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Now, what could go wrong?

First Day Problems

"Hey, everything's okay?" Eddie said before Rachel placed a kiss on his lips.

"As happy as they are going to be. No better and no worse."

"And our baby?"

"Still growing as they would expect. Apparently she is a rather healthy 32-week pregnancy."

"And the weird pains that you were having?"

"You were right. Braxton Hicks. All is well." Rachel paused. "How has this morning been?"

"Nothing has started yet but I doubt that anything is really going to happen now. More… at lunchtime."

"It does look rather us and them at the moment." She said as she looked into the hall.

"And I am sure you are going to come up with a way to make that less noticeable."

"We are ready when you are," Chris said as he stuck his head out of one of the doors of the hall.

"New year, new set of challenges." Rachel said.

"Wouldn't be Waterloo Road if it didn't."

She nodded at him before she pulled open one of the doors and made her way in to start the assembly.

"You can behave as well." Rachel said as she placed a hand on her stomach as the baby kicked her.

She started to make her way down to the foyer, knowing that it was a bit early for her to be doing so but also knowing that it was going to take her longer to get down there than it would have done usually. She paused her movements and grabbed onto the bannister as her vision started to blur. She shook her head, hoping that it would pass.

"Miss, are you okay?" Bolton said as he came up the stairs.

"Fine thank you. Shouldn't you be in lessons?" She said as her vision came back and she continued to make her way down the stairs.

"On a free."

She stopped in front of him.

"Bolton, I know it is a bit of an ask, but people do respect you. Maybe I am just asking whether, from me, you could help try and keep the peace. I get that… you are all a little territorial but we need to make this work, whether you like it or not. Can I trust you to sort of get the message out there?"

"I can try. I don't know how many of them will listen to me."

"More than you realise. Go on, you don't want to be stuck with me for the whole of your free period."

"Miss."

She nodded at him before watching him go up the next set of stairs. Part of her hoped that it would work, part of her knew that it wouldn't. Because she hadn't said that if the old John Foster's students start on them, to walk away. Not that she would want them to particularly walk away. It was part of Waterloo Road.

She made it to the foyer, not really enjoying the way that she was waddling now, as Jennifer walked into the building.

"I could have come to see you," Jennifer said as she noticed her.

"And I needed a reason to get out of that chair. Believe me, it is getting harder and harder."

"I bet. Give Sally my congratulations. Heard it from Amy and haven't really had the chance to tell her."

"Will do."

"So how has this morning been?" Jennifer said as they started walking.

"Nothing yet. I did a thing of getting them all to get up and move next to someone that they didn't know. Eddie still has his money on something happening at lunchtime."

"Can you use your influence?"

"I have asked one student to spread that I want the peace kept. Whether it will be kept or not, I don't know."

"You don't need the stress of it though."

"Eight weeks to go."

"And the plan is that you are here full time for this week and next week and then part-time for the following four weeks."

"That is the plan."

"Let's just hope your little one agrees."

Rachel smiled at her before saying that maybe they should have a walk around and make sure everything is going smoothly.

Rachel could only watch from the sidelines as the massive fight broke out. As much as she wanted to rush in when she first saw it (her being one of the first to see it), she knew she couldn't. Instead, she called Eddie and told her to get all the teachers down there as soon as he could. It wasn't long before he was out, helping Tom to break things up, followed by Kim, Chris and a couple of other teachers.

She gave them all a stern look as the students started to pass her as they headed to the cooler. She probably would have waited for most of them to be heading in that direction before she left but she knew that it could kick off in the cooler as well. She grabbed Davina on the way, hoping that just an extra person would help things.

The cooler was already looking rather full by the time she got there and she tried to separate the Waterloo Road and John Foster students (or more Davina tried to while she was trying to calm herself down).

Rachel was grateful when Eddie, Chris and Kim finally joined them with the last of the students. Eddie walked up to her.

"Sure you want to do this?" He whispered.

"Just get them to shut up."

Eddie nodded before he shouted at them to be quiet. She took a few moments, letting the Waterloo Road lot know that she was disappointed with them with a look.

"Will someone tell me what the hell has just gone on?" She said.

It was the calm anger that she had started to use at the end of the last school year but it was clear that it had the same effect than if she was to release her full anger on her students. The John Fosters students didn't seem as affected by it but it was clear that the Waterloo Road students were embarrassed by what happened.

"Miss, they were egging us on," Bolton said, which caused an uproar with the John Foster students.

"It takes two to fight. In all my years of teaching, I have never seen anything like that before." She paused as she felt a pain across her stomach. "What happened to the hand of friendship?"

They all stewed with that thought and Rachel turned to the four teachers in the room. She walked towards them.

"Well, we can't have them all in here for the rest of the day." She muttered.

"Send them back to classes then?" Chris said.

"It is where they can do the least damage."

"They should definitely lose their lunchtime. We will have to set something up in the hall." Eddie said.

"Rest of the week?" Rachel asked.

"You are still the boss for the moment."

Her hand went to her stomach as she felt the same pain. She took a few moments as her vision blurred for a moment. Something that she thought had to do with the headache that she was experiencing.

"Are you alright?" Eddie asked.

"Fine. Probably Braxton Hicks." Rachel said.

"Sure?"

"Sure."

She turned back to her students and told her what was going to happen. Although, she didn't know how to take their worried faces as another wave of pain hit her, definitely slightly stronger. She looked up at Eddie as he joined her side.

"Can you take over?" She whispered.

"As long as you are going to go and call the midwife."

"Definitely."

It wasn't really what she wanted to do on the first day of term but the midwife had been very strong when she said that she thought that Rachel should come to the hospital and Chris and Kim assured her that they had things under control while Eddie took her.

Although she didn't expect to be guided to a bed and then hooked up to so many different machines so quickly. It was giving her flashbacks to when she had lost Danny's baby and it wasn't helping that it went from just being one nurse being around her to being a doctor, a couple of nurses and a midwife. She could tell that Eddie's anxiety had jumped massively as well.

"What is going on?" Rachel asked but the question fell on deaf ears.

She turned to Eddie, hoping that maybe if he asked the question, then he might get an answer. He repeated her question, walking up to the doctor to ask it. But it was clear that he had other things on his mind.

"I'm sorry Rachel, just while we try to get your records to hand, can you tell me when your last appointment was?" The doctor said.

"This morning. They checked my blood pressure and measured the baby to make sure they were growing okay."

"Just your blood pressure? They didn't take a urine sample as well?"

"No. They said that because they took one the other day, it should be fine."

She was sure that the doctor paled slightly but told one of the nurses to take a urine sample now and to check her blood pressure. He discussed a few things with the midwife before he turned back to them.

"I know this might seem a little pointless but were there any concerns that you raised this morning."

"I was having some pains but I was told that they were Braxton Hicks. And a headache that I have had for the last 48 hours. It sort of goes away for maybe like half an hour before it comes back."

"And your vision?"

"Been a bit blurry today."

From one professional to another, Doctor Alex Smith had been doing an okay job of making his questions seem routine. But she had spent the best part of two decades with a police officer. There was always a shift in their attitude when they had to deliver news that they didn't want to.

"Did you mention that earlier?"

"No, it has only started since that appointment."

"Umm, Mrs and Mr Lawson, I won't know for sure until we get the results from the urine sample but I believe that you have pre-eclampsia. How often have you been coming in?"

"Every day."

"Why was this not picked up?" He muttered. "The other… problem that we have is that you are in labour. I believe that it would be best if we deliver the baby. We could delay it but, at the moment, I don't know how bad the pre-eclampsia is."

"But she isn't due for another eight weeks," Eddie said.

"I can assure you both, a baby born at 32 weeks has every chance that a full-term baby will have. We need to give you a steroid, just to help the baby's lungs out but that is all. We are going to send you for a quick ultrasound, just to make sure that we are happy with everything." He turned to the nurse who walked into the room with a file. "Thank you. I'm going to catch up on your notes. Please be assured, you are in the best place and we are going to look after you both."

Rachel couldn't really do anything else but turn to Eddie and hope that the doctor's words were right.