Freddie And The Fahrenheits

Friends Will Be Friends

Sunday, 12th December 1976

Ring, ring, ring...

No answer.

Ring, ring...

"Come on, Freddie..."

Ring...

"The person you are calling is unable to take your call. Please leave your message after the tone. To re-record your message, key hash at anytime."

Brian placed the phone down and sighed to himself. It'd been three months. Three long months without a single call from Freddie. For the first month, Brian, Roger and John didn't bother to call either, but soon enough they realised they were lost without him. For the last two months now, they'd all tried at least once to get in touch with him to no avail.

Rubbing his forehead defeatedly, Brian picked up the phone again, this time to call Roger.

"Hey Bri, any luck?" He asked, sounding just as defeated.

"Nope." Brian said. "Just went to speaker again."

"Why haven't we given up, Brian?" Roger asked.

"Because Freddie's our friend." He said. "And we miss him and care about him."

Roger nodded. He was right.

"Do you think we should go into the studio again today?" He asked. "Take our minds off things?"

"I suppose." Brian said thoughtfully. "I'll call John."

"Alright." Roger said. "See you later."

"Bye."

Making the third phone call of the morning, Brian waited for John to answer. It took a little longer than Roger had done, but eventually the bassist answered.

"Hello?"

"Hello, John." Brian smiled. "How are you?"

"I'm alright Bri, thanks for asking." John said. "Has Freddie called you?"

The hope in his voice made Brian feel awful.

"No, sorry." He said. "We're going into the studio today, do you want to come?"

There was a long silence on the other end. "No thank you, Brian. Maybe another time."

Brian frowned, but he knew he couldn't pressure him. Besides, he couldn't exactly blame him - he hadn't been the most enthusiastic himself when Roger asked about it.

"That's alright." He assured him. "We'll tell John."

John chuckled. "There's too many people called John in the music business."

"You can say that again." Brian agreed.

"Well see you later, Bri."

"See you later John." Brian said, smiling a sad smile.

John hung up first and it wasn't until the line had gone dead that Brian hung up himself. Well, it would just have to be him and Roger today. Again.

John had been coming to the studio less and less as the months went on and everyone knew why. John was lost without Freddie, he always had been. Wether it be during interviews, gigs, or even recording at the studio, he always stuck with Freddie. He was his comfort, his safety net, his one sure and constant thing among all the madness. Freddie had always looked after him too, clearly feeling a need to take on the role. Maybe John felt like he'd been abandoned? Or maybe he just couldn't function properly as a part of Queen without him?

It was then that Brian felt like he wanted to cry. His perfect little world was falling apart, piece by piece, bit by bit, day by day. First he'd lost Freddie with little hope of getting him back and now he was slowly loosing John too. Everything he and Roger had built up since that fateful day Tim Staffel left to join Humpy Bong - which as far as the two knew had now split up - was slowly going down the drain.