Thank you for the reviews.

I think we need a bit of mid-week fluff... yeah?


Eleven: Rest

Your OTP resting and/or sleeping together. They could be sleeping anywhere from at home in bed to out on a park bench.


He could see that she was drained.

And it wasn't hard to see the reasons behind why she was so drained.

It had been a long hard week with multiple conflicts that Rachel had to sort out.

With one being so close to home that it had left her tearful as she spilt everything to Eddie that she hadn't already told him. And it had left her tossing and turning as the memories wouldn't allow her to sleep, with her keeping Eddie awake as well. The optimism that the week wasn't going to be as bad as the last had been replaced with them asking themselves if it could really get any worse. That with everything that they had done to change the school shouldn't bring about the same old problems.

So he knew that they had to have a weekend where they tried to forget about the week that had just gone. And he needed to get Rachel rested enough so that the same optimism filled her on the Monday morning.

But his first task was to get her away from the school. Which wasn't going to be easy.

"Come on. It will all still be there on Monday morning." Eddie said as he entered her office.

The sigh told him how tired she was and the way her thumb and index finger wiped over her eyes told him that she had been focusing so hard on what she was doing that she had zoned out and he had brought her back to reality. She looked over her desk.

"I am going to have to bring some of this home." Rachel said.

"No."

"Sorry?" She said as her head whipped up to look at him.

"No, you aren't going to bring any paperwork home."

"Oh, come on, Eddie. I am so behind. I haven't got half of the things done that I hoped I would. If I leave it…"

"Is it going to self-destruct?"

She scoffed. "No."

"Is it going to cause the end of the world?"

"No."

"So it can wait until after the weekend."

He knew the look that she was giving him. It was one where he had made a very good point but she wasn't going to let him know that. He had learnt all of her looks more since they started dating. He never used to be so good at reading a person. The problem with Rachel was that she spoke more with her expressions and body language than she did with her words, meaning that if he wanted to know what she was actually saying, he had to know what she wasn't saying out loud.

So he knew that she would hate the idea of leaving paperwork at work. She would hate to think about how much work she would have to do the next week. He knew that she would also be thinking about how behind she would be if they had another week like the one that they've just had. And even if he promised to help her out, she wouldn't calm down about it. But he was definitely grateful when she just picked up her bags after she sorted out a couple of bits.

And he felt like she knew how tired she was when she walked up to him and wrapped her arms around his middle, resting her head on his chest. He held her close, knowing that if he could keep her in that mood, then he might be able to get her to rest and recover. That by Sunday night, he would have the woman that he knew again. That as much as he wanted her to be vulnerable around him, this felt like it was a different level of vulnerability. A vulnerability that he was prepared for and one that made him think that he might lose her.

So with her hand in his, he pulled her away from her office and the school. Maybe even the week. All he knew was that he was going to get Rachel to rest.


Rachel hadn't expected to sleep that night. She hadn't slept for most of the week so she felt like there was a high chance that she wouldn't be able to sleep.

It was clear that whatever Eddie had done the night before had worked for her to feel as well-rested as she felt.

She didn't really see why though. She felt like she would be more stressed over the fact that she had so much work to do on Monday. Maybe she would have to throw as much as she could Eddie's way. It was his fault that she hadn't bought any work home to do over the weekend.

But she thought back to the previous evening. They'd had dinner a little later than usual because Eddie had rushed upstairs the moment they walked through the door, telling her not to start dinner. She had wondered what he was doing when she heard the water hitting the bathtub. And she wasn't really a bath person but Eddie had almost pushed her up the stairs for it. The water had been the perfect temperature and she felt all the muscles in her shoulders react to it, with them starting to relax. And then she had been greeted with the most delicious meal, which Eddie had cooked, before they dropped onto the sofa, with Eddie managing to get out some of the knots in her shoulders that the bath hadn't managed to soothe.

For a Friday night, it had been a rather chill evening and it was one that Rachel wouldn't mind repeating. Especially if she was going to wake up feeling so refreshed.

And she hadn't noticed that Eddie wasn't next to her until he walked into the bedroom with two mugs in one hand and a plate in the other. He had a wide smile on his face. One that she didn't have to ask what it meant. It was very clear that he had a plan and it was working out the way that he hoped. In short, he was being a smug bastard and Rachel wondered why she didn't care more about it.

"Morning." He said as he placed the plate on her dressing table before walking over to her to place the mugs on her bedside table and leaning down to kiss her. "Sleep well?" He mumbled against her lips.

"I hadn't realised how tired I was."

"It is any wonder. I don't think you stopped for five minutes."

He stood up straighter and handed her a knife and fork before he moved one of the mugs to the other side of the bed and ran out of the room. She almost got up, with her wondering what was on the plate but she felt like that wasn't what Eddie wanted her to do, meaning that she sat up in the bed, moving the pillows to be comfortable behind her. The smell of coffee started to fill the room and Rachel found herself turning to the mug on her bedside table, picking it up to take a sip of it, the taste bringing her a comfort that she had become too reliant on.

When Eddie returned with another plate, she pondered over the fact that she'd never had breakfast in bed before and with a plate of pancakes being handed to her before Eddie opened up the curtains to let the day in, she found herself wondering how she found Eddie.

"What?" He said as he joined her back under the covers.

"It's nothing." She said as she turned to her breakfast.

"No. It's something. Tell me."

"I was just… why did it take me this long to find you? I mean, this is just all rather too much."

"So me doting on my girlfriend who has had an instantly difficult week at work is too much? In that case." He said as he reached out for her plate.

She hit away his hand playfully. "You know what I mean. I am going to wonder whether I've done something wrong or what you are doing it all for. That you want something from me."

"What I want, Rachel, is for you to recover from your week at work. I want you to feel so well rested that you start the week with your usual optimism. With the feeling that the next week won't be as bad as the last. Is that really so wrong of me?"

"No. It is an instantly lovely gesture that I will attempt to fully appreciate but there is a high chance that I won't."

"A bit too much too soon?"

"Eddie, I'm not going to react to things in the same way as any other woman you have been with has done. Like Alison."

"Yeah, well, with the other women, they did but didn't appreciate it. There were always the cheeky comments of 'I could get used to this' or 'why don't you do this more often?'. With you, I can already hear you telling me that this is all too much."

"It is."

He leant over and placed a kiss on her forehead. "In all honesty, I think I am in a better position to try and get you to appreciate it than to knock it out of them that it should be just something that I did more often. I enjoy doting on people, Rachel."

"And I am sure I will learn how to be doted on."

Eddie gave her a smile before saying that their pancakes were probably stone cold by now so they should probably eat them. In doing so over some light chatter, Rachel allowed herself to take in Eddie's extremely thoughtful actions. As she had said (or implied), it was something that she knew she could get used to. Maybe not in the way that Eddie had implied that past girlfriends had taken it in. But in a very appreciative way. In a way that meant that she would savour it and put it with all the good memories that she had. It also made her go back to her earlier question.

Why had it taken her so long to find Eddie or someone like him?


A weekend of doing nothing sounded like Rachel's worst nightmare. So much so that she would always make sure that she had a list of chores to do over the weekend and bring paperwork home, just so she could say that she'd had a productive weekend.

But as she laid on the sofa, her head resting on Eddie's chest, with her struggling to keep her eyes open, she thought about how nice the weekend had been. That doing nothing was, in a way, being productive. The long hard week had definitely worn her out and she was sure that she would have spent the weekend wearing herself out more if it hadn't been for Eddie, refusing to let the memories get to her. Maybe her decision to never dwell on the past had actually made it impossible for her to move on from it.

"Are you asleep?" Eddie said softly.

"Almost." She said.

"Don't you think we should maybe think about something to eat?"

"If you think about moving."

He chuckled. "That's me told then."

"I'm too comfy for you to move now."

"Can I assume that you've had a relaxing weekend then?"

"Most definitely."

"And you are well rested for tomorrow?"

"Yeah. But I think I will still require my deputy's help to get all the paperwork done."

Eddie scoffed. "So that is how I am repaid."

"No. I've got something different in mind to how I am going to repay you."

She knew that what she had just said would pique Eddie's interest. She was sure that there would be disagreements over what Rachel could do to repay him but it wasn't really what he was thinking. If that weekend had been all about her, then she was going to make sure that the next was all about Eddie. Which seemed even more fitting as they had Michael. It would be a weekend about her boys and Rachel was already overflowing with ideas. The next weekend was definitely not going to be one for resting. Maybe that would be something for the weekend after instead.