There’s nothing like the sickly smell of guilt to ruin a good breakfast. Kit wanted to treat her boyfriend, the life-saving hero, but his puckered face threatens to repose amidst the fried eggs any minute. James is totally shagged out after that white-water shift, so Kit suggests a lazy day in the park. She’ll have to wait though; Rachel wants a word. Now. She breaks the news to James: she found the empty packet of insulin James gave their cardiac victim – the wrong insulin. He’s stuffed up good and proper this time. James admits he got confused, and the realisation hits Rach like a sack of potatoes. “Please don’t tell me you’d been smoking?” Well, he can’t tell her he wasn’t smoking, because he was smoking, and smokers aren’t clever enough to lie. James holds up his hands and weeps, “I was stoned!” Rachel now has no choice but to file a report, but she lets him break it to Kit first.Stoned fishKit is crushed when James fesses up. He lied to her, again and again. She feels utterly betrayed, and can’t even contemplate having him around her baby.

“He smokes dope, that’s what he does,” Kim reasons smugly. He’s won! Poor stoned little James faces the hospital CEO, Geoff Olivetti.

Geoff doesn’t play down the gravity of his mistake, negligence under the influence of drugs. The big man breaks the news that James is suspended and his nursing career remains in serious doubt; James still doesn’t get the message, and scampers off for a spliff.

When Kim spots him puffing away, he shoves him into the dirt with some harsh words. James heads home and promptly falls apart. He’s panicking and he’s got voices in his head. He scurries around the house, shutting windows, slamming doors, sweating and dribbling all over everything.

When Kit arrives home, James locks the door behind her. “You’re never going to leave me…”

Hanging on the telephone

Elsewhere, Cassie’s phone line is open for the first day. She’s nabbed Bryan, the school counsellor, to do the honours, and there’s a glowing feature in the paper about her. Still, the phone doesn’t ring.

Or it does, but the caller hangs up, then some joker rings up complaining of a bad hair day.

Maybe there just aren’t enough unhappy people in Summer Bay. Bryan, Cassie and Mattie pack up and leave; just as the door closes, the phone rings.

Tagged in