If Carla hadn't of been so worried about Simon she probably would have swung for Nick Tilsley by now.

How could someone she thought she had been so close to, be such a stranger now?

Carla knew that having Peter around threatened Nick but for him to have actually tried to keep the fact that Simon hadn't gone to or returned home from school a secret from her, Well Carla thought that Nick had really crossed the line this time.

Nick had moped off in the end and said he was going to check that Leanne was okay, he'd left Carla alone to speak to Peter on the phone.

"Hello, Peter…" Carla said unlocking her car as she spoke and getting into it.

"Hey…" Peter said into her phone, "I take it Nick's told you about Si…" he said.

"Yeah… well no actually, Leanne told me but that's another story for another time." Carla began, She didn't want to talk about Nick right now, especially not with Peter.

"Look Carla I don't mean to be rude it's just I really want to get on with looking for Si…"

"Yeah I know, Peter that's why I'm calling you, I wanted to help."

"Carla… you've done enough…"

"Peter you should know by now that I'm not gonna take no for an answer so come on, tell me the places you've been or that your going to go to, so that I don't waste time in going to them too." Carla said because she knew that Peter was clearly about to talk her into staying put. He sighed into the phone and said

"I've just been down the Red Rec and had a look, he's not ere… I'm gonna drive to that skate park he likes hanging around in and maybe the Trafford centre…"

"Well how about I try all of the other parks and stuff?" Carla suggested,

"Yeah… you could do…" Peter said, "Thanks Carla, you honestly are an angel." Carla smiled to herself as he'd said it, She had felt really awkward when Ken had called her Angel last night but it was fast becoming her and Peter's private joke.

"Just try not to worry too much about Simon okay?" She said, "I know it sounds ridiculous but you get what I mean."

"Yeah… I do, I don't think anything too serious has happened to him, I'm hoping this is just his way of dealing with everything that's happened recently." Peter said to Carla before they said their goodbyes.

Carla drove to the local playground first but of course Simon wasn't there. In fact everywhere she went Simon was nowhere to be seen and after driving aimlessly for almost an hour, Carla parked her car on the side of a road and took a minute to calm herself down because she was starting to panic. She knew that Peter was right, Simon was probably safe and that he was probably bunking off of school because he had regretted going in at the last minute but there was always that small and scary chance that something more sinister might have happened.

Carla was about to call Leanne and ask her if there was any where else that Simon might have been, when she thought she saw something familiar out of the corner of her eye. She did a double take and looked again and she was sure that she had seen a flash of blue bike wheels, ones very similar to the bike that Simon had. She leant out of the window to take a better look but the bike was already almost up the road and then it disappeared into another, bigger park, one that Carla had parked near to but not checked yet.

Could it be Simon?

Carla was almost sure that it was him who had just sped past her, She obviously couldn't drive into the park, so she got out of her car and quickly made her way towards it.

She knew it was a long shot and that Simon was obviously a lot faster than her on his bike but she still walked into the park anyway and began scanning the entire area for those familiar bright blue wheels.

The park was very muddy due to the heavy rain they had had earlier on that day and normally Carla would have been peeved to see that her heels had gotten ruined but she wasn't even thinking about her shoes as she trudged through the grass and towards the playground, all she was thinking about was Simon.

She was hoping that she could maybe ask someone if they had seen a teenage boy go past on a blue bike but as she got closer she saw a bike exactly like Simon's chained to the gate of the playground.

She looked hopefully into it and there, sat miserably on a swing, was Simon.

Carla took a deep sigh of relief as she opened the metal gate and strolled into the playground towards Simon. He was staring down at his feet as Carla walked past him and sat on the swing next door. She didn't say anything at first so he hadn't actually noticed that she was sat there, not until she said,

"I would ave thought you were too old for the swings these days." Simon looked up at the sound of her voice, His eyes were red, his eyelashes spiky, he'd obviously been crying a hell of a lot but he had a sad smile when he saw that Carla was sat next to him, he sniffed and said,

"You're never too old for the swings." Carla smiled back at him and nodded

"I'll deny I ever said this… but I totally agree with ya there." She leant back and began swinging back and forth on the swings for a bit. Simon watched her, wondering why she hadn't read him the riot act for not going to school today, he wondered if maybe she didn't know that he had bunked off today but then he realised that she had to have known, otherwise she wouldn't have been wondering around the local park, Simon knew that Carla was obviously looking for him.

The playground was rather empty, apart from Carla and Simon, there was two little girls whizzing around on the roundabout with their mother keeping an eye on them near by.

"So how did ya find me?" Simon asked watching Carla as she continued to swing back and forth.

"Find you? Nah this is just coincidence, I always come ere for a little swing after work." She grinned.

"Seriously?" Simon said with a raised eyebrow. Carla stopped swinging and shook her head softly.

"You rode past me, I were parked up the road trying to think of where to look for you next… Me and Your Dad have been driving all over the place."

"I'm sorry, I was going to go to school, I didn't plan any of this but when I got there I just couldn't"

"Stop right there Si…" Carla interrupted "You're not in any trouble okay, no one is going blames you for not going into school today, it's totally understandable that you changed your mind, we were just worried that's all."

"I'm still sorry though, I mean the last thing my Granddad and everyone needs is all of this." Simon said glumly, he was thinking about Ken and how worried he probably was that he had not come home from school.

"Well ya Granddad knows nothing about this yet, so ya don't have to worry about any of that." Carla said, not wanting Simon to feel any worse than he already did about the situation. She paused for a while and then asked him "So… Since you weren't at school today, what ave you done with your self instead?"

"Nothing really… I was at the shops earlier but than this police man asked me why I weren't at school, so I had to say I had a dentist appointment and that I was going back to school, I didn't want anymore of em asking me so I thought I should get off the streets, I went to…" Simon stopped talking and looked back down at his feet again.

"Where d'ya go then Si?" Carla asked

"I went to Tina's grave." He said quietly. Carla nodded slowly, knowing that Simon was clearly afraid of mentioning Tina's name to her after everything that had happened. "I don't know why, I just did I sat there for a bit and then I went to see Nana Blanche, I stayed there for a bit too but then I imagined what she would ave said if she'd of known that I was bunking off school and I got scared." Simon said with a hint of a smirk. Carla grinned too remembering just how nosy and interfering Blanche used to be.

"Well I reckon on a normal day she would probably ave had a lot to say about you skiving n she'd probably blame it on your Mum or something but you know what Si… I bet she's far too busy up there, aving a whale of a time with your Grandma Deirdre instead." Carla said, looking up at the sky with a bittersweet smile.

"Oh yeah… I guess I never thought of it that way." Simon said smiling too. He and Carla sat in silence for a while, both of them swinging back and forth companionably.

Simon would normally have run a mile from spending too much time alone with Carla but there was something in the way she had spoken to him, something in the way that instead of having a go at him, she just sat next to him and spoke to him like an adult, not many people treated him that way and it made Simon feel that little more grown up. He also felt as if Carla truly seemed to understand how he was feeling about loosing Deirdre and that she wouldn't judge him either.

"Carla..." Simon said quietly

"Yes..."

"Y'know you said my Granddad doesn't know about me not going to school… who does know about it then?"

"Me, Your Dad, Your Mum and Nick." Carla replied, Simon frowned at the mention of Nick's name "What?" Carla said watching Simon's expression.

"Nothing…" Simon said but Carla persisted because she was far too intrigued to let the look on Simon's face slide.

"No go on Si…"

"Well I really like Nick n all but… he's not my Dad..." Simon started,

"Right…" Carla said not quite understanding what Simon meant.

"I… just think that everything that is happening at the moment is all wrong."

"What d'ya mean exactly?" Carla asked but she now knew what Simon was getting at by the awkward look on his face.

"I mean he's having a baby with that Erica woman and he's with you but he…" Simon then stopped talking, there was something he had been noticing for a while now but he wasn't sure if it was something that he should really mention to Carla.

"What Simon?"

"I just think that you should be with my Dad that's all." Simon said, changing tack slightly. He watched Carla as she looked down at her muddy shoes.

"Simon…" She started but she just didn't know what to say.

She couldn't admit to Simon that she had been starting to think the same as him all afternoon, after everything she couldn't admit that Simon and she didn't think it was fair to do that before really admitting it to herself or Nick.

"If me Dad hadn't of done what he did with Tina… then you'd both still be together right?" Simon asked Carla with no hesitation this time. Carla shrugged at him although she knew that if it had of been her choice, she would definitely still be with Peter right now and they would have probably had their baby safely. "I think you would ave… It's just a shame that's all." Simon said sadly.

"It sure is…" Carla sighed, "but y'know what Si? I think that sometimes in life we just ave to move on because if we don't… then we will end up miserable and alone." The last part of her sentence suddenly made Carla think… did she get with Nick because she truly thought it would go somewhere or because she just didn't want to be alone? Carla couldn't be sure which one was the truth as Simon began talking again.

"Me Dad hasn't moved on… I watched you both when you were at me Granddad's last night. I saw the way he looked at you… it were like he still loves you." Simon said still watching Carla's every move and reaction to what he was saying.

He didn't know much about love, about the real adult kind of love that he saw in the movies and that he'd read about in books but he was pretty sure that Carla and his Dad were still madly in it and that they were just fooling themselves when they tried to act otherwise.

"Y'know… I didn't realise you were such an expert on love…" Carla said nudging Simon softly in the side,

"I see the way you look at him too…" Simon continued, "I saw the way that you hugged each other on the doorstep last night and I see the look on your face right now when we talk about him, I know what that look means Carla."

"Oh really, and what does the look I ave on my face now mean?" Carla asked, with an eyebrow now raised at how bold Simon was being with her. He gave her half a smirk and then said

"It says that I should probably shut up and stop making you feel so uncomfortable, right?" Carla laughed and shook her head.

"Almost… I mean I don't want you to shut up but you're definitely making me feel a bit on the uncomfortable side." She said, she really wanted to get off of the subject of her shattered relationship with Peter though so she got up off the swing and asked, "Now d'ya reckon that we should maybe go back home and let your Mum and Dad know that you're fine?" Simon nodded and got off of the swing also. Carla put an arm around him as they walked towards the exit of the playground.

"I'm gonna be in so much trouble aren't I?" Simon moaned, as they left the playground.

"No you're not, as I said your parents are just worried about you that's all, They'll be so made up when they see ya, that they'll forget all about any punishments that they might ave been considering... although I think I'm gonna have to think of a way to get you back, I mean look at what trudging through this horrible park has done to me boots." Carla said pointing down at her muddy shoes. Simon laughed guiltily as he un-chained his bike from the railing that he'd left it at.

"I could save up and buy you a new pair."

"Oh you'd ave to save up for a long flamin time." Carla said with a grin, as they shoes she had on her feet were her second most expensive pair.

"Or I could clean them for you… if you want?" He suggested but Carla shook her head fondly.

"Nah you're alright Si, besides they'll pretty much be done for by the time I get back across this mucky field." She said with a little sigh. Simon who still felt guilty looked at his bike and then back at Carla.

"D'ya wanna ride my bike instead?" He offered, he was being serious but Carla actually cackled with laughter at him and shook her head at the thought of her riding his bike. "Hey I'm being serious… you could at least hop on the back instead." He said pointing at the pegs that he'd recently had installed on the back of his bike. They were for doing tricks but he'd often give his friends lifts on them from time to time.

Carla looked down at them apprehensively and then at the muddy field, she thought that she just might just be able to save her shoes if they didn't get anymore dirty, so in the end she gave in and nodded at Simon's suggestion.

"Are these things safe?" She asked as she stood on the two small bars that came out either side of Simon's rear wheel.

"They're fine, me mates always hop on the back." He nodded as she held on to his shoulders and began to cycle away from the playground. As they left the park Carla had expected Simon to stop and let her off but he insisted on taking her right over to where she had parked her car.

"Cheers Si." Carla said as she hopped off the back of his bike. She watched him for a moment and he knew what she was thinking.

"It's fine, I will follow your car home… I'm not gonna cycle away or out." He said truthfully, Carla gave him a knowing smile and said

"Good because you owe me a pair of clean shoes and If I ave to hunt you down to get em I will." She smirked before unlocking her car and getting in. Simon waited for her to drive first and then rode alongside her as best as he could, he was very nervous about going back home but as he stopped at a traffic light next to Carla's Car, and as she smiled warmly at him through the window, he knew that maybe things weren't going to be so bad after all.