| abstract | - Chris was Spencer’s brother who arrived in town shortly after he and Maddy had settled there. He told Spencer he’d come home to find him gone and that their mother missed him, and convinced Spencer to go away with him for a couple of days. He was challenged by Harvey about his reasons for being in the Bay and tried to convince Spencer to go home with him but Spencer decided to stay with Maddy. He continued to hang around and suggested to Maddy that Spencer felt guilty about choosing her. He tried to keep them apart by telling them both that the other needed space but they saw through the deception with help from Roo and Harvey. When they confronted him, he explained he was worried about having to be the responsible brother with Spencer gone. He stayed in Summer Bay but Spencer and Maddy soon got tired of him hanging around them the whole time. He flirted with Indi when he ran into her at the gym but was quick to flirt with April as well when Indi asked him to cheer her up following her break-up with Dexter, and accidentally freaked out recent rape victim Rosie by brushing some sand off her back. He helped celebrate Spencer’s birthday, after which Alf gave him a spare van to use to give Spencer and Maddy some space. When he continued to flirt with Indi, Casey told him about Romeo’s cancer. Chris attempted to help Spencer when he and Maddy split up but dragging him out of the caravan he was moping in failed to have any effect and Spencer accused him of never having cared about a girl. He slept with Indi, leaving Roo worried that he was more serious about her than she him. They tried to have another liaison in a storeroom but were interrupted by Heath. Chris took Indi out to dinner but she worried he was acting like they were a couple and pulled out. She then dragged him into the office but when he called her beautiful she realised she was using him and they resolved to remain friends. When he found out Indi was looking for Romeo, he suggested she hire a private detective. He then heard his parents were having troubles and decided to return home. He returned some months later to a warm greeting from Spencer and Indi, and explained to Spencer that their parents were seeing a marriage guidance counsellor. Indi arranged for them to have the house to themselves but was upset when he told her he was only interested in a casual arrangement. He tried to get to know Sasha, who was now dating Spencer, but found he got on better with Maddy. He failed to break the ice with Sasha by dunking her in the water and when he invited Maddy to a get-to-know-you breakfast Sasha announced she didn’t like him. However, he managed to get Indi and Dexter onside by surprising Indi with a horse drawn carriage. Indi invited him round for dinner but he backed off when she tried to take things further before telling her he wanted a relationship. He tried to help Sasha and Spencer clear up Bianca’s office, which Sasha had decorated prior to Bianca’s abortive wedding to Heath, but left when he and Sasha bickered. Indi then summoned him to the gym and agreed to a relationship. Sasha told Chris to stay away from the house but she and Spencer walked in on him and Indi getting intimate in the office, prompting Spencer to tell Chris to find somewhere else to live. He got on Sasha’s good side by looking after the gym while Indi worked on an assignment and she recommended him for a room at Irene’s. Irene gave him a list of house rules including no alcohol and no visitors without prior arrangement, only to come home on the first day to find an empty bottle of champagne and Chris in bed with Indi. As a result, she told him Indi couldn’t stay over. They tried to go to the gym for privacy but were interrupted by John, and Chris turned Indi away when she tried to climb through the window rather than go behind Irene’s back. He decided to get on Irene’s good side, cooking her breakfast and getting to know her, until Irene got tired of the attention and called Indi to take him away. When Spencer started acting strangely, Chris queried whether he had stopped taking his medication. When Sasha also said Spencer was behaving odd, Chris confronted him at the caravan park where Spencer attacked him and then collapsed. At the hospital, Chris told Peta Bradley that Spencer had bipolar in front of Sasha, Indi and April, when tests showed no sign of his medication. He promised Indi no more secrets but when he saw Robyn Sullivan, a girl he had had a three day relationship with a year previous and who still considered him her boyfriend, in town, he tried to keep her and Indi apart. However, when Indi saw them hugging he had to admit the truth. Indi stopped him telling Robyn about them, not wanting to be caught in the crossfire. He and Indi teamed up to get Spencer and Sasha talking again, and when Robyn confronted them at the gym Indi told her they were a couple. Chris shrugged off the fact Robyn had spent the night with Kyle and tried to support Indi when she got news of Romeo’s death. He snapped at Robyn when she suggested Indi had got bored with him, earning Irene’s disapproval. Indi admitted she felt like she’d cheated on Romeo with him but let him comfort her and he accompanied her and her family when they scattered Romeo’s ashes. When Robyn told him and Indi that her father had died, he agreed to have dinner with her but Kyle told them she had made it up to gain sympathy. After a heated confrontation, Chris and Robyn exchanged apologies and she left town. He then learned Spencer had joined a commune in the hope they could help him with his bipolar, and Sasha told him Evelyn MacGuire, another member of the commune, was keeping an eye on him. Chris went to a seminar at the commune, where he met Evelyn and gave her his phone to record what was going on. When he questioned the teachings of group leader Murray Grainger, Spencer told him to leave and punched him. They were reunited when Spencer was hospitalised after being beaten on Murray’s orders, which Evelyn had recorded using Chris’ phone. However, things were tense between him and Indi. He learned she was planning to go travelling and planned to go with her but she told him she had to go on her own. He admitted to Dexter that he didn’t understand why they’d broken up, prompting Indi to tell him she had started to fall in love with him but wasn’t ready to move on from Romeo. Soon after, Spencer moved in with Irene and Chris. Chris also suggested Sasha come to live with them with the rest of her family leaving town and said goodbye to Indigo while retrieving her things. When Irene told him she wanted rent from him, Chris went to Heath and Casey and told them that Spencer had agreed to him taking over his shifts at the gym. Spencer was furious but Irene solved the problem by forcing Chris to give Spencer the shifts back then employing him at the Diner. After a faltering start, he fitted in well. He attended the musical festival where he chatted up Phoebe and ended up sleeping with her after she had been rejected by Kyle. He accidentally disrupted Spencer’s attempt to have a romantic meal with Sasha by wandering into the Diner and being kissed by a blindfolded Sasha, and had to help them make up afterwards. When Irene went away, Chris decided that made him the manager of the Diner and started ordering Leah about, but backed off when she pointed out how much work the boss had to do. Despite her making it clear there wouldn’t be a repeat of their liaison, he gave Phoebe a place to stay. He then came home to find a party in full swing: It had actually been arranged by Jett and VJ but he, Sasha and a reluctant Spencer allowed it to go ahead until Irene came home, shut it down and tore a strip off them, before getting them to wait on her as punishment. Then Sean Green, who Chris and Sasha had spoken to at the party, turned up at the house injured and took them hostage, having misunderstood their comment that their parents were doctors and thought he could get medical help. Chris managed to overpower Sean, who was arrested, but felt guilty that he had hurt Sean even though it had mostly been down to his existing injuries. When Spencer worried about Harvey, who had gone missing, Chris managed to get Harvey to come to the surf club by leaving him a message saying there was an emergency with Spencer but failed to convince him to stay. He acted as Phoebe’s confidante when she worried about getting back with Kyle. He decided to do something nice for Irene and asked John for help in finding a boyfriend for her. John found a candidate and Roo arranged a romantic dinner for the pair but the date cancelled. Chris rushed to the house to stop Irene being alone and they, Alf, John, Marilyn and Roo ended up having a pleasant dinner together. Irene suggested he had projected his own feelings of loneliness onto her and tried to set him up with Tamara, telling him that she liked him, but Tamara gave him short shrift when he propositioned her. When Irene saw him chatting with Denny Miller she told him she would put a new burger he’d designed on the menu if he took her out. Chris took Denny to a secret beach for a picnic and they got on well, but when he told her about the deal with Irene she took off in their boat, leaving him stranded. He made an unsuccessful attempt to help Sasha and Spencer when they broke up, thinking they needed to have an argument instead of being overly polite, and ended up scuffling with Spencer. He insisted Denny was interested in him but his arrogant behaviour around her put her off. After talking to Irene, he approached her in a more sensitive manner and she agreed to a date. He interrupted the MacGuires’ breakfast where Hannah was telling them she was dating Andy and left everyone bewildered with his comments on the subject. He and Denny tried to spend the day together but both had to work, although he eventually found time to take her for a picnic on the wharf. He attempted to impress her by cooking risotto, also giving some to Alf and Leah and putting it as a special at the Diner. He stowed away on the Blaxland to surprise her only to find Denny had been called away and he was stuck with Alf. When Alf then fell ill and the engine overheated, Chris had to get him to shore in a rowing boat. He managed to get Alf to hospital but was shocked to learn that Leah and several others had fallen ill after eating his risotto, which he had made with wild mushrooms. He cleaned the Diner as penance and, on learning Leah might need a transplant, offered himself as a live donor and arranged a meeting at the Diner to get others to sign up to be tested. Chris himself came back negative but in the end Leah recovered without it. Wanting to make things up to Alf, he ended up taking Denny’s place unloading orders at the bait shop. Since he hadn’t spoken to Spencer since he had returned to living at the caravan park, Alf got Spencer to help him. With the Diner closed down because of his actions, Chris was determined to get it reopened and enlisted Jett and Spencer to hand out flyers while he tried to attract people’s attention with a loudspeaker. Phoebe stepped in, getting Chris to take her past the beach in a boat while she used the loudspeaker, and the Diner was soon busy again. Phoebe confided in him that working at Angelo’s with Kyle wasn’t as much fun as she’d expected so he suggested she do the job poorly and get fired. He helped set up the school for Gina’s memorial and was upset to find Tamara still giving him the cold shoulder over his attempt to chat her up. He managed to charm her slightly when they teamed up to search for missing Darcy and Harley. When Denny returned, Chris desperately sought to get the house to themselves, paying for Irene to stay in a hotel then booking Spencer a caravan after failing to set him up with Evelyn. They slept together for the first time but when she told him she was starting to fall in love with him he panicked and, after avoiding her, told her they should take a step back. He faked illness to avoid Denny only for her to come round with some soup and catch him out. He then tried to arrange a grand gesture to win her back only to find her chatting to Casey instead. He made an unsuccessful attempt to get her attention by surfing and then used some of his old chat-up lines on her. When Denny finally agreed to speak to him, he proved his commitment by jumping off the wharf and wrecking his little black book; Denny jumped into the water with him and they kissed. When Marilyn believed John was cheating on her, Chris sent her some flowers under a false name to even up the odds. Denny blamed Sasha for revealing Oscar had run over Tamara but Chris took Sasha’s side and Denny understood when he explained she was like family to him. He was frustrated when Denny invited Casey to what was supposed to be an evening alone and made plans to take Denny to a horror movie marathon but she convinced him to accompany Spencer and Evelyn to a party on a double date. When it became clear their siblings were getting on fine, they sneaked away to the Diner to reconsummate. He accepted a scratch card as payment at the Diner but ended up paying the bill himself and keeping the scratch card, winning a cruise. However, he was reluctant to leave Casey and Denny alone so gave the prize to Irene. He accused Casey of having feelings for Denny and Casey punched him but agreed to drop it when Denny didn’t believe him. However, he thanked Casey for giving them space. He arranged a romantic night with Denny but she chose to spend the evening with Evelyn instead and he had to share it with Spencer. Denny admitted she had feelings for Casey so Chris broke up with her and then punched Casey. He ended up hiding out at home, scared of reprisals from the Braxtons, but when Denny tried to get back with him he told her they needed to move on. Spencer told him Denny and Casey looked like they were going to become a couple and when he saw them on the beach together he agreed they should move on. He helped Spencer clean up the caravan park but spent most of his time playing football, and when he kicked the ball under Andy’s caravan they found a package of marijuana there. Evelyn begged them not to tell anyone for Josh’s sake but Chris went to the police, resulting in Andy being questioned and Josh blaming Spencer and punching him. Chris told Josh and Spencer he was responsible and Josh said they should put it behind them. When Andy returned to town, Chris hid from him. Andy tracked him down to the Diner but before he could do anything Alf stepped in, telling Andy that Josh could stay at the caravan park so long as Andy left quietly. Andy tried to approach him later anyway but was unable to intimidate him in front of Hannah and Oscar. He involved himself in John and Marilyn’s wedding plans, even trying to get John to make him groomsman. When he overheard Denny saying she and Casey were having problems, he suggested they have dinner together as friends. They got on well but when he kissed her at the end of the night she threw him out. Phoebe warned him to stay away from Denny or she’d tell Casey about the kiss. He tried to get Denny to forgive him, then told Casey himself. He went away for a while, returning with a spice rack for Irene and a Zen garden for Spencer. He tried to put up some new shelves in the kitchen but ended up dismantling the oven that Irene was meant to be using to cook scones for Sasha’s market day fundraiser. He tried to make it up to her by organising a kissing booth but got no takers. His DIY ended up demolishing the entire kitchen but when Irene saw how depressed he was she told him to take as long as he needed to fix it. He then tried to get Spencer to take him to the school formal so he could chat up the teachers. Chris turned his attentions to Shandi Palmer, while also filling in for Denny at the bait sjop after Casey’s death. He defended Marilyn when Shandi had a go at her, leaving Irene and the others to accuse him of making things worse, although not long after Shandi changed her mind about Marilyn. Shandi asked him to be her date when John and Marilyn were about to elope but instead Irene assigned him to look after the Diner so she could go. When the elopement was cancelled, Shandi pointed out she hadn’t invited him to the actual wedding but after they spent the day hanging around each other’s normal haunts in the hope of bumping into the other, they met on the wharf and she invited him. He insisted on organising a bucks party for John, then got dragged to the hen party by Shandi to act as a life model. He appointed himself MC at the reception and shared a dance with Shandi but she left town before anything else could happen. He signed Spencer up to a dating site and hired a boat so they could spend time together but Spencer cancelled to Skype Amy, a girl he had met online, only for Amy to cancel in turn. Chris tried to convince Spencer to forget Amy after she cancelled another meeting. When Spencer went to meet her, Sasha told Chris that the T-shirt Amy had supposedly designed was mass produced and he found Amy’s photo on a list of known internet predators. He grabbed Alf and went to the motel to rescue Spencer, arriving to find his predator, Keith Potts, unconscious and Spencer in a state of shock. He helped get Spencer to give a statement and tried to support him in the aftermath but Spencer kept losing his temper, pushing him into some shelves. He encouraged Spencer to tell his story to the school and, when Matt broke up with Sasha, told her he was getting in first because he was worried she would break up with him. When Denny organised a girls’ night to cheer up Evelyn, Chris insisted he should come too and kept the girls entertained with a game of charades. He took Spencer out to chat up girls and Spencer got on well with Monique Wu while Chris annoyed her friends and got a drink thrown over to him. He later got a text from Monique asking for Spencer’s number (since Chris had sneaked his number onto one of her friends’ phone) but Spencer refused to see her. When Chris ran into Monique, he decided to throw a party at the beach house and invite her. He slept on the sofa to give them some privacy when Spencer and Monique slept together; however, instead of cheering him up as Chris planned, it just left Spencer more depressed, aware that he’d used her because he was upset by the news Maddy was pregnant, and Chris had to reassure him. He was offered a job on a cruise ship but was reluctant to leave Spencer. He tried to ask Denny to keep an eye on him but she thought he was trying to set them up and pushed him off the wharf. When Spencer found out and angrily told him to go, Chris was more convinced than ever that Spencer needed him around but Spencer persuaded him to go. However, he returned when he heard Spencer was down and learned Maddy had not been pregnant and was instead getting treatment for cancer. He told Spencer there had been a typhoon, then claimed he was seasick, and Spencer was unhappy when he learned the truth, not having wanted Chris to give up the job for him. However, Chris supported him when they waited for news of Maddy.
|
