Thank you for the reviews.

So the twins have a plan... shall we see how well it goes?

The Intervention

Rachel was rather unsure. She hadn't slept, with the twins' words circling around her mind and with her equally wanting to know what they were planning while also having nothing to do with it. It was a plan that wasn't going to work. Eddie sounded so certain of his choice. There had been time between him making that decision and them breaking up properly. It was something that he wanted.

She couldn't be hopeful. She couldn't think that the twins were going to fix something that she couldn't.

They had their time. Maybe from the moment that they were reunited, they were running on borrowed time.

And Rachel wanted to be wrong. She did but didn't want her relationship with Eddie to last a night. But was the longing better than the pain that she was currently feeling?

So James walking into her office wasn't a good thing. Because there was probably only one thing that he wanted.

"I thought you would have said something by now." He said as he settled in front of her desk.

"About?" Rachel said, trying to shrug it off and play it innocently.

"Last night. How much did you hear last night?"

She sighed, knowing that he would get the truth out of her one way or another. "From when you said what made me leave Robert."

"Then how much did you agree with?"

Rachel knew that James would take her silence as she did agree with what was said. She just couldn't tell him that he and Amelia had said things to Melissa that she wished that she could have. She knew that she had started to give Melissa some home truths when she picked her up from Liverpool but maybe she hoped that what the twins said would make more sense.

But it wasn't up to the twins to say things that she should have said to Melissa years ago. It wasn't for the twins to say all the things that she was scared to say because Melissa was her sister and she was scared to lose her from her life again.

But, then again, was this all worth losing Eddie over?

"Don't make me answer that." She said.

James smiled at her. "Then I think you need to come with me."

"You can't fix this, James."

"You think?"

"James…"

"Why do you think I am here with you and not trying to have a man to man with Dad? We know our strengths and Amelia has Dad wrapped around her little finger at times. While she also still believes the bullshit idea that I am your favourite. Dad definitely has more of a favourite. Although you can't blame him, can you?"

"You're not going to fix it." She repeated. "Either of you."

"Oh, come on Mum. Of course, it isn't going to get fixed with that attitude. You can change school after school. You can survive a fire. But you can't fight for a man who gave you more than you could ever have imagined."

Rachel cocked her head to the side, understanding the tactic that James was trying. "Not going to work."

"Okay then. I did hear him that night."

"What night?"

"Robert. Telling you that you weren't worthy of love because of what you did."

Rachel instantly knew the night that he was talking about it. Because it was the night that James found out about what was happening and it started everything for him. It was the night where she believed that the only man that would love her would be her son.

"I tell you what Mum." James continued. "I think it makes you more worthy. I think you are worthy of a good man that will love you and look after you. You are worthy of a man who sees past what you have done and still loves you. You are worthy of a man who makes you happy." He held his hand out to her. "Please, Mum."

As much as Rachel knew that James was now a grown man and that they did things in private that he had shied away from in public years ago, she couldn't remember the last time that he had held his hand out for her to take. Part of her didn't want to waste that opportunity that her 18-year-old son had given her, with her smiling as James pulled on their joined hands to get her moving. She just didn't know what they had planned to get her back together with Eddie.

Eddie always had the impression that Jamie was the more outgoing one. That if there were any of his children that would walk into his classroom and demand that he came with them, it would be Jamie.

However, it was Amelia that walked into his classroom, told him that this can't continue. When he tried to get any answers out of her, she grabbed his hand, pulling him out of his chair and down the corridor toward the Pastoral Care office.

"Amelia," Eddie said.

"Dad, you can lie all you want. You don't really want this." She said, her grip on his hand increasing.

Eddie would have tried to argue with her more but he felt like Amelia would be as stubborn as Rachel when he told her no. It seemed strange. Because it was the thing that he felt like he was going to miss most about Amelia when he wasn't going to see her every day.

Although he could only smile to himself as he realised how stubborn both of the twins were. Maybe he should have realised that Jamie and Amelia wouldn't let him and Rachel give up on each other so easily.

And Eddie was certain that Kim was in on whatever plan the twins had as she didn't seem so surprised to see Amelia coming in and sitting him down on one of the sofas. He thought about trying to get Amelia to see some sort of sense when Jamie pulled Rachel into the room, with Eddie seeing her reluctance while also seeing how much the break up had affected her. Although he was sure that it would be the same the other way around.

And so, with Rachel sitting next to him, there probably wasn't much to explain.

"Please, just talk this out," Amelia said. "We hate this as much as you do and, as we discussed last night, you two are good together and there is nothing more that we want than for you two to be together. Because if you don't talk it out now and let this stupid thing continue, you know that it will end with one of you resigning and we are going to, then, be worrying about both of you and we can't have that now, can we? So please, sort this."

Eddie briefly allowed his vision to flick to Rachel as Amelia, Jamie and Kim left them, with it sounding like they locked the door behind them. He couldn't really stop himself from laughing.

"What?" Rachel said.

"Dear God. They are really going to these lengths." Eddie said. "That they think that we can't talk without locking us in a room."

"You can't say that you weren't reluctant about what Amelia wanted from you."

"Rachel." He said, turning to her properly. "I… I did what I did, said what I said, because I wanted to give you control but I… I want to be with you. But I need you to want to be with me as well. For once, I thought that we were on the same page. I thought that we were on the same step. I thought we wanted the same things."

"We probably were." She said as she looked up at him. "I got why you were angry, Eddie. And I get that I should never have run after her like I did. But it hurt me to think that Melissa could make up things with Philip and I could have made her leave for good if I didn't go after her. The older Melissa gets, the more of Mum I see in her. But I can't allow her to do what Mum did to us to Philip. Even if it might be the better thing for her to do."

"And I don't understand that."

"I am not the best at explaining."

"But can you? Because I do understand more now. I know about trauma and mental health. I want to know, Rachel. I want to know how to make sure that we are always on the same step or page."

He could just feel her uncertainty. It was to a point that he felt like she was going to refuse him. It almost made him think that there were things that they were never going to get over.

"Okay. I'll explain my childhood. But I think that it would only be fair if you explained yours as well. Because I think you are holding back a few things from there as well."

"Fine. But you are going first."

She scoffed but he was sure that even he expected that reaction off her. But he didn't really expect her to move closer to him on the sofa, with him moving to make himself more comfortable but also so he could see her as she explained. Not that he didn't think that she was going to lie to him but because he wanted to know the moment that maybe he had asked too much from her by asking her to tell him.

It was never going to be an easy conversation and Eddie was ready for that. But he was also ready to make sure that they could move forward. Together.

With Philip being told that their plan worked, it was quite a weird feeling that he had as he walked home. Because it was strange that he hadn't walked home, on his own, for the last month and a half, either having James or Amelia or both with him.

And maybe he should have been more surprised that he almost tripped over the bags by the front door as he entered the house. Because his mum was never going to take the things that had been said in the right way.

If his mum could, then she would run away from all her problems.

"Quickly pack your things." His mum said as she came down the stairs.

"Why?" Philip said.

"Because we are leaving. It is clear no one wants us around."

"You maybe but I'm not going anywhere."

"What do you mean?"

"Did you not listen to a word James or Amelia said last night?"

His mum huffed as dropped the bags on the floor. "I knew that this would happen. I always knew that James was a bad influence. Rachel doesn't think so. Rachel didn't see what was wrong with what he said last night. Typical, isn't it? So I am meant to be a mindreader…"

"No, you were meant to ask. Mum, stop being selfish for a moment. Because they are right. From Robert to the fire. But let's focus on the fire because you knew that Auntie Rachel was in hospital and I said many times that we should go and see how she is and how the twins were for you to ignore it and said that you were sure that they were fine. We didn't do anything until you needed a change of scenery. She needed you. They all needed you and you weren't there. Yet, every time that you need her, she is. So no. I am going to put my foot down. I am not going to let you run from this. You are staying and you are going to make amends. To all of us."

Philip hated how he regretted saying that all to his mum. He knew that it needed to be said but it didn't make it easy when he could see that his mum was visibly angry at what he had said.

"Fine." His mum said. "I don't know what it is going to do."

Philip knew that his mum didn't know what she had actually done wrong which meant that she would never know how to fix it but he hoped that he could push her into making the right decisions. If not, maybe he needed to allow his mum to disappear for good and just live with his auntie.

Rachel couldn't stop herself from smiling. There was the small point where there low hum of music being played from both James and Amelia's room (with them probably having left their headphones at hers. With the plan for the weekend being to move back into Eddie's) with them trying to disguise the way that her and Eddie had decided to reunite properly.

But Rachel also couldn't believe that she almost let it all go as she found herself with her head on Eddie's shoulder with his arm around her waist, his fingertips gently stroking her side. Of course, they had reunited in that way and so the twins were justified in the way that they were trying to block them out. It wasn't like they were going to go to bed any time soon (although Rachel hoped that they were relaxing rather than revising).

As she lied there, so content, she knew that there was one thing that she hadn't said to Eddie when they had spoken earlier.

"Eddie." She said as she laid her hand out on his chest.

"Yes."

"Can I say something?"

"Go ahead."

"Melissa… she used to tell me that I was lonely. I used to argue with her that I wasn't. Because I had the twins. How could I be lonely when I had these two brilliant people in my life?" She rose up on her elbow to look at him. "But I was. I was lonely and I have been for 18 years. Actually, I suppose it is actually 19 now. I've never been able to understand our night and why it was so… important to me. Maybe I have just never understood love."

"And I understand why. Better now."

"But James is right. I have always thought that I was unlovable. Mum was the only one to really show me any love and that was very rarely because she was more concerned about Dad. And I think Melissa has proven many times that she hasn't had my back."

"Rachel…"

"When I told Melissa that I went home to get her, I did mean it. I wanted to get a few things. I had some money saved up. It was the only way I was going to get out. Obviously, I knew I was pregnant at the time. I hoped that Dad was out but he wasn't. He went mad at me, blaming me for everything. He only stopped when he noticed Melissa standing in the doorway and he told her to go down the shops because they had run out of milk.

"I begged her to stay. Literally, begged her. All because I knew that he wouldn't lose his temper if she was around and then I wouldn't be in a position where I could have lost the twins. I didn't dare tell him that I was pregnant. He probably would have made me lose them on purpose then. He told me… if I wanted to be a slut, then he would treat me like one. I never found out what that meant as I kneed him as hard as I could as he grabbed me by the shoulders and I left.

"I ran after Melissa, to try and do what I set out to do in the first place. She just turned to me, screaming about how dare I come after her and hadn't I caused enough damage already. I don't think she has ever put two and two together and realised what that meant. But once we were reunited, it became hard to tell her. Especially as she sounded so set on making up for lost time. Dad always had an alternative motive for everything that he did. Trust Melissa to pick it up as well."

It was quite tender in the way that Eddie raised his hand to tuck her hair behind her ear before he cupped her cheek. Maybe it was the reason why she did love him so much. He was always sweet and caring and soft. Whereas her dad and Robert were harsh and uncaring and rough.

"Then will you let me love you? Because the only thing that I expect back is that you love me as well." He said.

"Yeah." She whispered.

"Properly this time?"

She nodded. "I can't let you go again. I can't feel that lonely again."

His hand went from her cheek to behind her neck, guiding her closer to him, which she allowed. It was a kiss that was easily going to lead to something more and Rachel was sure that he was going to try to show her love in the exact same way that he showed her love all those years ago. But Rachel couldn't wait to see the other ways that Eddie was going to do the same thing and maybe she needed to come up with a few ways of her own.