A little later than planned, but as promised! And before anyone says it yes, I know this idea has been done before. A lot. But I think more Reddie is always a good thing, so enjoy! x

There were very few guilty pleasures that Rachel Mason allowed herself in life. One was red wine, although that was mostly a necessity that came from running a school. Another was chocolate- she'd eaten her body weight in that over the summer. And the third was meaningless, easy-to-watch reality tv shows that they showed on some obscure channel on her tv. She used to have them playing in the background while marking books, now she often watched them while doing paperwork or scrolling on her laptop.

After the day she'd had with Max Tyler and everything else at Waterloo Road, she was indulging herself in all three. Say Yes to the Dress was playing on the TV, she had an open bar of chocolate on the arm of the sofa, a glass in her hand and she was fully intending not to move for at least the next half an hour.

At least, that was the plan until out of the blue, she heard the doorbell ring.

She frowned, then immediately sighed. She could count on one hand the number of people who would turn up unexpectedly- even less would turn up at this time in the evening. In fact, the only person she could think of was Phillip and selfishly, she found that she didn't want to deal with whatever disaster he'd found himself in this time. She loved her nephew and while logically, she'd known he should be with his mother, a part of her had been hurt when, at the beginning of summer, the boy had returned so quickly to the woman who had abandoned him, and had basically forgotten his aunt in the process.

Still, she could hardly pretend she wasn't home. If nothing else, her car on the drive and the lights in the hallway would have given her away. So she put down her wine and levered herself to her feet, careful to wipe any expression off of her face as she pulled the front door open.

The blank expression didn't last when she caught sight of just who was on her doorstep. "Eddie?"