James and Alexsis had known each other for years. They went to the same school, Lex being a couple of years younger than James. They still shared the same group of friends though, as James introduced Lex to his “chums.”
As a couple of years passed, and old school friends dropped out of the group to do their own thing, it was just James and Lex left from the original group. They went out to clubs together at night and went shopping together during the day. James was the perfect gentleman, never took advantage of
Lex, they had never dated, just been perfect friends. James was better than any girlfriend Lex had had, he knew just what to say when she was feeling down but could be a good laugh as well.

Matt and Sarah first met when their parents became friends from some social group that old people go to. Anyway, Matt was 16 when he met Sarah and Sarah was 13.
As with James and Lex, Sarah and Matt were never anything more than friends.
As Sarah hit 15, luck would have it that she looked older than she was, and she soon became Matt’s drinking buddy as well as friends. They both knew each others limits and could easily out drink each other in competitions, this bought Sarah and Matt closer, and soon were best friends.

A few years later, as fate would have it, Matt and James bumped into each other at a gig they were at. They got introduced and became good friends.
James introduced Matt to Lex, and Matt introduced James to Sarah, and soon the group became inseparable, and everyone could tell that there should be more than friendship between Matt and Lex, but they didn’t work this one out just yet.

Matt and James were both really into their music and were forever writing songs. Writing songs became such a huge part of James’ life that he soon quit college to concentrate on his writing more.
The guys soon realized that they had some talent in their song writing, and hey, their vocals weren’t that bad either, so with some encouragement from Sarah and Lex, the guys found two more boys to be in the band and got started on serious song writing and looking for management.

Matt had a childhood friend called Tom Fletcher, who Sarah had only met a couple of times, but she didn’t get on with him half as she did Matt, but
they didn’t hate each other. Looked like Tom had some pretty good contacts though, as his brother Matthew Fletcher was in management, and was looking for his own band to manage.
Tom introduced Matt, James and the other guys to Fletch and he loved them, except, he decided the two other guys, (don’t actually know their names but I think one of them is called Owen) weren’t suited to be in this band.

Bring in the Charlie.

Matt and James decided to put an ad in NME Magazine, looking for a new singer/songwriter/musician. They held an audition, which Tom Fletcher also participated in, and here is where they found the perfect guy, Charles Robert Simpson.
At the audition, Matt and James went over to get acquainted with their new band member. Matt brought Charlie over to meet Sarah and there was an immediate attraction between the two, although they were to shy to do anything about it so soon after meeting.

A month after the auditions and Charlie officially becoming apart of the
group, friendship wise as well as professionally, Sarah and Charlie became more than just friends. Charlie stopped dating his on/off girlfriend Camilla.
As Charlie had just left quite a serious relationship, he wasn’t up for
anything to big yet, but he was up for some fun.
Sarah understood this, and Charlie always said that things would change one day and they would become a real couple. So Sarah stuck by Charlie, hoping he would want to become more serious soon, but there were always arguments when other girls came onto the scene.

It was at Matt’s 19th birthday party when he and Lex overcame their shyness and became a couple.
That night was the first night they became intimate with each other.
Although Matt and Lex felt they loved each other they had a very rocky start to their relationship.

Jamesy, had been introduced to many friends of Sarah and Lex, who were
always trying to set him up with someone. The only one that actually got
anywhere was with a young lady called Fran.
Lex had been friends with Fran for a few years, and she felt her and James would get on very well.
The more Fran and James met up, the more they got on and they decided to become a proper item.

Fast Forward to September 2002, around the release of "What I Go To School for."
Lex and Matt had been dating for four months, but things weren't going
great, to say the least.
Lex had been getting really stroppy, quite easily, with everyone lately, but
especially with Matt. All of a sudden, she didn't like the fact that Holly,
Busted's TV plugger, was always hanging around Matt, and Matt seemed to be enjoying the attention.
Things got to bad for the couple to stay together and so they split up.
Matt decided to take things further with Holly, which made it difficult for
Lex to hang out with the group as much, as Holly was always around.

The only person Lex saw as much as she did before the split was James, and she spoke to Sarah on the phone all the time. As Lex and Charlie didn't really get on too well anyway, they didn't speak after the split, only
through Sarah.

A month after the split, Lex found out some, in her eyes, bad news. The
first person she told was her best friend James.
James went to visit Lex as usual on a Monday afternoon and was shocked when Lex told him her biggest secret.
James knocked on Lex's front door.
Lex walked over to the door, noticed it was James and burst into tears.
"James!" Was all she said and she burst into tears.
"Are you that unhappy to see me?!" James joked, although looking worried at the same time.
"It isn't funny James my life is over, I mean how could this happen!" Lex
said, walking further into the house.
"Lex, what's up?" James asked, following Lex into the house, closing the
door behind him.
Lex walked into the bedroom and sat on her bed.
"I hate him so much, I don’t want this, I cant deal with this on my own, and now I'm stuck and I'm going to have too, because he has miss perfect and my life is over! I cant have a baby at 17, I just can't, I want to do things with my life James!" Lex ranted, bursting into fresh tears.
"Baby, miss perfect? Eh?" James replied, totally confused.
"I'M PREGNANT!!! I'm, I'm pregnant, sounds just as bad out loud as it does in my head, I don't want it!" Lex explained.
"Who's is it?" James asked, without thinking.
Lex hits James. "WHO'S DO YOU THINK?" Lex sobbed.
"Oh Erm, yeah right!" James remarked, rubbing his head.
"Just leave James!" Lex said, shaking her head.
"Are you sure? I can stay if you want, I wont make any more stupid
remarks!!" James soothed.
Lex just fell forward and hugged James, sobbing into his jumper.
"There, there, it'll be ok, it'll be all right, it'll work out, you'll see!
James tried to reassure Lex.
"JAMES, how do you see this going ok? I DON'T WANT IT!!" Lex screamed.
"It's not an it Lex, It is a foetus!!! OOOHHHH, Look who paid attention in biology!!!" James remarked.
Lex hiccupped instead laughed as the tears took over. "James, just go OK?!"
"Ah, I'm meeting up with the others soon, so Erm...yeah I better go,
otherwise I would stay whether you liked it or not," James said.
Lex hid her head under her pillow and nodded, "Bye," she muttered, although it was muffled underneath the pillow.
James left to meet the others.

Fast Forward thirty minutes. Matt, James, Charlie, Sarah and Holly are
meeting at the guys apartment to catch up with everything.
Charlie, Sarah, Matt and Holly are sat in the apartment, wondering where
James is, as he is 20 minutes late.
James walks in, as if on cue.
"Hey guys, Sorry I'm late, it's been a, well, it's been an interesting
afternoon," James said instantly, going to sit next to Sarah.
"What was so interesting then mate?" Charlie asked, intrigued.
"Yeah, anything we need to know?!" Holly followed.
"Yeah man, where did you go?" Matt added.
"Well, I went down to visit Lex, like I do most days!" James replied.
"Oh...right...how is she?" Matt answered politely.
"Yes in deed, how is the old gal?" Charlie said mockingly.
"Yeah haven't heard from her in a while!" Holly brought up.
"Well, she's Erm, angry, eating a lot, pregnant, unhappy...huh, Matt you
prick!" James revealed.
"Oh my God...She is? Since When? How? Who with? Is she ok?" Holly asked, sounding worried.
"Holy fuck, that's not good!" Charlie exclaimed.
Matt just sat there looking confused and out of it. He snapped his head up and asked James whether it was his, knowing the answer before the question even left his mouth.
"Yes, of course it is, how could you doubt it Matt, your the only one who's seeing other people," James muttered in a low, spiteful tone.
"James, I don't think there's any need for that tone," Holly said, sternly
but helpfully.
Sarah just sat there staring for a moment before muttering, "Pregnant?"
under her breath.
"So...Erm how is she?" Charlie says feeling stupid for even asking.
"Yes PREGNANT Sarah! *walks around* Left her crying to herself, what a great best friend I am!" James said, more to himself that anybody.
"She'll understand James, I expect she needs to be alone at the moment
anyway, to get things straight in her head!" Sarah said, trying to make
James feel better.
"Well she won't be alone, I really think we need to talk!" Matt said
standing up, ready to leave.
"Do you really think you need to?" Holly remarked, trying to pull him back down, but Matt's not having none of it.
"I think that's a really good idea!" Charlie said, pulling Holly's arm away
from Matt.
"Needs to! NEEDS TOO!! IT'S HIS! OF COURSE HE NEEDS TOO!!" James said, getting slightly annoyed at Holly.
Holly stands up and faces Matt.
"Look, you don't even want children, well that's what you said. So why do you need to go round to see HER just because she's carrying your child!!!
When you could just pretend you never knew!" Holly ranted.
"Look, you don't understand and you never will!!!" Matt replied turning red.
"I don't understand! I understand you don't want to settle down! You don't want kids! And neither does she, just pay her to get rid of it, and that's that! This will do nothing for your career!" Holly stated, folding her arms.
"YOU SCHEMING BITCH! I CANT BELIEVE YOU WOULD EVEN SUGGEST THAT! THATS JUST
SO WRONG! I WONDER WHY I'M WITH YOU SOMETIMES" Matt screamed getting angrier as the seconds passed.
James folded his arms and nodded, "He said it!"
" WELL, if that's how you feel, then maybe you shouldn't be with me! If
something so small will get you SOOOOOOOOO wound up, then you're not worth it!" Holly replied.
Matt laughed. "Something so small. It's a fucking baby Holly!"
"Technically very small, mentally a huge thing going on there!" Charlie
noted.
"Simpson, shut up!" Sarah said, kicking him gently.
"Think of this as over, if you want to ruin your life, don't do it with me.
And you can tell her that I hope she has twins," Holly said, grabbing her
coat, opening the door and leaving, slamming the door extremely hard behind her.
"Right, I'm off too!" Matt said, heading towards the door.
"Do we need to ask where or are you being clever?" Sarah asked.
"I'm being clever," Matt remarked, opening the door and leaving.
"What the hell is going on," James muttered looking unhappy!

 

Matt walked up to the door and knocked on it, he looked nervous as he heard someone coming to the door
Lex opened the door and frowned when she saw matt, her eyes were tearstained.
"What are you doing here?"
Matt walked in and looked at her.
"Why didn’t you tell me?"
She looked at him and guessed he knew, she would kill James.
"Look you don’t have to worry about it ok matt? Just pretend you don’t know, and I’ll pretend its not yours."
He looked at her like she was crazy.
"Pretend it isn’t mine? Are you kidding me? I’m going to be a dad,"
She sighed and sat down on the bed.
"Matt, I don’t want you to feel like you have to be there alright? I’m sure holly wouldn’t like it" she finished bitterly and he sat down next to her.

“I don’t care what Holly thinks,” Matt said, just looking at Lex’s stomach.

“Look, I’m not gonna get that fat that quickly and there’s nothing showing at the moment so stop looking at my stomach like that! And what do you mean you don’t care what Holly thinks, you love her!” Lex said, looking upset as she said it.

“No, it’s you I love, not her, I never have loved her, she was just a…a distraction,” Matt tried to explain.

“Why did you need a distraction for anyway?” Lex asked, looking confused.

“Well, to take my mind of not being with you, I missed you, a lot,” Matt said, looking at the ground.

“Well, don’t you think I missed you too…but how am I suppose to feel when I see you with her, so soon after we split up. It made me feel like you don’t care, like you never did,” Lex reeled off, anger filling her eyes as all the feelings came back to her. “And besides, it’s too late now, you’re with her!”

“Erm, no I’m not…” Matt started, “I broke it off, she…she’s a bitch, I guess I always knew that!”

Lex smiled to herself, Matt finally saw it, ok so it had taken him a while but he had seen the truth at last.

“So…” Matt said looking at Lex.

“So…what?” Lex asked, teasing Matt.

“Are, can we, you know…get back together?” Matt asked slowly.

“Oh, well, I don’t know about that,” Lex teased again, Matt not catching on.

“Well, I have something else to ask you first, before you make a decision,” Matt said, looking at Lex, looking nervous.

“Oh really, what’s that?” Lex asked, looking confused and just as nervous as Matt.

“Will…Erm…well, will you marry me?” Matt asked, glazing into Lex’s eyes.

Lex was shocked to say the least but she still teased Matt.

“Well, I’ll decide when you do it properly,” She glanced at the floor, “On your knees!”

“Well, I haven’t got a ring…but Erm, ok,” Matt said, sliding to the floor. Looking around he looked helpless, but he looked at his own hand, and pulled of the ring he wore.

“Lex, I love you, and would love it if you would do me the honour of becoming my wife…will you marry me?” Matt asked again, holding out his ring. He felt cheesy at what he had just said, but he was still looking up at Lex hopefully.

“Of course I will you fool!” Lex laughed, bending down to hug her fiancé, “I love you too.”

Whilst Lex and Matt had been having their problems, Sarah and Charlie were having problems of their own. Charlie seemed to believe it was OK to bring random girls with him when he was meeting up with the lads, Sarah and Lex. Fair enough, Sarah and Charlie weren’t officially an ‘item’ but Sarah thought it was inappropriate to flaunt all of these girls in front of her, she loved him and she thought he had some feelings for her too. Obviously not. Charlie had even bought his old girlfriend from school, Camilla, around Sarah’s house once. And Charlie wondered why Sarah had gotten so mad. Camilla had left because she felt so awkward, which had gotten Charlie mad.

“Why did you have to make her feel so unwelcome?” Charlie asked, looking angry.

“Because she is unwelcome. I don’t want YOUR hussy’s in MY house Charlie!” Sarah said, looking just as angered.

“She is not a hussy, she is someone I am seeing,” Charlie said pointedly.

“When are you going to grow up Charlie? How many girls is it going to take to make you see what you want? I’m getting sick of waiting, all I am to you is a sleeping partner. I don’t mean anything to you!” Sarah said, sitting down and looking upset more than angry now.

“You know that’s not true. I, I’m just not ready to settle down yet!” Charlie said, stumbling on his words.

“Well, why did you break it off with her when you met me then, seeing as you’re keen on her again,” Sarah said. When they had first started ’seeing’ eachother, Charlie had had the decency to lose her, but now it looked as if she were back.

“I, I don’t know, coz, Erm, well, it will happen one day Sarah, it will,” Charlie promised.

“It’s always one day, I don’t want to wait anymore, I don’t think you’ll ever be ready,” Sarah shook her head. “Just leave Charlie, I can’t be dealing with this now!”

Charlie didn’t say anything, he just looked at Sarah and shook his head. Well, if he was quick, he could catch up with Camilla.

Regardless of what Sarah had said, the next time Charlie called wanting to meet up with Sarah, she didn’t say no. She did love him, and she supposed she would just have to wait. So things went on the same as before, going out and sleeping together, but nothing ever going any further…until Charlie would get the push he needed to get serious about the relationship.

APRIL 7^th 2003 - Lex’s Twins Born.

MAY 3^RD 2003 - Lex and Matt Marry

July 2003

 Charlie had stopped bringing girls to places he knew Sarah would be, he realised maybe that wasn’t fair, but he didn’t stop seeing other girls completely. He was young and he wanted to have fun whilst he was young enough to have it. Thing is, something was coming along to change Charlie’s plans.

Sarah had been acting strange again lately, bringing up when he was going to be ready to get serious. OK he said one day, but one day wasn’t here yet, and Sarah had been laying off lately, so what was bringing all of this on?

He was about to get his answer.

“Charlie, I need to know how you really feel about me,” Sarah said seriously one day. They were led in bed after one of their nights out.

“Why are you bringing this up again?” Charlie said, sighing and turning on his side to face Sarah.

“Because I think it’s about time we got ourselves sorted,” Sarah replied, avoiding Charlie’s eyes.

“Sarah, I’ve told you…” Charlie started.

“I know, I know, one day, but things are going on in my life Charlie, I need to know where I stand so I can see where I’m going, what I’m gonna do with my life,” Sarah cut Charlie off.

“What kind of things are happening that have got you thinking so seriously?” Charlie asked, looking confused.

“I, I found something out a couple of weeks ago…and I just need to know where I am with you Charlie, so I know what to do!” Sarah said, still not making herself any clearer.

“What did you find out?” Charlie asked, intrigued.

“Well, I’m, I mean we’re going, we’re going to have a baby Charlie. Only, I can guess that’s not what you want!” Sarah blurted out, turning away from Charlie.

“You, you, you…you what?” Charlie stuttered thinking he’d heard wrong.

“I’m pregnant Charlie, one month pregnant. Now can you see why I want to know where I stand?” Sarah said, getting annoyed at how slow Charlie was being.

“That’s Erm, that’s…” Charlie started to say, not knowing how to react. He stopped his previous train of thought to ask a question. “How?”

“How? HOW? Charlie, I think you know how. You weren’t exactly careful were you? Couldn’t wait until there was a condom insight could you, no, you just wanted to have some fun then leave, looking for the next girl didn’t you? That’s how!” Sarah said, getting mad. She got out of bed and got dressed. (They had been at Charlie’s apartment.)

“Forget it, I can see you’re not interested, I’ll just leave. Then you can phone Camilla and have her over…just like you’ve been doing for the past year or whatever it’s been!” Sarah continued, picking up her coat and walking out of the apartment.

“No Sarah please… don’t…” Charlie started, but it was too late, Sarah was already out of the door. “Damn.”

Charlie got up and paced the room, what was he going to do. He did love her but he still wasn’t ready for a heavy relationship, especially one with a baby involved, was he?

He sat down on the edge of the bed and tried to figure things out in his head.

An hour later, Charlie’s mind was made up. He couldn’t believe it had taken him this long to realise that everything he had been looking for had been in front of him for no less than a year. Why had he been so stupid? Ok, so a baby could make things a little weird. Well, Sarah was only sixteen and he was only seventeen, but things would work out. He knew what he had to do.

He got up, got dressed and left. He went to Sarah’s house and was happy to see movement. Sarah still lived with her parents, as obviously she was still young. This could be bad, what if Sarah had told her parents how he acted with her, and what if they knew about the pregnancy and how he had reacted? Yep, this could go totally wrong. Charlie knocked the door anyway.

Sarah’s mum opened the door. “Oh, hi, she’s up in her room, didn’t look to happy, maybe you can cheer her up?” She said, letting Charlie in.

“Doubt it,” Charlie muttered starting up the stairs. Ah, so Sarah hadn’t told them anything, that’s good.

Charlie reached the top of the stairs and looked towards the room he had seen many times. This was the first time he had ever felt nervous walking towards it. He hesitated outside the door, then knocked.

“It’s open!” Sarah shouted, not thinking it could be Charlie.

Charlie didn’t say anything, he just opened the door and walked in. He held his head down and walked towards the bed and sat down.

“What are you doing here?” Sarah said, looking angry at the sight of him.

“I …well, I wanted to tell you something,” Charlie said, looking at Sarah for the first time since he’d entered the room.

“What?” Sarah queried, carrying on with the coursework she had been working on before Charlie had arrived.

“I’m ready to grow up,” Charlie said, simply.

“You what?” Sarah said looking confused, she looked up to see Charlie standing up. He walked over towards Sarah and sat on the desk where her work was.

“I’m ready to grow up! I know what I want, I’ve worked it out,” Charlie said proudly.

“Oh well it took you long enough,” Sarah sighed, not catching on to what Charlie was saying. “So, who is she?”

Charlie just looked at Sarah confused, and then laughed. “Sarah, it’s you!”

Sarah stopped working and looked up at Charlie. “What did you say?”

“It’s you I want! I don’t want Camilla, I don’t want any other girl, I want you, you and,” Charlie stopped, looking scared as he said it, “You and our child.”

Sarah didn’t say anything, she just looked up at Charlie, trying to determine whether he was lying or not. He looked truthful. She still didn’t say anything, instead she stood up and hugged Charlie, crying.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Charlie asked, looking shocked, she was suppose to be happy not upset.

“I’m so scared, I’m so young, and I can’t handle this, what are we going to do?” Sarah sobbed into Charlie’s chest. “My parent’s will kill me!”

“We can handle this, it’ll all be ok! We just need to get used to the idea, and your parents will understand, they will!” Charlie tried to sooth Sarah.

Sarah just shook her head disbelievingly.

“Oh yeah, I’m sure they will understand that their 16 year old daughter is pregnant by a guy they hardly know. Oh yeah, they’ll be fine about it,” Sarah said sarcastically.

Charlie didn’t really know what to say. “Er, well, they will have to deal with it now coz it’s happened, it can’t be taken back now can it?” Charlie muttered, more to himself than Sarah.

“Hmm,” Sarah replied, not knowing what else to say.

Over the next two weeks, Charlie was better than his word. He didn’t look at another girl in those two weeks, he treated Sarah like a real lady. He refused to let her do anything to stressful, he did everything.

Sarah and Charlie had broken the news of Sarah’s pregnancy to each of their parents at the same time. Luckily, although both couples were shocked, they didn’t get mad, and said they would support them. So everything was running smoothly.

One evening Charlie surprised Sarah. He told her to put something smart on and wait in the lounge. Charlie on the other hand, had dressed up in a gorgeous black Armani suit. He was stood watching out of the window, twitching the curtain every now and again, looking nervous.

“Where are we going?” Sarah asked, sat on the couch looking up at Charlie.

“It’s a surprise, I’m just waiting for the…ah ha…here it is,” Charlie said, not finishing his sentence. He walked over to Sarah and offered his arm. “My Lady,” Charlie said in an overly put on posh voice.

Sarah giggled and took his arm, as Charlie opened the front door and led Sarah out of it.

“Oh My God, it’s beautiful!” Sarah exclaimed as she noticed the jet black Limo parked across the driveway.

Charlie just smiled as he carried on walking down towards the limo. He released Sarah’s arm and opened the limo door for her. Sarah climbed into the limo and looked around inside. It was huge. Charlie got into the limo after Sarah and just smiled. He’d done right so far, everything had made Sarah smile. The Chauffeur had gotten out of the limo and shut the door behind Charlie, and got back in and started to drive.

Sarah was just sat in awe. Charlie had never done anything like this for her before. It had always been a taxi to and from a club, and then back to one or the others place for sex, never a limo, going to only God knows where! This was so romantic.

About half an hour later, the limo pulled out side of Gordon Ramsay‘s.

The chauffeur got out from the limo and opened the door, Sarah and Charlie got out. Charlie taking Sarah’s arm again.

“What do you look so surprised for?” Charlie asked, smiling, “I can do nice, romantic things sometimes you know! Reservation for two, under the name Simpson.”

They had reached the restaurant, and were being shown to their table. They sat down and looked at the menu, then ordered.

The food arrived and everything was perfect. Then dessert arrived, and again, everything was perfect.

“I’ve really enjoyed tonight Charlie,” Sarah said, playing with her dessert spoon.

“So have I. It makes a change not being recognised when we go out!” Charlie pointed out.

“I don’t think fans could afford this place,” Sarah laughed, looking around.

Whilst Sarah was looking around, Charlie had been fiddling with something in his pocket. “Sarah, I need to ask you something…quite important,” Charlie said, the nervousness coming back.

“What is it?” Sarah asked, turning to focus on Charlie.

Charlie pulled a small, black velvet jewellery box from under the table. Sarah didn’t say anything, she just gasped, anticipating what was going to happen.

“I may not have shown it over the past year and a bit, but, well, I’ve had these feelings I haven’t been able to describe, and I still can’t describe them, so I won’t try. But I haven’t been happier than I have been this past year, being with you, even though I wasn’t,” Charlie went on, looking confused at what he was trying to say. A smile came to his lips. “I had a speech planned for this, but now, it’s come to saying it, and I’ve forgotten everything I had planned. But what, well, what I’m trying to say, but failing to do so! I want to marry you, I want us to be together…properly,” Charlie finished.

Sarah didn’t know what to say, she just sat with her mouth open, looking at Charlie with disbelief on her face.

“Erm, you’re not talking. Is that good?” Charlie asked, looking nervously down at his feet.

Sarah smiled slightly then looked up at Charlie. “Ask me properly!” Sarah requested, still smiling.

Charlie leant across the table, knocking a wine glass over as he did. He held the jewellery box closer to Sarah. “Sarah, will you marry me?” He asked, opening the box and showing Sarah the ring.

Sarah had to really hold her tongue from yelling yes in the middle of the restaurant. But she wanted Charlie to do this properly.

“Say it, say it on your knees,” Sarah said, looking at the floor.

“Ah man, but there’s all these people around, and well, they’ll be staring at me,” Charlie said, keeping his pride.

Sarah rolled her eyes. Charlie stayed where he was. He still had the ring box open, leant across the table. He looked up at Sarah and pulled that face that she couldn’t resist. He smiled and looked up at her with his lovely brown eyes. How could she resist.

“Charlie, off course I’ll marry you,” Sarah blurted out quickly. Ah, well, she could always get him to say it on his knees later.

Charlie actually looked shocked. “You mean…you mean you will?” he asked dumbly.

“Yes, yes I will,” Sarah clarified. At this, Charlie took the ring out of the box and slipped it on to Sarah’s finger.

“I’m so glad you said yes, how embarrassing would it have been if you said no!” Charlie laughed, leaning further across the table to kiss Sarah.

“Why would I say no?” Sarah laughed, “I love you!”

“Well, that’s good coz I love you too,” Charlie replied.

November 2003 - dress hunting.

As far as Sarah was concerned, December couldn’t come round fast enough. She and Charlie had set a date for their wedding, December 26^th. She couldn’t wait. A Christmas wedding, how great would that be.

It was weird though, as Charlie had decided he wanted to do most of the planning, he chose where the wedding was going to be, and he wouldn’t tell Sarah. He chose the perfect location though, the wedding, the reception, and the honeymoon could all be taken in one place, which saved wasting time on travelling.

Traditionally, of course, Sarah got to choose her dress. She hunted round from about a week after Charlie proposed, knowing she needed the perfect dress. Thing is, it would be hard to judge just how big she would be for fitting. Well, she would be seven months pregnant when she got married. It would look funny wearing white, when white is for virgin weddings, but never mind. Sarah wanted a white dress so that’s what she was getting.

She found the perfect dress just a month before the wedding. She was out looking in all the Bridal Boutiques in London for what must have been the fiftieth time with Lex and Fran, when she came across a new line just in.

“Oh My God, that’s the one,” Sarah said, before even trying it on.

She had laid her eyes on a white silk dress, with diamonds studded along the bodice. “It’s perfect,” Sarah sighed, falling in love with the dress.

“Yeah it is really pretty,” Fran agreed, “But how much is it?”

“Does it matter, I want THIS DRESS!” Sarah exclaimed. “Er, how much is this dress?” She asked a nearby assistant.

The assistant smiled and walked over to Sarah, Fran and Lex. “This dress is new in, just this week, Christian Dior’s latest design, it’s £150,000,” the assistant reeled off.

Fran’s jaw dropped to the floor, she looked like she was going to faint.

“Fran breath, it’s not you that’s got to pay for it,” Lex pointed out. “Charlie is,” She finished and laughed. “Do you think he will pay that much?”

“I don’t know, well, no, he is. That’s THE dress, it has to be that one, or it’s no dress at all!” Sarah concluded.

“Well, Charlie might like the second option,” Fran giggled.

“Look, I have the joint account card here, he said spend however much was needed, and this is needed so…” Sarah handed the credit card over to the assistant.

“Marvellous, I’ll just go run it through,” the assistant said, and walked off smiling. What a sale!

As soon as the first assistant had walked off, another one came up. “Would you like to try on the dress now? And well, it looks as though it will have to be altered nearer the time…” the new assistant said, noticing Sarah’s stomach. “Or is the wedding after the birth?”

“Oh, no it’s next month, so before,” Sarah said.

“Well, we’ll alter it the day before, when we know measurements and everything like that. Ok go try it on!” the assistant handed over a dress, in a large size.

Sarah sighed. “Pity we had to get married whilst I’m pregnant!”

“You’ll look stunning pregnant or not…now go try it on, I want to see whether it’s worth what Charlie’s paying!” Lex said, a cheeky smile on her face.

“Fine,” Sarah said, rolling her eyes at Lex’s comment and going to the tiny cubicle. “This is gonna be a squeeze!”

Twenty minutes of struggling into the dress later, the assistant went into the cubicle to help put the finishing touches to the dress, pulling the hem down straight, adding the veil. Then Sarah walked out of the cubicle and stood in front of her awaiting audience.

Fran and Lex’s jaw fell to the floor. “That dress is gorgeous,” they both said at the same time.

“I really don’t think it’s appropriate to be wearing a veil though,” Sarah grinned, catching sight of herself in the mirror.

“Ridiculous, it’s tradition and you’re wearing one! And Charlie will realise that dress was worth it when he sees you in it!” Lex said.

“Better take it off, don’t want to ruin it,” Sarah said, turning round and walking back into the cubicle.

Before they left the boutique, Sarah signed for the dress and arranged for the dress to be fitted on December 22^nd. The boutique shut for Christmas on the 23^rd, so it was the closest to the wedding they could do it.

“When Charlie sees that much money gone from his account, he’ll have a heart attack,” Fran said.

“It’ll be worth it on the day though…and well, the look on his face would be funny when he sees the cash gone, wish I could be there to see it,” Lex smiled to herself.

“I wish he would just tell me where this wedding was, it’s annoying me now!” Sarah said.

Lex and Fran just shared a look.

“Oh My God, you guys know. You have to tell me now, I’ll take your bridesmaid privileges away!” Sarah threatened.

“You have no one else you want to have those privileges, so…you’ll just have to wait and see,” Lex said, tapping her nose.

“Everyone but me knows, don’t they,” Sarah realised.

Lex and Fran just tapped their noses.

December 2003.

Before anybody knew it, it was December 23^rd. The wedding had been completely planned with nothing left to do at all, so it was just time to relax before the big day.

The wedding planning had been surprisingly easy for Sarah. Charlie had wanted to do most of it. All that had been left for Sarah to do, had been choosing her dress, flowers, and choosing the brides maids. Charlie had wanted to do the location, honeymoon, invitations, catering, groomsmen, Reception, and well, everything else for that matter.

They did share the responsibility of choosing rings, and the dresses for the brides maids, although, if it had been totally up to Charlie, the brides maids would have looked like meringues.

“Yeah well, Lex is wearing it so…you know!” Had been his excuse. He wanted them to look lovely really though.

Well, the good thing about not having to plan this wedding totally by herself, which some woman have to do, it did keep the stress of Sarah, which was good for her baby.

Early afternoon on December 23^rd, Charlie had bought up the idea of packing for the honeymoon. He figured, what with the hassle of Christmas, things just wouldn’t get done otherwise.

So they both went upstairs and started packing their things. When Sarah had finished with her packing, she went along the corridor to the bathroom to see if there was anything there she had forgotten. Whilst she done this, Charlie sneakily packed his tuxedo and Sarah’s wedding dress. He was half tempted to unzip the grey dress bag and look at what had cost him all that money, but that would only spoil the surprise on Friday.

Charlie heard Sarah coming back towards the room and quickly zipped up his suitcase. “Right, well I’m packed. We may as well take these to my parents now, seeing as they’ll be taking them to the reception and all,” Charlie said.

“Are they?” Sarah asked. She never knew that.

“Yeah, well seeing as they’ll be driving there and everything, they can put them in their car, and we can go straight to the airport,” Charlie said quickly.

“Oh, right, ok! Yeah we’ll take them over now then,” Sarah said, sounding confused.

Charlie picked up the suitcases from the bed and lugged them down the stairs and into the car. “My God, what have you got in there?” Charlie asked, leaning against the car, trying to catch his breath.

“Rocks,” Sarah replied smiling, getting into the car.

Charlie climbed into the drivers seat. “I believe you! Anyway, right, I have a surprise for you, and you can’t see what it is so you need to wear this,” Charlie explained. He pulled out a blindfold.

“Er, why?” Sarah asked.

“I said…it’s a surprise,” Charlie laughed, turning Sarah around and tying the blindfold over her eyes.

Sarah didn’t say anything, she was to confused to, she just let Charlie get on with it.

After an hour of driving, Sarah was getting bored and agitated. “Charlie, your parents house is like, twenty minutes down the road. What’s going on?”

“You’ll see, now stop moaning,” Charlie said, parking the car. He got out of the car and Sarah could hear Charlie talking to someone as he was taking the suitcases out of the boot.

“Charlie, who are you talking to?” Sarah asked, still sat in the car.

“No one, I’m just moaning about the weight of this suitcase, women pack too much!” Charlie replied, laughing.

Sarah heard movement by her side of the car, and then nothing. A minute later, Charlie had closed the door on his side of the car, and walked round towards Sarah’s. He opened the door and helped Sarah out. Sarah stayed silent, as Charlie led her to wherever he was taking her. She knew she was outside for the first part of the walk, as it was cold. She felt the difference as she entered some kind of building. It was very noisy wherever she was.

She felt Charlie walk behind her and start to remove the blindfold. Finally.

The blindfold fell from her eyes and she saw a huge crowd of people in front of her. She was in an airport.

“Charlie, why are we here?” Sarah asked, not catching on.

“Well, we’re not getting married in England,” Was all Charlie said, “Well, we may be at this rate,” Charlie added, looking at his watch. “We need to catch our plane soon, I’ll go check us all in.” Charlie pulled a huge wad of boarding passes out of his jacket. Sarah just stared.

All of a sudden, James came running through the huge crowd. “Oh My God, two of my best friends getting married, I’m so proud. Ah I’m so excited!” James screamed, hugging Sarah then running back into the crowd. That’s when Sarah realised, the huge crowd was the wedding guests. She hadn’t realised that they had invited so many people.

Charlie came back about ten minutes later smiling. “Ok, we’re all checked in, shall we go to the gate then…we don’t want to miss this plane!”

Sarah was still the only one out of everybody with her then who didn’t know where she was going and where she was getting married. This annoyed her slightly.

Ok, over two hundred in the same group is not easy to get onto a plane quickly, what with all those passports and boarding passes. But everybody got on eventually.

And this is where Sarah found out where she was going at last. It was just before the flight was to lift off that the pilot made his speech.

“Welcome to flight 407 to Florida. We are due to depart at 18:30 in about five minutes time. We hope you enjoy your flight.”

“I…I’m getting married in…America?” Sarah asked, looking from side to side. She was sat in between Charlie and James.

Charlie just smiled and nodded, he was fiddling with the T.V monitor in front of him trying to find a decent movie.

“I told you it was all so exciting,” James said in an over enthusiastic tone.

“James, you have so many…girly moments about you!” Sarah said, smiling. James looked insulted. “But that’s why I love you!” Sarah added. James just smiled nodding.

The flight went without a hitch and everybody got off the plane at about 7am on December 24^th.

Charlie had arranged for cars to pick EVERYBODY up from the airport and take them to different hotels near eachother in Florida. “Well, I wouldn’t want you to see where we’re getting married just yet would I?” Charlie had laughed.

Charlie had decided to be traditional, and had booked Sarah and he into separate hotels, opposite eachother.

Charlie, Matt and James stayed in one hotel. Sarah, Fran, Lex and the twins stayed in another. Family and friends were split into surrounding hotels.

Sarah and Charlie did see eachother on Christmas day to exchange presents. But James didn’t let them be together for as long as they would have liked.

“No, no no! It’s bad luck to see the bride before the wedding, you have to stay away from eachother…I’m sure you can last a day,” James lectured at 6pm Christmas day. He dragged Charlie out of Sarah’s hotel muttering under his breath.

Charlie waved at Sarah as he was dragged out of the room. “See you tomorrow!”

Lex and Fran were sat laughing. “He’s so love sick!” Lex said, rolling her eyes.

“Oh My God, it’s tomorrow,” It suddenly dawned on Sarah.

Sarah woke a little groggy the next morning. It had been a tiring few days, flights, jet lag to deal with, the surprise of everything that was happening to her. Yup, Sarah was knackered…but she didn’t have time to be knackered…today was her wedding day. It was 8am, the wedding was at 11am. That didn’t leave much time at all.

As soon as Sarah had opened her eyes, Lex had come bounding into the room, dragging her out of bed.

“Come on, we have to get your hair done…and make up…MOVE IT!” Lex had screamed after Sarah still laid there. Sarah didn’t hesitate any more…she got up and walked into the ‘lounge’ of their hotel room.

She looked around in amazement. Who were all these people?!

“This is your team of completely qualified beauticians, sit down, relax and let them do their job!” Lex said, walking off.

Sarah just sat down stunned, as the team of beauticians started their work.

It was worth the two hours sat doing nothing when Sarah saw herself. The beauticians had finished and left, before Sarah dare look in the mirror to see what they had done.

They had put her hair up in a braided bun. It looked very difficult to do, and no wonder it had taken so long. Each individual strand of hair and been braided together, then tied up neatly on the back of her head. Not a hair out of place.

The make-up is what Sarah noticed next. It was exactly how Sarah had wanted it. Subtle, hardly noticeable in fact. She loved it. And Fran and Lex just smiled when they saw Sarah’s face.

“Right, we have an hour to get you to…where you’re getting married. So we need to get you into that gorgeous dress of yours!” Fran stated, bringing Sarah’s dress in, unzipping the dress bag.

Sarah took the dress and walked into the bathroom. She struggled to get the dress on, but got there eventually, the dress feeling a little tighter than it did a few days ago.

“Oh my God, I didn’t think it would be possible to get this much bigger in four days,” Sarah screeched, walking through the bathroom door.

“Don’t be stupid, you look great,” Fran reassured Sarah.

“Yes, you’re positively glowing,” Lex smiled.

“No, I passed the positively glowing stage about two months ago, I’m in the positively minging stage now!” Sarah responded, but she still smiled when she caught her reflection in the mirror.

“Don’t forget this!” Fran said, rushing over to Sarah and fitting her veil.

“God, I can’t wait to get this dress off,” Sarah moaned, it was feeling rather tight around her expanding stomach.

“I bet Charlie can’t wait either, but you have to get through the wedding first,” Fran laughed, “Now come on, we need to go now, if we’re going to get there on time.”

“How are we getting there?” Sarah asked, she didn’t even know this simple bit of information.

“Ask a silly question,” Lex laughed pointing out of the hotel window.

Sarah pulled the nets away from the window and looked down. Sat in the hotel car park was the most gorgeous stretched limousine she had ever seen. It was pure white, with golden ribbons hanging down the front of the bonnet.

Sarah didn’t say anything, she just sighed as she took in the beauty of this fantastic car. Then she spoke. “I love him!”

“We know, now move!” Fran and Lex said at the same time, pulling Sarah away from the window and out of the hotel room.

Sarah had been so consumed into getting herself ready that morning that she hadn’t even noticed how Fran and Lex had looked in their brides maids dresses. Outside in the daylight, she could see they looked lovely, nothing like those meringues Charlie wanted them to wear.

The twins had spent that morning with Matt, James and Charlie, so the girls could get ready in peace. “I hope he’s dressed them right!” Lex said, meaning Matt.

The limousine reached it’s destination, and Sarah nearly cried when she saw the place she was getting married. The limo was driving through, Sarah figured, to the chapel.

They were in the most beautiful place Sarah had ever seen. They passed a hotel in the grounds, called “The Grand Floridian.” Sarah just kept looking around her, taking in all the sites. Down one side of the grounds was a beautiful beach. And then they came to it. The chapel. A gorgeous white building, at the far end of the grounds they had entered.

“Oh my God,” Sarah said under her breath as she got out of the car.

Before she had chance to take in anything else, she felt someone put their hands on her shoulder. “Turn around, let me see you,” she heard James say.

Sarah turned around and smiled.

“Ah you look absolutely perfect,” James smiled sincerely. “Here, present for you,” He laughed. James moved to reveal Matt holding the twins.

“They look adorable,” Sarah laughed. Lilly was reaching out for Sarah to take her. “No, Erm, in case you’re sick, that can’t happen to this dress,” Sarah said, even though Lilly couldn’t understand a word she was saying.

Matt passed on the babies to Lex, as they would have to follow Sarah down the aisle.

Matt took in Sarah, then smiled. “That dress, Charlie will understand why you spent so much,”  Matt nodded. Matt walked forwards and hugged his best friend, actually looking teary.

“Oh belt up, you’re a man!” Sarah laughed, trying not to cry herself, he make-up would run. “I thought James would be in tears by now actually.”

“OI!” James said from behind Sarah.

“Well, we better go in now, it’s nearly time,” Matt said looking at his watch. 10:45. Fifteen minutes. “Have a great day,” Matt smiled again kissing Sarah on the cheek. He and James then walked into the chapel.

Sarah looked around her again. There were her brides maids surrounding her.

There was Fran and Holly. Then you had Lex, maid of honour. And of course, little Lilly was a brides maid too, how could Sarah resist. And Alex, Page Boy. He looked so cute in that little Tuxedo.

It was funny, in all the anticipation, time went by so fast. Before she knew it, Sarah was being gently pushed by Lex towards the door. “That’s your cue,” She muttered under her breath, smiling.

“Right,” Sarah said nervously, walking towards to door.

She started to walk down the aisle, past all the friends and family. She stayed looking forward. If she looked at the guests she would become shy, and would seriously become the ‘blushing bride.’ She looked at Charlie as she neared the alter. Charlie stood there, with the biggest smile on his face.

Charlie had watched Sarah enter the chapel, and all breath rushed out of him. She looked stunning, seven months pregnant or not. He couldn’t help but smile as he watched his wife walk closer and closer to him.

As soon as Sarah reached the alter, the vicar started the service. He then got to the vows.

As Sarah and Charlie turned to face eachother, she caught site of James, he pulled a face at her. She couldn’t help but smile. Only James! James was a groomsman, along with Ed and Will, Charlie’s brothers. Then you had Matt, the best man.

“Do you have the rings?” The vicar said, addressing Lex and Matt. They both walked forward, Lex placing Charlie’s ring in Sarah’s hand, and Matt placing Sarah’s in Charlie’s hand.

“Charlie, repeat after me,” the Vicar started. “Sarah Jane Grace, I give you this ring as a symbol of our vows, and with all that I am, and all that I have, I honour you. In the name of the Father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit, with this ring, I thee wed.”

Charlie took a deep breath and repeated. “Sarah Jane Grace, I give you this ring as a symbol of our vows, and with all that I am, and all that I have, I honour you. In the name of the Father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit, with this ring, I thee wed.” At this, Charlie looked into Sarah’s eyes as he slipped the ring onto her finger.

“Sarah, repeat after me,” the vicar said, “Charles Robert Simpson, I give you this ring as a symbol of our vows, and with all that I am, and all that I have, I honour you. In the name of the Father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit, with this ring, I thee wed.”

“Charles Robert Simpson, I give you this ring as a symbol of our vows, and with all that I am, and all that I have, I honour you. In the name of the Father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit, with this ring, I thee wed.” Sarah said, with no hesitation at all. She put the ring onto Charlie’s finger.

Sarah and Charlie smiled at eachother, while the Vicar finished the service.

“I now pronounce you man and wife, you may now kiss the bride,” The vicar said finally.

Charlie put his hands up to Sarah’s veil, and lifted it up and tucked it behind her head. He looked into her eyes before leaning forward to kiss her.

“Dude, that is just…so…romantic,” James said, with obvious tears rolling down his cheeks.

Sarah and Charlie pulled out of their kiss and turned to face their guests. Sarah laughed when she saw James. “I knew you’d cry,” she smiled.

Then, Sarah and Charlie started to walk back down the aisle, as newlyweds. Mr. And Mrs. Simpson.

Shortly after Sarah and Charlie’s wedding, Fletch had been thinking. Two thirds of Busted were married now, and James was pretty serious with this girl Fran. Things were getting ridiculous. Busted were losing fans as each member settled down, and Fletch wasn’t prepared to let that happen to His band.

Fletch had decided to think up some plans and put them into action. Nothing big, just putting thoughts and ideas into the guys heads, hoping to cause tension in the relationships. They were only kids after all, especially Sarah and Charlie, much too young for anything serious. And with kids being involved, even it they hadn’t been born yet, things were bound to be stressful between the young couples.

He decided to start with Matt and Lex, as Sarah and Charlie were newlyweds, they would be too ‘in love’ to do any major damage yet…so yes, it would be Matt and Lex to start with, they should be quite easy to split up.

Fletch’s plan was to fill Matt’s head with the idea of Lex cheating on him. And he had the perfect person in mind.

James’ brother, Nick. Lex was very close to him, they even dated when they were younger, Fletch thought, so yes, he was a good target to use.

Matt understood why Lex and Nick were close. Well James was Lex’s best friend, and Nick was James’ brother, of course they were going to be close. He sometimes had little niggles of doubt about them, but he realised he was being stupid and got over it.

Fletch was there to make sure he didn’t get over it next time.

Lex and Nick had gone out to watch a movie, it was Nick’s birthday and they wanted to do something together. Matt had stayed home with the twins.

Fletch had decided to pay a visit that day. Plant the seeds of doubt, so they say.

“Do you not think that Lex and Nick are a little, close, for friends?” Fletch brought up, out of the blue in the middle of a discussion.

“Nah, don’t be stupid, they’ve been friends since they were at school,” Matt reasoned, not taking the bait.

“You know, they dated at one point,” Fletch said, looking up to see Matt’s reaction.

Matt didn’t know that piece of information, but he didn’t show any surprise. “Well, that’s in the past innit,” Matt said, “Can’t change our pasts.”

“Well, all I’m saying is, be careful. You never know what’s round the corner,” Fletch said, actually sounding concerned. “Anyway, I’ve got work to do, so I’ll just be leaving you.” Fletch got up and left, a smile playing on his lips.

Matt just shook his head. “He’s mad!” At that, Matt got up and went to check on the twins, they had been upstairs taking a nap, and they had been very quiet for what they’re usually like. Of course they were fine.

Whilst Matt had been upstairs, Lex and Nick had come back from the cinema. Matt had heard the door go, and went downstairs to see who it was.

Matt walked into the lounge and saw Nick hugging Lex. He carried on watching, and saw Nick give her a kiss. OK, so it was only on the cheek, but it still happened.

“What’s going on in here?” Matt asked, in an unimpressed tone.

“I was just giving Nick a birthday hug,” Lex said, looking at Matt with a funny look on her face.

“Just thanking her for my present,” Nick followed, holding up a gift bag.

“Right,” Matt said through gritted teeth, “Right!” Matt went back up to the twins room, and sat with them.

Lex asked Nick to leave, apologising for Matt’s behaviour. She followed Matt up the stairs.

“Matt?” Lex asked, peering around the twins bedroom door.

“What?” Matt spat back.

Great, he’s in a foul mood, Lex thought. She walked in and sat in the chair next to Matt. “What’s up with you?”

“Oh nothing, the fact that my wife has been cheating on me right under my nose hasn’t made me feel anything at all,” Matt said sarcastically.

Lex just looked completely baffled. “Me, cheating on you? What makes you think that?”

“You and Nick, it’s always been there, why didn’t I see it before?” Matt said, more to himself than Lex.

“Matt, you’re nuts, there’s nothing there!” Lex said, getting a little angry.

“A Birthday hug? What a stupid excuse! I saw him kiss you,” Matt replied.

“On the cheek! My God Matt, what’s gotten into you?” Lex said, looking at Matt.

“I’ve been shown a few home truths. And I’ve just had the whole thing proved to me!” Matt said, looking away.

“Who have you been talking to?” Lex asked, getting more upset than angry now. “They’re lying, whoever it is, and you’re pathetic if you believe them!”

“Fletch, Fletch told me! But does it really matter who said it?” Matt reeled, getting up and pacing the room.

At this point, Alex had started crying in his crib, the noise disturbing him.

“Like I said, you’re pathetic, and you need to think about what you’re saying before you accuse me of these things!” Lex steamed, picking up Alex and walking out of the bedroom.

Matt just slumped back down on the chair next to Lily’s crib and stroked her head. She had woken up, but wasn’t crying. She just looked up at Matt and smiled. Lily was only nine months old, but already she was showing signs of Matt, the sense of humour, personality, the temperament.

Matt and Lex didn’t see eachother that night. Matt was still on his high horse. He spent the night in the twins bedroom. Lex slept in her and Matt’s room with Alex.

The next morning Matt woke up with Lily in his arms. He smiled down at her, until he remembered what had happened the night before. What was he going to do now? He had come down pretty hard, to be fair, he didn’t have any proof, except for a hug and a kiss on the cheek. What was that to go on? “What has daddy got himself into?” Matt said to the sleeping baby in his arms.

Matt gently put Lily back into her crib and closed the door softly behind him as he left.

He walked silently across the corridor. It was still early and he figured Lex might still be asleep. He peered around their bedroom door. There was a lump in the bed, but it wasn’t long enough to be Lex. He walked over to bed and saw Alex led asleep in the bed. Matt picked Alex up slowly and put him back in his crib in the twins room. He walked back out and walked down the stairs.

Matt could hear noise in the kitchen, and hesitated outside. Well, he couldn’t stand there all day, he had to face the music.

He walked through the door, and saw Lex preparing the twins breakfast, and her own.

“Morning,” Matt muttered, walking past Lex and grabbing a dish. He walked over to the cereal cupboard and turned round to look at Lex.

She was still making the breakfast, looking down. She stayed silent.

“I said, morning!” Matt repeated.

“I heard you the first time,” Lex said, not looking at him, spite in her voice.

The phone rang just after this. Matt answered it, walking out into the hallway. “Hi, Fletch…No we’re not talking…Yes because of that…Don’t apologise…no it’s not your fault…Yeah…Right…Bye!” Matt finished the conversation and walked back into the kitchen.

“Look, I’m sorry alright, I’ve just been thinking about things lately, and that…yesterday slipped into place with what I was thinking,” Matt tried to explain.

“And I noticed, that you listen to Him rather than me! How wrong is that?” Lex said through gritted teeth.

“I said I was sorry. It was stupid of me to even think it, I’m really, really sorry! Look at me Lex,” Matt begged.

Lex didn’t look at Matt, she went to barge past him instead, with her head down.

“I am not letting my marriage go down the pan because of me being just a little bit jealous,” Matt said, more to himself. He put his arm out and caught Lex around her waist. He put his other hand up and lifted Lex’s chin up so she had to look at him.

“Lex, I really am sorry! I was being pathetic and I won’t let my jealousy get out of control again,” Matt said, a look of begging in his eyes.

Lex just laughed.

“I mean it, I know you and Nick are just friends, I always knew that, and I always will know that!” Matt said, looking right into Lex’s eyes.

“And you won’t let Fletch get put stupid little ideas into your head?” Lex said, still not giving in.

“I won’t let Fletch put stupid little ideas into my head,” Matt mimicked in a comical way.

Lex laughed again, but in a good way.

“Well, good! Divorces are expensive!” Lex joked, putting her arms around Matt’s neck. “Now go and get the twins up, it’s breakfast time, I don’t want to mess up their sleeping pattern. I don’t think either of them got to sleep early last night.”

Matt just nodded and went to get the twins.

Fletch had failed with his first plan.

February 2003.

It was February 19^th, 10pm. Sarah was up in bed. She had been worn down lately, she was nine months pregnant, and as big as a house. She had spent most of her time in bed lately. And Charlie, being the perfect gentlemen, was being worn ragged by Sarah, as he refused to let her do anything around the house.

Whilst Sarah rested upstairs, Charlie was sat downstairs watching the telly, it might have sounded mean, but he needed a break too. He hadn’t ever done so much housework or ‘normal things’ before in his life. He was just nodding off when he heard a noise from upstairs. “What was she doing now?” Charlie thought, shaking his head. He got comfortable on the couch and tried to nod of again.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Sarah was feeling rather uncomfortable. She had been woken up by a pain in her stomach. God the baby was being fussy tonight. Baby had been kicking hard since 8 that evening and was showing no signs of slowing down tonight.

Sarah sat up in bed, rubbing her stomach. A sudden bout of pain in her stomach made Sarah scream out loud. This is what had disturbed Charlie downstairs.

Sarah gripped the bed covers as another pain came. And it dawned on her, she was in labour.

“CHARLIE!” Sarah shouted, after another contraction. They were only a few minutes apart now.

Charlie, who had pretty much fallen asleep (again) on the couch downstairs, jumped up quickly. He ran up the stairs and into their bedroom. He looked shocked as he saw the state of Sarah. She had now curled into a ball, trying to ease the pain.

“Oh, My!” Charlie said, getting flustered. “Don’t move…Erm…Just, stay, There!”

Sarah would have laughed if she wasn’t in so much pain, how could she move, whether she wanted too or not.

Charlie, who was getting more and more flustered, and excited at the same time, was rushing around the room. He stopped after about two minutes. “Where’s your overnight bag?” He looked around scratching his head.

Sarah looked up. “Charlie, it’s in the car ready!” Sarah pointed out. They had gotten the bag packed and put into the car so they were ready when this time came, although it wasn’t suppose to happen for a week or so yet.

“Oh…yeah!” Charlie half laughed. “Right, Erm…right.” Charlie seemed lost again.

“Charlie, get me into that car and too a hospital NOW!” Sarah said, getting a little stressed now.

Charlie didn’t answer, he just walked over to the bed and started to help Sarah out of the bed. They just reached the bedroom door, when Sarah had another contraction. Charlie didn’t really understand why Sarah had stopped walking, but he waited patiently, and when she started walking again, he carefully walked her down the stairs and out of the house.

Charlie left Sarah to walk from the front door to the car, and ran ahead and opened the door to the back seat. Charlie helped Sarah into the back seat and shut the door.

He got into the drivers seat and turned around to look at Sarah. “Don’t be getting anything in this car,” Charlie said, half serious.

“Drive Simpson,” Sarah said, in the middle of another contraction.

Sarah and Charlie arrived at the hospital at 11.55pm. By the time they had arrived, Sarah’s contractions had calmed a little bit, but the few that remained were just as painful. The midwife had said that it could be a while before anything happened, and to just lie back and relax. Ha, easier said than done.

Sarah had now been in labour for twelve hours and was getting very testy with the situation. Why was it taking so long? What didn’t help is that not only was Sarah in a lot of pain, she was also tired, she hadn’t got a seconds sleep last night, this didn’t improve her mood.

Charlie decided to leave the room, and whilst he was out he rang James and Fran, and Matt and Lex, to let them know what was happening.

James sounded really excited and promised to come straight to the hospital. Matt and Lex were more laid back, they had to find a babysitter for the twins before they could go anywhere for a start, but promised they would be there as soon as they could.

At 12pm, James came strolling through the door of Sarah’s private room. He saw Sarah and went to hug her. “So, when is my godchild going to make an appearance?” He asked, smiling from ear to ear.

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Sarah said, looking anxious. “Where’s Fran?”

“Ah, she had some plans that she can’t blow of for her godchild. But hey all you need is me,” James answered, still smiling.

“No, all she needs…is me!” Charlie said, sitting on the bed next to Sarah.

“You’re who got me into this, I hate you right now!” Sarah said, in a mock angry tone.

Charlie just smiled and nodded.

Lex and Matt appeared at Sarah’s bedside with good timing. They arrived at 8pm, after finishing the plans they had that day, and were set to spend the night at Sarah’s bedside.

“I can’t miss the birth of my best friends child can I?” Matt argued.

Matt and Lex had only been there an hour when everything started to kick off. Sarah’s contractions came back again, more painful and only seconds apart from eachother.

“Oh My God! This is it!” James said, getting excited.

“It would appear so,” The midwife said, examining Sarah. “Which means, you, you and you, will have to leave until the birth,” She said, pointing at Matt, James and Lex.

“Ah but…” James started.

“No buts, sorry it’s the procedure, only one person can be in here, and I think her husband might like to be that person,” The midwife cut of James. She gently pushed James out of the room and Matt and Lex followed.

Charlie didn’t take any of this in. He was just stood next to Sarah, holding her hand.

Half hour later, and a lot of progress had been made. Sarah had pushed the babies head out and was having a little rest. She was getting very emotional. Charlie could tell she was in a lot of pain, and felt helpless.

“OK, Sarah, we need you to push again for us,” the midwife said.

“No,” Sarah said shaking her head. She was being stubborn at the wrong time.

“Come on Sarah, you can do this,” Charlie urged. He had one arm around Sarah’s shoulder, and the other was holding her hand. OK, so his hand was getting crushed every time she pushed, but that didn’t matter.

“No, no I can’t! It hurts to much,” Sarah said, tears pouring down her face.

“The quicker you push, the quicker this babies born. That means the quicker you see why this is all worth it,” The midwife comforted, “Now come on Sarah, push for me.”

Sarah relented and carried on pushing. She felt the most excruciating pain as the babies shoulders came out.

The rest of the birth was a piece of cake compared to getting the babies shoulders out, and at 11:37pm on February 20th, 25 hours after Sarah had gone into labour, Elliott Simpson had been born.

The Hollith Issue

When with Fran, James has a hard time with his feelings because he loves Fran, but he really likes Hollith, when going around to see her one night, things go too far and James has officially cheated on Fran. Even though Fran never seems to be bothered when James is around, he still feels awful, but doesn’t stop it when it happens again and again. He decides to end it because he knows he has to choose and even though he has a feeling deep down that Hollith would be the better option he goes with Fran, who he doesn’t and isn’t ready to give up on.

But he decides he has to tell her the truth about what he did (not going to say who with though) but he adds something.

A marriage proposal, which wins her over with a yell of “yes.”

Lex is certain he isn’t ready for marriage, even though James keeps saying too her, he is and he is happy with his decision.

James tells Matt and Charlie who seem supportive.

Proposal - James: I haven’t been completely faithful to you…and I’m sorry, I’ve been stupid!

I love you more than I ever loved anyone and I know I deserve everything I’m gonna get for admitting this…but I never thought I could feel like this about anyone.

I’m a fool!

Fran: so what have u done? just tell me

James: I…slept with someone else.

Fran: *walks out*

James:* follows* No Fran please hear me out FRAN! I NEEDED TO GET THAT OFF MY CHEST BEFORE I ASKED YOU SOMETHING!

Fran: What? Just say and then I can go/

Lex: *watches*

James: *gets down on one knee*

 I never thought I’d get round to saying this in my lifetime but I think I’m finally ready…I love you more than anything I’ve ever loved in my life, so I wanted to as you…Will you marry me?

Lex: *awes silently*

Fran: *runs over and hugs James* of course i will

March 2004 - Fletch tries to convince Charlie that Elliott isn’t his. Charlie walks out for 24 hours…huge arguments.

Beginning of April - Sarah finds out she is pregnant again.

April - Easter

Boarding School

As Matthew’s mother is staying with them for more than a while it seems, she seems to be taking over - in everything.

Always on at Lex about the kids or telling Matt to help her when he was at home.

She took it a step further when she looked into boarding schools for the twins when they reached that age. Thinking nothing of it at first, Matt just let her get on with it.

 But when she hands him the brochures he starts to think “what the…” Without saying anything.

Lex on the other hand finds them and hates the idea. She refuses to send them there or even look at the booklets telling Matt that his mother is controlling their children’s lives and that she hates it. Matt is torn and is also being given the cold shoulder from his wife.

When finally his mother comes to him asking about the boarding schools he snaps.

At first he tries to tell her nicely but she doesn’t listen (when does she?) and he really has a go at her making her end up saying to him:

“When she breaks your heart, don’t come running to me!” Determined to prove her wrong he kicks her out and goes to sort out his wife (make up).

Easter Charlie’s Mum

It’s Easter time and everyone is around Lex’s and Matt’s including parents of Matt’s and seeing as there coming to Lex had told him no sex until their gone. Matt obviously doesn’t like it, but Charlie and Sarah come around with Elliott seeing as Elliott cant eat chocolate, Charlie and Sarah buy the twins some.

Having family around, including Nick and Amanda, Ed arrives but it ends up not for a good reason.

He tells Charlie that he needs to call his because she went to the doctors and when he does speak to her, she tells him the doctor said there is a limp and it could be the cancer coming back.

Charlie going in shock, Sarah decides to drive him to his parents house to see her, but it takes a slap from Lex to even get him to snap out of it for a second.

When he gets there he gets upset and locks himself in the kitchen and throws a tantrum.

Sarah being on the phone to Lex is outside the door looking worried when she hears plates smashing.

Ed ends up talking to Charlie and calming him down. When the results come back that is isn’t back, he is over the moon.

Early May 2004 - Japan.

Shopping. Bet between James and Matt, James reckons Matt can’t go without shopping in Japan. Matt hides shopping bags anywhere and everywhere from James.

Sarah has been keeping a secret from James and Charlie. Matt and Lex know that Sarah is more than likely carrying twins. James starts a game where he says he’s going to guess what Sarah’s secret is. Jokingly he says twins and is shocked to find that’s what the secret is. Trouble is, he says this out loud in front of Charlie.

Late May 2004 – L.A

Fletch had been trying to think of a new idea that could cause a rift in the relationships of Sarah, Charlie, Matt and Lex. As we have found out from past attempts, Fletch doesn’t like the fact that the guys have settled down so quickly, and it’s not good on getting a bigger fan base. He really needed something that would end the relationships.

In a way, Lex had really helped Fletch out. She had hired this nanny, Collette to look after the twins, and well, Charlie fancied the pants of her. Fletch had noticed how this really hadn’t had Sarah amused, she was always getting at him about it to the extent of Charlie getting annoyed. He couldn’t see what he was doing, he didn’t realise he had been staring at, lets face it, this totally stunning girl.

So, Fletch decided to work around this and made his plan.

He pulled Collette aside and asked her to do him a favour.

* Fletch’s Hotel Room *

“So, Collette, I have a proposition for you. It’s a way to get you lots of money, more than you’re making at the moment, a lot more. It’ll also get me what I really want. Do you want to help?” Fletch said, sitting down in a chair and inviting Collette to do the same.

“What is it you want me to do?” Collette asked, you could almost see the $ sign flashing in her eyes.

“Well, it’s obvious Charlie fancies you. So I was wondering if you would mind, you know, making a move on him. And then, sell your story to the papers! The English press will appreciate some hardcore news on the guys, seeing as we’ve been a way a while now!” Fletch explained.

“Well, he is hot, and I certainly wouldn’t mind. But why do you want me to get him into bed, he has a wife,” Collette asked, a little confused.

“Charlie’s in a band, a successful one at that,” Fletch remarked, “But he certainly isn’t helping new fans catch onto the band, as he’s married. Girls like to think they have a chance, even if, in actual fact they don’t. With him having a wife, they know their totally out of the picture.”

“But Matt’s married to, what about him,” Collette pointed out.

“I’ll work on him later…” Fletch said, with a thoughtful look in his face. “Am I to take from this, that you will do what I said?”

Collette didn’t say anything, she just smiled and walked out of the room, her mind on the task at hand.

The thing is, Collette had fancied Charlie since the word go, since she’d been introduced by Lex. Charlie was one of those guys you couldn’t help but fancy, even if he had the personality of a turtle. Thing is though, he also had one awesome personality, a side to him that the fans didn’t see very often.

So of course she wouldn’t mind getting into his pants. And she didn’t think it would be that much of a task either. Although she acted dumb about the subject, she had seen the way Charlie looked at her, a dreamy look came into his eyes and he lowered his voice to make himself sound sexy when he spoke to her. Yes, this would be a piece of cake.

Collette put the plan into action after she had been working for Lex and Matt for a week. She pretty much had confirmation of how much Charlie had the hots for her, Sarah and he were always arguing about the fact that he kept looking at Collette’s chest. It was quite amusing.

That night, Sarah, Lex, James and Matt decided to sit and watch Finding Nemo with the kids, including Elliott, who sat on Matt’s lap. Charlie, sick to death of Finding Nemo (afterall he has seen it about fifty times thanks to Sarah) decided to go to his and Sarah’s room and watch another movie there. Collette saw this as her chance and followed him.

Collette knocked on the door, and Charlie just shouted that the door was open. She walked in and noticed Charlie look up to see who it was.

“Oh, hey,” Charlie said, “What’s up?”

“Nothing, I’m just a little lonely, the kids are being occupied by other people so I have nothing to do,” Collette said in a seductive voice.

Charlie sat on the bed and flicked through the TV channels, not picking up on Collette’s tone. Collette sat next to him, and I mean next to him. Charlie shifted over a little, and found that Collette also moved to get even closer.

“Erm, Collette, I don’t know what yo…” Charlie started, but Collette put her finger to his lips.

“Sssssshhhh… We don’t need to talk,” Collette whispered, leaning over Charlie and kissing him roughly. She climbed on top of him and pushed him backwards.

“Collette…Could you…Please, No, I don’t…” Charlie stuttered but it didn’t matter what he said, Collette carried on anyway. She unzipped his flies and put her hand down his pants.

Meanwhile, back in the other room…

“Sarah, Elliott needs his nappy changing!” Matt exclaimed.

“Oh, right, I’ll just go get a nappy from my room,” Sarah replied getting up.

She walked down the corridor and reached her room. Charlie generally left the room unlocked, so she just walked in.

Sarah entered the room.

“I’m just getting a nappy and I’ll be…” Sarah started. She looked up as she spoke and she couldn’t believe what she saw. There was her HUSBAND and that hussy on the bed, making out, and moving on to the next step quite quickly. “What the Fuck?” Sarah said, tears welling up in her eyes, “You BASTARD!” Sarah ran out of the room, tears flowing down her cheeks.

Sarah went back to the other room (without a nappy) and slammed the door. She turned round, leant against the door, and slipped down the door. Sarah caved her head down and the tears really came now, she was in hysterics.

Matt, Lex and James just looked at Sarah not knowing what to think. James got up and sat next to Sarah, putting his arm around her. “Hey, what’s up?” He asked in a soft voice.

“Oh, James, why didn’t I marry you?” Sarah said, trying to cheer herself up, but failing miserably.

“Why, whats he done?” James asked, a small smile reached his lips but it left again quickly as Sarah said what she’d witnessed.

“Dickhead,” James commented shaking his head. Lex just sat there, and if this were a cartoon, there would be steam coming out of her ears.

“You caught him doing what?” Lex said thickly. She stood up and waited by the door. She looked down at Sarah and James. “Move, I’m going to show him what happens when you mess with one of my mates like that!”

Sarah carried on crying but shuffled out of the way, James jumped up. “You’re not going to seriously hurt him are you?” James asked, still concerned about Charlie’s well being, despite what he’d done.

“We’ll see,” Lex said through gritted teeth and left the room, leaving James and Matt to console Sarah. Elliott still had his dirty nappy on, and the twins carried on watching Finding Nemo, oblivious to what was going on around them.

* Meanwhile*

Back at Sarah and Charlie’s room, Charlie couldn’t believe what had just happened. And he was annoyed.

As soon as Sarah had slammed the door, Charlie had used more force to get Collette off of him, not caring whether he hurt her or not.

“See what you’ve done! Get out, get out of my room!” Charlie said, strangely calm for the situation.

“Now, now, I have to tidy myself up, don’t want other people to know whats happened do we,” Collette said, in an annoyingly American way, which was strange as Collette was English.

“Fine, I’ll Leave,” Charlie said, “I need to find Sarah anyway,” he added, more to himself than Collette.

Charlie left the room and looked down the corridor. He hadn’t a clue where Sarah had gone. He figured she was upset and people generally go to Bars when they are upset, so he thought that was a good place to start, although, it would be bad for the babies. He got into the lift and went to the bar, only to find that Sarah wasn’t there.

“Well, she’ll probably end up here,” Charlie thought, so he brought himself a drink and sat down.

* Back upstairs *

Lex shut the door behind her and headed down the corridor towards Sarah and Charlie’s room. It had taken Sarah half an hour to get what she had seen into the open, so Lex hoped that the two would not still be together in the room. If they were, there would be some serious damage, to both of them.

As Charlie’s room came into view, she noticed the door open and she watched Collette come out and saunter of to her own room.

Lex went up to Charlie’s door and knocked…there was no answer. She tried the door and realized it was unlocked, so she pushed the door open and peered in, he wasn’t there! She shut the door again and went in search of Charlie.

Funnily enough, Charlie was in the first place Lex had thought of looking…The Bar. He was sat on a stool at the bar, slumped across the bar, nursing a lager.

“So this is where you’re hiding,” Lex said, in a menacing tone.

By this point, Charlie had been sat in the bar for half an hour, drinking lagers like there was no tomorrow. So now Lex had reached him, he was slightly pissed.

“I’m not hiding,” Charlie said, “I’m looking for Sarah.” Charlie stopped to look into the bottom of his empty beer glass and sighed.

Lex laughed in a bitter way. “Looking for Sarah? LOOKING FOR SARAH? I’m sure you are! So, how was she?” Lex mocked, sitting next to Charlie and ordering a coke.

“I wouldn’t know would I!” Charlie stated, “I didn’t do anything!”

“Don’t lie to me Charlie. Because that’s the last thing you want right now. I just had to watch James and Matt try to calm your WIFE down, so don’t tell me lies. Because you’re already on your way to getting hurt as it is!” Lex lectured.

“I’m not lying,” Charlie tried to explain, “I was just sat flicking through the TV channels, minding my own business, when all of a sudden, Collette’s coming onto me.”

“Charlie, I don’t want all the details, cut to the chase. Did you sleep with her, yes or no? And look me in the eye when you tell me!” Lex ordered.

Charlie turned his barstool around and stared right into Lex’s eyes. “No, I didn’t sleep with her,” he said, sighing.

Lex just sat there for about five minutes, thinking. “That Bitch,” Lex said finally, standing up.

Charlie looked shocked at Lex’s sudden outburst. “Erm, does that mean you believe me?” Charlie asked hopefully.

“Yes it means I believe you,” Lex replied shortly.

Charlie sighed with relief until he realised… “Doesn’t mean Sarah will though does it?” He ordered himself another drink, and put his head on the bar.

“No, it doesn’t, seeing as I don’t know what Sarah walked in on! I only know she’s sure of what she saw. Which was her on top of you, “ Lex stopped and sighed. “And getting yourself drunk isn’t doing you any favours. Talking of favours, can you do me one?”

Charlie lifted his head from the bar, and Lex could see tears ready to stream down his face.

Lex put her arm around Charlie. “Look, go to your room, and stay there, until I come and get you, alright? Oh and Erm… Don’t open the door unless it’s me. And another thing…*looks at Charlie’s crotch area* your zippers undone.”

Charlie looked down, and turned red, and quickly fixed himself. He stood up from the bar, downed his new drink. The room spun for a second and Charlie had to steady himself on the bar.

“Right, yeah ok, I’ll go now!” Charlie said, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.

“Oh, and make yourself a coffee too,” Lex said, then they both left and went their separate ways at the stairs.

Charlie went back to the room and flopped on to the bed. He was emotionally exhausted, and getting teary over the fact that his marriage was probably going to go down the drain. He pulled a pillow under his head and fell into restless sleep.

Lex went back to see how Sarah was getting on. She had to convince Sarah that Charlie was innocent in all of this, but how would she pull it off?

She entered the room to find Sarah still in fits of tears. Matt had his arm around her now, trying to calm her down, while James was saying sweet things to Sarah whilst trying to get a very annoyed Elliott to stop crying, I mean, he still had a dirty nappy.

“He won’t calm down, like mother like Son eh?” James said trying to lighten the mood.

“He wants a nappy change!” Sarah said through the tears.

“Just use one of the twins’ nappies. It’ll be miles to big, but it’ll have to do for now,” Matt pointed to the corner of the room where all the baby things were. James started to change Elliott’s nappy and had to laugh when he saw how big the nappy was on him. Even Sarah had a little giggle before going back into her depressed state.

“So, where is he, what’s he doing?” James said, whilst trying to get Elliott’s clothes to button up over the thickness of the nappy.

“Well. He’s in his room,” Lex replied, “I hope,” she muttered at the end.

“Well, Mine and Elliott’s stuff won’t be soon. I was wondering if I could use that spare room you got the other day Lex?” Sarah asked.

Lex looked over at Matt and coughed. “Erm, yeah sure you can, but Charlie didn’t do anything!”

“Oh, so he has you brainwashed does he! Well its not going to work,” Sarah said determinedly.

Lex laughed sarcastically. “Sarah, do you think Charlie could really brainwash me?! Give me some credit! Look, she came onto him, you walked in at the wrong time and got the wrong idea. He pushed her off, end of story!”

Sarah just shook her head disbelievingly.

“Look Sarah, would I lie to you?” Lex said in true friendship style, “You know I would hurt Charlie really badly right now if he had done anything with her, but he didn’t,” Lex concluded.

“Lex, I know you’re only trying to help, to make me feel better. But I know what I saw, and her hand was down his pants, and he wasn’t saying no then!” Sarah said, spite all over her face.

Lex’s face looked a picture, as she suddenly realised why Charlie’s flies were open. “Sarah, I know you’re not going to listen to me, but I’m telling you the truth!”

“Well, good try, and obviously his lies worked on you, but I’m not staying with no cheat!” Sarah said, trying to end the discussion, which was becoming quite heated.

Lex rolled her eyes but carried on trying. “Look, he didn’t cheat on you, and he isn’t lying. He didn’t lie to me, I can tell when people are lying. And he didn’t. He is seriously upset right now, and that bitch is getting fired as soon as I see her!”

James hid a smile as he cuddled a now smiling, although slightly chubby Elliott.

“Well, it’s not exactly a bed of roses for me right now!” Sarah snapped, shaking her head.

“I know that,” Lex said sighing. “Two of my best friends are acting like me and Matt and that’s not good!” She added trying to lighten the mood.

Sarah smiled slightly before letting it sink back into a frown.

“We’ve only been married for not even five months and it’s over, already!” Sarah realised.

“It isn’t over Sarah! This is just a hiccup, because you think you saw something that looked like what you’re thinking it was when really it wasn’t, because it was her trying to get to what you’re thinking you saw and him trying to get her off, but failing and in shock and then when you ran out he hurt her, I hope,” Lex said, looking confused as she spoke.

Sarah just looked at Lex, a small smile played on her lips as she tried to work out what the hell had just been said. She shook her head. “No, I know what I saw. And just because he says he tried to push her off, doesn’t mean he did. And he certainly seemed to be enjoying it when I walked in!”

“Sarah, why do you never let me leave Matt when I think he’s cheated. Wouldn’t be because he hasn’t and it’s all in my head would it?” Lex said.

Sarah got angry at this point, as she remembered what she’d seen.

“Did you see Matt and some girl getting it together in front of your eyes, no, did I, YES!!” Sarah ranted.

“He wasn’t having sex with her!! I don’t know what you saw Sarah, but unless they were naked, and having sex, he didn’t sleep with her! Why would he do that?! Do you think he doesn’t care about you, love you? What, happy about the babies or not, he wouldn’t cheat on you. EVER! You know that as well as I do, you’re just letting it get to you!” Lex said, standing up and getting annoyed.

“Look, just because he didn’t have sex with her! He was still unfaithful, letting her touch him in places she shouldn’t be! Sex or no sex, he was still with her Lex, and that hurts!” Sarah said, breaking down all over again. Matt hugged her tighter.

Lex stood there chewing her lip. She lowered her tone. “Do you honestly think he would do that? I mean, he may think she’s cute or whatever but he wouldn’t cheat on you Sarah. If you think he would,” Lex shuddered, “Then I know him more than you do.”

Sarah stood up and took Elliott from James. “If he thinks so highly of me, and if he has no reason to feel guilty, then how come he hasn’t come to find me!” Sarah said. She picked up a key from the side. “Is this the key to the other room?” Lex just nodded. “Right, I’m going to bed. I’ll see you in the morning!”

* The Next Morning *

Charlie woke up early the next morning, around 8am. He felt next to him and realized he was still alone in his bed. His head was spinning from the night before, what had possessed him to drink so much.

After a moments thought, he also realised, Lex had never come to get him! What if this was it, he would never see Sarah again, nor Elliott. And he wouldn’t even get to meet the twins! He let himself flop back down onto the bed, and put his head into the pillow.

Sarah woke up in her new room, not that she had slept much anyway. She had been up all night thinking about what had happened. And poor Elliott, he had needed changing again during the night, but Sarah didn’t have any nappies. She would have to get Lex to go in and get some of her things later.

As for Lex though, she had woken up and was on a mission. She needed to get Sarah and Charlie back on speaking terms for a start. She just had to make her see that Charlie had done nothing wrong. And she had to find that bitch of a nanny, Collette. She was going to get it today. And Lex couldn’t wait to see her face when she heard the words, “you’re fired.”

Just a few minutes earlier, Matt had taken the twins along to Collette while he and Lex did other things, and Matt had already spoken to Sarah. He offered to baby-sit Elliott whilst she calmed down, thinking it would be best to leave him with Collette also, without Sarah knowing of course.

Lex left her room only to find Collette at the door speaking to a member of staff at the hotel. She’d ordered room service. Lex waited until the two had finished and then went for it!

“Oh Collette, are the babies asleep?” Lex asked normally.

“Yes, they are, why?” Collette asked.

“If you could just bring the baby monitor in with you to my room, just want to have a little chat…” Lex said, letting nothing show yet. Collette followed Lex into the room.

“So what is it you wanted?” Collette asked.

“I think you should sit down, and then you can tell me what’s going on,” Lex said, still politely.

Collette took the invitation to sit down and pretended to look confused. “I don’t know what you mean, going on with what?”

Lex looked unimpressed and folded her arms. “I think you have forgotten what was in your job description, why don’t you tell me, and refresh our memories?”

Collette acted cool as she reeled of everything described in her job description. “Why are you asking me this,” she finished with.

“I see, so do tell me, how trying to have sex with one of my friends, who you’re not paid to talk to, is in the description?” Lex asked calmly.

“So, who I’m allowed to sleep with is in your description is it?” Collette asks, “ and anyway, who said I only tried,” she added, with a tone of spite.

Lex stood up straight and glared at the person she trusted enough to look after her children.

“I said tried, he said you tried, and it’s your word against his. And well, what can I say, I’m rather fond of him. And besides, he wouldn’t sleep with a whore. You can pack your things. Your services are no longer required,” Lex said with a satisfied smile on her face.

“Well fine, but watch your precious friends life’s crumble when they get the British papers tomorrow,” Collette said spitefully, leaving the room to pack her things.

Lex wasn’t going to let that comment slide though, she ran out of the room and cornered Collette.

“You what? You lying little tramp! You know you didn’t sleep with him, why lie about it? Is it the money? Because that will only get you so far! Or is it the fact that you have to pretend you were with someone as good as Charlie, because you’re never going to be good enough for someone as good as Charlie?” Lex ranted.

Collette didn’t say anything in reply, she just turned on her heel and went into her room.

Lex just stood there in a temper and spoke to thin air. “Hit a nerve there didn’t I!” Lex then went to find Charlie.

* Afternoon *

It was 1pm and tempers and emotions were running high.

Sarah had taken herself down to the hotel spa for a day of relaxation, thinking her baby was in the safe hands of Matt.

Charlie just sat in the hotel room all day watching TV.

Matt and Lex were in the bar drinking Cokes and just talking about how Sarah and Charlie were getting on, or how they weren’t getting on should they say.

Lex looked up as James entered the bar. “Hey James,” Lex said, “Where are the babies?”

“Babies?” James replied confused, “I never had the babies.”

“Matt, I thought you said James had the babies, where are they?” Lex asked confused.

“Oh no, Collette has them!” Matt said, cool as you like.

“Erm, Matt, I fired her this morning, the rooms been emptied, I checked at reception earlier!” Lex said starting to panic.

James looked totally horrified. “Oh My God, where have they gone?” James started to hyperventilate, tears reaching his eyes. “I’ll go to her room, make sure she’s definitely gone!” He ran to the stairs, taking three at a time.

He returned ten minutes later looking disappointed and very worried.

“Nope the rooms been emptied,” James said breathlessly, “But I found this note attached to cot, it has Lex’s name on it!” James handed the letter over.

Lex was shaking as she opened the envelope. What was going on, where were her babies! Matt looked over Lex’s shoulder as she folded the paper open.

I have your children. They will stay safe, as long as you go along with my terms.

For your children’s life’s I want $1 million, and to spend a night with Charlie. Obviously I do not have to pretend!

Be by the phone in Charlie’s room at 7pm tonight or the children will no longer be safe.

                                    Collette.

Lex suddenly burst out laughing, Matt and James just looked at her as if she’d finally cracked. “Erm, Lex, this isn’t funny, our children are gone, taken!” Matt pointed out.

“I know it’s not funny,” Lex retorted, “I was just hoping someone was going to jump out and say, “April Fools, a bit late but gotcha!” But look, they didn’t!”

Matt pulled Lex into a hug whilst James reread the letter several hundred times. “I told you she wasn’t right, I told you!”

“Oh My God!” Matt said, looking extra grief stricken.

“What?” Lex asked.

“Well, Sarah was looking really bad today so I offered to baby-sit Elliott whilst she went for a day of pampering down in the spa. I gave Elliott to Collette without her knowing. Elliott’s gone too!” Matt said, his eyes getting wider as he said it!

“Matt you complete and utter dickhead, why would it even occur to you to hand over Sarah’s child to her, after what she did,” Lex ranted, slapping her husband on the back of the head. “You are the one that’s telling them!”

“Erm, yeah…right, well, you get the police, and I’ll go find Charlie,” Matt said, shaking his head. “Can’t believe she would do th…oh Sarah’s going to kill me, not to mention Charlie…Fuck!” He muttered walking up to the lift.

Matt reached Charlie’s room and knocked on the door. He heard movement and waited for the door to open.

Inside the room, Charlie had just been led on the bed with a music channel on the TV. He heard the door knock, and jumped up quickly, hoping it was Sarah. When Charlie opened the door, he was disappointed to see Matt stood there.

“Oh, it’s you!” Charlie said unhappily, moving out of the door way to let Matt in. “Who rained on your picnic?” Charlie asked, noticing Matt looked seriously depressed.

“The, Erm, the babies have been kidnapped, by Collette,” Matt said, tears coming to his eyes as the seriousness of the situation set in.

“The twins have gone?” Charlie asked, forgetting about his own grief for a second.

“Erm, that’s the other thing…” Matt started to explain. “I offered to baby-sit Elliott today for Sarah, to let her calm down, but thing is I got sidetracked and needed to leave him with Collette…and the thing is, well…”

“That bitch has taken my child hasn’t she?” Charlie said, surprisingly calm.

“Yeah,” Matt said, “And it’s all my fault!” Matt added, the tears leaving his eyes, flooding his cheeks. “Man, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know Lex was gonna fire her so soon, and that she’d turn out to be a complete psycho, Charlie I’m sorry” Matt said, collapsing to the floor in a heap.

Charlie dropped to the floor next to Matt. “Matt, it isn’t totally your fault, fair enough she shouldn’t have had Elliott, but you didn’t know she would turn round and do this.” Matt carried on sobbing, putting his head into his hands. “Look, Matt. You need to stay strong, for Lex’s sake, and the twins! Come on, get up!” Charlie encouraged, putting his hands under Matt’s armpits and hauling him up. Matt reacted and stayed standing.

“Lex has gone to get the police involved. And…and that’s all we can do I suppose. James has started searching the hotel, but she left a note,” Matt suddenly remembered the ransom note which he pulled out of his pocket and handed over to Charlie.

Charlie read, and reread the note for a few minutes. “That woman is sick! Doesn’t realise she can’t always have what she wants! Oh Fuck, what’s Sarah said about all of this?” Charlie asked.

“Well, Erm, that’s another thing,” Matt said, shaking his head, “She doesn’t know yet! I thought you might want to tell her.”

Charlie slumped his shoulders and sighed. “If she lets me talk for that long! I better go and find her.” Charlie walked of to find Sarah, reading the note again and again as he walked.

* In a meeting room at the hotel *

“So, we have two one-year-olds, and a 3-month-old child missing,” the policeman asked, clarifying his notes.

The police had arrived twenty minutes after they had been called and had taken notes on what the children looked like, what Collette looked like, motives and other things relevant to the case. They also asked for photos of the children so it made it easier to track them down. And also, they would be used for newspapers and news items on the TV.

Lex and James were the only ones present whilst everything was going on, as Matt was telling Charlie the news and Sarah hadn’t a clue what was going on.

“If it’s at all possible, it would be good if parents could do a TV appeal, they always help things along in a case like this,” the policeman added.

“I really don’t think I’m up for public speaking,” Lex said, looking down, “I just want my children back.”

“I understand that Mrs. Willis. Maybe your husband could do something? And the parents of Elliott?” The policeman said soothingly, but in a tone meaning something had to be done.

“The mother of Elliott doesn’t even know yet,” James revealed, shaking his head. “There was a bit of a domestic last night, so Matt was looking after Elliott whilst both Charlie and Sarah calmed down, Charlie’s only just finding out as we speak!”

“Oh,” the policeman replied, looking shocked. “Maybe it would be best if we found, Sarah was it? I think she needs to know.”

So James and Lex went looking for Sarah whilst the policeman passed the details he had so far onto the station so they could get started on publicity, to find the babies ASAP.

Charlie was the one to find Sarah first out of the three looking for her. She had finished in the spa and was now sat in her room watching the telly, although she was daydreaming through most of the programmes. She was distracted from her dreams as the door knocked. She got up and walked over to the door, not thinking it could be Charlie.

“Oh, it’s you,” Sarah said in an unimpressed voice, “What do you want?”

“It’s Elliott, he’s missing!” Charlie said, looking upset.

“No, he’s with Matt! I can leave him for a day you know!” Sarah said exasperated.

“No he’s not, Matt left him with Collette, who Lex fired, and now the twins and Elliott have gone!” Charlie reeled of, sounding desperate for Sarah to believe him.

“Charlie, good attempt to get me speaking to you but it’s not working!” Sarah said, annoyed, slamming the door in his face. Charlie just stood outside, shaking his head. Then he had an idea. He slipped the ransom note under the door.

“There, there’s the ransom note. Now do you believe me?” Charlie said, getting even more desperate.

Sarah moved over to the door quietly and picked up the letter. Charlie was still stood outside the door, ear pressed against it to hear whether Sarah made any reaction. After a few minutes, he could hear Sarah sobbing and wondered whether it was safe for him to enter the room. He decided he didn’t have a choice and opened the door. He looked in and saw Sarah sat on the edge of the bed, clutching the note in her hand, tears streaming down her face. She didn’t acknowledge that Charlie had even entered the room.

Charlie walked over to the bed, and sat down cautiously. Slowly, he put his arm around Sarah, preparing to be thrown of at any second. Instead though, Sarah pulled Charlie in for a hug, getting his jumper soaked by the tears streaming from her eyes.

“Where’s my baby?” She said, her voice muffled.

“I don’t know,” Charlie said helplessly, “But the police will find him, and everything will be ok!”

“How do you know?” Sarah asked, knowing full well that Charlie didn’t know the answer, just as she didn’t.

Charlie didn’t reply, he just held Sarah until she had run out of tears to cry.

About half an hour after Charlie had found Sarah, Lex and James turned up at Sarah’s room. James and Lex gave each other a shocked look when they discovered Sarah and Charlie sat clung to each other.

“Erm, the police would like to talk to both of you,” Lex said, breaking the silence.

Sarah looked up to see Lex and James just staring down at her and Charlie. She ran over to Lex and pulled her into a hug. “Oh Lex where are they?” Sarah asked, fresh tears coming to her eyes.

Lex patted Sarah’s back, and then let go. “Look, we need to be strong, we can’t let Collette win. We will get the kids back, the police, and heck the whole country will be looking for them soon! She can’t possibly win,” Lex said determinedly, reassuring herself as well as Sarah.

“Right, shall we go and talk to the police,” Charlie said, standing up. Sarah just nodded and headed out of the door.

“There in meeting room 1 on ground floor,” Lex pointed out and sat on the bed.

Charlie nodded and followed Sarah.

After Sarah and Charlie had spoken to the police, they went back to their hotel room to get ready to make a public appeal for the News programmes, British as well as American ones.

“What do you say to a TV camera when your child’s gone missing?” Charlie asked, puzzled.

Sarah didn’t say anything. She was sat looking at Charlie, more tears filling her eyes.

“Hey, come on, we’ll get him back! We have too!” Charlie said trying to calm Sarah down.

“It’s not just that though is it!” Sarah said, putting her head in her hands.

“What do you mean?” Charlie asked, confused.

“I wouldn’t believe anything about last night. Lex was trying and trying to get me to see that you wouldn’t hurt me so much. But I wouldn’t have it! What kind of wife doesn’t trust her husband that much!” Sarah wailed.

“Well, to be fair, the evidence was stacked up against me,” Charlie admitted. “It doesn’t matter now!”

“Charlie, I’m sorry! I should have come and found you, let you explain, I just let everything go to my head,” Sarah said, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Charlie sat next to his wife and put his arm around her. “Look, you don’t need to apologise, it’s nothing. I should have tried harder to get her off of me in the first place, not worried about whether I would hurt her or not. Well, we better go down and get this done,” Charlie said, standing up and breathing in deeply. Sarah stood up after him and followed him downstairs.

* Meanwhile *

Matt and Lex are sat in their hotel room. Matt has tears stinging his eyes, but Lex is staying strong, bottling all of her feelings inside.

“They’re going to be OK, we just need to get people to look out for them, so they can come home…right?” Matt said, trying to make the situation seem better than it was.

“Of course they’ll be OK, Lilly’s there, she doesn’t like Collette anyway! She’ll make a fuss!” Lex said, staying focused on not letting any emotion wash over her.

Matt just sat forward in his chair and put his hands together in front of him. He’s never felt so worried before, the most precious things to him in his life were gone, what would he do without them. “No,” Matt thought to himself, “Don’t think like that, they will be back before we know it!”

A tear fell down Matt’s cheek, but he wiped it away quickly before Lex saw! “How is she staying so calm,” Matt wondered, ducking his head down and sighing loudly.

“Well, better go for the appeal, I don’t see how this will help, but there you go!” Lex said, getting up. She went over to Matt, and tugged at his shirt. “Come on Matt, we need to do this!” Lex encouraged. Matt got up and followed his wife down to the meeting room.

* Meeting Room *

Both couples met outside the meeting room by chance. It was Matt and Sarah who had tear stained faces, whilst Lex and Charlie were holding it together.

They entered the room and they saw a long table had been set up, with four chairs behind it. Sarah shook her head, how could this be happening to them, how could somebody like Collette be put on a registered Childminder list, she obviously wasn’t all there.

The four parents sat down in the chairs, Lex sat on one end, next to Matt, then Charlie and Sarah.

Behind the camera, James was sat watching his four best friends, going through the worst time of their lives up to date!

James felt a lot for the Twins and Elliott, he had been at the hospital for each of their births, OK not in the same room, but as soon as they were born, he was there! With teddies and presents for them.

James had an extra special bond with Elliott, he was his godfather, him and Fran, the Christening had been such a great day and James was so proud to be such an important part in Elliott’s life!

And with the twins, he had been there from day one, when Matt wasn’t used to parenthood, James had been the one there to help Lex. Whether it be for nappy changing or just to give Lex a break. Him and the twins and formed a tight bond, and now they were gone. This news probably hit James just as hard as it had Charlie, Matt, Sarah and Lex. He sat with tears pouring down his face, as he watched his best friends pour their hearts out to the whole of America and the UK.  

Charlie and Matt did most of the speaking for the appeal, as Sarah and Lex sat and stared into space. The odd comment came from Sarah about her son, but she couldn’t bear to talk about Elliott, as everyone time she said his name fresh tears left her eyes and rolled down her cheeks.

As for Lex, for the entire appeal, which lasted about twenty minutes, she just sat in complete silence, in deep thought.

At the end of the appeal, as Matt was saying something about Lilly and Alex, (Lex hadn’t taken in what he had said) something finally clicked in Lex’s head. It finally struck her that, her babies were gone. They were with a complete stranger in this huge country. They must be so scared.

Without warning, Lex burst into tears, crying like she never had before. She stood up and ran from view of the camera. She went over to where James was sat and clung onto him as the tears flowed and flowed. Matt jumped up and followed her, he couldn’t bear to see Lex in so much pain, and he felt so helpless to the fact that he couldn’t do anything to help her, only watch, and share her pain.

After that, the appeal finished, ready to be aired on the evening news across America, and on the early morning news in the UK.

The search was on in America, photos had been aired of Collette, and photos of Lilly, Alex and Elliott had also been aired, along with a description of personality traits. Lex, Sarah, Charlie, Matt and James’ names had also been mentioned, so if the children mentioned them or got distressed and shouted out these names, people would know.

At 7-o clock that night, Charlie, Matt, James, Lex and Sarah sat around the phone in Charlie’s room just like Collette’s note had asked.

Police had bugged the telephone, in fact they had bugged all of the telephones in the rooms that the band or anyone related to the band were staying in, to trace the call. The main thing we had to do, was try to get Collette to stay on the phone for 30 seconds, to make it possible for the police to trace the call.

At exactly 7-o clock, the phone rang. Charlie had never moved so fast before. His arm shot out and he picked up the phone, putting it on speaker.

“Hello?” Charlie said in a low voice.

“Good, you got my letter I take it,” Collette’s voice answered.

“Yes, we did!” Lex replied shortly.

“Well, what about my terms, I suppose I didn’t mention not to get the police involved, so I can’t say anything about that, but your children won’t be too happy if the police turn up for when we carry out this, little deal!” Collette said, seeming very pleased with herself.

“Why you scheming, deceitful…” Sarah started, until Charlie shut her up.

“Well, why don’t we meet in a couple of days, where you want, seeing as they’re your terms!” Lex taunted.

“I shall come to the hotel in two days!” I don’t expect police to be there!” Collette said, hanging up.

James looked up from his watch as the phone clicked dead. “She was on for three minutes!” he exclaimed happily.

The policeman who had been tracing the call looked up. “She’s in California! We’ll alert the squad up there now, and get a full scale search moving!”

Although this wasn’t the best news the guys could be hearing right now, it was good, and they all smiled at the thought of knowing which state their children were in at least.

* UK *

Fans in the UK would not have had a good morning this morning.

First of, the newspapers. All over the front pages of all the tabloids was Charlie’s face, with the unimaginative headline… “CHARLIE BUSTED!”

Inside, Collette’s story filled a page. Of how Charlie had been a stallion in bed. And how he cheated on his wife without a second thought. Not only that, but there were pictures of Collette all over the place. Picture’s of her holding Elliott even! Fans were not pleased.

Second, the news. All over the news was the fact that Matt and Lex’s twins and Sarah and Charlie’s baby had been kidnapped. They were even more annoyed when a picture of the same woman who had “slept” with Charlie appeared throughout the news programmes, saying that she was the culprit.

Well, there were arguments all over the internet about the news, people on the street team were divided, one half saying it was true, the other half saying how could it possibly true, it was all a publicity stunt of Fletch’s apparently.

* Back In L.A *

Talking of Fletch, I don’t think he has ever felt so guilty. It was his fault Collette had got fired, so therefore his fault that the kids had been taken. Off course, he didn’t tell anybody this, instead the guilt racked at his brain.

Yes he had wanted to split the couple up, but he hadn’t wanted the twins and Elliott to be kidnapped. He really did love the kids even if he had never showed it. What had he done?

Over that first day, there were lots of people phoning to the police and to the hotline reporting sitings of Collette and the babies, although the police knew most of them must be fake, as they were outside of California, they had to follow them all up, wasting a lot of time.

There was one call that sounded as if it could be true though.

It came from a Miss Lesley Graham.

Now, the police didn’t know this, but Lesley was actually a huge Busted fan, on vacation. She had heard the news on the news and was shocked to see that her favourite band were suffering so much.

Walking around the theme parks in California, she saw posters with the babies faces on, with the information that Collette was known to be in California somewhere.

“If I see her, she will not get away so easily!” Lesley thought to herself.

That afternoon, Lesley and her family were walking around the shops, when they decided they would get some drink to put in the hotel room, as drinks in the hotel were very expensive. So they went to the local Wal-Mart.

As they were walking around, there was a lady struggling with her children. She had a young infant in a buggy, and she had two older ones (a boy and a girl) sat in a supermarket trolley.  The girl was sat in the trolley, kicking the sides and screaming at the top of her lungs.

“Oh my God…Mum,” Lesley said, dragging at her mums t-shirt. “That’s Matt and Charlie’s children!”

“Lesley don’t get so animated, this is a big state, you won’t find them!” Lesley’s mum sighed, walking down another aisle.

Lesley held back. She saw a member of staff of the supermarket and went running over.

“Do you have a phone here I can use. It’s really important, I need to phone the police…NOW!” Lesley said.

“Erm, yeah sure, go over to the customer service desk, just over there, they’ll have the number too!” The employee said, pointing over to the customer service point. Lesley didn’t reply, she just ran over to where the desk was and repeated what she had said to the other employee.

The girl behind the desk handed the phone over and dialled the number for her.

When the phone answered, Lesley told the police she had Collette and the babies in sight, and she told them where she was. The sheriff on the end of the phone asked Lesley to try and delay Collette getting out of the store, police were on there way. Lesley slammed the phone down and turned round. Collette had put a couple of packs of nappies in the trolley and was looking at the baby formula and baby food. She walked over and pretended to look at the baby food also. Collette gave her a funny look.

“It’s hard to know what they’ll like isn’t it?” Lesley said, trying to distract Collette.

“Hmmm, you looking for your little brother?” Collette asked, looking at Lesley with a distinct look of disgust.

“Oh no, he’s my little boy. My mum has him further down the shop. There’s just so much variety!” Lesley exclaimed, stepping back.

The twins in the trolley were obviously getting very frustrated. It wasn’t just Lilly screaming now, it was Alex to.

“Now, now, calm down little ones!” Collette said, bending over the trolley, trying to sooth the twins.

“You no, want Mummy, Daddy yes!” Lilly screeched.

“Matthew! Want Daddy,” Alex bawled.

“They get so frustrated, I’m Er, I’m babysitting for some friends you see, they miss their parents after so long…like most kids,” Collette spluttered, panicking.

Just at that moment, five policemen walked into the supermarket and behind Collette. Lesley pointed behind Collette, who turned round.

“Mrs Ford, if you could please come to the back of the store with us, we need to have a little talk,” one of the policemen said, taking the buggy away from Collette.

Another policemen took Collette by the arm and started walking her into the staff area of the store.

The other policemen thanked Lesley for her call, and asked her to come to the back as well, as she would need to the station for questioning.

Whilst the police spoke to Collette, Lesley sat with the children, who suddenly seemed to be behaving very well.

* Meanwhile *

Back at the hotel, everyone’s emotions had everyone going insane.

The only people who weren’t arguing was Sarah and Charlie, they had been through enough in the past day to make them know not to pick arguments.

However, James was snapping at anyone who dare talk to him, or even tried to console him. He was taking this news very badly and he just wanted to be alone, but there were some people who just wouldn’t leave him alone.

If he went out into the gardens of the hotel to get some air and to think, there were people who had become fans over the duration of them being in America, coming up to him for autographs to talk to him. They seemed to think the news of the children disappearing wouldn’t affect him.

Fletch wouldn’t leave him alone either, he kept bringing up the fact that there was still work to do, otherwise this trip would be a waste. Did Fletch not see that the whole group of friends had their hearts breaking every second the children weren’t with them? After a while, Fletch just cancelled the next two days of promo, the guys certainly weren’t up to it!

Matt and Lex, who had just started getting on, had started getting at each others throats again. It was little things, say, Lex didn’t want to watch what Matt had on the telly, when really telly didn’t matter. Things were just getting on top of them.

Charlie and Sarah stayed well away from James, Lex and Matt, they just let them get on with it. They didn’t blame them for getting like they were, hell, they would be like it if all their stress and emotions hadn’t taken the blow they did the night before.

About 5pm that evening, Charlie received a phone call on the hotel phone.

Sarah, Matt, James and Lex had decided to go for a drink in the bar…Lex and Matt abandoned the no alcohol and sat drinking a vodka mix, James joined then, whilst Sarah drank a coke.

The foursome were just finishing their first round of drinks when Charlie came bursting into the bar, with a smile spread across his face.

“What you smiling for Simpson?” Lex asked, staring grumpily into her vodka glass.

“You guys, drink up!” Charlie said, almost laughing as he spoke. “We’ve got to go and pick our babies up!” A tear came to Charlie’s eye as he said it. “He’s only been gone not a day, and I’ve missed him so much!” Charlie said out loud.

“You don’t realize how much you need something until it’s not there, I’ll never be horrible about Lilly again if they are found safe!” Lex vowed.

“I’ll make you keep to that, now come on, we have to go!” Charlie said, getting restless.

“What are you on about Charlie?” Matt said, thinking he was being wound up.

“A girl spotted Collette at a supermarket in California this afternoon. Collette and the children were flown back to L.A and they are just 5 miles down the road at the local police station. Come on, we have to go,” Charlie explained quickly, getting annoyed, he just wanted to hold his son in his arms and never let go.

Sarah jumped up, the tears pouring down her face again. “They…they’re safe? They’ve been found?” Sarah questioned.

“YES,” Charlie shouted in excitement, “Now move it, I’m driving.”

The whole group got into the hired car sat outside the hotel, and Charlie drove off.

“I’m going to see my babies again, I’m going to see my babies again!” Lex kept repeating, tears freely falling down her cheeks, she was in shock.

James was sat in between Sarah and Lex in the back of the car whilst Matt sat at the front. Matt just had a look of complete shock on his face, but there was a smile there as well.

James sat with one arm around Sarah and one arm around Lex. The emotion was running high in that car at that very moment, and all the arguing that had gone on that day got forgotten. It wasn’t important anymore.

The important thing was Sarah and Charlie would be reunited with Elliott and Matt and Lex would be reunited with Lilly and Alex. And James would be reunited with his best friends (Elliott, Lilly and Alex).

As Charlie finally found his way to the police station, (it had taken twenty minutes longer than it should have done because he got lost, to the annoyance of everybody else in the car) the tension in the car lifted. James finally let the tears fill his eyes, he had done well to hold them in this long.

They walked into the police station and went over to the front desk. The policeman directed them to a small side room, and explained that the young lady who had found their children was in that room.

They walked over to the room and opened the door slowly. Sarah peered in first, and burst into tears. The policeman hadn’t told them that the kids were in there as well. She ran in and picked up Elliott and hugged him tight. The others followed and realized why Sarah had gotten so emotional.

Lex ran over to the twins, and surprisingly, she picked up Lilly first.

“Oh I missed you so much,” she said, holding Lilly tight and kissing her forehead over and over again. Matt had picked up Alex and was holding him out at arms length looking at him. There had never been so much love in Matt’s eyes before.

James was the one that pointed out the young girl sat in the corner, looking all shy.

Charlie stopped stroking Elliott’s head to acknowledge her. “I don’t know how we could ever thank you enough!” Charlie said, “Without you, we may not have seen the kids again!”

Lesley sat in the corner, blushing. It wasn’t the fact that, hey Busted were right in front of her. It was the fact that she just happened to be wearing her Busted tour T-shirt at the time.

“Are you British?” Matt asked, spotting the T-shirt.

“Yeah, I am,” Lesley said quietly.

Charlie noticed the T-shirt after Matt had said that. He didn’t say anything. He just walked over to Lesley and hugged her. After a couple of minutes, Matt and James went over and joined in.

It was about five minutes later when there was a muffled voice coming from underneath Matt, James and Charlie.

“Erm, I can’t breathe,” Lesley said.

The guys couldn’t help but laugh, but they let go.

At the same time, Matt and Charlie said thank you, and then went back over to the babies.

It was Sarah and Lex’s turn then. “OK, you won’t appreciate this as much as there hug, but you’re getting one anyway,” Said a teary Lex. And Sarah and Lex went over and hugged Lesley, only for a few seconds though.

“There’s no possible way to thank you enough,” Charlie said, turning to Lesley. “But hopefully this’ll help. How about we get you free tickets to all of the gigs for the venue nearest your home for the next tour.”

Lesley just stood there and nodded. “That would be great.”

At that, the lads, the wifes, and the babies left the police station and went back to the hotel.

All moods were gone now, and the group were getting on like a house on fire again.

Mid June 2004.

Lots of stress on Sarah’s shoulders just through general life, then Charlie asks Sarah to get an abortion.

Sarah Bleeds. Thinks she has lost her babies.

July 2004.

Fletch had been racking his brain trying to think of other ways to break up the married couples in the Busted group.

He had left it a few months after the kidnapping, as he did feel really guilty for that, even though he didn’t show it. Well, if he had shown guilt, they would have guessed he had played apart, no matter how big or small and he couldn’t do that.

Well, anyway, he had decided to go back to his old ways. Just say comments to wind them up. He would do something slightly different this time though. He would say the comments to the girls, not the lads. The lads had caught on to Fletch now, knew he didn’t like the fact that the guys were married.

Well, the girls had been the ones to show the guys what Fletch was like, but maybe his comments would ring true to them if he tried this new tactic.

So he went to see if he could split Matt and Lex up.

The Busted lads were in the studio, working on their new album, which would be released near the end of the year. The girls were always with them in the studio, well, if they had nothing better to do that is.

And today, the girls had nothing better to do. They had the babies in the studio, and were sat on the other side of the glass, watching the guys put some vocals to the album.

After half an hour, the guys took a break for lunch.

James stayed in the studio, working on his lyrics, as always. Matt sat beside him, adding in lines and helping James out every now and again.

Sarah, Charlie and Elliott went out to grab something to eat, getting some time alone together, as they didn’t get much of that anymore.

Lex was in the reception of the recording studio, sat on the floor playing with the twins.

Fletch went over to her, ready to start his plan.

As Fletch watched Lex playing with the babies, he watched how Lilly just didn’t seem interested. She was sat kicking a chair and screaming at the top of her lungs. Lex had had just about enough of Lilly that morning, she had been playing up since the second she had woken up. Lex left her to get on with her tantrum, hoping that Lilly would calm down when she realised she wasn’t getting the attention she was screaming for.

“You know,” Fletch started, “You should pay more attention to her.”

“Oh, and what would you know?” Lex replied shortly, not even looking up at Fletch.

“Well, I know that Matt deserves better than you. He is a fantastic dad, but you drag him down!” Fletch said bluntly. Smiling to himself, he walked off before Lex could reply.

“That should cause some tension,” Fletch thought to himself.

Later that day, when the guys had finished in the recording studio, Matt and Lex were sat at home.

They were in the lounge, Matt was sat with Alex on his knee watching the telly, whilst Lex had Lilly on the floor playing.

Lex and Lilly finished the game they were playing, and Lex pulled over the Lego. After a few minutes, Lilly started another tantrum.

“NO MUMMY. NO PLAY!” Lilly screamed.

Matt just sat watching, and after seeing Lex struggling to get Lilly to calm down, he sat Alex on the floor and joined Lex and Lilly. He rolled his eyes as he cleared the Lego away, confusing Lex.

“Lex, after a year and a half, I thought you would have realised that Lilly hates playing with Lego!”

Lex sat back and just glared at Matt. She didn’t reply, she just leant against the sofa and looked annoyed. Inside her head, all sorts of alarm bells were ringing. “Maybe Fletch was right, I am a bad mother, Matt does deserve better!” Lex concluded to herself. Matt saw Lex’s face, saw tears coming to her eyes.

“I wasn’t saying that to be horrible Lex,” He said. “It’s just…”

“No, you’re right,” Lex cut him off, “I’m a bad mother. I mean, here’s me, there mother, not even knowing what toys they like and don’t like. Then you have you…you’re not even there dad and you know more than I do!” Tears spilled out of Lex’s eyes as she said this.

Matt sat in stunned silence for a moment. “Wha…What did you say?” He asked.

Lex couldn’t believe the words that had just left her mouth either. But she decided, she had to let Matt out of this relationship, again, believing everything Fletch had said, she was dragging him down.

“You heard me right,” Lex said, “They’re not yours. There was you, when you found out about them, thinking you were doing the right thing, marrying me because you thought you were going to be a dad. And oh look, you’re not!” Lex said, taking Lilly from Matt’s grasp.

“No, you’re lying,” Matt said, sounding desperate. “You’re making it up! If they’re not mine, then whose are they?”

“They’re…Erm,” Lex was stuck… “They’re Nicks! Yeah you heard, Nicks!”

“AND THERE WAS YOU TELLING ME I WAS BEING PARANOID WHENEVER I TRIED KEEPING HIM AWAY FROM YOU! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?” Matt yelled, getting angry and emotional.

“You got with Holly when we split up. So you’re being a hypocrite, only you can sleep with someone else when we’re on breaks, huh!? Is that what you’re saying?” Lex said pointedly.

“Well, I didn’t get Holly pregnant did I?” Matt said in a low voice. He felt so betrayed.

Matt stood up and went upstairs. Lex just sat on the floor, tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Mummy no cry,” Lilly said, cuddling up to her, putting her hand up to Lex’s face to wipe away the tears.

Half an hour later, Matt was coming back down the stairs, he had a suitcase packed and he was talking on the phone. As he reached the bottom of the stairs he put the phone down on the side. He threw the bag down at the door and walked over to where Lex and the twins were sat. No matter what Lex had said, he had raised these kids, and they were his, biological father or not.

“Daddy will come see you two later yeah?” Matt said, trying to sound happy whilst hugging Lilly and Alex.

“Matt you don’t have to be there for them now, you don’t need to see me and you don’t need to see them!” Lex pointed out, trying to sound strong.

“If you think I would have married you, just for the kids, you’re mad! But knowing you lied to me for a year and a half about them being my flesh and blood, that hurts Lex!” Matt said.

Outside a car drove up the driveway and beeped its horn.

“That’s my taxi, I’ll come get the rest of my things later!” Matt spat at Lex, picking up his bag and leaving the house.

Lex just sat staring into space. What had she done? No, she knew what she had done. She had set Matt free, just what he wanted. She got up and picked up the phone that Matt had left on the side. She dialled Nick’s number. Well, if she was going to pull this off, she would have to convince Nick to lie for her.

Of course, this was easily done, Nick would do anything for Lex, and him getting to go round and saying he had slept with Lex. This was a bonus for Nick. He was happy to help.

The day after Matt had found out the news, he went round Nick’s house. He knocked the door and waited.

Nick opened the door and wasn’t really surprised to see Matt standing there, looking more than a little unimpressed.

“Oh, hi!” Nick said, trying to sound normal. Matt didn’t answer, he just pushed past Nick and turned round on him.

“Is it true?” Matt asked, through gritted teeth.

“Yeah, yeah it is true!” Nick said convincingly.

Again, Matt didn’t talk. He just walked right up to Nick until he was just a few inches away. He still didn’t talk. He just raised his right fist, and punched Nick extremely hard in the face. Nick’s glasses fell to the floor, one of the lenses broken. Nick had fallen backwards and had landed against the wall.

“Keep away from my wife,” was all Matt said leaving the house before Nick got to see the tears leave his eyes.

For the next two weeks, Lex and Matt didn’t see eachother, or speak to eachother at all.

Matt got to see the twins, but only when James was babysitting for Lex.

It tore Matt’s heart to pieces when they called him Dad, he still couldn’t believe it. Just looking at Alex, he could see his own eyes, his nose, his mouth, how could this baby not be his. And Lilly, that temper of hers, her personality. It was Matt down to a tee.

During those two weeks, something arrived in the post that Matt definitely didn’t want to see. Divorce Papers.

Lex couldn’t be serious. OK, Matt was pissed of that he had been lied to for so long, but he wasn’t lying to her when he had said he hadn’t married her just because she was pregnant. He really did love her. No, he would refuse to sign, he just ripped the papers up and threw them in the bin.

They would sort this out, some how. Some time.

August 2004

It had been three weeks since Matt had moved out of his and Lex’s house. Things still weren’t looking up for Matt and Lex, but he still refused to sign any divorce papers, another lot had come through the other day, Lex had figured the others couldn’t have made it too him. A lot she knew.

Anyway, on top of Lex and Matt’s problem, another problem was winging its way into the Busted camp, set to break another marriage up, Sarah’s and Charlie’s.

Lex had been sat at home, the kids were taking a nap upstairs, and she was watching the telly.

It was mid-afternoon, and Lex was still in her pyjama’s and dressing gown.

She heard the door knock and she got up grudgingly to answer it. She nearly fainted with shock when she saw who was stood at the door.

“What are you doing here?” Lex said, in a very rude tone.

“I need to speak to Charlie, it’s important,” Collette replied, smiling coyly, moving her hand to her stomach.

Lex looked down to Collette’s stomach and nearly threw up.

“No, no, you can’t be pregnant! You didn’t even do it!” Lex said, looking pale.

“Look, I need to speak to Charlie about child payments, he is about to be a dad afterall, well in about five months. So what’s his address?” Collette said spitefully.

What was Lex suppose to do but give her his address, if this was true, then Charlie needed to know, and Sarah. Lex shook her head as she wrote an address down. “I can’t believe you can’t take a hint, did you not get it? He doesn’t want you, he’s already a dad!”

“Well, he is going to be a dad twice now isn’t he,” Collette stated, and walked off, taking the bit of paper out of Lex’s hand.

“Four times,” Lex muttered under her breath, closing the door.

She rang Charlie and Sarah’s ahead of time, and she was glad when she heard Charlie’s voice answer at the other end. She told Charlie what was about to happen.

“That can’t be possible, I didn’t sleep with her!” Charlie said, getting nervous.

“She has proof stating otherwise!” Lex said sighing, “Good luck mate!” She finished and hung up the phone.

Just after Charlie had gotten off the phone to Lex, the doorbell rang.

Sarah came down the stairs at just the wrong time, seeing Charlie open the door to her, Collette.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” Sarah said, getting angry straight away.

“Sarah keep calm, the babies,” Charlie stated, looking equally as mad.

“Oh, looks like we’re both expecting, although you show a lot more. Mind you, you were big…” Collette started.

“Excuse me?” Sarah cut Collette off. “What do you mean BOTH expecting?”

“Well, honey,” Collette said, overly sweet, “It looks like we’re both going to have a baby, by the same man.”

“No, no, it isn’t true, you’re lying,” Sarah said, getting upset. But just as she said this, she noticed Collette’s stomach. Ok, she wasn’t that big, yet, but she had been pregnant twice, she knew the first signs of a bump and Collette had one. Sarah threw Charlie a look and went back upstairs, the tears streaming down her face.

“I DIDN’T SLEEP WITH YOU!” Charlie said turning red with anger. “WHY CAN’T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE?”

At this, James came walking out from the lounge, he was over visiting. He had little Elliott cradled in his arms, and looked confused. He saw Collette stood in the doorway and nearly dropped Elliott.

“Erm, what’s going on?” James asked, looking confused.

“She’s pregnant, trying to tell me it’s mine, I didn’t even sleep with her!” Charlie ranted.

“Oh my!” James said, looking stunned.

“There is someone here who could be the father though!” Collette pointed out.

“Well, there’s only James and me here and I don’t think…” Charlie started, then he saw James’ face. “James. You didn’t?” Charlie asked looking shocked.

“I…I…Erm, yeah I did!” James finally blurted out.

Sarah came walking down the stairs, with a tearstained face. “I’ve booked an appointment for a blood test,” She said bluntly. “For a bit more money, they can get the results back within a couple of days. It’s for this afternoon.” Sarah threw a look of hate at Charlie. “If that child is yours, we’re over!” With that, Sarah walked back into the bedroom.

“Look, seeing as we’re going to need you for blood tests later, you may as well go sit in there, James can keep you company I’m sure,” Charlie said, throwing James a look whilst taking Elliott from him. “I need to go and convince Sarah all over again.

When Charlie reached the bedroom, Sarah was on the phone again. It sounded to him as if she was booking another blood test. Charlie started jumping up and down like a lunatic until Sarah finally sighed and asked the person on the end of the phone to wait for a second.

“What?” Sarah said shortly.

“Can you add another blood test, appears James may be the daddy of Her baby down there!” Charlie said, looking at his feet.

Sarah’s jaw dropped, but she carried on speaking down the phone adding the new blood test, then hanging up.

“Who’s the other blood test for?” Charlie asked, not expecting an answer.

“Matt and the twins, he’s not letting go of them that easily, or so he says!” Sarah said, “Better phone Lex to let her know.”

Sarah picked up the phone again, spoke to Lex who didn’t appear to happy with the whole situation. Charlie could hear her from where he was standing.

She put down the phone again. “Well the appointments start in an hour, so we better leave now,” Sarah said, barging past Charlie and picking up her coat.

“How are we testing Collette’s baby anyway, thought the baby had to be here?” Charlie said, suddenly realising.

“There’s a test that can be done throughout pregnancy, they put a needle through the stomach, suppose to be painful, let’s hope so!” Sarah said spitefully.

So Sarah, Charlie, James, Collette and Elliott got into Charlie’s car, and drove down to the hospital to get the tests done.

They would meet Matt, Lex and the twins there.

They arrived jus on time for their appointments, and Collette, Charlie and James went in first.

“Unbelievable what men will put a pregnant lady through,” Collette was saying as they went in.

“Yes, it is unbelievable,” Sarah muttered.

Another argument had set off on the way in the car. Charlie’s phone had rung, and it was Fletch. When Charlie had told him what was going on, Fletch had been delighted, even suggested that he get Elliott tested at the same time. When Charlie had told Sarah this when he got of the phone, Sarah had lost it.

“Oh yeah, well I suppose it has been me who has been cheating!” Sarah spat at Charlie.

“I know Elliott’s mine, just like you should know that her baby isn’t mine,” Charlie said getting annoyed.

“Well, fine, we’ll get him checked if that’s what you and Fletch want, FINE!” Sarah steamed.

Charlie rolled his eyes, he knew Elliott was his, he was just thinking, maybe they could shut Fletch up on that subject if they got it done.

Whilst James, Charlie and Collette were in getting the blood tests, Matt and Lex had decided they were going to act extremely childish.

Lex had sat on one side of the room whilst Matt sat on the other. Anytime Lilly or Alex went to go over to Matt, Lex held them back.

Matt was getting very annoyed at this, he just wanted to hold his babies and here Lex was holding them back from him.

About twenty minutes later, Charlie and James came out of the hospital room, James was sucking on a lolly. “The doctor gave me it after taking my blood, he said I looked nervous,” James said seeing Sarah’s look. She couldn’t help but laugh, James could be such a kid in a way.

Charlie just came out and sat next to Lex, playing with Alex.

“So did you have a go with her too, Matt?” Lex asked suddenly.

“What,” was all Matt could think of saying.

“Well, Charlie did, James did, what about you?” Lex reeled off. Matt still looked confused. “I mean with Collette!” Lex said, getting annoyed.

“No, I didn’t,” Matt replied shortly, rolling his eyes.

Lex just sighed and looked up as Collette came out of the hospital room, clutching her stomach.

“Hope that hurt,” Sarah said spitefully. Collette didn’t say anything, she just sat down and looked at the floor.

“Matthew Willis, Alexsis Willis, Alex and Lilly Grace,” A nurse called from the room where the others had just come from. Lex picked up the twins and followed Matt into the room, looking nervous.

“Oh, I added another test onto the list, Elliott. They must think we’re a right lot,” Sarah said, not even looking at Charlie.

“Do you not think we should get it done to get Fletch of our backs?” Charlie asked sounding exasperated.

“If that’s the reason you want it done, then yes. It’s just, I remember you believing Fletch about Elliott not being yours not long back,” Sarah said, still not looking at him.

“Look you guys, can we not argue, there’s enough stress going on anyway,” James piped up, “And Lex is right, you too have been arguing just as much as Lex and Matt do lately, and it’s not good. The arguing seems to show them how much they love eachother, with you, it shows that, that you’re not as strong as you were, which I know you are,” James added, looking upset.

Sarah looked over at James and sighed. “Fine, We’ll stop, but only for you!” Sarah looked up at Charlie and coughed.

“Oh, yeah, for you mate!” Charlie said, egged on by Sarah. He rolled his eyes.

Another twenty minutes had passed and Matt, Lex and the twins came out of the room and shockingly, Matt had Lilly in his arms.

Lilly and Alex both had lollies stuck out of their mouths.

“See, I’m not the only one,” James said.

“They’re babies,” Sarah and Charlie said at the same time. They looked at eachother and looked back down again.

A nurse called out for Sarah, Charlie and Elliott and they went in. Charlie didn’t need any more blood taken but obviously Sarah and Elliott did.

Ten minutes later the group were leaving the hospital. This time, Collette was asked to get a taxi home. Sarah, Charlie, James and Elliott went in Charlie’s car.

And surprisingly, Lex had offered to give Matt a lift back to where he was staying. He had gone to stay with his mum for a while.

Before they left in their separate groups, Matt came over to Charlie and Sarah. “ Can I stay at yours tonight? It’s just, my mum’s driving me nuts!”

“Course you can!” Charlie said, looking at Sarah for approval. She nodded her head.

“Cool, I’ll just go get my stuff back from mums and I’ll be over,” Matt said, seeming a bit more happy. He jogged over to Lex’s car and got in.

Ok, so they weren’t smiling, but they weren’t arguing either, so it was ok.

Matt arrived at Sarah and Charlie’s later that evening. James had gone back to his apartment.

Matt would stay there until the results of the tests, then he decided he and Lex would have to sort things out.

Matt Rebels

The day after the blood tests, Matt left Sarah and Charlie’s house early, he didn’t say where he was going, he just grabbed his jacket and left.

Nobody had plans that day, and there was no promotion to be done for the band. Everybody was too nervous of the pending results, due to arrive at Sarah and Charlie’s the next day.

Although there was a lot of stress between Sarah and Charlie, about whether Charlie had cheated or not, they were trying to get on and be nice to each other.

Besides, they had Elliott to look after, and it isn’t good to be arguing around such a young baby all of the time.

Matt and Lex were the opposite though, since the blood test yesterday, they hadn’t said a word to each other, and Lex hadn’t allowed James to babysit the twins, as she didn’t want Matt seeing them, and she knew James would cave.

James had never felt so nervous in his life, he could find out tomorrow that he was going to be a father, and he knew he wasn’t ready. He didn’t know what he was going to do if the test came back positive. It would be bad enough if he had gotten Fran pregnant when they were together, as a couple. But he had gotten a complete stranger pregnant…well he may have done, and he was scared.

Later that afternoon, Matt came back to Sarah and Charlie’s. As Matt entered the hallway, he saw Sarah. He started to cough and covered his mouth.

“Er, Matt, are you ok?” Sarah asked.

“Erm, yeah I’m fine, Just got a bit of a cough that’s all,” He said, his mouth covered the whole time. He ran upstairs.

“Weird,” Sarah muttered to herself.

Later that evening, Sarah and Charlie decided to get a take away in for dinner and got Matt down to eat with them. He had sat upstairs in the spare room he was using all day. Sarah didn’t know what made her think it, but she just felt her best friend was hiding something from her.

When Matt came down for the food, Sarah looked at him and gasped in shock.

“Oh my God, what have you done to yourself?” Sarah said, going up to Matt.

“What I think it’s pretty cool,” Matt replied stroking his chin, “What do you think Chase?”

Charlie turned round to look at Matt and dropped the fork he was holding. “Matt, Fletch is going to kill you,” Charlie replied, staring at Matt’s newly pierced lip.

“Not to mention Lex,” Sarah pointed out.

“Well, Lex doesn’t have a say in this, does she, she doesn’t want to be with me, remember?” Matt said spitefully, picking up a plateful of food from the table.

“Whatever,” Sarah sighed, knowing full well that Lex would get to have a say in what Matt had done. What on earth had possessed him to do that to himself?

The Results

The next morning couldn’t come fast enough as far as Sarah was concerned. Over the past day Charlie had been going on and on about how he wouldn’t cheat on her, and she had started to believe him, and this test would give her the proof she needed.

That morning, Lex turned up at about 9am, just before the post usually arrived. It had been a struggle to get Lex there that morning. She had seemed determined not to turn up, but Sarah had made her, telling Lex that it wasn’t fair on Matt if she didn’t turn up.

Obviously Matt was already staying at the house, so he didn’t get up until he heard the post arrive, walking groggily down the stairs.

Matt walked into the room where Sarah, Charlie, Lex, James and Collette were sat. Charlie had an envelope in his hands. Matt looked at it warily and sat down next to Lex. Matt hadn’t noticed the weird look Lex had been giving him the whole time he has been in the room, she didn’t say anything but just kept looking at his lip. She turned to Sarah as if to say, “What the hell is that?” Sarah just shrugged and looked at Charlie.

“Well, come on then? Get it over with,” Matt said, sitting back in his chair but looking anything but comfortable.

“Er, right, ok!” Charlie said, opening the envelope. “I’ll just read them in the order they are, they’re all on separate bits of paper by the looks of it. Right, ah. With James and Collette, it says that James can definitely not be the dad.”

James sighed with relief, but Sarah looked down, what could this mean?

Charlie, distracted by the look on Sarah’s face, stopped reading for a second.

“Dude, come on, are the twins mine or not?” Matt said, getting annoyed.

“What?” Charlie jumped, “Oh, oh yeah…Erm… Ah here we go, Matt and Lex, the results show that Matt is actually the dad!” Charlie looked up shocked at Lex.

“Why would you lie?” Matt asked, looking over at Lex.

“Can we talk about this later?” Lex said, looking down, avoiding Matt’s eyes.

“Right,” Matt said, “Right.”

Charlie sat fiddling through the piles of paper in his hand, looking for the last two test results that needed revealing. “OK, Me and Sarah,” He looked up, a smile playing on his lips, “Yes well that was expected, Elliott is mine.”

Collette, who had remained quiet throughout the revelations suddenly spoke up. “I do believe we’ve missed out the most important test, the one that started all this,” she said, sounding smug. Sarah had forced herself to sit next to Collette as there wasn’t any other seats available. It took all of her strength not to turn round and punch Collette in that smug little face of hers, hard!

Charlie looked through the paper, looking uncomfortable, he found the sheet of paper and read through it before laughing and thrusting the paper into Collette’s hands. “You can stop pretending now can’t you! Get out of our lives!” Charlie ranted, then turned to face Sarah. “It’s not mine,” He explained calmly, with another smile on his face.

Sarah didn’t say anything, she stood up and faced Collette. “You bitch!” was all Sarah said, reaching out and slapping Collette across the cheek. She couldn’t hold it in anymore. “You scheming cow! YOU KNEW FULL WELL YOUR BABY WASN’T HIS, AND YOU PUT ME THROUGH THIS???”

Collette just looked to the floor, looking ashamed for the first time. “Yeah well, it’s better than the truth isn’t it? It’s better than saying I slept with the first thing that came onto me out of this friendship group!”

“It’s not mine either, weren’t you listening?” James asked, sounding confused.

“Yeah, well, it’s your managers then isn’t, that’s the only other persons it could be!” Collette said standing up.

“Well, that’s yours and his problem then isn’t it…get out of my house!” Sarah said through gritted teeth, going over to the front door and holding it open.

Collette didn’t say anything, she just stood up and left the house, looking back at the group only once, then turning away quickly.

“Charlie…I’m sorry, sorry that I ever doubted you, I was stupid!” Sarah said, sitting back down and shaking her head.

“Well, she was pretty convincing I have to admit,” Charlie said, sitting in Collette’s now empty seat. He put his arm around Sarah. “Look, you don’t have to say sorry, I forgave you ahead of time, it’s her that’s caused all of this, not you.”

“I don’t deserve your forgiveness,” Sarah said. Charlie just laughed.

“Don’t be stupid,” He said, hugging her tighter.

“Sorry to break up the happy family, but I have to go now,” Lex said, standing up, still avoiding Matt’s glaze. “I’ve left the twins with my mum and I need to go pick them up.”

“Good well I’ll come and pick up MY children with you, and we can talk in the car!” Matt said, getting up and grabbing his coat. “I’ll be back later,” He added, turning to Sarah and Charlie.

“Great,” Lex said sarcastically, sighing.

Lex and Matt were sat in the car, in silence. Matt was getting annoyed, he wanted to know why his wife had lied about his children. He sighed loudly, but still Lex didn’t speak.

“So,” Matt started, “Why did you do it?”

“It doesn’t matter, you know the truth now! Does it matter why?” Lex said bluntly, not taking her eyes of the road.

“It does matter, I thought you loved me, but then you do something like this to me!” Matt said, sounding hurt.

“I do love you, but you don’t need me, you can do better, everyone else knows it, it was just me that didn’t!” Lex said, not showing any emotion.

Matt turned round in his seat and stared at Lex. “Where did you get that idea from?”

“Does it matter? But it’s true, I’m setting you free Matt. You can do what you like. Drink twenty-four-seven, sleep with anyone you like! It’s what you need, it’s what you want,” Lex said, sounding determined.

“I don’t want to sleep with anyone else, I don’t want to drink, I don’t want to be free, I want to be with you!” Matt said, getting annoyed, why couldn’t Lex see that he loved her?

“Well, if you don’t know it now, once you’ve been single a few weeks, you’ll love it, and then you’ll see!” Lex said, nodding her head, trying to convince herself more than Matt.

“Lex, please, tell me who’s been getting into your head, none of this is true, nothing,” Matt pleaded.

“Mr perfect, the one who can do no wrong said it!” Lex said, pulling the car up outside her parents house.

Matt just stood by the car baffled by what Lex had said, whilst Lex went inside and got the twins. After a few minutes, the truth hit Matt. Fletch. He’d done it again, and he wouldn’t get a way with it.

Matt pulled his mobile phone out of his pocket and called a taxi. He was sat on the curb waiting when Lex came out with the twins.

“Get in the car, I’ll drop you back at Sarah and Charlie’s,” Lex said, fixing Alex and Lilly into their car seats.

“No, no it’s ok, I’ve booked a taxi,” Matt said, looking up the road.

“Look I know we’re not doing to great at the moment but I will give you a lift,” Lex said sighing.

“I know, but I, no I’ll get a taxi,” Matt said, “Oh and there it is!” Matt said, getting up. “See you later!” Matt went over to the car and kissed each one of the babies, and then climbed into the taxi. Lex stood watching the taxi, looking confused. He hadn’t taken her seriously had he?

Matt got out of the taxi once he’d reached his destination. He handed the driver a £10 note, even though the fair had come to less than a fiver, and climbed out. He looked up at Fletch’s house.

He walked up and knocked on the door. Fletch came to the door and was shocked to see Matt stood there.

“Matt, what do you want? Are you ok?” Fletch asked, sounding curious.

“Oh yeah, I’m fantastic,” Matt replied sarcastically, he walked a step closer to Fletch so he was only a foot away from him.

“What’s wrong?” Fletch asked, still playing dumb.

This time, Matt didn’t reply,  he just pulled his fist back and punched Fletch in the nose. Fletch fell backwards from the force and banged his head against the wall.

“ARGH, I think you’ve broken my nose,” Fletch said, nasally, holding the bridge of his nose to control the blood flow.

“Good,” Matt said spitefully, turning round and walking down the street. Fletch didn’t live to far away from Charlie and Sarah’s apartment, just a twenty minute walk, so he decided to risk walking the street’s of London. Luckily nobody noticed him, he had his cap pulled down low and his jacket pulled up, so he was ok.

When he arrived at Charlie and Sarah’s, he was surprised to see Lex sat there with the twins playing with Elliott on the floor.

He just looked at her in confusion.

“Where did you go, Matt?” She said, looking up from the twins.

“I went to see Fletch, nothing special!” He replied dryly.

“You, you didn’t do anything stupid did you?” Lex asked, sounding worried.

“No, nothing stupid,” Matt said, “Are you going to do something stupid and split up our marriage because of something that prick said?”

“I’ve been thinking about that, and if you really don’t want that, then, you can come back home,” Lex said looking to the floor.

“And we’ll be back to normal, no difficultness between us?” Matt said, sitting on the couch.

“We can TRY to go back to normal, it may take a while, but, yes we can go back to normal,” Lex said truthfully.

Matt just nodded his head…

“Right, I’ll go pack my things.” Matt went up to his loaned room in Sarah and Charlie’s house and packed up his belongings.

Half an hour later, Lex, Matt and the twins all left to go home, talking and acting as normal.

For now, everything was happy families.

Maysie’s Issues

BOILER BABE.

After being beaten up from the nightclub the night before.

He wants to stay in bed an he wants to sleep.

But things don’t always go his way, especially when Lex calls him from downstairs, annoyed when he doesn’t answer he back, Lex goes up the stairs and tells him there was someone waiting to see him downstairs and wanted to speak to him.

Being dragged down the stairs (gently) James sees Maysie and wants to immediately  go back up the stairs and go right to sleep.

Ending up in an argument with her, he gets a slap because she seems to think she loves him, when she hasn’t even known him for a week. He tells her it was just a laugh and she cant handle that, Lex tells her to leave because she’s fed up with everything going on in her house.

LEX - MISCARRIAGE

Mid August 2004 - Lex agrees to try for another baby with Matt (spitefully).

Falls pregnant straight away. Find out beginning of September. Loses it late September - (drinks at Sarah’s birthday party). Doesn’t tell Matt. Leaves it to Sarah and Charlie to tell Matt. Sarah can’t tell him so Charlie does.

Sarah and Lex go on a girly holiday to help Lex recover from miscarriage.

Coming Home

With Lex and Sarah away, Matt, Charlie and James were left to look after the kids.

Away for almost two weeks the guys enjoy their time alone for the first few days and then gradually start to miss them and can’t wait to have them back.

With Lily having her ears pierced, Matt didn’t understand why Lex didn’t get Alex’s done, so seeing as Lex was away he went and took Alex to go get his one ear pierced.

Not thinking if Lex would like it or not. (well his kids as well and all).

James knowing what the reaction will be decides to make light of the situation, he gets a fake nose ring and puts it on the morning Sarah and Lex are coming home.

He thinks it looks quite dashing, although it doesn’t. He tries to get Charlie to go along with it and put a fake lip ring in.

After much protest, Charlie just rolls his eyes and puts the lip ring on, not liking it at all ad he knows it doesn’t look right, but hopefully the girls would be home soon and he could take it out.

Arriving home Lex and Sarah go to Lex and Matt’s house where all the guys stayed during the time they were away.

Walking through the door Matt greets them both with a hug and a kiss for Lex.

James comes out and Sarah laughs as the nose ring looks silly, but he just smiles and gives her a hug.

Lex frowns but has a half smile, half amused look on her face as James hugs her, looking over his shoulder, she scowls when she sees something in Alex’s ear.

Letting go of James she almost runs over to him and sees his ear is pierced. She turns to Matt who is giving her a ‘I didn’t do anything smile.’

About to say something to Matt Charlie comes in and Sarah bursts out laughing at Charlie who gives a sarcastic roll of the eyes and says ‘I love you too.’

Lex pulls it out and ignores his ‘ouch!’ and goes to see Alex again.

Leaving

A week or so after Sarah and Lex had gone away for their girly holiday away, things started to go wrong among the couples.

The first argument is between Lex and Matt. Matt is confused with why Lex is being like she is.

Lately, Lex has been really distant with Matt. She hasn’t seemed happy being alone with him. She hasn’t let him touch her since she found out about the miscarriage, and she’d been in a miserable mood ever since also.

Matt just didn’t understand why. Fair enough, Lex had been through a lot, but Matt had had to deal with the miscarriage too, and he’s wanted a baby more than Lex had. But he had seemed to have gotten over it a lot quicker than Lex was planning to. Although Matt felt he had gotten over the miscarriage, he hadn’t, he was just dealing with what was happening easier than Lex could. Well, to be fair, Matt had things to distract him from the pain he would be going through, what with Busted and the promotion.

Matt started to get annoyed at Lex. Yes he loved her, but the way she was treating him lately was making him start to hate her, they needed to get things into the open.

Thing is, Matt didn’t really bring up the subject in a sympathetic manner.

“What is up with you? Why can’t you just get over it? I have!” Matt said, when, yet again, Lex moved away when he tried to be close to her.

“It’s not that easy, in fact, it’s one of the hardest things to get over in life, and I thought you, you especially would have known that,” Lex seethed through her teeth.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to say, coz you know I want a baby more than anything, I’m just not so pathetic as too let it keep me down for so long,” Matt said, avoiding Lex’s eyes.

Lex was speechless with that, she thought Matt more than anybody would understand how she was feeling. Well, she wasn’t putting up with that. She went upstairs to pack.

Meanwhile, Sarah and Charlie were having their own problems.

On August 2^nd, Sarah had an important scan booked. Sarah and Charlie had decided not to find out the sex of their babies, up until now that is. Charlie was certain that they were having a boy and a girl. And Charlie was loving the fact that he could be holding his own little girl in his arms. He adored Lily, and would adore his own little girl a whole lot more.

Sarah had decided it would be best to find out the sex of the babies to get the nursery decorated suitably and Charlie agreed, although he ‘knew’ what they were having.

The appointment wasn’t until 2pm, so Charlie went off to do his own thing in the morning, planning to meet up with Sarah for the scan at the hospital.

However, things didn’t go to plan. Fletch was on top form, and had decided to put a new plan into action. Charlie had told Fletch about how important this scan was to Sarah and that he couldn’t miss it. Fletch had acted as if he knew how Charlie felt.

But at 12 that afternoon, Fletch phoned Charlie’s mobile and told him the record producers had changed the date they were originally suppose to be meeting and that he needed to be down there as soon as possible.

Charlie, not realising the time, went down to Universal and waited for the producers to turn up. Fletch sat watching Charlie, whilst pretending to be annoyed that the producers hadn’t turned up yet. He did have a little fright when Charlie suggested phoning them, as they were late. Fletch talked him out of this, luckily. The producers would be surprised to hear they were suppose to be there, when in actual fact, they weren’t.

Meanwhile, outside the hospital, Sarah was walking out of the doctor’s looking extremely angry. She looked at her watch, and saw that it was 3pm. Charlie was so in her bad books right now.

Back at Universal. Charlie had got fed up of waiting for the producers and told Fletch that he was going home.

Sarah had been sat in the lounge at home for two hours, waiting for Charlie to come home, and waiting for his excuse for why he didn’t turn up.

Charlie finally turned up at four, and walked into the lounge wearily. He knew he was going to get it for not turning up, and not even phoning to say why.

“Oh, the wanderer returns,” Sarah said sarcastically. She was sat on the couch with her arms folding across her chest, a stern look on her face.

“What?” Charlie asked, sitting opposite her.

“WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU? YOU KNEW TODAY WAS IMPORTANT TO ME!” Sarah yelled at him, turning redder by the minute.

“I had work commitments! Which have to take some sort of priority in my life!” Charlie spat back.

Sarah laughed and rolled her eyes.

“What’s that for?” Charlie asked confused.

“Work commitments. WORK COMMITMENTS! Work commitments that Matt and James didn’t have to be present for? You really are a mug Charlie, do you know that? Fletch has you wrapped around his little finger,” Sarah spun, getting even more annoyed.

“I don’t know what you’re implying, but Fletch did not set me up. You know, you really, really, get on my last nerve sometimes,” Charlie said, not really meaning it.

“I get on YOUR last nerve. My God, you really don’t see what he does do you, you’re that gullible,” Sarah replied, shaking her head.

“You know what, Sometimes I really don’t want to be around you and now is one of those times,” Charlie screamed back at Sarah.

Sarah looked up at Charlie with tears in her eyes. “Fine, FINE!” Sarah said through her teeth. She stood up determinedly, holding the tears in until she reached the bedroom. There, she sat on the edge of the bed for five minutes crying, until upset turned into anger. If he didn’t want her around, then she would leave. He asked for it. With that, she started to pack some things, packing some of Elliott’s as well.

Charlie had decided against following Sarah, he would just wait for her to calm down then come back downstairs.

Half an hour later, Sarah was packed and ready to leave. She left her case at the top of the stairs and went into the nursery and picked up Elliott. She walked down the stairs with him, with her head held high.

Charlie was really confused as he watched Sarah walk down the stairs and go straight out of the door. He heard a car door open. Five minutes later, Sarah came back in and walked up the stairs. She started to lug the suitcase down the stairs.

Charlie just stared for a few seconds before standing up and walking up the stairs. He was confused and slightly angry at what Sarah was doing.

“Move,” Charlie said bluntly. Sarah moved away from the case. Charlie grabbed the case and got it down the stairs easily. He then walked towards the door and through the case out of it.

Sarah gawped at Charlie. “What did you do that for?”

“I was helping with your case. I’m taking that you don’t need any help?” Charlie asked sarcastically, sitting back onto the sofa, not thinking Sarah would actually leave.

Sarah didn’t reply, she just walked out, slamming the door behind her.

A few minutes later, Charlie heard a car drive off. What had he done?

As Sarah climbed into the car, she hadn’t a clue where she was going to go. She could go to her parents, but she would get a lot of hassle. She just drove around for an hour or so, until it came to her. Matt. He was her best friend, he would understand. So she drove over to Matt and Lex’s house.

Sarah reached the house and got out of the car. She left the suitcase in the boot, but she grabbed Elliott’s carry seat, and put him in it. Sarah walked up to the house and knocked. Nobody answered. She knocked again and she heard a muffled voice shout, “It’s open!”

Sarah pushed the front door open and looked in the lounge, expecting to see Matt and Lex in there. But there was no life.

“Matt?” Sarah called, curiously.

“Mmmmm,” Sarah heard an inaudible reply come from the kitchen.

She looked around the kitchen door and was surprised to see the state Matt was in. He was slumped across the breakfast bar, with a half empty bottle of vodka tilted against his mouth.

“Matt?” Sarah questioned again, looking worried. This time, Matt didn’t bother replying. Sarah put Elliott’s seat onto the floor and went to sit by Matt. “What’s happened?”

“Shlftmeagin,” Matt said, he said it with his mouth full of vodka.

“Sorry?” Sarah asked.

Matt put his head up as best as he could and looked at Sarah. “She left me again,” he said clearly, then bent his head back down and started guzzling down the vodka again.

“Where did she go?” Sarah asked, looking confused, she thought that Matt and Lex were ok, fair enough things were tough, what with the miscarriage, but other than that, they had seemed fine.

“I don’t actually know,” Matt said, shaking his head. Then it clicked, Sarah must be there for a reason. “What are you doing here?” Matt blurted out. So Sarah started to tell Matt her sob story.

Meanwhile, back at Sarah and Charlie’s house, Charlie was about to get a surprise of his own. About ten minutes after Sarah had left, Charlie heard the front door knock. He got up to answer it, expecting Sarah to be stood there, even if she did have a key, he could always hope. He opened the door and looked disappointed and shocked to see Camilla standing there. What did she want? She didn’t usually come round to visit unannounced.

Charlie didn’t say anything, he just left the door open and walked back into the lounge.

“Oh Charlie darling, what has she done to you? You look so warn out and tired,” Camilla said, sitting extremely close to Charlie on the couch.

Charlie slid away from Camilla and didn’t answer her.

“Come on Charlie, you can talk to me, you know that,” Camilla tried again, moving back closer to Charlie.

“There’s nothing wrong,” Charlie said determinedly, moving right to the end of the couch.

Camilla slid back towards him so she was as close as she could be, without actually sitting on him. Ha, Charlie had ran out of couch and he couldn’t move any further away from her. She put her arm around his shoulder, and shifted her weight towards him.

“Look, Camilla, could you just stop?” Charlie started to object, leaning backwards to get away from her.

“Shhhhhh,” Camilla sighed, and started to kiss up Charlie’s neck.

Charlie was just about to push Camilla away, when he heard somebody gasp.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Lex steamed, looking at Charlie.

Camilla just giggled, stroking Charlie’s leg.

Lex couldn’t believe the nerve of this woman, hadn’t she caused enough trouble at the beginning of Sarah and Charlie’s relationship. Lex walked forward and dragged Camilla up from the couch. “Get out!” Lex ordered.

“If this was your house, then I would listen to you!” Camilla said cruelly.

Well, Lex wasn’t standing for that. She stepped forward and slapped Camilla hard across the cheek. “I said, get, out!” Lex said, looking extremely angry.

“Just go,” Charlie said, with no emotion in his voice, not looking up from the floor.

Camilla looked annoyed, but left anyway, slamming the door behind her.

“What was going on there?” Lex said, throwing an angry look at Charlie.

“Nothing, she was just trying it on, and it wasn’t going to work, whether you turned up or not,” Charlie replied, still unemotional. Charlie suddenly jumped up and fully took Lex in. “What are you doing here anyway?”

“No reason really. But I am staying for a while, alright!” Lex commented, walking up the stairs before Charlie could even give an answer.

In the middle of everything that was happening, James had been stuck in the middle. He had found out everything that had happened from Lex. Ok, Lex hadn’t told Charlie what had happened, but James was her best friend. Still she wasn’t clear with what happened, she just told James that her and Matt had argued and she had left for some space. She also told him that Sarah and Charlie were on bad terms too.

Because everyone else was on arguing terms, James took it upon himself to get the group talking again.

So, he decided to start by going over to Matt and Lex’s house, and talking some sense into Sarah and Matt. This could be fun, he thought.

He didn’t knock when he reached Matt’s house, he just walked in and found Matt and Sarah sat in the kitchen, alcohol bottles littered all around.

“You haven’t been drinking?” Was the first thing out of James’ mouth, aimed at Sarah.

“Don’t be stupid, it’s him who’s been drinking!” Sarah said, not looking up from the table. She had her hands crossed on the breakfast bar, with her chin rested upon them.

“Good,” James replied, dragging a stool up to the table. He sat next to Sarah. “So…what’s happened?”

“Nothing, he wanted me to leave, so…I left!” Sarah mumbled, sitting up to look at James.

“Now why would he want you to leave?” James sighed disbelievingly.

“I wouldn’t make it up James,” Sarah argued getting annoyed, “He said he didn’t want me around, so I’m not going to be around him.”

James could tell Sarah was getting stressed by everything and he knew this wasn’t good.

“Look, you know he didn’t mean it,” James tried to sooth. Sarah just raised her eyebrows and laughed sarcastically.

“You do know that, and I know you do,” James tried again, “Look at me and tell me you don’t know that!”

Sarah couldn’t do it. Ok she was upset, but she knew Charlie had just gotten angry, but it still didn’t give him excuse to say what he did. She said this to James.

“Well, that’s a start I suppose,” James sighed. “And you need to calm down, you know what stress will do to you and the babies!”

“I’ll try, is that enough for you,” Sarah said, trying to smile for James.

“It is, and well, I wont even bother trying to talk to Matt, he looks a bit…well you can see for yourself. Try to sober him up will you?” James said, getting up. He said his goodbyes and left to go and speak to Charlie and Lex.

James arrived at Charlie and Sarah’s house about half an hour later and just walked in.

He was shocked to find a very emotional Charlie led across the sofa, sobbing to himself. James shook his head and walked closer to Charlie.

Lex had heard the door go and came down to see who it was. She spotted James and acknowledged him. She walked past him and sat opposite Charlie.

James sighed and sat on the coffee table and faced Charlie. “So, why did you throw Sarah out?”

“I don’t know,” Charlie sobbed, sitting up to make room for James to sit down.

James asked a few more questions, trying to get something, anything, out of Charlie, but the only answer he gets from Charlie is, “I don’t know,” in a whimpering voice. After about the tenth time Charlie answered like this, Lex burst out with, “Good God you big girl!”

James jumped. Lex had been so quiet, he had forgotten that she had been there.

“And while we’re on the subject of marriage break ups, what happened with you?” James turned round on Lex.

“I don’t want to talk about it!” Lex said stubbornly, “It’s not important.”

So things remained the same between the couples, neither of them talking, but all missing eachother. James was trying to get everybody talking again, but with no avail.