"She's really beautiful." Stella said as she led Eva down the small corridor to the special care baby unit. Eva bit her lip slightly. "Is she really okay? I mean you're not just making everything sound better are you?" She asked as Stella smiled at her youngest daughter, her only daughter now and nodded. "Deirdre said that they think she just needs a little help with her breathing and things but otherwise she's fine." Stella assured Eva who flicked her blonde hair behind her ear. "You need to wash your hands thoroughly before we can let you through. Babies in here are extremely susceptible to germs." A young nurse said as she showed them both to the sinks and hand wash receptacles. "Will I be able to hold my granddaughter?" Stella asked as the nurse shrugged. "It depends. But I can't see it been a huge issue." The nurse said as she went to answer a ringing phone on the reception desk.

"I think that she's going to have Simon at her absolute beck and call when she's bigger, aren't you petal." Carla said astonishing herself at how maternal she felt towards the tiny motherless child. "Hmm, I bet." Peter said still looking a little unsure of what he felt towards his tiny daughter. "You an' all. I reckon she'll be a right Daddy's girl." Carla said as she hoped to encourage Peter to further bond with the baby girl. "Look Car, I know you're trying to help but right now, I'm just not ready to…to celebrate her been here. It should be Leanne sat beside me here, us both cooing over her." Peter said desolately as Carla bit her lip. He wasn't angry, but there was a sad and bitter tone in his voice and she knew that getting him to fully bond with Megan was likely to be a far harder task than she had first thought.

Norris looked up from his paper as Emily busied herself polishing the dining table. "Emily, I'm trying to read here." He said a little irritated at her. She simply pursed her lips and shook her head at him.

"I need it to be tidy here."

"Why? I hardly see how my reading the Gazette creates much dust." Norris said as Emily sighed.

"Toyah and Geoffrey will be coming to stay soon enough. And well I may as well tell Toyah to let Janice stay too, I mean the last thing they'll need to deal with right now is getting a hotel room. Besides it'll be nice in a way to see them both, though it's sad that it'll be in such bittersweet circumstances." Emily mused as Norris wrinkled his nose up. "And given that I pay rent did you not think it would have been nice to have asked if it was okay with me?" He said as Emily shook her head.

"Oh please Norris your rent doesn't even cover half of the bills. It'll only be for a few days, besides I don't think it'll be for a while I mean poor Peter won't be in the right mind to make funeral plans just yet." She said as Norris let out a snort. "Probably busy reacquainting with his old friends Jack Daniels's and such." Norris said as Emily looked at him unimpressed. "I hardly think that it's funny Norris. Besides right now Peter has two children that desperately need him to stay sober." Emily said softly hoping that Peter would be able to stay sober for the sake of Simon and the new baby.

"What is she doing here!" Stella said as she and Eva entered the special care baby unit and found Carla sat besides Peter. "Carla's here because I needed someone to stay with me and Deirdre and my Dad took Simon back to theirs. Poor little fella's exhausted and needs to have some time to just go and play with his toys and things." Peter said as he looked at Stella with a fixed gaze.

"Well she can pop off now, me and Eva can sit with you if you want." Stella said as she felt somewhat annoyed that Carla was sat at Peter' side, the place where her daughter should be sat, fussing over her newborn baby. "Mam she's only been helping Peter. Anyway let me see my niece." Eva said sensing that things were a little tense. Carla smiled at the blonde and stood up so Eva could take a seat besides the incubator.

"There we go sweetheart." Deirdre said as she put a glass of orange juice in front of her grandson who was staring at a photograph of himself with his Dad and Leanne. "Grandma will Dad do silly things again. Like when he drank lots and set fire to the flat?" Simon ventured in a teary voice as Deirdre's heart broke for him. "Oh sweetheart, I can't say your Dad won't find things difficult and it might be that he does think drink might help but we need to show him that it doesn't help." Deirdre said as Simon nodded his head, concentrating on the picture he was drawing. "What's that sweetheart?"

"It's for Mum. A picture of me, Dad, Megan and her because well we will never have a photo of that. I thought maybe we could put it in the ground with her." Simon said softly as Deirdre sighted at her grandson's sweet nature and ran her hand through his dark brown hair. "That's a very kind thought love. I'm sure that we'll be able to put things into the coffin with Leanne." Deirdre said as Simon nodded.

"Grandma?"

"Yes love?"

"Whe…when Megan comes home, well will we have to go back to the flat? It's jus….just…" He stammered as tears rose in his chocolate brown eyes and Deirdre gathered him into her arms as he tangled his little arms round her neck, sobbing and hiccupping as he worked himself into a state.

David looked at his elder brother with a look of confusion. "You're talking a load of rubbish Nick. You've always been the bloody golden child. Nearest you'll have ever come to doing anything remotely bad would be putting colours and whites together on a hot wash. Seriously what can you have done that even registers as bad? Put salt in the sugar dishes" David said chortling clearly baffled by his brother's strange behaviour. Nick's eyes darkened and he met his brother's gaze. "Me and Leanne." He said as David wrinkled his brow. ""Yeah what about it? You worried that she's left her share of the Bistro to Peter and that he'll end up drinking all your profit's away?" David said as Nick scowled at his younger sibling.

"No."

"Well then what the hell is going on with you? I appreciate that she was your mate and business partner but your acting like you've just lost your girlfriend." David said as Nick stayed silent. David looked at him and gaped. "You never. I thought you and her were just mates now."

"Yeah well seems we still had feelings there. Now we'll never now hmm." Nick sighed. David coughed a little. "Is there a chance the baby's yours?" He asked as Nick shook his head. There was every chance that the tiny girl might be his child but there was no need to let David know that. Not yet at least.

"Oh she's such a gorgeous little angel." Eva gushed as Stella gently stroked her finger over Megan's tiny hand. "She is. Another Price girl, full of strength and beauty hmm." Stella mused as Eva smiled slightly.

"You sound like Gran. So why did you choose Megan as a name? I mean it's alright I guess." Eva said as Peter rolled his eyes. Sure Eva was harmless but really questioning the name of her newborn niece when her half-sister had just passed away seemed pretty stupid to him. "We simply liked the name. It was between that and Elizabeth and well Megan Elizabeth sounded better than the reverse. Anyway, I think I should head back to Simon." Peter said as he felt awkward under the eyes of Stella, as though she was judging him, scrutinising the way he was with his baby daughter. "Do you not think that Megan needs you more right now? I mean she's lost her mother." Stella said as Peter looked at her in bemusement.

"Stella, she doesn't have any concept of what she's lost. My son who's eight, who has already lost one mother in his life, has now lost the woman who he had come to see as his new Mum. I think he's the one who needs me right now. Besides you and Eva are here right now." Peter said as Carla stayed quiet watching intently, ready to fight Peter's corner if needs be. She might think he needed to bond more with Megan but there was no denying he also needed to be with his son.

Michelle and Steve had offered to take Amy, due to Deirdre and Ken busy making sure Simon was okay and Tracey in an unusual bout of unselfishness was keeping the bookie open, working behind the till. "So Carla's stayed at the hospital then?" Steve asked as Michelle nodded. They were sat on the sofa in Steve's flat, Amy busy doing some of her maths homework. "Yeah she text me before. I think she wants to keep an eye on Peter. She said that he'd walked off earlier, almost punched some poor sod who'd asked him what was wrong." Michelle said as they sat in front of the TV watching some comedy programme.

"Poor guy, I can't imagine what he's going through."

"I can a bit, though Ryan was older when Dean passed away. It still was hard though, but he has a new baby to contend with as well as a little boy." Michelle said as Steve nodded.

"You want to pick Simon up now or have a bit of a break, grab some dinner and then go get him. We can pick up a takeaway. I'd offer to cook but I hardly think you should endure that." Carla said as she got into the driver's seat of her car. "Stella was really awkward in there. You reckon she blames me?" Peter said as he drummed his fingers against the dashboard. "Don't be daft. How is it in any way your fault?" Carla asked. "Well I got Lea pregnant didn't I. And well if she hadn't have gotten pregnant then she wouldn't have had problems when she gave birth." Peter said as Carla looked at him her heart breaking for the broken man. "It wasn't your fault. Leanne wanted a baby. Now why don't we go and pick up a Chinese or pizza. You can choose." Carla said as Peter nodded and managed a weak smile.

"Simon will be mad finding out he's having to have Deirdre's cooking whilst I'm going to have takeout." He said as Carla tapped the side of her nose. "Our little secret hmm. Then we'll pick him up later on. 8ish okay?" She said as Peter nodded.

Frank looked at his phone in hope that perhaps he had not heard it go off. She should have received the bouquet by now surely and well he was sure she would have been quick to send her thanks to him. Yet there was no alerts on the phone to suggest that she had called or text him to say thank you which was unlike Carla as she tended to show genuine thanks for things. She'd once rang up to let him know how much she was grateful that he had passed her name to some of his contacts in the retail world. In fact that had been the moment Frank had realised that Carla Connor was his type of person. She would make a delightful partner and was the type of woman he could see himself with, intelligent and beautiful. The ambition might have to be suppressed a little if he was to persuade her to have children. He text once more from his phone and hoped that maybe this would encourage some response from her.

"I can't believe you don't like ham and pineapple pizza." Carla said shaking her head as Peter rolled his eyes at her jibes as they headed up the stairs of the apartment complex Carla's flat was in. "It's weird fruit on pizza's. You don't have strawberries or orange slices on top of them." Peter said as Carla shook her head as she headed to her front door and gasped as she saw a huge bouquet of flowers outside her door. "Someone must have found out that you were staying here. They must be for you." She said as Peter looked unsure. "I don't think so." He said as he peeked at the card attached to the lavish flowers. "Seems like you have an admirer." He said as Carla unlocked the flat door and headed in, Peter carrying the flowers in one arm and the pizza box in his other hand.