The show must go on

Chapter 38 - read it

But they don't have to wait long.

Stressed and frantic, she comes rushing into the room a few minutes later and seems to breathe a sigh of relief when she sees Jade sitting well and alive in her bed. She greets everyone with a hug before grabbing a chair and joining them, at Jade's bedside.

"So, some explanation please. What exactly am I doing here?" she quickly gets to the point.

At first, however, no one answers her, no one really knows how. Jesy and Perrie have no idea themselves and Leigh-Anne has trouble finding the right words. So, as tired as she still is, Jade takes over.

"I need a stem cell transplantation...as soon as possible," she explains succinctly.

Sam just stares at her for a moment, unable to understand exactly what that means, before a light dawns on her.

"Fuck," she speaks from the heart of everyone.

"You say it," Jade agrees with her. "And we've already gone through our families and registered donors. There's nothing there," she remains surprisingly calm, surprisingly matter-of-fact. Sam, on the other hand, puts her forehead in her hands and can only process the information with great difficulty.

"What...what exactly does that mean?" she almost doesn't dare ask.

But before Jade can open her mouth, Perrie beats her to it, "Please don't say it."

And this time she falls silent, eyeing Perrie sadly instead, before choosing her words more carefully, "Meaning we desperately need a donor who isn't registered yet."

Sam merely nods as Jesy and Perrie breathe a sigh of relief.

"I guess you guys have a plan," Sam huffs hopefully.

"Jade has one," Leigh interjects. "A great one, but hard to organise."

Leigh smiles at her expectantly, but Jade just smiles tiredly back at her and says quietly, "You tell them", whereupon she rests her head on Perrie's shoulder and struggles to keep her eyes open. It seems to be another one of those days.

"So we thought the more people who register, the more likely we are to find a matching donor for Jade and hopefully many more for other patients," Leigh then begins to explain without batting an eyelid.

"Sounds plausible," Sam says thoughtfully.

"Exactly and we thought Jade is one of the more famous patients and she has media attention that we could use."

"So you want to bring it to the attention of fans and followers on social media and at best get them to register," Sam concludes.

"That was my first thought too," Leigh replies. "But Jade has thought a bit further and...bigger...than that," she glances at her again to make sure that's really the plan and that she's really allowed to tell them.