Chapter 11.

It was almost two days before they were allowed to see Lauren. Max, Tanya and Joey drove there and they went into the waiting room. Max and Tanya went in to see her first. They were shocked by what they found. Gone was the brash, confident daughter to be replaced by a meek, frightened, quiet girl they barely recognised.

"Lauren?" Tanya said in concern as she sat down.

"Hi mum," she whispered as she looked at them both.

Max reached across the table and grasped Lauren's hands, squeezing them gently. "Are you okay, babe?" She nodded. "Now tell me the truth..." he said softly.

"I want to go home..." she said. "I don't like it in here, dad." Tears flooded her eyes and quickly flowed down her cheeks.

"Uncle Jack has spoken to the solicitor and there's a chance we might get a more lenient sentence." Tanya said.

"We? WE? It's me in here, no one else." Lauren hissed, exhibiting more of the Lauren they recognised.

"Lauren, calm down, babe." Max said to his daughter, squeezing her hands.

"Why didn't you tell us about Joey?" Tanya asked, needing to hear her side of what happened.

Lauren paled further at the mention of his name. "What was I supposed to say, mum?" she asked, "What would you have said if I'd told you back in June that the first time I saw him I wanted him. Even after I found out who he was." Tanya opened and shut her mouth, not knowing what to say, "What about how each time I saw him I fought how I felt so much and I was so miserable. I felt like there must be something wrong with me to want to be with my cousin."

"You could've talked to me..." Tanya said.

"No I couldn't. I wanted to. I really did but I just didn't know how to bring the subject up." She closed her eyes, "It's not a subject you can just start with a by the way, mum..."

"We know it can't have been easy." Tanya said.

"Easy! It's the hardest thing I've ever done. I was so scared. I thought you'd hate me."

"We could never hate you, babe." Max said.

"I wasn't so confident." She told him. "All I ever do is disappoint you both."

"So when did you get together?" Tanya asked.

"I stopped trying to fight it when I was doing that flyer for dad. I spent the day with Joey and it was the first time we'd ever really spent together, just the two of us. He made me laugh. He made me smile. He was easy to talk to. I liked spending time with him. It was the happiest I'd been in months. We worked well together as well." She glanced at her mum, "You saw us together that day, didn't you, mum? It was like there was this energy between us."

"So that was just over a month ago?" Max said.

"Yeah. It got pretty intense, pretty quickly but I think we'd both been fighting it for a lot longer than that."

"And you think you love him?" Tanya asked.

"I don't think. I know, mum. The last few days since I've not been around him, it's like part of me is missing."

"He's just outside, sweetheart. He wants to see you." Max said.

"How's he been?" she whispered.

"Upset. He's missing you as much as you're missing him." Max said, "Him and Alice are both staying with us now."

"Alice?"

"Yeah, I wasn't going to let her go back to Derek's."

"Derek?"

"He's been released..." Tanya said softly.

"He's what?" Lauren cried out, drawing the attention of several people around the room.

"It's okay..." Max said, brushing his thumbs over the back of her hands.

"It's not okay, dad." She lowered her head to the table, "Why's he at home but I'm here?"

"I don't know, sweetheart."

"Why don't we let Joey come in to see you?" Tanya suggested. "Would you like that?"

Lauren lifted her head and smiled, nodding her head. Her parents got up from the table and both kissed her gently and then walked out of the room. Lauren's attention stayed focused on the door they'd just left through. It opened and if this was a cheesy film, some soppy backing track would be playing in the background right now, building to a crescendo as they reached each other and kissed passionately. But this isn't a movie, this was prison and there would be no passionate kiss. Joey was staring at her and Lauren was staring right back at him. He was all she could see. She wanted to get up and lose herself in his kiss but she knew that wasn't allowed. Not the way she wanted to kiss him anyway.

Joey sat opposite her and they both stayed silent, staring at each other. "I miss you," he whispered.

"I miss you too."

His hand reached across the table and took one of hers in his, squeezing it gently. "I wish I could hold you in my arms..." he murmured. "I want to protect you..."

She made a decision as she stared at him. She was going to do the right thing. Again. "Don't Joey." She whispered, shaking his hands from hers.

"Lauren?"

"You're just making this harder..."

"Making what harder?"

"Letting you go."

"I don't understand..."

"We can't be together anymore, Joey." It was a snap decision but seeing him, seeing how much pain he was in, Lauren knew she needed to do what was right.

"Why not? We love each other."

"You're right, we do... but I can't..." She lowered her eyes, "We both know I'm going to prison and it could be for a long time. My solicitor doesn't sound very hopeful and we know the judge doesn't seem to like me so..." She took a deep breath. "I'm going to let you go. I don't want you to wait for me. You deserve more than that."

"Don't I get any say in this?"

"Joe, I'm going to be in here and you're going to be out there..."

"You said you loved me..."

"I do love you... that's why I'm doing this." She said softly.

Joey stared at her, deep into her eyes and he knew there was no persuading her to change her mind. He nodded and scraped his chair back, getting to his feet, "I'm not giving up on you, Lauren. You mean far too much for me to give up that easily... so this discussion is on hold until after the case. Then we'll talk again... I promise you." Joey bent down and kissed the top of Lauren's lowered head and then walked out of the room, shoving his hands in the pockets and keeping his head down.

Max and Tanya looked up, surprised to see him so soon. "That was quick..." Tanya said.

Joey shrugged, a scowl on his face. Max immediately got the impression something had gone wrong between his nephew and daughter but he knew Joey wasn't going to say anything, he could already see the walls firmly in place, protecting himself from who knows what.

A/N: Oops... that didn't go quite as planned, did it? Mmm, I wonder what's going to happen next. Send me a review and let me know your thoughts. Back tomorrow...