27th April 2013. Surprise... a third chapter for the day because I wanted to start the next part of their story. Now I'm sure you're eager for me to skip the six months and get straight to the baby making but there are some things they need to sort first so although there is a time shift in this chapter, it's not the full six months.

Chapter 23.

Joey and Lauren settled into a happy life. Lauren got involved with her art again, agreeing to do an exhibition of some work for a small gallery in a trendy part of London. She was particularly excited about this as there was the possibility of selling the work and making money from it. So she was busy for the coming weeks as she had to do the pieces for this show, refusing to use any of her work from her college show as they were too personal and she didn't want to sell them.

Lauren spoke to the police about what Derek had done to her and while they were sympathetic, they could do little more than caution him... so he was released with a warning. None of the family who cared about Joey and Lauren was particularly pleased by this but there was little they could do about it. It was something they just had to live with and Lauren just hoped another situation didn't arise. As much as she wanted Derek to be punished and to disappear from their lives, she didn't want her own health to be risked again.

Oscar spent his first day with the couple and the three of them went ten pin bowling and then for some pizza afterwards. Lauren watched Joey interact with her brother and it filled her heart with joy to see the two of them getting on so well. It also confirmed for her that Joey would be an amazing father... when they got that far. Oscar had been practically unstoppable and had been so excited to be spending the night with them, sleeping on a camp bed in their room, that it was worth the impact it had on their sex life to see his face when he saw where he would be sleeping. It was almost worth being woken up at six in the morning by a slightly hyperactive six-year old too – although they both moaned about it a little bit, outwardly at least. Secretly they both loved how much he was enjoying his time with them.

Going back to their baby plans, Lauren had her first check up since stopping taking the medication. She had the full range of tests and then went with Joey to see her consultant and get the results. Both were a little anxious to see how the effect of her not being on the medication would impact her condition. Lauren guessed that if it was too bad her consultant might put the kybosh on the whole plan and make her go back on the drugs. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. She hoped she never had to face the situation because there was a very small part of her that was prepared to take the risk and sod the consequences but she was pretty sure she'd meet a fair amount of resistance from some pretty important people in her life if she was to do that.

Fortunately she was saved from having to make that choice. While there had been a slight decrease in the function of her heart with no medication it was still within acceptable tolerances and therefore there was no choice to make. Her consultant did want to see her again in about six weeks times and assuming everything was okay at that time, her check-ups would revert back to the three month cycle – at least until she fell pregnant.

Joey's physical therapy had also now stopped. He'd recovered as much use as he was ever going to achieve after his stroke. Most of the time you wouldn't be able to tell there was anything wrong. It was only if he was overtired you could really tell and even then he hid it pretty well. Lauren had made him promise to always tell her if he was struggling though. He would never hide it from her. This agreement went both ways, she'd promised him she would tell him if she thought there was something wrong with her health. So far she'd hadn't had to say anything to him, which pleased them both.

Lauren was busy working on her art so she could get it all out of the way before Joey's birthday. She was planning on spending some of her winnings from college to take Joey away for a short break. Now that there was the possibility of securing some income from her art she had decided to spend a bit of the money she'd won. Some of it had gone on art supplies; she'd brought herself a nice easel to use and some good quality art boards to draw on. The rest of it she was planning on frittering away. The art show she'd been commissioned for was two weeks after his birthday so with any luck she'd sell all of her pictures and make more than enough money to save for their future.

Lauren was making plans for their future. It wasn't something she'd spoken to Joey about yet but she was thinking things through. One of those plans was his birthday and she was getting all the preparations into place. Once that hurdle was crossed she had another list of things she wanted for them both but for the time being they were on the back burner. When the time was right she'd speak to Joey about them.

Living with Joey's mum and sister was really great. There wasn't any of the pressure that had surrounded her when she lived in Walford. Since moving in with them Lauren had felt so much lighter. For the first time in her life she was truly happy. That wasn't to say she didn't miss her family. She did. She spoke to both her parents practically every day and normally, once a fortnight, her parents and Oscar would come over and spend the day with her and Joey. At other times she would make the short trip over to Walford, spending time with her parents, both individually and together.

The only person she didn't see was her sister. Nothing had changed with regard to that and Lauren couldn't see it ever changing. She didn't even really care if it did. She wished, for her family more than herself, that it would but she was realistic enough to know her sister wouldn't be changing her mind about this. Obviously she also tried to make sure she never saw Derek either. So far she'd managed to avoid any direct contact with him, having only seen him from a distance and those times she'd never been on her own so she hadn't had to face him. She knew there would come a day when she wouldn't be quite so lucky but she'd cross that bridge when and if it happened.

*JL*JL*

Lauren and Alice were going shopping with Joey's mum. They were getting some things for Joey for his birthday and Lauren was going to sort out a last few things for their weekend away. Currently Joey had no idea what she had planned, other than knowing they were going away somewhere, so he could organise the time off work.

For the past few weeks Joey would quite often walk into the house and find the women in his life having muted conversations which stopped as soon as he entered the room. He'd have taken exception to this if it hadn't been for the fact he was so pleased by it. For two reasons, firstly he was pleased to see Lauren was getting on so well with his mum and sister and secondly he could see how happy Lauren had become since she'd moved into the house.

The three women left the house and headed for the nearby shopping centre. The previous evening they had booked the weekend away for Lauren and Joey, including flights. Lesley had insisted she put some money towards the trip, despite any protests from Lauren and as a result the room they'd booked was nicer than the one Lauren was originally intending to get. On their last visit Max and Tanya had also given Lauren some money, in lieu of the fact she was no longer living with them, so Lauren now had a nice sum of cash that she could spend on Joey for his birthday.

They spent the morning organising some smaller items for Joey from each of them. Then after lunching together Alice had gone off on her own to get her present for Joey while Lesley and Lauren had gone to go and get the rest of Joey's presents. Lauren had also clued Lesley in on her plan.

"Do you need to do any other shopping, Lauren? Clothes or anything?" Lesley asked after an hour or so.

"Yeah, a few bits and pieces..." Lauren admitted, her face reddening as she thought of what she wanted to get. How do you go lingerie shopping with your boyfriend's mother exactly?

Lesley smiled as she saw Lauren blush and decided she's take sympathy on her. "I've got some things I need to do as well so why don't we split up and meet Alice like we organised earlier?"

"That would be great." Lauren said, smiling broadly. She hugged her quickly, "I'll see you in a while then..." She was gone before Lesley could say anything else to her.

Lesley didn't actually have that much to do so she went to get a coffee first. She wanted to absorb the conversation she'd just had with her son's girlfriend. It had come as a bit of a surprise. A good surprise though and she had a feeling her son would be pretty stunned by it as well. She smiled slightly as she tried to imagine her son's face. She just couldn't do it. She was so pleased to see her son so happy with his life. She remembered how miserable he'd been at Christmas and she was really pleased he and Lauren had managed to work out their problems. She wished they hadn't had to go through some of the issues they'd faced. She was still surprised by Lauren's sister's attitude to their relationship and she knew that Derek would always remain a problem for them but she was pleased they were together. She loved how different her son was since he'd met Lauren and she was looking forward to when she became a grandmother for the first time. She'd seen how Joey and Lauren interacted with Oscar and in her heart she knew them having a child together would be the making of her son. She wondered if he knew how good a father he was going to be.

*JL*JL*

The three women returned home that night and Joey found them all sitting in the lounge, exhaustion written across all their faces. Lauren's face glowed as she looked at him and she moved towards him and hugged him tightly. "You okay?" he asked her softly. She nodded her head against his shoulder. "Want to come upstairs?" he whispered. He saw her smile and took that as a yes, lifting her off her feet and hearing her giggle as he carried her up the stairs.

"I could've walked, Joe." She told him.

"You seemed tired..." he answered, with a cheeky grin.

"Not too tired..." she breathed in his ear.

He laughed loudly as he swept into their room, shutting the door loudly behind them and dropping her on their bed. "Prove it..." he whispered to her as he lay beside her.

She smirked at him, "If I must..." she replied, before doing just that.

*JL*JL*

Lauren lay beside Joey, his body was pressed behind hers and his hands were brushing over her in a lazy manner, "So did that meet your satisfaction?" she asked him softly.

"Always does, baby girl."

"Good to know, Joe." She smiled as she told him that.

"You going to tell me what you've all been whispering about for weeks yet?"

"Nope." She said, turning her head and giggling when she saw the pout on his face. She leant forward and kissed him softly, "Not going to work, Joe." She told him.

"When do I find out?" he asked.

"In a couple of weeks..."

"So it's something to do with my birthday?" he asked. She nodded her head, turning her head back away from him. She couldn't look at him now... it would be too tempting to give in and tell him everything. "I think I can wait a little longer then..." he breathed into her ear.

"Patience is virtue, Joey..." she said with a smile.

TBC

A/N: So what do you think Lauren has planned? Where do you think they are going? Back tomorrow...