Aden Jefferies
Aden Jefferies (2005; 2007-2010)
Todd Lasance
Episodes: 4019–4047; 4458–5069
Parents: Larry Jefferies
Siblings: Sean & Justin Jefferies
Marital Status: Belle Taylor (2009, deceased)
Occupation: Student; Waiter; Deckhand; Valet
Aden first appeared in 2005 when he applied for the role of Rex, the male lead in Colleen’s play and flirted with Cassie who had just split from Ric. It seemed Cassie was as interested in him and Aden approached Ric to ask if he and Cassie were over because he wanted to ask her out. Despite being clearly jealous Ric told Aden he and Cassie were over and encouraged him to go for it. Aden asked Cassie out, she accepted and they had a great date but his over-eagerness to talk about Cassie wound Ric up during footy training in the gym. Aden was later invited to dinner at the Caravan Park house but it didn’t go well when he and Ric goaded each other all the way through.
The next day at footy training Ric tackled Aden badly causing him to hit his head. He was taken to hospital unconscious and his brother sought revenge, beating Ric badly but Aden lied that his brother had been with him, giving him an alibi. When Sean later took Flynn hostage, threatening him, Cassie confronted Aden who admitted he had lied. Cassie dumped him and Aden was not seen again for a while.
Aden returned in 2007 in another footy related storyline when he took offence at Geoff being Tony’s new golden boy on the footy pitch. He confronted Tony about favouring Geoff but Tony refused to listen so Aden and the rest of the team gave Geoff a hard time during training, refusing to pass him the ball. Tony encouraged Geoff to get along with his team-mates so he joined them in socialising but they spiked his drink and he quickly became drunk. Carrying him out of Noah’s Aden convinced his friends to lock Geoff in the boot of Tony’s car.
When Tony found out he kicked Aden off the team and a furious Aden got his revenge by trashing the Campbell’s field. As a result Tony banned Aden from the gym. He was a suspect when The Campbell’s sheep were killed but had a cast iron alibi for the event. He tormented Mr Fisher in school by taking a picture of him and Marilyn and replacing Fisher’s head with a fish but his prank backfired when Fisher merely complimented him on being talented.
He continued to pick on Annie and Geoff causing Lucas to punch him in Annie’s defence. Next on his torment list was Cassie when he challenged her for the right to organise the school formal and by rescuing Rory from bullies he was able to recruit his help in rigging the vote.
The next time Aden was seen it was to pick a fight with Tony at the pool competition in Noah’s. He complained to Dan about feeling sick during an exam but Dan ignored him believing he was lying. He later collapsed and was rushed to hospital getting Dan into trouble for not listening to him.
He flirted with tam and invited her to The Year 12 formal and despite being warned off by Cassie, Tam agreed to go. Whilst hanging out together Aden got Tam drunk and began to seduce her on the beach. Cassie came to Tam’s rescue but not before one of Aden’s friends had taken footage of Aden and Tam together on his mobile. The footage was distributed round school and Aden almost goaded brad into hitting him before being banned by Sally from the formal. In revenge Aden cut the power at the formal, officially ruining the night.
When Matilda was feeling depressed over her split with Ric, Aden and his mates invited her to a party. Cassie turned up to rescue Matilda and despite having drank herself, she agreed to drive them all home when the designated driver was declared too drunk. On the drive home Aden tormented Cassie by smoking marijuana and waving it in her face, causing her to crash. Aden’s leg was badly injured in the crash and his dream of playing football was ruined, leaving him angry and upset.
With Cassie off the hook thanks to Simon, Aden turned his attention back onto his old victim Geoff. Furious that Geoff had given up the chance of playing professional football, Aden’s dream, Aden goaded Geoff at every opportunity until Geoff finally snapped and punched him, knocking him out. Aden was furious when Sally punished him rather than Geoff but after a few home truths from her he failed to retaliate. Geoff later approached him and apologised, giving Aden the ammunition to keep on tormenting him.
He did a good thing in coming to Annie’s aid when she passed out drunk on the beach but Geoff and Tony jumped to conclusions, assuming Aden was responsible and when Annie came round she lied to get him into trouble. Aden asked Morag to help him and was surprised when she agreed to defend him despite nobody else in town believing him. A furious Irene banned him from The Diner and when Aden wound her up she lashed out at him, injuring his bad leg.
He used Dan’s memorial to stage a protest at the beach against Martin Bartlett and as a result landed the whole school on detention. Thanks to some advice from Roman, he negotiated with Bartlett to get the detentions overturned whilst at the same time retaining his pride. After a chat with Sally, Annie finally told the truth and Aden was off the hook but refused to drop his lawsuit against Irene, despite Morag refusing to help him.
He was pleased when Gavin from the paper wanted to do an article on him and happily gave an interview, much to Belle’s disgust. He was pleased when Irene apologised to him and agreed to retract his lawsuit but his face clouded over when she showed him his interview in the paper. He later attacked Belle for using information about his grandfather in the article and was later seen crying and setting fire to a copy of the paper.
He gave Miles a hard time when he was due to start work at the school but Roman managed to convince him that Miles was a good guy and not somebody to mess with. In Noah’s Alf also had a word with him but his suggestion that Aden should try and make his grandfather proud didn’t go down well and Aden went to school the next day and gave Miles a hard time. Miles told his story of living rough, winning the pupils round and leaving Aden with no ammunition against him.
When Cassie told the whole class about having HIV Aden furiously raced from the classroom and threatened Cassie over the possibility that she may have infected him during their car crash. Despite Cassie’s attempts to help him, Aden pushed her away and when his results proved that he was negative, he surprised his Doctor by breaking down in tears and seeming disappointed at the result. The Doctor tried to talk him into counselling but Aden was having none of it and instead went home and had a vicious row with his father. Roman walked in during the middle of the row and Larry screamed at Roman to take Aden away so Roman took him back to his place. Once there though Aden caught sight of a picture of Roman in Army Uniform and bolted from the house.
With nowhere else to go he hid out at the now condemned Diner but a part of the ceiling collapsed, trapping him and leaving him seriously injured. He was found by Sally thanks to Floss’s foresight and rushed to hospital where he suffered from amnesia. His Dad seemed keen to have him forget the row they had had and banned Roman from visiting him but Rachel sensed something was up and Larry confided in her. Though not said in so many words it was made apparent that Aden’s grandfather had abused him as a child and that Larry had refused to believe it was happening.
With Rachel’s help Aden and Larry made their peace but Aden felt unable to live at the house any more and gladly took up Roman’s offer to move in with him. He and his father had a heart to heart and Aden arrived at Roman’s only to be greeted by his newly arrived daughter Nicole.
There was an instant spark between the two troubled teens but out of respect for Roman, Aden backed off and his and Nicole’s banter turned to betting over whether or not she could bed Geoff Campbell . They did at one point share a kiss but Ade promptly pushed her off and in the meantime his flirtation with Belle was growing stronger. After drunkenly breaking into her room Aden became convinced she liked him and when he found evidence on her laptop he snuck into her room again and his teasing led to a kiss.
He was gutted when she denied that there was anything between them but her public display of affection won him round. Later though it was Aden who backed off calling her a skank when she tried to sleep with him and Belle went on a date with Angelo making Aden jealous. Eventually he came clean to her and in an emotional episode revealed about his abuse and underwent counseling and was later able to sleep with her.
Their relationship went from strength to strength with Belle lending him money to buy his house but when the money was stolen it became clear that Aden’s father was behind the robbery. Finding his father hiding out and critically injured Aden was all set to hand him over to the police for killing Axel , until his father admitted that he too had been abused.
The revelation saw Aden’s world come crashing down and he took his father hostage, refusing him medical treatment. When Rachel discovered what he was up to he took her hostage and also Belle when she realized what was going on. Rescued by Angelo, Aden was admitted to hospital for treatment and underwent counseling sessions which eventually saw him come to terms with what had happened.
He was released from hospital but was devastated to find out that Belle had moved on with Angelo He was let off with community service after his trial and Belle told him she still loved him but he told her to move on and attempted to do the same by getting a job at the building site. On noticing something unusual in the plans Aden showed them to her and they grew close again, finally reuniting when Belle thought he had been harmed because of her and showed her true feelings. They kissed and resolved to come clean with Angelo only for him to wind up in hospital having been attacked.
Soon after, Angelo found out and publicly humiliated Belle and later Aden found her badly beaten and she was taken to hospital and named Angelo as her attacker. The Police couldn’t find evidence to charge him though and Belle became very depressed leaning on Aden for support as she suffered post traumatic depression. He was upset when she didn’t want to attend his school formal but she surprised and delighted him by showing up at the last minute.
Belle was seriously injured in the aftermath of the formal fire and was admitted for treatment in the city. Aden went with her and when she returned to the bay he supported her through her fear of leaving the hospital. Taking her to his place, he turned down Uni in favour of a job on a boat to stay near her and was furious when Nicole sent his uni application anyway and lost him his job. Thanks to Leah’s intervention he managed to get his job back and befriended new girl Joey Collins but he neglected her to support Belle and she was raped.
Feeling guilty he tried to convince her to go to the police but she refused so he enlisted Charlie’s help to convince her. Joey eventually pressed charges and Aden was hard pressed to stop himself from attacking Robbo. With Belle seemingly getting better Aden was surprised when she quit her job but devastated to hear from Nicole that she was a drug addict. He confronted her and she admitted it, agreeing to get help but he told her he couldn’t be around her while she detoxed having already gone through it with his Dad.
He eventually came round and went to support her through her withdrawals but he found pills in her bag at Rachel and Tony’s wedding and though she denied taking any, he told her he wanted nothing to do with her. She took some pills, collapsed and was admitted to rehab and Aden insisted that he wanted to keep away from her while she had treatment. With Roman in hospital following a crash, he grew closer to Nicole and they eventually slept together. Angry with himself Aden took it out on Nicole, only to sleep with her again and be caught in the act by Belle. In the furious confrontation that followed, Roman overheard and furious that Aden had broken his rules, kicked him out.
After a night on the beach, Miles allowed Aden to use a caravan but he pushed Nicole away when she came to visit and instead concentrated his efforts on Belle. He got rid of her drug dealer and went to see her and apologise for what happened with Nicole. She was subsequently released from rehab and they both confided they still cared for each other but Belle was reluctant to start seeing each other again. He was upset to find Liam Murphy staying with her and accused Belle of seeing Liam. Belle denied it but Liam lied to Aden that he and Belle were a couple, causing Aden to ignore Belle and push her into Liam’s hands. Aden told Belle that Liam was still taking drugs but she refused to believe him until she found him high. When Liam ended up on the roof of his motel, Aden managed to talk him down. In the aftermath, he and Belle became close again as he supported her when she was tempted to resume her drug addiction. When they received the news that Irene was to be released from jail, Aden kissed and then slept with her and the pair were finally reunited. He supported her again when Irene was released from jail, advising her to tell Geoff and Annie about her drinking.
Aden and Roman finally made their peace before Roman was sent to jail. He asked Aden to look after the house and Aden asked Belle to move in with him. Despite their history, he asked Tony to let him try out for the town football team. After getting past the first few teething problems of living together, when Belle complained about him leaving mess around the house, Aden decided to propose to Belle and spent most of his savings on a deposit for an engagement ring. However, he then found himself temporarily out of work when someone sank the trawler and went to a loan shark, Clint, who agreed to get the ring for him in exchange for him giving away the first penalty in a football match, so he could collect gambling money. Aden did as he was asked but the game was abandoned when a player was injured and the bets were declared void. Clint then asked Aden to throw the next game. He asked Geoff to help but he refused and, despite Aden causing him to take a minor knock and have to sit out some of the match, made sure they won the game. When Clint then told Aden to make sure Geoff was too injured to play, he refused and Clint had him beaten up. Tony threw Aden off the team but later relented when he heard the full story.
When Belle found out what Aden had been up to, she told him she loved him and asked him to marry her and Aden’s boss Gibbsey managed to get the ring for them. Aden was slightly bemused when Belle rushed ahead with the wedding plans but went along with it. He insisted Belle have a hen’s night because he wanted her to enjoy herself while he settled for a few drinks with Tony and Gibbsey and drunkenly reflected on how much his life had changed since he’d met Belle. He took Belle’s suggestion to invite Nicole to be his “best man” and when she turned down the offer he accused her of wanting to be the centre of attention. However Nicole revealed the real reason the night before the wedding: that Belle was dying from cancer and hadn’t told Aden. Aden was horrified when he visited the hospital and found it was true and was unable to bring himself to speak to Belle. Some wise words from Nicole and a letter from Roman convinced Aden he still wanted to be with Belle and the wedding went ahead, with Aden telling Belle that the day was about them being happy and they could deal with what was to come afterwards. When they came back from their honeymoon, Aden supported Belle as she told her family. But they had little time to enjoy being married, as Belle died in her sleep only two weeks later.
Aden held things together for the funeral and delivered a moving eulogy but afterwards he became a virtual recluse, shutting himself away in the house, burning his and Belle’s wedding presents and rejecting Nicole, Morag and Irene when they tried to talk to him and then getting drunk with Indigo. A letter from Belle brought little comfort and he ended up getting drunk and sleeping with another woman. Looking for a distraction, he ended up joining Gibbsey on an illegal abalone fish and it was only Hugo’s intervention that saved him from being arrested. When he had an argument with Nicole, who had inherited the house, and spent the night on the trawler, Morag moved in to keep an eye on him. Martha and Hugo persuaded him to do some work on the farm where he ended up breaking down in tears before apologising to Morag.
Irene asked Aden to run the trawler with Geoff and he eventually agreed to give it a try, after Geoff and Annie had both waded in with their own attempts at persuasion. During this time, Aden was secretly spending nights in Belle’s old room, although Irene and later Geoff were fully aware of this. On their first day working together, Aden managed to overheat the engine and was infuriated by Geoff’s commentary on his attempts to fix it. They ended up first exchanging harsh words, accusing each other of running away from things since Belle’s death, and then blows. Aden nearly drowned after an electric shock from the engine threw him into the water and Geoff rescued him. The experience caused Aden to let go of some of his anger and he and Geoff began to get on well, with Aden teasing Geoff about his attraction to Ruby. When Liam arrived back in town, Aden told him he didn’t care if he stayed so long as he kept away from him. He was annoyed that Liam started spending time with Nicole and punched him when he made a comment about facing up to the consequences of his actions.
He was even more unhappy when Liam started dating Nicole, saying he was worried he would mess her up like he did Belle. Geoff asked him if he had feelings for Nicole and he reacted aggressively. He agreed to make an effort with Liam for Nicole’s sake but wasn’t happy when he caused her to miss the start of one of her exams. He initially supported John Palmer’s election campaign since it meant redeveloping the marina until he learnt it would mean local boat owners losing their berths at which point he decided to side with Martha. When he got a call from Romeo and found him collapsed at Liam’s place from an accidental overdose, he blamed Liam, even though the drugs weren’t his, especially when he asked Aden to take Romeo the hospital himself instead of calling an ambulance so that no-one would know where he was, and told Nicole that people like Liam don’t change. He was annoyed when Nicole then moved him in as Aden’s house mate. He told Nicole he was going to move out of the house rather than share with Liam but when Irene lost her trawler berth and Aden lost his job with it, he was forced to ask to stay on since Nicole wasn’t charging him much rent.
Aden and Nicole began spending more time together and sorted out the differences that had sprung up between them since Belle’s death. Aden went for a job at the Sands and his prospective boss agreed to hire him if he took his daughter Caitie to the school formal. Aden reluctantly agreed but spent most of the night with Nicole. He was shocked to realise he was attracted to her, with the guilt causing him to leave the formal in the middle of a dance and refuse to talk to her afterwards, and was left further confused when Irene gave him another letter from Belle, in which she gave him permission to move on. While he was working as a valet at the Sands, Caitie mentioned her sister Poppie had slept with Liam and Aden told Nicole. He then ended up being sacked when Caitie’s father mistakenly thought he was messing around with her and then stole Poppie’s car in revenge but only managed to get both himself and Nicole arrested. In the lock-up, he showed her Belle’s letter and then kissed her.
Aden was surprised and slightly disappointed when, although he didn’t hate himself because of it, the kiss didn’t make him happy and seemed ready to forget about the relationship. However, when he saw how upset Nicole was about the rejection, he realised he really did care for her. They shared a second kiss and reaffirmed themselves as a couple. Seeing how upset Nicole was that Liam had turned back to drugs, Aden apologised to Liam for the way he’d treated him and told him that Nicole still wanted to be his friend. Aden briefly worked at the Diner prior to the riot before Alf made him manager of the bait shop, which he used to arrange a special first date for Nicole by preparing a romantic meal for them there. When the Diner was reopened, Leah asked him to come back and, when Alf asked if he was happy at the bait shop, he mistakenly assumed he wanted to get rid of him and took the Diner job. When he realised the truth, he ended up arranging to work for both of them part-time.
Aden worried when Nicole asked him if the relationship was moving too quickly for him but eventually concluded that it was because they’d known each other for a long time. Aden was thrown again when Nicole told him she loved him, since he didn’t feel ready to say it back to her, and even ended up asking Liam for advice. After a talk with Tony he told her that he did care about her, it meant a lot that she felt that way and he hoped one day he’d be able to say it as well. While they were spending time together at her place, Nicole invited him up to her room but Aden backed off, saying he had an early start in the morning, and was bemused when Alf told him Nicole was in a bad mood. He eventually admitted he had backed out of the kiss, although he didn’t understand why, and told her that he didn’t want a casual relationship but felt she was worth the confusion. He encouraged her in her decision to return to school and with her desire to impress her idol Britt Hobart, even covering his disappointment when he rearranged his shift to take her out only to find she was busy preparing designs for her. When Nicole showed him her designs, he had a hard time giving an opinion on them, leaving her worried he didn’t think they were any good, and had to reassure her that he just didn’t know much about fashion.
Aden was shocked when he got a call from the hospital saying his brother Justin was a patient. The two were reunited and, although the situation was uncomfortable because of the amount of time they had spent apart, they were soon back on good terms. Justin, who had a loss of short term memories after a car accident, was unimpressed with Aden’s life, feeling he lacked direction, and encouraged him to join the army as he had done. Aden refused, still associating the army with their grandfather and insisting he was content to stay in Summer Bay with Nicole, despite Justin constantly badgering him about it and claiming there was no future in just being Nicole’s boyfriend. He was furious when Justin admitted that he too had been abused by their grandfather but had done nothing to stop it happening to Aden except for telling Larry about it, telling Justin he couldn’t be near him until he’d calmed down.
Then Rachel told them that tests showed Justin had been covered with Larry’s blood after the accident. Aden fobbed her off by saying he’d spoken to Larry since then, then, after phoning the prison and learning Larry had left the prison on parole with Justin, took Justin out to the crash site where they found Larry’s body. Although Justin wanted to inform the police, Aden insisted it would look bad for them and persuaded Justin to help him bury the body and dispose of the clothes they had been wearing. It soon became clear the police wouldn’t be so easily put off when they questioned the brothers about Larry’s disappearance, with Aden coming up with an unconvincing story about a fishing trip to explain their cut hands, and, on learning about the blood test, asked them to accompany them to the accident site. Aden managed to distract Charlie from investigating the spot where they had buried Larry’s body and was shocked when Justin had a flashback of seeing Larry badly injured but continued to believe in his innocence.
Justin went to the police and told them what he remembered. Aden was furious with him and decided they had to move the body before the police could find it but were almost caught by Charlie and Georgina Watson. Charlie and Angelo turned up to search the house and he claimed that his car, where they had left the body, had been stolen. Aden then went to the police and told them he alone had found Larry’s body and buried it, showing them where he’d moved it to. The police were on the verge of charging them with conspiracy to murder when a phone message Larry made to Aden before he died, in which he again urged his son to let go of his hate, proved that his death had been the result of the car accident. All other charges were dropped when Morag told the prosecution service about the family’s history.
However, Aden was less than happy about the outcome which Justin saw as more evidence that he was unhappy living and working in a small town. He asked him to come back to the city with him, even if he didn’t want to join the army. Aden asked Nicole to go away with him but she pointed out her schoolwork precluded it. He admitted he’d felt happier but assured her he was happy about their relationship; however, she then broke up with him. Aden quit his job at the Diner in anger and repeatedly asked Nicole to reconsider. Instead she asked him to tell her she loved him. He didn’t answer and left town with Justin, sending her a brief goodbye text message.