"Just breath sweetheart Peter will be here soon, Ali's gone to find him"
"I doubt he'll want to see me, I'm losing his baby for god sake" Carla cries as Michelle runs a hand through her hair kissing her forehead
"Can I get you anything?"
"Peter" Carla states before crying again, Michelle sighing as Peter barges through the door
"What happened?" he questions as Carla cries again, Peter bending down in front of her, Peter glancing to Michelle for some sort of explanation
"Her waters broke"
"It's too early, he's gone Peter, I'm so sorry" Carla weeps as Peter strokes her hair, Michelle rubbing her back for her
"Hey you don't know that sweetheart, he's still in there they might be able to stop it" Peter reassures her as Carla cries some more, Peter kissing her on the forehead as a midwife enters
"Hi Carla, how are you doing?" the midwife smiles as Carla grunts in response
"Great couldn't be better, please be good news"
"I'm afraid you're going to need to give birth"
"It's too early!" Carla cries as the monitor starts beeping, the midwife pulling the emergency call button, Carla practically hyperventilating, Peter stroking her hair to calm her a bit
"What's happening?!" Peter panics as Carla cries, traumatised by the whole experience
"Baby's heart rate is dropping we need to get Carla down to theatre if we have any chance of saving the baby" The midwife states as they wheel her down to theatre leaving Michelle and Peter to deal with what happened
"If she loses this baby…" Peter trails off tearfully not wanting to think about the morbid thoughts which were swimming around inside of his head, he knew it would take Carla a while to come back from this one
"We don't know if she will, they're going to do their best to save him"
"She's two and a half months early, this is such a mess, why did Rob have to cause all of this?"
"It's what he does, all the time when we were kids, he liked to cause problems but I know it sounds bad, and Carla would kill me for saying it but he won't be able to cause any problems now"
"I know, it's just, she doesn't need-"
"Mr Barlow?" a midwife appears with a smile on her face
"Are they ok?" Peter quizzes her as she smiles widely grabbing a seat from the side of the room to sit in front of both Michelle and Peter
"We delivered your son, he was crying when we delivered him, he's down in the neonatal intensive care unit, Carla's just being stitched up and will be in recovery within the next hour"
"Thank god" Peter breath's a sigh of relief along with Michelle
"We'll bring her here when her anaesthetic wears off, she'll be on a lot of pain relief so she might be a bit groggy" the midwife explains as Peter sighs again
"But the delivery went well, no complications?" Peter questions as he needed to know so he could prepare himself for something bad which might happen
"It went really well, I'll see if they're ready to bring her up yet" the midwife excuses herself back down to the recovery unit
"I can't believe he's here, this is crazy I'm a dad again" Peter laughs slightly as Michelle puts an arm around his shoulders as some doctors wheel Carla into the room
"She's very groggy and tired from the anaesthetic still but she's making good progress so far" the doctor explains as Peter nods sitting beside her bed, holding Carla's hand
"Peter" Carla whispers, her eyes fluttering open temporarily before they shut due to the harshness of the light in the room
"Hey beautiful, we have a son Car"
"Where?" she whispers glancing around the room hazily, the effect of the drugs taking a hold of her mind
"He's in the neonatal unit, he's doing really well" Peter reassures her as she smiles slightly closing her eyes and opening them again
"Go see him, he shouldn't…be alone" Carla replies quietly as Peter kisses her forehead
"I don't want to leave you though"
"I want to sleep Peter, take photos, go and see him, 'Chelle will stay wont you?"
"I can stay sweetheart if you want me to, whilst Peter goes to see the baby" Michelle smiles as Peter plants another kiss on Carla's forehead, leaving the room to go and see the baby
Peter waited in trepidation at the thought of seeing his son, he was taken to a side room, a doctor explaining how under developed his baby was and that he would need to be retained in hospital to receive treatment until he was strong enough to go home. Peter knew it would be a long road ahead for the three of them but he was determined to be there to support Carla and his son. He was led into a room with several incubators one of the nurses gesturing for him to sit down as she took the blanket off the top of the incubator which revealed his son.
"Oh wow, he's tiny" Peter gasps as the nurse smiles
"You can touch his hand if you want" the nurse gestures to the holes in the incubator, Peter putting his hand through the hole, one of his fingers resting on his son's hand
"He looks so much like Carla it's unreal, the dark hair, his lips" Peter gasps as the nurse smiles writing some things on her clipboard
"He's doing very well, as you know babies of this age can be very susceptible to infections but right now, he's pretty stable"
"Can I take photos to show to Carla later?"
"Of course, but I don't recommend flash" the nurse smiles as Peter grabs his phone to take some pictures of his son, putting his phone away, placing his hand back in the incubator to stroke his son's skin
"Me and your mummy, we're going to look after you little fella, we'll take you to school, feed you proper meals, hey I might even get your mum to go on one of those cooking courses so she can cook you proper healthy food, I don't think she would like that much though, she's not one for slaving away at a hot stove, but we'll protect you from everything"
A while later Peter headed back to Carla's room in the maternity ward, he smiled at the sight of her sitting a bit more upright and taking to Michelle, most of her olive complexion had drained due to the trauma on her body, she smiled when Peter entered the room, Michelle excusing herself to go to get a coffee so that they could both talk. Carla grasped onto Peter's hand looking for the comfort she needed given the predicament she was in.
"I have a little something you might want to see" Peter smiles stroking Carla's hair away from her face, grabbing his phone out and showing her the picture of her son, one of her hands flying up to her mouth in complete awe
"Oh my…Peter…"
"Hey don't cry, he's doing really well Car, he's a fighter" Peter smiles as Carla scrolls through the photo's of her baby Peter smiling at her doing so zooming in on them to drink in all her son's features
"He's amazing, I cant wait to see him, he even has your nose" Carla smirks as Peter grins shaking his head in amusement, Carla continuing to pinch the photo around on Peter's phone
"I reckon he has your lips and hair" Peter smiles as Carla tilts her head to the side
"I want to see him"
"We have to wait until you've healed a bit sweetheart, you've had major surgery I wouldn't want you to get worse before you've had a chance to get better"
"I guess but I seriously can't wait to feel his skin on my skin, I just want to be there watching him grow and I'm stuck here" she shrugs as Peter smiles slightly, Michelle entering the room with her coffee smiling at Carla who was looking at Peter's phone
"Did you take pictures?" Michelle beams excitedly as Carla hands the phone over to Michelle, who gasps at the pictures of Carla's son
"Oh my…he looks like you in so many ways Carla"
"You reckon? He has Peter's nose I know that" Carla grins as Peter kisses her softly on the lips
"I can't wait until I can see him-"
"Oi! I haven't even seen him yet" Carla pouts as Michelle grins handing Peter's phone back to him as Carla swipes it off him to look at the photo's again
"I think you should get some more rest because you might be able to see him sooner if you rest" Peter smiles as Carla nods slowly trying her best to shift herself down in the bed wincing in pain every now and then, Peter stroking her hair as she falls into a drug fuelled sleep, leaving Peter to think about the future in a more positive light than before, only if things could stay like that...