Thank you for the reviews.

I think it is safe to say that Eddie has quite an uphill struggle when it comes to Rachel...

And three weeks have passed since the last chapter (and there is another three-week gap between the first and second part of this...). Shall we get Rachel home?

She's Home

Rachel tried not to sigh as James passed her the last couple of things that she needed to pack. She had fought with the doctor to get herself discharged and she knew that there was going to be another battle soon.

Because there's only one place that she wanted to be and that was home (meaning her own house). Preferably without Eddie being there.

She had listened to what Eddie had said and she was glad that the twins had someone to turn to (God only knows what would have happened if the twins were on their own). But Eddie didn't need her and her problems. The only reason she wasn't thinking about running away from her problems again was because the twins seemed so settled.

Maybe it was rather selfish of her to think about running away but her thoughts were constantly on what happened on the day of the fire and why the fire happened. Eddie could tell her that everything was sorted and everything was fine but it didn't mean that it was. Just because she still had a job (although she couldn't understand how she did) didn't mean that everyone still respected her or held her in the same regard as they did before they found out that she used to be a prostitute. There was still going to be the whispers behind her back and the subtle eye rolls, calling her a hypocrite as she told them off.

Things weren't going to be the same as they were and it seems like she was the only one to realise that.

It was why she brought it up when it was just her and James wondering whether her son would help her out.

"Can't wait to get home." Rachel said.

"Well... We aren't going home, home." James said

"How do you mean?"

"We are going back to Dad's. That home."

"James, I am glad that you have accepted and bonded with Eddie but…"

"Mum, he wants to do this." He said, interrupting her. "He wants to be there for you. Please, don't push him out. Because you were right. He is a good role model and dad."

Rachel sighed, knowing that she would have to argue out with Eddie as James wasn't going to help her out.

"Anyway," James continued as Eddie and Amelia walked into the room, "We've sorted everything out now. Haven't we?"

"Sorted what out?" Rachel said.

"The sleeping arrangements."

"Oh Mum, you don't want to go home," Amelia said, obviously catching onto where this had all come from.

"Why not?" Rachel said.

"Because Auntie Melissa is there until she finds somewhere 'more permanent'. It was empty and it stopped her from staying with us. You know what she is like. And we know what you are like."

And there it was. The one thing that Rachel thought that's twins was doing but was never going to mention. They were trying to stop her from pushing away all her problems by doing something before she was ready to. They were trying to make her see that she needed time to heal. For once, she wasn't going to be able to run away (physically and mentally).

"I-I-I suppose you are right." Rachel said.

"Don't worry... Michael agreed that if you were staying longer than he was, i.e. you were only going to permanently be there, he didn't mind giving up his room for the box room." James said.

"I think we sweeten the deal by saying that we would decorate the box room," Eddie said.

"Which was alright for you two," Amelia said. "I was the one that had to paint the car in the wall after Dad said he could have anything that he wanted."

"You said you were fine with it," James said.

"Like you haven't said yes to everything that Michael has asked you to do. Like the water fight and when you almost soaked my sketchbook."

Rachel couldn't stop herself from smiling as she listened. This is where she thought they would all be at this point in time. That they would have had a summer of getting to know each other and they would be thinking about what they were going to do over the October holidays.

Then it hit her again. All her insecurities came back to the surface and the mention of Michael reminded her of the little boy that she had managed to get Eddie to be a father to. That little boy didn't need her around. He didn't need the chaos that she had brought to Eddie's life.

She was obviously sucked into her own thoughts for a little too long when she was brought back into the room by Eddie placing his hands on her shoulders. She looked around for the twins, noting that they had also taken her bags.

"One step at a time, Mason," Eddie said.

"Eddie…"

"I'm signed up. For the good and the bad. And that means for you too. Not just the twins."

"I don't want to sound ungrateful."

"Look, Rachel, they are like you. They worry a lot. Like a 'holding their breath until I got off the phone and told them what was happening' worried. So give them a little peace of mind. Be at mine because they have the knowledge that there is another set of eyes watching over you. That because I am there, they can worry about their A-Levels rather than you. And their personal statements and the uni applications." He paused. "Also, Amelia and Bath Uni? How long has that been a thing?"

"Melissa wasn't available to look after them so I took them on a school trip to Bath. It was a year 13 trip for this talk thing. They were… year 5. So they had just turned 10 when Amelia announced to me that she wanted to go to the university that we were standing in. I took it with a pinch of salt. That she wouldn't change her mind on going to university but which one she had her heart set on. Eight years later…"

"She still wants to go." He finished for her.

Rachel smiled up at him. "I kept telling her that she would have to put in the time and the effort to get the grades. She has amazed me by always doing that."

"So please." He whispered. "Don't give them an opportunity to worry about you. Our night… you told me that you had deferred your place at uni twice. I don't care about the reasons why or whether it was another lie, but I care if they think that they have to make the same choice. You've given them a good foundation. You have given them everything that you didn't have. They haven't had to make the same choices you did. So don't make them make that one. Let me look after you."

Rachel wanted to call him all the names under the sun. She hated him for the way that he worded it. Because she would always put the twins first and bloody stupid Eddie Lawson had made her see things from a different perspective, making her take his offer.

"You still don't need this." She whispered back.

"I let you down before. I'm not going to do it again."

"You didn't. You played Tess' game."

"Which you constantly warned me about doing."

Rachel still didn't understand how, even after everything that happened, she still wanted to fall into his arms, with her feeling safe with him around. It was probably a sign that she should let Eddie in and accept what he was offering her. Because, at the bare minimum, he was offering her companionship (something that she craved so much).

"We can make it work, Rachel." He said.

"I know. I… I was just looking forward to getting into my own bed."

"I know. Maybe we have just got a little use to making decisions without you. It's only because we care."

It was a battle that Rachel wasn't going to win. To her, it didn't matter that it was a good idea. It didn't matter what she knew she felt for Eddie. She, automatically, felt like she was going to be a burden.

Maybe that would change once she got back to work.

There was a bet. A bet to see when Rachel was going to announce that she was going back to work. With the look that the twins gave him when he said his answer, Eddie felt like he was going to be way out (however he seemed to be right). He knew that he had won a battle at the hospital by getting Rachel to come home with him, but he was sure that was going to be an easier battle than the one that was about to start.

"November." Rachel said.

"November?" Eddie questioned.

"Well, it's now the October break. Seems like the best time that I could go back."

"Rachel ... you haven't even been out of hospital for three weeks."

"So?"

"So, don't you see that it's way too soon."

"No, it's not."

Eddie sighed. "So this is what the twins meant."

"How do you mean this is what the twins meant?"

"That they have all your bad habits. Rachel, you do understand you have been through a hell of a lot. You can lie to yourself all you want, but you aren't going to fool me. These things take time. And like I said at the hospital, I can't have the twins worrying about you. Meaning that I am going to stop you from doing something that I believe is stupid. As I would assume you would do for me."

Eddie waited for Rachel to say something, as it looked like she was ready to come back with an argument until he said that last line. Part of him wondered whether if he went along those same lines, he might be able to talk some sense into her. He was quite glad that it was only them in the house (with the twins being at work). He would not have wanted the twins to be hearing the conversation and knowing that Rachel wanted to get back to work.

"Then let's think of it that way." Eddie continued. "Imagine that it was me five months ago. Imagine I had just been in a coma for nearly eleven weeks. Imagine if I only woke up two months ago. I am fairly certain that you would want me nowhere near work. Actually, I think you would say that it was my duty not to be at work. You'll be telling me to look after myself.

"That is what I'm doing for you, Rachel. I am telling you it is not your duty to be at work. That I have it all sorted and that, when the time is right, you can take your spot in your office. And you can moan at me about how I filled out this form wrong and that form wrong and signed in the wrong place." He sighed. "So, the one thing that is going to happen is that you are not going to go back in November."

"But I want to go back. Things have to go back to how they were."

"Rachel, don't you see that some things have changed? Maybe not everything but things have changed. Especially the thought you have to do this all on your own. You aren't on your own anymore. You never have to do anything by yourself anymore."

"But it's still my school Eddie."

"Fine. We'll compromise then. Officially, you are on sick leave until Christmas. But I will start bringing you home paperwork and I'll talk with Tom and maybe we can hold a couple of management meetings here so that you are kept in the loop and know what is going on. Fair enough?"

"A couple of management meetings?"

"You do know you have to walk before you can run. All I'm trying to do is make sure that you walk."

Eddie wasn't 100% sure that he had got through to her. There was always a chance that the first day of term would come around and she would say that she was going to go to work. But he hoped that, at least, he had given her some food for thought. That maybe he had been able to put her in his and the twins' shoes. Because that's what he had to do. He had to make her see it from their perspective. Maybe then should understand why they are so reluctant to let her go back, to let her resume normal life.

"Fine." Rachel said. "But you better have at least some filing system in place. Just so I don't have to spend a term sorting out all your filing before I can do any of mine."

"Don't worry, there is some system in place."

It was a relief to Eddie that he had managed to talk her around. Although he knew now that he had to grab Amelia and Jamie and work out what a suitable filing system would be to Rachel. Mainly because there was more than just the paperwork that he had done over the last six weeks to file. It also meant but he could put his plan into place. Because Rachel needed to know how much she meant to the school as well as them.