A/N - Just a quick authors note. This chapter's dedicated to Miss Jacinta cause the second half of this chapter is pretty much inspired by her extreme LOVE for Romeo & Nicole. Me? Not so much. I just think they're really cute friends and border very closely to a brother/sister relationship, nothing coupley.

Thank you to:

# dunbar97
# gabisamore
# blitzholly
# livetodiscover
# Chelsayy
# LeahandBrax20

... For all of your lovely, lovely reviews on the last chapter! For those that commented on it, I thought I'd say that I want to continue the Casey/Indi friendship which has barely been explored at all on the show and if I remember right, Lincoln and Samara have only ever had like 4 scenes where they talk to each other!


Chapter 7:

"Surry Hills? Bondi? The airport?" Indi asked, attempting guesses of different possible locations as she looked out of the car window while the couple drove through Potts Point in central Sydney, just having driven off the Sydney Harbour Bridge a few minutes beforehand.

"Wrong, wrong and wrong" Romeo smirked, looking straight ahead at the road in front of him before indicating and changing lanes.

Indi groaned. "I'm still wrong? That's your cue to tell me where we're going then!"

The current discussion which was on the brink of transforming into an argument had been going on for about the last hour… The whole drive from Summer Bay, all the way down through the Northern Beaches area to the City where they were currently.

What Indi knew was that her and Romeo were going to meet Nicole, George and hopefully Angelo out for lunch at Angelo's café in Darling Harbour, but what Indi didn't know was what Romeo's hidden plans and where his destination was for until that time… And she didn't like it. All she knew is that they had to hurry otherwise they'd be left them with no time before the lunch plans, because he had wanted to leave earlier that morning, but his plans were delayed slightly due to having to allow time for Indi's routine bout of morning sickness to pass over.

She liked the concept of surprises, but for some reason, the wait before a discovery and the being kept in the dark factor just didn't seem like it was worth it to her.

However, still refusing to cave in to his wife's nagging, Romeo continued smirking, finding slight pleasure in just how much it was annoying her.

"Please Romeoooo!" she pleaded, shaking the top of his arm softly, but enough to make her point while being cautious of the fact that he was driving.

Shaking his head insistently, he continued to not give in. "No. Now stop trying to convince me. It won't work."

"Come on! Tell me! Or I'll… I'll hide your surfboard from you!" she laughed.

"Way to hurt a guy!"

"Not good enough? I'll leave little 'I love you' notes around the diner and caravan park for Colleen, signed by your name."

He scoffed with amusement. "Heck. I think that's divorce worthy, you know…"

Scratching her hair, Indi let out a pondering "Hmmm… Well that's not the best idea then…" as she continued to try and think of a good enough threat for Romeo to give in. "Thy shall speak Shakespearean for as long as it takes for thou to tell wife wherefore art thou Romeo of Summer Bay is taking us..."

He laughed. "Nice try, but if you keep going at this rate, you might drive me to commit suicide before we get to your mums!"

It took both of them a moment to analyse in silence before Romeo slapped his head on his forehead, laughing at his self-annoyance while Indi realize that he had spilled the beans before she started clapping with excitement. "Oh, yay for me!"

"I can't believe I just did that! Do you have any idea the lengths I went to find her number, call her and drive a different way so that you couldn't tell where we were headed from the route - just so that it would be a surprise for you?" he questioned, but not expecting an estimated time guess as an answer.

She shook her head with a giggle. "No I don't know. How come you didn't just tell me? Besides, I need my time to consider whether I'm in the mood for being annoyed at her or whether I want to continue reconciling with her."

"That's exactly why I didn't tell you. I knew the more time I gave you to know that we were going to visit her, the more excuses you'd work at trying to come up with to avoid us seeing her before we meet up with the others."

The relationship between Indi and her mother was mutually a lot, lot better than what it was a year or even two years before this point, after Jodi's betrayal of her daughter when she stole Indi's boyfriend from her, which was the initial prompt for Indi and Dex to return to Summer Bay with their father, Sid.

The last time that Indi had seen her mother was several months ago, when she needed some time away from Summer Bay, some time away from Romeo and some time away from their bank account that had two thousand dollars missing, somewhere with her husband's tear away older sister, Mink. Things had been awkward, better, but still awkward while Indi had stayed with her, but on the upside, it was still a gradual increase considering it was only the second time she'd seen her in two years before her mother had turned up wanting forgiveness, just months earlier.

Turning her head to look out of the window in an attempt to identify where they currently were in relation to her mum's house, Indi sat silently, a little bit annoyed that Romeo purposely hadn't told her or prepared her, but she was also a little bit excited about catching up with her mum again. Before the whole boyfriend incident which Jodi had to pay the price for by missing out on many significant moments of both Indi and Dex's lives, they'd been close and a part of Indi missed that.

"You're not too angry at me, are you?" Romeo asked, watching Indi shake her head out of the corner of his eye. "No. It'll be good to see her again."

Romeo smiled, but continued to drive, having been concerned that he would be the receiver of silent-treatment and death glares until the couple reached the suburban home.

#

Within the next 15 minutes, Romeo and Indi had reached the suburb of Redfern, where after navigating through a few streets, they parked across the road from the home that Indi recognized from her one or two visits, but which was a new destination for Romeo who'd never been to his mother in-law's house previously.

Walking up to the front door, Indi was a few steps in front of Romeo, enthusiastically pressing the door-bell before he had come to a halt next to her, where the two continued to wait for a few seconds.

"Hi! Come in!" Jodi instantly said, greeting them cheerfully as soon as she opened the door.

Brushing the bottom of her gladiator sandals off on the door mat, Indi walked inside first where her mum threw her arms around her for a lengthy hug as Romeo hovered behind them, still outside until they finally pulled out of the hug after what felt like a lifetime to him.

"Hello Romeo, thank you so much for going to the effort to arrange us all meeting up" she said as Indi walked inside, further through the house as Romeo was greeted upon entering the house.

"My pleasure" he returned politely before following behind as the two girls walked through to the kitchen.

Taking consecutive seats next to each other on the black leather back-less barstools in front of the kitchen island that overlooked the kitchen ahead and the backyard through a big bay window to the left, Romeo and Indi got comfy, Indi doing a slow 360 degree spin on her seat as Jodi opened the fridge door.

"Would either of you like a drink? Juice? Coffee? Tea? Soft-drink? Wine? Water?"

Looking over at each other sub-consciously for no reason whatsoever before they answered, Romeo nodded as Indi spoke before he did. "Can I have a juice?"

Jodi nodded, looking over to the only man in the house. "Sure. What about you, Romeo?"

"Just water, thanks."

Pouring the two drinks before inviting the couple to sit outside under the pergola, the three re-located to the backyard, but this time all of them sat down before Jodi clapped her hands on her lap to break the slightly awkward silence. "So tell me, how have you been? How's Dexter? Your father?"

"We're fine and they're good. Have you heard about Sasha?" Indi replied.

Jodi looked at her daughter vaguely, repeating the name slowly. "Sasha… I think your dad mentioned something to me about her… She's his other child, right?"

"Yeah, that's the one" she responded as Romeo sat back in his seat. "She's been living with us for the last six months or so."

"Okay, how old is she?"

Rubbing her hands together awkwardly, Indi looked away, not realizing how uncomfortable this must've been for her mum, hearing about the product of one of her ex-husband's affairs during their marriage. "She just turned sixteen. Anyway, what about you? How have you been?"

"I've been great. I love it here. And I've just started seeing a very lovely man. I want you and Dexter to meet him sometime soon" Jodi smiled, speaking with her Greek-accent slightly more evident as she spoke more and more and at a faster rate.

Indi crossed her arms in front of her chest with annoyance as a bit of a self-defense mechanism, with a pout. "Is he older or younger than me and Dex this time? Or have you just decided to recycle one of my old boyfriends again this time too?"

It was obvious that Jodi had hit a nerve for her daughter, with the hurt of the past being dug up again for the first time in this visit. However, Indi's hurt translated to attitude and anger which her mother didn't know how to deal with as her cheeks flushed and she bit her lip.

"Indi…" Romeo warned sternly from alongside of her, realizing that the snarky comment had evidently hurt both of the girls.

"No" she stated, looking at him with a firm but short glance before getting up from her seat and walking back inside.

Romeo and Jodi sat in an awkward, motion-less silence for a few minutes before he stood up and she finally spoke. "If she listens, tell her I really am sorry." Romeo nodded before walking into the house, looking inside a few of the unfamiliar rooms that were open before deciding to look out the front yard of the home after having no luck.

Outside, he almost instantly noticed Indi sitting in the car, sulking with her arms still crossed. Walking over and opening the car door which resulted in no reaction whatsoever from Indi, not even a flinch, Romeo leaned against the door and roof, facing her.

"What just happened in there? What was with the rude comment and freak out?"

Silence.

"Come on Indi, don't ignore me… I'm not the bad guy here!"

Indi rolled her eyes. "Give it 5 more minutes and she'd have her tongue down your throat too – she likes to keep it in the family."

With a surge of anger and disgust, Romeo had to inhale a deep breath of air to help keep himself calm and to prevent himself from losing the plot at her. "Indi! You and I both know that that is not true! You're completely overreacting and blowing this out of proportion! I know that yes, she did have a fling with one of your old boyfriends but that is the past. I'm sure it's never, ever going to happen again – you need to trust that it won't or else you won't ever be able to move on from that."

Pausing and taking another breath of air before he continued, Romeo crouched down next to the car and gently pressed his palm on top of her thigh supportively as he softened his tone. "Listen... Everyone makes mistakes Indi, and unfortunately that was just a really big one for your mum that hurt you in the process. My mum has hurt me before too, you know? I worked so, so hard for so many years to help her and I did everything in my power to try and help her lose the booze, but all of my hard work and effort would just be thrown against the wall, time after time, as soon as things got too hard for her to handle and she just turned to alcohol without even giving it a second thought. Please don't be like her, bub. Please don't just give up and throw the towel in when things get hard…"

Wordlessly, after more silence that lasted nearly half a minute, Indi reluctantly held her hand out to Romeo which he took a hold of, before gently removing her from the car.

"Thank you…" he whispered, holding his arm around her back as they walked back towards the house. "You don't have to stay for long, but just apologize at least, and end things on a good note with her."

Knocking on the wood as a warning as they walked back in through the front door of the house that was still wide open, Romeo lead the way, directing them to the backyard again, as Indi sheepishly followed behind his tall frame, where Romeo had left Jodi prior to talking to her by the car.

Outside, Jodi was looking into the distance motionlessly with one of her hands covering her mouth, only looking up as she heard the footsteps of her daughter and son-in-law returning.

"I'm so sorry Indi. If there was any way that I could take back what I did, I would. I didn't want to hurt you" she said, apologizing instantly.

Indi put up her defensive guard, crossing her arms in front of her again. "Well what did you want from it then?"

Jodi shrugged meekly. "I don't know. I really don't know. I know that it's no excuse, but I was just in such a bad place with your father's affairs and with you and Dex acting out, and I… – I was just so lonely. I didn't know what to do."

Noticing how small and helpless her mother was becoming from her diminishing confidence, Indi's eyes welled up and she abruptly walked over and wrapped her in a hug. "I'm sorry too… I shouldn't of said what I did before, but it just hurts, you know?"

Jodi nodded, holding her daughter tight, seizing the rare moment. "I would change things in a heartbeat if I could."

"I know..." Indi whispered as she pulled away. "You need to learn to forgive yourself, and I need to learn to move on…"

"How about I do you a deal; I'll promise to work on my half, if you promise to work on yours?"

Indi smiled slightly, nodding as she took a step back. "Deal."

#

Romeo and Indi had left her mum's house shortly after, leaving things between the two girls just as Romeo had asked her to – in a good place.

The next destination from there was Angelo's bar on Darling Harbour that Angelo himself had been managing and running since he, Nicole and George had relocated a little under a year ago.

After arriving there, Indi started 'Ooohing' at the impressive building from afar, noticing how similar, yet how different it was from the original Angelo's in Summer Bay. Then as they walked into the slightly larger building, the impressing continued, so much so that Indi was so caught up in her surroundings that she didn't even notice her best friend, Nicole, sitting at one of the grey matte coloured tables, watching George play with a toy in the highchair next to her.

"Hey Nic" Romeo said, smiling as soon he saw her, walking over and giving her a hug as Indi regained her focus again from where she was scanning the walls and roof of the open-room, before she squealed and ran over to Nicole, throwing her into an excited hug.

"It's so good to see you guys!" Nicole smiled, still clutching onto Indi before the friends eventually moved away from each other.

"You too, Nic! I feel terrible about how long it's been since we've caught up" Indi replied, returning the wide smile. The girls had emailed and called each other every few weeks since the others had moved away from the Bay and once or twice Indi and Romeo had visited Nicole at her apartment in the middle of the city, but they hadn't seen each other in person for several months.

The trio sat down, with Nicole sitting across from Romeo and next to George who was in the highchair, also alongside Romeo who had Indi on his right side, with her sitting diagonally across from Nicole.

"So how are things with you guys? How is everyone else back at the Bay?" Nicole asked perkily.

"We're reasonably good. Everyone else, well, depends on who you're talking about and which week you catch them on – there's always the good, the bad and the ugly" Indi shrugged.

"And let me guess - Romeo's 'the ugly' in that equation, right?" Nicole teased.

"Ha ha" Romeo said unamused with a roll of his eyes and a smirk. "Didn't take you long to get back into mocking me again!"

Nicole laughed pushing his shoulder from across the table. "Hey, I've had years of practice at it! Besides, you know I'm joking."

Kissing his cheek as a sort of confidence booster, Indi couldn't resist laughing at the two, who if she didn't know better, would've instantly assumed were brother and sister.

"How about you, Nicole? What's been happening in your life? How's Angelo?" Indi asked.

"You know - same old, same old. Angelo's great – I think he's working out the back right now but he said he's going to try and come in and say hi to you guys at some point."

Indi nodded with a smile before her attention was cast to the one year old sitting at the end of the table in his baby seat.

"And what about you, Georgie? I've missed you!" Indi cooed, reaching over to stroke the side of his head.

A year ago when Marilyn and Sid had adopted newborn baby George from Nicole, moments after he was born, Indi had instantly grown attached to her new baby brother that she would frequently help look after, and was crushed when Nicole had changed her mind and decided to take him back from her family to raise him herself. She still felt very close to the little boy and still thought of him as a baby brother.

Nicole watched the two interacting as Indi picked up Romeo's keys that were in front of him on the table and started jangling them in front of George, catching his attention as he giggled and tried to grab hold of the keys too. "Wanna hold him, Indi?"

She nodded enthusiastically and Nicole instantly unclipped him from the highchair, passing her son over the table to Indi who sat him on her lap and continued playing around with the keys to entertain George.

Romeo decided to join in too, but by trying to get George to give him a high-five, which he remembered Angelo demonstrating that he could do the last time they'd all caught up.

As Romeo started clapped after George's successful high-five with him, Indi continued to coo over the one year old, bouncing him on her lap playfully as Nicole just smiled and watched her closest friends and son together. "So have you guys thought about having kids anytime soon?"

That question moved their attention away from George, as Romeo and Indi looked up to each other in a glance of reading-each-other's-faces telepathy.

Romeo broke the awkward silence while glancing at Indi as Nicole looked on curiously.

"Uh yeah... Actually, we've done a little more than just think about it for in around-6-months-time-soon."

Nicole looked at them cryptically for a moment before she realized what he meant prompting her to jump out of her seat, smiling as she rushed around to the other side of the table.

"Oh my goodness! That's so exciting! Congratulations!" she squealed as she wrapped Romeo in an excited hug firstly before pulling away and doing the same to Indi, but being careful not to squash George in the process, finally returning to her own seat, just as excited.

"I can't believe it! There won't even be two years age gap between our kids! How perfect is that? If you guys have a boy, then it can be best mates with Georgie and they can do sleepovers at each other's houses in the school holidays and stuff when they're, but if you have a girl, we can do a bit of an arranged marriage sort of thing and set them up together while they're young!" Nicole babbled on, gushing with excitement.

Romeo laughed. "Calm down Nic! We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, okay?"

Nicole nodded, still smiling widely. "Sorry! It's just that you guys are like my only other friends well in fact, only other people my age that I know to have a baby too – I can't wait!"

"Yeah well you better we prepared for all my advice and questions that I'll throw at you over the next couple of months then!"

"Of course Indi! Anything that you need to know, just ask me" Nicole replied enthusiastically, getting a smile back from Indi.

There was a short silence before a loud voice came closer to them announcing "Hi guys!"

Looking up as Angelo sat down at the table next to Nicole, kissing her cheek as he sat, Romeo and Indi greeted him in the process.

"Hey you'll never guess what they just told me!" Nicole told Angelo, shaking his arm to get his attention.

"Hmmm… Let me guess… Indi's pregnant?" he asked feigning a pondering look.

Nicole looked at him skeptically. "How did you know?"

"I could hear you from all the way over there!" Angelo laughed, pointing to the bar on the other side of the room.

Nicole sheepishly giggled, before asking whether the others were hungry enough to order food yet, which they proceeded to do, spending many more hours together and making the most of the catch-up before they all went their separate ways and left.


I really don't like the ending for this one, sorry, but I couldn't think of anything better. Pretty please review and let me know what you thought!

Next chapter:

# Colleen catches wind of the fact Indi's pregnant... Batten down the hatches people!

# A big blast from Romeo's past returns to the Bay.