Carla sat motionless in her office with her head buried in her hands. Everyone in the factory knew not to bother her today so they left her well alone. She was tired, irritable and unbeknown to them she was completely unable to get Peter Barlow off of her mind.

She had stayed at Nick's last night, they had talked a little more and eventually they had gone to bed… together.

They didn't make love, both of them could tell the other was definitely not in the mood.

As Nick slept peacefully next to her Carla tossed and turned in the bed that she should have been more than used to by now. She just couldn't get the kiss with Peter out of her head and the amount of guilt that she felt was beginning to become unbearable.

Carla couldn't help but wonder why Nick hadn't noticed how distressed she was, how he hadn't woken up and asked her what's wrong. Peter would never have been able to sleep next to her when she was troubled, it was as if he had a special "Carla" radar and was always able to tell when something was wrong with her. Carla knew it wasn't fair to compare Nick to Peter but as she lay next to him all she could think of was what Peter would do if he were here instead.

Then again, if she was lying next to Peter instead of Nick, Carla thought that she would have probably still been awake only for other, more physical reasons.

Carla felt like such a terrible person for lying next to Nick and thinking of being with another man, She was beginning to hate her self and even though she eventually managed to get a couple of hours of sleep it had definitely felt like she had been up the entire night.

Eventually Carla got up at around half seven and went back to her own flat to get ready for work, She was planning to go into the factory just for the morning and then go and see Deidre afterwards. She strolled over to the café to get some breakfast because it was still early but when faced with the decision of what to eat, she just asked a coffee instead.

"Are you okay?" Roy asked Carla as she stood in front of him at the till, Carla gave him an exhausted smile and just said

"Yeah" Roy watched her for a moment with a frown.

"Why do I suspect that you are not telling me the truth?" he said Carla shrugged dejectedly, even Roy could tell when something wasn't right with her, so how come Nick couldn't?

"Let's just say it's been a rough night Roy." Carla said as he handed her, her drink

"I heard that Peter came back last night." Roy started still frowning

"He sure did" Carla said taking a sip of the coffee she had ordered.

"I do hope that your rough night was nothing to do with him." Roy said now looking concerned "I know how much he hurt you and I wouldn't want him to be consuming your thoughts again."

If only Roy Knew.

"Too late" Carla sighed and then she went to leave the café. On the way out though she bumped right into the man in question.

Peter.

"Mornin" He said and looked at her, She was dressed all in black, black top, black leather jacket, black boots and black skinny jeans. Her hair was poker straight and she looked much more like the woman he used to know, rather than this pink dress wearing girly girl that he had been with yesterday.

"Oh talk of the devil" Carla said with a slight grin, Roy was watching them from behind the counter.

"Oh dear" Peter said a little anxiously "Who you been gossiping about me with then?"

"Roy were just sayin he heard you were back" Carla said sipping some more coffee.

"Oh... So why is he looking at me like I've done something wrong then?" Peter asked as Roy continued to watch him and Carla, Carla turned to Roy and then looked back at Peter,

"Oh he's very protective of me that's all, He said he doesn't want you consuming my thoughts," Carla said Peter raised an eyebrow and looked at her curiously

"Is that so" he said with a hint of a smile, He was majorly enjoying the fact that he and Carla were slowly getting their banter back. He was desperate to find out whether she had told Nick about their kiss or not, But judging by the fact that he had just passed Nick this morning and Nick had just nodded at him as normal, Peter was willing to bet that Carla hadn't told him after all.

"So... How did you sleep last night then?" she asked because she was intrigued to find out if Peter was kept awake too.

"Terrible n ya self?"

"Oh it were terrible an all" Carla said and she looked down at her watch "Listen I've got to run but are you going to the hospital later?" Peter nodded

"Yeah, me Dad & Tracy are over there right now, I'm gonna go for about one"

"So… can a girl hitch a lift or..." Carla said a little apprehensively,

"Oh right… Sure, I'll pick you up at half twelve yeah?" Peter said, Carla nodded at him and said

"See ya then."

Carla went to work with the notion of getting a lot done so that she could spend the afternoon down the hospital with Deirdre without having to worry about getting behind. It was just a shame that her mind was clearly somewhere else for most of the morning. She walked into the factory to find that everyone had suddenly stopped talking as soon as they saw her. It was painfully obviously that they had been talking about her and Peter's reunion, especially as most of them were in the pub last night. Alya swallowed hard and was the only one brave enough to ask

"Is everything alright Mrs Connor?"

"It will be, if you lot stop gassing and get back to stitchin knickers, That is what I pay you for after all" Carla said briskly and she went into her office.

Half twelve seemed to come around so slowly but eventually Carla got up and told everyone that she would be out for the rest of the afternoon. She hoped that the car journey to the hospital wouldn't be as bad as the previous ones they had taken and waited anxiously outside for Peter to arrive.

Only he didn't.

It got to quarter to one when Carla sighed and pulled out her mobile phone. She called Peter and it went straight to voicemail

"Hi Peter's it's Carla. I was just wondering what time you were plannin on picking me up... Or I dunno maybe you've forgotten... Just gimme a call yeah."

Carla hung up and was about to go and get her own car when she saw Tracy and Ken walk very slowly towards their house.

From a distance they looked rather normal but as Carla got closer to them she could see that they were both distraught. In fact distraught couldn't even describe the way that Ken and Tracy looked.

They were both, obviously completely and utterly heart broken.

Their eyes were red, skin pale, the colour in their faces drained and Carla only had to look at the amount of grief in Ken's eyes to find out what was wrong.

"No…" Carla breathed, tears were stinging behind her eyes as she stared ahead at Ken and Tracy. "No" She said again, Shaking her head as tears began streaming down her cheeks.

"It happened this morning, before me and Tracy got there… we were too late." Ken said, he was so grief stricken that Deirdre had passed away alone and he wasn't there during her last moments that he was barley unable to speak. Carla still couldn't believe what he was saying and shook her head again, still in complete denial.

"But she...was doing so well last night." Carla said Tracy nodded, her own eyes spilling with tears. "I am so sorry" Carla then said as Tracy threw herself at Ken who was also overcome with tears. Carla wiped her nose and her eyes, not knowing what to say or what to do.

The three of them stood there, in their own little circle of mourning. Passers by knew something must be wrong but left them all too it as no one was brave enough to disturb them. After a few more whimpers and sorrowful sobs, Ken looked at Carla and asked

"Where's Peter?" Carla shrugged and sniffed at him, "He didn't tell you then?" Carla shook her head at Ken forlornly and said

"No he didn't." Ken's remorse soon turned into agitation and Carla knew exactly what this look meant, it was a look she had seen on Ken's face many times before where Peter was concerned.

"I thought he might have been with you, I called him about an hour ago and told him what had happened… I asked him to tell you, so you haven't seen him this afternoon then?" Ken said sniffing hard, Carla shook her head again

"Not since breakfast, he said he were gonna drive me to the hospital, I was just waiting for him to pick me up when I saw you both." Ken fumbled in his pocket as Tracy stood crying next to him.

"He said he felt guilty, guilty for not being there." Ken said pulling out keys ad opening the door to his house frantically. He stumbled inside it and Tracy and Carla followed him in as he called out

"Peter!"

"Peter are you here?"

When there was no answer, Ken looked around hopelessly and started crying again. Carla could tell what Ken was thinking, it was the exact same thing that she was thinking.

Peter was obviously devastated about Deirdre as well, he still wasn't answering his phone and was nowhere to be seen.

There were only a couple of things that Peter would choose turn to when feeling upset or mad and as most of those things were people who were stood in the back room of number one. Carla knew that the only other thing that Peter could have gone to was not a person and it came in a glass bottle.

Ken tried to call Peter once more but his phone went to voicemail again and Carla watched as Ken left a heart wrenching message on Peter's phone.

"Peter, please come home. Please… we really need you here." He said sadly and then he hung up "Oh where is he?" He asked looking at Carla pained, She shrugged her shoulders still trying to get over the shock of Deirdre's death.

"I...don't know." She said as Tracy sat at the table and cried.

"How could he do this?" she asked sniffing, thinking about how ill Peter had become the last time he had drunk. She imagined losing him as well as her Mum and started crying inconsolably again "How could he not be here?"

"I hate to think what he is doing right now." Ken said breathing heavily with tears still spilling down his cheeks. Carla gazed between the two of them, She felt totally useless and hated Peter for not being there.

Where the hell was he?

Carla could see how distressed Ken and Tracy were and how much they desperately needed Peter and as they both cried into each others arms, Carla decided she had to do something, anything to try and help.

"Let's not panic, He might just be somewhere that doesn't ave any signal" Carla said bravely although she knew that the chances of that were slim.

She had no idea where Peter could be but she definitely had an idea of what he could be doing.

"Why don't I ave a quick look around for him?" Carla suggested

"Would you?" Ken said looking up at her with a small glint of hope appearing on his gaunt face, Carla nodded slowly

"Of course I will, He's probably closer than we think n I'll let you know when I find him" She said and she gave Ken a quick hug and made her way out of number one.

The minute she stepped foot outside she started crying hysterically, she had been trying so hard to keep strong for Ken and Tracy's sake but now she was outside she felt it was okay to have a little breakdown. She took her phone out of her bag again and dialled Peter's number, She still remembered it off by heart although her fingers stumbled as she typed it into her phone.

The message tone started playing again and Carla almost felt like throwing her phone down the street in frustration.

"Peter..." She sobbed "Peter please your family need you, please just answer your phone." She said after the message tone beeped.

Carla didn't even know where to begin looking for Peter so she decided to try the pub first, he could be in there, even though she knew no one in there would serve him any alcohol. The pub was fairly empty and it was clear that Peter wasn't in there, Michelle who was stood behind the bar took one look at her distraught best friend

"Carla what's wrong?" She asked, Carla just shook her head at Michelle in despair

"I'm sorry Chelle, I just aven't got time for this." She said and quickly left the pub. She scanned the street and had no idea where to go next, the bistro wouldn't be open yet and none of the local shops would serve Peter either.

Carla went over to where her car was parked and got inside it, She didn't know where she was going all she knew was that she had to find Peter and fast. Just as she started the ignition Nick had come out of nowhere, he looked at Carla through her windscreen window. He saw her smudged eyeliner and her tear stained face.

He saw the look of absolutely agony on her face and said

"Carla?"

Carla knew it was the wrong thing to do but her foot hit the clutch and she found herself driving away from her boyfriend. She left him there...again.

She left him wondering where on earth she was going and she didn't even care.

She didn't have time to feel guilty about Nick, all she wanted to do was to find Peter… find Peter before it was too late.