Epilogue: Portugal

The plane journey was tedious especially with a five-month-old baby who wouldn't stop crying, well she would but only if she was with Carla which led her to feel rather awkward and unsure of this situation. They didnt know what would happen, whether this would work or whether it would end in tears but they had to try, they just had to because of the love they had for each other.

Carla did all the paperwork, got it all sorted, they had a flat now a basic bog-standard bedsit type thing along the seafront and they didnt really need anything else for now until Isabella got much bigger, this way they could work on making some money to get a bigger place later on but right now they had enough to live off. Peter worked on getting more things for the baby whilst Carla minded her whilst Peter put the cot together which could turn into a toddler bed when the time was right. Carla still was unsure at what the future would hold but she was convinced that they needed to talk about things so she had a plan for the evening, they were going to go to the beach and just chill there as the weather was warm and humid.

"What are you doing?" he questions, Carla looks up at him blankly as she puts on a bikini that she bought from a shop at the airport

"Uhm you need to put your beach stuff on," she says, Peter frowns and raises an eyebrow "We're going to the beach, we've eaten so come on get your kit off"

"Charming" he scoffs passing her Isabella who immediately yawned "You can put her in her swimming costume as well then, and a swim nappy-"

"I'm not changing her" Carla scoffs, Peter looks at her and she bites her lip at the way he was looking at her and she knew she had to do this if this was going to work "Fine, I'll change her"

"Thank you," he says grabbing Isabella's bag and putting her stuff in it, he watched Carla attempt to change Isabella but she kept groaning causing Peter to snigger and Carla to glare at him

"Stop moving" Carla mutters as Isabella crawls away from her, she huffs and Peter immediately places Isabella back on the changing mat

"It's a pull up so all you need to do is take off that one then put this one on," he says, she nods slowly taking the nappy off and then putting the pull up on "Wasn't that hard"

"Shut up" she warns, he just rolls his eyes at how dramatic she was being, she lifts Isabella into her arms and carries her on her hip

"Right let's head off"

They sat on a secluded part of the beach and Isabella was playing in the sand with Peter creating moulds of sand and Isabella demolishing them by whacking her fists down onto them. Carla watched with a small smile but she knew she wanted to come here for a reason and she needed to get some things off her chest and to that Peter needed no distractions. She noticed Isabella getting quite tired so she lifted her into her arms and cradled her so she could sleep.

"It suits you"

"I'm just...I dont know" she says shaking her head "I'm trying to do what feels right, following instincts I dont know Peter can we really do this?"

"Are you having doubts?"

"You were borderline suicidal a day or so ago" she points out, Peter dips his head in embarrassment "It's nothing to be embarrassed about baby, it's not I just dont see how I've fixed everything"

"My feelings were down to you and don't blame yourself for that," he says, she sighs and nods slowly looking down at Peter's child who was sleeping peacefully in her arms "You were living your life and I'm grateful you came to see me but I would understand if you couldnt do this-"

"I never said that," she says quietly looking down at Isabella

"Is it her?"

"Partly" she comments closing her eyes as the tears slip down her face, Peter takes her hand "We could have had this all those years ago, Peter and now you have it and I don't"

"But you can," he says looking down at Isabella "She needs a mum"

"I know that but it's going to be so hard"

"It'll take time" he whispers cupping her cheek, she bites her lip "It will but we have time"

"What if it doesn't work and we end up hurting her? Let's be honest Peter, you were a much better dad to Simon when you were away from me and when I wasn't in the picture-"

"That was different he hated you back then"

"What if she grows up hating me?"

"We'd teach her to love you as if she's your mum if thats what you want? Babies adapt to their surroundings, Simon was at an age where he understood what separation was, where he understood Leanne not being there all the time whereas she doesn't understand that because she's just a baby"

"What if it doesn't work?"

"Then we will work it out because thats what we do"

"Ok..." she trails down looking at the child in her arms "On one condition"

"You name it"

"If it doesn't work, I walk away. I don't want to mentally scar another one of your children, Peter, there's no way I'm doing that, the damage I caused to Simon I am not going to do that again"

"Whatever you want" he confirms hoping and praying that it wouldn't come down to it but he really did want her to feel comfortable

"So we have a deal then? If it doesn't work then I walk away and let you both be happy"

"We have a deal" he smiles looking out to sea as the sunsets "We have a bright future ahead of us and all we need to do is relax and go with the flow and whatever the world has planned for us then we accept it without looking back. We just need to be us and love each other, all of us"

"Well I love you"

"And I love you, both of you" he smiles looking down at Isabella "And you'll learn to love her"

"Hopefully" she crosses her fingers before smiling "I just want to be happy"

"And we will be happy, I just know it"

The End