|
In New York City, a
businessman, Wes Douglas, hurries down the sidewalk, talking on his
cell phone. Mr.
Douglas: So, let
him
sue me. And while you're at it, ask him if the name, Martha
Stewart, rings a bell. My in at AmGen doesn't give him inside
formation. Hold on. (He switches over to an incoming
call.) Yeah, I'm with Hunt. What?...What does that mean
'partial ocean view'?A woman, passing him on the sidewalk: I'm sorry? Mr. Douglas to woman: What? Woman: I'm...I'm lost. How do I get to Statue of Liberty? Mr. Douglas to woman: Take the ferry from Battery Park. To get to Battery Park, you take the Number 1 or Number 9 line to South Ferry Station. All right? Mr. Douglas to phone: Tourists...I'm not paying 700 bucks a night for partial anything. 
I've got to go.
I've got Hunt on the other line. He's
having a meltdown. (He switches over to Hunt's call.)
Hunt...Hold on, I...(He's breathing heavily.) Hunt, I got to get
back to you. There's something...He drops his cell phone and notices that his hand is turning blue. He's having more trouble breathing and collapses onto the sidewalk as his face, also, turns blue. |
At
a Little League softball game in Bethesda, Maryland. Stephen Connor arrives
at the game. He sees an acquaintance.Glen: Connor. Connor: Glen. Glen, as they shake hands: You guys stop that bird flu, yet? Connor: Yeah, up to my elbows in that stuff all morning. As Connor walks away, Glen stares unhappily at his hand.  Connor climbs the bleachers and sits down beside his wife. Connor: You look good, Lis. I like your hair. It's... Lisa: Thanks...I'd like your key to the house, Stephen. Connor: You sure that's such a good idea? I mean, what if something happens? Lisa: Something doesn't always have to happen, Stephen.  Their son,
Jack, comes up to bat.Connor calls out to him: What do you say now, Jackie boy? Let's get one now, buddy. Come on, let 's get one! Lisa: Please let him get a hit this time. Connor: Yeah, you're not kidding. Jack swings at the ball and misses. Connor's cell phone rings. Lisa: Let me guess. This one you have to take. Connor speaks into the phone as he walks down the bleachers: What part of 'do not call me for two hours', do you not understand?...Now?...Okay...Okay, okay, fine. He hangs up and walks over to the batting cage.  Connor: Jack! Jack, what kind of ball is that? A Wilson or a Spalding? Jack: Dad, I have no idea. The team's coach: Dr. Connor. Connor to coach: Sorry. Connor to Jack: Isolate the ball from everything. Forget about the pitcher. Forget about the score. Just focus on the ball and tell me what the word is between the stitching. Then, swing through it. Coach: Dr. Connor! Connor to coach: Thank you. Connor to Jack: You can do this, Jack. Jack swings and hits the ball. His mother, Lisa, jumps up, clapping: Great job! All right, Jack!  Connor and his
son smile at each other. A helicopter flies low overhead and lands in a nearby field. Connor and his son exchange another look. Then, Stephen  run
towards the helicopter. He pulls
out his cell phone: Durant, we got an incident. One
47-year-old male, one 32-year-old female. Get everyone.
We're going to New York.He gets into the helipcopter and it flies away. |
| St.
Jerone's
Hospital, New York City The helicopter arrives at the hospital. Drs. Connor, Durant and McCabe with Frank Powell and Eva Rossi get out. Connor: Eva, check the other hospitals. If any other blue people show up...  Eva Rossi:
They'll
be brought here right away.Connor: And don't forget... Eva: No press. I'm on it. Connor: Powell. Frank Powell: Yeah. Connor: Something has to link these two people: same family, same apartment, same food, same drug use. Frank: Start where they live and move out from there. Connor: And check and see if there have been any Haz-Mat spills in the area. Frank: Got it. The three doctors exit the hospital elevator. Connor: Durant? Durant: I'll check the preliminary blood panels, see if anything jumps out.  Connor: Run down what they ate, drank, breathed... Durant: Smelled and smoked. I'm on it. McCabe: What should I be doing, Dr. Connor? Connor: How long have you been on this team, McCabe? McCabe: Three weeks. Connor: Three weeks. You should have known exactly what you were doing two weeks ago. Connor walks away. Durant to McCabe: I could use some help. Connor shows his badge to a nurse at the reception desk: Dr. Stephen Connor, NIH. I need to talk to the senior physician in charge. Thank you.  Durant and
McCabe continue walking down the hall.Durant: Don't take it personally. He suffers from a bad case of high expectations. McCabe: You think? Connor looks into the isolation area where the two blue patients are being kept. Eva is talking to a nurse at a desk in the E.R.  Eva: Try having
two bosses. I've got the director back in D.C., who's very
straight-laced. And then on the road, I got the other guy.Nurse: The gonzo doc upstairs. Eva: Which is why I need your help. I'll let the other E.R.s know. If any more blue people show up, you call me. I'll take 'em upstairs. Nurse: I gotta be able to say where this order is coming from. Eva shows her badge: NIH, Press Relations. You can always blame Washington. |
Drs.
Durant and McCabe are reviewing the patients' records. Durant: Liver
function, normal. Drug screen, normal. White blood cell
count?McCabe: Totally normal. Based on these results, these people could run a marathon...except they're blue. Durant's cell phone rings. She checks the number. Durant to McCabe: Third call today from a student I worked with on the Listeria outbreak in Virginia, last year. She's a resident now. So, naturally, everything is high drama. Durant to phone: Kelly, please. I already said 'no'.   Kelly, walking down the
corridor of a hospital: They just took the baby away. The
dad's been arrested. I'm - I'm telling you, there's something off
about this one and no one will listen to me, except you.Durant: I'm not listening to you. Stop trying to guilt me into this. You should know, by now, that is a guaranteed dead end. Kelly: This is a baby we're talking about, Natalie. Durant looks over at McCabe. McCabe: What? On the roof of the hospital, a helicopter is waiting. Durant: It's a one-year-old with fractures and bruises. The D.A. says abuse. Kelly's not  so sure.McCabe: Why are you sending me? I'm the least experienced person on the team. Durant: We could spare you. She reaches out and pats him on the shoulder: You know more than you think, Dr. McCabe. Go! McCabe runs and gets on the helicopter. |
Connor
is
questioning one of the patients. Connor: Mr.
Douglas, is there anything about this morning that seems remotely
different, other than ending up here?Mr. Douglas shakes his head. Durant walks in and hands Connor some paperwork. Connor: The blood shows nothing? We'll retest the blood ourselves. What's the differential diagnosis? Durant: Food poisoning, but with food... Connor: The body would be trying to expel it. And neither of them have vomited. Look at this. (Indicating the I.V. bag.) They hung dextrose and water on him. A doctor walks up to them: I hung that bag myself. Durant: Dr. Natalie Durant. Dr. Stephen Connor. We're from NIH. You must be Dr.  Gordon.Dr. Gordon: Thank God the feds are here, cause us local yokels, we see a guy come in bright blue, we just put his feet up and give him a glass of lemonade. Connor: The '91 cholera pandemic in Peru? 12,000 were dead before it even got up to speed. The '93 Hantavirus outbreak in New Mexico... Dr. Gordon: Over 50 dead before they knew it was mice. I am very well aware of the history of infectious disease. Connor: Good. Then, you're aware that if the wrong person coughs on a plane in Hong Kong, two days later, 100 people are dead in Boston. Dr. Gordon: Your guess is as good as mine.  Connor: No, mine
is better. But, only one of us gets to make the call. Do
you want to make the decision that could affect the lives of eight
million New Yorkers? Or do you think you better leave that one to
me?Durant: A general rule of thumb: one victim is a fluke, but two means you have a problem. And you have two very ill patients in here. Connor sees another patient being wheeled into the room: Three very ill patients. Dr. Gordon turns and leaves the room, telling a nurse: Switch out the dextrose for a bag of normal saline. Connor: Let's get to work. |
Durant takes
blood from Mr. Douglas: The blood is
brackish. I better go draw the others. Mr.
Douglas: What's
brackish?Connor: We have to test it first to see what it means. But, we're missing something. Wes, what are we missing? Wes Douglas: I'm going to die. Connor: You're not going to die. Wes: Yes, I am. I'm going to die alone.  Connor: Look, I'm sure we're trying to contact your family as we speak. Wes: There's no family. My wife left. My daughter...Could someone try to contact my daughter for me? Please. Connor: I'll do my best. Durant: Stephen. Six more patients are on the way. |
| Frank
Powell is
inspecting Wes Douglas' apartment. The landlord watches as Frank takes water samples, tests for gas leaks, and checks the food and utensils. In a drawer, Frank finds some matchbooks from local restaurants, including Dobro's Grill. Landlord: Place is tiptop. You're wasting your time. Frank: I need to check the basement heater, the water heater, gas and sewer lines. |
At
a hospital in
Richmond, Virginia. Kelly shows a photo to
Dr. Miles McCabe: See, when they brought her in today, the leg
was fine.They look at the baby. McCabe: It's bruised. But, wouldn't residual bruising be  expected from
contusions?Kelly: This is spontaneous bruising. I mean, I may not have been a resident long, but this is not normal. McCabe: How long have you been a resident? Kelly: Almost a month. So, where do we start? McCabe appears uncertain: Let's start with the mom. |
| Eva
Rossi walks over
to the reception desk at the hospital. Eva: I can take the notification of family members off your hands, just for the blue patients. Just, you know, make your life easier. Nurse: A bureaucrat who cares! (She hands the folders to Eva.) Eva: Thank you. As Eva walks away, a man approaches the desk. Man: Eric Novak, New York Examiner. I'd like to talk to the doctor in charge. Nurse: What is this about, Mr. Novak? Novak: New Yorkers turning blue. The public has the right to know if this is a serious, possibly terrorist-related, crisis you're covering up here.  Eva overhears their conversation, walks into another room, where Frank is sitting, and speaks into her phone: Fine. I'll hold. |
As
Connor walks out
of the isolation room, Durant hands him some paperwork. Durant: How's
Gordon?Connor: He sees what we see. Kidney and liver functions deteriorating. We started a Valium drip to head off the seizures. (He's reading the papers.) Wait a second. Douglas has a blood alcohol of .12? Durant: They all have alcohol in their system. Connor: Maybe, they all went to the same bar or ordered from the liquor store. Maybe, we're just looking for bad booze. Durant: We already ran it down. They all drank different things in different places. And most, only, had a beer or a glass of wine. Connor: So, we've got nothing? That's just great! Eva observes Connor's reaction: Uh-oh. Looks like he's about to hand somebody their head.  Frank: Very
"Reanimator". It's an excellent
flick.Eva: Can I just ask why are you so obsessed with horror movies, when your day job pretty much is a horror movie? Frank: Cause I love my work. Connor walks into the room: All right, listen up. We have nine patients out here. They all have something in common. Tell me what it is. And don't say they're all blue. Frank: It's not in their homes. All right, it's no gas leaks, no odors, nothing rotten in the fridges or pantries. No neighbors show any symptoms...Check this out. (He pulls up a diagram on the computer.) Six of the patients live within three blocks of each other. Two work close by. But, what doesn't connect is the ninth lives and works in Brooklyn. Connor: The pattern still holds. The ninth was there for some other reason. It's something in those six square blocks, so go back and start again. Frank: Where they live is a dead end. Connor: Then it's where they work, where they play chess, where they get their  groceries,
where they do their laundry, where they
get a massage, where they talk to their shrink! I don't care...Durant: Stephen. I'm going to order in dinner. You got that blood sugar thing going on again. Frank notices a nurse walking by with a bag full of the victims' clothing. Frank: Or maybe it's in their clothes! (He hurries out of the room.) Connor to Eva: How are you doing with the press? Eva: Quiet as mice, sir. |
Dr.
McCabe and Kelly
are talking to the baby's mother, Dawn Haskell. Dawn:
They said there's a restraining order. They won't even let
me see her now, to hold my own baby.McCabe: It's going to be okay. Dawn Haskell: It's not going to be okay! She's sick. We don't know what's wrong with her. Kelly: That's why Dr. McCabe is here. Dawn Haskell: The D.A., she says my husband's been hitting Emma. But, he would never, ever! On my life, I know he didn't hurt our little girl. |
 Frank,
wearing a
Haz-Mat suit, inspects the victims' clothing. In the pocket of a
pair of pants, he finds a matchbook from Dobro's Grill. |
| At
the hospital in
Virginia. Kelly: My attending doesn't even know that I called you. You have to hurry up. McCabe: You think I want to drag this out? They enter the nursery.  McCabe to the baby: Hi, Emma. How are you doing,
sweetheart? I just have to do a couple of little checks
here. That's it, very good. (He snaps his fingers.)
Okay, sweetheart, can you look at me? (He snaps his fingers closer
to the baby's head.) Can you look at me, sweetie? Look at
me, sweetie. Can you look over here? (He picks up a nearby
lunch tray and drops it on the floor. Emma doesn't react to the
noise.)Outside the hospital, McCabe is talking on his cell phone to Durant.  Durant: What does that mean, Miles? McCabe: It means this looks like abuse. McCabe to Kelly: Sorry, but it does. McCabe to Durant: And the poor kid's been beaten to where she can't even hear any more.  Durant: How severe are the head injuries?McCabe: I didn't, actually, see any head injuries and the MRI came back completely clear. Durant: Miles, what color are the whites of the baby's eyes? McCabe: Maybe white? Durant: Find out. Call me back. |
 Frank: It's a building they have in comon. Dobro's,
local diner, big breakfast crowd. Every patient ate there in the
last twelve hours.Connor: It can't be food poisoning. The symptoms are all wrong. Plus, if you're talking about a big crowd, there would be a lot more cases than this. Frank: Look, I don't know what happened, but I know  where. This is your building. (He indicates a
computer generated image of the diner.)Eva hangs up her cell phone: That was Wes Douglas' daughter. I told her, her father was in critical condition. She said she had nothing to say to him and hung up the phone. Connor goes in to question Wes Douglas.  Connor: Wes...Wes moans softly. Connor: Wes, I need to talk to you about Dobro's. Wes: Did you reach my daughter? Connor: We're still trying. We've isolated the problem to the diner. So, let's go back. Let's start when you walked into the place.  Wes: She was born eight weeks early. She was so little, only three and a half pounds. Connor: Well, they can do pretty amazing things with preemies. Wes: She was so tiny and yet, so strong...and beautiful. I knew then that I was going to change my life...for her. Connor: Yeah, kids will do that to you. Wes: Except I never changed anything. Not one damn thing. Not...one...thing. |
| The
phone rings at
the home of Connor's ex-wife. Jack answers it: Hello.  Connor: Is the ball still in the air?Jack: It wasn't a Wilson or a Spalding. It was a Rawlings. Connor: You see what happens when you focus. I'm so proud of you, pal. Jack: Yeah, first hit this season. Pretty tight, huh? Connor: Very tight. Jack: The championship game's tomorrow. Are you going to make it? Connor: I'll do everything I possible can to be there. Talk to your Mom? Jack: Okay, just a sec. Jack hands the phone to his mother: Mom, it's Dad. Lisa: Is everything all right? Connor: What? I can't just check in once in a while?  Lisa: Well, you should try Jack back later. Mrs. Brewster is baby-sitting and I think he finds her extremely dull. Connor: Where are you going? Lisa sighs: To dinner. Connor: With who? Lisa sighs, again: Stephen, we have to move on. Connor: Yeah, I know you keep saying that. But, the reason for it is kind of escaping me. Lisa: I'm sorry, Stephen. I got to go. (She hangs up the phone.) Durant runs out of the isolation ward: Connor! They both rush back into the ward to find Dr. Gordon trying to revive Wes Douglas.  Various people: It's asystole. There's no rhythm. What do we got? Connor takes over. He hits Wes' chest with his fist, then applies the paddles again. He looks at the monitor. Wes Douglas is dead. Connor: What's the clock? Durant: Twelve hours and forty minutes from the moment he collapsed until his death. That leaves Eleanor Cochran... Connor: Two hours and ten minutes...I don't care what his daughter said. Call her back. Connor, Durant and Powell are hurrying down the hospital corridor.  Connor: Push Eleanor Cochran's fluids. Dilatin at 50 mg
I.M. If her respiration drops below ten...Durant: Intubate her. I've done this before. Connor: I'll get samples back from the diner as quickly as possible. In fact, I'll use McCabe. Run him back and forth. Durant: McCabe, right. There's that... Connor: There's what? Durant: We got another case. A baby in Virginia with spontaneous bruising. Connor: We don't have time for another case. You know we don't have time for another case. Durant: We'll find it. The chopper had to go back to Washington, anyway. You think the kid's a pain in the ass  Connor: You already sent him, didn't you? Durant: Quite a while ago. Connor: Damn it, Natalie! I can't afford you taking time out to supervise him. Durant: If I say I can handle it, I can. Connor: No, you can't. We lost one patient already. How many more are you willing to lose?  Durant: None. Which is why I will not turn away from
someone who needs us.Connor: You're talking about one child versus a city of eight million, whose lives are at risk. You made a bad choice. Durant: In case you've forgotten, Stephen, for those parents, that one baby is the entire universe. Connor and Frank get on the elevator and Durant returns to the patients. |
| Screen captures
courtesy of Bev at: Bev's Web RDAOnline |