'Till the end of times -Roger Taylor

1974

Queen had recorded and released three albums. At first, their records were all over every music store, but then they started getting sold out like bread. People loved their music. More and more often you would hear a Queen song on the radio or in the shops, and every time it happened when Rory was out, she felt extremely proud of them. Of course she already knew that they would have enormous success, but it felt different now that she witnessed first hand their growth.
They had toured England at first and now they were about to leave for their first world tour. Roger had begged Rory to go on tour with them and she couldn't pass on such an amazing occasion.
The tour was to start in about two weeks, but Rory was already packing. She was sitting in the middle of her room with her suitcase open in front of her and clothes all around her. She had already packed three times, but the suitcase wouldn't close and the only time it closed, it was definitely too heavy for her to carry it around.
She heard the front door shutting close and Roger calling her name.
He ran to her room, bumping into the door in the process.
"You won't guess what has just happened!"
He sounded excited.
"Jesus Christ, you do realise that we're leaving in two weeks right? And why does it look like a bomb has just exploded in here?"
Rory looked around. Yeah, it was messy, but it had been messier.
"Doesn't matter. What happened?"
"They asked us to play our new single at Top of the Pos the day after tomorrow" he screamed, throwing his arms around her neck.
Rory didn't know what to say. She knew that they would not be actually playing the song live, but she didn't have the heart to tell him.
She hugged him back to buy herself some time in order not to start giggling in front of him. Every time something she was already aware of happened, she would start giggling or smiling and Roger would get all curious and ask her a million questions.
"Congratulations love" she finally said, smacking a kiss on his cheek. "I'm so proud of you!"

The day had finally come. Brian came to pick Rory and Lauren up. Roger was already in the backseat, waiting for Rory to sit next to him. Now that they had sold Roger's van, Brian was mostly the one in charge to drive them all around.
Roger greeted both of them sweetly. Since Rory had told him that Lauren was her mother, he had been a lot nicer to her. But you couldn't really say otherwise.
During the drive to the studios, Roger had been squeezing Rory's hand both from excitement and anxiety.
At the studios Freddie, John and Mary were already waiting for them. They were just out of the door, standing outside smoking. None of them had the courage to open the door.
Freddie was even more dramatic in his greetings than usual, and that's saying a lot. The interaction between John and Lauren was short and awkward for everyone. They had broken up just a few months before. John had met the ex-girlfriend of Roger's old roommate, Veronica, the one that had the art gallery, and had fallen in love with her from the very first moment. Lauren hadn't taken it well and, for the sake of everyone else, John and Veronica conveyed that she would be watching the program from her sofa.
"What if we mess up? We won't be going any far if we mess up today?" screamed Roger, refusing to walk into the studio.
Mary opened the door and the girls started pushing them inside.
"You won't mess up, I promise you" replied Rory, pulling Roger inside from his arm.

"In playback? They want us to pretend to sing our own song"
The girls were just watching the guys being dramatic queens as always. It was a bummer not being able to actually sing their own song, but there was not much anyone could do about it.
"We know how to play our own song with our own instruments"
They were so pissed off that Freddie was contemplating walking out, but luckily enough Mary managed to put some reason into him.
The only explanation they got from the producer was that they were at the BBC and that's how things are done around there.
"We're the BCC" mimicked Brian, after the producer walked out and Rory thought for a second that she was watching the movie again and living the real scene.
"Did you know about this?" Roger whispered in her ear and Rory nodded.
"No wonder why you assured us that everything would be fine. We're not going to do anything but pretend!"

It was obvious to anyone who had seen them live that they were not actually performing.
"Did you see that I was not even hitting the drums most of the time?" Roger air quoted "drums" and Rory nodded, rolling her eyes, exhausted by all of their complaining.
"Did you see that Lauren was talking to someone new? You think she's finally done being fussy over John?" Roger asked. Rory elbowed him in the stomach, it was still his mum he was talking about.
"Yes, Rog. I saw. And yes, she's done being fussy about John because that, Roger, is my dad"