There couldn't have been a crueller punishment for Eddie leaving than missing the birth of his daughter. He had stared, dumbstruck as Rachel had fed the little girl, all but ignoring him until he'd finally managed to stammer out confused sentences, the most coherent of which was "but she's not due for another month?"
Rachel had glared icily at him. "I'm aware. I was the one who had to go through premature labour without my husband there."
"I... I don't..." he'd sat down on the arm of the sofa with a bump, looking stunned. "Rachel, I..."
"Not now," she cut him off, and when he looked at her with an odd expression, she gritted her teeth. "I'm feeding my daughter. The last thing I want to do right now is get into it with you."
And get into it was exactly what they'd done, once enclosed back in the kitchen. Rachel had been furious, Eddie apologetic, not to mention depressed over missing the birth. He'd been sorting himself out, he promised her, although he never quite elaborated as to how. And he defended himself leaving until he was blue in the face, but when Rachel pointed out that Kim had witnessed his daughter coming into the world, and helped to bring her home for the first time and had even been one of the first people other than Rachel to hold her, he deflated, admitting he should have kept his phone on, should have answered.
She hadn't accepted the apology. Instead, she'd kicked him out, ignoring the way he pleaded with her. And then she had broken down and sobbed, collapsing to the hallway floor and desperately wondering how this had even happened.
She hadn't realised Eddie hadn't left yet. That he was still outside the door, and could hear her sobs. The first she knew was when there were suddenly arms wrapping around her, Eddie pulling her into his lap right there in the hallway, whispering desperate apologies as he rocked her. And Rachel had curled into him, too tired to fight the comfort he gave.
It wasn't a perfect fix. But there was something about watching a besotted Eddie hold his daughter for the first time that melted most of Rachel's anger away, and the rest vanished when, over the next few weeks, there was no sign of the Eddie's previous temper. She still caught him up all hours of the night, making sure what had happened with Steven didn't happen again, but he'd stopped lashing out, stopped snapping at her and however furious she had been with him, she couldn't deny that whatever he'd done had worked. And he'd inadvertently given himself his own punishment, in missing his only daughter's birth.
So she let it go. Consciously, decisively. She had a perfect, wonderful family, a job she felt she could do forever and she had learnt what holding onto resentment could do. They had both learnt, and when Eddie slipped his arms around her as she cradled their baby, the errant thought passed through her mind that no matter where they ended up, no matter what happened, if she had this, she'd be okay.
Rachel Mason was in love. Once upon a time, it had terrified her. She had thought it made her vulnerable, made her weak. But her husband knew everything there was to know about her, and he still adored her nonetheless. There were no secrets, no reservations and there never would be- both had learnt their lesson and had no intention of having to retake the exams for it.
Eddie Lawson, it could be argued, had jumped in headfirst once again and he didn't regret a thing about it. He would argue that this time, he'd moved forward with a lifetimes' worth of experience under his belt, and the all-too painful knowledge of what could happen if they screwed up too badly, or grew complacent.
His hand found Rachel's, their wedding rings brushing together as he pressed a kiss to her cheek and tightened his arm around her waist, gazing down at the baby she held. They were better together, and they would stay that way.
finis
And we've come to the end! Thank you so much to everyone who has read this, and an extra huge thank you to those who have taken the time to leave a review xx