At the Holby Docks, a drum of toxic gas falls on two dockers - one dies and the other suffers a badly burnt leg. Other workers are also poisoned and the team try to identify the substance. Duffy advises a young girl, Sophie, to drink milk after drinking car fluid from her fathers garage. A stubborn man, being treated by Charlie after being hit on the head with a golf ball, is not happy with his treatment and says he will complain to Charlie's boss.

Clive King has to try and find out why two step sisters are unhappy after one of them is badly injured. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that the injured sister felt unloved by her stepfather and Clive tries to make him aware of the problem. A spot check by the DHSS sends ripples through the department and Ewart upsets his wife by cancelling a dinner engagement.

As Baz arrives late into the department, she first has to certify the passing of a young girl. It's football day - Holby v Tottenham. A 16 year old boy is picked up, wrongly accused of attacking a policeman. He is discharged from the hospital, where he later returns with his deranged father - it turns out he attacked the policeman and his son. He threatens staff with a Stanley knife. Tuesday, a young woman, is brought in by her boyfriend, Steve. She has appendicitis and needs an operation - but she is a Christian Scientist and refuses to sign the consent form. Megan asks the staff to pray for her, and miraculously her pain is cured.

Ewart is angry that Charlie has invited a Fleet Street journalist, Harry Horner, to write about the permanent night shift. Fed up being there, Harry gets drunk and is sick over the reception desk - the staff sober him up with a fully clothed shower. After a motorway pile-up, involving two men, driver John and Andy, in a lorry, and a couple, Derek and Lindsay in a car. The men suffer minor injuries, but the couple both die. John blames himself. Surgical Registrar, Rupert Thalton, who Baz dislikes, is keen to take the organs from the woman. Baz breaks the bad news to Lindsay's parents, who reveal she was pregnant.

An unhelpful newspaper article is published, and reveals nothing about the work of the department; the staff, especially Ewart, are not happy. A 16 year old runaway, Carrie, phones the Samaritans, after taking an overdose. She gets through to Jed Carver, who goes to the address she has given, and takes her to hospital. She is also a heroin addict. DI Fox gets involved, after reports of a break in, and he thinks Jed is her dealer, he lets on this information to her parents - her Dad goes storming through the department and attempts to attack Jed, until Jed explains who he is - that he has never met Carrie before and was only trying to help.

During a lively meeting with staff - chaired by Union Rep Charlie and Andrew Ponting, Duffy calls for a demonstration outside a cinema, which is showing 'naughty nurse' films. A law student, Mark Richards, is brought in after convulsing in a library. Baz tells him he has epilepsy, but he denies it and discharges himself. Charlie, sees him outside and gives him a lift, he takes him to breakfast. He advises Mark, who is afraid of fitting in a lawyer's court. A pregnant 15 year old, Nuala, is brought in after being knocked down with her bike, by a lorry. She has head injuries and a fractured arm. But the team are more worried by the fact she is a runaway, and where she will go after the hospital discharges her.

Charlie goes to see Baz's flat after their night shift - they end up in bed together. Again, she says to him, she can't commit to a relationship. Charlie discovers at work, she has been taking 'speed' to keep her awake at night, and criticises her for taking them. A woman, Julia, is raped and assaulted, comes in with her young son, Edward. Charlie discovers the boy has also been sexually abused. His architect father, Philip, an old friend of Mr Thalton, turns up and is interviewed by Charlie and Clive, they all believe he is guilty, apart from Thalton. An alcoholic tramp, Mrs Cook, who has hurt her ankle, infests the department with fleas. The staff are left scratching for the rest of the shift. Mr McFarlen comes in with abdomen pains, Baz calls Thalton down on Clive's recommendation, as she hasn't had time to look at him herself. But Thalton is annoyed, when he wasn't needed, as his ulcer was not perforated and didn't need operating.

Charlie fine tunes his car, ready for Duffy, who is due to take her driving test at the end of shift. Two taxi drivers, Ken and Les, are both brought in, after ammonia is thrown in their faces by a crazed woman, in separate attacks. Their eyes are irrigated, but Megan is worried about the safety of husband, Ted, who is also a taxi driver. She tries to call him, as does the taxi control office woman, Cheryl, who puts out a warning over the radio, but Ted has his turned off. Outside the cinema, the same woman gets into Ted's cab - he avoids the attack, and talks to the woman for over an hour, he feels sorry for her. The police are then called to take her away, Ted makes a statement. When he collects Megan from work, he is thinking of retiring. Megan tells him she has cancer, and what her hysterectomy will mean for them. Duffy's nurse friend, Trish, is moonlighting part-time at a pub. A regular, Tom, gives her a lift home, as she gets out of the car, Tom attempts to sexually assault her, during the struggle her fingers are trapped in the car door. She demands him to take her to hospital, where Duffy treats her painful injuries. Duffy says she should report it, but she says she will lose her job and she needs the money. She says she is leaving nursing as she wants a higher paid job - Duffy questions her on job satisfaction or more money.

Paramedic Andy, has spent the night with Sandra Mute. As they get ready for work, she reminds him he's a married man. Clive and Charlie make fun of Duffy, who's failed her driving test after crashing into a pedestrian bollard. Duffy argues with Kuba about the untidiness of the store room - Megan tells her to give him a break, as he works hard. An old man, Harry, is brought in from a home. Baz says he hasn't got long left. His four old friends, Arthur, Ernie, Mike and Lagger, steal the home's minibus to travel to see him. As Kuba is wheeling to another was, he stops to deal with a Polish woman who has slipped over in the corridor. As he returns to Harry - he has gone - Kuba worries because of the 'full moon'. But his friends have taken him into the toilets. They help him dress and shave, to look his best for a lady friend, Mrs Eccles, but he dies before she sees him.

Megan is in an upstairs cubicle, waiting for her operation, she tells Charlie she is bored. While Clive acts as a decoy with Sister Phillips, Charlie and Kuba wheel Megan downstairs to the A&E department. Kuba is trying to sell raffle tickets to buy a new ventilator - Clive tells him off for not getting Ewart's permission first. Charlie continues to flirt with Baz. An Asian teenage boy, Amrit, gets drunk by a dare on his birthday, after breaking into a house with his mates, Karen and Ray. They attempt to revive him with amalnitrate, but as it gets worse, Ray runs off. Karen goes to the hospital with him, but refuses to co-operate, he dies before the team discover what he's taken. His mother (who can't speak English), and sister, Rama, come in, where Baz tells them the bad news. After Rama speaks with Karen, she threatens Ewart with a lawsuit, saying more should've been done.

Charlie chases Baz through an empty corridor, and they kiss in the staffroom. Baz then goes to see Megan, who is resting upstairs after her operation - she also talks to Ted, who is worried about Megan. Susie is getting crank dirty phone calls in reception, after one too many calls, she finally shouts at them. A restaurant owner, Demitri, chops off his finger, while in the kitchen, after arguing with Adonis, about finding a cockroach in a dish. Paramedics pick them up, and Mute finds they have put his finger in some strawberry ice cream, to keep it cold. At a school disco, Salim fancies a girl called Annabel, he has been drinking. She whispers to him to meet her in the changing rooms for a joke. While he waits for her, he stands on the diving board of the pool, singing and drinking. As Annabel goes to see if he's still waiting there, she finds him face down in the pool. In CRASH the team shock him back to life, and he is sent to ITU. The teacher comforts Annabel, who feels guilty.

Duffy visits Megan in the ward, and tells her about her attack, something she has been unable to talk about with the others. The staff are all very polite with her, and tell her she can go home, but after the leak in her roof, which gave her a hole in the ceiling, she needs the money. A drunk, Alex McAlon, pesters Susie in reception. PC Law is brought in after being KO'd, they suspect teenager Mr Bridgewater, who stole a car, and crashed into them, but it turns out the driver was Alex, who is then arrested. Ewart tells Kuba off for stealing light bulbs and a scrabble board. Ewart has been watching a local boxing tournament in the Porters Lodge. Henry McCarthy wins the match, as he knocks the other boxer unconscious, but it is him who is brought in after collapsing, by his pregnant wife, Gail, and his manager, Terry Fairbrother. Baz argues with Terry over boxing ethics, while Henry is taken in, after suffering an extra dural brain injury.

Megan's awoken by a disturbance in a neighbour's garden and becomes a mediator for the police, to end the siege. Andy and Sandra are at odds as they bring a crash victim in with a suspected heart attack, but dies before the police can interview him. Ewart's suspicions of the woman's well founded, for when the police search the car, they find drugs and a search for her, is mounted. All's now well between Charlie and Baz.

It's nearing Christmas in Holby, Ewart's wife, Roz, asks him to meet her at the spot where he proposed to her. She brings out glasses and champagne and asks him to come back - he laughs at the idea, and she walks off. He later rings up and apologises, asking her for dinner next week. Charlie spots Baz arriving home with a male friend, she has not been at work for two days. Duffy tells Susie she saw Baz coming out of a clinic, and rumours spread fast about her abortion. When Kuba finds out, he goes and sees Baz with a bunch of flowers, she has just been fighting with Charlie. Kuba says he is sorry she lost her baby - Charlie is shocked. Later in the staffroom, Clive is discussing with Charlie a case about a virgin male patient, who is worried about his performance on his wedding night. Charlie misunderstands him, thinking he's referring to him and Baz and attempts to hit him. Baz comes in and in confidence tells Charlie it was his baby - he is angry, but she does not regret it.

The staff hear the bad news; they are to be shut down in one month. They meet to discuss ways of gaining public support. As Kuba is passing a warehouse on his bike, he witnesses a man, Bob, attacking another man, Lyndsey, with a baseball bat, after learning he has had an affair with his wife. He breaks up the fight, and Lyndsey is taken to hospital. Bob comes to the hospital, asking for Kuba, he cuts Kuba's hand and threatens him so as he doesn't tell the police. Ewart invites Kuba to spend New Year with him, for his own safety. A missionary man, Mr Whitefinch, is brought in with suspected Lavassa fever, the hospital is evacuated, while the decontamination takes place. Charlie organises an impromptu pantomime to raise morale - they dress up in costumes and sing. Baz and Charlie exchange Christmas gifts.