So Michael was a big hit! Don't worry, he'll be back but in the meantime, thank you for reading and reviewing! x

Red.

Red.

Still red.

Eddie glared at the traffic lights as if he could change them from red to green through sheer willpower. His fingers tapped impatiently against the steering wheel, gaze glancing over to his phone every few seconds to check it was still dark.

Rachel had sent him a single text, requesting he come to her house after work. No more information, but there didn't need to be- the lack of it spoke volumes. She'd been in court with Lindsay James today, and for her to text him like that… something hadn't gone well, he presumed, and this traffic was not calming his nerves any.

He wasn't going to her house- oddly enough, Chris Mead had then sent him a message, informing him that Rachel had walked back into some sort of crisis in school and had ended up at the pub to sort it out, but that she'd probably appreciate his presence as soon as she was done. Eddie had no idea what had changed there, but he wasn't about to argue it.

Rachel's car was parked outside the pub, but he presumed he'd probably end up bringing her to pick it up in the morning. He stepped into the building, glancing around until he spotted the familiar brunette hair, sat with Steph and a dark-haired woman he didn't know.

"Think he's for you, Rachel," he heard Steph say, motioning towards him with her glass. Rachel turned, and her eyes lit up.

"What are you doing here?"

She rose, kissed him hard, uncaring that two of her staff members were sat right there. "Oddly enough, your Mr Mead messaged me," he explained, brushing her hair back from her face. "Strange bloke, I thought he hated me. No clue how he got my number."

She remembered then, that she hadn't relayed the conversation she'd had with her new deputy to him. "I'll explain later," she murmured to him.

"Don't suppose you want to come back, do you Eddie?" Steph questioned, leaning back. "Could do with someone else on our side."

"Good to see you too." He looked amused. "And I'd come back in a heartbeat, but there's not exactly an open position. I can't imagine the LEA being thrilled either."

"Not to mention Max," the other woman at the table muttered. Rachel grimaced, pulling up another chair so they could all sit.

"Eddie, this is Jo Lipsett," she introduced. "And Max isn't getting a say."

"Someone want to catch me up?"

Between the three of them, Eddie learnt what had transpired that particular day, and disregarding the fact he'd been intending to drive home, immediately got a round in. And then another.

"No matter what he says and what you wish, Max Tyler has no interest in working with you," he said to Rachel quietly. She took a mouthful of wine.

"I know. But I don't have a choice, Eddie. I'm not going anywhere, and I can't imagine he is."

"There's a pity," he muttered under his breath. She huffed a laugh, leaning against him as an increasingly drunk Steph began to wave her drink in the air, ranting about something or other. "You want to stay?"

She glanced up at him, hesitating for a moment before shaking her head.

"We should be off," Eddie announced, making to climb to his feet. "Nice meeting you, Jo. See you around Steph."

He helped Rachel into her jacket, flashed the two other women a smile and then they were out of the door, Rachel looking amused. "That was probably a bit rude," she reflected as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"They've drunk enough that I doubt they'll mind." He glanced down at her as she leant her head on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"I can't stop thinking about Lindsay."

"Did they say what's going to happen to her?"

She shook her head. "There'll be another trial. If only they hadn't lied… she might have got away with self-defence and no jail time. But now…"

"There is nothing more you can do," he assured her, wanting to take the desolated look from her face. "You've already gone above and beyond."

She turned abruptly, stopping them walking as she wrapped her arms around his neck, hiding her face in his shoulder and he could do nothing but embrace her back, pressing his lips to her hair and supporting the weight she leant against him. "Will you stay tonight?"

It was mumbled into his shoulder, and he had to strain to make out her words but once he had, it took him a few seconds to respond. While they'd both slept over at the other's place, it had always been something that just happened. It was a huge step for her to actually request that aloud. His grip around her tightened as he pressed a kiss to her hair. "Of course."

Several hours later, they'd had more wine alongside a pizza they'd picked up en-route, and had inevitably ended up tumbling into bed together. Now, Rachel was lying on Eddie's chest, using him as a pillow as they both caught their breaths and cooled down, his arm slung across her and holding on tightly. She mustered up the energy to move her head enough to look at him. "What's wrong?"

He blinked, then gave her a grin. "What could be wrong?"

"You're holding me like you're afraid I'm going to disappear," she said softly, and immediately his grip loosened.

"Sorry."

"Hey." She reached up to caress his cheek, propping herself higher to see him properly. "Talk to me."

He sighed, thumb stroking up and down across her hip. "I can't help thinking what would have happened if things were different."

She tilted her head. "You've lost me."

"If… if Lacey had been mine, I'd have stayed away from you. And you would have been all alone. Everything that's happened the past couple of months- you would have had no one."

"Eddie, how much did you have earlier?" she scolded, pushing herself upright. It had the side effect of dislodging his grip- as soon as she'd settled, wrapping the duvet carefully around herself, his arm was around her again, settling on her hip to hold her tightly. "What sort of thought process is that?" she continued. "Aren't you the one always telling me I worry too much?"

He shrugged. "Just a thought."

She pursed her lips. "More than that, I think," she murmured. "Eddie, I would have been fine. Despite what you occasionally seem to think, I was alone for a very long time and was perfectly okay. If things were different… I'd still be okay. Not quite as happy, perhaps, but okay."

"You're happy now?"

She rolled her eyes affectionately. "Of course I am, you drunk sap. You make me happy."

She bent down to kiss him, enjoying the way his hand slid through her hair. He twined it around his fingers, so that when she drew back she could only go so far before being stopped, quirking an eyebrow at him. "Problem?"

"None at all." He drew her closer again, smirking into the kiss and she laughed against him, shifting so that she was lying pressed against his side.

"You're impossible."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

But even as they joked, his hold was just a little too tight around her and she ran her thumb over his jaw, meeting his gaze. "I would have been fine," she told him seriously. "And it's a moot point regardless. It didn't happen, you're here and everything's okay."

He captured her hand in his, turning his head to kiss her fingers as his heart felt as if it had been hit by a bus. "I love you."

He'd said it before he could stop himself, the words burning inside his chest and spilling out without his consent- he'd been carefully dancing around the subject since that phone call where Rachel had said it first, and it had never been mentioned since. Now, it hung in the air between them, momentous and potentially earth shattering. His stomach flipped anxiously. There was no hiding it, no taking it back and if she took it the wrong way-

"I love you too."

He blinked. His brain stained to catch up as he looked at her, at the bright smile that had already spread across her lips. The third time they'd said it, but the first that wasn't tinged with desperation and grief.

Joy and elation had him crashing his lips against hers, unable to help himself as their legs entwined so that there wasn't an inch of space between them, fingers interlinking as they rolled until Eddie was hovering over her, the feel of his weight oddly comforting.

As they finally broke apart, Rachel's hand came up to cup his face, fingertips tracing his features. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Not saying it sooner. I should have."

He kissed her again, softly now, tender and emotional. "It doesn't matter. We both knew. I didn't say it either."

But they'd said it now, she thought, and wondered if anything would change. Eddie was grinning down at her, happiness visible in every line of his face and while she couldn't bring herself to believe it would… a thin tendril of worry snaked down her spine, even as she smiled back at him and arched up to meet his lips once again.

W.R.

It would have been too much to hope that life around Waterloo Road would quieten down any. The fallout from Lindsay's trial was immense- the kids were misbehaving, Emily James lasted less than two hours in school before begging to be allowed to go home in floods of tears but oddly enough it was Ros and Michaela who fought Lindsay's corner, the latter for once averting trouble rather than causing it.

This lessened Rachel's stress levels by a tiny fraction and not much more. Which led to Eddie surprising her one evening with a dinner, cooked and almost ready when she walked in the door from work. "What's this for?" A warm smile had broken out as she crossed to greet him, laptop forgotten where she dropped it.

"I need a reason?"

Her eyes narrowed playfully. "If you did something, you know I'll find out."

"Charming." He kissed her nose playfully. "Go and get changed- it'll be ready by the time you're down."

She did as asked. "You know," she called over her shoulder as she went. "We are going to have to have a conversation about your use of that emergency key."

He chuckled under his breath, went to put the plates in the oven to warm them and grabbing a bottle of wine out the fridge at the same time. As he did, his eye caught sight of Rachel's bag, discarded on the floor where she'd dropped it when she'd entered and realised he was there as well. He scooped it up but as he did so her phone tumbled out, hitting the floor with a clatter. He winced. It must have been on top, the zip open. He grabbed it, intending to check it wasn't damaged and then replace it only just as he straightened, it began to ring.

He hit silence without even thinking about it, startled by the sudden noise. The display continued to flash as it vibrated- Chris Meade calling.

Eddie hesitated. It was after school hours- a long time after school hours, and this was the first time he'd seen Rachel in days thanks to her being at the school almost all of her time. The whole point of this evening had been to give her a break, allow her to forget about school for a few hours and if she took this call, he'd be lucky if he managed to get her to even eat dinner.

Above him, he heard movement, the sound of a door that suggested Rachel would be descending the stairs any moment. And he made a split-second decision. He cancelled the call and hit the power button, watching as the screen went dark.

Phone tossed back into the bag and bag tucked neatly on the door handle, he returned to the wine, concentrating on pouring it out equally. He almost spilt it when he felt arms slide around his waist. "It smells delicious."

He took a deep breath, and turned just enough to give her a smile. "I poured us red?"

"Perfect."

She released him, reaching for her glass as he began to plate up, swirling the flavour over her tongue as she watched him. "How was your day?" he asked over his shoulder.

"The usual. Michaela White is actually behaving, which is both lovely and unsettling." He snorted in laughter, bringing the plates over as she slid into her seat. "How was yours?"

"The usual, mostly. One of my year eights threw a textbook out the window, which livened up third period at least."

She looked amused, stealing a bit of his chicken from his plate. "Why?"

"I have no idea."

Now she laughed. "Sounds about right."

"Did I tell you Michael's latest obsession?"

"No?"

Instantly she was enraptured by his story, and a thrill of success ran through him as he spoke. She was no longer thinking of school, or her students or Max Tyler, which was exactly what he'd been aiming for. Dinner vanished, second glasses of wine were poured, and they ended up with hands linked over the table, talking long after the meal was finished. "I think there's ice cream, for dessert?" Eddie suggested when the conversation ebbed, and she nodded eagerly.

"I picked up some fruit on Sunday as well."

He set about serving it up, while she rose and crossed to her bag. "It's odd," she commented, "I was expecting a phone call from Chris but he hasn't..."

She cut herself off, and Eddie froze, his back still to her. She was silent for a long few moments.

"Eddie?" Her voice had a strange tone, and his stomach tumbled through the floor. "Did you turn my phone off?"

Damn. All at once, he regretted his earlier impulsive actions, cursing himself as he turned to face her. "Sorry," he offered weakly. "I didn't realise you were waiting for a call."

"Why in the world would you do that?"

Anger was beginning to colour her tone, incredulous gaze fixed on him and he winced. "I didn't know!"

"That is not the point."

"I'm sorry, Rach."

But her expression didn't change. "Eddie. Why would you turn my phone off?"

"I just wanted to give you a break," he tried to explain. "You've been so stressed, we haven't even spent time together in days! I just... wanted you to have the evening off."

"But how would you even know to turn off my phone?" she insisted. "You couldn't have known that Chris was going to-," She cut herself off again, looking down to the phone in her hand. She'd powered it on earlier, and now, when she lit the screen up, the alerts shone clear.

3 Missed call(s) FROM Chris Meade.

She stared at the screen uncomprehendingly. "You cancelled the calls?"

"Just the first," he said weakly.

"I don't understand."

"Rachel-,"

"You're supposed to be on my side."

The pure, unadulterated hurt in her voice sent a lance of pain straight through his chest. "I am, Rach. Always."

"Well, obviously not."

He felt like he couldn't breathe, unable to drag enough air into his lungs as his felt like his legs were turning numb. "I am, Rach, I swear. I'm sorry, I didn't know about the call-,"

"It's not about the call!" Her voice rose and he fell silent. "You went behind my back, you tried to manipulate me! Why would you do that?"

"No, Rach that's not what happened..."

"Then what?" she demanded. "You know Chris would only be calling at that time for a good reason-," she saw his face contort slightly, and realisation swept over her. "Oh, for God's sake. You're jealous?"

"No!"

"It was bad enough when I had it from Chris, I didn't think I'd have to deal with it from you as well!"

"Rachel..."

"What if it had been Phillip?" she demanded. "Or Melissa? Would you still have done it?"

He frowned. "That's not fair! Besides, I seem to remember a certain issue you had with Ronnie not long back- how is that any different?"

"Because I screwed your brains out and got over it! I didn't start trying to stop you talking to her! Eddie, what were you thinking?"

Eddie was becoming more and more irritated with being back footed for the entire conversation. "I wasn't, okay! I'm sorry, I acted without thinking it through."

"There's an understatement! If you found out someone else had done that, you'd be the first to decry them!"

"Sweetheart, don't you think you're overreacting just a tiny bit?"

Instantly, he knew that was the wrong thing to say. Her face darkened, eyes flashing angrily. "I'm overreacting? You start trying to control who I'm talking to, interfering with my job and I'm overreacting?"

"Rachel, that's enough!" He snapped. "I'm not trying to control you and you know it! I was trying to do something nice, I made a mistake, and I'm sorry. But don't you dare start accusing me of more, that's over the line."

"No, what's over the line is you thinking you have any right to dictate who I talk to and when!"

Eddie slammed his hand on the counter. "That's not what happened Rachel and you know it!"

"I don't know what I know! I'm supposed to be able to trust you!"

"And now you can't?"

"I don't know!"

They stared at each other, both breathing heavily, that sound the only noise in the otherwise silent room.

"Well then," Eddie said softly. "That's that."

Rachel didn't move, didn't say anything as he broke their gaze and stalked past her, not so much as glancing in her direction. She heard the rustle of a coat, the sound of the front door opening and immediately closing again and just as she felt her heart fall into her stomach, the sound of an engine starting up and driving away from outside.