Once You've Tasted Love

Chapter 59

You have everything?" Gary asked me, coming back into our bedroom to grab my luggage.

I nodded "I think so, yes." 

This time we both had more bags and suitcases than when we had been to Belfast, we were out in Europe for about 3 weeks this time. Well Gary was, I was going to fly home a bit earlier, I had to go to my doctor for a check. Don't ask me why, but it wasn't able later. 

I grabbed my handbag and headed downstairs towards the waiting car and got in.

"Ready for Europe, darling?" Gary asked me and took my hand into his. 

I nodded and bit my bottom lip, I was very excited.

3 hours later we landed safely in Barcelona. The flight itself was really calm, but those who were on the jet, including myself, had so much fun. Everyone was in a very good mood, the tour was going really well and it was just a lot of fun.
We got straight into the hotel, and even if we had the afternoon to ourselves, Gary insisted on me laying down for a while.
I had answered him with an eye roll, but I obeyed nonetheless. 

"Gary, you don't have to stay here with me if you don't want to, you know. If you want to go and do something with the others it’s fine too." 

He shook his head "I want to. Besides..." He put on a smirk and I immediately knew what he was on about. 

I smirked back "Besides what?" 

"You would have to find out darling..." 

My gaze wandered down his body, towards his midsection, where an obvious bulge was showing. "Well then, but I suppose you are way too overdressed for the occasion, Mr. Barlow."
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A few days later we got to Milan. Everything went like the last shows, up until this evenings performance of 'Sure'.

I was standing backstage with their manager, Jonathan, and some other crew people, when Howard did a wrong move.

The audience didn't notice it, but we did, I mean, we had seen this routine multiple times now and knew if someone made a mistake.

I looked at Howard and could see that he wasn't alright. I turned towards Jonathan and we both had a worried look on our faces.

I nodded and he nodded back and then turned towards someone, I think it was his assistant "Call an ambulance. Now." 

Howard pulled through, not showing any more sings that he was hurt, but the technicians had been told not to put those treadmills during 'Never Forget' on maximum. Which was good, because when they came offstage Howard looked bad, really bad, he was pale and his lips had a strange colour, I think it was blue or violet.

Everybody crowded around him and the ambulance took him straight to the hospital. The other lads looked worried, really worried, especially Gary.

I pulled him into my arms "Babe, he's going to be fine." 

He shook his head "But what if not?" 

"Don't think like that. Come, let's get back to the hotel." 

Gary sighed and I took his hand and pulled him towards the waiting van.

We all met again at the hotel bar, the lads didn't want to head upstairs to their rooms without knowing how Howard was, so I went and ordered drinks while they sat down. 

"I really hope Dougie will be fine..." Gary sighed again when I came back to the table. 

The other two sighed too and nodded in agreement.

I sat down and continued to try and put them at ease, saying repeatedly that Howard would be fine, even if I didn’t really trust myself either and was worried too.

Ten minutes later Jonathan came in. We all looked up and the look on his face had nothing good to say. 

He cleared his throat and began to speak "He punctured his lung, that leading to a lung collapse and has a few broken ribs. Problem: He won't be able to go on stage for at least 7 shows." 

I gulped and looked up to the boys, their frowns said it all. 

Mark was the first one to speak "Fuck." Gary was just shaking his head in disbelief and shock and Jason added "This is it. We can't do this without him." 

"No. You can. And you will" I replied, sternly. 

They all looked at me as if I was an alien and Gary exclaimed "How?! We can't just continue as a three in the middle of a tour!" 

I put my hand onto his hand, knowing it had a relaxing effect on him "Shhh...You can. Believe me. You are three very talented guys. You can't stop now. Howard wouldn't want that. And think of your fans. They'll be way more disappointed if you cancel shows instead of just doing them one man short." 

Jonathan nodded "She's right. I spoke to Howard and he said that he wants you to carry on. And you'll be able to see him in Vienna tomorrow, you can visit him in hospital, he’s already on his way there." 

"Ok. I'm in. If that's what he wants, I'm in" Mark said and nodded.

Both Gary and Jason agreed with Mark and I sighed inwardly, relieved that the tour would continue.
------

We all got up early the next morning and got to the airport straight after breakfast, even if it was a day off. We all wanted to visit Howard as soon as possible so we wanted to get to Vienna as soon as possible.

When we arrived in Vienna we headed to the hotel and checked in, put all our stuff into our rooms and then headed to the hospital straight away.

We were shown to the ward where Howard was, but before we were allowed to go inside we were each given a white hospital robe, they said something about having to wear them due to hygienic reasons.

It was a bit of a funny sight and looking at Gary it even looked kind of sexy, he looked like a doctor really, I mean those robes looked like those that doctors wear.

The door was opened for us and we walked into the room. Howard was laying on a bed, and looked at us.

We sighed “Hey, how are you?”

“As good as can be, but I’m pissed off at the fact that I can’t go on stage for a while.”

Gary sighed “Yeah that’s gonna be a bit strange, but are you sure you want us to carry on with the tour?”

“Yes. We can’t disappoint all our fans. And I should be back on stage at Oberhausen.”

We nodded and I asked “When will you be out of hospital?”

He shrugged “Don’t know yet exactly, but they said something about a few days. I guess I’ll be joining you in front of the stage then, will be fun, watching our own show."