Joey took care of the washing and the groceries. He looked in the freezer as he tried to decide what to cook for their dinner. He smiled as an idea came to him, he would cook them the same meal that he first cooked for Lauren.

He glanced at the clock, he had time to make everything if they ate late. The first thing he needed to do was make the chocolate mousse as it needed time to set.

At 3:30 he had finished and he smiled to himself.

He had taken Lauren up a sandwich at 1:00pm and she was asleep, when he checked on her again she was still asleep, but she had obviously woken up and eaten the sandwich at some point.

He heard the kids come in just as he was chopping up vegetables for his dinner with Lauren.

'Hey dad where's mum?' Sophie asked him as she went to the fridge and grabbed a soda.

'She's in bed asleep' he told her 'Have you got any homework?'

'No I did it in the library during my free period' she told him

'Is mum okay?' she asked as Hope, Connor and James came in 'are you and mum okay'?'

'Your mother is feeling a little under the weather' Joey said to them 'and yes you're mother and I are fine' he nodded 'How do you fancy takeaway for dinner?' he asked them all

'Really?' James smiled 'I could murder a pizza, Soph?' he looked at his twin who was smiling and nodded

'I have been having wicked cravings for pizza all day' she told him

'So you two want pizza. James? Hope?'

'Chinese' Hope said

'Curry' James replied

'Okay. Joey pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and he caught sight of a picture of Lauren that he had had in his wallet for years, he smiled at it and Hope peered over his shoulder.

'Is that me?' she asked him

'Nope. That's Lauren' he told her 'she must have been about 19 or 20 when this was taken'

'She hasn't changed much' Hope said to him as Joey pulled out some money

'No, no she hasn't' he said with a smile.

'Mum was asleep on the sofa when I came in last night' Hope said to him

'She couldn't settle so she came down here for a while, fell asleep' Joey said as he handed Hope the money 'Take your mother's car and go round the takeaways. In fact you can take Connor and James with you too' he said 'Experience Hope's driving for the last time, because when you come back your car privileges are gone.

'But why daddy?' Hope frowned confused

'Because your mother came downstairs after 1:00am and your curfew is midnight which means if you saw her asleep on the sofa then you were over an hour late' Joey told her matter of factly 'after you come back from getting your dinner, you are grounded for a month, no phone and no car and you do the all the washing up for a month too'

'But daddy!' Hope exclaimed

'If you want I can add no WIFI?' Joey asked her. Hope frowned and sighed

'No. Fine' she said to him 'Come on' she looked at her brothers.

'Can I go say hi to mum?' Sophie asked him

'No, she was still sleeping when I checked on her earlier' he told her 'maybe later hey? I wanted to have a little chat with you'

'Oh?' she blinked at him

'Yeah' Joey nodded. 'Let sit down in the lounge' he told her, she followed him into the room and she sat back on the sofa as Joey perched on the edge.

'What's up dad?' she asked him

'Lauren found something when she was emptying the bins upstairs, specifically in your bin that she was concerned about, that we are both concerned about' he told her and he reached into his back pocket and he pulled out the pregnancy test and he put it down on the table in front of her. She stared at it. 'Sophie, are you pregnant?' he asked her

'No' she shook her head

'But you took a test, so you must have thought that you were' he said

'I did, but it came back like that so I got another one and it came back negative'

'Doesn't mean that you are not pregnant' Joey told her 'Lauren took plenty of pregnancy tests that we both thought were positive and negative but there weren't. These things aren't 100% accurate no matter what it says on the box'

'I'm not pregnant daddy' Sophie said 'I took the tests last week'

'So is there a reason that you think that you're not pregnant?' he asked her 'Have you got your period?'

'DAD!' Sophie blushed bright red 'I'm not talking about this with you'

'Yes you are' he told her softly 'Sweetheart, I asked you a question. Have you got your period?'

'Yes' she nodded 'It started three days ago' she told him squirming in her seat feeling awkward and embarrassed.

Are you sure?'

'Yes I'm sure! Can I go now?' she frowned at him

'No we're not done yet' he said to her 'how long have you been having sex?'

'Dad!' she exclaimed again

'You know this is either going to go two ways, either you start talking to me or I'll call your boyfriend, Shaun Silvers, is that his name? And he and I will have a little man to man chat' Sophie covered her eyes with her hands 'So what's it going to be Soph hey?' he asked her

'It was 8 weeks ago and I only did it once' she told him

'It?' Joey asked her 'And what exactly is this "it" that you did?' he asked her

'Daddy please…'

'If you are old enough to be having sex then you are old enough to talk about sex' he told her

'Can you stop saying that word?' she frowned at him

'What sex?' Joey asked her 'Why?'

'It's embarrassing talking about this with you. I'd rather talk to mum'

'Well you're out of luck because as I said your mother is sleeping' he told her 'And I can assure you that I know just as much about sex as your mother does' he licked his lips 'So I'll ask you again…'

'It was one time daddy and I swear it's not going to happen again' she told him

'And what does Shaun say about that?'

'I don't care what Shaun says about it, we broke up' she told him

'You did? Why?'

'Because he wanted to do it again and I didn't' she told him with a frown.

'So you broke up with him?'

'He broke up with me' Sophie told him

Joey nodded 'So why don't you want to have sex again?'

'Because'

'Sophie…' Joey sighed

'Urgh! Okay all right! Because it was horrible and uncomfortable and it hurt… a lot' she told him

'Oh' Joey said fighting back a grin of relief 'I see'

'And besides I'm only fifteen and….I want to concentrate on school and my friends' she told him

'So why did you decide to have sex in the first place?' he asked her

'I don't know, Hope said she's done it lots and she likes it'

'Does she now' Joey said feeling the relief he felt earlier ebb away 'So if Hope told you that it felt good to put your hand in the fire would you?'

'No' Sophie said

'And if Hope said that it was good to eat those really big chillies would you?'

'No' she repeated.

Joey nodded 'Good' he told her 'You are a bright young girl Sophie, you have a bright future ahead of you. You don't want to ruin that by getting yourself pregnant do you?'

'No' she shook her head and her eyes filled with tears 'I was so scared daddy!'

'I know you were' Joey told her 'Come here' he held his arms open and she moved into them 'Promise me that when you start thinking about having sex again that you come and talk to me or mum okay? Maybe we need to make an appointment for you to go on the pill?'

'No I don't want to go on the pill' she shook her head 'I am never ever going to have sex again. I promise!' she told him

'Good' Joey said softly and kissed the top of her head 'Because me and mum are far too young to become grandparents'

'Do you like sex dad?' she asked him

'Yes' he told her truthfully

'Why?' she asked him

'Do you really want to talk about my sex life with your mother?'

'GOD! No!' she exclaimed 'It's bad enough that I know that you and mum had sex at least 4 times that resulted in me, James, Connor and Hope' she told him

'At least 4 times' Joey said with a smile. He hugged Sophie tightly 'Next time anything like this happens…'

'It won't dad … but I promise that if it does I will talk to mum about it'

'God girl' he said with a smile

'So are you going to ground me now?'

'Do you think you need to be punished?' he asked her 'because I don't' he told her shaking his head 'you've punished yourself enough don't you think?' she nodded 'you are forbidden from dating again until you are at least 27' he told her, she laughed against his chest. 'Why don't you go wash up for dinner, your food will be here soon'

'Okay. Thanks daddy' she said and she smiled kissing his cheek. 'Love you'

'Love you more baby girl' he replied with a smile. She left the room and he let out a sigh of relief and picked up the test, he dropped it into the waste bin in the kitchen, washed his hands and then started to chop the vegetables again.

AN: So how do you think Joey handled that conversation? And is Hope in even more trouble?

How will the dinner go he is cooking for Lauren?

Thanks for your reviews

R&R as always