It's still Leanne's Birthday! Everyone is at the Rovers Return for her surprise birthday party! Leanne, Peter, and Simon have already arrived and the party has begun. – Leanne has not yet found-out that Stella is her Mum.

Peter and Leanne were stood at the bar together, trying to grab a moment together where it was just the two of them. Although, this was more Leanne's ideas than Peter's.

"Hey Love. Ya know you didn't get your birthday present this morning? Well that's because I wanted to give-it to you now!" Peter told her sweetly.

"Awww okay then." Leanne said, clueless to the fact that Carla had helped Peter choose the present.

Peter handed Leanne her present and she opened-it, before she gasped in delight as she saw the beautiful sparkling necklace glowing in its case.

"Oh my goodness Peter it's gorgeous!" Leanne said gratefully. "Awww Thank-You!" She said before giving-him a peck on the cheek.

"So are you gonna put-it on then?" Peter asked her innocently.

"What dya think I'm doing now?" Leanne replied with a slight giggle as she put the necklace around her neck and then fastened-it-up. She then placed her hands on Peter's chest and rested her forehead against his. "I love you." She told-him before she then leaned-in for a kiss on the lips.

The group of girls looked-over at Leanne and Peter and "aww'd" at them as Carla entered The Rover Return. Her attention was immediately drawn to Leanne and Peter kissing, and Carla had to force herself to smile at the sight despite having this temptation deep-inside of her to go and whisk Peter away from Leanne for the evening. But it was Leanne's birthday, and she couldn't do that to her.

Peter suddenly brought the kiss to an end as he caught-sight of Carla in the corner of his eye. "Hey listen love, I'm just gonna go outside for a fag….." Peter told Leanne, but it wasn't a lie…..He WAS going outside for a cigarette, but as-far as he was concerned it was just another excuse to see Carla.

Peter caught eye-contact with Carla as he headed-towards the back-door, otherwise known as the smoking-area of the pub, and nodded for her to follow-him. Carla smiled cheekily and followed-Peter, leaving a minute or so after-him so that their exit from the party wasn't quite so obvious.

Carla appeared outside to find Peter sat faced-away from the door on the bench to her left. "Smoking is a bad-habit ya know?" Carla said flirtatiously as she stood in the doorway, leaning against the door-frame.

Peter stood-up at the sound of Carla's voice and turned to face-her. "Yeah well so are you, some-things are just to addictive to give-up…..I should know that better than anyone….." Peter trailed-off, as he secretly took Carla's hand and gently pulled her forwards so that the door swung shut behind-her.

As soon as the door was firmly shut, Peter placed his hands around Carla's waist and then leaned-into kiss her on the lips, but she placed her index finger over his lips to stop-him from doing-so. "Uh…..Eager!" Carla teased as she removed herself from Peter's grip.

"What?" Peter asked, slightly confused as to why she had just rejected his offer of a kiss.

"It's Leanne's birthday Peter. And as-much as it kills me to say this to ya…..You shouldn't be with me on your wife's birthday! Now go and show her the time of her life…..I know your capable of it….." Carla told him firmly, but with a cheeky-wink added-onto the end as she finished speaking.

Peter sighed, replacing his hands back onto Carla's waist as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "She liked the necklace." Peter whispered.

"Good. I'm Glad." Carla replied.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay with me whilst I have a cigarette?" Peter asked her quietly.

"Peter Barlow have you not listened to a word that I've said?..." Carla began seductively. "Smoking. Is a bad-habit…..And the smell, it latches onto you like a leech, and then won't disappear, even when you try and wash-it away….." She trailed-off, teasing Peter anymore as her mouth lingered ever-closer to his lips, but never-once did they collide, or even touch.

"Well maybe smoking wouldn't seem so addictive if I had something else to distract me from it….." Peter trailed-off, leaning-in for a kiss, and this time, Carla gave-into him and they began kissing passionately, blissfully unaware that someone could walk-through that door at any-minute now.

Meanwhile, Stella had just revealed to Leanne that she was her Mum, and as-if true to form Leanne had kicked-off about-it and was heading-out the back to find Peter, closely followed by an upset Stella.

"I don't want to hear-it Stella! Just leave-me alone alright?" Leanne shouted as she approached the door that led through the smoking-area out the back of the pub.

Luckily, both Carla and Peter heard Leanne's voice and immediately pulled-away from each-other. Peter just about had time to manage to light-up a cigarette, before Leanne opened the door and walked-over to Peter in floods of tears. The close-shave had shaken-Peter-up a little and so wasn't quite sure how to respond to Leanne as she ranted at him.

"You knew didn't ya?" Leanne shouted at him.

"Uh…..Knew what love?" Peter asked, unaware of what had gone-on as he had been so distracted by Carla's attention to him.

"That Stella is my Mum!" Leanne screeched.

Peter looked-down and sighed sadly. "Yes love yes I did." Peter replied as Carla watched-on. Leanne looked-at Carla.

"And what do ya think YOU'RE doing here? GET-OUT!" Leanne screamed at Carla, and she quietly made-her way-out, deciding that this was not the time to argue with Leanne, unless she wanted to leave the pub tonight with a black-eye.

"Don't take-this-out on Carla love!" Peter told Leanne firmly.

"Oh so not only do you keep a MASSIVE secret from me, you also decide that I'm wrong to be upset about this? Well ya know what Peter, why don't you just go if you're gonna be like that!" Leanne told Peter viciously as she seethed with anger.

Stella walked-in at that moment. "Leanne don't take this out on Peter! He wanted to tell-ya. But I made him promise that he wouldn't. Because I wanted to be the one to tell-ya…..But not like this Leanne! Not like this!" Stella told her daughter tearfully, but Leanne just stormed-out of the pub, with Peter in tow.

Back at the flat, Leanne had gone to bed early, hoping that she could sleep all of this off like it was just some-kind-of bad-dream. With some time to himself, Peter decided to text Carla.

Peter: I can't do this anymore. X

Carla: Wat? Ring me? XxX

Peter: I can't. Leanne might hear-me & I'm in enuf trouble as it is. X

Carla: Then come round. Make an excuse to go out. Ya can't just dump me over text Peter? XxX

Peter: Can we talk tomoz or summin? X

Carla: I won't sleep 2nite unless I no wat is happenin. XxX

Peter: Fine. I think Lee's asleep. I'll c if I can leave a note or summin. Not promisin anything tho. X

Carla: Thank U. I no it can't be easy for ya. C u in a bit. XxX

Peter then put the phone-down and wrote a note to Leanne:…..

Needed to clear my head…..Gonna go for a walk and then stay at a mate's for the night…..I promise you I'm not back on the booze…..I love you…..We'll try and sort everything out in the morning yeah?

Everything's gonna be okay!

I love you more than anything love.

Peter. xxxxx

It wasn't long until Peter had arrived at Carla's and was pacing up and down her living-room as Carla watched-him stress-out.

"What's happened Peter? What were those texts all about earlier?" Carla asked him, not wanting to loose her man, even-if he was only half-hers, just the thought that she could hold-him made her feel happier with her life.

"Leanne needs me. She's just found-out that Stella is her actual Mother…..It's shaken-her whole-life-up…..And me being with you is just gonna shake-it-up even-more. I mean…..We were this close to her catching-us earlier-on Carla!" Peter told-her truthfully.

"Then fine, we can just be more careful in the future. I mean…..Yeah. How stupid must we have been? We were trying to steal a cheeky moment together out of the back of the pub…..Someone was bound to interrupt-us…..But if we agree to only meet-here from now-on…..Then everything will be fine!" Carla said, trying to win Peter back-over to her. "Come-on Peter. We need-each-other! I love ya! I love ya more than anything in the world…..The last-person I loved as-much as I love you was Liam…..And you know that I'm still getting-over him. But that's how much I love ya Peter! And that'd why you can't just give-up on us now…..Take a risk! Come-On!" She continued to try and push-him back into their steamy-affair type-thing.

Peter walked-over to Carla and placed his hand gently against the side of her neck. "Carla. You know how I felt about you…..You know that I love you…..But right-now…..I love Leanne just as-much, and I want to get-things back on track with us. She's my wife…..I can't just give her up. I made a commitment to her Carla. I promised that we'd stay together for better or for worse! And Leanne and I haven't exactly had the chance to see some of the better stuff yet…..And maybe I want to see the better side to our marriage…..Which…..As much as it's gonna kill-me…..Is why we can't see each-other anymore." Peter broke-it too her, knowing that this was going to devastate Carla. But right-now, Peter's love for Leanne had to come-first.

"But Peter!" Carla begged.

"Carla. I'm not saying that there won't be a place for us in the future…..But right-now…..It's Leanne I want, and it's Leanne that I need to be with…..My feelings for you aren't gonna go-away…..And just like the alcohol, there are gonna be times and when I find myself holding-you again…..But we can't do this anymore!" Peter told Carla, trying to appear confident, but Carla knew that he was hating every-minute of this break-up as much as she was.

The couple kissed each-other passionately for what was perhaps the last-time that they would get the chance to for a while. Peter spent the night at Carla's…..But not with her…..He insisted that he was going to sleep on the sofa…..Knowing that if they were to sleep-together then it would just make properly finishing this affair all the more-harder to do.

Sorry to any Carter fans reading this! It just had to be done. :-P

But Please Do Review. (-: