Emma O’Hearne is making breakfast when her husband James arrives home, hours earlier than she expected. She tells him to stay downstairs, and rushes up to her bedroom, where Tim Wood is, dressed only in his underpants. She tells him he’ll have to go out of the window, quickly, and she’ll throw his clothes after him. Tim does so, and starts climbing down, but slips and falls from the roof. Emma sees him from the window, and rushes out to him. He can’t move his legs. She calls an ambulance, and Josh and Fin arrive. Emma is anxious that they take him straight away, before her husband sees him, but they have to be careful moving him and can’t rush. Just as they are about to put him in the ambulance, James comes out. He recognises Tim as someone who works in Emma’s office, and realises what’s going on. He kicks the stretcher as they carry it. Tim begs Emma to come with him, but James tells her to stay, and she does so. Inside, he tells her that if she ever sees Tim again, she’s dead. Emma later goes to Holby A&E, however, and is taken to see Tim. It seems there might be damage to his spinal cord as well as his legs, which could have been brought on by James’s kick, and Tim could be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. As she is coming out of resusc, James arrives in A&E. He orders her home, looking as if he is about to attack her, and Tony grabs him. He hits out at Emma, making her cut her head as she falls. Tony manages to restrain him again, and Emma is taken to have her cut seen to. As Anna treats her, she asks if James has hit her before. Emma says he has, once or twice, and Anna says it’s once or twice too often. She asks if Tim is going to end up in a wheelchair. Anna asks if that’s going to make a difference as to whether she leaves her husband, and Emma says she just wants to know. Anna tells her it’s possible. Later Emma goes to see James, and tells him she’s leaving him – not because of Tim, but because of him. James swears not to lose his temper again, but she says he’s had his chances, and she doesn’t love him any more. She goes to see Tim, and asks for the keys to his flat. She tells him she’s not going back to James, and kisses him.
Andrew Jennings is coaching the junior county cricket club. As they are packing up, one of the boys, Mark, asks if he’s looking forward to the tour of the Caribbean which all the county’s first team are going on. Andrew says he’s not going. He calls the boys together and tells them he won’t be coaching them any longer – they’ll get someone with proper qualifications. He tells Mark that he’ll go a long way, and Mark asks if he’ll still see him. Andrew asks him to come round to his house later. Mark leaves, and a security guard comes up to Andrew and asks for the keys to his car – it belongs to Wyvern County Cricket Club, and he’s no longer an employee. Andrew objects, and the guard tells him he can keep it till tomorrow. Andrew phones a friend who had said to go to him if he ever needed a job, but the friend can’t help. Andrew goes home. While Mark is there, some debt collectors come to the door, asking for payment for a TV and video; he can’t give it to them, so they take away the items. Andrew shows Mark his collection of cricket bats, one of which was signed by the whole England and Australia teams in 1981. He tells Mark he can keep it – he’d rather give it to someone who’ll appreciate it than sell it to pay off a few debts. As Mark leaves, he asks Andrew if he’ll come to their matches; Andrew says he will if he’s still around. Later, Mark returns to the house. After getting no answer when he knocks on the door, he looks around and sees Andrew in the garage, gassing himself. He calls to a neighbour for help, and smashes a window to let the gas out. They phone an ambulance and manage to get the garage door open as Nikki and Comfort arrive. Andrew, who is conscious, is taken to Holby A&E, and the paramedics say he’ll be all right. Mark goes in to see him when he is recovering. He shows Andrew a petition, signed by all the boys and their parents, asking for Andrew to be reinstated as their coach. He says he hopes it will do some good, and Andrew says it already has. Mark says even if it doesn’t, he’ll pay Andrew to coach him out of his pocket money and from his paper round, as he’s taught him everything he knows. Andrew tells him just to give him tickets to his first test match.
As Jack and Nikki are getting up, she tells him she noticed a lump last night. She asks if he’s had it checked out, and Jack says he hasn’t. She says she thinks he should, but Jack just laughs it off. Later, after hearing Anna complaining about the bills now that Chloe’s left, Jack tells Nikki she might have something to thank Chloe for. He reminds her she was thinking about moving out of her parents’ home, and at first she thinks he’s asking her to move in with him. She says she thinks it’s too soon, but Jack says he was thinking about her moving in with Anna. Nikki thinks it’s a good idea, and goes to speak to Anna about it. Anna agrees, and Nikki decides to move in that night. In the ambulance, she tells Comfort about the lump on Jack’s testicle, and asks her advice, saying she doesn’t want to be too pushy. Comfort says when it comes to lumps you can’t be too pushy. Next time she’s in A&E she has a word with Jack, telling him what Nikki told her and advising him to get it checked out. Jack is angry that Nikki told Comfort, but later calms down and agrees to help her move. In Nikki’s new house, she says she’s worried about him, and tells him there’ll be no nookie until he gets the lump checked out. She says it’s probably nothing, but it could be cancer. She tells him to see somebody, and he says he’ll think about it.
Lara is revising for her FRCS. She tells Patrick to watch out, as once she passes it there’ll be two registrars in the department. She tells him she’s going on holiday to Dublin with her friend “Peter” to revise. She says that she and “Peter” are soul-mates, they went to med school together and travelled halfway round Europe together. At the end of the shift, they walk out together, and “Peter” drives up. She gets out of the car, and Lara introduces Patrick to her friend Peta. Patrick kisses Lara on the cheek, saying it’s for luck. As he turns to go, she asks him to do that again. He asks what, and she kisses him on the lips, before getting into the car and driving off.
There’s a phone call for Duffy – it’s her mum, who has come down with food poisoning, asking her to take the kids off her hands. Duffy begs Colette to take charge and goes outside. She hails down a taxi, which stops, but as she is about to get in, another woman, Viv, crosses the road, saying the taxi was hers. After a short debate, Viv gets in, to Duffy’s frustration. The driver sets off with Viv. He sees traffic ahead and says he’ll take her on a short cut. As they get to a deserted yard, Viv realises something’s wrong, and asks him to stop the car. The driver pulls into the yard, and then stops. Viv tries to get out but the door is locked, and the driver gets out and opens her door. Later, Comfort and Nikki are called out to the yard after a passer-by has found Viv. The car has gone, but Viv is left lying on the floor, her face smashed in and blood everywhere. She is taken to A&E. Duffy, who has returned with her baby Paul, whom she’s asked Jack to look after, recognises her but doesn’t know where from. Soon afterwards, Josh and Fin bring in the taxi driver, who had crashed his car. He had been stabbed in the chest, and the injury caused him to crash the car. He doesn’t want the police involved. As Viv is wheeled past him, she starts screaming as she recognises him as her attacker. The driver realises she’s recognised him, pulls out his chest drain and tries to get away. Colette hits the emergency button, and everyone heads towards resusc to help. Jack, who is holding Paul, hands him to Jan as she is passing. Duffy asks Viv what’s wrong, and she tells her the taxi driver is her attacker. The police are called. When Duffy comes out of resusc, she sees Jan and asks what she’s doing with Paul. Jan is angry when she realises that Paul is her baby, and reminds her it’s against hospital regulations. Duffy explains the reasons, but Jan isn’t satisfied. Duffy asks if Jan would have preferred her to leave the shift altogether, leaving them even more short-staffed. She says she doesn’t understand what it’s like bringing up three kids on her own and hold down a job; Jan says she does. Duffy says they should provide a crèche. Jan says they’re considering it, but in the meantime Duffy should sort out her childcare so she doesn’t keep screwing up the emergency department. Duffy asks if Jan would rather she didn’t work there at all, because she could be doing agency nursing, getting more money and better hours. Jan says no, unless that’s what Duffy wants. Duffy says she’s considering it. She tells Jan she’s still there out of loyalty to the hospital and the people who keep it going – and she’s not talking about management. She walks out. She tells the police her side of the story, realising that if she’d been a few minutes earlier it could be her lying there with her face smashed in. Later, Max has a go at Duffy for bringing Paul into work, saying it’s best to keep her personal life away from work. She says that’s rich coming from him – and he can change his tune but he can’t change the past. She says he’s been storming around, acting like Robocop, and asks where he gets off, talking to her like that. He says he’s just trying to run a professional department. She tells him they’ve known each other a long time. Max starts to apologise, but she walks off, saying she’s already had all this from Jan. Max follows her, saying Jan has had a go at him too. Viv is wheeled past, and she tells him it could have been her in Viv’s place. Max says she can’t think like that, but Duffy says she can’t stop thinking like that – her boys haven’t got anyone else.
Episode first broadcast 26th January 2002
Additional Cast
Andrew Jennings
Paul Viragh
Peter Bower
Ben Alsford
Emma O’Hearne
Sheyla Shehovich
James O’Hearne
Aidan McArdle
Tim Wood
Toby Sawyer
Jake Bower
Scott Cowan
Mark Booth
Christian Cooke
Viv Thomas
Sandra Bee
Malcolm Christy
John McGlynn
SERIES 16
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