Thank you for the reviews.

Now, this was quite fun to write and you will have to let me know if you agree with me or not as to when you think that our favourite idiots realised their feelings for each other.

Two: Realisation

The first time a member of your OTP (or both members!) realised they had feelings for the other.

It was strange how it happened. And Eddie was excited to see where things went with him and Rachel.

They were friends, for sure. She was the only person he could think of going to if he had a problem. Maybe she was his boss as well but he felt like they were past all that now. They were friends pure and simple.

But he loved teasing her about Stuart. Maybe that was because he hoped that she would give the answer that she implied.

That she wasn't into Stuart.

It meant that they could keep doing their thing, wasn't it?

That they could get closer and closer and maybe by the summer, they could be knocking on the door of something new together, couldn't they?

That might have been the case if he didn't find out what he did about Rachel. He didn't know how to take the news. And maybe he should have asked her about it before he actually did and maybe asked her and not just confronted her about it. And maybe he should have been more willing to listen to her rather than just making his own conclusions.

Why does that bother you?

It was the question that he had asked himself a lot since Rachel asked him it and the only problem he had was that he kept coming to the same conclusion.

It bothered him because he was falling for her.

Maybe he was holding her on this pedestal. That she had managed to change so much and make so much of a difference at Waterloo Road that the school was unrecognisable from when he first started and she had only done that in a couple of months. It was something that annoyed him and something that he admired.

But it was more than that. He loved the way that she smiled, especially when she was directing it at him. He loved the sound of her voice as she spoke enthusiastically about some new initiative that she was thinking about, the excitement in her voice making him excited for the idea and wanting to know what he could do to help. He loved the way that she would always ask his opinion on something, whether he agreed with her or not, whether she was going to take it into consideration or not.

He was falling in love with Rachel Mason and it bothered him because this insanely brilliant woman had something in her past that she was so ashamed about that it could be used against her in the way that Stuart was.

He wasn't going to say that his change of heart about leaving Waterloo Road was because of her. Mainly because she was the reason that he handed in his letter of resignation in the first place. He could have argued that he thought that he had more to give at Waterloo Road but he allowed her to think that she had changed his mind by showing him what she thought he would miss about the school and giving away all his responsibilities.

But that made him only more aware of his growing feelings for her and this overwhelming want to protect her and her secret from the world. Even more so when he did give her the time to explain. And he wanted to hold her and comfort her as she explained, with the bottle of wine going pretty fast as she explained.

And that was why he wanted to get Stuart off her back and he acted like her bodyguard. And punching the smug git was better than he could ever have imagined. He was yet to get the chance to show Rachel how much he loved her and, of course, it would be for free, but it wouldn't be free from emotions. And Eddie was very excited for when he could do so.

Rachel attempted not to give her heart away. She had done it in the past and it had never ended well. So she wasn't going to do it again.

Well, she planned not to do it again.

However, that wasn't the way of the world. Because if it was the way of the world, then Stuart Hordley would never have come knocking at her door and Eddie wouldn't have found out about her past and she would be sitting there, reading his resignation letter.

She didn't know why she was reading it. It was a pretty standard letter of resignation. She had written a fair few herself in her time. It gave no indication as to the reason why he was leaving and she knew that it wasn't going to. No matter how much he hated her for it, he wasn't going to go out into the world and tell everyone.

But that didn't stop her heart from sinking and she battled with herself for the reason why.

The reason why was because she enjoyed working with him. The reason why was because he was a good deputy and she loved that he was as opinionated as her that they didn't agree on everything.

The other reason why was because of how quickly they had become close. How he already felt like an old friend that she had known for years.

And she wasn't looking for anyone. Why would she be looking for someone?

But that didn't stop her from thinking that there could be something more with Eddie and how she wanted to see whether that was the natural progression of their relationship. The progression from work colleagues to friends to… lovers.

But with the letter in front of her, she was sure that wasn't going to happen. He was going to disappear from her life after finding out her secret.

There was a part of her that wondered whether she had already worked out why it bothered Eddie so much about her past. Because she wondered whether it had less to do about the school and more about her personally. God forbid that she wanted to drag the school through another controversy but it wasn't like Waterloo Road hadn't been a school built pretty much on controversy. The school had a reputation for being one of the worst in the area, if not the country. Would the headteacher being an ex-prostitute really surprise anyone?

Not that she wanted to test that and, by God, she hoped that it wouldn't come to that.

But either Eddie saw her like she saw him and he saw her as someone that he didn't want to lose from his life. Or he already wanted something more.

It wouldn't have surprised her to find out that he was a gentleman (and boy did she need one of those in her life).

Yet there was no way that she was going to wear her heart on her sleeve. Even to Eddie. Not yet at least. Maybe that was for later. When she was certain of what she felt for him and when she was certain that he was going to reciprocate those feelings.

That was until he decided that he would take matters into his own hands with Stuart and getting him to back off. The last thing that she ever expected was for Eddie to punch Stuart and there was this overwhelming feeling to run over to him and show her appreciation for what he had just done. A damsel in distress giving a kiss to her knight in shining armour.

But she balled up her fists and pressed her nails into her palms to keep herself where she was. She could not lose Eddie and she couldn't give her heart over. Not if there was the potential that it could break.

She loved Eddie Lawson and she couldn't work out whether that was a good thing or not.