After an unexpected longer stay in Glasgow Tony was finally home and Carla was relieved as she had been struggling to keep everything afloat on her own so having Tony back as an extra pair of hands was very much appreciative. Leanne had been a great support and they mainly met up either in town for lunch or at Carla's flat until Tony came back. Carla also told Leanne that she wasn't going ahead with the termination and Leanne sighed, Carla knew what was coming and there was no way she was going to tell Liam about the baby, not yet anyway. After all, she made her bed and now she had to lie it, it was her choice to go off into the bleak sunset with Tony and for Liam to go back to Maria with his tail between his legs and nurture his wife until she was ready to give birth and that made Carla shudder at the thought of her having to go through the same thing. Soon Christmas came around and everything was ready, Carla was nervous about having to conceal the fact she was pregnant as she wouldn't be drinking but Tony promised that everything would be ok and no one would probably notice apart from Maria as they would most likely be drunk to the bone.
"You can have one bucks fizz if you want-"
"No thanks I don't want a scrambled baby" Carla pulls a face and Tony smiles bringing her into his body, she hooks her arms around his neck and smiles "We are doing the right thing aren't we?"
"Of course" he whispers kissing her softly "Everything will be fine remember? The doctor said so the other day and we even have a picture to prove it"
"Yeah" she nods with a small smile as the buzzer goes off "That's probably Liam and Maria, always early them two"
"I'll get it" Tony kisses her on the lips gently before heading to the door whilst Carla busies herself in the kitchen "Merry Christmas!"
"Oh thank you, Tony" Maria smiles as he takes her coat, Liam passes his to him as well
"Please take a seat-"
"Now why does it worry me that she's in the kitchen" Liam smirks at Tony who laughs slightly and guides Carla out of the kitchen "Where are 'Chelle and Steve?"
"On their way, mind you, they said that about an hour ago" Carla shrugs as she puts food out on the table, Tony comes behind her and places his hands on her hips warning her to take it easy
"You two are awfully touchy-feely" Maria jokes and Carla smiles at her as she pulls out a bottle of bubbly and pours a glass for Liam
"Ta" Liam smiles and Maria helps herself to the lemonade "You not drinking Carla?"
"Unfortunately not, still on medication for this viral infection" she flashes him a smile and Maria raises her eyebrows at her, the suspicions brewing but before she had a chance to ask the all-important question the buzzer went off "That'll be Michelle and Steve"
"Can you get that for us Carla whilst I put the spuds in?" Tony asks and Carla nods heading over to the door to let Steve and Michelle up
"Why isn't she drinking?" Maria hisses at Liam and he shrugs "That's such a lame excuse, viral infection"
"I don't know though, Tony did ask me to help him in the factory so I guess it fits" Liam shrugs and Maria hums slightly looking at Carla who was greeting Michelle and Steve "And when I asked her about it she said it was because of her mystery illness"
"There's something up here" Maria nods convinced and Liam sighs "You don't think she's pregnant do you?"
"We've been through this Maria, there's not a chance" Liam rolls his eyes and Maria frowns slightly examining Carla's figure "No way in a million years"
"I suppose" Maria shrugs entirely unconvinced and Liam shakes his head gently as Michelle comes to sit down at the table with Steve "Hiya Michelle"
"Hey, what are you two nattering about then?" Michelle asks and Liam sighs in response "Oh let me guess its a big secret"
"Carla's off the booze and Maria reckons she's up the stick" Liam chuckles and Michelle hums thoughtfully before shrugging, "She told me it was a viral infection"
"Maria has a point, that is the oldest trick in the book" Michelle grabs the bottle of champagne to pour herself a glass, she also tops Liam's up
"I'm telling you there is no way!" Liam exclaims and Michelle rolls her eyes "Not in a million years, you two are thinking way too much into this"
"What are you lot nattering about then?" Tony questions placing crackers down on the table for each person, Liam frowns
"I thought I was doing the crackers?" Liam frowns and Tony just smiles at him "They're in the bag by the door, you did ask me to get them after all"
"We can do yours later"
"That's you told!" Michelle points to Liam who pouts his lips jokily "Hey Tony, why isn't your Carla drinking?"
"Advised by the doctors not to, still recovering from her viral infection" Tony smiles and Michelle looks at Maria who smirks at her "Dinner will be ready soon"
"Hmm finally I'm starving," Steve says and Michelle nudges him in the side
"Are you ok?" Tony asks Carla and she smiles slightly, he narrows his eyes noticing she looked quite pale "You look washed out and tired"
"Yeah I don't really feel great, I have a bit of a headache and really bad backache"
"Go and sit down," Tony says and Carla nods slowly heading towards the table allowing Tony to bring out the food and set it all up on the table "Now before we dig in you each have a cracker on beside you and I guess the future is looking so good right now and there's a lot of change that's to come Maria will be welcoming a new baby, we just got married, maybe even wedding bells on the horizon for Steve and Michelle...but there is one thing we wanted to share with you-"
"Tony" Carla hisses already knowing what he was going to do and he smiles at her before turning to where everyone was holding their given cracker "What are you playing at?"
"It's fine Carla, they'll be happy for us, so please pull your crackers-"
"Tony, no-" Carla starts but it was too late, the crackers were pulled and she pinches the bridge of her nose in annoyance, she was unsure of what he had done but the over-excited squeal coming from Michelle confirmed it all for her as she watched her sister in law hold up a small copy of their latest ultrasound picture and that's when it dawned on her that Tony had tampered with the crackers hence why he didn't want to use Liam's
"You're pregnant?!" Michelle screams and immediately wraps Carla up in a hug and she weakly accepts, Tony smiles and kisses Carla on the top of the head, his hands resting on either of her shoulders "Since when?!"
"She's around eleven weeks now" Tony smiles and Carla looks up at him and he kisses her softly on the lips "We're over the moon"
"Yeah, we are" Carla confirms, she couldn't even dare look at Liam's face so she tried to focus on everyone else apart from him because she could just sense that he was doing some sort of calculation in his head
"Aw look at it" Michelle pouts her lips picking up the ultrasound scan and smiling in awe at it "Do you have a bigger version?"
"Yeah we do" Tony smiles getting it from the side, he passes it to Michelle and Maria peers over to look at it whilst Carla sat there feeling rather awkward
"Oh my god, they will be in the same year at school won't they?!" Michelle points to Maria and then Carla who offers her a small smile
"Probably" Carla smiles and Tony massages her shoulders and that's when she looked at Liam who was looking directly at her, their eyes meeting in confirmation and from that point, onwards Liam just knew that Carla's baby could be his...
The day went on and Liam was quiet, Michelle and Maria routinely joked that he was in a strop because Carla was actually pregnant when he was convinced she wasn't, therefore, being proven wrong. Carla and Liam hadn't spoken and after dinner, both she and Tony were curled up on the sofa sharing it with Michelle and Steve whilst Maria sat on Liam's lap on the armchair asleep. Liam's eyes locked onto Carla's from across the room and she gulped before taking Tony's hand and placing it across her tummy as if to mark her territory which caused Liam to seethe internally, he watched as she closed her eyes and Tony grabbed the blanket from the arm of the sofa to cover her body as she fell asleep.
"Is she out?" Michelle chuckles grabbing some crisps, Tony nods stroking Carla's hair "I can't believe she's actually going to have a baby, both of you are going to have a baby, it's just crazy to think"
"We're really happy though" Tony confirms and Michelle nods "You've been quiet Liam?"
"Have I?" he questions and Tony nods leaning over to grab his wine glass which made Carla stir and frown "Sorry"
"Hm did I fall asleep?"
"Yeah" Tony smiles and Carla yawns tiredly before rubbing her head "Are you ok?"
"Yeah just tired"
"Goes with the territory Carla, trust me" Michelle grins and Carla smiles slightly at her whilst Tony runs his fingers through her hair "We're going to head off soon because Steve wants to see Amy"
"It was nice of you to come Michelle" Carla stretches before getting up to show her out, a yawn escaping her lips imminently
"You could always come to the pub for a drink?" Michelle suggests and Carla hums thoughtfully before looking at Tony "It might do you good to get out of the house Carla"
"It's up to you," Tony says and Carla nods thinking it would be good to get out of the house "We'll meet you there Michelle"
"Alrighty" Michelle smiles going to the flat door with Steve "We'll meet you there"
"Bye Michelle, see you later"
Liam was highly unimpressed with Carla's lack of attention towards him both knowing that the baby she was carrying could be his. The urge to demand her to do a paternity test, to tell Tony so he could tell Maria that he could be a father twice over but he knew it wouldn't be that easy. He convinced himself that she was playing with him, that she was doing this to hurt him and that arrogance that bubbled beneath the surface fuelled his mind with that. Maybe she was annoyed with him knowing that he would go back to Maria when he found out that she was pregnant as well as her. She was sick and twisted if that was the case. Somehow Liam couldn't quite understand the possibility that the baby could be Tony's he had got it into his suspicious mind, convinced, that this baby was his. Maybe in reality he wanted it to be his.
"Can I have a word?" Liam mumbles into Carla's ear noticing everyone was distracted, she sighs and relents before heading out into the beer garden
"Before you start-"
"Before I start?!" Liam exclaims and Carla sighs closing her eyes "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Why do you even care Liam?" she sighs in annoyance, she was fed up with him picking her up and using her like a toy and then getting bored of her "You have Maria, a no doubt beautiful baby on the way-"
"Eleven weeks Carla, you know what that means"
"Do I?"
"That baby could be mine" he whispers and she drops her gaze unsure of what to say "But let me guess that sick and twisted mind is perfectly ok with you pretending that Tony's the father"
"I think you're forgetting that he could be" Carla glares and Liam returns the same look to her it was almost like she was staring at herself in the mirror "I just don't get what you want from me, Liam? You have your happy ending and now I'm going to live mine and you don't get a say in that"
"What if I tell Maria?"
"It's all what-ifs and maybes Liam" she was almost on the verge of tears, he was as well as they felt that undeniable tug pulling them to each other "I'm fed up with all of it, I want stability, I want security and with Tony, I get that whereas with you...you cant decide what you want Liam. I've known for a long time and you know that but now you've made your choice and we both have to live with that"
"If that baby is mine..."
"Stop this Liam" she pleads with him
"Would you be able to let Tony bring it up, will you be able to let him watch it take its first steps, would you let him be there for the first day at school because all of these are things you're going to have to consider and if you're not happy with it you need to tell him sooner rather than later"
"I'm sorry Liam but this conversation is over," she says before going to head back into the pub, Liam grabs her wrist and they look at each other in the eyes "Let me go, forever now, no more looking back"
"You know it's not that simple, not now, your baby is proof of that now. In fact, your life has just got a whole more damn complicated Carla"
"Then so has yours, I guess we'll just have to deal with it won't we?" she glares before snapping her wrist free, she heads into the pub and Liam sighs running a hand through his hair at this complicated reality he was now immersed in...
