personal and professional crises at work. He is overworked at Cedars and has to meet a father and son team of doctors. Not realizing that they are father and son causes Dick to want to give up on his marriage to Kathy and his profession as a world-class surgeon. Soon, Dick leaves Cedars (during an operation) and then leaves Los Angeles for New York City, where he lives under an assumed name. Dick meets a young woman who becomes his new love interest, artist Marie Wallace. Laura, finally agreeing Kathy is not as bad as she had once seemed, rallies with both Kathy and Richard to try and figure out a way to get Dick back home. Still, none of them knew where he is. Eventually, Kathy seeks a divorce due to the abandonment of affection from Dick. Soon after this, Laura and Richard Grant were written out of the show. Dick eventually returns to Los Angeles with Marie. It is quickly realized by all that they truly love each other when Marie is temporarily blinded, and Dick helps her regain her eyesight. By 1957, Cedars has hired a new surgeon named Dr. Paul Fletcher. Despite Dick and Marie's new marriage, Paul and Marie instantly hit it off, much to Dick's chagrin. Marie is also feeling less than a woman when she learns she can't get pregnant. With adoption being insufficient to satisfy Marie's maternal instincts, she nearly has an affair with Dr. Paul Fletcher. But not all was as it seems for Paul. Dr. Paul Fletcher is an assumed name that he adopted during the Korean War. Paul took the name from his mother, Marion Winters Lipsey, who had told him about his biological father, Fred Fletcher. Marion tells Paul that Fred abandoned them years earlier, so her husband John Lipsey had adopted him. However, it is revealed that Marion left Fred. Paul is finally able to meet and forgive Fred just a few short months before Fred dies of cancer in April 1958. After this, Paul feels less deserving of love than others. Bert Bauer nicknames Paul a "sour apple" due to his demeanor. Another woman soon enters Dr. Paul Fletcher's life, Anne Benedict from San Francisco. She soon becomes the love of his life and helps him realize that he does deserve love after all. The changes in Paul make Bert realize his personality isn't as bad