Right, are you ready for a little journey?

Before we get into this, I just want to address something for those of you that don't follow me on Twitter. If you are looking for my next long story, you won't be finding it for a while. The First Time/Follow Your Fire/Never Be Lonely/You've Got The Love/Feels Like Forever storyline will not be up until the new year. This gives me a chance to catch up with myself as I have a number of different things going on at the moment and writing is not always what I want to do (or can actually do) when I get home from work. The next long thing will be a little thing that I am going to do over the Christmas period.

Back to this. A five-part story which you are going to get over the next five Wednesdays. Don't quite know how this came about but we all know that I like to change the end of series five if I can.

So on with this (and this has made my little clues on Twitter for what I am going to post on Wednesdays so easy).

Who Knew

That last kiss, I'll cherish, until we meet again
And time makes it harder, I wish I could remember

Their engagement wasn't traditional.

The way Adam asked her to be his wife wasn't traditional.

It was why they went to pick out her engagement ring together. Because they hadn't been traditional before, why shouldn't they carry on that way?

Adam had said that he would ask her again when they got the ring but Rachel told him that it was fine. That she had already given her answer of yes and she didn't need to give it to him again. Because, if he asked her again, her answer might change now that she'd had the time to think about it. Because she had her doubts and it was why she needed the whirlwind romance to turn into a whirlwind engagement and into a whirlwind marriage. Because the more she thought about it, the less she was sure about her original answer.

She wished that she had seen Melissa first. She wished that she could have convinced Adam that it wasn't a good idea to go over. To say that they'd fallen out badly or something along those lines. But she didn't and she definitely couldn't argue it when Adam started to drag her over to her sister, calling her name to get her attention.

If anything, Melissa's expression must have mirrored hers in the shock of seeing them and it didn't help when Melissa looked to her right. It meant one thing. Eddie was there as well and Rachel needed to get away before he reappeared in her life as well.

"Melissa," Adam said as they reached her.

"Adam? What a surprise?" Melissa said as she hugged him.

It was the time where Rachel really wished that Melissa could read her. Because she was sure that any normal person that hadn't seen their sister in months, because they had dated the same guy and one of them had fallen pregnant, would have told them that they were busy or that they had to be somewhere.

Not Melissa though.

"Are you in the area?" Melissa asked.

"At Waterloo Road," Adam said.

"Really? That… would explain why you are with Rachel."

"Your little one or has Philip not told us something?" Adam said as he gestured to the pushchair.

Rachel wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole. Mainly because she had no idea how much Melissa was going to say. But she looked down at the baby in the pushchair and couldn't help but see so much of Eddie in her. Or maybe she was just telling herself that she could see more of Eddie than Melissa in her.

"Evie is definitely mine," Melissa said. "I am sure Rachel has drummed into Philip everything about safe sex. I would look a bit of a hypocrite if I told Philip about safe sex with this little one."

"One way of putting it," Rachel muttered.

"You never said anything about a niece," Adam said.

Because I've only just found out that I had a niece. Rachel thought. "Well… you know… our relationship hasn't always been… great, has it, Melissa?"

"You can say that again," Melissa said.

"We… we… we haven't seen… each other for… a while. And Philip didn't say anything to me." Rachel turned to look at Adam, noting the weird look he was giving her. "We… we should let Melissa get on. I am sure she has a lot to do and so do we."

"Why don't you show her?" Adam said.

"Adam now isn't the time."

"Go on, show her."

"Show me what?" Melissa said.

Rachel turned back to Melissa. She was about to say what had happened and why they were in town but her vision honed in on Eddie walking towards them and she tried to ignore the way that her heart was hitting against her chest.

This isn't how it should be. This isn't how they were meant to meet again. This was not how Eddie was meant to find out that she was trying to move on. This was not how Eddie was meant to find out about her marrying Adam. But it was and Rachel had to live with that.

It was why she still couldn't find the words and how she turned to her sister properly, hoping that she would get her out of this. Actually, she would have loved anyone to get her out of this. An old student or present. An old school friend. For the ground to open up and swallow her whole. Anything to stop Eddie Lawson from being stood a metre or so away from her but he didn't seem to notice that she was there until the last moment and he couldn't turn away now.

"Rachel?" Eddie said.

"Hi. You look well." Rachel found herself saying.

"So do you."

"Adam Fleet," Adam said, holding his hand out to Eddie.

"Eddie Lawson," Eddie said, taking his hand.

Rachel turned to Adam, knowing that she had to say something. "Both… Melissa and Eddie have done their time at Waterloo Road as well. That's how they met."

"Right. Still? Why don't you show them?" Adam said.

Rachel had no idea why she didn't just try the 'we better let them get on' line again. Instead, she realised that there was no running from this and that Adam was probably going to end up telling them himself at this rate. It was why she raised her left hand and showed off the ring that they had bought only an hour ago. These were not the first people that Rachel thought she would be showing it off to.

"We're engaged," Adam said.

Melissa grabbed her hand to check out the ring but Rachel's vision was on Eddie and how he was looking between her and Adam before resting his vision on Adam, probably to try and size him up.

"When did this happen?" Melissa asked.

"Thursday." Rachel said.

"I just came out with it," Adam said.

"Did you now?" Eddie said.

"Yeah. I want Rachel to be my wife."

"Really? Is that how you asked her?"

"I think it is really cute," Melissa said. "You two were always good friends."

Rachel didn't really think that the tension was dropping. In fact, she felt like it was increasing and she wished that Adam never said what he did next.

"We should all have dinner to catch up."

"I don't know whether…" Eddie started before Melissa interrupted him.

"I think it would be a great idea."

Rachel's eyes met with Eddie's and she was sure that she knew that he thought that it was an equally bad idea and that Melissa hadn't read the room at all. Although that was Melissa all over and she was sure that in the time that her and Eddie had silently agreed to not make this dinner happen, Melissa and Adam had swapped numbers. Something that she was grateful for as she hated to have to explain that she deleted her sister's number in an act of rage. Although Eddie's was still in her contacts (as DC, meaning Don't Call).

"So we will sort a date," Adam said.

"Well, I am dying to get out of the house. This little one is being a right nightmare at the moment. And it doesn't help that Eddie has gone back to work." Melissa said.

Rachel wanted to argue it but she felt like it might be best to leave it for the moment and to argue it out with Adam later. Finally, Eddie gave them all a reason to leave, with him saying that he had to pick up Michael soon (although Rachel did manage a quick 'how is he?' in before they said their goodbyes).

Rachel placed a kiss on her sister's cheek, just because she felt like it was the thing to do as Melissa leant in to do just that, while Adam and Eddie shook hands again. She knew it was a bad idea as she rose onto her tiptoes to place a kiss on Eddie's cheek as well. She had to stop herself from breathing in, just so she didn't catch his aftershave (which she loved). It was even worse to feel his skin underneath her lips again, his cheek against hers.

"I'll have a word." He whispered.

"Me too."

Rachel could only smile at him as they pulled back. She knew that they would be on the same page. They always were. But this was different. Because this was them trying to save themselves from any more heartbreak. Things were still too raw and it definitely wasn't going to be fixed by them having dinner together.

With her and Eddie in agreement, Rachel wished that it was going to be the last time that she was going to see him. Because as much as she wanted Eddie Lawson in her life, she couldn't. As much as she wanted the friendship that she had with him, it was difficult to believe that it could happen when her heart was telling her that she loved him too much to ever be friends again.

She couldn't stop herself from looking back, noting that Eddie did exactly the same thing at the same time. There was one thing for certain. She was still in love with him and it made her regret her decision to marry Adam a little bit more.