Disclaimer: I own nothing
Author's Note: This is the fourth in a series, and is set in series 4 of Waterloo Road. If you haven't read the others, basically Tom Clarkson's younger sister teaches History at WR and started in series 1. She got together with Jack Rimmer, who is now back at WR as a history teacher, and they have a baby. They also took in Maxine Barlow.
Chapter One
Rebecca Clarkson - who would soon be calling herself by a very different surname - had had many titles - daughter, sister, friend, girlfriend, godmother, student, teacher, even foster mother, fiance, and now mother. And exasperated, desperate mother at that.
The last of these was due to the baby boy sitting in her arms at that very moment. It was the last week of August, and Becky sighed as her son cried loudly - a sound she'd become only too used to over the past few months.
James Thomas Rimmer had been born almost 3 months ago, and after his chaotic entry to the world, his mother was only glad that his father had been at home with her for the past few months to help her with the baby.
Both Becky, and Jack Rimmer were teachers at Waterloo Road. Becky had started there 3 years ago after her elder brother - an english teacher there - had told her of the opening.
She'd immediately been attracted to the handsome headmaster, Jack Rimmer, and their relationship had bloomed from there on. It took them until the end of that school year to decide to move in together, and by Christmas they were engaged.
They'd had their ups and downs - minor ones included their disagreement over taking in delinqent teenager Maxine Barlow. Yet they'd still taken her in, and she'd turned herself around, and they were both incredibly proud of her.
And their most serious down had been after Izzie Redpath's death. Izzie had been Becky's friend for almost 15 year when she was stabbed, and Jack blamed himself. His downward spiral into depression ended with him sleeping with someone else, and his relationship with Becky ending.
Shortly after, she discovered she was pregnant, and it was clear to everyone that they were still in love with each other as Jack did absolutely everything he could to help her through the pregnancy.
And then just under three months ago, Beky had been due to leave for maternity leave and Jack had showed up at the school. He'd confessed how he'd never stopped loving her and proposed again, and she had accepted.
Only for the whole day to be thrown into chaos when a fire broke out, and Becky's waters broke 4 weeks earlier than they should have done, eventually bringing James into the world.
But now, after everything they'd been through, they were here and they were together.
Jack had accepted a position as a history teacher at Waterloo Road for the new school year - which would start next week - and when Becky decided she didn't need a big wedding, they soon scheduled themselves for the last week in August.
Their wedding was now in 2 days, and Becky didn't think there had ever been a happier time in her life.
Now, if only the baby would stop crying.
" Shhh James," she mumbled as she tried to rock him to sleep, " please, shhhh. It's ok - look, it's ok, Mummy's here. "
" Maybe he wants his Daddy. "
Becky looked to the doorway to see Jack leaning up against it. " Oh, you're home," she said, " sorry honey, didn't hear you come in with all the noise this little one's making. Did she get everything she wanted? "
Jack nodded, thinking of the trip he had just taken Maxine on to buy her new school supplies, " And more besides. I'll never understand why it's neccessary for people like you to have so many shoes. "
" "People like me", meaning " women"? " she asked, rolling her eyes as she turned her attention back to James.
" Here, give him here," Jack said, sitting down beside her on the sofa.
Becky nodded, and Jack took their son from his arms. Once he had told of him, he put on a tone of voice that he sincerely hoped his students would never find out about, and he looked at the little boy, " Now then, Mister, what's up with you? "
He rocked James in his arms in an attempt to stop the crying, " Yeah, come on little man, Daddy's here now, and me and Mummy want you to stop crying. "
It took him only a minute more of the rocking, before James had started to drift off to sleep.
" That was like magic," Becky said, eyes slightly wide with awe.
Jack chuckled and leaned back against the sofa, holding the sleeping baby to him, " I told you he just wanted his Daddy. " On seeing the fed up look on Becky's face, he added, " Hey, don't be too hard on yourself - you're an amazing mother - you've been giving James absolutely everything you've got since he was born, but he's hard work. And I know you barely got any sleep last night. "
Becky nodded, " He was just so fussy last night. "
Jack smiled a little, " He's alright now. And we've got big things to look forward to. "
Becky grinned happily and she shifted closer to Jack, sliding down a little so she could rest her head against his shoulders. She reached out with one finger to stroke James' tiny arm and smiled at the warmth of Jack against her.
" I can't wait to be your wife, you know," she said.
" Rebecca Rimmer," Jack said, as though he was testing it out, " it's about bloody time, isn't it? "
" Language," Becky chided gently, " but yes, it is. "
" I hope Ian isn't too mad at us? " Jack chuckled, thinking about his soon to be brother in law.
Becky smiled too. Her older brother was 9 years older than her - which also happened to be the age gap between she and Jack - and lived with his wife and two daughters in Australia. Since they were having a small wedding, and they'd not given everyone much notice, Ian and his family wouldn't be able to come over for the wedding.
" He wasn't too mad," Becky agreed, " and when he rang yesterday, he was talking about us going out to see him for Christmas, maybe. And Tom too. "
Becky rarely saw her brother Ian, but spoke to him on her laptop. The last time she'd actually seen him was a few years ago, but he'd been very insistant that they should all see each other more, and that he wanted to meet his brother in law and nephew, as well as see his sister and brother too.
On the other hand, Becky was extremely close to her brother Tom, who was four years older than her. There'd never been a moment when Tom wasn't there for her, and she knew he would be exactly the same with James. Tom currently lived with his new girlfriend Davina, and his step-daughter Chlo.
Chlo was the same age as Maxine, and married - or was it divorced by now, but still together - to Becky's godson, Donte. Her sister Mika, Tom's other step-daughter, was now at university in Newcastle, with her boyfriend, Brett.
" That sound nice," Jack said, " probably about time I met your brother - you've met all of my family, after all. "
They sat together in comfortable silence for a few minutes, Becky threatening to fall asleep herself, and she smiled when she felt Jack kiss the top of her head.
" D'you think it's going to be weird, just being a teacher? " Becky mumbled, cuddling up against him.
" Maybe a little," Jack said.
" Do you wish you were still headmaster? " she pushed.
Jack chuckled, " I'm perfectly happy not to be at this moment in time. You know what that job was like - the amount of time I had to put in, the hours I had to stay behind extra, or go in early. It was a lot of pressure. I loved the job, and I'd love to be a head again one day, but right now, when we've got our first baby, I want to be there as much as possible. "
Becky nodded, glad that Jack knew exactly what he wanted. It was also the reason she'd decided not to resume the role of Head of Pastoral Care when she returned after maternity leave - she knew how much extra paperwork, reports and just general work were involved and she wanted to gvie James everything she could.
" There could be advantages to us both being regular history teachers," she mumbled, still stroking James' tiny arm lightly with her fingertips.
Jack scoffed, " Meaning I can do your marking? "
" That's not exactly what I was thinking," Becky said, shaking her head, " but since you suggested it, I might have to take you up on it. "
Jack rolled his eyes and leaned down to kiss her forehead again.
Becky sighed, " It's going to be odd not going back to school next week," she said.
Jack frowned as he thought about it, " Becks, you're going in on the first day of term ... aren't you? "
" Yeah, but not properly," she said, " I mean, I'm not going back in all the time. Not properly. "
Rachel had agreed a few day with Becky that she could come back into the school before her maternity leave as "keeping in touch days" and one of these was the first day of term.
" If I were you, I'd enjoy the extra time off work," Jack chuckled.
Becky nodded - James was hard work, but since his birth, she'd become incredibley used to motherhood, and she knew she loved just being a mum, and being herself. Another couple of months to bond with her son would be great, even if it would feel odd not to be at school.
" At least I'll be going back as Mrs Rimmer," Becky grinned, " I can't wait until everyone has to call me it all the time. "
Jack chuckled and rewarded her with another little kiss, " Me too. "
Before she could reply, the letterbox sounded loudly, and Becky groaned.
" You know, I'm sick of this," she said, forcing herelf to get up of the sofa, " stupid postman never ever comes on time. " She went through to the hallway and picked up a pile of letter, before bringing them back into the living room with her.
Tossing them onto the coffee table one by one, she tried to figure out which ones she needed and which she didn't. She tossed down bit of junk mail, what looked like a bank statement, a couple of bills, and was left holding a letter with a few stamps she didn't recognise, and handwriting that was vaguely familiar.
It was hand adressed to "Miss and Mr ", and with a curious smile, Becky started to open it.
" What have you got, love? " Jack asked, briefly looking up from his baby boy - a very significant thing, since he was absolutely smitten with his baby, and found it very hard to take his eyes and attention off him sometimes.
She shrugged, holding the letter up for him to see, and he looked appropriately curious.
Becky pulled open the letter, and she was suprised when she saw the return adress written in the corner.
In tall slanted handwriting which she couldn't quite place, was the adress of a place she didn't recognise - and at the bottom of it, the name "Andrew Treneman. "
Becky stared.
Andrew Treneman had been the deputy head when Beky first joined Waterloo Road, and after a while, he became a friend. He had an attraction to the then-head of pastoral are, Kim Campbell, and Becky, Jack and everyone else had constantly speculated about what was going on.
The four of them had become friends, and Becky had been quite close to Kim - a woman who was slightly older than her, but very easy to get along with. And Andrew had become quite protective and looked out for her.
When the two of them went off to Rwanda to work with children there - Andrew being made headmaster of a school he had worked at some years previously - Becky had made them promise to stay in touch with her. She'd been engaged by the time they left, and with their wedding planned for Christmas, she'd made them promise to come back for the wedding.
Of course, that wedding had never gone ahead, and she hadn't heard a thing from Kim and Andrew. They hadn't known their address in Rwanda at the time of moving, and she'd simply given Andrew their address and email address, and made him promise to be in touch soon, but he never had.
" It's from Rwanda," Becky said, slowly sitting down on the sofa.
" What? But who do ... how ... what? "
Becky smiled a little as she re-read the name and return address, " It's from Andrew Treneman," she said.
Jack processed this for a moment and then nodded, " Well, it's been just over a year since he and Kim moved to Rwanda - it's about time they kept their promise to keep in touch, isn't it? "
" Suppose it is," Becky said, starting to smile a bit more - Kim and Andrew had been good friends, and she'd lost their contact at a time when she was losing other things in her life - it had been shortly after Izzie's death, and just after she was starting to piece herself together after Lorna's death - and it felt great to have contact with them once again.
She felt Jack's eyes on her as she started to read the letter to herself, noting the date - it had been written little over a month ago.
Rebecca and Jack,
Firstly, I'm sorry that we haven't been in touch sooner - I know Kim and I promised to stay in touch, and it seems we failed miserably. There isn't much of an excuse really - well, there is an excuse, but it's probably mainly stupidity on my part.
As you know, I had your email address and home address (come to think of it, I hope you're still living in the same house, because otherwise this whole exercise is pointless.) Internet connection here in Rwanda is very few and far between, and means travelling quite a way off - I'm afraid it's difficult to find time to get to an internet cafe. And as soon as I got internet access, I sent countless emails to you both and was upset to recieve no response after months and months to any of my emails. I had also lost your home address, and could not send a letter.
Kim - always the voice of reason - eventually got very mad at the lack of response to our numerous emails and demanded that I show her your email address, and it turned out I'd been sending emails to the wrong emails address. We argued over whether the lines between "Rebecca" and "Clarkson" were underscores or hyphens, and once we finally agreed, the internet service was down for a long time.
A few days ago, we were clearing up and found your address.
I realise I am an idiot for being so careless with your address, and I know Jack is probably rolling his eyes at me as he read this and cursing me under his breath, but hopefully you'll both forgive me and write back soon.
I hope you're both well, and Maxine, Tom, Mika and Chlo, and everyone at Waterloo Road. Kim and I miss Waterloo road greatly but love the work we do out here. Still, it's hard not to think about the old days, and how the four of us would sit around trying to fight the latest closure plans for Waterloo Road.
I assume that by being idiots and losing all contact details for you, Kim and I have missed your wedding (it should have been at Christmas, shouldn't it, and that was months and months ago) so congratulations. We weren't exactly sure though if you had gotten married after all, and it you'd have kept your own name, Becky, which is why you're addressed as "R. Clarkson" on the envelope. "
The letter went on to describe the work Kim and Andrew were doing in Rwanda and how rewarding they were finding it all, and how they hoped Jack and Becky were well, and how they imagined Jack and Becky were happy together still, Jack running the school, and Becky not far behind. Andrew ended the letter by urging them to write back.
Once Jack had also read the letter, he put it down and smiled a little, " I can't believe they've got in touch - I always liked Kim. Andrew too, to a lesser extent of couse. Kim though, Kim was brilliant. So many things they don't know," he said, shaking his head.
Becky nodded, shuffling up to him and resting her head on his shoulder again, " Just how much has changed in a year, I guess. Since they were here, we split up, had a baby and got engaged, and are getting married in two days. "
" Amen to that," Jack grinned, looking down at the sparkling engagement ring on her finger.
" I should write back," Becky mumbled, " tell them all about James, me and you, your new job ... the fact that we will actually be married by the time they get the letter. "
Jack nodded, and he sighed happily.
" Becky? " he asked.
She raised her eyebrow in question as she lifted her head from his shoulder to look up at him, and she squealed in delight as he gently pressed his lips against hers.