Time Passages (Queen or Freddie Mercury Fanfic)

59. I'm Right Here

Freddie

It was quite a thing to watch, really, how gracefully Julia slid right off the chair.  The poor dear very likely would have fallen face first onto the waxed floor had I not reached out and caught her in the nick of time. 

Well, I suppose I did want to sort of give her a jolt, I said to myself, but this is too much.

Shooting a glance at her drink, which was little more than a short glass of watered down ice by now, I asked the bartender, "How many of those has she had since she sat down?"

"Just that one," he replied.  "Can't say for sure what she did before that, though."

I lifted her chin, searched her face for any hints that she had gotten an early start, but I saw nothing of the sort.  Her cheeks were pink as opposed to flushed, as they had been last night, and in the moments leading up to when I announced my presence, her demeanor seemed calm enough, if also terribly forlorn. 

"No, I think that was her first tonight," I concluded.  "Either way, I'll see to it this doesn't happen again.  Put it on my tab, though, will you?"

"Yes, sir."

"Thanks."

Some nervous little chap in a black bow tie suddenly appeared at my elbow. "What's happened?"

"Nothing, she's just had a very trying day, I think," I answered quietly, putting my arms around her waist from behind.  "Here, I'll hold her up, see if you can rouse her."

After a few seconds of me coaxing her to wake up while this dapper fellow whom I assumed to be the maitre d' slapped gently at her wrists, Julia let out a soft little groan and rocked her head back and forth against my chest, making small creases in the breast of my white jacket. 

"She's coming round," I murmured.  "I'll take it from here."

"You sure?"

"Quite sure," I dismissed him.  "That will be all, thank you."

Finally, he got the message and scurried off to where he stood before. I had been quite curt just now, perhaps unnecessarily so. All the same, the last thing I wanted to happen was to have some other delicate man descend upon us now and trample all over this frail opportunity with even more outrageous lies that Julia could, and would, all too obediently swallow whole.

I took a deep breath.  Here it was, my last chance.  For all I knew, we were indeed past the point of no return, and nothing I said could fix anything. Julia might walk right out before a single word could leave my lips.  This might indeed turn out a complete waste of time and energy- precious things I could have put more intelligently towards getting the fuck out of there while I still had a few of my song ideas intact.  And what was more, to be honest, I knew full well that the odds were, of anything that might happen tonight, I would most likely walk away from it all looking like a hopeless romantic still so wrapped up in what could have been that he would actually fight this one last losing battle for her heart- and, an even more futile prize, her faith.

But that was the risk I'd have to take.

Julia was awake enough now to hold herself upright, but I kept my arms where they were.  "Mmm... What happened?" she mumbled.

"You took a bit of a tumble," I whispered.  "You all right?"

Her body stiffened at the sound of my voice.  Silently I watched Julia look down at my hands, staring at them while it gradually dawned on her that she still wasn't imagining things, and then slowly turn her head to look once again into my eyes.  With an effort, I made myself let go.