Eddie came home from his day with Michael. Rachel had promised him she would not try to do too much work, but clearly she had not kept her word. And so he found her crying on the stairs, too exhausted to get herself into bed. For the following Saturday, he knew he had to come up with a better plan. He could not bring Michael to Rachel's house, it would be too much for her to cope with having a small child around. Instead, he called Kim.

"It's OK," he reassured Rachel, "I just told her that I'm visiting most days to bring your shopping and make sure you eat something. No one at work needs to know anything unless you want them to."

Still, Rachel bristled at the idea, knowing that Eddie must have effectively asked Kim to babysit. It was one more person who knew how weak she still was.

Kim handled the situation as sensitively as she could, arriving with cake and flowers, making out she just wanted a coffee and a chat with a friend. When Kim could no longer keep Rachel's conversation away from work, she caught Rachel up on her plans for the new school year. Following Eddie's advice, Kim suggested Rachel go and catch a nap, but Rachel resisted and resisted, until she had no choice but to allow her friend to help her up the stairs and into bed.

Despite being so unwell, Rachel kept the bedroom immaculately tidy. But there was no hiding that one bedside table was far tidier than the other. Embarrassed by the mess that she was sure Kim would judge her for, she felt the need to tell her it was not her mess, "that one is Eddie's side."

The moment the words had left her lips, she realised what she had said. In trying to explain away the untidiness (which now she looked at it, was not even really that bad), she had let on that she was sharing her bed with Eddie. "Oh god," she said, "I didn't plan on telling you that!"

Kim, trying to keep a straight face, did her best to reassure Rachel. The surprising revelations on the last day of term explained why Rachel had always been so secretive about her personal life – to the point that she had never really even had one. But that did not mean she did not deserve one. The relationship between Rachel and Eddie was clear to everyone, except, apparently, Rachel and Eddie. Kim was already fairly sure that Eddie was staying with Rachel, but even she had not expected him to already have moved into her bedroom. It was only a matter of time before they did end up together, and Kim for one was happy for her friend. On the other hand, she knew that not everyone would see it that way. For a headteacher to be dating any member of staff within the school, not least her deputy, opened her up to accusations of unprofessionalism. And Rachel had recently had more than her fair share of accusations of unprofessionalism lately, accusations that she almost had not survived, both professionally and literally. Kim wanted to offer her boss, no her friend, some reassurance that this would go no further, but before she could say anything, Rachel was once again fast asleep.