Following the Stars

Chapter Ninety Eight

"Where is she?" Johnny rushed through the door of his house in the early hours to find a casually dressed Travis sat on the bottom stair waiting for him. Sean piled in with a few bags after Johnny and gave his colleague an extremely concerned look. "She's upstairs sir. She hasn't left the master bedroom since your phone call. I did think I could hear her crying but haven't heard anything for a while." Before Travis could even finish his sentence, Johnny was rushing up the stairs taking two at a time. His head was pounding from the stress, and anxiety, but he just knew he had to hold his girl and make things right. He had to. He slowed as he approached the master before timidly knocking on the door, there was no answer. He gently opened the door and it was extremely dark, but for 1:15am it wasn't a shock. From the landing light beam, Johnny could just make out his petite fiancé curled up in the middle of the bed, she was surrounded by tissues and had her tear stained face in his pillow. He took a breath, he was relieved to see her there but it looked like she had cried herself to sleep and he now was stuck with what to do.

He gently sat down on the edge of the bed, feeling like a stranger in his own home. He began to whisper "Oh darling, I swear to you, none of this is true, I would never and have never stepped out on you. I've got the best woman in the world right here, it pains me to think that you think I could do that to you. I know what it looks like and I know that yet again it's one big mess in our lives but you have to know how much I love and adore you. God I would move heaven and earth for you, and in 6 weeks time, I plan to tell the world that, and make you my wife. If you'll still have me... Lexie Elizabeth Donnington you're one of the best things that has ever happened to me and I plan to spend the rest of my life ensuring you know that." He gently tapped her leg as he finished his sentence. He hadn't realised that during his moving speech his fiancé had awoken and managed to keep feigning sleeping. She listened to his words as more tears threatened to fall. After a few hours of sleep she felt a little more human, and her rationality was slowly coming back. She was now more curious than anything, she wanted to hear Johnny's version of events and gave him the benefit of the doubt after his sincere one sided conversation.

Lexie slowly opened her eyes, she couldn't see much other than Johnny's silhouette, she slowly lent over and turned the bedside lamp on. It wasn't much light but enough for them to see each other's faces. Lexie's was still very much tear stained, and Johnny's looked emotional and broken. "Darling..." he said quietly, Lexie replied as strongly as she could but her voice did little to hide her heartbreak. "Why don't you tell me what happened?"

Johnny's eyes widened, as he sat up straighter. "Where do you want me to start?" "With whatever you want to tell me." Lexie said quietly. "Ok.. well I came off stage and I bumped into Kate, she had come to see the show and ended up getting backstage. I thanked her for what she did in April, and then mentioned we had an after party back at the hotel to celebrate the end of the European leg of the tour. I rushed off to the dressing room, I changed, showered and was being nagged constantly by Stephen and everyone that we were running late.. as always." Johnny smirked but continued his story. "The group gathered at the backstage door and we all jumped in cars to the hotel. Malcolm had pre warned there was a huge press and crowd presence so it was decided to go in the back. We wanted to sneak in as we didn't want the fuckers to know where we were staying. Obviously my chivalry bit me in the ass because that's what they photographed and sold to the newspapers. Me helping a woman out the car, you know I would have done it for you, Lily, Gina, Kate, Emily, anyone, but they've used my own actions against me. Then we went into the hotel bar, it had been booked out for us, I grabbed a drink, and spent most of the time on the balcony with Jeff smoking Cubans. We all went to bed about 3/4am, but I honestly don't even remember seeing Kate after the first round of drinks." Johnny said sincerely. Lexie nodded, it made sense and everything sounded very Johnny and his usual routine however she was interested as to how he would deal with her next question. "And she answered your phone yesterday morning because?" "Ah yes. At some point I had emptied my pockets. My phone was left on a table, she accidentally picked it up. I didn't notice and I'm sorry. I also want to sincerely apologise, if I say I'm gonna call you then I should, if I say that I'm gonna stay in touch when I'm on tour I should. There's no excuse for not just dropping you even a simple message explaining what was going on." Lexie nodded before picking up her own phone, she wanted to show Johnny the messages she had sent him. She didn't want him thinking she was some paranoid nagging wife to be, but just a concerned one when he hadn't responded. As she opened and unlocked her phone she spotted a notification from a number not saved in her contacts. It was a message from the woman in question. She slowly read it, twice. She then handed her phone to Johnny who took his time to read it too. He lifted his head to look at his wife to be. "It makes it awfully hard to hate her when she's this nice and considerate." Lexie said, "She is nice, she's wonderful and I KNOW she hates that this has happened to you." Johnny pulled his phone out and showed Lexie the brief messages that him and Kate had shared the afternoon prior. She read them slowly and took a deep breath before placing both phones down on the bed. Tears welled in her eyes as she threw herself at Johnny wrapping her arms round his neck. He held her tight as she cried. She sobbed apologies to him over and over, she cried that the press had managed to hurt her yet again, and cried for cutting everyone out once more even though everyone appeared to want to help her.

After a while she managed to calm down and Johnny pulled back, pushing the hair out of her face that had stuck to her wet cheeks. "Darling. It's ok, I get it. If I had woken up to that with no contact from you, I would have doubted everything." "I shouldn't have done though. I think with the stress and pressures of the wedding and being on my own my head just played tricks on me, all the insecurities of not being good enough for you came flooding back." "Darling, you're it for me. I want nobody else, you are my girl remember?" "And you're my guy." Lexie whispered back before Johnny lent in and kissed her softly. The woman pulled back. "Hang on.. what are you doing here?? You're meant to be going to America??" "Well America will have to wait, I needed to fix things with my girl." "Johnny, you've run away from the tour?" "Not run away.. I took a diversion, the band and crew will go as planned on Sunday. Well tomorrow now.. and I'll fly out later on." "You shouldn't have done that Johnny.." "Well when your girl is not answering her phone and has banished her security, what's a guy to do?" Lexie smirked "I didn't banish Travis I just asked to be alone." "Hmmm ok well it's done now. I know Kate is very worried about you, her and Gina have been on the phone to each other constantly." "Kate as in Moss or Kate as in Henderson?" "Henderson. I don't think she's quite had to deal with a crisis like this without your instruction." "Well sometimes when it's this close to home I didn't want to put my public relations head on I just wanted to sort my own head out first. Far too many times I've let the press and public opinion dictate how I deal with things." "I know doll... anyway.. do you think there is room in that bed for me?" Johnny smirked. "Hmmm it will be a tight squeeze but if you promise to hold me all night then yes I think we can make it work." Lexie said pushing the covers down for Johnny as he kicked off his boots and shimmied out his jeans and shirt rapidly quick. "Johnny, you forgive me don't you?" "There's nothing to forgive, will you forgive me?" "Darling, you had a few drinks and lost your phone, you shouldn't be asking for forgiveness. I guess I over reacted and didn't think, but I didn't like finding out from the press that you were hanging with your ex. I like to think you respect me enough to tell me yourself in future if the occasion occurs?" "Absolutely darling.. and I would say the same for you but your exes are batshit crazy so I wouldn't want you anywhere near them." He said smirking.

Lexie rested her head on Johnny's chest as he played with her hair. "So because I was an absolute fucker and didn't call or message you Thursday, tell me now, how did the secret meeting with Chanel go?" "Oh god it was so amazing. They are just so incredible. We got there at 5am and they already had two couture custom samples for me to try. They are working so hard it's scary." "Well only the best for you my darling." He kissed her head before she turned to look at him. "Are you still thinking Dior?" "That's if you still want to marry me?" Johnny smirked resulting in Lexie's eyes widening. "If you'll still have me Mr Depp." "Of course. It's quite flattering in a weird way to see how protective a girl can get over her man even though there is nothing to envy. I have all I need with you." Lexie smiled. "But yes Dior works. They've dressed me for a while and I think it will be a nice honour you know? They've stuck by me through a lot, the bad times so now I want them for the good." Lexie smiled before snuggling back into Johnny. "I love you my darling, never ever forget that ok?" "I love you too Johnny. More than you'll ever know."