a/n: This story is dedicated to WhenTheTideComesIn! She was the one who helped me come up with the idea for it, so thank you so much honey! :* Go read all her stories, 'cause she's really an amazing author and go read our common story "Achromatic"!

01.

A young attractive woman adjusted herself at her seat, watching as her plane was going slowly down to its destination. She was no longer light blond but with now a caramel shade color. And her once beautiful messy curls were long gone, her hair now being straight and making her look more beautiful than ever. Her ocean-blue eyes were glowing with a mischievous spark.

Three years ago when she left Australia to go to the States she didn't imagine she would be off for so long. Three years ago was the last time she saw and heard of her friends that she shared a common secret with.

She left the Gold Coast just when her friend Emma Gilbert had finally come back from her travelling around the world. It wasn't as if she'd planned it like that, it just happened. The girls, her three best friends Cleo, Bella and Emma weren't thrilled when she announced her decision to them, but she highly doubted they were that devastated they tried to look like. Even if they were, there was nothing that could've made her change her mind.

Now, however, she was coming back to catch up with everyone again and to tell her friends about the amazing adventures she'd been through, during her time away.

The plane finally landed and most of the passengers rushed to find their luggage. She did too. When she noticed her backpack, she grabbed it and hurried to the exit of the airport.

Once outside, she breathed the fresh air and the smallest of smile, just a twitch of the lips, ran through her face.

She was back.

She was home.

And she was going to stay.

{ * }

The first place she went was her trailer where she lived with her dad. The airport wasn't far so it took her about twenty minutes to get there. She stood in front of the door and taking a deep breath she pushed it open walking in.

"Dad?" She called in. "Dad are you home?!"

Her father walked out of the other room. Seeing her standing in front of him his face lit up.

"Rikki?! Sweetheart, you're back!"

And he hurried to hug his daughter, before pulling away, taking her hands in his. He took a good look at her. She was wearing a black short dress which along with her now straight, light caramel hair were making her look hot and sexy.

"Look at you, you've become such a beautiful young woman!"

She smiled.

"Thanks, dad!"

She hadn't realized how much she'd missed him until now. She was so happy to see him again.

He waited for her to put down her backpack and pulled her to sit with him outside in the back yard, with the magnificent view of the ocean.

"How was your stay in the States? Did you have fun?" He asked her.

"Yeah, it was amazing!" She exclaimed with a smile.

They sat out there for a long time. She told her dad about California, how then she decided to go to Miami, then to New York, and how she finally ended up at Chicago. She told him about all her adventures and how much fun she had had. He was a really good listener, something she'd forgotten and that she had truly missed.

"I'm glad you had such a great time!" Her dad smiled. "You have no idea how much I've missed you though."

"I've missed you too!" And she chuckled. "And I also missed the old 'Thelma'."

Her dad smiled.

"You probably want to catch up with your friends now." It was a statement.

She nodded smiling.

"Go on then, have fun!"

She grinned giving him a peck on the cheek and headed towards the beach. If there was a place she knew she'd find the girls it was Mako Island.

Making sure no one was watching her she dived into the water.

{ * }

"Cleo, Emma's at the door!" Kim yelled to her big sister.

"I'm coming!" Cleo replied.

Kim walked away upstairs and Cleo ran down to the door. She herself wasn't really in a mood, but she was surprised to see Emma so angry and upset.

"Em, what happened?!" The brunette asked softly, pulling her inside and leading her to the couch.

"One word. Sophie."

"What did she do again?"

"She's not willing to give a break to anyone until the wedding's over."

"Oh." Cleo said and rubbed her back. "Well, I can help you if you want. I'll do whatever she needs to be done so you could take a break and get some rest."

"Really?!" Emma gave her a tired smile.

"Of course!" Cleo nodded.

"I still can't believe it you know?!" Emma said bitterly with a flame of frustration in her eyes.

"Can't assume what?!"

"Everything that's happening to us! And this whole wedding thing!" Her voice gave up all the hurt she felt inside.

"I know, me too." Cleo said sympathetically.

Her heart ached too, but she had learnt not to let it get to her brain. She hesitated whether to add something else, but she changed her mind. Instead she just simply shrugged it off as usual.

"We'll be ok, you'll see. We always are and we will be again."

Emma wasn't so convinced but nodded anyway.

"I wish Ash was here, you know." She said. "You have Lewis and Bella has Will. I wish I had Ash here with me."

"I know." The brunette told her gently.

Suddenly her phone started ringing. She reached to take it and saw it was Bella.

"Hi, Bella." She said picking up.

"Cleo, call Emma and meet me at the moon pool, now!"

"Why? Bella what's going on, is everything ok?!" Cleo started panicking.

"Please do what I say and hurry. I'll explain everything there!"

"Ok, ok, Emma's here with me. We're on our way."

And they hung up. Cleo frowned.

"Bella wants us to meet her at the moon pool." She told Emma.

"What? Now?!"

"Yes. And it sounded like an emergency."

"Ok." Emma nodded. "Let's go then."

The two girls left Cleo's house going to the beach. They dived in heading straight to the moon pool. When they arrived Bella was already there.

"Bella, what's going on, why you wanted to meet us so urgently?!" Cleo asked.

"I was heading to the office to tell Sophie I was done with my tasks. It was then when I accidentally overheard her talking to someone."

"So?!" Emma asked confused.

"She was talking to a marine biologist."

"Could you make out if it was male or female?" Cleo asked trying not to panic.

"It was a woman." Bella said.

Both Emma and Cleo's hearts fell. Their worst fears had just been confirmed.

"We're screwed." Emma breathed.

The other two nodded.

"Big time."

{ * }

Rikki took her time wandering around in the water. She played with some dolphins, admired the reef, teased some sharks with her powers and finally after what were probably two hours she headed to the moon pool.

When she surfaced there she felt something was different. The place was just like she remembered it before she left three years ago, yet something felt wrong. She had some strange gut feeling inside that was telling her danger was about to come.

She stayed there for an hour when she finally decided to leave and go search for her friends. She swam out heading to the mainland.

Rikki pulled out at Lewis' old fishing spot and dried off quickly. She smiled as the memories floated before her eyes and headed towards "Rikki's" thinking if the girls weren't at the moon pool she might find them there.

When she reached the café however she was more than surprised of what she found inside.

The whole inner place was redecorated and all the tables were covered with white and red roses. It looked like everyone was preparing hard for something.

Rikki recognized one of the waitresses and walked over to her.

"Excuse me, what's going on here?"

The waitress turned to look at her. At first she didn't recognized her but then she gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.

"Miss Chadwick!" She gulped. "I don't think I'm the person who should tell you this, but...Mr Bennett's getting married."

"What?!"

Rikki couldn't hide the shock that ran all over her face.

"Who's the bride?" She asked though she somehow already knew the answer.

"Me." A voice behind her responded.

Rikki turned around in a flash.

"Sophie." She said between her teeth and clenched her hand into a fist.

"Well, well, well, look who's back at the Gold Coast!" The read-head gave her a devious smirk.

"The invitations are sent, so you can -" Zane froze on his way inside the cafe, with his phone still in his hand.

"Rikki?!" He breathed.

Rikki's heart fastened. She didn't expect to see Zane so soon after her return, least of all under circumstances like these ones. What's more all the feelings for him she thought she'd forgotten suddenly floated back on the surface threatening to burst out.

Looking right into his big, brown eyes Rikki couldn't help but think how much,he had changed, yet however was still the same old Zane she had fallen for.

His hair was way shorter now. He was a bit more muscular and even a bit more thinner than before. That along with the manly mature face he had was making him even more hot than before. Not to mention he was wearing his favourite leather jacket, black t-shirt and black pants.

Yet he hadn't change that much and he still was the Zane Bennett Rikki remembered.

She finally relaxed her fist.

Zane's eyes were focused on her crystal-blue orbits, his mouth slightly opened. Could it be that after all that time she was finally back?!

His look travelled all over her. He noticed her hair was straight and with light caramel shade. Her face was now more feminine and that in combination with her dress was making her look breathtaking.

Zane felt a sudden urge to take her in his hands, pull her to himself and kiss her passionately. His love for her suddenly rushed through his veins. He loved her so much that it hurt so bad. He thought he had finally moved on from her, but in that one moment, looking straight into his so painfully familiar blue eyes he realized it was impossible to stop his feelings and that he would always, always love her.

"I heard you're getting married." She said casually, totally ignoring Sophie as if she wasn't there.

His heart fell when she said that. He wished she could never learn about what he was about to do, because he knew it would mean really the end of them and that was the least he wanted to ever happen.

"Congratulations."

And just like that, she left.

{ * }

"Don't you see what's going on?! She manipulates and uses us, and now she's going to expose us! We can't let her do that!" Emma reasoned.

The three girls were now at The boatshed with Will and Lewis.

"I don't think we have any other choice." Cleo protested.

"Emma's right Cleo." Bella told her. "Sophie's just a manipulative..well you know what (she wanted to say something very bad, but she held it back because of Will) and we can't let her control us."

"You don't know what we had to go through with that marine biologist last time, Bella." Cleo said bitterly.

Lewis who was sitting next to her looked away guiltily, but she held his hand tight.

"If it wasn't for Lewis and Zane we would've been dissected or something!" Cleo finished sounding desperate.

"I can try to talk Sophie out of this." Will suggested. "It won't be easy, but I can at least try. I'm her brother she'll have to listen to me."

"No, Will." Bella shook her head looking at him. "Thank you for trying to help, but you can't do that."

"Why not?" He asked a bit defensively.

"Because she would start asking questions. How are you going to explain you've learned for her plans in the first place?! She'll find out it was me who had overheard her."

Silence came into the room.

"I wish..." Cleo began, but was interrupted by a loud knock on the door.

"Are you expecting someone?" Bella whispered to Will.

He shook his head in response then slowly walked to the door.

"Who is it?" He asked.

"It's me." They heard a familiar voice from outside.

Will opened the door.

"What are you doing here, Zane?"

"Not very friendly." Zane commented walking in.

Will closed the door crossing his hands in front of his chest.

"What do you want?"

Zane looked around checking out everyone.

"Where is she? I want to talk to her."

"My sister's not here at the moment, Zane."

"Very clever, Will. Really. You know who I'm talking about, so where is she?"

"Whoever is it you're looking for, Zane..." Will opened the door showing the exit to Zane, "...she isn't here."

Zane's eyes travelled around everyone's faces. It seemed they really didn't know who he was talking about.

"Don't you know?" He asked them his eyebrows lifted high.

"Know what, Zane?!" Emma asked getting really annoyed.

"Rikki's back."