Summer Of '75 (Roger Taylor/Queen)

Epilogue

December 8th 1975

The chilly, winter air whipped around me as I walked along the busy London streets, people pushing past me on their way home from work, desperate to get out of the cold outdoors and into the comfort of their warm houses. I, too, had the destination of home in mind; looking forward to the idea of curling up on the couch with a cup of tea in my hands, after finishing another long, and frankly, stressful day down at the clinic.

Pulling my jacket closer to my body as I felt droplets of rain beginning to fall, I tried to forget about today's events and think about the anticipation of returning to my warm, dry flat...well, the 'warm' part was yet to be seen as the heating only worked when it wanted to in my place. Knowing it was only a couple of blocks away, I upped my pace, hoping to get there before the rain really started bucketing down. However, as I turned the corner at the end of the street, I almost had a head-on collision with someone walking in the other direction. Bumping into them slightly, I stumbled back and regained my balance, before quickly apologising.

'Oh, sorry!' I exclaimed, hoping I didn't hurt, nor infuriate the unsuspecting person. Looking up, I was met by a pair of green eyes belonging to someone I had definitely not been expecting to see.

'Amelia?' the long, brown-haired man asked timidly.

'John?' I replied, equally as surprised. The two us broke into huge smiles before pulling each other into a quick embrace, 'Oh my god, I can't believe it! I was not expecting this at all! How have you been? My, it feels like ages!'

'Doesn't it just?' he chuckled, 'And I'm not too bad, yeah. Pretty tired, though; lot of sleepless nights but apart from that I'm doing fine.'

My eyes widened, 'Of course - the baby! I completely forgot. Oh, congratulations! Boy or a girl?'

'Little boy.' he said smiling, 'His name's Robert. Came just days after we arrived home from Sussex.'

'Good timing then,' I laughed, 'Aw, that's truly precious, I'm elated - for you and Veronica.

'Thank you,' the bassist beamed. As we stood on the pavement, the rain starting to come down pretty heavily now, John suddenly shivered, 'Bit chilly to be standing out here, isn't it? Surprised it's not snowing, to be honest. Do you...want to go grab a coffee or something to warm up? There's a cafe just along here somewhere.'

I smiled at the idea, 'That sounds great right now.'

Walking hurriedly down the street, we made our way towards the cafe John had mentioned as the rain pelted against us, almost soaking us through to the bone. Stepping in the door of the cafe, the warmth of the indoors was welcoming as we found a table and sat down at it, a waitress coming over to take our order.

'Two coffees, please.' John told her, as she scribbled it down on her notepad and returned to the counter. As we waited for our hot drinks to arrive, I sat there with my chin propped up on my hand and my elbow on the table, sighing quietly.

John raised an eyebrow at me, 'Tough day at the office?'

'Don't even get me started.' I said, rolling my eyes, 'Let's just say there is far more to veterinary nursing than just looking after cute and cuddly animals.'

'Hm, I can imagine. Must be a rather stressful job...can't be very enjoyable at times, either.'

'Not unless you like coming home with bites and scratches all over your arms every night, it's not,' I chuckled, making John chuckle too, 'But the joy of being able to help and make a difference to their quality of life makes it all worth it in the end. There's nothing else I'd rather be doing.'