More than likely.

I hope Candice returns one day,

I certainly hope so!! I'll be surprised (and gutted) if she doesn't!!

Sarah and Candice were best friends at one point but Candice left long before Sarah, and Maria did fill the role more than anyone in her last years. Maria seems to change best friends a lot and at the moment it's hard to tell if she's actually got any friends apart from Audrey: She was close to Carla and Michelle once but you'd struggle to know that now. She hasn't been particularly close to Fiz for a long time except when the plot calls for it.

You're right up to a point!! Candice was Sarah's real mate up to her leaving in 05!! After that Sarah & Maria became a lot closer!! Previous to that there had been quite a lot of bickering between the three of them when all were working in the salon together!! As I said earlier they were close enough for Maria to be her bridesmaid twice & the one she confided in about David's suicide note which was designed to stop the wedding going ahead!!
As for Maria & Fiz, they have always had a very up & down relationship from sworn enemies over Tyrone, to uneasy 'friends' when they shared the flat & Fiz was with Kirk, Maria's brother!! They only became really close when Maria went through her two years of hell with the stillbirth, Liam's murder & all the stuff with Tony!! Fiz was a rock for her then , as she was for Fiz throughout all the John Stape stuff!! I suspect at some point they will sort out their differences again, though probably not to be quite as close as they were!!

Just watched this episode!! That was much more like it, just as you would have expected two old friends to be with each other!! Got there in the end writers eh!!

Rest of the episode I shall gloss over quickly apart from the Roy & Cathy scenes!!