on, bravely greeting him: "Hi." He greets her with a "hey" and asks, "Did you put her on the bus?" Lisa chirps, "Yep," though she didn't, really, and then they talk over each other for a moment, each trying to invite the other out. They both stop at once, and chuckle, and he asks, "Dinner?" and she accepts, "Yeah." She asks whether he thinks "anything will be open," and he supposes Doc Magoo's will be. Lisa wrinkles her nose, and says that would be "kind of depressing on Thanksgiving." Oh, you do? Hey, Luka, I'm free. Scraps in the alley behind the A&P? Sure, what time? Luka doesn't offer any alternative, and Lisa suggests that she could cook, at her apartment. Luka seems about to accept when Lydia pushes in and says that a trauma's coming in -- a guy hit while riding a bike.

Sidebar: many people on the forums are not supporters of the Abby/Luka pairing, and certainly you all are entitled to your opinions. I happen to think they have more chemistry than Dow, but some of you think Mark and Elizabeth make a good couple, so clearly these things are open to interpretation. However, many of you cite the scene above as evidence that Luka and Abby in fact have no connection, that their conversations are awkward and stilted, that he's just using her for sex (or the opposite) and that she would be better off with Carter, maybe, and he with a good therapist (and I agree that a few months with a professional wouldn't do him any harm). But I don't see it. Granted, I am not objective -- as I said. But I think that the pause before she talks to him, and the sheepish giggles when they talk over each other, are pretty common in new relationships. Maybe she paused in the doorway because, even though they're kind of seeing each other, she still gets excited when the sight of him catches her off-guard (and, hey -- can't we all imagine that, of him? I think we can), and that, having fairly recently left a bad relationship, she might be overly trepidatious in her conversations with a new gentleman caller. Not having even seen them have sex, or even in bed, pre- or post-coitally, I don't think it's fair to guess who might be using whom in this scenario, and for what. And I think that, furthermore, the still-getting-to-know-you awkwardness inherent in the early stages of a relationship is touching and special and it doesn't necessarily mean that anyone's going through the motions, or that anyone's a typical Mediterranean misogynist (or sexist), or that anyone's even codependent. It may just be that they like each other enough that they're very self-conscious in each other's company -- but still, I think the actors and directors make it clear, happy to be in each other's company. In my opinion.