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The Ultimate Take That Story COMPLETE	By : MissLizzie Category: Singers/Bands/Musicians > Take That Views: 5447 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. I do not know the members of Take That. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 20
- 21
- 22
23.

Thousands of voices, hundreds of lights, anticipation hanging in the air. Newcastle seemed turned into Take That Town. Everyone wanted a piece of them and everybody wanted to be there. Television, Radio, fans…the whole circus had started over again and the boys were all still indecisive whether they liked this or not. Had the fans really come for the music and them, or just to laugh at them?
Gary nervously played around on the piano backstage, Dawn sat on the floor besides him and did her warming-up routine.
Skippy stuck his head around the door, “5 minutes Gaz.” Gary nodded and stood up to change his clothes.

Obviously, the doors of the Metro Arena had been opened for a while but the bubbling atmosphere was now penetrating through to the catacombs of where the boys were. Muffled high pitched female voices, once again welcomed the boys back. It made all of their skin crawl.

As they walked up to the stage, it felt like they were sheep brought to the slaughter house. Their heads hung low, tension and nervousness oozed from their pores. The intro clip started and the noise that had already been deafening, now exploded as the anticipation of the crowd reached its peak.

Skippy whished them one more good luck, Dawn kissed Gary once more on his cheek, Howard stretched his neck and upper arms one last time, Mark got rid of his gum, Jason sent up a little prayer that all of this was for Charlotte and hoped that God, or whoever, would forgive him for not being with the one he loved but doing what felt was right.

Milton and Steve shouted the secret cue, a sign that everything was okay, that the crowd was ready and that lights, sounds and such were good.
They hadn’t talked about the secret cue at all, it was something they had done back in the days, they all smiled knowingly. The clip ended and the music swell, a little stripe of light appeared through the two T’s in which they stood. They all held their breath…

***

The hospital was deserted, too bright TL lights flickered in some hallways. The smell of antiseptic soap didn’t mask the hospital odour.
A few night nurses sat in the back booths of the exam rooms, reading a book and waiting for their rounds or for the sound of a bell from one of the patients, but at this ward that hardly happened.
Someone walked in one of the hallways, not a patient because this person was wearing shoes, high heeled shoes, because they made a noise as she passed through the corridor.
She checked the door numbers, 410, 409, 408…the heels clicked on, 407, 406, 405…a sly smile appeared on her face, 404, 403…402. She entered the room.

***

“One more, Mr. Williams?” The bartender shook his head and he already reached for the bottle of Vodka.
“No, no I don’t think so, I’ve had enough,” his voice was thick and he clearly heard himself talk with a double tongue.
The bartender raised his eyebrows, “whatever you want,” and made up the bill. Robbie tossed him a credit card.
The nice, floating feeling of the booze lasted only a few seconds as he remembered that he was on his way to visit his former colleagues but chickened out at the last minute and decided to get waisted in the pub around the corner of the Metro Arena. He felt his depression rising again.
His phoned buzzed in his pocket.

If you are drunk, don’t bother coming home.

He sighed, he had gone way out of line on Julia this week. He really didn’t want to hurt her but when he drank, he just couldn’t control himself. And he drank more lately. The comeback of the others had been harder on him than he thought. He decided to walk around the block a little before taking a cab home, get sobered up.

***

The heart monitor and brain activity monitor softly beeped, breaking the silence of the night in the room. Soft, steady breathing rose from the bed.
“There’s no one here to safe you now, Charlotte.”
The voice sounded cool, determined.
The person that stood next to the bed, now lifted a pillow and held it above Charlotte’s head.

***

“I did it all for you!” He shouted the words, his chest nearly exploding from exhaustion, the dancing, the singing, the crowd, the emotions. He was overwhelmed.

Ladies and gentlemen..

“I did it all for you!”

We have our boyband, please welcome…

“I did it all for you!”

Take…That.

The lights above him switched on, Steve nodded at him and mouthed “You ok?” seeing the tears in Jason’s eyes.
He swallowed and winked at Steve, he closed his eyes for a few seconds.
“I do it all for you Charlie, it’s all for you.” He whispered to himself.

***

The pillow came crashing down. Charlotte didn’t move, but underneath the pillow her nostrils were blocked, her lungs didn’t get any air. Her internal alarm system that had been on low use for so long, now slowly started to send messages to her brain: no oxygen! The heart monitor gave an odd long beep, the peeks on the machine seemed to prolong, the other machine beeped now too, a little orange light flashed on and off at the front.
“Shhh,” the voice talked to no-one in particular, “It’ll all be over soon.”

***

Robbie blinked against the bright lights, he pretty much forgot how he’d gotten here. It didn’t matter, he was here now and he knew what he had to do. He had been here with Julia a lot, he tagged along with her mostly but after a few times he understood why she did it, it calmed her. And he needed some calming down right now before he could go back to Julia.
Even though his head was spinning and the alcohol rush was making way for fatigue, his feet seemed to know where to go.

***
Do you still speak to Robbie?

The crowd exploded, Gary felt as if someone stabbed a knife in his back. The first thing he did after he sat down behind his piano once the show had started, was scanning the front row. No Robbie. He scanned the side audience, he spotted his mum, Dawn’s dad, Jason’s dad. No Robbie. He’d promised though.

***
The iron door knob felt cold in his hand, his hand was shaking a little. Alcohol withdrawal symptoms, he felt how jumpy he was again, on edge.
He opened the door, ready to feel the peace, ready to open his soul to non responsiveness. Ready to talk to Charlotte.

***

She heard the dear knob turn, heard the door open and she stiffened. Caught in the act her eyes flew to the door, she let go of the pillow and her mouth fell open. How the hell could this happen?

***
Robbie’s eyes needed a second to get used to the darkness in the room, but as soon as he noticed the silhouette crouched over Charlotte, holding a pillow in her hand, he knew this was the real thing. This wasn’t a nurse, this was trouble. He snapped out of his drunken haze into aggression mode.

“What the…?” he was able to say but before he could decide what to do and how to react, she reached inside her coat and a split second later she lashed out at him with a gigantic butcher’s knife.

Adrenaline raced through his blood while he shielded his hands, in a reflex, in front of his head he knew he had to outsmart her, and he’d better do it quickly. In a defensive position he noticed he now sat kneeled down on the floor, he pulled out his legs from underneath him and swung them, break-dancer like across the floor to where her feet were. He hit her shins hard. She flung forwards, head first towards the bed, her hand still holding tight on the huge knife.
Robbie pulled his feet even further and the woman was now forced on her knees on the ground besides him. He straddled her back and he was pleased to find out that he was way too strong for her, he wriggled the knife from her hands and threw it across the room to the other side. He then took both her wrists and pulled them behind her back, when he reached out for the red emergency button next to Charlotte’s bed he felt a burning sensation in his gut. He pressed the button and looked down, irritated more than he felt the pain. The girls other hand held on to other end of the knitting needle that was sticking out of his stomach.
“No,” he stammered when he knew what she was about to do.
She turned her hand and pulled the needle out of him, immediately blood gushed from the open wound. He was torn between letting her go and pressing his own wound shut and keeping his grip on her wrists.
“You bitch!” he barked in her ear and his grip around her wrists tightened and he bit his teeth to ignore the pain in his stomach.

When the nurses arrived, everything seemed to be covered in blood and Robbie finally let go of Charlotte’s attacker. She was a familiar face.

***

Dripping wet he took the small steps down to change into the last outfit for Never Forget. A towel was handed him and with his tongue on his upper lip from concentration, he quickly dried himself off.
Skippy was putting back the receiver boxes of their microphones into the clip-on of their trousers.
“Barlow, you’re in car number one ok? Don’t drawl, we leave immediately!” Gary nodded at him as he tucked in his white blouse into his black trousers.
“How, you in number two Gracie is already in there so do not change your plans!” “Right Skip!” Howard’s head was covered by a towel in an attempt to quickly dry his hair.
“Owen, you’re in three,” Mark raised his hand, nearly finished he stood in front of the mirror to check his hair.
“Jay, number four for you mate.” Jason was still in his pants, he’d caught the gaze of Jonathan, who stood at the end of their understage changing room, something was up but Jason couldn’t decide whether it was good or bad.

The introduction of Never Forget started and one last time, the crowd roared. They all sang along. Jason took in the faces on front row, still mainly girls but much older now. Thousands of hands flew into the air in unison as Howard set in the chorus and the hairs on Jason’s neck stood up. The lights lit the massive crowd, and Jason suddenly felt like sitting down and watching all of this.

Mark felt the tears come up, which surprised him. The emotions were just too much, he quickly wiped his eyes and sang on. Two girls on front row, were doing just the same, their faces glowed with happiness, singing along and waving at him while tears ran down their faces.

Gary saw what happened to Mark, he saw what happened in the crowd, he’d seen the click between them again and he suddenly knew. Take That was as good as it had ever gotten for him, and he had never appreciated it for what it was. Tonight, he finally understood. He loved the singing, loved the cheers, enjoyed the smiles and felt on top of the world.

Howard sang his song and even though his throat felt like it had been punched with a sledge hammer, he managed to sing and with the right eye contact with Gary and Mike he started enjoying it half way in. Even though he’d dreaded singing this song, he was now happy that there were more concerts, shaking off any doubts he threw his hands in the air for the final chorus.

***

“How is she?” Robbie grumbled, gritting his teeth against the pain of the cut in his stomach that was now being treated.
“She’s as well as can be expected,” the doctor replied. “She’s intubated again which takes us a step back from her recovery with her breathing again via a machine, but as far as I can see, there is not major other damage. Pity, we were just intensifying the tests this weeks, her brain and heart showed some rather strange behaviour yesterday.”

Julia came storming in the first aid room, obviously totally upset and red eyes from crying.
“Rob, you ok?” she carefully took his hand and touched his face, cheeky grin already showing up again.
“I’m fine babe, don’t worry.”
Julia sighed with relief and pressed her lips against his, “I thought that horrible text of mine was the last thing I’d ever be saying to you. I’m so sorry.”
Robbie kissed her back, her lips still an inch from his face, “I’m sorry too babe.”

***

Four cars sped off into the night. One of them bent off, taking another direction.
“Why are we not going to the hotel?” Jason noticed immediately as he laid back into the backseat of the huge Volkswagen car.
Jonathan finally looked up from his agenda, “They’ve caught Charlotte’s attacker.” Jason’s eyes shot fire, “What?!”
“She attacked Charlotte again in the hospital tonight, Robbie was there he saved her.”
“Robbie saved Charlotte? What was he doing there? Who was she?” A million questions flushed Jason’s mind and he shook his head as if clearing them away so he would be able to start with the right question.
“Who did this to her?”
“Apparently, she’s an obsessed fan from the early days, even Robbie seemed to know her. We’re going to the hospital right now.”
Jason thankfully nodded at Jonathan, he felt relieved and scared at the same time. It was a strange ending to a strange day.

***

Gary fiddled on the piano, not really focusing on what he was doing, his thoughts were with Jason, with the show that had been an absolute blast. Jason had just called and updated the others about Charlotte and how Rob had practically saved her life. They all decided to stay up and wait for Jason to get back to the hotel.

Soft sounds rose from the piano and it soothed Gary, made him clear his mind and a smile appeared on his face. The second he had opened his mouth to start singing Once You’ve Tasted Love, he knew he’d missed this enormously over the past ten years. He missed performing, he missed the boys. He scanned the room searching his new found old friends. Howard sat in the corner of the meeting room they had hired which adjoined all of their rooms in the middle, the meeting room was decorated as to live up to all of their wishes. Take That didn’t have many demands in their rider, all they needed was an area with a piano and lots of water and tea and some snacks. Howard was now indulging on some cheese toasties Mark had made for all of them and eagerly took a bottle of Spanish beer Jonathan handed him.
Mark brought Gary a snack too and squeezed himself on the little bench Gary sat on while playing.
Mark studied Gary’s hands intently as they moved over the keys, without realizing it, Gary was playing a melody and Mark liked it. Softly, Mark started humming to the tune Gary was playing and a few minutes later the room had gone quiet and all looked up as Mark’s slightly raw pitched voice filled the air.

“Just hold me close…….your arms tonight…….my emotions….”

Gary understood the process, having been part of it for so long it was still there and he played the same over and over again. Until both their voices, found the lyrics.

“Just hold me close, inside your arms tonight, don’t be too hard on my emotions…”

From the back of the room, Howard saw it happen and his mind silently joined the two voices, searching for words to go with the music.

“Coz the scars run so deep, it’s been hard but I have to believe…” he sang and a bubble of excitement started to grow in the pit of his stomach.

“Get my voice recorder, Johnny” Gary whispered at Jonathan as Mark took over the piano and Howard saw Milton unpacking his guitar and handing it over to Howard he started tuning it for whoever was about to play it.

Four hours later, their soft singing was disturbed by Jason who entered the room looking knackered, flushed but also happy as a weight had been lifted of his shoulders.

Gary looked up from the piano, Mark dropped the guitar and Howard put down his pen.

“Alright?” Mark asked.

“Alright,” Jason replied, “I guess we go back to having a little patience,” he sighed deeply and sat down.

“Have a little patience…” Gary sang it first, clear and with a steady voice.

***

With Charlotte back on breathing via a machine, all of a sudden things looked more futureless than they had been before. Everybody had expected for her to get well sooner or later. But later was turning into months and it was seriously jeopardising Jason’s mental health. The shows were the only highlights of his day and even though he kept his act together very well in front of the lads, they all knew that he was having a hard time.

The final tour dates were getting closer and closer and they all seemed to dread the end. Not just because they enjoyed themselves so much, but also because they were unsure about their futures. They had written a lot more songs during the tour, and some of these songs they found so good that it was a shame not to use them. Jonathan had mentioned a couple of times that there was serious interest of record companies who wanted to produce an album with them, but they were all a little hesitant. They had written the songs out of joy rather than they had to produce something. None of them really believed that there was still a market out there for them, but they also had never felt so comfortable with each other on stage as they were now. Night after night, the crowd gave them goose bumps, made them hungry for more screams, more singing along, more laughs and more wows.
When the final night of the tour arrived, the all felt sorry because finally they had gotten used to each other again. When the rain came down on them for the final part of the show, Howard was glad it made the tears on his cheeks invisible. It had ended way too soon.

***

Robbie was waiting in the hotel bar and felt his body itch, he had already bitten all of his finger nails and felt a little trail of sweat on his back. When Gary’s mum had seen him lingering outside the stadium in Dublin just minutes before the final show was about to start. She’d shook her head, walked up to him and had grabbed his hand.
“Come on love,” she’d said as she pulled him inside, making him sit down backstage with a perfect view on the stage while she sat next to him smiling proud at her son who had spotted Robbie immediately sitting next to his mother. Looking ashamed he remained in his seat though and watched the whole show. He heard the crowd scream when his hologram came on and sang his little bit of Could It Be Magic, for a first in a long time the adoration gave him goose bumps again.

When he heard the activity behind him, he knew they’d arrived back at the hotel. Two seconds later, Mark grabbed his shoulder.
“You actually came and saw the show! Thanks man,” Robbie saw four smiling faces and swallowed away a cheeky remark. And even though he felt at home, and all of them were friendly to him, he knew he wasn’t part of this anymore, Take That was history to Robbie and Robbie was history to them. He saw the new found inspiration in their eyes and wasn’t surprised at all when Mark told him that they were thinking about signing for another record company. They were eager to make music and were planning their futures, and when he saw Gary’s eyes as he told him that he’d started writing again he suddenly felt the burden of his conscience, he had never enjoyed writing music, he rarely enjoyed performing. He did all these things because it was what people expected him to do.

When he snorted the cocaine again after being clean for nearly half a year, it hit him straight away and the depression was pushed away from his mind.
Blissfully, he sank against the soft cushions of the cab that took him home. His pupils dilated, the colours seeming more soft than ever and nothing mattered anymore.
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The Ultimate Take That Story *COMPLETE*

The Ultimate Take That Story COMPLETE