Having been committed for thinking she had killed Axel, Melody escaped from the clinic and went to Geoff but it became clear there was something wrong with her and Nicole tricked her into returning. Her escape bought her mother back from overseas and Christine used Annie to contact Melody, using Melody's violent reaction as an excuse to remove her from the clinic. Despite returning to school, Melody was clearly still ill and Geoff was horrified to realize that Melody was starving herself. Christine though refused to listen and Geoff had his own problems when he suspected Nicole was pregnant - though the test turned out to be negative. At a loss as to how to handle her daughter, Christine resorted to desperate measures and set about performing an exorcism on Melody. Luckily Geoff and Miles were able to intervene before she could carry it out and the incident made Melody realize that living with her mother was not good for her, and she decided to emancipate herself. Miles offered her a room in Summer Bay House.
Desperate to resume a normal life, and despite the protestation of her family, Martha decided she wanted to return to work. However, she was quickly forced to reconsider this decision when her hair began falling out as a result of her ongoing chemotherapy.
Rachel received an unexpected surprise when Joe, the baby she and Kim were set to adopt in 2006, was brought into hospital with bruising on his knees. Initially accusing step-father Dane of mistreating him, Rachel was forced to eat her words when she diagnosed Joe with bone cancer. Her attachment to Joe grew as she began questioning Dane's commitment to ensuring Joe received proper treatment, and this ultimately led to her taking Joe home with her whilst Dane travelled to find Joe's mother, Lee. She was heartbroken when Dane returned and took Joe back into his own care.
On his release from the psychiatric care, Aden returned to work at the Diner which caused tension with Belle. He eventually decided to quit his job and took up work as a labourer on the development site. As his trial loomed, those close to him tried to persuade him to open up about his grandfather but Aden insistently refused, and this decision led to him sacking his barrister during the trial, who had tried to coax the truth out of Belle on the stand. Realizing the case was not going well, Roman reluctantly asked Morag if she would consider representing him and despite her own issues with Ross, she agreed. As he took the stand, and answered Morag's questions for the defence, Aden found the courage to open up about his ordeal, ultimately leading to him being given a good behaviour bond and community service.
Bridget continued to come up with ways to expand the Bait Shop business and despite initial reservations from Alf, he agreed to her selling advertising space on the side of the "tinnies". Shortly afterwards, Bridget's ex partner Brian turned up, demanding that she owed him money. He revealed that the money owed to him was his cut from a scam the pair had run, though Bridget told Alf it was money she had borrowed from him during her cancer treatment. Wanting to rid Bridget of Brian, Alf handed over the $5000 she asked for - though only a small portion of this made its way to Brian, with Bridget pocketing the rest.
Whilst in the office of the development site, Aden noticed and stole a map containing information not presented on the one issued for public viewing. He handed the map to Belle, which led to Angelo warning him off her, and to him being sacked from the development site after the manager, Tim, discovered the theft. Shortly afterwards Belle received a call to say that Aden had been involved in an accident and raced off to the hospital to see him - she was stunned to discover that he had not been admitted, or hurt, and even more so when she returned home to discover the map missing. Realizing the whole thing was a ploy, she was further shaken to receive a call warning her off her investigations, or the consequences for Aden would not be good. Belle told Aden she was dropping her investigations in order to protect him from harm.
Rachel and Tony had an evening out at a hospital function taking place at The Sands. Rachel was pre-occupied with the fact that she had heard nothing from Dane since he took Joe back. However this soon changed as that evening Dane made contact and told a devastated Rachel that Joe had died. Her grief led to Tony admitting that he was ready to have a child with her.
Bartlett too attended the hospital function and took advantage of the resort's escorting service. He was shocked to discover that his date for the evening was none other than Kirsty, taking on the extra work in order to pay Kane's legal fees. The evening took a further embarrassing turn when Miles turned up with Leah, who he'd given a spare ticket meant for Kirsty. Kirsty and Bartlett managed to cover her tracks when they were spotted, but the deceit didn't go undiscovered for long, as Miles saw a payment from Martin put into Kirsty's bank account. She finally told Miles the truth about Kane, prompting Miles to turn to Leah for comfort. Kirsty was threatened with the sack if she didn't carry out more escort work, leading to her leaving the job. Miles confronted Bartlett about the money who, not realizing the full truth hadn't been revealed, let it slip that Kirsty had been doing escort work. Miles ended the relationship.
Melody was still obsessed with Geoff, and mistakenly believed that they were destined to get back together. Geoff decided to run for School Captain and, as Melody began working as his campaign manager with the intention of making him fall for her again, Nicole's jealousy grew. She decided to run for the female School Captain position as a ploy to get closer to Geoff herself. The outcome of the election saw Nicole and Geoff elected as School Captains, and Melody taking on a role in the student council.
Annie began to worry that Jai might want to take their relationship to a sexual level which she did not feel ready for and began to pull away from him. However after discussing the matter, the pair resolved that neither of them were ready for a sexual relationship. Whilst on a school trip to gather samples for a science project, the pair found traces of Arsenic in the soil by the caravan park and Annie passed this onto Belle incase it was of any importance to her work on the development site.
Aden and Belle discovered that arsenic is a carcinogen, which can cause cancer and they consulted Rachel. They began to count up the Summer Bay residents who had been cancer sufferers over the years, helped by Leah who identified more cases to Rachel. Belle asked Angelo to get the medical records, but Fitzy blocked the application before it could progress due to a lack of evidence. Despite initially not wanting to compromise her professional integrity, Rachel realized how serious the situation could potentially be and handed Belle a list of names of cancer sufferers in the area. Colleen overheard Rachel discussing the situation with Leah and proceeded to tell the whole town of the potential cancer cluster. A community meeting was held in order to calm the residents.
After hearing about the potential cancer cluster, Martha was devastated that her cancer could've been prevented if the suspected toxic waste had not been there. Jack went in all guns blazing to try and turn up new evidence against the development after the revelation, but the soil samples he collected turned up no traces of toxicity. After Roman found a distraught Martha at the development site, she admitted to Jack that she needed to get away from the Bay. Jack initially struggled to gather together the money for a stay in a retreat centre, but Roman stepped up and lent them the cash.
Unable to resist each other any longer, Aden and Belle reunited behind Angelo's back. She put off telling him the truth, which forced Aden to tell Belle that he couldn't be with her until Angelo was told. However, Angelo discovered the truth himself and confronted Belle, who lied about her infidelity. Unable to cope with her betrayal, Angelo stunned the town meeting by announcing it in front of the entire Bay, before assaulting Aden and intimidating Belle. Whilst Aden quickly jumped to Belle's side, Charlie adamantly took Angelo's, which brought conflict between her and Roman. The situation reached a head when she arrived at Roman's to find Aden and Belle having dinner, at Nicole's invitation. Unable to pretend she was happy with how Angelo had been treated, she verbally attacked them. Although she later admitted she had made a mistake, Roman responded by breaking off their relationship, telling her he didn't see them having a future.
After both being elected into school captaincy, Geoff and Nicole began to get closer and decided to get back together. Melody was distraught when she found out and, in an effort to fit in with other people, decided to cultivate a friendship with Matthew Lyons. Despite others raising their concerns about him, she proceeded to attend a party with him and his other mates, getting herself drunk in the process. Despite not liking her interference with her and Geoff's relationship, Nicole could see the potential trouble Melody was getting herself into, and went to the party herself in order make her see sense - a wise move, as things were getting out of hand with potentially disastrous results as she turned up. Melody continued to flirt with Matthew in an attempt to make Geoff jealous, but when Matthew expressed a serious interest in her, she was forced to put a stop to things.
Alf discovered that the money given to Bridget from local businesses for advertising space had not been passed onto a sign writer, and Bridget told him her cancer had returned and she was using the money for further treatment. Leah received the collapsed Diner's insurance money, $100,000, and decided to put it in the bank for the time being until such time as she was able to think over how best to spend it. Bridget, over-hearing the conversation, stole Leah's identity card. She promptly offered Leah her babysitting services, but used the opportunity to steal one of Leah's utility bills - but not before being caught rifling through the drawers by VJ and fobbing him off with the excuse that she was planning a surprise for Leah's impending 30th birthday. VJ shared this piece of information with Rachel, which was enough to feed her suspicions of Bridget, which had never really vanished since the incident in Broken Hill with Tony.
After hearing about the suggested cancer cluster, Murray began to assist Belle once again and, using his links with the developers, discovered when the toxic waste was to be moved from the site. The pair spied on the site and Belle photographed the removal of the waste - however, the pair were caught and in the ensuing chase, Murray ended up with the camera, and vanished but his hand was later seen placing the memory card in Belle's bedroom. Aden struggled to balance his HSC revision with his community service but Angelo was adamant that he would be unable to rearrange it, and later accused Aden of throwing a wet sponge at him. Belle reported Angelo's behaviour to the police, on the grounds that he was treating Aden on the basis of a personal grudge and upon discovering this, Angelo stormed over to Irene's. He completely lost his temper and threw a chair across the room before punching the wall. Aden later bumped into Angelo and after learning he'd been to see Belle, went over to check on her. He found her on her bedroom floor, badly beaten up and unconscious. Angelo was arrested for the attack despite vehemently denying it, and whilst drowning his sorrows in Noah's, bumped into Charlie. After breaking up with Roman, she went into self-destruct mode and as a result, she and Angelo drunkenly slept together.
Leah layed into Kirsty over her treatment of Miles and was adamant that she would do the same if she ever came in the Diner again, much to Irene's dismay. Miles too was equally unimpressed that Leah had interfered, and she was forced to admit that her continuing feelings for Miles were clouding her judgment. They decided it would be better if they avoided seeing each other for the foreseeable future. However this caused Leah further problems when VJ started misbehaving as a result of spending less time with Miles and thus a lack of a male role model. This culminated in him running away from Colleen's whilst she was baby sitting and following Jai and Annie into the woods. Deciding to go exploring he ended up in the storm drain, just hours before a reported storm. Jai and Annie followed him in to find him and had to split out. Jai and VJ emerged but Annie did not. An official search began just as the storm hit, and in trying to escape Annie got herself caught in some railings. Charlie threw herself into the search, refusing to wait for further backup and managed to free Annie and get her to safety - however a gush of storm water meant she was unable to get out in time, and she was later found washed out at sea. Roman pulled her to shore but she gave him the cold shoulder at the hospital.
As a result of the incident Leah and Miles were forced to re-assess their situation - Leah made things up with Kirsty and Miles and decided that VJ should be allowed to spend time with Miles regardless of her emotional confusion. Miles too found a way to forgive and forget, and he and Kirsty reunited. Charlie was later made head of the police station, due to Fitzy taking maternity leave.
Going against Bridget's wishes, Alf told Rachel about Bridget's cancer returning. Rachel tried offering Bridget advice but she was adamant that she was taking advice from her former specialist in the city, going to the lengths of enlisting Brian to help her fake the Doctor's name on some supposed chemotherapy tablets. Bridget opened a high interest savings account in Leah's name and attempted to withdraw the $100,000 insurance money from Leah's bank account - her plot was foiled when she was asked a security question and, panicking, she pretended to faint in order to get out of the bank. Rachel did her own research into Bridget's specialist in the city and discovered that she had never been on their records, leading her to the conclusion that Bridget was lying about ever having had cancer in the first place. Upon confronting Bridget, she was told to mind her own business, and Alf threw her out of Noah's for causing Bridget undue stress.
At the Halloween party thrown at the Surf Club, Melody deliberately turned up in the same outfit as Nicole, and used their similarity in look as a way to kiss Geoff in order to try and convince him they should together. Geoff told her he was with Nicole now, but agreed to take her to the end of year formal (after a little manipulation on Melody's part) in order to try and help her fit in better at the school. Furious at this turn of events, Nicole invited her own date to try and make Geoff jealous.
The 'schoolies' came to town and one in particular caused a stir - Tony's nephew Xavier. He soon caught Ruby's eye but it also became obvious that he was dealing drugs, with Matthew Lyons taking advantage of the situation and buying some cannabis. Tony inquired as to how Xavier's home life was, and he admitted that it was sometimes a struggle for his mother to take care of his disabled brother, Brendan, particularly with his older brother Hugo being absent. However the family catch up soon came to a close when Xavier's drug stash was discovered and he was sent back home by Tony. Martha bought Jack a boat as a thank you for supporting her over the last few months.
Oliver ran into Kane at the caravan park, but was told not to tell Kirsty that he'd seen him. Kane visited Irene to tell her he was out of jail and asked how Kirsty was getting along. He gave Irene a letter to give to her but, arriving at Summer Bay House to see Miles and Kirsty having so much fun, she refrained from doing so.
After being discharged from hospital, Belle had a difficult time adjusting to her work life and Rachel diagnosed her as having post-traumatic stress disorder, and referred her to a councilor. Belle's woes were heightened when the charges against Angelo were dropped when a new suspect, Nobby, stepped forward to confess to the crime. Angelo was convinced that Tim was behind Nobby's confession and bugged Nobby to try and record a confession. However, Tim realized what was happening, and Nobby disappeared - his body disposed of in a large hole at the development site by Tim. As part of her therapy, Belle tried to talk to Angelo about the assault charge mix up, but whilst in his house, a gun man enters attempting to kill Angelo. Jack and Fitzy found out that Angelo was trying to nail Tim on his own, but Jack started to suspect that Angelo was working with Tim - a fact discovered to be true.
On the night of the formal, Kane unexpectedly turned up at Summer Bay House to declare that he wanted Kirsty back. Miles was naturally unhappy at this turn of events, but Kirsty told Kane to go away as she and Miles were going to the formal. Kane later turned up at the formal itself, but Kirsty once again sent him away.
Owing to her recent behaviour with Matthew, Miles grounded Melody, and insisted there could not be an exception which allowed her to attend the formal with Geoff. Geoff and Nicole both turned up to the formal alone and after talking through what had happened, decided to enjoy the night together. Aden was unhappy that Belle didn't feel up to going to the formal and bitterly told her she wasn't going to spoil his night, and went alone. However, Belle later turned up at the formal, seemingly much more like the "old" Belle and not the emotionally stressed person she had become since the attack. After smoking Matthew's cannabis with him, Melody got stoned and despite Jai and Annie trying to stop her, insisted on going to the formal. Miles was furious to see her there and Aden offered to take her back home. However, this wasn't enough to stop Melody, who returned to the formal but, in a stoned and disorientated state, ran out. Shortly afterwards, Geoff and Nicole tried to leave, only to find that the doors had been locked from the outside. Jai and Annie went to look for Melody and found Kane, and convinced him to drive them to the formal to try and track her down. Kane took his eyes off the road for a second as they approached the building and had to quickly swerve to avoid Melody in the middle of the road, crashing his car into the side of the building where the formal was being held.
Suspicious of Angelo, Jack followed him to the development site where he was due to meet with Tim. He kept his distance as Angelo wandered around the empty yard. Angelo heard shots being fired around him in the distance and pulled a gun from the back of his trousers, shooting into the darkness. On investigating where his bullets ended up, he was horrified to find Jack on the ground, a bullet through his heart and blood pouring from his mouth.