 Reed and Malloy rush 8-year old Jimmy to the hospital emergency with a not yet diagnosed illness. Upon arrival, the immediate conclusion and the ultimate diagnosis are the same: diabetes. Scared of the hospital, Jimmy runs off while unattended, and Reed and Malloy need to find him before he goes into a diabetes induced coma. They follow the only lead they have, that being the last happy place his parents took him to before his diabetic attack, to a pet store to buy a puppy. Elsewhere, Malloy s new girlfriend, Cathy, mans a hospital telephone hot-line, the hot-line threatening to go under due to lack of funds. One call has her worried, that from Sherry, a 15-year old junkie from a broken home who is threatening suicide to escape her troubled life. Sherry won t disclose where she is while she takes some "reds" supplied to her by her similarly junkie mother. Reed and Malloy need to find her before she ODs.