Garden Lodge

"Tell me, did you get the ferry in time?"

Monica had her Motorola tucked in between her ear and her shoulder hands-free as she glided down the candlelit wide mahogany stairwell as she buttoned up her silk pyjamas, coming back down from tucking her two children into bed and comforting them as the North Sea storm passed over South Kensington.

There had been a power cut shortly after they finished eating their takeaway dinner, and Phoebe had to painstakingly dotted every room in use with at least five tea lights before he went home. It proved difficult taking into account the size of each room, but Monica took out a few paraffin lanterns in the outdoor shed. The twinkle of Freddie's piano wafted from the piano room whilst the stubborn gale force wind and the rain outside pattered on the window overlooking the stair level.

"Yes, yes," Paula's voice crackled on the other end, "I can't stay in this phone box long. The line is bad and Max is in the van. He hates storms..."

"Alright, well just tell me how France is so far then" Monica winced as another flash of lightening lit up the dark entrance hall.

"Wet and windy. I'm parked in a sheltered alleyway in a small town named Étaples and it's bucketing down..." Paula's voice faded out as another thunderclap sounded, but Monica was still able to make her next question out, "You've been to France, haven't you?"

"Briefly, yes... I wouldn't mind going back sometime," Monica carefully entered the kitchen, "Freddie and I stayed in Nice for a week when I was around seven months along, then we went up to Switzerland"

"Seven months?" Paula asked in confusion.

"Seven months pregnant" Monica repeated, pulling a stool out at the breakfast bar where one of the lanterns were.

"Oh, of course," Paula muttered, "Forgive me, everyone that we went to school with is popping out babies but me"

"No rush, I think you're doing just fine... Probably better than me actually" Monica's envious words slipped out as she folded her arms around herself.

"How so?"

"You're an art therapist," she raised her voice as the thunder tumbled outside again, "You're useful and your job probably changes people's lives"

"I don't know about that... To many, your lifestyle is the dream," Paula began, "You're engaged to one of the biggest rockstars in the world, you live in a nice house and you have two beautiful children."

"She's not wrong, even though it's all Freddie's vision and tastes" Monica looked around in the dark at what she could make out of the Italian marble kitchen and the chess tile floor, but excused, "that may have been our dream when we were both eighteen, but we're older now. I'm proud of you for having something to fall back on"

Paula didn't answer back, for she knew that Monica was right. The other end was silent, and Monica was internally hoping that a tree had been blown over in the storm and fell on the telephone wire in France.

But Paula suddenly asked, "Mo, do you remember when we went shopping in London, and we went into Biba and then that lady was rude to you?"

Of course Monica remembered that day, and the very thought of Freddie Mercury's ex girlfriend Mary Austin telling her that she was too 'big' to fit any of the dresses in the shop still made her cringe in shame. She felt tempted to tell Paula who that woman was coincidentally, but deciding that there was a time and place for everything she bit her tongue.

"The one with the eyebrows? Yes, why do you ask?"

Paula continued gently in the calm tone that Monica imagined she spoke to her clientele with, "Remember how you walked out of Biba feeling disappointed? And then we went into a different vintage shop nearby you found an outfit that you looked absolutely amazing in?"

"Yes, what about it?" Monica felt a small smile on her face as she envisioned the velvet black strapless jumpsuit that she wore the night that she met Freddie by chance.

"Well, the point is that you wanted buy something at Biba so that you could be socially accepted in a way... But it turned out to not be the best choice for you," Paula explained, "And if you think about how things could've been differently then you'll never flourish. It's not worth comparing yourself, you're perfect as you are."

Monica hesitated. As good as Paula's advice was, she still didn't feel fulfilled.

"...Don't you sometimes feel as though you could be a better person?"

Again, Paula went silent on the other end. Monica breathed out sharply as she got onto her feet and paced back and forth.

Then she said, "Have you thought about applying for university?"

"University?" Monica trailed off and stopped walking, wondering why she would ask such a vaguely related question.

"I mean, your a-level results were fine, weren't they?"

"Yes, my parents read them out to me over the phone and I celebrated here"

"So get a degree." Paula flatly told her.

"Go to university?! I can't just abandon my kids, Paula!" Monica debated, and her thumb was close to the red button on the keypad.

"You wouldn't be abandoning them... there are so many short-term courses and qualifications nowadays that you can take," Paula assured her, "You are in London, for Christ's sake! What are your long term goals?"

But the only long-term goals that Monica could think up at the top of her head were to finally get married and maybe even having another child, none of which Freddie had helped her to fulfil yet.

"I tried reapplying for foundation art courses in London during my first year there, but it didn't get it," she reluctantly answered Paula's question, "It has put me off ever since"

"Just as well, I was having Johnny and Roshni at that point" she thought, ignoring another thunderclap.

"Don't make excuses, Mo. Maybe art is just not for you. Think about what you're good at now and improve on it" Paula encouraged her.

"What am I even good at?" She thought, "Maybe Theo would see something that I don't. After all, he hired me out of nowhere"

"Hello... Earth to Monica... you still there?" Paula sang in the speaker.

"Sorry, Paula. I was just considering what you said" she straightened up a little.

"Good! Because I'm running out of time..." Paula's voice started to fade as the storm blew harder, "By the way, I know I spoke to you about the way Freddie treated you in front of me earlier-"

"It's alright now. He apologised." Monica interrupted her.

"Yeah, whatever," Paula raised her voice as the wind howled louder, but her tone was still sincere so Monica kept her mouth zipped, "I'm sure you made up in some way. But in case something ever does happen I just want you to know that-"

"Monica?" Freddie called from the piano room, "Where are you, my darling?"

"Sorry, one second," she apologised to her friend, pulled her handset away and called back to him, "I'm in the kitchen!"

"Whatever you're doing, it's taking bloody ages!" He shouted back.

"I'm in a phone call," she replied, and put her phone back to her ear, "Sorry Paula, you were saying?"

"I want you to know that even though you and I have gone down different paths you're still my best friend," She could hear Paula's voice waver, "I'll never stop worrying for you, and your weans"

Monica didn't understand what her words would come to mean at that moment, "I'll be fine, Paula. Remember time you were scared when I decided to stay here? Well, look at me eight years on!"

Paula was ready to protest, "Just... I'm there for you Mo if you need me, alright? Gotta get a move on. Thanks again for the ferry ticket, love you."

Beeeeeep.

The line went flat before Monica could even say goodbye.

"Well, I will hope that she and Max be okay" she set her Motorola down, dismissing it as Paula's bad time management or not enough french francs in the pay phone.

She lifted the paraffin lantern off the counter, and guided herself out of the cold kitchen and into the piano room where Freddie was sitting in his red patterned kimono at his piano with a few tea lights sitting atop it, still very hard at work. He would hum along to his rewritten melody before pausing to make even more adjustments to its notes or lyrics that Johnny and Roshni already spent the evening helping him manifest, much to Monica's surprise. The Garden Lodge cats were all hiding under the glass coffee table in the middle of the room, wide-eyed at each thunderclap that trembled through the whole house.

She set the Paraffin onto the mantelpiece, "Well Maestro, any more developments since the children went to bed?"

"All that is left to do is the title and incorporate that into the chorus" he answered, setting his pen down.

A flash of lightening spilled through the tall, wide windows, illuminating Freddie's structured face as he looked up and over to her. It should've been a frightening sight, but she still rushed over to him for comfort before the next rumble could come.

He opened his arms shuffled the stool back a little, allowing room for Monica to sit on his lap, "Who was that you were on the phone to?"

"Paula," Monica wrapped an arm around his thick neck, instinctively slipping another hand onto his bare hairy chest, "She called to say that she got there in time"

"Even though I paid for Paula's ticket to France, it was still very nice of you to offer to buy it in the first place" he kissed her nose

Monica smiled, "Well, friends will be friends."

At that second those four words repeated in Freddie's head, playing along to the four blank notes of is nameless song.

"Are you alright?" She noticed him humming to himself again.

"One second, dear" Freddie reached over to grab his song lyrics and looked at the blank spaces in the chorus, and Friends Will Be Friends filled them in oh so naturally that he could already hear it.

Whilst Johnny helped his father recover the melody Roshni helped to write the lyrics for main chorus, but she couldn't come up with words that would rhyme. At last, his new song had a title to match its theme that his two children could understand; friendship.

"That's it, done." he set his paper and pen back on top of the piano with the intention of telling Deaky that he finally came up with a title, and it was all thanks to Monica.

Before she could ask any further the thunder up above drummed onto to roof of the house, causing her to gasp. But Freddie who was used to loud noise at concerts shushed her as he held onto her waist, and pouted his soft lips up towards her for a kiss, to which she kissed back.

"Now is your chance to bring up the twin thing," he urged himself as he felt her nuzzle the side of his unshaven face, "at least that'll be another thing off of your mind"

He began, "Pity that we don't get to give the jacuzzi a whirl now that the electricity is off"

"I think that it is just as romantic being in a power cut, don't you think?" She pressed her lips to the side of his head.

Monica felt herself growing more and more affectionate; they'd only made love twice since Freddie had come home and now she was trying to instigate something.

"Reminds me of being back in boarding school if you ask me... for a moment there I thought that you were the matron when you walked in with that lamp" Freddie murmured, playing with one of her soft brown curls in between his fingers. 

She giggled slightly, and breathed in the smell of his aftershave blended with his own distinct spicy musk. Meanwhile he was still trying to pick the right moment to bring the subject of Monica's unborn twin in conversation, but she was making it difficult.

But Freddie started to ramble in her ear about another one of his worries, "And to think that tomorrow will probably be the last time the four of us will ever rehearse together... As for my solo career, that's already gone down the bloody drain"

"Like your song almost did today" Monica was going to say, but kept her mouth shut as she rubbed circles into his upper back.

He continued, "And I don't even know what I'm supposed to wear at this charity concert if we have no theme."

"You mean Live Aid?"

He nodded, "Bob just doesn't care. It'll be... plain"

But Monica who was in a love struck daze pulled away, "So dress plainly, then"

"Hmmm?" He cocked a brow.

"You'll be performing your most loved songs, so you might as well make plain look good and enhance what you've got" she caressed his cheek.

Considering that he band's image was important to him Freddie was still a little annoyed at how lightly she was taking it, "Well, what would look good to you then?"

Monica examined him, and traced her fingers lightly across some of his best facial features in the candlelight, "Comb and gel your hair back, put kohl on your eyes like you always do, wear one of your pairs of tight jeans to showcase that arse of yours-"

"You never told me that you had an unborn twin!" He blurted across her, unable to keep it in anymore.

Monica froze at the tone of his voice. They both sat in silence for a moment and ignored the persistent weather outside.

"Where did that come from?" She thought, "Didn't I ever tell him that?"

She stammered slightly underneath his hardened stare, "I-I didn't?"

"You didn't even tell me the day that we were expecting twins! I mean, you had so many opportunities to tell me!" He argued back, loosening his grip on her.

"I was probably too happy to even remember!" She got up off his lap, "Why now? Who even told you that?"

"Paula, during our game of Scrabble, which was utterly shit by the way," He snapped as she hurried across the room, "Who else do you think told me? Her horse of a dog?"

Monica felt as though he was looking for an argument, so she stood at the big windows and crossed her arms. She had many conversations with him that could end in a row if she didn't keep her cool. She looked at the trees and bushes blowing sideways outside, wincing at every flash of lightening as she bit her lower lip hard.

She began calmly, "From what I recall it died in the early stages of pregnancy, then vanished... Mam sort of swept its existence under the carpet because it was a cluster of cells at that point, and that's why I didn't think to ever bring it up."

"Then how come Paula knows about it?" Freddie asked, his tone softening.

"I'll admit, it fascinated me in my preteens when we became close friends. Horoscopes were all the rage then too..." Monica waffled on, irritating him again, "Paula even said that if I was born a Gemini and not a Libra then my twin would probably be communicating with me from the after life-"

He defiantly interrupted her, "But why did you forget about it afterwards?!"

Monica sighed with difficulty, staring down at her navy slippers, "I didn't forget about it, Fred. I guess as I got older it just..."

She trailed off, but he gently finished her sentence, "It didn't mean anything to you by then?"

He watched Monica's silhouetted profile nod, and she said, "I never knew what it was like to have a twin, so I didn't feel the same sense of loss as my parents did"

"Don't you ever feel like some part of you is missing in your life?" He asked curiously.

"...Not really" Monica lied hesitantly.

There was in fact a something that she felt was missing, but it wasn't a long lost twin. Paula's visit and her phone conversation left her feeling more unfulfilled in life than before, and her seven-year long engagement to Freddie was once again being pushed back further yet she had almost lost all interest in planning a wedding. As much as she loved him and knew how supportive he was, she felt as if she was only around to please him rather than have time to find her own dreams.

She stared at the lightening bolt strike above the garden wall, "Maybe I do need a degree to open more doors... but if only I knew what I was good at"

She turned back to him, "That's all I know about my twin. Anything else you'd like to interrogate me about?"

He rolled his eyes discreetly, "I suppose it was a fuss over nothing significant... Can you come back over here please?"

Monica kept her arms to her last with her head down, "Alright then."

Feeling like a child that had just been reprimanded by a school teacher she shuffled back over across the carpet, careful not to trip over anything, and sat back down on his lap.

He wrapped his arms around her again, "I didn't mean to get annoyed at you, darling... I-I just had a stressful day, you know? The dog, then the emergency meeting, then this bloody song and a power cut."

"Why don't you play something here then?" She suggested gently, also wanting to take her mind off of it.

"Like what?" He spoke, hoping that she wouldn't say his new song.

Monica shrugged, almost whispering, "Anything will sound better than this storm"

She held onto Freddie as he poised his hands above his keys, and began to play some sort of steady love ballad that she didn't recognise...

https://youtu.be/eRY-UKmcyDc

"Is this another new song on the album?" Monica asked, staring into the dark.

"No... just something off the top of my head" he purred.

"Oh." Monica closed her eyes and listened closely.

The melody had a little bit of the closing of Bohemian Rhapsody, a little bit of Debussy's Clair De Lune and something else poignant, and in her opinion it was a beautiful combination that Freddie was able to come up with on the spot.

He spoke as he played, "I'm thinking that we should keep Live Aid a surprise from the two of them until the day comes, Johnny especially"

"How?" Monica looked at his long fingers jumping from key to key with such elegance.

"We will organise something as soon as Jim gets back to me about transport arrangements and I get a set list..." he stopped playing for a second, and the tone of his voice became menacing, "In the meantime, why don't we tell them that we're taking them to the dentist? "

"You're a terrible man" she snickered.

"You know, the producers might let the three of you stand backstage to watch if you're lucky" he played the higher keys as his improvised melody was reaching an end.

"Just like I used to do in the seventies..." she remembered fondly.

Of course, the man in her arms was much different back then. His slender arms and shoulders had become more burly, his shaggy ebony hair was now cropped sensibly short, he'd picked up the bad habit of smoking, and a moustache was now part of his trademark look. The only thing that remained the same was his voice and his fondness of wearing a silk kimono as a dress-robe.

Much to their delight, no thunderclaps disrupted the quiet ending of his song as the storm was being blown further away.

"That was lovely, thank you" Monica whispered when it had gone quiet again.

"You're welcome" his velvety voice whispered back.

They sat alone with each other on the piano stool for a few seconds. She felt his large hands hold her soft, warm mass under her silk kimono.

"Now what?" Monica's voice wavered, for the way his smouldering brown eyes stared back up at her in adoration was giving her butterflies.

Freddie didn't answer as he pulled her neck down so that their lips met, and she kissed him back. The darkness was only heightening their senses as their tongues snuck in between each other's lips.

"I want you now" his hot breath sounded in her ear.

She melted in Freddie's muscular arms as his lips travelled down to her neck, and she let out breathily, "Take me... take me right here"

He obeyed, fumbling to undo the sash of his kimono in the dark whilst Monica pulled her silk pyjama bottoms down and wrapped her bare legs around his slim waist.

"I love you..." Freddie's hands squeezed her warm thighs straddling him and then her hips, fondling her postnatal curves.

This man was everything that she wasn't; incredibly talented with an exceptionally successful career, and even in the moment the thought of it brought a tear to her eye as to why he was even in love with someone like her who was the complete opposite of himself.

"I-I love you too" Monica said it back, opening his kimono a little wider.

He adjusted his Calvin Klein underwear just low enough for her, and she carefully slid onto his throbbing hardness, gasping his name.

"Fuck, baby..." Freddie moaned into her neck as she started to pump up and down.

"You can do it..." she began involuntary.

"Huh? W-What?" He grabbed onto her waist.

"L-Live Aid, I believe you can do it aahhh" Monica held onto him, her face contorting in satisfaction as she increased her speed.

He nibbled her bottom lip, "Baby... baby, why would you say-oh god"

Her hands clawed his scalp and his upper back, "B-Because you're amazing... you've achieved so much, so much more than I have"

The kimono lovers' minds were spinning with growing ecstasy to the point where they could not speak. Freddie suddenly lifted her up, standing up off the piano stool.

"What are you doing?" Monica whispered as she felt him carry her.

He gently laid her down onto his white and gold Louis XIV settee and situated himself back in between her legs.

"God, you're so beautiful," he growled, looking down at her, "Don't ever think that you're not good enough"

Monica kissed his fingers as he reached down to smooth her hair away from her flushed face, "I should be telling that to you"

He kissed her slowly and deliberately as he positioned himself, and he gently pushed back in with no warning.

"Oh... fuck" She grabbed onto him the second another lightening bolt illuminated the room, burying her face into his veiny neck as she waited for the rumble of thunder to follow.

She breathed faster in anticipation, "...I-I want to be better"

Freddie slowed down, "But baby... you're perfect"

"No, I-I want to achieve more in life... oh god yes" she moaned.

"You want more?" He increased his pace again.

"Yes! Yes I do!!" Monica heaved.

"I believe in you" he grunted.

"I-I believe in you too..." she writhed beneath him in the dark as he slammed harder and faster into her, her clawing the burning flesh on his back as she spiralled into orgasm.

"God, I'm gonna..." he groaned, thrusting few more times as he finally came.

Monica held him tighter as they both climaxed, her mouth falling open to release a silent cry of pleasure.

Freddie rest himself against her for what felt like a long time, listening to her racing heartbeat in his ear as she wiped the sweat from his forehead to plant a tender kiss. He propped himself back up to speak, but when he opened his mouth the tall room echoed with giggles.

They both turned rigid. Freddie looked up slowly behind him towards the direction that the laughter came from, and behind the mahogany railing of the minstrel gallery they saw a small figure in the dark peeping down at them both.

"Johnny, wake up!" Roshni ran out the door before her parents even had time to react, "Mummy and daddy are wrestling on the sofa!"

"HEY!" Freddie leapt off of Monica, pulling his Calvins back up and storming towards the wooden steps.

"Forget it Freddie, she will have found somewhere to hide by now" she sat back up, wondering how long Roshni had been watching them both.

"I don't care!" he was already sprinting up the steps, ready to tickle their daughter to the death as he muttered, "At least my kimono protected what's left of my modesty"

"It didn't project mine" Monica grabbed her pyjama bottoms up off the floor, "And watch your footing, its dark!"

Nonetheless Freddie nimbly made up up the steps whilst Monica lifted the paraffin up off the mantle and decided to take the safe route upstairs, using the flickering flame to guide her through the house.

"AHA! NOW I GOTCHA! ... COME BACK HERE!!!" He heard him playfully growl above her head as she blew out the tea lights on the piano, shaking her head as she heard Roshni's squeals followed by loud thumping footsteps as Freddie chased her in the hallway.

Monica wasn't even halfway up the stairs when Roshni appeared at the halfway level and hid behind her mother's legs, hugging onto her waist and giggling mischievously.

Freddie flashed in front of them both, closing his kimono back up with his brows furrowed in annoyance.

But Monica was patient, "Love, why are you out of bed at this hour?!"

The little girl began, "Mum, I still can't sleep without the teddy bear nightlight... and the thunder and lightning is scaring me!"

Despite still being mortified after being caught in the act by a child, Monica remained calm and smoothed her free hand through Roshni's bouncy black waves, "What about your brother?"

"Johnny's sleeping on the floor"

"Johnny is what?!" Freddie quipped, slowly regaining composure.

"Again?" Monica sighed, stepping past him.

"What do you mean 'again'?!" He grew confused, following them both up the steps.

"He's done it once or twice now in protest of one thing or another while you were on tour," Monica explained quietly, "Last time it was because I wouldn't give him ice cream for dessert because he didn't eat his peas"

"We should start calling him Johnny Lennon then" The man scoffed jokingly.

"Johnny said that he's going to sleep on the floor until dad agrees to do the concert for Africa" Roshni said quietly.

"But I just-, oh never mind," Freddie stopped himself from spoiling the surprise, "Let's go see then."

They reached their bedroom door, and Monica pushed it open gently. The warm glow of the paraffin illuminated Johnny's figure peacefully curled up in a foetal position in the middle of the nursery with a pillow under his head.

"What in god's name?!" Freddie hissed in disbelief, only to be shushed. He was baffled that his over-energetic and restless fidget of a son was ever able to sleep on a hardwood floor, let alone in the middle of a thunderstorm.

Monica looked at her daughter's frightened face in the dark by her side, then to Freddie, "Why don't we take them into our bed? Just for tonight"

"Well, there goes another night of passion" the man reluctantly nodded, slipped past her standing in the doorway and reached down to lift Johnny up off the floor gently so that he wouldn't stir.

"What does 'another night of passion' mean?" Roshni curiously asked.

"Nothing, sweetheart. Just one of your father's silly sentences," Monica set the paraffin on top of their chest of drawers, "Now follow them out, I'll be along in a moment"

"What a sweet sight it is... not a side that you see to him very often" she thought to herself, watching Freddie cradling their snoozing son's head with his elbow as he carried him out of the bedroom en route to the master suite, Roshni on his tail.

She had a giggle to herself at how contrasted their nightwear was to one another; Freddie was in his boldly patterned kimono, Johnny was in his Spider-Man vest and shorts, and Roshni was wearing her old-style floral nightgown. It was lucky that Freddie's bed was even big enough to cater for such differing tastes.

"I expect that the storm cloud is probably passing over Wimbledon by now." with a gentle sigh, Monica went to make up her son's bed and pick his pillow up of the floor. As she tucked his duvet around his mattress she thought about what Paula said again now that she was alone.

"I bet Theo knows some good courses I could take... oh, but what if I don't enjoy it? Or what about something different, or unusual?"

She was yearning to discuss it further, even trying to let it out in the middle of making love. But such matters were making her feel drowsy, and like that Monica decided that it was too late in the evening to be thinking about further education.

She lifted the paraffin and guided herself into the master bedroom, blowing out any extra candles in the corridor along the way in the hope that the electricity would be back in the morning.

"Roll the covers back for me, darling," Monica heard Freddie's syrupy voice instruct their daughter as she entered the suite, "That's it... thank you"

Johnny made incomprehensible noises in his deep sleep as he was lowered onto the middle of the mattress by his father.

"Why were you and mum wrestling downstairs?" Roshni asked innocently.

Freddie froze and blushed, but a warm glow of the paraffin filled the room as Monica answered for him, "Grownups like to play silly games sometimes."

Roshni didn't ask anymore questions, and climbed into the middle of the mattress next to her twin brother.

"Good girl" Monica set the paraffin down on her bedside table before tucking the duvet around them both.

Freddie was softly humming a made-up tune and moving Johnny's bangs out of the way so that he could lean down and kiss his forehead.

He looked at his son's dreaming face as he thought aloud, "If only he knew what was coming from him on the 13th July"

"What's happening in July?" Roshni looked up at him.

Freddie declared with a toothy smirk, "We're taking you to the dentist"

"What? No!!" she sat up in protest.

He laughed, but Monica laid her back down and shushed her, "Your father's only messing with you, it's a surprise"

"When you two were babies and we were on tour we used to take you into our bed," Freddie reminisced, untying his kimono before sliding under on his side, "Remember that, dear?"

She was tucking the quilted throw up to Roshni's chin, "That's right, but back then a lot of the hotels or places we were staying at had smaller beds."

Freddie shuffled closer under the duvet and got comfortable, draping a arm across the two of them protectively. She lowered the wick of the paraffin lamp, but not entirely dimming the room and crawled over to her family, reclining above the covers and lacing Freddie's waiting hand with hers.

She was about to close her eyes when Roshni asked mid-yawn, "Can we get a dog?"

Freddie felt the hairs on the back of his neck prick up whilst Monica chuckled softly, "Well, you'll have to pick between a dog and your Atari because you can't play with both at once."

"Your mother and I will think about it" Freddie replied, although Monica could tell that he really meant "Definitely not". When their daughter wasn't looking Monica saw his thick black eyebrows arching fearfully in the dark.

Roshni had closed her eyes at this point, but still talked, "Mum?"

"Mmhmm?"

She asked, "...Can we go to Ireland to meet Max one day?"

Both her parents had to have a quiet laugh, even Freddie.

Monica answered, rubbing her head gently, "We can go to Ireland anyway. You and your brother are half-Irish, you have family there that you haven't met."

Freddie added, "But if we ever do go there I will be buying a house, because there is no way in hell that I'm letting you and your brother stay in that hippy van of Paula's"

"Buying a house..." Monica felt her blood stop suddenly.

While her mind still had the energy to wonder, she asked, "What would you even do with a house in Ireland, Freddie?"

"Easy. It'd have to have lovely country views... or coastal. The walls will be painted in autumnal and neutral colours, maybe some William Morris-inspired wallpaper..." he mused indefinitely, "Oh, and I'd probably ship over some old rustic furniture from the Holland Park property"

"What a blissful thought... seems as though he has considered it before" Monica though, even if she did find it hard to believe knowing that he preferred countries with rich cultural backgrounds such as his beloved Japan.

"Are there fairies in Ireland?" Roshni asked again, her big blue eyes lit up with excitement.

"So they say... your granddad used to tell me that they live in stand-alone Hawthorn trees, and they say that if you cut one down the fairies will come and take you away" Monica smiled back at her.

"What do you know?" Freddie cocked a brow, "I used to write songs about fairies, you know"

"It's just celtic mythology, Fred," she rolled her eyes back at him playfully, and rubbed her daughter's head, "Now close your eyes and think of fairies."

And so Roshni did, her lashed eyelids slowly drooping shut as Freddie instinctively continued to hum, gently stroking her forehead with his thumb. He was craving tobacco but felt no urgent need for a cigarette, and he felt as though it would've been nice if his beloved cats were cuddled up with him as well. But needless to say this was a much nicer way to end the day.

Once Roshni's breath almost matched rhythm with her twin brothers', Monica whispered to Freddie, "When you said that you believed in me... did you mean it?"

Freddie lifted his head slowly, "Hmm?"

"Earlier when we were making love... did you mean it?"

He pulled her hand to his lips and affectionately kissed her knuckles, and fiddled with her engagement ring, "Isn't that what I promised you all those years ago? That I'd give you back the love you give to me?"

"Mmhmm... fair deal" she simply answered.

He rested his head on his pillow as he laid across from Monica and stared back into her blue eyes faintly glinting in the dark, their children's breaths the only sound in their ear apart from the rain battering the windows. The four of them were nestled close, the closest that they'd ever been in a while. Live Aid felt far away to him. Queen's uncertain future didn't feel as near anymore. At that moment his family was all that mattered.

Monica reached over to extinguish the flame in the paraffin before she was too tired to remember, but Freddie stopped her in a whisper, "Don't switch it off yet"

"Why?"

His voice faltered, "...I just want to look at what we made" 

She knew that Freddie certainly wasn't the most perfect father, nor did he ever have intentions of becoming one. But there were treasured moments such as these where he redeemed himself that made Monica's heart melt.

"Goodnight my dreaming angels... my babies..." Freddie cooed.

Monica smiled to herself as she lowered the wick and plunging the bedroom into darkness, thinking that maybe Paula was right. It was nights like these which made both her and Freddie feel happy with where they were, for now...

Sorry that this chapter was a little slow and underwhelming. Unfortunately my grandmother passed away on Monday morning which is why I took a while to update. In the meantime I hope that the incomplete teaser drawing below will make you look forward to the following update(s). You can probably guess what it is/who they are! All the best, and stay safe x