Episode 7298

Extended Summary

Dean and Ziggy are walking up from the beach with Dean commenting that Willow was still upset when he left her with Irene. Ziggy recalls that she and Dean couldn’t make long distance work. Mackenzie appears; she is heading to the hospital and has some food for Colby. Dean calls it breakfast in bed and Mackenzie retorts that in a hospital breakfast is always in bed. Dean accepts an offer to go with her but Ziggy declines. At the hospital, Jasmine comments that Tori hasn’t been on the shop floor much and Tori notes she’s been sorting out the rosters; a lot of things have changed while Alex was running things. She is also worried that it is Grace’s feed time. She doesn’t want to call but Jasmine dials the number and hands the phone to her. Marilyn answers from the Morgan house and assures them that everything’s fine and she’s going to take Grace for a walk.

At the surf club, Ben ironically asks Maggie and Ziggy if they fancy helping him. Bella comes in and Maggie asks her how her application for TAFE is going. Bella admits she hasn’t done it yet. Maggie says she’d better hurry since school’s started back and offers to help with a reference. Bella says this is the last time Maggie bugs her about homework. Ziggy follows her to the stairs and notes Dean didn’t say anything about her leaving school. Bella says it’s a secret and not to tell anyone. At the hospital, Tori and Jasmine go in to check on Colby who is pleased to see Jasmine back. Dean and Mackenzie also arrive. Tori says it’ll be six weeks before Colby can surf again and Dean tries to knock it down to four. Colby wonders if Bella’s going to counselling; he understands she missed last week but doesn’t want her missing today’s. Mackenzie gives him the food and they banter about him being out of a hospital gown; Dean looks from one to the other suspiciously.

Ziggy follows Bella up to Salt, where she’s looking at the TAFE prospectus. Bella suspects she’s either there to talk her out of it or has told Dean. Ziggy assures her she wouldn’t dob and points out she goes to TAFE as well. Bella is worried about Colby’s reaction, saying she’s fed up of letting him down but can’t get her HSC and be the genius he wants her to be. She says she went to campus with Ryder and felt at home there, and the fact there’s no exams, only assessments, suits her. Ziggy thinks if she explains it like that, Colby will understand. However, Colby refuses point blank and is annoyed that she’s quitting after all the help she’s been given. Bella says she wants to take responsibility for things herself and Dean said she was stuffing things up for him. Dean protests that he didn’t tell her to quit school. Tori comes in and asks them to keep it down and Bella storms out, saying Colby isn’t listening anyway. Colby tries to follow, despite warnings, and ends up in pain when he puts his weight on his leg. He sends Mackenzie after her.

Jasmine comes out of the lift, which closes just before Bella gets to it, leaving her jabbing at the button. Mackenzie catches up to her. Bella says she was trying to be grown-up. Mackenzie thinks she made some good points and can tell TAFE meant a lot to her but running away isn’t very grown-up, convincing her to stay. Dean watches as Tori and a nurse give Colby pain relief, which leaves him rather mellow. Mackenzie and Bella arrive with a bag of crisps as a peace offering. Tori and Mackenzie leave them to talk. Outside the surf club, Maggie and Ziggy watch as Ben takes a customer to try out a board. Mackenzie appears and tells them about Colby and Bella being at odds. Ziggy asks if it was to do with Bella going to TAFE. She worries she gave her bad advice.

Colby asks Bella if repeating Year 11 would really be that bad and thinks their mum would have wanted her to finish school. Bella says she’s not here, so Colby says it’s what he wants, to give her opportunities. Bella says he has done but she doesn’t fit in there: She’s not going on the dole, she has a plan which makes her happy, which she thinks is what their mother would want. Dean agrees. Colby asks to see the paperwork. Nearby, Jasmine tells Tori that the registrar has seen the acute patients and they have two resus beds free. An ambulance crew brings in a patient from a motor vehicle accident, a man in his 30s. Tori tells Jasmine to do bloods and call theatre but Jasmine is having flashbacks to seeing Robbo brought in and freezes up. Seeing what’s going on, Tori tells another nurse to take bloods.

Maggie is still outside the surf club as Ben returns with the happy customer, telling him to let his friends in Byron Bay know he takes orders. Ben sits with Maggie and says it’s his 50th sale since he reopened. He says he’s going to go and test a new design. At the hospital, Tori sees the patient off to theatre and is looking around when Ziggy appears. Ziggy is pleased to see her back at work and says she’s sorry about Mason and has been thinking about the family a lot. Tori says it feels like he should be there with her. Ziggy goes off to see Colby. Tori finds Jasmine in the room where Robbo died and hugs her.

Marilyn is playing with Grace and comments that she’s worse than John at making a mess. Catching herself, she notes that people are telling her not to risk her marriage but she might not want to stay married to him. She adds that that’s between them. At the Diner, Tori and Jasmine reflect on the events. Tori is understanding but says Jasmine doesn’t have to come back for her if she’s not ready. Jasmine says she needs to go back for herself. Marilyn arrives with Grace and Tori notes Robbo would have been proud of all of them today.

Dean and Ziggy play with a swivel chair while Colby studies the TAFE prospectus in details. He agrees that the course looks good but it costs $4000. Bella is considering applying for fee aid but Dean says he’ll pay. Colby decides he’s better off not knowing what happened between them. He agrees to Bella doing the course on condition she keeps seeing the counsellor: He understands her missing the session because of him being stabbed but wants her to go this afternoon. Bella agrees. Ziggy heads home where Maggie tells her about Ben testing a design; both know this is just an excuse to go for a surf. Maggie wonders if she should organise something special for Ben’s birthday, which Ziggy admits she’d forgotten. Ziggy thinks a party would be good but isn’t sure Ben’s ready to be the centre of attention.

Bella sits in the flat, looking at the TAFE prospectus and her camera. She gets a text from Colby reminding her about the counselling session and replies to say she’s on her way. However, she then calls Patricia and says she has to stay at the hospital with Colby but will have lots of things to write about for next time. She ends the call, looking uncomfortable.