Quick authors note:
Just wanted to say a huge thanks for 2k reads already! I can't believe how many of you are still here after Night Shift 😁 special shoutouts to my loyalist commenters and voters whomst I love endlessly ho0d-ie  daniasohail20132001  lexis181602  -BABYHOOD- ralphy2014  and JustDaydreaming22

Michael's PoV

My mind was racing with everything that had just happened. I'd finally witnessed first hand what this Naomi woman was like and boy, was she a thorn in Calum's side. Everyone else seemed to know exactly what she was like but I tried to remain neutral, waiting for a chance to make up my own mind on the situation so that I could offer decent advice. Now I know.

"Shit." Calum mumbled as he threw the first thing he could grab, a shoe, across the room with a thump. He was sitting on the floor with his knees to his chest and his head in his hands looking defeated and downtrodden for the first time in ages. This woman had done that to him, come in and tried to get her way but when that hadn't worked she'd turned to manipulation. I could see why Calum was so worried.

"Was any of what she said right?" I asked carefully, watching Calum's shoulders sink as he knew he'd have to tell me what was going on.

"We've never had sex." He was instant to reiterate. "But I've kissed her quite a few times. She would always find me and flirt and I could never say no." I sighed and shook my head disappointingly. "I know it sounds stupid but it's always been that way, even when we were together. She was my drug. I could never say no. She's a very convincing manipulator, just as Luke found out." My chest tightened as he brought Luke and that awful day back into my memory. Watching my best friend go crazy because he'd thought Naomi was going to help him, but instead hurt Poppy. I'd never seen anyone as broken as he was that time.

"Yeah, I can see that. The way she was so quick to say she'd go to the press." I nodded in agreement, looking back over at the door she had strutted out of. "She's something else." I then looked back over at Calum, still broken on the floor. "But you didn't help yourself mate. No offence. You're giving her things to work with. The more you kiss her or interact with her or whatever you've done, the more she thinks she's for a chance AND the more she will have for the press if it all goes wrong."

"Yes thanks genius." Calum snapped, causing me to scrunch my face up at him. There was no need for him to be rude to me. "Regardless, she's got ammunition. So what I need is a foolproof plan to get her out of my life forever. Enough to leave us all alone." I shrugged, pacing around as I tried to think. There had to be something we could do to get her to leave us all alone. A fear built inside me as I thought long and hard about just how far this woman had seemed to go to get Calum. Would she target me? Ashton? Crystal?? I felt nauseated at the thought.

"What about meeting with her to talk it out?" I had a lightbulb moment. Calum scoffed and shot an angry look at me as if I was dumb. "Hear me out. You meet with her, get her to admit she did all those things on tape and then threaten to release it unless she leaves you alone?" I offered. "I know it's a low blow but it's giving her a taste of her own medicine?" Calum suddenly straightened and looked over at me with a smug smile on his face.

"Yeah man. You might be on to something." He nodded, giving me a hug to say thank you - and probably sorry. "If I got her in the room with myself and Poppy, we could coerce her into admitting it all. I feel like this needs to happen as soon as possible though."

"Well, we don't have soundcheck until like four tomorrow so maybe meet her for lunch?" Just in case that manipulator was coming for Crystal, I pushed for the meeting to happen as soon as possible. Luckily for me, Calum seemed to be in agreement. He smiled once again, feeling like the plan was set in place. I quickly glanced down at my phone, checking the time and realising it was now nearing 7am. Calum quickly looked at it too and let out a flat laugh.

"Wow, who knew time would fly sorting Naomi out?" Coincidentally, the door was knocked on once again just as Calum finished his sentence. Once again we both stood there, dumbfounded, staring at the door as someone hammered on it. "I'll sort it out." Calum said bravely as he stormed towards the door, swinging it open angrily. "Naomi I swear to God if you don't-" he paused suddenly. "Shit. Poppy?" It was as if he was suddenly elated. He moved out the way to show Poppy to me. She let out a small wave as she dragged her suitcase into the room taking us both in like she hadn't seen us in years. I hugged her tightly, feeling her relax in my arms.

"It's so good to see you guys." She spoke quietly. As she unzipped her hoodie and threw it off to reveal a spaghetti strap tank top, both mine and Calum's eyes fell onto her neck, where a large plaster was covering the surgery site.

"It's great to see you. How are you feeling?" I asked as Calum continued to stare at her in disbelief.

"Alright actually thanks. I've been told I have to be really careful now but I just couldn't handle being in that hospital anymore. The nurse during the night shift was pretty friendly and I managed to get the paperwork pushed through." She grinned, finally moving over to kiss a shell shocked Calum. As her lips touched his he seemed to jolt back to life, enveloping her in a huge hug. "Now, does anyone care to explain to me why the two of you are here and why you were shouting for Naomi?" I took it upon myself to answer.

"I couldn't sleep, I was stressing about Crystal and the baby. Then I thought Calum might be awake because you weren't here so I knocked for him. Later, the door went and it was Naomi trying to weasel her way back in." At the mention of Naomi's name, Poppy seemed to tense, her hands clenching into fists. "But between the two of us we got her to leave. She was threatening cal though, saying she'd ruin his image." Poppy shook her head and sighed.

"But... we just came up with a plan to fix it all." Calum added and Poppy raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Unfortunately, we need your help to pull it off. We're going to threaten her back."