We walk back into the club and Annie is still at the bar with the guy. Ryan is sitting in the booth with a plethora of women, and Chad is sitting by Annie drinking a beer. He looks up and notices me walking in with Danger and suddenly I feel a little guilty. I’m not sure why or what that’s about, so I dismiss it and tighten my grip on Danger’s hand as we walk to Annie. Chad looks at me and his face is pale and he looks utterly disappointed. His eyes are drooping and his frown is so big it looks like his lips might fall off his face. He takes another sip of his beer and stands up and turns walking away from us toward the exit. My heart races slightly and I hope he isn’t angry with me.

We reach Annie and she looks miserable still, but so does the guy she’s with. I furrow my brows as they both look like they’ve been talking about dying puppies or something equally as terrible.

“Hey, are you ready to go?” I ask Annie leaning in so she can hear me.

“Yeah, I’ve had too much to drink and Mahzun here is just as love sick as I am,” she says pointing to the tall, dark, and handsome Turkish man from earlier.

“Okay, let’s go,” I say. Annie leans over to Mahzun and they embrace and she smiles at him patting his shoulder and he smiles back at her and we walk out of the club. Danger grabs Ryan and we all head to the waiting car. Our security detail follows us in and we drive back to the Hyatt. Annie is chatting all the way back about how she and Mahzun were talking about their broken relationships. She said it was nice to finally have someone who understood what it was like. And because she’s drunk she didn’t even notice Danger and I holding hands the entire way home.

The car arrives at the hotel and we all scoot out as Annie continues talking about her great night swapping sob stories with Mahzun and I can’t help but laugh at her. I’m glad she had a good night, just like me. I can’t help but wonder if Chad got back to the hotel okay. I hope he did. I’ll have to make sure he’s all right next time I see him. We all make our way up to our floor and Ryan obviously can’t wait to leave us.

“I’ll see you back at the room, Danger,” he says and Danger chuckles and nods.

“Yeah dude, I’ll be there soon,” he replies and then walks in behind grabbing me around my waist and continues walking with me and Annie while Annie continues to rattle on. I look back at Danger and smile as he grins at her. She pulls out the key card for our door. I stop and turn around to face Danger as Annie stops talking. I don’t know what she’s doing because I’ve stopped paying attention. I look at Danger and wrap my arms around his neck as he holds me to him.

“I’m so sorry again for stuffing up, sugar,” he says.

“I know you are, let’s just move on and try to forget about it, okay?”

He leans in kissing me softly and gently. No urgency or force in this kiss. It’s delicate and tender and he moves his hand up into my hair and holds me to him as his tongue flicks with mine. He slowly pulls back and looks me in the eyes. “Have a good sleep, sugar. Dream of me,” he whispers and I giggle.

“I always do,” I reply and he smiles so wide I think his cheeks must be hurting.

“Night,” he says kissing me quickly again and then hesitantly he lets me go and walks down the hall toward his and Ryan’s room. I smile and watch him leave, he turns back to look over his shoulder he smiles brightly. I bite my bottom lip and feel giddy, those pesky butterflies are back. I take a deep breath and turn around to see Annie standing in our doorway leaning against the doorframe with her arms folded across her chest.

“What’s the go there?” she asks.

“Oh, nothing really,” I say and she shrugs with a smirk and heads into the hotel room, and I follow looking back at Danger as he watches me go into my room.

 

***

 

I spent the night dozing in and out worried shitless about an unplanned pregnancy, and about how the hell I’m going to get to a chemist tomorrow to purchase the morning-after pill and somehow magically get a prescription from a doctor. I have no idea how to do all that stuff, and to be honest, it’s eating me up. I’m scared, and right now I wish I had a sister who was capable of being there for me, because I’d love nothing more than to be able to talk to her and have her come with me to wherever the hell it is I need to go. Hopefully, I can speak with the security guard who’s always watching out for me. I feel comfortable with him, so maybe he can take me to wherever I need to go.

Waking up the next morning, I feel utterly exhausted and one hundred percent stressed. I’m worried that I might be pregnant. God knows how you can tell these things, but I just hope this morning-after pill will stop that from happening. And what if I’ve caught an STI from Danger. We had unprotected sex for crying out loud - how stupid could I have been? I’m lying in bed stewing over the idiocy of my actions last night when there’s a gentle knock at the hotel door.

“Tell them to fuck off, Ella,” Annie murmurs from under her blanket.

I huff wishing she could be the one to get out of bed and answer the door for a change. I mean, I’m in full-on panic mode right now! I throw off the blanket and walk over to the door as my heart feels like it’s going to burst out of my chest. I’m even sweating slightly from my anxiety.

I open the door and Danger is standing there fully dressed, and the sight of him eases some of my tension.

“Morning, sugar, you okay? You look…worried?” he asks and I try to hold back the tears threatening to fall.

“I just don’t know how to go about what I need to do today,” I say quietly and he smiles and nods.

“I thought as much, that’s why I’m here. I’ve organised everything. I’m going to take you to the doctors—”

I open my eyes wide and inch the door closed so he knows that Annie is still here, he understands my actions immediately and nods.

“Okay, well, I’m going to take you out myself today. So get dressed, I have it all arranged. I didn’t want you going and doing it all by yourself, okay? I’m equally responsible for putting you in this position,” he says and I swallow hard as a wave of relief washes over me and my body slumps. I lunge forward taking him in my arms and embracing him tightly.

“Thank you. I had no idea what to do and, to be honest, I was freaking out.”

He hugs me back and nuzzles into my hair kissing my head. “Go get dressed, the car is waiting for us,” he says.

I nod letting go of him and walk back inside the room to get dressed. Dressing quickly I walk out to a waiting Danger, who’s in the hall. We fly out this afternoon, so I know we only have a few hours to get this done. He grabs my hand and we walk to the elevators.

“Thank you so much for this. I didn’t know what to do, where to go, nothing,” I say and he smiles.

“I know, that’s why I thought I’d arrange it all and come with you. I figured you’d probably be pretty scared right about now, and I wanted to help ease some of your nerves. Especially, considering I’m the one who put them there,” he says and I nod as we enter the elevator.

“How did you find a doctor?” I ask and he smiles.

“I got that big security guard that always follows you everywhere to ask around for me. He seems to want to take care of you, so I thought he could help us. He’s coming with us, and before you say anything don’t worry, he’s not going to tell your dad. I made sure of that,” he says. I smile and think I know who he’s talking about. The security guy who’s always watching over me, and I’m so grateful for that. I’m glad he’s helping me out now too.

“Okay, I won’t need to have any like…exams or anything will I? Like the doctor won’t need to look up my bits will he?” I ask and Danger laughs.

“No, Ella, I don’t think so. He’ll just give you the morning-after pill and ask some questions about your period, and then give you a prescription for the Pill he thinks will suit you best. Should be pretty straight forward really,” he says and I relax and nod.

“Okay, good,” I say and he smiles and pulls me to him as we exit the elevator and head toward the car where my security guard is waiting along with a driver.

“Good morning, Miss Ella,” the security guard says.

“Good morning…umm sorry, I don’t know your name?” I ask and he smiles and nods.

“It’s Mike, Miss.” I put out my hand to shake his.

“Thanks, Mike, thanks for helping me.”

“It’s my job, Miss Ella. I like to help you, whenever you need it,” he says.

I smile and slide into the car and Danger follows in behind me.

“He’s so nice,” I say.

“Yeah, he’s a good guy, found us a doctor close by and got us a private consult without any other patients in the waiting room. We should be able to get away with this with no one knowing,” Danger says.

I relax a little more and nod as I lean into Danger’s side.

“Okay, that sounds good.”

He wraps his arm around my shoulders and pulls me to him kissing my head.

“Danger?” I ask quietly.

“Yeah, sugar,” he replies as the car starts and we drive off down the Turkish streets.

“Do I need to be tested, you know, for STI’s?” I ask cautiously.

He chuckles and shakes his head. “No, sugar, I’m clean, I got tested not that long ago, and I always use a condom,” he tells me and I relax even more in his arms. I feel like maybe this isn’t such a bad thing after all.

 

***

 

The doctor was lovely, and to my surprise it was a woman which made me feel even better. She was nice and understanding. She talked me through everything to do with the morning-after pill and how it worked. She said there was minimal to no chance of me being pregnant because of where I was in my cycle and because I was going to take the pill. She prescribed me with some birth control and gave me enough repeats to last for the entire tour. She was wonderful, and Danger held my hand the whole time and made me feel comfortable about it all. It was great to have his support. Knowing he cared enough about me to arrange all this, made me feel really good about myself and our relationship. Even though we’re not officially a couple, it’s still nice to have a closeness with him.

Once we finished at the doctor’s, Danger took me to a small coffee shop and we had Turkish coffee which was really strong. It was different, but I would have it again. It was kind of like our first official date, it was sweet and we laughed and joked about how my dad would react if he knew where Danger had taken me this morning.

It was great to have a bit of normality in this crazy world of touring and rock and roll. Sitting at a coffee shop and just having some time alone with Danger was really what I needed and I enjoyed it very much. Even though Mike was standing in the corner watching us the entire time in case of any trouble, which luckily there wasn’t. But eventually, we had to head back to the hotel as the time for us to fly out was getting closer and closer.

Danger took me back to the car and we made out all the way back to the hotel where, unfortunately, we had to part ways as he had a separate plane to catch, but we would meet up again in the next country in a few hours.

I tried to find Chad, but I couldn’t seem to find him anywhere. I hoped he got home safely from the club last night. I know we have to be on the jet soon, so I’ll definitely see him then.

 

***

 

I make my way onto the jet with Annie in tow, and I’m going to set aside some flight time to talk with Chad. I have no idea where he’s been all morning, but I know he’ll definitely be on the jet so he won’t be able to avoid me forever. I sit in my usual spot and Mum and Dad walk on and sit opposite me and Annie sits down next to me in the window seat.

“So how are you enjoying the tour so far, Ella?” Mum asks.

“I love it, Mum. Why’s that?”

“Oh, just checking in. I don’t see you much. So I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay,” she says. Then I see Chad walk on with his parents, Sia and Dingo, and his two younger twin brothers, Carter and Carlton. They’re ten-years-old now.

“Things are good. I’ll be back in a minute,” I say and rush up the front to talk with Chad. He looks terribly hungover and extremely pale.

“Hey Chad, can we talk?” I ask and he looks at me and his body slumps as he sits down opposite Caleb and puts his head in his hands.

“Can we do this another time? I’m kinda tired,” he says and I furrow my brows as does Caleb and Chad’s parents.

“It will only take a minute, I promise,” I say and he stands up and huffs.

“Ella look, I’m really hungover. I just need some space right now, okay? Is that too much to ask?” Then he storms past me down the hall of the jet and toward the back where the bedrooms are located. I bite my bottom lip as Caleb reaches out and grabs my leg.

“Hey, he’s just trying to cope with some stress at the moment, don’t take it too personally, okay?” he says and I nod and wrap my arms around myself for comfort. Sia looks at me and smiles resting her hand on my shoulder and squeezing.

“Sorry, Ella, sweetheart. I don’t know what’s wrong with him, but I’ll go find out. Something’s been bugging him since we started this tour, and I need to be a mother right now and see what’s happening in his world. Just be the good friend you’ve always been and be here for him, sweetheart.”

I nod as she looks at Dingo and then to the twins. Dingo nods ushering the twins to their seats and she walks off to follow Chad. I exhale and move back down to my seat and hope that Chad feels better soon and I really hope that this has nothing to do with me being back on with Danger.

The rest of the flight Chad stayed down in the bedroom and Sia came out about a half hour later. She looked at me strangely but kept on walking. I thought it was odd, but I kept to myself and figure I’ll let Chad have his space and he’ll come to me when he’s ready.