Tomstine lovers should be happy!

Head's Office, 10.50am

'Christine!'

Tom burst into Christine's office without bothering to knock once he'd seen Audrey safely despatched in the ambulance, its sirens wailing. His tummy curdled as he remembered how she'd looked on the stretcher, her features pinched, dead-white and suddenly old—and it was all because he hadn't controlled his tongue around the kids. 'I'm so sorry, this was—'

'—My fault,' Nikki was saying and he stopped, disconcerted by her taking the words out of his mouth.

Christine glanced at him and beckoned him forward with a finger.

'Another guilty conscience, h'mm? Come on, you two! Did either of you actually physically push Audrey? No, of course you didn't. I'm not saying you're entirely blameless,' she added with a look that made Tom cringe inwardly while he could see Nikki shift out of the corner of his eye, 'but the girls have to take responsibility as well. They're sixteen and seventeen, for God's sake!'

'That's not fair,' Nikki said. Tom heard her clear her throat. 'I, I've messed this whole thing up, I should've listened to you. Both of you,' she added, one side of her mouth twisting. 'Kacey's not, she's not… and honestly, Christine, it wasn't Eve's fault. Caroline told me that Kacey was doing her best to wind her up and Eve managed to keep it together for quite some time before she lost it—'

'She still lost it, though,' Christine interrupted. 'She could have alerted Audrey to what was going on and she didn't. As for Kacey, she needs to find ways of expressing what's going on inside. She can't keep on attacking people and we can't keep on letting her!' She left her desk and started to pace, one hand rubbing her back, the sight making guilt twist even tighter within Tom. This was the last thing she needed. 'Where are they now?'

'I sent them to pastoral care,' Nikki said after a long pause. 'They were so upset, I—' She shook her head. 'I didn't know what else to do.'

Christine stopped pacing, her eyebrows shooting up. 'Together?'

Nikki looked stricken. 'God, that was stupid, wasn't it?'

'Leave them,' the Head ordered. 'If they're really shocked hopefully this'll be a wake-up call that'll get them talking and at least we'll be on the way to solving one problem!' She looked at Tom. 'How's Audrey?' She couldn't hide her anxiety and Tom tried for a smile, hoping it would look more genuine than it felt.

'Maggie's gone with her to the hospital, she'll let us know as soon as she hears anything.' Her eyebrows came together and he added a swift and not entirely truthful, 'They're hoping it looks worse than it is but no-one's taking chances with a head injury like that.'

'Especially when the kids insist they heard her skull crack when it hit the wall,' Nikki added soberly, prompting a glare from Tom when Christine whitened. Couldn't the woman exercise a little tact for once in her life? It wasn't as if the entire staff didn't know how close Audrey and Christine were.

He watched his partner's lip compress before she asked, 'Do you—do you think they're telling the truth? They're not exaggerating?'

Nikki shrugged. 'Who knows. I'd trust Archie Wong and he was very clear. Caroline backed him up. Kacey was winding Eve up—deliberately, according to him. She put up with it until Kacey started shoving her—and chose the wrong moment to shove back. Bad timing, bad luck, he says. Apparently Audrey went backwards over one of the benches and cracked her head against the wall so loudly that Caroline says the sound made her feel sick.'

'She would,' Tom snorted. He had very little time for Caroline. 'You can't take her seriously, Chris. You know how she loves to make a mountain out of a molehill.'

'Yes, but Archie …' She bit into her lip. 'Well. We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?'

'What about the girls?' Nikki asked.

Christine groaned. 'I should exclude them—'

'You can't,' Nikki cut in. 'Believe me, school's the only thing keeping Kacey sane right now.'

Tom set his teeth. 'Still Kacey, Nikki? Haven't you learned anything yet?'

She turned to him, her shoulders set in a defensive square. 'I can't turn off caring about her, just like that!' She snapped her fingers. 'Eve's a stranger to me, Tom! You should understand that better than anyone!'

'She's a stranger because you made her one!' He couldn't get over that. How could any woman turn her back on her own child?

'Tom.' Christine gave a slight shake of her head. 'Don't.'

'I just don't see how she could do that! You didn't, and you'd good reason—'

'Just shut up!' Nikki shouted. 'Do you know how bloody self-righteous you sound? What gives you the right to tell me how to react? I explained what happened, but you're not prepared to try to understand, are you. I admit I carried Eve unwillingly, I didn't want her—but I'm not denying that deep down I hoped it'd change when she was born. But it didn't. They gave her to me and I felt nothing, Tom. Nothing. No love, no connection, not a thing. D'you still think it'd have been better for her to stay with a mother who could hardly stand to look at her?'

'You could've asked for help,' Tom insisted. 'Got treatment, you probably had post-natal depression or something—' He stopped perforce when she gave a strangled growl and left Christine's office, slamming the door behind her. He groaned and put his hands through his hair, twisting towards the window.

Christine came to stand behind him, her reflected gaze meeting his in the glass.

'Let it go, love,' she said gently. 'I know it's hard and with Squirt… It makes it all more personal, doesn't it?'

Tom turned to face her. 'Yeah.' He had to clear his throat. 'I'm bein' a pillock, aren't I?'

'H'mmm.' It was a noncommittal sound but he took comfort in the fact that she stepped closer, pulling him into a hug. 'You'll have to apologise to her, you know.'

He groaned into her hair. 'Not just for that.'

Christine drew back. 'Meaning?'

'That … that wasn't our first confrontation this morning. I had a go at her earlier.' He grimaced. 'I, uh, I said more than I should've, accused her of using Kacey. Who overheard.'

''Course she did.' Christine wheeled away from him, one hand going to rub her forehead. 'I don't even … For God's sake, Tom! Nikki had a point. Did you leave all your compassion and common sense at home today or only most of it?'

He winced, knowing the rebuke was well-deserved.

'I know. You don't have to rub it in, I know it was tactless and unkind and unprofessional and all sorts. And then I went and did it again … I know. You can't say anything that'll make me feel worse than I do already. That's what I meant when I tried saying that what's happened is my fault.'

'I should just bang your heads together and be done with it,' Christine muttered, going to the door. 'Sonya! Two teas, please? Thanks.' She turned back to him. 'Then I'll go and do the same to Kacey and Eve, shall I? Or at least threaten it, the threat of violence usually does the trick.'

Mess or no mess, Tom found himself grinning at her tone. 'Try that and you'll knock our brains out altogether.'

'If there's any left to knock,' she said, not entirely sotto voce as she sat down on her sofa and rested her head against the squishy back of it. 'Oh, God. That was a daft thing to say, wasn't it? With Audrey—'

'Maggie'll phone as soon as there's anything to tell,' he said, coming to drop beside her and taking her hand in his. 'No news is good news, eh?'

Christine was staring at the giant master timetable on the opposite wall.

'This is going to sound awful but … it's another problem, isn't it? If Audrey's out of commission for any length of time we're gonna have to get another supply teacher in—' She jolted to a stop, biting deep enough into her lip to displace the blood.

'Simon can deal with that,' Tom said, determined to lighten her worries. 'Or I will. Staffing isn't your problem, it's ours.'

'Easier said than done, it's all my problem at the end of the day. If I'm Head the buck stops with me, so—' She shrugged and he put an arm around her.

'Delegate, love. Delegate.' He heard her sigh as she relaxed against his shoulder. 'That's what we're here for … In the meantime, what are we going to do with the girls? Apart from bashing their loaves?'

Christine's mouth twitched. 'Hopefully they'll have started talking. Let's keep them talking. I don't want to exclude them normally—Nikki's right about what that'd do to Kacey and we can't exclude Eve properly anyway. So … let's put them in the cooler for a week. Together. Ban them from interacting with anyone else and hopefully that plus the shock they've had today will do it. Besides … I can't imagine they'll want to be around the others much right now. Not after Caroline and Archie have spread their version of events around the school!'

'I'll take care of them,' Tom promised with a squeeze of her shoulder. 'And after that's up?' Despite his very real worry for Audrey he couldn't help his relief that the entire incident had jerked Christine out of the funk she'd been living in for the past week.

He caught her sidelong glance and found himself smirking. He knew that look.

'After? Oh … we give them something else to think about. If it's needed.'

'Like?' he prompted.

She patted his knee. 'I'll leave you to work out Kacey's. That's what I pay you for. As for Eve, I've got an idea.'

'Aren't you going to tell?' he prompted when she said no more.

She pushed herself to her feet when Sonya appeared with their tea. 'I don't need to. If it works, you'll know.'

'That's not very helpful,' he grumbled, accepting his cup from the secretary.

'It wasn't intended to be.' Christine glanced across at the master timetable once more. 'Sonya, could you do me a favour? Ask Simon if Eve can join my Year 12s in period four.'

Tom's eyes narrowed as Sonya agreed, the cogs of his brain starting to turn. Christine's Year 12 class … He grinned as understanding dawned. If she was planning what he thought she was planning, he agreed it was logical—and Eve would be kept far too busy to clash with Kacey again, they could be sure of that.

If only Audrey was OK they might be able to look positively on this whole affair. If. He couldn't forget the paramedics' sober expressions as they carried her out. He hadn't told Christine that and prayed he wouldn't need to. Audrey was as tough as old boots. She'd be fine. She would.

English Corridor, 12.20pm

Rennie was on her way back to her own room after collecting photocopies from Sonya and picking up some books from the library. She'd just reached the top of the stairs outside George Windsor's room when the sound of a familiar voice made her pause.

'What's up, Mum?' That was Connor Mulgrew. She'd know him anywhere, he sounded exactly like Joe. 'Has something happened?'

'We heard about Miss McFall,' she heard Louisa Fox say, her voice carrying with cut-glass clarity. 'Is she all right?'

'There's no news yet—but we'll tell you as soon as we know.' Rennie peeped around the corner to see her former sister-in-law leaning against the window. In profile her pregnancy was very obvious and Rennie swallowed hard. It wasn't fair… 'That's partly why I wanted a word, though.'

'Just me and Lulu? Why?'

In the quiet of the nearly deserted corridor Rennie could hear Christine's sigh.

'Eve needs friends and I think you lot should extend a helping hand while she adjusts to life at Waterloo Road. It can't be easy, you know, and you pair in particular are perfect because … Because both of you know what it's like having a parent on staff and—I hope you don't mind me saying this, Louisa—you also know something about dysfunctional families.'

Connor snorted. 'Hey, thanks a lot.'

'Oh, come on, son. You know what I mean. What with—' Christine trailed off as Connor murmured something Rennie couldn't hear. She didn't need to; she'd a good idea what it was.

She remembered Joe's jubilation after his trip to Greenock the year before; his delight at securing his ex-wife's signature on the document that would transform his future had been palpable. Rennie herself had received only money from her dad's will but she hadn't cared; growing up she'd made no secret of her desire to shake the dust of the farmyard from her feet once she'd left home. Her dad's decision to leave a share to Christine should have come as a surprise, but in truth it was anything but. As Joe had said, their dad had always liked his former daughter-in-law—even when she disappeared without trace following her divorce from Joe.

'She signed her share over?' Rennie asked incredulously as her brother yanked her into a fierce hug. 'Willingly?'

'Why wouldn't she, sis? We're nothing to her, are we?'

'But her son—'

Joe had shrugged, his features hardening. 'He's nothing to do with us.' He sighed, scratching his jaw. 'It's a shame, he's a good kid, deserves better than her. I'd've been proud to call him my son but Chrissie was perfectly clear. "I went out and found myself someone else", she said.' He scoffed. 'She's quite an act, that woman.'

Rennie frowned. 'I don't understand.'

''Course you don't.' He'd put an arm around her shoulders. 'Dad wasn't the only one with a soft spot for Chrissie, was he? Admit it, Ren. You worshipped the ground she walked on, your crush was dead obvious!'

'I was thirteen! Fifteen when you got married and she was always good to me, you bampot.' She thumped him. 'She was the only one to show any understanding when Meg died.'

Her brother hooted.

'God, that cat. I'd forgotten about that, you carried on as if you'd lost your entire family and all your mates in one go. Some farm girl you were!' He shook his head. 'You wouldn't know her now. Chrissie, I mean. Oh, she's still attractive but she's spent too many years hitting the drink—and it shows.'

Joe had exaggerated. Rennie had no difficulties recognising her sister-in-law when they met again. He hadn't lied about the alcoholism, though; she'd been startled to discover that was well-known throughout the school and even more startled when Christine took over from Simon Lowsley as Head without a murmur of protest from anyone.

'…course we'll help,' Connor was saying, returning Rennie abruptly to the present. 'We've been feeling sorry for her, the whole school knows her mum doesn't want her.'

'For Pete's sake, don't go rubbing that in! We're trying to move her past that, not encourage her to dwell on it!'

'We'll do our best, Mrs Mulgrew,' Louisa promised. 'May we tell the others?'

'Would it matter if I said no?' Christine sounded amused.

'Probably not.' Rennie knew from Connor's tone that he was smiling, just as she always knew from Joe's. 'Don't worry, Mum. We're not stupid, we know this needs careful handling.'

'Good. Good! I'm glad to hear it. Just one last thing: I suggest you don't talk about her situation unless she brings it up but if she does … Remind her family's important, that everyone makes mistakes—and that everyone deserves a second chance.'

Rennie leaned against the wall, taking advantage of the fact that here she was hidden from the three in the English corridor. Christine was right, family was the most important thing … and that came before everything else, didn't it? Regardless of what had occurred between his mother and Joe, Connor was still a Mulgrew. Joe might have succeeded in convincing himself that he wasn't the lad's father, but having seen the boy Rennie knew that was absurd. She couldn't think why the older woman would lie about it, but a lie it undoubtedly was; the resemblance between Connor and Joe was too uncanny for anything else.

And that meant her own instinct was correct. Time was running out, Joe had said so the previous week. Accordingly, once the bell went for the end of morning school she gathered her resources, stiffened her spine, and marched to the Head's office, determined that this time she would see it through.

'Looking for Mrs Mulgrew?' Sonya asked as she entered. She nodded and the secretary leaned forward to murmur, 'Can't it wait? Let 'er have her lunch first, I'll make you an appoint—'

'It's OK, Sonya,' Christine called through the adjoining door. 'I'll see her now.' She gestured. 'Shut the door on your way in, will you.'

Rennie obeyed, suddenly anxious as she came to stand before her sister-in-law's big desk. The older woman seemed to sense it, her eyes narrowing as she leaned back in her chair, her hands clasping on the table top.

She allowed the silence to linger before asking, 'What can I do for you … Lauren?'

Rennie forgot to breathe until she was reminded by the nervous knocking of her heart against her rib cage. When she spoke the words tumbled out in a single breath.

'You remembered!'

Christine's lips twitched.

'H'mmm. Eventually. But what I would like to know … is why you didn't mention it before?'

'I—I didn't realise I needed to,' Rennie stammered. 'I, I thought if I left it alone, you'd remember. Which is what's happened, isn't it?'

'I suppose.' Christine's gaze made her uncomfortable, it was so intent. 'So … why are you here?'

There was something in her tone that eliminated any lingering doubts Rennie might have had in claiming Connor as a Mulgrew. His mother sounded … wary. Too wary for coincidence.

She allowed her lips to quirk in the characteristic Mulgrew half-smile.

'You know why I'm here, Chrissie. I'm a supply teacher, employed until after you return from maternity leave. Congratulations, by the way.'

Christine shifted. 'Thanks. And for future reference, my name is Christine.'

'You never minded when Joe and Da—'

'It's Christine,' the older woman interjected quickly. 'Rennie.'

'Oh, that.' She gave a self-conscious laugh. 'When I went to uni there was another Lauren in my halls. We had to do something so I became "Rennie" and it stuck. I've been Rennie for so long I don't even answer to Lauren any more.'

'Right.' A pause lengthened. 'So let me ask it again, what do you want? And before you say nothing, you're the one who wanted to see me, remember?'

'Uh…' Rennie licked her lips, trying to moisten them. She couldn't understand why she was so nervous, she going to make a perfectly reasonable request of the woman who'd been her sister-in-law, who was the mother of her nephew.

Instead she ended up blurting, 'Have you ever lost a child?'

'I…' Christine stopped, studying her. 'No. I've come close, with this one…' She gestured. 'But—no.'

'I have.' She hadn't intended revealing this but the words poured out of their own volition. 'I lost four. Three miscarriages, one … one at not quite seven months. She'd, she'd been dead for several days, the doctors said.' She was relieved she could keep her voice so steady, but perhaps her tears had finally run dry for the children she'd lost. 'And Maria, Joe's wife?' Christine flinched but Rennie ignored it. 'She lost one before she became pregnant with Charlie. He, he's a year old now. A lovely boy.' Now she did have to wipe at her eyes. 'You should see him, Chrissie—Christine. He's so like Joe.' She paused very deliberately before adding, 'Or Connor.'

Christine went absolutely rigid, the colour draining from her face. 'Why—why are you telling me this?'

'Because we need you.' Rennie leaned forward, her hands resting palm down on the Head's desk. 'Charlie needs his brother, Christine. He's, he's ill. Seriously ill.' She no longer attempted to stop the tears. 'He needs a transplant or he'll die. He's already been through an MUD, it didn't take. Connor is his last hope!'

Next time:

Christine and Rennie's confrontation continues, leaving them both reeling. Can Tom pick up the pieces? And is there any news of Audrey...

Last, but by no means least, please review and let me know what you think—especially as this is the start of a major storyline. See you next time!