Thank you for the reviews.

So... it is very me to try and make you hate Adam more than you already do... maybe one day I won't... or maybe that is my thing.

What Happened To Innocence?

Rachel didn't want to sit down on the sofa next to him. She didn't want to be within arm's length of him. Which meant that she was sitting on the window sill, with her arms crossed in front of her chest, staring at the floor, so that she wasn't directly looking at him.

She could feel herself wanting to cry and break down. She wanted to be in Eddie's arms. She wanted to feel safe.

For the first time, in a long time, she felt like she was 19 again. She felt like she was stuck in a bad situation. And she really wanted a drink.

"How did you know where I was?" She asked.

It was the short laugh from Adam that she didn't like. She hadn't been able to ask him about it in the five days since he 'saved' her from Danny. Actually, Danny was proving to be the better company. At least she knew roughly what Danny was capable of.

"Maybe Eddie shouldn't have ranted about me being in league with Danny. I found him and then followed him until he led me to you."

"Adam, please." She said, looking up at him.

"What?"

"Let me go back to my children." She whispered.

"I will."

She let out a sigh of relief but she knew that it was too premature. Because there was no way that he wouldn't have just taken her straight home if he wanted to be her knight in shining armour.

"When you agree to come willingly with me." Adam continued. "We can pick them up and go to Dover and onto the first ferry to France. By the time that Eddie will notice, we will be long gone."

If anything, she wished that she had noticed it before. Maybe she did. She just hoped otherwise.

"Oh, God." She breathed.

"What?"

"Please say not you too."

"Not me too what?"

"Adam… there is only one way I can say this. I don't and never have loved you like that. You were a good friend. I enjoyed your company. But not in that way."

"Do you know how many times Danny tried to put me off you in our youth?" He said as he stood up.

"I can only imagine."

"And then I had my chance." He said as he started to walk towards her. "One night with you and… I think the only bad part about it was that you didn't know it was me."

The bedsit wasn't massive and once Adam stood up, there was really nowhere for Rachel to slip passed him to make some room between them. So she just had to hope and pray that he wasn't going to do anything that she didn't want him to do, glad that he stopped a distance away from her.

"Do you know how awful that sounds?" Rachel said after she had processed what he had said.

"But we can have our chance this time."

He reached out to her and she uncrossed her arms and placed her hands behind her on the windowsill as she looked away from him. What was it with her and men?

"Adam. I just want to go home. I want to go back to my husband and children."

He frowned at her. "I'll give you a couple of days. Then we will be going without them."

He turned away from her.

"Adam. Please. It's Jacob's birthday in 10 days. I need to be there for it."

He turned back to her. "And you will. If you willingly come. Because we will pick them up. Amanda, it is your choice."

She allowed him to leave this time. And part of her wished that British sign language was more widely taught. Because she had a way to ask for help but it wasn't like everyone was going to know what she was signing from the window.

She knew that she would wait an hour or so before she tried the door again. Because if she didn't trust Danny, she definitely trusted Adam less after that conversation.

The last thing Michael knew that his dad needed was more trouble. Which was part of the reason why he was dreading the fact that he was being dragged by the collar of his blazer towards the head's office. But there was also a part of him that felt relieved that he had finally done something. No matter the consequence.

Because he had wanted to do what he did to Dan Philips since year seven and it felt so good to finally do it.

Tom stood between them as they were finally brought in front of his dad and Michael hated the sigh that came from his dad.

"Found these two, fighting," Tom said.

"Thanks, Tom." His dad said.

It was easy to know when his dad was in dad mode and when he was in teacher mode and Michael knew that there were different ways to approach these things. Which is why, as soon as the door to the office closed and before his dad had said anything, Michael was quick to get out his side of the story.

"Sir, he was picking on Kiera."

"Why would I pick on a year seven?" Dan said, turning towards Michael.

"Oh, so you know her enough to know that she is in year seven."

"Michael, out." His dad said.

"Sir?"

"Out. I will talk to you in a moment."

Michael could feel the anger rise in him again and he couldn't stop himself from swinging the door open and slamming it shut. He knew that his dad was trying to make it seem like he was being impartial but it didn't stop the less rational part of Michael from kicking a nearby bin, sighing and picking up the contents of it and putting back in when he realised what he had done. He dropped into a chair and knew that no matter how good it felt to finally punch Dan Phillips in the face, he was in a lot of trouble for it.

"I'll say something."

Michael turned to see his sister at the door.

"Don't. You are only going to make things worse."

"Mikey, I am not going to let you get into trouble when it wasn't your fault."

"Well, he picked on you before and it was unfair that he was going to try it again. I wasn't going to leave you to try and defend yourself against him."

Kiera huffed as she dropped into the seat next to him. "Can you stop being the protective older brother for a moment and actually listen? He threw the first punch at you. You weren't defending me, you were defending yourself. I am not going to allow you to incriminate yourself. Not when I have heard from Josh that this has been going on for longer than me."

Michael's vision had been fixed to the floor but he did find himself calming down as he looked at his sister. Always the voice of reason.

"It isn't something you need to worry about, Kiki."

"It is. You are my brother. I do care about and love you. Tell Dad. He will understand."

Maybe Michael knew that he hadn't handled his own problems well. Maybe because he knew the outcome.

"Kiera, off to class. I will come and find you in a bit." His dad said.

Michael gave her a smile as she gave his arm a squeeze. He knew that she had grown up a lot since she had started Waterloo Road. Maybe, sometimes, to him, she was still about six.

"You, to the cooler." His dad said next.

Michael looked up at Dan as he passed him, hoping that he did give him a black eye or something.

"You, in here."

He sighed as he pushed himself off the seat and he couldn't help but think that his dad had aged in the short time since he had known about the fight. He placed himself in front of the desk while his dad dropped into the chair that his step-mum would usually occupy. Part of Michael wondered how Rachel would have dealt with this.

"I… get that things aren't easy at the moment." His dad said.

"Dad, I get that you are disappointed."

"I can't be just yet. Because I haven't heard your side. And, as much as I assume you have my impulsiveness, I don't think you would do it without good reason. So come on then, what happened? And what was Kiera saying about me understanding?"

Michael sighed. "Dad. This has been going on longer than Kiera. Actually, this all started on my second day in year seven. When he asked whether I was related to you and Rachel."

The last time Eddie dreaded calling his ex-wife, Rachel had done it for him, behind his back. If Rachel was there, then he knew that she would be taking this call. But she wasn't and Eddie could only lean back in the chair as he waited for Alison to pick up. Now that he had all the facts.

"Alison." He said as soon as he heard her pick up.

"Eddie. Why aren't you calling me on your mobile?"

"Because this is school business."

"Oh God, what has he done?"

"Defend Kiera and himself from a bully that has apparently been teasing him from the moment that he knew that I was his dad and Rachel was his step-mum." He sighed. "I wish that he told me sooner."

"And what was you meant to do?"

"Alison, we don't tolerate bullying."

"I get that but don't you think that you might have made it worse by the fact that his dad, the deputy head, went steaming in." She paused. "Although are you just taking his word for this?"

"Rachel would have stopped me from steaming in. And no. I am not just taking his word. I have asked five people from his year, that aren't his friends, that say that is has been happening for that long."

"Eddie, don't."

"What? My son is being bullied without me realising. Rachel was kidnapped four weeks ago. What the hell is going to happen to Kiera and Jacob?"

"Nothing. Dear God, how does Rachel deal with you when you are like this?

"Absolutely no idea. But I think, if it was the other way around, people would ask me how I deal with Rachel when she is in a weird mood." He paused. "Alison. I don't think I could take it if anything else happened."

"And I would love to say that nothing else is going to happen."

"I just… wish Rachel was here."

"I know."

"I didn't mention that Michael got into a fight with the boy in question, did I?"

"Honestly, the boy gets more like you every day."

"Kiera has also shown that she is my daughter to a t."

"They are growing up Eddie."

"I know. What has happened to their innocence?"

"I do think that is part of growing up. I'll have a word with Michael at home."

"His hand might be a little sore," Eddie said, managing to chuckle.

"That's his fault for punching them." Alison paused. "Eddie, things will get better."

"Not when my next phone call is to tell a parent that their son is a bully."

"I'll let you get on with that then."

Eddie let her go, letting the 'this should be Rachel's job' die on his tongue. Because Rachel probably would have dealt with this differently. Maybe Eddie just wished that Michael could have come to him sooner with it all. And not spent his whole secondary school life being teased and picked on because he is the son to the deputy and step-son to the head.

Reading helped Michael. It was the one thing that he could always rely on. No matter how bad things got at school, he could always come home and escape to another world. And he had gone through as many books as Jacob had done since Rachel's disappearance. It was something that him and his brother shared. They would always be swapping books, with Michael trying to give him books that if Rachel found out, she wouldn't be too annoyed at him.

But that night, Michael found himself unable to concentrate on the words, wondering whether what he had revealed to his dad would come back to bite him. Whether Dan and his little gang would now up the ante now that he had told his dad.

Which is probably why he didn't notice that his mum had come into his room until she was sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She said as he put down his book.

"Because you would have told Dad. One way or another, he would have found out and made things worse. Mum, it was only a bit of name-calling."

"Until he picked on Kiera."

"She doesn't need that on top of the fact that Rachel is still missing."

"So it wasn't because you are her older brother and you wanted to protect her."

"Maybe a bit of that too."

He moved more into the middle of the bed as his mum moved to rest against the headrest. She took his hand and stroked the back of it.

"You know, I still remember the day that I took you to see Kiera for the first time, when she was still in the NICU. Rachel said about you holding Kiera's hand and I think even she realised, afterwards, that a five-year-old might not have the carefulness that Kiera needed at that stage. But there you were, slowly reaching for her hand while Rachel held you steady and you just slipped your finger into her grasp and you had your thumb on the back of her hand, being ever so gentle. I like to think that, probably more subconsciously, you saw your little sister being so vulnerable and you decided that you always needed to protect her. That you would always be there for her. And that is the young man that I am so proud of."

"I probably did," Michael said, his lips curling into a small smile.

"And yes, the last thing your father needs right now is to find out that you have been bullied for your whole secondary experience. But would you have wanted to have gone to another school?"

"Definitely not."

"He will calm down about it."

Michael squeezed her hand. "I know I am taking Kiera and Jacob home and helping out with them but I just wish I could do more to help."

"Well, unless you find Rachel, I don't think there is much more you can do."

His mum placed a kiss on his temple while Michael came up with the most insane plan ever. So insane that he didn't think that his dad or anyone would go for it, but it might just help find Rachel.