loves Jodie, and then he tells Jodie that he would change nothing about her and proposes. Darren works for his friend Tamwar Masood (Himesh Patel) as a waiter until Vanessa convinces Max to reemploy Darren, which she does for Jodie's sake. When Heather suffers carbon monoxide poisoning, Darren makes a responsible decision to take custody of George for his health and safety. Whilst in Jodie's care, George has an accident at the salon and Heather wants to take care of him again but Darren will not let her and tells Heather that he is going to court to gain permanent custody of him. After the accident, Jodie decides that she is too young to be a stepmum, and, rather than make Darren choose between her and George, ends their relationship. Darren realises that being a single parent is not easy, and drops the custody case. He and Jodie get back together. He later plans a trip to see his family, not wanting Jodie to go, but Jodie does not want to go anyway. When he returns, he starts stealing money from work in order to pay for the wedding. Jack discovers this and informs Jodie, who says the wedding is over until she speaks to Darren. However, Darren then gets drunk with Jodie's friend and bridesmaid Lauren and they kiss and have sex at the car lot. Jodie later arrives at the car lot and sees Darren and Lauren together but does not say anything and they are unaware that it is her that saw them together. Jodie later admits to Darren that she saw him and Lauren together but has forgiven him. On the wedding day, Vanessa finds out from Syed what has happened between Darren and Lauren and goes to confront Darren telling him he is not good enough for Jodie, comparing him to Max and Harry. Darren is on his way to the wedding when he changes his mind and goes to tell Jodie that he cannot marry her. After saying goodbye to his friends, Darren visits Jodie and tells her that he still loves her but is not worthy enough to marry her and then leaves Walford in the wedding car that Mickey had hired for them. As he is driving away, a heartbroken Jodie runs after him and catches the congratulations balloon which had fallen off the car. In November 2011, Tamwar reveals that Darren