ER Episode 14.13 Atonement

Bettina and Pratt check out a sexy loft apartment. Pratt doesn't think he can afford it, but Bettina assures him that he can, she did the math. When the real estate agent mistakes them for newlyweds, Pratt contends that he's not interested in the apartment. On the way to work, Bettina accuses Pratt of being afraid of and unable to talk about commitment. Gates takes it upon himself to swipe Sam's keys and fix her car.

Pratt meets 68-year-old Robert Truman's ambulance. Shivering, Truman is only interested in 11-year-old Gabriel, whom he just pulled out of a lake. Gabriel's mother Celia yells at Truman, claiming that it's all his fault, and he should leave them alone. Convinced he'll go to hell otherwise, Truman pleads with Pratt to save Gabriel. On rounds, Neela and the ortho team run into the trauma surgery team. Morris is tagging along with the surgeons for the day, and is acting strange, inexplicably taunting Neela.

Celia tells Gates that Truman has been stalking them. Sam challenges Gates' next move to warm up Gabriel, and they bicker. Skye tells them to work it out, then checks on Pratt and Truman, who confesses he's a doctor, six years retired from Stateville Penitentiary. Morris continues to trash talk Neela, now accusing her of being no fun. When Grossman throws her a hockey jersey for the game later that day, Neela offers it as evidence that she's fun.

Julia's stressed and worn out, preparing to present data on the effects of prayer on healing at an alternative health conference, which Gates doesn't remember anything about. Must have been the post-coital stupor. Pratt asks Julia to fit Truman into her busy schedule. He's got metastatic cancer, which has spread to his lungs and bones. He figures it divine retribution for killing Gabriel's father, even though he was trying to do God's work.

As Gabriel slips into crisis, Sam continues to second guess Gates, and Skye backs her up. When Gates confronts Sam, she claims that she doesn't blindly accept orders, and has more experience than him. If he doesn't like it, too bad. Truman tells Pratt that he used to give lethal injections to death row inmates, remembering Celia and baby Gabriel on the day he executed her husband. Since he retired, he's been tracking the families of those he's killed to offer financial help. Pratt reminds him that saving Gabriel was a generous act of bravery.

From the bay next door, Celia yells at Truman to stop staring at her. Gabriel goes into V-tac and they can't shock him back until his blood warms up. Luckily, Gates has called for the cardiopulmonary machine, which will keep Gabriel going 'til he's warm enough, trumping Sam and Skye. Anspaugh will come down to inubate, because of short-staffing - all the doctors are playing hockey. In a locker room full of big ortho guys in jockstraps, Neela cringes.

Sam asks Gates if he told Celia that Gabriel's heart may be permanently damaged. He did, but he was "in hope mode." Sam advises Celia to call in family, but she's been estranged from her mother since the execution. When Sam tells her that Gabriel might not wake up, Celia relents, asking Sam to call her mom. The ortho team takes the ice, and Neela is dismayed to learn that they will play the trauma surgeons: Dubenko, Crenshaw, and Harold. As center, Neela will face off against a gonzo Archie Morris.

Truman tells Julia execution stories. When she suggests that guilt has become his reason for living, and he could use a different one, he explodes that she's full of new age crap. He needs a real chaplain that believes in heaven and hell to tell him how to find forgiveness. He screams for her to get out, and she runs for it, breaking down in tears. Pratt runs after her, claiming Truman didn't mean what he said, but Julia knows he did.

Celia's mother has just arrived when Pratt brings Truman to visit, promising he'll say his piece and leave them alone. Celia's mother thanks Truman for saving Gabriel and insists Celia do the same. Angry, Celia leaves to call work, and overhears Pratt tell Skye that Truman executed her husband. Pratt talks over his commitment issues with brother Chaz. He likes Bettina and wants her to stay, but maybe he's not a commitment kind of guy.

When the goalie is injured, Neela reluctantly steps in. Morris won't let up with trash talking, so she jumps him, and a brawl ensues, which carries into the ER, as most of the players show up in ambulances. Gabriel wakes up, and seems to be okay. Celia leaves his bedside to tell Truman that she knows what he's done, and she will never ever forgive him, flooring Pratt. He finally finds Julia, but she refuses to see Truman.

After Gabriel is wheeled upstairs, Gates offers to buy Sam a celebratory beer, but she's not sure she can make it. Flashing back to executing prisoners by lethal injection, Truman tries to inject poison into his IV. Pratt grabs the hypodermic in the nick of time to suggest that perhaps Truman's God-given destiny was to save Gabriel. Breaking down, Truman can't make sense of it, but Pratt claims it doesn't have to make sense; that's why it's called faith.

Sam shows up at the bar to tell Gates she can't stay. He orders her a beer anyway, so she changes the order to a gimlet. Pratt picks Skye's brain. She claims that humans aren't genetically cut out for commitment, and points out that it takes a lot of courage to reject the widely-embraced construct of marriage. She leaves to join Dubenko in a physical therapy tub for a wild sex romp, when both teams stroll in for post-game soaking and catch them in flagrante delicto.

Pratt apologizes to Bettina, explaining that he's never been down this path before, but he wants them to work. She accepts his apology, and breaks up with him. It shouldn't be this hard, and she doesn't have the time. Gates waits with Sam for a taxi. She concedes that he was right with Gabriel, which annoys her. When Gates claims he likes working with her despite the relentless bickering, she tells him she hates him, and plants a steamy kiss. Stunned, Gates tells her he hates her too, as she gets in the cab and drives off.