Hello there, the angel from my nightmare, will you come home and stop this pain tonight?
"Peter?"
"Peter?"
Peter groaned as he rubbed his eyes, untangling himself from Carla's unmoving body and sitting up. He panicked inwardly as he saw Michelle, not having meant to sleep for so long, wanting to be away before she got here as he always was. He mumbled inaudibly as he hurried to find his coat, slipping his shoes on and rushing past Michelle, his head down.
He ignored her pleas as he hurried through the corridors of the hospital. "Peter, will you just stop! Please!" Michelle tried one last time, watching as the figure a few meters ahead of her stopped, running his hand through his hair as he leaned against the wall. Peter's anguish was obvious, pain evident in his very being.
Michelle finally caught up with him, watching as he slid down the wall of the cold, unforgiving hospital, sobs taking over his tired frame. "She won't wake up, Chelle." He spoke through his constant cries, Michelle now mirroring his emotions.
"I lay with her every night. I sleep in my car, I've hardly left this place for weeks and she won't wake up!" Michelle sat beside him, pulling him against her and holding him as they both cried together, sharing each other's agony. "I've lost her, haven't I? This is all my fault."
Michelle didn't answer, just letting him sob against her shoulder as she did the same, both of them holding each other in silence, unable to help themselves or each other.
Michelle cradled her cup of dishwater, hospital tea a while later as she walked solemnly beside Peter. They had spent a while together away from the torture of Carla's hospital room. She had listened to him speak mostly, letting him explain how he hadn't been able to move so far away, renting a flat only half an hour away from Weatherfield instead. All the time she was listening, she was watching him too, sensing in all honesty that he was heartbroken over his mistakes.
Michelle looked up through the window as she approached the private ward and opened the door quickly, dropping her cup in shock, spilling it all over the floor without caring as she pushed past the nurses and Doctors surrounding her best friend's bed.
"Carla?!"
Carla looked up, the lights blinding her almost in her sleep like daze. She looked across at Michelle but her eyes looked almost straight through her, seeing only the crying man behind her with his eyes red raw and his body obviously exhausted.
Peter mouthed her name, unable to take his eyes away from her, scared she'd disappear if he looked away. He couldn't face it. He couldn't stand to hear her reject him again. His surprise and shock at the situation he was unable to control pushed him away and he did the only thing he knew how. He rushed away quickly, desperate to escape the heat and fear of the room.
He didn't hear her croaky, broken voice call his name.
He wasn't there to see the lost, desperate, terrified tears escape her newly opened eyes.
He didn't hear.
He wasn't there.
He left her.
Again.
Thank you