You'll remember that yesterday, Katie told Jacqui to tackle Susannah about Harry and the bruising. Well, Jacqui didn't wait very long before marching in and telling Susannah that she's 'worried about her' in such a way that Susannah immediately takes umbrage.
Jacqui doesn't ease up and starts questioning Katrina's trustworthiness. This is too much for Susannah who explodes in a rage:
"How *dare you* come round here and insinuate that she'd intentionally hurt the children."
"I only wanna help you as a friend. For God's sake, Susannah, look at yourself. You look like you're about to have a breakdown."
"*You're* not exactly helping things. Leave me alone... just leave me alone."
With that, Susannah cracks and admits that she can't cope. It's all getting too much, she says - the kids, the restaurant, Greg, everything.
Jacqui takes the opportunity to point out the obvious - that the affair with Greg is doing nothing except make things worse.
Susannah is torn - she says that she can't believe how much she's missing Greg - and it's only been a week. From being utterly convinced that she was in total control of the affair, she now feels unable to cope without him!
There's an altercation at Number Ten too, where Jackie has got herself fixed up to see Nurse Sandra about voluntary jobs at the hospital, straight after work and wants Jimmy to collect William from Val's. Jimmy say's that he can't do it because of other arrangements. He asks Lindsey, but she can't do it either. At the garage, Joey offers to cover and Jackie takes her trip to the hospital early than originally planned. She returns apparently having enjoyed herself immensely.
Mad Mark is hanging around outside Bar Brookie in the hope of catching Vic on her way to work, since he waited for her all afternoon the day before and still missed her (actually she saw him and left via a rear exit). When he collars her, he insists that they meet for lunch. There are things which need to be discussed, he says. A fact of which, Vic is only too well-aware. Vic agrees to the appointment but doesn't tell Mark that she's just arranged to meet Darren at lunchtime - so tough.
When lunchtime comes, it's Darren who gets Vic's company and again he tries to tell her how much he loves her, but before he can elicit any sort of response, the calm is broken by Mark barging up to their table mouthing off about broken lunch dates. Vic has had enough, stands up and walks away threatening Mark that if necessary, she'll serve him with a court order forcing him to keep away from her.
Darren decides that he needs to get his message across to Vic by another means and later on the parade, he sees his chance. He walks up to her, holds her head firmly in his hands and plants a great huge kiss on her lips.
Jacqui chairs yet another meeting about the opening night of the Club and Lindsey, who has spent all day bragging about a 'surprise' which she has arranged, proudly announces that she has secured a supply of free booze from a local company for the celebrations. Jacqui is both surprised and impressed - *exactly* the reaction which Lindsey was after. Jacqui then asks Lindsey to sort out the security arrangements for the opening night - a task which Lindsey is only too pleased to take on. Except that she's interrupted by a call on her mobile from her childminder advising her that Kylie is not feeling too well. Lindsey announces that she has to go and it looks as though all thoughts of security arrangements will get forgotten in her panic.
Back on the Close, Jason smugly, *very* smugly (you'll need to see the episode in question to get an idea of just how far off the end of the smug-o-meter Jason has gone) parks Greg's van at the end of Mick's drive, which totally blocks in Jerome's car. Somehow he manages to send his smugness rating *even* further off the scale when Nikki tells him that he's a big kid and needs to grow up.
Obviously it's not long before Jerome wants to get his car out and another brawl ensues. Again, Leo manages to get inadvertently smacked in the face and again, the fracas is broken up by Mick and Greg (who with Margi, arrives back on the Close by taxi, just as the scrap is about to get serious).
Mick takes Leo off to clean up his face, and while Margi and Greg are giving a still-smug Jason a severe dressing-down, Jerome and Nikki sneak off by car.
Parked up later on, Nikki tells Jerome that the accident with Ryan's cab had been witnessed. He doesn't want to hear this and still refuses to come clean insisting that he *won't* be paying Ryan's repair bill.
The conversation moves on to other things and eventually the two of them find themselves snogging (no, not on the back seat - it looked more like on the bonnet to me!). Kids, eh!
Summary © 1999 Graeme Selway
Brookside and all related materials are © Mersey Television 1982-2001