A Shoulder to Cry on
"You really shouldn't be by yourself right now, Lauren, besides, Abs needs her older sister", "You mean, her alcoholic older sister who has caused her misery in the last few years, the sister who has driven their mother away, yea, of course, Abi needs me, seriously Joey" "Lauren, listen to me, you and Abi do need each other, you have Oscar to think about too". As Joey continues to talk, Lauren finds herself breaking down in her ex-boyfriend's arms as they curl up together on the bench in the gardens.
After thinking over what Joey said during the night, Lauren heads into the kitchen of No.5 to find Joey drinking a cup of coffee, " Did you stay here all night?" "I was worried about you, I needed to make sure that you were going to be okay for my own concerns, just cause we have broken up doesn't mean I have stopped caring as I never will". Joey grabs his jacket, subconsciously kisses Lauren on the cheek and walks quickly out of No.5 to avoid the awkward tension between him and Lauren, not realising they are both thinking about the same thing.
Doing random drawings, spending time with Oscar after picking him up from Grandma Dot's, calling Peter to catch-up, nothing can stop Lauren from thinking what happened a matter of hours ago and after mulling it in her mind, she grabs her jacket, leaving both Abi and Jay to look after Oscar, and heads to No.23 for some answers from questions she needs answers to. She barges into No.23 not caring that Joey has company within their friends, " I have tried to face facts about us being over as I thought it was what you wanted, but, last night, you staying over, you kissing me on the cheek like normal this morning, Joe, I need the truth, so I can move on with my life". Joey finds himself speechless by what Lauren has said and doesn't know what to say, which leaves Lauren with her answers and as she slams the front door, Joey worries whether he is too late.
Later on, Joey finds Lauren on "their bench" and though he knows Lauren won't want to talk, Joey needs to say his peace, " On the day, you were admitted into Hospital, I came here and all I could think about was you and us and it made me decide that no matter what I would win you back"
" What I'm supposed to be grateful? Where was this earlier when I asked you about us, huh? I needed you to tell me the truth and you couldn't do that that, maybe, everything that has happened is a sign". Not prepared to let Lauren go, Joey pulls Lauren to him and as he grasps onto her waist, an magnetic force is reignited between them and they find themselves kissing like their lives depended on it but Lauren forces herself to reluctantly pull herself apart from Joey.
"Joey, what does this mean, huh? I mean, I can't do this again if I am just going to end up being heartbroken again as I won't be able to just about handle it like last time, it will actually kill me this time around"
"Babe, you have a problem, you know this and until you get proper help, we can't go back there, no matter how much I want to, come on, lets get you back to the House", Joey and Lauren get up from the bench and head back to No.5 hand-in-hand, not knowing what is going to happen between them in the future...