Comfort and Josh are called out to a large house inhabited by squatters, and are pelted with flour and eggs when they arrive. Sal comes out to meet them, and tells the rest to stop. She explains that the owner of the house has come back and wants them out. She tells them her sister Gemma fainted and banged her head during an argument with him. They examine Gemma and want to take her to A&E, but Gemma refuses, and eventually tells them she only pretended to faint to get rid of the house owner. After asking her to sign the appropriate form, Josh and Comfort leave.
Nikki is depressed after being dumped by Jack. She and Fin get a call to a house where Maciek, an old man, is having difficulty breathing. His wife Katia called them out, but Maciek does not want treatment – he hates doctors. It is obvious that he is seriously ill, but they cannot treat him against his will. Fin wants to leave them to it, but Nikki accuses him of playing God, saying that he’ll die if they don’t do anything. Katia tells them that if they leave she’ll just call 999 again and they’ll be sent back. She explains why Maciek is refusing treatment: they were both in a concentration camp during the war, and they tried to do medical experiments on Maciek. Fin and Nikki go back in, but Maciek still refuses treatment, saying there’s nothing wrong with him. Nikki, spotting a trumpet on the mantelpiece, asks if it’s his. He says it is, so she tells him to prove her wrong: if he can play it then he’s right and they’ll go, but otherwise he’ll let them treat him. Maciek tries to play it, but can’t, and they get to work, and put him in the ambulance. On the way, Katia tells Nikki that since the war, she and Maciek haven’t spent a day apart. They arrive at A&E, and Patrick realises there is little they can do for Maciek. He tells Fin and Nikki that it would have been kinder to let Maciek die at home in peace.
Comfort and Josh are being tailgated by a car as they are on a shout. Josh reminds her of the plan she thought up to deal with tailgaters, but Comfort, after seeing the car, tells him she wasn’t serious. Josh says she was, and radios Nikki and Fin who are just behind them Fin manoeuvres his ambulance between the car and theirs, then brakes, forcing the driver to stop. Fin gets out and starts having a go at the driver, until Nikki recognises him as Comfort’s husband Rob. Rob says if he knows Comfort he knows he’ll get it in the neck anyway. Rob asks him if he’s Fin, saying that Comfort said he was a hothead. Fin isn’t about to let the matter drop, but they get a shout and have to go. Later, Rob turns up at the ambulance station with some flowers, to apologise to Comfort for tailgating. She eventually forgives him, and he leaves. Watching him, Fin tells Comfort she deserves better – flowers, that is. He says he would have gone for a bigger bouquet, but then he is a hothead.
Fin and Nikki are called to a convention of psychics and spiritualists, where Madam Rosa’s crystal ball was knocked off a table and onto her foot after an argument with another psychic. She offers to tell their fortunes, and Nikki is fascinated, but Fin is sceptical. Madam Rosa reads his tarot cards and talks about a woman in his life. When they reach Holby A&E, Comfort gives them a hand lifting Madam Rosa out of the ambulance. Fin is obviously still offended about the hothead remark, but Comfort tells him she meant it as a compliment – she told Rob that he’s passionate about his job and about life, wanting her husband to be more like Fin. When she has gone, Madam Rosa asks Fin if Comfort’s the woman, saying it doesn’t take psychic powers to work that out. As she is waiting in reception for treatment of her broken foot, she starts telling some of the patients their fortunes, to Spencer’s alarm. He tells her to stop scaring people. She says she can see him in the future: miserable, childless, decrepit and alone.
The two ambulances, plus a medical team including Dillon, are called to a fire, which turns out to be at the house where the squatters were. Gemma isn’t badly injured, but her sister Sal is trapped, and is eventually brought out by the fire crew, seriously burned. Dillon tries to comfort Gemma, asking her to stay calm. Fin spots a man sitting nursing a burnt hand, and asks him how it happened. The man, Roy, says he was trying to help get people out. Fin says he should go to hospital, and despite Roy’s objections, puts him in the ambulance which is about to set off to take Sal to A&E. The ambulance leaves, and Gemma tells Dillon she wanted to go with her sister. Dillon says he didn’t realise they were sisters, and says he’ll get her to A&E.
Fin hears the fire crew talking about how the fire started – it was apparently arson, and whoever started it had burned himself. Fin realises that Comfort is in an ambulance with the arsonist. He gets into his own ambulance with Gemma and Dillon, and radios through to Josh, asking about Roy. Roy, hearing the conversation, becomes edgy, and gets a bottle of paraffin out of his pocket, spraying it over Comfort. Josh, in the front, can’t see what’s going on, and is shouting to Comfort to talk to him. Roy tells him to turn the radio off. Fin, not getting any response, decides to set off and follow them, and races along the road. In the other ambulance, Comfort opens the door to try to push Roy out before he sets the place alight, but he manages to hold on. He ignites his cigarette lighter, setting his own arm on fire, and Comfort manages to push him out before anything else is set alight. She tells Josh to carry on, to get Sal to A&E before she deteriorates further. Fin’s ambulance, following, stops to get him. Gemma gets out, screaming that she’ll kill him – he’s the owner of the house.
When they have arrived safely at A&E, Nikki goes to see how Maciek is doing. She is moved by their conversation – Maciek is obviously upset with Katia for bringing him there. She decides to do something about it, and as Fin is making a statement to the police, enlists Josh’s help to drive Maciek home. He objects that the ambulance is a crime scene, but Nikki tells him she’s cleared it with control and with Patrick, and she’ll inform Maciek’s GP, so Josh agrees. As they are on their way, he is getting weaker; Nikki says they’ll make it home, but Katia tells them to stop. Maciek dies. Nikki, crying, tells Katia she’s sorry, that she should never have taken Maciek to hospital, but Katia tells her she did the right thing. They are on a road overlooking the city, and Katia tells her that they used to come to this spot every Sunday to sit and watch the world change around them. She asks them to take him home.
Fin finds Comfort leaning against the ambulance, obviously upset. He tells her he’s sorry, that it was his fault for putting Roy in her ambulance, but Comfort says he didn’t know. Fin hugs her, saying he’s glad she’s OK. He seems about to kiss her, but Comfort steps back, saying ‘Fin…’ They are interrupted by Rob as he races from his car to get to Comfort. He says he’s just got her message. Fin walks away as Rob puts his arms around Comfort and kisses her.
Dillon is taking care of Gemma. Knowing that she has nowhere to stay, he asks if she wants him to call Social Services, but she says no – she and Sal look after themselves. She says she’ll stay here with Sal. Dillon says nothing, but his face shows he knows Sal won’t make it. Gemma watches through the doors of resusc as the team give up resuscitation. Dillon asks if there’s anyone he can call, and she says she’s got no-one. He is called away, and when he returns, Gemma has disappeared. As he is leaving the hospital at the end of his shift, he sees her sitting on a bench, crying. He sits down and puts his arm round her, and she turns to him, begging him to help her.
Episode first broadcast 23rd February 2002
Additional Cast
Rob
Chad Shephard
Gilly
Emma Dormer
Gemma
Sheena Irving
Maciek
David Graham
Katia
Bridget Turner
Madam Rosa
Maggie Norris
Fire Chief
Paul Hegarty
Barry
Steven Wickham
Brian
Sidney Cole
Kate Evans
Kiran Hocking
PC Hay
Chris Alan
Sal
Suzanne Pates
Roy
Robert Calvert
SERIES 16
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