A/N: Welcome to chapter 2! Hope you like this one.

When he found her in the bathroom she was sitting on the tiled floor with her eyes closed, hair sticking to the areas of her forehead where sweat had begun to form as she held a glass of water in hand and took some deep breaths. He thought her morning sickness would begin to settle the further into her pregnancy she progressed, that was the way he remembered it with Alison, but it had almost been a week since he found out and it only seemed to be worsening. She was being sick all through the day at the minute and when she wasn't being sick she was failing to stay awake. Already, this pregnancy was taking such a serious toll on both her and her body.

He made his way over to where she was sitting and put the toilet seat down so he could sit, smoothing a hand over her hair, tousled from sleep, and smiling when she forced her eyes open and looked at him. He could tell she was worn out. "You planning on sitting there all day?" He watched her eyes fall closed again as she let out a gentle hum in response and touched her cheek to the cool, tiled wall, permitting it to soothe her heated skin.

"I'm thinking about it," She mumbled. "I think moving will just make me throw up again, so…"

He chuckled, shaking his head at her. "You can't spend all day in here."

"No? Watch me, I bet you I can." She argued.

Honestly, deep down, he had no doubt about that. She was the most stubborn woman he had ever met and if she wanted to spend her entire day just sitting on the bathroom floor then she genuinely would. If she thought he was going to allow her to though, she had another thing coming. "I think I should stand in as Head today and you should get yourself back to bed. You got an hour, max, last night and you only have to look at you to see you're in no state to spend all day dealing with detention and assemblies and the cooler. You look terrible."

"Oh thanks, I love you too." She replied sarcastically, lifting the glass to her mouth and taking a little sip.

"Rach…" He said gently, stroking her cheek, waiting for her to look at him again.

She sat there in silence for a moment or so, thinking about what he said, and eventually she let out a groan. "Oh, all right," She set the glass in her hand down. "I'll take the morning off and text you how I'm feeling at lunchtime. If I feel any better then I'll come in for the last three hours or so and try to get some work done. I wouldn't be so worried about it if parents' evening wasn't coming up. I still have about a hundred phone calls to make seeing as though some of the kids have clearly binned their letters and their parents haven't any idea."

"You need to stop fretting so much, that's what you need to do," He told her. "You always do this. You work yourself up and get yourself into a state, panicking about things, and then it all ends up working out all right."

"Mmm…" She agreed.

Reaching out, he stroked her hair back behind her ear before letting the back of his palm run down her cheek. "I'm not teaching most of the day because of that trip. How about I get some of those calls done for you while I have chance? I can't promise I'm going to get them all done, but I can make a start so there aren't as many."

She smiled despite the slight churning in her stomach. "I have the best deputy."

"Should win me some boyfriend points too, by rights," He smirked, leaning down to brush a slow kiss against her lips before standing and holding a hand out to her. She was a little unsteady on her feet when she got up, so he laid a hand on her back to help support her as they made the short walk back down the landing to their bedroom. He propped her pillows up against the headboard and pulled the quilt back a bit when they reached the bed, waiting for her to climb in and get comfortable before covering her with it and tucking her in slightly. "You can tell this little one of ours is a Lawson already, can't you? Being a troublemaker before it's even born."

"All the shows I've ever seen make pregnancy out to be such a wonderful experience," She grumbled. "Liars."

He laughed as he sat himself down on the edge of the bed. "It will be once you're past this hard part, believe me. You just wait until we go for that first scan and see our baby on the screen. It'll make all of this worth it."

"No, I know…" She laid a hand on her belly through the quilt, running it tenderly back and forth as she made herself a little more comfortable. "I know I'm being a bit of a grouch at the minute, but I am excited about it."

"If anyone has the right to be a little on the miserable side at the minute than it's you," He reminded her. "I would probably be the exact same if I had to go through what you do on a daily basis. I doubt I would handle it anywhere near as well as you are though, honestly. You're doing amazing and I couldn't be prouder of you."

"I guess I have to forgive you for doing this to me since you're being so sweet…"

"Pretty sure you had much of a part to play in all this as I did. I mean, that's how I remember it anyway."

"Yeah, but you're the one to blame for it," She reminded him. "You wore that stupid suit."

"Oh yeah," He smirked. "Now you mention it, I think I'm going to wear that one to work today."

She gave him a look. "I hate you, you know that?"

"I know," He leaned in to steal a quick kiss from her, only loving her more when he heard her chuckle as he stood from the bed. "I'll go down and make a drink before I start getting dressed. Any requests this morning?"

"I got some peppermint tea in," She nodded. "I heard it's meant to be good for nausea, so I thought I'd try it."

"Okay," He placed a kiss on her head. "Back in a sec."

He left the bedroom quickly and shut the door behind him and she nestled further down underneath the quilt, smiling to herself. She was so lucky. He did her head in sometimes, no doubt she did the same, and there were times when they found it hard seeing eye to eye on things, mainly at work, but she adored him. He taught her what real love was. Back when she was cleaning up her act and working hard to get her life back on track, she told herself she was done with men. She was under the impression they were all the same, at least in part, and some of the men she encountered early on in her teaching years only furthered her conviction about all of that.

One of them decided that helping her with some marking earned him the right to put his hands on her.

She would never go as far as to say she hated men, but she admitted she had an incredibly hard time learning to trust them and stop questioning each and every one of their intentions. It was only with him that her mind never went to that place. Despite things having been rocky between her and Eddie in the beginning, she never once felt as though she couldn't trust him. With him, she learned quickly, what you saw was what you got and what she saw was a man who, deep down, had a heart of pure gold. He cared deeply and he loved even deeper and she was only coming to learn that more and more the further they ventured into this relationship of theirs.

He put himself second all the time when it came to her and even though she complained about it at times, she had to admit that it was one of the things she loved most about him. If she was feeling under the weather, for instance, as she had been lately, then he would see to things so she had little to worry about. He would clean, he would do all their washing himself, he would cook – even though he hated it with a passion – and he just took exemplary care of her. Not only that though, but if she had a problem or she was having a hard day and needed to talk then he would drop whatever he was doing and he would just sit there and allow her to unload.

He made her feel heard and he made her feel loved and that was all she'd ever really wanted.

Her thoughts were interrupted when the bedroom door opened again and she looked up to see her boyfriend making his way back into the room, mug in hand. She thanked him when he handed it to her and took a sip, humming under her breath at the mintiness. He headed over to the wardrobe to grab his suit and she watched him place it down on the bed before he started removing his pajamas, her gaze focussed on him as he did so. "Like what you see by any chance, Mason?" He asked without turning around to look at her, sensing her gaze.

"Very much so," She smirked, unable to keep herself from laughing when he looked over his shoulder at her and rolled his eyes playfully. "Do I, um…do I thank you enough? I mean for the things you do for me? I don't feel like I remember to as much as I probably should and if that is the case then I want to work on that a bit."

"Yeah, you do, but you don't have to thank me for me to know you appreciate it." He said.

She nodded. "I just don't want you feeling like I expect it."

"You should expect it," He frowned. "You should expect me to share some of the load at times."

"I guess…"

"Rach, are you all right?"

She shook her head at his concern, looking down into her tea. "Yeah, just these stupid hormones."

Sensing there was more to this than she was letting on, he returned to the bed and sat down before his hand ran down her leg through the covers. "You might as well tell me, Rach, because I'm not moving until you do."

"I just think sometimes about where I was at one point and where I am now and it all still feels a bit surreal," She admitted, forcing herself to look at him as her thumb ran around the rim of the mug. "I never thought I would get out of that place and then I did. I never thought I would make it to uni or get a job because I failed all my exams and then I did. More than that, I never thought I would be with anyone again after everything I went through, but now I am and we're having a baby and…and thinking about it all can just get overwhelming at times. I get that it probably sounds stupid to you, but it is what it is. I don't really know how to explain it."

He moved a little closer to her on the bed, letting his had run along her thigh, and sighed as he thought about what she said. "It doesn't sound stupid. It makes sense. Your life has been far from easy and, for a long time, you had no control. You were let down by so many people, starting with the people whose literal job it was to care for you, and it doesn't surprise me you were confused and ended up making the bad choices you did. You got out of there on your own though because you are such a strong person. You got yourself into uni and you got yourself to this point in your career as well. You have nobody to give credit to for that but yourself, Rach."

She gave him a small smile before taking a sip of tea again while he continued.

"As for us, I think you deserve a medal for putting up with me as long as you have," He teased, causing her to laugh as she reached up to brush her hair from her face. "I have no idea what we are going to have, but this baby is so lucky to have you for a mum. You are going to be a brilliant mother, I can tell you that right now."

"I didn't have the best role model."

"No, but what you do have is an example to learn from. You can avoid making all the wrongs she did."

"See, this is why I love you," She had tears in her eyes when she looked up at him again and he both tried and failed to keep from chuckling when a tear rolled down her cheek and she groaned at herself, brushing it away. "I know I can count on you to have faith in me when I don't have any in myself, I always have been able to."

He hummed in agreement. "No matter what choices you make, I'll be behind you a hundred percent."

"I know you will. I love you for that." She told him.

"I love you too," He leaned in and planted a soft kiss on her lips. "So much…"

He had been doing his best all morning to keep from worrying about her, doing small jobs here and there just to keep his mind occupied, and he thought he was doing quite a good job of it until she made it into work ten minutes into lunchtime. He thought she looked unwell before he left for work, but that was nothing compared to the way she was looking now. She was white as a sheet and he could tell by her eyes that she wasn't feeling great at all, so he had no idea why she chose to drag herself into work. He signed out of the computer and got up from her desk as she closed the door behind her, sighing as she walked over. "Rach…" Was all that he said.

"I couldn't sleep and those stupid builders are back next door, so I thought I might as well come in. Saves me sitting there bored all day," She grumbled as she made her way around her desk, placing her bag down on the table and lowering herself into her chair. Her head dropped back against the headrest and she closed her eyes, taking a moment to rest before she looked at him again and noticed the look of disapproval he was giving her. "Oh, come on, there are three hours left of the school day. I doubt just sitting here, responding to some e-mails and calling a couple parents is going to do me much harm. If it puts your mind at ease then I'll chill later on."

"It would put my mind at ease if you went to see a doctor about this morning sickness." He admitted.

She tutted at him. "I don't need to go and see a doctor to know that this is a normal part of early pregnancy."

"You are getting an hour of sleep a night," He reminded her, his tone a little more forceful than usual to make her see he meant business. "You can barely eat or drink because you just bring it all back up and that can't be doing much good for you or the baby. If it were only happening in the mornings then I wouldn't be so serious about it, but it is an all day thing and you can barely function because of it. I just think it would be good for you to go and have a word with somebody and see if they can give you something to help make it a bit more manageable. I can cover for you while you're at the appointment, I don't mind doing it, but I want you to go."

"I can't this week. I have too much to do and on top of all that, there are some important meetings I need to be in attendance for," She explained, dropping her head into her hands for a moment before raking her fingers through her hair and turning her attention back to him. "I do agree with you, I need to get this under control, but I can't do anything about it yet. Half term is at the end of next week, so maybe we can arrange it for then and you can come with me. If we can get it sorted then, then I can come back to work at the end of the break and just get on with things. Year Eleven start their exams that same week, so I have to be on the ball for that."

Returning to her desk, he moved to stand behind her chair and reached around it to give her shoulders a rub. She made a quiet sound of appreciation as she relaxed a little, permitting him to work the tension out of them. "You need to stop focussing so much on what other people need and start focussing a little more on what you need," He told her. "If you keep going the way you are then you are only going to end up crashing eventually and we both know how you get when that happens. I know how important the weeks following half term are going to be and I know there's going to be a lot to see to, but you're not going to be dealing with it all alone."

"No." She replied, knowing he had a point.

"So just chill a little, yeah?" He leaned down to kiss her head. "What have you got to do this afternoon then?"

"Just those e-mails, some phone calls and I need to speak with Sambuca about that incident yesterday."

"She's in Maths with me last lesson. Shall I send her up after she's got her registration mark?"

She nodded. "Yeah, please. Just make sure to tell her she's not in any trouble. I just need to get some details."

"Will do. Have you eaten, by the way?" He asked, moving out from behind the chair so he could see her.

"I had some soup before I came in. All I can really handle at the minute." She told him.

"Well, at least you're not going to be working on an empty stomach all afternoon," He smiled. "Make sure you take it easy. I can take my marking home tonight and then I won't be stuck here until six again like last time."

"How do you feel about watching something tonight? I'll try not to fall asleep this time." She laughed.

"Yeah, sounds good. You have a think about what you want to watch. I'm good with anything." He told her.

"Thank you for standing in for me this morning. I may not have slept, but the rest did me some good."

"I'm glad. I have a couple things I need to sort out for next lesson, so I'll leave you to get on with things."

She hummed. "Okay. I love you."

"I love you too." He replied before turning on his heel and leaving the room, closing the door once again.

She leaned back in her seat and let her eyes close again once she was alone, her hand coming to rest upon her chest as she swallowed the bile that rose in her throat. She would never tell her boyfriend such things, but she felt horrendous. She should have stayed at home today, she knew that, but the silence was deafening and she was also worried that allowing herself to do so would only lead her to fall into a bit of a habit of doing so. She needed to work. She loved coming into school every day, loved seeing her incredible kids and wonderful staff, and she refused to let a bit of nausea keep her from that. She was just going to have to keep pushing through.

It wasn't going to be for much longer anyway.

Well…that was the hope.

She had to admit she was proud of herself when she made it to the end credits of the comedy she picked out for them to watch that evening. She almost fell asleep once or twice – or three times – but managed to catch herself before she could and she was glad she was able to spend some time with her boyfriend after not seeing much of him through the day. Moving in his arms when he used the remote to pause the television, she tilted her head back on his chest to look up at him and smiled when he took the opportunity to kiss her. "Did I tell you we have our dating scan on the seventeenth? I feel like I did, but I actually can't remember." She frowned.

"Baby brain getting to you already, is it?" He joked, stamping a kiss onto her forehead and holding her a little tighter as he got more comfortable against the arm of the settee. "You have to have told me about eight times."

"Sorry," She laughed. "I'll probably end up doing it another eight before we actually attend the appointment. I get impatient just thinking about it. We get told the due date and we get to see our baby on that little screen."

"Yeah, you don't forget a moment like that," He told her. "I can still remember going with Alison for hers and seeing Michael on there. He would move every time the sonographer got a good image, so it must have taken about an hour for her to actually get a decent look and some clear photos. Little monkey that he is, I tell you."

She smacked his arm, tutting at him. "He is a little sweetheart and you wouldn't have him any other way, you know that. You mentioning him made me realise we're going to have to tell him about this at some point. His life is going to be changed by all this too. He's going to be this little one's big brother and with him coming to stay with us for the weekend every other week, he's going to be in its life quite a lot. I think we should speak to Alison about it, but it would be good to tell him about the baby after we go for the dating scan. That way, we have a little more information to give him and he also gets to see the pictures so he can understand better."

"I think that works," He slid his hand underneath the hem of the jumper she was wearing – the jumper she loved to steal from him the second the temperature dropped – and laid it on her belly, running it slowly back and forth. Feeling her move a little further back against him, he pressed his lips to her neck and sighed against her skin when her head lolled to one side on instinct. "I still can't believe it. How long have we been waiting?"

"Too long…" She replied. "What are you hoping we have? Boy or girl?"

"I don't care. As long as you and the baby come out the other side of all this healthy, I'm pleased with either."

"Me too," She murmured. "I think I would like a girl someday though. If not now, maybe in a year or so."

He smirked against her neck. "How many are you hoping to get out of me, Mason?"

"Oh, as many as I can," She turned her head his way, reaching back to bury a hand in his hair and pull him down into a tender kiss. It was a short time later when they parted, settling down once again. "I think I would be all right with two. Maybe one of each. Of course, if we only end up with one I'm pleased with that as well."

"I think we should just see what happens," He admitted. "You never know, there might be more surprises."

"Mmm, there might be," She agreed, nestling deeper into his embrace with a sigh. "There very well might."

A/N: Thank you so much for taking the time to read this chapter. I had so much fun writing it and I love how excited Rachel and Eddie are about their little one. I can't wait to explore more of this. I would love for you to let me know what you thought of this chapter with a review if you have the time. Thank you for the continued support and see you all soon!