Lauren sat down on the sofa as Joey saw their parents and Lucy out. She closed her eyes and leant her head back against the sofa.

'Hey are you tired babe?' he asked her as he came into the lounge

'Yeah' she nodded

'Why don't we go to bed?' he held his hand out to her and she smiled with a nod of her head and took his hand, he pulled her up and he led her towards the stairs turning off the lights as she went. He went up the stairs first and Lauren held onto the bottom of his t-shirt as she followed him. Joey let her use the bathroom first as his things were still in the bags that he brought back earlier. She only took twenty minutes, she came out of the bathroom wearing one of his t-shirts and she walked over to the bed and she got in.

Fifteen minutes later, when Joey returned to the bedroom Lauren was already asleep. He climbed in to the bed and he stared up at the ceiling, the events of the day running through his head.

Lauren woke up at 3:00am and she got up she went downstairs. She made a coffee and took it into the lounge and she put the cup down on the coffee table, flicking on the lamp and she pulled out the photograph albums she sat on the sofa and she started to look through them.

'Lauren?' she looked up when she heard Joey call her name

'Hey'

'What are you doing up?' he asked her

'I woke up and I was thirsty' she told him softly 'and then I was started looking through the photograph albums' she said as she closed the one that she was looking at put it on the coffee table

'Yeah?' he asked her 'do you want some more coffee?'

'Please' she nodded

Joey made them both another coffee and came back into the lounge. 'It's a little cold in here babe' he said and he walked to the fireplace and he out some logs on it and he lit it, before he sat down next to her, He pulled the blanket off the back of the sofa and he wrapped it around both of them.

'Is it really over?' she asked him 'Between you and her?'

'Yes' he nodded 'and nothing happened between me and her, nothing physical. I promise' he told her and she licked her lips with a frown 'you don't have to worry about her'

'Are you sure?' Lauren looked at him 'I mean if you wanted to be with her…'

'She paid me attention and I found her attractive and I was flattered' he told her

'Was it because I wasn't paying you attention?' she asked him

Joey shook his head 'No it wasn't anything that you did or didn't do' he told her 'the way I felt for you never changed'

'But if you were willing to risk our marriage to be with her, they must have done' she said 'I know we haven't had sex in a while and I've been moody and tired…'

'It wasn't about that' Joey said 'I didn't go looking for someone else' he told her softly 'It was….it was nice to spend some time with someone else, different than being with you'

'Better than being with me?' Lauren asked him

Joey shook his head 'No not better' his fingers grazed her cheeks lightly 'It's hard to explain…I know what I did was wrong, I made a mistake in hiding my friendship with her from you' he told her 'I should have arranged for you to meet her and maybe we all could have been friends' he said licking his lips 'I think you would have liked her'

'Now we'll never know' Lauren said 'Is she going to cause us problems?' she asked him

'I don't think so' Joey said shaking his head 'At least I hope not' he told her

Lauren sighed 'Are you happy with me? Because I don't want you to stay with me just because I have a brain tumour' she told him 'and I could lose this baby too' Lauren licked her lips 'Things could get worse than they have been' she said 'I have my parents and your mum and Lucy and the kids, you don't have to stay because you feel like you some sort of obligation to me'

'I do have an obligation to you' he told her 'A legal one remember?' he asked her 'You have given me 4 beautiful children and we have another one on the way and nothing is going to happen to this one, She is going to be beautiful and healthy'

'We don't know that Joey' Lauren shook her head

'I do. I feel it' he said softly 'She's a fighter and she's special, like her mum, like Hope. And I love you. This is where I want to be. I had a momentary blip that's all. I know I have a lot to make up for Lauren and I swear that I will. I made a huge mistake and I hurt you. I couldn't see that I was doing anything wrong until mum made me question whether or not I would be happy if it was you who was seeing someone else that I didn't know about' he told her 'And thinking about it I knew that I wouldn't be happy, and that I would have gotten just as mad as you did with me, maybe even more so' he said and he reached out and he picked up her left hand, he frowned

'Where are your rings?' he asked her

'I took them off when I went out with Lucy' Lauren told him 'They're in my handbag' she licked her lips 'A guy asked me out on a date' she said 'He's 27 and has a 3 year old son called Adam, recently divorced…we were supposed to have dinner Wednesday night'

'Oh' Joey said quietly 'Are you still planning too?' he asked her

'Don't you think things are complicated enough?' Lauren asked him 'I'll text him tomorrow and tell him that I can't make it' she said

'Is that all that you are going to tell him?'

'Maybe I want to keep my options open' Lauren replied

'Okay I deserved that' Joey said with a nod of his head

'I am really sorry Lauren you do know that right?' he asked her and she looked at him

'I know' she nodded 'but if you ever cheat on my Joey then its over' you don't get any more chances. I am not going to become my mother always taking you back because I love you, no amount of begging is going to make me change my mind either'

'I know that' Joey nodded

'Do you?' Lauren looked at him 'I'm being serious here Joey. One time is all it's going to take and I'll divorce you and we'll be over'

'I understand' he said 'It's never going to happen I promise you'

Lauren sighed and she nodded 'Good. Because I love you so much Joey' she whispered

'I love you too babe' he murmured softly and he raised her hand to his lips and he kissed it softly. 'Maybe when all this is over we could go to Brighton, get away?' he asked her

Hope had come downstairs to get something to drink, she paused in the doorway hearing her parent's talking.

'Maybe, but it's going to be a while before all this is over' she told him with a sigh 'and it's not going to be easy'

'We can handle it' he told her 'As long as we are together'

'I hope so' Lauren said softly.

Joey frowned 'You don't think that we will?' he asked her

'I don't know Joey, I just …I don't know' she told him softly 'Right now I'm not certain of anything. Well there is one thing that I'm certain of'

'What's that?' he asked her

She sniffed as tears filled her eyes 'I'm really scared Joey' she told him 'I'm really really scared, I don't want to leave you or the kids'

'Baby you won't… come here' he pulled her into his arms and he held her tightly. 'I am not going to let anything happen to you do you hear me?' he asked her 'We are going to grow old together. We are going to live to a ripe old age, we will be surrounded with our children, their children and their children's children' he told her 'we are going to die together wrapped in each other's arms' he told her firmly 'Remember we both promised that to each other'

'I remember' she told him softly

'You are the love of my life Lauren, my soul mate, my best friend, my lover, the mother of my children'

'And your cousin' Lauren said 'You missed that out'

Joey chuckled softly 'and my cousin' he told her 'and we proved Derek wrong too didn't we hey? We didn't have any two headed children'

Lauren giggled softly 'That's true' she nodded

'Come here' Joey pulled her back to look at him, he cupped her face in his hand and he moved forward and he kissed her gently. 'We should go back to bed' he told her

'Can we sleep down here?' she asked him 'make a bed in front of the fire?'

'We can do that' he said 'I'll go get the pillow and duvet' he kissed her again and headed for the stairs. He thought he heard Hope's bedroom door shut, but his thoughts were on his wife downstairs.

AN: Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Work has been … horrendous and busy and at times overwhelming and I haven't been sleeping well and not really been in the mood to write.

I am hoping to get back on track with updates this week…..

Thank you for all your reviews

R&R as always