Part 95

Noel pulled the car into the driveway, but this time, the heavy dread that usually sat in his stomach was gone. The house was dark. For the first time in a long time, it didn't feel like a trap; it just felt like a building.

'Right, out you get,' Noel said, his voice softer now.

Donovan looked at the dark windows of the house and it caught Noel's attention 'It's just us tonight. And tomorrow. Just the Gallaghers.' He softly said, hoping to ease his mind.

As they walked through the front door, the silence was absolute. Usually, the house was filled with the sharp tension of Sara's moods or the frantic energy of her trying to control the environment. Now, it was just still.

'It feels weird,' Sonny whispered, clutching his Lego box as he stood in the foyer.

'It's just quiet, son,' Noel replied, tossing his keys onto the table. 'That's what 'peace' sounds like.'

Noel sent Liam a quick text: We're in..Stay with Deb, have a drink and enjoy your time alone. See you in two days. Thanks for everything, I mean it.

Liam's reply was instant: Good on ya. Keep the door locked. Tell the kids Uncle Liam is bringing the good biscuits when we hit the road. LG x

Noel spent the evening doing things he usually left to the staff or Sara. He made a mess of a tray of cheese toasties, burnt the edges, and served them on the coffee table in the lounge while they watched 'Paddington' together for the umpteenth time. He watched Bowie fall asleep against his side, her breathing deep and even, while Sonny built a fortress out of sofa cushions.

Donovan stayed awake the longest. He sat on the rug, staring at the empty space on the sofa where his mother usually sat.

'Dad?' Donovan asked without looking up. 'Is it okay that I'm not sad?'

Noel leaned back, looking at his son. 'It's more than okay, Donny. It means you're honest. You don't have to perform for anyone here anymore. If you're relieved, be relieved.'

'Will people talk? At school?'

'Let 'em talk,' Noel said firmly. 'They aren't the ones on the tour bus. They aren't the ones going on tour with the band.. We're moving on, and we're doing it together.'

That night, Noel didn't sleep in the master bedroom. He dragged a mattress into the playroom and they all camped out together, a chaotic pile of blankets, stuffed animals, and the faint smell of burnt toast.

As he lay there, listening to the rhythmic breathing of his children, Noel felt a strange, hollow ache in his chest start to heal.

For the first time in a decade, he wasn't Noel Gallagher, the rock star, or Noel Gallagher, the husband walking on eggshells. He was just a dad, keeping watch in the dark.

The next morning, the sun crept through the playroom blinds, illuminating the messy pile of Gallaghers on the floor. Noel was the first one up, his back aching from the thin mattress, but his mind clearer than it had been in years. There was no sound of Sara slamming cupboard doors or the sharp tone of her voice critiquing the housekeeping.

He let the kids sleep in, heading down to the kitchen to make a proper pot of tea. As the kettle whistled, he looked out at the garden. It was a beautiful view, but to him, it was just a backdrop to a life he was done living.

By noon, the house was a whirlwind of productive chaos. Noel had set a rule: one suitcase each for the bus, and one that could be put in the vans.

'Do I need to pack my school blazer?' Sonny asked, holding the garment up with a look of pure disdain.

'Son, we're going to Scotland on a rock and roll tour,' Noel said, taking the blazer and tossing it back on his bed. 'You won't be needing that where we're going. Pack your T-shirts, hoodies and your boots.'

The doorbell rang at one o'clock, making Noel's heart skip a beat. He checked the security feed, it was Liam and Debbie. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and buzzed them in.

Liam strode into the kitchen, wearing sunglasses indoors and carrying three massive bags of snacks. 'Alright? Heard the toasties were a disaster last night, so I brought reinforcements.'

Debbie followed behind him, her arms full of travel organizers. 'I thought I'd help the kids with the "essentials" list. Noel, you look like you've actually slept for once.'

'Five hours,' Noel admitted, leaning against the counter. 'Best five hours of my life.'

While Debbie headed upstairs to help Bowie and Sonny navigate the "toy vs. clothes" ratio, Liam leaned against the island, his expression turning serious. 'I spoke to our security guy, Steve. He's already in Edinburgh. He's vetted the clinic where Caroline is going. It's top-tier, Noel. Gated, private entrance, and the staff are used to high-profile families. No press is getting within a mile of her.'

Noel nodded, the tension in his shoulders easing just a fraction. 'And the bus?'

'Customized and waiting. We've got the back lounge set up for the kids, and I've stocked the fridge with enough Capri-Suns to float a battleship,' Liam grinned. 'But uhmm..have you checked the news?'

Noel shook his head. 'I've had my phone off.'

'It's starting to break,' Liam said softly. 'Nothing specific about the ICU yet, but "sources" are saying Sara's been detained for questioning. The vultures are starting to circle your house, man. Steve's got a couple of blokes already at the gates keeping them back, but we're going to have to do a midnight run when we leave tomorrow.'

'I don't care if we have to leave in the middle of a thunderstorm in the dead of night,' Noel said, his eyes hard. 'We're getting out of here.'

Their conversation was interrupted when Sonny and Donovan walked into the kitchen, still in their payamas and their faces drained of color. Sonny was clutching his phone, his thumb trembling as he swiped through a Tik Tok feed that was moving faster than he could read.

'Dad?' Sonny's voice was small, cracked. 'They're saying things. About Mum. And Caroline.'

Noel straightened up, his hand freezing on the kettle. He looked at Liam, whose jaw had gone rigid. 'I told you to stay away from those apps, Sonny.'

'It's everywhere, Dad,' Donovan said, his voice eerily calm, though his knuckles were white as he gripped the edge of the kitchen island. He turned his screen around. A headline from a major newspaper was being shared across every platform: SARA MACDONALD AND ASSOCIATE DETAINED IN CONSPIRACY PROBE.

Beneath the headline, the "True Crime" creators had already dissected the horror. One video, playing at full volume, featured a woman pointing at photos of Sara and Rob. "New reports suggest this wasn't just a kidnapping by Caroline's, Oasis' tour manager, best friend Rob Evans. Police are investigating a conspiracy between Sara MacDonald and Rob Evans to permanently eliminate Caroline Di Benedetto after her initial abduction by Rob Evans..."

The word 'eliminate' hung in the air like a poisonous gas.

'Mum helped him?' Sonny whispered, the tears finally spilling over. 'That man took Caroline, he hurt her...and Mum helped him? Did she want Caroline to die?'

The betrayal hit the room like a physical blow. The kids knew that Caroline had been abducted, and that a lot had happened to her, they had lived through that terror, but the idea that the threat had been coming from inside their own home, from their own mother, was a different kind of trauma.

'Listen to me,' Noel said, his voice dropping into a low, fierce growl as he stepped toward them. 'We don't know the full story yet..' Noel tried to limit the damage.

'Is that why Rob took her?' Donovan asked, his eyes burning with a sudden, sharp intelligence. 'Because Mum told him to? To push Caro away so everything would go back to how it was, you and Mum being back together?'

Noel couldn't look away. He couldn't give them a comfortable lie anymore. 'The police are asking her questions about..that.., yes..'

The boys looked at their father in shock, maybe they had expected him to say that it was all a lot of gossip, but now he was confirming it..

The kitchen felt like it was shrinking. Sonny and Donovan stood there in their pajamas, looking at their dad like he was the only thing keeping the ceiling from falling down. They had seen the heavy words on the screen, conspiracy, eliminate, but their brains were trying to make sense of it in the only way they knew how.

'But..Caroline is our friend,' Sonny whispered, his voice wobbly and small. He looked down at his feet, his chest heaving. 'She plays Lego with me, Dad. I like her so much. Why would Mum want to hurt someone who's nice?'

The betrayal was a big, messy monster in the room. They remembered their mum's sharp voice and the way she'd roll her eyes each time Caroline walked in. They'd thought it was just "grown-up grumpiness," but now they knew it was something much darker.

'Did she do it because we liked Caroline too much?' Sonny asked, his bottom lip trembling. 'Is it our fault?'

'No! No, Sonny, never,' Noel said, dropping to his knees so he was at eye-level with them. He pulled them both in, burying his face in their hair. 'This isn't on you. None of it. Your mum..she just lost..her mind for a while..but both of you weren't the trigger..you have to believe that, after all she's still your Mum and she'll always be, no matter what happens.'

Noel's words were cut short by the soft, rhythmic thud of footsteps on the stairs. The heavy tension in the kitchen didn't dissipate; it just shifted as Bowie appeared in the doorway. She looked tiny in her oversized pajamas she was still wearing, dragging her favorite worn-out rabbit by its ear.

She didn't look at the phones or the news headlines. She didn't seem to feel the tectonic plates of her family shifting. She just looked at Noel, her eyes wide and hopeful. 'Daddy! Can we go see Caroline now?'

Noel's heart stuttered. He was still holding the boys, their world collapsing under the weight of a conspiracy headline, and there was his youngest, the only one still shielded by the blissful ignorance of childhood.

Bowie didn't wait for an answer. She padded across the cold kitchen tiles, pushing herself between her brothers to find her spot inside the hug. She curled her small frame against her father's chest, tucking her head under his chin. Noel instinctively tightened his grip on all three of them, his chin resting on top of Bowie's head.

'I'll go check on her in a minute, ok? Tell her all about the big adventure we're going on together' giving them all a big squeeze.

--

The walk to Caroline's room felt longer than the drive. Every person in a suit looked like a lawyer; every person with a phone looked like a paparazzo. But when he pushed the door open, the world outside stopped spinning for a second.

Caroline wasn't lying back against the pillows. For the first time since she'd been carried into the ICU, she was sitting up on the edge of the bed. Her feet, pale and small, dangled just above the floor. She looked fragile, her hospital gown swallowed by her thin frame, but the way she held her head up was a victory in itself.

'You're sitting up,' he breathed, stopping dead in the doorway and smiled, a rare, soft expression reserved only for her.

Caroline turned her head, a tired but genuine smile touching her lips. 'I got bored of the view from the pillow. The nurse said if I could sit, I could eventually walk. And I want to walk, Noel.' The memory of not being able to move and being trapped in her own body, made her shiver again.

He pulled the chair closer and took her hands in his. They were thin and scarred, but they were warm, a physical reminder that she was still here.

'Oh, knowing you, you'll be running again soon enough' he smiled at her and then took a deep breath, 'in fact..' He looked at her intently, his business-like focus softening with affection.

'We're taking the tour up to Edinburgh as of tomorrow and I want you to take the reins again as tour manager. At your own pace, of course. If you have to spend the first few weeks barking orders into a phone from your bed, then that's how we'll do it. No one understands this circus better than you, and I don't want anyone else..'

Caroline looked down at their joined hands, then back up at him. The silence that followed was heavy, charged with everything that had gone unsaid since the nightmare began.

'Noel,' she began hesitantly, her voice barely above a whisper. 'Is this because you need me for the tour? Or are you doing this out of guilt for what..she..did?' The question of whether they were still a couple hung in the air, fragile and urgent.

Noel swallowed hard, the lump in his throat making it difficult to breathe. The man who could command stadiums and weave intricate lyrics for millions was suddenly, desperately, at a loss for words. He gripped her hands a little tighter, his fingers trembling against her skin.

'I'm a mess at this, Caro. You know I am,' he began, his voice cracking as he looked down at their joined hands. 'But listen..I've already set everything up. The clinic in Edinburgh, the specialists, it's all sorted. Every detail, every bill. You don't have to think about a single thing other than getting your strength back.'

He looked up again, and the raw desperation in his blue eyes was exposed, stripped of any rock-star arrogance. 'But that job offer? The clinic? That's just the logistics. The real reason I'm asking...no, the only reason I'm standing here like this...is because I will do anything, absolutely anything, to get us back together.'

He took a deep breath, leaning in until their foreheads were almost touching. 'When you disappeared..,I thought I'd lost you for good..and I realized that none of the rest of it matters. I don't want the house in London. I don't want the status. I just want you. I want us to be a couple and a team again. Not because it's good for the tour, but because I don't know how to be Noel Gallagher without you anymore. I don't want to waste my life without you..'

He bowed his head, pressing his lips against her scarred knuckles. 'I'm not asking you to be the "old" Caroline tomorrow. I'm just asking if you'll let me stay by your side while you find your feet. Because there's nowhere else on this earth I want to be and there's nobody else I want to spend my life with..'