Mia (Anna Samson) returns home from the hospital this week, where she has been healing from the car accident and subsequent miscarriage. She’s obviously devastated about the fact that she won’t be able to have another child, but she’s keeping her feelings and thoughts to herself.
She and Ari (Rob Kipa-Williams) have been tiptoeing around each other for days, and it doesn’t seem to be changing now that she’s been released from the hospital.
After the crash, Nikau (Kawakawa Fox-Reo) remains in a coma, and she pays him one more visit before leaving. She informs him that she’s only alive because of his quick thinking, and it’s a sweet moment.
Ari offers to assist her as she exits the room to go for her discharge papers, but she politely declines, saying, “I’ve got Chloe.”
Is she holding him responsible for the accident, Nikau’s coma, and her death? After all, it was an altercation between Ari and his nephew that prompted Nikau to flee Summer Bay in the first place, prompting Dean and Mia to travel to Wee Jasper to retrieve him.
In reality, her cold attitude is because she can’t face talking about their future.
Ari saw her in the hospital last week, and as she began to process their loss, she told him they were done trying for a baby. Their baby journey is officially over, with no more miscarriages or heartbreak.
Mia guesses the Parata brother isn’t happy because he didn’t say much following Mia’s admission. In her opinion, Ari is still anxious for a kid of his own, and she is afraid he will try to persuade her otherwise, as he has in the past.
Mia is warm with the rest of the family when she eventually returns home, but she makes every effort to avoid her lover.
She gives Tane – who has recently moved back in after his breakup with Ziggy – a big hug.
Yet despite her happiness to be back, you could cut the tension in the house with a knife.
When Ari offers to help her get situated back in, she jumps at the chance to get him out of the house by asking him to go to the Diner and get some lunch.
When she subsequently sees a conspicuous missing on the fridge, things got even worse.
They had taped the ultrasound to the fridge door, with the words “SOPHIA” and a heart scrawled underneath, but Ari pulled it down because he was scared Mia would be unable to see it.
Mia is furious when she realizes it’s gone. Ari, she believes, threw it away in order to put the memories to the side and forget about it.
“Out of sight, out of mind, is that it?!” she asks, angrily.
He explains, stunned, that he had gently transferred it into their memory box, believing that seeing it on the fridge every day would bother her.
The box is brimming with mementos of their baby Kauri, who died soon after birth. Ari allows Mia to go through it as he brings it out, believing it will help her process things.
However, it only reinforces her worries about their future.
Ari discovers her dressed for work in the kitchen the next morning. She hurries out the door, ignoring his fears that it’s too soon.
He confronts her and ultimately gets her to admit what’s on her mind when he arrives shortly after. He tells her that they promised each other that if the pregnancy presented any difficulties, they would work through them together.
When she finally gives in and tells him the truth, he is taken aback by what she has to say. “I know how important this child was to you,” she says, knowing she won’t be able to give him a baby now that she won’t be able to give him one. It was all of it.”
She is confident that she will never try for a child again. With tears in her eyes, she tells him that if it’s a deal-breaker, they should both walk away and go on.
“If you wanted to find someone who can give you that, then I wouldn’t stop you.”
Ari is of course completely taken aback. He can’t believe she thinks that he would just walk away.
Mia is who he wants to spend his life with, child or no child — “it’s always been about you, it always will be.”
Can she now begin the healing process, confident in the assurance that her relationship is secure?
Elsewhere, the future is looking bright for Dean and Ziggy.
Ziggy wouldn’t leave her ex-side boyfriend’s in hospital last week, even sneaking in a visit after telling Tane she was going to the garage for the day. She realized how deep her feelings were after almost losing him, and as he drifted off to sleep, she whispered in his ear that she forgave him for everything.
Next week, she nervously avoids him, having no idea whether he remembers what she said.
It turns out that he remembers her visit, and has hazy memories of what she said.
“I’m not sure what was real and what was just a dream,” he explains, but it’s clear that he remembers her telling him that she forgave him. He just needs confirmation that it was real!
Finally, knowing she can’t hide her weird demeanor, she tells him the truth.
“Tane and I broke up, and no, I don’t want to talk about it.”
However, she immediately departs, leaving Dean perplexed as to where they are now
Her mind is racing with memories of the past — wonderful memories of their first kiss and happy moments spent together, but also the heartbreak of learning that Dean was implicated in Ross Nixon’s death. She’s torn, but it doesn’t take long for her to make up her choice.
She returns to the hospital and immediately enters his room to explain everything. She was terrified when she thought she’d lost him forever. She realized she couldn’t live without him after that.
“My only regret is it’s taken me so long to admit to myself, that I love you, you idiot, and that I forgive you.”
Leaning in and kissing him tenderly, she tells him, “I’m all in.”
It looks like Diggy are well and truly back on.