Why would I forget ? | Roger Taylor

63- toast

17th February 1976

The night full of drinking and celebrating had only just recently come to an end at the early hours of this morning, but who could blame them. Bohemian Rhapsody was probably their best song, I would've been shocked if it didn't make number one.

Only a couple of hours after I'd gone to sleep, I woke up suddenly with an odd pain in my stomach, but it only hurt for a few moments before I felt normal again.

I didn't have too much to eat yesterday, so instantly assumed that was the problem and made myself some toast using the very small kitchen in our hotel room.

I glanced over at the clock and saw it was only eight thirty, which was not a time in the morning that I ever woke up at. The odd pain was slightly confusing to me, but I didn't let my mind ponder on it. Roger was still contently asleep, bound to stay in that position for most of the morning due to the drinks he'd had last night.

I sat still munching through my toast yet, and another pain hit. This time it was for a bit longer, and this time my mind started to question wether it was caused by the one thing I was desperately hoping it wasn't.

I wasn't due for another good few weeks, so it couldn't of been that. There was no chance I was in labour, it felt more like a really bad period cramp that just seemed to come and go, which I think scared me more.

I let another half hour pass, but didn't bother waking up Roger. I knew for a fact he was gonna have a horrible headache and he was not gonna wanna he woken up to my telling him I had a bad stomach pain that kept coming and going, so I instead plodded down the lobby and knocked on the door of the only pair that would be awake.

Ronnie answered with the baby in her hands and a bottle in the other, a little concerned and confused as she registered me stood outside it. She looked fresh as a daisy, and I knew Deaky would be too. They hadn't drunk much since becoming parents, excluding maybe a few of Freddie's parties.

"You ok love ?" She asked quietly.

"Yeah I've just got this horrible cramp in my stomach that keeps like almost coming and going." I replied. Her and Deaky glanced at each other, eyes wide open, as I became instantly nervous. Veronica looked back at me, eyes wide and lips a little concerned as my face flushed with panic.

"Lottie... you're not in labour are you ?" John asked. I shook my head as quick as I could, maybe trying to deny it. I didn't know if I was or not, but I would like to of hoped I wasn't.

"I doubt it. The babies not due for ages yet. Surely not that's impossible." I laughed nervously. I knew it was in fact very possible, which genuinely terrified me.

"Tee..." It dawned on me far too quickly that labour was most likely the answer to the issue that had woken me up. I let out a shaky breathe, the pain hitting my stomach again as my head began spinning with thoughts- mainly ones full of fear.

"Oh shit. No I can't be. I genuinely think it's just a funny pain to be honest. Maybe bad food ? maybe the baby's just like squashing my bladder or something." I laughed again nervously. Ronnie shook her head, smiling uneasily as I dropped my head into my hands. "Oh fuck. I'm in labour aren't I ?"

"Don't freak out." She pulled me into the room, slamming the door shut before she almost threw me down onto the bed.

Deaky stood with a piece of cheese on toast in the middle of the room, maybe more shocked than I was. But I didn't know how to process anything. I was about to become a mum, and Roger Taylor was about to become a dad. That was terrifying. Horrendously so.

"John... go and wake up everyone else. But not Roger. Do not wake him up." She said stubbornly.

"Right yep." Deaky fled out the room with his plate of untouched toast in hand. The second he left, my eyes quickly filled with tears, ones I was desperate to keep away. But I couldn't. I'd never been so scared.