Three weeks later and everyone was settled down into their new accommodation and lectures, learning to live together they had created good friendships between themselves and Gabriel and Donovan had soon learnt not to be wary of the new people in their lives, they particularly liked playing with the babies and were surprisingly gently about it, Harry and Nikki making sure that one of them was around just in case they got too rough with the young babies. The four women had grown close in the past three weeks together, just as Harry and Anthony had grown close, and despite all the differences they had they also had a lot in common which made for close and good friendships.

Harry and Nikki kept in contact with Georg and William too, both of them having settled down into their new lives and were enjoying their courses, having made some friends already due to many parties. They hadn't spoken personally to Ada but Georg had told Nikki over the phone that she was having fun and that was all they had said on the matter. They'd also struck up a good friendship with Leo Dalton as well, the older man spending a lot of time in the labs where Harry and Nikki worked in during lessons and they sometimes stayed behind to do some extra work with him if he need some help or if Gabriel and Donovan were okay at the nursery.

"So how are you feeling now that Gabriel and Donovan are a year old in two weeks?" Jennifer asked Nikki as the four women walked down a long street in main Oxford on a shopping trip, all of them knowing that even though they were out for things for themselves their children would gain from the shopping trip as well. The women had left their children with Harry and Anthony for the day, Leo having turned up as well and the men had quickly pulled him into babysitting as well, much to the women's amusement.

"Like I want to stop time every time I think about it" Nikki chuckled and shook her head, her friends laughing at her answer "It only seems like yesterday that they were my tiny little newborns, however cliché that sounds"

"But it's not like you're not going to have more" Emily commented as they waited to cross the road.

"I know but I don't know when that'll be" Nikki shook her head "We have university to think about and it's going to be difficult enough as it is with the twins"

"Ah but can you imagine another little Harry or a little you in your arms?" Abigail smirked and Nikki threw her a withering look before grinning and nodded, stepping into the road as the lights turned red.

"Yes but not right now, maybe in a few years once the pressure is off a bit more. So are we going for a drink, I need a drink"

"So what did Harry's mum think when you told her you were pregnant?"

"Well she was shocked of course" Nikki replied as she cradled the mug of coffee in her hands "She'd left a few months before, gone to live in France with her partner at the time. So we'd got used to being on our own, we loved it, we had the independence and it was great. When she came back she found out I was pregnant" she shrugged as the other women listened closely to her "She told us that she was happy but then when I'd gone she told Harry that we should get an abortion" she shook her head and her friends gasped "Yeah I know, but she warmed up to the fact that we were having a baby, babies, in the end and it took me a while to forgive her but that's in the past now, she adores her grandchildren. But then again she respects us when we say we are raising them by ourselves, she doesn't interfere or try and take over or anything like that and I'm grateful"

"Anthony's mother does that" Abigail told them all with a grimace "She thinks that just because she's had twenty five years of experience with children, he's got an older brother, that she knows what's best. We just want to raise Fergus ourselves, we want to make our own mistakes and we want to learn from them. She doesn't understand that. And my mum kicked me out when she found out I was pregnant, we were so glad when we got into Oxford and were able to get away..."

"Oh shit"

Nikki's panicked words interrupted Abigail and they all frowned in concern as Nikki turned her back on the main area of the cafe they were in and shook her head, a terrified look on her face.

"What's wrong?" Jennifer asked but Nikki shook her head and smiled at Abigail.

"Sorry, please continue"

"No because there's obviously something wrong with you" Abigail shook her head, all of them looking at the main part of the cafe.

"Stop making it so obvious" Nikki hissed angrily at them and glanced over her shoulder "Just, act normal. Or as normal as we all are"

"Which isn't that normal at all really" Emily chuckled at the youngest woman there and the others agreed with her as Nikki snuck another sneaky look behind her "An ex?"

"You know Harry was my first"

"Then who.."

"Nicola?"

Nikki closed her eyes and sighed quietly, biting her lip before opening her eyes and turning to see one of the two people she never wanted to see again in her life.

"Gran. And my name is Nikki, only Harry calls me Nicola and that's either when he's angry at me or when we're having wild passionate sex, or both at the same time, angry sex is quite fun"

Her friends stifled their laughs behind their hands and Nikki's Gran just looked outraged and put out.

"What are you doing in Oxford?"

"I live here now, or really I live at the university" Nikki told her Gran proudly "Harry and I are studying medicine there"

"And the children?"

"Well we couldn't cope so we just dumped them at an orphanage" Nikki shrugged, feeling a lot better being sarcastic to the woman next to her than answering her properly.

"I knew it, you always were going to be a bad mother just like your own.."

"Don't you dare call mum a bad mother" Nikki snapped, slamming her hand down on the table and making her friends jump, their stifled laughter stopping as soon as they heard her Gran speak. "Maybe you should turn your eyes to your son, he's the bad parent. He's the one that should have died and not mum"

Her friends exchanged looks, none of them knowing that Nikki didn't get on with her family and they definitely didn't know her mother was dead, she had avoided any subjects about her family that wasn't about her children, Harry or Anne.

"At least my mum didn't leave her fifteen year old daughter home alone for days on end to fend for herself while she went on benders and then crawl home expecting her to have cooked, cleaned and all other domestic things and not care about her school. Mum didn't hit me either, she didn't call me names or degrade me so much that I actually hated myself and wondered why someone would ever love me, let alone someone like Harry. Mum is probably turning in her grave now if she could see everything that you both did to hurt me"

Nikki then stood up and grabbed her bag, pushing past her Grandmother and rushing out of the cafe before any of her friends could protest and follow her.

"And for you information" Jennifer told the older woman, giving her a look of disgust "Nikki in an amazing mother to her children, any child will be lucky to have her"

The older woman just scoffed and walked over to the queue.

"We can't just leave without her" Emily protested as Jennifer and Abigail suggested returning to the university campus after having searched the area for Nikki for the past forty-five minutes. "She could be anywhere"

"Exactly Emmy" Abigail sighed, running her hand over her red hair as she spoke "It's a big place and we have no idea where she'll be, maybe Harry will know where she might be and you never know she might have gone back to be with him and the twins"

"Harry is going to flip if she isn't back" Jennifer groaned, looking around the street and shrugging "Maybe he can tell us more about her Gran and why she's a bitch"

"I don't want to worry Harry" Emily shook her head, giving her friends a pleading look "Let's search for a bit more?"

"I say we go back and tell Harry" Abigail countered and Jennifer sighed, running one hand through her long raven coloured hair before nodding.

"We'll go back to the campus and discreetly see if Nikki's back there already, if not then we'll tell Harry"

Emily sighed loudly and just shrugged, tightening her coat around her as they all began to walk towards the bus station which had regular busses to the university campuses and around Oxford as well.

"Mind if I join you?"

Nikki started slightly when she heard a male voice next to her and looked away from where she had been staring at the lake large pond in front of her, her legs drawn up to her chest and her feet resting on the bench in front of her.

"Go ahead" she shrugged at the brown haired young man who smiled and sat down on the opposite side of the bench to her. "Don't I know you from somewhere?" she then asked, doing a double take "Wait aren't you a student at the university? I think I've seen you around"

"Yes I am" the man smiled and nodded "Bob Mumford, I'm studying Maths, third year"

"Yes I think I remember you from when I met one of my friends from a few of her lectures, I saw you in the corridor" Nikki nodded and then looked back at the water, missing the way Mumford ran his eyes over her and then smiled appreciatively before looking away. "But if you don't mind it's not a good time"

"Well I apologise, I just thought I'd come and give a beautiful woman someone to talk to because she looked like she needed it"

It wasn't meant as an insult and Nikki didn't take it that way as she shrugged.

"And your name is?"

"Nikki"

She heard Bob sigh and saw him nod out of the corner of her eye before he stood up and wrapped his coat more tightly around him, adjusting his scarf.

"Okay, maybe I'll see you around campus some more"

"Maybe"

Nikki continued to stare at the water and missed the way that Bob ran his eyes over her once more before turning and walking down the path away from the bench.

"See you around"

"Hi, have you seen Nikki?" Abigail asked Anthony as soon as the three women walked into the living room where her partner was sitting with a book in his hand, Gabriel and Donovan playing on the floor and Fergus sitting happily in his carrier playing with his toys.

"Hello to you to" Anthony smirked as he stood up and put his book down.

"This is serious Anthony, have you seen Nikki?"

"No, why?"

"She's not with Harry?"

"No, he's with Leo in the kitchen warming some milk for Elsie and Adrian" Anthony frowned and Jennifer swore loudly then apologised as she glanced at Gabriel who was too busy playing with Donovan to notice or hear them. "What's wrong? Nikki was with you"

"Hi, we didn't expect you back this soon"

They all looked towards the doorway as Harry walked into the room with Elsie in his arms, Leo following with Adrian as both babies fed eagerly from the bottles.

"Harry, hi" Jennifer forced a smile onto her face and glanced at Emily and Abigail who also gave her concerned and worried looks "We were just.."

"Where's Nikki?" Harry asked as he offered Elsie to Emily who automatically took her daughter from him and cradled her against her chest, speaking quietly at her as Leo did the same to Adrian and Jennifer. "Where is she?"

"She's..there was.." Abigail started and Harry frowned at them all "There was an incident and when we were in a cafe her Gran came in and they argued"

"Her Gran?" Harry asked incredulously and scoffed as he shook his head "What..what happened then?"

"She ran off"

"And you didn't try to find her?" Harry asked loudly "Where is she?"

"We did try and find her" Emily nodded as Harry shook his head, not knowing what to do as "We did we promise but we have no idea where she went"

"She could be anywhere" Harry shouted at them before shaking his head and running one hand over his face "I'm sorry"

"We know"

"Her Gran is a sore point" Harry explained to them and the women nodded at him.

"We thought she might be, some of the things she said and what Nikki shouted back at her were..well they were.." Jennifer glanced at the two other females who just shrugged and shook their heads. "They weren't nice"

"Her Gran never is" Harry sighed and sat down heavily on one of the sofa's, smiling slightly as Gabriel turned his head and smiled at his father, his grin making Harry's heart jump in his chest "Things happened early in our relationship between Nikki, her father and her Gran and she then cut off all ties to them. It was her greatest fear coming here, bumping into them"

"Nikki told her Gran that her father used to hit her, was that true?" Emily asked hesitantly and Harry nodded, the other people in the room sighing, muttering and making incredulous noises under their breaths.

"What father can hurt their child like that?" Anthony asked weakly, glancing at his son who was in Abigail's arms.

"It wasn't just physical, it was mental as well. Nikki had such a hard time accepting that I liked her let alone loved her when we first started dating each other and even before that when we were just friends I knew she was wary because she'd never had any proper friends. She only just moved over here a few months before we met and she was bullied enough at school anyway"

"Poor Nikki" Jennifer murmured, sitting down next to Harry as he spoke "But she seems so happy and so forward now"

"It's taken me over four years to get her like that and still sometimes I can see her hesitating. She admitted a few months ago that sometimes she still wonders why people want to be her friend and why I want to be with her and that's all down to him and those bullies at school" Harry whispered and forced a smile onto his face as he choked back his tears, Gabriel toddling over to him unsteadily and holding up his arms, grinning at Harry who smiled and picked him up, kissing him on the cheek and placing him on his lap. "Hello. He had alcohol problems as well but she always went back to him because he was family, she just wanted him to love her and that broke my heart" a few tears slipped down his cheeks and he buried his face in his son's hair before taking a deep breath and smiling at his friends "Sorry"

"It's okay"

"Her Gran was no better really, she called Nikki names, belittled her..everything. That's why Nikki reacted like she did"

"I can't blame her really" Abigail shook her head, pressing a kiss to her son's fiery red hair "She'll come back soon"

"I have to go and look for her, you don't know what she's like when she's upset. She'll just sit and brood about it for hours and then forget the time and then blame herself for everything" Harry then told them all, standing up and cradling Gabriel to his chest.

"You can't, stay here and look after your sons"

"It's getting dark" Harry motioned to the window and sure enough the sky was darkening rapidly as it always did in early November "I can't leave her"

"Where do you think she will be?"

Harry faltered slightly and shook his head.

"If you go out now you will just waste time" Anthony told him calmly "There's no way you'll be able to find her and what if she comes back here and you're still out looking for her"

"I can't leave her"

"I know how you feel, trust me" Anthony smiled slightly at Harry and motioned to his girlfriend "I really do"

"What if she gets hurt? Or worse?"

"Nikki is a big girl, she can handle herself" Jennifer assured Harry but he shook her head.

"Not when she's like this she can't"

Yes they're friends with Leo, because Leo is epic ;)

xxx