New practice nurse Laura Elliott starts work at The Beeches. She’s soon thrown out of her depth when Alice demands an appointment during full surgery. Will tells Laura he’ll pay Alice a home visit. When he sees Alice he tells her she shouldn’t have snapped at Laura like she did and prescribes rest and warmth.
WILL: Mrs North and I are old sparring partners
Jack and Will clash when Trevor pushes Will to stand for a seat on the local council. Jack isn’t convinced that Will could be ‘champion of the people’. However Will decides to give it a go and attends a council members dinner and dance with Trevor and Leanda. Pat Hargrove who is on the council board talks to Will and intends to boost his council campaign.
Jack and Beth move into their new house with help from Isabel who is putting a brave face on her illness.
Alice’s nosy neighbour, Mrs Roberts, alerts Will that she hasn’t seen Alice all morning. Will becomes concerned when he gets no answer from Alice’s house. He breaks in and finds her unconscious. Alice is taken away in an ambulance and diagnosed with carbon monoxide poisoning. Her condition is serious and the hospital tell Will that she is in a coma. The cause of Alice’s poisoning is a faulty heating system for which her landlord is responsible. Will visits Alice in hospital and she wakes up with him by her side. He is horrified when she tells him that her landlord his Hargrove. Will carries on with his meeting for the council election but during Hargroves speech Will tackles him on Alice’s situation. Hargroves is lost for words and Will declines the councils offer of a seat on the council.
Beth and Isabel go for a walk. In the middle of their general chit-chat, Isabel tells Beth that she has cancer. Beth is taken back with shock and tells Isabel she mustn’t give up. Isabel says she has no choice – it’s inoperable. Beth is devastated but abides by Isabel’s wishes. It’s a sad moment as the two friends share a hug in one of Isabel’s favourite places.
ISABEL: I love life, but I’m not afraid of dying
BETH: Who have you told?
ISABEL: Just you. I couldn’t not tell you, I would’ve felt I’d let you down
BETH: You’ve never let me down
Jack notices something is wrong with Beth. When he asks what’s wrong she says she’ll tell him later.
Laura meets her match in an old man whose leg wound is not improving as he spends all day stranding in his muddy allotment. He refuses to leave his fields as he is in competition with the man next door. Laura says if he doesn’t keep out of the soggy grounds his foot will have to be amputated!
Beth’s day worsens when she is called out to an emergency rescue. A young boy has got himself trapped on the ledge of a high rise building and Beth conquers her fear of heights when she climbs up some high storey scaffolding to help the boy to safety.
Alice arrives home to find her house taken over with builders installing her new heater – she confesses to Will that she was offered new heating by Hargroves but turned it down! Will apologises to Hargroves and he offers him another chance to sit for the council but Will declines, he says being a doctor is not the best profession to be in when you are a member of the council.
Beth tells Jack about Isabel, he is equally upset. Beth says it hurts because she cares for Isabel so much. She tells Jack how Isabel has always been there for her, Jack assures her that she too has been there for Isabel. Jack says he’s always fancied a quiet life in the Hebrides so that they could be totally separate from the world and not have to care. He says they could still be doctors – Beth says no they couldn’t.
