Blown Away

Disclaimer: All right, this story is not real. NOT REAL! Not to be read by anyone under the age of 18/21 yadda yadda yadda! I'd love to hear some feedback as per usual. Please feel free to leave me a comment in the COMMENT Box at the end of the page. You see those big empty stars too? Maybe bump those up to five full ones? We wouldn't want them to be empty now would we? All alone like that? You're not a monster are you?

Also, please don't post this on any other site without my explicit permission. I've had to bring the hammer down on two thieves right as of writing and don't want to bring it down again. Don't forget to add me on one of the messengers too! I'm on AIM, Skype and YIM under mean.blackjack. Don't be afraid! I love chatting about celebs, story ideas or chatting in general and I like making new friends!

Carrie Underwood leant back in the plush leather seats of the rented limo and peeked out of the tinted windows to look at the large centre that was hosting 'The X-Factor' on Fox. She smiled at the sight of how many people had turned up for the show. It was long past the audition period and tonight, Carrie was here as a special guest performer. She did have the liberty of performing a duet with anyone who wanted to approach her but as she tucked some blonde strands of hair behind her ear, she was currently just waiting to play a few of her songs as a medley in the last part of the show.

As the car pulled around to the side to a hidden area where Carrie would be smuggled into the arena, her phone beeped to life with a text message. The signature tone meant it came from her husband and current Nashville Predators centre right player, Mike Fisher. Smiling already, she fished her phone out of her handbag and read the text message.

'Hey beautiful, how's the ride?'

Licking her peach coloured lips, she thought on an answer before jabbing at the screen of her phone.

'Boring so far. Just turned up at the arena. Looking forward to seeing Simon again! xxx'

The little text bubble under her message changed from 'sent' to 'read' and then Mike started to tap up a response.

'Looking forward to seeing Simon Cowell? I thought you were crazy when you married me, now I know it's true! :P'

That made the Oklahoma native laugh out loud, she was about to tap out a response when the limo pulled to a stop. Removing what she had typed and changing it, Carrie sent the text away with a smile.

'lol! I'm at the show now, call you tonight?'

'Sounds good, love you hun.'

'Love you too baby xxx.' Carrie then locked the screen and dumped the phone into her handbag as the door was opened for her. Lifting herself out of the limo, Carrie smiled at her driver and thanked him, subtly slipping him a ten dollar tip. Waiting by the double doors was Simon Cowell and Nicola, a woman Carrie recognised instantly as his personal assistant. Gone was the typical tight black sweatshirt and jeans the general public was used to seeing Simon in, now he was dressed in a suit while missing the tie with the top couple of buttons undone revealing a pretty impressive bush of chest hair.

"There's my favourite star!" Simon said, oozing his typical charisma as he stepped forward to greet her.

"Simon!" Carrie smiled enthusiastically as she moved forward quickly and embraced him in a passionate hug. She could smell his expensive, intoxicating aftershave and if she was in any other sort of mood she may have even found it arousing but having just texted her husband that thought never even entered her mind.

"All ready for tonight?" Simon asked, releasing her from the hug as Nicola opened the door to the inside of the venue and held it open for the two of them. They both thanked the petite woman as they made idle chit chat making their way inside towards the main stage portion of the arena. Her pretty eyes flicked over the stage and it all looked tremendously familiar from her last couple of tours. The sound of metal hitting metal as the stage was assembled, the steady 'One, two. One, two.' of a roadie tapping against the microphone and then the lights flashing on and off to ensure that the live show would look professional and also be ready to launch for the televised show tonight.

What was new in Carrie's eyes at least, was the handful of nervous collection of people loitering near the front of the stage. The smile remained on her face as she observed the four groups of contestants: teens, young adults, groups and the over twenty fives. Carrie smiled fondly on that last group, if she had been performing tonight then she would be over there with them. She didn't mean to persecute, but her eyes seemed to focus on that group, there was a small dumpy African American woman with the most impossibly long hair and a flowing red dress chatting to a handsome enough tall blonde man with deep, piercing green eyes that were temporarily hidden by a set of stylish eye glasses.

"Those the contestants?" She asked, her right hand coming up and gesturing to the collection of people who were chatting near the judges table, the over twenty fives Carrie had taken an interest in. Simon followed her hand and nodded his head.

"Yes, the groups." He pointed them out. "Teens." His hand glided over them. "Young adults and then the over twenty fives." He turned to face her and studied her, him putting on his best poker face as he studied the beautiful young woman. "You rooting for any of them?"

"Me? Oh no, I'm just interested in who's performing tonight." Her eyes caught Simon's stare and shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not! I just want to see who'll work well with me tonight."

"Well, I know the over twenty fives are a little light on numbers. Maybe one of them would be interested in getting to know you?" A slight smirk appeared on the side of the older British man. "Well, I've got things to do. Nicola will be around if you need anything. Break a leg beautiful." He said with a smile, planting a soft kiss of the side of Carrie's cheek which she happily reciprocated and returned.

With that, Simon moved away and disappeared to a selection of staff and various other people asking him a thousand questions at once. Carrie smiled and shook her head, she always wondered if she had never applied for American Idol maybe she would have been one of those people asking him those questions. The black haired man disappeared into the arena and the blonde haired singer superstar was left to her own devices. Smiling to herself, she spun on her flat shoes and looked at the selection of people. She wasn't sure if it was the fact that there was so many people with the groups section or the fact that she would have next to nothing in common with the younger selection of people but Carrie felt herself drawn to the over twenty fives.

Suddenly, all of the grace Carrie had possessed earlier had fallen away from her as if talking to Simon had made her the same awkward person she was when she was first auditioning for American Idol. As she approached the group of over twenty fives, the conversation they were having fell away to a stunned silence as they spotted Carrie walking over to them.

Smiling from ear to ear, Carrie waved and extended her hand for them to shake.

"Well hi! I'm Carrie!"

"Hi, I'm Janice." The small woman said, her lips parting into a wide smile to shake her hand. Carrie shook her hand eagerly and nodded her head, committing the woman's name to memory.

She then turned to face the only guy in the immediate area. It was now Carrie had a good chance to admire him. He was fairly well built, it looked like he had been hitting the gym a lot recently and had the look of a tennis player with strong forearms. His blonde hair was trimmed fairly short, just above the top of his spine and he had a darkened goatee that looked a lot like Robert Downey Junior's in the recent spat of Marvel movies.

"Hi, I'm Hugh."

"Hugh? Nice to meet you! How are we feeling today? Nervous?" She asked, a trademark smile still plastered on her face as she looked at the older group of contestants.

"Naw not really. It's just like singing in front of the judges at their houses. We'll be fine right Hugh?" Janice said confidently, playfully punching Hugh on his shoulder. The man didn't seem so sure but smiled, and nodded his head. Carrie crooked a perfectly styled eyebrow but nodded her head and said her goodbyes, moving on to meet the other contestants. However, as she met everyone who were all so eager to chat to her, her eyes kept flitting over to Hugh who would occasionally catch her eyes, blush adorably and then avert his gaze.

Carrie really liked him and as she was whisked away to make up and hair, the singer and star of the show had her iPhone in her hands and was instantly on Youtube looking for videos of him performing during the show to see his performing style. He had some gravel to his voice and Carrie liked that, if he had just enough of a growl it could drop an octave or two and send shivers up and down a woman's spine and with Carrie it was no different. If it wasn't for the ring on her right ring finger, the blonde singer may well have started writhing on the spot.

There was the usual small talk from the make-up people that Carrie wasn't exactly put off by but she had heard the usual pitter patter of conversation a million times before from all of the usual make up people in the business, she smiled and responded with the usual responses while studying her reflection in the mirror. Thankfully, Carrie was naturally smart as she was naturally beautiful and could respond to the chatting while her mind scrolled through an imaginary jukebox to see what would work with the gravel in Hugh's voice.

Her lips curled into a smile when she thought about 'Leather and Lace' from Fleetwood Mac. Deciding she would go and find one of the stage managers and ask if she could duet with Hugh, he was the only one who really grabbed her attention and she thought that the two of them could look pretty great on the stage.

"And Hugh is super cute isn't he?" One of the make up girls said as she applied a light shade of blush to Carrie's cheek. Her eyes met Carrie's and the singing superstar was forced into an answer.

"He is pretty cute!" Carrie said with a wide grin as she answered the girl. However, the second she said that it was as if she felt a burning on her ring finger where her wedding ring resided. Did she really find him that attractive? Her eyes moved down to the impressive jewel and instantly she felt ashamed. Being from Oklahoma, and despite being nowhere near the Bible belt of America, Carrie's parents had been incredibly religious and they were in church for every Sunday. Carrie had always been taught to be a God fearing child and while her church attendance had started to drop down, the ten commandments were hammered into her mind and she still lived to a very Christian principality. Naturally, that meant being adulterous never even approached her mind but with someone as attractive as Hugh it certainly did start to creep up into her mind...

No! She couldn't think like that and she certainly wouldn't as she was hours away from going live on the Fox network when her husband would be watching as well! She smiled and nodded her head as one last blast of hair spray landed on a strand of hair keeping it in a fashionable curl at the front of her face. Thanking the cosmetics team, Carrie climbed out of the chair and found herself walking in the middle of a near empty corridor. A small woman in a black staff uniform was walking up the hall with a clipboard in her hands checking it off as she walked. Her eyes flicked up and spotted Carrie and the poor girl damn near jumped out of her skin.

"Miss Underwood! Is everything okay with you?" She asked, obviously having been briefed as to look after the VIP. The blonde woman smiled and nodded her head, before looking around.

"It's fine thanks," Her eyes then looked at the girls name badge. "Sophie. Can you tell me where Hugh is?"

Sophie thought for it a moment, before studying Carrie's face again.

"Hugh? Hugh Irving who's performing tonight?" The nod from Carrie confirmed it and pushed Sophie's nose down and into the clipboard only this time, her left index finger came up and jabbed against it. Nodding her head, she looked up and smiled at Carrie.

"He's down the hall and is the second door on the left." Sophie said, gesturing towards just where Hugh was going to be. Carrie thanked her and shook her hand before walking down towards where Hugh was. As her heels clicked against the floor and she got closer to where Hugh was, there was almost a feel of butterflies in her stomach as it felt like she was nervous to approach him. It couldn't have been about the arousing thoughts she had had for him earlier could it?

Shaking her head in dismissal, she reached his door and could hear him warming up. Smiling, she moved forward and pressed her right ear against the door, listening to him working his vocal chords. Moving back, she could almost feel her cheeks blushing as she started to wonder if she was crushing on him. Her right hand came up and her manicured fingers made a fist to rap against his dressing room door.

"Just a minute!"

Gosh! If she had to wait even longer, Carrie may have started to entertain something a little more sordid than what she would have normally thought on. Thankfully, she didn't have to think on it for too long as the door to Hugh's dressing room opened and Carrie was greeted with a shirtless Hugh with a thin film of sweat over his body. Her right thumb instantly went to the wedding ring and started to almost massage it as she tried to push the enticing image in front of her out of her mind.

"Carrie? Hey! Uh... Come in?" He said, almost asking that last part as he stepped aside and extended his arm to guide her in.

Carrie smiled and walked past her, murmuring a 'Thank you' as she tried to hide the blush in her cheeks. Stepping inside, Carrie looked around and all the memories of being where Hugh was seemed to rush back to her. The nostalgia almost knocked her clean off of her feet as she spun around on her feet and looked at the inside of the small locker room.

To say the room was appealing would be a lie in the weakest sense of the word. There were the inside of bricks exposed and the walls were painted in a ghastly yellow that would have represented the colours of the basketball team that used to claim the arena as their home arena. Mercifully, there was a window. However, a spider had claimed one of the corners of the window as a home and a big, thick and wide cobweb was painted in the corner. She must have been projecting the disgust as Hugh picked up on it and laughed lightly.

"Not what you're used to?"

Carrie smiled at him and did her best not to wrinkle her nose any more.

"Not exactly. It all looks familiar though. I guess they haven't got around to hiding the cracks with green screen yet?" She asked, pointing a hand towards the corner.

"I guess? To be honest, all of this is brand new to me. I used to work in a paediatrician's office back home in Toledo..." He then looked down and must have realised he was shirtless. "... You didn't come to see me shirtless. Let me put on a shirt."

"No!" She almost sounded desperate for him to keep his shirt off and a part of her actually was eager to see more of his torso but she quickly recovered and shook her head. "No, it's fine don't worry." She chewed on her bottom lip and quickly stopped nibbling on it to make sure that her make up wasn't ruined. There was a lingering silence in the room as the two looked at each other awkwardly. Carrie did feel awful about letting it be so quiet since she was still trying to sneak a glance at his torso.

"So I'm guessing you didn't come to just stand around and talk to a shirtless guy?" Hugh said, his hands stuffing themselves into the pockets of his jeans.

"No, no I didn't. I've been a big fan of your stuff on the show and I wanted to ask you something. Do you want to do a duet tonight?" She asked, her fingers being occupied by twisting a strand of her blonde hair. If she could see herself, she would have rolled her eyes at the sight. She looked like she was back in high school! Still, she had asked now and there was no way she could take it back. However, much to Carrie's pleasure Hugh had a wide grin on his face as he nodded his head enthusiastically.

"You like that idea?" Carrie said, a big grin on her face as she almost awkwardly reverted back to her old high school form.

"I love it! You really want to duet with me?"

"For sure! I think we'd work well together! You should totally introduce me too!" Carrie said with a grin, stepping forward and pressing her hand against Hugh's toned forearm. She held it there for a little longer than should have been acceptable before she caught herself and removed her hand. She kept the smile on her face but managed to chew her bottom lip slowly.

"So what should we do?" He asked, looking at her and not admitting just how much he enjoyed the contact of Carrie's skin against his.

"Well, I thought we could do some Fleetwood Mac? Have you heard the song Leather and Lace?" She asked, chewing on her lip while looking at him, hoping he had. She knew the last thing he would need before a live show was to have to panic and learn a brand new song, hours before the show.

"I love Fleetwood Mac!" All of her fears were taken away as she sighed and let her shoulders drop. That action surprised her, she didn't realise she had been so tense just waiting for his response. When he said he wanted to do the song, Carrie could have practically exploded with glee.

"That's great! Do you know the song?"

"Word for word!"

"Great! I'll set it up!" Taking a risk, she moved forward and planted a kiss on the side of his cheek. She made her way over to the door and turned to face him, casting a wink in his direction she smiled and blew him a kiss. "Catch you later Hugh!"

Walking down the corridor, Carrie was almost skipping as she slipped into her own little world of how happy she was. She walked down the corridor before finding a set of double doors, pushing them open with her hands pressing against the silver handles making the doors swing inwards. As she stepped up a set of stairs, Carrie found a production assistant who reacted in a similar fashion as to how dear Sophie had done earlier on in the day.

"Miss Underwood!"

"Is my mother." Carrie said with a smile before carrying on with the conversation herself. "Can I change a booking tonight?"

The guy looked at him and then nodded his head. "Uh, sure. I don't see why Mister Cowell would mind too much!"

"Great! I'm doing a duet with Hugh Irving tonight. We're going to sing Fleetwood Mac's Leather and Lace."

The man scribbled down a note and nodded his head. "Got it. I'll let production know. Can I help you with anything else?" He asked, peering up from his clipboard and looking at her.

"Where's my dressing room?"

"Just down the hall there Miss Underwood."

"Thanks!" With that Carrie Underwood skipped down the hall, opting to ignore the second time she was called 'Miss Underwood' as was one of her personal grievances. Walking up to the door with the large, golden star on it, Carrie stepped inside and walked up to her large on-site closet. Sliding the door open, Carrie pressed her hands to her hips, the denim of her jeans being pressed into her long legs as she studied the inside of the wardrobe.

What was she going to wear!?

***

The first performance was from the groups, a three man band known simply as 'Three Man Band' had done a Michael Jackson song and got most of the audience into a decent enough state ready to be have more songs sung for them. Carrie had settled on a glittery teal dress with a silver choker and some black heels that elevated her a couple of inches off of the ground. She had her own large oak acoustic six string in her hand as she walked up to the side curtain where she could see the presenter, Mario Lopez. Mario... He would always be A.C Slater from Saved By The Bell to her, he looked a lot better than Ryan Seacrest though! She thought to herself with a smile on her face. She saw Hugh by the side of the stage, rubbing his hands together and looking awfully nervous.