Thank you for the reviews.
Now, are you getting that sometimes I like to rewrite things that I have already written? This is one of those occasions. So here is a rewrite of the first Waterloo Road reunion with Melissa turning up... because that isn't going to cause any trouble for Rachel, is it?
Also with a little more heartbreak... because Rachel is starting to find out something that Tommy is still trying to hide from her in the main story...
A Different Reunion
"I am not about to have major Deja vu with you, Eddie," Kim said.
Rachel laughed as she remembered the day that Kim returned to Waterloo Road. She didn't know why she chose that point to try and look for Adam. Maybe she was trying to work out how long she could have with two of her truest friends without him interrupting.
It is what drew her attention to the girl that entered the hall and Rachel had to blink a couple of times to make sure she was seeing what she was. She knew who the girl was before she walked over and spoke. She was Sophie.
She watched Sophie as she scanned the hall, obviously looking for her dad. It took a while for Rachel's brain to catch up with her eyes.
If Sophie was here, it meant that Melissa was too.
"Dad, this is your five-minute warning," Sophie said as she joined them.
"Sophie… Oh, God." Eddie said.
"Yep. Sorry I couldn't warn you better. She made me change my number."
"I swear to God, that woman drives me round the bend."
"Eddie." Rachel said as she finally found her voice. "I need to tell you something."
"What?" He said as he turned to her.
"I… I have seen Melissa since." She waved her hand between him and Sophie.
"What?!"
"She… she just turned up on my doorstep and… Typical Melissa didn't ask the right questions and I didn't… We don't talk as we are meant to. Eddie… we've never got on."
"Rachel, you aren't making any sense."
Sophie hit his arm. "What did I tell you?"
"Not the time Sophie."
"I said you would be reunited with her. I'm guessing she is Auntie Rachel by the way she is talking about Mum."
"And now isn't the time. Rachel?"
"You… told her about me." Rachel said.
"Of course I did. What are you trying to tell me?"
She took a deep breath before realising that the only way she was going to tell him was if she just blurted it out.
"Christmas 2016. It was the last time I saw Philip. I had lost contact with everyone but him and he is the only family that I had and truly cared about and I couldn't lose him, Eddie. Adam… That Christmas, Adam didn't want Philip there. I… I couldn't let him drive away or… hurt the only ally I had left."
Somehow, Eddie could still read her. Somehow, Eddie knew how it ended. Somehow, his eyes still lit with the right emotions, all that she could read so well.
"Which is why I don't need you steamrolling in again." She eventually said.
"You forgave me for that."
"I know. But… I don't want you getting hurt because of me."
Eddie blinked at her a couple of times. "I get it now."
"Get what?" Sophie asked. "Is anyone else confused about what is going on?"
Rachel was certain that Kim was probably giving Sophie a look that probably would say that she had an idea of what was going on. She could only groan as her sister and husband walked into the hall.
"You found her then," Melissa said as her and Adam joined them.
"Pure coincidence," Eddie said.
"Actually, maybe that is a good idea." Rachel said before she called for Tommy. She waited for him to join them. "Why do you take Dex and Sophie and… get them a drink and something like that? They might like to be around someone their own age?"
"You kept him quiet," Melissa said before their children had the chance to move.
"I… It wasn't like I purposefully hid him from you. He was upstairs playing. Isn't like I hid his toys either."
"Don't I know about it," Adam said.
There was a front and a smile that Rachel could always rely on to hide her true emotions. She knew that there were only two people that could see past that. Those two people were Eddie, for definite, and Tommy. She could see the last 12 years unravelling in front of her. All because she was face to face with her sister for the first time since that Christmas.
"Melissa, a word." She said as she grabbed Melissa's arm and dragged her from the hall.
"Ow, you're hurting me," Melissa complained.
"Honestly, believe me Melissa, if I wanted to hurt you, I would."
Eddie felt like someone had to say something between him, Kim and Adam. Their children had left them, even though he was sure that Tommy would have prefered to follow his mother. The boy's actions continued to slightly confuse Eddie, although he felt like everything Tommy did was to try and protect Rachel. Something that Eddie could only agree with.
"Did you know him then, Kim?" Adam said.
"Eddie? Yeah, I know Eddie." Kim replied.
"And no one thought to tell me about him."
"That was for Rachel to tell you."
Eddie could tell that Adam was looking him up and down. Obviously trying to place him somehow.
"Still trying to work it out. Whether you were that forgettable."
Eddie met Kim's eye and instantly knew that it was the opposite. Rachel had struggled to move on like him. He knew that there must be a reason as to why she did marry Adam. Even if he couldn't quite work it out yet.
"Jealous are we?" Melissa said after Rachel shut the door to the classroom and turned to her.
"Of what?"
"Of me. Of Sophie."
"I would never be jealous of Sophie. I gave him up for her."
"No, he just realised that I could give him what he wanted."
Rachel could only shake her head. "You are definitely something else."
She gripped onto the edge of the table as she leant against it. She tried to think about the best way to explain everything to her sister. Telling her what she should have told her that Christmas.
"Adam… Adam doesn't know how serious it was between me and Eddie."
"What do you mean?"
"He has only just found out that Eddie was my deputy and my ex. Adam… He isn't the same guy that you and I remember from when we were younger."
It may have been six years too late, but there was a realisation in Melissa's eyes that she was getting what Rachel was trying to tell her.
"Why didn't you say anything? And Tommy? Why didn't you say anything about him?"
"When have we ever been able to talk, Melissa? We still have everything to talk about, from the whole… prostitution thing to this."
"You still love him."
"He is the first person… maybe the only person I have ever said I love you to and meant it with the whole of my heart."
Melissa sighed. "And everyone wonders why Jane hates me."
"Are… you still in contact with her?"
"Like she would want to stay in contact with me. I still get invited to the… family reunions. I just don't go anymore."
"Jane invited me to one of them. Somehow managed to convince Adam not to go."
"Because of me and Eddie?"
"Because I didn't want to try the new… front that I had to put on. Make it seem like everything was okay between me and Adam when… I was scared of him. Tommy would have said something he should of as well. Plus he would have stuck to me, angering Adam more."
"I wish… I wish you had let me see the cracks."
"Why?"
"That Christmas. Christmas 2016." Melissa paused. "Eddie walked out on me. Not Sophie as he will tell you. He came back for a few things but… I had already made my mind up. If you were happy and still married, then I wasn't going to tell you. If you weren't still married or… if you told me what was going on, I would have told you and I would have tried to convince you to have another go of it. With Eddie." She paused again. "He was right all those years ago."
"Right about what?"
"That Sophie should know about you. You were always the better sister."
"Maybe our relationship would be so bad if I didn't do what I did."
"Maybe."
"And I should never have ran away after I was cleared of the charges against me."
"Only time you were like Mum. I just keep making her mistakes."
"Well, I don't know whether what you did to Philip and what I am doing to Tommy is any different."
"I… I haven't seen Philip since he was 19 and Sophie was one. I think you and Tommy are always going to be closer."
"Mum."
They both turned to look at Tommy. Rachel knew that this was the first time that he was going to meet his auntie. Not that she had really spoken about Melissa to her son. It was a bit like Eddie. A no-go-zone.
"Everything okay?" She said to him.
"Dad wouldn't do anything stupid, would he?"
"Why do you say that?"
"He keeps looking at Mr Lawson like he… wants to punch him."
"Tommy, you can call him Eddie."
"I think like when you called him your deputy, it would be safer for me just to call him Mr Lawson." He paused. "I like Sophie. She seems nothing like Philip. A lot more confidence that he had."
"Oh, that would be the… That would be from me." Melissa said.
Rachel was actually grateful that her sister had caught on what she was saying. The confidence was the Fenshaw in her. Just obviously Tommy didn't know that she was a Fenshaw, yet.
"She loves you, Mum."
"I can only imagine what Eddie has been saying about me."
"And Philip. Maybe we… could get back in touch with him soon."
"Maybe."
Rachel could only swallow as Adam came into the view and she didn't like how unhappy he looked. She would have back up a little bit once he walked into the room, trying to keep the distance between them. She didn't know why she didn't. It wasn't like she had to put the front on for her sister now.
"I want answers. Who is Eddie to you?"
"I've told you. He was my deputy and my ex."
"Why did you break up?"
"Because…"
"That was all me, Adam," Melissa said. "Although it was early days for them. They couldn't have been going out for long."
"Do you love him?" Adam continued.
"No."
"Did you love him?"
She hesitated for a moment. "I was… Yes."
"You're lying."
"Adam."
"You still love him."
"Adam please."
"You aren't denying it then."
"I don't love him now."
"Certain?"
"Yes."
"You're having an affair."
"We are not doing this again."
"You're not denying it."
"Because I shouldn't have to. I have been nothing but faithfully to you."
"No, you haven't. I think you forget where you came from, what you were. You are always going to be that."
"Is that what you really think of me?"
There were a few moments of silence and it was when Rachel realised that Tommy wasn't in the room. She was glad of that, because it meant that she didn't have to explain what Adam had just accused her of being.
"Well, you have always been good at playing two guys at the same time. Remember Amanda. What's stopping you from doing it again?"
Rachel couldn't really remember the last time she acted before she thought about what she was doing. She knew that Melissa was equally shocked about what he had just said. Her hand hit his cheek as her own anger took over.
"You can accuse me of everything under the sun. Just never, ever call me Amanda again."
"Why?" Adam said as he closed the gap between them. "Because you aren't her anymore. Because that was a long time ago. Because she is Amanda and you are Rachel. You are no different to how you were at school. Face it, Rachel, that is who you will always be."
It was now for her to say something clever. For her to get herself out of the situation she had somehow managed to get herself in. But nothing came to mind.
She was glad that Melissa was a witness to this and hadn't tried to intervene. They might not have the best relationship in the world, but Rachel didn't want her getting hurt in her place.
Rachel hadn't even realised that there were more people in the room until Adam was dragged away from her. She was faced with Eddie's back and Melissa arrived at her side.
"I want you off the school premises," Eddie said.
Adam started to laugh. "You know she left here because of me."
"And I am going to bring her back. Because from what I have been hearing, you don't know Rachel at all. I now know why she married you. I now understand the decisions she made. I understand everything."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
Somehow, without even looking at Eddie's face, she knew that everything he had just said was true. She might not know what he had found out but it just made sense that he understood.
"Adam, the day we got married. I was right." Rachel said.
"What?"
"I was right to be worried about Finn and Amy. The two truanting kids that you felt like I was making a bigger deal than I was meant to." She paused. "Finn had convinced Amy to commit suicide. They were going to run into the sea and drown themselves. I think about that day sometimes. I wonder what would have happened if you had convinced me to have the whole day off. Whether Finn and Amy would have been two names on a long list of students and teachers that have died at this school. Because Chris was all too happy to write off Finn's behaviour as attention-seeking."
"Why did you never tell me?"
"Because I… I knew you would never understand. I am… or I was a control freak. I told you that I liked to keep my life separate. And I get it. At times, I am not the easiest person to get on with. But… I think you are still playing the wounded soldier. Still… bitter that I didn't love you the first time around. And no matter what I do now. No matter how much I love you now. It will never be enough, will it?"
Adam started laughing. "Not when you keep making bad decision after bad decision. First Tommy, then practically asking Philip to live with us, and worse of all, coming back to this place. We could still be seeing the world or maybe we would have settled down in Spain or Australia or somewhere like that. But… you had to be pregnant and you wanted to come 'home'. Was it worth it Rachel? Hey? Was all of this worth it?"
Eddie reacted fast to what Adam said, punching him and dragging him away. Rachel's mind took a little while to take the meaning behind Adam's words and she almost fell to the floor as she realised what he meant. Melissa caught her on her way down and she could only fall into her arms as her sister tried to comfort her.
"I… I thought Tommy hated him because… of what he had done to me… and the arguments." Rachel said as Eddie rejoined them.
"Come on Rach. Let's go to my office."
"Do… Do you think he knows? Do you think Tommy knows?"
"I don't know. But we can't worry about that at the moment."
"I can't… I… I wouldn't want him to know that."
"I know. Rachel, we can work that out later. Right now, we need to talk. All three of us."
Rachel was only made aware of how tightly Melissa was holding on to her and how much she actually needed Eddie to say what he was saying. No matter how estranged their relationship was, Melissa would always sort of be there for her. Maybe it was time for them to have the talk that they should have done when Melissa turned up pregnant with Sophie and maybe it was time for her and Melissa to sort out their differences. Because she was going to need her now more than ever.
