Thank you for the reviews.

So the wedding was on the Friday, how about the first day of the first working week of the new Mr and Mrs Lawson?

The Calm Of It All

The alarm going off was unwelcoming to both Rachel and Eddie as they remained wrapped up together until she couldn't take the bleeping any longer. She snuggled back into his embrace and closed her eyes.

"Please tell me that it isn't Monday," Eddie mumbled.

"What day would you like it to be then?"

"Any day but Monday."

She giggled. "I would have thought that you would have wanted it to be Sunday again."

"Glad I have taught you to do the Sunday lie-in properly."

"Yeah, until it will be taken away by this little one."

"So we need to get them in. Stock up on lie-ins before we can't do them."

Rachel opened her eyes and tapped his hands gently. "Come on Mr Lawson, we've got to get to work."

"Five more minutes."

"No, come on. We are going to be late."

"I don't really see you protesting too much Mrs Lawson."

"Yeah, well, I have an excuse."

"I thought you weren't feeling as tired anymore."

"Doesn't mean that I can't use it as an excuse."

"Oh Mrs Lawson, what have I done to you?"

Rachel started squealing as Eddie started placing kisses up her neck and along her shoulder. If anything, it made her want to get out of bed even less.

Rachel could only smile as the name plaque on her office door had been changed already. It wasn't like she hadn't already been called Mrs Lawson by a number of the students she had seen that morning. They seemed to be going between calling her that or Eddie, Mr Mason.

Taking a moment to admire her new name, she finally made her way into her office and started to look through the papers that had been left on her desk. Organising where she was going to start, she'd had read through the first bit of paperwork before she went to sign it, stopping just before the pen hit the paper.

It was the same position that Eddie found her in minutes later, with a tea in his hand for her.

"Are you okay?" He asked as he put the tea down.

"I don't know how to sign this."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, this is the first bit of paper I am going to sign as Rachel Lawson and I don't know how to sign it."

It was his laugh that put her at ease. It was obvious that she was stressing over something that wasn't overly important or worth stressing over. Her husband, once again, showing how well he knew her.

"Well, you should try and sort that out, or otherwise you aren't going to get much work done over the day."

He leant over and gave her a kiss before he left her to it. She sighed before she grabbed a bit of scrap paper and started to work out what her new signature was going to be.

"Sort out your little problem?" Eddie asked.

"Yeah, it is just getting used to it now. May have been easier for you to take Mason."

"Why's that?"

"Isn't like you have to do all this paperwork. Plus I have already done it once."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Well," He said as he made his way over to her desk. "I distinctly remember someone telling me that she wanted to marry me because she wanted to be Mrs Lawson."

"Well, I retract that now. I want you to be Mr Mason."

Eddie couldn't help but smile at her, realising the words that she said was the same as the ones he had said about her proposing to him.

"Too late. You are now Mrs Rachel Lawson."

She smiled back at him as she rested back in her chair.

"Is the little one bothering you?" He asked.

"I did hope the constant feeling of wanting to be sick would have gone by now. I don't think I am actually going to throw up but it is just… a constant queasy feeling. Again."

"Anything I can get you?"

"No, but you might have to cope with being in charge on Thursday morning. The doctors called. They want to run a few more tests."

"Your high blood pressure?"

"I got the whole 'we don't think that it is something serious but we just want to be sure'. I thought that you weren't meant to try and worry a worrier."

"Sounds all routine to me. Alison kept having all these tests."

"That was probably because she was pregnant with twins."

"They are just trying to make sure that everything will go to plan."

"I know."

"So stop worrying Mrs Lawson. Everything will be fine."

He noticed the way that she smiled at 'Mrs Lawson' knowing that her earlier comments about not wanting to change her name wasn't serious.

"You can sometimes be too laid back, Mr Lawson."

"True but there are some things that you can't worry about until they happen, can you? I am sure Baby Lawson is and will be okay."

"We really need to start thinking of names."

"Dinner conversation tonight?"

"Sounds perfect."

The bell stopped their conversation further and she gestured for him to come forward while she stood up. She placed a kiss on his lips.

"I'm going to go on a walk. See you in about half an hour." She said.

"I'll look out for you."

Eddie left Rachel to it, knowing that she will debate for a moment or two whether she would need her jacket.

For someone that knew that she belonged at Waterloo Road, Rachel knew that she was starting to get the itch for a new challenge. Everything at Waterloo Road seemed calm as they began gearing up for exam season.

Rachel smiled as she went from watching a fired up year seven history class to a debating A-Level English class. She carried on in that fashion, taking a few moments to check that everything was nice and calm and all in order. Philip noticed her when she got to his class and offered her a smile. She gave one back before nodding her head towards the front, which he responded with a shake of his head.

As always, she ended up with Eddie's class, watching him as he tried to excite a year eight class with probability. She only smiled wider when he noticed her and then one of the cheeky students told him off for staring out of the window.

She returned from her walk, knowing that Waterloo Road was the place she needed to be and, quite frankly, she couldn't really afford to be thinking about moving on in the position that she was in. Pregnant with a due date of late October. Someone would employ her to then advertise for an acting head for when she went on maternity leave.

Although, when she returned to her desk and saw that she had an email from Jennifer Headly, the phrase 'be careful about what you wish for' came to mind as she read the contents of the email.

Rachel knew that Eddie knew that something was up but he knew better than to bring it up straight away. It was the only reason she could come up with as to why they sat down at the table, ready to eat dinner, and he went straight to the topic of names.

"Actually, Eddie, we need to discuss something else." She said.

"What?"

"You know John Fosters."

"The posh private school?"

"It is closing down when term finishes in July."

"Parents not paying enough?"

"Jennifer didn't say why it was closing down. Only that Waterloo Road has been chosen as one of the four schools that has been chosen to take a quarter of the kids and some members of staff."

"You know that is only because she knows that you are an amazing headteacher."

"A headteacher that was planning on going back for the first two weeks of the start of the school year and then going on maternity leave. Think of the planning Eddie. I would have usually jumped at the challenge and it was something that I was thinking earlier. I want a new challenge but this all seems to be coming at the wrong time. And it is not that I don't think that you are capable because I know that you would be but." She sighed. "I… I didn't want a reason to be worried about work when I was off. On maternity leave."

"Fair point. I do remember what you were like after the fire."

"I would be thinking about maybe coming back after Easter. The timing is not right."

"Shall I ask Jennifer to keep John Fosters open until next year then?"

"Eddie, please."

He shook his head at her. "No wonder your blood pressure is high." He sighed. "Look, Rachel, we will have to have a meeting with Jennifer to see what is planned. And then we will just have to plan ahead. Think about everything that could go wrong and try and work out ways to stop that. Get Kim involved and, maybe, one of the John Fosters teachers, if they are half decent. Work out how we are going to make it all work before September. It is only the beginning of May. We have plenty of time."

"But we are going on our honeymoon in the May break."

"It is a week Rachel. And… I think you could do with the break to just think about yourself and Baby Lawson."

"Is that your way of trying to get me back onto names?"

"Like I said earlier, there are some things that you can't worry about until they happen. So we will get back to our plan of action. And that starts with talking to Jennifer before we do anything else."

Rachel thought about it for a moment before she decided that they had spoken enough about it.

"So what names haven't been ruined for you?" She said.

"What gender?"

"We'll start off with boy's names then."

"Christ. That should really be a short list."

"Although, I don't want anything… too common."

"What? Something like… Tobias."

"Yes… but. I don't really want anything you can shorten either. He wouldn't be known as Tobias, he would become a Toby. And we might as well have named him that." She paused. "I know that you are Edward, and I know that there are times that you call me Rach, but it was something… about Rachel when I changed it. It isn't a name that people usually shorten. No one really called me Amanda. They all called me Mandy. Why put all of this thought and consideration into a name when no one will actually use it. Including us."

"Fair point. So that is basically one-syllable names."

"Not necessarily." She paused. "I was about to say a name that I really like and I've just realised that it breaks the not too common criteria."

"What is it?"

"Jacob. Jacob Lawson."

"It does break that criteria."

"I know."

"But I get what you mean. And it does work."

"I've broken my own criteria."

"Go on then. What is the story about Jacob?"

She smiled at him. Eddie proving, again, how well he knew her. "Depressed young boy that was trying to get away from his abusive parents and almost threw himself and me off the top of the school building."

"Poor kid."

"Just about managed to get him back on track before his exams."

"Good for you."

"Not bad for my first year as a headteacher."

"I will admit. There was a name, a girls name, that I fell in love with when we were trying to find names for Michael and Stephen. I… don't want to say it. Just in case we don't get to use it."

"And just when I think I know everything about you, you go and surprise me again."

"I wouldn't want to be predictable now Mrs Lawson."

"Not at all, Mr Mason."

"Is that our new flirting?"

"Can be if you want it to be."

"Any girls' names that you like," Eddie asked, as he moved the conversation on.

"Well." Rachel started before telling him her choices.