ER/Heartwarming

This Troper is very fond of the relationship between Peter Benton and John Carter. In the sixth-season episode "All in the Family", after Carter and Lucy have been stabbed by a schizophrenic patient and the hospital staff are scrambling to save them, Benton - absent up till this point - comes bounding down the stairs from surgery in search of Carter, bellowing "Is he conscious? Is he conscious?", completely heedless of anyone or anything standing in his way. Later, when he tells Carter that he will be in charge of the latter's emergency surgery, Carter gives him a watery but genuine smile and says, "I'm glad it's you." At the end of the season, Carter is struggling with an addiction to painkillers and Benton is trying to get him to go to a rehab center in Atlanta; words are had, Carter angrily punches Benton, Benton punches back--and Carter dissolves into tears, horrified and ashamed. Benton hugs him, in that faintly irritated Benton way he has, and the next time we see them, they're side-by-side on the plane to Georgia.
Then there was Romano's reaction after Lucy is pronounced dead. He stares for a moment, then starts charging the paddles again, saying, "No, let's go again."
Pretty the whole episode of "I Don't", when Abby and Luka finally get married. Their choosing of their maid of honor and best man (Neela and Pratt respectably), their vows, Abby (having threatened Hope earlier for being involved with her wedding) thanking her for doing this, seeing Morris and Hope getting together and many others all left this troper one very happy person.
In the episode "The Lost", after believing that Kovac was killed in Africa, Carter travelled all the way from Chicago to find his body and bring him home, despite the dangers that laid ahead. That alone was an act worthy of a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming. But the real moment comes in a flashback, where Kovac was about to be shot by the soldiers, he began praying to God, whom he said that he said he didn't believe in anymore. And, while he was praying, the soldiers saw the necklace he was wearing of the cross and were led to believe that he was a priest and they wouldn't dare harm a "man of God". Even though the soldiers quickly dropped to their knees in prayer with him, Kovac continued praying.
- And later, after Carter reached Kovac and were riding back to get him back to America, a woman whose daughter Kovac had treated (and also the one who gave Kovac the necklace with the cross) reaches out to Carter and tearfully thanks him.
Another one where Romano just had surgery to remove his bad arm, Doctor Corday (who is arguably his only friend) is sitting next to him and assuring him it went well. Still a little bit dazed, he tells her in an absolutely child-like voice that he loves her.
- Pretty much any time Romano is nice (and geniunely nice) to someone else, not for the sake of reputation or a reward. Usually, whenever Romano and Corday have a sweet moment together.
- Their friendship is proven to the very end, when Corday is the only one who attended Romano's funeral.
- There was a small moment in one episode when Romano was being all hard-nosed towards Benton when Benton was complaining about how much he was struggling to care for his son Reese (who was deaf); Benton turns and stalks off angrily, carrying Reese as he goes. But as he leaves, and Reese is staring at Romano over Benton's shoulder, Romano signs "take care of your daddy" to Reese.
- After Weaver came out to Romano in the heat of the moment, she takes a vacation and then returns to work terrified that he's told everyone. But when she asks him, he's genuinely shocked that she thought he would do it; it's confidential information, and completely up to her who knows.
When Carter discovers that his son was stillborn, he goes out of the room for a minute, looking positively devastated. Then, his father arrives (it's implied that Carter specifically called his dad first to tell him the news) and he runs to his father, crying and hugging him, almost like a child desperate for reassurance. And his father gently hugs him back, telling him it's going to be all right.
When an elderly patient laments how he is nearing the end of his life and how he's accomplished nothing, Abby goes out of her way to call up some of his former students to give him a visit, despite the patient being grouchy and irritable with her earlier. The surprise and joy on his face was he sees some of his students was definitely a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
- And near the end of the same episode, the patient respectfully asked if Abby could be his nurse again for tomorrow. Abby gently told him she couldn't. But she will be there at the hospital. She told him to just ask for Doctor Lockhart if he needed her. Abby had just completed her boards and officially became a doctor in the same day.
At the end of one Christmas episode, a homeless lady was singing "O Holy Night", where another lady, who had been very adamant against Christmas and everything to do with it throughout the whole episode (even taking away Christmas ornaments from the counter), sees her singing, looks at her and walks away with a defeated look on her face.
- From the same episode, a little girl, whose brother had gotten in a car accident, mentioned that Santa won't come for her because she had thrown a book out of the window, which made her brother go out of the car to get it, causing the other car to hit him. Later on, a young boy asked Abby and Neela if there was a chimney in the hospital, so Santa could get him a present. However, the boy's father was too poor to even afford one. So Abby and Neela went around delivering presents secretly to both the little girl and the little boy. The boy's father's expression as Abby sets a new truck toy for his sleeping son was more than enough to express his gratitude.
When Carter names the "Joshua Carter Centre" after his deceased infant son.
There was just something so heartwarming to hear Dr Lewis sing a little song for her sick son Cosmos over the phone at the end of one of the episodes. Not to mention, while she was singing, we see that a woman who was starving herself to save her son, finally takes a bite to eat, and another woman, who was against getting treatment for cancer, being wheeled to go get it, after talking with a survivor of cancer, who is seen holding her hand.
After giving birth to a brain damaged boy, a surrogate mother didn't him and neither do the boy's actual parents. So Ray decides to spend the night with the baby, just so he doesn't have to be alone.
During an Christmas episode, a little six-year-old is without a pulse and is dying. So, her tearful mother tells her that it was going to be all right, that her mother and father love her very much and that God is waiting for her. But then, her pulse suddenly returned to the amazement and joy of the doctors and the mother, and she is seen recovering steadily in the end. And later, the mother implied that she doesn't blame the teenagers that hurt her daughter, but rather, she hoped that they will be able to change their ways.
- Also, outside the hospital, dozens of strangers are standing virgil, each holding a candle, praying for that little girl that they don't even know.
At end of the "Two Ships", after all the chaos that had happened, a tired Neela comes home for a rest, only to turn around and see that Michael had finally returned from the army. This Troper couldn't even begin to describe the joy on Neela's face as she ran towards him for a hug.
During another Christmas episode, Sam helped a homeless woman reunite with her parents, while Neela helped an estranged father get some Christmas presents for his two kids. Meanwhile, Dr Dubenko is having Christmas dinner with his sister, who is mentally seventeen and treating her very lovingly.
In one episode, a deaf man leaned his head against the heart of his friend, who was in the hospital after a drug overdose. She explained to the confused doctors that he loved to "hear" her heart, to make sure that she was all right. After all this time, he was the only one who has ever tried to listen to her, she commented with a grateful smile to the man.
In "The War Comes Home", Dubenko mentioned that he had to write a lot of post-op notes to write, as he wheeled the sleeping Neela who just came out of surgery. When they settle Neela in the room, the nurse said that she will be waiting for the notes. Only for Dubenko to hand her the completed notes and sat next to Neela, holding her hand.
- Throughout the episode, the rest of the ER, even the nurses, were all worried and trying to get as many updates as they could about Neela. In the end, after all the chaos was over with, they all came up to the waiting room and patiently waited for any news about Neela.
Pretty much everything in the last 2 episodes, especially anything with Carter and Benton, and the HIV+ patient's interaction w/ Dr. Rory Gilmore.
No love for "Sailing Away?" All right. Abby's mentally disturbed mother has been missing for months and finally turns up in Oklahoma. Abby is desperate to find her and take care of her, but can't find an available flight out. Carter -- get this -- not only pulls some strings to get her her flight, but books one for himself to accompany her and helps Abby take care of her mother throughout the entire episode by driving, buying breakfast, you name it. After they get home in Chicago near the end of the episode (before shit hits the fan), the typically-stoic Abby sincerely thanks Carter for everything he's done to help.
At the end of the Christmas episode City of Mercy, Morris spontaneously decides not to take advantage of a willing woman's interest in him. Right afterwards, walking outside in the snow, he berates himself out loud for letting her slip through his fingers, mocking his buying into the spirit of Christmas. He finishes the rant by screaming "There's no freaking Santa!!" to the city at large. Just then, a man passes by, wishing him a Merry Christmas. Morris turns and freezes, astounded, eyes fixed upon the night sky behind the camera as sleigh bells begin to jingle...

Morris: Holy...!
(Fade to Black)

Greene taking his dying father for a last boat trip, after hearing him talk about how peaceful he found it after returning from Vietnam.
Almost the entirety - but especially the first ten minutes or so - of the season one episode, "Blizzard"; where Susan and Mark put a cast on Carter's leg ("Because sticking his hand in a bucket of warm water would be juvenile"), the nurses and Jerry play their own version of office soccer - using biohazard bins, Mark, Susan, and some other staff have a snowball fight in the ambulance bay, we find out that Carol is now engaged to Tag - moments later Doug enters the ER and congratulates her.

Back to ER