13th May 2013. Well after a brief delay, now that everything seems to be up and running again, I thought I'd post the next chapter. You might even get more than one today... although the next one won't be posted till after I get home from work. Enjoy! I guess it's time to tell the parents then...

Chapter 45.

Max and Tanya stood at the door on the Saturday afternoon. Oscar was between them with a huge smile on his face when Joey opened the door. "Good to see you guys." He said with a smile, "Come in."

"Laur!" Oscar said, barrelling into his sister when he saw her coming down the stairs.

"Hey, little man... you'll have me off my feet." She told him with a chuckle. He held his arms in the air as if he wanted her to pick him up. "You're a bit big for me to be lifting you now, little man." She grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the lounge. "Come and sit down with me. I've got a present for you..." she told him. The rest of the family followed behind the pair, seeing the brother and sister sitting on the couch. Lauren gave him a wrapped gift and watched eagerly as he tore off the paper.

"Wow, Laur. This is cool." He said as he found a large sketchpad and some paints inside.

"Why don't we go and get you sorted out to do some painting, eh? I think Auntie Lesley would like you to paint her an Oscar original..." Lauren said with a smile and Oscar followed her eagerly out of the room. She came back a few minutes later. "He's painting in the kitchen." She told them. She sat back down, next to Joey. She picked up her handbag and dug around inside. She pulled out what she was looking for and held it out towards her dad.

"What's this?" he asked, looking at her.

"Take a look..." Lauren said.

In his hand was a card and he opened it slowly, a large smile appearing on his face when he saw what was inside. "Lauren?... Joey?" he asked.

"It's baby Branning, about 12 weeks baked..." Lauren whispered.

Max was at her side and hugging her tightly in seconds, "Well done, babe." He murmured to her.

Tanya was looking at the picture now, "Is everything okay, Lauren? The doctor's given you the all clear?" Lauren nodded. Alice looked at the picture over her shoulder, smiling at her brother and sister-in-law. Tanya glanced at Lesley, "You knew, didn't you?"

Lesley shared a look with Joey and Lauren. Lauren nodded slightly. "Yes, I did." She said softly.

Max hadn't missed anything that had just happened, "What's going on?"

"I had a bit of a scare about a week ago..." Lauren whispered.

"A week ago?" Max said, frowning. "You mean after Derek..." his words faded and his hold on Lauren's hand tightened slightly.

Joey hugged Lauren against him, kissing the side of her head. "I was in a lot of pain the next day and we went to the doctor. She checked me out but I wasn't bleeding at all. I had to rest for a few days, take it easy and the cramps were gone the next day." She told them softly.

"Why didn't you tell us then?" Max asked softly.

"Because I was scared there wasn't anything to tell." She looked down, "I thought I was losing our baby... how was I supposed to tell you that?"

"Mum guessed something was wrong. We were both upset and she wouldn't accept my answer of 'we're fine' when she asked."

"They told me after they'd been to the doctor's and I looked after Lauren the next couple of days while Joey had to work."

"And everything's okay now?" Tanya asked softly.

"Yes. We had our 12-week scan on Wednesday and the doctor did loads of tests and said everything looked fine."

"So when's baby Branning due?" Alice asked.

"Towards the end of February." Joey said. He kissed Lauren gently, his hand resting on her stomach protectively.

"We've spoken to the police about the Derek situation too." Lesley said. "I won't have him hurt our children anymore. Enough is enough." Her voice turned angry as she spoke of her ex-husband.

"I guessed as much. They came to speak to me about the incident last week." Max admitted.

"The policewoman said she would be speaking to Uncle Jack and Whitney too. They spoke to Joey the day after I spoke to them." Lauren said. "I also mentioned to them about what happened last year and they were going to contact Walford police station to look at their records of his arrest."

"We heard from them yesterday. They've placed a restraining order on him. He's not allowed within a hundred feet of the four of us." Lesley said. "He will not harm our grandchild."

"I don't know where he's living since Carol kicked him out," Max said.

Tanya got up from her chair and knelt in front of the couch and her daughter. She hugged her tightly. "I'm so proud of you, sweetheart." She told her softly. "Have you seen your consultant?" she asked her.

"We saw him on Wednesday too and he said that pregnancy seems to agree with me. There's been no change since the last tests." She smiled at her mum, pleased that for once she was telling them good news.

"Oh, Lauren... I'm so happy for you both. I know how much you wanted this." She cupped her daughter's face and stared into her eyes. "If you ever want to talk about anything... or if you're worried about anything, you come to me or Lesley, okay. We've been through what you're going through now. We know what it's like... and what to expect."

"I'm scared, mum." Lauren whispered.

"Of what, sweetheart."

"That something will go wrong." She admitted.

"Darling, the doctor told you everything was fine. You should be enjoying this time." Tanya said, "Don't worry about something that hasn't happened."

Lauren giggled and glanced at her dad. She saw the look of confusion on her mum's face. "Dad told me that when Joey was in hospital... when I first went to see him." She looked at her mum, "I could do with going to get some new clothes..." she told her, "Some of mine are getting a little tight. I'd like to get some things that will grow with me, if you know what I mean?"

"We can certainly do that, darling." Tanya looked at Lesley, "Why don't the two of us and Lesley go shopping one day this week?" Lauren nodded. She had hoped this would increase the bond she had with her mum. "So how long have you known?" she asked.

Lauren blushed. "Only about five weeks." She looked at her mum, "I went through the last round of tests when I was pregnant."

"I thought that was dangerous?" Max asked.

"It is... I didn't know I was pregnant."

"We found out a few weeks after she had her tests in June." Joey said. "Her consultant referred Lauren to a friend of his in March when she had a bit of a meltdown in his office. Lauren went to see the doctor then and she examined her and said everything was fine."

"I was putting too much pressure on myself to get pregnant and she told me it would affect my chances of conceiving."

"Is that why you went to New York?" Max asked.

"Yeah, partly. Both of us were stressed out about it and had forgotten what we were trying to achieve." Joey said. "I wanted to do something nice for Lauren's birthday too."

"It didn't work though... I still wasn't pregnant." Lauren said. "I tried to do as the doctor had said but each month was so hard." Lauren whispered, getting visibly upset. "Every time my hopes would raise. And I'd think I was pregnant so I'd do a test but all I ever got was negative results." Tanya wiped away her daughter's tears gently. "I'd done two tests that both came back negative but should have been positive. One at the end of May and one again the day before I went for my tests in June... so I had no idea I was pregnant. When I found out and I realised what had happened, I felt so guilty. I thought I'd caused some harm to our baby and I was devastated." Without realising it, Lauren's hand was resting on her belly and she shifted closer to Joey.

"So how did you find out?" Lesley asked.

"When I saw the doctor in March she'd said to me that if I still wasn't pregnant in four months, we should both go and see her and she'd do some tests to make sure nothing was wrong." She reached for Joey and took his hand in hers. "We went back to see her. Things between us were about the worst they've been and that was my fault. I felt like I'd let Joey down; that I'd let everyone down and I was a failure as a wife." She whispered.

"Never, baby girl." Joey breathed in her ear.

"The doctor did tests that she'd done on me before and then she came back with this machine that scared the crap out of me." She glanced at her dad, "Sorry dad, you're really not going to want to hear this... it was an internal ultrasound machine. We still didn't know then what she was looking for. Then she turned the screen and showed us our baby..." she looked at Tanya, "Oh, mum, it was amazing. I mean, it didn't really look like much of anything apart from a blob but it was our baby." Tanya hugged her gently, "She said I was seven or eight weeks pregnant. I've had a couple more scans since then and each time it gets more amazing. It actually looks like a baby now, with arms and legs and everything."

"Something you're trying to tell us?" Max asked, smirking at his daughter.

Joey picked up what he was hinting at, "No. We don't know if it's a girl or a boy." He looked at Lauren, "And we're not planning on finding out. It doesn't matter to us which it is... as long as it and Lauren are both healthy – that's all that matters."

Lauren shifted on the couch, "Call of nature..." she murmured, trying to get to her feet. She sat back down quickly, shaking her head.

"Lauren?" Joey asked her, putting his arm around her.

"I just stood up too quickly, baby... just dizzy for a second."

"You sure?" he asked.

"Positive." She said, getting to her feet again, slower this time. She walked out of the room and went up to the toilet. Joey watched her leave the room in concern, a frown on his face.

"It's fine, Joey, I promise." Tanya said, "It's just one of the many joys of early pregnancy..."

"You're sure."

"Absolutely." Tanya said, "Don't worry, she will know if something is wrong and she will tell you. This is too important to both of you for her to try and hide it."

TBC

A/N: So did you like the family's reaction? Back later...