My sleep was disrupted constantly throughout the night, nothing could keep me still as I panicked and worried over the scan that was taking place today. Was the baby going to be, ok? Was there going be something wrong? What if Peter didn't show up and I was alone? Even my dreams were filled with concerns about the baby and the scan, it was worrying, there was no comfort for me that night. When I was actually able to get up and get ready for the day, I was aware my movements were slow and zombie-like but there wasn't much I could do but chug caffeine. I needed it to power me through the day and give me the strength to carry on with my day. The sun was bright this morning and I couldn't help but squint to try and keep it out of my eyes as I wasn't ready to see the sunlight. My phone dinged and I couldn't help but wince at the sound, the lack of sleep was almost comparable to being hungover, it wasn't fun.

The text flashed brightly, and I saw Peter's name on the screen, daring me to open his text and start a communication with the man.

'Hey, what time do you want me to pick you up today?'

It was a thoughtful text, and I honestly didn't expect him to be up this early as what was the reasoning? A smile still graced my face though as I read it as I knew he was thinking of the scan, and more importantly, still planning on coming.

'The scan is at two, so one thirty for traffic?'

Just as I put my phone down after pressing send, it pinged again in rapid time, another text came in straight away.

'ok x'

With another smile at the simple reply, I left my phone on the kitchen island and made my way into the bathroom to finished getting ready for the day, even if I didn't feel it, I needed to look presentable. With my makeup and hair done, clothes straightened out, I finally let myself pick up my phone again as I made my way out of the door. Peter had sent another text.

'Where do you want to meet? I'm assuming you don't want people to see us.'

He had sent another shortly after that.

'I didn't mean anything by that, I was just saying.'

One more text after that.

'Carla, I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to offend you.'

He had taken my silence as ignorance and offence; the truth was that I was just getting ready, and I felt bad that I made him feel that way. By the time I had read all the texts and was about to reply, I was walking out of the building door as I heard my name called. I looked up and I saw Simon on the other side of the street joined by Leanne and Peter, the young boy was summing my attention and I was confused as to why. I walked over to join the trio and I wasn't ignorant to the look of annoyance I received from Leanne as I approached. Simon was still looking at me with a smile on my face as he began the conversation.

"Hi, Carla."

"Hiya Simon."

"Did you think anymore to what I asked you before?"

What had he asked me? I was racking my brain to think of the answer, to retrieve the memory but my lack of sleep wasn't helping, and I couldn't come up with the answer. As I watched Simon though, his eyes would flicker between me and his dad to try and give me help at uncovering what he was hinting at. Then it clicked, he asked me a while back about getting his dad a job at the factory and I hadn't thought about it since. I mean technically his dad did work for me the other night and helped me get out the contracts and I would be lying if I didn't say he was good at it and I enjoyed it. Would it be good to have Peter working at the factory with me again? Yes and no, it was a terrible idea but productivity-wise it would be brilliant. Sadly though, I couldn't help Simon's request as there were already too many people in the office, there was nothing I could do as I couldn't demote Sally or fire Alya.

"Yeah, I did Si, still thinking though, it's complicated at the minute, a bit full."

He frowned in response at me and I couldn't help but feel guilty, it wasn't my fault, but I still felt like I was letting him down and that wasn't fair, but I wanted to fix it, I wanted to make the young boy happier.

"But, if things change, then the circumstances will change on whether I can help."

Suddenly a large smile appeared, and I found myself smiling back, it was only then that I noticed the confused stares I was receiving from his parents, they had no idea what I was talking about. I just simply smiled back at the pair as I noticed Nick staring at me from behind them as he jogged over to us with a wave to me, which I returned causing the family to turn around and notice him too.

"I should probably – "

Nick got to us before I finished my excuse to exit, he was annoyingly fat and I kind of hated that right now. He came round to stand next to me and quickly took my hand which right now felt weird as I saw Peter's gaze fall to our joined hands, was it for Peter's benefit?

"Hey."

Nick greeted everyone with a warm smile on his face. No one really replied other than Leanne and I could feel the tension in the air, so I did us all a favour and made our excuses.

"I should be getting off to open the factory for the girls, see you later."

I pulled on Nick's hand and walked us away as I was finally able to reply to Peter's text and put his worry to rest, clean the air between us. I faintly heard Simon be questioned by his parents on what he was talking about, but he stayed mute and kept telling them it was nothing.

'sorry didn't get much sleep, was getting ready, I can meet you round the corner from the Rovers, stops the gossiping from the machinists.'

It was only after I pressed send that I realised Nick had been speaking to me and was asking me a question, I had no idea what he had said.

"Carla?"

"Sorry, what?"

"Are you ok Car, you seem a bit out of it."

"Yeah, sorry. I didn't get much sleep last night, I was just thinking about today so I'm a bit tired."

"Are you worried about the scan?"

"A bit, but it'll be fine."

He was staring at me with worry, but I tried to push past that and just open the factory door for the girls as they filed in. I waited behind to stay with Nick if there was anything else he wanted to say if there was anything more to the conversation. Nick of course still had more to say, and I was waiting to hear it.

"I could still move stuff around and come with you."

I smiled at his gesture and gave him a quick kiss to show that I was grateful, I was quick to shut him down though.

"Nick, I'll be fine, and I've already got company remember?"

"Yeah, sorry, just let me know if you need me."

"Ok."

"Ok, bye, I'll see you later after the… you know."

Luckily, he didn't say the words out loud as more of my workforce passed us and was able to overhear our conversation. He gave me another kiss after I nodded at him, he walked away and I took a breath before entering the factory, taking one last look at my phone, reading the new text from Peter, and couldn't help but smile.

'good, can't wait. See you then xx'.

Even his text sounded excited which gave me confidence, it gave me hope and excitement for the scan this afternoon, I was excited to see my baby, it was different now. I was powering through my work as quickly as I could, wanting to get as much done before this afternoon as I wanted to be ahead, I wanted to prove to myself that I could have this baby and be productive at work, that being a mom wasn't going to stop be being good at my job.

As if the universe was testing me today, an envelope was being handed to me by Sally as she stared at me nervously, I took it and heard her apologise as she watched me open the envelope. It was her resignation. She was leaving and opening up a space for a certain man whose son I promised to offer the job to if things changed, damn it.

"Why Sally?"

"I want a change Mrs. Connor; I like this job, but I think I could probably own a business all by myself. My husband has a business you know?"

A window-washing business, was that even still going? It wasn't that I was sad to see her going it was that I owed it to Simon to offer her position to Peter which was probably the worst idea ever. The universe was really testing me, seeing if I would keep my word and I didn't know if I would. Sally was still talking, thinking my silence was the sadness of her leaving.

"I will finish this week obviously; I could stay until next week if you need me to…"

"No, it's fine, thank you, Sally, I hope you all the best."

She smiled at me but still hesitated as she walked to her desk and I fought the urge to throw something at her in annoyance for putting me in this spot. I honestly thought that Sally would outlive me in this company as I could never get rid of her no matter how annoying she was, she always came back like a rash. Alya was definitely more expressive at her enjoyment of the news that Sally was leaving and she worked the whole morning with a smile on her face, I didn't blame her though and it made her weirdly more productive. As the time got nearer to one, I found myself getting restless and I gathered my stuff early, wanting to leave now, to have the scan now. Instead, I settled with arriving almost twenty minutes early at our meeting point, just waiting, bouncing from foot to foot. Surprisingly, Peter came round the corner only minutes afterwards and was shocked to see me too.

"Hey, what are you doing here already."

"Got restless and ahead in my work. What about you Barlow, why are you here?"

"Same, well, I got excited and wanted to make sure I wasn't late."

"Good."

"Good."

We were both smiling at each other like idiots as neither of us could contain the shared excitement of our upcoming plans. It seemed that when we were together, it just encouraged us to get more and more excited, which maybe wasn't the best idea in the world. Peter signalled to his car and opened the passenger door for me to get in and I thanked him for the gesture, smiling as I put on my seatbelt, waiting for Peter to get in the other side. I wasn't waiting long, and we left way too early for the scan.

"So, how has work been?"

"Good, yeah. Thank you for the other night, I really needed to get those contracts out. It has been going really well actually, pretty surprising if you ask me."

"That's good and honestly, it was nothing, I kind of miss the factory if I'm honest, it was one thing I was actually good at."

I looked over at him as he said that and I couldn't help but feel the pang of guilt at his confession as he spoke with a sad smile, reminiscing. It reminded me of my promise to Simon and I felt bad remembering that I was considering breaking that promise. I thought I would test the water and see where his head was at, to know what he was thinking even if that alone was going to be extremely difficult.

"You were good at the factory, you were good at the bookies too, you're good at everything you put your mind to, aren't you?"

"Yeah… but the factory was unexpected, and I didn't run it into the ground."

"That's true."

Luckily, the long pauses between our replies and the lack of traffic on the road today we arrived at the hospital sooner than I thought and we made our way into the hospital, ready to tackle its maze of hallways. We playfully bantered with each other on what way to go or which signs were important. It was fun and it helped a lot to tackle the nerves that started to grow in me as we got closer and closer to our destination. We signed in at the desk and let them know that we knew we were early, but they were fine with it, showing us to the waiting room. We sat down together and then my leg started to bounce, giving away my growing nerves to Peter as he was sat next to me.

"Hey, you ok?"

"Yeah… just, yeah."

"What can I do?"

"Distract me."

My nerves were obvious, Peter picked up on it easily and for the first time in a long time, someone finally went about it in the right way, not trying to fix it but rather help me in what way I needed.

"So, what were you and Simon talking about earlier?"

"Oh, nothing important."

Wrong distraction.

"Oh, come on, work with me here, you wanted to distract and I wanted to know what you and my son are conspiring, two birds with one stone."

"Honestly, it's nothing. He asked me for a favour, I need to work on it."

"Let me help then, tell me what the favour is, and I'll help."

"Peter – "

"Come on, a problem shared is a problem halved."

My phone rang and saved me from answering his suggestion, as I pulled it out of my bag, it was Nick's name flashing on the screen and I mouthed my apology as I answered the call.

"Hello."

"Hi, I just wanted to see if everything was, ok? See if you have someone there so that you're not alone."

"I told you I wouldn't be alone, I'm fine really."

"If you're sure – listen I've got to go, let me know how things go, bye."

Just like that, the call was done and I got to put my phone back in my bag and I took in a deep breath, my nerves were stable but still too high. Peter wasn't reading my mood of wanting to be silent, he instead jumped in with his own opinion.

"You know, give him a few more months and he'll be able to tell when you are lying."

"I wasn't lying."

"You're not fine, it's ok to be worried."

"I know, let's not talk about it."

"so, he doesn't know I'm the dad yet then?"

"No, it hasn't come up over dinner yet."

My name was called, and I didn't have to say anything more to him, as we moved into the room we were summoned into and I lay on the examination table like I was instructed to and we were given the instructions for Peter to sit next to me and for my top to be raised as the jelly was squirted on my stomach. The nerved hit like a ton of bricks and I knew I was visibly shaking, I didn't know my hand was shaking until Peter took it for comfort, it was comforting me, I felt slightly safer.

Our eyes were staring at each other, connected, it felt like he could see into my mind and I was looking into his, the whole world outside of us disappearing.

"And if you look here, there is your baby."

Our eyes and heads whipped quickly to the monitor and I felt my eyes welling up, I was looking at my baby, my child on the screen and I could hear their heartbeat. Peters grip on my hand tightened but I was unable to tear my gaze from the screen to him yet, I felt like I needed to carry on staring.

"Would you like two pictures? One for mom and one for dad?"

"Yes please."

The sound of Peter's voice as he replied to me finally had my eyes separating from the screen and facing him, that's when I saw the tears in his eyes.

"Well, everything looks good, and the baby looks healthy, so we'll have you back for your twenty-week scan, if there are any worries, make sure you get in touch, do you have any questions?"

I was aware of my head shaking no, not able to speak right now, I was still in shock that not only was I looking at my baby, but I was also being told that it was ok, that everything looked good.

The next thing I know, both of us are waking to the carpark as I try ringing Nick, not wanting to forget, he didn't pick up after my second attempt, so I decided to ring Michelle. She picked up but there was something in her voice that made me worry.

"Heya Car."

"Hey Chelle, the scan is all done."

"That's great, everything good?"

Her words didn't sound sincere, and it made me worry, she sounded distracted and that wasn't like Michelle, I was worried now.

"Chelle, what's wrong?"

"It's – I don't know…"

"Chelle…"

"It's Erica, Nick had to drive her to the hospital, we don't know what's wrong yet."

Again thank you for the Reviews, I love reading them and it inspires me so much.

If you have been following my stories for a while, you would know that I normally have more ready to go but I currently have no more on this story so I would really love what you would like to see so that the story is yours too.