"Mr Lawson?"

Eddie grit his teeth. "What?"

Having his name called wasn't unusual. Having his free periods interrupted wasn't either, even if he was using his less for lesson prep and more for research on a certain building contractor. Finding Bridget as the source of the voice wasn't odd either, particularly, but today, it was the last thing he was inclined to entertain. Still, he must have hidden most of the irritation in his voice well because she came into the room, her brow furrowed in concern. "It's Miss Mason," she began, and now he frowned. Was she using Bridget to pass messages like a schoolgirl?

"What about her?"

"I think she's ill." She looked highly uncomfortable. "She looks terrible, and I think she fainted earlier."

That got his attention. He looked up so quickly he almost heard the snap of his neck muscles. "What?"

Bridget shrugged helplessly. "It was only a few seconds. She wouldn't let me call for anyone, insists she's fine. But she doesn't look fine."

Despite himself, worry flickered through him. He didn't have Rachel down as a fainter. "Where is she now?"

"I left her in her office, said I was getting fresh water for her."

He pushed to his feet without a word, and strode away. Bridget was right, he thought, coming to a halt in the doorway of the office. Rachel did look terrible. She was pale, almost sheet white as she stared at the coffee table from the sofa, her eyes too big for her face and she didn't even look up as he entered. Didn't appear to know he was there, actually, not until he called out her name. "You alright?" he came closer, took a seat next to her.

"I'm fine." She shifted away from him, her tone stiff.

"You don't look fine."

"Did you need something?" Irritation flicked through her. Instead of answering, Eddie frowned, reached out and pressed the back of his hand to her forehead. "Hey!"

"You don't have a temperature."

"I told you, I'm fine!"

"And I told you, you don't look fine. You look like you're about to keel over."

"What do you care?" She pushed to her feet, pretended desperately that the room didn't spin for a moment. "I'm just some ex-prostitute who sleeps around, remember?"

She stepped away, but was less stable than she thought and she stumbled, had to catch herself on her desk. It was as if she were on a tilt-a-whirl, aware of the wood beneath her hands but disconnected from it, not completely sure if her legs were even still beneath her. Until hands landed on her elbows- kept her steady, kept her centred and despite herself she leant into Eddie, just a little, just to stay upright. He guided her back to the sofa, sitting closer now and against her will, a sob escaped her, far too loud in the room with just the two of them. Too obvious. She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes, hunched over in an effort to centre herself. This wasn't her. She didn't breakdown in her office, she didn't gasp for breaths that came too fast and too uneven, and she especially didn't do it in front of her deputy.

Rachel was oblivious to Bridget appearing in the doorway for a moment before she withdrew again, didn't question where Eddie had gotten the glass of water that he pressed into her hands and guided towards her mouth. She merely sipped at it obediently, before pressing it against her forehead, concentrating on the cool glass against her skin. "I didn't sleep with Hordley," she whispered, never opening her eyes. "I wouldn't. I need you to know that, Eddie."

Instead of the vicious retort she'd been expecting, Eddie's voice was almost soft. The harshness that had been present earlier had almost vanished in the face of her distress, the bite of anger that had coloured his tone now absent. "He didn't just do you a favour though, did he?"

If he hadn't been watching, he would have missed the way she sagged slightly in her seat. "In fact," he continued, still quietly, "I think he's the type of person who would stoop very low to get what he wants. Including blackmailing you."

Tears pricked at her eyes, and for a moment, she was tempted to tell him everything. Tempted to blurt it all out, about Hordley's threats towards her, towards Bolton, explain how he'd trapped her into this web of lies until she was too entangled to break free. Tempted to tell him all about her growing suspicion of what was happening within her body.

But the moment passed. He wouldn't understand, and he was cross enough already. She didn't think she could bear anymore. So instead, she took another swallow of water, and looked at him for the first time. "That is so far from the truth it is laughable."

He scoffed, and shook his head. "For someone so practiced in lying, you'd think you'd be better at it." The anger was back, all that righteous fury that was now pressed down, further from the surface than it had been but still present.

"God, Eddie." She put the glass down harder than necessary, paying no notice to the way it sloshed. "Can you just deal with it? I had a past, it's over. Can we just move on?"

"Go home."

"What?" The abruptness confused her. She frowned, and then glared. "Excuse me?"

"You look awful," he said. "Go home, take some tablets and go to bed. You shouldn't be here like this."

The man was infuriating, she decided. Accusing her one minute and trying to fuss over her the next. "I'm fine."

"Rachel-"

"And even if I wasn't, we have the governors to deal with," she continued as if he hadn't spoken. "I need to check that Grantley hasn't throttled Bolton, or vice versa, there's a pile of paperwork thicker than my thumb that needs doing and last I checked, the IT contractors are still roaming around somewhere so home is not even an option right now."

She was so stubborn. "I'll check on Grantley. You stay where Bridget can see you." He stood, barely sparing her a glance as he left. "And drink your water."

She scowled, contemplated throwing the glass at his back. But instead picked it up and brought it to her lips.

W.R.

The rest of Rachel's day passed in a blur. Steph and Tom, Janeece, the governors, the police, they all melded together into a chaotic, tense mess as she fought to keep her mind on the present and firmly out of the past, fought to keep her carefully cultivated mask in place. For the most part, she succeeded. She was reasonably confident not a single one of the people she spoke to were aware anything was even vaguely wrong. Eddie, however, was a different story. Each time she felt his gaze piercing into her, each snide comment and barely hidden glare was like a physical blow, cracking her façade until she felt as if she might shatter at any moment.

Eddie, for his part, was torn between anger and worry. Because he wanted to rage at her, to shake some sense in and shake the truth out of her, because he didn't believe a word she said about Hordley or the contract and he knew, he just knew that she was lying to him still and there was something inherently wrong about the whole situation. But the way she'd looked. In her office earlier that day, the way she still looked, a touch too pale with her eyes too big, and perhaps if he hadn't been looking he would never have seen the way she'd added makeup under her eyes, or the way she'd gripped her desk when standing from her chair. But he had been looking, and so he'd seen it all which meant he'd also seen the expression on her face when she'd looked at him, some combination between fear and guilt and wariness. And then there was her comment about Janeece- what had she said? That the fear of what they'd think of her would be worse than what actually happened. Was she speaking from experience, he wondered, something more in her own past?

And suddenly, he couldn't quite bring himself to say all of the things he'd wanted to before. So when the governors had left, and they were waiting for news of Janeece and Rachel had lowered herself into the chair Bridget usually sat in, looking at him with an expression that was somewhere between exhausted and terrified, Eddie pulled up another chair and sat directly in front of her.

"I know that he blackmailed you," he said quietly. "Don't insult either of us by trying to deny it."

It was over. She closed her eyes against him, and accepted defeat. He was right, after all. To continue this would insult both of them. When she opened them again, he was looking straight at her, and they both pretended her eyes weren't suspiciously wet. "I said no, at first."

"What?"

She shrugged slightly. "I know it doesn't matter." Her voice cracked slightly. "But I didn't just do it. I refused, at first."

"What changed?"

Her lips twisted into a bitter smile, one that never reached her eyes. "He gave Bolton that job," she murmured. "And made it quite clear to me that I wouldn't be the only one to suffer if I refused."

Eddie leant back, blew out an incredulous breath. "That's it then. We go to the police."

"We can't!"

"Why not?"

"If we go to the police, it gets out. If it gets out, I resign." And i'm going to need this job more than ever, she added silently.

"Why? I thought it was all about the school, the kids. Sounds like all you're worried about it your career."

Her jaw dropped. "You know that's not true!"

"Yeah, course. Without you, we'd all be lost."

She reigned in the instinctive hurt, pretended not to feel the blow he'd just landed. "I thought you were past resenting me for my job."

Something flickered over his face, too fast for her to catch and she sighed, felt the tiredness that had seemed to settle into her bones sink just a little bit deeper. "You can't handle it, can you?" she said quietly. "I had sex with men for money twenty years ago because I had nothing else. You can't see past that."

The answer was written all over his face. Rachel pressed her lips together, and silently rose from her seat and crossed into her office, shutting the door behind her.

W.R.

It was long past the time that the school should have been shut and locked, but still awaiting news of Janeece meant that the two most senior staff members were still there. It was also the reason, should anyone ask, that Rachel had fallen asleep curled up on the sofa, and was jerked awake only when the phone on her desk rang.

She blinked in surprise, before rushing to stand and answer it. Only to gasp when she spotted Eddie sat at the table, illuminated by the lamp as he appeared to mark a pile of books. He kept his expression blank, even as she spoke to Steph on the phone and hung up, looking at him curiously.

He tilted his head towards the phone. "Janeece okay?"

Rachel nodded. "She's fine," she answered, and then smiled tightly. "She doesn't want to come back, but…"

"She'll bounce back, knowing Janeece."

"I hope so." She looked at him, tried to read his expression. But he was a closed book… or she was just overtired, she couldn't tell. "What are you going to do, Eddie?"

Good question, he thought. "Right now, I'm going to drive you home. I don't trust you not to fall asleep at the wheel."

She stared at him silently, trying to judge. He was angry, that much she knew. But he wasn't completely shut off to her either, and she thought that might have confused her more than anything. So she nodded her acceptance, and pushed herself to her feet. He didn't have a car, she remembered, and without a word handed him her own keys. She had no idea what he would do at the other end- order a taxi, maybe, or continue their disagreement off of school grounds. She hoped not.

She grabbed a pile of envelopes off her desk before switching off the lights, and they walked silently together, footsteps echoing in the empty halls. "I just need to deal with these." She waved the envelopes, already heading towards the downstairs office and just as she'd hoped, Eddie nodded, and paused to wait for her.

If he noticed that it took her an abnormally long time to place the envelopes where they belonged, he said nothing, merely fell into step beside her. The weather was growing warmer, Rachel thought absently as they emerged into the night air, and it wouldn't be long before the need for coats was gone altogether.

The car journey was silent. Rachel sat bolt upright to avoid falling asleep again, although she silently noted that she hadn't given Eddie her address, and yet he drove without hesitating. A good memory, especially when he'd had rather a lot of alcohol in his system last time.

"Do you want to take my car home?" she offered as they pulled onto her driveway.

Eddie shook his head. "Taxi should be here any minute. I ordered it while you were in the office."

Perhaps she'd taken longer than she'd thought. She nodded, accepted her keys back and shouldered her handbag.

"Rachel…"

"Not tonight." She looked at him beseechingly, tiredness etched into her face. "Please Eddie, not tonight."

For a moment, she thought he'd push. But instead, he nodded slowly, just as headlights headed towards them and slowed to a stop. The taxi idled, not even pulling in and Eddie stepped towards it, glancing at her as if waiting for her to say something. But she was all out of words today. By the time she'd slid her key into the lock and opened the door, the taxi was already pulling away and she sighed in relief, leaning against the doorframe. All she wanted was to fall into bed, but there was something she had to do first.

The nurses' room at school backed onto the office, and it was well stocked for the area they lived in and the students they had. Rachel withdrew the box that she'd pilfered from her handbag, not even pausing to take her shoes off before she headed upstairs to the bathroom.

Mere minutes later, and the seconds ticking by were excruciating. She stripped off her clothing and pulled on her nightwear, scrubbed her makeup off as quickly as she could and then, just for good measure, brushed her teeth too. And when she could avoid it no longer, she looked down at the shelf.

She wasn't even mildly surprised to see the positive pregnancy test staring back at her.