The last person that Johnny wanted to see was standing on the top step. She was wearing the same chequered grey skirt suit that she was earlier in the morning, her platinum blonde hair was tied up at the crown of her head and she still had plum lipstick slicked on her fake smile. The very sight of her was a hurtful blow to him.

"Hello, you!" Sarah Aldred glided down the stairs, "You seem surprised to see me"

"W-What are you doing here?!" Johnny heard himself ask her, pulling his hand away from the door handle.

He wanted to ask her so many other things, such as what she saw in that man that she didn't see in him and how long it had been going on for, but he was just too dumbstruck.

"I was invited here to do an internship talk with the business students, silly!" Sarah answered flirtatiously, leaning in to kiss him.

Johnny briefly put his hands on her slender waist as he meekly kissed her back, but kept his distance afterward. He knew that everything else was just an act to keep him from knowing the truth. Yet he was still in a trance answering every question that she had and pretending that he never saw what she did earlier that morning.

She fixed his shirt collar over his jumper, and took the joint out of his mouth, "You bad boy... are you ditching class to get high?"

Johnny took it from her quickly, "No no, I-"

"You all set for tonight?" Sarah interrupted, and he knew she was just pretending to take an interest. Everything else that she said and did was now so transparent.

"Yep." Johnny broke eye contact, and gently pushed her hands off of him,"Babe, listen... we need to talk"

"Talk about what?" she murmured frostily.

The dangerous look in Sarah's light gazelle eyes knocked him off balance, and her lips formed an unimpressed pout. She always did that when she was ready for an argument, so it was a warning sign for Johnny to either stop talking or change the subject. And the school corridor was no such place to cause a scene.

He panicked, "Nothing, nothing... I guess I'll tell you tonight"

"Mhmm, good!" Her gaze softened as she beamed, her hands snaking back around his neck, "So when's Roshni coming to pick me up then?"

"I... I can't say, I'll have to call you back," He murmured, "H-Have you picked a prom dress yet?"

"Yep, you're gonna love it!" she pecked his lips quickly, and curtly broke away from him, "Gotta get back to the office. See you tonight!"

"Love... you..." he said what he always said to her before they'd part ways, but this time it was much harder.

"Love you too!" She waved back at him as she sashayed down the corridor.

He stared at his feet as he listened to each clip-clop of her white loafers grow fainter and fainter, feeling even more trapped and thinking, "Why me? Why does it fucking have to be me..."

Sarah disappeared around the corner, and coincidentally his twin sister Roshni reappeared coming from the other direction. She looked at her brother's soon-to-be ex girlfriend passing by her with puzzlement as to why she looked so happy.

When she saw her brother standing at the boys toilets she sped up even though running in the corridors was not permitted.

"Hey!" she whispered when she finally reached him.

Johnny silently nodded in acknowledgement and looked up.

"She looked rather happy. Aren't you supposed to dump her?"

"I just couldn't do it... she doesn't know that I know," he numbly replied, then looked at her leather back pack slung on her shoulder, "Aren't you supposed to be in drama during the mid periods?"

"Not anymore!" Roshni proudly declared.

Johnny watched as she slid her bag onto the ground so that she could dig out and present him her duck egg blue class withdrawal form that she had just collected from the office.

"Wait, so you mean to tell me that you actually walked out of Mrs Jacobson's class," he asked in surprise, and his sister quickly nodded, "Woah! Good for you, sis!"

"Oh, it felt amazing!" She whispered gushingly, swaying side to side, "Mr Jacobson was all like 'COME BACK HERE YOUNG LADY' and I was like 'no way, don't turn around' and then I walked out of there."

"I suppose everyone will be gossiping about it at lunch" he muttered.

"Yep" her face fell when she remembered Brandon and Adam. What were they going to think of her now, and was she ever going to see Brandon again?

"Hey, it's your life Rosh. Not dad's" Johnny assumed that she was still upset after the argument that morning.

"It's not that, it's-oh, never mind. I'm dropping out whether dad likes it or not" she folded it and put it back into her bag.

Johnny knew that was going to end in tears, but then asked, "Now where are you headed?"

She put her bag back on, "I have two free periods after lunch so I might just go home... you?"

"That sounds like a good idea, might do the same" he casually answered.

Johnny really just wanted to get away from his ex group of friends in the 6th form common room and figure out what he was going to do before prom, or if he was even going to attend at all.

Accordingly, the school bell rang on the brick wall.

"Don't you have class?" Roshni folded her arms.

"Of course I have class, just wanna go home instead" Johnny shrugged.

"Typical Johnny... but I guess he's heartbroken," She thought to herself, "Okay then, what the hell!"

All around them, the corridors filled with chatter and footsteps as the classroom doors opened. She headed back towards the direction that she came from when her brother asked, "Why are you going that way?"

Roshni stopped walking, "To sign out at the front desk?"

"Why bother when you've come this far? You've already walked out of class"

"But I am a school prefect. If I break the rules it'll be bad news for my university reference," She hesitated, and loudly said, "But I suppose that signing out would be leaving a trail"

Johnny and Roshni agreeingly nodded at each other, and proceeded to make their escape to the nearest exit amidst the students flocking from one class to another.

They managed to get out the door and headed for the student car park when Johnny held up his rolled-up joint, "Is it okay if I smoke this when we get in the car? I've been waiting all morning and I think I need it"

Roshni looked around anxiously as she felt for her car keys, and said, "Only if you share a little bit of it"

Johnny widened his eyes as he walked on, "I think I'm going to like this new Roshni..."

*****

Outside Olympic Studios, Barnes

"You know, you really don't have to tell him now if you don't want to"

Monica unzipped her long winter jacket with one hand, the other one linked with the crook of Phoebe's elbows as he guided her up the studio's concrete steps, "I don't think I'm strong enough to keep it in"

"You sure?"

She nodded, for being in that Harley Street waiting room with several other women in the same or similar position as her was actually the loneliest feeling. She couldn't stop thinking about one of the youngest women there who couldn't have been a day over 30 and had a blue pashmina scarf wrapped around her head to cover up her hair loss from chemotherapy. But only time would tell before the results came in the post and until then a worry shared was a worry halved.

They both squeezed into the wooden glass revolving doors, "What about the twins?"

She stared at the ground as they walked inside, "I'll sit them down and talk to them once I hear back"

The secretary and security doormen instinctively nodded at Phoebe in recognition as he walked past, guiding Monica to Queen's recording studio with growing concern and anticipation and thinking, "Freddie's got another thing coming..."

Inside...

Freddie fidgeted with the pen in his hand as he quietly hummed the Jesus Christ Superstar theme still stuck in his head, bored out of his mind after Roger kicked him and Deaky out of the studio only half an hour through the track rehearsal.

He looked at the clock on the wall. It was 12:15, and his assistant Phoebe was meant to have been back at the studio a quarter of an hour ago.

To break the silence between him and John Deacon as they both sat at the mixing desk he thought aloud, "You know, if I don't retire soon I think that I'm going to turn into Norma Desmond"

John smirked, leaning closer as he murmured to him, "Between you and me, we already have two Normas..."

Freddie followed his eye line and looked out the glass where Brian was arguing with Roger over where to put his drum fill during one of his guitar solos.

He chuckled, knowing exactly what John meant. After all those two members of Queen were constantly coming up with tactics to stay current in the music scene, especially in a decade like the 1990s where minimal was the new cool and extravagant and outrageous was out, much to Freddie's misfortune.

"You're not wrong... they just don't get it, Deaky. We were cool once."

John put his hand into his tight greying curls and scratched his scalp, "You never know... that front page on The Sun might make people look us up in music shops and listen to us"

"And bring me infamy," Freddie sighed, "Maybe I could just write a song or two for Disney and win an Oscar, like Elton did"

"That's another way to gain a younger audience I suppose. Did you hear Hakuna Matata playing in Toy Story?"

Freddie side-eyed him, "Now John, why would I be watching Toy Story?"

He shrugged and leaned back in his plastic chair, "I forgot that your kids are too old for cartoons, some of my boys aren't... anyway, how did the family react to the article?"

"Don't know," he hesitantly confessed, "Roshni and I had an argument this morning before it happened, so the rest of my family turned on me anyway."

"You must've done or said something bad if they all turned on you" John looked over slyly.

Freddie sighed, "It was about her university choices. She wants to do Computer Science at university... everyone else understands it but me!"

"Well, what's so bad about Computer Science?"

"Shouldn't she do something more, I don't know, exciting?!"

John contended, "What do you know about exciting?! I did basic electronics at University, and I still think it's exciting"

Freddie very rarely ever saw John get cross or heated, but the man was sternly staring at him from his seat.

Freddie looked at his lap uncomfortably as he continued, "It's just... that field is tough for a girl, that's all"

"Oh I dunno, but I think you're a century or two behind the times," he argued back, "What about Marie Curie, or those female mathematicians that helped Alan Turing in the Second world war, and at NASA during the space race? ...and that woman who composed the Doctor Who theme-"

"Yes, yes, I get your point!" Freddie spat. Each of John's words were a reasonable and truthful smack in the face that became harder to argue against.

"You see Roger out there?" John stood up, rummaging through his trouser pocket for his packet of cigarettes, "His eldest daughter Rory wants to be a GP when she's older and do you see him complaining about it?"

Freddie shook his head in agreement, as he began to realise that his opinion was motivated by his own selfishness and that it was nothing to do with whether or not Roshni was ashamed of him being her father.

"My god, how could I be such an arse hole..." He mused remorsefully, "Monica was right, I am treating her the same way my parents treated me!"

"Nobody likes watching their children growing up Fred, but your children are going through a lot right now," John grabbed his navy blue raincoat on the wall, "They need your support now before they leave the nest"

"I can't just say sorry to her! What if she doesn't think that I mean it?" Freddie doubted.

"You don't have to agree with her choices in life, but you should still be there for her." John finished zipping up his coat.

Freddie watched him reach for the door handle, and before he even had time to consider the bassist's advice the door opened itself.

"What the-" John drew back and stepped away, and in walked Freddie's assistant Phoebe who was supposedly back late from the dentist.

"Thank fuck, you're back!" Freddie heard himself exclaim, but when his wife walked in after Phoebe his eyes widened.

"Oh, hello Monica," John smiled, "Taking Phoebe back from his appointment?"

He noticed that the woman looked uncomfortable as she forced a smile and leaned forward to greet him with a kiss on the cheek. After all, it was a very rare occurrence for Monica to visit Freddie in the studio nowadays, so she must've brought some news or perhaps some updates from Mr Beach about The Sun situation.

"Sorry I'm late boss, but I lied about the dentist" Phoebe confessed.

"Then where the hell were you? I thought that you bloody died in the surgery chair or something!" Freddie exaggerated.

"Freddie, I need to have a word with you" Monica stepped forward.

"What now?!" he sat back, gruffly crossing his arms.

She could tell that he didn't want to budge, so she signalled at the door behind her, "In-In private actually"

"Why?" he breathed in sharply.

"Why must you put me in this position?" she blurted out desperately.

John cleared his throat, "I was actually on my way out-"

"Stay, there's no need!" Freddie nagged him pettily.

Phoebe wanted to defend Monica's dignity, but the knotted look on Freddie's face said otherwise.

Monica spluttered, "Freddie, I really think it's better if I tell you in-"

"For the love of god, just tell me!" He snapped across her, "I'm really not in the mood for any more bombshells dropped on me today!"

She hesitated, blushing as Freddie's raised voice caught the attention of the other two in the studio. Even though they couldn't hear the conversation from there she knew that they weren't going to look away anytime soon.

"I guess it's Freddie's way or the highway then," she took a deep breath, and complied, "Fine, if that's how you want it... I came here to tell you that I might have cancer, and that in the past hour Phoebe accompanied me to a screening with a specialist"

She stared right back at Freddie as his frustrated face fell, but the twinkle in his narrowed brown eye was still as dead as it was before.

As for John, in the corner of her eye she felt him look back at her sympathetically.

Phoebe reassuringly put his hands on her shoulders behind her, his own wordless way of rewarding her courage.

The rest of the band got bored of waiting and had gone back to tinkering with their instruments in the studio, for the guitar slicks of Brian's Red Special blended with one of Roger's drum fills broke the agonising silence of the delicate situation placed upon the four people standing in the mixing room.

Freddie stood up from his chair, "John, will you tell the two Normas that I'm off home?"

"Two Normas? Who are they?" Phoebe thought, whereas Monica was too distant to question.

To her the way that Freddie spoke was so worryingly cool. She couldn't work out his emotions and whether or not the news made him annoyed or devastated, let alone what waited for her when they went home. But it didn't matter now that she did what she came there to do and felt a numbing sense of relief coming over her.

John sombrely looked to Monica, "Do you want me to tell them why?"

Monica shook her head as Freddie softly told him, "Private family matter, that'll do"

She felt both men usher her out of the studio. She wanted to say something even though she couldn't think of anything to say, not even a thank you to John when there was nothing to thank him for.

The taxi back to Garden Lodge was silent. Phoebe played with his hands on his lap in the passenger seat, ignoring the sikh taxi driver next to him uttering a curse out of road rage behind the wheel. In the leather back seats Freddie and his rattled wife sat apart from one another.

Oh, how Phoebe wished that his boss would have the decency to reach over and hold Monica's shaking hand and do his duty as a husband to comfort her in spite of his own troubles. But instead he stared out the window and kept his arms wrapped around himself, cold and distant.

It wasn't until the taxi arrived at Logan Place that Freddie behaved like a gentleman again. Phoebe watched as he stepped out, and sullenly went over to Monica's side and opened her door. Making physical contact with her for the first time that morning he helped his wife step out of the taxi and onto the kerb, tipping his red coca-cola baseball cap to the driver as a way of thanks.

Once the taxi had driven away Phoebe muttered to them both, "I'll open up the gate then"

Monica nodded, feeling her eyes grow bleary. She was going to follow him back inside and make it for the bedroom before Freddie could see her cry and get even more agitated, but a hand grabbed her upper arm and caught her completely off-guard.

The floodgates opened the moment he pulled her close, and Monica could feel Freddie's chest shuddering beneath her cheek as he also started to sob after four hours or so of pent-up emotion. It seemed like his day was getting progressively worse.

"I'm sorry, Freddie, I'm sorry," She repeated, panicked, "I-I didn't want to keep it in anymore"

"No, baby. I'm sorry..."He pulled away, just about able to speak, "I should never have put you on the spot like that"

Monica rubbed her red eyes, "It's okay, you'd already lost your temper this-"

"To hell with my temper, it was no excuse!" Freddie hissed, then softly caught her tears with his thumb, "I realise now how badly I have handled this day so far"

She looked away from the heartbreaking sight of his blotchy red face, burying her face into his stubbly neck. There were vehicles and one or two people going past, but they both felt too emotionally drained to even care.

A moment later Freddie put his arm around his wife's shoulders and lead her back to the green entrance gate, trying to pull himself together as he asked her, "How long until the test results?"

"The specialist said two weeks at the most" Monica lowly replied.

He stopped walking, "And if the results come back as positive, then what?"

"Well, if it's a benign tumour then I just require an operation to remove it," her voice quavered, "But if the cancer cells have spread then I'll have to have radiation therapy or even a mastectomy"

"What's a mastectomy?"

"Removal of the breast tissue"

Freddie nodded quietly, not liking any of the options that were available.

They both walked back in through the gate, and Monica mumbled, "I can understand if it's going to be too much for you to handle..."

"Darling, why would you even say such a thing?" Freddie slammed the gate shut, "You're my wife!"

She started to break down again, "But I'll be bedridden, what if all my hair falls out from the-'

"You'll still be beautiful to me..." he cooed, cupping his shaky hands around her teary face, "I will still love you"

"What if we can't grow old together?" she tearfully uttered, "What if I don't get to meet our grandchildren?"

As much as Freddie wanted to tell her that she was speculating too much he couldn't bring himself to. Monica's life was probably going to be cut short as was their time together, and the thought of losing his rock, his sun and moon was insufferable. It felt like only yesterday when Monica was the young brunette sitting in the booth across the dance floor of that hazy nightclub. He never thought that she would become the very thing that dragged him out of the mess he was in all of those 19 years ago, for if he didn't change his ways he would probably be dead now.

But now she was the one who was stuck in the dark, not him, and right now her feelings mattered much more than his own.

He held her tighter, smoothing his cold fingers through her brown hair as he mustered, "We'll look into all of the best treatments and medicines available... Until then and after we shall just have to make the most of whatever we have left"

She nodded and snivelled, resting her chin on his shoulder.

She stared into space as they held one another close, barely paying attention to Phoebe shuffling down the icy garden path towards the both of them and anxiously saying, "I think that they're home!"

She felt Freddie straighten up and ask, "Who's home?"

Phoebe cautiously answered, "The twins... Johnny's playing music upstairs and their car is parked in the garage, and as you know only Roshni can drive it"

Monica looked up at Johnny's bedroom window to see if a light was on. It was, and the window was also open and electric piano music was coming from it.

She looked to Freddie, who looked back at her absolutely befuddled with dry red eyes.

"Should we scold them?" she could feel him ask her mutedly.

She shook her head, "Leave it... we've got enough shit to deal with"

And so the three of them headed for the front doorway and out of the chill, leaving their worries on hold for another time.

Upstairs...

"You're half the world away... I've been lost, I've been found an' I don't feel down..."

Johnny Bulsara sullenly sat at his Yamaha keyboard with Delilah curled up on his lap, playing the chords of his favourite Oasis song and gently singing along, is voice wavering slightly because of his sore throat.

He and his sister Roshni had only been back ten minutes before, and although he felt mildly better now that he was home he still didn't know what he was going to do about Sarah. At this point he believed that he deserved the heartbreak for dreaming about his life with somebody and thinking that he could carve his own path, just like his parents, when he should've been focusing on what was important like school work and future employment.

And then there was his group of friends, the only friends he'd had since he began his A-Levels. Most of his previous friends whom he'd known since first year at Latymer had dropped out during his GCSEs. Now he was beginning to wish that he dropped out with them so that he didn't have to make friends with that gang-

There was a knock on the door.

Johnny froze. He slowly turned around on his stool.

His mother's head was peering in through the crack on the door. She didn't look annoyed, nor happy to see him, but her eyes were still as red as they were from earlier in the morning.

He looked back like a deer in the headlights as Monica gently stepped into his room, although he was half expecting to have been caught sooner or later.

"Hello mum" he drew away from his keys.

"Hello love," she went to sit down on his unmade bed, "You're home early"

"Are you going to ground me? It was Roshni's idea"

She chuckled softly, "Not at all... might have to write a letter of explanation to the school though"

Monica invitingly pat the spot next to her, and Johnny put Delilah onto the ground gently before he got off his stool, plopped himself by his mother's side and laid against her.

"Awww..." Monica pressed her lips to his shaved head, "What's this?"

"Mmmmmehhh" Johnny grunted into her shoulder.

He couldn't remember the last time he properly hugged his mother, but it felt so healing. For Monica it was a rare but lovely opportunity, even if she could smell the smoke on what was left of his chestnut brown hair and his clothes.

Instead of questioning it she played with the silver hoop on his ear lobe, "I thought I told you to take this out for school?"

He grunted again, "Mhmmmph, I did mum!"

"Then why did you come home?"

He sat up, looking away, "Sarah's cheating on me, that's why!"

"Oh no," Monica's stomach dropped yet again, but this time for her little boy, "It seems like nobody in this family is having a very good day today... how do you know?"

"I saw her kissing another man on the ride to school today, " he murmured, "She doesn't know that I know, and I don't know what I'm going to do."

Monica barely had any experience with breakups, although she'd been close. She would tell Johnny to ask his father, only from what she'd heard most of Freddie's breakups were explosive, violent even.

She suggested, "Go for lunch or a coffee some time and break it to her gently"

"It's not that simple" he groaned.

Johnny flopped away from her and buried his face into his crumpled up duvet.

The last time that Monica saw her son shed a tear or two was when he heard in the news that his idol Kurt Cobain had shot himself, but this was the first time that she saw Johnny cry in years.

"I wasted two years on Sarah, mum... two years," he wept, "I thought that we were happy"

"What about your friends? They're there for you, they might know how to help"

"Nah, I fell out with them today"

"Why?"

"They were saying disgusting things about women in general... and Roshni," He lifted his head, "God, I'm going to graduate from high school with absolutely no friends whatsoever."

It was still nice to know that Johnny had a soft, caring side somewhere.

Monica rubbed circles into his upper back and hopefully said, "But that's the good bit, you can make new friends when you go to university"

Johnny shrugged, and wiped his wet nose with the back of his hand, "I doubt I'll even make it to university... I don't even care to be honest."

"Johnny!" she tutted, "You know how lucky you are to have a college fund."

"I know, and what a waste of money." he reached down to the floor to lift his guitar up off the floor.

"Well, it'll sit there until there is a day that you can use it wisely" she stood back up again.

"Yeah, wisely in dad's eyes" he scoffed, and started playing a small improvised tune.

Monica shook her head and decided to give up. Her son really could be stubborn sometimes, like his father.

She looked at his black suit still hanging on his wardrobe door, still needing ironed, and begged the question, "So then, what about prom?"

"I don't even know if I want to go anymore," Johnny continued to strum, "I'm not ready to face those assholes tonight"

"But you were looking forward to it for months," Monica tried to reason with him, "The prom committee organised an open mic and all at the venue too, didn't they?"

It was then that Johnny had an idea, and he still had his soon-to-be ex girlfriend's ticket sitting on his dressing table...

*****

Freddie walked up each mahogany step with the same guilt that he felt all those years when he screamed at his infant daughter for accidentally breaking one of his antique vases, but at least after this it would be one less problem for him to tackle.

"Nobody likes watching their children growing up, but your children are going through a lot right now" John's words replayed in his head, and he couldn't be more correct had they known of Monica's medical condition. If she was to die young then they would have no mother throughout their twenties, the decade when they were supposed to be figuring out how to be adults.

Freddie peered into the door of Roshni's bedroom which was opened just a crack, and saw her sitting on her bed with his back to him.

The light from the window was softly illuminating the indigo blue outline of her straightened but shiny ebony hair. She hummed Half The World Away to herself softly, hearing it coming from Johnny's bedroom across the hall, as she straightened out her white faux fur jacket adorned with black animal spots. It was a christmas gift to her from Debbie Leng which Freddie absolutely despised and found to be tasteless, and she was going to make a grand, petty entrance and wear it upon presenting him her class withdrawal form.

Luckily for her, it gained an instant desirable reaction from him. He pushed her door open and without any greeting he protested, "Oh darling, really? You're much too young to be wearing leopard print"

Roshni jumped and looked over her shoulder.

When she saw her father standing there she coolly retorted, "It's not leopard, it's Dalmatian"

Freddie smirked and walked in, hoping to break down the hostile barrier already in place as he playfully argued, "So you're happy to look like Cruella DeVil?"

Roshni hesitated and looked at the form poking out of her unzipped leather school bag on the floor. She wanted to give it to him now, but she wasn't going to let him get under her skin.

"I thought that Cruella was your favourite Disney villain," she turned away and resisted the urge to smile as her lips squirmed, "anyway, I am a Londoner after all... I will blend in"

Freddie said behind her, "Well, what ever keeps you from standing out from the crowd, quote-unquote"

Roshni lowered her jacket in shame, "I didn't mean it when I said that dad... "

He sat down on the other side of her bed, "What did you mean then?"

"I-I just meant that I already get enough attention for being Freddie Mercury's daughter," she explained, "when I do what I like, like playing computer games or coding, or doing the lights during assembly and drama I'm just Roshni Bulsara and I'd rather be plain old Roshni Bulsara. I guess sometimes it feels like you don't want me to be me"

He looked around her bedroom as her words burned in his mind, paying attention to all her gadgets and electronics. First, her PlayStation attached to her television set, and then to her bulky white Macintosh desktop, then her Nintendo GameBoy sitting on her dressing table.

"Darling, do you see all these things in your bedroom that your mother and I gave to you?" He asked her.

"Mmhmm?" she looked over her shoulder.

He stretched across and took her hand, " I never bought these things to shut you up because you were a little brat or anything, I bought them because I love you and I could get to see how they made you happy"

She drew her hand back to herself, "Then why did you say what you did this morning?"

He sighed, and admitted, "I was just scared that my baby girl was growing up too fast. Sometimes grown-ups say and do hurtful things when they're scared"

"Oh... Well, in that case," she reached into her bag for her form, "I have something to confess as well"

Freddie furrowed his brows as she handed him a blue sheet of paper, and he read aloud the top line, "'Class Withdrawal Permission Form... for parents and guardians?"

Expecting her father's face to turn purple Roshni cautiously told him, "I walked out of drama today, I'm sorry"

But Freddie didn't react immediately. Instead he skimmed over both sides of the documents closely with narrowed eyes; he didn't think that he needed reading glasses for small print no matter how much Monica persuaded him that he did.

She started to panic, "I had enough of Mrs Jacobson's remarks! Sh-She said some horrible things-"

"Hand me a pen" he ordered calmly.

Roshni was perplexed, "Wait, what?"

"Hand me a pen so that I can sign it!"

In disbelief, Roshni flung herself at him with open arms, "Oh dad! Do you mean it?"

Freddie held her back, slightly alarmed but amused, "Isn't it my job as your father to support your wishes in life?"

She nodded excitedly and handed him a bic pen from her desk.

She watched intently as he marked the bottom of the page with his snazzy, iconic signature with a circle instead of a dot above the letter i. It felt so wonderful, as if her godlike father was letting her go back to earth to live as a mortal.

He handed it back to her, "I bet you in ten years time that the school office will frame it or put it up for auction"

Roshni giggled as she folded it, "Without a doubt"

"That's it," she thought as she slipped it back into her backpack, "You probably won't get to do the lights again, and you probably won't get to make friends with Adam and Brandon... oh Brandon"

"Is something wrong, darling?" Freddie purred from her bed.

She blushed and looked back at him, "What?"

"Something's bothering you," Freddie badgered, "You and your mother have the same look in your eyes when you're bothered"

"Oh hell, who's he gonna tell anyway?" She pondered, then bashfully professed, "I think I'm developing a crush"

Freddie leaned closer keenly, "What's his name?"

"He's called Brandon and he is-was... he was in my drama class"

His mouth curved into a toothy, teasing grin, "What's he like?"

Roshni fell back onto her bed, "Blonde, nice smile... think Robert Redford in the 70s, that sort of thing"

"Sounds divine!" Freddie uttered, then remarked her dalmatian jacket still lying on her bed, "I'll let you date him on the condition that you don't wear this pooch rag on your first date"

"Daaaaaaad"

He chuckled as he leaned over to plant a kiss on his daughter's forehead, and sat back to look at her gazing at her bedroom ceiling with a silly smile on her face. It reminded him so much of how Monica looked when they first met when she was still blossoming and somewhat innocent.

"Pity that I'll never see him again," she slowly sat back up, "He's going to prom tonight and I don't have a ticket."

"That's where you're wrong"

Johnny was standing at her bedroom doorway, waving Sarah's ticket in his hand with a knowing look.

Monica appeared behind him, and explained, "Johnny has decided not to take Sarah anymore, so it's yours if you wanted it"

"But I couldn't possibly," Roshni looked down in disappointment, "I don't even have anything to wear!"

"Wear your lehnga that Granny Jer gave to you with a bindi" her mother headed for her wardrobe.

"Yeah, you'd stand out from all the other girls" Johnny encouraged.

"What do you think love?" Monica asked Freddie for his opinion.

But he was still half-stuck in a nostalgic daze, thinking about her younger years yet again when he had an idea:

"Do you still have that black velvet jumpsuit that you wore the night we met? The '40s Hollywood style one"

Monica scanned Roshni up and down as her eyes lit up with even more inspiration, "It might fit her, I still have it folded in a box at the bottom of my wardrobe..."

She rushed out of the room, and Johnny declared, "See sis? You shall go to the ball!"

For the first time that day, everyone in the Garden Lodge household felt content again...