Thank you for the reviews.

So they are now back in England... And maybe, just maybe, Rachel is ready to give up on Melissa...

They Grow Up So Fast

"She won't be happy." Rachel said.

"I know. But if we are already there when she gets back, she isn't going to be able to slam the door in our faces. Especially after everything that was said the last time we saw Melissa. Rachel, I know you don't want to make an enemy of her but I think she has already done that herself. Like I've already said, I think you love her too much. Definitely, more than she loves you."

Eddie knew that Rachel was going to sigh but he couldn't really blame her for it. They had left it a few days before they decided that they needed to confront Melissa about what Philip told them. It had been discussed many times between them, with them definitely getting the motivation to unpack from their holiday so that they could pick up the last few belongings that Rachel, Jamie and Amelia had at Rachel's.

"Okay, let's get this over and done with." She said, pulling on the handle to open the car door.

There was a small groan from Rachel as they entered the house and Eddie was sure it was because of the mess that the house was in. He knew that he wasn't clean up to Rachel's standards but the state that Melissa had the house in was worse than any bachelor pad that he had been in. It was quite clear that if it was being cleaned, it was being cleaned by Philip.

And that seemed to be the first task as they started to make their way through the house. Eddie knew that Rachel had tried to tell him many times that Melissa didn't look after herself but he didn't quite think to the level that was displayed in the house. It almost made him want to turn to Rachel and say that Philip could, permanently, move in with them and forget about giving Melissa any more chances to prove how much of an awful mother she was.

When they finally got upstairs, Rachel took Amelia's room while Eddie took Jamie's, with him finding it very hard not to flick through the couple of journals that Jamie had left behind.

If there wasn't the fact that Melissa could return at any point, Eddie probably would have walked into Rachel's bedroom and up to her, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind to kiss down her jaw and neck, to have another use for the time that they were alone. And probably by the smile on Rachel's face, it was what she was thinking about as well.

It was quite nice that they had finished everything that they needed to do when Melissa made her appearance and it was very clear that she was annoyed about them being there.

"Excuse me, what the hell do you think you are doing?" Melissa said.

"Finally finished moving out." Rachel said. "Although, what have you done with the last of Amelia's paintings? The ones I had going up the stairs."

"Oh… they had… an unfortunate accident."

"An unfortunate accident?" Eddie said. "What type of accident?"

"Philip, god bless him…" Melissa started.

"Philip would have told me if he did something to them." Rachel said. "Actually, I think he would have said something if something had happened to them. This must have been recent. Was the unfortunate accident a fit of rage?"

"I wouldn't call it a fit of rage."

"I suppose you are right. You are a lot more calculating than Dad was."

Melissa scoffed. "You really think I have done something on purpose to them."

"Well, without blaming Philip for it, tell us what happened to them?"

Eddie now really wished that he had paid more attention to the artwork that had adored Rachel's walls. Mainly because he wanted to know the subject of the paintings and why Melissa would do something to them (although he guessed that they might have contained Amelia's favourite subjects, Rachel and Jamie). But that wasn't really the point and as Melissa stayed quiet, the anger Eddie found himself becoming. This was more than just Rachel loving the pictures enough to want to display them, these were things that Amelia had spent time on that her own auntie had destroyed in some way.

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have left them here so long if you actually wanted them," Melissa said.

Jamie had confessed to Eddie that a constant thought that he had around his auntie was that he just wanted to shake her, in hope of getting some sense into her. At that moment, Eddie couldn't help but feel that way as well.

"This is Rachel's house." Eddie found himself saying, his voice raised.

"I keep trying to sort that out with her but she keeps saying that she hasn't made up her mind yet," Melissa said.

"Well have you made up yours?"

"How do you mean?"

"Are you going to be a mother to Philip or not?"

Melissa scoffed. "Not you as well. He is 16. He is old enough to make his own decisions and he can look after himself. I did it at 16. And not out of choice."

"As it seems you won't let me forget." Rachel said. "So the choice wasn't made for you but you are making it for Philip."

"You make it sound…"

"For Christ sakes, Melissa. He is 16. He is still a child. You and I, we were meant to be better than our parents. That is what I try to be because I didn't want James and Amelia to make the same decisions that I did. It just feels like history repeating with you and Philip. Well, don't you think it is?"

"You've obviously made your mind up. You look after him if you really feel that way."

"Don't worry, we will," Eddie said, putting his hand on Rachel's back to start moving her to show that this conversation was over with.

Melissa certainly seemed happy about that and Eddie knew that the best thing to do would be to get Rachel out of that situation and, if he could, never put her in it again.

"I think we need to give up," Eddie said as they sat in the car for a few moments.

"I don't know whether I can." Rachel said.

"Then maybe put more of your energies into Philip than Melissa. I think that is the only way you are going to make things better."

"I didn't expect my own nephew to become my next little pet project."

"I think we should probably start with his GCSEs results and go from there."

"I am so glad you like getting involved."

Eddie just smiled at her and he did hope that he was lifting some weight off her shoulders, even if it seemed like she was still thinking about a lot.

Rachel had hoped that seeing Melissa earlier would have stopped her worrying but she seemed to be adding Philip to her list of worries. Although she knew that Eddie knew about all of that and she knew that he was there to help her with that.

It was one of the other big things that was on that list that she couldn't completely understand why she was keeping it from Eddie but she knew that she only knew the bare minimum. Hence why she was where she was, telling Eddie that she had an appointment (which really wasn't a lie, she just hadn't explained what the appointment was for).

Maybe once she knew more then she could say something to Eddie. It wouldn't be something that she could keep from him forever.

"Rachel Mason." The receptionist said.

"Yeah, that's me." Rachel said, standing up.

"She is ready for you now."

Rachel took a deep breath before she headed down the corridor to find out what was going on.

"Do you think Dad has told Michael to distract us again?" James said as Amelia handed him a cup of tea.

"I think so." She said as she sat down, crossed legged on his bed.

"Two bloody weeks to go."

"I'm so nervous."

"You'll be fine."

"So will you."

James took a sip of his tea before he responded. Because he knew that he wouldn't be able to keep it from his sister, like he couldn't keep it from his mum.

"I think I've flunked my History exam."

Amelia started to laugh until she saw the look on his face. "But… you're great at History. How?"

"I just couldn't remember anything. Bullshitted my way through the question I thought I could do best. I honestly feel sick every time I think about our results. Waiting for my hair to start falling out again."

"Is that why you've been keeping it quite short?"

He nodded. "I just… I don't know whether I will actually be able to open that envelope."

"We could check online before we get them. See if you have got your place at Manchester Uni. That will give some indication."

"Out of everything I could do, I bloody go and do that." He huffed. "All the ways that I could let down Mum and I am finally going to do it."

"Worst comes to the worst, there is always clearing."

"I just… My super bright sister is going to get into the uni that she has dreamt about since she was 10 and… I am going to have to think about clearing."

"Well we didn't pick easy unis to get into, did we? We do have some of our mum's ambitious ways."

"At least you and Mum can actually do what you set out to do."

"James, stop being so hard on yourself."

James tutted before he shook his head. "I just want to make them proud and I am terrified that I am going to let them both down. I get that I was a fucking dickhead at times but…" He closed his eyes. "This just feels worse than the other times I have let Mum down."

It was clear that Amelia was waiting for him to look at her again before she said anything. And he was sure that he already knew what she was going to say.

"You've never let Mum down," Amelia said. "Driven her up the wall, maybe. But you've never let her down. Me neither. Even when you were a dickhead. Because, even if you went about things in the completely wrong way, your heart was always in the right place. You were always just trying to protect us from any more harm."

"Still. Till we open those envelopes in two weeks time, I'm going to think that I am going to let her down."

James knew that Amelia knew that there was nothing that she could say to make him think otherwise and so moved to sit with her back against his side, tucking herself underneath his arm. He couldn't stop himself from placing a kiss in her hair, knowing that soon they couldn't just sneak into each other's rooms in the middle of the night to drink tea and chat. And that was what he suspected Amelia's request was all about.

"Do you remember that story you made up when we were eight because we watched The Mummy with Auntie Melissa and it terrified me?" Amelia said.

James chuckled. "You wouldn't sleep by yourself for the week or so afterwards."

"But you made it all better."

He took another sip of his tea as he tried to buy himself a little time to think about how the story started before he started to retell it to his sister.