1.2 Healing Time

Plot
It's another busy day at Richmond Trinity Hospital.

In the main storyline Hawthorne takes in a patient named Fred Barnes (played by Malcolm-Jamal Warner) with a cerebral aneurysm. He's so tangled up neurologically that he mistakes Hawthorne for his wife Lindsey and begs her to stay with him from diagnosis to shaving him for surgery to helping him decide which surgery to get. Everyone kids Hawthorne about her new husband except Dr. Wakefield who thinks it's borderline behavior for Hawthorne to pretend to be his wife and gets really angry when she sides with another doctor about what kind of surgery Barnes should have.

Before his surgery Barnes confesses that he had an affair and that he either hopes to live and make it up to his wife or if he dies makes her promise to have the family she always wanted. Hawthorne wonders aloud to Bobbie if she should tell the wife this confession. Bobbie wonders what good can come of it especially since the man is altered and said a lot of crazy stuff. They both agree that if they were the wife they'd want to know.

When the wife finally does arrive Hawthorne is about to tell her when the real Lindsey asks if Fred asked about a woman named Connie? Hawthorne says he only asked about her and talked about how much he loved her. The wife is relieved.

While dealing with this Hawthorne is also counseling Bobbie to not break her second date with the hot paramedic just because she's afraid. Bobbie feels like she wants it too much to be ready to date him, that's she's too desperate. Hawthorne tells her she's beautiful and amazing and that the paramedic is lucky to have her. This does the trick as Bobbie shows up for the date, to the paramedic's surprise, and they go to dinner.

As she must have several irons in the fire Hawthorne is also dealing with Isabel, the homeless woman who gave birth to the baby with spina bifida in the pilot. Isabel is healthy now, taking her meds, and ready to move into a shelter that Hawthorne arranged for her, but she doesn't want to leave her baby, or the hospital without her Chuck Taylors. Isabel's sneakers are found, she feeds her baby one more time- he has to stay in an incubator for the time being- and heads off to the shelter. Only to return later that night wanting to say goodnight to him. She asks Hawthorne to sneak her in but the nurse firmly tells her to get back to the shelter and get her act together. Isabel says she loves being a mom. Hawthorne agrees. Isabel sings "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" up to the NICU window.

Hawthorne also comes to aid of rookie RN Kelly. Kelly has been dealing with an evil elderly patient, played by Cloris Leachman. The woman berates, bullies, and belittles her in front of the dreaded unintelligible Dr. Mizaki until she cries. Hawthorne comes in and tells her to behave and that nurses aren't servants. The woman is even nasty to Hawthorne but in a funny way. Kelly returns with bolstered confidence until the woman throws a tantrum over jello and pudding. Finally she breaks down Kelly's brave facade and Kelly says she just wishes the woman would drop dead. As she says this, the woman codes...and dies. Kelly is a wreck and Hawthorne tries to comfort her. Dr. Mizaki arrives and does the same until Kelly, comically, is draped around the cranky doctor weeping into his coat.

Nurse Ray is trying very hard to get his overtime pay but he must deal with a curmudgeonly bureaucrat who keeps telling him he's filled out the wrong forms and has a low opinion of nurses in general. To add insult to injury a male patient freaks out and gets him in a headlock, and to force him to let go Hawthorne punches Ray who then bangs his head on a nearby supply table. This makes his next dealing with the HR guy go even more poorly since he's listed as a patient in the system - he needed stitches- and the guy tries to give him the runaround about workman's comp when all Ray wants is to be paid for the overtime he worked. Later he's chagrined to learn that hot night nurse Candy heard all about his embarrassing run-in with Hawthorne's fist. After chatting about how the hospital is out to get him, he slams his thumb in a drawer in front of Candy. Poor Ray.

Because she had such a crazy day, Hawthorne missed a therapy appointment with her daughter Camille who is not amused. She tries to ask about a breakthrough Camille had in the session but Camille is having none of it and sullenly stalks off. Later when Hawthorne arrives home with Chinese take-out for herself and Camille, her daughter's position has softened and she allows her exhausted mom to lay her head on her shoulder.

Cast
Guest Stars