"Morning Lauren," Joey whispered as I turned over in bed and opened my eyes. He was lying there, fully dressed and looking at me expectantly.

"Is it still morning?" I asked.

"Barely. Eleven forty-five."

"God," I sighed, yawning slightly, "Why are you still here?"

"Took the day off to make sure you were doing ok," he replied, "How's the head?"

"Still hurts a bit, but not nearly as bad as yesterday. I think I'll manage."

"That's good."

"You don't have to take the day off," I said, looking over at Joey.

"Not trying to stir up more trouble, but I thought I should be here."

"Oh. Right."

"Let me go make breakfast and then we'll get this talk out of the way? Move on?"

"Yeah, thanks," I sighed, pulling the duvet to my chin as I stretched out.

To be honest I had no idea what he was going to say, or really what was going on anymore. Apparently we'd been bitterly fighting before my accident, which was news to me since Joey made it seem like things were rosy and perfect.

After a cup of coffee and some pancakes I sat on one of the sofas in the front room, still in my pyjamas and anxiously awaiting Joey's explanation.

"I didn't rehearse anything," he said nervously.

"Ok…"

"I guess I want you to know that I was never going to let things get so horrible that we'd break up," he said.

"You told me that last night."

"I know, but I just wanted to reiterate."

"Right."

"I think…" he started, his eyes trained on the floor, "Our whole fight was over nothing."

"Ok…"

"We both said when we got married that we wanted to wait a few years before we thought about starting a family," he explained, "Enjoy each other's company and everything. And then this whole pregnancy thing came about and we both shut down a bit. I think we both secretly wanted it to be positive but were too afraid to say anything to the other."

"What?" I asked, sliding forward in my seat as he explained.

"I know it sounds a bit out there, but that's how I felt. I so wanted it to be positive and then when it wasn't I was so disappointed. But I didn't know what to say to you, because we'd agreed to wait. I didn't want to freak you out so I just kept it all internal. And then things sort of blew up."

"And we started fighting."

"The fights started because we were avoiding each other, avoiding the conversation if that makes sense."

"Sure."

"And then it just spiralled out of control," Joey sighed, "The day of the accident was the absolute worst."

"Why?" I asked, "What did I say?"

"Nothing," Joey shrugged nonchalantly, "It was just awful because I knew I didn't want to be fighting with you. You're my soulmate Lauren, and when I found out you'd been hurt I was literally freaking out. I didn't want to lose you knowing our last words weren't maybe the nicest. It was so awful."

"You said…"

"It was the worst day of my life. And I vowed then that no matter what it took I was going to fix this and get it back to normal," he sighed, "But then the memory thing."

"Hey you're doing well."

"I don't' know…"

"I'm going to get my memory back," I said, touching his knee gently, "We've both said that it's bound to happen, and from what the doctor said yesterday my body is reacting positively."

"It's just been so long," Joey sighed, "I want you to remember everything so badly."

"I'm trying."

"I'm not trying to make you feel lesser or whatever, I just really want you to be on the same page as me, to remember everything."

"Joey, I promise you I'll get my memory back."

As I said this I watched Joey smile faintly, his fingers twitching slightly as they tried to figure out what to do.

"I found something yesterday."

"What?" I asked, watching him get up suddenly and go to the bedroom. Seconds later he was back with two books in his hand, "What are these?"

"More sketch pads," Joey said

"Really?"

"They were in one of your bags. I think you left it here the last time we came, probably not on purpose."

I flipped through one of the pads, smiling as I saw it full of bright sketches of our time in LA on the pages. When I got to the end I opened the second sketch pad, surprised to see mostly blank pages.

"You haven't finished that one yet."

"Clearly," I said, stopping on a page with lots of scribbles and cross outs, "This is really dark."

"Yeah well, we were fighting," Joey said, "And you always said that the sketches sort of reflected our relationship."

"I must have been pretty annoyed," I laughed, showing him a page that was practically black.

"Like I said, I think it was nothing," Joey said, "You were secretly mad at me for not wanting a baby and I was mad at you for the same. But because we never talked we were just mad for no reason."

"Well, I know I'm not in any right state to defend my feelings or anything, but I've got to think you're probably right," I said.

"And there's not much we can do about it now," Joey concluded.

"No."

"Can I ask just one thing?" he said.

"About what I said last night?"

"Yeah. Did you mean it?"

"I know this has been a total rollercoaster and we're still trying to figure out where we stand with one another, but I do love you Joe. You've stood by me and taken care of me and dealt with my bullshit. I can't ask for anything more."

"I loved hearing that," Joey sighed, stretching out in his chair. I flashed him a kind smile and then stood up from the sofa.

"Now let's see if these sketches will give me any memories," I said, going over to the desk. I set up the books in order, starting with book two which I'd brought over from London. I needed to see it all in one. Or what there was at least.

"We need book one," Joey sighed, as I finished, "It's not complete without it."

"I know, but how do we get it?"

"No idea," Joey said, "I guess I can call around to your old school and see if they have it anywhere. Maybe you turned in a copy? We'll get to the bottom of it, as a team. We'll find the missing piece of the puzzle and get your memory back."

It sounded crazy, that this book of sketches was the key to everything, but with how things were going maybe it was?

Joey and I spent the day in the apartment, going through books, making phone calls, and sending emails. Somehow this sketch had become some sort of symbolic key to my memory, the pair of us determined to find it somehow.

"I'm sorry Joe," I sighed, "My head hurts too much to keep this up."

"Go rest," he replied, his laptop on his lap, "I'll send a few more emails."

"Don't stress out too much over this," I sighed, patting his shoulder as I passed him, "Another day isn't going to change much anymore."

"Just trying to help," he said.

I went into the bedroom and climbed into bed, my head really starting to hurt again. I knew the doctor said it was normal, but I was seriously hating it at the moment.

Fifteen minutes later the door clicked open and Joey slipped in, "Mind if I join you?" he asked as I caught his eye, "I didn't sleep much last night."

"Why not?"

"Worried," he shrugged.

"Climb in."

I watched him wander to his side of the bed and pull up the duvet, slipping into bed next to me. Grimacing as my head throbbed again I twisted around to look at him, his brown eyes staring right at me.

"Is this really hard for you?" I asked him quietly.

"You've asked me that before," he said.

"I know, but things are different now."

"A little," he said, "There's limits right now, whereas before there really weren't. While when we weren't fighting."

"What would we have done on a day like today? Before I mean?"

"Well…" Joey started, his eyes looking towards the ceiling.

"Be honest."

"I don't want it to sound awkward."

"I'm curious," I prodded, "Tell me in as much detail as possible." Joey rolled his eyes as I said that, knowing I didn't actually want to hear all the detail.

"We probably would have slept in," Joey said, "And then had a leisurely shower…."

"Together?"

"Probably," he smirked.

"Ok," I said quietly. I sort of had caught on that we were pretty open with each other, and that sort of thing would have been really normal for us. But I still wasn't ready to ask more questions than that.

"And then we would have walked down the street to get some sort of lunch or breakfast, depending on the day and time."

"Why depending on the day and time?" I asked.

"Americans love brunch," Joey said, "But they really only eat it on the weekends."

"Brunch? Like breakfast for lunch?"

"Yeah. We both love it."

"It sounds awesome," I said.

"And they usually have bottomless drinks," Joey smirked, "On more than one occasion we took advantage of that to our detriment."

I laughed as he said that, intrigued by the idea. "Will you take me for brunch while we're here?"

"Course!"

"Ok, then what?" I asked with a smile, plodding on.

"Then we probably would have lain by the pool for a while. A bit drunk mind you. And then we would have had an afternoon siesta. Then gone for a meal somewhere romantic and quiet."

"Yeah?"

"Before things blew up we were really good just the two of us," Joey said, "I know you don't want to hear my exaggerations, but it's true. We could spend days together and not get bored."

"That's impressive."

"On our honeymoon we spent two entire weeks together, hardly talking to anyone but each other, and when we were done we came straight back here to LA and were crammed in a tiny hotel room and got on fine," Joey said, "Although, that's when you put your foot down and said we should buy a place."

"Why?"

"You were tired of coming here with me and getting some impersonal hotel," he said, "You wanted somewhere comfortable and familiar since you spent so much time at home sketching while I was at work."

"So we got this place?"

"It took some convincing on your part but yeah."

"I like it, it's a good investment."

"You're right," Joey said, "And we let friends and family use it when we aren't here. It sits empty a lot, but we get enough time out of it."

"And it was super nice to arrive and have some of my stuff here. Not that I remember the stuff, but there was a drawer full of clothes and some art stuff."

"Yeah," Joey said, "It's kind of become a storage locker."

I grinned at him as he said this, comfortable in our conversation. He was totally right, we were really good when it was just the two of us.

"You wanna go for a meal tonight?" Joey asked, "Like another date or something."

"Date night?"

"Yeah."

"Sounds good," I smiled, "I am going to sleep now though."

"It's early yet," Joey said, "Sleep to your heart's content."

I grinned at him, slipping a hand around his waist and cuddling into his chest. It was warm and comfortable to lay with him, and soon he'd wrapped an arm around me too, the pair of us drifting off to sleep.

A good two hours later Joey woke me up. "If we don't get up now we're going to totally throw off our sleep schedule."

"Yeah," I groaned sitting up, "I'm starving."

"Get dressed and we can go find dinner," Joey said, "I have an idea."

Back later with the date :)