Carla knew Peter was there waiting before she heard the knock on the flat door. She had finally persuaded him to go home the previous night, insisting that she needed sleep, and playing on the fact that she was still slightly uncomfortable with him staying when she knew Roy would be back in the early hours. That bit was partly true anyway, Roy had assured her that he didn't mind Peter sleeping over but she still felt like she was imposing; he had always been so kind to her she didn't want to take advantage. She looked at her phone, 8:15am, and wondered how much sleep he'd managed; slightly surprised he had managed to keep away this long! She had lay awake into the early hours, trying to absorb the news, imagine what the future now held for them. And she had made an important decision. Her next challenge was to persuade Peter it was the right one.

Peter knocked again, unable to hide his impatience. Roy had let him upstairs but he didn't have a key to the flat door and was anxious to see Carla this morning. He had been up for hours already, making plans, thinking of ways he could make everything as stress-free as possible for her. Granted, she had enough reason to worry with the bad luck that had seemed to plague her life thus far, but he wanted to show her that her past did not have to define her future. They would leave nothing to chance this time. Eventually, as he was debating returning to the café and asking Roy to take pity and let him in, her saw her bedroom door open. He couldn't hide his grin as she came towards him, trying to flatten her bed hair and stifling a yawn. She was still in her pyjamas, hopefully a sign she had managed more sleep than him. She swung the door open and gave him a knowing smile as he leaned in for a chaste kiss and quick hug, before moving past her into Roy's sitting room, cradling the notebook he had brought with him, wanting to share the contents with her but unsure how she would react. She had of course already spotted it, and reached to take it from him as she sat down next to him on the sofa.

"What's this then?"

"Don't get mad love, please, it's just a list I made of things we need to consider. I thought it might help us get organised…"

"Peter Barlow making lists, whatever is the world coming to?! I thought you were more of a 'seat of your pants' kind of guy."

He watched as she opened the book and started reading through his scribblings:

· Tell Roy

· Tell Johnny

· Make GP appointment

· Speak to kidney specialist

· Appointment with mental health team

· Explore options of renting/mortgage

Her face fell as she scanned the points, and it took her a few seconds to compose herself before glancing back up at him, her expression now unreadable.

"As if I didn't spend enough time with doctors already. I might as well just move in to Weatherfield General at this rate."

"I'm sorry love, I just wanted us to be prepared, get all the facts, give this pregnancy the best chance we can. That is, if that's what you want?"

He began to feel nervous that it wasn't, that he was getting ahead of himself. He would do whatever Carla wanted, put her first, but even though it had been less than 24 hours since the idea of a baby had been sprung on him, he already felt a connection to it; the worry was that Carla didn't feel the same.

Carla watched Peter closely, he was trying so hard to stay impassive, to hide his excitement. She read through his list again. He was right of course, this would be so much more complicated than last time; not only was she that much older, to call her medical records complex was an understatement. And yes Johnny and Roy should be told asap, if she did need extra support it wouldn't be fair to let Peter cope alone. She felt a flutter of exhilaration at his last point. A place together, now wouldn't that be lovely. She decided to put him out of his misery.

"Of course it's what I want. I've wanted this since… well let's just say for a long time. But there is something else that needs to go on that list, and it's non-negotiable so please don't try and argue."

She saw a look of confusion flash across his features as she grabbed a pen off the coffee table and added one more bullet point:

· Find out exactly what happened in my missing month.

"Remember Peter, I said no arguments."

Peter was momentarily lost for words, of all the things she could have written he wasn't expecting that.

"But love this is a new start for us, why dredge over the past? You need to avoid stress, not actively seek it out!"

He felt angry; he knew that was ridiculous, that he had no right to be, but at the same time couldn't understand why she would want to expose herself to further heartache.

"I need you to understand Peter, I can't spend the rest of my life just waiting for some other skeleton to jump out of the closet and destroy everything again. It's not fair on you, and it certainly wouldn't be fair on our child."

He went to butt in, to tell her she was wrong, but as he looked up at her he could see the fire burning in her eyes and knew that this was one fight he was destined to lose.

"Please Peter, I just need to know. However bad it is it cannot be worse that what I imagine in my head. I can see how much what happened with Dominic hurt you, and if we are going to have this baby together, I need there to be no more secrets, no surprises. I'll do everything on your list, follow all the stupid advice I'm given, but you need to support me on this please? I cannot have a proper fresh start until I've done this, or at least tried."

Peter sighed in resignation, he would try to see her way of thinking, but right now it just felt like more pain for her when he just wanted them both to be able to move on.

"OK love, if that's what you want, let's discuss it again in a few days, once we've got our heads around everything else, yes?"

Carla smiled and nodded, seemingly placated for the moment.

"Thank you. Right, time to cross the first thing off your list…"

At that Roy came bustling in to the flat, his apron covered with what Peter could only assume was once someone's full English, muttering as he unfastened the knot holding it in place and moving to scrape what he could of the remnants into the sink.

"That Nina, she's like a bull in a china shop sometimes."

He glanced up to see both Carla and Peter looking over with bemused expressions.

"I haven't interrupted anything have I?"

"No of course not Roy, although me and Carla were hoping to catch you; maybe not in that state though, have you been juggling with the breakfast plates or something?"

Peter turned back to Carla and nodded, squeezing her hand encouragingly, this was her news to tell her dearest friend.

He watched her get up and go over to Roy, helping him pull the apron over his head without making further mess, before carefully folding it and placing it on the worktop, turning to face him, unable to stop the smile lighting up her features as she grabbed his hand.

"So, Royston Cropper, how do you feel about being a granddad?"

Thank you for sticking with this and the kind comments :)