Rachel Hyde

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Rachel Hyde
First appearance	2006 Episode 4101
Information
Nickname(s)	Rache
Gender	Female
Age	28
Occupation	Medical doctor
Title	Doctor
Family	Brad Armstrong (brother), Emily Armstrong (sister-in-law, deceased), Dr. Robert Armstrong (father), Elaine Armstrong (mother, deceased)
Relationships	Kim Hyde
Children	Unborn step-child
Relatives	Barry Hyde (father-in-law)
Portrayed by	Amy Mathews

Rachel Marie Hyde (née Armstrong) is a fictional character in the Seven Network soap opera Home and Away. The character is portrayed by Amy Mathews.

Rachel arrived in Summer Bay at the beginning of the 2006 season as long-time friend of Leah Baker. She arrived at the hospital to start her first shift as the new psychiatrist during the middle of a storm when she saw Kim Hyde dumped in the bushes outside the ambulance bay. He had been taking recreational drugs at a pub and was left there after he passed out. As the emergency department was understaffed, Rachel offered to help, saying she had ED experience. She tried to treat Kim, but he went into cardiac arrest as the power cut out. The defibrillator battery was not charged, but despite this Rachel was successful in resuscitating him. Kim later recovered, and fell for her. Though Rachel was wary of starting a relationship with her patient, Kim's persistence paid off and the two began dating. Around this time Rachel also became the victim of sexual harassment from her boss, Dr. Brian Helpmann, at the hospital. With the resolution of that saga, Kim proposed to Rachel, and she said yes. After Zoe McAllister set alight a barn that everybody was in during Martha Mackenzie and Jack Holden's wedding reception, Kim was left with minor burns. Rachel insisted that he and four other people take a helicopter to a larger hospital so that he could get burns treatment. The helicopter crashed during a storm, and Rachel was blamed; she ended up going on a sedative and alcohol trip after she found out that her father Robert, a senior and well-respected surgeon, had caused the car crash that resulted in her mother Elaine receiving head injuries that caused major anterograde amnesia (he had been driving under the influence of alcohol). Much to Rachel's distress, her mother later died from injuries sustained in the explosion shortly before the ill-fated helicopter flight. She once slapped Leah Patterson-Baker during an intoxicated argument, and Leah asked for help of her brother, Brad. He was the one who found her having a fit from alcohol and drug poisoning.

But all passengers and the pilot survived. The night before the survivors were found, Kim and his past flame Kit Hunter, who had also on the helicopter, grew close and spent the night together. They were going to get back together, but later realised that they would both be better off as they were. They planned on keeping this from Rachel, but she found out after calling Kim who after forgetting to end the phone call, openly discussed the situation with Kit. Rachel said that she understood what happened, and the wedding plans were back on track until the issue of babies brought about. The age difference was the issue there.

At the time, Rachel was 28, Kim was 19. When Kim first said he never wanted kids until 10 years later, Rachel argued that by that time, she may not be able to have kids due to age. They compromised to make it 5 years, but it never mattered in the end since Kim became infertile due to complications resulting from a bout of mumps. Kim cruelly treated Rachel as an attempt to give her an out. But after Jack's advice, he managed to talk Rachel calmly to save their relationship when Rachel decided to stay.

Kim and Rachel are now husband and wife after Kim lost the wedding rings to a thieving stripper on his stag night and was late returning from Warratah with a second set of rings when his car broke down in the middle of nowhere – resulting in his having to get to the church by any means he could find, namely on the back of a motorbike (whose rider, it turned out, wasn't going all the way to Summer Bay), on the Summer Bay Bowling Club's minibus (which not only developed a puncture but also the spare tyre was flat), and on a horse 'borrowed' from a farmer (which was quite a surprise for both Rachel and the wedding guests).

In the 2006 season finale, Kit returned to the Bay to tell Kim that she was pregnant with his child. Upon discovering that Kim was going to be a father, Kim assured her that he would have nothing to do with Kit's child as he did not want to cause her any more pain. However Rachel insisted that he be a part of his child's life.