Following the Stars

Chapter Thirty Nine

The next day, Tom had rushed off to fulfil his work commitments and left Lizzie at Lexie's house with Murphy. Lexie was in a lot of pain and struggling but overall her headache had gone making it more manageable to last throughout the day without a nap. At around 2pm the buzzer went and it was Johnny, Lizzie was surprised but allowed access instantly. She welcomed Johnny in, and made small talk with him about Lexie's condition. The 32 year not to be left out of anything, heard Johnny's voice and did her best to make her way from her bedroom to the top of the stairs where she could see directly down to the living area. "What are you doing here?" She said cheerfully with a big smile on her face. Johnny and Lizzie turned and looked up. "I came to see how you were doing!" "What are you doing out of bed young lady! They said you shouldn't walk unaccompanied for another few days." Lizzie said scolding her only child, making Johnny smirk. Lexie slowly made her way down the stairs and finally got to greet Johnny properly. He wrapped his arms round her very gently hugging her and kissing her before they pulled back, "can I get you anything?" Lexie asked Johnny. "Umm I don't think so do you? Sit yourself down. Me and your mum can handle it." "Johnny you sit down with her and I'll go make some coffee." Johnny smiled escorting Lexie to the couch gently helping her sit down. He propped a lot of cushions behind her not knowing if it would actually help. "God the boredom is almost as bad as the pain." Johnny smirked. "And Mum is fussing like mad." "I can hear you know!!! I'm not that old!" Lizzie yelled from the kitchen making them both laugh. Although Lexie instantly placed her hand on her ribs grimacing. "You poor thing. I wish there was something I could do." "Johnny you did so much already. Please stop feeling so guilty." "Can't help it doll, I feel like it's my fault." "It isn't, it's a man called Mike Parker. He's finally decided to start speaking and Co operating with the police." "Well that's something." Johnny added.

An hour later, Lexie was getting a little tired and leaning on Johnny's shoulder. "Lizzie are you sure there isn't more I can do?" "Nonsense you're a busy man." "Honestly, right now I feel pretty useless so please let me help." "Mum, you did say you had a job tomorrow you couldn't get cover for." "I know I did, but it doesn't matter.." "Johnny can stay with me. Can't you?" Lexie said looking at Johnny. Who was smiling at the chance to spend time with his girl. "I would love to. Honestly, don't give up work, I can cover here for a few days?" "Well I don't know.." "Mum, seriously you've worked too hard to all of a sudden be the MUA that nobody can rely on. Go. I'll be fine I promise, Johnny takes good care of me, you know he does." "Ok if you insist," "I do Mumma, I do."

Within the hour, Lexie had managed to persuade her mum that Johnny was more than happy to stay the night that very evening, which he very much was and that she would be in safe hands for the next few days. Johnny instructed Sean to go back to the house he was leasing and pack a few essentials for him and it was set. Tom returned from work and agreed that everyone should start getting back to normal and if Johnny was happy to stay with Lexie, then that meant Tom and Lizzie could return to work without any more hiccups. In honour of thanking Johnny, Tom offered a token gesture of ordering dinner from a nearby restaurant for the four of them. Lexie sat up at the table for as long as she could eating but was in agony quite quickly so retired to the L shaped part of the couch where she could almost lay flat.

"Are you sure you'll be ok darling?" Lizzie said for the 100th time. "Yes mum I'll be fine." "And you are sure you want Murphy here until tomorrow? I can get somebody else to look after him." "Mum it's fine honest, Sean already offered to walk him tomorrow for us anyway. It will be good to have the company." Lizzie kissed her daughter's head before walking out the house, "Bye poppet. Call if you need anything ok?" Her father said kissing her on the cheek. As they left, Lexie closed the door and sighed with relief. She loved her parents but she hated their fussing and worrying, she knew they meant well but they really didn't need to worry as much as they did. She felt rather weak as today was her first day properly out of bed and said to Johnny "Do you mind if I go back upstairs, everything is starting to really hurt again." "Of course according to the list, you can have more pain relief in an hour." Lexie nodded and tried to make her way upstairs slowly but had to keep stopping due to the pain. In the end Johnny somehow picked her up without causing her body too much discomfort and carried her to her bedroom. He gently laid her back on the bed so she was sat up against the headboard. "Can you leave for a bit whilst I change?" She said nervously. He gave her an odd look, they had slept together many times now, he had seen her naked so why was she concerned now? He didn't want to question her though so nodded and left claiming he wanted to smoke anyway. Realistically he sat half way down the stairs waiting in case she needed him.

Around 15 minutes later he was getting angsty so quietly made his way back up "Darling, are you ok?" "Erh yeah hang on." He waited a moment but when he heard her yelp in pain he rushed in. What he saw shocked him. She had moved herself to sit on the end of the bed in line with a full length mirror in the corner of the room. She had somehow managed to get her top of and had her arm across her chest but it did little to hide the large black and blue bruising that was across her rib cage and tummy. She had tears in her eyes and he rushed over kneeling in front of her. "Darling what is it?" "Don't look at me I'm hideous." "What? How can you say that?" "It's all so ugly, I've got to make a call by the end of the weekend to decide if I can go to the Bond premiere and how can I turn up like this? What Bond girl looks like this?" She cried and then continued "I wasn't hot enough before, now I'm now just even more ugly with a bruised and battered face, and this all over my body." He gently knelt up on his knees cupping her face gentle to not harm her wounds. "You listen to me Lexie, you were and are one of the most beautiful creatures on this planet. What that fucker did to you wasn't right but you survived. This is the proof. The premiere is just over two weeks away, bruises clear up quicker than you think, trust me I know, and how many people do you plan on showing your chest to at that premiere anyway?" He said softly. "I have a custom Jenny Packham sequin gown it's fitted and strapless. It has to be tight. My ribs will never heal in time." "If you still want to go, we will make it work I swear to you." Lexie bit her lip before wiping her tears with her hand. "Thank you Johnny." "My pleasure. Now let's get you some pjs yeah?" Lexie nodded smiling as he headed over to her drawers. She directed him to the bottom one where he opened it and pulled out all sorts of combinations before deciding nothing was suitable. She couldn't have anything over the head as she couldn't move her arms that well so it had to be button up. He had an idea and slowly undid his shirt, which he took off and gently placed round her shoulders. Due to her petite size it pretty much was a dress on her but that made it easier for her to navigate her arms into the sleeves before he buttoned it up for her. "There we are. Perfect." Lexie smiled, the tear tracks were still visible but slowly fading. "I swear it was clean on this morning." She giggled before he slowly helped her back so she was against the headboard again. "Let me go make sure Murphy is ok and your Dad said to make sure all the doors were locked before bed and I'll be back, do you need anything?" Lexie shook her head as Johnny walked out the room. She couldn't help notice he was topless and man did his tattoos look incredible against his toned body.