(A/N): Here is the next chapter! And yes, I do have more and somehow this turned into one massive story that I was not expecting at all. I thank everyone that reads it, but especially those who leave the wonderful reviews. Oh yes, they watch a programme in this chapter, and though I did not name it, it is actually Life on Mars, where Eva Pope was in an episode in series 2, around the same time she was filming Waterloo Road. I mean, it makes sense as they were filmed in the same city. Anyway, read on and enjoy and let me know what you think! Love you all.

What the Heart Wants

Chapter 21

About three quarters of an hour later, the doctor came over to discharge the three of them into the care of the two teachers, warning the two injured teenagers that they were not to do anything at all with their arms until the stitches were checked on in two weeks' time. The two adults were warned to watch for symptoms of shock in all three girls before they were given the painkiller prescriptions for Max and Alia and discharged. A quick trip to the hospital pharmacy would fill the prescriptions. The police had taken the three teenagers' uniforms as evidence but had thankfully foreseen the issue of taking their clothes and provided some generic T-shirt's and leggings for the girls to wear, thankfully not too dissimilar to their actual sizes.

Rachel called for a taxi once the teenagers had finished changing, with Steph having nipped down to the pharmacy for the prescriptions and some more bandages for dressing changes, and together, her and Steph managed to shepherd their charges out of the ward and downstairs to the pickup point outside the hospital, ignoring the looks they were getting from quite a few people, most of whom were either staring at the injured teenagers or the blood on the adults' shirts.

Steph muttered into Rachel's ear as they passed another person who blatantly stared at them. "I can't tell if they think we're on a school trip or we're a couple."

Rachel stifled a laugh. "That or we're here to rob the place."

"Pensioners beware, we've feral Waterloo Road students and we're not afraid to use them."

Both women had to stifle their laughter as they exited the hospital at the pickup point. Ushering the teenagers into the already waiting taxi, Rachel gave her address to the driver and they spent an uncomfortable twenty minutes riding back to her house, considering two of them couldn't work seatbelts properly and nearly cried at every bump in the road despite the heavy painkillers they'd been dosed with. Once they'd reached the house, Rachel remembered she'd left her bag at work, with her purse inside, but thankfully Jack had thought of that in a just in case scenario and rushed out of the house with the money for the taxi within a few seconds of the cab pulling into the driveway.

Rachel let everyone into her house, Jack in the lead, closing the door behind them. The hallway was uncomfortably crowded with Alia by her side and Jack in front of the three that had never set foot in the house before. She managed to catch Jack's attention and gestured for him to direct them to the living room, where the three girls immediately huddled together on one of the sofas and she and Steph sat on the other, not wanting to overcrowd the teenagers. Jack had taken one look at them all and declared that he was staying well out of it and would be hiding up in the attic before the first tear was shed. Rachel had decided she would go check on him in a bit, to see how he was holding up as well as how Sam was doing. Also to make sure he wasn't sleeping up there. No matter how many visitors she had, he would always have a room at her place. Even if it ended up with Alia sharing the room with him for a night or so. First though, arrangements needed to be made with the teenagers and her French teacher.

"Ali," She began softly, gaining the attention of all three teenagers instantly. "Do you mind lending some of your clothes and that to Maxine and Janeece? I'm sure we can figure something out tomorrow, but for tonight I don't think any of us will be leaving the house."

"No, of course I don't mind." Alia nodded her agreement.

"I've got some stuff that I can lend you, Steph. Now the next thing is sleeping arrangements." She held up a hand to forestall the protests that began spilling left, right and centre. She heard Alia offer once again to sleep in her music room, whilst Steph, Maxine and Janeece all had varying protests that basically said they could sleep on the couch whilst the others could have the beds. "I have the room for everyone in their own room, if that's what people want. The sofa was never an option for any of you. I just wondered if anyone actually wanted to be alone tonight?" She checked, nodding when unsure looks were exchanged between all of them.

"Steph, can... can I bunk with you?" Maxine asked quietly.

Steph nodded instantly, offering Max a genuine smile. "Of course you can, love."

"Jan can stay with me," Alia offered up, shooting her mum a small smile. Part of her wanted to stay with her mum, curled up in her arms forgetting the world, but she couldn't leave Janeece alone and it would be all kinds of weird if Janeece ended up in the same bed as her headteacher, whatever the unusual circumstances. Janeece shot her a thankful look for her offer, nodding at Rachel's questioning look. Rachel was torn between gratitude her daughter was so selfless as to look out for other people when she was the injured party, and irritation for the exact same reason. A glance at Steph showed that the blonde woman was happy with the arrangements. For her part, Rachel knew that it would once again be a sleepless night spent worrying over her daughter.

"We should go get changed, give you guys some space." Alia stood up with her announcement, nearly rolling her eyes at the blank looks the two adults sported. For two intelligent teachers, they sure didn't think things through. Seems that once again she had to spell things out for adults. It was happening way too often for her liking. "We need proper clothes on, even if it's pyjamas, and you two need to call in a meeting of the teachers as soon as possible." She directed her gaze solely to Rachel. "Call Eddie. If he finds out through the news it's not going to be pretty." She ignored Steph's furrowed brow at her use of the deputy's first name. Well, he'd never told her off for using it yet, so she'd keep using it out of the classroom.

She smirked at the teachers' bemused looks and left the room followed by Maxine and Janeece, hearing her mum go, "she's got a point," as she started a slow ascent up the stairs. Reaching the landing, she smiled at the two sixth formers. "That's Rachel's room." She gestured to the end room, the door open to reveal most of a neatly made queen sized bed and half a dressing table, some pieces of jewellery they'd all seen the headteacher wear before littering the top of it. "The room the other end is Jack's, you saw him when we came in." She pointed to the room the other end of the hall, the door closed. "This is my room." She pointed to the door two down from Rachel's in the middle of the hall, the door open to reveal a messier room with an unmade bed. She stepped towards the room between hers and Rachel's and pushed open the door, revealing a tastefully decorated guest room with a queen sized bed, a set of drawers, a couple of armchairs and a dressing table with a mirror. "This will be Steph and yours, Max," She told Maxine, who nodded solemnly as she left the door open and led the two teenaged girls into her room, closing the door behind her. She had a queen sized bed, a desk against one wall and a wardrobe and set of drawers against the opposite wall. The bathroom was next door, a communal one, but as it was just her and Rachel there most of the time and Rachel had her own en suite, it mainly felt like Alia's own bathroom.

"Your room is massive," Janeece commented with a slightly awed look. Alia nodded. Her room at her dad's had been tiny, with barely enough room for all her things, let alone the amount of furniture her mum had made sure she had. She had more room than she'd ever need here.

"I had a tiny room at my dad's before I moved in with Rach." She moved over to her set of drawers, opening one and pulling out some sleepwear one handed. She knew it was going to wind her up, having to do everything with her non-dominant hand. She quickly found a couple of vest tops for her and Maxine, figuring that sleeves would be difficult to manage with the bandages, at least for the next 72 hours when they could change the dressings and not have quite so much bulk in the bandaging. She found a pyjama top for Janeece before finding shorts for all three of them. Rachel always kept the thermostat at just below tropical, so fuzzy pyjamas had never made much sense to the teenager. She handed out the items of clothing, mentally glad that they were all similar sizes so she didn't have to go raid her mum's wardrobe for anything. Somehow she couldn't see them reacting well to wearing their headteacher's clothing.

Once they were all changed, Janeece having to help the other two with their tops as they could move their arms to sort it themselves, Maxine made them all sit on the bed facing each other cross legged. "Thank you. Both of you. I... I've never been so scared. I was sure Earl was going to kill me."

"Max, don't be daft. We'd do it again without a second thought." Janeece rolled her eyes good-naturedly at her best friend.

"Max, it's okay. We're all here; we're all okay." Alia reached out to grab Maxine's free hand and squeeze it. "Now, do you think we've left it long enough for them to worry about us?" She asked teasingly.

Maxine rolled her eyes. "They probably started worrying the moment we left their sight." She paused for a moment. "Is it not weird?"

"Is what not weird?" Alia blinked in surprise, wondering what was being asked.

"That your headteacher is your mum."

Alia smiled, having expected that question at some point. "Well I wouldn't know; it's never happened before. I went to school on army bases most of my life, because of my dad, and my mum never taught at any of them. Then when I came to live with her when I was twelve, she agreed I could be considered home schooled, so I haven't been at any school for three years. We decided to keep it to ourselves to give me a chance to settle down into a new environment but god knows that's not working out well." She rolled her eyes at the number of people that had found out who she was that week alone. For saying it was a secret, they were terrible at keeping it that way. "It's mostly weird with the teachers going "I'm going to tell the head and then we'll be in contact with your parents" because going to tell the head is telling my parent. They just don't realise the headteacher is one and the same as my mum."

"At least they tell me they're just going to tell Steph on me," Maxine agreed as they all heard the doorbell ring, followed by impatient knocking on the door that made them all jump, fear overtaking their features for a fleeting moment.

"I bet that's Eddie," Alia commented as she calmed before seeing the confused looks on the teenagers' faces. "Mr Lawson," she clarified, though it didn't help much with their confusion.

"You call a lot of people by their first names." Janeece smirked at her.

"I spent like six months with my mum telling me about everyone she worked with using only first names. It's harder to remember what to call them at school." Alia shook her head mock ruefully. "Can you imagine calling Steph by her first name in the middle of French?" The girls burst out laughing at that scenario, coming up with suggestions on who would be worst if Alia called them by their first name in class. They finished up agreeing that Grantly Budgen would be the worst by far, probably threatening her with exclusion and a million detentions until the end of time.

...

Rachel opened the front door abruptly, mainly to get the irritating knocking to cease, only to be nearly barrelled over by her deputy as he surged forward into her house, ignoring her sarcastic "oh please Eddie, do come in". She closed and locked the door behind him, pushing him forward into the living room, where she and Steph had been talking since the girls had gone upstairs and she'd called Eddie. They'd been discussing what to do next, neither having any idea of how to handle traumatised, injured teenagers. Alia had been right; they needed to call a staff meeting and Eddie needed to know as soon as possible. Not that he actually knew why he was there at the moment. When she'd called him up, ten minutes earlier, all she'd managed to tearfully say was "Earl Kelly" before he'd told her he was on his way and hung up. He was clearly confused to see Steph there in Rachel's living room, glancing at the blonde woman with the red rimmed eyes in obvious concern before noticing that Rachel was in a similar state.

"Rach, where's your car?" Eddie asked, having been surprised to not see the sports car outside the house but all the lights on inside as he'd pulled up in his 4x4.

"Still outside Steph's as far as I know." Rachel shrugged, not really caring. Her car was just a thing; she could get it replaced if she really needed to. She could never get her little girl replaced, which was what truly mattered. "Eddie, you need to sit down."

Eddie made to protest when Steph's croaky, teary voice stopped him. "Trust me Eddie, she's right. Sit down."

He sat on the opposite sofa to the two women, mostly in shock at hearing Steph say Rachel was right, Rachel having sat next to Steph after telling him to sit. He was still confused, but a deep sense of foreboding had started seeping in as he watched the two women carefully, noting the tired, tear stained faces and the dried blood on their shirts, the women having not bothered to change their clothes yet. "What's going on?"

"Maxine broke up with Earl Kelly today," Rachel began slowly.

"About bloody time." His input earned a slight glimmer of a smile from Steph.

"Earl decided he'd go try to win Maxine back." Rachel took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, willing herself to get through the story. Eddie needed to know what had happened. "Only she'd bunked off school with Janeece and Alia. And he decided that persuasion was better if he had a gun." Both women swallowed the lump in their throats at the reminder of what their children had gone through.

Eddie paled considerably. "Tell me they're all unharmed." His eyes widened in horror as the two women exchanged a loaded glance, tears never far from their slightly swollen eyes. "No..." He denied, his mind automatically jumping to the worst case scenario.

"They're alive." Steph offered him a wan smile, seeing what he was thinking written all over his face. "Max and Alia were shot. Little Janeece got the gun off Earl before Alia knocked him out with it."

"The kids. The girls. How are they?" Eddie asked, his fists clenching as he tried to get his breathing under control. They'd all thought they were getting somewhere with Earl, that he was slowly improving, but tonight had just shown they were kidding themselves, and three teenaged girls could have paid the ultimate price for that.

"Upstairs. They were shot in the arm as they wrestled Earl for the gun. Max told us their arms were sort of locked together, which is why the one bullet hurt them both," Rachel told him solemnly, her hand firmly entwined with Steph's to get through the story together. "All of them are staying for a few days."

"Christ." Eddie ran a hand through his hair. Before he could ask further questions of the clearly upset women, three teenagers in pyjamas shuffled slowly into the living room, hair pulled back messily into buns, two of them with their arms bandaged and in a sling to push their arm to their chest and keep it in place there. All three looked wary of the conversation between the adults they'd just walked in on, but Alia offered Eddie a tired smile as Maxine and Janeece made their way towards Steph. Without thinking, Eddie jumped up from the sofa, shrinking a little as the teenagers flinched from the movement, but approached Alia anyway, reaching out to touch her good shoulder slowly, so she could have the time to register that it was only him. "Are you alright?" He addressed all the teenagers but his eyes focused on his best friend's daughter.

Alia managed to nod at him. "We're okay." She looked over as Rachel approached her as well, her spot on the sofa having been taken by Janeece, Maxine curled into Steph's other side the best she could with her injuries.

"Are you sure love?" Rachel checked. "What with everything that's happened this week, today on top just seems to be the icing on the cake. I wouldn't be much of a mum if I didn't at least ask, Ali."

"I'm sure we will be okay," Alia assured them. "Could we order some takeout and drag Jack down to watch stupid tv until late?"

"That sounds like a good plan." Rachel glanced over to see the other two teenagers nodding in agreement, so the idea was something they'd obviously spent time thinking of and planned to ask together then. "I don't know how late of a night it can be though. We've organised a full staff meeting at the school for ten o'clock tomorrow morning." She sent the three teenagers a reassuring smile. "We have to tell the staff what's happened before the press get hold of it. You three can either stay here or come with us; it's up to you." She wrapped an arm around Alia's shoulders. "How's pizza for everyone?"

Everyone agreed to pizza, which Rachel phoned and paid for, whilst Alia coaxed Jack down from his hiding spot in her music room, where he'd been doodling on some of her old notebooks. A few reassurances and a promise to try not to rush into something so foolish again was all it took for Jack to agree to the night's plan and come downstairs with Alia to the living room. The pizza arrived and was laid out on the coffee table for a free for all as everyone sat to watch whatever was on the television. Jack was sat on the end of the sofa nearest the window, with Alia next to him. Rachel sat beside Alia with Eddie on the end nearest the door. On the other sofa sat Janeece nearest the door, with Steph sat between her and Maxine, both girls leaning into the teacher's side.

They were halfway through a programme going back in time when Alia smirked and murmured something to Jack, who took one look at the screen and started laughing, though he tried to hide it. They received funny looks from the rest of the room, which only increased as the episode ran through, until by the end the whole room was watching Alia and Jack try their hardest not to fall apart laughing, Jack holding Alia as still as possible so she didn't hurt her arm.

"Okay you two, out with it." Rachel crossed her arms in front of her chest, trying to tamp down the amusement at the pair of them. "What's been so funny?"

"The woman," Jack choked out, biting his lip to stop himself from laughing.

"Which one?" Janeece asked as Steph's eyes suddenly lit up with mirth, clearly understanding whatever the two fifteen year olds had found so funny.

"The one that turned out to be the killer," Maxine piped up as she too realised what was so funny, pressing her good hand to her mouth to stop herself from letting out a giggle.

"What about her?" Eddie asked curiously.

"She looks like Rachel," Alia managed to get out before the pair descended into fits of laughter, Maxine joining them soon after, which Steph was trying her hardest not to join in with. She had to admit, the woman they were talking about did look an awful lot like Rachel, though acted nothing like her. Janeece had caught on and was also giggling as the headteacher and deputy looked at each other incredulously, clearly believing the rest of the room had lost their minds.

"I look nothing like her," Rachel denied, only for Steph to lose the battle and join the teenagers in their laughing fit.

"Yes you do Rach," Alia giggled. "Similar faces and I swear you had that exact same hairstyle at one point."

"Even if I did look like her, which I don't, I don't go around murdering my husband's mistresses." Rachel rolled her eyes as her denial only made them all laugh harder. She could even see Eddie, from the corner of her eye, start smirking in response to the uncontrolled mirth. "The closest thing I ever had to a husband was your father, and last I checked he didn't have any mistresses. Even if he did, they were welcome to him."

"I think it's them imagining it was you instead of the actress, Rach," Eddie murmured to her helpfully. Rachel rolled her eyes again. She looked nothing like that woman.

Rachel didn't sleep, which she had already anticipated. All the bedroom doors had been left open that night in agreement to ease each other's fears and the teenagers had seemed exhausted well before the ten o'clock news. Eddie had gone home about half an hour before they'd all headed upstairs, promising her that he'd make sure the staff responded to the urgent summons her and Steph had sent out just before he'd arrived. She'd settled herself into bed with a book, intent on reading and listening out for any sounds in the night, knowing the worry she felt over her daughter would prevent her from sleeping anyway, so she may as well get on with the book she'd been intending on reading for months now. Only, she couldn't concentrate on the pages, the lines blurring into one whenever she tried.

She couldn't get the idea out of her head of how close she'd been to losing her daughter that day. Despite the fact that her daughter was lay in bed two doors down from her, safe and sound. Earl was the same age as Alia and had nearly took the lives of the three girls, two of which were a year above him, one in his year. Alia had explained the events leading up to them skiving off school to her, and she couldn't help but agree with Maxine's action to call social services on Jade and the baby instantly. No one should have a baby on their conscience like that and she was proud that Max was so hell bent on doing the right thing for that tiny baby. She was even proud of her daughter and Janeece for bunking off school to stay with Maxine and help her get things for Steph, despite the way the events of the day turned out. If only that pride could overcome the terror she felt when her daughter wasn't in sight. She was slightly less proud that her fifteen year old knew exactly where she could by alcohol from, though she did find it somewhat amusing that the three of them had done so for Steph rather than their own consumption. Any other group of teenagers would've been tipsy before setting foot through the door.

Around three in the morning, she gave up on reading as well as pretending to sleep, making her way downstairs in her pyjamas to the darkened kitchen, putting the kettle on to boil. She was going to need a lot of caffeine if there was any chance whatsoever she was going to get through the day on no sleep and a boat load of worry. She was hoping the teenagers would agree to come in with them, just to reduce the stress and fear she and Steph would have over leaving them. She'd let Eddie take her car keys, with him promising to drop it off by morning for her. It would be a tight squeeze, but they'd all fit in the car. She'd never been more thankful to go for the five seater sports car than the two seater she was originally going to go for.

Putting the coffee in the cup, she rubbed at her eyes before pouring herself a cup and adding a splash of milk. She nearly spilt the whole carton as a voice piped up from the doorway. "You sharing?" Rachel glanced over her shoulder to see an exhausted looking Steph in the doorway. "I've put Max in Alia's room with her and Janeece. None of them are sleeping too good, but a lot better than we are by the looks of it." Nodding, Rachel made another coffee and set them both on the six seater kitchen table, sitting down in front of her own cup. Steph sat down in front of her and pulled her own mug towards her. Rachel only noticed when Steph froze, glancing up to see the blonde woman staring at her, but not at her face.

"What?" She asked. "Have I got something on my top or something?" She glanced down at her thin strapped vest top but couldn't see anything wrong with it.

Steph finally managed to meet her eyes. "I… I didn't know."

"Didn't know what?" Rachel huffed out, only to pale dramatically as she realised what Steph had been staring at. Her chest. More specifically, her scar. She'd not put a dressing gown on, having not expected anyone else up at three am, and her sleepy brain had only processed that Alia and Jack had both seen her scar and didn't care beyond if it hurt her or not. She'd forgotten the other three currently under her roof hadn't seen the proof of what the fire had done to her. Not just physically, but mentally and emotionally too. The only person she'd actually shown her scar too was Eddie, to which Alia had kept teasing her that she'd flashed him her boobs, never failing to embarrass her slightly. "Oh. That." She swallowed heavily. "Ali told me one of the metal casings that line the wiring in the corridors had become superheated when it fell on me, pinning me down. This is after two surgeries and a skin graft."

"Does it hurt?"

Rachel shrugged. "Sometimes. Mostly if I move funny or twist it. The surgeon wanted another skin graft to further ease it but I refused. I wouldn't have even had the first one but I was still in a coma at the time and Alia made the decision for me. I mostly hate how ugly it is." She took a sip of her coffee to hide her true reaction to her scar, knowing that trying to hide the mark on her chest at this point would say more to Steph than if she toughed it out.

"It's not. Ugly." Steph clarified. She felt sick at the knowledge she hadn't put much thought into Rachel after the firefighters had pulled her from the fire, seeing the same front everyone else had her first day back and assuming she'd escaped the fire unscathed. But seeing the scar and hearing that Rachel couldn't even make the decisions about it because she'd been in a coma hit hard for the French teacher. Whilst she'd been wishing the summer away doing stupid, frivolous things with Max, Rachel had been lay in a coma in a hospital bed, no doubt with Alia at her bedside every day. "I think it shows just how bloody tough you are. Even if you did stay to help that Hordley bloke after all he did to you." Steph didn't miss Rachel's flinch at the name of the contractor.

"Not just me," Rachel whispered, her hands wrapped around her mug as she stared into its depths. "I only found out this week. He tried to hurt me further than I ever thought possible."

"How?" Steph figured she really didn't want to hear the answer but had asked the morbidly curious question anyway.

"Alia. He… was going to take her away from me. Make her… make her become like me, like I was. A prostitute. She was just fourteen." Steph felt sick to her stomach at Rachel's whispered confession, but the woman hadn't finished, still staring into her coffee mug. "I'd been there when he'd first threatened her, asking me what I'd be willing to do to protect her. But I couldn't protect her the second time. And… she only just told me, this week."

"Did he ever…?"

"No. No, she promised me… threats were all he did." Rachel took a sip of her coffee. "God, I thought our lives were complicated before, but it seemed to double when I took up the headship here, and then tripled when I managed to get her to agree to go."

"Max told me they'll come with us tomorrow," Steph told her in an attempt to redirect the conversation, not knowing how to deal with the morose version of Rachel. And she wasn't waking Alia to do so. The three teenagers needed their sleep; it was going to be a long few days at least. "The girls. They don't want to be alone, even with Jack here, so they'll come with us. Max told me Alia said she'd bully Eddie into staying with them at school whilst we went and got clothes and stuff for Max and Jan." Steph shot Rachel a smirk, who rolled her eyes at the none too subtle hint. She'd been fielding the looks all evening as soon as she'd seen how comfortable Eddie seemed in her house and his reaction to Alia. Steph had noticed instantly that Eddie seemed to know all about Alia and her relationship to Rachel, including the concern he treated both mother and daughter with the entire time he was there. Sure, he'd treated them all with concern, but she could see it was different when he turned to Rachel and Alia.

"Don't Steph. It's complicated. God, it's so complicated."

TBC…