Jasmine departed Summer Bay only two months after Xander and Rose’s arrival, when Sam Frost left the show for what was initially believed to be a temporary exit, which she then made permanent, prompting rapid rewrites from Home and Away‘s writing team.
Xander and Rose had already settled in Summer Bay by that point, with the siblings taking on posts at Yabbie Creek’s ambulance station and police station respectively. They went on to move in together in the Pier Apartment above the diner.
Xander came to befriend one of his patients, Millie (Zara Zoe), following a car accident which saw her lose her best friend. He supported Millie as the suffered with the guilt, and resuscitated her when she attempted to drown herself in the ocean.
When Millie’s memory of the accident returned, she admitted to Xander that she had been at fault after glancing at her phone. At this point all eyes had been on the other driver, Logan (Harley Bonner), who had been found to be speeding. Xander was forced to stick up for his friend and tell the police the truth about Millie, after she attempted to blackmail Xander into keeping quiet.
The mental toll that Xander’s job took on him would soon be made apparent, when he later attended an accident site which had seen a teenager knocked off their bike and killed by a drunk driver. Rose was shocked when Xander lashed out at the driver whilst on duty, and even more so when Xander later revealed his coping mechanism when losing a patient was to get a tattoo in their honour.
The news that Jasmine would not be returning to Summer Bay sent Xander into a further spiral, which saw another new tattoo get infected, but things were soon looking up when he met gym worker Stacey Collingwood (Maleeka Gasbarri) and started dating her.
Unfortunately, Stacey didn’t believe in monogamy, and whilst Xander tried to put on a brave face and give an open relationship a go, it ultimately proved too much for him. Stacey assured Xander that she wanted to be with him and attempted to give exclusivity a try, but it wasn’t long before Rose found Stacey in a car with another guy and Xander called it quits.
Tragedy struck when Xander and his colleague Jamie (Hugo Liu) were ambushed on a callout, with a brutal attack leaving Jamie dead and Xander fighting for his life.
Following urgent surgery for a ruptured spleen, Xander suffered post-operative delirium as he came around from the anaesthetic, requiring Bree to sedate him.
Xander took the news of Jamie’s death hard, and after attending the funeral, decided to quit as a paramedic.
Taking on a job as a bartender at Salt, Xander later befriended Jamie’s widow Kate (Ruby Maishman), but it soon became apparent that she was becoming too dependent on him. After the pair slept together, Xander decided that his involvement in her life wasn’t helping her and cut ties.
Xander was angry when he learnt that Rose was searching for her biological father, questioning whether his own dad’s role as her stepfather had not been good enough for her.
Xander eventually came to understand when Rose explained she felt a piece of her was missing, not knowing anything about her mixed-race background, but he remained uncomfortable with keeping it from their mother Yvette.
Xander was soon promoted to Events Manager at Salt, and his paramedic background proved useful when Mackenzie collapsed in the restaurant. He later went on to organise a fundraiser for SCAD, the condition that Mac suffered from.
