Thank you for the reviews.

I will admit, I do slightly forget about posting for this fic. Mainly because I want to get things done before I do so and... sometimes that doesn't go to plan...

Chapter Seven
Monday 7th December

Things were in motion.

Rachel had managed to catch Tom that morning before the senior management meeting and asked when he was free for a chat. They had settled on fourth period and that Rachel would meet him in his classroom, hoping that wouldn't give away what she wanted to talk about.

And even though they were beginning to prepare for the worst-case scenario, she felt rather positive, with her normal Monday morning optimism filling her again. She knew how easy it would be to let it all get to her but she knew that she had to go in, with her head held up high, and ride whatever the next week would bring.

She had to.

And she had to use work as she had done in the past.

Just so she didn't focus on it.

So she felt ready for anything that Max could throw at her. Until he threw her the worst curveball ever.

"The date of the meeting has changed," Max said.

"Sorry?" Rachel said.

"Due to a couple of unforeseen… things, it has been moved to next Monday."

"Next Monday?" She repeated as she looked down at her notebook to see what the date would be. "The 14th?"

In her head, she was screaming. Her eyes only flicked to Eddie and she knew that he knew exactly what her reaction was to that. She was panicking. And she hoped that she wasn't showing it outwardly.

"Is that a problem?"

"Sort of."

"Why?"

It's none of your business threatened to fall from her lips. And it was probably what she should have said in the less defensive way that she could. It was the last day she would ever want to have a meeting on and when it could be a meeting where she would, potentially, get beaten down at.

She was sure that it was just a large combination of things that meant that she couldn't come up with some excuse as to why it couldn't be held on the 14th without mentioning that it was the anniversary of her mother's death. She could just hear Max, being so unsympathetic about it. Probably telling her that the school didn't mean that much to her if she couldn't put her feelings to one side to get things sorted for the good of the school.

She thought that she would have to excuse herself. She could feel the bile going up her throat and she thought that the only way she was going to get out of the question was to go and throw up, even if it was the last thing that she wanted to do. It didn't mean that it couldn't be asked at a later date or Max would just change things around because of the reaction she was giving.

Although, she was unsure whether there was a lot that she could do.

Because, as she mulled Max's words over, it seemed like it had already all been changed.

"We have an appointment that day," Eddie said, his voice cutting through her thoughts. "It's last minute but they wanted to get an appointment in before Christmas. That is the only day that they have available."

And when she would struggle, she knew that she could rely on Eddie to step in and help her out. And it was a good lie. Although, she didn't quite know what they would mean for them on the day. They would have to do something. Even if that meant just leaving the grounds of the school for an hour or so.

"And it's a meeting that has been in the diary for months," Kim said. "Everyone has known about it for months. Surely anything that has come up in the meantime can wait unless it is a proper emergency."

Rachel tried to make her sigh of relief as natural as possible. It was obviously a day where Kim was going to play the middleman and, maybe, slightly lean towards Rachel's side of things. But, realistically, Kim was right. It had been in the diary for months. Since before the start of the academic year. It was the date that they agreed upon to see how the merger was going before they knew how things were going to plan out. And if it was a real emergency, it would have been cancelled on the day for a later date. Not brought forward a couple of days.

The look on Max's face didn't not fill her with any confidence and it seemed like it was some sort of test. And then there only seemed to be a little bit of grumbling when he said about talking to the various parties about changing it back.

The look that Eddie shot her said it all.

Just that one statement had caused so much panic for something that felt, now, so insignificant. Rachel knew that it was going to take her the rest of the day to calm her racing thoughts when she knew that it would not have fazed Max in the slightest.

And that was the problem with knowing that someone was out to undermine her.

This had just been another test, game, for Max.

And it made her worry about what the next week and a half would bring.

It felt more important now to have that meeting with Tom and Rachel was glad that they stuck to the time and place that they had mentioned earlier that day.

She hadn't recovered from the meeting they'd had that morning but there wasn't much she could do with Max around to sort things out before she got home.

"Rachel, what's going on?" Tom asked after she had been there for a few moments but not said anything.

"I need to be really frank with you, Tom."

"Okay?"

"I obviously don't know how obvious it is. I don't know whether the rest of the staff can see it. I know that you probably know that there are a few… tensions between Max and myself."

"Well, as Steph said at the beginning of term, anyone trying to step on your toes is going to be in for a shock."

"He's not just stepping on my toes. He is stamping on them." Rachel paused for a moment. "We've been at loggerheads since the first day of term. And it hasn't got better and it isn't going to get better. There is a meeting next Wednesday. It is going to determine whether this merger is going to be a success or not."

"Sorry, that isn't enough time." Tom quickly counted on his fingers. "Not even four months."

"I know. Especially when the cultural difference between Waterloo Road and John Fosters was the largest out of all the other schools. I am adamant that in the long run, things will work out but you know the LEA, they want fast results."

"So what does this have to do with you and Max?"

"He's been undermining me every step of the way. Haven't you noticed? Every success is his. Every failure is mine. Tom, I feel like I am on borrowed time. I don't know how this meeting next week is going to go. I don't know… whether I can hold onto my job. Which poses a problem. Because if I can't, Eddie isn't going to stick around, whether Max wants him to or not. I'm scared. Of what will happen to some of the kids. To the ones that we have fought so hard to keep in school so they don't get lost in the system. I won't be able to protect them."

"I'm sorry, Rachel. But if the kids protested about Jack, then I think they would riot until you were reinstated. I'm not going to lie. You are the best thing that has happened to this school. It was never going to grow under Jack. You and Eddie make a formidable team. I could just imagine that you would have equally got on with Andrew. The school needed new ideas and it will always need a head that believes in what they say."

"Tom… I just… I need to know that you will protect them."

"Of course, I will." He paused for a moment. "Only if you know that I will be the first out there, stopping you from leaving, demanding that you stay."

With the mood that she was in, that was one of the kindest things that anyone could say to her and she did almost find herself crying. Just because she felt like the school would miss her as much as she would miss it.

And she was really hoping for the opposite result than she was expecting.

"I honestly could have swung at him," Eddie said, the line of frustration clear on his forehead.

"And you know how grateful I am every time you don't."

If Rachel was honest with herself, she probably would have allowed Eddie to punch Max that morning. The anxiety was still rushing through her veins. The bile was still sitting in her throat. The panic had lessened but it was still in the background.

"I wonder whether it was one of his sick little tests." Rachel continued.

"He could have picked any other date. The 14th?! The bloody 14th of December?"

"I bet he has some weird sixth sense. He chose the date because he thought we would panic over there being two less days. Not knowing."

Eddie walked over to her, pulling apart her hands so that he could hold them. She knew what she was doing. And she knew that he would want her to relax. The stress wasn't good for the baby but Rachel was unsure about how she could destress her life. It had all happened at the wrong time. And there was only so much that she could blame on a clash of personalities. Max might not know what he had done but it was quite unforgivable if it had just been a test. In fact, all of Max's behaviour had been unforgivable at a time when she should be lowering her level of stress. It was like he was trying to derail her private life alongside her professional one.

"He has a pretty awful sixth sense then. I… Like I said last week. I've been trying to protect you from it." Eddie said. "And I know you've been trying not to think about it and I know we are going to sort of celebrate it this year, at the weekend. But that doesn't mean that he can use it against you. He was going to, unknowingly, take the day that you are at your most vulnerable and use it to… potentially beat you down. I would have punched him. Regardless of any consequences."

"I know."

"He's a prick, isn't he?"

Rachel gave a short laugh. "That is one word for him."

"Go on, Miss Mason. What would you call him?"

She focused more on how her name sounded in Eddie's voice than the question that he was asking. She had always loved it. And there was something rather special when he only called her Mason. She knew that no one else made her feel like Eddie made her feel. It was intoxicating at times. Sometimes, it overwhelmed her so much that she thought about putting a stop to it all. The thing with that was that it said more about her than it did Eddie. It made her realise how many times she had been used in the past and allowed to be made to feel small. She had always settled for something that she thought that she deserved. It was the one thing that Eddie had right. She did deserve to be treated right. Not that any woman deserved to be treated in the wrong way.

"Oh, I couldn't pick one." She said once she registered the question. "But I would ask him if he is in competition with my dad and my old, old bosses as to who could be the most cruel."

She knew that Eddie knew that with a comment like that, there was only a certain level of comfort that he could give her. And she knew that he was going to give it to her.