A/N: Thank you everyone for your feedback and reviews, I hope you enjoy this. Chapter 8 asap, I have it all planned out and know exactly where it's going, but haven't actually put any words on the page yet…..

Chapter Seven

"It's not a date, not really, but we need a chat …. about being safe, and all sorts of things really, so how about it? Just you and me, face to face?"

"What about Lauren?"

"I think Lauren is one of the things we need to chat about" He went quiet for a moment as he thought carefully about what to say next "I suppose I could always ask her to join us, if you want me to"

-OG-

She hadn't been able to resist the temptation that she'd had to ring him when she'd got in, just to hear his voice. She knew it could be a mistake and could end up pissing him off big time because he'd given her his number to use in case of an emergency, and this definitely wasn't one of them, but somehow she didn't think that he'd mind, she thought he might actually enjoy talking to her as much as she wanted to talk to him or that possibly that it was a bit of wishful thinking again.

Lauren had still not put in any sort of appearance at work or answered any of Molly's calls or texts so that she'd reluctantly come to the conclusion that her mate was genuinely poorly and wasn't just taking advantage of the uncertificated sick leave allowance, something that they all did when the mood took them. She hadn't seen or spoken to Lauren since they'd been at the karaoke and that was nearly a week and no hangover known to man could last that long, surely? She would have rung Lauren's mum again just to see how she was doing, but the woman had been about as warm as a polar bear's bum the last time and Molly had no idea whether that was to do with Lauren or heaven forbid bloody Jamie so she decided it would be better to just wait for Lauren to get in touch. Molly herself was basking in the approval of their manager at the amount of work she'd actually got through in the last week. She'd told him that she was doing her best to try and keep on top of stuff until Lauren came back, but it was more that she had nothing better to do while she was there on her own.

"Oh fuck, I've just realised it'll have to be Monday now, I'm duty Officer this weekend and regulations say I've got to stay put in case of emergency, an outbreak of a world war or something else inconvenient"

"What, her Majesty will get the hump with you if you're not there?"

"Something like that, and I'd be really grateful if you could stop taking the piss"

The laughter in his voice belied his words and the tone so that she knew he was enjoying what she was saying to him even though he was right about her taking the piss. The only problem now was that Monday felt like several lifetimes away to her, and she was also suffering horrible pangs of guilt about Lauren.

"Where would you like to meet up? We could go for a drink, or are you going to let me buy you dinner? How about Costa in the High Road and we'll go on from there? About 6ish, unless there's somewhere you'd rather go? Say if there is"

"Nah, you're alright, I know you wanna go there cos their coffee don't taste like shit"

"There is that, but just say if you want to go somewhere else"

"Nah, I said, it'll be fine, about 6?"

"I'll see you there on Monday then" He chuckled so that she could picture the expression on his face and wished that he was right there in front of her so that she could just put her hand out and touch him "Do you want me to call Lauren, ask her if she'd like to meet us there ….. or not?"

"Not" She giggled "See you then, Bossman, well as long as there's not another war of course or her Majesty won't be able to spare you"

"Of course, goes without saying but tell me something Molly, are you going to call me that for the rest of our lives?"

"Possibly"

-OG-

Usually the weekends flew by far too quickly, although that was normally because Monday morning meant getting out of bed and going back to work and not being able to lie in till lunchtime if she wanted, but this one was dragging past. She'd turned down a night out on the lash with some mates and had then bitterly regretted it, it would have made the time pass a hell of a lot quicker than lying about on her sofa doing her best not to drop off out of sheer boredom. But if she went to sleep she'd be awake half the bloody night ….….. . What she wanted more than anything was to ring him again, but she couldn't do that, for a start he was working and she was just a tiny bit afraid that it would piss him off if she kept on calling ….. and he hadn't suggested it to her or anything.

She just wanted it to be Monday, preferably six o'clock Monday evening even though her mood spun between being filled with the sort of excited can't wait feeling that she'd once thought she'd get if ever Jamie got around to asking her out, in the event a feeling that hadn't happened, and reminding herself that he'd said it wasn't a date and that probably all he wanted was to deliver another bloody lecture …. . Why on earth would someone like him want to go out with some flaky East End muppet like her? He was way, way out of the league of someone like her, someone who couldn't even speak properly for fuck sake, and who swore much too much on top. Didn't stop the longing though.

She had this sort of restless energy but then turned down a trip to Top Shop with Bella on Sunday in favour of ironing her best polo shirt for work on Monday, something that was almost unheard of because usually she just ironed the first clean thing that came to hand at the same time as eating her breakfast. Bella predictably threw a full-on strop, although Molly knew that her credit card was the main attraction rather than her scintillating company, not that it would have done her sister any bloody good if she had gone, her card was maxed out from their last little outing so she wouldn't have been able to buy anything for either of them. Instead she'd spent the afternoon going through her drawers and putting most of her underwear to one side ready to chuck in the bin, and then putting it back because she wouldn't have enough clean knickers to last the week.

Lauren was back at her desk on Monday morning although Molly thought that she looked absolute bloody shit, not only was she pale and washed out looking but she had these impressively dark circles under her eyes as though she hadn't had any sleep for about a year. She kept on insisting that she was fine and that she didn't want to talk about it anyway and then got very shitty when Molly kept on looking at her waiting for Lauren to start telling what was wrong, or to at least smile, but she did neither. She just kept on saying "What?" in an irritable way and then kept her head down as she pretended to be engrossed in the paperwork she was sorting. Molly knew that that was a load of old cobblers but the longer it went on the more the silence in the room got to her and the more the silence got to her, the more twitchy she got. Whatever it was that was wrong with Lauren, surely to god it wasn't that he'd told her he was meeting up with Molly that evening, he wouldn't of, would he?

"What's wrong? Come on, tell me Lauren, I can see there's some'ing, you still ill or something, should you even be back at work yet?"

"I keep telling you, I'm fine" Lauren took a deep breath "Tell me something, what happened, I mean was it something he said or something that he did ….. or what was it, did you just change your mind about him?"

"Who?" All her earlier fears came rushing back, surely he hadn't said …..

"Jamie of course who else would I be talking about?"

"Oh yeah, Jamie" The relief was so intense that she had to stop for a second and try and remember who the fuck Jamie was "Nothing happened Lauren, not really, he didn't do nothing wrong or anything, it were just me, I sort of found that it wasn't what I wanted after all, sorry"

"He was a bit gutted"

"Was he? Oh shit"

"Well he didn't say anything, but he's my brother so I could tell"

"Right …. said I'm sorry"

"Was it because there's someone else?"

"Nah, course not, I said, I just found that it wasn't ….. well, that it didn't feel right" Molly wondered just how many more lies she was going to have to tell and then decided to add one more "I would of told you if there had been someone else"

The morning dragged, although that could well have been because she was clock watching and trying to will the time to 6 o'clock, but the atmosphere hadn't improved one little bit when their manager came in to supposedly welcome Lauren back but in fact to take the opportunity of launching into a re-run of how impressed he'd been at the amount of work Molly had got through when she was on her own the previous week and to then lecture them both about how he expected things to carry on in the same vein.

"Wanker" Molly's comment produced the first communal laugh of the morning.

"I'm pregnant"

Lauren's bombshell announcement came out of the blue and was delivered in a low voice, barely more than a hoarse whisper as she sat and stared out of the window making sure that she didn't meet Molly's horrified gaze.

"What? Oh fuck"

"Yep, Oh fuck just about sums it up"

"Umm, how, I mean don't answer that, but how long and have you told him yet?"

Molly didn't specify which him she was talking about, she couldn't think straight as she started clutching at straws and wondering how Lauren herself could possibly know for sure which one it was and she'd never said she'd shagged him, but she hadn't said she hadn't either …..

"No of course not, I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet, and you're not to say anything to anyone either, promise me, the only other person who knows is my mum"

"YOU TOLD YOUR MUM?"

"Yes well she guessed, she should get a bloody job in MI5 the way she kept on and on at me until I gave in and admitted it" She turned and looked at Molly for the first time "She thinks I should get rid of it, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do" Lauren sniffed although Molly couldn't see any sign of tears either in her eyes or on her face "Mum was a bit shitty about it actually, said she didn't think I was that much of a bloody idiot"

"Did she? I thought she believed in free love 'n all that shit"

Molly was longing to ask Lauren what her mother had said when she'd told her that there was more than one potential father, although maybe that was why she was advocating abortion. Molly couldn't imagine a scenario where her mum would be the first person she'd tell if something like that happened to her, although her mum would probably be ace about it, more than Lauren's by the sounds of it.

"Yes she does, just not when it's me"

Their conversation was cut short for the moment while Lauren dealt with a member of the unsuspecting public who got very short shrift from someone who had far more important fish to fry than whoever it was on the phone wanting to talk about their current problems with housing. She was totally lacking in any degree of empathy for the woman at all, just wanted her to get off the line and go away and stop bothering them, to let them get back to what they'd been talking about before she'd interrupted them with her phone call.

While Lauren was distracted Molly took the opportunity to send him a text. Much as she wanted to see him and wanted more than anything to meet him and pretend that none of this was even happening, she couldn't possibly go out for a drink with someone who could well be the father of Lauren's baby, even if he didn't know anything about it, she just couldn't. She wasn't sure what to say to him, it wasn't as if she could give him a reason because she'd just promised not to tell anyone and that would definitely include him, so "Sorry, change of plan M" would have to do. His reply almost made eyes sting, just a single letter "k" so that she promptly convinced herself that he obviously didn't care one way or the other, and why would he anyhow? She should just be glad he hadn't demanded answers.

"Maybe you should just tell 'im, I mean you don't know that he's not going to be thrilled do you? Or is it that you're not sure about, well, which one it actually is, cos I can see that could turn out to be a bit tricky"

"What do you mean, no, it could only be Smurf, I mean he said he was careful, I'll give him bloody careful, careful my arse and I know I shouldn't have said that ….. stuff … about Bossman and I'm sorry I did that now as things have turned out, but let's face it, wouldn't be a problem if it was him, would it?" Lauren looked at the appalled expression on Molly's face "But that's all it ever was, bollocks, nothing else, I mean you probably won't understand but it was just that I really, really wanted it to be true, but I never … he didn't want me, hard as that might be for you to believe" Lauren gave a weak giggle to show that she was joking … almost …. "And hard as it is for me to admit and hard as I tried to persuade him different" She sucked her teeth and did her best to sound as if she was joking "Bugger couldn't see what he was missing, could he? Still …. his loss" She started looking out of the window again "You know what? I always thought there was someone else he liked ….. "

"There could be, we don't know do we?"

"No I suppose not, but there was just something" She laughed "But I knew it weren't you, knew you didn't like him like that cos of Jamie"

"Shit"

"What?"

"Nothin'"

As soon as she could get out of the office without it looking dead obvious Molly slipped out to go to the Ladies, really hoping that Lauren hadn't noticed her taking her phone with her but she needed to send him another text and didn't want to answer any questions about who she was texting or why, and she definitely wasn't going to say anything about her and CJ, if there even was an her and CJ to talk about any more, something that she had massive doubts about. There was no phone reception in the bogs, something they all thought was a deliberate management move so that they couldn't sit in there for hours on end and chat on their phones or buy shoes or whatever, but even if her phone had worked she hadn't got a scoobie what she could possibly say to him. "Change plan back? M" certainly wasn't perfect but it had to do because she had brain freeze so couldn't think of anything else that didn't involve explanations.

There was no reply from him for over an hour so that she'd just about given up when he finally answered but it was then as short and sweet as his first one "?". She had to answer, even if she had to try and do it under her desk so that Lauren wouldn't start asking, and then hadn't a clue what to say so settled for "6 o'clock?" She was pretty sure that the whole thing was now a lost cause anyway.

-OG-

Not knowing if he was even going to show meant she chose to park her bum at one of the pavement tables, that way she could just get up and wander off all nonchalant if he didn't turn up and no-one would think that she'd been stood up. So she sat there and nursed a gold-dust cuppa and watched the street as if she was on some sort of under-cover police surveillance mission. She'd just begun to think of giving up because he was ten minutes late and he didn't strike her as the type of bloke who'd be late for anything. So after checking for messages one more time, because after all there was always a chance that war had broken out somewhere, she stopped watching the street and started to collect her stuff together, and then he was suddenly there looking a bit as though he'd been running. Not that he said anything but her immediate thought was that he looked tired and that he had stubble so that maybe he'd forgotten to shave or hadn't had time, but it was his expression that really made her chew at her bottom lip. His face was completely without expression, stern and without even a tiny little hint of any smile as he walked up and nodded and then muttered something about being held up as he indicated her cup with another inclination of his head.

"Tea?"

"Please"

She tried to smile even if his demeanour did make her shrink back in her chair a bit as she felt some of her gung-ho courage starting to seep away and then sat bolt upright as he came back and sat opposite. He looked as if he'd made an effort to relax while he was getting the drinks in but was still without any sort of smile for her as he crossed his leg and rested the ankle on the other knee.

"I take it that I'm forgiven for whatever it was I did?"

"Yeah, sorry about that, but not to worry I cancelled the cyanide sandwiches"

"Glad to hear it" She could see that he was suddenly struggling to keep a straight face so that his lips twitched which made her feel better "Are you going to tell me what that was all about?"

"I would but ….." She shrugged as she pinned a hopeful and tentative smile on her face, as much as she wanted she couldn't tell him anything, she'd made a promise and it wasn't her secret to tell.

"Oh don't tell me, it's a long story"

"Yeah is a bit"

"Why doesn't that surprise me? Tell me Molly, why is everything with you a long story?"

-OG-