Give me a baby!
Kate asks a stunned Robert to father her and Rana’s child…
The penny drops for her, and she thinks Robert could be the answer to everything
Kate Connor never so much as mentioned the word ‘baby’ until a few weeks ago, and yet suddenly she’s become the broodiest woman on the planet. In her desperation to get up the duff, she turns to Robert Preston this week and asks him to do the honours – a man who, like Kate, has also been struck down by the broody bug.
At first, Kate is all set on using the services of a random sperm donor. It looks like she’s hit a brick wall when she finds out that just one round of IVF treatment will cost a whopping three and a half grand, but then dad Johnny comes to the rescue and offers to stump up the cash.
Kate’s thrilled, and later heads to a fertility clinic with Rana. She’s as giddy as a kipper, but her fiancée looks like she’d rather be having root-canal surgery. Back on the cobbles, the nurse finally bites the bullet and tells her partner that she’s not happy with the idea of a stranger fathering their child.
‘This puts a spanner in the works for Kate,’ says Faye Brookes, who plays her, ‘but she is still determined to become a mum.
She just thinks that if it can’t be a stranger, she’ll just have to search elsewhere, and maybe it doesn’t have to be too far from home.’
With plan A off the agenda, Kate quickly comes up with a plan B. Bursting into the clinic, where Rana is at work, she suggests that they adopt a child instead. But Rana sends her packing, furious at being ambushed during her shift. Feeling low, Kate heads to the Bistro to drown her sorrows, where she and Robert get chatting...
‘Robert lets his guard down and confides in Kate that he’s always wanted to be a dad,’ reveals Faye.
‘The penny drops for her, and she thinks Robert could be the answer to everything. So, once she’s got some Dutch courage inside her, she asks him to father her and Rana’s child.’
Robert’s knocked for six and tells Kate it’s a bonkers idea. But with Michelle showing no signs of wanting to make Preston Jnr, will he realise that this could be his only chance of becoming a dad?