Thank you for the reviews.

This would have been up earlier had I not spent all day in bed. I mean, it was my own fault for drinking as much as I did last night and it's taken me this long to actually feel human...

Also, whenever I thought about this new series of Waterloo Road, I've always tried to consider the characters that could potentially come back...

Two

"Mum said I might see you about."

Andrew turned towards the voice and was sure that he was looking at the only person who was happy that he was at the school.

"I wouldn't tell Miss Campbell that you saw me. I don't think I am meant to leave my office."

"Did Auntie Kim not take it well then?"

"I don't think she has ever taken me coming back into her life well."

"You know Mum would have taken it."

"I know."

"Just someone knew that they were well connected."

"But not me." He said with a raised eyebrow.

"I think you might have been off the scene for too long."

"Don't remind me."

Andrew had done a better job at staying in touch with Rachel through all their dealings in the LEA and, therefore, had gotten to know Holly rather well, who was (thankfully, he gathered) looking and acting more like her mother every time he saw her.

"What is your evaluation?" Andrew asked.

Holly laughed. "You aren't actually asking me for my opinion. Plus I wouldn't do that to Auntie Kim. It sounds like she's had enough people trying to stab her in the back."

"Mr King?"

"You aren't getting anything out of me."

"But it was worth a try."

"You know Auntie Kim will get over it, don't you? I do think she has just had a lot on her plate recently. So much so she has been round more often to rant to Mum."

"I have gathered that. I'm just a little unsure about how I can help at the moment because I don't know how to approach these things with her."

"Maybe just do the opposite of what you would usually do. You broke her trust. You need to be the one to rebuild that."

Andrew allowed her to walk away but he was left wondering how much of the past she knew. Her last comment seemed to suggest more than Andrew would have thought but he obviously didn't know how much of that was through Kim's rants or whether Rachel had sat Holly down and explained his complicated past with Kim. Because he has always been framed as Kim's friend rather than Rachel's, even though Holly had never seen them in the same room together.

But that felt like a question for Rachel when he next saw her.

Although, there was one person that he could go to for advice about the situation and he knew that he might get a helpful answer.

Kim knew that she was close to tears.

Everything just kept going so wrong.

Andrew turning up like he did was such a shock and one that brought up the worst memories. After all, she had spent the best part of six years trying to piece her life back together after Dex. Trying to bury the hurt.

And with one person, she had been taken back to the worst moment of her life.

A moment that she would always blame herself for.

She was Dex's mother after all.

She should have looked after him.

She should have listened to her gut instinct that something was wrong.

She thought that she had put this all behind her.

It was clear now that she hadn't.

The knock on the door wasn't welcomed at all but Kim took a moment to pull herself together and fall back into her headteacher role. She now understood how Rachel used to do it all those years ago. How she could just detach herself from reality and drop into 'headteacher mode'. Nothing mattered then but the school and the students and what was happening at the time.

"Come in," Kim said once she felt like she had settled into her headteacher mode.

Joe gave her a slightly awkward look as he entered and closed the door behind him before he moved a chair to sit in front of her.

"I feel like… I want to say this in the best way possible. Am I missing something?" Joe said.

"In what way?" Kim said.

"You and Lindon." He paused as his hand tapped nervously on his knee. "You and Andrew."

"There isn't much to say about me and Lindon. It was a one-time thing because I thought that… he told me that he was getting a divorce and I was the stupid one to believe him. I mentioned it to Hannah who had no idea. His revenge was to go to Erica and tell her everything that we'd been hiding here. With Kelly Jo and Donte."

"And Andrew?"

"How much time have you got?"

Joe seemed a little surprised by that. "You've known each other a while."

Kim nodded. "We first met back in 2006. He had just joined… Waterloo Road. As the new deputy. Jack had unexpectedly been pushed into the role of headteacher when Brian Vaisey had a mental breakdown. He wanted to bring in fresh blood. Jack thought he had done so well pinching him from Kingsbury College. I wasn't convinced." She laughed. "Especially… he has more history with Donte than I do. First day, Donte nicks another student's bus pass and Andrew sees and makes a citizen's arrest, making the bus late and… just everything on his first day with Donte. Honestly, you couldn't guess it."

"Where you?"

The question didn't need to be completed. The question probably didn't need answering. It could be implied in how they acted. The tensions from their past showing through. Joe didn't need to know the mistakes that had been made but he knew that they had been made. That they might have been in a relationship but it hadn't lasted.

"I followed him to Rwanda once," Kim said. "That was eye-opening. And he was so good with them. It was like everyone knew why he was there and that he was the Englishman that helped. When I felt like I was helping as much as he was… well, the less said about that the better. Mainly because I didn't help at all." She paused. "The next time, I thought he was going to choose me rather than go back to Rwanda. And he did. For a bit. Time after that, I thought he was going to stay for me and Dex. And I think… he almost did. Until he left again when I most needed him. That was what we were talking about before you and Lindon interrupted. And it's just… brought up the memories."

She knew that Joe was a father in all but name. Just because they were fostering the two boys (which Kim jumped at the chance of helping Joe with the application) didn't mean that he didn't understand what it was to be a parent. In fact, fostering was probably harder. Because there was that risk that Dwayne and Zayne could be taken out of their care if their mother ever came back on the scene.

"Isn't he a little close to you then? To be an LEA representative?" Joe said.

"Probably. But he has been out of my life long enough for them to not know about our past relationship. And he does have a point. The LEA knows about my friendship with Rachel. They couldn't send her. Better the devil you know and all that." She sighed. "And I do think I can believe him that he is going to work in the interests of the school. He has done a lot of good in the past."

"If you want, I could deal with Andrew. Gives you a bit of distance and then… you won't have him butting heads with Lindon over you."

Kim smiled. "Thank you for the offer, Joe. But I know how to deal with Andrew Treneman."

Joe nodded. "And you know where I am if you want to talk."

"And just so you know, at the end of last time, when I thought I had lost my job, I recommended you for the role of headteacher."

"Was that because you believed in me or because you didn't trust Lindon?"

Kim smiled wider and nodded. "Maybe but at the very least, I know you have the student's best interests at heart."

Joe seemed to accept that and had run out of questions when he rose from his seat. Kim felt like he had something else he wanted to say but had chosen not to say it. She would have asked him but felt like it might have been something that he would have to bring up on his own accord.

The hurt was still sitting on her chest, pressing on her heart, but the pressure had been released a little.

But Kim knew that it was up to her to bridge any gap between her and Andrew.

And she cursed herself more for realising that it was that way around than thinking about what she would have to do.

When Andrew had said to Wendy about him and Kim being acquaintances by the end of the day, he didn't completely believe it himself. And the more the day went on, the less likely he thought that it would be.

As Wendy seemed to be the only member of staff that he had Kim's permission to speak to, he was questioning her as to how she knew the events of last term went. And as Kim's eyes and ears, Andrew knew that Wendy knew more than she was telling him. She was mentioning everything that he already knew with the details he already knew. But she wouldn't elaborate further when asked to.

Kim bursting into his makeshift office like she did was just a power tactic. It was her reminding him that she was the one in charge, not like she hadn't been all the other times. In a strange way, she had always been in charge of him.

"Instead of questioning my staff, I'll tell you everything that happened last term," Kim said. "You can have it straight from the horse's mouth. And you can ask every… daft question in the book. But I am going to need a glass of wine in my hand while I do it."

Andrew felt his lips curl up into a smile. "I'll buy the wine then."

Kim huffed. "You know you are banned from buying the wine." She turned to Wendy. "Just because he comes from some upper-class family, he seems to think the more money you throw at a bottle of wine makes it better. I don't recommend buying expensive wine."

He shook his head. "I know. House red only. Or paint stripper."

"He jokes but the last time he spent over £50 for a bottle of wine, it was so awful that even he couldn't drink it. And I've only ever remembered the name of it so that I don't buy it again or so I can give it to someone that I really don't like."

"Do you want me to get a bottle for Erica then?" Wendy said.

"Not yet. If at all. She is still my boss."

"So common sense hasn't completely gone out of the window then," Andrew said.

Kim turned to him and he already knew that it was a risky thing to say. He didn't need the death glare that she had given him to confirm it.

"Professionally, we can do this all again. We can work together. We've always been able to work together to some degree." She paused for a moment. "Personally, you are on thin ice."

"I can leave all of my personal feelings at the door."

"And we'll leave Dex out of this as well. We both know and understand… you care for him. Liked I care for him and like Rachel does. And so there is no reason for us to… for me to say anything to the contrary because… I'm annoyed at you."

Andrew nodded. "And I'll try not to be some self-righteous idiot."

Kim's was said in some earnest and Andrew knew that she meant it. It wasn't right what she had said this morning and it did hurt that she had said it. But he knew that was as close to an apology as he was going to get and he took it. He knew when to fight his battles with Kim and this wasn't one of them. Maybe at some point in the future, they would be able to sit down and talk about this moment. But it wasn't for now.

His offer of peace did pale in comparison to hers but he knew that she found him at his most annoying when he was trying to, almost, get one up on her. And, in fact, it was more important now that they worked together than all of the other times. Because now had the school and her job on the line.

"Meet you out front in 15," Kim said, already on the move towards the door.

"Of course," Andrew said.

Kim didn't even look back as she left, signalling that she still hated him for what he had done but he would take anything at this moment in time. Anything was ten times better than nothing.

"Are you into black magic or something? Or Voodoo? As you've spent some time in Africa." Wendy said.

"I've spent some time in Rwanda," Andrew said. "And Rwanda isn't near the region where that is practised."

Wendy threw her hands in the air. "You know what, I am just doing to put this all down to it being a really weird day. Even if I can't deal with the weirdness of it."

Andrew let her go, knowing that things were probably never going to be the same again now that he was back in Kim's life, and vice versa.

"I think I have a type," Kim said as she swirled her wine around her glass a little before taking a mouthful.

Andrew knew that he shouldn't have been studying her but there was always something about Kim that just captivated him. Even more so when they were out of the school environment and he found himself with just her in front of him. Kim, as a normal person, was who she had always been and he was still drawn to her. In ways that, at the moment, he shouldn't be.

"What type is that?" Andrew said.

"Married lairs."

"I think…"

"No, it's true. Lindon was a… one off but… before that… that was my last serious relationship."

"Well, another man took over your life. And you were right to put him first."

"Is that your way of getting around not talking about Dex?"

"You said…"

"I know what I said." Kim snapped, interrupting him.

"Sorry but… he was the man in your life that you devoted all your time for and any other man that wanted to come into your life would have had to accept that you were a packaged deal. Like Rachel and Holly."

"So you kept in touch with Rachel?"

He swallowed. "It was easier to stay in touch with Rachel. Even more so when we kept bumping into each other at work."

"She never said anything to me."

"Because she knew how much it would hurt you." Andrew sighed. "Kim, as much as I would have loved to have come back into your life…"

"We have bad history." She finished for him.

"Really bad history."

He watched as her expression changed and he knew that this was going to be the moment that she allowed him back in again. It would probably be a slow process but she was going to let him back in again.

She raised her glass. "To a better future then."

And Andrew couldn't help but raise his glass as well, tapping it against her. "A better future."

It was a start and it felt like quite a few things had been sorted in a short space of time. But Andrew knew the moment that things were going to turn professional again. And he was waiting for it.

"Well then, get your questions over and done with," Kim said.

And Andrew could only smile at that.