Emma turns up to the house with the school rabbit and asks Lia to look after it. Lia is initially resistant until Emma suggests Sally was expecting her to refuse. Suddenly the rabbit becomes a symbol of Lia’s parenting skills. Meanwhile, Anji agrees to fill in a questionnaire for Leonard, a student who’s writing a thesis on the stresses of life as a modern day nurse. When he gets her results, however, he becomes convinced she’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown and that her happy-go-lucky attitude is a mask for a deep seated psychosis.

Kate is on a date with Robert which goes so well, they’re soon back at the house having sex. Midway through Robert has an asthma attack and crashes to the floor. The girls burst in and are horrified at the sight of a patient from their ward naked and in Kate’s bed. As Kate tries to defend herself, Robert struggles to make himself understood – he needs an ambulance.

The next day Robert’s back in MAU and somehow doesn’t look quite so attractive. He buzzes continuously for various trivial needs and by the end of the day, Kate’s ready to snap. After a row with him, she storms off the ward, ignoring the buzzing coming from his bed. Kate decides her relationship is compromising her work and resolves to finish with him the following day. When she arrives on the ward, however, Robert been moved to ITU. He’s had a particularly bad asthma attack and Callum’s discovered a malignant melanoma on his back. He’s looking so needy when she goes to visit, she can’t bring herself to dump him.

Beth is curious to see Jamie sucking up to one of the patients, William, until she hears he’s on the board of the golf club Jamie’s trying to join. Jamie hates golf but sees it as bringing him one step closer to registrar. Beth thinks he’s sold out his working class roots and accuses him of being middle class. Irked, he insults Beth’s family and she takes her revenge by convincing Jamie he hasn’t been accepted into the golf club. Beth watches with glee when Jamie tells William to shove his application up his arse, only to be told that he’d just been approved by the board.

Kate is desperate to go out and drink herself to oblivion. The others would rather watch telly, until they realise that the rabbit has electrocuted itself by chewing through the flex. They grab their coats and head out and Kate proceeds to get blindingly drunk. As she vomits in the toilets of the club, she tells Lia she can’t bear the idea of going out with a sick person. When she visits Robert the following morning, he’s with his mother, who is less than delighted to meet Kate, having had a potted history of their relationship. Mrs Miller gets wind of the faked peakflow result and makes a complaint to Callum. Kate tries to deny it but her bravado crumples in the face of Mrs Miller’s anxiety for her son. It’s only when Kate genuinely apologises for her behaviour that Mrs Miller decides not to press charges.

Lia tells Emma that she’s killed the rabbit and together they go to a petshop to buy a replacement. When they can’t find an identical fit, they realise they’re both going to have to face up to their responsibilities and tell Emma’s school what’s happened.

Kate goes to see Robert to finish with him but before she can get a word in edgeways, he finishes with her, telling her he just doesn’t feel very safe around her. Although outraged that he got there first, Kate is relieved. If things had been different, they might have had a great relationship but in her eyes, Robert would always be first and foremost a patient.

< back to episode guide