I've had this first part written for a while now but I have tweaked a few parts of it to make it sort of fit into the disastrous wedding that happened in yesterdays episode.
However in this, Carla didn't leave the Street the very next day and the Platt's don't stay at her place.
So yeah, if I was in charge at Corrie, this is how Carla's exit might go...
This wasn't supposed to happen.
Things weren't supposed to go this way.
Absolutely none of this was planned.
But... it all happened anyway.
It's astounding how quickly someone's life can change.
One moment you're sat in your living room, lost in a pile of clothes, halfway through a glass of wine and the next… the next you're speeding down an unknown motorway, in the middle of the night with absolutely no idea if you will ever return back home.
None of this seemed real.
In fact, it all felt like some sort of dramatic action movie, one of those ones with lots of twists and turns, one of those movies that will keep you guessing right until the very end.
Other than the lights that ran along the Motorway, it was pitch black out and it looked as if the black car which was struggling to stay under the speed limit, was currently sat in was probably the only car out there for miles.
Well, it was almost three am… most people would be tucked up in bed or out in a nightclub somewhere, not driving aimlessly around and desperately trying to get away from a place, a place which was once, called home.
Even though it was the end of May, it felt like it was bitter outside, it felt like the the type of cold weather that could make even the most outdoorsy type of person want to retreat into the warm, yet Carla Connor still had the window rolled right down, she needed to get some air, she needed to feel the harsh winds on her face, she needed to feel that all of this was real, otherwise she might not have believed it.
Her long lightened brown hair blew wildly against the breeze as she stared out of the window, she didn't see anything that resembled something familiar, in fact she didn't even know where she was.
She also couldn't see see straight, She had tried to make out what all the motorway signs were saying but as they whizzed by they were all just a blur.
She would never have believed something like this could have happened, right now she was supposed to be in Paris.
Right now she was supposed to be on Honeymoon with the man who she had once trusted more than anyone in the world.
Instead of Paris, Instead of being on her Honeymoon, Carla was still in the U.K, although she was hoping she wasn't still in Manchester by this point.
She was hoping that she was far far away from there and was wondering if the unimaginable mess that she'd left behind her had been discovered yet.
Yes... it must have, someone must have come by now, someone must have seen the terrifying sight that had been left in her flat.
With all of these thoughts, It was a real good thing that Carla wasn't the one driving.
It was a good thing that there was someone else there with her.
Someone else in the driver's seat.
Someone who was just as lost and just as desperate as she was.
Carla looked over at the person in the seat next to her and smiled in the best way that she could given what was happening at this very moment in time.
Amongst the sheer fright she was feeling, she was also immensely glad that she wasn't by herself tonight.
She was glad someone was there with her, that she wasn't doing this alone and she was especially glad that it was him.
Then again…
If he hadn't of been there, if he hadn't of turned up at her flat out of the blue, surprising her and somehow convincing her to let him in, maybe things would have been different, maybe she wouldn't have to be running away at all.
Maybe she would be in bed, fast asleep ready for her flight to L.A tomorrow instead of speeding down the motorway in the early hours, en route to nowhere… somewhere… anywhere.
This wasn't the first time they were leaving Weatherfield together.
They'd done this once before, only this time there was a hell of a lot more at stake and there was absolutely no going back.
Not this time.
The driver of the car had both of his tired eyes placed firmly on the road ahead of them but he still knew that Carla was watching him, counting on him and depending on him.
It was a feeling he had missed for years and it was a feeling that no matter how bad things got, he'd want to lose again.
"Carla... it's freezing out there... close the window love."
She nodded slowly and pressed her finger down on the button that was the door next to her to close the window.
It had been hours since it happened, hours since the true horror of tonight had truly begun and yet it still hadn't sunk in.
Hours had gone by Carla still couldn't believe that any of this was happening.
She still wasn't sure how he convinced her to let him in and how he convinced her to listen to him at all.
She still wasn't sure how they were so suddenly interrupted and how a simple night where she was supposed to have been packing turned into such a horrific nightmare.
She also wasn't sure how it was possible that even though she was in the middle of nowhere at three am in the morning... she actually felt safe.
It was him... He made her feel safe.
Amongst all of the terrible, awful things Carla had been through… especially over the past few days, This night had truly been one of the worst nights of her existence and she had no idea how that the man who was sat right next to her, could make her feel so protected.
It only took her a few seconds to realise that she was totally and completely kidding herself.
She knew how all of those things were possible.
Even though she still loved Nick... she also still loved someone else.
Him.
She still loved him and if she was being honest with herself, she never stopped loving him.
Not when she found out he had been cheating on her.
Not when he was in prison, not even when he had moved away to Portsmouth and not even when he had returned to the street for a family funeral and didn't even try to talk to her.
His return was brief, so quick that it could have almost never happened and for Carla it was only made worse by the fact that he hadn't even tried to make contact with her whilst he was there.
That hurt.
That hurt Carla a lot and one night very soon after that she was in the pub and she over heard that he was going to work in Antigua, it was then she felt as if this should have really been the end.
She felt as if she should try and move on properly now.
He was going to the Caribbean.
He was the kind of guy who could fit in anywhere and in a place like that, she was sure he would find a new woman in no time.
So, Carla buried all her feelings for Peter deep inside her heart, she told herself she wouldn't let those feelings rise again and very shortly after that, she found love in another.
Even though a part of her still loved her ex husband like mad, she was able to fall fast and hard for none other than Nicholas Tilsley.
It was complicated at first, there were a lot of reasons why she should have ran in the other direction from her ex's ex's ex but she didn't, She just couldn't and sure enough, only months after they had got together, she found her self proposing.
They got engaged and even though every now and then there was a very small lingering thought about a certain ex, life was pretty much perfect… but only for a short while because after all...
This is Carla Connor's life and Carla Connor's life is never perfect for too long.
If it wasn't for finding out exactly who she was just after Christmas… Carla wouldn't have struggled, she wouldn't have made a foolish mistake... and maybe she and Nick would still be together now.
Yes they would.
They'd still be married in fact.
Their marriage wouldn't have been annulled by Nick the very day after they exchanged their vows.
Carla wouldn't have had to stop her own wedding to come clean about the mistake she'd made with that other man.
Tracy Barlow wouldn't have burst in on the wedding shortly after that and caused a right scene in front of all their wedding guests.
Nick wouldn't have literally pushed her away from him.
He wouldn't have screamed, he wouldn't have shouted, he wouldn't have scared the living daylights out of Carla because he was suddenly so different, he was another Nick... not the one she had come to know over the past year and a half.
He then wouldn't have taken all the worst things that she thinks about herself and used them against her, once again, in front of all their wedding guests.
His Mother wouldn't have got up and slapped Carla across the face, shocking completely everyone.
Carla wouldn't have not been able to think right, she wouldn't have crashed her car that night, she wouldn't have hit Cathy and have put many lives in danger.
It seemed as if everyone hated her now and Carla saw no way out other than to leave the place she had lived for the past decade.
That was why, days after her wedding she was sat surrounded by all the stuff that she was taking with her to L.A tomorrow.
Her flight was at Seven Pm and she was due to say goodbye to her family and Michelle in the morning. She was half way through a glass of wine as she put the last remaining clothes into a suitcase and the last thing she had been expecting on that fateful Friday night, was to have her buzzer go off and to hear the words…
"Carla... it's Peter… please… please... just let me in."
She let him in.
She let him in without thinking twice.
She didn't quite know why, she just did, those buried feelings had taken over her mind which told her this was a ridiculous idea.
They only had thirty minutes together.
Thirty confused and very emotional minutes before they were suddenly interrupted.
Thirty minutes before another person burst in on them unexpected and before that person changed everything forever.
There was definitely no going back now.
Not after what happened.
This was it...
Carla Connor and Peter Barlow… were on the run.