Short of cash Gloria gets a loan with a huge interest rate and gets drunk,waking up at Mimi's. Next day Billy finds a positive pregnancy test kit and,assuming Mimi is pregnant,gets advice from Jamie - who concludes that Gloria is actually pregnant after their fling. He offers her money for an abortion but,finding that the result was a false alarm, she rejects it. However Dominic gets Jamie to pay her to keep the secret from Karen. Chesney and Aidan are shocked when Jamie sends them to collect the meat for the pub raffle and end up with a live cow,which they call Alan. Too attached to it to kill it they let it go and buy in meat instead. Shane engineers a meeting with Ruthie,the widow of the man he ran over,whilst Avril annoys Jackson by clubbing with young colleague Calum but draws the line when the lad gets too serious.

Calling himself Danny McKenzie Shane continues to befriend Ruthie,agreeing to help her choose a headstone for her dead husband Eddie. However not only does he face opposition from Ruthie's teen-aged son Sean,who masturbates in public,but is haunted by Eddie's abusive ghost. Finally,rather than admit the truth to Ruthie,he takes Kelly's advice and roughly breaks things off with her. Kelly herself and Lilian face opposition when the super-efficient Louise opens a rival brothel at knock-down prices,stealing away some of Lilian's regulars,including Frank. When Louise offers Kelly a job she takes the opportunity to spy on her rival and,having obtained the details of all of Louise's clients,uses a little blackmail to see off the opposition.