Rachel in Wonderland

by XenaFan74656

Rachel starts moving backwards and forwards through time as a mysterious entity causes her to re-consider her life choices reddie ...

'Rachel in Wonderland'

Part One

They hadn't spoken. Why should they? There was nothing to say. No, that wasn't true; there was everything to say, but nothing which could be said without causing the other pain. This silence, this avoidance was easier somehow. It had been seven years since she had heard his voice, seven years since she had seen his face, seven years since she had felt his delicate fingers carressing the contours of her body. And now, here he is, only a few metres from her.

Eddie stands, awkward in a suit and bow tie, at the front of the church. his back is to her; she can see that his hair has thinned, greyed, but the way he holds himself is still the same. Her eyes follow the curve of his shoulders, rove across his broad back. She finds it hard to believe that once, a long time ago, she had the freedom to touch that body, that she knew it almost as well as she knew her own. She is drinking him in, consumed by a thrist she does not fully understand. She knows she shouldn't be watching him like this; these new memories and imaginings of what might have been will only cause her pain later, but she cannot help herself.

Around her, people are standing up and she joins them, scrambling to her feet, pulling herself swiftly out of her reverie. A hymn is being sung. She joins in, hestitantly allowing her clear, alto voice to mingle with the voices around her. The distraction of the music allows her to tear her eyes from Eddie's back and look to the other people at the front of the church; the bridesmaid, the bride's father, the vicar and the bride and groom themselves who stand with their hands clasped tightly together. Rings have just been exchanged. The groom is pale with nerves but, underneath his palour, he looks supremely happy. His suit hangs untidily off his long, skinny frame, his ginger hair is curly and not especially neat, but his happiness makes him look almost handsome. The bride is also tall and thin, but her dress suits her perfectly and her own ginger hair is pulled attractively back from her face. She is smiling openly, not at all nervous, and certain that her decision is marry this man is the right one.

The hymn ends and the groom takes the bride in his arms and kisses her deeply. The conregation claps and the vicar's voice calls out, resonant with joy at the happiness around him; 'Philip Daniel Ryan and Danielle Elizabeth Harker, I now pronounce you husband and wife.'

In the congregation, Rachel smiles, caught up for a moment in the emotions flowing around the crowded church. To her surprise, she feels wetness on her cheek and realizes that she is crying. Philip is married. Awkward, gawky Philip who once stole her underwear and put laxatives in some chocolate brownies and had a crush on Flick Mellor is married and she, his aunt, who, for so long, was his mentor and protector and teacher, is not.

Part Two

Rachel had been seriously considering not going to the reception. It was easy enough to avoid Eddie in the church while he was busy being Philip's best man, but it would be much harder at the reception. After all, she was technically his sister-in-law; she would at least be expected to speak to him at some point. She had tried to tell Philip several times that she wasn't going to come, but, for some reason, she just couldn't bring herself to. She couldn't become one of the many people in his life who'd let him down.

So, here she was, seated, not at the top table with Philip and Danielle and their parents, but at the other end of the room with Tom Clarkson, Flick Mellor and the Kelly's. She had been a polite guest and made conversation with Sambuca about university, chatted to Rose about the new house she and Tom were buying, but all the time, Rachel's gaze kept drifting to the other people in the room around her; people whoose lives seemed so much more fulfilled than her own. On one side of her, Rose, now a qualified english teacher, was happily playing with her and Tom's three year old daughter, Daisy, and on Rachel's other side, Flick had her head on Marley's shoulder and his hand was resting on the massive swell of her rounded stomach. Their baby was due any day now. Bolton and Michaela were at the next table - he was now a policeman and she was a lawyer. Michaela's hand was resting on the table, her engagement ring glittering on her finger. Chlo and Donte Charles with their daughter, Izzie, were seated opposite Bolton and Michaela and were the picture of a perfect family.

Everywhere Rachel looked there were families; people seated in groups of two or three or four, encased in a secure cocoon of love and happiness. Only she was alone, lacking that security. Without really wanting to, but unable to stop herself, she turned her head to look at the top table. In the centre were Philip and Danielle who had eyes only for each other. Danielle's parents were also there, along with her bridesmaid, Aleesha Dillon. And there, next to Philip, were the people Rachel was really looking at; Eddie and his family. His family. The thought was like a physical blow to Rachel. He had everything that she didn't, everything that she could have had if circumstances had been a little different. He was seated next to Melissa whoose golden hair was like a halo around her head. In her arms, she held their baby daughter, Tabitha and, seated around them were their five year-old son, Jonathan and their two other daughters, seven year-old, Charlotte and four year-old, Annabel. Jonathan and Charlotte had their mother's shining hair and brilliant blue eyes, while Annabel was her father in miniature. Eddie sat with his arm around her, laughing at something Charlotte had just said. Every so often he would glance towards Melissa and Tabitha and smile.

Now she had allowed herself to look, Rachel couldn't look away. She tried to tell herself that there was a sadness in Eddie's face, in his eyes, but she knew, deep down that she could see no sadness there. He had found happiness and it was a happiness in which she was not included. As she watched, Eddie absent-mindedly kissed the top of Annabel's head and, suddenly, Rachel could stand it no more. She stood up, ignoring the puzzled looks of those around her and began to make her way towards the exit.

It was then that she felt Eddie's eyes on her. She turned to look at him and, for a moment, their eyes locked. His eyes were not the eyes of someone who had found complete contentment; they were strange, bitter, haunted eyes, but, somewhere, in their darkest depths, something warm and bright flashed at the sight of her. Her heart leapt, filled with wondrous possibilities. For a second, Melissa didn't exist and it was her, Rachel, sat at the top table with a baby in her arms. Then, as quickly as it had come, the moment vanished. Rachel was herself again, was alone again.

With one last look at Eddie, Rachel turned again to leave, but, without warning, the room started to spin alarmingly and flecks of silver began to dance in front of her eyes. She was aware, briefly, of Eddie rising to his feet, a look of fear on his face, before she toppled forwards and fell, senseless, to the floor.

Part Three

'Rachel? Love? Are you ok?'

That voice. That beloved voice. She hadn't heard it in years, so why was it speaking to her now?

'Rachel?'

Of course. Philip's wedding. She was at Philip's wedding and she had fainted and Eddie must have seen her fall and come to check if she was alright.

'Rachel?' His voice was more urgent now and filled with concern.

'Eddie?' She breathed and her eyes fluttered open. He was kneeling, his face centimetres from her own, his eyes full of love.

'Hello, sleepy head.' he murmured and kissed her quickly on the lips. She responded without thinking, taking his face in her hands and drinking him in hungarily. Then, suddenly, she remembered Melissa and his children and pulled away, disgusted with herself for betraying her sister.

'This is wrong.' She tried to keep her voice steady.

'No, it's not,' was his absent-minded, slightly puzzled response as he leant forward to kiss her again.

'What about Mel?' she protested faintly.

'What about Mel?' He repeated.

'She'll see us.'

'Rachel, what are you talking about?' He pulled back from her and studied her face in confusion. 'Mel's in Scotland. Where she lives.'

'Scotland?'

'Yes. She moved there with Phil's dad when they got back together. You know that.'

As Eddie spoke, Rachel realized that he was right; she did know that Melissa lived in Scotland with Philip and his dad, but she also knew that Melissa was married to Eddie. It didn't make any sense.

'Rachel?' He was sounding concerned again. 'You do know that Mel lives in Scotland, don't you?'

'Yes...Yes...I remember...' She decided that it might be best not to tell him what else she remembered.

Eddie smiled in relief, apparently re-convinced of her sanity. 'Good. Would you like some dinner? I've just finished cooking.'

Dinner? But she'd been asleep. She never fell asleep during the day.

Eddie was laughing at her confused expression. 'You fell asleep just after lunch, Rach. I've been tiptoeing around all afternoon so I didn't wake you.' He kissed her lightly on the forehead and then walked off towards what Rachel presumed was the kitchen.

She raised her head a little and looked around her. She was lying on a deep red sofa in someone's living room. It was familiar to her, but she knew that she'd never been in this house before. The floor was wooden, the walls marroon, the furniture old-fashioned and Victorian in style. Everything was exactly as she would have chosen if she had decorated the room. Then, with a start, she realized that she had decorated the room - she even remembered choosing the colours of the walls and flicking paint at Eddie as they painted together. Rachel shook her head in confusion and let it fall back onto the sofa. She closed her eyes, trying to make some sort of sense of what was happening.

Eddie's voice was floating through from the kitchen. 'I've made caesar salad - I hope that's ok. I've put loads of tuna in it as well...'

'Tuna? In a caesar salad?'

'I know it's wierd, but, since you've had a massive craving for tuna for months I thought it might be easier to just put it in the salad rather than you eating tuna sandwichs all evening...'

Now Rachel was even more confused; she hated tuna. Her mother had spent years trying and failing to get her to eat tuna as a child, yet, now, she did feel an overwhelming desire to eat tuna...

Rachel tried to stand, intending to go and help Eddie in the kitchen, but she felt herself forced back onto the sofa by the unexpected weight of her body. For the first time, she looked down at herself. Her stomach protruded in front of her like an enourmous, overripe watermelon. Rachel gasped in shock, not believing what she saw. With shaking hands, she lifted up her top and gazed down at her massive, rounded stomach. She ran her fingers over the surface of it, marvelling at its warmth and hardness. As if in response to her touch, she felt a fluttering movement within herself as something kicked against her hand. She looked at the spot where she'd felt the kick and saw a tiny bulge form and them dissappear on the surface of her stomach.

Realization hit her like a tidal wave; she was pregnant. She was lying on a sofa in a room she knew, but had never been in before, sharing a house with a man who was and was not married to her sister and was suddenly heavily pregnant. Rachel began to wonder if she was losing her mind. This new reality though was appealing; it was as if everything she had ever dreamed of or hoped for was suddenly coming true. She realized that Eddie, or at least this Eddie, was unlikely to believe her if she told him everything she remembered and so, she decided that it would be best to simply go along with what was happening for the time being until she could work out what on earth was going on.

Part Four

Being pregnant had certainly improve her appetite. Once she had somehow dragged her enlarged body into the dining room, Rachel found that she couldn't stop eating. Even the tuna was delicious. Every so often she would forget that she was now many times larger than her usual size and attempt to move her chair closer to the table, only to find that her stomach wouldn't fit. Every time this happened she would gaze down in wonder at the bulge beneath her top and, every time she did this, it would seem more normal that it was there.

Eddie meanwhile, was oblivious to her confusion and was chattering away about work. It seemed that he still worked at Waterloo Road and was acting headteacher while she was on maternity leave. As he talked, Rachel found herself wondering why she shold be finding this strange. Why would Eddie not be workign at Waterloo Road? Why did she keep thinking that he worked at Forest Mount and was married to Melissa? She was coming to the conclusion that she must have had one of those very intense dreams which leave you feeling confused when you wake up...

'I hope the wedding went ok...' Eddie was saying.

'Wedding?'

'Yes, Phil's wedding. It was today, but we didn't go because we were meant to have a newborn baby by now.'

'Yes, of course. My due date was last week.' As soon as Rachel said it, she remembered it perfectly. Without warning the baby kicked her and she squealed in surprise. Eddie looked slightly confused be her reaction. 'Sorry,' she mumbled. 'That was a particularly hard kick.'

He laughed. 'I swear that kid's going to be a footballer or a ballet dancer or something.'

The conversation between them was so easy, so natural that it seemed to make perfect sense that they should be living together, expecting a child together...

After dinner, Rachel dragged herself back to the living room and lay on the sofa with her head in Eddie's lap. He stroked her hair with one hand, the other hand lazily moving across her stomach.

'I can't wait to meet our baby...' he whispered, his breath tickling her face.

She smiled contentedly, sure now that this was how things were meant to be, that she lived here, in this house which she still couldn't quite remember, with this man and with his child curled up inside her, ready to enter the world.

tPart Five

That night, Rachel lay in bed unable to sleep because of the shooting pains in her stomach. The child lay like a stone inside her, pushing downwards, making a bid for freedom. She ran her hands over it, trying to soothe it with her touch, but to no avail; the pains kept coming, shooting through her whole body. She wanted to scream, but she kept quiet, unwilling to wake Eddie just yet. She felt as though she'd been preparing for this for months, but at the same time, she knew that somehow, she'd only been pregnant for around eight hours. There was no way she was ready to have a baby yet. Maybe, if she just ignored it, the pain would go away.

The baby though, refused to be ignored, twisting and turning within her. Then she felt something give way and suddenly the sheets of the bed were soaking wet. Rachel was crying now, wanting desperately to keep her baby inside her, where it was safe, where no one could hurt it. Some part of her kept insisting that none of this should be happening, but a larger part of her was telling her that it was happening whether she wanted it to or not. Another wave of excruciating apin washed over her and through her and this time she moaned aloud before she could stop herself.

Eddie was awake instantly. 'Rachel, what is it? Is it time?' his voice was filled with concern.

'Yes, it's time,' she whispered, clutching her rounded stomach in wonder and disbelief.

Eddie sprang into action. He leapt from the bed and started pulling on his shoes while simultaneously grabbing an overnight bag from beside the door which appeared to have been placed there and packed for this very purpose. Only when his shoes were on and the bag was in his hand did he look at Rachel properly. She was sitting on the bed, hands on her stomach, looking utterly bewildered. Eddie ceased his flurry of activity, realizing perhaps, that there are some things which are more important than finding an overnight bag.

He came over to her and sat behind her on the bed so that she could lean back into him. His arms were around her swollen middle, encircling both her and their child. 'I love you, Rach,' he whispered softly.

Rachel felt her heart melt, the pain momentarily forgotten. She was overcome by just how completely right everything felt. 'I love you too.' she whispered back. Then she flinched as another contraction hit.

'If I could do this for you, Rach, I would...' he breathed as the pain coursed through her.

'I know...'

'Come on love, let's get you to the hospital.' He helped her to her feet and then outside to the car. The weight of the baby and the pain made walking almost impossible and she had to lean on him for support all the way.

As thy drove to the hospital, Rachel retreated into her own world, a world full of pain and confusion. She didn't know exactly where she was or even who she was, but, for once, Melissa was far from her thoughts. Instead, Eddie, strong and loving and wonderful seemed to be at the centre of everything.

'I'm scared.' she whispered as they pulled up outside the hospital.

'I'm scared too,' he admitted. 'But we'll get throught this, Rach.'

then he reached across and gentley took her hand in his own. It was the lightest of touches, but it was all the reassurance Rachel needed.

Part Six

Hours passed. Hours of pain and anguish and torture. Rachel's recollection of them later was dim; she writhed and twisted and moaned on an unfamiliar bed in a blank, white room. People stuck neeedles into her and talked to her, but she couldn't make sense of what they were saying. It was hard enough just to remember to breathe. The pain searing through her every molecule convinced her finally that this was really happening, that she was married to Eddie, that she was in the process of having his baby. Through it all, he was there, beside her. His voice was the only thing which could penetrate the haze of her pain, his touch was like a cold compress.

Then, suddenly, in a hot slippery rush of blood and screaming, another person was in the room. A tiny, perfect human being who was placed into Rachel's arms. The baby had Eddie's gentle eyes, but the rest of her face was the image of Rachel. As Rachel looked down at her beautiful daughter, she felt, somehow, as if she knew her, had always known her. The wave of love which coursed through her washed away all traces of the pain which had gone before it. Rachel smiled and stroked her daughter's cheek. Then she turned to Eddie.

'She has your eyes,' she whispered, her voice choked with emotion.

'And your nose...' his voice was equally choked and tears shone in the corners of his eyes.

He came over to sit beside her on the bed, putting one arm around her and carressing his daughter's face with the other. 'She's perfect,' he breathed 'Just like her mother.'

Rachel laughed softly at this, at peace with the world. The silly nightmare about him being married to Melissa had nearly gone from her memory. Eddie had never loved Melissa, he'd always loved her, Rachel. It was just the hormones running riot through her body, heightening her emotions which had caused her to think that he might love someone else.

'What shall we call her?' Eddie asked as he gentley kissed Rachel's cheek.

Rachel thought for a moment. This task of choosing a name seemed to her to be an overwhelming responsibility. It would be something that this perfect little girl would be labelled as all her life. It had to be a good name, a name which spoke of the child's uniqueness and her beauty...

'How about Bella?' Rachel said at last. 'It means 'beautiful' and that's what she is, beautiful.'

Eddie though looked unimpressed. 'She's most certainly beautiful, but I've never really liked that name...one of my more spiteful ex-girlfriends was called Bella.'

This drew a soft laugh from Rachel. 'Maybe not Bella then.'

'How about Charlotte?' asked Eddie after a second.

It was as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice over Rachel. Charlotte. She looked down at the child in her arms and saw, not her daughter, but a golden haired child who was a smaller version of Melissa. A seven year-old child who had sat at the top table at a wedding yesterday.

Eddie had noticed Rachel stiffen and was looking at her with concern. 'If you don't like the name, then how about Annabel?' he suggested. 'Or Tabitha?'

Annabel. Tabitha. The two other girls seated at that table. Rachel looked again at her new daughter and suddenly felt entirely separate from the child. This was all just a dream, a delusion. Eddie was married to Melissa. The nightmare was no nightmare; it was reality.

'Rachel?' Eddie was looking genuinely worried now.

'This isn't real.' she said, her voice flat, stating facts and nothing more.

'What isn't real?' Eddie was confused.

You, her,' she gestured at the baby. 'this place. None of it is real.'

As soon as she said it, Rachel felt the air around her subtley change. She blinked involuntarily and, when she opened her eyes again, Eddie, the hospital and her daughter had completley vanished.

Part Seven

Rachel was in a blank space. There was no other way to describe it; it wasn't a room exactly, but it wasn't outside either. Everywhere there was just a uniform whiteness. The floor, if it was a floor she was standing on, was white and so was the air around her. She turned on the spot, searching for anything, any object at all in this desert of white, but no objects were visible.

'You' right, you know.' The voice came from all around her, from everywhere and nowhere. It was an arrogant, nasal drawl. She realized that the speaker was male, but she couldn't identify the voice further.

'Right about what?' She asked, feeling foolish talking to empty spce.

'Right that what you just experienced wasn't real, but it could be real if you'd like...'

Rachel still didn't understand what he was talking about or where she was. 'Who are you?' She asked, trying desperately to fight the panic rising wthin her. 'What are you?'

'You're all the same aren't you?' The voice sounded vaguely disappointed, as if he'd expected more of her.

'Who're the same? I don't understand.'

'Of course you don't understand, little human. How could you? But, don't you see, you don't have to understand.' The voice sounded closer now and Rachel kept turning on the spot, trying to see him as he continued speaking 'I offer you all you've ever wanted and all you can do is ask me childish questions; who are you? What are you?' The voice was mocking her now. 'All you barely sentient primates always ask the same questions. Can't you come up with something original?'

There was a flash of brighter whiteness then and, from out of nowhere, a man appeared. He looked enitely non-descript; he seemed to be in his late thirties and of average height with a slightly receeding hariline. His clothes too were entirely generic. Yet there was something, a certain arrogance in the way he held himself, which made Rachel sure that this was the owner of the voice.

He smiled at her. It wasn't a friendly smile; it was more like the indulgent smile which one might bestow upon a very young child or, perhaps, a pet. 'I shall answer your questions, boring as they are, because otherwise you will never stop asking,' drawled the man and then said, somewhat dramatically 'I am Z.'

Rachel waited, expecting further explanation, but none was forthcoming. 'Z.' She repeated at last, a little incredulously. 'Your name is Z.'

'Not exactly. Your puny intellect couldn't comprehend my true name or its meaning, but you may call be Z.'

'But that's just a letter of the alphabet!' protested Rachel.

'Well your name is made up of letters of the alphabet; I don't see the problem.'

Rachel decided that it would be best not to persue this further. 'Well, Z,' she tried and failed to sound serious as she said his name 'What are you and where are we?'

'It would be hard to explain what I am...'

'Let me guess,' Rachel interrupted 'my puny intellect couldn't comprehend it.'

'Exactly. All you need to know is that I am a member of the Z Continuum...'

'What's that? Some kind of alternative rock band?' Rachel couldn't keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

The entity (Rachel was convinced now, that despite his appearance, he was far from beinghuman) chose to ignore this and continued as if Rachel hadn't spoken. 'Where we are is nowhere in particular. It's just somewhere I created for our little chat.' He paused, as if struck by a thought. 'Would you like a chair, little biped? I always forget details like that...'

He snapped his fingers and Rachel found herself sitting on a chair. He was seated too. He laced his fingers together in front of him and surveyed her intently over the top of them. 'I think I should probably begin this meeting by letting you know why you're here, Rachel...'

Part Eight

'Why am I here then?' Rachel leant back in her chair, surprised at how effortless the movement was. She knew she should be tired after all the stress of the last two days.

Z copied her, leaning back in his chair. 'It's the pesky Continuum,' he said 'they say I'm selfish.'

'Sorry?' That was just about the last thing Rachel had been expecting him to say.

The entity didn't seem to notice the confusion in her voice, but just carried on speaking in the same whining, childish tone. 'They say I never do anything to help anyone. Apparently, I just spend my life gallivanting around the cosmos, treating the universe like my playground. Apperently, I torment lesser beings fo my own amusement...' he paused and then leaned towards her conspiratorily and whispered 'well maybe I do torment them a little bit, but it's their own fault; they should have evolved faster, then I wouldn't be able to torment them...'

'I'm starting to see why this Continuum of yours thinks you're selfish.' Rachel was liking him less and less with every word he spoke.

Again he ignored her. 'Anyway, they said that I was dangerous, that they'd have to take my powers away unless I proved to them that I could act selflessly by doing something to help someone which brought me no personal gain. So, Rachel Mason or Amanda Fenshaw or whatever you like to call yourself nowadays, out of all the creatures in the whole of time and space, I chose to help you.' He smiled at her indulgently, obviously expecting to be thanked.

Rachel though was rapidy growing tired of the whole situation and was in no mood to be thanking anyone. 'Why me?' she asked rather curtly.

He seemed a little taken aback by the question. 'Why not?' was his reply 'I've always found your species fascinating and I like this century.'

'You like this century?' Rachel couldn't keep the surprise and wonder out of her voice. 'You've seen other centuries?'

'Obviously,' replied the entity. 'Time, space and thought are not as separate as you think, little biped. Some day your species will come to understand that.'

Rachel sat back, her head spinning. The scientist in her wanted to question Z further, but most of her, but this point, just wanted to go home. 'If you can give me anything I want,' she said eventually 'Then I'd just like my life back please.'

'But why?' It was so dull.'

'I know, but it's my life. I'm used to it.'

'Don't you see,' now it was Z's turn to look confused. 'I can give you everything you've ever dreamed of in the blink of an eye...'

'But it wouldn't be real. You said that yourself.'

'I could make it real. I could send you back in time to the moment that your sister first showed up at that little school of yours. You could do things differently this time.'

Rachel's breath caught in her throat. The day Melissa arrived had been the day that Eddie had first told her he had feelings for her. If she hadn't pushed him away then they would be together , she would have sat at the top table with Eddie and her own children, not watched from across the room as he played with Melissa's children...but, with that thought, Rachel realized that she would never be able to live with herself if she did what Z was suggesting.

'Well?' Z interrupted her thoughts. 'Shall I send you back?'

'You can't.' she said.

Z seemed offended. 'Yes I can. I have powers you can't possibly imagine. A little time travel is well within my capabilities'

'I'm not questioning your powers. I know you can send me back, but I won't let you send me back because, if I go back and I end up with Eddie, then his children, the children he has with Melissa, will never exist.'

'So?' Z clearly didn't see the problem.

'So I will have murdered four innocent children!'

'That doesn't make any sense at all. You can't murder someone who never existed.'

'If you stop them from existing when you know they're meant to exist then that's murder and I will not commit murder!'

'But what about your children, Rachel?'

'I don't have any children.' She was strugglingto remain calm.

'Exactly.' Z smiled, obviously confident that he'd just won the argument. 'By not going back in time, you've murdered the children you would have had so, either way, one set of children doesn't get to exist.'

'That's not the same thing at all!' Now Rachel could no longer hide her anger.

'Isn't it?'

'No! I might never have even had any children with Eddie!'

'But I've seen the future,' said Z, his voice even and calm. 'I've been to all possible futures and I know, that if you had married Eddie, there would have been a child.'

'But I didn't and there isn't!'

'It's what you want though...'

'What I want doesn't matter!' Rachel was aware that she was shouting now. 'Wanting a thing doesn't make it happen and it doesn't mean that having it would necessarily be for the best!'

Z studied her more intently than ever. 'You're very stubborn aren't you? It's a characteristic of primates. Come, let me show you why wanting this particular thing is right...'

Part Nine

As Z spoke, the whiteness around Rachel started to swirl, to congeal into shapes, figures and colours. Before she had quite understood what was happening, she felt grass beneath her feet and the wind in her hair. Somewhere, a bird was singing. She and Z were standing in a wood on a bright summer day. Sunlight streamed between the braches of the trees, making the ground around them appear dappled with light and shadow. A little girl and boy who looked like twins were playing nearby. They both had auburn hair and gentle brown eyes. Thegirl was chasing her broher, shreiking with laughter and delight. Rachel went towards them, surprised that they hadn't reacted to her presence.

'They can't see us.' Z whispered from beside her.

'Why not?' asked Rachel, still gazing at the children.

'Oh, for a number of complex metaphysical reasons to do wth the fourth dimension and the folding of the time-space continuum which I really don't have time to go into now.' said Z with a dismssive wave of hs hand.

Rachel decided not to persue it further and turned back to the children. The little girl had managed to catch her brother now and the two had fallen to the ground in a giggling heap.

'Tia! Tristen!' Called a woman's voice from somewhere nearby.

The two children, obviously, Tristen and Tia, scrambled to their feet and started to run, still laughing, towards the voice.

'Shall we follow them?' Z's voice was a shock to Rachel who had been concentrating entirely on the scene in front of her.

Rachel nodded, intensely curious as to the identity of the children. Tristen and Tia ran out of the wood and onto a long, gentley slopeing lawn. A massive golden retriever ran down the slope to greet them, barking with excitement. Tristen pushed the dog away, but Tia, obviously more of an animal person, scratched his ears. The dog turned then and looked directly at Rachel and Z before yelping and running back the way he had come.

'The dog saw us.' said Rachel.

Z seemed little put out by this. 'They always can. I've never been able to work out why though.'

The children followed the dog up the lawn and towards a large country house. In front of it were a group of people relaxing in the sunshine. Two men were tuning chicken legs over on a barbeque, two women and three more children were lazily playing cricket, using empty coke bottled for wickets, and a third woman lounged nearby on a blanket with a baby in her arms. It was to this woman that Tristen and Tia went. She was obviously their mother.

'The barbeque's nearly done.' she said to them.

'yay! Lunch!' This was from Tia. 'I haven't eaten anything since breakfast and that was five whole hours ago!'

The woman laughed. 'Well, it's a good job lunch is nearly ready then. We wouldn't want you to starve now would we?' she said, teasing.

'Can we go and play cricket for a bit before we eat?' asked Tristen.

'Sure. Go and play with your cousins,' replied the twins' mother.

Tristen and Tia ran off to join the other children, while their mother picked up the baby and called out to the men by the barbeque 'Deanna and I are off to tell Mum and Dad that lunch is ready.' With that, she headed into the house.

Rachel turned to Z. 'I'm sure that this is a very nice family,' she said 'but what has it got to do with me? I've never met any of these people.'

'Just be patient,' Z replied.

As if on command, an old man emerged from the house, followed by an old woman. Rachel gasped at the sight of her, recognizing her instantly. She looked to Z to confirm her theory. Z smiled and gestured to the old woman 'This is you Rachel, as you will be, if you go back in time and marry Edward Lawson.'

Part Ten

Rachel stared and stared at the old woman who was herself. The woman's face was lined and wrinkled with age, but, Rachel could see that most of the lines were lines caused by laughter, not worry. The old woman's brown eyes sparkled as she looked around at her family. The old man beside her was, of course, Eddie. He casually put his arm around her waist as they moved to sit down on some deck chairs set up on the lawn near the barbeque.

Rachel turned to Z 'This is my family?' she asked in wonder.

He nodded 'This is your family, your house, your dog.' He gestured at the golden retriever. 'His name is Billy.'

Rachel gazed around her in amazement. 'I have grandchildren?'

'That's right.' Z took her arm and led her to where the children were playing. He indicated the oldest child, a girl with waist length blonde hair. 'That's Kathryn. Her mother is your middle daughter, Joanna.' Here he indicated one of the women playing cricket. Then he gesured to the other woman. 'Her name is Tamsin. She's your youngest daughter. Alexia and Jack,' he pointed towards a dark haired boy and girl who looked to be around five and seven years old resectively 'are her children. The twins and Deanna, the baby, are Kira's children. She's your oldest daugter. She's a teacher, like her parents.'

'And the other two, what to they do?' Rachel couldn't tear her eyes away from the two women playing cricket, couldn't believe that they were really her daughters.

'Tamsin's a vet and Joanna writes children's books.'

Rachel gazed around at the happy family, drinking them in with her eyes. This really was everything that she had ever wanted; wonderful children, beautiful grandchildren and, of course, Eddie. He was seated in the centre of everything, beside the older version of herself. Rachel walked towards the old couple, filled with quiet contentment as she watched them playing with their baby granddaughter, her baby granddaughter.

As the younger Rachel watched, the older Rachel took her daughter, Kira's, hand and started to speak very earnestly to her. Wanting to hear what was being said, the invisible Rachel moved closer. Her older self was talking seriously in a soft voice 'Do you think there's any chance of Philip being able to come to the service?' she was saying.

Kira shook her head. 'I don't think they'd let him out on parole for that.'

Parole? Rachel's heart seemed to skip a beat. Philip was in prison.

Her older self was speaking again 'But it's memorial service for his mother. He has to come.' The old woman's eyes grew unfocused as if she was lost in the memory of another time 'It's hard to believe that Mel died forty yeras ago next week...her son should be there to mark the anniversary...'

Rachel wasn't listening any longer. Suddenly the scene before her was no longer perfect. Her sister, her little sister, the child she had protected from all the demons and monsters of childhood, was dead and her nephew was in prison. Rachel turned away from the old couple and back to Z.

'Mel's dead. Phil's in prison.' Her voice was barely more than a whisper, but each word was an acqusation. The entity had led her here, to this place where perfection was only a facade. He had caused this timeline to exist which meant that, to her, Mel's fate was his fault.

'No timeline is perfect,' Z said nonchalantly 'but everything else is exactly as you want it to be.'

'I want my sister to be alive!' Rachel's tone was angry now. 'Tell me what happened to them!'

'Perhaps that wouldn't be wise..'

'Tell me!'

'Very well. Your sister, instead of marrying Edward Lawson, married a man who treated her badly, who hurt her. When she could stand it no longer, she took her own life. It was your nephew who found her and he hasn't been right since.'

'Then this timeline must never be allowed to happen. I won't let that happen to my sister.' Rachel's mind was made up.

'But look at your family...'

'They're not my family! They were never meant to exist, but Melissa was!'

Z looked at her and sighed. 'You humans do allow your petty emotions to get in the way of everything...'

'Put everything back the way it was.'

'But, Rachel, how do you know that the other timeline would turn out any better than this one?'

'Show me the other timeline then!'

'Very well,' said Z and snapped his fingers.

Part Eleven

The world around Rachel disolved again and she found herself back in the wood where she had watched Tristen and Tia playing, only, this time, no children were present. The wood seemed different too; darker and more overgrown.

'I guess I don't do a lot of gradening in this timeline,' said Rachel, looking around her.

'Well, no one ever sees your garden in this timeline, so what's the point?' was Z's response.

Rachel heard a yelp from behind her and saw the same dog as before, reacting in the same way as before to their presence. At the sight of him she smiled slightly. 'At least I still have Billy.'

'Billy is strangely persistent. In every possible timeline, you have Billy.'

This made Rachel smile properly. She'd wanted a golden retriever since she was four and it was nice to know that she'd get something she wanted.

Rachel and Z followed the dog through the wood and across the lawn to the house. In this timeline though, the house was very different. It looked neglected, almost as if it wasn't lived in at all. Vines and creepers grew over the walls and one of the upstairs windows was broken.

The dog ran inside and, jogging slightly to keep up with him, Rachel and her strange companion found themselves in a large, unkept kitchen. The tiles on the floor were cracked and there were cobwebs everywhere. A spider scuttled across the floor by Rachel's feet, causing her to jump backwards in alarm. Dirty dishes were piled up in the sink.

Billy flopped down on an old blanket in the corner. Every so often he glanced up at them warily. Rachel stepped over him and walked through the door of the kitchen into the living room. It was equally unkept; every surface seemed to be covered with empty coffee cups and dirty plates. There were no photographs anywhere in the room.

As Rachel moved further in, she gasped in surprise. Eddie, an old man now of around the same age as he had been in the other timeline, was seated on a worn-out sofa and talking to a figure on the sofa nearest to Rachel.

'Does he live here?' Rachel whispered to Z.

'No, he just visits whenever Melissa lets him, which isn't often.'

'She's still alive then?'

'She is most definitely still alive.'

'Good.' Rachel smiled in satisfaction.

She moved a little closer to Eddie and caught sight of the person he was talking to. It was a woman almost hidden from view underneath blankets and cushions. With a terrible sense of foreboding and horror, Rachel realized that the woman was herself. 'Am I ill in this timeline?' She whispered, unwilling to think of other explanations for the prone, passive position of the woman on the sofa.

'Nt physically,' replied Z quietly.

Rachel studied the woman who was herself. This woman looked much, much older than her counterpart in the other timeline, although Rachel knew without asking that she wasn't. The lines on this woman's face were not lines of laughter and her eyes had no sparkle in them. She was speaking, asking Eddie a question, but Rachel had to strain to hear what her older self was saying.

'How are your children?' the older woman croaked.

'Just fine.' was Eddie's soft reply. He too sounded old and tired. 'Jonathan's just been promoted and Tabby got engaged.'

'Everyone does. Eventually. Or almost everyone...' There was a bitterness in the old woman's voice which Rachel didn't like. 'And has Charlie had her baby?'

'Yes. A little boy.'

'So you're a grandfather.'

Eddie nodded and an awkward, heavy silence fell between them. A silence full of sadness and half-remembered dreams and the possibility of what might have been. It was finally broken by the older Rachel. 'And Annabel? How is Annabel? She was always my favourite...the others take after their mother, but not little Annabel, she's all yours.'

Eddie smiled at this. 'Annabel's doing very well for herself.'

'Did she win that election?'

'Yes, she's an MP now. She's thinking of standing for the cabinet.'

The silence fell between them again and the younger Rachel used the pause to whisper to Z 'Will she get into the cabinet?'

'In two years time, she'll be the foreign secretary.'

'Then this timeline is better.'

'For Annabel perhaps...' Z's voice trailed away as Eddie and Rachel's older self resumed their conversation.

Eddie had reached out now and taken the older Rachel's hand 'Philip would like to see you very much.'

The old woman jerked away from him 'I don't want to see him. I don't want to see any of them...'

'Why not, Rachel? Philip cares about you a lot.'

'I'm tainted with old age and despair. I don't want to inflict that on anyone. You shouldn't even be here, Eddie, you have your family.'

'I have a family who don't care for me at all. Mel doesn't love me. She never has and the only one of my children who has any time for me is Annabel...'

'Well maybe they'd like you better if you stopped visiting me,' snapped the older Rachel.

'Why is she pushing him away like that?' whispered the younger Rachel to Z.

'Because she knows that her sister will never let him stay with her and it hurts her to have him close when she knows he will have to leave soon.'

rachel was silent then, recognizing the truth of this. She stared at the embittered old woman on the sofa, hating what she saw, but knowing that this was her destiny.

'Have you seen enough?' asked Z.

Rachel only nodded and glanced at the old woman one more time before room disolved around her.

Part Twelve

They were back in the white space. Once again it was devoid of chairs.

'Send me back to the wedding, Z,' Rachel suddenly felt utterly exhausted. She just wanted to go back to the life she knew even if it wouldn't make her happy.

Z looked puzzled 'But you know how you'll end up if I do...'

Rachel sighed. 'I didn't like that timeline, but I know it's the right timeline. Melissa's children are happy and successful in that timeline; in the other, they don't exist...'

'But remember yourgrandchildren. Remember Tia and Tristen and Deanna and Jack and Kathryn and Alexia. They won't exist if you don't go back in time.

'They never existed anyway!' Rachel was surprised at the anger in her own voice. 'They were just echoes, images of what might have been, half-remembered daydreams. Annabel and the others, they exist! They're as real as you and me. They have hopes, fears, dreams just like we do. It's not for me to decide that they don't exist just so I can play happy famiies!'

Z was looking at her strangely, like she was a rat in a laboratory who had just done something entirey unexpected. 'I will never understand your petty human morality...'

'It's not petty!' Rachel shouted, angrier than she had ever been. 'It's the most important thing in the world! Your Continuum, or whoever they are, are right to judge you for being selfish and heartless! Every life is just as important as every other life! My happiness is no more important than theirs! My children are no more important or deserving than Melissa's!'

'Alright then,' Z had remained infuriatingly calm. 'If you don't want to think ofyourself, think of your precius Eddie. He will be far happier with you.'

'He wouldn't be happy if he knew what I had had to do to be with him! I want you to send me back to th wedding, Z! Now! You'll have to find someone else to work your miracles for!'

Z suddenly seemed almost tired. 'I can't send you back.' His voice was quiet, defeated. 'I can't allow you to go back.'

'Why not? Just help someone else like I said. Won't that appease the great Continuum? She tried to keep the sarcastic edge out of her voice, but wasn't entirely successful.

Z sighed and snapped his fingers, causing the chairs from earlier to reappear. He sat down and regarded her thoughtfully, mumbling something to himself.

'What did you say? asked Rachel, sincerly hoping that she hadn't heard him correctly.

'I said,' Z sounded a little sheepish, perhaps anticipating that she wasn't going to like this particular train of thought ' that all this fuss might be avoided if I just impregnated you with his DNA...'

'WHAT?'

'Then you'd have his child...'

'Don't you dare do any such thing!' Rachel was nearly screaming now. 'I'm not that desparate for a baby!' Then, without warning, realization hit her. 'It's not me who's desperate for a baby,' she said slowly. 'It's you. You want me to have Eddie's baby...'

'I never said that!'

'You didn't have to. You're not here to help me at all, are you? You're here because you need me for something... Well, I'm not going to co-operate with you until you tell me wha's really going on.'

Z laughed at this. 'I don't really need your co-operation, little biped. I can make you do anything I want with jut a thought, but I'd rather not force you; I do have some vestige of a conscience...Perhaps I sould tell you what's really happening here...'

'Yes,' said Rachel. 'Perhaps you should.'

Part Thirteen

They were both seated now, Rachel trying desperately to keep her temper under control; Z had plucked her from her life with no warning and, it now appeared, had been lying to her about his reasons for doing so. Z, for his part, seemed to be thinking hard, perhaps deciding what to tell her and what to still leave out.

'I want to know everything, Z.' Rachel wasn't prepared to compromise. 'All that stuff about being selfish was a lie, wasn't it?'

'Not exactly.' Z attempted to smile. 'I am a very selfish individual and the Continuum are always lecturing me about it. It's very tedious...'

'Get to the point, Z, I've had enough of your games.'

Suddenly Z became very serious. 'Oh this is no game, Rachel. The future of your entire species is at stake here.'

'What?'

'You have to have a child with Edward Lawson. You can't possibly imagine how important it is that you do.'

'Then help me imagine it. You've been lying pretty constantly up until this point; I'm not inclined to believe anything that you say now without some kind of proof.'

Z didn't reply immediately. Instead, he snapped his fingers and the air shimmered slightly. A rotating 3-D image appeared in mid-air. It was of a man who Rachel instantly recognized. He seemed to be in the mddle of giving some kind of speech; he was gesturing enthusiastically and his lips were moving although Rachel couldn't hear what he was saying.

'Do you know who this is?' Z asked.

'Of course I do. Everyone knows who that is - it's Adolf Hitler.'

'Right.' Z snapped his fingers again and the man dissappeared. 'Imagine what would have happened if Adolf Hitler had never been born.'

'Millions of people who aren't alive today would be.'

'Exactly. You're like Hitler.'

'What? You're comparing me to Hitler!'

Z seemed to find her indignation vaguely entertaining. 'I'm not saying that you've started any wars or murdered millions of innocent people, but I am saying that the choices you make in your life will have a profound impact on human history. Perhaps you're more like this woman.' Another image appeared suspended in the air between them. 'If Elizabeth I had never been born,' he caused the image to disappear 'then England would have been consumed by anarchy and civil war in the 1550's. The Spanish Armada would never have been defeated, the House of Stuart would never have succeeded the House of Tudor, there would have been no Civil War and no modern parliament. 21st century England, your England, would be very different.'

'I understand that actions, no matter how small, can have far-reaching consequences,' Rachel said slowly 'but those two people that you just described were heads of state. I work in a school - my decisions don't have the same kinds of effects that theirs do.'

'Alright then,' said Z. 'How about another example? Five years before your time, a woman named Claudia Williams, an unremarkable sort of a woman who spends her days working in a bank, decided to cancel her holiday at the last second because she had had an argument with her boyfriend. The plane she should have been on later crashed. there were no survivors. Two years after that, Claudia Williams had a baby, a boy, who will grow up to win the Nobel prize for microbiology and to find cures for several of your nastier diseases. By cancelling her holiday, Claudia Williams effectively saved thousands of lives.'

Rachel's head was reeling. What the entity was saying did make a kind of sense, but she still had no proof. 'So you're saying that a child which I am supposed to have with Eddie will change the course of history?'

'Something like that, yes.' The entity seemed relieved that she finally understood. 'You, Rachel Mason, are what is know as a focal point in time. More than you can ever dream of depends on you making the right choice now.'

'How do I know that you're telling the truth this time?'

'You have my word.'

'And why didn't you just say all this in the first place?'

'Members of the Continuum aren't meant to reveal the future to lesser beings in case that knowledge itself effects the future, but, when all our lies fail, we are occassionally forced to tell the truth.'

Rachel smiled a slightly at his resigned tone of voice, but she must still have looked a little sceptical because Z sighed and said 'Very well, little primate, I think I've already said so much that I shouldn't have said, that showing you a little more will do no harm and, perhaps, it will make you more inclined to believe what I say...'

Part Fourteen

This time, when Z snapped his fingers, Rachel screamed and didn't stop screaming for quite some time. She was standing on the edge of something and, falling away beneath her, was an endless ocean of blackness and stars and nothing else. The area around her felt strange too - there were no smells or sounds at all. When she had finally regain some vestige of self-control, Rachel shuffled her feet backwards very slowly and cautiously until she was standing more securely on whatever it was she was standing on. She was terrified of falling into the darkness which was below her and above her and around her. She turned on the spot to try and see more of what she was standing on. It looked to be the top of a huge, grey, metal dome. It was so big that Rachel couldn't see the other side of it. Z was sitting, cross-legged, a little distance from her, looking completely at ease. She moved towards him unsteadily, trying to look only at the metal surface because she found the darkness and the stars around her terrifying.

'What is this?' She asked when she finally reached Z, collapsing beside him because sitting down felt slightly safer than staning up.

'It's the future,' he said simply. 'Or at least, it's the future if you marry Edward Lawson.'

'What year is it?'

'2381.'

Rachel gasped. She had travelled three hundred and seventy-two years into the future! 'Are we on Earth?' She asked after a while, wondering if, perhaps, the grey dome now covered the planet.

Z laughed. 'Since when do planets travel through space? That's unheard of even in this century.'

Rachel realized then that they were moving, but they were moving so fast that it didn't really feel like movement at all. 'Then where are we?' she asked in wonder.

'Somewhere in the vicinity of Rigel VII. That's a planet on the edge of your galaxy. This thing we're sitting on is a starship.'

'It's huge!'

'It has a crew of over a thousand and their families are also on board. They even have a school, so you should feel right at home.'

Rachel closed her eyes in amazement, imagining a Waterloo Road in space. Then a very nasty thought struck her. 'Humans can't breathe in space.'

'They can when they're with me.'

Rachel sighed in relief and then looked around her again. 'So, tell me about the future,' she said eagerly.

Z smiled. 'It's a good future. Humanity has done well for itself in the last couple of centuries. Members of your species now live on hundreds of planets spread out across the galaxy. Earth is at the centre of a vast coilition of alien worlds and alien species who are all at peace with one another...'

'So this ship is a ship of war defending the borders of Earth's empire.'

Z seemed quite appalled by this remark. 'How barbaric and bloodthirsty humas are in your century. The humans of this time period, though still a savage child-race, would never think such a thing. This ship is a ship of peace. It's mission is to explore the unexplored reaches of the galaxy in order to further scientific knowledge. This is the flagship of the coilition of planets of which Earth is a part.'

Rachel smiled to herself. 'A ship of peace...' she whispered, letting the true meaning of this future take root in her mind.

'There's no poverty in this century, no hunger, no crime, no brutality. Some outside forces still threaten this peace, but there is no possibility of civil war at least...'

'But surely this will all still be here if I don't marry Eddie?'

'Of course it will. No matter what you do, humanity will still be at peace, will still have explored space, will still have rid itself of the problems of your time. This ship will still be here.'

'Then I don't understand why you've brought me here, if my actions don't cause this.'

'To understand your role in all this, Rachel,' said Z 'we must go inside the ship.'

Part Fifteen

Z tok hold of Rachel's arm and smiled at her. As if his smile was some kind of signal or command, the grey surface on which they were standing became soft and gelatinous and they started to sink through it. Rachel knew intellectually that she would be perfectly safe while she was with her powerful companion, but, on a more instinctive level, she was terrified. It took supreme self-control to stay calm as she passed through the top of the ship. The grey metal resealed itself above her head with a soft sucking sound. For a moment, Rachel felt relieved; they were inside and her feet were on a solid surface again. the terror returned a second later when this surface too seemed to melt, causing them to sink again. Z noticed her worried expression. 'Be calm, little biped. We only have to go down ten decks.'

Rachel said nothing. She didn't want Z to know just how scared she was. As far as Rachel was concerned, solid surfaces should remain solid. The fact that these solid surfaces were currently melting was, in her view, just plain wrong.

They were travelling slowly and, as Rachel gradually grew calmer, she started to look around her. Each deck seemed to consist of a central corridor with rooms on either side of it which Rachel couldn't see into. The corridors were carpeted, which surprised her for some reason, and were varying shades of grey and beige. Flat computer panels lined the walls. Sometimes these were lit up ad displayed graphs she didn't understand and writing in languages she couldn't read. Occassionally, she would glimpse a person in the distance. Most wore strange uniforms of red or blue or gold, but some wore clothes which were more familiar to her; skirts and dresses and jackets of many different colours and patterns. One man they passed was much taller and broader than was usual and had a ridged forehead and pointed teeth. When Rachel stared at him, Z laughed and whispered 'Didn't I tell you there were aliens on this ship?'

Eventually they reached a deck which remained solid beneath their feet and Z took Rachel through one of the doors leading off the corridor. Behind it was a small room, grey like the corridor. The furniture exactly matched the walls in a way which indicated that the same furniture and the same colours scheme would be found in all the living quarters on the ship.

It was obvious that this room was part of someone's living quarters. Despite its utilitarian feel, someone had obviously tried to make it into a home. the bed was covered with a vivid purple cover and a dreamcatcher hung above it. On the coffee table was a vase of flowers and an ornately carved wooden bowl. There were photographs on nearly every available surface. Rachel picked one up. it was of a golden retriever lying in a field on a sunny day.

'Billy?' Rachel asked a little wryly.

Z smiled. 'No, Glen, actually. One of Billy's many descendants.'

For some reason this made Rachel laugh. She picked up the photograph next to the one of Glen. It was of a man and woman smling happily and holding a laughing baby in between them.

'Do they live here?' Rachel asked.

Z gestured to the baby in the photograph. 'She does.' He said. 'Only she's a bit older now.'

'And who is she?'

'She's your great-great-great-great-great-great-great granddaughter. Her name is Kirsty Mason and the other people in the picture are her parents, Will and Rachel.'

'Rachel?'

'It's become something of a family tradition that one girl in every generation is named Rachel. After you.'

'Why would they name their children after me?'

'Because you were the one who first chose their family name. The children always take their mother's surname in this family, so there's always a Rachel Mason somewhere in the cosmos.'

A lump was forming in Rachel's throat. The idea that her descendants would be travelling around the galaxy three hundred years into the future was just too amazing to put into words. 'Tell me about Kirsty.' She said.

'Kirsty's seventeen years old. She was born in Utopia Planitia which is a city on Mars...'

'She was born on Mars!'

'Millions of humans are in this century. Mars has been terraformed. It's a nice place to live. Anyway, getting back to the point, Kirsty is a cadet which means that she's just started training to work on a starship. At the moment she's on a kind of intergalatic work experience placement.'

Rachel looked around her 'It's a bit different to Rochdale Museum.' Seeing Z's bemused expression she added 'That's where we send the kids from Waterloo Road on work experience.'

'I see.' He looked distinctly unimpressed.

At that moment, their conversation was interrupted by the doors of the room opening and a young woman, who Rachel presumed was Kirsty, walking in.

Part Sixteen

Kirsty Mason looked very young for her age and very earnest. She had long brown hair which was currently pulled back into a plait and her eyes, Rachel realized with a start, were the same soft borwn eyes which she herself had. Kirsty was wearing a red uniform similar to the ones Rachel had seen other crewmembers wearing the corridors of the ship.

'Looks like you, doesn't she?' whispered Z.

Rachel nodded. The young girl did indeed look a lot like a younger version of herself. Rachel was finding it increasingly difficult to keep reminding herself that this girl would never exist, should never exist. This room should be occupied by a girl with shining golden hair and Melissa's happy smile.

Unaware that she was being watched, Kirsty sat down on the bed and began to free her long hair from its plait. Her face wore a serious, somewhat wistful expression. After a while, she picked up the photgraph of herself and her parents and gently ran her finger over the image.

'Is she ok?' Rachel asked Z.

'She's lonely. She's never been away from home before.'

Rachel longed to go to the girl, to take her in her arms and stroke her hair and whisper words of comfort, but she knew she could do none of this. At that moment, Rachel's thoughts were interrupted by a female voice which seemed to come from nowhere in particular. 'Incoming message for Cadet Kirsty Mason from Admiral Rachel Mason.'

Rachel found it decidedly strange to hear her name being used for another person in this context.

Kirsty though was smiling. 'Put it through, Computer.' she said.

'The computer talks,' Rachel whispered 'I guess humanity's moved beyond keyboards by 2381 then.'

The computer screen on Kirsty's desk lit up and was filled by the imge of the woman in the photograph. Kirsty brightened considerably at the sight of her. 'Hi Mum!' she said.

'Hi, sweetie,' replied this other Rachel. 'I was just checking in to see how your first deep space mission was working out.'

Kirsty looked a little embarrassed at this. 'It's not a mission, Mum. I don't do anything important. Today I made tea for just about everyone on board and I labelled some soil samples for the ship's biologist.'

'Well that's important! Mislabelled soil samples would be a disaster and no one can function properly without a good cup of tea.' the Admiral's tone was teasing.

Kirsty, smiling properly now, began to reply, but was interrupted by the lights in the room truning red and the emotionless voice of the computer saying 'Red Alert. Red Alert. All hands, this is a Red Alert. Please report to duty stations.'

'Mum, I have to go!' Kirsty pressed a button on her computer and her mother's image disappeared. Then she turned and ran swiftly to the door with Rachel and Z following close behind her.

Part Seventeen

Kirsty, Rachel and Z ran through a maze of corridors which were now crowded with humans and aliens moving purposely to their duty stations. Rachel could sense panic in the air, although everyone was outwardly remaining remarkably calm.

'What's happening?' she asked Z.

'I believe that another ship ahs just fired on this one.' was his reply.

Even though she knew that she was perfectly safe while she was with Z, Rachel felt her heart start to beat faster as a cold fear gripped her. Kirsty meanwhile had run through a set of double doors which opened automatically as she approached them.

Following her, Rachel found herself in what was obviously the command centre of the ship. It was a large room; the back wall was covered with computer terminals and workstations and a gigantic viewscreen showing the space in front of the ship took up the front wall. In the centre of the room were three chairs occupied by a bald man, who sat in the centre, a younger bearded man and an extraordinarily beautiful dark-haired woman. It seemed that the bald man was in charge. he was shouting orders to the other people in the room and tapping away frantically at a computer console embedded within the arm of his chair. Two more workstations had been placed directly beneath the viewscreen which was currently showing the image of another starship. This one, bizzarrely enough was shaped like a giant cube and was bristling with what even Rachel knew to be weapons.

As Kirsty entered, the bearded man stood up and blokced her way into the room. 'Go back to your quarters, Cadet.' he said firmly. 'This is no place for children.'

'I'm not a child!' protested Kirsty. 'I want to stay and help.'

There was a flash of light on the viewscreen and the ship was suddenly rocked violently from side to side. Rachel staggered, grabbing Z's arm to keep her balance.

'Direct hit, Captain!' Called the man with the ridged forehead, who Rachel had seen earlier, from the back of the room. 'Shields holding...for the moment.'

'This is not a drill, Cadet,' said the bearded man. 'You have to go back to your quarters. You'll just be in the way up here.'

'But, Sir...'

Kirsty was interrupted as the ship was rocked again by more weapons fire. one of the men seated at the workstations in front of the viewscreen was hurled violently from his chair and lay on the ground, unmoving.

'Another hit, Captain! Shields down to 74% and falling!' Shouted the man at the back of the room.

The bald captain now looked at Kirsty for the first time. 'Cadet Mason,' he said 'It looks like we do need you after all. Have you ever flown a starship before?'

Kirsty snapped to attention. 'Yes, Sir. Just got my pilot's license, Sir.'

'Then, Cadet, it's time to put that license to use.' he gestured to the chair which had previously been occupied by the man who was now on the floor.

Kirsty hurried to the front of the room and sat down, her fingers dancing over the computer controls in front of her. Behind her, the captain was still barking orders 'Send a Priority One message to Earth. Tell them that we have engaged the enemy vessel. Lieutenant,' this was directed towards the man with the strange forehead. 'Fire at will.'

'Aye, Sir.'

Rachel, watching the viewscreen, saw a jet of light, presumably from the ship, fly out towards the enemy vessel which shuddered a little in space. Soon though Kirsty's ship was hit again and then again.

'Shields down to 27%, Captain.'

'Why are the shields failing so fast?' asked the dark-haired woamn seated next to the captain. 'Do they have a new type of weapon?'

The man sitting next to Kirsty glanced down at his computer panel. 'In a way they do, Commander. It appears that they're using a rotating weapons frequency...And there are tachyon particles in that beam.'

Rachel had no idea what any of this meant, but from the reactions of those around her, she knew it was vary bad news indeed.

'We can't hold out against tachyons...' said the dark-haired woman very softly.

'Inform Earth of this development,' said the captain. 'perhaps someone there will be able to think of a way to overcome tachyons. I'm open to suggestions, people. Do we have anything which might work against a tachyon-based weapon?'

'I always thought it wasn't possible to create a tachyon-based weapon...' This was fro the bearded man.

'Well, apparently it is possible.' the captain sounded defeated.

'Shields down to 17%, Captain.'

Kirsty who, until this point, had been concentrating on her computer console, suddenly seemed to have been struck by an idea. She turned around in her chair to face the captain. 'Sir,' she said 'Can't we use our tractor beam to create a warp shell which will invert the tachyons and bounce them off the deflector dish?'

Z snapped his fingers and the figures around them froze; Kirsty's hand was raised, in the middle of making a gesture, a smile was just beginning to form on the captain's face and the dark-haired woman was looking imensely relieved. 'I think we've seen enough,' said Z and, without warning, Rachel found herself back in the white space, feeling very confused.

Part Eighteen

'So now you understand why you have to go back in time.' Z sounded triumphant as he stood facing her across the blank space.

'Not really. I mean Kirsty seemed like a nice enough girl, but I really don't understand why her existence changes the course of human history.'

'Because she thought of using the tractor beam to create a warp shell which inversted the tachyons and bounced them off the deflector dish. Obviously.' Z spoke slowly as though Rachel was a rather backward small child.

'Z, I'm not from that century. I understand about two words of what you just said.'

Z sighed impatiently. 'Kirsty thought of a way to defeat the other ship. The possible way of defeating the other ship, short of changing the gravitational constant of the universe which is beyond the capabilities of humans in any century. If Edward Lawson marries your sister then one of their descendants will be flying that ship in that battle and he won't think of anything useful at all and humanity will be destroyed.'

'Can't you save them? You're so powerful that you could change the gravitational constant of the universe or do whatever it was Kirsty did or even make one of Melissa's descendants thing to do what Kirsty did.'

Z shook his head and spread his hands in a gesture of defeat. 'I can't save them, Rachel.' he started to speak, but he cut her off 'Oh, it's within my power to save them; I can change the gravitational constant of the universe in my sleep, but the Continuum won't let me save them. Not directly at least.'

'Why not?'

'Because, where do you draw the line? If I save humanity, do I also have to save every other species, neutralize every other possible disaster everywhere in the cosmos? the universe can't function like that. If there was no danger or risk, it would stagnate. Nothing would ever strive to be better than itself. Evolution would become a thing of the past. The only thing I can do for humanity now is to help them indirectly by making sure that Kirsty is on the bridge of that ship.'

Rachel took a deep breath. She was shaking now, trying her bast to process everything that Z was saying. 'That was just one ship though, wasn't it? Surely it's destrction, millions of miles from Earth wouldn't cause the destruction of humanity?'

'If that ship doesn't defeat the aliens, no one will. No one else will make the connection that Kirsty did and think of a way to overpower them. They'll just keep advancing until they reach Earth. Once there, they won't obliterate the people on the planet, they'll do something much worse.'

'What could be worse than obliterating them?'

Z was entirely serious now. These aliens were obviously something which even he couldn't bring himself to joke about. 'The aliens who attacked Kirsty's ship are members of something known as the Collective. They're not all aliens, some of them used to be human and the rest of them used to members of other, similar species. All of them were once very like the people you just saw on their ship, but now they're ruthless killers who desire only to make others like themselves.'

'How did they become like that?' Rachel tried to keep the fear out of her voice.

'The Collective is made up of beings who are part organic and part machine. When they attack another vessel or planet, they capture all the lifeforms on that planet and assimilate them, make them part of the Collective. Mechanical parts are inserted into their bodies and brains. They become telepathically linked with every other member of the Collective and must do as the Collective wishes them to do. They have no individuality, no freedom, no memory of their former lives. They don't even have their own names.'

'And humans will become part of this...Collective?'

'Yes. In 2381, three hundred and seventy-two years from your time, the human race will effectively end. Humans will become part machine, emotionless drones with no minds of their own, forced to spend their lives turning others into monsters like themselves. Only Kirsty Mason can think of a way to stop this before it happens, but Kirsty Mason will not exist if you don't have a child with Edward Lawson.'

Rachel felt suddenly dizzy and light-headed. The weight of this new responsibility crushing her, suffocating her. Unless she had a child with Eddie then the human race would end in 2381, but, if she did go back in time and ensure that Eddie didn't marry Melissa, then her nephew and neices would never exist. Either way she would be guilty of murder.

'I need time to think,' whispered Rachel.

Part Nineteen

'I can't do it.' Rachel said after an hour of pacing back and forth in the blank, white space. 'I can't condemn my neices and my nephew and my sister to non-existence. I can't go back in time.'

'If you don't, you will be condemning millions.' Z sounded calm, but Rachel sensed that his calm was only a facade, concealing growing frustration with her indecision. They had repeated these same arguments over and over again.

'There has to be another way, Z, a way which doesn't involve messing up anyone else's life.'

'There is no other way. You have to have a child.'

Rachel turned his words over in her mind and something about the phrasing he had used caused an idea to start to form in her mind. 'Do I have to have a child at a particular point in time or do I just have to have a child at some point in time?'

Z stared at her, perhaps understanding the basic premise of her idea. 'Any point in time will do...' he said slowly. 'The Continuum can arrange things so that your first child would always be Kira, the daughter that you saw in one of your possible futures. It doesn't matter if she's born in 2009 or 2019; she'll still have twins with the same man and her twins will still have children and Kirsty Mason will still seventeen in 2381 and humanity will still be saved. We'll just make sure that some people have children a year or two earlier or later than they would have done in the orginal timeline...'

'And you can guarantee that Z?'

'Yes, I can guarantee that.'

Rachel searched his face and found no trace of deception or double meaning there. She smiled, relief flooding through her. She knew now what path she must take; she didn't like it, it still went against every shred of morality and decency she possessed and she would still have to betray her sister, but at least her sister would still be alive to be betrayed.

She turned to Z 'I want you to send me back to the wedding, back to the exact moment at which you plucked me from my timeline.'

'What are you going to do when you get there?'

'I'm going to make the people I care about most in the world hate me and probably never want to see me again, so I can save humanity. I'm going to go back to the wedding and I'm going to break up my sister's marriage and steal her husband because, carzy as that seems, it's actually the most moral and right thing to do right now.'

To Rachel's surprise, Z smiled approvingly 'I'm beginning to like you, Rachel Mason,' he said and snapped his fingers.

Part Twenty

Fuzzy shapes moved in a disjointed way on the edge of sight. Rachel's eyelids felt heavy and it took a moment for her to open them and then a moment longer before she could process what she was seeing. She was back at Philip's wedding and Eddie's face was centimetres from her own. She was relived to see him looking the right age, the age she remembered him being.

'Rachel?' he whispered.

She smiled. 'I'm fine.'

She slowly struggled to her feet, trying to ignore the ache behind her eyes and the faint sensation of dizziness which seemed to permeate her entire body. She blinked a few times, wondering if this was the start of another one of one of Z's false futures or alternative timelines, but then Eddie touched her arm to steady her and the jolt of electricity which she felt at his touch convinced her that she was finally back in her own reality.

'Are you ok?' He said, his brown eyes full of concern.

She nodded. 'I was just hot, that's all, and I haven't eaten much today.'

'Would you like me to drive you home or call a taxi?'

'No..No...I'll just sit down for a bit and eat something and I'm sure I'll be fine...'

He didn't look completely convinced by her assurances, but Melissa was staring at them from her place at the top table, so Eddie quickly went back to his family after a last concerned glance in rachel's direction.

Rachel looked around her properly then. The weeding was exactly as she remembered it except that most of the guests were now on their feet, looking at her in alarm as if expecting her to faint again. Bolton had gone white which, Rachel thought, was rather sweet. She smiled round at them in the hope of reassuring them that she really was fine and then hastily found her way back to her seat. Rose's gave her shoulders a quick squeeze as she sat down and Rachel smiled at the other woman's kindness.

The speeches were just starting which was a relief to Rachel as it meant that she hd an excuse not to talk to anyone just yet. As the best man, it was Eddie who was giving the first speech. he stood behing the top table, one of his hands casually holding Melissa's as he tlked about what a wonderful mother she had been to Philip and how wonderful a mother she was to his children. The thought of breaking up this family, of leaving these children fatherless, made Rachel feel sick to her stomach...At that point though, she was struck by another very welcome thought. What if her encounter with Z had all been a dream, a hallucination brought on be her collapse? After all, she had no proof that it had been anything other than a dream and it made a whole lot mre sense for her to have dreamed about being on a starship in 2381 than for her to have actually been on a starship in 2381...

As she thought this, Rachel began to feel an overwhelming desire to look towards the table behind her. When she did so, she saw Z, apparently unnoticed by anyone else, sitting between Bolton and Michaela. He smiled in her direction and raised his wine glass in a silent toast. Rachel turned slowly back towards Eddie and the top table, finally accepting that what she had experienced had most definitely not been a dream.

Part Twenty-One

Z was haunting her. Everywhere Rachel went, there he was. He had followed her around at Philip's wedding reception and, the next morning, while she was on her way to work, he watched her from the window of a passing bus, his face appeared in her cup of tea in th staffroom at Waterloo Road and he was sat amongst the Year 11's in assembley nearly every morning. Each time Rachel saw him, he would lok impatient or tap his watch in a meaningful way. Rachel knew exactly what he was hintin at; she still hadn't spoken to Eddie.

She wanted to speak to him, but she just couldn't bring herself to. At the wedding reception they had studiously avoided each other; everytime their eyes met across the room, one of them turned quickly away. He had danced with his daughters, all of them holding hands and laughing, and he hadn't danced with anyone else. He and Annabel and Charlotte had formed a circle, their backs to the outside world, shutting it out, and Rachel knew she had no place within that circle. Noticeably, Melissa was also excluded. Eddie had looked so happy with tthe children though that Rachel didn't know if she had it in her to take him away from them. Every day after the wedding she had told herself that she would call him in the evening, but every evening, she would pick up the phone and half-dial his number and quickly slam it back onto the table with shaking hands and a racing heart.

One night, almost a month after the wedding, Rachel completed the nightly ritual of trying and failing to call Eddie. She went into the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee, but when she took the lid off the coffee jar she screamed. Z, somehow reduced to a height of three centimetres, was sitting, cross-legged, on top of the coffee in the half-full jar. He looked completely at home.

'Evening, Rachel,' he said cheerily.

'You're in my coffee jar!' Rachel knew she was stating the obvious, but she was far too surprised to do anything other than state the obvious.

Z picked up one of the coffee granules and examined it closely. It looked enourmous in his tiny hand. 'I've never understood how you humans can drink this stuff. It tastes disgusting.'

'We're mostly in it for the caffeine.'

'I still don't understand the fascination...' Z snapped his fingers and suddenly he was back to his normal size and standing beside her. 'Rachel,' he said, serious now. 'i've promised the Continuum that I'll keep an eye on you until you're safely back together with Edward Lawson. I've been following you around for a month now and, frankly, I'm getting rather bored.'

'I'm sorry I'm not entertaining enough for you.'

'Call him.'

'I will...When I'm ready.'

Z sighed. 'You will never be ready.'

There was a flash of light and Rachel's phone appeared in her hand. 'If you don't call him,' said Z 'I'll keep fllowing you around and annoying you until you do.'

'You're already doing that.'

'Oh, I can be much worse than this. I can be in every coffee jar you open to begin with. And every packet of sugar and every tin of soup and every jar of spices...'

'I get the picture.' Rachel tried to put the phone down on the kitchen table, but found that it was stuck to her hand.

'I'll unstick it when you call him...'

With a sigh of exasperation, Rachel gave in and dialled the number fully this time. It wasn't him who answered though, it was a child's voice who shyly whispered 'hello.'

Rachel hung up without saying anything.

Z glared at her. 'You have to actually speak to him. Either that or get used to having a phone attached to your hand.'

'It wasn't him who answered.'

'I'll make sure it is this time.'

Knowing she had no choice, Rachel dialled Eddie's number once again.

Part Twenty-Two

'Hello.'

Rachel started shaking as soon as she heard his voice. It was almost as if he was whispering in her ear.

'Hello?'

'Answer him,' hissed Z from beside her.

Rachel covered the phone with her hand and hissed back 'I will if you go away.'

'First interesting thing yo've done in weeks and I'm not even allowed to listen. Spoil sport.' muttered Z a little petulantly as he disappeared in a flash of white light.

'Hello?' The voice on the phone was growing impatient now.

Rachel still didn't know what to say, but knew she had to say something before he hung up. 'er...hi...' As soon as she'd said it, she wanted to kick herself for not coming up with something more interesting.

There was a pause then 'Rachel?' he sounded cautious, guarded.

'Yes...hi...it's me...' She seemed to have forgotten how to speak in coherent sentences.

'Did you want to speak to Mel?'

'No,' she said, perhaps a little too hastily. 'No...I...I wanted to talk to you. I saw you at the wedding and I realized that we hadn't spoken properly for years and I wanted to know how you were getting on.'

'I'm fine.' Was he being standoffish or was he just nervous like she was?

'Good...good...how's work?'

'It's good. Forest Mount's got some good GCSE results this year, so everyone's pleased.'

'I'm glad.'

Z chose that moment to reappear behind her and and lean over her shoulder. 'This has got to be the most ridiculous conversation I've heard for a long time.' rachel turned and glared at him and he quickly disappeared again.

Meanwhile, Eddie was speaking. 'So how's Waterloo Road?'

'Same as always, really.' There was so much that she wanted to tell him, but there seemed to be a lump in her thraot which was stopping her from getting the words out.

'Is Andrew a better deputy than me?' Suddenly Eddie's tone was light and teasing.

Rachel felt a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. This was more like it. 'Definitely not.' she said.

'Glad to hear it.' There was a pause and then he said, somewhat hesitantly. 'I'd like to see you, Rach. It's been far too long since I've seen you properly.'

'Do you want to go for coffe after work tomorrow?' The words were out of Rachel's mouth before she had a chance to think about what she was saying. Her heart leapt into her mouth as she waited for him to give his answer. She was almost certain he'd refuse.

After a long pause, he whispered softly 'I'd like that.'

Part Twenty-Three

Rachel sat in the cafe, her heart which was beating far too fast, wondering if Eddie would ever actually turn up. not that he was late, she was early, but every moment she sat waiting for him, the more convinced she became that he would decide not to come. She had been worried about this all day, unable to think of anything else. Attempting to steal her sister's husband was bad enough, but it would be made a million times worse if the man she was trying to steal didn't even have feelings for her anymore.

She tapped her fingers on the top of the table and then pulled a compact mirror out of her bag to check her hair. She looked down at her outfit; she had come straight from work and she wasn't sure if her A-line skirt and fitted leather jacket were really the best things to be wearing on this...whatever it was.

'You look lovely.'

Rachel jumped as Z appeared in the seat opposite her.

'What are you doing here?' Rachel hissed at him, aware that she was drawing confused glances from those around her as she appeared to be talking to thin air.

'Just checking up on you, little biped.'

'Well don't! This is hard enough without you watching me!'

'Very well, have it your way. he disappeared from sight, but Rachel couldn't shake the feeling that he was still watching her.

'Hi, Rachel.' This was an entirely different voice.

Rachel looked up to see Eddie standing behind the chair which Z had just vacated.

'I didn't think you'd come,' she admitted as he sat down.

'I didn't think you'd come either.'

There was a pause as they studied each other, saw the new lines on each other's faces, the new emotions in each other's eyes.

'You look great, Rach.'

'You don't look too bad yourself.'

Again there was silence. A waitress came and took their orders and returned a while later with two cups of coffee and still there was silenc. They were basking in each other's presence, revelling in the nearness of each other. His eyes roved hungarily over her face. No words were necessary. Memories were coming back to rachel, memories of the happy, golden days they had once spent together. In those days they would have sat on the same side of the table; his arm would have been draped around her shoulders as they whispered sweet nothing to each other.

Rachel's hand was resting on the table and Eddie tentatively reached out and took it in his own. Rachel shivered involuntarily at his touch, causing him to smile a little.

'So you still feel it too?' he murmured.

'yes, I feel it.'

Tears were welling up in Rachel's eyes. She bit her lip and stared down at the table top, hoping he wouldn't see. he did see though and started to take his hand away, fearing that he had upset her, but she, desperate to feel his touch, pulled his hand back.

'Don't go,' she whispered. All thoughts of Z and Kirsty and the future were forgotten now. She was just a woman and he was just a man and it was the simplest and the most complex thing in the world.

'I have to go,' he said, withdrawing his hand again. 'I'm married.'

'We're not doing anything wrong...'

'But we're not doing anything right either.' There was a pause, during which their hands still touched very lightly, then, with finality, he let go of her hand completely. 'I can't control myself when I'm near you, Rach. I should never have come here.'

'But you did come...'

He nodded and looked down at the floor. His breath was ragged and she could see his hands and his shoulders shaking a little as he was flooded with emotions.

'I've never loved Mel.' He said, so softly that she almost didn't hear him.

'I know.' It was the truth. She had always known.

'I have to stay with her though. I have to be there for the children.'

'I know that too.' She was keeping replies short, hoping that they wouldn't betray the tumault of emotions within her.

He looked at her then, gazing deep into her eyes, and she gazed bak, not wanting to ever look away. Finally, he tore his eyes from hers, gave her hand one last, brief squeeze, and swiftly stood up and walked out of the cafe.

Part Twenty-Four

To Rachel's surprise, Z didn't turn up to tell her to call Eddie again that night as she lay in tears on the sofa. He wasn't there the next night either or the next. On the fourth night, when the doorbell rang, she was sure it would be him. She toyed wth the idea of just not answering the door, but quickly realized that this would be pointless since Z was hardly going to be stopped by a locked door.

To her surprise though, it was Eddie, not Z, who was standing on her doorstep. It was raining and he was soaked from head to toe. In his hands was a rather bedraggled looking bunch of flowers.

'I know I shouldn't be here,' he said 'but I couldn't stop thinking about you. I had to see you one more time.' The intensity of emotion in his voice was overwhelming.

Every particle in Rachel's body was screaming at her, telling her to run down the steps to where he stood and throw her arms around his neck. However, rationality still had a tenuous hold on her so, instead, she stepped back and ushered him into the hallway. She fetch a towel and gave it to him so that he could dry his dripping, rain-drenched hair. She stared at him as he did so, a cacophony of emotions swirling within her.

'Please say something.' he whispered.

'Come in properly.' It was all she could think of to say. It was meant to be her going to him, not the other way around. After all she was the only one who had seen the future.

She took him into the living room and, soon, they were both seated at either end of the sofa, awkwardly not touching.

'Does Mel know you're here?' Rachel knew the answer even as she asked the question.

He shook his head. 'She thinks I went bowling with some friends.'

'But you're terrible at bowling.'

The mention of bowling brought back memories of that first kiss they had shared. Rachel smiled a little, remembering the feel of his lips on hers, of his hands in her hair. Eddie's expression mirrored her own and Rachel sensed that he was remembering the same thing. His eyes were drifting towards her lips. Suddenly the room felt far too hot and Rachel was very aware of his presence beside her. As if drawn together by a magnetic force, their faces inched towards each other, but they froze, just millimetres apart, the reality of what was about to happen finally sinking in.

'This isn't right,' he breathed.

'No it isn't right.'

But still neither of them drew back.

'I should have stayed with you, Rach. Mel and I, we tried, but it's not working...we only pretend that it is.'

Rachel swallowed and said nothing. The power of speech seemed to have deserted her. She couldn't think properly; his proximity was intoxicating.

He though, clearly felt the need to explain further, to justify his actions 'When Mel told me she was pregnant, I thought I'd be able to make myself love her, that I would love her when the baby was born, but, after we had Charlotte, things just got worse between me and Mel. We thought that maybe a second child would fix everything or a third or a fourth, only they didn't. I don't think anything can. We argue all the time...I haven't been happy since I left you Rachel, I don't think I can be happy without you...'

The tumbling cascade of words trailed away as the air between them became filled with something electric and utterly irresistable. When their lips met, it was impossible to tell who had initiated the kiss; they seemed to melt into each other, drinking each other in hungarily, their hands frantically exploring every inch of each other. They knew that this might never happen again, that it shouldn't be happening now and so, their movements were fuelled by a frenzy of desperation. Soon, Rachel found herself lying on her back on the sofa with Eddie's body drapped over hers as they kissed and kissed as she had never kissed anyone before. His hand was making its way up her thigh when, all too suddenly, he pulled away, a look of shame on his face.

'I can't do this, Rach,' he whispered. Then, just as it had happened in the cafe and, with one final passionate, lingering kiss, he was gone.

Part Twenty-Five

Somehow Rachel wasn't surprised to find Eddie standing, waiting for her,at the gates of Waterloo Road the afternoon after their encounter in her house. He stood with his hands thrust deep into his pockets, looking a little sheepish. None of the pupils recognized him; it had been years since he had taught there. He was however, drawing curious glances from Steph Haydock who was hovering in the carpark, apparently unsure of whether or not she should speak to him. When she saw Rachel, she smiled in a way which Rachel did not entirely like and disappeared back into one of the buuildings.

Rachel sensed a presence beside her and turned to face Z who was dressed, bizzarrely enough, in a Waterloo Road uniform. 'This is easier than you thought it would be, isn't it?' he whispered.

She shook her head. 'No, Z, it's not.' This was the truth. Even though Eddie was being far more proactive about this thing which was going on between them than she was, Rachel was still consumed by guilt. She knew she should have walked away from eddie out of loyalty to her sister and she tried to tell herself that the only reason she was still walking towards him was the glimpse she had had of the future. She knew, deep down though, that this was far from the truth. Once Eddie was near her, he seemed to draw her to him with an unstoppable force.

'I should leave you two alone.' Said Z softly and with surprising sensitivity. Rachel barely noticed him disappear. She was too focused on Eddie.

He smiled a slightly hesitant smile and thrust his hands deeper into his pockets.

'I had to see you, Rach.'

'But last time you left...'

'And I've spent every second regretting it since. I can't stop thinking about you.'

'But Mel...'

'Forget Mel.'

They had been drawing ever closer as the spoke, their words so soft now that they were little more than ragged intakes of breath. His arm reached out and snaked itself around her waist, drawing her closer to him, so that her body was pressed against his. Rachel's breath was coming in shallow gasps now and her eyes were wide with desire. When she had imagined this seduction, she had viewed it as something planned and cold and emotionless, a means to an end and nothing more. This though was for more. It wasn't even a seduction, not really. It was the inevitable conclusion of their reunion.

Eddie had raised a hand to her face and was gently brushing back her hair. Acting entirely on instinct, she turned her head and nuzzled her face into his hand, planting soft kisses on his wrist.

'Miss, is that your boyfriend?' The mocking shout of a passing pupil shattered the coccoon which Eddie and Rachel had been weaving around themselves. Remembering where they were, they hastily let go of each other.

'Let's go to my office,' Rachel suggested.

He nodded agreement and they walked into the school, keeping so close together that they were only a breath away from each other. Rachel's heart was in her mouth and her stomach was doing somersaults. Every nerve in her body was erect and tingling, intensely aware of the man walking beside her.

Once safely inside the office with the door closed, they surveyed each other, both breathing quickly and heavily, desire in their eyes.

'I love you, Rachel,' he said, simply and sincerely.

'And I love you,' she replied with equal sincerity.

Then all barriers were gone and they were kissing hungarily, desperately, passionately. Eddie's hands were roaming over her back, her hands were in his hair. The kiss was almost violent in its desperation. When they finally drew back from each other, Rachel eagerly helped Eddie pull her top over her head and throw it to the floor. As their lips found each other again, her fingers scrabbled at the buttons of his shirt.

The phone on Rachel's desk started to ring, but the two of them ignored it, hardly even heard it. Eddie scooped Rachel up into his arms and carried her to the sofa, kissing her all the time, while his fingers fumbled with the zip of her skirt.

In the background, the phone clicked onto the answering machine and Andrew Treneman's resonant voice filled the room, causing the pair on the sofa to freeze in place. 'Hi Rachel,' Andrew was saying. 'The first load of prospective parents have just arrived for the tour you promised them. I'm bringing them over to your office now...I hope you get this before we get there.'

Eddie and Rachel stared at each other in horror and then, simultaneously began grabbing their clothes from the floor and hastily starting to dress. 'I'll call you,' Eddie whispered, kising her quickly. Then he ran from the office, leaving a very flustered Rachel trying, and entirely failing, to think about something which was at least vaguely related to the parents she was meant to be seeing.

Part Twenty-Six

Rachel wasn't surprised at all to find Eddie sat on her doorstep when she arrived home after what seemed like the longest work-related evening in the history of work related evenings. At the sight of him, she started to smile uncontrollably.

'Do you mind me being here?' He asked a little shyly.

'Not at all. I think we have some unfinished business to attend to.'

'I think you may be right there...' Now he was grinning too.

He followed her inside and, once the door was closed, he pressed her up against it, catching her mouth in a deep and urgent kiss. She responded just as urgently.

'Where does Mel think you are?' she whispered breathlessly as he started to trail kisses down her neck and shoulders.

'She thinks I went to stay the night at Phil and Danielle's new place to help them unpack.'

'So we have the whole night?'

'We have the whole night.' He stopped his kisses then and looked at her seriously 'I'll only stay if you want me to though. I can really go to Phil's if you're not comfortable with this.'

'I want you to stay.'

Then they were kissing again and before Rachel quite knew what was happening, her clothes were scattered across the floor of the hallway. She giggled as Eddie picked her up for the second time that day and carried her upstairs to her bedroom. This time there were no interruptions.

Afterwards, they lay side by side on the bed, stunned by what had just happened. Seven years ago they had vowed that they wouldn't do this again, couldn't do this again, but now those vows were broken. Rachel couldn't convince herself now that she was acting this way because of her vision of the future. She knew in her heart of hearts that this had happened because it was what she most wanted to happen in the world.

'You ok?' Eddie asked quietly.

'I feel wonderful.' She replied honestly.

'You don't regret it?'

'Not for a second.' Somewhat hesitantly she added 'Do you? Regret it, I mean.'

'Not for a second.'

His hand found hers under the covers and the touch was enough to re-awaken the hunger within them. Their hands began to explore each other once again. Much later, they fell asleep in each others' arms only to wake intermittantly to be soothed back to sleep with kisses which, now that the edge had been taken off their mutual hungar, were slow and gentle, almost lazy, and which felt absolutely right.

Part Twenty-Seven

After Eddie had kissed her goodbye in the morning, Rachel felt strangely lost. All day she drifted around in a haze of emotions and memories. Everywhere seemed to remind her of him. As she sat in her office, she remembered how Eddie used to stand behind her chair and cover her neck with kisses. the sight of his former classroom was like a stab in the heart. She kept expecting to see him walking towards her down a corridor, moaning about Kim or talking animatedly about the new maths syllabus, but, of course, she didn't see him.

There was an aching lonliness within her which was far worse than most physical pains. She felt hollow with it. It gnawed away at her insides. She was consumed with anxiety; when would they see each other again? What if he regretted what had happened between them? What if Mel found out? The thought of her sister only intensified the pain Rachel was feeling. She had betrayed her sister. It didn't matter that they weren't close or that Mel didn't really love Eddie. The truth was that she had slept with her sister's husband and that was against pretty much every moral code in existence.

She spent the afternoon at her desk with her head in her hands, unable to focus on the mountain of paperwork in front of her.

'You're doing well, little biped,' drawled a voice.

Rachel looked up to find Z seated casually on her desk.

'Go away,' she hissed. 'Can't you see I'm upset?'

'I know you're upset. that's why i'm here.' For a fleeting moment, Rachel thought that he was being sympathetic. Then he added 'I can't let you give up on Edward Lawson yet. There has to be a child...'

All of Rachel's fragile emotions came bubbling to the surface and she screamed at Z in anger 'How dare you talk to me like that? I'm not some kind of animal that you can use for selective breeding!'

She seized an empty coffee cup from her desk and hurled it at Z who ducked. The cup smashed against the wall of the office.

'Rachel?' Kim Campbell's voice came from the outer office, full of concern. She'd obviously heard the crash.

'I'm fine, Kim. I...dropped something.'

Apparently Kim didn't believe her because the door started to open and Kim came in. Z disappeared.

'Are you sure you're alright?'

'I'm fine. Honestly.' Rachel tried her best to sound cheerful and Kim left the room, still looking slightly concerned.

The phone on rachel's desk began to ring and she picked it up with shaking hands. 'Hello.'

'Rachel?' Her heart skipped a beat as she recognized his voice.

'Eddie?'

'I can't talk for long, I'm at work, but I had to speak to you.'

'I'm glad you phoned.' Her voice was hoarse, choked with emotion.

'I had to tell you that I'm glad it happened.'

'last night?'

'yes...When I woke up with you in my arms, I felt...I felt as if I had finally come home.'

A sob forced itself through Rachel's careful emotional control. 'I love you so much, Eddie.' Tears began to trickle freely down her face. 'Nothing's right without you.'

'I love you too, my darling. I've only ever loved you.'

'What are we going to do, Eddie? What about Mel? What about the children?' Rachel's sobs were frantic now.

'Don't cry, sweetheart, please. Nothing scares me as much as you crying.'

'I don't think I could stand it if I lost you again...'

'You won't lose me, Rach, I promise. We'll be together. I don't know how or when, but we will be together. We will find a way to make this work.'

Part Twenty-Eight

They spoke to each other every day; they whispered sweet nothings in the confines of their respective offices, they murmured words of love while walking down the street, but, in the evenings, they knew that they must resist the temptation to speak or to see each other because of the spectre of Melissa. They both knew that he would never leave her because leaving her would hurt the children. He spoke of them constantly and, after nearly losig touch with Michael, it was obvious that he wasn't prepared to risk losing touch with them.

These daily conversations were what Rachel lived for, but they weren't enough. She longed to see him, to touch him again. Soon, they organized a time and a place for a meeting. They would skip work one afternoon and meet in the nearby countryside for a picnic.

When the day of the meeting came, Rachel awake early, dizzy with excitement, but was still ridiculously late for work because she spent so long deciding what to wear. In th end, she picked a soft and delicate summer dress which drew a few surprised glances from the teachers in the staffroom. In the morning, she pretended to work and, at lunchtime, she claimed she had toothache and told everyone that she was going to an emergency dentist appointment.

When Rachel arrived at the meeting place, Eddie was already there, leaning nonchalantly against his car, waiting for her. He took her hand and kissed her gently before leading her into a field and then up to the top of a nearby hill. He spread out a picnic blanket he had brought with him and they lay down on it together. Rachel rejoiced in the fact that they didn't have to hide from anyone out here; they looked like a normal couple who were happy and in love.

They spread out the food they had brought with them and ate, seated close together, talking of anything and everything. Everything that is except Melissa. They had agreed before meeting that this was there time and Melissa had no place here. They lazily fed each other strawberries and sipped their wine.

Finally, they lay back together on the blanket. They faced each other and kissed slowly as if they had all the time in the world. Eddie took Rachel's hand and pressed his lips against it, moving across the inside of her wrist and causing her to shiver with pleasure. She soon returned the favour, kissing his wrist and his arm. The golden afternoon sun beat down upon them, encasing them with gentle warmth. They day was so perfect that Rachel couldn't help wondering if perhaps Z was controlling the weather.

Seeing that the spot they had chosen for their meeting was a secret, hidden place, entirely devoid of passers-by, they made love, drenched in sunlight and then, a while later, they made love drenched in starlight, Afterwards, they clung to each other, knowing that they must part, that they had stayed too long already.

Eventually it was Eddie who borke the warm silence which engulfed them. 'I have to go,' he murmered, kissing the top of her head which was resting on his shoulder.

'I know,' she said, but she clung to him more tightly.

It was another twenty minutes before they stood and wandered back to their cars. Then, with a last passionate kiss, they went their separate ways, not certain of when they would be able to meet again.

Part Twenty-Nine

Rachel didn't go straight home; she didn't want to be alone just yet. She was elated, joyful, almost drunk with happiness and she wanted to share her good mood with the world. She went, on an impulse, to the pub near the school and found it full of people she knew. Her happiness was infectious. She was like a beacon of joy and the teaches in the pub gathered around her, perhaps hoping to absorb some of her radience. She didn't tell them why she was so happy, but she joked and laughed and wondered why she didn't spend time with them more often.

When she finally arrived home, she wasn't really surprised to see a figure cloaked in starlight seated on her doorstep. Grinning broadly, she broke into a trot, sure that it was Eddie who was waiting for her. Somewhere, a clock was striking midnight. It was the witching hour, the hour of transformation and illusion, of magic and changelings.

The figure on the step raised its head and Rachel could see that it was a woman. Blond hair cascaded down her back, but the mask of night was still on her face. Rachel knew who it was sitting there now, but the woman's expression was still invisible. 'Mel?' She whispered, hoping desperately that what she saw was an apparition or hallucination, hoping that the figure, now it had been named, would shimmer and vanish.

Melissa stood then, tall and straight, and rachel knew that she was no illusion. Her gaze was steady, but her eyes hinted at deeper emotions within. She didn't speak or flinch or do anything at all as Rachel came closer. Finally, when the sisters were only millimetres apart, Melissa gazed deep into Rachel's eyes and whispered in a voice of steel 'I know.' Then, in an even more icy tone than before, 'I know.'

'Mel, I'm sorry...' Tears were runnign down Rachel's face. She was shaking with shame and guilt.

Still Melissa didn't move. 'I knew before he was late home this evening. I've known for weeks. I knew as soon as he contected you again. It was like you were suddenly in the house with us, like your presence was hanging in the air between us. Tonight I confronted him and he told me everything.'

Rachel's sobs were intensifying. She almost wished that Melissa would scream or shout or slap her. Anything would be better than the strange, hollow clam she saw in her sister's eyes.

'I don't love him, Rachel and he doesn't love me, but I will not let him leave and go to you. I will not be left with nothing. It happened once before, seven years ago, and I won't let it happen again.'

Rachel's blood was running bitter cold and icy through her veins, turning her heart from the warm, elated thing it had been just moments before into something glacial and unnatural.

'We're going away, Rachel,' Melissa still speaking in that stern, emotionless tone. 'Eddie and I are going away. the children and I are movin to Spain and he's said he'll come with us. he can't bear to leave the children. We're leaving very soon, so you won't a have a chance to say goodbye.'

'Mel, please...' Rachel was sobbing too much to say what she needed to say.

'I don't have anything else to say to you, Rachel.' With that, Melissa walked past her sobbing sister and down the driveway into the black velvet night. As she went, she pulled a folded peice of paper from the pocket of her jacket and dropped it onto the gravel of the drive. 'it's from Eddie,' she said. 'He asked me to give it to you and I'm not entirely heartless.'

Then she was gone, leaving her sister to sink down on to the doorstep crying tears of utter despair.

Part Thirty

It was a long time before Rachel arose from the doorstep and picked up the letter Melissa had dropped. She ook it inside and seated herself on the sofa. then, with shaking hands, she unfolded the paper, her heart seeming to jump in her chest at the sight of the familiar handwriting. Tears dripped onto the page as she read the words he had written there:

My darling Rachel,
I don't know what to say, except that I want to be with you more than anything in the world. I can't tell you how much I love you and care about you. There aren't words enough in the English language to express the depth of my feelings for you. I hol you in my heart, Rachel. I take the image of you wherever I go. In the seven years that we were apart, I would see things or find out things which I knew would make you smile ad I stored all those things up in my heart in the hope that someday I could tell you about them. I guess, now I'll never get the chance to do that.
What we did today was wrong. I don't regret it. I could never regret time spent with you, but I can't let my children grow up hating me and they will if we carry on seeing each other. I'm going to go away with Mel and our children and I'm going to try my best to be everything I should be for my family. Leaving you will shatter my heart into a milion pieces, but I have to leave you.
Please forget me, Rachel. I shall never forget you, but I will never have the chance to find love again. You though, will have that chance. I want you to love again and to laugh again. Your smile makes me happier than anything else in the world and I need to know that you are smiling somewhere even if I'm not there to see you smile.
I will think of you always and I will love you always,
Eddie

Rachel lay back on the sofa, holding the letter close to her, running her fingers across its smooth surface. Tears, now silent and solemn, ran down her cheeks. He had gone to make a new life for himself with Melissa. She knew she couldn't change that.

She wasn't surprised when Z appeared, sitting on the arm of the sofa by her feet.

'Don't tell me to go after him because I can't.' She said very quietly.

'I'm not going to do that.'

'But the child...'

Z smiled then. 'My job here is done, Rachel. You're pregnant. You will have the child and, three hundred and seventy-two years from now Kirsty Mason will save humanity. You've done well, little biped.'

He disappeared, leaving Rachel to cry alone. even as she cried though, there was a small glimmer of happiness and hope within her as she placed a hand on her stomach and the little life inside it.

Part Thirty-One

Rachel decided not to tell Eddie about the baby. She couldn't. it wasn't that she didn't want to; she wanted to more than anything, it was just that she couldn't ask him to choose between her child and Melissa's children. It wasn't fair on anyone.

Sometimes, in the middle of the night, when all was silent, rachel would be filled with lonliness of a kind she'd never experienced before. At such moments, she would pick up her phone from the table beside her bed and her fingers would itch to dial his number, t pour out her heart to him, but, each time, rationality would re-assert itself and she would return the phone to the table.

As the months passed ad her stomach began to bulge outwards, the teachers and pupils at Waterloo Road began to eye her suspiciously. There were whispers about her in deserted corridors. Could Miss Mason, sensible Miss Mason, possibly be pregnant? She told them eventually, announcing it in assembly, and her speech was met with a chorus of wolf whistles and indelicate comments.

Now the speculation turned to the identity of the child's father. Some said she'd been drunk and couldn't remember what she had done or who she had done it with, some said that, at the weekends, she took to the streets in a return to her former profession. A few of the older pupils had heard rumours of a tragic love affair in her past and suspected that her former lover had returned. In the staffroom, Steph Haydock, remembering her glimpse of Eddie in the school carpark, kept uncharacteristically silent.

Rachel grew bigger ad rounder and more ungainly by the day and, as she grew, she retreated further and further into herself, concentrating entirely on her child, Eddie's child. She wanted to meet the baby, to hold it close to her. She smiled at the sight of her watermelon stomach, lightly carressing it with her fingertips.

Eventually, the pains she remembered so well fro the alternative timeline shown to her by Z began to grip her. She screamed aloud and, for the first time, she felt terror clutch at her heart. She didn't want to go to the hospital alone, couldn't face the thought of briging her child into the world alone. she reached for her phone and started to dial Eddie's number only to be interrupted by an all too familiar drawling voice.

'You don't want to that, little biped. You've come this far without him and coped just fine. If he returns, it must be for you and not for the child.'

'I can't do this alone!'

'I know. That's why I'm here.'

So, it was Z, not Eddie, who accompanied her into the delivery room, who claimed to be the child's father, who held her hand while she writhed in pain. Rachel was grateful for his presence, but she wished with all her heart that it had been Eddie who stood by her side.

Then, with one last scream, Rachel found that a child was being placed in her arms. A beautiful little girl with, already, her father's gentle brown eyes and a trace of her mother's auburn hair.

Z kissed the child's head and then Rachel's cheek. 'Well done,' he whispered, his eyes filled with uncharacteristic emotion. 'The future is righting itself as we speak. HUmanity has been saved.'

But, as Rachel held her daughter in her arms, she couldn't completely share in Z's joy; humanity may had been saved, but her relationship with Eddie had not.

Part Thirty-One

In time though, Rachel came to know joy again. she rejoiced in her daughter, lived for her daughter. Now that the child was in the universe everything inexplicably seemed to be a little better. Rachel named the little girl Kira, partly because of her vision of the future, but mostly because she just liked the sound of it.

Kira grew quickly from a wide-eyed baby into a happy toddler and then a beautiful little girl. her hair was auburn like her mother's and her eyes were brown like her father's. She shared his cheeky grin and sense of humour, but also had her mother's earnestess and determination. She loved and was loved by everyone around her. She was expecially fond of her mysterious uncle Z who would turn up once a year, on her birthday, bringing with him marvellous presents; a music box which only played underwater, a necklace with a sparkling pendant which he swore was made out of the flames of a miniature dwarf star.

The planet turned and the seasons changed and soon Kira was celebrating her seventh birthday with gifts of a PollyPocket castle from Rachel and a bracelet made of stardust from Z. The day afterwards, Rachel arrived at Waterloo Road slightly late to find three children, wearing immaculate brand new uniforms, sitting in her office. She glanced questioningly at Annika Hanson, her secretary.

'They're new students,' Annika explained. 'They've just transferred from a school in Spain.'

'What are their names?'

'The oldest girl is Charlotte Lawson, likes to be called Charlie. She's in year 10. the boy is her brother, Johny, who's in year 8, and the other girl is their sister, Annabel. She's in year 7.'

Rachel swallowed, her heart started to thump agaist her ribs.

Annika seemed to sense something of her reaction. 'Is anything the matter?'

'No...no...not at all,' stammered Rachel. 'I just...know their parents, that's all.'

Deciding it was best not to delay the inevitable any further, Rachel hurried into the inner office before Annika could ask her any more questions. The three children showed no signs of recignition as she entered the room, leading Rachel to wonder if they'd actually been told who she was. Rachel tried to show a similar lack of recognition as she looked at them, but it was hard; Charlie and Johny were like smaller versions of their mother. Both were tall with blue eyes and straight blonde hair and both were sprawled across their chairs, trying to act as if they were at ease in this new place. Annabel by contrast, looked terrified and was clutching her school bag tightly. She looked more like Eddie than the others with darker hair and gentle eyes.

Rachel smiled round at them. 'Hello,' she said. 'I'm Miss Mason, the headteacher of Waterloo Road.'

The children smiledback and said hello politely enough, but they didn't react to the mention of her name. They clearly hadn't been told who she was and Rachel decided that it wasn't her place to enlighten them further; starting a new school would be stressful enough without being told that the headteacher is your long-lost aunt.

She tried to speak to them in the same way that she would speak to any other new pupils. she told them a little about the school and printed our their timetables and, all the time she ws doing this, Charlie was looking at her more and more strangely. Eventually Rachel asked the girl what was wrong.

'I'm sure I've seen you somewhere before, Miss,' was Charlie's reply.

Rachel fleetingly thought about lying, but decided against it because, in her experience, lies generally turned out to be far more complicated than the truth. 'I was at your brother's wedding, seven years ago. I...I know your father.'

Luckily Charlie seemed satisfied with this explanation. 'Of course,' she said. 'he used to work here. I'll tell him we saw you.'

'Could you tell himas well that...if he ever wants to talk, he can always call me...' The words were out before Rachel had time to think about them.

Charlie looked at a little strangely, perhaps suspecting something of what was going on. 'I'll tell him,' she said.

Rachel smiled to herself. the next move was Eddie's now and she had a feeling that he'd call her. After all, he'd chosen to send the children here; he must have known that they'd run into each other eventually.

Part Thirty-Three

Charlie apparently did tell her father about the meeting with Rachel because, the next morning, Annabel was standing on Rachel's office when she arrived at work. Eddie had sent her to ask Rachel over for 'coffee and a chat' that afternoon after work. As Kira was going to an after school club, Rachel agreed. She knew she couldn't put off seeing Eddie forever and she had to decide whether or not to tell him about Kira.

That afternoon, Rachel stood on Eddie's doorstep, shaking with nerves. She still wasn't sure how she felt about being there. Did she really want to see Eddie playing happy families with Melissa? part of her longed to simply drive away again, but part of her knew she should stay and she was more than a little curious as to how his marriage to Melissa had developed over the last seven years.

It was Eddie who opened the door. he grinned widely at the sight of her. His smile was so like Kira's that rachel's heart started to pound in her chest; she didn't know how much longer she was going to be able to keep their daughter's existence a secret.

'Rachel! It's so good to see you! Come in.' He opened the door wider

As she went past him, into the house, it seemed that he wanted to hug her, but she shied away. She was determined that this would not turn into a repeat of what had happened the last time they had met. This time they would be friends, nothing more.

'Where's Mel?' Rachel asked a little nervously. She was unsure as to how her siter would react to her presence.

'Come into the living room,' avoiding the question, Eddie guided her through a door and into a large sitting room. The four chidlren were sat around a table in the corner pretending to do their homework, but really watching her with curiosity.

'Where's Mel?' Rachel asked again, once they were seated.

'Mel's still in Spain,' Eddie said quietly. 'We just argued constantly. She didn't have time for me and she didn't have time for the kids. Then, a few months ago, she ran off with Tabitha's piano teacher and we haven't seen her since. I'd never liked Spain; I was only there because of Mel, so I took the kids and came back to Rochdale.'

Rachel took a deep breath and leaned back on the sofa, struggling to take in what he'd just said. 'She's gone?' she whispered at last. 'She's really gone?'

'Yes,' he took her hands in his own. 'She's really gone and I came back here in the hope that we'd find each other again.'

Relief washed over Rachel like a tidal wave; she could tell Eddie about Kira now without any misgivings and she could stop feeling guilty about the sparks of electricity which shot through her evertime she looked at him.

'Rach, are you ok?'

She smiled, gently squeezing his hands. 'I'm fine.'

He was still staring at her, perhaps seeing from her expression that she was still holding something back from him, so she decided that, if they were going to build a new relationship, it would be best to no longer keep secrets from each other.

'Eddie,' she said. 'There's someone I'd like you to meet.'

Part Thirty-Five

They drove to Kira's school in silence; something in Rachel's expression told Eddie that she would talk when the time was right and not before. She was pale, nervous, afraid of how he would react.

'Please don't be angry with me,' she said as they pulled up at the school gates.

'Why would I be angry with you?'

'Because I should never have kept this from you. It was wrong of me, but I couldn't bring myself to drive another wedge between you and Melissa.'

'Rachel, what are you talking about?' He sounded worried now

'You'll see.'

As if on cue, the school gates were opening and a stream of children had started to emerge. Among them was an earnest little girl with long auburn hair tied up into two messy plaits and a bright purple schoolbag slung over one shoulder. She was walking between two other girls, their arms linked. As Rachel and Eddie watched, the girls all began to giggle at something one of them had said. Eddie stared at the little girl, then at Rachel and then back again, an expression of bewilderment on his face. 'She's your daughter, isn't she?'

Rachel only nodded, her throat constricted with emotion.

Eddie's expression was impossible to read. 'So...are you married now?' he said eventually.

Rachel shook her head, staring straight in front of her, avoiding his gaze.

'Her dad? Is he...around?'

'I don't know, Eddie.' Rachel found her voice at last and turned to look him in the eye. 'Is he?'

Now it was Eddie's turn to go pale. 'You mean...' he swallowed, hope glimmering in his face. 'You mean...she's mine?'

'Yes.' Somehow Rachel kept her voice steady. 'Her name is Kira.'

Eddie looked at the little girl again and, this time, his expression was one of wonder. 'You should have told me, Rach,' he said at last, very quietly. 'You know I would have come back.'

'That's why I couldn't tell you. I couldn't be responsible for making you leave your other children.'

He seemed to accept this, still staring at Kira. 'She's beautiful.'

'Yes, she is.'

Finally, he tore his gaze away from the child and focused entirely on Rachel, his gentle brown eyes looking deep into hers. 'Can we start again?'

'How do you mean?'

'I mean that I love you and I want to be with you and I'd like us to try and make a life together. I know that it'll be hard with five kids between us, but I want to try and make this work and I want to be there for Kira. I haven't been happy since I left you.'

Her heart melted and she knew that his words were true, that she couldn't be happy without him either. She leaned forwards and caught his lips in a gentle, tender kiss. 'I want to try and make this work too,' she whispered and kissed him again.

'Mummy?'

The two adults sprang apart to find that their daughter had just got into the back of the car. She was looking back and forth between them, an expression of confusion on her face.

'Kira,' Rachel said gentley. 'This is you Daddy.'

Eddie smiled. 'Hello Kira. I'm very glad to meet you.'

Kira seemed uncertain of how to react.

'I like your purple schoolbag,' Eddie added.

Kira smiled and decided that she liked this man who said he was her daddy.

-

Three hundred and seventy-two years into the future, on the bridge of the starship Enterprise, Kirsty Mason breathed a sigh of relief as the enemy ship expoded. her heart began to slow down to somthing like its normal rhythm. All around her, the crew were breaking into smiles and whispering to each other.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard stood up and came forward to where Kirsty was sitting. He clapped her on the shoulder, grinning broadly. 'Good job, Cadet!'

'Thank-you, sir,' Kirsty's own smile was as wide as the Captain's.

Unseen by any of them, Z, standing at the back of the room, raised a wine glass in a toast 'Well done, Rachel,' he murmured.

The Collective had been defeated and humanity was free to advance towards a brighter, better future.