Hey everyone! Now as promised, here's the sequel to Kissing You, set six weeks after.

Hope you like it and let me know what you think!

This story is for all those who wanted me to write the sequel, thanks guys! Wouldn't have done it without your support!

Love you all Gemz xxxxxxxx

A Bolt From The Blue

Summary: Sequel to Kissing You. Rachel and Eddie's relationship faces its first major challenge when a face from their not-to-distant past makes an appearance, with an announcement. Will it make their relationship stronger or will it make them realise that they were never meant to be together?

Chapter 1: The Ultimate Gift

Rachel sat down on the toilet seat and took a deep breath, looking downwards at the pregnancy test result in her hand. The word pregnant blinked up at her, she closed her eyes and then opened them again, looking down at the result once again, wondering whether she had imagined it. She hadn't, she was pregnant with Eddie's baby. Rachel had thought as much when she realised that her period was late, then came the tiredness and the morning sickness, eliminating all the traces of doubt that she had had about what was happening to her. Rachel was in two minds about the pregnancy; on one hand, she was happy about it, she had always wanted to have a child and with every year that had passed, she had begun to lose hope in that ever happening. However, she and Eddie had only been seeing each other for six weeks and it seemed a little early in their relationship to be thinking about settling down together and having a family. Rachel didn't know how he would react to the news that she was carrying his child, she knew she wanted a baby, true, this had been a complete shock to her, she thought they'd been careful but at the same time, she knew that this could be her last chance to be something other than a head teacher and whatever Eddie said about it, she had already made up her mind, she was going to keep the baby.

Rachel stood up and put the pregnancy test back in the bathroom cabinet. She picked up the glass from the shelf and filled it half-full with water, she drunk half the contents and tipped the remainder down the sink. She rested her hands on the edge of the sink and looked at herself in the mirror. She had thought they had been careful; obviously they had slipped up at least once for this to have happened. All of a sudden, it came to her, their first night together after the bowling. That was the only time that she could think of that it could've happened, that night, they had both let their passion for the other get the better of them, not giving a second thought to what would happen if they weren't careful. Rachel mentally scolded herself for that; she was normally so responsible when it came to things like that. Mind you, Rachel knew as well as the next person that being in love made people do things that were so out-of-character but being in love with Eddie and doing something that, six weeks ago, would've been so out-of-character for her, had given her the ultimate gift and she wasn't going to throw it away now.

Rachel looked at herself once more in the mirror and then reached for the bathroom door.

She left the bathroom and re-entered her bedroom. She sat on the edge of the bed, wondering how she was going to broach the subject of her pregnancy with Eddie and was interrupted when her phone started beeping on the bedside table. Rachel reached out and picked it up, she smiled when she realised she had a text from Eddie: Hey beautiful, missed you so much this past week, I hate these residential courses :( Can I see you tonight? Love you E xxx

Rachel grinned to herself, temporarily about the pregnancy new that she knew she would have to share with him when he came back. Eddie has been away on residential course for the school whole week and Rachel had missed him so much. It wasn't as though they hadn't spoken to each other in all that time; in fact, they had spoken on the phone every night since he'd been gone, often staying on the line for hours on end, relaying details to each other about their days and recalling all their memories of being together, which made their separation a little easier to bear. A little, but not much. It had been agony for Rachel to go into school everyday for the past few days and not see him wandering around the corridors, or peep into his classroom and watch him teaching, or trying to teach, algebra to a bunch of students who really couldn't care less. Just knowing that she'd be speaking to him at the end of every day was getting her through, now she only had a few more hours to endure without him and she couldn't wait to see him again. That was another of the good things about their relationship, the fact that they could talk to each other about everything and anything, it just seemed so natural to both of them, their friendship had been that way for most of the time that they'd known each other, ever since Eddie had told Rachel about his twin sons with Alison and how Steven had died of cot death. Rachel in turn had let him help her out after he'd discovered that Hordley had been blackmailing her. She knew she couldn't keep the pregnancy a secret from him, it was his baby too after all.

She snapped out of her trance, realising that she had been staring at his message for the last few minutes and haven't even replied. She hit the options key and scrolled through until she reached call back. Rachel pressed call and put the phone to her ear, waiting for him to answer. "Morning beautiful," he said.

She could tell he was smiling on the other end, she knew from his tone of voice. Rachel was smiling too, it was what he did to her. They had only been seeing each other six weeks but his voice still sent shivers down her spine, shivers of delight. "Good morning handsome," she replied, "I got your message."

"And?"

"And what?"

"Can I see you tonight?"

"Oh I don't know Mr Lawson," Rachel teased as she twisted a piece of her hair around her finger, "I might already have plans."

"Really? But I know if you did have plans, you'd cancel them just to see me,"

Rachel laughed down the phone, Eddie smiled as her laughter tinkled down the phone. After everything she had been through in this past year, she deserved to have a laugh. "Well, as it happens, I'm not doing anything tonight, Phillip's going out with Bolton and Paul so we'd have the house to ourselves," she said.

"Is this an invitation Miss Mason?"

She giggled down the phone again, "if that's what you wanna call it then yeah, it is,"

"Then I accept,"

"Great! I'll come and pick you up from the station if that's OK with you,"

"That's fine with me Rachel, my train should be getting in just after six,"

"I'll see you tonight then,"

"You will do, I can't wait,"

"Neither can I, I've missed you Eddie,"

"You too Rachel, see you tonight, love you,"

"Love you too Eddie, bye," Rachel said and she hung up.

She lay back on the bed and stared upwards at the ceiling, smiling to herself. In these past six weeks, Rachel had been happier than she had been in such a long time and that was largely down to Eddie. He was coming today and already, she knew that today would be a lot easier than the previous four school days she had had to endure without him. Her hand rested on her stomach and she sighed to herself, she would tell him when she saw him tonight, news of an unexpected pregnancy wasn't really the sort of thing that she could share with him over the phone, she needed to do it face-to-face. She wasn't entirely sure how Eddie would take the news but not having Phillip in the house would certainly make it a lot easier for her to tell him.

Rachel looked over at the clock on her bedside table, it read 7:55. Just over ten hours, she thought to herself as she got off her bed and straightened her clothes. Rachel walked over to the bedroom door and opened it, knowing that the next time she walked through this door, she'd be within hours of being back with Eddie, that thought alone made the grin upon her face widen even further.

"Do you wanna lift into school Phillip?" Rachel asked as she picked up her things from the living room sofa.

Phillip looked up at her and nodded, "if you don't mind Rachel," he replied.

"Course not," she smiled warmly, "are you still out with Bolton and Paul tonight then?" she added.

Once again, Phillip nodded, "why do you ask?" he questioned.

"I just like to know what you're getting up to,"

"So it has nothing to do with the fact that Eddie's due back from his course today?" she looked up at Phillip, unable to suppress the grin, "it's alright Rach, you're allowed to be happy. As long as I don't have to hear the details."

Rachel laughed, "I'll keep them to myself then," she said, "you are OK with me and Eddie, aren't you? I know it probably was a bit of a shock to you, especially so soon after him and your mum…" she trailed off.

"I'm fine with it Rachel, honestly. Mum didn't deserve him anyway, not after what she did,"

Rachel couldn't think of an answer to that. What Phillip had said was true, in part. Melissa didn't deserve Eddie, especially, after lying, or not telling him the truth, about her two previous marriages. She probably wouldn't have even come clean had Phillip not gone to Rachel and told her everything, forcing Melissa's hand. Melissa was selfish, something that Rachel could never be, she'd abandoned her own child, that wasn't the only thing that disgusted Rachel. She and Melissa were supposed to be sisters and sisters were supposed to tell each other everything. Now, Rachel and Melissa were further apart than they'd ever been. That wasn't Rachel's fault but she couldn't think about any of that, her main focus was Phillip and making sure he was getting through it OK. He was the one most affected my Melissa's sudden departure, it had affected her and Eddie to a certain extent too but as a result of Melissa leaving, they had found each other, neither of them could be unhappy about that.

Rachel was stood by the front door, waiting for Phillip to fetch his school things. She couldn't wait for the school day to be over, not least because the weekend was coming but also because she was seeing Eddie again that evening, and she couldn't wait, despite being a bit nervous about telling him about the pregnancy. She'd missed him these past few days, being away from him had taught her a few things, it had made her realise how much she loved him and how much he had changed her life simply by loving her for who she was right now, not what she had been in the past.

Once Phillip had picked up his school things, he and Rachel got into her silver car, she reversed out of the drive then drove off in the direction of the school.

Comments please! xxx