This is different from what I would usually do. Recently, I have grown an obsession with Carla Connor (and Nicholas Tilsey), I don't know why I haven't been this engrossed with her before. I blame being to heart-eyed with Sophie and Maddie to realise but I have always liked her. I mainly wrote this because 1) I was thinking about this new Sophie is going to be a business woman storyline and 2) Sophie is the only person who was a part of the fire/lost someone and none of her grief has been shown since Maddie's funeral. She just has the odd remarks here and there whereas we've seen all of Carla's tragic downfall and the Nazirs reactions yet Sophie, someone who in the past has dealt with issues in the past, is the one who is fine. She lost a girlfriend, someone she loved very much and had no family and was only 18 years ago. Then Jenny went on to try and kidnap her brother. Why she and the Websters have been pushed under the carpet, I don't know.

Anyway, I had so much fun writing this. I would love to see Sophie/Carla scenes in the future.

The truth was out. It was Tracey who started the fire, not Carla. It was Tracey who left the candle burning and cost the street the loss two loved ones. Tracey continued to live her life as though nothing had happened while Carla went into a downhill spiral. She gambled away her own money and Underworld's, a business she had built up for many years and was proud of. The hard work of her employees was in jeopardy because of her actions. The actions caused by Tracey's selfishness, jealousy and inability to forget it wasn't Carla who killed Tina, it was Rob. The man she loved more than she ever thought she would but what she had forgotten was Rob was Carla's brother. It hurt her he was capable of murder as well as everyone else around him. Sure, Carla wasn't Tina's biggest fan—who would be friends with someone who had an affair with their husband?—but she wasn't stupid enough to murder her. What would it prove? If she was going to, she would have killed Peter as well but she wanted to see both of them suffer.

Now both of them are out of her life, she could breathe. But it left Tracey with a burning fire inside her for revenge. And she lost. Carla would laugh about it if it hadn't nearly led her to suicide. The guilt had eaten away at her. She was thousands in debt and she couldn't walk past the community centre without Yasmeen and Sharif glaring at her through the window; the gym without Zeedan giving her a dirty look; sit in the same office as Alya without her making a slide remark about her father or walk into her local corner shop without Sophie's eyes burning deep into her skin.

She had wrecked so many people's lives yet all that time she was innocent. It was Tracey who had broken into her flat, lit the candle and left it burning. She almost killed her own daughter. Would she have done it if she had known Amy was in there? Carla needed answers. And it all came out on top of a cliff, moments away from Carla taking her own life, intoxicated with alcohol.

With Tracey locked up behind bars—for the moment—Ms Connor had been spending the past months getting her life back on track. She was slowly but surely paying back every penny she had borrowed. She agreed to go and see Steve's therapist, much to Michelle's delight, once a week, and she was allowing herself to be happy and in love with Nicholas Tilsey. The man who had held her hand and believed her innocence.

She gave Alya her job back. Alya felt that was all she needed from the business woman and asked for nothing more. Carla saw potential in Ayla and had no doubt the young woman will go on a do great things for Underworld. Her designs were what the company needed and Carla was glad she didn't lose it. Zeedan simply shock her hand. He wasn't one for words or emotion. The agreed if they ever needed anything, they would be there for each other. Carla knew there was nothing she could give Yasmeen and Sharif that would replace Kal. He was a hero gone too soon. She gave them their apologises and would have offered them input into the community centre but she couldn't afford it at the moment but she did agree to having Underworld's input into the centre for charity events and if they ever needed a venue, she was sure she could find a way to persuade Nick to let them use the Bistro.

Then there was Sophie. She didn't blame her for hating her. She lost a girlfriend, someone she saw a future with. Carla knew what it felt like.

She was lucky to see their relationship blossom. Carla had nothing but good things to say about Maddie after getting to know her. She a hard-working, loyal employee. They didn't get off on the best foot but she was willing to give the teenager a second chance and it paid off.

Maddie worked for Underworld for a good part of a year. After two weeks of "community service", as Carla put it, the business woman saw a change in her ordering system. Kirk was good but he often got confused and deliveries and deadlines weren't always met. Carla liked strict routine. Maddie came in with a fresh mind and managed Kirk all at the same time.

She also liked Maddie's sense of humour and ora. Maybe she reminded Carla of herself a lot, she wasn't sure. She didn't get to speak to her as often as she would have liked but there was something about her. Something Carla soon realised, she understood why Sophie wanted to help her, take her under her wing and get to the girl underneath the wall.

Maddie Heath was defiantly the younger version of Carla Connor.

She understood why the Websters' didn't want her there at the funeral or the wake. No doubt that if she was in the spotlight of suspect, she would have gone and paid her respects. Lord knows she wanted to. What had happened to Maddie was a tragic accident. A bad timing, unfortunate accident. Watched by the residents of the street. Carla could see and hear Sophie screaming out for her girlfriend as her body hit the floor. The sound of gasps throughout night sky and Sophie's heels as she ran to Maddie's to make sure she was okay will stay with her forever.

Fifteen hours. That's how long her young body survived after the explosion. An eighteen-year-old's life was over. All because of Tracey's selflessness.

Carla was quick to go round to Sophie's to tell her the news of Tracey's sentence. Sophie forgave her. She knew it wouldn't bring Maddie back but there was nothing else she could do.

Sophie had just celebrated her 21st birthday—a quiet get together at her house with a few friends and family. Far from what she had originally planned. She and Maddie were going to leave Manchester for a weekend away somewhere before coming home and celebrating in what have been their first place together.

Also, Sophie was leaving the corner shop to work with her Dad. He had been given the right to turn his garage into a business and was in need of someone to sort out his orders. With Sophie's many GCSEs, she took the offer and left behind Dev and the corner shop, a job she had been in since her last year at school. It was hard to leave such an amazing friend behind but she wanted to move up and into a career. She wasn't going to waste the opportunity.

Carla had texted her her congratulations and the pair agreed to go for a drink together in the Rovers.

There was a lot of water still left under the bridge they felt needed talking about and they did.

Both the strong females put across their feelings and opinions on the situation and they came to an agreement on that night like grown ups. Carla couldn't apologise enough and Sophie either, as she admitted to pointing the finger at Carla before any evidence and she regretted it deeply.

Their discussion had moved onto Maddie.

"She never told me about that!" Sophie gasped.

"Oh, yeah! All the time," Carla laughed, referring to the times Maddie would tell Kirk to leave and go make her a cup of tea so her to do their job. "Did she ever tell you why she could do his job?"

"Was it something to do with sexism?" Sophie asked.

Carla nodded. "Yep."

"Yep," Sophie said soon after.

They laughed. Maddie was strong minded. She didn't need help in doing anything when it came to working. Get a box down from a hight? She would go get the ladder, put the box on her shoulder and carry it down. She didn't need the help of Kirk. He was about as physically strong as her, it wasn't a man's job. Needed someone to catch the spider that's just run out from under a delivery? Maddie's got it—just her bear hands and a little bit of instinct, caught, throw it on to the street, job done. Maybe if it was a big one, she would take the broom to it first. Living in car and on the streets, she didn't have time to run away screaming for a creepy-crawly or struggling to move things about. She had barricaded her door enough times in the halfway house.

"I can remember her first day with me, she was a right little back chatter, wasn't she?" Carla said, taking a sip of her glass of red.

"Yeah…," Sophie said. "It got her into a lot of trouble."

"I actually quite admired it. I loved the times she gave it large to Sally. Better to come from her than me. I think your Mum was intimidated by her at times," Carla winked.

"Probably," Sophie laughed. "She took no nonuse from my Mum. She always made a joke out of everything my Mum said."

"Yes," Carla nodded. "I've heard enough to last me a life time. She would wind Beth, Kirk and Julie up all the time because they were clueless."

"Any good ones you can remember?" Sophie wondered. All Sophie had to do sometimes was say she thinks dinner is going to be ready later than she originally thought and Maddie would respond with: "did you hear about the man who tired to eat a clock? It was very time consuming!" and she didn't know whether to laugh or cry at how bad it was.

Or the time they were out for a walk and bumped into Sean and Billy who had just come back from a meeting with the church and Maddie thought it was a good idea to say "do you need help building an ark? I noah guy!" Sophie felt the colour drain from her face and she had to cover Maddie's mouth before she could make another comment.

"Hmm," Carla thought about it. "Too many to narrow it—hey! Have I told you what the last conversation I had with her was?" Sophie shook her head. "She asked me what Steve and Michelle's was like. I could have said the obvious: amazing, beautiful but I was quick thinking and said 'it was an emotional wedding. Even the cake was in tiers'."

Carla nodded then lifted her glass to her lips, a celebration to herself for making a pun before the young woman. Maddie and Sophie weren't invited to the wedding, but they were invited to the reception. Maddie was so happy about it because she feared she might of had to wear a dress.

"No!" Sophie said in surprise. "Where was I?"

"Uh, looking for Sally and Tim, I think," Carla shrugged. "You should have seen the look on her face, she was proud of me."

"I bet," Sophie smiled. "She really admired you, Carla."

"Aw, thanks," the brunette looked upwards.

Sophie followed her glaze. If what she believed was true, Sophie did hope Maddie was up there, in heaven, somewhere looking down on her. Proud of what she had achieved and was doing.

Proud that she was drinking! Cider at that. Since her accident years ago, it was aware occasion for Sophie. The occasion had to be special if she was and seeing as she was in the pub with Carla, and cider was the last drink they had together, it was fitting if they were doing to be talking about her girlfriend.

"I admired her, too," Carla spoke honestly. "Something about her made you think she would be alright in the end, you know?"

"Yeah," Sophie whispered. "She was a tough ol' cookie."

"I'm truly sorry for everything that has happened," Carla reached over and gave Sophie's hand a squeeze. "You should have to go through that at your age."

Sophie sniffed and smiled. She sat up straight, her hand slipping from Carla's. She rubbed her palms on her jeans, looking down.

"What's your fondest memory of her?" Carla asked, changing the subject. She didn't mean to upset Sophie. They agreed to meet up to talk about the good times. It slipped. The business woman wanted to reflect on the good times, not remind Sophie of what happened.

Sophie raised her head and pursed her lips in thought. "I don't know really. You know, people… are together a lot longer than we ever were but I felt like I had known her for years. Once we past her background, we just clicked. She opened up to me and it sounds cheesy, but everything just fell into place."

Carla smiled with pride. She had been in love plenty of times. With men who she loved more than they did but more recently, with Nick, she was learning again what it truly felt to fall in love again. "She adored you."

Sophie blushed. She lifted her glass to her lips to stop the business from seeing the redness in her cheeks.

"No, I'm telling the truth!" Carla beamed. "The second I said everyone can go at work, she would run to her locker, grab her phone and text you. Even though you lived only live round the corner! It was 'nope! I need to let her know when I'll be home'. It drove Sally mad."

"And I still have the messages to prove it," Sophie said. "Don't think it was because she loved me, it was because she wanted to know if I put dinner on or not. She thought of her belly than she thought of me."

Carla couldn't hold back the small laugh that escaped her lips. She could recall the times Maddie would ask when she could go for lunch, she was as bad as the rest. The staff at Underworld live for tea breaks.

"I think your in the minority there," Carla said. "Everything was about you. Sophie this, Sophie that. You were her life."

"Too bad I couldn't save it."

"Oh," Carla quickly disagreed, "But I think you did. Where did you think she would be if it wasn't for you?"

"Alive," Sophie put it sternly. "If I hadn't told her to—"

"No," Carla stopped the brunette. "She would still be homeless. She would have been unhappy. You saved her. What happened was an unfortunate accident. Hold your head up knowing you made her final years ones to remember, ones she can be proud of."

Sophie gave a nervous smile. Those words reminded her of the time Maddie told her could count the good times of her childhood on one hand. Her Dad, Carla and everyone at the Wake was right, she—Sophie Webster—made her happy.

"When did you become like Oprah?" Sophie respond, adding light to the situation.

Carla sighed. "I think it's all the wisdom talks with Roy, he's rubbing off on me."

"I can tell," Sophie swallowed. "I think you're an amazing woman, Carla, so did Maddie. I hope you sort out any issues you have with yourself and I'm happy you've found happiness. You, me and Nazirs' will get justice out of this."

"Who's told you that?" Carla, feeling overwhelmed, took a sip of her wine, drinking the remains of her glass. She almost frowned she was out but it wasn't important.

"God?" Sophie shrugged. "I know you don't believe in Him but if you ever need someone to talk to, come to me—or Billy or Emily. He may not be able to give you an answer but I know it's his prayers that have helped me through the lonely nights."

"That's where we're different, Sophie, you have God and I have wine," she lifted her empty glass.

"Would you like another one?" Sophie referred to it. She reached down to her bag to retrieve her purse.

"You still want to talk?"
Sophie nodded. "Yeah—if you want to, too. I want to know more about what she was like in the factory. We never really talked about it."

"Why not?" Carla asked before handing her glass over to Sophie who proceeded to walk over to the bar and ask the same as last time to Sarah, who was working behind it.

"In fear she would turn into my Mum."

"Best. Christmas. Present. Ever." They said in unison./p

"Oh didn't we hear the half of it," Carla moaned mockingly. "That was all she would go on about. I could hear her whispering to everyone 'when do we get the bonus? When do we get the bonus?! Not until next week—oh c'mon!'" She laughed.

"And do you know what she got me?"

Carla shook her head no, leaning back in her chair, she bit down on her thumbnail.

"Cinema tickets."

And locket-necklace that said "you're good" engraved on it, but Sophie didn't want to talk about that. It brought tears to her eyes every time she looked at it. She wasn't quite ready to talk about it yet.

"What?" Carla questioned. "She spent the money I gave her on something nobody goes to anymore?"

"I still go," Sophie defended herself. "No, it was one of those outdoor ones."

"What did you watch?"

"A Christmas film—in the new year," Sophie raised her eyebrows. "She thought it would be romantic. It was wet and freezing… but I wouldn't change it. She said once she had a bucket list of things she wanted to and watching a film in a car was one of them—neither of us can drive so it was on the grass in a field for us. It was pretty amazing."

"You wouldn't catch me dead in field. Romantic or not, if Nicholas surprised me like that I'd tell him where he can stick it," Carla said firmly.

Sophie giggled. "Go prepared. Maddie never told me it was in a field so I went thinking it was in a car park and I wore heels because we went for dinner as well. Heels, winter weather and grass doesn't add up nicely."

She had clung onto Maddie's arm for dear life as they crossed the field, chairs and drinks on her hands, praying she wouldn't fall over and ruin her new jeans and be the laugh of the night.

Despite the cold, the night was beautiful. Sure it felt like a dragged out Christmas watching a festive film in the wake of 2015 but it was with Maddie, and Sophie spent a majority of the film looking over at Maddie who was sat in awe of everyone, strangers, joining together on one field to watch a film that played repetitively in the built up the religious holiday. Sophie led over a kissed Maddie's cheek. It reminded her of when they spent a night on the streets, over eight months prior, and Maddie admitted there was something good—her. She was good. Sophie was something—someone—worth while in her life and she kissed her cheek. It was a way of telling someone you were there for them and you weren't going anywhere.

In eight months Maddie had gone from the fragile girl who pushed everyone away to being able to tell Sophie she loved her, a year after they had met at the shelter.

"Would you agree she was your best Christmas present?" Carla asked after a while of letting Sophie relive her memories with Maddie.

"Yeah," Sophie looked down to her hands, linking them together as though her girlfriend was there, for a moment before looking and smiling at Carla; thankful she was willing to listen to her reflect on her time with her future, the best part of her life. Gone in an instant. "She was."

"I don't know about enthusiasm but she defiantly had the ability to be more."

"Hmm," Sophie hummed in disagreement. "I don't know if she really wanted to stitch knickers…"

"Not as a machinist, in the office," Carla said. "She could have been my wing woman."

"You mean take my Mum's job? I don't think my Mum would like that very much," Sophie laughed.

Their conversation had turned to Maddie's work ethic. Working part time at the garage and part time in Underworld, matured the young woman's attitude. She didn't start either jobs on the best foot, complaining about having to take orders from higher members of authority but over time, she became a worthy employee. She was punctual and a quick learner, things needed to be a validator and packer.

"She would have been more reliable than Sally," Carla scoffed. "Maddie may have had a mouth on her but it was the right kind of gobby that would have got me orders. Unlike your Mum who panics and thinks she's boss."

Sophie couldn't disagree with either statements. "I don't know, I think she would have been big-headed, getting to wear a blazer to work. That would have excited her."

"Eh, it's having that power," Carla shrugged. "I'd let her sit in my chair. Anyway what about you aren't you supp—"

Sophie heard her phone buzz, telling her there was a new text message that needed to be read. She felt rude having to cut the business woman off halfway through her sentence and she bent down to get it out of her bag. "Sorry, do you mind if I...?"

"Yeah, don't mind me," Carla grinned. She sipped on her wine so Sophie didn't feel awkward.

"It's my Dad," Sophie said, not taking her eyes off her screen. "He's wondering if I'm home for dinner."

Carla stopped drinking suddenly. She put her glass down, gasping slightly as she swallowed the liquid still in her mouth. "Is that the time? Blimey, I thought it was earlier than that," she said, looking at her watch. "Go. I should be getting home myself. Nick'll wonder where I am."

"Okay," Sophie breathed out. She put her phone in her coat pocket before standing up and collecting her belongings together. "It was nice talking to you."

"Don't mention it," Carla waved it off. "It's just what we both needed."

"Yeah," Sophie whispered, smiling. She considered her next move for a moment. She didn't know if she was close enough to Ms Connor for it to be deemed a suitable goodbye.

Luckily, she didn't have to think about it too long as Carla stood up and straightened her shirt. She held out her hand for Sophie to shake, which she did, then leaned towards the brunette and gave her a kiss on the cheek before it turned into a hug. Sophie rubbed Carla's back and said thank you. It was what they both needed.

"I'll see you around," Sophie said after she let go.

Carla flashed a magic smile and sat back down. She pulled out her phone and sent Nick a quick text to let him know she'll be home in five minutes.

She really enjoyed her chat with Sophie but there was still something she needed to tell the brunette.

"Sophie!" she called out to young woman who was at the doors of the Rovers. She turned around to face her.

"Just a little advice: if you do work for your Dad's empire, you come to me for business tips, okay? Not Sally!"

Sophie blushed and give her a nervous smile along with a thumbs up before leaving the building.

Carla was an awesome lady, she concluded as she walked down the street to her home. She definitely saw traits of Maddie in her that she hadn't before and she knew, no matter how different they were, she could find a friend in Carla Connor.