The Show Must Go On

Let's Talk about Dec

Ali began waking down the path. She felt the warmth of the sun and smiled. "Its a lovely day, ain't it Rocky?"She asked. Rocky started barking, jumping up and down ecstatically. She was first impressed with her dog for answering her question, but soon heard a familiar bark.

"Shh, calm down Hurley" said Ant, locking his door. Rocky bounced up and down, staring at Ali to make her walk to them . "Hello!" Started Ali. "Nice day, isn't it?". Ant's face lit up when he heard her voice. He look his attention away from Hurley and locked up. He was disappointed to not see Dec.

"Yeah, it's beautiful" he said, looking concerned. "Where's Dec? He never misses taking Rocky for a walk" said Ant, worried Dec hadn't come out just to avoid him. Ali smiled as they began waking.

"Aw, he's a bit under the weather I'm afraid. He's in bed. He's got a really heavy cold. It's more like flu actually. Anyway, it's really took it out of him, drained his energy" said Ali, bending down to stroke Hurley. Ant sighed.

He felt somewhat relieved Dec isn't annoyed with him and intentionally avoiding him, but also felt a great deal of sympathy for him. "Aw, poor guy. That's not like him to be in bed after 10. He must be really sick" said Ant.

"He is, he's trying to pretend his fine, but he just looks and sounds so ill. I recon it's a bad case of the flu. He even fell asleep at the last episode of Collateral" said Ali. Ant gasped.

He knew how much Ali and Dec loved the show. All Dec ever talked about for the last month is what he thinks will happen in the finale.

"Poor guy" said Ant. " I thought he was coming down with something during golf, but he insisted it was hay fever" said Ant. "Dec doesn't get hay fever.." said Ali, biting her nail in worry. Ant hesitate..

"I knew he didn't. I knew he was ill" said Ant, slightly annoyed with himself for not taking care of his sick friend. Ali raised her eyebrow.

"You told me Dec was fine during golf" said Ali. Ant felt his heart drop. "What do you mean?" Ant asked, knowing exactly what she was taking about.

"The text Ant. The text I sent last night asking if Dec was ok, and you said he seemed fine" said Ali. "Well, I just thought it was hay fever, not worth texting about" lied Ant.

"You just said you knew he was just making it up and was actually really poorly" said Ali. Ant gave up.

"Sorry Ali, ok, ok. I lied. It's just, he got really frustrated with me. I thought he was still angry at me, the worse thing I thought I could do was tell you he was ill and risk him being even more angry at me. I'm sorry, Ali" said Ant, slightly embarrassed.

Ali could argue back, but she felt too knackered, and she knew Ant's heart is in the right place. "That's alright love, but please be honest with me next time. It's not like I'm going to show him" said Ali. Ant nodded.

"Did you say Dec get really annoyed at you?" Asked Ali, worried about her husband. "yeah, I couldn't believe it either. He shouted at me a bit when I was being mothering" said Ali. "That's not like our Declan. That's not like him at all" said Ali. "I know" agreed Ant.

They get to the shop. "I'm just going to pot in and get some medicine for Dec" she said. She came out a couple of minutes later with a bag full of flu medicine. They then began to walk back.

"So, was he not cross with me?" Ant Asked. "No, I think you're the least of his worries at the moment, not to sound mean" she replied.

"That's good, I totally understand. He grew up as youngest of 7, of course he is sick of patronising; he had a childhood of it" said Ant. "Yeah, i hope these medicines help, he's really suffering" said Ali. Ant just thought of something.

"Oh god, i just thought, is BGT live on soon? Do you think he be ok by then?" Ant asked. "Oh yeah. God, I absolutely forgot about that" said Ali. "I think it's next week sometime" said Ali. "Do you think Dec will be better by then?" Ant Asked.

"To be honest, considering how ill he looks, maybe he... he will... u don't know? He probably will still have a cold, but I don't know" said Ali.

"Why don't me and you have a little meeting and talk about what we should do" said Ant, as they carried on walking their dogs. "Good idea" replied Ali.