In The Darkest Hour

Part Two - Chapter Seventeen: Breaking News

Isla groaned rolling over in bed as her mobile rang, she had no idea who could be calling her at this hour especially since she'd just done a long shift; she peeked at Gerard who was snoring his head off.

Isla shook her head before reaching for her phone and answering it, she hoped it was good because she wasn't in the mood for bad news; she wanted to sleep before she had to go back to work.

"Hola?" Isla murmured as Gerard rolled over in bed and wrapped an arm around her, he had taken a nap after coming home from training and he missed sleeping with Isla since she was still on night shifts at the hospital.

Isla smiled down at her boyfriend, she brushed her fingers through his hair knowing that she hadn't been this happy in a long time; she just hoped that it was going to last.

Isla felt her heart stop at the panicked voice of Joanna, she listened confused wondering what had happened and why her best friend was calling her like this; she pushed Gerard away from her before she climbed out of bed.

"What are you talking about?" Isla asked confused about why Joanna was apologising to her, she hadn't checked the papers that morning but clearly something had appeared in them that had upset her friend enough for her to call.

Isla padded over to her laptop and started to load it, she listened to Joanna talk trying to figure out what was going on; she sat down waiting for the laptop to getting moving ignoring the sound of Gerard getting up.

Gerard grumbled padding past his girlfriend annoyed at whoever had woken her up, he wanted nothing more than to cuddle up with her and now he couldn't do that.

Isla watched him go and sighed, she kept her mobile pressed to her and typed in Gerard's name into the search bar when the internet opened up; she didn't like doing this but there was no other way around it no matter what was going on.

"Hang on," Isla mumbled still not sure why Joanna was so insistent on this, she didn't think that Gerard had done anything wrong; she trusted her boyfriend and she was sure it was just some journalist trying to cause trouble.

Isla's stomach dropped at the sight of the first few links to newspapers, she swallowed slowly clicking on the first one; they all seemed to hint that Gerard had cheated on her a couple of weeks ago.

Isla knew that Gerard wouldn't do that to her, they had come so far and were getting ready to share their first Christmas together next week; she was looking forward to it and she knew that it was a big deal for Milan.

Isla's hands shook as she stared at the headline, it didn't seem real to her and she prayed that there was some sort of explanation to this; maybe it was a fan who had gotten a picture taken with Gerard and the press had gotten it wrong.

"Joanna... I'll call you back," Isla whispered not saying anything else before she disconnected the call, she slowly screwed down trying not to cry; she paused at the first picture and felt her jaw drop.

Isla made a small noise as she stared at the picture, there was Gerard with a woman with short black hair that looked all too familiar to her; they were in a night club and he had his arms all over her.

"Dios mío," Isla whispered horrified, she knew that woman was her; the picture was taken the night that she and Gerard had done the role-playing before heading off to a hotel.

Isla cursed herself, she should have known that there would be paparazzi around or something; the pictures weren't good but it was clear to see that it was Gerard with a woman that didn't really look like her.

***

"I'm so sorry," Isla whispered hating herself for even suggesting that they role-play like that in public, she looked at Gerard who was still flipping through the articles; she hadn't meant to cause him any more trouble.

Isla hated that Gerard's name was being pulled through the dirt like this, he hadn't done anything wrong and she wished that there was some way to make this right; she could only imagine what everyone thought of him now.

Gerard sighed shaking his head, this wasn't her fault and he didn't want her thinking that way; he didn't know who had taken these pictures but they clearly weren't done by a professional.

"It's not your fault Isla," Gerard reassured wrapping his arms around his girlfriend, it was a mess but he was sure that they would be able to fix this; the woman that they were looking for didn't exist and he knew that it would take time to repair the damage that had been done.

Isla held onto Gerard, she didn't quite believe him and she wished that there was something that she could do; she peeked at the laptop screen and at the pictures of Gerard and 'Ava'.

Isla pulled away from Gerard and stared at the pictures, she wasn't going to let Gerard deal with this without attempting to help fix the mess that she had caused.

"Isla?" Gerard asked spotting the look on his girlfriend's face, he didn't know what she was thinking about at that moment but he hoped that she wasn't going to do something stupid.

Isla turned to look at Gerard, she smiled at him knowing that this could work and she hoped that he would agree with her; she wanted to help since she had been the reason that this was happening, if she hadn't pushed him to role-play those pictures wouldn't exist.

"I have an idea," Isla said smiling at him, she knew it wasn't going to be easy but she wanted to help clear his name; she didn't want people thinking he cheated on her.

***

Gerard took a deep breath as he looked at his girlfriend, he felt a little aroused by the sight of the black wig; he remember the fun that they'd had when she had last worn it, he had to admit that she looked good in it.

Isla smiled at Gerard loading the picture that she had just taken to her twitter account, she doubted that it would take long for things to take off; she was still a little wary about being on social media again but Gerard had encouraged her to return to it.

"Do you think this will work?" Isla asked peeking at Gerard, she stared at the tweet that she had put out and smiled pleased with her work; there was no way anyone could deny that the pictures in the papers were her.

Isla had snapped several of them and chosen the best one, she wasn't going to let this rest while people were calling Gerard horrible things because of what had been put in the papers about him.

"Maybe," Gerard murmured wrapping his arms around Isla's waist and starting to kiss down her neck, he was thankful that his parents were keeping Milan for the night while he dealt with this.

Gerard didn't want the paparazzi hooding and taking pictures of his son, they were hanging out outside of his home and refusing to move; they all seemed to believe that he was capable of cheating on Isla.

"Gerard," Isla warned smiling, she turned to face her boyfriend a little surprised at how this was turning out; she should have known that Gerard would react like this because of the wig.

Gerard chuckled smiling down at Isla, he didn't mind taking advantage of the fact that they had the house to themselves for the night.

Isla was important to him and Gerard had a feeling that the pictures in the papers had been from her parents.