Since Dawn and Billy Fletcher (Olivia Bromley and Jay Kontzle) brought their baby son Evan back home from hospital in Emmerdale, Dawn has been incredibly vigilant about trying to keep Evan away from germs as much as possible.
The little boy is being treated for leukaemia, and because his immune system is so fragile, even minor infections like colds could end up being very serious. Because of this, Dawn has made sure the family understands that they have to keep their social contacts to a minimum.
Evan’s siblings Lucas (Noah Ryan Aspinall) and Clemmie (Mabel Addison) are being home schooled, Gabby (Rosie Bentham) and Thomas have moved out and the rest of the family is supposed to observe social distancing when they go out, and not to invite other people back home.
Billy has found it hard to deal with Evan’s illness and also with the feeling that Dawn pushes him out and nothing he does is good enough.
This came to a head when Billy was giving Evan his medication and the baby spat it back out, meaning he missed a dose. In the wake of that, Billy needed an outlet and he went out and got drunk with Nate Robinson (Jurell Carter).
Eventually Nate had to help Billy get back home and help him to bed, thus breaking the family bubble with Nate’s presence in the house. The only person who knew about this was Kim (Claire King) and she covered for Billy, telling Dawn that Billy was away that night on a job for her.
Evan developed a high temperature and was rushed back to hospital with an infection. Dawn wanted to know who’d brought the infection into the house. Again Kim stepped up to take the blame, saying she’d had a business meeting in a hotel bar and must have caught something then.
The family were disgusted with her apparently selfish attitude, and Will (Dean Andrews)’s disapproval played into the hands of Rose Jackson (Christine Tremarco), who is working with Ruby Fox-Miligan (Beth Cordingly) to try to destroy Kim.
In upcoming episodes, as Kim finds herself increasingly isolated in the family, Billy knows he can’t keep silent any longer. He tells Dawn that Kim wasn’t the one who brought the infection into the house – it was him, when he got drunk with Nate.
How will Dawn react to this news?
