Thank you for the reviews.

So nearly a month ago, I left you on a cliffhanger...

Now I am here to give you the final three chapters of this fic.

And, honestly, fuck this fic, I'm out... (and I don't know how long I've been sitting on this first part but I distinctly remember coming up with it when we were in Covid times because it was when I was walking back of the toilet that we had been allocated to keep the offices separate).

Chapter Twenty Eight

Falling.

She had finally found a word that could sum up how she had felt for the past couple of months.

Just a shame that it was at the same time as she was physically falling from the school that she now held so dearly in her heart.

And maybe she had been falling for a while. Maybe she was still falling from Stuart announcing her secret to the world. Maybe she thought she had found a safe ledge for it to crumble from underneath her. Maybe it had been crumbling for a while with the shockwave of Maxine's death being the final straw.

She was allowed a fall now and again, wasn't she?

This was definitely a fall from grace.

Death was never good. And she had failed to save Earl from himself meaning that she had failed to save Maxine from him. A fallen victim of her own ambition.

And she thought that she had stopped herself from falling for Eddie again, knowing that it was safer for her not to let her heart rule. But she had fallen for him all over again, harder this time. Which had led her to do something she never thought she would do.

Yes, she was due a fall.

She deserved to fall.

And yet, she hoped someone would catch her.

And not just any someone.

A man that had been trying to catch her for so long. A man that had already tried to catch her along the way, missing her as she continuingly failed to reach out to him as he was reaching out to her.

And maybe she had caused him to fall as well, sending him tumbling down after her.

Maybe this would all end as she physically hit the tarmac that was quickly coming up underneath her.

Eddie silently pleaded for her not to do what he thought she was going to do as he couldn't find the words to stop her. He knew that this was something that she had to do. Even if he believed that it wasn't. Rachel's relationship with Melissa and their father was something that he was sure that even Rachel didn't understand. It was one that Eddie suspected had a lot of love coming from Rachel with her receiving very little back, if she got any back. It was a thought that broke his heart and he knew that when they got to the stage where they should have always been, Eddie was going to give her so much love that he was sure that she wouldn't really know what to do with it.

But he had been given a task as he had this horrible sinking feeling that if someone was to fall, it wasn't going to be Melissa.

It was horrible to think (because he was sure that there had been a part of him that had loved Melissa) but he didn't really care if Melissa was the one to fall. Even if she was pregnant with his child. It would… put a definite end to things. There would be no lines in the sand or anything like that. Melissa would be gone and they wouldn't have to deal with her.

But he knew that Rachel would care if Melissa did fall.

And he knew that if his feeling was right, then he would care a lot about Rachel falling.

He didn't quite know what he was going to do but he knew that Rob had put in an order last term for some crash mats. He had yet to get rid of the old ones (to Eddie's knowledge) and Eddie hoped that they could cover as much of the tarmac and the stairs as they could with them.

Luck certainly felt on his side as there was a class in the gym and it was clear that they knew that something was happening on the roof. Eddie would have liked to have had a quiet word with Rob about it but all of the year 10s seemed rather interested in what happened. And then worried when they heard that their headteacher had gone onto the roof as well, with them all running over to grab the crash mats between them.

It was clear that the fire hadn't only made Rachel more aware of keeping the students safe but the students wanted to make sure that nothing else happened to their headteacher. Eddie was touched for a moment before he realised that he needed to help Rob coordinate how the mats were going to be laid out. He really didn't know whether they would be enough but as long as they did soften the blow, Eddie would be grateful.

Kim was on the phone when he reached her side and he could hear her chatting with the call handler on the other end. He was glad that someone had thought about the police and an ambulance. He may have thought about it once he had organised the mats but it wouldn't have been before that.

He was unsure whether he looked up at the wrong time but his heart felt like it was in his mouth as he watched Melissa swap places with Rachel, with Rachel being the one who was now dangerously close to the edge.

"Rachel!" He shouted.

Time did seem to slow down as he watched Rachel struggle to keep her footing before the last thing that he wanted to happen happened.

This was it.

Rachel was finally falling.

And, like before, he wanted to be the one to try and catch her.

He only took a couple of steps before he was stopped, with a police officer on either side of him to stop him from putting himself in any danger.

He didn't see where Rachel landed but he watched as the paramedics ran towards the larger of the crash mats (ones that were used for the trampoline). They seemed to stay in that area and Eddie felt like he could let out a sigh of relief when they slowly sat Rachel up.

His vision was dragged to the roof when he heard noise from up there. He didn't want to feel happy but he was sure a small smile rose on his lips as he watched Melissa being arrested. There were definitely other ways that this could have all been sorted but, to Eddie, this did seem like the only way that guaranteed that Melissa wouldn't bother them ever again.

Rachel hated hospitals.

She felt like it had all started when her mum died and she had run as fast as she could have done to the hospital to not make it in time.

And then waking up after her father had tried to kill her.

She had woken up, alone, in hospital more times than she would like to admit and each time caused her anxiety around hospitals to only increase.

So being told by the paramedics that they wanted to take her to hospital to give her the once-over was Rachel's worst nightmare.

She wanted to argue.

She wanted to discharge herself.

If she could, she never wanted to go near a hospital ever again.

But the look on Eddie's face made her believe that he knew what she was thinking and was pleading with her just to go and make sure that she was all okay. She was sure that his hands were only buried in his pockets because as much as he wanted to rush over and hug her, maybe to tell her to never do anything like that ever again (again), he was scared that she was hurt and that he would hurt her more if he did.

So she did agree to go.

And it seemed to take an eternity to get her seen to as both Eddie and Philip hid their worry badly. She had this feeling that both of them wanted to wrap her up in their embrace. So when Philip finally took the chair next to her, she held out her hand and was grateful when he took it, pulling their joined hands into her lap, trying to silently reassure him that everything was okay.

She had the necessary scans and there seemed to be another long wait for the results, especially when the doctor told her that she had been very lucky not to break anything and that she might just have some stiffness in her back due to the impact of her crashing into the mats. Painkillers and Deep Heat were the recommended treatment and Rachel fought the urge to mutter that it had been a waste of time.

Mainly because she wanted Eddie to agree to where she actually wanted to be.

And she knew that the moment he told Philip to get into the car that he didn't think that it was a good idea. That he had gone along with her idea of going up on the roof but he felt like everything that they had done, regarding Melissa, was now over and done with. They could start putting it behind them.

A compromise was reached but Rachel was sure that neither of them were happy about it.

Eddie didn't want to go to the police station to see what was going to happen with Melissa.

Rachel didn't want to be looked after, especially after being given the all-clear that she was fine.

There was a pitstop for Eddie to go and get what the doctor had prescribed and Rachel waited in the car with Philip, the silence between them refusing to break. Not that Rachel wanted it to. Because she was sure that Philip had more than a few questions about everything that had happened.

She told them that they could stay in the car when they arrived but it wouldn't hit her until much later why they didn't. Mainly because Rachel hadn't processed what had happened and why both Eddie and Philip would follow her like lost puppies. And she hadn't reminded herself that she was with the two people that, maybe, loved her the most in the world. And they were sick of watching her get hurt as much as she was watching them.

It must have seemed like a strange request when she met the officer at the front desk, with her sure that he looked up Melissa's notes (or whatever had been written up when she had been brought into custody) and seemed confused when he asked his question.

"Sorry? Did you say she was your sister?" The officer asked.

"Yes." Rachel said.

"Y-you aren't the same one that she is in custody for…" He trailed off for a moment. "She is in custody for attempted murder. Not your attempted murder. Right?"

Maybe she should have listened to Eddie when he said that this was a bad idea. And she did try her best to attempt to explain the situation in the way that she understood it at that moment. And that, maybe, she wasn't particularly asking for her sister and whether she was okay. She didn't vocalise it but she was sure that Eddie understood why she said that her sister might not have mentioned that she was pregnant and that was what she was worried about.

It wasn't the reason but Rachel felt like this was the only place where they would be able to find the truth. And they could speculate all they wanted about whether Melissa was pregnant or not but Rachel knew that things would never be over if she was actually pregnant with Eddie's child. Mainly because she couldn't allow another child to be ripped from him. Even under these circumstances.

"I'll see what I can find out." The officer said, leaving them all in the waiting room to ponder on everything that had happened.

Because it was the last place that all of them wanted to be (even Rachel after she'd had a chance to think about things and realised exactly what had happened), it meant that they all sat there in silence. But this was the last lie that they had to deal with. Rachel felt like they needed this bit of clarity before they all turned their backs on Melissa.

She did wonder what was taking the officer so long but when he finally returned, with his superior, Rachel knew that it was the news that she both wanted and didn't want.

"Miss Mason?" The superior officer said and continued when Rachel nodded. "I am Inspector Dawson, the officer in charge of… well, we didn't expect to ask your question and it to quite go the way that it did."

"How do you mean?" Rachel said.

"We sent Ms Ryan to the police doctor to do the usual checks and she seemed to put up a fight when she said that she wasn't pregnant or didn't think that she was. We have managed to do a pregnancy test but she said she had some things to confess, hence how long it has taken because we wanted to get it all on tape. She's confessed that she isn't pregnant, nor has she been pregnant in the last year. She's confessed to bigamy, domestic violence and abuse and… to your attempted murder." Inspector Dawson paused for a moment, probably to let the news sink in. "We would still like you to give a statement in a couple of days, when you feel up to it. Even with a full confession, we still need to do a number of reports."

Confusion.

Rachel was actually confused by Melissa's actions.

Because she could see no reason why Melissa would confess to it all.

Unless…

Everything with Philip had changed her priorities.

Melissa had lost him anyway.

Maybe the only person that Melissa did love was Philip and this was a way that she could let him go.

It probably wasn't that but it gave Rachel a small piece of mind that Melissa had done the right thing in the end. She wasn't really sure what would happen from that moment but she did know that she was mentally exhausted and she knew that Eddie would be shattered by the news.

It wouldn't just be Eddie looking after Rachel. She knew that she would be looking after him as well.

Rachel wondered why Holly, Jason and Theo were outside of her house but she didn't care as Holly rushed up to her, pulling her into a tight hug. What had happened must have made the news. And that was why Holly was there. Because she knew that she needed her.

"You could have told me that you changed your next of kin to my phone number," Holly said.

It was more that Rachel had forgotten to mention it to her. She couldn't remember when she did it but she knew that she had done it in the last couple of months, with her thinking and knowing that Melissa would be the last person that wanted to know what was happening to her. A sad thought but one that Rachel was sure that she had resigned herself to months ago when she changed the name and number. And one that had been highlighted after the day's events.

"Come on, we are here to look after you," Holly said as she let Rachel go slightly. "All of you."

Rachel could imagine that the look that Holly had on her face had been directed at Eddie. She watched Philip as he walked to the door, letting them in but Rachel didn't get there, with Jason bringing her into a hug as well.

"I thought Holly told me that she told you not to do something like that again," Jason said.

"You know me, Jason, I'm never one to listen and do as I am told."

There was a comment from Holly about giving Theo to Rachel and she was sure that she was happier to see the young boy than Eddie was. And Rachel would admit that she kept Theo as close to her as possible while also trying to keep him out of Eddie's way. She didn't quite know how things were going to progress but she was glad that Holly and Jason were there. Mainly to stop them all from just accepting the silence that Rachel was sure would have fallen on the house.

"You don't have to be okay, you know."

Eddie lifted his head and met Rachel's eye for the first time that evening. It did help that it was the first time that she didn't have little Theo on her hip but he was sure that one of the reasons that she did stay out of his way was because she had Theo.

"Well, you said earlier that you didn't think she was pregnant," Eddie said dryly.

"But that doesn't mean that you aren't only just processing it. We… brought up the idea weeks ago but we both didn't want it to be true."

"How's your back?"

The look on her face meant that she knew that it was a blatant diversion from the conversation that they were having. He really didn't want to talk about it. It was the last thing that he wanted to talk about.

"I'm definitely starting to stiffen up." She said.

"I'm with Holly. I don't want you doing anything like that again."

"Eddie, surely you know me better than that."

"I couldn't catch you."

"But you did. You got the mats in the right place."

"No… I mean…"

"I know. I was thinking about how I was due a fall, maybe not physically. But I felt like I had been falling for a rather long time. Ignoring your attempts to catch me. Actually, sending you tumbling down as well."

"How poetic."

"I do seem to have my moments."

It was probably a moment built for a sad smile but Eddie couldn't even contemplate the thought of a smile. There was nothing to smile about. He had almost lost Rachel again and he had lost a child that he didn't even know whether he wanted or not. He did believe that there had to be a reason for why he put up with what he did. From where he sat, he couldn't see that there was a reason.

He didn't realise that Rachel had moved until his vision focused and he had to look up at her because she was standing a little too close to him. She raised her hand but stopped it before it cupped his cheek. He waited for her to continue the movement but he was obviously giving her a look that made her unsure of her action. So he raised his hand to gently grab her wrist, moving her hand into its place. There wasn't the same hesitation with the other hand as it cupped his other cheek.

Her thumbs swiped at tears that he hadn't realised that he had shed and he could feel her pulling him closer to her. His arms went around her hips as his head leant against her stomach, her hands moving to his hair.

They didn't say a word all the time they were like this. The only sound was Eddie's slightly erratic breathing as he allowed the vulnerability to show. And Rachel did soothe him with her nails dragging gently across his scalp, reminding him that he wasn't alone in this. That she was here and they were finally together and that they would work things through together.

And when they pulled back, he had to say what was on his mind. He had to ask her never to leave him again and he had to ask whether they could work on them and their relationship, whatever that could be now.

He knew that he might be thinking a little too far ahead but he had to know whether they could be on the same wavelength ever again.

She cupped his cheek again and smiled down at him, telling him that they could and they should talk and work on them.

More needed to be said.

But for now, it was enough for both of them.