Thank you for the reviews.

I've probably got to stop late night postings but this is what happens when I try to get things done before posting and it doesn't really happen...

Like a week behind now. I do but don't care. I don't think this has been my writing year. In a weird way.

Anyway, enjoy this. And this is something that I have been dying to explore and work out how to weave into a story... (also I think I've made it my own lore or something that their parents treated Rachel and Melissa differently. Definitely need a rewatch of series 3/4 to work out where I've come up with that...)

Chapter Twelve
Saturday 12th December

It had been a busy morning for them and the fact that they had been up since before they would have usually been for school/work made them all rather glad when they did pull into Euston station.

They had thought about driving but when they had looked at it, it seemed like it was going to take them longer to drive than it would be to get the train. Plus neither Rachel nor Eddie felt like they would have actually wanted to drive around London.

And Rachel had forgotten how much travelling did take it out on her. Meaning that when they did meet Melissa, she jumped at the chance for them to go and have some lunch first before they started the second part of the journey.

Rachel was sure that she had never gotten on so well with Melissa as they caught up, keeping things away from school/work. And she was happy that Melissa seemed so happy and adjusted to her life in London. Even though it did sound like she planned to up and leave soon, with her only taking on a temporary admin position at some law firm and they weren't going to extend her contract, which Melissa didn't seem sad about. She didn't quite know where she was going to go next but Melissa reassured Philip that he would know where she was once she found that.

Things did turn to them and Melissa seemed just as pleased as Eddie's family that there was going to be another girl in the family. 'Another daughter to pass the angel to' was Melissa's exact wording and it was something that Rachel hadn't realised before. Because it had been four generations of women that had held the family heirloom and it did feel fitting that she would keep up that tradition. The thought did bring tears to her eyes and she did have to bite her lip for a moment to try and keep her emotions to herself. She was sure that was the reason Eddie put his arm along the back of her chair so that he could stroke his fingertips along her arm, to let her know that he was there for her.

They were probably stalling.

By having the long catch up that they did.

But Rachel was enjoying it so much.

It almost felt horrible to destroy it with the reason why they were in London.

Because when Melissa arrived in London, she had become a little curious about where they grew up and, maybe more importantly, where their mum was buried. It seemed like both of them had deleted a lot of memories regarding that time and couldn't remember anything about it. Eventually, Rachel remembered that they had grown up in Newham. Little Ilford to be exact. And she had some memory about walking to where their mum was buried at some point.

As it turned out, that was all that Melissa needed and she managed to track down that their mother was buried at the City of London Cemetery & Crematorium, which was a 20 minute walk from where they had grown up. It took a couple of trips for Melissa to find her but she had been successful.

They went and bought flowers before they got on the tube for the journey across London and when Rachel emerged from Manor Park tube station, she was hit with a wave of memories that she just wanted to turn around and not even deal with everything that it was bringing up.

But being on Eddie's arm was extremely grounding and she was sure that it was the only reason why she continued on with the idea.

She got more used to the idea the closer they got and she did relax into it.

Until they got within seeing distance of the grave.

And then Rachel wished that she never came.

"Melissa!" She hissed before she gestured to the man standing at one of the graves.

"Oh shit," Melissa said as she turned to her. "You've got to believe me. I didn't realise that he was still in the area."

"We've got to go somewhere else. Just so he can leave."

"There is a remembrance garden around here."

"I think it would just be best if you kept your heads down," Eddie said, matching their tones. "Because he is walking this way."

As much as Rachel wanted to look up to make sure that Eddie was right, she didn't want to end up making eye contact with the first man to make her life a misery. So she did as Eddie said. But she didn't really know if he was going to pretend whether he knew them or not as she could hear his footsteps coming closer. Which brought back too many memories.

"Melissa?" The man said. "Is that you? Have you finally come home?"

"Dad?" Melissa said, turning towards him, moving to keep her a little hidden. "I-I-I didn't realise you were still in the area."

"Well, I've been waiting for you to come home." He paused. "Oh now you fucking hide, Amanda."

Her nails must have dug into Eddie's arm but she knew that she didn't have much of a choice in whether she wanted to face him or not. He had taken most other decisions out of her hands. So why not this one as well?

"Dad." Rachel said as she finally was face to face with him.

"Is that it?"

"Well, I thought you made it rather clear what you thought of me when we last saw each other. I don't think there is much love lost there, do you?"

"Your fella?" He said, gesturing to Eddie.

"Yeah, he's mine."

"You know…"

"Yeah, I already know," Eddie said.

"What? That she is a slut but you're still with her?"

Rachel knew that Eddie had clenched his fist because she felt the tension in his forearm. She knew that she had been holding Eddie back from doing anything to Max but she certainly wouldn't hold him back if he did want to floor her dad.

"Dad! That is all in the past." Melissa said.

"Is it? Really? You've forgiven her for all that?"

"Yeah, I have."

Rachel wasn't 100% sure what there was to forgive but it was nice to know that Melissa was on her side for this. Maybe she had finally got through to her about their childhood. And that they remembered things differently.

"Look, we aren't going to do this." Melissa continued, hesitating for a moment. "Amanda certainly doesn't. We are here for Mum and… well… I think it is best if you left."

"When did you two become as thick as thieves then?"

"We're not. But she is right. We have different memories of… our childhood. She protected me in the past. This is me trying to protect her."

He looked between them before he scoffed. Rachel had worried that he would do something, with her hand in her coat pocket flattening out over her stomach. But he seemed to leave without a fight. Something that Rachel was glad for and felt herself relax against Eddie, her forehead resting on his shoulder and her arms slipping around his waist as he wrapped his arm around her.

She had to take that moment.

Because she knew that she would want to bolt if she didn't, even though she was sure that she would end up bolting in the same direction as her dad.

And once she felt strong enough, she walked over to Melissa and wrapped an arm around her shoulders to get them all moving again.

She didn't need to thank Melissa for what she had done. It was a moment where they would silently support each other. A move that had happened only a handful of times. Rachel just didn't think that she could talk if she wanted to.

Because there was just too much that had happened and been brought up for her not to be emotional.

The boys had drawn the short straw of going out to get them something to eat.

Maybe they hadn't drawn it.

They had been voluntold that was what they were going to do.

Because Rachel knew that Melissa would want to talk about what happened.

But she didn't expect Melissa to say what she did first when they were left alone, sitting on the sofa with a cup of tea in their hands.

"Do you think it was true?" Melissa asked.

"What was true?" Rachel said, unsure where it was going to go.

"Well, there was that rumour, wasn't there? About you? And Mum and Dad."

"Which rumour?"

"The one where Dad might not have been your dad. Do you think it was true? Do you think that it was why he treated us differently?"

Rachel didn't know.

She honestly didn't know and she wasn't going to ask her father and her mother was long gone by the time she had first heard it.

The rumour was just that.

That Richard Fenshaw wasn't her father.

It changed depending on who said it.

There was one story which said that their mother was with another man before a whirlwind romance with the man that she would eventually call Dad.

The other was that they had broken up, her mum had a couple of dates with another guy before she took him back.

The odd story said that her mum cheated on him but that was said less often.

But it all came back to one point.

That they weren't back together long before they got married. Six weeks to be exact if everyone was to be believed. Rachel knew that they got married in late February. So they, apparently, became acquainted or reacquainted in mid-January.

Rachel knew that she was born a little early. A couple of weeks before the due date. But even she had worked out, as a teen, she would have had to have been conceived in early November.

So her mother would have been two months pregnant with her when she got back with her father and three and half when they got married.

The only problem was that no one really knew when they broke up.

It was just implied that Rachel was never his.

The only problem was that Rachel thought that she would never get the truth out of their father and the only person to know the actual truth was dead.

It was a question that they could never answer.

"I don't know, Melissa." She paused for a moment. "And I don't think I would want to know now. Maybe when I was younger. But not now. Because it just feels like… I've made a weird peace with it. I know it might not have seemed that way earlier but I have. But then again, I wouldn't understand why he did treat me like that if it was the case. I adore Michael. Absolutely adore him. And I know that he is a packaged deal with Eddie."

"I think that could just be the difference between you and Dad. If it was all true. Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I think it is true. You got blamed for everything after Mum's death. She must have protected you back then."

"Well, we can't ask Mum and it is all better off being left in the past."

"Yeah, it probably is."

"You are my sister, Melissa. Whatever. I will always look out for you."

Rachel got the feeling that Melissa might have wanted to talk more about it but, at that point, Eddie and Philip had come back and Rachel couldn't deny that she felt famished after all of the walking around that they had done. Along with all the emotional exhaustion she felt after visiting her mother's grave for the first time in years.

She was in a very vulnerable moment but she knew that she was around the best people to be in that moment with.

But this was only the beginning of things to come.

And she hoped that Eddie was ready for what might follow.