Note: I wrote this last year, after the episodes aired, and I was very new to Corrie when I wrote this - I'd only been watching for a few months. This is unedited from when I wrote it, aside from to correct some grammar errors, so there may be continuity or character mistakes. I apologise if there are. The fic title is from Lorde's song "Liability (Reprise)". I thought it was kind of relevant to Eileen struggling to come to terms with having (as far as she knew) killed her husband.
Eileen can't sleep the night she gets home.
The day's events won't stop playing over and over again in her head, accompanied by thoughts that maybe Todd really is in danger, that she's a horrible person for having accepted the lies Pat told her, that maybe the last one (and the very first she refused to believe) wasn't really a lie – –
Come on, Eileen, it was just another one of his mind games. It wasn't true and you know that.
Still, she hasn't seen her son for 3 months and has barely heard a word about him for about that long. She doesn't even know if he's alive right now, how would she know if Pat was lying about him being in danger?
It's her who should be on the run, not Todd.
At least she'd have a good reason for it. She's a murderer. She's killed someone, something she never thought she'd be capable of.
She can practically hear Pat laughing at her, saying that she's just as bad as him.
It's then that Eileen finally gives in. She gets out of bed and nearly falls down the stairs as she hurries down them. She picks up the phone and briefly goes over her options for who to call.
Tim or Liz would be the best choice, she decides. After all, they're not only her closest friends, they were the people she (partially) confided in earlier. And they probably wouldn't mind her waking them up at 3AM too much.
She dials a number and even surprises herself with whose it is. The one person she knows who might have a chance of at least sort of knowing how she feels.
"Hello, I know it's late, but is Gail Rodwell here?"