Sorry for not updating in a while! I hope this makes up for it. Thank you for your comments :)

Part 10

"Here's the test. Take it."

Forcibly passing the pharmacy bag over to a still very much bewildered Rachel, Eddie sighed and sat himself down on the bed. Rachel stayed stood beside the bathroom door, toying with the bag as she peered inside to view the contents; a pregnancy test.

"What... now?" she asked uncertain, dread rushing through her entire body.

"Now is as good a time as any," Eddie informed her plainly, not in the mood for another argument, not now things had gotten so serious between the pair.

"Fine!"

Like a tantrum stricken child, Rachel stormed into the bathroom and locked the door securely behind her. She could not believe she had to this. Of course she wasn't pregnant... Rachel may have been drunk at the time this supposed child was conceived but she certainly wasn't stupid. She would've been careful and used protection. She just knew it, but now, Rachel had to prove that she was right after all. The look on Eddie's face after she proved him wrong was going to be priceless...

3 minutes.

Those three minutes had been the longest three minutes Rachel had ever had to experienced in her whole entire life. Perching herself down on the edge of the bath tub, Rachel buried her head in her hands, the stress becoming too much. Beside her lay the pregnancy test turned upside down. The confidence she had before was had had lost. What if she was pregnant? What if the test did come back positive? What if... -

Stop.

Rachel couldn't think negatively; not now. Pushing all her niggling thoughts of uncertainty to the back of her mind, she brought her head back up from out of her hands to view the results. Her body was shaking, her heart beating faster than it ever had before. She turned over the test...

Positive.

"****!"

Oh no.

"Rachel? Are you alright in there?"

It seemed Rachel was a little louder than she had first anticipated.

"I'm fine, Eddie!" she barked back through the closed door. "I won't never a second!"

What on earth am I going to do?

Scanning vigorously through the pharmacy bag she'd left abandoned by the bathroom sink, Rachel felt her heart sink at what she found. Actually, it was more of a case of what she didn't find. Eddie, being the clueless man he was, had only bought one pregnancy test. How can you be sure off one pregnancy test? You hear cases all the time about about them not being right the first time. So, with that knowledge, Rachel concluded that she wasn't pregnant. Of course she wasn't, the test was wrong.

If she was pregnant, it was odd's on that she'd know. It was her body, after all. She didn't feel any different in herself, in the way she looked, in her attitude... the test had simply got it wrong in her eyes. She wasn't pregnant. Rachel Mason was not going to be a mother; not now, not ever. She'd entered some sort of state of denial.

Quickly gathering the test into her pocket, Rachel breathed a sigh of relief. The test had got it wrong. She wasn't pregnant at all. Now all she had to do was face Eddie... and lie.

"So...?"

Rachel opened the door to find Eddie stalking in the doorway. She suddenly felt butterflies rise within her stomach. The guilt was eating away at her but she had to tell the truth; her truth. She knew her body better than some stick did.

"I'm not pregnant Eddie," she said quietly, searching his face for a reaction.

"Oh."

He sat down on the bed again and creased his brow up into a confused expression.

"Say something?" Rachel pressed on, confusion controlling her features as well as Eddie's.

"Rachel. I don't know what to say," he began truthfully, staring her directly in the eye. "I mean... God... I can't believe you're not pregnant..."

"The test is negative," lied Rachel, hoping this would be a comfort. It did nothing.

"I'm so sorry. I should've never have jumped to conclusions."

"It's fine," assured Rachel with a slight smile. She felt sick with all the lies she had created. "You weren't to know... neither of us were."

"But still."

An awkward silence fell. Eddie had no idea how to feel.

Happy?

Relieved?

Disappointed?

Secretly, he was thrilled at the prospect of being a father again. After Michael and Steven, he figured that he'd do things rightly a third time. He understood that he had done wrong with the twins. He could've been a much better dad. He wanted to start over this time but the opportunity had come and gone. The hope he held had been shattered. Rachel wasn't pregnant. That's what he had been told, so why wouldn't he believe it?

"How are you feeling?", Rachel asked softly even though she herself didn't know what to feel.

The stunned expression on Eddie's face was nerving Rachel slightly. She sat beside him on the bed, not once removing her eyes from him in the fear that if he did react sometime soon, she'd miss it.

"I don't know Rachel. I mean, the thought of being a dad again... I don't know it - "

Rachel interrupted him mid-sentence; stunned.

"What do you mean again?"

Breathing heavily, Eddie smiled sheepishly.

"I have kids, Rachel. But I can't see them and it's through no one's fault but my own..."