In a “don’t blink or you’ll miss it” moment, Young & Restless established a plot point that signalled where Nick and Sharon’s storyline is headed in the immediate future… and it’s nowhere good!

After Matt choked him out while driving and the car careened off the road, Nick Newman ended up in the hospital, where he ultimately had to undergo surgery for a broken leg. He came through looking no worse for the wear, sporting some sexy scruff and a doze-y demeanor. All good, right? Wrong.

In a slightly startling scene, Nick suddenly awoke from his post-surgery snooze in a significant amount of pain, clutching his leg and calling for Sharon to get the nurse. We’ve not since revisited the setback, leaving us to speculate about what could have gone wrong. The most obvious would be a botched surgery or a blood clot in the leg.

But it was what Nick said whilst in the throes of his distress that left us troubled, and which signalled a potential plot twist. Through gritted teeth, he suggested to Sharon that he might need “more meds” or something. As we all know, the mere mention of drugs is never a good sign on a soap… but in this case, it’s extra double-triple concerning.

Why? Because Nick was in the car crash with Matt when he sustained the broken leg. Viewers saw nothing that went down between the Nick veering off the road and him showing up at the hospital.

What we do know is that this particular villain always travels with a handy-dandy little baggie of fentanyl to threaten his enemies with… we saw him show it to Annie the crooked cop at the overlook previously, as well as to Sharon.

What then, if Matt dosed Nick with fentanyl at the scene of the crash? With that as a possibility, the Newman’s seemingly out of the blue mention of “more meds” suddenly becomes more alarming than even whatever is going on with his leg.

Fentanyl is a highly addictive drug. The craving for another dose of opiate will already be there without Nick even knowing why. Presumably, the doctor will up his meds due to whatever is causing him pain in his leg, and we’ll be off. “Off on what?” you ask. Why, an addiction storyline, of course.

Matt will be delighted to read our speculation that Nick is about to spiral into an addiction to pain meds, and “Shick” fans will be dismayed, as it could clearly be the next stumbling block on the pair’s path to relaxed reunion bliss. Let us know your thoughts, SOAPS readers, by using the comment section.