"Lauren, Lo please I promise you I know nothing about this …" The baby was crying a very piercing scream, Joey was making no attempts to comfort her. "Lauren please, I have no idea what's going on, babe please" Joey was standing against the kitchen door.

"Don't babe me… you want answers Read the note" was all Lauren said her tone was harsh but Joey knew she was crying. Joey shuffled to living room and put the baby in the car seat, he stared down at her face, her bottom lip shaking. He read over the not that Lauren had screwed up on the table as she left the room.

Joey,

Meet baby Branning, 2 weeks old, born 9th December

She's your responsibility too, I've had enough, I don't want her and if you don't either then call social services, or whatever you want, Just thought you had a right to know you had a child.

Don't try and find me, I don't want you or her, she's your mistake. Not mine.

Hannah

After reading through the note Joey collapsed onto the sofa, his mind finally piecing together the situation. He knew exactly who Hannah was and was pretty sure that this was his baby. Shit. What the hell was he going to do, what did this mean for him and Lauren?

Lauren sat in the kitchen staring into thin air, why did the drama always happen to her, she really didn't want this baby to be his, but deep down she knew it was. The little girl looked like him, she had his nose and eyes and hair colour, the only thing that was different was her mouth. The minuets Lauren had spent with the baby, she had a rushing feeling go through her body. The feeling was now apparent more than ever , as she listened to the baby crying in the other room. She had been in the kitchen for a good half hour and there had only been a few minutes out of an entire thirty where the baby hadn't been crying. Joey was obviously trying to ignore the fact the baby were they, because Lauren knew if he tried he wanted to he would had settled her.

Tapping her fingers across the table she stood up quickly wiping the tears from her face. The chair scrapped across the floor as she vacated it with speed, walking at pace to the living room. The sight she saw when she walked in broke her heart. Sighing she walked over to where the car seat was and lifted the baby, once again holding her to her chest. Lauren bounced the child lightly and she seemed to calm. Joey was sitting staring at the floor his hands covering in his face hiding the fact he was crying. Slowly Lauren edged towards him. "Joey, what are you doing?"

Her voice was sympathetic and soft, which made joey cry even more, why was she being so nice about it? "She yours then?" Joey risked looking at her, although her voice was calm her face was pretty much a picture of hate, yet she was still holding and comforting the thing that was tearing them apart.

He nodded slowly at her "I'm pretty sure ye not 100% though … I'm sorry" Lauren sighed as Joey went silent again.

"Is that all you're going to say Joey, because I think I deserve a bit more of an explanation that I'm sorry" Lauren wrapped the baby in the blanket and still held her but now in her arms not against her chest. She was sleeping; a small smile crept to Laurens lips as the baby wriggled slightly.

"What do you want me to say Lauren ay? That I planned this all along, that I want this. Because I don't, it happened before I even met you and I didn't know anything about it." Joey got to his feet pacing the room.

"Do you know who this Hannah is? Or was she just a one night thing" Lauren asked, she didn't quite know what answer she wanted to hear.

"Yes I know her, I didn't love her but we were together, it was a one night thing but turned to more, she wanted the attention I gave it to her" Lauren nodded

"So what happened?"

"We didn't work out, she wanted more commitment I didn't we broke up about a month before I moved here. I wasn't with her when I got with you Lauren and I didn't know about any of this either." Joey nodded in the direction of the baby. "I love you Lauren, I don't want this to come between us."

"You think that's it Do you Joey? You just say you love me and then everything's dandy. No Joey you have a daughter, one that aint mine, you seriously need to think about this."

"There's nothing to think about Lauren, I want nothing to do with it" Lauren widened her eyes at him.

"Her Joey , she's a baby, not an It" Lauren tried to encourage him but her just turned and shouted.

"Ye someone else's baby not Yours" Joey ran his hands over his face, what had they done to get this.

Lauren stood and took a step closer to him, she held his gaze for as long as she would allow "She might not be mine, but she is yours, one parents already left her, don't you do the same"

Once again she pushed the baby into his arms "Lauren where are you going?" he walked after her watching as she grabbed her coat and bag from the hall.

"Home Joey, you need to figure this out on your own, I'll send Alice over she needs to be part of whatever decision you make, Please don't be stupid about this" .

Lauren closed the door behind as she left. Joey stayed staring at the empty space where the love of his life had probably just left him for good.

*J&L* *J&L* *J&L*

"Hello Darling I thought you were spending the night at Joey's?" Lauren leaned against the door frame in a world of her own. "Lauren?"

"Oh ye Sorry, Change of Plane, Is Alice till upstairs I need to talk to her?" Tanya nodded

"Everything alright?"

"Not sure yet" Lauren left the room heading up stairs, Max and Tanya shared an odd look before shaking it off as usually Lauren behaviour.

"Al, can I talk to you please?" Lauren put her head around the door, Alice and Abi were watching a film on the bed, she received a concerned look form Alice "Like now". She nodded quickly making her way to Lauren.

Lauren Grabbed her hand as soon as it was in reach "You need to go home, right now, something really serious has happened about an hour ago, Joey has gone into shut down mode and I have no Idea what to do"

"Alright calm down, I'll come, what's happened you're not pregnant are you?" Lauren shook her head and tears filled her eyes "Lauren, talk to me? What's happened?" Alice brushed her hand down Laurens arm as they stopped in the hall way.

"Joey got a Christmas present from Hannah" Alice's eyebrows furrowed

"Hannah what she want?"

"To give Joey his Daughter" Lauren looked at her biting her lip and stared deeply into her eyes.

"What?!" Alice screeched, Lauren simply nodded and dragged her from the house.

*J&L* *J&L* *J&L*

"Joey what the hell !" Alice bombarded through to the living room the baby once again back in its car seat Joey just staring across the room.

"He's been like that for ages, he won't hold her, look at her" Alice looked at Lauren and smiled slightly. Lauren however was once again drawn to the baby, weather it was the fact she knew this baby need some TLC or it was because she was Joeys Lauren had a rush go through her body again, this time stronger than ever. Her stare was broke when she hear the crack of flesh on flesh, Alice had surprisingly slapped Joey across the face, It seemed as though Joey had told Alice he wouldn't be keeping the baby.

"How can you even consider it Joey… we were raised without a Dad, you know how crap that feels, Hannah obviously don't want her, she grow a pair and step up, take some responsibility for once. Don't do this because of Lauren… No offence"

"None taken" Lauren shook her head she knew Alice was right; she'd tried to tell Joey herself.

"See… you need to think about her joey, don't stick her into some system because your too scared to step up." Alice looked at Lauren wanting some help.

"Look, no one's saying it will be easy Joey but the best thing you can do for her is take care of her? you can get social services around in the morning and they can give you options" Joey nodded seeming to have taking in what Lauren had said.

"What happens now?" he looked at Lauren, she sighed and smiled sympathetically at him.

"You sort your daughter first, everything else can come later" Lauren turned around and shut the door. She let out a breath and left.

"I've lost her aint I Al?" Joey looked at his sister

"No I don't think you have, she really loves you Joey but she's right you need to sort your daughter first." Joey nodded and stood up.

"I'm Going to bed" Alice looked at him and raised her eye brow nodding down to the car seat. Joey sighed and picked it up , very unwillingly.

"This is going to be a long night" Alice sighed as she walked out the room following Joey.

Throughout the night Alice had listened to the baby crying and was sure joey wasn't really doing much to stop her. Eventually she heard him go down stairs and the crying had ceased. Next morning Alice could hear the crying again, this time much louder and again Joey was ignoring it.

"Give her here" Alice opened her arms out and Joey didn't hesitate in giving the child over. He turned his attention to Alice "You know if you actually tried you might get better results".

"I don't really care Alice, the only person I care about right now is Lauren and she's not here"

Over at the no.5 Lauren was awake surprisingly early, her sleep interrupted by Joey. His face when she left, the desperation for her to stay was so evident but she couldn't do it he needed time. She really didn't know what was going to happen next and that scared her, once again her future as well as Joeys was uncertain. One thing she did know though was that Joey didn't know anything about babies; he was pretty much clueless on that front. A thought hit her head and she was rather proud of it. She first got dress cautious not to wake Abi and then proceeded down stairs.

She walked into the kitchen and sat at the table staring at her Dad with a pleading smile on her face fluttering her eyelids. Max looked up over his paper "Dad?" she dragged out the word in a way that only Lauren could, she actually sounded quite innocent.

"What do you want?" he closed his paper, "You're up before 9, your dress, and your using that puppy dog look, what do you want?"

Lauren smirked "I need you help… can you get all of Oscars old baby clothes and stuff down form the loft please? Like his buggy and stuff.

"Please tell me this isn't your way of saying you're pregnant Lauren" Max Groaned.

"No , Dad it's not, so will you please?"

"Tell me why first?" Lauren shook her head

"I will just get them myself you know if you don't" Max sighed and then relented

"Fine" Lauren hugged him

"Yay thank you! Can you get them now please?"

"Lauren its 20 past 8 everyone's still in bed"

"Didn't stop you the other week when you were getting the Christmas decorations down for mom did it ?" she raised her eyebrows as a smug look took to her face.

"Is this catch bully Max day or something" he walked out the kitchen and up the stairs Lauren following close behind.

"Not just today, every day is Bully Max day dad" she said with a giggle.

10 minutes later and they had pretty much everything of Oscars out the loft. "Right are you actually going to tell me what you want these for Lauren"

"Nope" She carried the last box downstairs to the living room and began routing through to find anything that was appropriate for a girl. A little later she had text Alice to say she was going over. She made her way to no.23 with 2 bags of clothes mostly white or neutral, a bag of toys and other baby essentials such as bibs and blankets and the pushchair. She had also got a Moses basket but would take that later. She gently knocked on the door; it opened seconds later with Alice holding the baby.

"Didn't cope to well then?" Lauren asked as she piled the bags down in the kitchen, Alice shook her head.

"He managed a feed in the night 'cus I heard him come down other than that she just cried most of the night, I went in and took her about 2 hours ago, he aint come down yet."

"That's a big no then, I managed to get you these for her, but it's not much"

"No Lauren, thank you, she has nothing, there was like half a pack of nappies and a tub of formula in the bag and that's it so all of this is really needed." Alice watched as Laurens gaze drifted to the baby, her face had a glow to it a motherly look. "Want to hold her?" Lauren nodded and took the baby straight away.

"Hi Baby girl… She's really cute" Lauren rocked her slightly watching as her eyes fluttered open.

"ye well she definitely don't take after Hannah, let's just say there want much under the make-up"

"Alice you can't say that!" Lauren chuckled slightly as Alice just shrugged and passed a bottle to Lauren.

"Sorry, I can do it if you prefer"

"No, it's fine, I don't mind" Lauren quickly took to feeding the baby "Has Joey given her a name?"

"Nope, and I called social services earlier" Lauren could see Alice had tensed slightly "They said, because joey is sure she is his, and his name is on the birth certificate, they can't do anything unless he wants her adopted"

"What did he say to that?" she wasn't quite expecting the answer Alice gave

"He said, if I was happy to have her hear then she should stay and that was it really, better than nothing I suppose."

Joey chose that moment to walk into the kitchen; his eyes froze when he saw Lauren feeding his daughter, "What are you doing here?" Joey added a smile to the end of the sentence knowing it had sounded more harsh than intended.

"I brought you some stuff round, you don't have anything and she's going to need more than one baby grow"

"Thanks" he watched as she winded the baby, and then passed her to Joey, she gave his shoulder a squeeze before leaving.

Shouting over her shoulder as she went "Name her Joey" .

He finally looked down at the baby, "What a mess ay"