On the Brink

Cate and Mac bring April, a frightened young girl who's been shot by her boyfriend Phil, into Emergency. Vincent wins April's trust and encourages to report Phil to the police. Back out on the road and responding to another call-out, Cate and Mac find themselves in a suburban drug lab where Phil's partner, Jason, has been shot by him in a jealous drug-fuelled rage. As the police close in, Phil takes Cate and Mac hostage, using their ambulance as a getaway vehicle. Phil becomes increasingly unbalanced and dangerous, first finishing off the critically-wounded Jason and then running over Mac. When he realises his cash has been stolen by April, he turns his woman-hating rage to Cate and puts a gun to her head. At the hospital, Von returns to work after several weeks away nursing her terminally ill sister. The experience has left Von questioning her own life and resenting her chosen career. Shutting Terri out and unsettling Frank, Von begins to draw strict boundaries which come across as an uncharacteristic work-to-rule attitude. Vincent is also beginning to question personal issues in his life and is left feeling that the opposite sex is simply too complicated. At a bar, drinking alone, he is approached by a seductive and liberated woman who offers him a no-strings attached, one night stand.