Thank you for the reviews.

The penultimate chapter... I suppose I should let you into what the last three chapters have been building to.

Also, Hannah, you aren't jumping to any conclusions.

I'll Wait

I'll wait forever, it's never too late
Couple thousand miles is just a little space

"Don't marry him."

It wasn't the interruption that Rachel was expecting as her office door swung open. But there was Eddie, standing there in the doorway, telling her not to marry Adam.

It was not really the smartest thing for him to do, with her glad that it was Chris awkwardly standing there instead of Adam. Although it seemed like a very Eddie thing to do given the circumstances.

"Eddie! You can't just do that." Rachel said.

"It felt like what you did with me and Melissa. I'm just a day early."

"And what if Adam was here?"

"I would give him my list of reasons why I know that, even on your wedding day, you wouldn't be able to leave the school alone. And why you shouldn't either."

Rachel felt her gaze soften and it was just confirmation that nobody would know her like Eddie Lawson did.

Chris awkwardly made his excuses and left. It was the end of the school day anyway but she felt like Chris would have mentioned for the fifth time that day that he would hold the fort and everything would be okay if she took the day off. She felt like she might have been persuaded more if Kim was there but, with the other woman on maternity leave, her senior management team was pretty much Chris. Not that she didn't trust Chris.

"Eddie." Rachel found herself whispering.

"Don't marry him."

"I can't."

"Yes, you can. I have a list of reasons why you shouldn't and you can say that I am being selfish or whatever but you can't marry him."

"Eddie, it isn't that simple."

"Why isn't it?"

"Because I'm pregnant."

Rachel watched as his lips instantly curled up before dropping slightly.

"A good thing?" He said.

She nodded, not trusting herself to answer him without getting too emotional. Because she felt like she could have guessed Eddie's reaction if this had happened a year ago and she wished that she was pregnant with his child. But she wasn't. She was pregnant with Adam's. And she still hadn't been able to tell her fiance what she had just told her ex so easily.

"Congratulations," Eddie said, the smile wide on his face.

"See. You can't stand there and tell me that you wouldn't have chosen Melissa if she had told you about Evie before she disappeared."

"I don't know what I would have done. Mainly because Melissa didn't give me that option." Eddie sighed. "Rachel, does he know?"

"Does who know what?" Adam said as he walked into her office.

There was every chance that Adam might have heard what she had confessed to Eddie but she was sure that he deserved the decency for her to tell him herself, rather than just overhearing it.

"Adam, I'm pregnant." Rachel said as her eyes quickly flicked over to Eddie before landing back at a very confused Adam. "Nine weeks actually. That was why I was feeling nauseous and had the headaches…"

"And you are only telling me this now," Adam said, interrupting her.

"I know I should have told you Monday…"

"Are you sure?"

Rachel gave Adam a look, with the words that she wanted to say on the tip of her tongue. She knew that they hadn't spoken about children, but they had only been reunited five months ago, dating for three, engaged for just under one. There wasn't as much time as she would have had if she was in the position with Eddie.

"Of course she is bloody sure," Eddie said for her.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Adam said as he turned to Eddie.

"Adam please." Rachel said.

"When were you going to tell me, Rachel? Before or after we got married?"

"I've… just wrapped my head around it all." She paused. "I didn't think I would get this chance. Just under three weeks ago, I was 40. Adam, I am leaving things late."

Eddie didn't say anything as he left, giving her a look that meant that he could imagine how this conversation was going to go. And he was probably right.

"Now isn't the right time for us Rachel," Adam said.

"And when is it going to be the right time?"

"In a couple of years."

"When it is definitely too late."

"We can do IVF."

"Spend thousands on something that might not work. Adam, as I've said, I am 40. I have left it way too late already."

"What are you saying?"

"That might depend on what you are saying."

"I think… we should wait."

"And I get a termination now."

"Don't word it like that."

"But that is what it is."

"Fine. Yes."

Rachel felt her head shaking before she could find the words to speak. Like Kim had confessed to her, she didn't expect to go through a pregnancy by herself. She expected someone to be next to her. As Adam was the father and her soon-to-be husband, she expected that he would.

"I can't." She whispered.

"Then what are you saying?"

Her hand rose to rub over her stomach and she knew what she was saying. She knew what she wanted and she knew that she wouldn't be having this conversation if Eddie was standing in front of her.

"Either we raise the baby together, as a Fleet. Or I'll raise them as a Mason. That is your decision, Adam. Take tomorrow. But know that I will be waiting at the town hall, waiting to marry you. And, whatever you decide, I am going to have this baby."

She didn't expect Adam's expression to darken or for him to storm off the way that he did. Part of her had hoped that Eddie had been waiting for her to finish talking to Adam before he would come back to make sure that she was alright and talk her out of marrying Adam.

Because she was sure that he could do that now that she had seen Adam's reaction to her pregnancy.

"I'm pregnant, Phil." Rachel said as they waited for Adam to turn up.

She could see that Philip was processing the news slowly before a smile grew on his face. It was much like Eddie's reaction. He was obviously happy for her but it seemed like he realised that, for her, it would either mean the world or a mistake.

"A cousin?"

"Finally as Melissa would say."

"So it is what you want?"

Rachel found herself nodding before Philip wrapped his arms around her waist and almost picked her up with the hug that he gave her. She held onto her nephew tightly, wishing that Adam's reaction was a diluted version of Philip's. Because that would have been better than the reaction that Adam gave her.

Philip released her from his embrace and she could see that he realised that it might not have been the thing to do. She gave him a smile, hoping that he knew that it was okay.

"I just thought you should know. As I might need you." Rachel said.

"Rach, I'll be there for you. Whatever you need… I will help." He paused. "Does Adam know?"

She could feel her emotions go all over the place (blaming it on the pregnancy). Because she knew the reason why she was telling Philip. Because she wasn't giving Adam much longer and she needed a backup plan.

"He found out yesterday. As did Eddie." She paused. "Adam didn't take it well. He… thought that we could wait a couple of years. I told him that either we would raise the baby together or I would do it on my own." Her lips started to tremble as she thought about what she was going to say next. "I don't think he is going to turn up."

"Rachel, he would be stupid not to."

"He'd be here if he wanted to marry me."

Rachel knew that Philip now saw it from her point of view and as Ros interrupted them (originally giving them the space to talk things out as Auntie and Nephew) to say that the registrar said that there was another wedding starting in five minutes, Rachel realised what she had to do. Or who she had to go and see.

"Is he with Melissa?" Rachel asked.

"Eddie isn't Mum's favourite person at the moment. He is back at his now because Mum has threatened him with never seeing Evie again because of whatever stupid thing he didn't do this time."

"I think that is where we need to go before I need to get changed and we need to get to prom."

"If that is what you want."

"I need to tell him what I should have told him on my first day back after the fire. I need to ask for him to wait for me."

"He will definitely do that."

Rachel nodded at Philip before she had a word with the registrar, giving her apologies. It wasn't how she wanted things to be but she had given Adam the choice and it seemed like he had made up his mind. It wasn't the way that she wanted things but it was how she expected them to be after his reaction.

Eddie was surprised by the doorbell ringing. He looked at the clock, noting that it was half five, before he rolled his eyes and scoffed. Bearing in mind Melissa had told him the day before that he wouldn't be seeing Evie for a while, it would be just like her to dump his daughter on him and act like nothing was wrong with that.

He knew that he might have to take Alison's offer when she said about having a friend that dealt with legal family matters. Maybe just to see where he stood with Evie.

Any argument that he had built died on his lips as he opened up the door to Rachel, in her wedding dress, looking so beautiful that this rage built in him when she said her first sentence.

"Adam didn't show up."

"What?"

"Can we talk?"

Eddie knew that he was all for taking things fast and if he had the balls (and didn't know Rachel as well as he did), he probably would have said that he would put on a different shirt and maybe a tie and they could talk on the way back to the town hall to get married.

Instead, he stood to one side as he opened up the door more for her to enter. He caught sight of Philip and accepted that the smile from the young man was the only clue that he was going to get at the moment. He followed Rachel into the living room and just couldn't stop the words from coming out.

"You look beautiful." He said.

She blushed at his comment. "Eddie, will you wait?"

"For what?"

"Me."

"Of course."

"I've spoken it through with Philip and as much as I wish that I was burdening him with all this, he agrees with me that this is the way that we should do things."

"And that way is?"

"You need time to be a father to Evie. For you to make sure that you are getting what you deserve and focusing on Evie. That is why we split up a year ago and I still stand by that."

"What about you?"

"I need time to be a mother. And it isn't how I want things to be but I told Adam that I would do it with him or without him. He has decided that I am going to do it without him. Philip says that he is going to help me out. Move out of Melissa's for good, meaning that I need you to be there even more for Evie's sake. I am sure once I tell Kim, she will offer her support and there are others in that staffroom that will as well."

"I want to be there for you."

"I know." She looked down at the floor before she looked back up at him, blinking back the tears. "And I want you to be. Eddie, your… reaction to my pregnancy is what I wanted from Adam. Philip's reaction is what I wanted from Adam. I didn't want him... I didn't want him to react in the way that he did."

"Then let me support you as well."

"Not now." She paused again. "Call me in two years' time. On this day in 2012. That will give you enough time to sort out Melissa and Evie and I will know where I am regarding my little one."

Eddie took a couple of steps forward and slipped his hands into hers. He placed his forehead against hers before he lifted up her right hand to press a kiss to her knuckles. This felt different to how things were a year ago. A year ago, Rachel was telling him goodbye. But right now, it felt like a see you later. It wasn't final. There was hope attached to it.

Two years would fly by. Eddie knew that two years without Rachel was better than the rest of his life. He would wait for her.

"I'll wait." He whispered.

He didn't need to look at her properly to know that she was smiling but he worried that she was going to go straight away when she leant back, removing her forehead from against his, letting go of his hands in the process.

He remembered the last time he kissed Rachel. He had thought a lot about that kiss after they broke up and how he should have realised that Rachel had already made up her mind about what was going to happen with regards to Melissa's unexpected reappearance. She had savoured that kiss because she knew that it was going to be the last time that she was going to kiss him.

Which is why he knew that he had more hope as she kissed him again for the first time in a year, her hands going straight to his hair and his arms going around her waist. It was like they had never parted and Eddie wondered that if he tried to argue that he would help her again, whether he would have had more success in her accepting it.

But he didn't. The thought that she would permanently walk back into his life in two years time was enough for him to let her go without another word.

Two years. 24 months. 104 weeks. 730 days.

It wasn't going to be long. Eddie could wait. Because Rachel Mason was worth waiting for.