Sorry about the wait, motivations been lacking...


"Hey" Maria waltzes into Carla's room, she narrows her eyes "Brought you a brownie from Roy's"

"T-Thanks" Carla smirks slightly biting her lip before picking up her phone

"I'm not dumb Maria"

"Huh?" she frowns placing the brownie down on the bedside cabinet

"I know Michelle's telling you to get chummy with me"

"No she's-"

"Don't bother lying. I'm not going after Sammy if that's what she wants to know"

"Oh"

"Yeah, oh. Just go Maria"

"I don't know how you could do it, ditch your own son"

Carla glares at her, giving her a warning look as if to say she didn't want her interfering

"I don't have to answer to you. Just go."

"Fine, bye then" Maria rolls her eyes leaving the room, Carla sighs and shakes her head


Michelle and Lucas were sitting in the Bistro, they had a meeting with the social worker today to discuss the custody of Sammy. This would mean explaining that Carla would be living on the street as well which may cause a few issues so Lucas was nervous. He also had Carla's words ringing in his ear about how he should befriend Peter so he needed a way to see Peter and that's when he thought he should apologise to Peter knowing he was probably in a very fragile position right now considering everything that Carla had put him through. The meeting with the social worker went well, obviously, they had to speak to Carla about the whole thing but either way, things were looking good and Lucas was hopeful that he would now have Sammy under his care in the near future.

"Oh, it's you" Peter comments rolling his eyes and stuffing his hands into the pockets of his coat

"Could we maybe have a chat?" Lucas questions, Peter sighs and nods allowing him into number one, they both sit at the table "I just wanted to apologise for the stress me and Carla put you through-"

"It's not you, this is all her and her manipulation," Peter says quietly with a shrug "She's nothing to do with me now"

"Well even so...I still feel like I contributed" Lucas shrugs before sighing "I just wanted you to know that if you need anything, I'm here"

"Actually I think it's a more of what I can do for you" Peter breathes out, Lucas frowns "You want custody of him don't you?"

"Yeah me and Michelle, we do" Lucas confirms kind of intrigued by this conversation "Why?"

"Well if you need any statements or witnesses come to me, I'll happily represent you-"

"Peter" Lucas sighs wondering if he was really in the right frame of mind to do this "Are you sure you're not just doing this to hurt Carla?"

"I just...its partly that and for that kid, to have someone neglect him especially Carla who I really didn't think had it in her...he deserves a life whether thats with adoptive parents or his dad and his girlfriend-"

"Fiance" Lucas corrects him, Peter smiles slightly "Sorry"

"You look good together and if you love each other then I will quite happily support it, for Sammy as well. Me and Carla, we're dead and buried now, there's no coming back from this-"

"Not even if you were the father of the baby?" Lucas questions cautiously, Peter sighs

"I don't know" he shrugs in response "All I want it to focus on me right now and get better for that baby when it's born"

"How are you? If you don't mind me asking" Lucas whispers, Peter sighs and shakes his head "You don't have to tell me-"

"I'm dying right now, the plan is a liver transplant. I'm on a dosage of whiskey but it's so hard because its going against past advice and morally it doesn't feel right for me to be able to do this"

"I'm always here if you need anything" Lucas states, Peter flashes him a smile "Plus with the both of us dealing with two Connor women I think we may need to consider making a pact-"

"Ha, yeah" Peter chuckles, "I think we may need our heads testing"

"Maybe you could come around for the meal later?" Lucas suggests, Peter frowns "We're having an engagement party at my flat, you don't have to it's just a thought really"

"Maybe not eh? I'm meant to be resting" Peter sighs in response, Lucas nods "Shouldn't you be getting off anyway?"

"Yeah, my lunch break finished...oh thirty minutes ago. I'll see you around Peter"

"Bye" he responds softly watching Lucas leave the flat, he glances at the cabinet and picks up a picture of him and Carla, the good times, oh how he wished that they were still happy…


"Si?" Kelly questions before gasping in response, she swipes the bag of pills out of his hands and gasps grabbing his chin "Have you taken them?"

"No" Simon grumbles before his head flopped back down onto the swinging chair in Victoria Gardens

"Help!" Kelly calls catching the attention of none other than Adam "He's taken these, please"

"Simon?" Adam questions bending down in front of him and tapping his cheek "Ring an ambulance"

"You know him?" Kelly questions confused, Adam nods

"He's my cousin" Adam states with a sigh as Kelly bites her lip "Call an ambulance then"

"Yeah, sorry" Kelly gulps and rings an ambulance watching as Adam pulls his phone out "Who are you ringing?"

"HIs father-"

"No!" Kelly shrieks swiping the phone out of Adam's hand "No"

"I have to ring them, he's under 18-"

"And you're his cousin over the age of eighteen!" Kelly snaps back "You can't tell Leanne or Peter"

"Why?"

"Because otherwise, they will be in danger as well"

"What do you mean by that?" Adam hisses pulling Kelly aside but luckily she was saved by the ambulance pulling up and the paramedics getting out of the back and tending to Simon "He's my cousin"

"Here," Kelly says, passing Adam the pills "He took those, that's all I'm saying he can explain the rest. I don't want anything to do with this, I mean it"

"Kelly wait-" Adam says but then sighs as it was too late, Kelly was gone…


Adam was looking around the horrible stark white hospital rooms before letting out a sigh at another one of his family members in here. He chuckled to himself at the idea of all of them moving in here as it would be easier than calling out an ambulance each time. At least he was a solicitor but to be honest he really did feel as though he stood out here as it was all very odd right now. Adam knew he should ring Leanne or Peter but every time the thought came into his head he thought about the words Kelly said and he knew that there were some nasty people out there in the world and if Simon was wrapped up in that then the last thing he wanted to do was inflict more stress onto Peter in his condition and as for Leanne, she was grieving for the loss of her other child. He needed more information so he made his way into Simon's room.

"Si" Adam enters the room, Simon sighs fiddling with the strays of thread which were on the hospital blanket "What happened then?"

"It doesn't matter"

"Well, it does to me. First I have Kelly passing me those flamin' drugs...what do you think you're playing at"

"We needed money" Simon states "Carla's been helping me"

"What?" Adam pulls a face "What do you mean been helping you?"

"She gave me her bank card. I used her money for the food and stuff for me and mum she wanted to help" Simon hisses before letting out a sigh "Anyway I got wrapped up in...well you can probably guess, they got more demanding, I took wads of cash out of Carla's bank account and attempted to pay off my debts but it was stupid in a way, they would have never accepted her money, well they did, they took it and...well I'm still involved"

"You idiot" Adam snaps, Simon rolls his eyes "Why did you take the drugs?"

"Don't act as you've ever wanted to get off your head-"

"Thats different-"

"Is it?" Simon questions with a shrug "I just wanted to forget, let other people deal with my problems instead of me having to deal with them. I could forget about the demands of the higher-ups and I could just be free-"

"Yeah free until you plummet headfirst and come down from that high and end up in here" Adam says rubbing his face "Does your dad know?"

"No"

"Leanne?"

"No, and you can't tell them-"

"Oh no we're not doing this you're under the age of eighteen-"

"And you're over eighteen" Simon snaps back, Adam sighs as a doctor enters the room

"Simon, and you are?" the doctor questions, Adam opens his mouth to speak but Simon cut's in

"He's my cousin, I'll be staying with him during the recovery period" Simon states as Adam just goes along with the story "So what now?"

"These drugs you took they're full of deadly toxins you really were lucky. All your tests have come back clear but we want to finish off that bag of fluids before we discharge you. You had a lucky escape there"

"Thank you doctor" Adam nods as the doctor leaves "Now why did you do that?"

"Because I think you know that my dad and my mum cannot cope with all of this going on around them right now. What other choice do we have?"


Carla was reading another boring edition of Vogue. It didn't really have the same ring to it as the other time she indulged herself in such luxury, to her surprise a midwife came to do her anatomy scan to check on the baby and that led her to find out the gender of her baby so she had a daft grin plastered all over her face at the fact the future was looking unexpectedly bright. There was a slight change in the plan though and that was they were going to get the point of viability which would be in a months time and then just see how she went as the baby grows so they were at the point to intervene if they needed to and then do the c-section if she was to take a turn for the worse. To her surprise, she was interrupted by Adam which was odd in itself so she placed her magazine down on the table which was over her bed.

"Um...yeah this isn't a social call," Adam says sitting down in the chair beside Carla's bed, she picks up her phone ready to communicate

"Is this about Peter?"

"No, actually it's about Simon'' Adam states, Carla narrows her eyes "Kelly called me over, he was unconscious in Victoria Gardens, he'd taken drugs. Anyway, he told me that you gave him your bank card...you didn't have to do that-"

"I did though, Peter didn't need the stress and Leanne yeah we have our differences but I still care about Simon so I just wanted to help"

"Peter can't know, neither can Leanne apparently according to Si"

"Because he's part of some major drugs gang and they will kill his entire family if he steps out of line and tries to leave?"

"You've been watching too many documentaries" Adam quips, Carla laughs slightly and shakes her head

"I agree with him on not telling Peter and Leanne"

"How could you?" Adam sighs exasperatedly, Carla just bites her lip

"I'm guessing Peter isn't doing too well. Do you want more stress inflicted on him? Do you want Leanne who's grief-stricken and Peter who has the temper as short as a wick on a dead candle to go off on one with their mental and physical states?"

"Well no"

"So I recommend not telling him"

"Right" Adam nods, Carla just shrugs thinking it was obvious "I'll let him stay with me, I'll get him to lie and say that he's staying with a mate or something"

"Who knew Adam Barlow had brains?"

"You better watch it. I still haven't forgiven you for what you did to my uncle"

"I haven't forgiven myself if that makes you feel any better"

"Hmm we'll see" he says standing up, Carla grabs his hand causing him to frown "What?"

"H-Here," she says passing Adam an ultrasound picture before picking up her phone

"For Peter, he doesn't have to look but I found out the gender and I just thought he would like to know if the baby is his. I plan on finding out the paternity. Make sure you tell him that"

"I will" Adam nods opening the picture and smiling "Thanks for the advice"

"No-No pr-problem" she says as Adam leaves the room, she sighs lightly and smiles closing her eyes and it wasn't long before she was asleep again


"It's only me!" Adam calls entering the flat where Peter was still staying "How are you doing?"

"Yeah ok" Peter shrugs as Adam nods sitting down beside him, he passes him the picture "What's that?"

"I went to see Carla" Adam admits, Peter rolls his eyes in response "I just wanted to see it from her point of view"

"Whatever you do what you want"

"It's the ultrasound picture, she told me to give it to you and tell you that she found out the gender and that when the baby's born she's doing a paternity test"

"Oh" Peter responds kind of shocked "Thanks"

"I'll leave you to it as I have places to be" Adam nods "Remember ring if you need anything alright?"

"I will, thank you" Peter whispers, his eyes focussed on the picture as he hears Adam leave the flat, he opens it and the tears spring to his eyes "A baby girl…"