'A Kind of Hush'

Outside a blackbird sings loudly as inside Vivien’s house is the devastation left behind by the burglars Ryan and Lee. There is an ominous feeling in the air as Vivien slowly pulls herself up by the side of the bed her hand covered in blood. A dazed Vivien goes to the kitchen and opens the window to breath in fresh air and listens to the blackbird. Her hand is bleeding even more now; she has to wrap it tight to stop it bleeding. She calls 999. A together Vivien then calls Jimmi, gets changed and checks herself in the mirror, she looks immaculate. Jimmi, Eva and the police arrive spot on time, she lets them in. Jimmi redresses her arm as Eva tells her that they have some prints and she knows who they are looking for. Meanwhile a police car catches up with a fleeing Ryan and Lee, and we see them banged up in the police station cells. Vivien goes to The Mill where all the staff is gathered to congratulate their hero of the hour. But this is all a daydream….

Back in reality Vivien waits for the operator as she calls 999, when her call is answered she cannot speak and breaks down in tears as she looks around the devastated room. Vivien goes up to her bedroom, as she slowly enters she hears the voice of Ryan telling her to scream. Vivien gathers off the blood stained bedspread, and tries to scrub away the bloodstains in the sink. She takes a bath and tries to scrub herself clean. Once dressed she puts the bed sheets in to wash and summons up the courage to call the police once again and this time goes through with it. She tells them she’ll be waiting for them to send someone around. Meanwhile at The Mill unaware of what has happened the gang await news of Vivien’s driving test, they take the opportunity to do impressions of Vivien, having a laugh at her expense.

Vivien is scared by loud knocking at her door, when she summons up her courage she is greeted by an overweight, gum-chewing policeman called Barry Shaw (40’s). Vivien shows Barry the broken back door and will only tell him that the perpetrators ran past her as she came into the house and that they were hoodies. He says that he will take a statement and will get forensics in but he is pessimistic about getting any prints. Barry notices the washing machine swilling it’s load and goes to have a look upstairs. As he takes Vivien’s statement, even Barry notices some inconsistencies in her story. He questions what happened and the time she said the burglary occurred, and why she left it so long to report the crime. As she reads the statement back Vivien finally loses her temper. Barry finds Vivien in the garden to apologise, he leaves her his card.

At The Mill Jimmi is becoming concerned that he hasn’t heard anything from Vivien. The others presume she has failed the test. Meanwhile Vivien is becoming frustrated as her arm keeps bleeding, she attempts to steri-strip the wound. Jimmi manages to get through to Vivien on the phone, and asks her about the test. She tells him she didn’t take it because she has been burgled. Concerned he offers to come round but Vivien refuses the offer. Jimmi ignores her and arrives at Vivien’s house. Vivien is grateful to see him and babbles as she makes tea, when he manages to get her to sit down she finally admits to him that she can’t get her arm to stop bleeding. Jimmi has to glue one of the cuts and tries to get her to talk about it but she refuses.

At the Mill, Eva is trying to find Jimmi and ends up finding Archie. They end up having a row about the drugs raid in which JJ was arrested. Archie blames Eva saying she talked him into giving her the information for the raid when all he wanted was advice as to what to do. Now Melody won’t have anything to do with him and it’s all Eva’s fault.

Back at Vivien’s, Jimmi is still trying to find out what happened to Vivien’s arm. He asks her if she did it to herself. Angry, she tells him not to be ridiculous. When he pushes her further she finally admits that the boy did it, that the other one held her down, and he did it when he tried to get her to scream, but she refused. Jimmi asks her if he hurt her anywhere else, and a very upset Vivien makes Jimmi swear to her that he won’t tell anyone else, and then tells him she was raped.