Disclaimer: I own nothing, except my own creations.
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When a knock sounded at the door, Nikki was standing four months pregnant in the kitchen washing up as she listened to the midday news on the radio, having just fed her daughter a bottle. Eleven month old Indigo Darcy wasn't ready for bed though, and was currently crawling everywhere – in and around her mother's legs and out to the lounge room – quite the little sprint star.
Drying her hands, and checking that her daughter is in the lounge room, Nikki makes her way to the front door, wondering who it could be at this hour. Unbolting the door, she finds herself face to face with a face from her past that she never expected to see again: there stood Josh Holiday.
Taking a step back, Nikki can't believe what she is seeing. This couldn't be possible. It couldn't be true. Raising her hand to her mouth in shock, she struggles to think. 'Josh?' she asked in disbelief.
'The one and only,' he said with a winning grin. 'I'm back.'
'Yeah, I can see that,' said Nikki trying to process everything. He was Josh, but he seemed different. 'But... but how?'
'It's a long story,' said the man in front of her, running his hand through his cropped brown hair. 'Can I come in?'
'Uh, sure...' said Nikki, staring blankly at the door before she shook her head and opened it wider. As her previously dead fiancee stepped into the hall, Nikki feels a movement at her feet. Looking down, she sees Indi gripping her leg as she stands on her wobbly feet, one hand stretched up at her. 'Mama. Up!' said a little voice.
Shutting the front door in a haze, she bends down and sweeps her daughter up into her arms, her shirt being pulled tight against her form as she did so, showcasing her small taut bump. Raising her eyes up to Josh's once again, she pulls Indi's thumb from her mouth as she sees his expression darken. 'Come in.'
Heading to the kitchen to fetch Indi a dummy as her daughter settles against her chest, Nikki finds herself face to face with a very different Josh Holiday than what she remembered.
When he began to explain just who he actually was, Nikki couldn't believe it. The man she'd loved so long ago – and still loved in a part of her heart – was now telling her that everything she knew about Josh Holiday was a scam. He was an undercover officer?! 'What did that make our relationship?' she threw at him. 'Was that just all pretend too?'
'It wasn't supposed to happen,' he said honestly as Nikki exploded. 'But I did fall in love with you for real.'
When he professes his love for her and outlines his plan to take her to Newcastle with him – for another undercover operation to boot – Nikki feels sick as she comes to a realisation. 'I defended you,' she said as nausea builds within her. 'I defended your sorry ass when everyone else was willing to believe that you'd died an accidental death. I was willing to stand up for you and find the answers.'
When the man in front of her steps forward, as if making to touch her shoulder, Nikki takes a step back and holds her daughter close, as if by keeping a distance between them, it will be less real. 'I don't love you,' she whispered heartbroken. 'I don't even know you, Josh, or whatever your real name is.'
'It's still me Nikki,' begged the man standing opposite her. 'I know that you still love me. And I know that we could be good together. Trust me.'
'Trust you?' seethed Nikki. 'Trust you?! I know it's clearly a foreign concept to you, but trust is something earned. Here you are four years later waltzing back into my life and expecting me to drop everything and leave with you?!'
Nikki was now seeing a different side to the man she thought she knew, and she was discovering that she didn't like it. As he tried to reason why she should leave everything behind and come to Newcastle with him, Nikki spoke over her daughter's cries. 'You died!' she cried, jostling the crying baby in her arms. 'I was the one that had to pull you out of the water. Do you have any idea what that did to me?'
'Obviously wasn't too hard, as it looks like you've moved on,' was the spiteful response. 'Sorry,' was added quickly after, but Nikki was having none of it. 'I had to move on! I couldn't wait around for you. You were dead for god's sake! So yes, I got married and had kids.'
'You could have ...' Bending down to pick up her daughter's spat out dummy with tears in her eyes, Nikki reaches for a clean one as the man in her kitchen continues to try and reason with her. As Indigo continues to cry, distressed at her mother's distress and refuses to settle, Nikki spins around to face her ex-lover. She would breathe fire if she could. 'You're the one that left me without an explanation Mr Bertolli. So don't you dare pin this on me...'
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Next chapter: Buffer's point of view.
