Thank you for the reviews.

Right... so I don't have a riot on my hands, Eddie's family is the same one from the Christmas Prompts and Just Friends. Just to make that clear now.

Also, I felt that the best way to tackle this was to split it into two...

Enjoy.


Six: New to the Family

Each member of your OTP meeting the other's family for the first time. Does each family approve of the one dating the other? What sorts of shenanigans do they get into?


Rachel's

Rachel knew that it was going to happen at some point and when she didn't want it to happen but her sister always had some inkling of when she was at her most relaxed and happiest.

And maybe it was a little selfish of her to not want one of the two family members that she had to meet someone that made her so happy but things seemed to start going wrong when Melissa came into the picture and Rachel didn't want things to go wrong with Eddie.

But there was never going to be enough time for Rachel to explain that or for her to hide Eddie away. Or to tell him not to take any offence when she couldn't bring herself to call him her boyfriend.

"So who is this then?" Melissa said as she walked into the kitchen.

Rachel probably would have rolled her eyes at the fact that Melissa couldn't have said a hello before mentioning Eddie if she hadn't been panicking.

"T-t-this is Eddie." Rachel stuttered. "My…" boyfriend or deputy?

Rachel knew that she had paused for too long and was staring a little too hard at Eddie but she didn't know which option was best. Outing herself and knowing the questions that would follow with Melissa over Eddie being her new boyfriend or disappointing Eddie and making him think that she had gone backwards after the arguments that they'd had over her reluctance to tell the staff that they were dating.

And that was what she based her decision on. On the man that she loved rather than the woman she could barely call her sister. Plus, she knew that Melissa would get it out of her eventually. She was just pulling the plaster off now rather than later.

"My boyfriend." Rachel said, dragging her eyes away from Eddie. "This is Melissa, my sister, and Philip, my nephew."

"Ah, so you are the reason she has stopped inviting us round," Melissa said.

"Or the fact that you moved to Durham," Rachel muttered, sure that Eddie heard her, thinking that Philip probably heard her as well and knowing that there wasn't a chance in hell that Melissa did.

"So tell me everything," Melissa said. "Is he good then?"

"Am I good at what?" Eddie said.

"Tea?!" Rachel almost shouted. "Or coffee? You must be thirsty after coming all this way. Tea, Philip, love?"

It just felt like such a Melissa thing to do as she accepted a coffee and walked out of the kitchen to use the bathroom. It wasn't going to calm Rachel down but it gave her something to do as she filled up the kettle and busied herself with the many different combinations that they all had their hot drinks in.

"Hey," Eddie said as he rubbed a hand down her back, placing himself into her peripheral vision. "What was all that about?"

"It is going to sound stupid." She said once she noticed that Philip had left them as well.

"Well, I would rather like to be let in on what the panic is."

She sighed. "We don't have the best relationship. Maybe I worked out a couple of years back that the only real reason I keep her in my life is because of Philip. I want him in my life but that means having her in it as well. Things… I've always found that things go downhill about the same time as I introduce someone to Melissa." She turned to him and cupped his cheek to try and reassure him. "And I would rather keep you in my life."

"Come on, Rachel. She can't be that bad, can she? Not when we chose Rochdale's finest every day of the week."

"She can." She dropped her hand as the kettle finished boiling, turning back to the task in hand. "I don't mind Philip knowing about you. It is just Melissa. I just can never work out what she really wants. Maybe it is because we've never talked and we deal with things differently. I can only say that I wasn't ready for her to meet you."

"It will be fine. You'll see." Eddie said before he pressed a kiss to her temple and left her to it.

If there was one thing Rachel was sure about, she was sure that it wasn't going to be fine.


Eddie had actually had a decent conversation with Philip. Although it might have helped that his oldest nephew was about the same age as Philip and Eddie had been 'brought up to date' by Oscar as to what was cool for a 15-year-old boy and introduced to a couple of games (although he felt like Oscar was starting to lose his patience with him as Eddie could never remember which button did what on the controller).

And he got that he didn't know Melissa and he was hoping that Rachel was just exaggerating how bad Melissa was. But he looked up at Rachel as he handed him his coffee and she looked exhausted, like she had just had one of the hardest weeks of her life in the space of 15 minutes. And Melissa seemed to be throwing questions at her but answering them herself.

"So, Eddie, do you have kids?" Melissa asked as the assault of questions seemed to turn to him.

"A son. Michael." Eddie said.

"So I will get to be an auntie." She said, flicking out her hand to hit Rachel's arm, almost making Rachel spill her coffee all over herself.

"Melissa, I have never been averse to having children." Rachel said. "It just has never happened."

"Because you've always put that career of yours first," Melissa said before she turned back to Eddie. "You do know she is a workaholic."

"Workaholic? I would just say someone who cares deeply about doing right by the kids." He said.

"Tomateo, tomarta."

"Not really."

"Eddie, dear, she is a workaholic. Never takes five minutes for herself and you'll work that out eventually."

The last thing that Eddie would have said that Rachel was, was that she was shy. He always thought of her as this extremely confident person that instantly took command of a room. It seemed like Melissa was the only person that Rachel couldn't command in the same way. Which made him want to ask more as he watched Rachel start to pick at the end of her jumper, hiding both her hands with the sleeves, deciding that her coffee was safer cooling down on the coffee table than in her hands.

"Well, she makes me try and be a better teacher. Although, maybe some of my laid back nature will rub off on her." Eddie said.

Rachel's eyes flick up at him. "In your dreams, Lawson."

"Anything can happen, Mason."

Rachel may have huffed but there was a hint of a smile on her lips and Eddie took it as him making things better for her. He always hoped to make things better for her. To be the person who she knew had her back. To be the person whose hand she could reach for when she needed someone to know someone was there for her. To be the person who was always by her side.

"I don't think that Rachel has ever been laid back," Melissa said. "Too much of a stress head this one."

And Eddie knew that it was gone again and as Melissa descended into talking about herself and her potential new man, Eddie formed an apology in his head. Because he needed to say one to Rachel.


Eddie knew that Rachel was tired. Hence he knew that she wasn't really going to fight him when he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, with her relaxing into his embrace, letting her head fall back onto his shoulder. He placed a kiss on her jaw as he tried to tell her that he was there for her.

"I'm sorry I didn't believe you," Eddie mumbled against her skin.

"You're not the first person and you aren't going to be the last."

"Still. I should trust my girlfriend who has always been quite secretive with her family."

"It's not because I don't want you knowing. It's just… still hard after all these years. It all still hurts."

"And it doesn't help when Melissa acts that way."

"Eddie." She said as she turned in his arms. "Now do you understand my reluctance? About everything. About us being together to us saying that we are together to… me meeting your family. And maybe it is just something I've convinced myself of but." She stopped, biting her lip. "But at some point, this is all going to fall apart as well and I am going to be on my own again."

As much as Eddie wanted to give her the same old reassurances that he probably would have given any ex, he knew that they wouldn't work with Rachel. That some comforting but potentially empty words weren't going to stop her overthinking.

"Okay. Maybe that will happen or maybe we will spend the rest of our lives together. Rachel, I know you always will but there is no point in worrying about the future. Because, in the here and now, you are in my arms and I don't plan on letting you go any time soon. I love you now and I want to see what that brings. And if this lasts another three months or three years or thirty, then I want to make sure that I have made the most of the time that we have together. That I had the honour of loving you and that, I hope, I had the honour of you loving me back. No, nothing is definite, Rachel. But I know where I want to be right in this moment. And who I want to share it with."

Eddie knew that she was taking in his words. That she was thinking up a way to argue what he had just said or what part of it she should focus on. But Eddie felt like he was getting somewhere when she rubbed her hands down his biceps.

"I want to share it with you too, Eddie." She said.

"Then, for tonight." He said, before she could say anything else. "Let's leave it at that. Because I think that you need distracting."

"Do I?"

He leant forward to kiss her, trying to eliminate the debate that he was sure that she would have loved to have. And he knew that he would have to convince her at some point that meeting his family wouldn't be so bad. Because they were as important to him as she had become. It just seemed right for them all to meet.


Eddie's

Rachel didn't know why she agreed to join Eddie and go to his parent's house to celebrate his dad's 65th birthday. Actually, she did. She agreed because she loved the smile that broke out on his face before he asked her whether she was sure. She had been at the time. Now that they were walking up to the house, she wasn't so sure.

And she felt like Eddie knew that when he reached out and grabbed her hand, giving it a squeeze, and gave her a smile.

"Rachel, they are going to love you. Trust me." He said.

Of course, she trusted him. Trusting him was equally one of the easiest things to do and one of the scariest. She wished that it didn't scare her to how much she trusted Eddie. Maybe that was just because she thought that she could never trust a guy again. First, her dad, then the guy that got her into the prostitution. She had definitely been let down by more guys than she had been protected by. Of course, she was going to have some sort of trust issues.

And she did realise that it was too late to back out. Eddie had driven and it wasn't fair to ask him to take her home when she said she would come because of some last-minute worries.

So she allowed him to lead her into the house and the explosion of noise was something that slightly overwhelmed her. It was like she had just walked into her first class as an NQT again.

"Uncle Eddie's here!" One of the young girls screamed before she launched herself at Eddie.

Eddie managed to catch her but Rachel still moved just in case he didn't or he caught her in a funny way. It wasn't the first time that Rachel realised how much she had missed out on a proper family life but she knew that part of this was going to make her see how much she had missed out on Philip and his childhood.

"You've grown again, haven't you?" Eddie said after he got the girl comfortable in his arms. "I told you to stop growing."

"I can't help it, Uncle Eddie." The girl looked over at Rachel. "Is this her then? The woman Grandma said you won't stop talking about?"

"You, Lois, are getting more and more cheeky."

It was the second time that Rachel wanted to tell Eddie to be careful as Lois squirmed in his arms before he put her down. Lois seemed to take that as her opportunity to run into the living room, shouting that 'Uncle Eddie had brought her'.

"Come on," Eddie said as he nodded towards the living room.

Rachel half expected him to hold his hand out to her before they stepped into the living room with all different conversations happening at the same time.

"Hey, Ed's finally decided to turn up." Tony (as Rachel found out later) said.

If anything, Eddie didn't have enough time to introduce her properly before she was being pulled into a seat and being asked what she wanted to drink. When she realised that most people were drinking, she asked for a red wine which seemed to get her an impressed look. The only bad thing was that she had been pulled away from her comfort blanket of Eddie and thrown straight into things, with his sister, Alice, asking more than a few questions, the main one being what the hell did she see in her brother.


"You aren't planning something, are you?" Eddie said as he saw Cathy and Lydia whispering in one of the spare bedrooms.

"Why would we be planning anything?" Cathy said, trying to play it off innocently enough.

The problem was that Eddie knew that his oldest niece was an awful liar, especially to him. If Lydia had said it, he might have left it. But their behaviour was more than a little suspicious and he knew why. It was because of Rachel and no matter how good their intentions were, he had to stop it.

"Look, girls," Eddie said as he closed the door. "I like Rachel. Really like her. And I know what happened with Jules. Can you… just not with Rachel?"

"Why not?!" Cathy said.

It was clear who was the mastermind behind all of it was and Eddie probably would have put his money on Cathy anyway. With her being four years older than her sister.

"Because it took me months and a lot of reassurances that you would all like her for her to actually come today. And I am certain that she wanted to bolt when we got here. I do get it girls but if you felt like it was easy to push Jules away, you would only have to say a couple of words to Rachel and she would give up on us." Eddie sighed. "Look, she doesn't have this. What we have. Like… just imagine that your entire family was just you two. That Zoe died three years ago and James… was a bad father. Imagine that you just had you two. Now Cathy, imagine that Lydia was the most selfish person you knew. Imagine that 20 years later, it is the same but Lydia had a son. A son that you want in your life but that means having your selfish sister in your life."

Eddie paused just to let his words sink in because he was hoping that they were understanding that they might have done him a favour with Jules but they weren't going to do him any favours by doing the same to Rachel.

"But… we almost lost you, Uncle Eddie," Cathy said. "I can't let that happen again."

"But just let me make my own mistakes. I am a big boy. I can look after myself without any intervention. Things between me and Alison went from good to bad just like that." He said as he clicked his fingers. "There was no way that we could have stopped what happened. We could have not been so hostile towards each other to focus more on Michael and what was best for him but we are sorting it now. Thanks to Rachel."

The last bit seemed to put a stop to whatever argument that Cathy was going to come up with but that seemed to give Lydia the chance to speak.

"I'm sorry. That can't be the only family Rachel has." Lydia said.

"That she knows of. Her mum was kicked out because she fell pregnant with Rachel and her dad grew up in a care home. She isn't like you with your three uncles, two aunties and eight cousins. That you see on a regular basis." Eddie paused. "Just… I think Rachel is more willing to accept reasons why we shouldn't be together than reasons why we should. I don't want you two to become a reason for the first one."

Eddie definitely felt calmer that his two oldest nieces weren't going to try and question Rachel as they had done with Jules in the past. As he thought, they did have good intentions behind their actions as they both didn't want him to have another bad breakup like he did with Alison. But Eddie was never going to have an 'easy' breakup. Mainly because he was sure that he would always fall for a girl more than he should do.


Rachel, for some reason, had latched onto Zoe. She may have latched onto Alice as well but the woman was asking way too many questions, reminding her of Melissa, which Rachel was sure that Alice didn't want to happen.

But there was a part that Rachel didn't like that she was being waited on. Sue, Eddie's mum, seemed to be the worst for it. Rachel gave her the benefit of the doubt. She was a mother to three boys and a girl. She knew that Eddie's place wasn't too bad but she could imagine that he wasn't always that way (or that he had just had a good clean when he invited her round).

But she managed to unlatch herself from Zoe for long enough to sneak into the kitchen to get herself the last glass of wine that she was going to have, with Sue not noticing her. It also gave her a couple of moments to actually process what had happened over the course of the afternoon and into the evening.

Maybe the weirdest thought that Rachel had was that she wouldn't mind doing it again. That Eddie was right and that his whole family had his laid back approach and that they were all approachable. She didn't quite think that they all instantly loved her but she would agree with him that she had nothing to be worried about.

Which meant that she smiled at Cathy and Lydia as they joined her in the kitchen.

"You didn't sneak past Grandma did you?" Cathy said.

"May have done. I'm… not very good at being waited on." Rachel said.

"Ooh, we have another trouble maker," Lydia said.

"Well, that depends on what kind of trouble."

"No wonder Uncle Eddie likes you," Cathy said. "That is how we learnt how to cause trouble. I don't expect that anyone has told you about the incident."

"No, they haven't." Rachel said with her attention definitely on now understanding what the incident was.

"I think we better sit down because it is a long story."


Eddie didn't want to admit it but hearing the laughing worried him just as much as it would have done if he had a panicked Rachel in front of him. It didn't help that he could only really hear Cathy and Lydia's laugh and with him knowing that Rachel wasn't in the living room, he hoped that his words had got through to his nieces.

But to hear Rachel's laughter mixing in as well, he relaxed slightly before he walked into the kitchen to see Rachel, Cathy and Lydia around the kitchen table, laughing, with it only increasing as they noticed him.

"What's going on?" Eddie asked as he stood next to Rachel.

"We told her," Lydia said, being the first of them to get her giggles under control.

"Told her what?" He said before his eyes went wide. "You told her! About the incident."

"I think the best part is that Grandma wouldn't let you out of her sight for the next month," Cathy said.

"Try the next year. It was one of the worst ideas I have ever had."

"I didn't realise you could be so rebellious, Lawson." Rachel said as she ran a hand down his back.

"Oh we haven't told you about the time he thought he was 'silently' breaking into his bedroom, whilst drunk, for Granddad to run into the room at the same time he got through the window and started beating him because Granddad thought he was a burglar," Cathy said.

"Okay, hang on," Eddie said.

"Auntie Alice has all the best stories."

"Okay, I changed my mind."

Cathy scoffed. "You can't do that now. In fact, if you two break up, I think we should keep Rachel. We'll all break up with you."

Eddie's face dropped at that. If anything, part of him would give up his family for Rachel, just so she did have a family, but it just hurt for Cathy, of all people, to say it. After all, she was the one that he had promised to be the best uncle he could to. Admittingly, she was only a couple of days old at the time but there was a part of Eddie that felt like her words had shot him.

"Well you just can never break up now," Cathy said, probably to make what she said sound a little better.

Eddie didn't even notice his nieces leaving the room and only noticed Rachel because she brought her hand up his back, to rest on his shoulder, and tucked herself under his arm.

"I'm sure it just all came out wrong." Rachel said.

"Came out wrong? I thought I was the favourite uncle."

Rachel's little smile and the peck on his check felt more for his benefit than hers. Although it wasn't Rachel's fault. He had wanted them to get on. Maybe they were just getting on better than he thought they would.


"Are you still sulking?" Rachel said as she turned to Eddie as he drove them back to hers, knowing that he was.

"No." He said, with her feeling like it was in the same tone as Michael said the word when they asked him if he wanted a story before he went to bed after them telling him that he couldn't have ice cream 10 minutes before.

"I think that is more of a yes."

"I am not sulking."

"Do you want me to make it up to you?"

Rachel wanted to mutter men under her breath as Eddie's whole mood seemed to shift with that question. Although, maybe she shouldn't have been so surprised. He was a man after all. A gentleman most of the time but he was still a man.

"How do you mean?" He asked.

"Well, now as I know that there are a couple of things that you like, I can try and make it up to you. I honestly didn't think that I would get on with them that well, if that is any help."

"Maybe a simple 'that went better than you expected' would suffice."

"Well, it did. And I am glad. I am sorry I was so reluctant."

"You had your reasons, Rachel." He said as he briefly looked at her before he looked back at the road. "If I knew about your family… problems before I met Melissa, then I might have been more apprehensive about meeting her."

"The plaster has definitely been ripped off."

"And with 19 people on my side of the family, we will be seeing more of them."

"That is nearly two birthdays a month."

Eddie scoffed. "If it was only that simple. You are our first summer birthday. February and March, then September and October. Clusters of birthdays."

"Really?"

"Would have been better if we had planned it all out. There are four birthdays just in the week of the end of September to the beginning of October. Cathy starts them off on 27th September and little Ella ends it on the 3rd October, with Oscar and Lottie in between."

"Then, maybe, if you want, we… we could plan one out better."

Eddie glanced at her a number of times before he said anything. "R-really? Rachel… we can take it as slow as you want."

"What? With me and my body clock ticking down? I've been waiting for the right time and the right man to come along. Maybe that thinking is never going to work. Okay… I haven't been completely for our relationship but I can't wait forever, can I? Maybe the right time will never come around but maybe the right man has."

Rachel knew that she was talking about something that she would definitely not have been comfortable discussing with anyone else if she had only been dating them for five months. But, for some reason, things felt different with Eddie now and she wanted to have the conversation with him. Mainly because she wanted her relationship with him to grow. Mainly so she could spend more time in a family environment.