A Greek Odyssey - Jason Fic

CHAPTER 178

Jason arrived back in Copenhagen just after lunch-time. He headed directly to Parken where the lads were midway through their sound-check. He was pleased to see that apart from looking whiter than usual, Robbie seemed in fairly good spirits. Standing to one side at the edge of the stage, he waited until they'd finished the sound check for Babe before sauntering onto the stage, his microphone held in his right hand.

'Ah, the wanderer returns...' Rob said, striding across the stage and grabbing hold of Jason in a bear-hug. 'All good?' he asked, as they pulled apart.

'Yes. Great.' Jason nodded. 'Thanks for kicking me up the arse and onto a plane back home.'

'It's no problem.' Robbie shrugged nonchalantly, as if he'd had nothing to do with it and looked slightly abashed at Jason's obvious gratitude. Trying to cover up his embarassment at Jason's words of thanks, he clapped him on the back. 'Come on! Get your arse into gear mate, we've been waiting for you to show up to really get cracking.'

By 3pm they were satisfied with the sound-check and headed back to the hotel. so that Jason could drop his things back off and Robbie could take a well earned rest, before the show that evening.

Dropping his bag off at his suite, Jason took out his swimming shorts and headed down to the pool to have a leisurely swim. He didn't bother un-packing all of his belongings as they were heading off to Amsterdam the following day.

Swimming lap after lap of the pool, Jason used the time to do plenty of thinking. He'd been approached by Strictly Come Dancing to see if he fancied taking part, along with the other four lads. He'd dismissed the idea immediately as out of hand, citing that he was having at least a year off and nothing would change that. Lexi was worried that he would get bored, despite him assuring her that he wouldn't. She urged him to use their time apart to think one last time about the offer, before turning them down flat. The money they were being offered was a ludicrous amount. Even now, after a year together, Lexi was gobsmacked at the amounts being bandied around when they were asked to perform. It wasn't the amount she was urging him to think about - he didn't need it. It was the thought that once he'd got over the novelty of being at home with a new baby and plenty of free time, that he would be itching to do something else and she worried that he would regret not accepting the offer.

By the time he had finished his fiftieth lap he'd decided. Camp as the lads performance had been from time to time, he just couldn't face appearing on TV week in, week out dressed top to toe in sequins and with a day-glo tan. It simply wasn't him. He wanted some privacy to enjoy being with Lexi and the baby and that wouldn't happen if he appeared on Strictly.

Climbing out of the pool, he wrapped the towel so it was slung low over his hips and headed off to the changing rooms to get changed. He swiftly washed his hair, towelling it dry before running just a touch of gel through it so that it would only need a small amount of tidying up prior to performing.

Jason, Gary, Mark and Howard headed back towards the stadium at 6pm. The plan was to have a light meal before going on stage at 8.15pm. Jason was concerned that Robbie hadn't yet emerged from his room. They had knocked on his door as they made their way out to the cars and he had called out that he would meet them at the stadium in an hour or so. Jason sincerely hoped that Robbie was going to show up and be well enough to perform, or he dreaded to think how the fans would react if they cancelled for a second night running.

There was no word from Robbie and the lads were on tenterhooks until he eventually showed at 7.30pm. Sweat beaded his brow and his face was grey in pallor and he still looked awful.

'Are you ok?' Mark jumped up from his seat and hurried over to Robbie, concern etched on his face. The other three looked warily at Robbie, all of them thinking that he still looked really ill.