As Valerie confides in Theo about her history, Justin thinks that he and Leah are nearing the end of their journey on the UK’s Home and Away, which premieres next week.
In the midst of Leah (Ada Nicodemou) and Justin (James Stewart) figuring out how to get back together, Valerie Beaumont (Courtney Clarke), a newbie, at last shares her reason for staying in a mental health facility.
Leah had shared a room with Valerie during her own stint at the clinic, following a psychotic episode brought on by sleep deprivation in which she had held Justin at knifepoint at the diner.
Afraid to get near to Justin in case she experiences a relapse, Leah has been staying at Summer Bay House with Alf (Ray Meagher), Roo (Georgie Parker), and Marilyn (Emily Symons) since her return to Summer Bay.
Shortly after Leah’s homecoming, Valerie showed up out of the blue, saying her counsellors had assumed she was well enough to go after eight months of therapy.
Valerie has made it her goal to reconcile Leah and Justin, but she hasn’t shared many details about her personal history.
The following week, Justin keeps trying to think of ways to run into Leah and spends as much time as possible at the diner, waiting for her to happen to stop by.
After seeing that it’s “a little bit sad,” Irene (Lynne McGranger) remarks to him, prompting him to visit Summer Bay House.
After feeling under pressure from Justin in the past few weeks, Leah isn’t too thrilled to discover him waiting for her when she gets back.
She says she’s not ready for impromptu visits just yet, but she agrees to talk.
Later, Valerie goes to the garage and encourages Justin to persevere. Justin isn’t buying it when she tells him that he was the only one Leah mentioned to her when they were in the clinic.
Later, when he informs Theo (Matt Evans) that it seems like they’re nearing their destination, Theo responds to Justin by saying Valerie is correct because she would be the most qualified to assess Leah’s current mental state.
Valerie persuades Leah to accept Justin’s invitation to dinner, which later catches her off guard.
That evening, Leah returns home with Valerie’s help, and to Leah’s surprise, their eyes contact above Theo’s sweet tones when Valerie asks him to sing them a song to lighten the situation.
Leah offers that Valerie and Theo get a drink at Salt while Justin takes her back to Summer Bay House in an effort to fan the flame she just saw.
Though Justin considers this a step in the right direction, he kisses Leah as they bid each other goodbye on the verandah. In a flash of terror, Leah urges Justin to leave and dashes inside.
Has Justin overreached himself and reversed their progress to the first step?
Valerie adds that she is from the Gold Coast and had to drop out of her marketing degree in Brisbane owing to a loss in the family, but in the meanwhile, she and Theo are getting along like a house on fire. But when Theo asks to chat further, she is hesitant to do so.
Theo apologises the following day if his questioning about her family was too personal.
Valerie notes that she was taken aback because, aside from the clinic’s counsellors, no one had inquired about her history in a while.
Valerie feels more ease discussing her own traumatic background after Theo tells her about how Leah and Justin adopted him after his father Dimitri (Salvatore Coco) abused him.
Valerie describes how her brother Josh had to constantly step in to save her since she was a bit of a wild child who partied a little too hard. Valerie had attempted to open the car door while they were driving home after Valerie had picked her up from a party that she wasn’t ready to leave.
Valerie suddenly distracted Josh, causing him to lose control of the vehicle and crash. Valerie’s parents never forgiven her, and Josh was declared dead at the spot.
Valerie’s family decimated in one fell swoop, and while the clinic’s psychologists have advised her that she needs to concentrate on forgiving herself, she finds it difficult to get past that.
Will Valerie, like all those troubled individuals before her, find the closure she needs at Summer Bay?
