Lauren Branning was happy. Lauren was 39 years old and she had a 4 beautiful children, Hope who was turning 18 soon, the twins, Sophie and James who were 15 and Connor who was 13 and a loving devoted husband, Joey Branning who was 42.
She lived in a beautiful 5 bedroom house just outside of Walford. Her parents were both still alive and happy, although, if you asked her she thought their happiness was due to the fact that they had finally gotten divorced and were now living separately, they did appear, however to be the best of friends now though. Her parents doted on their grandkids. James was Max's pride and joy and the little boy doted on his grandfather. Lauren's relationship with her mother improved 100% and the two women were now very close. Sarah was also still alive and she had moved to Albert Square shortly after the twins were born to help Lauren and Joey out. It was only supposed to be for a few months but Sarah had never left, which pleased Joey and Alice especially.
Uncle Jack had eventually married Sharon after a couple of attempts and they were both happily living in America.
Dot had died a few months earlier and was laid to rest next to her beloved Jim. A lot of people had come to the funeral, old and new residents of Albert Square had turned out to give Dot a good east end send off. There did appear to be some tensions when Grant Mitchell came…he was Phil's younger brother and had been married to Sharon, but the tension was soon short lived.
Cora was still going strong. Max had joked that she would outlive all of them, and then added well him at least, to which his grandmother had replied to him 'I have been waiting a long time to dance on your grave Max Branning. I can wait a little bit longer'
Alice had married Lucas and they had 2 children of their own Samuel and Tristan both 10 now. And Abi was travelling, something that she had always wanted to do and Lauren and Joey had money so they paid for her travel the globe. Abi sent them regular letters and photographs of her travels, Lauren always made the time to write back to her sister. She missed her so much.
Alfie and Kat had reunited and remarried and were still Landlord and Landlady of the Queen Vic. Not that they didn't have their fair share of arguments, they did, some of them even in front of a pub full of punters, but they remained together and very much in love.
Whitney and Tyler had married a few years after Lauren and Joey but their marriage only lasted 18 months. Tyler wanted kids and Whitney didn't. She loved children but she didn't want any of her own. Tyler was devastated by the break up. Even more so when Whitney announced that she was moving to Manchester as it was too hard to be around Tyler and not be with him. A couple of years later she had told Tyler that she and his brother Anthony had fallen in love and they were living together and she was expecting their first child, to say that Tyler was crushed was an understatement. His relationship with his brother was never the same after that.
Poppy and Fats lived in the square still, they were married, but Poppy was unable to have children. They doted on Joey's and Lauren's instead. They were Joey and Lauren's best friends. Along with Tyler.
Lucy Beale was also still living in the square. She had successfully rebuilt her businesses back up and her brother Peter had moved back from Cornwall to help her. Peter, Joey and Lauren were friends. Lauren was civil to Lucy but that was as far as their relationship went. Lauren had no desire to take it any further much to Lucy's disappointment. As far as Joey and Lucy were concerned. Joey made sure that he was never in the same room as her.
Lucy was single, sure she had boyfriends throughout the years but none of them were ever serious, not for her anyway, if anyone asked her it was because she was too busy with the business, truth was no one could compare to the fantasy of Joey that she had built up in her head. She still lived with her father, Ian, and she had 4 cats.
Oscar was still the apple of Lauren's eye even though he was in his 20's now. He visited often and still called her Lolly, and she still called him Buttmonkey, which, when they younger, Sophie and James thought was hysterical. Oscar didn't have a girlfriend, Joey had his suspicions that the young man was gay, Lauren had told him that she didn't care just as long as her baby brother was happy then she was happy.
Both Joey and Lauren had wanted to have more children, they loved the happiness and joy that their little ones gave them and the plan was to have more, maybe another 2 or three. Lauren had got pregnant another 3 times, but she miscarried twice, within the first three months. The third baby she carried to term, she had a very long difficult labour and then after 48 hours, Patrick Scott Branning was born. He weighed 8lbs and 5 ozs but he had only lived for three days, he had numerous heart problems, including 4 holes in his heart and no one had expected him to live that long, not even the doctors, they had only had him for 72 hours but they both loved him so much and missed him deeply. After that….Joey and Lauren decided that four was enough. Joey didn't want to put his wife through any more upset, nor himself for that matter.
To everyone who saw them they were the perfect family. They had been happily married for 16 years. Lauren was a successful Graphic Designer with her own company. She even ran a gallery on the side with some of her pictures on display. Mainly, though, she used it for a stepping stone into the art world for talented young people, she used her links with the college and had even set up a small scholarship for students who could not afford the course fees.
Joey had brought R&R from Phil Mitchell, and Phil had helped him secure other premises for more clubs throughout London and had helped me with setting up business plans. Joey managed a successful and profitable string of clubs. He didn't work behind the bar anymore though, except on rare occasions when his wife Lauren would join him, if they were really short staffed. Lauren would often design and promote club nights for him, they worked well together as a team.
They had shared everything, the housework, raising their children, although Lauren had mostly been the "bad cop" to his "good cop" and Lauren was happy with that. She understood that Joey had found it difficult to discipline his children after his life with his father.
One time Joey was babysitting the kids when Lauren was having an opening at the Gallery for another one of her protégé's she had discovered at the College and Joey had been watching football with James, he must have been about 8 or 9 at the time and James had ruined some of Laurens sketches when he had managed to get into her office, despite several stern warnings that he was not to go in there, he had managed to get in and had covered himself, the walls, the carpets, with a permanent marker, in the last hour before Joey realised that he was missing and very quiet.
Joey was furious with James and this had resulted in a well-deserved spanking, some harsh words and a scrubbing brush and some diluted nail polish remover to clean off the marker pen from James' skin. James was then put to bed without a story. Joey had closed the door and could hear the little boy crying in his bed.
Joey had then gone back down stairs and opened a bottle of scotch which is where Lauren found him when she came back home a few hours later. Joey had been so upset and angry with himself and he had cried that he had hurt the little boy and that his son would never forgive him. Lauren hated to see him so broken and upset but she hated even more that he was comparing himself to Derek. He had never been and never would be anything like his father. So she had gone upstairs and to see James. James had been asleep and when Lauren woke him, he looked at her with his sad brown eyes and told her that daddy hated him.
Lauren spent fifteen minutes assuring the little boy that he didn't and that his father was more upset about the whole thing than he was, which James was very surprised to hear. Lauren had then told James to go down stairs and apologise to his father for being naughty.
She followed him down the stairs and she watched from the doorway as James tentatively crossed the room to where Joey was sitting in the sofa.
'Daddy?' James said quietly.
Joey looked up at him 'what are you doing out of bed?' he asked him softly 'You have school in the morning you'll fall asleep in maths again'
'I wanted to say that I was sorry for being naughty daddy' James told him 'I know I shouldn't have been in mummy's office, I only went to look, I didn't mean to make such a mess, I'll pay for the carpets and walls to be cleaned out of my pocket money and the money I have saved' he told Joey. Joey felt his eyes fill with tears. 'I'm sorry I made you cross daddy. I love you and I promise I'll be a good boy from now on'
'I love you too James' Joey said 'Come here' he held his arms out the little boy who ran into them eagerly. 'And daddy is sorry that he spanked you'
'I deserved it' James replied softly and he kissed his father's cheek and hugged him tightly.
'Come on let's get you back to bed' Joey said to him 'I'll tell you that story you like'
'The one about how you saved mummy from the fire breathing dragon and you made her fall in love with you?'
'Yep that's the one' Joey smiled nodding his head.
Joey had kissed Lauren softly as he carried his son back up the stairs with a whispered "thank you"
Later that night, when they had gone to bed, he had made love to Lauren so gently and tenderly that she had fallen in love with her husband a little bit more.