A/N: Hello everyone! Apologies for the lateness of this chapter, lack of reviews does unfortunately mean a lack of emails that remind/motivate me to post the next chapter, if you could just drop me a few words it would really help . This is for Amy, who probably won't read it for months but mentioned fanfic on the bus and reminded me. Here you go everyone:

Chapter 6

Breakfast had been eaten, and Rachel was clearing up, having forbade either of the men from touching anything in the kitchen ever again. For the first time in weeks, the seemingly perpetual clouds had parted, and the sun was shining, causing Rachel to look longingly out of the window as she slotted the plates into the dishwasher. She could hear Philip moving around upstairs; ostensibly working, but since she knew for a fact that all of his schoolbooks were currently still at school after the events of the previous day, she suspected he was more likely to be playing computer games. At least, she hoped he was, otherwise goodness knows where the noises of things blowing up were coming from.

She was just contemplating where Eddie was – he'd wandered off after breakfast – when she heard the fridge door open behind her and jumped, turning around to see him stood there, having just returned the butter to its rightful place.

"Eddie! You scared me!" He laughed, closing the fridge and crossing over to where she was stood and patting her on the head; "Aww, was poor ickle Rachel scared?"

Rachel simply rolled her eyes, turning away to continue clearing the table, hearing his laughter behind her.

"Hey! Stop laughing at me, it isn't nice!" She giggled slightly as she said it, well aware that he was never going to listen to her.

"Yeah well you won't have to put up with it much longer, I'm off."

The effect was instant. Rachel's laughter stopped abruptly and she turned to face him, a look of horror on her face, "Eddie… what?"

Feeling instantly guilty, Eddie stepped towards her, grabbing one of her hands, "Hey, don't look so worried Rach! I was only joking, I'm just going to pop home for some clothes and essentials, you don't get rid of me that easily!"

She smiled, although it still looked unsure, laughing nervously, "Oh, well, that's okay then…"

Eddie hugged her quickly, before pulling away, glancing instinctively at the door to check that Philip hadn't crept up on them. Her composure now returned, she grinned, making flapping movements with her hands; "Go on then you, the sooner you go, the sooner you can come back," he smiled, and turned to leave, making his way towards the front door when he was halted by her voice, "Oh, and Eddie," he turned to look at her, "wear something Phil and I won't mind being seen with you in!" She ducked as an envelope came flying towards her head, and her laughter rang through the house as the front door slammed.

It was going to be a good day.

Having finished clearing the kitchen, Rachel made her way upstairs, knocking on Philip's bedroom door as she reached it, "Phil, can I come in?"

"One moment." Unused to being told to wait, Rachel entered anyway, and laughed at the sight of her nephew hurriedly exiting his computer game. Realising he'd been caught, he blushed, glancing at the floor, "Yeah, um, just… taking a break…"

Rachel laughed, "Phil it's fine, you can do what you want with your time… within reason. Just because I happen to be your headmistress doesn't mean I expect you to spend your entire life working you know." Seeing she currently had him onside, Rachel decided to broach the topic she'd come to talk to him about, "Anyway, I wondered whether you fancied coming on a picnic?"

Philip looked at her like she'd just grown two heads; "A… picnic…?"

Rachel smiled, "Yes Phil, a picnic, you know, food sat around on a blanket in the countryside, birds singing…"

Philip grimaced, "Spare me, Rach, please! And yes I'll come, if we can bring a football along… I assume Eddie's coming?"

Rachel couldn't help the smile that spread across her face, "Yes, Eddie's coming."

Once Rachel had persuaded Philip into coming, got dressed, persuaded Eddie into coming, packed the lunch, suggested to Philip that wearing his new designer trainers on a picnic possibly wasn't the best idea, and loaded both men and the lunch into the car, they were on their way.

The journey didn't take long, and five minutes later they were pulling into a small car park by the side of a hill. Rachel immediately jumped out and went around to get the picnic out of the boot, while Eddie and Philip remained in the car, regarding the small muddy path suspiciously. Rolling her eyes, Rachel called through to them; "Stop being such girls you two, it's only a bit of mud! And besides, you don't get food until you get out!"

For some completely unknown reason, both Eddie and Philip suddenly seemed much more enthusiastic at the prospect of a walk, leaping out of the car and racing each other up the hill, laughing.

And leaving behind a rather dismayed-looking Rachel, who glanced between the heavy picnic basket, large picnic rug and car with all the doors left open with a defeated expression. Sighing, she closed and locked the car, before heaving the basket into her arms, laying the blanket on top of it and starting up the hill. Suddenly this didn't seem like such a good idea…

Rachel had got halfway up the hill, and was really starting to struggle, when Eddie spotted her from where he'd been stood chatting with Phil. Running quickly back to her side, he took the basket off her, looking at her in concern, "Sorry Rach, didn't think, you alright?"

She smiled, "I'm fine Eddie, stop fussing, I'm just a little out of breath, it's just carrying that bloody thing up the hill!"

Eddie gave a cheeky grin, "I can think of a few other things that would make you out of breath, too."

Rachel rolled her eyes; "Inappropriate, Eddie. Now, since you've got that, I think I'll go see Philip!" And she strode off up the hill, leaving a somewhat abashed looking Eddie holding the picnic basket.

Once everyone had got successfully up the hill, and the picnic had been set up, they sat around, munching happily on the sandwiches Rachel had made that morning and chatting about nothing in particular. It made Rachel smile, how relaxed they all were, when she thought of the train-wreck their little group had been yesterday.

Funnily enough, sitting there on the comfortable blanket with Philip talking enthusiastically about some maths problem Eddie had set in class the other week (evidently glad not to have to keep up the pretence of not caring he did in school) while Eddie lay backwards and positioned his arm so it looked like he was innocently reclining and it just happened to have fallen in such a way that Rachel was leaning against him, the word that sprung to mind, was 'family'. Which was ridiculous, really, when you considered the fact that the group was made up of an ex-prostitute who was sort-of having a secret relationship with her sister's ex-fiancé, who had only split up with her sister a day earlier, the ex-fiancé, and the sister's son, whose mother had disappeared, and who had tried to run away only the day before. Actually, she realised, maybe the word 'family' was appropriate, in the sense that they were a complete bunch of misfits who had been thrown together by circumstances completely out of their control.

Although, she mused, as the sun beat down on her face, even if that was true, they were a happy family.

As they finished eating and Rachel packed the things away, Philip leapt up looking excited; "Come on then you two, football, you two against me!"

Rachel laughed, shaking her head, "No way! You two play, I'll umpire."

Eddie chuckled, "You'll umpire this football match, will you Rach?"

She nodded slowly, looking confused, "Yes?" it came out as a question.

Philip sighed loudly, "Honestly, you're even worse than mum, I think the word you're looking for is referee Rach, and the answer's no, you're playing!"

Rachel opened her mouth to protest, but found it covered by Eddie's hands, as he and Philip pulled her to her feet and dragged her across to a piece of flat grass, before letting go of her and marking out goals, leaving her to splutter in the middle of the 'pitch'.

"But, but, you can't… I'm your headmistress!"

Philip grinned at her, "No you're not, you're my aunt!"

Rachel felt her mouth break into a wide smile, and ran over to him, hugging him on impulse, pulling away to see him stood, blushing, "Um, Rach, what was that for?"

Rachel shook her head, smiling, "For being you."

There was a moment of silence, as everyone processed that statement, before Eddie noticed quite how awkward Philip looked, and decided to rescue him, "Right then, football, I take it you know the rules Rach?"

She looked at him blankly for a moment, before replying, "Um, get the ball in the goal?"

Eddie sighed, "Okay, in simple terms; get the ball in that goal, stop it going in our goal, and try not to beat Phil up in the process."

Rachel laughed, "Okay, I'll try, not promising anything though!"

The game commenced. Philip started with the ball, and kicked it straight through Eddie's legs towards his and Rachel's goal, but Rachel managed to kick it straight back past him and into his goal. Eddie celebrated by picking her up and spinning her around, which made Philip laugh and her glare at him, muttering something about self-control. From there, it could only really get worse. Philip scored one straight goal, which was countered by one from Eddie, which was in turn countered by two own-goals in quick succession from Rachel. She stopped celebrating when Eddie pointed this fact out to her, but looked so crest-fallen he had to run across and give her a hug. Which, in turn, caused more muttering about self-control and Rachel to completely lose track of what she was supposed to be doing at all.

Ten minutes later, when Philip was winning 23-5, and Rachel was being pulled out of a bush by Eddie again, the men decided it might be kinder to let her sit the rest of the match out, something that an exhausted and thoroughly confused Rachel was more than happy to agree to.

As the game restarted, Rachel lay back on the picnic blanket, resting against a nearby tree as she watched her two favourite men kick a ball around like it was the most important thing in the world. Embarrassingly enough, Eddie seemed to be doing a lot better now that she wasn't there.

Philip had allowed them to start from nil-nil again, to give Eddie a chance, and it appeared that they were quite evenly matched now; Philip had the advantage of speed and agility, but it appeared Eddie knew what he was doing, and seemed to be blocking most of Phil's complicated attacks with no real difficulty.

Rachel sighed contentedly and relaxed, smiling as Eddie managed to evade Phil and score a goal, causing her nephew to look at the ball with a newfound competitiveness that she was more used to seeing when two boys fought over the same girl… usually physically. It was… nice… she decided, the word here seeming to suit the situation rather than just sounding inadequate. The situation just seemed, right, somehow, lying here in the sun while Eddie and Phil laughed together as they each attempted to win the little football match.

She lay back against the tree, the wood warm against her skin, and allowed her eyes to flutter closed as she day-dreamed of many more days spent like this, carefree and relaxed with the two people most important to her.

Philip laughed, throwing his arms into the air triumphantly as he successfully dodged around Eddie to score another goal, bringing the score to three all.

"Hey, that was cheating!" Eddie was grinning as he said it, although the indignation on his face was clear.

Philip looked up innocently, adopting a surprised tone as he spoke, "What? How?"

"You stood on my foot!" Eddie pointed down at his injured foot, glaring playfully at Phil.

"I did not! You must have caught it on a branch or something!"

Eddie looked around at the flat, clear area, "Really? Show me the branch?"

Philip glanced around, searching for something to use, finding nothing. He laughed, "Oh come on, if you want to pick holes in my playing you can, but it's only because you know you can't win by skill!"

It was on obvious ploy, but Eddie fell for it all the same, grabbing the ball and restarting the game, his competitive streak coming out as he fought not to lose against someone less than half his age.

Finally, when Philip's stamina and youth had won out, resulting in a score of 11-7 as Eddie grabbed onto a nearby tree branch while he attempted to catch his breath, he had to admit defeat;

"Okay…" he paused for a moment, still panting, "you win. Even without Rachel scoring own-goals, you're still better than me."

Philip looked triumphant, but could help a last jibe, "giving up so easily, Eddie?"

Eddie nodded, making his way over to the picnic mat. Laughing, Philip just shook his head, continuing to dribble the ball up and down the piece of grass.

Eddie sat down heavily on the picnic blanket, smiling as he watched Philip practising, "That boy knows what he's doing Rach, I'll give him that, maybe we should try to get him to try out for the school team, it might give him some focus, what do you think?"

No reply. Eddie turned to her, frowning slightly, "Rachel… oh." he smiled at the sight in front of him.

Rachel was lying back against the tree, the sun reflecting off her hair and illuminating her face. Her eyes were closed as she dozed peacefully, a small smile playing across her lips. For the first time since last summer she looked completely relaxed. Eddie let the smile spread across his face, overcome with a rush of love for the woman before him he found himself unable to resist the urge to reach forward and brush her hair back out of her eyes. It felt like silk under his fingertips, and he left his hand there for a moment, simply gazing down at her with a besotted expression on his face.

A few metres away, Philip had stopped playing football, and had turned to make his way back over to the others. Catching sight of the perfect moment, however, he turned away, blushing slightly, wanting to give his aunt and Eddie some privacy. It should have shocked him, really, considering the man staring at Rachel with such love in his eyes had been engaged to his mother only a couple of days earlier. Certainly, he hadn't foreseen a romance between the two. But somehow, the undeniable rightness of that moment, blew all of that away. Whatever had passed between Eddie and his mother, it was nothing to the emotion in that one simple look.

Just a few words, please? x