Hello,

Thank you for your lovely reviews, I really love reading them, I cannot wait to hear what you think of the next few chapters! Hopefully, this chapter will answer the theories that a couple of you had... (I'll say no more!) The next chapter should be up at some point this week!

Enjoy,

Becca x

A Change to Her Plans

20th September 2011

"You still haven't told me how you got on at the doctors." Adam reminded Rachel that morning as he placed a bowl of porridge in front of her. However, her mind was somewhere else entirely as she sat at the breakfast bar in their kitchen, gazing into space as her forehead seemed to get gradually more tense. "Rach?"

"What?" She responded as she suddenly withdrew from her thoughts, only now did she notice that he had made her breakfast. Adam had been speaking to her for the last fifteen minutes, however not a word of his one-sided conversation had managed to interrupt her own thoughts. "I'm not hungry." She informed him as she stood up from the breakfast bar and went into the living room to get her files together for the day ahead.

"I've just made that for you." He sighed as he followed her. "Come on then, how did it go?"

"How did what go?"

"Your doctors' appointment yesterday." He huffed in frustration as he repeated himself. "I'm worried about you Rachel, you're not yourself. Last night you came home hours late, ignored my calls and then barely said a word to me when you came in and went straight to bed."

Following a further few dizzy spells, Adam had persuaded her to visit her doctor. Reluctantly, she had booked an appointment, which had taken place the previous morning. After a further phone call from her doctor just after the end of the school day, she had spent hours sat in her office trying to get her head around the news that she had been told. "Sorry, I was tired. I'd just been catching up on paperwork, I lost track of time..." Lying to Adam did not sit comfortably with her, but she simply could not tell him the truth.

"So what did the doctor say?" He persisted before his face suddenly dropped with concern. "You're not...ill are you?"

"She said it was just stress." Rachel lied once more. Lying to Adam was quickly becoming quite the habit for her.

"How many times did I tell you that it wasn't a good idea being a Head Teacher again. It's too much on you Rach. Why don't you find something with less responsibilities or part time, preferably at a school without any ex's?"

"You just can't leave it can you?" She exhaled in annoyance. Ever since Adam had found out that her and Eddie used to be in a relationship, he had been relentlessly asking her questions for the last two weeks.

"No, I can't because you won't tell me anything. I just don't understand it, he's with your sister, they have a child together. The whole thing is weird. Charlie is nearly two isn't he? So how does that work if you were both in a relationship two years ago."

"It's complicated," She shook her head. "I just don't know why you're so interested."

"Because you lied to me. You've made me look like a right idiot and you don't seem to care!" His voice became irritatingly louder as he began to get increasingly infuriated, just as he had done during their numerous arguments over the past fortnight since Steph's careless revelation in the pub.

"Adam, will you just shut up?" She suddenly exclaimed before going into the hall to get her coat. "I need to get to work." She gathered her things together and walked out of the door without saying goodbye; she had too much on her mind.

Eddie Lawson purposely arrived 20 minutes early to work. As a consequence of being kept awake all night by a defiant toddler, he had arrived late to work the day before and Rachel had gone ballistic. After two weeks back at Waterloo Road, they were managing to develop a much easier working relationship. Eddie knew that she had a lot on her plate, there was so much work to be done at the start of the school year which seemed to stress her out more than he had ever witnessed before. Normally Rachel thrived at a challenge when it came to her work, but at the moment it appeared to make her even more pressured and short-tempered. Eddie worried that Steph's revelation to Adam about himself and Rachel may be the cause of her recent strain; it was not like her to be so snappy. Taking this into account, Eddie had been trying his best to ease some of Rachel's pressure leading him to make the effort to be early to work that morning. When he pulled up into the car park, Rachel arrived a minute after him, parking beside him. As he gathered all of his marking from his passenger seat, he noticed that Rachel was still sat in her car and had her head in her hands; out of concern he tapped on her window once he had gotten out of his own car. "Are you alright?"

Rachel had been occupied by her own thoughts and worries prior to this, but now jumped as Eddie tapped on her window. Immediately she forced a smile and grabbed her bag as she stepped out of her car. "Fine, I've just got a bit of a headache. I'm sure it'll pass."

"Too much merlot?" He joked, attempting to make their conversation light-hearted; he knew that there was more to it but did not want to pressure her to talk.

"Something like that." She was keeping up a smile, but Eddie could see the exhaustion in her eyes, and he naturally worried about her. He was trying his best to keep up the friendly but professional front that they had started to adopt. It was difficult when all he wanted was to pull her into an embrace and hold her until she told him whatever it was that was causing her to get so stressed. However, for now, he knew that all he could do is be there for her and give her whatever support she would allow.

"Is Adam still giving you grief?" He asked her, she had only briefly told him of the arguments that Steph's revelation had set off between herself and Adam. "I still can't believe Steph just blurted it out like that, I swear she just likes to cause a bit of drama."

"Of course she does!" She sighed as she thought about Adam. "He just won't stop asking me questions and going on about it, it's really got to him."

"I guess I won't be getting invited round again for Greek lamb with orzo." Eddie joked as he recalled Rachel's birthday surprise dinner.

Rachel could not help but let a small laugh escape from her mouth as she shook her head at him. "No definitely not."

Eddie was pleased that he had managed to even get a small laugh from her after her being so tense recently. They were about to walk into school when a car came and parked across from his. It was Kim Campbell; she had planned to return at the start of term to resume her role as Head of Pastoral Care, but she had been having some personal problems. Rachel and Eddie walked over to her car as they all greeted one another.

"Kim, it's so good to see you!" Rachel hugged her. Eddie also gave Kim a hug as he welcomed her back, they had not always quite seen eye to eye when they had worked together previously, but this time he wanted them to start off on good terms.

"This is a right reunion isn't it?" Kim noted before going to get Dexter out of the car. "This is Dexter, can you believe he turned one a few months ago Rachel?"

"He's lovely Kim," Eddie smiled as he greeted the child.

"Yeah he's worth the two hours sleep." She laughed.

"Tell me about it, my little lad is nearly two now, but he still insists on waking up at four in the morning most nights." Eddie added.

"God listen to us. I bet you're glad that you have to deal with teenagers instead of babies Rachel." Kim joked.

Rachel appeared to reflect on something for a moment before nodding. "Definitely."

Once Kim had gotten Dexter settled in the creche, she began on setting things up in her pastoral care office whilst she had a catch up with Rachel.

"So, how's married life?" Kim asked her as she boiled the kettle. "Coffee?"

"Yeah, everything's good." Rachel tried to hide the hesitancy in her voice. Things were anything but good between herself and Adam at the moment, all they seemed to do was argue. "No thank you."

Kim had noticed that Rachel sounded rather unsure when talking about Adam but chose not to pursue it. "And what's it like working with Eddie again? I don't think I could work with an ex, especially if he'd had a baby with my sister."

"We've moved on. Anyway, I wanted to catch up with how you were doing, I know you said you were going through some stuff." Rachel diverted the conversation, not only to avoid talking about herself and Eddie but she was also genuinely concerned about Kim.

"It's Max. He wants access to Dexter." Kim got emotional as she told Rachel this. "I don't want him anywhere near my child Rachel."

"Oh god, no of course you don't." She sympathised as she passed her a tissue and reassuringly squeezed her arm. After the hell that she had experienced when Max Tyler had been executive head, she understood Kim's concerns only too well. "You know I'm here, anytime. I don't know how you're doing it all Kim, raising a child by yourself, coming back to work."

"You know me Rachel, I don't believe you should have to give up your career just because you're a mum."

"It must be so difficult though, juggling it all."

"You just find a way through it, even if that is having two hours sleep and litres of coffee. Are you sure you don't want one?" She asked as she made a coffee for herself.

"No, I'm not much of a coffee drinker at the minute."

Despite being back as the Head of Waterloo Road for two weeks now, Rachel had not yet tired of walking down the corridors; there was such an energy to the place that she had missed dearly when she had been away. She paused outside of Eddie's classroom, just for a moment, she could not hide her smile as she witnessed how he got the pupils so engaged in his class. Instinctively, he noticed Rachel, giving her a quick smile before she walked past. When Rachel then passed Grantly's classroom it was a completely different story, his pupils were anything but engaged as he was beginning to nod off at his desk. In response to this, Rachel knocked loudly on the glass of his classroom door which caused his eyes to wildly open all of a sudden as he sat upright in his chair. "Right now, where were we..." He began as Rachel shot him the disapproving look that he was well accustomed to by now but still struck him with fear.

Once she then began to make her way to her office, she came across Finn Sharkey in the corridor. "Why are you not in class?"

"Just on the way to the toilet miss," He smirked.

"Nice try. You're going in the wrong direction, who's class are you supposed to be in?"

"Miss Haydock's"

"Of course you are" Rachel muttered under her breath.

Upon escorting Finn back to his class, Rachel found Steph reading a magazine with her feet propped up on her desk, whilst she had some French comedy playing on the screen. "A word please Miss Haydock." Rachel demanded. Steph jumped at her tone; knowing that she was in trouble and sheepishly went outside her classroom to speak to Rachel. "I just found Finn Sharkey loitering in the corridor. How long has he been out of your class for?" Rachel asked but then interrupted Steph as she was about to reply. "You know what, don't bother answering that, I can't listen to any more of your excuses. This is the third time this week Steph that I have found your pupils out of class and it's only Tuesday!"

"It's a human right to go to the loo Rachel, I can't help it if they're little liars." Steph brushed off Rachel's lecture.

"You don't even notice when students go missing, I'm not surprised when you're too busy with your head in a magazine to teach!" Rachel was getting increasingly irritated with Steph's attitude. "I'm not having your incompetence in my school Steph, take this as a verbal warning. If this happens again, then we are going to have to reconsider your position here."

"Don't think I don't know what this is about Rachel." Steph suddenly challenged.

"Pardon?"

"You've been in a right mood with me since I let it slip about you and Eddie to your husband. How was I supposed to know you hadn't told him?"

"Oh, don't try that one Steph!" Rachel rolled her eyes at Steph's attempts to get out of trouble. "You need to start taking some responsibility, now get back to your class." Rachel shook her head in disbelief before walking back to her office.

"Rachel, what's going on?" Eddie stormed into her office at lunchtime. "I've just had Steph Haydock on my case in the staffroom, telling me that you've been threatening to sack her!"

"What?" Rachel exclaimed, shooting up from her chair.

"She said you've got a grudge against her; you know because of what she said to Adam in the pub."

"That woman!" Rachel exhaled in annoyance. "I keep finding pupils around the school when they're supposed to be in her classroom, I confronted her about it, and she tried to turn it around on me."

Eddie rolled his eyes at Steph's behaviour. "I'll have a word with her."

"All I wanted was for my first term back to be a fresh start. We're only two weeks in and already everything's a mess. Nothing is going to plan." She then tiredly slumped onto one of the couches in her office.

Eddie had never seen her defeated so easily before. "Come on Rachel, we've been through a lot worse than this." He reminded her as he sat next to her. "Fires, guns, Ralph Mellor and his bloody digger. When you've tackled what we have, you can handle Steph Haydock trying her luck."

Eddie's warm heart made her eyes fill with tears; he always knew the right thing to say when she was in a bad place and how to give her a clear perspective. "You're right. I know you're right. Sorry, everything's just getting on top of me." she confessed as she tried to wipe away her tears subtly.

"What's going on Rachel?" He asked her. He knew her, better than anyone else did and that is how he knew that there was something on her mind that was clearly causing her stress. "Whatever it is, we can tackle it together." He assured her as he reassuringly placed his hand on hers.

She wanted to tell him, she needed to tell someone. After her news from the doctor yesterday, she had not slept at all last night. "Eddie..." Her near revelation was interrupted by the sound of her mobile ringing, when she saw the number, she looked to Eddie. "I'm sorry but I'm going to have to take this." When she realised that he was not moving, she added. "In private."

"Oh sorry." Eddie apologised as he rose from the couch. "Let's continue this chat later on though, okay?"

"Yes, of course." She agreed as he left her office. "Hello?"

"Hello, is that Rachel Mason? I'm just ringing to see when's best for you to book in for your first appointment with the midwife?"