Abby and Neela are assigned to a month-long rotation in the neonatal intensive care unit where they experience emotional roller coasters while caring for the sick infants.

Neela starts a new job in the emergency room after working at the convenience store near the hospital. On Neela's first day, Pratt expects the interns, Abby, Ray and Neela, to take on a large patient load during their shifts. Pratt turns processing the patients into a competition, in which Ray is clearly going to be the winner.

While examining a young boy, Pratt finds a suspicious gash across his chest and calls Wendall (recurring guest star MäDCHEN AMICK) for a consult. Kovac and Pratt examine a man who was shot when he confronted his boss with a gun. Jake (recurring guest star EION BAILEY) tries to convince Abby to date him despite his being a student.

Sam's ex-husband shows up and wants to take Alex on a trip. Gallant is back and Neela hopes to see him before he goes back to Iraq.

Jules 'Ruby' Rubadoux is back in the ER. He's still angry with Carter about the death of his wife.

Abby and Luka desperately try to keep a young woman brought into the ER with stab wounds to the neck alive. As her condition begins to worsen, Clemente steps in and tries a risky procedure on the girl in order to save her life. Meanwhile, Neela pulls an all-nighter in preparation for a speech at a surgeon's convention, Ray treats a man claiming to have swallowed a bottle of pills, and Sam decides to take a part-time job with Richard to help her with childcare expenses.

As Abby and Luka cope with their newborn's life and death struggle, the couple is shocked to receive a surprise visitor: Abby's mother Maggie. Meanwhile, Sam fears the prospect of criminal charges; Neela discovers that Tony Gates will be joining the ER team as an intern and Morris gets his job back while Weaver gets demoted.

Thanksgiving at County is quiet, with the normal number of routine (or nearly so) emergencies. But Abby makes up for the lack of excitement while returning to the hospital as the doctor on a helicopter transport.

Kovac and Gates find themselves with a moral dilemma when a woman comes into the ER with acute liver failure; Neela finds herself questioning what is right when Manish decides to give up a kidney to a complete stranger. Meanwhile, Ray fights to get to the bottom of a cheerleaders accidental fall; Abby gets a prediction for her future; and Alex's troubles continue to intrude on Sam's work life.

Everyone in the ER is trying to cope with the loss of their colleague. The staff feels defensive toward the new Chief and her tough disposition. Gates and the new interns treat a bio terrorist, who has a lethal secret that endangers them all. Neela makes a great effort to get Dubenko back on the surgery staff, and gets help from an unexpected souce.