(A/N): Hey, here is the second chapter I promised. I am working on the next one asap and hopefully will be able to get the next one up quickly too. I own nothing but an ever growing amount of student loan debt and no idea what I'm actually doing.

What the Heart Wants

Chapter 11

An hour and ten minutes later a bell ran shrilly, marking the end of the school day. Rachel heard her mobile phone let out a chime indicating a text message. Checking that Michael was still busy colouring, she moved to the desk to see who it was from. Since Michael had woken up, he'd seemed a lot better, and had kept his dinner down, though both Rachel and Alia had forbidden him from the fizzy drink, making him stick to water just in case. Rachel opened her phone.

From: Ali.

Walking home after another meeting. See you later. Ali x

Rachel sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose at her daughter's short text. She knew that Alia took things to heart, even if she would never tell anyone that, and Alia's short text proved that she was still angry and hurt over her dismissal, directed at Eddie for being closed minded. He hadn't had to physically tell Alia that he didn't want her near his son for Alia to know that that was what he wanted. The girl would never show emotions like that though, something left over from being an army brat, and another thing Rachel had never figured out about her fifteen year old, despite numerous efforts.

"Is Ali coming back here?"

"Not today, Michael. She's walking home." Rachel told him gently. Michael's lower lip quivered, but he nodded all the same.

"Okay. I hope I see her again. I like her. Will you tell her that?"

"I will, promise." Rachel assured him as Eddie knocked and walked in, briefcase in hand. Michael glanced at Rachel, who nodded. The little boy slipped off his chair and walked over to Eddie, hugging his knees cautiously.

"I'm sorry daddy. I love you." Michael told him, a little muffled from his face buried in his dad's pant leg. Eddie patted his son's head, sending a confused look at Rachel, who instantly redirected her gaze away from him, angry at him for hurting her daughter, even if he didn't know that Alia was her daughter.

"I love you too, mate, but what brought all this on?" Eddie asked, bending down and picking Michael up. Michael glanced again at Rachel, wishing Alia was there to say what he wanted to in a better way than he could.

"Time is special." Michael said simply, shrugging. "We can't…" He trailed off, looking pleadingly at Rachel for help.

"We can't waste what little time we're given, for we don't know when it will all disappear from our grasp." Rachel filled in for him softly. Michael nodded, turning back to Eddie, who was looking between the pair, mouth open and eyes wide at the deep statements.

"Uh, right. Well, let's get you home, Michael. Thanks for looking after him today, Rach." Eddie said gently, but Rachel again was refusing to look at him. Eddie shifted uncomfortably, not sure what to say. He hadn't felt so awkward since Rachel had shown him her scar on the first day of term, when he'd seen the damage the fire had done to her, not only to her skin but to her self-esteem and personal perception too. He wished so much to simply take her in his arms and keep her hidden from the world, keep her safe, but he couldn't. He glanced again at Michael, who was looking at him expectantly, another thing that slightly baffled him. Eddie had seen the blatant dislike that Michael had shown towards Melissa, though he didn't know the reason why, as Michael wouldn't tell him, but the little boy really seemed to have taken a shine to Rachel in the few short hours he'd been at Waterloo Road. Eddie cleared his throat. "Uh, I'll see you tomorrow then, Rachel." He said hesitantly as Michael wiggled in his arms to be let down.

As soon as Eddie set him on his feet, Michael raced over to Rachel, wrapping his arms around her legs and hugging her tightly. Rachel bent down and picked the little boy up so he could hug her properly, which he promptly did. "Bye bye Rachel. Thank you for helping me not feel sicky."

"It was my pleasure, Michael." Rachel returned warmly, hugging Michael back. "You're a good patient." She teased, making Michael smile as he kissed her cheek.

"I still like you, Rachel and I like Ali too. I hope I see you soon." He smiled sadly at Rachel's lack of reply, correctly guessing that she couldn't say anything concrete to him as she placed him back on the ground, letting go so he could move back over to his father.

Eddie glanced between Rachel and Michael before taking his son's hand and leading him silently from the room. Rachel let out a sigh as her shoulders sagged and she leant back against her desk, inexplicably bone tired. She had a couple more pieces of paperwork to fill in before she could go home, hopefully to find Alia already there.

…

"Michael, can I talk to you?"

Michael looked up from his toy car and truck to look up at Eddie. "What is it daddy?"

"Why were you angry with me earlier?"

Michael flushed, looking at the ground. "You sent Ali away." He muttered, though Eddie still caught it. His mind instantly raced, especially when Michael said 'Ali'. He'd only heard that name when Rachel had been talking to Philip, and he's assumed that it was a man in Rachel's life, but if his son's words were anything to go by, Ali was the new girl who had started that day, Alia.

"Ali? You mean the girl with you at lunch time mate?"

"Yeah. Ali." Michael shrugged. "She's funny and nice. She can do all the voices."

"I just want to keep you safe, Michael." Eddie told him softly. Michael sighed, a big sigh for such a small child.

"I know daddy. Rach told me." He replied slowly. "But I like Ali, and Rach does too. I trust Rachel." Michael forced a small smile for his dad, still hovering in the doorway. "What's for tea, daddy?"

…

Two hours after the end of the day, Rachel finally pulled into her driveway, hoping Alia was at home after her meeting. Rachel knew she gave her daughter a lot of leeway she would never give any other pupil at her school, but Alia had always been largely independent, and Rachel was loathed to take it away from the teenager.

Opening the front door, Rachel found herself smiling softly as she heard her daughter laughing, a far cry from the girl that had left Rachel's office a few hours earlier. Peering into the living room, she felt her smile widen as she took in the scene before her.

Alia looked up, her laugh dying down to a smile as she saw her mother stood in the doorway. "Hey Rach." Her companion looked up with a matching smile. Rachel shook her head, still smiling.

"I should be pissed that you two are here alone." Rachel commented teasingly as the other occupant of the room stood up and walked over to Rachel, looming a little at just under six foot tall, hugging her tightly. Rachel smiled, hugging the boy back, glad he was here for Alia. "Hi Jack."

"Hey Rachel." Jackson Bennet replied, smiling at Rachel. Rachel couldn't help but smile back at the fifteen year old. Jack had been on the same Army base as Alia when they were twelve, and they'd been inseparable ever since they'd met when they were seven. Alia had once told her that they'd had a fight within the first five minutes of meeting, before declaring each other their best friend, as no one else came close to their level. Rachel had first met the boy when she'd arrived to take Alia with her, and he had quickly become a part of the family, even if he came and went as he pretty much pleased. But then so did Alia a lot of the time.

"How long do I get to put up with you for this time?" Rachel asked with a smirk as Jack finally let her go, taking note of the two bags in the corner she knew belonged to Jack. She'd housed the boy on and off since she'd left with Alia, with the last time she'd had him for an extended time being a year ago for two months straight. Since then he'd stayed the odd day and night but never longer.

Jack glanced at his bags before looking back at Rachel with a half-shrug and a mirror of her own smirk. "At least through the end of this week?" His smirk mellowed into a smile. "Dad's still deployed and mum's got a conference until Friday. You don't mind, right?"

"Of course I don't Jack. Your room is the same as always, down the hall from Ali's. I think I put the clothes you forgot last time in the drawers. Apart from the hoodie. Ali stole that."

"I did not!" Alia denied instantly, though her cheeks pinked a little. Jack and Rachel shared another smirk as Alia shook her head at them. "I swear you two like ganging up on me."

Rachel just laughed as her daughter pouted on the couch and Jack grabbed his bags and started dragging them up the stairs to the room he'd had ever since Rachel and Alia had moved into the spacious three storey house in Rochdale.

Sitting down beside her daughter, Rachel fixed her with a concerned look. Alia tried to look innocent, but dropped the act at a raised eyebrow from her mother. "How are you really doing, Ali?"

Alia sighed, moving closer into her mum's side, resting her head on her shoulder as Rachel placed an arm around her. "Michael's a good kid. I get why Eddie was angry, I do. But he didn't have to take it out on me like that. I'm sorry if I got you into more awkwardness with him."

"Oh don't worry about anything like that. He's angry with me too right now. God knows why, seeing as how I looked after Michael all day. He's angry on your behalf by the way."

"Who, Michael, why?" Alia pulled away slightly to look at her mum with confusion. Rachel smiled gently.

"Apparently he really likes you and thought his dad was out of line talking to you like that. I put him straight, that you wouldn't want him falling out with his dad over you, and last I saw Michael had decided to be the bigger person. It was actually quite funny."

"He's a good kid," Alia repeated, relaxing into Rachel's embrace once more. "What's for tea?"

Kids, Rachel thought with a smile. Always comes back to being hungry.

…

Whatever progress he thought he'd been making with Alia Falan had definitely been undone, Eddie decided halfway through the year 11 maths lesson the next day. Usually he wouldn't have the year 11's twice in two days, but the timetables had been uprooted to make way for the autumn mock exams that were only a few short weeks away. After talking a little further with Michael the night before, and finding out that the picnic was her idea and she'd gone out of her way to do it for him, and recalling Rachel's defence of the teenager, he'd decided to try again with the fifteen year old, starting with the lesson he had with her. However, from the start it had been blatantly obvious she wanted nothing more than to not be in his class. She'd strolled in nearly ten minutes late, a leather jacket in place of the blazer she usually sported and had slumped into her seat without an explanation or apology. She hadn't even looked at him. Eddie could tell she wasn't paying any attention to his lesson and if he wasn't mistaken, she had her phone out inside her maths book. That was it. It was one thing to ignore him, but another thing altogether to disrespect him so blatantly. "Miss Falan!" He raised his voice slightly, but the subject of his call looked as though she hadn't even heard him. "Miss Falan! Outside now!"

Eddie watched as all colour drained from the teenager's face, though her eyes hadn't moved from the phone hidden in the pages of her book. Finally, she glanced up, seeing him looming over her desk. She silently threw her things into her bag and walked slowly out of the room, Eddie following her and closing the door behind them. "I don't know where this attitude has come from but it could do with a little adjusting. I think time spent in the cooler until lunch will help with that. Go. Now."

Alia blinked at him a little, as though only just realising he was in front of her. Without warning, her eyes rolled back in her head as her legs gave way underneath her and Eddie had to lunge forward to catch the girl before she hit the floor, slowly sinking to sit on the floor supporting her. What was all that about? He had to get her to the nurse and her parent needed to be called. Something clearly wasn't right.

Thinking quickly, Eddie yelled at the rest of his class (who had appeared at the windows and door as soon as he'd closed the door) to get back in the class and not move until he was back before reaching down and lifting Alia up in his arms. He strode down the corridor, ignoring the worried and concerned looks he was receiving from every class he passed until he reached the first aid room, laying the teenager down gently on the medical bed in there. He quickly checked her breathing and pulse, both of which were normal and lent credence to her having just passed out, though he had no idea why. He quickly logged himself into the ancient computer in the first aid room. As a first aid trained admin, he had access to the personnel records of all students and staff. Whilst he would normally leave this sort of thing to Rachel or Tom, he didn't have the luxury of time. He had to contact the parent himself this time.

Finding Alia Falan's records, Eddie frowned as he saw no name in the emergency contact form all parents had to fill out to sign their child up for school, but a phone number that looked vaguely familiar to him. Shaking the feeling away and checking on Alia again, who was still out but her breathing and pulse were still normal, Eddie quickly punched in the numbers on the landline within the room, waiting impatiently as it rang four times before being picked up. "Hi, it's Eddie Lawson, Waterloo Road. I'm calling about your child, Alia Falan."

"…Eddie?!"

"Rachel?!"

TBC…