Extended, feature-length edition
In Friday's episode we left Niamh and Joey standing in silence; shocked with the discovery that they've got a three year old grand-daughter, Nathan (and a whole restaurant-full of festive diners) waiting with baited breath for Jacqui's answer to his proposal of marriage and Nikki plotting to get revenge on Luke for having drugged and raped her this time last year...
Jacqui *does* accept Nathan's offer of wedded bliss, much to his great relief (and a round of applause from the other restaurant goers) and admits that she was so overcome that she simply couldn't get the word 'yes' out. Nathan thought that she was taking time to consider the pros and cons but Jacqui assures him that she wasn't.
To say that she's made up would be somewhat of an understatement and she's desperate to tell the world - she wants to phone D-D immediately, then rush round to Bar Brookie and let Mike know and then, er, to, er, face Ron. This last bit doesn't quite enthuse Nathan a great deal as he is moved to comment that Ron isn't too keen on his daughter's intended. Hmm, no, he wasn't keen when they were merely seeing each other. Now things have moved on a stage, I'm sure that Ron will find plenty to say! Mind you, a wedding special featuring Nathan's parents, Ron, D-D (and a gatecrashing Bev thrown in for good measure) might be quite a spectacle, mightn't it???
Talking of Ron, he continues to drive his women insane, as Anthea is rapidly finding out. As if his insistence that the millennium bug will cause massive disruption to the world in general (not to him though- he's well-prepared), is not enough, he's not willing to give the time of day to anyone trying to put the other side of the argument, however informed and reasonable their arguments might be. Anthea despairs as Mike tries to explain that he's over-reacting; she's already had Megan try, and fail, to convince R'Dinosaur otherwise.
In fact, Ron has filled Anthea's house so full of dried foods, candles and heaven-knows what else that he's decided they'll need in order to survive the New Year, that there's practically no room for Rachel's and Mike's belongings other than having them piled up in the living room. He's even commandeered the cupboard under the stairs without Anthea's knowledge and as a result, no-one can find the iron. Fortunately, Ron knows exactly where it is - it's in the microwave. Ah, of course!
Ron's reasoning is that since microwave ovens contain computer chips (which of course, will fail immediately on the stroke of midnight next Friday), the microwave is now nothing more than a convenient cupboard which just happens to be the right size for an iron. Well, I never said that Ron's reasoning was logical, sensible or similar to that of anyone else on the planet, did I?
Anthea's had enough: "You're not right in the head," she tells him. "I want my house back."
Mike goes to work, only to find on his arrival, that Ron is already there propping up the bar - he'd made an excuse to Anthea so that he could go out and get some peace! Mike and Ron have another conversation about Nathan's failings. Ron says that he doesn't think that Nathan could ever love Jacqui as much as he loves himself. Mike, whilst agreeing, refers to him as a "tosser".
Rachel confides in Anthea that she's having second thoughts about turning down Mike's offer of marriage. They decide to call a cab and go to Bar Brookie immediately, as Rachel's insistent that she now *does* want to get married. In fact, she simply *has* to tell Mike this, urgently.
As Rachel takes Mike off to the office for a quiet word (well, to engineer another proposal, to be exact), Ron sets about trying to explain to Anthea just how he's ended up in the bar. Jacqui and Nathan are next to arrive and Jacqui makes Nathan promise not to reveal his background just yet and that will set Ron off. "He won't see you, he'll just see a coat of arms."
Having got that off her chest, Jacqui's bursting to make her good news public and ends up simply coming out with: "I'm getting married". Ron's reaction was classic: "To 'im?" he asks, looking in Nathan's direction.
Mick and Sinbad turn up just as Jacqui is standing on a stool and announcing a free round of drinks for all and sundry.
"Tell you what, Mick, I'm glad you dragged me away from the telly tonight."
"Yeah, I know. Free ale an' all. Not bad innit?"
"And a fed-up Ron Dixon," adds Sin with a wicked smile on his face. "Really puts you in the festive mood."
Ron takes Jacqui to one side:
"I've got to be honest with you," he says, sternly. "I am not happy about this."
"Well, you'd never have guessed," retorts Jacqui, huffily.
"And I hate saying this to you," continues Ron. "But the man is a complete and utter no-mark and *everybody* thinks the same."
Ron tells Jacqui that he has her best interests at heart but he's someone who says what he thinks. [And don't we know it?!] Jacqui insists that he could at least have pretended to have been happy for her. He's ruined her big night. Ron, though, is adamant. You'll marry Nathan over my dead body, is the message.
"Yeah, well, we'll use your ashes as confetti," declares Jacqui.
Meanwhile, Sinbad and Mick are talking to Nathan. Sin persuades him to follow Jacqui's example and buy a round of drinks for everyone.
On the Close, Niamh and Joey are trying to come to terms with the fact that they've got a grand-daughter. Well, Niamh is, at least and once she's over the shock, she's actually quite chuffed. Joey, on the other hand, is furious with Ryan for having kept Lia a secret for the past three years.
"Why couldn't he have warned us instead of producing her like a rabbit from a hat?" he asks Niamh before going on to predict that Ryan will break up with Abby "within weeks", in just the same way in which he always does with his girlfriends. Joey then continues his rant by suggesting to Niamh that when this happens, she'll lose Lia and never see her again. "It'll break your heart," he predicts.
Ryan hears this last bit and is not amused. Alec's the next to walk in - he does so whilst Niamh, Joey and Ryan are in the kitchen and happens upon Lia, playing quietly in the living room. Lia runs over to Ryan saying "there's a scary man". Alec drops his shopping on the kitchen floor when he finds out that he's suddenly become a great-granddad. [I could be pedantic here, and point out that it was probably Ron who was the first to refer to him a such!] Soon after, Matt and Kelly also hear the news.
Ryan is relieved to see how taken Niamh is with Lia. The same certainly can't be said of Joey, who's acting in a rather hostile manner. Well, he was, until he decided to have an early night. He leaves the rest of the clan downstairs, engrossed in a noisy game of cards, unable to hear Lia crying. Joey, upstairs, hears her though and soon he's trying to comfort her - by singing! It's not long before he's also under Lia's spell and we end up with Joey back downstairs (albeit in his dressing-gown) leading a sing-song and strumming his guitar. A happy, merry time ensues in the Musgrove household - except there was one member of the family missing...
And so to the trials and tribulations that comprise the life of Nikki Shadwick...
Watching Luke and Katie kissing from the bungalow, is too much for Nikki. Clutching the bottle of tranquillisers, she rushes outside and starts shrieking (yes, again!):
"Happy Anniversary," she says to Luke. "Off to celebrate are you?"
Luke is none to pleased with Nikki's intrusion and replies: "I'm trying to forget it."
Nikki turns her attention to Katie: You're going out with a rapist. Just cos a jury found him innocent, doesn't mean you're safe, you know. Doesn't it bother you?"
"I can look after myself, thanks."
Nikki continues: "What kind of a girl are you? You were with his brother two weeks ago."
"Don't start having a go at me. I'll tear your eyes out," Katie threatens.
The row continues until a taxi arrives and takes Luke and Katie to a club in town. Nikki is left alone in the middle of the Close and starts talking to herself again:
"You don't get away with it that easy. Not tonight."
Nikki decides to take Jerome's car (I thought that he'd have used it and gone back to Vonnie's, but maybe not!) to make her own way to the club. Whether Nikki can actually drive or not, doesn't seem to have been a consideration. In fact, neither was her good fortune in being able to park the car right outside the front entrance to the club. Don't you just *hate* that? It's forever happening in TV programmes. So realistic! Anyway, once inside the club, Nikki hides in a toilet cubicle, where she crumbles four of the tranquilliser tablets into a beer bottle of the same brand as that which Luke is drinking. Whilst Luke and Katie are on the dance floor, Nikki switches Luke's unattended bottle with the one which she has 'prepared'.
It's not long before Luke takes a swig, immediately pronouncing the beer "disgusting" and spits it out. Nikki, watching from the bar, is distracted by a guy approaching her and trying to chat her up. She doesn't see Luke subsequently knock the bottle over and lose most of the contents as it rolls around the floor. He picks it up and places it back on the table. By the time that Nikki's rid herself of her admirer, she's convinced that Luke must have safely consumed her concoction.
Her belief is confirmed when Luke slips on the spilt beer and goes sprawling - she thinks that the drugs are taking effect. Soon, Nikki traps Luke in the Gents. Convinced that he's falling under the influence, she tells him what she's done. Luke insists that he never actually drank the beer. Nikki doesn't believe him:
"In a couple of minutes you won't even be able to stand. You'll lose complete control of your body and then I can do whatever I want to you, like you did to me."
"I swear to God. I didn't do anything," Luke protests. Nikki, though, isn't to be moved:
"A couple of minutes for the drug to take hold and I can start," she says, expectantly. "There's only one way you can stop what I'm going to do next."
"What's that?"
"Admit you raped me."
"But I didn't."
"No one believes me. The jury, me mates, me family. They all think I'm lying."
"Well, has it ever crossed your mind that they might be right?" [Mind? What mind? :-)]
Luke points out that they're on their own in the Gents. He has no reason to lie and there are no witnesses.
"This, is the truth," he says firmly. "I... did not... rape you."
Nikki drops the bottle which she was clutching and sinks to her knees, sobbing.
Luke tells her to start over and draw a line under the vents of the past year.
"I thought I could get to you, but I can't," admits Nikki. "My life's not worth living any more."
She lunges at him with the broken bottle and cuts his wrist, before running off and making her way to the roof of the club. Luke feels compelled to chase after her and finds her standing on a ledge at the roof-edge.
"NIKKI," he shouts, giving her such a start that she almost loses her balance. Desperately, he tries to talk her down. After quite some time, with little progress being made, Nikki asks if it would bother him if she died.
"Of course it would."
"It doesn't bother you I was raped?"
"It *wasn't* rape."
"What was it then?"
"Just sex," blurts out Luke, in exasperation.
Nikki is stunned: "You admit we had sex?" she asks.
"That's all it was. Just sex."
Back on the Parade, Katie turns up at Bar Brookie bemused as to where Luke had disappeared to. As far as she was aware, he'd simply nipped to the Gent's but never returned. He looks for Jacqui's sympathy but none is forthcoming. Jacqui's far more interested in telling Katie about Nathan's proposal. Katie is worried that Luke's been beaten up and doesn't enthuse nearly enough about Jacqui's news for young Miss Dixon's liking. Jacqui tells Katie to forget about Luke and his "no-good family".
Katie commiserates with Ron over the mistake which they're both certain that Jacqui is making in marrying Nathan. Ron calls Nathan a "divvy" and asks Katie what Jacqui sees in him.
"I would have thought that was obvious. His dad's a viscount for a start."
"A viscount? A *real* viscount?" Ron exclaims.
Suddenly, Ron completely changes his view of Nathan and goes overboard with good wishes and congratulations. So much so, that he announces a round of free drinks for everyone in the bar.
Jacqui is surprised by Ron's about turn and is suspicious as to his motives, but Nathan correctly guesses that Katie has let Ron in on his secret background.
Mike and Rachel emerge from the office, beaming with pride and announce to Ron, their engagement, only to find that Jacqui and Nathan had just done exactly the same thing. Ron, however, is so engrossed in sucking up to Nathan that he takes very little notice of Mike and Rachel's news and gets admonished by Anthea for his failure to pay them enough attention. She orders him to get another round of free drinks for everyone in the bar. Naturally Ron, complains that he's already bought one round and that cost him £83!
Mick and Sin aren't complaining, though. They're too busy getting steadily tanked up for free.
Back up on the roof, Luke thinks that now Nikki's heard what she'd been waiting to hear that that'll be the end to the matter. But no, Nikki has other ideas. Luke protests that whatever the act was, it wasn't rape.
"Did I use a weapon?" he asks. "No. Did I force myself on you? No. Did I use violence? Were you frightened or threatened? Were your clothes ripped? No. Did I use a condom? Yes. Have you ever heard of a rapist using a condom? I did."
"Oh, raped by a new man? Lucky me," Nikki crows.
"No. Not raped. The truth is we were snogging at that party. We were getting on. You liked me. We'd gone together upstairs. We had sex. You woke up the next morning and regretted it like thousands of people every day."
"There's just one thing I can't get my head round," says Nikki. You've got such a cast iron case. You're so obviously in the right and I'm obviously a hysterical woman - why didn't you say any of this at the trial?"
Luke falls silent for a while. Eventually he tells Nikki that he was simply scared. Scared in case no-one would believe him.
Nikki's now on the attack. "Did you put the drug in my drink?" she asks.
"I didn't know what it would do."
"You must have known it would do something else you wouldn't have bothered."
"It was *just* a drug as far as I knew."
"And what did you think it was for?"
"Getting off your head."
"So, why didn't *you* take it?"
"It's the same as any other."
"It's *not* the same, is it?"
"I didn't know that then."
"Where'd you get it?"
"One of the lads in the car wash."
"What did he tell you it did?"
"Look. It's a drug. It makes you do stupid things."
"I couldn't even defend myself. I couldn't stop it and *you* know I couldn't. It was a rape drug."
"I didn't know that."
"Well, what did the fellow in the car wash tell you it did?"
"That... you know... that you'd be up for it."
"Up for what?"
"Sex."
"But you know I wasn't up for sex. I'd already knocked you back."
"To me, it was only like buying a girl a few vodkas."
"Did he tell you I wouldn't be able to remember anything afterwards?"
"That can happen after a few vodkas."
"It's not the same thing. If you had bought me a large vodka, I'd have had a choice. I could have said yes or I could have said no and when you sneaked out seconds after, you knew you'd raped me and you were scared of getting caught."
By now, Luke's getting close to tears. Nikki's going at him hammer and tongs. She's determined that he'll admit to rape before she's finished with him. Finally, and tearfully, she gets her wish:
"Now I want to hear you say it," she tells Luke. "Now was that sex or was it rape?"
"It was rape," sobs Luke. "It was rape. I raped you."
Nikki walks off, leaving Luke up on the roof, crying. She's insisted that he now has to tell both Katie and Niamh about his confession. He simply can't face doing so.
He considers something which Nikki had been contemplating earlier - leaving the roof by the most direct route.
As he sits on the ledge pondering his future, he suddenly finds himself being pulled backwards away from danger. It's Nikki, who tells him that she's not going to let him die tonight. If he did top himself, she be the one to get the blame - and she not having that.
"Get down them stairs," she orders. "I'm gonna make you live with it for now just like I had to. Live your miserable life and see if you can stand it."
Episode written by John Fay
Summary © 1999 Graeme Selway
Brookside and all related materials are © Mersey Television 1982-2001