Temptation

19 - Hero

My doctors don't care that my girl is asleep and that it's only fucking 6AM. They come barging through the door, waking both Madden and I up suddenly. Madden looks confused when she wakes but just lies her head back down on the pillow next to my head. I give her small kiss on the tip of her nose, and she gives me a cute smirk in return. My doctor starts another lecture about me going back to work and that Mara has been given specific instructions not to let me on set for the month. "So, I'm basically banned from my own movie?" "Basically," Dr. Asshole says.

* * *

Mara has given her fiancé the day off so he can get some rest. He stayed outside the hotel room all night even though Markus and Luke were there. "Every exist is full of paparazzi, there is no way out at this point." She warns us. I have to come up with a plan because my girl cannot be caught on camera. Before I do, Madden is the one who has the plan: "I will leave before you, wearing a sweater over myself hiding from the cameras and you can come out a few minutes later." I tell her that that is not happening, and I do not want her in that crowd alone but Mara being selfish for me has to fucking agree with Madden and tells me it's the only way. I feel the panic and anger boiling inside me; I don't want her out in a crowd of paparazzi. This plan fucking sucks. I can't argue it and there is no arguing with wome especially Mara; she can be scary sometimes.

Mara hands Madden one of DJ's hoodies which she keeps in her trunk for herself and it is big enough for Madden to cover her face. Madden slips on the hoodie and she looks like a little girl wearing her dad's sweater if he were to weight 300 pounds. Madden pulls the hoodie over her head and she is clearly able to hide her face; I find myself oddly jealous that she isn't in one of my sweaters.

The doctors insist that I am brought to the doors in a wheelchair and there is no fighting it because it is hospital policy. Before we reach the glass doors, I tug at Madden's arm to come down to my level in this fucking wheelchair. "Luke has the car up front. I promise we will meet you at the first corner on the right." She tells me not to worry about her and she kisses me on the cheek. I grab her before she can stand straight up again, and I take her soft lips against mine, holding the kiss for much longer than we have before. I hear Mara behind the wheelchair telling me to hurry my shit up, but she doesn't mean it, she's just teasing me. We break apart from each other, and I watch Madden walk through the glass doors into the crowd. As soon as she is through the doors, I can no longer see her anymore, the crowd has swallowed her.

10 minutes pass before the nurse starts rolling me towards the front door. When we are closer to the door, I stand up and tell her that she will not be fucking pushing me any further. The nurse doesn't fight me, she just hands me my belongings and wheels the chair around the other direction. Mara locks her arm in mine, Luke stands in front of us as he is the bigger one and Markus stands in behind us. I'm used to walking through crowds; at first it was overwhelming especially since I was only 9 years old but growing up in the business, I've gotten used to hundreds of people shouting at me for autographs or asking me stupid fucking questions. This crowd is especially big, everyone is curious what happened to me. My head is pounding, and the paparazzi is shouting all these fucking things at me, "What happened?" "Will the movie stop filming?" "When will you return?" And the one question that always comes up no matter what the fuck I'm doing, "Are you single?" It feels like I've been walking through this crowd of lights and yelling for an hour, when it only takes us 5 minutes to push through everyone and reach the car door. Luke had the car parked and ready to go, so I quickly jump in the back seat, Mara following while both Luke and Markus take the front seats. Luke drives very slowly and with extreme caution because if something were to happen, guess who gets a lawsuit! Cameras are being shoved at the windows, lights flashing and only making my head worse. I cannot wait to be in bed with Madden. Madden—fuck! I call Madden in the middle of all the fucking shit happening and she picks up right away. "You good?" I ask her. "I'm fine Hero. Did you make it out of the hospital alright?" She is more concerned for me, who is safe with bodyguards and a car when she is the one walking around. "We're just trying to make it out of the parking lot right now. The road is full of paps right now, so we have to take our time." My head feels like it's about to explode, I have cameras right beside me, lights flashing in my eyes and I'm stressing about Madden's safety. Mara can see the frustration on my face, and she takes my hand. I pull away as if to say don't touch me, but she just laughs it off. Madden tells me she is going to walk back to her apartment because it's not that far which is a complete lie it's at least an hour walk so I have to hurry the fuck up and get out of this fucking crowd.

After gently shoving through hundreds of people, we finally break free from the crowd and are able to escape the paparazzi vans before they can catch us. Madden is not at the spot we said we would meet, so we drive further down to see her walking alone, hoodie still over her head. Luke pulls over and Mara opens the door to let her in. I can see the pain in her eyes, but I know to wait until we get to the apartment before I can ask her what's going on in her head.

* * * 

The apartment has been fully stocked with groceries and has been cleaned. At first, I thought Madden did this but she has been at the hospital with me for the last 13 hours. The only other person who wasn't at the hospital the entire time was DJ. I shoot DJ a text from my business phone to say thank you and turn to Madden laying on the couch. "Talk to me," I demand. She looks to me and looks away. I grab each of us a water bottle and walk over to sit by her feet on the couch. She thanks me for the water but still looks away; her eyes are heavy trying to avoid tears. "What's wrong?" This time I ask, politely. I move ontop of her, holding myself up with my left arm and tilt her chin to face me. "All of those cameras, all of those people..." Now I know. She's terrified that he will find her. I can only smooth talk her so much but the fear she feels can and has over powered me. I lean back and pull her up so that we are sitting face to face, her hand in mine. "I cannot imagine your fear but I know what's it's like to want to hide from the cameras. I promise you that if it gets too risky, I will walk away." She looks at me, and a tear falls from her eye, "What if I don't want you to walk away?" I reach out to wipe her tears and the words from her mouth couldn't make me any happier.

All these worries she has, I can only try to settle them. All her fear which I can only try to protect her from. I will try though, this time I will do whatever I can.