The show must go on

Chapter 11 - realization

"Fuck," she says aloud as Jade's condition suddenly worsens yet again and she begins to shake all over, while a violent coughing fit suddenly overcomes her, only making her cough up more blood, scaring the shit out of everyone. Perrie ignores her own panic and the tears streaming down her face. As if on autopilot, she grabs Jade, who is barely aware of anything by now, and carefully lays her on the floor on her side so she doesn't choke on all the blood in her throat and mouth. All she can remember is stable lateral position, but what now? What can she do? Helplessly, she looks for Leigh and Jesy, who also shrug their shoulders with tear-streaked faces.

Finally, Perrie sits down by Jade's head and gently strokes her back and head, just to show that she is with her and that she will never be alone, while she watches helplessly small pool of blood gathering in front of Jade's mouth. Perrie is sure she has never felt such fear in her life and has never been so relieved when suddenly two paramedics come rushing through the door. They are closely followed by Paul, who looks into the room, aghast.

"What the hell is going on here?" he asks, distraught, but when he sees the shocked faces of the girls and Jade on the floor, he falls silent and slumps stunned onto a chair, while the paramedics immediately rush towards Jade.

"What happened?" one of them wants to know. But Perrie is unable to speak, so Leigh tries to explain the situation in a halting voice.

The paramedics nod and turn Jade onto her back, whereupon Perrie sees for the first time that her eyes are now closed. She looks so lifeless with all the blood around her mouth and the terribly pale skin that Perrie would like to cry out.

"Is she dead?" she asks fearfully and barely audibly, but the paramedic just looks at her pityingly and quickly shakes his head.

"She's just unconscious," he explains quickly as he puts an oxygen mask over her face and hooks her up to any portable machines. "We have to take her with us," he says quickly as they hurriedly pack Jade onto the stretcher they brought with them.

Perrie is immediately on her feet, grabs Jade's hand on the stretcher and is about to run out with them, when Paul grabs her by the arm.

"I'm sorry, but you can't come."

"What?!" she asks, stunned. "No one is going to stop me from going with her!"

"Your contract is," Paul states meekly. "I'm sorry, Perrie. But you all signed a contract that obliges you to keep all your appointments and appearances, should you be physically able to do so," he explains.

"After everything that just happened, how am I supposed to stand on stage in an hour and act like everything's fine! Without knowing what's wrong with Jade?!" she now shouts hsyterically, to which Leigh and Jesy also rush to her side.

"Paul, you can't be serious!", Leigh interjects.

"I don't like it either, but you can perform as a threesome and that's why you have to. Imagine the fuss with the label and management if you blew off the show an hour before because one of you was indisposed?" he tries to explain, but then Jesy speaks up, "Indisposed?! Have you seen her? She almost choked on her own blood!"