4849: Martha confronts Angelo

As Rachel worries about whether Tony’s dealing with Angelo’s return to the Bay as well as he says he is, Tony and Xavier head out to help Martha on the farm, but are taken aback to discover she’s slept the night in the hay shed. Martha tries to cover the real reason – that she’s hiding out from Angelo – but Tony’s on to her and she confesses that she’s terrified that seeing Angelo will dredge up the pain and grief for Jack all over again. Tony assures Martha that if she needs to talk or somewhere to stay…all she has to do is say the word - everyone’s there for her.

Later, an angry Xavier confronts Angelo at the Diner, inadvertently passing on the fact that Martha has been sleeping out at the farm to stay away from him. Using this information, Angelo heads out there to find her. But as he offers a long rehearsed and heart felt apology, Martha is frozen by the sight of the man who killed her husband. When Tony hears of Angelo’s visit and how badly it’s affected Martha, he explodes but Martha reveals she’s crying not because of Angelo, but because she felt pathetic and useless.

Later, visiting Hugo at the hospital, Martha gets the opportunity to confront Angelo again, and this time she tells him exactly what she thinks. Nothing he can say or do could ever be enough for taking Jack from her. And she’s not scared of him…she just wants him to disappear, so she doesn’t have to think about him ever again. Martha is left shaken by her outburst…but definitely standing taller.

Leah is concerned that VJ has been traumatised from finding the hand on the beach. Rachel suggests she take him to see a counsellor and this leads to talk of Roman. Leah tells Rachel about her ongoing worry for Roman which is for good reason…as Roman is still having nightmares and flashbacks to the car accident. However, any attempt by Nicole to break through his dark misery is met with resistance.

Finally, Nicole’s had enough, especially when Roman forbids her from hanging out with Trey. When she tells Ruby and Jai, she at first has their full sympathy, until she reveals that it’s Trey, Roman has banned her from seeing. Jai is appalled that Nicole would even consider Trey as a mate, especially after what he did to Kirsty - the guy’s bad news. And it seems that despite her friends’ advice to steer clear, Nicole is falling for this guy.

Later, Nicole and Trey return home to find Roman in the middle of a nightmare and calling out to someone called Gardy. Shocked by the aggression behind her father’s behaviour and tired of his ongoing attitude, Nicole heads out with Trey, leaving Roman rattled by his own extreme behaviour, and worried that he might be losing his mind.

Having devised a makeshift bandage to suppress his bleeding wound, Hugo has made it through the night on his boat. But he’s pale and weak and only just manages to stagger home. Finding the house empty, he attends to the wound himself, and it soon becomes clear that in spite of being in dire need of medical attention, Hugo has no intention of seeking it. That is, until Colleen turns up looking for Martha and reveals that Angelo is back in town to investigate the shark attack.

The reason being that he wants to avoid the negative media attention a shark attack would bring to his business. Succumbing to his pain he eventually does make it to the hospital and no one is more relieved than Martha, who can’t believe how close she came to losing someone else.