Thank you for the review.

So this is the last of this storyline. You'll see what I have planned for tomorrow, tomorrow.

Set during 2008 and set after the last two chapters (well the first part is set between Eddie arriving at Rachel's and him waking her up at 4am).

TW: mention of suicide

Day Twenty Three
Christmas Hatred

For Rachel, Christmas comes with a lot of bad memories. Eddie is determined to make this Christmas the best one yet for Rachel.

Word count: 2,750

Eddie knew that he had to bite the bullet. He had to ask Rachel why Christmas was a bad time for her to know how he could make things better for her. Just he was very content curled up on the sofa with her as the programme that they were watching was coming to an end. He was also rather conscious that he wanted them to go to bed. Because part of his plan was to begin rather early in the morning.

"Rachel, why don't you like Christmas?"

She tensed instantly and he knew that he was in for a difficult conversation. Although when hadn't they had a difficult conversation about Rachel's past.

It was early February that Stuart Hordley walked into their lives and tried to destroy Rachel's. Hordley's weird obsession with Rachel had sparked Eddie's jealousy and there was a point where he demanded to know what was going on because he hated all the secret meetings that they were having. Eddie didn't quite expect for Rachel to break down like she did and to tell him everything that happened and what Stuart was blackmailing her with.

Eddie was not proud of his actions as he berated Rachel for her 'poor' decision before going to Alice to tell her. There was one good thing about his sister being like his mum, meaning that the moment Eddie stopped talking, Alice started (literally) hitting some sense into him. He went in the next morning, with his tail between his legs and a heartfelt apology, that he thought Rachel had every right to decline, and he started there to make amends.

So he could only imagine the reason why she hated Christmas was related to all that.

"I mentioned that my mum died when I was 10." She said.

"Yeah."

"Well… things didn't go as she planned it. I understand that there wasn't more that I could have done but Mum was up to her eyes in debt. She got into more debt trying to pay off the debt that she already had until she just couldn't pay any of it. She had planned it all. She expected me and Melissa to get up in the morning and go downstairs and open the few presents that we had. She had brought us a game and expected that we would play that.

"Except Melissa wanted Mum to be there when we opened the presents and I agreed. Mum should have been there to see us open the few gifts that we had and show our gratitude for her scraping together all that she did have to get us something. She had written a note to our neighbour and they were meant to find her. Instead… I found her. She had taken a deadly mix of prescription drugs."

"Oh, Christ, Rach."

"I tried to stop Melissa going into the room, telling her that Mum must have taken her sleeping tablets again. We… sadistically started calling it the last gift our mum gave us. The gift that ruined Christmas for us. Melissa gets through by the fact that it is socially acceptable to start drinking as early as possible during the Christmas period. I cope by working my way through. Never letting myself think about anything else but work."

Eddie knew that it had to be something bad. But he had not prepared himself for that. It made him hold her a little tighter and hope that everything was going to work out the way that he had planned it.

Rachel didn't know yet whether she was glad that they went back to bed for a couple of hours or not but she was glad that Eddie was there with her. She knew that Eddie had become a feature in her home but she never realised how loud he made her home. It was strange as it was just another person but as she leant against the doorway of the kitchen, watching Eddie as he made pancakes in his pyjamas and Christmas jumper, she didn't know why she even contemplated having Christmas on her own. She should have always had it with Eddie, whether it was just the two of them or with his family.

"The second Lawson tradition?" She said.

"Not really. I just fancy pancakes."

"Fair enough, I suppose."

"Breakfast and then presents, I think.".

"I'm sorry."

She knew that she had confused him with what she had said by the way that he stopped what he was doing and looked up at her, with his brow creased.

"What are you apologising for?" He said.

"For being all over the place. For knowing what I want but being cautious with it. For the constant letting you in to push you out again. I… I haven't really done relationships. I usually only start dating because Melissa goes on about how I don't have anyone and that I am leaving things too late and that." Rachel wished that she could keep going but she knew that her sister's words always hit deeper than they should do. "That… I purposely go out of my way to be alone. I think that was only confirmed when I threw myself into my work when I became a deputy."

"Well, Rachel Mason," Eddie said as he walked over to her, "Aren't you glad that I wasn't going to give up easily?" He cupped her face. "It did take Alice hit me and telling me that I was an idiot to start really thinking about things. We haven't rushed Rachel. And I understand. Everything you are today is because of everything that has happened to you and I love you and all of that. I love you for what you were and what you are and what you are always going to be. And I've said it before, but I just want the honour of being able to love you. Whether that is for the next year, or five or the rest of our lives."

"The rest of our lives sounds good." She whispered.

She always loved his smile and that morning, it was no different before they kissed. She just needed to confirm to herself earlier. She was completely and utterly in love with Eddie Lawson and she should just trust the love she had for him and believe the trust that she had put in him. Because it seemed like they were meant to be together (not that Rachel believed in all that stuff).

For Eddie, everything was going to plan. He had introduced Rachel to the early morning present opening and he hoped that he was keeping her mind off of work. They had both helped with the cooking Christmas Day and Rachel had voiced her concerns that they were cooking too much. That is where Boxing Day came into the next part of his plan and he made his mum's turkey curry as well as the 'all the trimmings' sandwiches that they would have as well.

The next part was maybe the most important for Eddie and he did wonder who had been drafted in his place to help Lottie, Abbie and Lois.

"I think it is time, Mason." He said as she walked into the kitchen.

"Time for what?"

"For you to learn how to make a gingerbread house."

"Oh, come on Eddie. You know this will be a disaster."

"No, it won't. You are with the master here."

"The master of gingerbread."

"Well I've got to be good at something other than Maths now, haven't I?"

She smiled at him. "I think you are good at many things."

Eddie didn't comment. Mainly because he didn't know whether a comment like 'well that has boosted my ego' would go down the way that he wanted it to. Maybe that was for later when they were in bed and he wanted to start something.

"Come on then, Mason. This gingerbread isn't going to bake itself."

"It would probably turn out better if it did."

"I think you are underestimating my skills."

"And I think you are overestimating mine."

Eddie couldn't help but smile at her and he was glad when she smiled back. He knew that Rachel didn't really have a lot to smile about after the whole thing with Stuart Hordley and her secret being exposed and them spending the whole summer fighting with the LEA and the governors for Rachel to have her job, which Eddie fought hard for when the new chair of the governors pulled him to one side and said that the job was his if he wanted it. He didn't want it. It was Rachel's job.

So just to have her smiling up at him felt like a blessing. Because he was the one that caused her secret to come out after he went to the council and Stuart lost all his contracts.

"Okay then, Mr Lawson, what is first?"

With the whole house smelling of gingerbread, Rachel was more than certain this was how she wanted Christmas to be now. More so when she realised that she was only just thinking about the paperwork that she had brought home with her to do over the Christmas period. For three whole days, she had been distracted by Eddie and there was a part of her that made her fall that little bit more in love with him because of that. Here was her distraction now. Not work.

So Melissa turning up unannounced as they were going to settle on the sofa with a hot chocolate and some of the offcuts of the gingerbread house was not appreciated at all.

"Have you been… baking?" Melissa asked.

"Maybe." Rachel said.

"But you don't bake. Do you not remember the cake that you made for me for my 10th birthday?"

Rachel did. And Rachel knew that her baking skills hadn't improved from then. But she knew that this had only worked out because of Eddie and part of her wished that the man in question didn't walk out into the hallway.

"Rach?" He said before he saw Melissa. "You must be Melissa."

"So I must," Melissa said.

"And that will make you Philip."

Rachel knew that the anxieties that she had over Eddie meeting Melissa went as Philip shook Eddie's hand. Maybe because Rachel didn't have the big family like Eddie did. Because there was only one person for Eddie to impress.

But there was this glint in Melissa's eye that made Rachel slip underneath Eddie's arm and place an arm around his waist.

"This is Eddie, obviously." Rachel said.

"So you are the man I am not allowed to know about," Melissa said.

With good reason. Rachel thought.

"We've just had the kettle on, if you have time for a coffee or…" Eddie said.

"A coffee would be lovely," Melissa said, interrupting him and headed into the living room. "Actually, I'll have your hot chocolate, Rachel."

"Do you want to do damage control?" Eddie muttered.

"I think so." Rachel said as she looked up at him before turning to Philip. "Hot chocolate, Philip?"

"Please, Auntie Rachel," Philip said.

She noted Philip's smile as Eddie pressed a kiss to her forehead before he went to the kitchen. She knew that a conversation with Philip about Eddie was on the cards but not just yet. Because the chat had to be away from Melissa.

"Hang on," Melissa said as Rachel walked into the living room. "He knows how to make the hot chocolate."

"Why wouldn't he?" Rachel said.

"I don't. You trust him with it but not me."

Rachel held back from answering that. Mainly because Philip also knew how to make her hot chocolate and she had given him a copy of the recipe. She just didn't trust her sister with what she would do with it.

Eddie didn't take too long and soon they were all sat there, with their hot chocolates and Rachel dreaded every single second that it dragged on.

Eddie could tell why Rachel wasn't as close with Melissa as he was with his siblings. She did have this air of annoyance about her and there were times where Eddie had to bite his tongue at the way Melissa was talking to Rachel. Although he found Philip to be the sweet boy that Rachel spoke about. But he could tell that Rachel was exhausted by the time that Melissa and Philip left.

"I'm going to admit now that I didn't really believe you about Melissa," Eddie said as Rachel dropped down next to him on the sofa, leaning against him.

"I wish that she hadn't come around. But then again, that is her all over and done with now. You've been introduced to my family."

"Does this mean that, sometime in the near future, you will allow me to introduce you to mine?"

Eddie had expected a longer gap between him asking the question and her answering. So her quick response was nice. As he hoped that it meant that all Rachel's worries over their relationship were gone.

"Yes." She said.

And there it was. The confirmation that this was finally their relationship meant equally the same to both of them.

"Your birthday is in February." She continued.

"I was thinking maybe a little sooner than that."

"Like?"

"Isaac is nine in January. We will just go around Alice's for the evening of the Saturday before or after his birthday, depending on what Alice decides. It would only be for a couple of hours."

He could only see part of her face but her actions definitely spoke loudly as she slipped her hand into his and interlocked their fingers.

"Maybe. I don't know. What if they don't like me?" She said.

"Is that truly what this is all about? Rachel, what reason would they have not to like you? Dear God, my mum smacked me around the head because I didn't get the hint that I shouldn't leave you alone at Christmas. Trust me, they care about you without even meeting you."

"Eddie, I've already told you that I am jealous of what you have."

"Then let us teach you the true meaning of family."

She turned towards him and placed a kiss on his jaw. "I would really like that." She said before she cuddled into him.

Having Eddie at hers for the last 11 days made Rachel have extremely weird thoughts about watching him pack the few things that he had brought with him. Every time he put something into his bag, her heart hurt at the action until she couldn't take it anymore and walked over to him, taking a t-shirt out of his hands.

She knew that he was waiting for her to say something and she knew that the easiest way would be just to blurt it out.

"Move in." She said.

"What?"

"Move in with me. Or I'll move into yours. I don't care. I just… can't stand the thought of… us being apart after spending so much time together."

She could see how Eddie processed what she said by the way that he looked confused before the smile slowly crept onto his face. He was beaming at her by the time she cupped his face after discarding the t-shirt on the bed.

"Really?" He said.

"Really. And I'll go to Isaac's birthday and once we are properly settled…" She trailed off.

"A mini-Mason."

"I think they are going to be a mini-Lawson."

"Not if they are anything like their mother."

Rachel knew that she had jumped quite a few steps but she knew what she had to do at that moment. And at that moment, she had to stop Eddie from leaving her side, even if it was only going to be temporary. If Eddie could make her love Christmas again, then she was sure that he could teach her the meaning of family. And with that, they could start their own. It was definitely a jump in the right direction and Rachel couldn't wait to see what the next 12 months bought for them. And Rachel couldn't wait for next Christmas.