Katie's annoyed with Ryan - he's been away for six days and she hasn't heard a word from him. As she moans about this to Jacqui, who should knock at the door, but our roving Mussie, just back from his trip to visit Abby and the chicken-pox ridden Lia, in Edinburgh.
However, Katie quickly finds that whilst Ryan is chatty and cheerful, he's only got one topic of conversation (or two if you count Abby and Lia separately!). So cheesed-off does poor Katie become that she flips and chucks him out. She doesn't even get the sympathy she's after from Jacqui. Instead, it's a barrage of 'I told you so' and 'well, I did warn you' type pearls of wisdom.
Over at the petrol station, Jackie Corkhill is in mega-fret mode over the garage's future. Just for good measure, she also having a moan about her other favourite subject - Jimmy's lack of gainful employment. It's Lindsey who gets to listen to most of this and she doesn't escape her mother's tongue either. Jackie tells her to stop moping over "some girl you've fallen out with". Lindsey takes umbrage at this and leaves her mother to it.
It's not long, though, before Jackie gets a visit from Ian Leigh, the developer and he confirms that he's never been planning to demolish the garage to make way for a block of flats. It fact, it's the complete opposite - he wants to expand it. Not just that, but he needs someone to manage it for him and the job's Jackie's, if she wants it. If she wants it? She's beside herself with excitement and almost bites his hand off in her eagerness. And this is the woman who spends 90% of her time doing herself down!
Jackie can't wait to give her news to Jimmy. I hope we get to watch when she does this - what's the betting that he'll do his own demolition job on her abilities?
Lindsey's decided to do something about her friendship with Shelley and turns up at her cottage unannounced. Shelley isn't particularly pleased to be disturbed but lets her in nonetheless. Lindsey insists that she finishes off telling Shelley her life story (can Shelley actually believe that there's more?) and dredges up the gory details surrounding Gary and Callum, particularly the parallels between the two. Did Shelley want to know that Lindsey was raped by Gary and that he also tried it on again, as did Callum (twice), or that she'd planned to kill them both? Well, she certainly does now.
Back on the Close, Nikki is puzzling over the photo from Harvey - she has no recollection of it being taken at all. (Actually, this ought not to be a surprise, I'd have bet that Nikki was off her face at the time, after all it's not exactly a rare occurrence, is it?) Anyway, on this occasion, Nikki would appear to be correct, for Katrina is convinced that the photo has been doctored.
"God! He's a freak," exclaims Nikki.
"He's a real sicko," agrees Trine.
And there's more... Apparently, Harvey moved into the house next door to where Bernie's flat was, when he heard that Nikki would be moving in. Like I said last time - he's just plain weird. Nuff said.
If Nikki was after any peace in the bungalow, she was disappointed as first Emily bounds in (claiming to be on a free period) followed by Jessie. It transpires that Emily has been kipping over in the bungalow, much to Jessie's annoyance. Emily refuses point blank to return to her Nan's. Jessie tells her that staying with Nikki is not on and eventually the cause of Emily's stand is revealed - she wants to be near Tim. She even called him her "boyfriend" which gave Jessie something of a shock. "That cheeky little so-and-so from next door" was how Jessie referred to him.
As Jessie worked herself up into a lather, Emily took off saying "I'm not having you telling me what to do".
With that, Jessie also makes to leave, but as she's putting her coat on, Jerome arrives and Jessie decides to stay a while longer.
Emily's only gone to Tim's and rather than returning to school, she bunks off. Chuffed that Emily had told her Nan that he was her boyfriend, Tim offers to put her up in his pied-a-garage. (Didn't look too cosy, did it? Not with that two inch gap at the top of the garage door. I bet that's nice and draughty at this time of year.)
Back in the bungalow, Nikki and Jerome have finally been left alone and they're getting it together on the sofa. Nikki's decided to take things a stage further and tells Jerome: "I want tonight to be my first time".
"Well, I'll have to go out and get something," says Jerome, leaping to his feet.
So, is he going to return with a regular brand, or something a bit more obscure? Sometimes, these things can be significant, you know...
Episode written by Barry Woodward
Summary © 1999 Graeme Selway
Brookside and all related materials are © Mersey Television 1982-2001