A direct continuation from the last one...

References to prostitution, miscarriage and rape

"What happened?" he asks as he enters the flat somewhat breathlessly, Leanne sighs slightly gesturing for him to sit on the sofa "Leanne this is serious"

"She was just asking me really weird questions...I tried to be honest-"

"What sort of weird questions?" he questions, Leanne sighs again "Leanne!"

"Alright!" she exclaims before biting her lip "She was asking me about what it was like when I was a prostitute and about past mistakes, it was weird Peter, very weird"

"That is weird" he agrees "Did she say where she was going?"

"No" Leanne shrugs, Peter nods standing up and walking to the door "I would help but-"

"Don't worry, it's best we don't all jump on her at the same time otherwise she will get defensive, but thank you for making sure she's ok"

"No problem" she smiles slightly, Peter sighs and leaves the flat not really knowing what to do, he decided to go to the house, he was greeted by Michelle who was holding Azalea

"Peter?" Michelle questions confused "What are you doing here, I thought you were spending the evening with Aziza?"

"Is Carla here?" he pushes his way through to the living room and glances around before heading upstairs and of course as he knew deep down there was no sign of Carla "Did she come back at all Michelle, this is important!"

"Well yes she did and she gave me Azalea then she went off somewhere, I don't know where" she panics slightly bouncing the baby on her hip "Has something happened?"

"No of course not" he states sarcastically "Leanne found her and they talked didn't they, she was asking her questions about prostitution and whether she made any mistakes, oh I don't know Michelle this isn't like her!"

"Ok calm down, let me try and ring her" she sighs picking up her phone and dialling Carla's number only to get no reply "No answer"

"Ok...alright" he states biting his lip, he goes back up the stairs into Carla's room, he rummages around in her drawers but nothing, he goes into the wardrobe and pulls out a white box with a pink ribbon, he rummages through the box pulling out the memory box she had of their late daughter and wrapped in the pink blanket there was a wad of stapled papers

"What are those?"

"Umm," he reads them briefly "Copes of land registries...Underworld...umm and a list of hotels"

"Let me see" Michelle smiles passing Azalea over to Peter who holds, she rummages through them "Chariot Square Hotel...Riverlands Hotel...Drawbridge hotel...there's so many Peter, this is..."

"I know!" he snaps running his fingers through his hair "I know"

"Did Leanne have any idea?"

"No, she didn't" Peter sighs placing Azalea on the bed, he looks through the bedside drawers and hums slightly "That's odd"

"Hmm, what?" Michelle questions before peering into the drawers, she frowns confused

"Her lingerie's gone" he whispers, Michelle, glances to the papers on the bed before glancing to Peter "What?"

"You don't think...her and Ray..."

"Oh god" Peter breathes out "Watch Azalea for me, I need to go and find her"

"Try the Chariot Square first!" Michelle calls, Peter nods taking the paper and leaving the house, she sighs slightly not knowing what Carla was up to and that scared her a lot knowing how vulnerable she still was, she just hoped that her friend didn't do anything she may regret...

Peter raced to the hotel, he was sure he would get done for speeding. He reached the reception and asked to speak to Ray Crosby but obviously, the receptionist said no and that she was busy but when Peter explained the situation to her then she was a bit more understanding and led him to Ray's room which he was using. The receptionist used the key which she had and Peter rushed into the room seeing Carla sitting on the edge of the bed staring ahead and not even acknowledging his presence, he sits down on the edge of the bed with her and takes her hand. She squeezes it gently to let him know that she was listening, he presumed that anyway but by the looks of her it seemed that whatever had happened had indeed happened and that there was no going back from that now and that Carla was frozen, she was obviously scared and uncomfortable with the whole thing and he didn't want to push her.

"Hey" he whispers softly, she doesn't look at him instead she just looks ahead "Carla, you're safe"

"I know" she replies barely a whisper, she glances to him before standing up and grabbing her clothes, she makes her way into the bathroom and reappears in her clothes

"Carla we need to speak darlin' about what happened in here" he replies softly, she smiles at him and nods slowly taking his hand and dragging him out of the room to the car park, he opens the car for her and she gets in without saying a word

"Carla, please say something"

"Nothing to say, I did it for you" she responds, he frowns in confusion knowing she didn't have to do anything for him "I did it so we could be happy, so the girls can be happy"

"Carla you're making so sense, love" he sighs slightly sliding the car into the ignition "Are you taking your meds-"

"Yes" she snaps rubbing her forehead, he knew she got annoyed when people questioned her over it "I did it for you, to say thank you for everything you did for me and for looking after Azalea and Aziza for me whilst I was ill in hospital"

"You know I would have done anything for you" he smiles, she nods slowly turning her attention to the passenger seat window, she breathes onto it seeing it mist, she takes her finger and draws over the condensation which was there, she sighs at the simplicity "Do you want to go anywhere?"

"Take me home" she responds, he nods slowly starting the car and driving out of the parking bay, she glances to the front of the hotel and sees Ray, she smiles at him and he smirks back allowing Peter to drive her home, at least she was finally able to rectify the mistakes in her life, inside of her head at least...

They got home and Carla ran upstairs into her bedroom, she undressed and Peter watched her frantically run into the bathroom with a spare set of clothes, he sighed not knowing how to approach the topic of conversation without effecting her mental health to the extent that it may damage it but he knew it was better that she talked about it instead of bottling it up and it manifesting into more which may cause serious implications in the near future. He watched her sit down on the armchair cradling Azalea in her arms, humming a gentle tune to her as she had a bottle, he smiled at his ex-partner taking care of her child, the child he wished was his.

"Twinkle twinkle little star how I wonder what you are" she whispers to Azalea who was drinking her bottle still, her chubby little hands grasping onto the warmth of it the best she could "Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky..."

"When the blazing sun is gone, when he nothing shines upon, then show your little light, twinkle twinkle all the night" he murmurs bending down in front of Carla who shakes her head tearfully "It's ok" he soothes her, she gulps and bites her lip

"She needs to go to bed" Carla whispers taking Azalea and walking up the stairs with her in her arms, she sits on the rocking chairs and props her up against her shoulder to wind her gently, soon after she places her in the cot with her blanket, flicks the sound machine on and shuts the door, she crumples into a heap of tears on the floor outside her daughter's bedroom

"Carla, do you want-" he pauses and sighs at the sight of her, he sits down on the floor as well, she takes his hand unable to hold him because of all the hurt she caused him "What happened at the hotel?"

"I wanted to make everything the way it should have been" she responds sadly, he frowns slightly confused "You'll soon see, in one way or another that what I did was right for everyone"

"Leanne phoned me after you left hers"

"I thought she might have so I needed to get to where I needed to be before you came, how did you know about the hotel?"

"I looked in the memory box, I never look in it as you know so I knew you would hide private stuff in there, sorry"

"It's fine, I've done worse to you so I think we're even" she chuckles gently shaking her head and tilting her head back so it was rested on the door, she closes her eyes and lets out a hum "I want to say sorry"

"For what?"

"For everything really, the pain I caused you. Peter, you had to bring up another mans baby whilst its mother was off in the world of the doolally that cant have been easy and to be honest I'm more curious to the point of why you care so much; why are you here Peter?"

"The truth?"

"Ironically, yes"

"Because I care about you, you're Aziza's mother and I would hate to see her...struggle if you were to get ill again"

"Now the truth?"

"That is the truth" he states firmly trying to convince himself that this was the truth but it wasn't, it really wasn't and that was something that scared him to admit the truth which was the way he still loved her no matter how much she did to him, no matter how much she hurt him, that was something which was difficult and understandably he didn't wish to express the truth right now

"If you say so but I know you remember"

"You do," he remarks "I just don't want to admit it"

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to scare you, I don't want to change the way you view me especially after everything"

"Because you don't want the truth to affect my recovery?"

"No, I don't" he shakes his head gently, she nods slowly with a small smile "You understand that don't you?"

"Yeah I do, completely, I know how important it is for me to recover without any outside pressures, I get it, Peter"

"Good" he smiles squeezing her hand, they stand up and he smiles at her, she smiles back at him "Hug?"

"Yeah" she nods watching as he holds his arms open for her, she walks into them and he grasps her body and sways her gently in his arms allowing her to breathe in the safety of his scent, the person who knew her inside and out, she was not mentally in the position to comprehend the meaning of this situation yet but she savours it in her mind, in her memories because she knew in the future these moments would be little and far to come across...