Slowly
The pub had remained silent and Leanne was pretty sure some tumbleweed had rolled past her since Gary had dropped that bombshell on them all.
Eva looked utterly horrified and like death warmed up. "What?" She asked, her usual booming voice weak and crackled with the sound of impending tears, hysterics even.
Nick and Leanne leaned across their booth, staring at Gary with all the others. Jason was lying on the floor, cowering in case Gary did decide to punch him. He couldn't blame him though, he'd be pretty pissed off, furious and disgusted if anybody were to do that to his Eva. He knew that would never happen and so, he eased himself up off the floor slowly.
Jason held his hands up at Gary, letting him know he was surrendering and he didn't want to fight. He caught sight of Alya behind his friend, her eyes red and swollen from all the crying she had been doing since she confessed her deepest sin to her fiancé.
Eva tensed up as it soon dawned on her that this was all true. It made so much sense why he was so depserate to win her back.
"Now, Gary, just hear me out." Jason pleaded, Eva still hadn't said a word and It was beginning to really worry Leanne. So much so that she reached out and patted her sister's shoulder, pushing her down onto the bench she was sat on in their booth. She did not blink, speak or even acknowledge her sister's attempt at talking to her. She stared on at the two men, waiting to see who did what.
"Hear you out?!" Gary yelled. "I don't wanna hear you out, I wanna knock you out!" He took a large step forward to Jason, ready to punch him again. Alya grabbed him and pulled him back before he could do something really stupid.
"No Gary!" Ayla wailed. "Please, let's go home and talk about this."
Gary turned back on her, his eyes reading hatred and pure liquid fury. She and all the others could clearly see why he had been a soldier, and such a good one too.
"I am not going anywhere with you. We're done and I never, ever want to look at you ever again you dirty lying whore!"
"Eva," Leanne started, attempting to move her sister. "Eva?"
Her tears eyes caught the eyes of her worried sister.
Eva flicked back to Jason, who was looking down at the floor, ashamed.
"Why?" Eva questioned, gritting her teeth and spitting her words out. She had sat by his bedside for weeks, praying he would wake up and now it seemed he had a nurse already. One he had already done behind Eva's back.
Jason managed to look up, catching the eyes of the furious and disgusted people in the pub. But, most importantly, he saw how cut up Eva was and how much of a mess he had got himself in.
"You knew about Henri. You knew he had been with me and I told you everything Jason! I was straight with ya 'cos I had it in me head that honesty is the best policy in a relationship! I was obviously wrong!"
Alya came over to Eva, grabbing hold of her hand, practically begging her not to blame Jason for all of this. The poor guy was broken and Alya didn't want him to pay the price for this.
"Eva...please just let me explain." Alya pleaded, just as Eva flipped.
Eva's hand smacked Alya's cheek hard, just as her entire family walked into the pub, horrified.
"Maybe ya should explain all this to someone else ya trashy tart!" Eva yelled, pointing at the Nazirs. Alya clutched her cheek as Liz stepped in.
"Right, lads, out! You an' all Eva!" Liz exclaimed loudly from behind the bar.
Eva rolled her eyes and grabbed her handbag. "And you." She shouted in Jason's face. "Yer lucky you haven't got a broken leg to go with yer broken brain!"
Leanne stood up with Nick, holding his hand and taking their things, following Eva towards the door.
"Babe, please don't do this." Jason pleaded desperately. "I love ya an I wanna marry ya."
She laughed loudly and sarcastically. "Bore off Jason. You and I are like Take That and Robbie Williams- we're flippin' over and I ain't ever gonna take ya back."
Jason's face fell and Gary just smirked at him before storming out the pub and leaving Alya to explain the mess she was in to her family.
"Oh, Alya?" Eva called. "There's a cripple in the corner, why don't ya see if he fancies round two?"
Yasmeen looked as though she had stood in Alya. "Oh god, tell me this isn't true."
Eva butted in before Alya could make her excuses. "Oh aye Yaz! Yer granddaughter is a dirty hussy, sleeping with Jason behind my back!"
Yasmeen looked as though she had just downed her own vomit. She turned to Alya, her eyes wide and Eva's face reading all the ugly feelings of rage and anger.
"Well, it looks like everything's finished here then." Eva remarked. "We're done...and you've done Alya!"
Carla had headed home, brimming with the feeling of love. But it wasn't just any old love, it was Peter Barlow's love running through her veins as she sat with a glass of trusty wine whilst watching the telly. She wasn't all that sure what she was watching, but she knew that things in her life were finally on track and the pain she had been going through just two and a half weeks ago had vanished. The guilt. The fire. Tracy's guilt. The fire Tracy caused.
She let out a wide grin as she put the wine glass to her lips. The red poison oozed down her throat and the warmth it gave her took her back to when she was in the ginnel with Peter, his hands in her hair and his lips caressing hers. She could have relived it all there and then, but she wasn't going to let him have his way. She wanted him to wine her, dine her and maybe if he was lucky he'd get a cheeky kiss in return. Again, it all depended on if he played his cards right; something he wasn't famous for doing.
Her phone lit up and a message had come through from him. It was as though he knew she was thinking about him, and that they both couldn't help but talk about, talk to or think about the other. She had felt like that before, but now it seemed to be a little stronger than when he had gone to Antigua. Now it even frightened her a little.
Peter too had stayed a little coy and a taf cautious of rushing into their relationship again and destroying what he knew so well and what had been so beautiful. They were each other's whole and he missed her like mad. It nearly killed him too lose Carla after Tina was killed. He was not about to lose her and himself again. It didn't matter how long it took, he wasn't ever letting her down again.
Hiya. I don't know if you're awake or asleep but I hope you are okay. Was wondering if maybe...you fancy seeing the firework display at the Rovers on Friday? If you don't it's fine but I dunno...might be kinda fun xxxx
Fireworks. Peter. She almost spilled her wine at the thought of the two together. Peter and Carla were fireworks when they were together, exploding across the sky and illuminating their worlds with love and light.
Sounds good to me Barlow. Oh, and I hope you buy me summat good at Christmas, especially after what I gave you earlier xxxx
She giggled like a teenage girl as she waited for him to get back to her, hoping he'd laugh too and fill the emptiness she'd felt without him in the last year and a half.
Sure thing Carla. Maybe next time we'll spice things up and add the bins to what we're doing xxxx
The wine was slowly wearing off and it didn't taste as good as before. What she wanted more than anything was him and this urge to ring him and order him round was overcoming her senses and feuling her fire in the same way booze used to. But, what surprised her most was that she wanted to sit and talk with him, listen to his side of life and watch something on the telly together. She wasn't after the passionate and steamy sex on the couch- not yet anyway. Time was what she wanted. Time to build the foundations and start afresh.
Bins? If Christmas involves bins then there won't be a 'next time' darlin. I've dealt with enough bins in me lifetime- you're sister bein one of em. Xxxxxx
And with that cheeky text message, Carla headed to bed, satisfied and feeling all kinds of emotions that she thought had gone away for good.
Nick and Leanne walked out the doors of the Rovers hand in hand as the chill of November bsttered against them in their black coats.
"It's flamin freezin," Leanne admitted, resting her head on his shoulder and linking her arm through his to warm herself up a bit more.
He squeezed her arm and moved her off of his shoulder gently, opening his coat wider so she could tuck herself under his coat with him.
She instantly felt warmer and couldn't hide a smile as they walked back to Victoria Court together.
"Better?" He asked.
She nodded and then groaned a little too loudly. "Eva. I should go and check she's alright. I feel bad on her y'know- I've been in her shoes and she must be hurting."
He knew what that meant. A mixture of both Leanne being cheated on by Peter when they were planning a baby and then Nick on what should have been his and Leanne's wedding night.
"Oh...yeah course you do." He replied awkwardly, rummaging about in his pockets for his keys to the flat as they finally reached the door to flat 8.
She smacked her hand against her head hard. "Ah god, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it at you, I just, I can imagine how she's feeling right now. She probably feels like shit."
The door to the flat opened and Nick flicked on the lights above the breakfast bar. The kitchen was now bright and the few pictures of them as a couple she had were now scattered across the flat like the memories that were growing all the time.
"Well, she has probably gone to get drunk off her face. I don't blame her," Nick began. "I would have done that if I was her."
Leanne traced her fingers across the tan oak of the breakfast bar, watching her fingertips graze the grain of the wood. "Yeah...I guess you're right. Shall I just give her some time tonight and let her calm down? The last thing she'll need is a crowd."
"Go and see her in the morning Lea," Nick said reassuringly, touching her hand and gaining her eye contact. "She'll be much calmer and sober."
"Yeah you're right. I guess tonight could just be me and you, couldn't it?" Leanne said with a cheeky smile.
"I don't see why not." He agreed, leaning across the breakfast island to plant a kiss on her lips.
The cobbles looked as though they were spinning as Eva stumbled down the street after coming home from the town centre in a taxi. She couldn't remember what she had been drinking or who she had even been talking to, but the craving for a kebab was coming over her.
She whipped her high heels off her swollen feet and walked into the kebab shop, slurring her words as Chesney asked her what she fancied.
"I'll ave a...kebab n chips hunn. I'm...I feel as...I need the chips darlin." She slurred, unable to stand up straight at the counter.
The lights of the kebab shop blinded Aidan as he came past the shop, and the sight of a familiar blonde in a leopard print fur coat caught his eye.
He came into the shop as Eva waited impatiently for her order.
"Chessie!" Eva squealed. "I need me kebab mate!"
Aidan came in and stood next to her. He'd heard from Michelle who had found out from Liz what had gone down in the pub earlier that night with Eva and Jason.
"I'm sorry for what's happened." Aidan said politely.
"It's crap innit. But I don't care, there's better folk out there."
"Yeah." Aidan began. "Better than Jason...people who appreciate you."
She turned to him, her eyes wild. "Let's go to my flat...now."
"What? What about Jason?" Aidan asked, wary because of how drunk she was.
"I am finished with him." She made sure Chesney couldn't see, and pushed her lips against Aidan's. "I mean it. I want ya."
Leanne had fumed for almost an hour. It may have been longer but that was when she had begun counting as Nick had gone off to save the day because Audrey's Salon had been broken into whilst she was there collecting some accounts to sort the next day.
Well, Leanne was seething because as per flamin usual, they'd rung Nick who had come running like a lapdog to help.
It was morning by now, and as the sun rose, the urge to throw up dawned upon one woman in Weatherfield as others felt the earlier morning dawn.
Pregnant.
The very words put the fear of God into her, chilling her and making her choke hard on the idea of a baby and what the future could possibly bring for the kid and the father.
It couldn't be. It was impossible. It had to be just that. She couldn't go through it, put her body through the mill and hope and pray it would all be worth it in the end. It had to be some sick lie that would all eventually come to nothing because she could not be a mother. She had told herself for years and years she'd never let it happen, especially not in this way.
And as she sat in the bathroom, clutching the pregnancy test in her hands, she knew it was going to destroy her life and there was a possibility it would wreck everyone else's that was around her.
As the clock changed and the time was up, she looked. She braved the fear inside of her and checked to see if it was all real.
It was.
The nightmare was reality.
She was pregnant.
I want to apologise for not updating in so long but I've had exams at the minute and sadly, this fic has been abandoned :( but I'm back and should be updating more reguarly again.
And, as you're probably wondering, I will be dropping some hints a long the way as to who is pregnant, but it won't be easy!
So...the ladies that could be expecting a baby are...
Carla
Eva
Leanne
Kylie
Sarah Lou
Bethany
Please keep reviewing and let me know who you think it is that is pregnant!
