Whilst Christmas shopping Lorna faints in the street and, on her return home, discovers that she is pregnant. However, seeing the positive testing kit both Ben and Dale believe that Rachel is expecting and both assume that they are the father. At a pre-Christmas dinner Steve wins Connie back from her lover Pepe and Ben persuades a reluctant Ken to play Santa at a charity concert so that he too can take the stage and publicly propose to Rachel. It all goes ahead but everybody is shocked when Lorna, not Rachel, announces that she is the pregnant one (though Lorna is relieved to learn that Ken never had his vasectomy so that hers is not an immaculate conception.) Rachel accepts Ben's proposal but a love-sick, heart-broken Dale drives away into the night and Rachel is unable to stop him.