Sorry its taken so long to get this up Guys, i had a change in idea of how i wanted this to go so i hope you enjoy :) unfortunatly it is the last chapter xxx
Over the next few weeks Hope had returned back to her happy go lucky character happy to be around a familiar face. Lauren cautiously left the house with Harry and Hope. She and Alice were having a girls day and were leaving the kids with Tanya. "Hope tell Auntie Al what Nanny said you can do"
"Nana say, we make cakes" Hope held tight to Alice's hand as they walked across the square towards number 5.
"Wow aren't you a lucky girl… are you going to bring some home so me and Mommy and daddy can have some?" she shook her head and then whispered
"Only you" Alice laughed as Lauren rolled her eyes
"Oh cheers Hope… me and daddy not getting any then" again she shook her head, Lauren went to knock the door but hope stooped her.
"Me do it pease" she moved in front of Lauren and knocked on the door "nana, we here"
Tanya opened the door scooping Hope into her arms "Good Morning How's my little princess today?"
"I'm fine thanks Mom" Lauren said pushing Harry in.
"I was Talking about Hope" Lauren rolled her eyes at her mother's seriousness
"I know mom I was Joking, Right H is asleep, bottles in the bag, Don't let her have too many sweets… we wont be too Long"
Tanya began shooing Lauren out the door "Go have a nice day!"
"Be a good girl for Nanny" She kissed Hopes head and then softly ran her fingers through Harrys hair "Look at him out for the count… see you later"
Halfway through the day Alice and Lauren were almost shopped out, Lauren had ended up buying more things for the kids even though she had gone for herself. They were sitting having coffee when Laurens phone rang.
"Alright Mom?" she sipped her coffee as she picked up the phone
"Lauren have you and Alice been back home?" the concern was so evident in her voice Lauren was quite worried.
"No why what's happened… Mom talk to me?" Tanya was silent down the line before Lauren almost screamed "Tell Me what the hell is going on!"
"You need to get home as quick as you can Hope's missing" Lauren didn't give room for any more explanation, she slammed the cup on the table grabbing her bags speeding off to the car park. Alice was in quick pursuit, calling Joey on the way having heard the conversation. Lauren started the car screeching around the exit at lightning speed.
"Joey… Listen to me You need to get to Tanya's now, Hopes gone missing, me and Lo are on our way back…I think it could be… she's been unwell recently Joey, who knows what she's capable of"
Arriving back at the square Lauren and Alice ran into number 5 finding Tanya talking to the police. Joey was holding Harry close to him and opened his arm out to Lauren, which she eagerly ran into. Her head buried into his shirt as the built up tears final spilt.
The police officer thanked Tanya for informing them and placed his hand on Laurens arm "Mrs Branning we will find your daughter" her smiled weakly at her "Please contact us if anything changes" they nodded before he left.
Lauren was still clinging tight to Joey, his shirt fisted in her hand. Joey wasn't sure if she was even paying any attention to what has been said. He cautiously handed Harry to Alice, him silently asking to leave them alone a while.
The kitchen door closed quietly "Come on baby". Still holding to Lauren, Joey pulled out a chair at the table and sat down guiding Lauren onto his lap. It was a while before Lauren had calmed enough for Joey to try talking to her. "The police are on the job baby, Tyler and Fatboy are out looking too, son's your mom."
"This is Hannah were talking about Joey… do you really think it's going to be that easy as to have few people looking for her, and then she just hands my baby back no Joey…. Hope's going to be so scared, you know how she's been the last few weeks, she's only just started to leave us again"
"I know baby, we will get her back, in the mean time we have a son who I think wants his Mommy" Joey smiled softly as they walked back to the living room.
"Hey H, Look Mommy's here now" Alice handed her crying nephew over, his crying ceasing as soon as he was with his mom.
The next few hours were tortuously slow; the police had told Lauren and Joey to remain at their house in case they needed to contact them anytime. Lauren glanced at the clock, seeing at was 10 o'clock. Nearly 10 hours Hope had been missing, and every hour that passed felt more and more like a dagger through her heart. Joey was in the kitchen making coffee for about the 400th time. The kettle boiled as the phone rang. He left it a second thinking Lauren would answer but the tone continued to ring.
He jogged to the lounge to see her staring into thin air, sighing he answer the phone and sat next to Lauren, he pulled her closer to his side knowing she needed some form of comfort. "Ok we'll be there as soon as we can thank you" He looked at Lauren nudging her slightly "They've found Hannah, we need to go to the station, she wants to see us"
His eyes met hers as they glistened with tears "I just want my little girl back Joe"
Arriving at the station they were guided into an interview room. Joey held tight to Laurens hand, knowing she was worried about what was to come and he knew her mind was drifting to Harry who they'd had to leave with Alice.
The door opened and a male in a suite came in, he was dressed smart and looked like he meant business. This reassured Joey slightly, as least they weren't getting some newbie who had no clue what they were doing. " Mr and Mrs Branning, My names DCI Jones, Ive been the lead investigator on your case." He shook hands with both Lauren and Joey and then indicated for them to sit.
"About an hour ago, one of our uniformed teams located the whereabouts of Miss Atherton (Hannah). Our officers managed to gain entry to the flat where she was under the pretences of door to door checking. On entering the flat we were informed that Miss Atherton had a child with her, our officers have identified the child as Your daughter"
Lauren let out a cry half of fear half of relief they knew where she was at least.
"Because of the circumstances and the unstable nature of Miss Atherton, our officers have had to approach this with the least possible disruption. We have an officer who specialises in these cases on the scene and she had been able to get Miss Atherton to admit to abduction your daughter. However, Miss Atherton is refusing to release your daughter, which is why we think you two should speak to her. She had agreed to speak to you Mr Branning but we want to send in Mrs Branning First with the hope that Miss Atherton will see the effect it is having on you"
"Yes that's fine, whatever it takes I'll do it."
"Ok then… I'll alert our other team to say we are on our way"
The pair stood outside the flat door waiting for the go ahead from the officer inside. They had been told what they needed to say and what to do and had also been given two code words one to say she had Hope in her arms the other to say she needed help. The officer nodded at Joey.
He knocked on the door before speaking "Hannah it's Joey… do you think you can let me in" there was a long extended pause before they heard the locks on the other side of the door. It seemed as she was very fragile and the officers inside were playing to Hannah's requests. The door opened slightly so she could see Joey. As it closed again Lauren was edged forward and the door opened fully. As she'd been instructed Lauren forced her way in and shut the door behind her.
Hannah's face thundered as she saw Lauren, which seemed to send her slightly mad. She began pacing the room holding Hope in her arms whispering words under her breath. "You're not meant to be here… it was meant to be joey… me and Joey and Our daughter." Lauren could see how upset Hope was, and it just made her even more determined to follow this plan through.
"I just want to talk to You Hannah" Lauren stepped forward slightly which edged Hannah nearer the kitchen area. Lauren noticed that there were two uniformed officers seated at the table. "Girl to girl, no one else involved just me and you" Hope was wriggling strongly in Hannah grasp and was holding her arms out to Lauren.
"Mommy" she was crying over and over, Lauren crumbling a little more at each word.
"Why won't she shut up! I'm your Mommy not her!" Hannah was practically shouting at Hope, she walked further into the kitchen and downed the glass of wine on the side. "You can go now… bye Lauren"
"not until I've got some answers from you" she raised her eyebrow at Hannah who scoffed at her and held up another glass of wine
"Cheers" she nodded towards Lauren before gulping that glass down too. "Go on then ask away"
"Why do you want Hope, after all this time…? Why now?" she didn't reply "Ok how about this one then… why did you leave her?"
Hannah rolled her eyes her speech becoming slightly slurred " oh Lauren, Precious Little Lauren… you got it all mapped out for you aint you… nice little house, little car, husband , kids… your just perfect aint ya? But not all of can be like you can we… some of us have Fucked up Lives… she's just another thing I fucked up on, and your just another thing in my way "
"Perfect life… you have no idea about my life and trust me sweetheart its far from perfect, but I cope, the difference between me and you is that I fought to get through my problems and mistakes you just ignored and abandoned yours and left it on my door step, so excuse me for being "in your way" because I'm doing what's best for my family"
Hannah laughed " she's not your family, you might be married to her dad but you aint her mom, you didn't give birth to her, she's not got your DNA- thank god" Lauren stared at her remaining silent " you can run along back to joey and your actual child and get on with your life, but remember Joey will always want me, I'm the real mother of his child" Hannah knew right now she was getting to Lauren and chose to carry on pushing but Lauren remained silent. "oh Hit a nerve their aint I , worried Joey's going to see sense and come running back to me ha-ha Lost for words now aint we ? thought you wanted to talk?"
Lauren took a deep breath " I'm done talking to you" Lauren turned her back moving towards the door freezing when Hannah spoke.
"Finally, Bitch gets the message… Have a nice life" Lauren turned to face her a slight smirk on her face.
"Oh no I'm not leaving, I aint going nowhere, so you're in for a long night" she sat on the edge of the sofa seeing Hannah tense slightly. "You do know this is illegal right, that taking a child form it's parents is illegal, having a child suffering whilst in your care is Illegal"
"No no It's not illegal" Hannah spoke again almost trying to convince herself that her actions were sane.
Taking a more sympathetic approach now Lauren stood closer to Hannah "It is Hannah, they will take you to prison"
"But I'm, her mom" she cried , which triggered more tears from Lauren
"No, no you're not, Hope's legally not yours, she hasn't been since she was 6 weeks old, all of your rights as a parent were given to Joey, he had sole custody Hannah. I've raised Hope as my own, and she is, I have all rights that you would have had, me and Joey have legal guardianship of her, on Paper, medical records and in the eyes of the Law I am Hope's mother" Hannah continued to shake her head heading further away from Lauren. She swiftly turned stepping out onto the balcony Lauren gasping as she neared the edge.
The two uniformed officers who had been close behind Lauren were on their feet taking charge of the situation informing the DCI outside what was happening.
"Hannah Listen to me, don't make this worse than it already is… don't listen to that voice in your head, you can get Help Hannah, Just hand Hope to me" Hannah once again shook her head and pulled Hope closer to her, the wind throwing her off balance slightly. "Come on Hannah, if you really want what's best for Hope, give her to me"
Hannah looked over the edge of the balcony and slowly extended her Arms to Lauren. She moved quickly retrieving Hope from her arms. Hope instantly snuggled into Lauren her cries subsiding slightly. "Hey baby, It's ok ive got you"
"Mrs Branning…" the one officer guided her out of the flat straight into Joey arms.
"Oh Baby, Hello Beautiful," Joey kissed Hopes head and pulled her and Lauren close to him. "You had Mommy and Daddy in such a panic"
"Daddy" Hope clutched to his arm "Home pease"
A few hours later after giving statements and being informed Hannah had been charged and was also being assessed under the mental health act they finally returned home.
"What a day" Joey looked at Lauren who was holding a sleeping Hope in his arms "We're going to be fine baby I promise you… this is it for us now, just us four."
Lauren nodded to him placing a kiss on his lips "I wouldn't want it any other way baby" she stood and placed herself in the chair rocking Hope gently. Her eyes stared to close slightly "Oh it may not be just four of us though… try 5"
Joey furrowed his brow before realising what she was saying… "Bloody hell Lo… are you pregnant again?" her one eye opened and looked at him before giggling.
"No, I just wanted to see your face" she laughed causing him to drop back on the bed
"You'll be the death of me Mrs Branning" he looked back up to her when she didn't respond after about 5 minutes. He saw her eyes firmly shut, and in that moment he realised every little part of his life was a mistake… Hope, Falling for Lauren, Harry but they were all his beautiful Mistakes and they definitely didn't need correcting.
Just want to say a massive thanks to all you lovley readers for your wonderful reviews they really make the writing worthwhile so thank you ! Also if anyone has any ideas or thoughts on a know i have lots of free time now and am lacking inspiration xxx