Hometown

Chapter 17

Peter was awake all night mulling over Carla's words form the night prior, he was unable to understand certain things about what she said. When she spoke about Lucas it was done with utter adoration and that led him to feel very confused about her state of mind, in particular, he knew Lucas was manipulating her but the fact that he couldn't really understand the extent that Lucas was changing Carla was hard. Peter wasn't going to psycho-analyse her, there was no point as she would know instantly, all he could do right now was be a friend to her and be someone who cared about her and who would be there if she needed support so he could rebuild the trust with her. She woke up and yawned before turning to face him with a sheepish look on her face, gingerly she curled into his side and he carefully places his arm around her, she flinched but soon relaxed and they basked in the sunlight streaming through the window of Peter's bedroom as they forgot to close the curtains last night.

"About last night..." she starts, he presses a finger to her lips and shakes his head, she just closes her eyes and rests her head on his chest

"Don't say anything just relax" he whispers, she nods slowly before biting her lip "Can I ask you something because it's been bugging me all night"

"Ok?"

"When you said about your kidneys last night? Why did Lucas act all surprised as if he didnt know when you collapsed and I took you to the hospital?"

"I don't want to get into that, to be honest with you" she states, Peter narrows his eyes in utter suspicion "It's in the past it doesn't matter"

"Carla did he know?" he questions softly, she looks up at him and nods sadly "Please tell me he didnt..."

"He didnt know, I rushed the wedding through" she states, he narrows his eyes "I didnt tell him because of everything that Lucas had been through, come on Peter you know better than most people what years of abuse does to peoples bodies, my kidneys were a prime example of that and i didnt tell him even though it was happening in front of my eyes I hid everything from him because it was the right thing to do for him"

"Carla what has Lucas gone through which is so bad that you have to protect him all of the time-"

"You don't think he's deserving do you?"

"It's not that" he sighs but he did think that he wasn't "I just want to know what hold he has over you that's all"

"Lucas means so much to me, Peter, please just leave as that," she says starting to get rather annoyed at his persistence

"I just don't get how you hid it from him when-"

"Peter!" she states as Peter sighs and nods knowing she was starting to get rather agitated and annoyed with his persistence, "I said leave it, please"

"Ok" he nods "I'm sorry"

"No, you don't need to apologise, it's just I don't want to tell you Lucas' private life because it's hard, even for me to tell you that, it's big and it hurts me to even think about it so please just leave it"

"Ok, I'm sorry"

"It's ok" she smiles squeezing his hand, she jumps out of bed grabbing her jumper and chucking it over her body before pulling her legging on "I want to go out to Roy's for breakfast"

"Do you want me to come?"

"I don't mind if you need to work I understand"

"I do but I can make my excuses"

"No it's fine, I'll go alone," she says, Peter nods slowly kind of unsure not wanting her to bump into Lucas and him have a chance to manipulate her further "Don't look so worried I'm perfectly capable"