Previously on Neighbours
- Toadie remembering hearing someone coughing during the fire but then that it moved away.
- Sheila taking a coughing fit.
- Piper angry at her dad for leaving her mum in the fire.
- Terese contemplating moving on in her life.
- Imogen spotting someone that might be responsible for the fire in a photo... Aaron Brennan!
Number 22
Imogen shows Mark the photo from Piper's phone and when he asks when it was taken, replies around 7.30 just before the fire started.
Number 26
Karl finishes taking Sheila's blood pressure and informs her that its high and after nothing untoward comes up when he's probing her for reasons why, says she'll need to take a few days off work. Sheila doesn't want to as she's too busy (and not just at The Waterhole) but he threatens to tell Kyle if she doesn't do as he says!
Harold's Café
Mark runs into his brother and asks him what time he left the school on the night of the fire and eventually Aaron replies 4.30. "And you didn't go back to the school for any reason?" he asks and Aaron's reply is why would he before exiting as he's got stuff to do (go shopping).
Number 30
Sonya is singing Sheila's praises (over her doing their laundry) when she calls round but before she can say exactly why she's round, Sonya gets a call from the spinal specialist with news of an appointment for them that day (a cancellation). The bumping up the waiting list is due to Sheila calling them although she's refusing to take the credit for having a quiet word with the hospital staff when drinking at The Waterhole. With the appointment being unexpected, Sonya asks Sheila for a favour - going to see someone on the opposite side of town to buy some chest of drawers for Nell's room, which she readily agrees to do
Hospital
Terese is trying to persuade Josh/Amber to use her grandmother's name for bubs after being into see her but they say she'll be named before she gets home. Amber then reminds them that she might not get home and Terese tries to change her mind set, that bubs will be okay.
Lauren/Brad arrive and he ask how Terese is and she explains that she is being discharged and can't get away from them quick enough (the kids have already left to get something to eat). Lauren asks if he's going to go after her but he wants to see bubs first.
Harold's Café
Mark is stalling for time before having to go speak to Aaron and Paige calls him on his double standards. He asks if he should let another officer be hard-core on Aaron but she suggests taking his cop hat off and talking to him like a brother.
PAIGE: Who knows, he might have a perfectly reasonable explanation.
MARK: And what if he tells me he's the one that burnt the school down, what do I do then?
PAIGE: Then you'll do what's right, like you always do.
Hospital
Terese is packing up her stuff when Brad calls to see if she needed a hand packing but she's managing fine. She's glad he called though, to allow her to say she wasn't the one to tell Imogen what happened in the fire, she found that out second hand through Toadie. Terese also apologises for the kids giving him a hard time, she's tried explaining to them that it was a complicated situation.
BRAD: Do you believe that?
TERESE: I believe that we need to get along for the sake of the children.
As she continues packing she experiences some pain (she moved her arm wrongly) and Brad immediately steps in to help finish her packing.
Number 24
Taking Paige's advice, Mark arrives home to talk to Aaron and explains he's doing so as a brother not as a cop. Mark shows him the photo taken at 7.30, 3 hours after Aaron said he'd left and asks why did he lie? "This isn't what you think," Aaron immediately replies and explains that when he was setting up, there was this guy hanging around trying to sell some cheap liquid fertiliser to Kyle/Amy but Kyle could tell it had come off the back of a truck so they said get lost.
AARON: But I followed him and bought the whole lot.
"Why?" is Mark's reply, so Aaron tries to explain that he thought he could sell it on for a profit, reminding his brother of his financial woes. He then explains that he couldn't exactly store it at #24 so planned to store it at the school until he could figure out what to do with it before apologising for not saying anything to him earlier as he didn't want Mark to find out he'd done a dodgy deal.
Mark enlightens him that it was the fertiliser exploding that caused the major damage at the school and hurt people too. "I never meant for that," pleads Aaron and Mark tries to get it through to him that he could now be liable.
MARK: Your stupid behaviour means you could land all of us in a legal and financial nightmare.
AARON: Yes, look I get that and I feel terrible, I do, but Mark, I didn't start the fire. Maybe you should go find out who actually did!
Hospital
Brad has finished packing Terese's stuff just as Josh arrives to say that there will be an hour or so delay in taking her home as the doctor wants to chat about bubs' surgery. "Why don't I take you home?" Brad immediately says and explains that he'll drop her home before coming back for Lauren/Amber. Terese accepts the offer as she'd rather get home to put her feet up than hang around the hospital, so Brad goes to get the car.
Josh is curious about what his mum is up to (she says he's being nice because he feels guilty) and that it's good to see them being civil to each other. Terese explains that after the girls giving him a hard time, she doesn't want to add to it and admits that she does feel sorry for him beating himself up. "As long as you are okay, that's all I care about," Josh replies.
Number 30
Sheila is carting the chest of drawer pieces into the house when Karl spots her and make his displeasure of what she's doing known. "It's just a little favour," she tries to tell him and his comeback is that it could kill her! Sheila is in the middle of protesting that she's fine when she literally collapses into his arms!
(Later)
Sheila has come round and Karl orders her to drink the water he's brought her because he thinks she is dehydrated. She tries to suggest she only became unwell because he was yelling at her, so he explains he only does that when he is worried.
KARL: Do you want to have another heart attack?!
"Of course not," she replies and again tries to say it was just a favour she was doing for Sonya and thought she could handle it. Karl can't believe what she did and plans on telling the Rebecchi's exactly what happened so they can organise their own help in future. Sheila doesn't want him to, citing that she wants to be the one helping them
KARL: Why are you being so stubborn about this?
SHEILA: Because I left him for dead alright!
Sheila explains to him that during the fire she heard Toadie calling out but instead of helping, she ran off and saved herself. "I thought you were the one to raise the alarm?" a confused Karl asks and she confirms she did but adds that she should have been the one to save him herself. Karl reassures her that she couldn't have done that alone.
SHEILA: Maybe not but I could have at least tried, and now if I have to spend the rest of my days making it up to him and his family, that is what I am going to do.
Karl tries to tell her she's being too hard on herself but she just thinks of herself as a coward and that she will never forgive herself.
SHEILA: And if you breathe a word of this to anyone, I will report you for breach of patient confidentiality.
Number 22
Brad makes sure Terese is settled when he spots a pack of cards and he too reminisces about the trip to the Margaret River. He suggests digging the photos of that trip out and that Lauren/Amber will be a couple of hours yet when Terese reminds him of his plans. Brad then admits that he doesn't like to leave her alone and wants her permission to stay until Imogen comes home at least. She gives her blessing and tells him to go dig the photos out.
Number 24
On the pretence of seeing if Mark is home to have lunch with her, Paige subtly asks Aaron if Mark has talked to him about the fire. "How do you know about that!" he asks and she explains that she's his girlfriend and sought her out on how to talk to him about it because he was unsure of how to approach him.
"You didn't do it did you?" she asks and he's quick to say that he wasn't the one who lit the fire but tells her that he may have caused the explosions... "and as soon as I said that, his cop hat was back on and he was blasting me for all he was worth." She asks if he doesn't think Mark has a reason to be angry at him and Aaron replies no, due to the way he instigated the conversation initially. Paige tries to get him to see it from Mark's point of view and reminds him that Mark is the one stuck between a rock and a hard place over what's happened.
PAIGE: You stuffed up, the least you can do is admit it!
Harold's Café
After seeing Mark, Imogen questions him as to why he's not sought her out and instead he asks her for a few days to allow him to make some enquiries. She's naturally curious over why Mark wants to keep a lid on it, so he's forced to tell her that it was Aaron that caused the fire to be worse but avoids going into exact details.
MARK: Please don't think I'm trying to get him off scot free, I just need a few days to try and track down the actual arsonist, otherwise people are going to direct their anger towards him and it's not going to be pretty.
IMOGEN: It still just feels you're asking me to withhold evidence.
MARK: Imogen please, he's my brother.
IMOGEN: And my mum was a victim.
MARK: I know. Like I said, Aaron's role was accidental.
Imogen gives her blessing but informs him that she's not the only one that's seen the photo, so warns him that whatever he's planning on doing, he'd better do it fast.
Number 22
Terese/Brad are enjoying their trip down memory lane looking at the photos when Imogen comes home. Brad explains why he's there and she comments that it's good to see them both smiling. With this comment, Brad volunteers to cook them lunch until Imogen explains there's nothing in the cupboard so he quickly departs to go get some food.
IMOGEN: So now I'm going to ask you the same question again, this time can I get a real answer? What's going on?
TERESE: Nothing, your fathers just alleviating some guilt and I'm letting him.
IMOGEN: Mum, you told me that the marriage was over, that you wanted to move on. Do you really think that having dad around is going to help you do that?
TERESE: I thought you'd be pleased?
IMOGEN: I am, but only if this is what you want. Don't play happy families for our sake!
TERESE: I'm not.
IMOGEN: Well, if you genuinely want to be friends with dad, then I can get on board.
Terese then admits that she isn't sure if they are friends, she's not sure what they are yet!
TERESE: It's the first time in a long time we're not arguing and I have to admit, it's really nice.
Hospital
Lauren looks at her watch wondering where Brad is, when Amber arrives to give her good news - the doctors reckon bubs will be stable enough to operate on in the next few days. "That's fantastic news," Lauren says as she hugs her daughter and sings Josh's praise when Amber tells her that he's not leaving until bubs opens her eyes again.
Amber now wonders where Brad is, she thought he'd be back by now and Lauren assumes he's still with Terese but hasn't called to check as she doesn't want to hassle him and suggests calling a cab instead, commenting that's easiest on everyone.
Police station
Mark is surprised to see Aaron at the station after he enters the building, and he explains that he felt bad after their earlier conversation so thought it best to come and confess about the fertiliser. "You idiot!" isn't what Aaron expected his brother to say to him so Mark explains that he'll now be copping some major flak that he was hoping to shield Aaron from. "You weren't going to dob me in?" a stunned Aaron asks his brother and Mark replies that he wasn't until he'd investigate more and adds that he's now put himself right in the firing line.
Coming soon
- Paige giving Terese a warning shot about Brad.
- Brad telling Lauren he's going to see Terese.
- Tyler/Aaron unimpressed at Mark.
- Steph looking for answers.