*Chapter 29*

The next day, they arrived at the hotel around lunchtime and they checked themselves in and went down to the dining room for some lunch. They were still in there when Auds’ phone rang. She answered it and heard Sonia’s voice say “Hey Auds, just checking on you, are you in Cardiff yet?” Auds smiled and said “Do you think I’m not going to turn up again?” She heard Sonia laugh and said “Well yeah, we did wonder!” Auds grinned and said “Well you can stop wondering, I’m sitting in the hotel dining room having lunch, where are you?” “We’re just coming into Cardiff, we’ll see you soon.” then she was gone. Simon was smiling at her and she said “That was Sonia checking up on me, for some reason they thought I might not turn up again! They are not far away.” they had just finished eating and were leaving the dining room when she heard “Auds” she turned to see Sonia, she smiled and walked over to her and gave her a hug. “How are you?” she asked. “I’m fine, how are you?” “I’ve been better, but I’m getting there.” Seb came up behind Sonia with their room key and gave Auds a hug then said “Don’t you ever leave us like that again, right.” Auds could see the grin on his face and she said “I’m sorry, god, I’m sick of that word, I’ve said it so many times in the last week.” then she laughed. Simon appeared beside her then and Seb said “Simon, what are you doing here?” He smiled then said “Nice way to greet your manager Sebastien.” Seb blushed and said “Sorry” Auds and Sonia burst out laughing and Simon looked at them with a funny look on his face. He said “I’m here with Auds, to make sure she arrived this time. Where are the others?” Sonia looked at Seb and said “Carlos and Michelle should be here already and David and Urs were leaving not long after us, so they should be here soon.” Auds glanced nervously at Simon who just smiled at her. Sonia and Seb saw the look and Seb said “He’s really missed you Auds, he did get better after he found you, but he still misses you and he’ll be glad to see you.” “Talk of the devil.” said Sonia as she saw him and David walking into the hotel. “We’ll leave you to go speak to him.” then they walked away. She looked to see where they were, they were at the reception desk checking in. Auds looked at Simon and said “They haven’t seen us yet, we can still leave.” Simon just looked at her and said “Too late.” Auds turned slowly and saw them both walking towards them. They both looked surprised to see Simon there and David said “I take it you’re just making sure she came Simon?” Simon smiled and nodded. “I’m just here for the day, I’m going to watch the show tonight and go back tomorrow.” Urs was looking at Auds and said “We missed you last night.” She half smiled then said “I know, my car broke down and I had to go back to London.” then she looked at the floor to avoid Simon’s look. Seeing that she wasn’t going to talk to David without help he said “Urs, why don’t you come for a drink with me, I wanted to talk to you about something anyway.” “Sure, just let me go dump my bags and I’ll meet you in the bar.” He smiled at Auds then walked away. Simon looked at Auds and nodded his head before walking away towards the bar leaving her and David alone. She looked at him and said “Well, I should really go and…David interrupted her and said “I think we need to talk Auds, we never really got a chance after what happened and I need to say a few things, will you come up to my room?” Auds looked uneasy then he said “Please?” and she nodded her head. Picking up his bags they made their way to his room.

They got into his room and David sat down while Auds stayed standing near the door looking nervous. He stared at her and said “I don’t want us to lose what we had before everything went wrong Auds.” he looked away from her and took a deep breath then said “I know it must be hard for you with me being Jodie’s brother and I can’t do anything about that I’m afraid, but you know me and you know that I am not like her and I wouldn’t ever do anything to hurt you or Urs. If its going to make you nervous or worried about seeing me then I can try and keep my distance, but i don’t want to do that as we were so close and you knew that you could come to me with anything that was bothering you.” He looked up to see that Auds had leaned back against the door and had her head in her hands. He stood up and went to give her a hug. She looked up and said “Don’t David, please.” He stopped and stood where he was and looked at her as she wiped away the tears. He said “Auds, please I hate to see you sad like this and knowing that its partly my fault.” Auds looked at him and said “Oh god, this is such a mess, it was not your fault, you didn’t know that Jodie was going to do what she did.” “No, but I knew what she was like, I should have spotted that she was up to something.” “She was your sister, of course you weren’t going to notice anything like that.” David shook his head and said “I was so nervous about seeing you when you came back, you never really spoke to me much the night at Simon’s. I know you said it wasn’t my fault, but I still couldn’t get rid of the feeling.” Auds moved towards him and took his hand and said “I never even thought that you might be nervous as well, I don’t want us to lose what we had either. You mean so much to me David, as a friend. You were there for me when I flew back from Spain after the crash and you were there for me whenever Urs and me had a fight. I could turn to you when I had a problem.” She looked at him and he smiled one of his special smiles that she knew made all his diva’s want to melt and all her nerves at being near him left her and she smiled back at him and he pulled her into a hug. They stayed there a while longer just talking things over properly.

It was getting late and Urs, Carlos and Seb were all down in the hotel lobby waiting for David so that they could go do their sound check. Sonia and Michelle were staying behind to catch up with Auds and just go down later for the show. David and Auds appeared then and David said “Sorry” and they left. The girls all headed for the bar and got a table and some drinks then Sonia said “Its not been the same without you Auds, Urs was really bad and David wasn’t too happy either.” Auds smiled and said “I’m sorry that I didn’t say goodbye to you guys, but I knew that if I went to see you, you’d talk me into staying and I needed to get away.” “So, how are things with you and Urs now?” asked Michelle. Auds sighed and said “They’re okay, I can talk to him and not feel like running away, which is good, but we’re still slightly strained.” Sonia hugged her and said “It will get easier, just give it time, now tell us why Simon is really here, you didn’t have car trouble yesterday did you?” Auds blushed then shook her head and said “No, I got halfway there and couldn’t go any further. I pulled of the motorway and sat there for hours until Simon came and found me. He has been wonderful the last couple of weeks, although I’m sure he’s fed up of my running away. He flew here with me this morning as he knew how nervous I was, not about seeing Urs, but David.” Sonia and Michelle looked confused and said “David? Why?” Auds looked at the two girls sitting beside her and said “I thought he was going to remind me of her every time I saw him, I didn’t know if I could cope with that as me and David had been pretty close before that, but we had a good talk earlier and I think that we have sorted it out.” “Aww babe, if you ever need to talk, you know we are here, don’t ever think of running away again.” said Michelle. Auds smiled and said “Yeah, I know and thanks girls. Now, how are you and Carlos getting on?” Michelle went red and said “I think he is getting tired of me wanting to take things slow, other than that everything’s wonderful.” Auds said “How do you really feel about him?” She thought for a minute then said “I feel safe when he’s around, like nothing can happen while he’s there and his kisses are just..” she went red at the thought. Auds and Sonia laughed and Sonia said “Sounds like you trust him hun, so why are you still taking it slow?” Michelle shook her head and said “I don’t know, I guess I feel like taking it a step further will change the way he feels, you know, if I sleep with him then he gets what he wants and he changes the way he is around me.” Auds and Sonia look at each other in disbelief and Sonia says “Carlos is 100% in love with you Michelle, he would never do anything to hurt you and taking the next step to sleep with him is not going to change that.” Auds nodded in agreement. Michelle said “We’ll see, so while we’re talking about men, do you have any problems with Seb Sonia?” Sonia laughed and said “Nope, we’re just fine thank you, thanks to Auds anyway.” Auds shrugged and said “I would have done it for any of the guys.”

They stayed in the bar for a little longer then they had to leave for the show. Auds watched it and realised that there was no way she could ever walk away from these guys again, she loved watching them perform, they really came alive on the stage and showed more of their own characters that the fans didn’t get the chance to normally see. She sat there and thought about what her life would be like if she didn’t have them or the girls in it. She got up and walked through to the back when they were just starting the encore and found herself a quiet little room to sit in. It wasn’t long before she heard them all coming through and doors being opened and closed as they went to shower and change. She carried on with what she was doing until she heard her name being mentioned. She popped her head out of the room she was in and saw them all standing in the corridor talking. She smiled then said “What are you all standing there for?” They turned to see where she was and Seb said “We’re waiting for you, the cars are ready to go.” Auds shook her head and said “Just go without me, I’ll make my own way back, I’ve got some stuff to finish.” They all looked at her then Carlos said “Are you sure? Can you not do it at the hotel?” She shook her head and said “I’ll just end up in the bar with you lot and not doing it, I’m better of staying here.” “Okay“ said Seb. She disappeared back into her little room shouting “See you later” over her shoulder. She heard them all leaving then there was peace and quiet. She sighed and got back to her work. She was almost finished when she heard a noise coming from the corridor, she listened again in case she was just imagining it, but she heard it again, it sounded like somebody was walking down the corridor. She stood up and looked round the room nervously for something she could use if she had to. She couldn’t see anything other than the lamp sitting on the table she was using. She picked it up and stood nervously watching the door as she heard other doors being opened and closed, then she heard the footsteps come to a stop outside her room, the door handle turned slowly and the door opened and the person walked in and before they could do anything she hit them on the back of the head with the lamp and they fell to the floor. She grabbed her stuff and ran out of the room leaving them there, but she didn’t get far as she heard the person saying “Auds” and she froze as she recognised the voice.