A hand coming over the desk in Jac's office starts the episode for us, one that Fletch doesn't see when he briefly put his head around the door before leaving.
What followed after was quite the weaving together of the various stories and events in the lives of the doctors, nurses' and staff in Holby, these include grandmas, an estranged mum and son, a doctor wanting to help a fellow colleague and another doctor whose pride might be putting more than her working relationships at risk.
With a slight change of personnel on AAU with Lofty helping the ward out this week, his grandma being moved here too from Darwin in order to try and help the staff nurse and the lady herself, much to Dom's surprise when he is told. Serena and Donna were still trying to work out how they can help Ric, especially now with the inclusion of Gaskell and what he caught the staff nurse doing last week.
Frieda attempted to get through to Jac by offering her some pain relief, but the minute the registrar administered it, Jac decided she didn't need it and told the younger doctor as much before ordering her out of the office and to prep things for the surgeries they had booked in, even though it's clear that she's in no fit state to be at work, let alone performing surgery with the pain she's in.
Roxanna tries to explain to Oliver her new age idea for the treatment to aid his recovery, an experimental one, but one that is non invasive too, making him aware that he isn't a guinea pig and it's a genuine treatment that could really help him, if only she could convince Serena as acting CEO to take it to the board for funding, the brunette herself makes it clear that she's unwilling to be the one to take it to the board and that Henrik will be the one to be spoken to whenever he returns to his CEO position.
Still Jac is hiding her pain and suffering from everyone on the ward, with her and Frieda clashing after Frieda tries to get through to her senior colleague that Fletch does care for her regardless of what Jac may think, this again is dismissed and she sends the younger woman once again from her office.
Serena and Donna both talk to Gaskell about what he's planning on doing with the information he's stumbled upon due to Donna trying to help Ric's cause, but it nearly doing the opposite when she was caught red handed last week.
Unable to get any further with Serena or Gaskell in trying to push through her plans to help Oliver, Roxanna calls on the only other person she deems as able to help her, Henrik, but when she does the CEO is more than unsure if he can even return to the place of such ghosts and bad memories right at this second, let alone come inside the building itself in order to conduct a meeting to give the neurosurgeon the green light on her plans and then for the eyes of the board for the funding she needs. All of this proves too much for him and he ends up walking away from the main entrance all suited and booted, without even stepping foot inside Holby.
This all leads to Roxanna to have a discussion with Henrik outside his car in the car park about how maybe her idea isn't such a good one after all and that it's probably a waste of time, but he encourages her to go ahead and try talking to Gaskell again, that if she shows how much she believes in it then it'll persuade Gaskell himself to back her up and go to the board, unaware that Oliver has been watching the whole conversation from a staircase inside Holby.
Dominic and Sheilagh discuss her living arrangements when she leaves the hospital, after Lofty tried to have the same talk but his grandma refuses to engage in it, Dominic manages to get through to her about Lofty caring about her a lot and how about they both come and live with him since he's got the room and that means she'll not have to go into a home or other accommodation, also professing that he'd do anything for her grandson, leading the older woman to try and match make the pair into some kind of date together.
Jac and Frieda are yet again involved in another war of words, with the senior doctor allowing her junior to lead an up and coming operation, letting her know that she believes and knows that she's more than capable of doing so, eventually Jac is administered the pain relief she refused at the beginning from Frieda just so she can be a part of the operation and not lose face, but the senior consultant suddenly changes her mind and pulls the plug on Frieda leading the operation in the middle of the theatre in front of the other staff much to the surprise and annoyance of the younger woman.
Roxanna is left with no choice but to once again ask Gaskell for his support for her bid and request for funding on Oliver's treatment, armed with a bottle of red wine she asks him again if he'll speak to the board on her behalf to try and get the funding pushed through, without much more persuasion he says yes he will, his eagerness and reasons for being forthcoming compared to when she originally asked him not quite clear that that moment, what could have caused his sudden change of heart?
Reuniting at the main entrance of the hospital at the end of their shift near the end of the episode, Lofty and Dom meet up to go out on their first official date together which is going to take place at Dom's house, as well as researching other options for Sheilagh's living arrangements since they haven't come to a definite conclusion on the matter.
In the last action of the episode, Frieda is confronted by Jac in the locker room just as she''s about to leave and go home, the younger woman voicing her feelings of humiliation over what happened in theatre earlier and telling Jac in no uncertain terms that in future, when she's in the same amount of pain again and struggling at work then she might not help her out like she did this time, since Jac hasn't shown much appreciation this time.
As stony faced as ever, Jac let's Frieda know she won't trouble her for her help in the future, both women going their separate ways out of the locker room door, retreating from what could have become a potential stand off, the closing theme tune of Holby permeating the silent and tense atmosphere.
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