Dex Walker
Dexter Walker (2009; 2010-2013)
Tom Green (2009); Charles Cottier (2010-2013)
Episodes: 4909–4933, 5102–5873
Parents: Sid and Jody Walker
Siblings: Indi Walker; Sasha Bezmel (half)
Marital Status: April Scott (2013-present)
Occupation: Student; Hospital Orderly
Dexter arrived in Summer Bay with the rest of the Walker family, seeming more accepting of the move from the city than his sister was. After his mother Jody had gone back to the city, leaving him and Indigo with Sid, he went to the surf club where he met up with Xavier and got on well with him. Having managed to get out of school by claiming it hadn’t started yet, he and Indigo hung out at the surf club where he met up with Annie, along with Geoff and Ruby, and there seemed to be an instant attraction between the pair. When Indigo got an invitation for them all to a party at the docks, he and Annie got on well, prompting a jealous reaction from Jai.
Dexter later found Annie crying on the beach after she’d found out Belle was dying and comforted her. He was a support to her over the next few days and they shared a quiet moment together on the morning of Belles funeral. He helped cheer Annie up by playing a game of pool with her, Jai and Xavier. Soon after, Jai found that Dexter was carrying a photo of Annie around and told her about it. When she quizzed him, he presented her with an album of photos that he’d taken from Belles camera. He had dinner with her and Irene but was disappointed when Annie said she only saw him as a friend. He admitted he wanted more and kissed her and was relieved when she kissed him back.
His delight at his first girlfriend was tempered by Annie’s insistence on keeping the relationship secret, since she was worried how Jai would react, given that he still liked her and she’d told him she didn’t want a relationship with anyone, and he ended up having to hide when Jai came by the house unexpectedly. Unfortunately, Jai ended up walking in on them kissing. Dexter later went up to him in the surf club and told him he just wanted to make Annie happy but his words didn’t have any effect and Dexter was left disappointed when Annie decided they should stop seeing each other until Jai had got used to the idea.
He was disgruntled by the news Sid was spending time with Therese, taking it as evidence his parents weren’t getting back together. Not long after, Indigo had her accident and announced she was moving back to the city with Jody. Dexter wanted to stay in Summer Bay with Sid so he could be with Annie until Indigo revealed shed seen him kissing Nicole. He brushed aside Sid’s attempts to explain and said a tearful goodbye to Annie before leaving with Indigo and Jody.
After Jody had run off with Indigos boyfriend Owen, the siblings ended up on Sid’s doorstep as he was on his way back to Summer Bay and moved into Martha’s old farm with him, although Dexter was unimpressed with the new environment and asked Sid not to mess things up again. He mentioned to Romeo that he was still in touch with Annie via Facebook and teased Indigo about her attraction towards him.
He continued to demonstrate a lack of tact, quizzing Romeo and Miles about Nicole still having feelings for Sid and Miles supposedly going mad. He was very interested in Tony’s female boxing classes and managed to get a job as his assistant. He also casually mentioned to Romeo that Indigo had been having dreams about him. Dexter shocked everyone by developing feelings for Marilyn and sent her some flowers anonymously before inviting himself along on her dinner date with Sid. He turned up at her house to ask her personal questions, claiming he was just making sure she was right for Sid, and deliberately misunderstood Sid’s instructions to take her on a picnic by taking her to a remote spot where they could be alone instead of the hospital where Sid was waiting for them. He then wrote her a love letter but when she told him it was inappropriate and she was going to tell Sid he backtracked and said it was just a creative writing assignment. He was quick to comfort her when Alf was arrested for assaulting Penn but denied having a crush on her. He took a phone call from Marilyn asking Sid over for dinner and suggested he come too, then told Sid the hospital had called needing him to come in. After having dinner alone with Marilyn, he told her he loved her. Sid ordered him to apologise to her but instead he insisted his feelings were real and refused to accept she wasn’t interested in him. Her friend Mitzy shocked him out of it by kissing him, after which he went round to see Marilyn and properly apologised. He made himself feel better by telling Romeo that Indigo loved him but was left to console Indi when Romeo briefly broke up with her as a result. He was uncomfortably when he ran into Mitzy at the Diner until she told him she had terminal cancer. They chatted and got on well until she tried to kiss him again and then collapsed. He later attended her funeral.
When Indigo suggested he find someone who could love him back, he bought a goldfish which he named Marilyn and so met Adrian Hall, who worked in the pet shop. He tried to bond with the fish, even to the extent of taking it to school and keeping it on his desk, and then tried to return it to Adrian. He ended up both keeping the fish and being asked out by Adrian, who he ended up taking home to watch Rocky DVDs. He renamed the fish MacGyver when he learned it was probably male. He took Adrian out to the surf club but ended up abandoning her to ask Romeo and Indigo for help with reading her signals, only to find Adrian had gone. He asked her out again and they shared a kiss. On learning her parents died when she was young, he suggested she worked in a pet shop because she knew the pets she looked after wouldn’t stick around but when she suggested his strangeness was partly an act to stop people getting close he got uncomfortable and walked out again. He then asked April for help but Adrian walked out on him when he told her April had told him what to say. Marilyn suggested Adrian was looking for an excuse to break up with him and when he asked her she confirmed Marilyn was right, so he asked if they could just be friends.
He was instantly smitten with Detective Graves when he saw her in the Diner and asked her out, before sending her some flowers at the station. He was stunned when she agreed to a double date with Romeo and Indigo. They got on well but he was crushed when she revealed shed only agreed to the date as an excuse to interrogate Romeo. He tried to make her jealous by hitting on Charlie only for Graves to suggest he was after a mother figure. He agreed to Marilyn moving in.
When Ruby asked him to get her a car so they could go to schoolies parties, he borrowed Sid’s car without permission, thinking they could get it back before he noticed, but they were pulled over by the police. Sid didn’t press charges but did ground Dexter, which delighted him until he found Ruby didn’t want anything to do with him and being grounded was fairly boring. He told Marilyn he wanted to be a normal kid but she told him to keep being different. He tried to make breakfast for Marilyn on the day she was supposed to die and afterwards tried to retrieve the unfortunate DVD message shed left Colleen before it was viewed. At John and Gina’s wedding reception, he was despatched to get an icepack for Romeos busted hand.
He adopted VJ as a friend since he was about to start high school and gave him advice on how to deal with bullies, although it resulted in Dexter himself being beaten up by classmate Jase McKenzie. He was initially amused when he learned of Marilyn and Sid’s plan to adopt Nicole’s baby, suggesting the child would go crazy and try to avenge Penn’s death, but when he stumbled across Marilyn crying he told her she’d make a good mum. He began videoing people around town to study human behaviour, starting with Sid and Marilyn. He took an interest in the River Boys and especially Casey but when they caught him videoing them, Pee Wee and Rick took him for a drive in their car boot and dumped him in the bush. He failed to find the track in the dark and spent hours wandering around until he found his way home. He then criticised Casey for not helping him.
Dexter responded to Sid’s request to be normal by making a blog on the subject and began spending time with April, who encouraged him to publish it. He was paired with Xavier and Casey for a science assignment and, despite having a bit of trouble getting them interested, managed to persuade them to use their theory that girls were aroused by the sound of cars revving. He persuaded April to attend the birthday dinner Bianca was preparing for her and, on seeing April was touched by Xavier’s presence, encouraged Xavier to go to the party in the home they’d get back together. He stayed neutral over the subject of Ruby’s fling with Romeo, trying to stop Xavier pleading Romeos case to Indi and sympathising with Ruby when she was the subject of a cruel cartoon sent around school. He tried to help her out by making a blog about the double standards towards promiscuous boys and girls, roping April in to help him, but Ruby took it the wrong way and was annoyed with them.
He was worried by April’s paranoia about some minor skin blemishes and also when she began obsessively redoing some Geography homework. He spoke to her about it and she told him people would be hurt if she didn’t keep things in order. When Bianca told him April had been constantly redoing a poetry assignment, he went to see her and found all her clothes obsessively folded away in her closet. He suspected she had OCD and visited her with some information he’d printed off. He encouraged April to accompany him to a party Ruby and Casey were organising at a holiday mansion but was distracted helping a drunk Summer Horgan-Jones and April ended up being taken home by Xavier after being thrown into the swimming pool. He told Liam and Bianca what was going on with April, initially causing them to fall out, but after April had got some help she thanked Dexter and said he was the one person she didn’t push away.
He helped Xavier out with his attempts to convince Miranda Jacobs he was a uni student and made him some fake ID so he could go out with her. After the truth came out, he encouraged him in his hopes of winning the surf carnival and getting her to like him again. After George was born, he was quick to accept Kieran Monroe’s offer to help assemble the cot, since he and Indi were having difficulty. He admitted his mistake when Kieran got aggressive with Indi. He began to fall behind on his school work because George crying was keeping him awake and stopping him from studying. He was given a letter to give to Sid about it but failed to pass it on and instead made a blog about babies disrupting households. He was forced to admit the truth when he fell asleep in Miles class but took the blog down when Marilyn was upset by it and he realised no-one found it funny apart from Sid.
He developed feelings for April and planned to tell her the truth whilst working on a blog. When Xavier came round and admitted he still liked April, Dexter quickly ushered him out of the house but when he questioned April and she said she still liked Xavier as well he encouraged them to get back together. He was unhappy seeing them together but pretended he was just worried about his two best friends hooking up and leaving him out in the cold. He worried about the growing distance between Sid and Marilyn and about Liam when he, April, Xavier and Ruby saw him on a cliff top. He helped Xavier and April with their shrub replanting but quickly left, uncomfortable with watching them kiss. Xavier persuaded him to join them for a double date with Summer but she left after Dexter hardly spoke to her and she realised he was more interested in April. He was upset when Nicole wanted George back but admitted to April he felt it was for the best. When he and a classmate, Kate Hanlon, were accused of cheating at a trial exam, she asked him to tutor her. He agreed in return for her pretending to be his girlfriend and they went on a date to Angelo’s restaurant, where they were seen by Ruby, Casey and Charlie. He took her to the surf club, hoping April would see them together, and afterwards contemplated actually dating her before accepting it was April he wanted.
He went away on a trip with the other teens with Kate as his girlfriend, where he admitted to April that it was only an act and nearly told her how he felt before they were interrupted by Xavier having a surfing accident. Once it was clear Xavier was all right, he tried to tell her again but she shut him down, saying it would ruin everything. After receiving the news Romeo and Indi had got married and being encouraged by Marilyn to follow his heart, he went round to see April and kissed her. She initially rejected him, leaving him worried he’d wrecked his friendship with Xavier for nothing, but then came round to his house and admitted she liked him too. They kissed again and began seeing each other in secret but decided to go back to being friends until she broke up with Xavier. However, the pair continued to meet and he ended up having to listen as Xavier tried to arrange to take April away. After April ended the relationship, Xavier asked Dexter if he knew why. Dexter asked April to tell Xavier about them but before she could Xavier saw them kissing. He later approached Xavier and attempted to laugh the matter off, jokingly inviting Xavier to punch him, only for Xavier to do just that.
He secretly rented a section of the farm to siblings Dean and Kelly O’Mara prior to the bachelor and spinster ball being held there and ended up having to pay for the damage the party caused. He tried to take Xavier’s old job at the restaurant only for Xavier to pressure him into giving it up in favour of Kelly. When Kelly disapproved of Xavier’s actions, Dexter convinced him that if they were friends again he could tell Kelly he was doing it as a favour. He later helped Xavier out by arranging for Kelly to have a horse ride on a neighbouring farm.
After a day working on the farm with Sid, Roo, Indigo and Romeo, he killed the mood somewhat by announcing Jody had e-mailed him saying she wanted to stay. When Indigo reacted badly to the idea and Sid and April suggested he consider her feelings, he replied to Jody that it wasn’t a good idea. However, she turned up anyway and, when Dexter saw Sid comforting her after she’d had an argument with Indi, he worried they’d slept together. He was glad when the family parted on good terms.
When he found Sid getting drunk, he fetched Roo but Sid just told her to leave. He was shocked when Sid told him, Indi and Romeo he had another daughter, Sasha, but agreed to meet her. He was disappointed when Sid insisted on seeing her alone but met her anyway when Sid turned up with her at the house and announced shed be staying with them. He helped Xavier organise a campaign to keep the school open after it was damaged in a storm and tried to keep the peace when it turned out Sasha had stolen from the Diner to help her runaway brother Felix. He joined Xavier and April in organising a protest that prevented the school being demolished and helped Xavier make copies of the incriminating documents that kept the school open.
He tried to look out for Sasha on her first day at school but was unable to persuade her to go to school or stop hanging out with Stu Henderson. He admitted to Indigo he wanted to sleep with April but as he was on the verge of broaching the subject with her she announced she’d decided she wanted to be a doctor and needed to cool things with him until after the HSC. He spoke to Xavier about the matter and learned he’d never slept with April either, then tried to convince her to go to a Year 12 party with him. Although she initially said no, she turned up anyway but Dexter had agreed to keep an eye on Sasha, who was there with Stu, and spent most of the night watching her, although he failed to stop her driving off with him. When Xavier called to say Sasha was making out with Stu outside the Braxtons, Dexter went round there and convinced her to leave with him, then threatened to tell Sid what had happened if she didn’t break up with him. Stu tried to threaten Dexter into backing down but, when it didn’t work, convinced him to give him another chance.
He expected to be made dux of the year but lost out to April. He then witnessed her collapsing from a drug overdose during her acceptance speech. Although he was shocked, he supported her in the aftermath but became bitter about things when, despite using him as cover for the theft of a prescription from Sid, she apologised to everyone else but him. April later apologised and told him she wanted to spend the night with him after a party at the surf club. He was disappointed when she cancelled because she needed to look after Irene but was persuaded to go anywhere. There he was chatted up by Dallas Phillips, a girl who went for virgins. When she kissed him, he kissed her back, unaware April had just arrived. He then hid in the toilets before telling Dallas he had a girlfriend. However, when he learned the rest of the town thought they’d slept together, he was happy to accept their congratulations, again in front of April. He went to the house to try and explain to her but she refused to forgive him.
He asked Xavier to help by taking April to the restaurant where Dex was waiting but April told him that although she believed nothing had happened the trust was gone. Despite the break-up, he continued with a work placement at the hospital and was shocked to run into Dallas and her three-year-old son William, who had tonsillitis. When he found they were sleeping in their car after being evicted, he arranged for them to stay at the caravan park and not pay any rent until she was back on her feet.
Marilyn convinced him to ask April to the school formal so he went to her house in his suit with a bunch of flowers but she turned him down. He was uncertain about Xavier taking April to the formal instead, although Xavier assured him he was just going to keep an eye on her, and accepted an offer to go with Ruby. When Casey returned for Ruby, Xavier persuaded him to take Sasha instead but he overheard Ruby telling Casey April was planning to sleep with Xavier. When Dallas turned up and offered to be his date, he tried to kiss her, having drank a large amount of spiked punch, and then attacked Xavier, being sent outside to cool off. He returned to find Sid had beaten up Stu after catching him hitting Sasha and was shocked that he’d been violent towards her for weeks and they never saw anything. Next morning, he saw Sid arrested.
Dexter was angry that Sasha hadn’t spoken to any of them about what was going on but was more understanding when he was himself on the receiving end of intimidation from Stu’s father Alan while trying to defend Sasha. He was upset when he was April kissing Heath and realised they’d slept together. He responded by asking Dallas to sleep with him but she told him she cared about him too much. He went to April and said he wanted to be friends but she was too preoccupied with Heath to pay attention. He later confronted Heath and told him if he didn’t appreciate April then he didn’t deserve her. He took a job helping out at the hospital and tried to help Casey get back with Ruby. When they found out Stu had hit Sasha again, he and Xavier unsuccessfully went looking for him.
When Julie showed a better understanding of an ill Irene than a doctor, he decided to abandon medicine and become a nurse. Dallas asked him to look after William but he was distraught when the boy had an allergic reaction to nuts while in his care, although both Dallas and Sid reassured him afterwards and it helped convince Sid to support his career choice. When Stu turned up dead, he was questioned by the police about his and Xavier’s attempts to track him down. After helping Dallas move to a new flat in Yabbie Creek, he tried to help Ruby, who was drinking heavily after Charlie’s death. Ruby made a drunken attempt to seduce him but neither of them could go through with it. He found her passed out in her caravan and helped Roo get her to hospital.
He hid the fact that a bloodstained shirt found on the farm was Stu’s, since he was worried about the implications for Sid, and told Xavier to give Sasha some space. He was the first to learn Sasha was being bullied when it came out she had accidentally killed Stu and informed Sid. He was willing to accompany Sid and Sasha in moving to the outback to help Sasha but it turned out Sasha didn’t want to go and he and Indi joined her in holding a private memorial for Stashed patched Sasha up after shed been attacked by schoolmate Christy Clarke and her friends and convinced her to talk to Sid. Sasha then confided in him that she was planning to leave town once she turned sixteen. He joined Sid in working out that Alan’s wife Margaret was poisoning him. He supported Sasha through her murder trial and saw her cleared.
April confided in him about telling Heath he was the father of Bianca’s baby and he let her stay the night at his. Colleen began encouraging him to make a play for her now she was single again and he invited her to the barbeque for Sasha’s birthday. He spoke to two college friends, Katie Miles and Alexa Campbell, about her, and Alexa told him to play hard to get, prompting him to act in a dismissive manner around her, then get drunk and throw up at the farm. He set up a chess game in the Diner to raise money for a car after Sid offered to go halves but Lottie Ryan beat him and took the pot. They became friends, however, and he started tutoring her.
He left Lottie to comfort April when she found out Bianca was leaving town but went back to Lottie when April questioned him about his and Lottie’s friendship and he thought she was only interested in him because she thought someone else was. He accompanied Lottie to a dinner with Roo and Harvey but ended up accidentally playing footsie with Xavier when they shared a table with him and Sasha. Lottie later confided in him about her brother Ben who drowned. April accompanied them on a hunt for some fossils and exaggerated an ankle injury to get his attention before telling him she loved him, prompting him to tell her he couldn’t trust her and she was no longer the person he had loved.
He found himself drawn to Lottie, supporting her as her parents experienced problems. He enlisted Xavier’s help to build up his physique in order to get her attention, only to find she wasn’t interested in guys with muscles. Sasha acted as a go-between and when Lottie made it clear she was interested they shared a kiss. He accompanied her to a dinner with Roo and Harvey, where Harvey asked him to look after Lottie if he went to jail on corruption charges. When Lottie confessed how scared she was of losing him, Dexter convinced Harvey to plead guilty in order to get a lighter sentence. He gave Lottie a place to stay when she had a fight with her mum but refused to make it a permanent arrangement and also supported April when Bianca was hospitalised. He lied to Lottie about spending time with her and, after accidentally seeing April getting undressed for the shower, admitted to Sid he liked both girls. He agreed to tutor Casey when Sasha suggested it but realised she had only arranged it so she could spend time with Casey herself. Afterwards, when she admitted he was right, he admitted he still loved April.
When Lottie returned from a visit in the city, he tried to avoid her by claiming he was working but she realised he was lying and confronted him. He admitted he still liked April and they broke up. He then went to see April at the hospital but before he could talk to her Bianca took a turn for the worse. He tried to support April but she was outraged when he made a pass at her while comforting her. Lottie approached him to repair their friendship and, after initially giving him a serve after having a row with Sasha, April kissed him and they got back together. He continued to support her during Bianca’s recovery and they nearly slept together after she came round but were interrupted when Indi came home upset and April was angry when he suggested they go back to his place after Bianca was diagnosed with post-natal psychosis. After helping Indigo out with her attempt to take up modelling, he talked things over with April and slept with her. He supported her during Bianca’s recovery and tried to help her relax after Bianca’s recovery. After they slept together again, he finally managed to get her to sleep by reading his gaming magazine to her.
Dexter helped April out with her study but nearly failed his semester because he had been too distracted by their relationship to complete an assignment. Lottie press ganged him into completing the assignment under her supervision and, when he headed home hoping to relax with April, found her waiting to help him study as well. When April objected to Heath and Bianca dating, Dexter accused her of being jealous. They managed to start talking again when April found a good luck note Dexter had left in her textbook and Sasha used a rigged game of drawing straws to convince Dexter to see her. He was embarrassed about spending the night at her place and tried to hide under her bed but Irene revealed she’d known he was there all along. He and April tried to play matchmaker between Casey and Sasha by inviting them both out for drinks but it backfired when Casey brought Ruby along and she kissed him in front of everyone, prompting Sasha to run out in tears.
When he and April had difficulty finding time to get intimate, being interrupted by first Sasha and then Irene, they decided to get their own place. After making several failed attempts to break the news gently, he ended up blurting it out to Sid and Sasha. They initially encountered resistance but Dexter managed to win Irene, Sid and Bianca round with a PowerPoint presentation on the viability of the plan. After reassuring Sasha, who had been trying to talk them out of the plan because she was worried about losing another brother, he found a flat they both liked only to learn they needed a guarantor but Sid agreed to help them and they got a lease. The day after they moved into the flat, Dexter borrowed Indi’s car to head to the city to get April a present: a painting of the Eiffel Tower, referencing a conversation they’d had. However, Ruby had cut the car’s brakes and Dexter crashed. He was rushed to hospital with head injuries.
After spending over a week in a coma, he recovered consciousness but was confused. Sid told him he had a brain injury and he was unhappy about April’s attempts to nurse him, asking Sid to send her away. When he overheard her defending him to nurses Alex and Romina, he tried to get out of bed and fell over, apologising to her for pushing her away. However, when April gave him an orientation chart it just reminded him of what he couldn’t remember and, when he made a mess while eating, he ordered his visitors away. He was left with a long rehabilitation and it was advised he should go into a rehab centre but he begged Sid to let him return home. However, things were hard on his family and he told April she could leave him if it became too much but she told him she’d stand by him. He had his first day out in the community but was left depressed when he couldn’t remember Marilyn visiting him and he learned April had given up the lease on their house. He told Sid he would never be able to go back to college and it would have been better if he’d died. He denied making the comments the next day but a tarot card reading from Marilyn, which indicated he’d been through a tough time but had a bright future ahead, left him feeling more positive.
He worried that he and April hadn’t been intimate since the accident and tried dropping hints. Sasha let April know what he was feeling and he suggested they try and sleep together but she found the clumsy foreplay uncomfortable and ran off. He managed to improve the mood by doing up their room with fairy lights and April suggested that instead of trying to get back what they had they should concentrate on moving forward. However, when they received the news Rocco had died, April wouldn’t let him come with her to see Bianca and when he went looking for her afterwards she ran away from him, saying she couldn’t deal with things anymore. When she told him she was planning to give up medicine and drop out of her exams, he went to see Gina about arranging special dispensation, which caused a grateful April to tell him she didn’t know what she’d do without him. He was allowed to attend the family only funeral for Rocco as April’s boyfriend.
He realised Sid was dating his physiotherapist, Lisa Flemming, and told him she was married. He was shocked when Sid kept seeing her, worried he was getting back into old habits. When he heard Sid had broken up with Lisa, he changed his mind and, when he served as best man when Romeo and Indi renewed their vows in a private ceremony, he asked her along. He convinced Sid to let Romeo look after him for the day and then convinced Romeo to take him into town. He went to talk to some girls, unaware he’d wet himself, and Romeo pushed him into the sea to stop it showing. When Sid got annoyed about the incident, Dexter told him he needed to let him live. He injured himself when he ran into a flag during a physio session but encouraged Sid to make things up with Lisa anyway. He went for tests in the city which showed his condition was improving. He was shocked to find Sasha and Casey had got together without telling him but supported them to Sid.
After spending all day being dizzy and distracted, he had a fit while he was alone. He hid it from April, even when he had another dizzy spell while she was arguing with Heath at Angelo’s, but when Romeo picked up on his behaviour he asked him to take him to the hospital. Although Doctor Dawson found nothing wrong, he wanted Dexter to stay in overnight and Dexter got Romeo to give Sid and Indi a cover story. When Sasha talked about how special he and April were, he told her the truth and she was upset at being lied to. He broke up with her, saying it was obviously too hard for her, but admitted to Bianca he had a hard time keeping up his resolve. Sid found out the truth at Roo and Harvey’s wedding reception so Dexter walked away from him with April, telling her he still loved her. He reluctantly gave Sid permission to view his files and was annoyed when April treated him like an invalid, mashing up his food and stopping him from watching mentally taxing quiz shows. He told them both to give him some space and learned April had got into medicine at uni, watching on from a distance as everyone congratulated her. Dexter brought a celebratory dinner to an abrupt end, causing Romeo and Indi to suggest he was jealous of April’s achievement. He insisted he wasn’t but admitted that he was worried she was overtaking him. April encouraged him to go back to university and he missed a scan in order to attend the open day only to suffer a minor seizure afterwards. When he finally turned up he was told the seizures were injury related and unlikely to stop but April convinced him they could still be happy.
When April missed freshers’ week because she didn’t want to go without him, Dexter and Sasha decided to organise a toga party for her at the farm. However, April was disappointed when Dexter spent most of the evening with his uni friends and then Dexter got jealous of a boy chatting to her and started doing a striptease. Both Sid and April reminded Dexter he shouldn’t get stressed, angering him, although he later accepted it was simply a sign they cared about him. He threw Casey out of the house when he upset Sasha by admitting he was now seeing Tamara Kingsley. He tried unsuccessfully to convince a depressed Sid that the family still needed him and, when Sid disappeared claiming he was going to a medical conference, tracked him down to a mental health clinic where he’d admitted himself as a voluntary patient, convincing him to come home and let the family support him.
He became increasingly frustrated when he couldn’t get his uni schedule organised even with April and Sasha’s help. April suggested that Sid might need him to stay at home but Dexter saw through the pretence and told her she had no faith in him. Their attempts to discuss the issue led to further arguments and Dexter almost drove Sid’s car to prove he could, despite the dangers posed by his seizures, but couldn’t bring himself to do it when he had a flashback to the accident. He told April they were both just waiting for the next thing to go wrong and he felt she was treating him like a patient rather than a boyfriend, deciding they needed to take a break. He was left unsure whether they were supposed to spend time together or not. He helped Romeo and Indi with the opening of their gym by putting up Christmas lights after there was a power cut. He settled in well back at university with his old friends while April was left isolated on her first day. However, on his second day, he forgot he’d already met one of his lecturers, Aron Dawkin, and went blank when he asked him a question. Afterwards, he and April agreed to be honest with each other. He comforted her when the uni stress caused her OCD to resurface but refused to get back with her. However, he did help her get her timetable in order. He applied for his job back at the hospital but was dispirited when he was given a three month probation period and told not to touch any patients.
Dexter befriended Steph Green, a trainee nurse at the hospital, and shared a coffee with her when April was too busy with her tutor Jake Twomey. He returned from a nurses camp to be informed by Sid that Romeo had left Indi and disappeared after being diagnosed with cancer. He turned to Steph for support, telling her what was going on before he told April. When he stumbled across April warning Steph to stay away from him and not confuse him, he told her they needed to take a real break and stay away from each other. He then told Steph he wanted to be more than friends and kissed her before stopping Indi taking out her frustrations with Romeo on Casey. He admitted to Sid that he was confused about his feelings for April and Steph and, after discussing the kiss with Steph, confessed it to April. Steph came round to the house with a DVD and takeaway to cheer him up and they spent the night together. April came round the next morning hoping for a reconciliation only to witness Steph coming out of Dexter’s room after which Dexter told her they needed to accept they might not get back together.
Dexter continued sleeping with Steph but managed to embarrass both her and Sid by trying to get Sid to approve of her with a long list of her attributes. Steph told him it was only meant to be casual between them and suggested he needed a friend more than a girlfriend but, after they decided on a fresh start, tried to seduce him at work. After initial reluctance, Dexter had sex with her in a linen cupboard. However, he was shocked to realise she was making up Obs figures for patients rather than doing tests and warned her to stop. When she refused, he reported her, resulting in her being dismissed, and she retaliated by reporting their indiscretion. Sid was furious when he found out, telling Dexter he needed to respect girls more, but when Dexter suffered a seizure during the argument Sid calmed down and supported him. However, when the matter was referred to the medical registration board he decided his seizures made him a liability and decided to quit.
Indi tried to reunite Dexter and April by setting them up together at Angelo’s. April was initially sympathetic when Dexter told her about his recent problems until she found out about his and Steph’s liaison and angrily berated him. She later calmed down enough to help him write his account of what happened, after which they both realised they still wanted to be together and kissed. However, April was reluctant to be alone with him in the house and said she felt uncomfortable knowing what he’d done with Steph there. Dexter got rid of the bed he and Steph had slept together in and spent more time at April’s place, only to find that meant seeing more of Heath, who was sharing with Bianca. After awkward attempts to find common ground, he eventually told Heath they needed to get on for the girls’ sake. Dexter still had to explain himself to the board and, when April gave him a mock interrogation which began to get too close to home for both of them, he decided not to show up. Casey talked him into doing otherwise and the board gave him another chance.
Dexter was disappointed that April ignored his advice about one of her assignments, preferring to talk to Sid instead, and concerned when April started working at the hospital on her placement. He irritated her on her first day by answering questions for her and directing her on how to treat patients, then told her he was smarter than her. He eventually acknowledged he was trying too hard to show he had something to contribute and was disappointed when he only just passed his exams. He and April found Tamara upset that Casey had been pushing her away after being arrested so Dexter visited Casey and reminded him how much it had hurt Indi when Romeo did the same. He picked up on the attraction between Spencer and Sasha and encouraged Spencer to pursue it.
He had a hard time looking after John when he was admitted with a bad back, being forced to give him a sponge bath. He interrupted Adam Sharpe’s attempt to kill Brax while he was in hospital and helped resuscitate him. Seeing the effect of Brax’s condition on Heath made him realise how it must have been for his own family and he looked at his file to see the full details of his resuscitation. Realising how close he had come to death himself, he composed a bucket list. After quickly abandoning his attempts to exercise or surf, he decided to propose to April, even going so far as buying a ring. However, after talking to Sid, Indigo and Casey, he told April, who had found the ring, that they weren’t ready.
He felt depressed that he had failed to accomplish anything on his bucket list so April arranged a Paris-style meal at the farm so he could fulfil at least part of his wish to visit the city, but April was bitten by a snake. When the ambulance failed to turn up, Dexter drove April to hospital himself despite being banned because of his seizures, then learned he had given the ambulance the family’s old address in the city. He confessed to Bianca, who was too worried about April to cope with his guilt, but acknowledged him as part of the family after seeing him watching over April and after she had recovered.
When Sid announced he was moving to Broken Hill to take up a job with the Flying Doctors, Dexter told April he wouldn’t go with him without her and April agreed they should both go. However, he changed his mind, believing he was asking April to give up too much. He and Indigo argued over who got Sid’s room and he won the argument by inviting April to move in with him. He tried to help April out when her new supervisor, Peta Bradley, was hard on her, staying up all night to help her with filing, but made things worse for her by telling Peta about her past problems. He encouraged her to stand up for herself but was concerned when she instead decided to report Peta for bullying. He advised her to keep a record of all Peta’s actions but not take any action. Sasha tried to rope him into her plan to keep Indi and Chris apart but he was won over by Chris turning up with a horse and carriage to whisk Indi away on a date. He was given a temporary placement with the Flying Doctors, which meant leaving April to deal with the aftermath of Bianca’s disastrous first attempt to marry Heath.
On his return, he had to look after Casey, who had been hospitalised with spinal damage after a car crash. He admitted to Casey that he might never walk again which resulted in Casey falling out of bed while trying to prove him wrong. He sympathised with Kyle when he had to watch Casey and Tamara getting close again as a result of the accident, and when Peta heard him and April discussing it instead of working she told them one of them would have to go. When it looked like it was going to be April, he went to Peta and resigned. He stopped April going to see Peta but took a long time admitting what he’d done. Just as he was beginning to regret the move, April thanked him for his sacrifice. However, he was bored hanging around the house all day and, after going fishing with Alf, he and April convinced Peta to change her mind.
He felt embarrassed when Heath gave him a fright in front of April, Casey and Tamara while he was watching a horror movie. With help from Kyle, he sneaked into Heath’s flat and hid in order to give him a scare in return. As a result, he found out Heath was secretly taking a fitness course and got roped into tutoring him. He helped April investigate her withdrawn new supervisor, Nate Cooper, and organised a welcome party for him at Angelo’s.
After receiving news that Romeo had died, Dexter went along to one of Indi’s boot camps to keep an eye on her. He joined Indi in scattering his ashes, then proposed to April who readily accepted. He promptly announced the news on Facebook, irritating April who hadn’t had a chance to tell Bianca, and unsuccessfully tried to convince her to have a Star Wars wedding. Not long after, Indi announced she was going travelling in two weeks and Dexter decided to bring the wedding forward to before her departure. He consoled Chris when Indi broke up with him and convinced her to talk to him. Around the same time, he learned April’s father was getting her a place at a university in Paris. Although she was willing to turn it down, he told her he’d go where she needed to be and would move out there with her. He upset Sasha by asking Casey to be his best man instead of her, since he wanted a couple and it meant April could ask Tamara, but she eventually accepted he needed a masculine influence. He went through the day in an unnatural calm, even when Casey brought the wrong cake and spilled a drink over his shirt, and the wedding went ahead as planned, with a reception at a barn. Afterwards, Dexter said goodbye to Sasha before leaving town with April, Sid and Indigo.