 Nicole had a brief relationship with Penn Graham ( Christian Clark ) and after he was murdered , she discovered that she was pregnant with his child . James told Sunrise that viewers could expect a " realistic portrayal of teen pregnancy " and she explained that it was important to respect the issue . She added " We took it very seriously with the writers , and you do a lot of research and things like that . You can only do your best , I guess ! " Nicole later told Marilyn Chambers ( Emily Symons ) about the baby and she offered to adopt it . James later revealed that when she joined Home and Away she told the writers that they can do anything with her character , except make her pregnant . Of the moment she was told that Nicole was going to have a baby , James said " I went in to see our producer later and he said , ' Okay , I 'm going to <unk> in advance - we 're making Nicole pregnant ! ' " She initially did not want to portray a " typical soap teenage pregnancy " as she thought Nicole should be different . However the situation was explained to her and she became excited at the challenging storyline ahead . 
