Thank you for the reviews.

And yes, Mrs Carmicheal, it was fun thinking these up... especially when each one is a little different... Like take this one as an example. Because I could see Stuart doing this.


Series 3 Episode 13

Rachel was glad that she had managed to get back to the place where the LEA meeting was being held before she threw up. She had hardly eaten anything all day, basically eating nothing of the meal that Stuart had brought for her. She couldn't. It made her feel sick to think about what he was asking her to do.

The only good part of her day so far had been her little conversation with Eddie that morning. The looks that they gave each other while Steph was talking about her trip to France was her favourite part. She had been trying to keep in her laughter but Eddie always seemed to say the right thing that would make her laugh.

She tried to focus on that to try and get her stomach to settle. Thinking about Eddie was better than thinking about Stuart and it helped to calm her racing thoughts down.

She looked at her watch, noting that there wasn't much time left before she would have to be back in the boardroom, probably not looking best if she was late again. Not that she wanted to be there. She didn't know whether she wanted Hordley to win the bid or not.


"Your secret is safe with me," Stuart said.

"What secret?"

Rachel had thought Eddie had gone but there he was, standing in the doorway. She wondered how much he had heard.

"Eddie." She said before looking between him and Stuart.

"Am I not allowed to know or something?"

"I thought you would have at least told him," Stuart said.

She wished that she did. She wished that she had the courage to tell Eddie. He was the only one that she felt deserved to know about her awful past.

"I think you should go, Stuart." She said.

"And miss his reaction to it. I don't think so. That is even if you tell him."

She knew that she couldn't stare Stuart down. The same stare that would stop people in their tracks didn't work on him. There was really only one thing that she could do. She had to tell Eddie, preferable before Stuart did.

"Eddie, you… you have to understand that this was all a very long time ago. That the person I am now is a totally different person to who I was when I was 17."

"Just tell him."

"Shut up." She glared at Stuart before turning her attention back to Eddie. "I… I… Eddie."

"She was a prostitute."

If it was for her reaction of Stuart blurting it out, she could have probably laughed it off or Eddie would have questioned it further. But she could feel the bile rising in her and the fact that her breathing had become slightly more erratic, showed that he was telling the truth.

"I am sorry, what?" Eddie said.

"Your fine, upstanding super head used to make a living lying on her back."

"Stuart, shut up." She shouted. "Eddie, allow me to explain."

"So you aren't denying it?" Eddie said.

"I wasn't really in a position to turn it down. You lot all think that I have had the same opportunities as you, more even, but I haven't. If anything, I was no better off than half the kids in this school. We were at risk of being homeless and Mum was ill and it was up to me to step up. And I hate myself for doing it. I hate myself for making that choice. And I hate what I have done today just as much."

"Why? What have you done today?"

"She won me the contract," Stuart said.

"I think you need to shut up."

"Because I threaten to walk and have signed away Waterloo Road's contingency fund for the next five years. So if anything happens to this place while the new building is being built, we will have no money from the LEA to fix anything." Rachel said.

"You what? For him?"

"Of course for me. I knew Amanda could do it."

"What part of shut up don't you understand?" Eddie said as he turned to Stuart. "And what even are you still doing here? Do you really believe that your secret is safe with him if he happily tells me about it?"

"Because we have an understanding. Don't we Rachel?"

Her eyes flicked between the two men before landing on Eddie.

"I should have told you last week." She whispered. "I should have told you after he started blackmailing me. We have an understanding because this… what I did in my past will not only ruin me but this school's reputation even further. One head fiddling with the books while the other one is an ex-prostitute. No one in their right mind would touch this school."

"Are you interested in the school's reputation or your own career?" Eddie said.

"I didn't gain my reputation because I picked the easy schools. I pick the hard schools because I don't want anyone else to make the same mistakes that I made. To be forced into the situations that I was. I only got out of that life because of the police raids and the fact that I cooperated with the police. I was given a chance to start over and I took that with both hands."

"So you are only interested in your own career."

"It's not like that Eddie."

"Then what is it like?"

She had come up with an excuse. Why she was looking out for the school rather than herself. But in Eddie's gaze, she couldn't bring herself to say it. Eddie grew bored of her silence and huffed before he left her office.

"Whoops," Stuart said.

"I think Eddie was right. What the hell are you still doing here?" Rachel said before she made her way after Eddie.

She shouted his name and ran down the stairs as quickly as she could, trying to catch her deputy up. She wished that she was the one to tell him. It might have made this all easier. She managed to catch up with him before he got into his car. She stopped him from closing the door on her.

"Rachel."

"Eddie, give me the chance to explain properly."

"Explain what properly? You were a prostitute. Don't really think that is the sort of person the parents would want in charge of the school?"

"I know. I know that Eddie. It is why I moved away. It is why I have spent every day of the last 20 years trying to make up for it. It is why I believe that Pastoral Care is so damn important and why the head needs to listen to their pupils rather than write them off. It is why students at risk of exclusion are a high priority for me. I… I don't want anyone else to think that they won't succeed. I don't want them leaving with just two GCSEs and then thrown out into the world. Because either they do anything to have an income or they just live on the dole. I was the do anything to have an income. I've worked bloody hard to get where I am. But it is why I won't give up on a pupil. Because everyone, in the end, gave up on me. And they still do. They give up on me because they never know that when you hit rock bottom the only way is up."

"But…"

"But what?"

"You were a prostitute."

She found herself laughing. "Is that what you can't get over at the moment?"

"I just…" He finally looked at her. "You. It's not what I would have expected from you. You hold yourself up high. You… Just doesn't make any sense."

"It… It has taken me a while to find my own self-worth." She paused. "I need you, Eddie. More than I thought I would ever need you. You knowing… isn't ideal but you know now. I can't change that. Stuart… I don't know whether he is going to stop now."

"He has the contract."

"But is that going to stop him using this against me?"

"It doesn't seem like it."

"So can we talk this out? Can we still work together and be friends?" She said, "I get… that your whole opinion on me has changed. Just stick with me. Please."

Eddie didn't say anything for the moment.

"I could really do with a drink. Meet you at the pub?" He said.

She smiled at him. "Sure. I will be with you in a minute."

Maybe going to the pub, with Eddie, after barely eating anything all day, wasn't the best idea in the world but she hoped that it meant that they could talk things through. That is all she wanted at the moment. That chance to talk.