Disclaimer: None of Coronation Streets wonderful characters belong to me!

It is all coming back to me now – Celine Dion

Running Against The Rain

Prologue

December 1943

Torrential rain. Completely torrential and as the young man and wife looked out on to the war torn street, neither could help but laugh and neither knew why.

They had been married all of twelve minutes and twenty eight seconds. They had known one another six days – a week ago they had not been part of one another's lived.

And yet when she had seen him that very first time, she had just knew he was the boy for her and he was always going to be. Later in life, she was going to rue the day she had met him in moments of anger. She would tell all who would be kind enough to listen to her that all the good young men had been away fighting in the war and so it had been no wonder she had ended up with such a hopeless case.

And it was all going to be a lie.

Because from the moment Hilda Crabtree had set eyes on Stan Ogden the truth was there had not been another man in the world for her and she knew there would never have been another husband for her cause how could there be? She had him.

He would be her man even when he had been utterly useless to her. There would be times when she had needed him to comfort to her and he had not even patted her hand. And he would cheat. And he would lie. And he would generally not be the person she needed him to be when she was going through her darkest days and her worst times.

And he would steep so low as to steal from her. Yes, he would do all of that...

But at that moment the young girl knew nothing of this. She was just nineteen years old. She had put on a very convincing portrayal of a young woman remarkably in love.

Good enough for her mother and her father to say yes to this fool hardy marriage even though they thought it was going to bring her nothing but misery if they were honest.

But the truth was it had not been hard for her to put on that portrayal for it was the truth. She was remarkably in love.

And at that moment her groom felt the same. He had never thought he would and even at that moment had he been asked then, he did not think he would admit to it but it was the truth. He was mad about his bride.

As they settled from the rain under the church roof, family and friends around them all wondering if they were really witnessing a marriage that was made to last, there was one thing that was quite obvious only to the two of them.

They were crazy about one another.

Stan bent down and he gave his lovely wife a kiss on her nose, only not going straight for her lips as they were still under the watchful eye of her father. He knew he had given her to him but when they had a daughter as he was sure they were going too, he hoped the young man he would give her to would be willing to show him the same curtsey.

"You know it is going to be ages until we can even get out of here," said Alice Crabtree to her husband as the two of them watched their daughter bath in her husband's only too apparent affection.

Hilda heard her mother and as she drew away from Stan. She bit her lip and for a moment he was going to ask her what she was doing but then he saw what she was thinking in her eye and she seemed to him more wild and wonderful than she ever had before.

In later years, he was going to curse the day he had met her; she was a nag; she was moody; she never got his dinner on the table when he had walked through the door.

But the truth was for Stanley Ogden there could never be another wife for him; mistresses yes but not a wife.

He knew that his wife was going to have to be a special kind of women to put up with him and Hilda seemed to fit the bill.

She was sweet and she was innocent and she was willing to see the good in him when everyone just seemed to see the bad. He did not think he had ever had that before. He knew his mam and his dad had loved him but he had been called a rotten egg more times than he had cared to remember so to have her say to him that she wanted to be with him for the rest of her life... Well, it had been a big thing and though he did not know how much he was going to be able to give her on a realistic scale, he thought he was going to try and give her the world as long as he could.

Taking one another's hand they went out in to the street and the pair of them side by side ran against the rain. Both of them were able to hear their mothers calling that they should not be doing what they were as they were in there best clothes, (for it had been a such short notice, there had been no time for Hilda to get a wedding dress; it was only a miracle she had had a white summer one!) and they were going to get wrecked.

But to the young couple that didn't matter.

They were in the first flourished of young love and they were going to be together no matter what even when they did not really want to be.

Both had taken the vows they had made to one another seriously.

And so they run unaware but hopeful they were indeed going to spend the next forty years running against the rain together. Hand in hand.

Please review!