Carla had been driving aimlessly around town for almost two hours now and she still hadn't found Peter.
She had been to all the obvious places that an alcoholic might go, the local bars and pubs. She even went to the local shopping centre and had a quick scan, in the hope that Peter might at least be in there, but he wasn't.
Carla didn't know where else to look and was beginning to think that maybe he was closer to home than they might have thought.
She thought about Tracy and Ken sitting there at home, they were already full of so much grief and sorrow, they really didn't need Peter going missing on their minds.
She had promised them both that she would find him but as it got to almost three o clock, Carla knew that she was running out of ideas.
She drove back to Coronation Street, hating herself for making a promise that she so obviously hadn't kept. She parked her car and walked anxiously over to number one and as she knocked on the door, she prayed that Peter had returned home.
Ken opened the door with a hopeful look on his face but he was dejected when he saw that Carla was stood there instead of his son.
Carla went inside and explained that she had looked everywhere she could think of but that she still couldn't seem to find Peter. Tracy and Ken both didn't seem too surprised that Peter hadn't been found and this made Carla feel absolutely awful.
Tracy looked at the clock and realised the time, she needed to pick up Amy from school any minute now.
Carla had offered to go and get Amy for Tracy but she said that she wanted to do it herself and Ken said that he would like go with her.
They gathered up their jackets but before leaving, Ken looked at Carla.
"I know this is a lot to ask Carla but will you stay here please? You know just in case…" he asked anguished Carla found herself nodding before she could even process what Ken had just asked her and before she knew it she was sat in the Barlow's back room alone.
Carla's mind wondered back to last night and how Deirdre truly seemed to be on the mend. She remembered how much they had all been laughing the night away and how that they were all so unaware that Deirdre was hours from death.
Carla remembered how Deirdre had smiled at her so cheekily and how Deirdre had said that she thought that Carla and Peter still made an amazing couple.
Deirdre even said that she thought Carla still had feelings for Peter.
Could Deirdre be right? Did Carla really still feel something for Peter ? Or did she just mistake old feelings for current ones ?
Carla knew that she had been thinking about Peter way too much over the past day.
Carla also knew that her and Peter's stolen kiss had been a feeling that she just couldn't seem get rid of but she didn't know just what it was that made Deirdre so sure that she still had feelings for Peter.
Obviously Carla couldn't find out what Deirdre meant... and it wasn't as if Carla could go and tell Deirdre that she was right... that she so obviously still had feelings for Peter, feelings that were getting increasingly harder to ignore.
It wasn't long before Carla was back in tears.
She sobbed hysterically as she sat alone the back room, the very same back room where she had spent many nights cuddled up to Peter on the sofa with his parents in tow. They would all be forced to watch some mundane show that Ken had chosen but it didn't matter because even during the most boring show, Carla and Peter could occupy themselves just by being sat in each others arms. Carla thought about the dodgy dinners that Deirdre would cook afterwards and how they would all try and not eat too much of one, as it could have horrible consequences the next day.
Carla would have given anything for another one of those questionable casseroles of Deirdre's.
Carla was still in tears moments later, when she heard the front door open suddenly.
So suddenly that it made her jump right out of her seat. The door then closed and footsteps came pounding down the hallway.
It was Peter.
He was home.
He sighed heavily when he saw that Carla was sat there.
"What are you doing ere?" Peter asked sharply. Carla did a double take and for a moment was utterly speechless because Peter was the one who was acting like he was angry.
He was angry when he was the one who had gone missing.
He was angry when he was the one who wasn't answering his phone.
He was the one who had put his family through hell over the past few hours and he had the absolute nerve to be annoyed at her.
"Carla I said What are you doing ere?" Peter's tone of voice made Carla finally see sense and start talking again.
"Your Dad asked me to wait here."
"Why?" Peter asked infuriatingly, trying very hard to not show Carla that he was secretly grateful that she had been there to wait for him, although he realised that if she knew what he was holding, she would go absolutely ballistic.
"Why on earth d'ya think? Where the hell have you been?" Carla asked as she watched Peter carefully, she observed his behaviour to see if had been drinking, He seemed completely sober but Carla couldn't be sure because he was shaking slightly.
"Out" Peter said gruffly, he didn't want Carla there, he didn't want her there because he didn't want her to see him cry and he definitely didn't want her to see what he was carrying.
"Out?" Carla said "Well that's rather vague, d'ya care to explain where?"
"Not really no" Peter said, "I don't ave to explain anything to you." He said clutching a black carrier bag, a bag with something very dangerous inside.
He had to get Carla out and fast.
Carla spotted the carrier bag and inhaled nervously.
"What's in the bag?" She asked exasperated, she moved closer to Peter but he made sure he kept hold of the bag tightly.
"Carla this is nothing to do with you, so why don't you go off and worry about your new fella eh? Where is he anyway? Is he with the other one?"
"Other who?" Carla asked
"The mother of his unborn child" Peter said scornfully. He was trying to get Carla angry, trying to make her upset, to get her to leave so he could be alone, so that he could get rid of the bag and so that she wouldn't hate him anymore than she already did. "Y'know Carla I really thought you were smarter than to get with a man who's got a baby on the way."
"Oh... I'm not so smart Peter, I mean I got with you didn't i?" Carla replied bitterly.
"Yeah and you'd think you would ave learned from your mistakes." Peter said shaking his head at her in a way which Carla found very unpleasant.
"Don't think I don't know what you're trying to do, you're trying to make me wanna leave. Well it's not gonna work Peter." Carla then leant forward and quickly snatched the bag off of Peter. He had tried to stop her from seeing what was inside it but it was too late.
She stared down into the plastic bag, down at the bottle of whiskey that was in there. She was furious but she was also relived that by some miracle, the large glass bottle was still fully sealed.
"So this is where you were?" Carla said remaining calm although she was beginning to lose all patience with Peter, especially when he just shrugged at her.
"Yeah" he said as if he couldn't care less. Carla felt a wave of pure hatred run through her veins as Peter stood before her like that. He could tell Carla was on the verge of an outburst and practically on cue, she lunged violently towards him.
"How could you be so flamin selfish?" She cried lashing out, hitting him hard on the arm with her free hand.
"Carla please" Peter cried trying to avoid her slaps, I'm sorry" Peter said pitifully
"Don't you dare say you're sorry" Carla cried as he looked at her helplessly, "Sorry's not gonna change the fact that instead of being ere with your family when they needed you, you were out purchasing a bottle of booze!" She shook her head at him in disbelief and pulled the whiskey out of the carrier bag.
Peter looked helplessly at it, as if it were the answer to all of his problems and then he looked back at Carla "I aven't had any… not yet" He said pathetically.
"Not yet?" Carla exclaimed and she shook her head in despair again, she was barley able to stand upright. Her whole body was trembling, she was that angry. She couldn't believe that after months of happiness with Nick she was back in this situation.
Carla looked darkly, down at the poisonous brown liquid and then at Peter, who was a shadow of the man she had spoken to this morning.
"Go on then" She said holding the bottle of drink out in front of him, Peter lingered for a moment not sure what Carla was actually doing. "Is this really what you want?" She asked, her voice remaining strong but her face struggling to keep its composure.
Peter moved closer to her, as if he were going to take the bottle off of her but she stepped back so it was just out of his reach. Carla shook her head, completely and utterly disappointed in Peter.
"Really Peter? You really want to drink this horrible stuff, You want to risk putting your self back into hospital, You want to risk dying and leaving your Dad not only without his wife but without his son as well… you want Simon to lose his Dad? Is that what you really want?" Carla cried loudly, her green eyes were flooded with tears, her voice no longer strong.
"Of course not!" Peter cried with tears spilling down his cheeks. "I just didn't know what else to do…" Peter couldn't stand up any longer, his body couldn't take it anymore and he fell down, onto his knees. Carla put the bottle of drink down on the table and moved closer to him.
"Peter… no one knows what to do..." She said softly "We're all in the same boat ere, Your Dad and Tracy are feeling just as heartbroken as you are… we all need you to be strong."
"Why do I ave to be the strong one?" He sobbed as Carla got down on her knees too, so that she was down at his eye level.
"Because if you don't… everything and everyone that you care about will fall apart." Carla sniffed "Think about Simon, he's gonna need you now more than ever." Carla imagined that Simon was probably on his way home from high school right now, none the wiser to what was happening within his family.
"This is the last thing I want y'know" Peter sobbed "I really really don't want to drink again, I really don't… I've been sober since I left prison… it's actually been a year this week."
"See, Peter that's amazing" Carla said giving Peter a timid smile, She was trying to find some sort of happiness in this horrific situation. "Don't let this ruin it for you. A year sober, that is something you should be mighty proud of Peter." Carla said holding on to one of his hands absent-mindedly.
Peter nodded at her appreciatively. He had been feeling proud, proud that he had made it this far and proud that he really seemed to have a hold on his new life in Portsmouth. Although as he sat grievously on his Dad's back room floor with Carla, his new life seemed as if it was light years away.
"I was proud" Peter said "I was actually going to tell you about it last night, when I came to the pub. I wanted you to know that I've changed and that I've never felt better but I guess everything changed when I saw you with Nick and now look at me eh?"
"Don't you do that!" Carla said "Don't you sit there n feel sorry for yourself Peter. Yes, you have had some earth shattering news and its totally understandable for you to have the urge to reach for the bottle, but you cannot let this beat you. I know that you're stronger than this Peter."
It was completely silent.
It was completely silent for a few minutes. Carla and Peter both stayed sitting on their knees opposite each other, Carla looking down at her hands, Peter watching her in awe. He was still unable to believe just how supportive she was being during all of this, She could have just walked away and left him to it.. but she didn't. She kind of intimidated him as she sat there and she wasn't even looking at him.
"I am stronger than this Carla." Peter said determinedly. Carla looked up at him and nodded calmly.
"Right then" She said reaching over to the table and picking up the bottle of Jack Daniels. Peter watched her as she brought it over to him, she picked and pulled at the plastic seal, opening the bottle right there in front of him.
"What are you doing?" Peter asked helplessly, watching her as she took the lid off the bottle, her hand was shaking so much and he could tell that even she wasn't sure about what she was doing.
"Get rid of it Peter" Carla said nervously nodding towards the sink in his kitchen.
"No… you do it" Peter said terrified, shuddering at the thought of even coming close to the tempting brown liquid.
"If you're really stronger than this... If you really want to feel like you've beaten this feeling..." Carla started, her green eyes were staring intensely into Peter's brown ones "Then you have to do this Peter... it has to be you who gets rid of it."
Peter took a deep breath, he knew that Carla was right and that she was genuinely trying to help him. He got up off of the floor clumsily, followed by Carla. She was still holding on to the glass bottle of whisky and as he held out his hand to take it from her, she could see that it was shaking tremendously.
"You can do this Peter... I know you can do this." Carla said encouragingly as Peter gently took the bottle of the demon drink from out of her hands. He walked over to the sink slowly and took another deep breath.
He slowly tipped the bottle upside down, over the sink and let the whiskey stream out of it.
It probably only took a few seconds for the bottle to become more than half empty but it felt more like hours for Peter and the more of the strong smelling liquid came out, the more torturous it felt but eventually the bottle was almost empty.
Carla watched as Peter bravely shook the bottle and as that last lingering bit of whisky disappeared down the plughole, Peter practically threw the bottle down into the sink and backed away from it, breathing rigidly. He turned around to look at Carla who's breathing had also increased after watching Peter's ordeal
They were both so relieved that the alcohol was now gone, so overwhelmed with emotions, that the only thing that either of them could do, was to crash right into each others arms and stay there.