Chapter 20

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Disclaimer I don't own anything. This is for entertainment purposes only

"I'm just going to tell everyone to go home. There's no point in them hanging around and waiting for hours." Frank whispered.

Carla simply nods in her head her agreement.

Making his way out into the corridor.

"Why don't you all get off? It's been a long day. L" Frank told them tiredly.

"But I... " Liz cut him off.

"Jonny, Franks right. Carla needs to rest and we'll come back in the morning. Is that alright?" Liz asked, looking in Frank's direction.

Frank nods his head.

"Of course." He replied.

"Oh darling, call us. " Ann frets, hugging her son.

"Of course I will, mum." He replies, hugging her back.

They all leave and Frank heads back into Carla

"Please be alright darlings, we need you. Me and Daddy already love you so much." She spoke to her unborn children, unaware she was being watched.

Frank was in awe, this courageous woman had been through so much already. He refused to think of the latter possible outcome, no he angrily thought to himself as he banished the unimaginable dark thought from his mind's eye.

"Who else am I going to tell my stories to? Hey,?" He spoke, joining his hand with hers. Leaning down to kiss her stomach just as he did every morning and every night before he went to sleep.

Carla ran her hand over his hair as silent tears cascaded down her cheeks.

"Miss Conner?" A nurse asked gently from the doorway.

"Yes, that's me," Carla answered.

"We're going to take you to a private room and do the scan there. Give some privacy." The nurse smiled kindly at her.

"Thank you," Carla replied with a cute nod.

15 minutes later, they had Carla settled in a private room when Kate knocked on the door.

"I brought you your things," Kate spoke softly.

"Thank you." Carla put her good arm out, but Frank got there first.

"I'll take it. Thanks, Kate." Frank told her, giving her a cute nod of his head.

Kate hugs her sister without hesitation as Carla sobs.

"Thank you." She choked out

Frank stepped away to give the two sisters the moment they needed.

"Always, love you, Car," Kate replied, stroking her.

"I love you too." Carla sighed.

Kate said her goodbyes and left.

A nurse came by shortly after, and she explained what was going to happen.

Carla lay very still, almost too scared to move Frank sitting on the right side of her, holding her hand in a vice grip.

The stillness of the room was almost suffocating, as no one dared to speak.

Carla could hear her heartbeat thumbing deafeningly in her ears.

"I'm so sorry I can't find a heartbeat." The nurse informed, sympathetically.

Carla barely heard the words she'd ushered.

"Check again!" Frank yelled, leaping from his chair, and knocking it over in the process.

"I've checked twice. I'm so sorry. I'll give you a moment." The nurse apologized, before leaving the room.

Carla angrily began to pull out the IV

"Carla, Carla, Carla! Honey, no." Frank told her, trying to hold her.

"No! No! No! Why?! "She screamed as he rocked her back and forth as she clung to him as if he was her lifeline in essence in that very moment. He was.

"Shh. " He tried to soothe.

Carla's heart-wrenching cries and sobs filled his ears and shattered his already broken heart as a single, lone tear rolled down his cheek.

Carla sobbed herself into an uneasy restless slumber as she clung to her fiance's chest.

The first thing Frank became aware of was that it had gotten dark outside as he saw a street light illuminating the night sky as if it was taunting him into a false of security and peace. He glared at it angrily for its stillness and calm as the storm of grief and anger that raged furiously and almost uncontrollably inside of him.

He had to get out, out of this room, away from the devastated shell of his beautiful fiance who had been reduced to a grieving, sobbing wreaked thanks to the actions of a self-observed, angry, bitter twisted woman who didn't like change, but he couldn't bring himself to leave her.

She needed him, he'd put his grief aside for her because right now that is where he needed to be and he wasn't going anywhere.

Excusing himself from the room, Frank took his phone out of his pocket, Carla's radiating smiling face staring back up at him almost cutting him in two.

"Mu... Mummy... " He choked out like the little boy he'd been 35 years ago as he slid slowly down the wall his knees finally gave out becoming exhausted from taking the emotional weight he'd been carrying around all evening and well into the night.

"Me and Dad are coming, darling. You just hang in there. We won't be long, son. " Anna told her som, already getting her coat and reaching for her keys.

Frank felt a hand on his arm, looking up through teary and red sore eyes. He saw his mother leaning above him, all he did was shake his head.

"Oh love. I.. I.. "Ann just held her son as she simply couldn't find the words to bring him any comfort, not that there were any that would.

"What do I do? How do I get her through this? How do we get through this? " He whispered to no one in particular.

"Together, she'll push you away, say things she doesn't mean, lash out, yet want to be on her own. but you don't leave, whatever you do, son you don't leave her." His father advised him.

Frank nodded his head.

"She's sleeping, they're taking her for a minor procedure in the morning." He explained to them.

"I'll call everyone, saves you having to do it and to keep repeating yourself over and over again," Ann told him.

"Thanks, Mum." He nodded his head towards her.

His parents left not long after with the promise he was to call if anything happened in the night.

Carla was just coming around from the anesthesia of the operation, Frank hadn't gotten much sleep the night before and was beyond exhausted not that he'd tell anyone that.

Kate stormed into the pub like a woman processed, how dare she do this? How dare she do this to her sister!

"Oi! Yes, you!" She yelled as soon as she saw Michelle, giving the pub an eary silence.

"Look I don't want any trouble. L" Michelle told her, meekly unable to look her in the eye.

"Trouble? Is she having a laugh? After what you've done!" Kate roared, not caring who knew.

"Let's take this to the back," Liz suggested which fell on deaf ears as she knew it would.

"You nasty spitful little brat!" Steve tried to cut her off.

"Don't even think about it! You are part of the reason all this started! You left her! You left her and look what happened!" Kate hissed him, knowing she was partially right. Steve bowed his head in guilt.

"You put her in hospital." Michelle dared cut her off.

"it was an accident, Kate," Michelle told her.

"An accident! An accident! You wouldn't let go! That was no accident and if that wasn't ba3d enough, you just sat there as Carla lay there unconscious! I was there! I saw the whole thing! That Michelle was no accident! All because she was finally happy and had people who loved her and you were jealous! You're warped, she lost the twins because of you!" This caused gasps of shock and horror to fill the pub.

"You stay away! From me, my family, and especially MY sister. Do you hear me?" Kate hissed as she turned on her heels and left the stunned residents of Weatherfield in her wake as she went.

"Hey," Frank whispered as he noticed Carla begging to stare from her slumber

Carla stared over at him as if he was made of glass.

"Stupid question, but how are you feeling? "He asked tentatively, going to take her hand.

Carla moved her hand slightly out of the way.

"Go home, there is no point in the both of us being here." She told him, coldly.

"Carla, love... " He began to speak.

"GET OUT! JUST GET OUT!" Carla screamed at him as she began to sob again.

Frank looked at her helplessly as he hesitantly left the room.

Carla sobbed long after he'd gone. Frank remembered the words his father had spoken to him the previous day and he sat his tired, weary body on a hard plastic chair and he wasn't moving.

Carla lay in a hospital bed, needing someone, feeling more alone than ever but not wanting anyone near her.

"I'm broken." She thought to herself as she lay in the lonely darkness of her hospital room.

Carla thinks back to her youth and she just wants to run, to a place where she's safe and loved.

She's got to go...to get away from pain and sadness. She doesn't want to be alone. Before the street, she'd had been falling for so long just being able to hang on.

No one knew that inside she felt so unloved, unworthy, and unwanted.

Her mum didn't want her. So who else would too?

She must be broken. Yet she had so much love inside of Ger. She loved caring for people who so deserved and needed to be. She finally knew what it felt like to be worthy, loved, and free.

Frank wasn't like anything she'd ever known

She'd been so alone. She'd had been so lost but it was like he knew where to go to find her, to reach her, to find each other

She felt it was her fault. Good things didn't happen to her because it was her.

Carla lifted her phone off the cabinet beside her bed and sent him a text.

I never thought you'd ever fall for a woman like me.

I have scars marked so deep that you can not see.

They are hidden away, buried beneath the skin,

How would I show you? Where would I begin?

Do I begin explaining? What's behind my tears?

Do I begin to uncover, each scar of my past?

Could I choke back warm tears, long enough to last?

If I began in those early years, show them first.

Would it be easier? not be difficult to show?

Would you still be the same? Even after you know?

Maybe once you've been able to see.

You may understand the reasons why I'm just me.

You'd start to understand, why I appear to be cold.

Learning each scar has a story, a secret untold.

Would you still look at me in the same way?

Would I still be as beautiful? As you saw me yesterday?

Do you still see that woman? That appears so strong.

Or a weak woman? After being strong for too long.

Then could you still fall for a woman like me?

Our happiness was taken away.

If stolen more than once, then would you still stay?

Could you still hold me? And never let me go?

Help me? Xx

Frank's breath left his body as he drank in every word, he couldn't love her more at the exact moment if he tried.

Opening the door, he stood there as she lifted her head, he made it to her in two strides and held onto her for dear as the couple cried for their loss, the future, their what would have been, and their what if. They grieved in that moment and they grieved as they should - together.

Guest

Did it? I never thought of that when writing this. This was already pre-written . I really hope you enjoyed this update. Thank you for reading!