So… Carla and Peter had decided that just for now… they would be friends.
Carla had decided that Peter needed someone other than his immediate family to lean on and Peter had decided that he wasn't in a fit state to be anyone's boyfriend at the moment.
They had both taken that very short walk to see Ken that afternoon and the moment Carla had stepped foot into his living room and seen him… She burst into tears.
It shocked Peter as she had been so calm before hand and it made Ken shake his head in confusion.
"I err.. told her… everything." Peter said hoarsely, tears poured down Carla's face as she approached Ken, she wanted to throw her arms around him but it was almost as if was scared.
She was scared because now, when she looked at Ken, he was no longer the resilient man she used to know, he was now someone who was very very ill.
Carla knew it was ridiculous but she truly felt as if an action, so simple and so tender as a hug would somehow hurt him.
"Ken…" She sniffed, thinking about how many times she had seen him lately and how she had pretty much just passed him by.
How she hadn't paid him hardly any attention because she was too busy being selfish.
She was too busy wrapped up in losing the affections of his son to notice how different he looked but now… now she was looking at him with her eyes wide open and it was clear that the cancer was really beginning to take it's toll.
"Don't cry…" Ken said, raising his arms for a hug as if she was the terminally ill one.
"I'm so sorry..." Carla sobbed, holding Ken close and kissing him on the cheek softly.
He had always been the best father in law that she'd had and as she put her arms around him she could tell how much weight he had lost.
She must have gasped or something because Ken shook his head again and said,
"I'm alright."
"No... you're not." Carla cried.
To the untrained eye, Ken still looked like his normal self but to those very few people who knew what he was going through, they could see it all.
When Carla looked into his eyes she saw that he had lost a little bit of his sparkle and when she sat down next to him, she felt how secretly scared he was.
It was just the little things that told her that he was frightened.
It was in the way he would let out a very quick and very little laugh at the end of each sentence, it wasn't a happy laugh, it wasn't one that you could get joy from… it was a nervous one.
It was also in the way that he would blink a lot and flinch ever so slightly when ever the words cancer, chemotherapy or hospital was mentioned… yes these were the things that showed Carla that Ken wasn't as brave as he had first made out and that he really was terrified about the next six weeks of his life.
He hid it well though.
He smiled and he acted as if his illness was nothing, just like Peter had said he had been doing before.
"I'm gonna be here…" Carla nodded assuringly with a tear running down her cheek as she spoke. Ken was about to shake his head and say something but Carla spoke again. "I'm gonna be here for all of you… I'm gonna come to the hospital… I want to help... I want to support you..."
"You really don't have to do that Carla." said Ken, smiling at her admiringly and then looking at Peter who had sat down next to Carla a while ago now, he was watching her in awe, amazed that after everything, after all the lies and the way he treated her that she could still be so selfless.
"Yes I do… I want to…" She said, reaching out and taking hold of Ken's hand, which he'd rested on the table. "I promise you… anything you need… I'll be there."
Carla kept her promise.
She made sure that she was there.
When ever Peter or any of the other Barlow's needed her for that matter.
It took a little time for them to realise that Carla was being one hundred per cent true to her word of course.
They knew how heartfelt her words were and how much she had meant them but what they didn't know was that she was completely intent on being there for every little thing.
It took them a while to gather up the strength to ask her for even the simplest things but they soon learned that Carla was not going anywhere.
The next time Ken was scheduled for his chemo she was there.
She was sat in the chair next to him and Peter who had also come along too.
She had brought some playing cards along with her and the three of them played a lot of very highly competitive games of snap to pass the time and even though he had a toxic drug working it's way through his system, Ken said it had been ages since he'd had so much fun.
Tracy hadn't gathered up the courage to go yet.
She made up some story about having a cold and that her going to the hospital wouldn't be a good idea but Ken, Peter and Carla all knew that she was making it all up.
They all knew that Tracy was totally avoiding the hospital and at the beginning, they just left her too it.
Carla was sure that Tracy just needed her own time to deal with her Dad's illness and that she would maybe come along to the hospital the next time but she didn't.
Instead there was Amy's "dentist" appointment.
There was another phantom cold, which had seemed to appear from nowhere.
Then there was the fact that there was no one to cover her shift in Barlow's buys.
There seemed to be an endless amount of reasons why Tracy avoided the hospital and as time went by, It became very clear to Carla that Ken really wanted Tracy by his side.
He was scheduled to have six weekly sessions of chemotherapy and he'd already done four of them without his daughter there.
Of course, Ken didn't act like it bothered him too much, he continued to smile until it physically hurt and it also pained Carla and Peter to know that they he desperately wanted Tracy there.
It wasn't easy.
In fact it had been downright difficult but eventually… Carla had managed to coerce Tracy to take the leap and come to the hospital.
She'd pretty much had enough of Tracy's excuses and had confronted her on it one morning when Ken was due to have his next load of treatment.
She cornered her outside Number one that very cold morning and had asked her why she wasn't on her way to the hospital with her brother and Dad.
Tracy said she would be going next week and that she couldn't possibly go today because she had to go and get a "sick" Amy from school… but Carla wasn't having any of it.
They argued for a little while, people were around but they weren't really listening at first because they just assumed that Carla and Tracy were just having one of their ridiculous little spats… those people passing by, didn't think it was any thing serious so they just continued with their day.
"Oh just leave me alone will ya Carla." Tracy eventually said, waving Carla off and hoping that she would go.
"No!" Carla cried, "I will not leave ya alone!." They were walking down Coronation Street at the time and now... well now they had many many spectators to their heated exchange.
People knew this wasn't something petty anymore because Tracy... Yes Tracy Barlow was in floods of uncontrollable tears.
She looked utterly distraught… vulnerable in fact and that was a look that people weren't used to seeing on Tracy.
Carla suddenly felt really bad for bringing this discussion to the street and as people still didn't know about Ken, She dragged Tracy away from prying eyes.
She pulled her down the ginnel, the very same place that she and Peter had hidden their affair from everyone and took a deep breath before saying,
"Tracy… I won't try to imagine what you are going through right now… You're Dad is sick… and I'm guessing that you're probably scared, shitless… but so is Peter and so is your Dad… Imagine how he's feeling right now? His entire body has been taken over by this horrible disease, it's eating away at him Trace…"
"What and you don't think I know that?" Tracy sniffed, "It's all I think about… He's Me Dad Carla… He's the best man I've ever known… I don't want to see him hooked up to some machine… I can't… I'm not strong enough."
"He doesn't need you to be strong Tracy… He just needs you… there… That's all he wants, to see his daughter by his side." Carla said softly. "I'm on my way there… please Trace… please come with me… he only has two more sessions left… imagine how you're going to feel knowing that you weren't at any of them… Please… come with me?"
"I don't..." Tracy began but she knew that Carla was right.
As much as she hated to admit it... Carla was right so she ended up going with her to the hospital.
When Ken looked up from his chair a little while later and saw Tracy shuffle through the doors to the treatment room, he smiled at her so lovingly and so warmly that she had forgotten how scared she was.
She sat down on the chair next to him and she took hold of his hand.
She made sure that she kissed him on the head and that showed him how much she loved him.
Peter looked totally amazed to see his sister in the hospital room and as he walked over to Carla, he asked her how she did it but she just gave him a knowing smile and said,
"I told ya didn't I… anything you lot need I'm ere."
Now let's go back to Carla and Peter being "just friends" shall we?
Well obviously they found it incredibly hard but at first they were actually naive enough to believe that their relationship could be a strictly platonic one.
They were naive enough to think that the lingering looks could be ignored... that the sexual tension they could feel whenever they were alone together could be defused without them actually having to give in to their desires.
Desire is like hunger and sooner or later Carla and Peter both knew that their hunger for each other was going to have to be fed.
Word about what had happened with Nick that at the pub had spread like wild fire.
Everyone knew he'd proposed and everyone knew that he had been interrupted by Peter... his arch enemy... his love rival.
Carla had tried to talk to Nick alone on many occasions but he always refused.
He said it was too hard, too painful, too embarrassing and that he should have known to think that he could ever replaced Peter.
He said he should have none that Peter was the love of Carla's life and that when she'd said she would hurt him... he should have listened.
Carla despised that Nick felt that way and she felt a huge amount of guilt for what she had done to him but she also knew that there was no going back now.
Everyone knew that Peter was back in town and they had guessed that he was back for his wife… that he was back for Carla.
They had both kept very quiet on the matter at first, they hadn't confirmed or denied their relationship because even they didn't know what was going on.
They said that they would just take each day as it came and that's what they had been doing so far.
Carla hopelessly loved Peter and He loved her equally as much.
That much they knew.
It was clear in the way that they both looked at each other... in those moment's when they had nothing but electric eye contact and silence.
In those times where they weren't even sat anywhere near each other but they could still get each other's attention within seconds.
Yes… they loved each other, crazily so but as Peter was still in a very damaged place right now, they also knew they had to try their hardest to keep their relationship as simple as they could.
Friends were simple... right? They could do it.
They were sure they could do it but they also knew that if they wanted things to be "simple" that they also had to keep those unmistakable… physical urges at bay.
Sometimes it worked and sometimes… well sometimes Carla and Peter came very… very close to crossing that "friend" line.
Sometimes it was just a cheeky kiss.
One that had come from them both getting that little bit too close when sharing a moment of laughter or one that was supposed to be a quick peck goodnight but had very quickly turned into something more.
It was easy enough for Carla and Peter to get past those kisses because they almost always happened where people might able to see them or where they could have been interrupted but other times… well other times weren't that easy for Carla and Peter to ignore.
Other times they had to fight for the strength to walk away from each other.
There was one night in particular… a night where Carla had been spending it sat in her flat alone after a rather long and heavy day at work.
Peter was sat on also sofa but this one was his Dad's, he had spent the day there but it was clear that Ken was getting pretty irritated by his sons incessant fussing.
Peter had spent a lot of time over at Number One lately and Ken was beginning to get a little worried for his son.
He hadn't been back to his flat properly for weeks, just to get clean clothes and stuff and other than going to the hospital, Peter barley left his Dad's side, which had eventually led to Ken saying,
"Oh for goodness Peter… I'm fine… would you please go out… get some air… go n see Carla for a bit... just take your mind of me for a while."
So that's what Peter did.
He turned up at her flat and when she opened her door, still wearing the same black dress that she had worn to work that day, She smiled at Peter affectionately and said,
"Hello you…"
"Me Dad's kicked me out… can I come in and annoy you instead?" Peter asked, trying not to blatantly eye Carla up and down as she stood before him.
Friends weren't supposed to check each other out like this but he couldn't stop his eyes as they travelled down Carla's pefect body and back up again before she said,
"Sure."
She led Peter over to her sofa where they sat, next to each other but not touching... not at all.
One minute they were enjoying a rather ridiculous episode of Come Dine With Me, and the next?
Well the next moment Carla was on her back, underneath Peter's body, clawing at his T-Shirt whilst he had a hand tangled in her long hair.
With tongues in each other's mouths and clothes being thrown to the floor, it wasn't long before Carla had her dress hitched up around her waist and Peter had his jeans undone.
They were so close to becoming one again but then... Peter stopped kissing Carla… and shook his head.
"We shouldn't…" He said as he sat up, he got off a stunned Carla who was still short of breath from the passionate kissing that she and Peter had just been part of.
"Okay…?" She nodded at him at a loss of words.
"I mean… friends don't do this…" Peter stammered, pulling his jeans up quickly, just so he didn't have a chance to change his mind.
"Some friends do…" Carla grinned suggestively, trying to make the situation as light hearted as she could even though she was so full of frustration that she was almost fit to burst.
She wanted Peter so much by this point and she was finding it hard to concentrate on anything other than the fact she had almost just had him.
"Yeah…" Peter chuckled, letting out a sharp breath. He wanted Carla just as much as she wanted him of course... maybe even more but he knew he had a lot to prove and that this, wouldn't be the right way to do it.
Carla pulled her dress back to normal and couldn't help but smile at the look that Peter had on his face.
It was a cute one, a sheepish one but it was also one that showed Carla that he wasn't entirely sure that he even believed what he was saying, especially as he was staring down at her bare legs with his teeth sunk into his lip.
"I really... don't think we should do this." He eventually said, hating a tiny part of himself for resisting Carla because she looked like a goddess as she lay before him.
"Okay... N why's that?" Carla said, sitting upright and looking up at Peter seductively as he put his T-Shirt on.
"Because… I don't want to treat you this way…" Peter said, looking serious now and pulling Carla up and onto her two feet.
"What way?" Carla asked with her head on one side as she rested a hand on Peter's chest.
"Like a fix." He said, "I... don't want you to think I'm only ere because I cannot cope with what's happening to me Dad."
"But I don't…" Carla began only to be interrupted by Peter again.
"Carla... I really want to prove to you that I can be a good man… a good husband… and I will… you just have to let me Dad get better first." Peter said, "Then I can take care of us… take care of you." He couldn't help but grin again after saying "Take care of you." and as Carla nodded she said,
"Alright..." Peter didn't respond with words, he kissed her on the lips ever so gently and stroked her tenderly on the cheek
The feeling of the sublime kiss that Peter had left on Carla's lips lingered whilst he moved away and said,
"I better be off." Carla nodded reluctantly and eventually she let Peter leave.
She let him leave because she saw sense in what he was saying and even though it left her feeling incredibly sexually frustrated, she knew it was the right thing to do.
Amongst all of this, the residents of Weatherfield hadn't cottoned on to Ken being ill at all.
Amazingly he hadn't lost any hair during the chemotherapy and the side effects that he had suffered from the most were being sick and often feeling very tired.
He told his close friends that he had just got the flu, which is why he hadn't been ouch much and because Tracy and Peter were reluctantly sticking with his story, his friends had believed him.
He was still insistent on not having everyone's pity and not making a fuss which Tracy, Peter and Carla all understood but it really didn't make sense for people to see Carla going in and out of Number One Coronation so often… especially where Simon and Amy were concerned... so in the end, they were told about their Granddad's illness.
They were told on a very wet and rainy Friday afternoon.
Right before Ken's last bout of chemotherapy in fact.
As parents, Peter and Tracy decided it would be better to tell their children about Ken then because he'd already had most his treatment by that point and that hopefully meant that he was on the mend.
They sat them both down and took a deep breath before even knowing where to begin.
Simon and Amy reacted to this shocking news about their Granddad in the same way... with tears and lots of them.
Simon's birth Mum had died from cancer and Amy had a friend who's Dad died from it so they were both, more than aware of how life threatening it could be.
Tracy and Peter both calmed their children down as they cried and they both insisted that since their Dad had nearly finished his chemotherapy, he was surely going to be on the mend in no time.
Only… it didn't go that way.
The chemotherapy hadn't caused Ken to get any better… in fact it had almost destroyed his bone marrow, which meant that sooner or later he need a transplant to replace it.
This news rocked Peter and Tracy's already shaken world.
They had been so sure that their Dad was going to get better and to hear that he needed to get a bone marrow transplant had totally thrown them.
Ken was put on a waiting list for the transplant but Tracy and Peter were both told by a doctor that he could receive a donation from a someone they knew if by some crazy chance it turned out that they were a match.
The doctor then explained that even though Peter was Ken's son, the chances of him being match would be slim and that the chances of Tracy being a match would be even slimmer but they both went ahead and got tested anyway.
Whilst waiting for the results, Peter found himself pacing the floor.
He couldn't sit still and soon found him self all jittery and on edge, Tracy had gone off outside to get some air and had left Peter in the hospital hallway going back and forth.
It was then that he couldn't help but wish he that was maybe a more religious kind of guy.
The kind of guy who could get some comfort from a prayer right now…. Then again, Peter thought it was better late then never, right?
So... he got down on his knees in the middle of the hallway, closed his eyes... put his hands together… and prayed.
He prayed he or Tracy were a suitable match.
He prayed his Dad would get one hundred per-cent better and he felt completely ridiculous as he did so.
It was probably a good thing that Carla had arrived when she did.
She had been told about the bone marrow test and had come to offer up some support.
She walked in and was surprised... no stunned to see Peter...
Yes, Peter Francis Barlow, the least religious man she knew, down on his knees, eyes closed in what looked like the midst of a prayer.
His hands were still clasped desperately together and as she walked towards him, she was sure that she felt her heart actually ache because this was how desperate he had become.
"Peter…" Carla began softly. His eyes shot open when he heard her voice and as she said, "You alright down there?"
"Yes." He said, sniffing and standing upright, Carla nodded at him but she didn't believe him for one second so she put her arms around his body and held him close to her.
She stayed with him and Tracy... They all found out together that neither, Peter or Tracy were matches for Ken's bone marrow.
"Oh well… it were a long shot right." Tracy said, almost in tears because she had so hoped that a miracle might have occurred.
"Yeah…" Peter nodded, clinging onto his sister's hand tightly.
Carla watched them both and then said she might as well get tested herself… just in case but when her results came back the same, she suddenly felt like crying too.
When Ken had come out and saw his two kids and daughter in law all looking so solemn, he shook his head and said,
"Honestly… look at the three of you… I'm going to be fine."
He wasn't going to be fine and they knew it, but what else could they do but nod?
They eventually all went home that day and even though they were still gutted, their moods soon improved.
Ken was on break from the chemotherapy, so that his body could recover from the side effects and he was thrilled, he actually went for a little drink with some of his friends and had a lot of fun.
Tracy had made a real effort with Amy, deciding that she wanted to spend as much time with her daughter as possible and Peter?
Well Peter did the same with Simon and made up for a lot of lost time, Simon was overjoyed to have hid Dad back around so much and spent as much time as he could just kicking a football about with him and telling him all about school.
People were still talking about though... About Peter's grand return. Some believed he was back for his family, whilst others were still saying that he was definitely back for Carla.
People were also calling her foolish.
For not agreeing to marry Nick or for being in contact with Peter again... Carla wasn't sure but she did her best to ignore it all anyway.
She tried to ignore the looks she got as she walked home from work or to Ken's house.
She would just roll her eyes at the silly comments that were being slyly said around her and she told herself that as long as Peter was okay… she'd be okay… after all they were in this together.
Days turned into weeks and then… on a Thursday night, at around eight pm her buzzer went off.
"Hello?" Carla said casually, guessing it'd be Michelle or Peter as they were really the only people that visited her.
"It's… Peter." His trembling voice echoed through the speaker on Carla's intercom and made her blood run cold. She clumsily pressed the button to open the door for him because just by the sound of his voice… she could already tell… something was wrong.
I know this chapter wasn't very Carter-y (Does that even make sense?) but I promise that the next one is going to be filled with the pair of them.
Don't forget to review! :)