A/N This mentions seizures

'So, what are they going to say about you today?' Peter asks, sitting at the breakfast table with his daughter, awaiting Carla to be done with her conference call. 'Are they going to tell me you've been terrorising the teachers.' She laughs at that, as she takes another bite of her toast.

'I'm a gem.' She confirms to her dad. 'They're gonna tell you that.' He laughs at his ten-year-old, so full of confidence. He wonders if she's too confident, that he's setting her up for a fall. Carla tells him he's worrying over nothing. He knows she's right, all the parenting books he read on the sly tells him that children have to make mistakes, so really, he shouldn't be worrying about it at all.

'I don't understand why they have parents evening this late in the term, it's what, a month till summer?'

'Goal sharing daddy.' She sighs, shaking her head. 'It's different.'

'Oh.' He raises his eyebrows.

'It is.' She protests, exhaling loudly, as he hears a laugh echoing throughout the house. 'What do you think mum's laughing at.'

'Who knows. Probably something and nothing, now eat up.' He watches her, as he goes and finds her hair stuff. 'Plaits or bunches.'

'P'aits.'

'Finish eating before you speak.' He reminds her, as he comes back into the kitchen, the necessary hair stuff in tow, going behind her and starting to brush her dark hair.

'I want to dye it.' She announces, sitting back in the chair.

'Dye it?'

'Blonde.'

'You want to bleach your hair.'

'I want to have the wavey things.'

'Wavey things?' He asks, raising an eyebrow.

'The surfer thingy.'

'Surfer highlights.' A voice makes them jump, 'absolutely not.'

'Why?'

'You're too young.'

'I'm ten.'

'You're my baby.' She tells her daughter, 'now we need to go.' She tells her, running her hand down the plait her husband had created. 'That's not bad, Peter.' She grins.

'I've had seven years practice' he replies, 'I should hope it would be good.'

'Daddy's better than you. He's better at hair.'

'Hear that Carla. I'm better than you.'

'Stop being smug. You, go and get your shoes on.'

'You can't hack it that I'm better than you.' He whispers, bringing her in for a kiss. 'I love you.'

'I love you too.'

'Gross.' The ten-year-old tells them, 'we need to go to school.' She pauses, dramatically, 'now.' She gets a laugh off her dad and a glare from her mum. Carla was the "stricter" parent, if Peter had his way, she'd get away with anything. They don't tend to say get away with murder considering her brother is banged up for murder.

'You are too big for your boots.' She gets a shrug, as the child walks to the car. 'So, am I going to humiliated? Have you been good?'

'Yes.' Her mother wonders if she's telling the truth, her reports seems to have been "Delilah is a very capable child, but she has a tendency to distract the other people in her class." It had made her laugh because it was so similar to hers as a child. The only difference being she cared about what her daughter was doing, Sharon didn't.

'Can we have music on?' Carla nods, pressing a few buttons before music echoed throughout the car.

'We get it almost every night. When the moon is big and bright. It's a supernatural delight. Everybody's dancing in the moonlight.' The little voice sings, looking out the window as the two adults make hushed remarks, Carla watching her as she's in a world of her own, she doubts she even knows that she is singing. A subconscious habit her mum had; she'd probably inherited it from her.

'Mummy.' She eventually starts, as her mum turns her attention to the child. 'What's a seizure?'

'A seizure?' She nods, biting her lip. 'Why?' She just shrugs, 'why do you want to know?'

'Simon said something.'

'What'd he say.'

'He said Lily had a seizure and that his brother had one. He wouldn't let me watch. Everyone on the street was. He told me that his brother had one, you know, the one that's not alive.'

'Oliver.' Peter tells her bluntly, 'his name was Oliver.' Leanne still found it hard to talk about him, and neither of them blamed her, it was a hard thing to talk about. A dead child. One that died so tragically, so prematurely. It wasn't fair.

'He said he thought Lily was going to die. She were on t'street. He wouldn't let me see.'

'A seizure is your brain.' Carla comes up with, 'some peoples brains don't work very well.'

'Why?'

'A number of reasons, really. Sometimes it's genetic, sometimes its brain injury and just other times it doesn't work. Or it works differently.'

'Why?'

'I don't know Dee.' Carla confesses, 'it just does. Peoples don't work as well, when did you and Si talk about this?'

'Aye maybe you should become a doctor, you'd learn all about this then. Dr Delilah Barlow, the brain surgeon.'

'Last night, we saw it when we went t'bistro. Si got upset.' Simon had been trying to spend time with his sister, Peter suggesting that he took the time to baby sit his little sister, whilst they worked late. He'd accepted, slightly reluctant, but they appeared to have a good time.

'It's a hard one. The best way to think of it is like a computer.'

'Computer?'

'Yeah, you know when it starts to glitch and you shut it down?' She nods, as they drive around the familiar roads. 'It's like that.'

'Why?'

'Well the brain just shuts down.' That's the way Leanne had explained it to Ollie, something he remembered. It had been talk of the street, that, Lily Platt had developed epilepsy. Just like her dad. Except she wasn't behind the wheel of a car when she had her first seizure.

Leanne had told him, she started fitting in the cabin, where she happened to be. Peter had found her outside, upset. She may be his ex-wife, but he still cared. It must have brought back so many memories.

'Why?'

'I don't know, baby.' Carla tells her, catching her eye in the mirror.

'Does Si know?'

'I wouldn't ask him.'

'Why?'

'It might upset him. He was really upset when Oliver died, and we don't want him to get upset again.'

'Is Oliver the reason he doesn't like me?' She asks, looking at her parents solemnly, 'because he's dead and I'm alive. Because he's his brother and I'm a girl, I'm his sister.'

'Oh baby, what made you say that?' Her mum suddenly questions, as they park up. 'Where's that from?' She just shrugs, unbuckling her belt.

'Nothing.'

'No, something made you say that.' Peter questions, walking across the road. 'C'mon tell me.' She just shrugs.

'He doesn't really like me. Like sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't.'

'Yes, yes, he does.' She just shrugs as they enter the building.

'We'll talk about this later princess.'

-CS-

'Well.' Peter tries, not entirely sure what to say at the meeting. 'That was.'

'Ridiculous.' Her mum fills in, 'why do you do it?' She just finishes, scuffing her shoes. 'Don't do that, you'll ruin them.' Her good mood had turned sour after a disastrous "goal sharing day."

'Sorry.' She whispers, not just for the shoes. For the fact they've just had to sit through twenty minutes of them being told that their daughter is highly intelligent, but her behaviour is substandard. As they went through the work, and how she was doing compared to targets, they'd been pleased. Her teacher, she was telling them how bright she was. She'd become complacent, she thought because it started off well, it went down the drain. They were told how clever she was and how great it was.

Then it came to her behaviour.

And then it started going downhill. Apparently, she was the class clown, always making the class laugh and distracting her. She was just naughty. There wasn't any other way to sugar coat it, she was naughty. Then Peter started arguing with her teacher, if her behaviour was so bad, why were they only just talking about it now. He had a point, but Carla just wanted to disappear, it was bad enough being told her child was naughty, she hadn't needed her partner to start arguing with the teacher, who had clearly been stunned by the fact a parent was arguing against her.

'Have you got any explanation.' She eventually asks, knowing that there probably isn't one.

'Can we get ice cream.'

'No.'

'You promised.' She reminded her mum, 'you said if I was doing well in school.'

'Academically, that may be.' She tries, 'where is all this bad behaviour coming from, hmm. I wouldn't call that meeting a success, would you?'

'She was being mean. I told you this. She doesn't like me.' She protests, looking up at Peter, pulling that face. 'Please daddy.'

'It's not me you have to convince.' He surrenders, getting a glare from his partner. 'I mean no.' He backtracks, as they get in the car. 'You don't deserve it, that was hardly a glowing report now, was it?'

'Daddy.' Her mum sighs, torn between wanting ice cream and trying to convince herself that her daughter didn't deserve the treat.

'We could, talk about what she said in the car earlier.' She relents, a pang of guilt overcoming her, but this conversation did need to be had and ice cream might make it that bit easier. She'd hoped that she wouldn't have to have. That she just accepts that she will never be Simons favourite person, no questions asked. It shouldn't be that was, but it was.

-CS-

'So, why do you think Simon doesn't like you.'

'Dad.' She snaps, looking directly in his eye, 'I don't think. I know. I've heard him tell Leanne.'

'You what?' She just shrugs, tucking into the lemon sorbet ice cream that her mum had just brought, 'when?' She just shrugs, clearly not going to give any other information. Her dad lets out a sigh, as her mum starts shuffling around on her seat. 'Delilah.'

'Dunno.'

'Simon loves you.' Peter tells her, 'he just struggles. It's nothing you've done. It's not because of you.' He wants her to realise this, it is important that she knows that it is nothing she's done.

'Feels like it.' She mumbles, as Carla's heart goes out to her, it's clear this is tearing her up inside. She knows that she wants her brother to be her brother, the exact thing she'd tried to protect her little girl from. Sure, she had Bertie, but he wasn't her real brother, he was her cousin. 'He don't like me.'

'It's not that he doesn't like you.' Peter tells her, 'I think it's hard for him because he see's you do all these things and he remembered his brother didn't get to-do this.' This is unchartered territory.

'So, he's jealous?' She questions, looking down at the table. 'Cause I'm alive.' Both her parents know their treading on a minefield. This is her relationship with her big brother, when they're gone, he's the family she'll have left. He's her brother.

'Not quite baby. I think he finds it hard. It's nothing you've done.' A wave of silence falls upon the trio, Carla wondering what is going through her child's head, wondering if she does actually believe her brother doesn't love her.

'He does love you; you know.' Peter eventually stumbles out, trying to put down in words what he means. 'I don't want you to ever think that.'

'But he does.'

'He doesn't.'

'How'd you know?' She shoots back, the child having a point. 'You aren't him.'

'Well he spends time with you now. He plays with you; you go out together. He wants to get to know you. Whatever happens, you are his little sister and he does love you. Just like I love uncle Daniel, and even though she drives me to distraction, I love auntie Tracy. Mummy loves auntie Kate. Simon loves you.' Carla's grateful he didn't bring up Rob, she wasn't sure she'd know what to say if he had. She's torn, this is why she hates having conversations about siblings, because of the uncomfortable memories it brings up for her.

Because after all, Rob, is her little brother. They grew up together, they had that shred history. Something she didn't have with Kate and Aidan. Something she'll never get to have. This talk of siblings, it just makes heart hurt. No matter what she tells everyone, Rob will always be her brother. She might be "done" with him, but it still hurts beyond belief.

'Suppose.' Neither of her parents bring up the idea that it might be partly their fault, maybe its easier denying their part of her brothers' resentment of her. They're both ashamed, embarrassed. They didn't want her asking questions, questions they couldn't, and wouldn't, answer. Not if they can avoid it. They hope this would be the end of it, question time over, but then she goes to open her mouth. 'You love me, right?'

'Of course, why do you think we don't.' Carla tries to hide the sigh of relief she had, not trying to alert her daughter to how she feels.

'I don't. I just don't want to get in trouble.' She grins at her parents, neither of them, quite, following their daughter's logic.

'How so?'

'If you love me, you can't tell me off.' Peter manages to hide a grin as Carla just stares at her daughter, wondering where she got the sheer audacity from.

'You, missy, are getting too big for your boots. Don't think you questioning us is getting you off the hook, you have to have a serious think about your behaviour.' The girl goes to open her mouth but gets cut off. 'You have to promise that you are going to start to behave? Or I'll cut your pocket money.' Carla threatens, a crestfallen look appears on her daughter's face.

'I promise.'

'I don't want a report like that, ever, again.'

'Sorry mum.' She whispers, Carla nodding.

'Why don't we put this behind us?' Peter suggests, diplomatically, 'we could spend the day together, as a family. Invite Si over, if he's not working. We could be a family, because that's what we are.' He starts, standing up as they finish their ice cream. 'We might not be your "typical" family, and we have our issues, but we are all a family and we do love one another.' He tells the child. 'Promise me you'll always remember that? No matter what?'

'I promise daddy.'

A/N Thoughts? It's a bit different than usual and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I felt it was important that they had a conversation about her relationship with Simon… The only link I could think of was talking about seizures as Oliver has them and epilepsy is in the Platt family (the way that Corrie has dealt with this imo is really badly, and borderline offensive, but this really isn't the platform for me to moan about why exactly its annoyed me… I could go on for hours.) I've tried to be sensitive; I've heard the computer analogy from a few different people with epilepsy, so I hope it hasn't offended anyone.

Just to clear this up, as I've had a few questions about it, Carla is going back to the factory. This is under the premise that Nick is supporting Leanne, so he asks Carla to look after it. However, it's supposed to be temporary. I, also, think it's to-do with bringing Gary down as there's something to-do with a contract that he gives Sarah which Carla gets involved in. However, according to twitter, this won't happen until the week of the 13th July…

To the guest that suggested the Carla/Nick/ Peter thing- you actually may have a point! They could do that because at the moment soaps seem to have a thing with older character cheating and then having babies… Moira/Cain/Pete with Isaac in Emmerdale and Sharon/Phil/Keanu with Kayden in EastEnders so they may well actually do that. If she did have a baby, Peter would have to be the dad…. And one more question, when Carla was pregnant, when did she find out it was a girl? Was it when she miscarried or was it before then?