Here's today's chapter... yes that's right, only one today but you only have to wait until tomorrow. Enjoy!

Chapter 9.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay this evening?" Joey asked several hours later. Lauren had been quiet all afternoon once the police had left and he was concerned about leaving her. As much as he hated to, he knew he had to go to work.

"I'll be fine, Joe." She said.

"You've got my number if you need to speak to me for any reason?"

"Stop fussing..." she said, a small smile on her face to lessen the harshness of her words.

"Okay." He said, "I'll see you in the morning."

"Night Joe." She said.

*JL*JL*

Joey walked into R&R and of course, he bumped into Sharon straight away. She opened the door to the office and held it open for him. He walked through it, knowing he was going to have to tell her everything and hoping she'd keep it to herself.

"I need you to tell me what's going on, Joey." Sharon said as she sat at her desk. Joey stared at her silently, measuring whether he could trust her with the story. "It wasn't an optional question, Joey." She added when it seemed he wasn't going to answer her.

"I can tell you, Sharon... but I need you to promise me you'll keep this to yourself. No one must know what I'm about to tell you."

"Tell me and then we'll see."

"Not good enough." Joey said, getting to his feet, "I'll work this shift and then we'll call it quits."

"Joey! You don't have to go." Sharon said, backtracking quickly because he was a good barman and the customers liked him, "Fine. I'll keep whatever it is quiet."

"You'll tell no one?" He checked as he turned back to face her. "None of the family?"

"Yes." She agreed reluctantly.

"I take it you've heard the gossip going round the square?" He started.

"I heard some of it... what that's got to do with this?"

"It was me that found her." He said, "It was when I was leaving the club, on the way home."

"You found the woman?" Sharon gasped, that hadn't been what she was expecting to hear.

Joey took a deep breath and sat down opposite her, staring at her, "I found Lauren..." he said softly.

"It was Lauren?" Sharon said, "Tanya and Max never mentioned it to Jack..."

"They don't know. Lauren doesn't want them to know."

"But they're her parents...?"

"She's an adult."

"They deserve to know..." Sharon tried again.

Joey finally lost his temper, "They threw her out of the house, Sharon." Joey cried out, getting to his feet. He began pacing backwards and forwards across the office. "They had a row that morning and when Lauren started to walk out of the house they told her not to bother coming back. Then she went and got drunk and..." He stood with his back to Sharon, his fists clenched and the tension running through his body. He needed a release and there was no other way to do it, so he pulled back his fist and punched the wall, over and over until he felt Sharon's hand on his shoulder.

"Joey..." she said calmly.

He leant forward, his forehead resting against the wall as he almost sagged in defeat, "She was raped, Sharon." He whispered. "Five men cornered her on the tube and raped her repeatedly. She couldn't get away from them and as if that wasn't enough they beat her. She's got a broken arm, a chipped bone in her wrist, and fractured collar bone and cheekbone. She also has broken and cracked ribs. She went back to the house and the door was locked and bolted. Max and Tanya turned her away."

"Where is she now?"

"She's at my flat... She didn't want to go home and she needs someone to look after her." He told her softly, still leaning against the wall. He was suddenly very tired and all he wanted to do was go home and check Lauren was okay.

"Oh my god..." Sharon suddenly gasped, drawing Joey's attention.

"What?" Joey said, turning to look at his boss over his shoulder.

Sharon studied his face, seeing the tears in his eyes and the emotions clearly evident on his face. "You love her."

"She's my cousin."

"You love her." Sharon repeated, knowing it was true.

"I can't love her, Sharon." He whispered, scared to look at Sharon now. How could she know when he'd only just realised himself?

"Why not?"

"Besides the fact she's just been raped by five men and the last thing she needs is a relationship with someone like me? Okay, how about the fact she's my cousin. Her dad is the brother of my dad so the family will never accept us being together. Oh and I'm pretty sure she doesn't feel that way about me anyway."

"The family would come round." Sharon said, "I think you'd be good together."

"Do you think so?" The hope on his face made her smile as he dropped his previous protests.

"I do." Sharon walked away from him and sat back at her desk, "Did anyone ever tell you about my husband?" she asked him.

"The one who died?" he asked her gently.

"Yeah." Sharon smiled as she thought about Dennis.

"No. I've heard his name mentioned but I don't know anything else."

"Dennis was... well I was adopted by my parents when I was three. I grew up in Walford and lived through my parent's tumultuous marriage, my own first marriage but I left in my twenties. When I was much older I came back to the square and I met this man who took my breath away. We fell in love with each other even though we knew we shouldn't and we knew it would never be accepted." She paused and looked at Joey, "Dennis was my dad's son. He'd had an affair when I was young that resulted in Dennis being born." Joey was shocked by what she'd told him, "So I've been in your situation, Joey. Okay, Dennis and I weren't related by blood but we both had the same father. And my dad really didn't accept it at all. In fact, he pushed us apart and made us both miserable. Then we started seeing each other in secret and we knew it was right. We didn't care what anyone else thought, we loved each other and we eventually got married and I fell pregnant with Denny."

"I never knew..." Joey said softly.

"I know. Most people round here don't know or choose not to remember." She smiled at him, "I'm not trying to push you into a relationship with Lauren, I'm just saying if you really feel that way about her and you think there's a chance she might feel the same way, don't let what anyone else thinks about it put you off."

"Isn't it illegal or something?"

"No, I don't think it is." Sharon watched Joey absorb everything she'd just told him. "How is Lauren?" she asked softly.

"Numb more than anything. She's upset and she's in a lot of pain. She had a bad dream last night. She's remembering bits and pieces of what happened. We both gave statements to the police earlier. I heard what she told them and it almost killed me to hear her say it. I want to be there for her but I'm not sure she's going to let me do that."

"I think she will, Joey." Sharon noticed the time, "Are you going to be okay to work tonight?"

"I can't let you down again..."

"Joey, if you think you should be with Lauren, then you should be there."

He was tempted but at the same time he realised Lauren needed some time to herself too. "No. I'm okay to work. I told her to phone me if she had a problem." Joey said. "I'd better get down there and start prepping."

"The others are doing it." Sharon said, "If you want some time off over the next few days you should take it. Be there for Lauren when she needs you."

"That would be good, Sharon. I can work if you have any parties like tonight. I don't want to leave you in the lurch."

"Okay. So you work tonight and then you're off until the end of next week. Does that sound okay?" Joey nodded, "If a booking comes in I'll get in touch with you and we'll work out the details then."

"Thanks for everything, Sharon." Joey said, "You won't tell Max or Tanya will you?"

"I don't know, Joey. It doesn't feel right to hide it from them."

"I called Max when I was on the way to the hospital with Lauren. I told him I was calling about Lauren and he told me it could wait till the morning. He hasn't called me back. I told him I was calling about his daughter, who he knew hadn't come home and he wasn't interested. Even if he hadn't wanted to know then there's been nothing to stop him asking me about it since but I've heard nothing. Not a thing, Sharon."

"They really should know... She's their daughter."

"Don't you think I know that? I know exactly who she is, believe me and I know they should know but Lauren doesn't want them to. I think she thinks they'll tell her she deserved it. I promised her I wouldn't tell them. I need you to make the same promise, Sharon. I need to know I can trust you with this." He looked down, "I know I'm asking a lot to ask you to keep it from Jack and everyone and I will try to convince Lauren to talk to them but I need some time to do that."

"Okay. We can discuss this again when you come back to work." Sharon conceded and Joey went to start his shift.

TBC

A/N: So what do you think? Did you like Joey's mini-breakdown and realisation? Will Sharon keep her promise? Send me a review and tell me what you thought...