Eddie was, he could admit, thoroughly cross and mildly embarrassed to be taking the bus to school. He hadn't had to do that since he was a student himself. Still, the only positive thing this morning was that it was far too early to catch even a glimpse of a student, and even the bus driver gave him a slightly puzzled look as he disembarked at the stop not far from the school.

He had anticipated being the first one there. Peace and quiet to mull over the events of the previous day, to decide if the resignation letter he had written in his head was going to make it onto paper or not. Only to his surprise, as he walked down the drive there was already a car in the car park, one that he recognised all too well.

What was Rachel doing here so early?

He could, theoretically, ignore her presence. It was a big school, and assuming she hadn't looked out a window and spotted him, there was no reason that she should even know he was there. But just knowing she was in the same building had tension crawling up his spine, and after five minutes of sitting at the desk in his classroom, he huffed, and went to her office.

He'd presumed that she would be at her desk, or perhaps at the table. Probably with a pile of paperwork knowing her, despite the ridiculously early hour. It was even more ridiculous when he factored in the way she'd looked the evening before- had she never heard of sleep? The words to scold her were ready on the tip of his tongue, but as he entered, she wasn't at her desk. Instead, she was on the sofa, her arms wrapped around her knees and tears tracking down her cheeks.

She visibly jumped as he came in, hastily wiping at her face. "What are you doing here?"

"Could ask you the same question." He came into the room, shoved his hands into his pockets. She had more colour in her cheeks than the previous day, he thought, but her eyes were red where she'd been crying, with purple smudges underneath that her makeup couldn't quite hide. "Is this about Hordley?"

She pressed her lips together, hands clenched together as she looked away. "I've really messed up, Eddie."

No arguments from him. "We need to sort this out," he agreed, "and to do that, you need to tell me exactly what happened."

But Rachel shook her head. "I'm not talking about Stuart."

"Then what?"

A fresh wave of tears threatened, and she blinked rapidly to disperse them. Like taking off a plaster, she thought, and swallowed harshly. "Eddie… I'm pregnant."

His mouth dropped open. She watched the shock ripple over his features, eyes widening, his whole body frozen. For several long beats, he merely gaped at her, soundless in his surprise until without warning, his mouth closed with a snap, his jaw clenching as he seemed to recover himself. "I don't… how?"

She stayed silent. The obvious joke simply didn't seem that funny, especially as his expression darkened further. "Do you know who the father is?"

Rachel flinched. Perhaps she deserved that, perhaps she didn't, but it still stung regardless. "Despite what you apparently think of me, you are the only possibility," she told him lowly, wrapping her arms around herself.

"And you didn't think to tell me sooner?" he demanded.

"I've only just found out myself."

He let out a noise of disbelief. "How is that even possible?"

"I've been a little preoccupied!"

He stared at her with an incredulous look on his face, before he shook his head and turned away from her. "How the hell did this happen?"

It was an exclamation made half to himself, and Rachel didn't think he was looking for a response. She stayed quiet, and was glad of it when, a moment later, he rounded on her, glaring furiously. "How could you possibly not know?" And then, before she could formulate a reply, he shook his head, raised his voice again. "How could you have let it happen in the first place?"

"It took two of us to do this," she reminded him unhappily. "And apparently, you didn't think to take precautions either."

He scoffed. "Excuse me for assuming you had that covered!"

She straightened in her seat, looking at him furiously. "Because every woman should be on birth control? And men have no responsibility?"

"That's not what I meant and you know it!"

"It's what it sounded like!"

Eddie let out a disgusted sound, running a hand over his head. "For God's sake." He wheeled around, looking for all the world like a caged animal. "How could you do this, Rachel?"

"It's not like I planned it!"

"No?"

It was her turn for her jaw to drop. Was that truly what he thought of her? She'd known their relationship was damaged, perhaps irreparably, but to think so little of her… it was worse than she'd thought. Her throat burned, and she surged to her feet. "Well, you don't have to worry," she said roughly. "I don't want or expect anything from you. I just thought you had a right to know."

She was gone before he had the chance to respond. She fled through the outer office, down the stairs and even if her voice had remained steady, if a little raw, now tears blurred her vision and her chest was tight as she rushed down the corridor, pushed blindly into the staff toilets where no one would even think to look for her. Really, Eddie should have been the one to leave her office. It was hers, after all. But that was the first place anyone arriving for the day would look for her, so she couldn't bring herself to be disappointed as she leant back against the door and pressed her hand to her mouth. It could have gone worse, she supposed. Although at that moment, she was struggling to see how.

She couldn't stop crying. Somewhere, in the back of her head, she recognised that this was partly due to hormones, but as she slid down the door and pressed her forehead to her knees, that didn't help her one bit. It wasn't just Eddie. It was all of it, her life was spiralling out of control and she didn't know what to do. It was a way she hadn't felt in a long time. She had crafted Rachel Mason out of nothing and over the years had made her the epitome of calm and confident. Always controlled, always in command.

She didn't feel that way right now.

Pregnant by a man who hated her, with a baby she hadn't even known existed for months. How long before he chose to tell someone about her past? With the way he'd looked at her, she didn't think it would be long. Her teaching career would be over, and what would she do then? How would she raise a child? Motherhood was off to a great start, she thought sardonically, only to pale, her head shooting up as another thought occurred to her. She'd been carrying on as normal, which meant she'd continued to drink wine and eat whatever she wanted… there were things you were supposed to avoid in pregnancy weren't there?

What a mess.

Rachel pressed her hands to her face, and cried.

She didn't know how long she sat in that bathroom. But by the time she had calmed herself down and cleaned up her makeup as much as possible, she could hear the sound of voices and movement outside that suggested the corridors had become very busy. It was probably for the best- just having the children in school tended to change the energy of the place, made the day in front of her feel less daunting and when she stepped out into the chaos, her head was held high and she smiled at the students who passed her.

Having the students protest against the builders wasn't exactly the day she'd had in mind, however.

She'd been grateful for the distraction, when the call had first come through. Had grabbed her coat and strode down to the field, and when she'd seen Mika and Brett stood in front of the bulldozer, one thing came to mind.

"Seriously?"

They'd both looked a bit sheepish in the face of her astonishment, but defiant. She'd tried to talk to them round, had been succeeding with Brett until Mika refused. Tom tried to help, and only ended up making things and before she knew it, Rachel had students up a tree and eco-protesters throwing rocks through windows. Because of course she did. Somewhere in the midst of the day, Eddie appeared, having found out about what was happening and it was entirely professional, the way Rachel ducked away and relayed messages through other people rather than talk to him herself.

The situation being resolved via a swan dive off a ladder was not how she thought things were going to go, but it had the desired effect, she supposed. Tom was fine, if a bit bruised, Mika was repentant and the rest of the students… well, they had a good story and a mildly better awareness of the environment so she considered that overall, the day hadn't been a complete failure. Now she just had to get through the rest of the week.

Speaking of… she picked up her phone, watching out of the window as the students trickle out of school. "Yes, hi. My name is Rachel Mason- I need to cancel an appointment I had booked with the nurse on Monday. And need to book an alternative appointment with my GP please." She watched the students pour out of the school grounds through the window and without even thinking about it, her hand had drifted to rest lightly against her lower stomach.

W.R.

It took three entire days for Rachel to realise that it had been a little too easy for her to avoid Eddie and come to the conclusion that had, in hindsight, been rather obvious- he was avoiding her just as desperately in return. She wasn't complaining, she had no desire to see him. Although it was going to make running a school fairly difficult at some point.

But those three days weren't exactly stress free. Every phone call, every unexpected visitor had her jumping, half-convinced the wrath of the governors and the LEA was about to descend upon her with her past exposed for all to see. She held her breath each time she walked into the staffroom, bracing herself for accusing stares and whispers that never materialised. She didn't understand why Eddie had kept her secret, but she was beyond grateful that he had.

Her Saturday was spent at the hospital, with a midwife which considering she hadn't even known she was pregnant at the beginning of the weak, was quite the surreal experience. The receptionist made a tart comment about how late Rachel had left it to book, the midwife herself assured her she'd been happy to squeeze her in and for the first time Rachel realised, sat in the funny little room, that she was going to have a baby before Christmas came around.

Now wasn't that something?

Then it was into an ultrasound, where the woman in the room made another comment about her being a late booker and were they waiting for the father? Rachel felt her cheeks heat, the urge to squirm in embarrassment almost overwhelming. But she held her head up as she informed her that they weren't waiting for anyone, and to the woman's credit, her expression didn't so much as flicker.

It was with some surprise that Rachel discovered her baby looked like… well, a baby. It had a head and body, legs, something that looked like arms and the ability to move around. She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting, but it hadn't been that, and she found herself thoroughly and completely entranced by the image on the screen.

She walked out of that appointment, towards her car with the prints of those ultrasounds safely tucked in her bag, and had the sudden, fierce urge to talk to someone. Anyone. She wanted someone to tell and have them be happy, she wanted to smile and laugh with them and talk about baby clothes and names and all the other things she had long ago accepted would never be in her future. It should have been Eddie. The thought caused a sharp pang in her chest; he should be the one she was having those conversations with, but she didn't even think he was going to meet his child, let alone be involved with their life.

She thought about calling Melissa, for all of a second. Rachel could already picture the smug, gleeful comments she'd receive when her younger sister found out that she was single and pregnant. Melissa would guise them under the pretence of care and worry, but really, she'd be gloating that once again, Rachel had messed up more than she ever had.

So calling her was out. At least for now. And there was no one else. Rachel had friends, of course- a group from university who met up once a year to catch up, a few she'd met along the way who she went out for drinks with every couple of months. But none close enough that she could call about this.

She shoved that line of thought away, and turned her mind to more practical issues. Like how to run a school when she and the deputy head were avoiding each other.

By the time Monday came around, she'd not found a way around the issue that didn't involve someone leaving. Which was impractical for her given her situation and, she could admit, unfair on Eddie. Still, at least the day was just a normal school day, no complications or additional stress… who was she kidding. It wasn't even registration when the first drama of the day cropped up. She considered herself to have had a varied career, one in which she believed she'd seen or at least heard of most of what a group of teenagers could throw at her. A student coming to school in her pyjamas, however? That was a new one.

She was fighting for Sameen. She knew not all of the staff understood why, even when she stood in front of them and tried to explain and she thanked her lucky stars no one knew she was pregnant, or she knew there would be whispers about hormones and mood swings. She knew they didn't all agree, either. But she didn't need them to, she just needed them to help her. And if Eddie was watching her throughout with an unreadable expression on his face, then it barely registered in the midst of deportation laws and appeal legalities.

Until he caught up with her in the corridor, calling out her name and drawing her to the side. She looked at him warily.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm sorry?"

"With Sameen. Why are you fighting so hard?"

She tilted her head. "Why aren't you?"

He looked taken aback by that, and she'd walked away. Back to her office, back to emails and phone calls and desperate research while the clock on the wall seemed louder and faster than ever.

In the end, however, it ended how it was always going to. The ones with power won, as they always do, and Sameen chose her family over anything else. Rachel couldn't blame her. Remaining behind, completely alone, was a daunting prospect for anyone, let alone a teenaged girl. Still, it didn't sit right with her and long after the rest of the students had left, she found herself sat on the concrete front steps, staring out to where the car had driven Sameen off.

"Rachel?"

Eddie's voice was soft, enough that she didn't even jump. When it mattered, he had chosen to help, had chosen to support Sameen and to support Rachel and somewhere in the midst of the chaos of the day Rachel was grateful for it. But she still couldn't quite manage a smile, or anything else remotely welcoming. Not right then. But he seemed to understand, and stepped forward to sit next to her anyway.

For a few minutes, they sat in companionable silence. "You did everything you could today," Eddie said quietly, without looking at her. She felt her lips twist, press together. She should answer him, he would be expecting a response. But she couldn't find the words.

He didn't say anything else though. Didn't even give her an odd look. He simply remained beside her, a silent companion as the breeze blew and the birds called out overhead. She wasn't sure why he was sat there with her. In that moment, she couldn't bring herself to care enough to find out.

They sat there as the minutes ticked by, a little bubble of calm that the cars and shouts of people in the world beyond the school gates couldn't touch. It was only when Rachel shivered that she realised just how cold she'd become, the air freezing and the concrete steps beneath her not helping any. Eddie noticed in the same moment. He pushed himself to his feet and without a word, held out his hand to her.

She paused, looked at him in surprise but his expression never so much as flickered. He was a mystery, she thought tiredly, and ignored her misgivings to place her hand in his. He helped her to her feet, steadying her when she wavered slightly after sitting on the unforgiving steps for so long. When their eyes met, they simply looked at each other.

It was something like understanding that passed between them, and Rachel offered a tiny nod, the most she could do in that moment. She turned, fully intending to go to her car, to go home. But something had her pausing, biting her lip as she remembered Sameen and her love for both of her parents. "I had a scan," she blurted out without turning around. "It… everything looks good."

She didn't know if he cared or not. She didn't wait to find out- she started walking, quickly, never looking back and never slowing down. It meant she didn't see the stunned, pained expression on Eddie's face as she walked away.