Thank you for the reviews.

Is anyone surprised if I say that the title of this chapter is a song? You know, Leaving It Up To You by George Ezra... Honestly love the song, doesn't really relate to the chapter but hey, it is what I listened to as I wrote the chapter.

Leaving It Up To You

"Will you stop it?" Eddie said as they made their way up to her office.

"Stop what?" Rachel snapped.

"Sulking."

"I am not sulking."

"Yes, you are. Rachel, I don't like the bloke."

"You're not the one who has spent the whole of the Christmas break answering pointless texts. The hour or so that Jane stole my phone for, I had over 30 texts and three voicemails telling me that it wasn't professional to ignore a colleague, especially one that was trying to help."

"And why are you only telling me this now?"

"Just because my Christmas was being ruined, didn't mean yours needed to be as well."

They both sighed at the same time and turned to each other. Rachel knew that he was going to apologise but it was really her who needed to. It wasn't his fault that it was the first Christmas since becoming a teacher that she had worked. She would always make sure that everything that she needed to do was done before she went to bed on the last day of term (which was sometimes three or four or even, one year, five in the morning) to not think about school until the first day back after the new year.

"I'm sorry." She said, managing to get in there first. "I don't work over Christmas. Never have done and hopefully will never have to again. Christmas is the one time I am work free."

"Which is why Jane was trying to get your phone off you."

"I put the rule on myself, even more so when I became a deputy and then a head. I should have one time of the year when I don't work. Christmas is that. And my birthday. I try and leave on time on my birthday and don't take any work home."

"You didn't get to do that last year."

"No, I was unconscious for it."

"I'll make it up to you this year," Eddie said as he pulled open the door to the antechamber.

"You don't have to."

"Maybe I want to."

Rachel shook her head. She had now put an idea into his head and she was sure that he was going to think about it a lot over the next seven months. Part of her was excited by what he might come up with.

She knew that Max would already be there, she had taken to Eddie's relaxed approach of coming into school. The less time she had to spend around Max, the better. She didn't expect Kim to be in the office as well.

"Ah, Rachel, Eddie. This is Kim Campbell."

They had asked Tom and Steph about Kim and both of their faces lit up when Rachel mentioned that she was coming back. She was obviously a well-liked member of staff. Which didn't bother Rachel. What bothered Rachel was the fact that Kim and Max seemed a little close before they entered her office. Although she had noticed that his name had joined her's on the door. Higher than hers as well. Obviously, another way to show her that he was secretly in charge.

"Welcome back, I suppose." Rachel said as she shook Kim's hand.

"Thank you," Kim said as they dropped their hands. "I absolutely love what you two have done with the place. I've managed to quickly catch up with some of the pupils and I didn't think that some of them would stay here passed their GCSEs. Honestly, to keep the likes of Janeece and Maxine in school just shows… Well, I think that there is certainly a family feel to the school now."

If she didn't have the thought that Kim and Max seemed a little close, she probably would have taken Kim's compliment. Instead, she wondered whether Max was getting Kim to be nice to her so that she would slip up or do or say something she shouldn't do. Then again, she was slightly overwhelmed by what Kim said. A family feel. That was a compliment she would take any day of the week.

"We've tried, haven't we Eddie? My aim was to get this school to be somewhere where the kids wanted to be. Get them to have something rather than leaving here with nothing."

"I think that was what Andrew was trying to achieve. I think him and Jack set the bar at one grade E at GCSE."

"I believe this year we will have more than that."

"Good," Max said. "Kim, you probably want to get settled back in. And Eddie, I assume you have a class to set up for."

Rachel gave Eddie a look and a small shrug before he left with Kim in tow. She knew that she wasn't going to like what Max was going to say as she closed the door. She would have at least liked to have her morning coffee before she got told off.

"Why did you ignore my calls?" Max asked as she placed her bags on the table.

"It was Christmas Eve. I wanted to spend some time with my family."

He snorted. "Your family."

"What is wrong with that?"

"You have your deputy, your cousin and… my sister. I wouldn't call that family."

"I would. It is the three people that I want to be my family."

"And I thought the school mattered to you."

"The school can wait the two weeks of Christmas."

"Can it? This place is a complete and utter shambles."

"Kim didn't seem to think so."

"Yeah… well, I have heard about what it was like in her time. This is a slight improvement for her but for me, it is still not up to scratch." He huffed. "Maybe I should make you choose. Your relationship with Eddie or either his job or yours."

"Don't you dare."

"A headteacher's work is never done. Especially in a school as chaotic as this one."

"I do know how to be a headteacher."

"Then prove it."

Rachel was coming up with something else to say as Max walked across the room.

"Come on. We better reintroduce Kim."

He didn't really give her much choice but to follow him. She was just annoyed that he got in the last word.

"Eddie. This isn't fair on you." Rachel said.

"What isn't?"

"Me. My… drop in confidence. It has basically been a year since I took the leap with you and I am back. Questioning every little thing. Before the fire… Before the fire, we were going to be official. This was going to be our house. It isn't fair on you that we went from that to… me holding you at arm's length again."

Eddie leant back against the counter, smiling at her.

"At least you can admit that. I don't think you would have before."

"Eddie."

"Rachel, we aren't starting from the beginning, are we? We are just re-waiting for you to be comfortable with us again. Max and Melissa aren't helping. I am happy to wait for you. I told you ages ago, everything can be done on your terms." He paused. "So how about I do that? I'll leave it all up to you. When we become official, when you move in. I'll even let you propose to me. If you want to get married."

She waited for him to laugh. To let her know that he was joking. Eddie wasn't really known for being deadly serious. He would always say a jokey line or something like that but she realised that he was being deadly serious.

"Really? You want me to propose to you?"

"Why not? Rachel, I don't want to get it wrong. I don't want to push you into a decision that you didn't want to make. You can't tell me these things at the moment and as much as I want to ask you, I don't feel like I can't. Not yet."

"Like?"

"I know we have spoken about it but would… Do you want to have another chance at being a mother? I know we don't really do what we preach to the kids and haven't done for a year but." He stopped as he looked up at her and must have matched the smile that she had on her face.

"Another little Lawson?" She said, instantly picturing a little boy running around their heels.

"Only if you want."

"I'm not completely against the idea."

"But you will have your worries about it."

"Won't you?"

She was grateful when he took a moment to think about it. Because her worries would be about the pregnancy itself. His worries would be about the baby after they were born. Although she couldn't understand why she was thinking so hard about it. He already knew that she wasn't against the idea of having children but she wasn't as young as she once was. Her body clock had been counting down for a while now. She was leaving it too late if they wanted to conceive naturally.

"Point taken." He said.

"But you are right. We haven't been careful. Eddie… at the moment, can we leave it at if it happens, it happens? You have got to remember, I am 38. I might be leaving it too late. I don't want us to get all serious about it to find out that I have completely missed my chance."

Again, she was grateful when he thought about it for a moment. It was a decision that they could take lightly. Especially with her being in the frame of mind that she was in. They were together with her not completely trusting him again. It wasn't a great mix.

"If it happens, it happens then."

With her mind still coming up with weird scenarios, she couldn't understand why, in the end, she thought that there were worse ideas than them having a baby and that she wouldn't want a baby with anyone else but Eddie. She just needed to sort her head out. If only Max hadn't said what he did earlier.