Thank you for the reviews. (I am seeing them...)

Now, I get that the title of this chapter is going to give away one of the things that I have been trying to keep from you all that follow me on twitter. But, as I said on twitter, that this was a (somewhat) Sally centred chapter. Maybe just to give more about why she doesn't keep in contact with her family.

And yes... this is an early introduction of a character... see going away from the storylines of series 4.

My Brother, Max

Rachel knew that she was in a bad mood. She had only been back to work for five weeks and disaster had struck. She knew that Eddie was still waiting for her to break down, something that she knew should happen but, with every passing day, she felt it wasn't going to happen.

If anything, walking into school, with the new metal detectors in place, seeing a familiar face was something that helped to put a smile on her face.

"Miss Mason, Mr Lawson."

"So this is your new job." Rachel said.

Sally smiled at them before moving a couple of students out of their way so that they could get through first. Rachel didn't know why she was so nervous when she walked through. Maybe it was just the anticipation that the alarm could go off. She couldn't do with any more embarrassment.

The metal detectors, in her view, weren't needed. Nor were a couple of officers alongside a more extended security team. To Rachel, it felt all over to top. The gun came into the school because of Danny. Danny was now behind bars and it would stay that way. Although she had to agree with Eddie when he said that it would be safer than the bag searches that he had to do after Izzie was stabbed.

"I think that Ralph wants me to stop sticking my nose into his investigation," Sally said as they stopped next to her. "Although a friend told me that the raid last night went very well and they have quite a bit to charge Danny with."

"Really?" Rachel said.

"I'll tell you more later. Here really isn't the place."

"PC Allen, I am not paying you to chat," Ralph said as he joined them. "And I don't think you two are either. The Executive Head will be here before break time. I think it would be best if I gave him the grand tour and bring him to the staff room at break. For everyone to meet."

Rachel shook her head before she told Sally that she would see her later. She expected that Eddie shot Ralph a glare before he caught up with her, which wasn't hard when his strides were longer than her's. He knew that Ralph had changed her mood again. She could have actually been in a good mood just by knowing that Sally was here. At least it was another friendly face.

"Executive Head!" She said as they started the climb to her office.

"Calm down Rachel."

"But the LEA agreed to this. I don't know what lies Ralph has been feeding them. And it isn't like I am going to have the honour of meeting him first. I will meet them at the same time everyone else does."

"Maybe you are taking this all a little personally," Eddie said, she assumed before he caught himself by the shocked look he shot her afterwards.

"I'm taking this a little personally? Of course, I am taking this personally Eddie. The governors, or at least Ralph, don't trust my decisions. Someone is coming in who is technically higher than me. This is my school."

"Didn't the LEA say that it was more of an advisory role."

"Like you believe that. With Ralph about."

"It is what I am holding onto."

She sighed as they reached the top of the stairs. She knew that Eddie had a class first thing, so they should part ways there. But she had one more thing that she wanted to say before this Executive Head arrived.

"I know you don't want to and the staff already know and everything. But can we keep us a little… quiet? Just until we get the measure of this person. I don't want to give them a stick to beat me with in the first week or so. I've got Ralph probably telling this person all manner of things and I don't want… I don't want it to come to a point where he comes between us." She played with his collar, placing it where she thought that it was appropriate. "You know me. I'm probably worrying about nothing but… I don't want to give them a reason to doubt me. Let's show them that we can be professional before we let them know that sometimes, we mix business with pleasure."

Eddie snorted at that. "Fine by me. Just as long as you make it up to me later."

"That, Lawson, I can do." She said with a smile.

Rachel's bad mood carried on throughout the morning. She didn't know why she thought that she would feel any better as the anticipation over who was in this 'advisory' role. So the last thing she needed to see was Steph questioning Sally as she was trying to make herself a coffee.

"Now, as I understand it, you are PC Sally Allen," Steph said.

"That's right."

"So is that Miss or Mrs Allen?"

"Mrs."

"Who's the lucky fella?"

"Steph, leave her alone." Rachel said.

"It's fine Rachel," Sally said as she took a sip of her coffee before she added another spoonful of sugar to it. "Her name is Jane."

"Jane?" Steph repeated.

"Yeah, Jane."

Rachel couldn't help but smile at the look on Steph's face. It obviously wasn't what she expected.

"I went with her surname." Sally continued like nothing was happening. "And we both decided to change to Mrs. Basically we wanted to be married, even though we can't be. Neither of us like our surnames but we thought that Allen suited both of us."

"I do remember that discussion," Rachel added. "Oh, Sally is my cousin-in-law."

"Is that actually a thing?"

"I don't know, but that is what I call you. You're part of the family. More like a sister-in-law, like Jane is more like an older sister than a cousin."

Steph had managed to shake out of her shock. "Why not double-barrel it?"

"Oh god no. We decided that it wasn't a good idea at all. If anything, we should have just come up with a surname that we liked and changed both our names to that. Thrown tradition completely out of the window."

"I don't know whether you can do that." Rachel said.

"You should be able to."

Steph seemed to lose interest at that point, or maybe it was because Eddie joined them, going over to sit next to Matt, probably to tell him that he wasn't the honourary gay anymore or that Rachel was taking over the school with family members. Rachel shook her head and said a quick hello to Eddie, who smelt Sally's coffee and thought that it was probably a good idea to have one too. Rachel leant against the counter, looking out to the staffroom, as Sally did the same thing.

"You don't have to put up with Steph," Rachel muttered.

"She is only curious. Saves her talking behind my back to Melissa."

Rachel's eyes landed on her sister at that point, watching her as she flicked her hair over her shoulder as she was obviously flirting with one of the history teachers.

"True." She turned back to Sally. "It is weird seeing you out of uniform."

"Apparently, I am meant to be a plainclothes officer. Although I thought that they only deployed plainclothes officers during an investigation as more… evidence-based. You know the 'we think that person A has done B so we are going to go in and make sure that A is linked to B'."

"Well, I don't have to worry about you spying on me."

"Rachel, I would never betray you like that."

They shared as laugh as Ralph finally joined them. She was surprised that he looked in her direction when he asked if everyone was there. Just bearing in mind that he didn't trust her as a headteacher. She also suspected that he knew all the teachers in the school. Probably did his own personal DBS check after she 'slipped' through the net. Ralph just didn't know that it was Sally that helped her to clear her criminal record.

Ralph started a long speech about the decisions that the governors had made and how he hoped that they were what they all expected. Tom shot her a look and Rachel could only shrug at him. Davina and Jasmine also looked over the longer Ralph spoke. It was clear that some of the room suspected that something was up. Because it should have been Rachel giving the speech that Ralph was saying. She felt like she would have been more reassuring than he was.

"Now to help with the management of the school, we have a new position of Executive Head to help Rachel with the running of the school."

That went down with the staff as much as it did with her. Rachel couldn't help but smile as there were overlapping voices, all in support of her, telling Ralph that they didn't need anyone else. She looked up at Eddie, who only gave her a shrug. Because what else could he do. Their teachers were trying to defend her.

"I'm sorry but this is a decision that has been backed by the LEA. So, therefore, I would like to introduce Max Tyler."

The man that walked in wasn't really what Rachel was expecting, but he did have this air of authority about him. Although she thought that might have been due to the razor-sharp suit and the way that he started talking as he took his first speech in front of her teachers. She knew that she was going to instantly hate the man and she knew that it was going to be hard to pretend to be nice to him. That was before Sally pulled on her sleeve as she turned away.

"Rachel, he's my brother," Sally whispered in a tone that Rachel had never heard her use before. She knew that Sally was brave and put herself in situations that weren't safe. That was all part of being a police officer. She had been shaken by some of her experiences but Rachel was sure that she had never seen Sally scared before.

But Rachel was sure that she was and it made her want to know the full story of what happened when Sally was thrown out.

When Sally heard that the Superintendent wanted to talk to her, she thought that it might finally be her chance to become a sergeant. When she first joined the police, she was happy to be a constable after her probation. She wasn't expecting to become Chief Constable in 15 years like some of her male counterparts. She was happy to go out and serve the public in whatever way she could. Plus, she felt like if she did apply for sergeant after her probation, she would have been denied it, because of her sexuality.

However, as she waited in the Superintendent office, she knew that it wasn't going to be what she wanted it to be. The first big give away was the fact that he called her Sally, not PC Allen. That was usually a bad sign in the policing world. It took everything not to let her face drop as he told her that her application for sergeant had been declined again and she was going to be taken off Operation Thunder (the Danny Sutton investigation) but he had exciting news for her. He found it exciting. Sally didn't, at first.

Sally always felt like it was a police officer's role to serve the public and that was where she was happiest. Out on the beat, helping out confused old ladies when they had forgotten where the bus stop was, sorting out the drunk and disorderly on Friday and Saturday nights, with the odd chase on a suspect for petty theft. Being a plainclothes officer in a school didn't appeal to her and she almost told him 'thank you, sir, but no thank you'. That was until he mentioned that it was at Waterloo Road.

Sally didn't instantly jump at the chance and asked until the end of her shift to think about it. She almost texted Jane, Rachel and Eddie to what they thought about it but she didn't, realising that it was probably a decision for herself. She might not have taken it if she didn't have a run-in with Ralph, where he implied that, yet again, he had raised his concerns over her becoming a sergeant. She didn't see what a Detective Inspector had to do with her becoming a sergeant. She would have been the rank below him. Maybe that was what worried him. Because she knew that she was ten times the copper that he would ever be. It was why she took the job, with hopes that, even if he was a governor, she would see less of him.

She just never expected to be face to face with her brother again after 17 years.

It had taken a lot of nerve for her to tell her family that she was gay. She had chickened out of many times that she felt like the best way to do it was to tell her family that she was moving in with her girlfriend and her girlfriend's cousin, so that if they threw her out, she wasn't then asking Jane whether she could stay with her. It was something that they had decided three months before she actually did it.

She hadn't told Jane everything that happened but it became her reason as to why she wanted to take Jane's surname rather than Jane taking hers. Because the surname of Tyler would always leave a bitter taste in her mouth.

Sally wasn't exactly sure about why she thought that it was best to confront her brother when she did but with the corridors empty, there wasn't much she could do, other than distract Rachel from her paperwork.

"What the hell are you doing here Max?" She shouted at him.

He stopped in the middle of the corridor and slowly turned to her. She knew that the smile on his face was fake. She had seen him use it too many times.

"Nice to see you too sis."

She scoffed. "Don't 'sis' me. You made it perfectly clear what you felt about me when we last saw each other."

"And I am a different person now. I want to make it up to you."

"No, you don't."

"Okay, that might have been a little white lie."

"Of course it was."

"Are you still with… her?"

"Jane." Sally paused only to shake her head. "Of course I am. As soon as we could, we got a civil partnership. Mrs Sally Allen now. Just in case you were wondering."

"You took her name?"

"After what you and Dad said, why would I want to keep yours? Was actually glad when Jane allowed me to take hers. Am I still a disgrace to the family? Do you still wish that I was never born? Or is that mate still around that will 'put me right'?"

"Shut up."

"Or do you still think you can hit me right?" She managed to stop herself from flinching as he stormed up to her. "You know that homophobic bullying is not tolerated in this school. I am sure Rachel will be glad to hear your view on it. I'd love to be a fly on the wall, watching you squirm as you say things that you don't mean."

"Still in the force or did you move into teaching?"

"Still in the force."

"How you have kept that job for so long…"

"James protected me. My best friend who never once judged me for it. Who actually didn't bat an eyelid and finished off his mouthful of kebab and told me cool when I told him. The same man that was shocked that I started questioning something that I was sure about and took me to a gay nightclub and spent the whole night telling the whole club that he was straight and there as moral support for me." She laughed. "Oh god. Rachel is right. You can choose your family. Because James is my brother, like she is my sister."

"Rachel?"

"I'm in a civil partnership with her cousin. So we are cousins-in-law." She paused. "Back to keeping my job. I learnt that if I wanted to do it, I just had to suck it up and get on with it. Because I wasn't going to change myself or give up the woman I love for a job that I do equally love."

"You did always have to be different. You broke Mum's heart."

"No, I didn't. Dad might have told you that I did but her and Amy were more than happy to meet up with me a few times before Dad put a stop to it. They were happy for me, Max. Mum even tried to apologise for you. She wanted me to come home and it was just you and Dad stopping that from happening. I wanted you to get to know Jane. Because I loved her and you and I wanted you to get on."

She knew that he wanted to say something else, probably something along the lines of 'Dad was right' or 'we should have known sooner so we could make you normal'. He was obviously holding his tongue, scared of what people might hear.

"What are you doing here Max?" She asked again.

"I am here on an advisory basis. Ralph had some concerns and this is how the LEA is dealing with it. I don't expect you to understand."

"No, I don't. Rachel is an amazing headteacher and doesn't need any help to run this school."

"Well, that is what you think."

"Then how about this. You stay out of my way and I'll stay out of yours. We can both do our jobs without us having the clash."

"Fine by me."

He turned on his heel and made his back way down the corridor. Sally couldn't stop herself from doing the exact same thing.

Rachel's words about not having to put up with Steph floated around Sally's mind as the teacher in question kept looking over at her. Sally sighed when she finally got the courage to get up and ask her. Maybe it wasn't best that Max and Rachel walked into the staffroom at that point.

"So do you two know each other?" Steph asked as she pointed between Sally and Max.

If she wasn't still riled by their argument, she might have been able to shrug it off as nothing, but instead, she folded up the paper that she was reading and threw it down on the table before she stood up and placed herself next to Max.

"Just so you are all aware, so the rumour mill doesn't start up, Max is my brother. Does that clear everything up? Any more questions Steph?"

Sally almost felt sorry for the woman as she gave her an awkward smile. She was fairly certain that she heard Melissa moaning under her breath that Max was out of bounds for her as she passed them and whatever Max had come into say wasn't as important as it first seemed. The staffroom slowly cleared out and she assumed that Rachel waited until there were only a few teachers or ones that she trusted were left until she said anything.

"Are you okay?" She said as she ran a hand down her arm.

"Nothing a bottle of wine can't sort."

"I am sure we can pick one up on the way home. Come on."

It wasn't until they were in the empty corridors that Rachel said more to her.

"Maybe we can get Eddie to cook again while we have a girly chat. Because I could rant all night about Max, if you are up for it."

"Rachel, that sounds like the perfect night in at the moment."