The morning after Greg attacked him, Patrick is still lying by the stream. Lara has got the police searching for him, and they eventually find him. Lara runs up to him; he has a pulse but isn’t breathing, so she does mouth-to-mouth, and he starts to breathe for himself. Comfort and Nikki arrive. As they are carrying Patrick into the ambulance, a car pulls up – it’s Lara’s boyfriend Craig. She decides not to go with Patrick. As they are driving to A&E, Nikki radios the news through and Charlie breaks it to the rest of the team. As he and Dillon are outside waiting for the ambulance, Max comes up to them. He tells Charlie he should be back soon, once the inquiry’s over. The ambulance arrives and Charlie tells Max that it’s Patrick. Max joins them as they take him into resusc, and starts doing his job. Philippa, trying to treat Patrick herself, objects, and when Max refuses to leave, she tells Anna, on her first day back after her attack, to call security. Anna hesitates, looking at Charlie, who eventually nods. Max stands back, and Charlie gently reminds him that he’s banned. Tony arrives, but Charlie tells him to leave it, and Max walks out. Philippa has a go at Anna for not obeying her immediately. Charlie, hearing this, tells her not to speak to his staff like that again, but realises he hasn’t made any impression on Philippa. Meanwhile Max is summoned to Jan’s office. She tells him she knows about his stunt in resusc and tells him it could seriously damage his case. Max defends himself, saying that they are short-staffed, and from what he’s heard, the locum she got to replace him is a complete disaster. Jan retorts that at least she hasn’t been suspended for supplying drugs to a family member. She suggests he goes home and keeps well clear of A&E until after the inquiry. Max sarcastically thanks her for her time, and walks out.
At the cottage, Craig asks Lara what’s been going on and she explains the situation. He says he could get jealous, his date bringing a strange man to the cottage. He asks if Patrick is a good mate, and she says yes – he’s a pain in the butt, and his personal life’s a bombsite, but he’d a good guy. Later, Lara tells him she has to go to the hospital to see how Patrick is. Craig comments that it would have been quite cosy, and it’s a pity Patrick got himself beaten up. Lara turns to walk out, and Craig offers her a lift. Lara refuses, but says she’ll call him later. In resusc, Patrick is improving. Spencer asks Dillon if he’s going to be OK; Dillon replies that it’s too soon to say – there’s still pneumonia and potential brain damage to worry about. Lara arrives in A&E as they are taking Patrick into the lift. Dillon tells her how he is. She is about to go with Patrick when Philippa turns up and asks Lara if she’ll help them out as they are a doctor down. Lara has no choice but to agree.
Friends Kieran and Joe are walking past a car which has stopped at traffic lights. Suddenly Kieran opens the car door, grabs a bag and case which were lying on the front seat, then yells to Joe to run. They both rush away. The car driver, Tom Callahan, gets out and chases after them, but as he runs across a road he is knocked down by a car. Someone calls an ambulance and he is taken to Holby A&E. Meanwhile, Kieran and Joe, who carried on running, come to a halt. Joe asks Kieran why he did it. Kieran tells him to stop complaining, as they got away with it. He hands the bag to Joe and opens the case himself, finding a wallet. Joe opens the bag, but the next minute throws it away, yelling in pain. A snake slithers from the bag – it had bitten his hand. Kieran takes him to A&E, where he collapses; Kieran tells them he was bitten by a snake they found in a bag. Charlie tries to find out from Kieran what kind of snake it was, so they can get the precise anti-venom needed. He calls the zoo, but their snake expert isn’t in yet. Joe’s condition is deteriorating, so Kieran eventually shows Charlie the wallet he stole from Tom, confessing that they stole the bag. Charlie takes the wallet and says he’ll have to get the police to try to find him. As he is in resusc treating Joe, Tom Callahan is brought back down from X-ray. Hearing his name, Charlie realises he’s the owner of the snake, and goes over to ask him what sort of snake it was. When he knows, he phones the zoo, who supply them with the correct anti-venom. Charlie tells Kieran he’ll have to tell the police. Kieran goes over to Tom, and says he’s really sorry. Kieran tells him that the theft was all his idea and had nothing to do with Joe. Tom replies that that’s two of them he’s nearly killed for twenty quid.
Charlie reminds Duffy that he’s going on holiday tomorrow – to Canada, to see Louis. She asks what Jan thinks about him going away for a month. Charlie says that they haven’t really talked about it, and Duffy replies, “While the cat’s away…” Later, Jan comes down to the department. Charlie tells her that it doesn’t take a genius to guess it was Greg who attacked Patrick, and that if she had pressed charges yesterday it wouldn’t have happened. She says her hands were tied; Charlie says they were tied by concerns about image. He tells her to look around – Lara and Anna are working when they shouldn’t be, and he had to watch Max being turfed out of his own resusc. Jan says he shouldn’t have been there. Charlie tells her that her replacement for Max is not exactly good for morale – he tells her that Philippa’s not exactly a people-person, in fact it’s hard to tell if she’s a person at all. Jan says at least he’s got a holiday to look forward to. Walking away, Charlie says that’s not the point.
Darren brings his seventeen-year-old girlfriend Katie to the pub with him when he goes to meet his mates. One of them complains to Darren that it’s meant to be a lad’s day out and they don’t want a kid like her around. He buys Katie a couple of halves of lager, before they move onto vodka-cranberry and start playing drinking games. Darren is concerned about Katie, but she says they can’t leave now – it would just prove his friends’ point that she’s a kid. Later, however, Katie starts to feel unwell and he takes her home. As she gets there she vomits and collapses. Katie’s father is angry and blames Darren, throwing him out before phoning an ambulance. Darren follows them to A&E, and tries to tell Katie’s dad that she only had a pint of lager – after that he bought her cranberry juice, with no vodka in it. Katie’s father is still inclined to blame Darren, until Philippa tells him that Katie has a form of diabetes – the alcohol may have brought on this attack but the condition needed to be diagnosed so it can be treated. Katie tells her father that Darren looked after him.
Chloe is at home, enjoying her day off, when she gets a phone call from Jason. He asks her to come to his warehouse, as he needs a favour. She arrives to find one of the warehouse workers, Len, has fallen onto a broken wine bottle and has a huge piece of glass sticking out of his leg – Jason wants her to treat the injury. Shocked and angry, Chloe tells Jason that Len needs to go to hospital, but Jason says he can’t as they would ask too many questions. Chloe still refuses, saying she doesn’t want to be involved in his illegal business. Jason tells her he’s finishing the business, and the men are here clearing the warehouse. He says he’s made the money, now they can enjoy it. Chloe agrees to see to Len. She pulls out the glass and stitches up the wound. She asks Jason if he’s really finishing with all this, and he promises it will be over in two weeks. Chloe is disbelieving. Jason takes her home, and Anna, looking out of the window, sees her get out of his car. Chloe goes in. She confesses to Anna that she’s still seeing Jason. Anna tells her she knows. Chloe says she’s sorry; she says she really loves Jason but doesn’t want to lose Anna. She says she wishes she could take back what happened to Anna but she can’t. She promises that from now on if Anna needs her, she’ll be there; she asks Anna to be there for her too, and Anna reluctantly agrees.
Jack asks Nikki out again; she tells him he has none of the qualities he looks for in a man. She turns round and watches as a man in reception gives flowers to a woman, and tells him that actions speak louder than words. She leaves, hinting to Comfort that she does fancy Jack. Jack stays and watches as the woman throws the flowers away. He goes and picks them out of the bin. Later, he gives them to Nikki, who looks impressed at first but then counts them and points out that there are only six red roses, not a dozen. Jack says there are six for now, and another six for later. Nikki realises that by later he means on a date. Eventually she agrees and they arrange a date. Nikki talks to Comfort about it; Comfort tells her he’s only after one thing – and it’s a sin in her eyes. Nikki, amazed, asks if she never did it before she got married; Comfort says of course she did, but as long as she confessed it was all right. She had to say Hail Mary and Our Father a few times, though – and it made her make sure it was worth it. She asks if Jack is. Later, on their date, Jack produces another six roses one by one. After their meal, Jack sees Nikki into a taxi, and she gives him a quick kiss before getting in and driving off, to Jack’s disappointment. His phone starts ringing immediately though – it’s Nikki, who has stopped the taxi a few yards away. He runs up, she gets out, and they kiss, before getting into the taxi together and heading off to his place.
Craig arrives to see Lara. He apologises for his behaviour earlier. He says he knows she’s probably not in the mood to go back to the cottage, so he’s booked them a suite at the Imperial Hotel. Lara thanks him, but says all she really wants to do is crash. She says she’s not in the mood, with Patrick half-dead. Craig tells her to call him when she knows what she’s doing, and says he hopes Patrick deserves her. Later, she goes to sit with Patrick, who is still unconscious. Spencer is there; he tells her she saved his life this morning, and that someone once said that if you save someone’s life, you become responsible for them forever. He leaves. Lara holds Patrick’s hand, clasping to her cheek, and says, “A funny thing happened to me today – I split up with the best bloke I’ve had in a long, long time. And I’m stuck here with you. What’s that all about?” Slowly, Patrick opens his eyes and says, “Just lucky, I guess.”
Episode first broadcast Saturday 29th December
Additional Cast
Craig Parker
Richard Armitage
DI Spalding
Philip Wright
Tom Callahan
Steve Bennett
Kieran Price
Freddie Finlay
Joe Howe
Ian Virgo
Len Miles
Ged McKenna
Darren
Vincent John
Katie
Amy Darcy
Alan
Christopher Blake
Rory
Mark McLean
SERIES 16
MAIL ME! INDEX