more ambitious and focused on surgery whereas Carter is more compassionate and willing to spend time with patients, a trait that "drove [Benton] crazy" as he put it to Cleo, although he considered Carter to be a talented and smart doctor. In Season 3, Benton develops appendicitis and Carter operates on him. However, Carter eventually decided to leave surgery for emergency medicine, a decision that caused him to clash with Benton. Nonetheless, the two have reconciled and, despite the fact that they have interacted less since Carter's transition to emergency medicine, formed a deep friendship. In Season 6, Benton was visibly concerned about Carter after he was stabbed by a schizophrenic patient and eventually operates on him along with Dr. Anspaugh. During the surgery, Benton has become protective of Carter and expresses reluctance to leave his former protégé for another patient. Soon after, upon hearing Carter becoming addicted to painkillers, he refuses to watch Carter self-destruct and convinces Carter to enter rehab. In Season 8, before Dr. Benton departs County General, his final farewell is to Carter. As a going-away present, Carter hands Benton a train token; it is the same one Benton had given him shortly after he started in the ER. Carter was left exhausted and distraught after a shift where the ER had handled a mass casualty, and when he admitted the night had devastated him and Benton simply gave him the token and said that if he was serious about being a good doctor, he would use it to come back to work the next day. Carter did return for his scheduled shift but kept that token as a reminder of what the job entailed. In Season 15, he reunited with Carter when he was in need of a kidney transplant. Benton supervises the operation at the hospital where he works and makes sure that his old friend and colleague get the best medical support. As Benton knew that Carter has gone to Africa for the past 4 years, it is likely that both doctors kept in limited contact with each other while working at different hospitals. Career Dr. Romano eventually offers Benton an attending trauma surgeon position, but when a Medicare patient needs surgery that Romano refuses to allow to be performed, Benton calls social services and informs them of the refusal of care. Romano intercepts the patient as social services arrive and performs the