Will and Kate’s quiet drink at The Black Swan is interrupted by Will’s patient Mary. Mary is not happy that Will has not used his influence on Kate to get her an earlier date for her varicose veins operation. Will and Kate notice Mike using his GT spray and clutching his chest. Kate sits Mike down and checks his pulse rate. Mike tells her he’s been under stress because the pub stock take doesn’t add up. Realising Mike and Liz have problems to sort out, Will and Kate leave them alone. Mike tells Liz they are £2,000 adrift, Liz comments that this is the same problem that forced them to leave their pub in Sheffield.
Tom and Alex visit Alex’s consultant. The consultant decides he wants Alex to have an ultrasound in order to assess what’s causing her all the pain. Alex later tells Tom that she keeps seeing visions of the ultrasound screen and the nurse saying nothing except ‘go and get the consultant’. Tom tells her he loves her.
ALEX: All of this would be a lot easier if you didn’t make me so happy
Mary also runs her own bric-a-brac store. Liz visits her with a broach that belonged to her mother and she asks if Mary could value it for her. Mary tells her to leave the broach and says she will look into it. Mary later finds out the broach is worth a lot of money and she visits The Beeches and tells Will she wants to go private for her operation as some ‘fool’ is willing to exchange a family air loom for a fraction of it’s price.
Mary tells Liz she will give her £2,000 for the broach, exactly the amount Liz needs to enable she and Mike to keep the pub afloat. Liz is thrilled and agrees to Mary’s plea of £250 commission. Mike and Liz are overjoyed that the money will help them out of this rough patch.
Tom and Alex go to the hospital for her scan. She asks the nurse if she can see the screen. The nurse turns the screen towards Tom and Alex and they are alarmed to see a huge mass lying on Alex’s ovaries. The consultant is called in and says most cysts are benign, he tells Alex nothing is certain until they have done more tests. Alex can’t face talking about it and she walks out. Tom takes her home but she won’t allow him to come into the house with her. He tells her he won’t let her push him away. Alex goes into her house and sits alone and cries.
ALEX: Please don’t give me the platitudes. I’m not one of your ignorant punters
Will finds Tom at the surgery. Will says seeing as how Tom has seen him through some pretty rough patches he’d like to know if something is wrong. Tom tells Will Alex has a mass on her ovaries, he says the consultant wants to operate but Alex doesn’t want anyone to know or make a fuss. Will tells Kate about Alex, she’s upset and Will tells her that Tom is in a state over it.
TOM: I don’t want to lose her Will. Not after Joanna
Will tells Mary that she can’t have the operation as no anaesthetist will give her an anaesthetic because she’s anaemic. He later finds out that Liz is the ‘fool’ Mary was talking about and he informs Liz that Mary is ripping her off. Liz confronts Mary about the real value of the broach and as tensions rise Mary falls ill. Liz looks after her and continues to visit her with flowers when no-one else does. Mary realises that Liz is a god person and gives her the broach back, along with it’s full value price. Liz returns to The Black Swan and tells Mike, Julie and Nick that the broach is worth £45,000!!!
Tom’s friends Tony and Lorna have a mischievous son Danny. Lorna finds it hard to cope with Danny and when she falls pregnant again she immediately decides to have a termination. Tom won’t refer her but Alex does as she can see that Lorna is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Alex tells Tom a woman has the right to decide what happens to her body. Tom says this case is not the best case for her to get involved with at the moment.
As Alex’s GP, Will refuses to stand by and watch Alex brush away the fact that she is seriously ill. Along with Tom he organises a date for Alex to go into to hospital for her operation. Alex is furious and tells them both she will deal with it in her own time. Tom tells Alex he had to talk to Will about her condition as she was shutting him out and he needed someone to talk to.
BRIDGET: Are you alright?
ALEX: No I’m sick – didn’t you get Tom’s memo?
On the day of Alex’s operation tensions between Tony and Lorna reach breaking point and during another argument in the town centre, Danny runs off unnoticed. As Tom is passing he sees Danny in danger and jumps into help just as Danny is about to be run over by an oncoming vehicle.
Kerri and Bridget visits Alex in hospital and Alex tells them she is scared as she’s never been in hospital as a patient before. Kerri tells her not to worry as they don’t know what the cyst is yet. Alex asks them to tell Tom she is going into theatre at 11. They say they’ll pass the message on and wish her luck before leaving.
Caught up with Tony and Lorna’s situation, Tom loses track of time and is late for Alex’s operation. Back at the hospital Alex packs her things and leaves. When Tom arrives in Alex’s ward he asks the nurse if she has already gone to theatre. The nurse tells him that Alex left the hospital a little while ago.
Alex goes back home and packs a bag. As she heads towards her car her mobile rings, she sees the caller is Tom and cancels the call. She gets in her car and drives out of Cardale.
