It was a dark and stormy night (well, I'm sorry, but it was!) and if you remember, Nikki had got into what she thought was a cab to take her the hundred yards or so from the Parade to the bungalow, only to find that this was no taxi and that it was Harvey who was at the wheel.
Unable to open the door and run for it as Harvey had activated the child locks, Nikki found herself both terrified and trapped. Harvey had driven Nikki away from the Parade and parked up in the middle of a muddy field.
"It's alright, I'm not gonna hurt you," says Harvey.
Nikki wasn't reassured by this statement at all (would you have been?) and tries whining (oops, I mean pleading!) with him:
"Harvey. Pleeease. Take me home."
"I will do soon. This won't take long," replied Harvey, mysteriously.
It transpires that Harvey is so in love with Nikki and so frustrated by the lengths that she and her friends have been going to in an effort to keep him away from her, that the only way he can think of being able to talk to her on a one to one basis, is to abduct her and imprison her in a car in the middle of nowhere.
"Everything I've done is just because I love you," he says.
He then climbs out of the driver's seat and proceeds to take the child locks of the rear doors, so that he can sit next to Nikki on the back seat and then be able to get out again! (Wouldn't it have been funny if he'd forgotten to reset the child locks and trapped himself in the back and had to clamber into the front seats to get out?)
"I love everything about you. The way you look, the way you speak, your hair. It's like nobody's got hair like that except in oil paintings", says Harvey as viewers reach for their buckets.
"You're scaring me," replies Nikki.
"I don't mean to."
"But you are. Everything you do freaks me out."
Back on the Close, Bernie's date with Paul The Barman has come to nothing and she's turned up on the doorstep of the bungalow, hoping to stop over. Jessie knows nothing of this invitation and it's soon clear to both, that Nikki ought to have been home by know and hasn't arrived.
"But she got a taxi about half an hour ago," says Bernie. (That was some date then, wasn't it? Lasted all of twenty minutes!)
This spooks Jessie, who is immediately on the phone to the police.
Over on the Parade, Katie's moment of passion, on the sofa, with Luke (use your imagination!) is interrupted by Ryan, bleating from outside the flat door. He's refusing to leave without Katie seeing him. Luke gathers up his clothes and hides in the bedroom, while Katie lets Ryan in.
"Is this a joke?" asks Katie, looking at the soggy bunch of flowers in Ryan's hand. "I'm sorry for two-timing you - here's some flowers?"
"I came to say I'm sorry."
"You've said it," replies Katie rather abruptly. "Bye."
The more that Katie tries to get Ryan to leave, the more he digs his heels in.
"I'm not going anywhere until we've got this sorted."
In desperation, Katie tries a different tactic: "I'm seeing someone else," she announces.
"Have you slept with him? asks Ryan, once Katie's convinced him that it's not a wind-up.
"That's none of you're business," she tells him.
"You're just a slag then," declares Ryan. He leaves.
Back in the field, Harvey is still trying to convince Nikki that he means her no harm and that all he wants is the chance of a 'normal' relationship with her. He brings up the subject of the rape and asks if she thinks that it might have been him. "No" says Nikki, confidently. Harvey is obviously relieved and pleased to hear this. He tells Nikki of his fantasy in which he kills the rapist and how she is eternally grateful. In fact, Harvey dreams about Nikki a lot. He doesn't think that life is worth living without her. (Ugh! Fetch those buckets again!)
Harvey then decides that he's finished his diatribe and gets out of the car. He goes to climb into the driver's seat intending to take Nikki home, but unfortunately, doesn't actually tell Nikki this. She grabs her chance and makes a run for it.
Elsewhere, Max has returned to Number Seven following his jaunt across the high seas and is received with open arms by Susannah. Well, it's not so much what she *said*, but it was plain that she was glad to see him again.
Jimmy is up late, working on his secret plans for a Millennium Shed (or whatever it'll turn out to be) whilst Jackie asks Lindsey for some advice.
"How do you deal with your staff when they're swinging the lead?"
"Sack 'em," replies Lindsey, very matter-of-factly.
"I can't do that," says Jackie, sounding slightly shocked. Not *exactly* 'like mother, like daughter', then?
Wherever, the field was where Harvey had taken Nikki, it couldn't have been too far away, as Nikki is able to run all the way home in the rain (now, why didn't she do that when she left bar Brookie, eh?). She batters the front door of the bungalow until Jessie answers it.
"Oh my God. Oh, Nikki," she says.
The following day; the rains have stopped and most of the water has gone, leaving almost dry roads and pavements.
Luke is late for work. He's stayed over at Katie's and just makes it in before Jackie. The only problem is that he isn't wearing his uniform. Joey tells him to go home and change - Jackie won't mind!
In fact, Jackie does mind. She minds very much and although she arrives whilst Luke is missing and Joey is lounging about talking to Niamh whilst a queue of customers builds up at the checkout, she still fails to say anything.
On the Close, Susannah is standing on the Corkhill's doorstep telling Superwoman how good Max is with the kids and how he's doing all the chores and the shopping. Lindsey asks whether Susannah is planning to keep him around much longer. No, says Susannah: "New year, new nanny" apparently, is her plan.
Throughout this discussion, both women's gazes are focused on a policeman walking (yes, walking!) across the Close, and being let into the bungalow.
Once inside, Lindsey is collared by Jimmy:
"She back with Max, yet?" he asks, meaning Susannah.
"Not yet. Give it three weeks," predicts Lindsey.
Hmm, we'll see about that. What the Corkhill's couldn't see was how well Max was getting on with Niamh, talking and flirting over the garden fence...
When Lindsey tried to talk to Jimmy about her little debt problem with the Finnegans a few days ago, Jim wasn't particularly interested. Today though, he raises the subject himself.
Lindsey tells him that she's obtained a certain amount of money, but not enough. Fifteen grand is all that she's been able to muster, apparently. *Fifteen* grand? How on earth has she managed to do that, then? The club's only just reopened (for the third time) a couple of weeks ago!
Jimmy suggests selling Number Nine. Lindsey refuses, so Jim asks whether Jacqui Dixon would lend her the money.
"I'm not asking *her* for a favour."
Jim tries again:
"What about Shelley?" he asks. "She looks like she's worth a few bob."
"No."
"So, couldn't you cream some cash off the club?" enquires Jimmy, his ideas getting increasingly desperate.
"I already have," replies Linds. Ah! That explains the fifteen grand, then!
Luke's made it back to the garage and has got away without any comment from Jackie. Even then, he still gets no reprimand when he spends the next ten minutes talking to Katie.
Well, actually, it's Katie who does most of the talking - she insists that they allow things to cool down for a while.
Katie is then collared by Ryan, who starts by apologising for having called her a 'slag', yesterday.
Again, she tells Ryan to get lost and reminds him that she's now seeing someone else.
"Are you trying to tell me you *have* slept with someone?" he enquires.
"After I finished with you?" Katie asks him. "Dead right."
"Well, then, you are a slag. Or desperate."
"I was desperate for improvement."
"Well, I pity the fella."
"Oh, I wasn't disappointed, actually."
"I bet *he* was."
In desperation, Katie then spills the beans:
"Why don't you ask him yourself, Ryan? He's your brother."
"I'll *kill* him."
Over on the Close, Harvey has turned up at the bungalow. The local florist must be doing well, because, he's now the one carrying a large bunch of flowers.
Jessie answers the door, asks Harvey to wait and goes to fetch someone. Nikki rushes past her.
"You have haven't got a clue, have you? she shrieks. "Why won't you leave me alone? Why won't you understand? I don't want anything to do with you."
Harvey is then promptly arrested for abduction. Bernie suggests to Jessie that perhaps Harvey could be the rapist.
"I think you might be right, love" agrees Jessie.
Hmmm.....
Episode written by John Fay
Summary © 1999 Graeme Selway
Brookside and all related materials are © Mersey Television 1982-2001