Chim - Freedom When I'm With You

* Chapter Twenty One *

Kimberley's POV:

Me and the girls decided to settle down a for a bit and have a movie afternoon. We've watched 13 Going on 30 and we've just started Bridget Jones Diary. Cheryl text me about half an hour ago to let me know who's was on her way back and I can't wait to see her.

I can hear hear her car pulling up in the drive way as the tyres crunch against the gravel and my stomach is doing somersaults.

"Calm down Kimbers! You'll blind her with your teeth when she walks through the door!" Sarah cackles.

"Oh shut up you!" I say swatting the back of head.

I hear her putting her key in the door and she enters closing it softly behind her. We all wait for her to walk into the living room.

"Fooking hell! I didn't expect an audience!" She says laughing and sitting down on the arm of the sofa next to me.

'"You alreet?" She asks.

"Yeah babe, we've just been having a movie afternoon haven't we girls?"

"Aww sorry I missed so much of it! I was longer than I thought I would be." She says frowning.

"Don't worry about it there will be lots more I'm sure."

"Well that's good because this one will have to be cut short... Hillary's on her way over." She announces.

"Ugh..." the rest of us grunt in unison.

"What for?" I ask.

"She thinks we need to release a statement, there's a lot of things in the papers and it's only right we put the story straight."

"Fair enough." I mutter loud enough for them all to hear.

"Who wants a drink then?" Nadine asks. 

We all raise our hands together indicating that we all want a cuppa and just as Nadine goes into the kitchen the door bell rings.

"I'll get it!" Sarah shouts getting up off the rug and making her way to my front door.

"Queen Hillary!" She says sarcastically bowing to our manager in the doorway.

"Hi girls." She says walking in and dumping her bag on my table along with copies of all the papers from the last week or so.

Both Cheryl and I glance over to them and look back at each other. Cheryl goes over and flicks through a couple and sits down at the table rubbing her temples.

"This is an absolute nightmare." Hilary announces.

Nadine and Sarah enter the living room with the drinks, passing them around to everyone including Hillary.

I look over at Cheryl and she's sitting there very quietly taking a lot of deep breaths and before I can say anything she shoots up and runs up the stairs.

"I'll go." Nicola says, following in her footsteps.

"What's that all about?" Hillary asks.

"I'm not sure, I think it's all a bit much to handle." I say truthfully, the last week has been horrific to say the least but Cheryl has been putting up with this for years.

I get up and slowly hobble over to the table and read the headlines on the newspapers.

'Battered Cheryl arrives at the hospital!'

'What has happened to the Nations Sweetheart?'

'Ashley and Cheryl's love triangle involving band mate Kimberley Walsh!'

And then I read the most recent 'Ashley Cole arrested!'

Shit, we need to release a statement and fast.

Nicola hurries back down the stairs, "She's just been sick." She informs us all. "She's just cleaning herself up and she'll be down in a sec." We all nod and wait patiently for her to come downstairs.

She comes back down and smiles weakly at us all and takes a seat next to me at the table that we've all moved to sit around. I rest my hand softly on her thigh to let her know I'm here for her.

"So? What on earth has been going on?" Hillary asks.

I see Cheryl shuffle slightly in her spot and I know she's uncomfortable to I speak for her.

"Well for five years or so Ashley has been physically, emotionally and sexually abusing Cheryl-" I start explaining everything to Hilary whilst the rest of the girls listen to this story again. I go into a little more depth than Cheryl did with the girls previously because this statement needs to be announced correctly and can only be done that way if Hillary knows the whole truth.

After about fifteen minutes of me exposing things and Cheryl chipping in when she can we come to the end of the story. Hillary sighs... "well, I'm going to be honest... I didn't expect that.' She says and I catch Cheryl looking down at her lap for what must be the hundredth time since Hillary got here.

She pulls out her laptop and starts typing, "on Monday this will need to be tweeted from both of your personal accounts, the Girls Aloud socials and will more than likely be printed in the newspapers." She tells us.

She's typing quite aggressively and I can only imagine she's as angry at Ashley as the rest of us have been. We all wait patiently for her to finish and sipping our second cups of tea placing the mugs in the middle of the table when we're finished out of the way.

I feel Cheryl grab my hand under the table and I give it a little squeeze and smile at her. "Should we tell her?" She mouths at me and I shake my head as squeeze her hand back.

"Right it's done." Hillary says, leaning back in her seat whilst we all huddle around her reading the screen over her shoulders.

We are here to set the record straight and announce publicly that Cheryl and Ashley Cole are going their separate ways. Over the coming weeks the allegations against Ashley will be announced and these will include; physical abuse, emotional abuse and sexual abuse towards Cheryl. Cheryl is currently speaking with her solicitors and is staying with Kimberley Walsh who is recovering from surgery which occurred during an altercation with Ashley. Both are recovering from their experiences and we ask that you respect their privacy at this time.

"What do you think?" She turns around and looks at us all. I look at Cheryl "is it ok with you?" I ask her.

"Yeah." She mutters.

"Ok then it's fine with me." I say and the rest of the girls agree too.

Hillary hangs around for a little while longer and advises us that the next few weeks will be tough which we all already know.

"Well girls, I'm sorry that we had to meet on these terms but if any of you need me just get in touch."

"Thanks for your help Hils." I say walking towards the door to let her out.

"Its no problem Kimberley, it will be released at 9am. If there's anyone you want to tell before it's public I suggest you do that over the next 24 hours." She smiles weakly at me and leaves.

I walk back into the living room seeing that Cheryl's sitting there staring into space whilst the rest of the girls gather their things together.

"Thanks for coming you lot." I say smiling and Cheryl snaps out of it to give them a small smile too.

They hug both me and Cheryl goodbye and assure us everything will be ok and I close the door behind them.

"Just us now then Chez." I say opening my arms to her. She falls into them instantly and starts crying. "I'm so sorry for all of this." She says with her bottom lip trembling.

"Babe, it's ok." I say, pulling her towards the sofa with me.

"Can we just have a cuddle?" She asks.

"Of course we can." I say and I lay down so she can lay her head against my chest. 

"I love the sound of your heart beating." She tells me and all I do is hold her even tighter.