New staff nurse Mary Skillett arrives at Holby A&E and reports in to Sister Duffin, who tells her off for being five minutes late. Duffy later tells Adele that she plans to leave nursing in the imminent future to spend more time with her son Peter and her, as yet unborn, second child. Ash asks Duffy when she will be taking maternity leave because he wants to take over in her abscence but Duffy does not tell him about his plans to quit altogether. Duffy tries to speak to Charlie about her plans to leave but Charlie is busy all shift and she doesn't get the chance.
Meanwhile several people suffering from diaoreaha are admitted and it transpires that they all live in the same block of flats.
A man receiving a 'first class executive' treatment in a massage parlour starts to have pains in his chest and stumbles out on to the street half naked. He is later admitted to Holby and it transpires he had a slight heart attack. He is still delerious and gropes Mary, who is finding that life in Casualty is not a bed of roses. Then his wife arrives and he tells her that he was having a meeting with his accountant when the attack happened. His wife asks where his clothes are and Charlie tells her they're in the hospital laundry ! Luckilly a woman from the massage parlour arrives with his clothes and the staff manage to return them to him without his wife finding out where he really was.
Adele is having problems at home and is in a bad mood all shift. Her son has been suspended from school on suspicion of assaulting a teacher but she thinks that he wouldn't be the type to do it. Meanwhile at another school, a teacher, Mr.Pace, breaks down in the middle of a lesson and is advised by another teacher to go and see a doctor. She says she didn't think he'd been himself for some time and when the man arrives in Casualty with a sprained hand the staff discover lots of cuts all over his body. He tells them it was some kids at school with a knife. Then his wife arrives and attacks him, scratching and punching him like a mad person. It then transpires that she was the one who had caused the cuts on her husband's body and that she regularly beat him up. When asked why he didn't defend himself the man said he couldn't hit a woman. Apparently she had been a 'high flier' in the '80s but had lost her job and did not socialise any more. She took out her bitterness on her husband, who she was jealous of for having a job. The woman is clearly mentally disturbed but the man is very weak and when she says to him 'you've been very naughty, but we'll go home and pretend none of this happened' he agrees and they both leave the hospital arm in arm.
An irate mother, Janice Hutchins, comes in to Casualty with her son Nicky, who has injured himself while playing. She is extremly reluctant for him to go to Casualty but Josh persuades her that it is important that he is seen by a doctor. Once they arrive at Holby Janice is still very irate and keeps trying to take Nicky home. At one stage she picks up Nicky and walks out of the hospital and heads for the nearest phone box to ring her friend Tam to ask him to pick them up. Luckily Martin Ashford spots them leaving and chases after them. He persuades Janice to bring Nicky back to the hospital and they return. Then Locum Consultant Tom Harley guesses there's something up and looks up Janice and Nicky's medical records. He finds that both of them came for an HIV test a while back but Janice never collected the results. That explains Janice's irrational behaviour - she is scared of what the results might say. Tom offers to tell her what the results are and Janice eventually agrees. She is positive but Nicky is negative, which makes Janice so relieved (she had already guessed that she was positive). She tells Tom that when she dies a friend of hers 'Uncle Tam' will look after Nicky.
At the end of the shift Duffy looks for Charlie, but he has gone home early, so she leaves a letter for him on his desk telling him about her plans to leave.
Episode first broadcast Saturday 4th December 1993
Written by Christopher Watson
SERIES 8
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