Lauren raised her eyebrow a look of disgust on her face, "So you're the heartless cow that left a two week old baby on my doorstep in the middle of winter" Lauren saw Hannah's face pale "Obviously a yes then" Lauren scoffed and shook her head.

"What do you want Hannah?" Joey stared up at the biological mother of his daughter, his voice as merciless as her actions 5 months ago.

"I've been doing a lot of thinking recently; I'm beginning to think I made a mistake. I want contact"

Lauren let out a laugh but hope dropping her toy caught her attention.

"No way! She's got nothing to do with you, you have no say in Hopes life, cus you aint part of her life and never will be, anything to do with Hope is up to me and Lauren, understand?"

Hannah laughed slightly before bending down and started to talk to Hope "Aww, your such a Cutie" Hannah started tickling Hope causing her to cry slightly. "Oh dear me"

"can you leave my daughter alone please" Lauren stood up, at her full height she was taller than Hannah. As soon as Lauren stood, Joey was by her side protecting his girl.

"Thing is though, she aint your daughter is she Hunnie"

"you better watch what you're saying hunnie" Lauren stepped forward causing Hannah to move out the way of Hope.

"Oh, truth hurt does it … she aint yours, you didn't give birth to her, I have a connection with her"

"oh please, Just because you gave birth to her don't mean you're a mother, Lauren is Hope's mom end of. You aren't there to hold her at 3 in the morning when she's crying because she's got a cold, your aren't there to comfort her when she's tired and wants no one else but Lauren, you aren't there when she's had injections and needs holding but again only wants Lauren." Joey had wrapped his arm around Laurens waist and was holding her slightly to the back of his body. Hope was now screaming and Lauren went to pick her up. "go on Hannah she's crying, you see if you can deal with her" Lauren was slightly taken back but let Joey continue.

"Hey Hopey, shush now shush" Hannah was holding her, but hope was having none of it, she was attempting to wriggle her body over to Lauren. Her cries getting louder and louder with each second she wasn't where she wanted to be. Eventually Hope was so far out of Hannah's arms Lauren had no choice but to grab her.

"it's alright baby… Mommy's got you, its ok" Lauren held Hope tight to her body, rocking slightly, within seconds Hope was quiet, her head on Laurens shoulder.

"See… Its Lauren, she wants , not even me … she you leave us alone…"

"I have rights you know Joey"

"that's where your wrong … you have no rights at all, after you abandoned her, I contacted social services and given the circumstances she was left , you no longer have any parental rights, I hold the parental rights for the both of us." Hannah's face dropped dramatically "I'll leave you with that little bit of Info Hannah… come on babe" Joey tugged on Laurens sleeve pushing the pushchair out of the door.

Once back on the square Lauren and Joey settled at the park, for a day in May it was pretty warm, and since they didn't eat in the restaurant they had decided to get chips.

Walking into the chippy, they saw Lucy was serving. "And the day Just gets better" Lauren sighed leaning back into Joey. Joey scoffed and pushed her forward slightly. "Two cones of Chips please Luce" As far as Lucy was concerned Lauren and Joey were never meant to be together, a baby just heightened her dislike for them, she like the rest of their friends and most of Walford only knew Hope as Laurens baby, Luckily her and Joey had spun the story quite well so they were believed. Hope also looked a lot like Joey in the sense she looked a Minnie version of Alice but with darker hair. Hannah, although she was blonde had naturally darker hair, so Hope's hair was dark, a combination of Joeys darkness gave her a pretty similar shade of hair to Laurens.

"I'm sorry you had to meet her" Joey gently whispered into her ear as they sat on the grass in the park, Hope happily sitting in Laurens lap watching the activity around her.

"It's ok, It's a good job hope was there, I was seriously close to slapping her" Joey laughed

"Now that would have been something to see… I was thinking about something though"

"Go one…" Lauren turned slightly so she could see his face; she frowned seeing he had a slight smirk

"Well, when she said that Hope wasn't you daughter , it dawned on me that you don't have any legal rights, you are her mom and you should have, So… I was thinking we should apply for you to legally adopt Hope, so you'll have the same rights as me"

"Really?" Joey saw the shock in her voice reflected in her eyes…

"yes Lo, If in the unlikely case anything happens to me, Hope needs her mom and right now that aint on paper"

"You know what I think anyway, she's my daughter, always has been always will be, to have it official on paper is just the icing on the cake" Joey kissed Lauren as Hope giggled watching them. Joey lifted hope up lightly tossing her up and catching her again, causing a beautiful laugh to fill their ears. Lauren watched, when had her life ever been so good ?"

I will update this a little later also going to be updating Life without you… what lies in store for them now ? Will Lauren be allowed to adopt Hope ?