Terese's office
Terese is trying to decipher the message Leo has passed onto her about the fight for Lassiters not being over. They wonder if it's got anything to do with Chloe, who they seem relieved to hear has been found, even if she is only talking to Elly.

Building site that looks like Robinson Heights!
Elly is trying to talk Chloe out of doing a runner, but the lass is insistent that she goes because she's stuffed things up for everyone. She doesn't want to tell her family the truth either as she doesn't want them judging her. Elly reminds her on the reasons why she came to Erinsborough in the first place - to stop running away.

CHLOE: So, what have we learnt? I am who I am, I'm never going to change.
ELLY: That's not true. None of us make good decisions when we're freaking out and if people tell you they do, then they're lying.

It's not changed Chloe's mind, she still wants Elly to get her belonging and her passport. Elly has one last attempt at changing her mind:

ELLY: Is telling your brothers the truth worse than never seeing them again? This is your chance to break the pattern Chloe. This is the part you actually have control over.

Garage
Bea doesn't seem too keen on Xanthe popping round to check up on how she is doing, despite saying Xanthe is going to be checking up on Susan too. Karl happens to catch the tail end of the conversation, and Xanthe quickly thinks on her feet an excuse as to why she'd be visiting Susan. He then remarks that its him who is feeling left out by her and adds that his wife doesn't seem to be taking enough time for herself lately either. To try and rectify that, he suggests that Xanthe accompanies him to the school, so he can bring her a friand.

After they head on, Bea gets another visitor - Ned. He's around to see if she needs help as he suspected Mark wouldn't be in, and she agrees to him staying and giving her a hand.

Number 24
Chloe is home and is ready to tell her big brother all when Aaron comes home with her stuff and makes it known that Pierce told him what happened.

AARON: Seems like he actually cared for you.
CHLOE: Funny, that was the problem, huh!

"How did it ever start?" Aaron asks, and Elly gives Chloe the reassurance to tell her brothers. Chloe begins by saying Pierce was just another client, a cash4company client which meant keeping it quiet. He then started giving her expensive gifts, which she sold to help pay Fay back. Mark then remembers the $20k Chloe paid and she's forced to admit it went further than hanging out with him.

MARK: Are you saying what I think you're saying?
CHLOE: I crossed the line.

Mark reminds her what she said when she started up cash4company and she's quick to deny that Pierce pressured her after Aaron asked.

CHLOE: I was genuinely into it but then I realised that he was developing feelings for me.
MARK: Why didn't you tell him to back off?

"I wanted to," she confirms but then things got complicated because of the Lassiters deal. Aaron tells her to stop, the main thing is that she is okay.

Lassiters hotel, Pierce's room
Pierce leaves another voicemail for Chloe, he's not going to stop calling until she talks to him. He then receives a visitor but its sadly not Chloe but Paul. In his hand is the ring and threatens to expose Pierce to the media. "I'm not ashamed of anything I've done," Pierce replies but Paul then twists it and threatens to spill all to his business contacts instead.

PIERCE: What do you want?
PAUL: Lassiters is off the table. See that ship my friend has sailed. And then you're going to pack up and you're going to get out of here.
PIERCE: And if I refuse?
PAUL: Well I'll probably share your scandal and scare off your investors, just like you threatened to scare off mine.

Garage
Ned asks Bea if she plans on seeing her parents for Christmas, which she doesn't although does add it would be good to go away to get away from the cheesy nightmare at #28 (she's already been warned what Karl is like!). He's staying in Erinsborough but Terese has plans for them to eat out, so nobody is cooking. They agree to have a safe word (baby Jesus) as a safe word in case one of them needs rescuing.

The pair are enjoying bantering over Christmas, so much so that Ned tells Bea that it's been a while since he's seen her laughing. She agrees it's been a while and then leans over to kiss him. However, a flashback to her kissing Finn has her pulling back almost immediately and he wonders if he's mis-read the situation. "It's okay," she tells him but then sends him packing, citing that everything is okay at the garage.

Number 24
Its confession time take 2 when Elly explains she knew what was happening with Chloe. "I figured as much," Mark acknowledges and tells her how he figured it out. He's annoyed at her keeping things quiet, especially since Chloe didn't have things under control. "I felt bad breaking our trust. You've no idea how many times I wanted to tell you," she explains to him, but he wonders what else she is keeping from him!

Lassiters hotel, Pierce's room
Pierce quickly breaks the bad news that he's backing out of buying Lassiters to Terese when she comes to see him. She can sense he's been scared off and guesses that Paul is to blame and his silence all but confirms that. "Tell me what he's got over you?!" she asks, he owes her that much.

Harold's café
Bea just about jumps out of her skin when Susan and Xanthe spot her in the café. She explains to them about kissing Ned, and confirms that she wanted to, but then admits to them about kissing Finn at the cabin. "Let's get you home," Susan says.

Number 24
Chloe is very surprised to see Pierce at the door but does let him into the house. He apologises for making her feel uncomfortable and in turn, Chloe admits that she should have been more honest with him because she knew how much the Lassiters deal meant to Terese. Pierce gets what she's said and tells her he's leaving first thing in the morning. "What about the Lassiters deal?" she asks and is told "that's the other thing I need to tell you."

The Waterhole, exterior
"I need a minor miracle," Terese admits to Leo as they sit chatting about what's happened. "Licking our wounds are we," Paul asks as he slithers up to their table with a smug look on his face.

PAUL: I have to say, it was a good effort, but you're going to have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat me at the game at my level.
LEO: Give it a rest dad.
PAUL: (to Leo) Seriously, that's all you've got!

Turning back to Terese, he informs her he wants a meeting scheduled ASAP as he's a lot to discuss as Lassiters chief investor!

Number 28
Bea explains to Susan and Xanthe how she came to kiss Finn in the cabin. Rather than have a go, Susan instead praises her survival instinct while Xanthe adds in that Finn deserves to be dead. They hear Elly arrive home and Susan calls her over to the kitchen to join in the conversation, but she's too upset about her fight with Mark to chat and heads to her room instead. Its Susan's turn to lie to Karl over why Elly is upset (he arrived home a few seconds after her) and stops him from going to check on her.

Lassiters foyer
Pierce is surprised to get a call from Chloe asking to see him. It turns out that Pierce called Fay to pay off her debts and she sincerely thanks him, despite also saying that he didn't need to do that for her. He also tells her to call him if she ever needs money for her treatment. Chloe does though tell him that she really did enjoy the time with him and that one day he will find someone almost as amazing as her! "Whoever she is, she's got a lot to measure up to," he replies back. Before she leaves the foyer, he calls Chloe back to urge her to tell her brothers about her disease.

PIERCE: I'm not the only one who loves you.

Lassiters Complex
Paul spots Chloe after she leaves the hotel and asks whether she'd prefer flowers or a fruit basket as his thanks for helping him out of his sticky spot! "Is that why he pulled out of the deal?" she asks and is told that it wasn't perhaps something he'd want broadcast to the world. Paul confirms she isn't losing her job either, he wants her around to be a permanent reminder to Terese!

Chloe quickly leaves and as Paul turns around, he spots Terese at the other side of the complex and if looks could kill...

Harold's café
Terese has followed Chloe into the café and tells the lass that she'll need to face her eventually! "Just reassure me that Pierce didn't make you do anything that you didn't want to do?" Terese asks and Chloe jokes in reply "that he tried to make me fall in love with him" before getting serious and replying "no, I made the choice to take things further."

TERESE: Was that choice for me or for you?
CHLOE: For myself.

Terese reminds Chloe of her promise that there'd be no cross-over and the lass admits she went behind her back.

CHLOE: And it was a huge mistake. I got in too deep and I couldn't pull the plug because of you.

"Why on earth didn't you say anything?" Terese asks and Chloe's reply is that she thought she could control things and knows now what the consequences of that are.

TERESE: He's going to make my life hell.
CHLOE: I'm really sorry. I know I've made things worse, I was out of my depth.
TERESE: Yes. Yes, you can say that again! And now what am I supposed to do?
CHLOE: Well you're not out of your depth, you can play the game better than anyone.

Number 24
Chloe returns home to hugs from her brothers.

Lassiters hotel, Pierce's room
Terese fixes her lipstick before knocking on Pierce's room and when he lets her in, hopes she isn't interrupting. "I thought we were done?" he asks somewhat confused. She begs him not to pull out of the Lassiters deal as he was excited about it as she was. "I was excited about Chloe," is his blunt reply, so asks if there is *anything* she can do to help him reconsider?

Number 28
Karl and Susan are nonchalantly chatting while making the dinner and he asks if everything is alright? "How do you mean?" she innocently replies and Karl comments that she seems out of sorts. "Do I?" again she innocently replies then perhaps wonders if she's coming down with something.

KARL: Seems more like you've something on your mind.

"No," Susan is quick to reply back but he explains that at the school she couldn't get rid of him quickly enough and when he got home, it looked like he'd interrupted something. Susan tries to pass it off as "girl talk" but he pushes her and asks, "if she's sure."

Susan then suddenly inhales as if she's seen a ghost - and we then see what she thinks she's seen, Finn standing in her kitchen. The shock of seeing GhostyFinn™ has caused her to burn her hand accidentally and she tries to ward Karl off helping her, but he takes her over to the sink to run her hand under the cold water.

Lassiters hotel, 7th floor
The lift stops to let a guest out on the 7th floor and at the same time, Paul spots Terese coming out of Pierce's room.

Coming up on Neighbours
- Leo questioning Terese about their relationship.
- Kirsha becoming ill very suddenly.
- Alice reassessing her plans.