speechless | roger taylor

epilogue

July 13, 1985

"Look, Rosa," Elise smiled, bouncing her two-year-old on her hip as she pointed at Roger. "That's your daddy! He's playing his drums to over 70,000 people. Can you believe that?"

"I can hardly believe it myself," Veronica said, coming up from behind Elise with her own kids, Robert, Michael, and Laura, running circles around her while she held Joshua on her hip, mimicking Elise's stance. "It feels like they were still just a college band only yesterday."

"Seems like it," she laughed. "But, yesterday, Roger was still finding trouble with putting together Rosa's bed."

"Oh my," Veronica replied. "I remember when I had to teach John how to change a nappy. It was apparently rather confusing."

"I've gotta agree with him—they are quite confusing at first."

She laughed, but their conversation was quickly cut short by music beginning to play through the speakers. The two of them stood together, watching as the boys got set up to play. The show hadn't even started, yet there was still tears forming in their eyes.

The four men made their way onto the stage, looking out at the seventy-some-thousand people. Freddie looked as ecstatic as ever—how couldn't he? He'd been dreaming of being a famous singer, and look where he is now. He could hardly believe it himself. Brian looked as if he hadn't been fazed by it all, but both women knew that that was hardly the issue. Elise had to calm him down a bit before they went on, simply by letting him hold Rosa.

Rosa liked to tug on Brian's hair, and although it hurt sometimes, he found it adorable. Elise knew Brian would be a good father from the moment she met him, and when his son, Jimmy, was born, she knew her instincts were right. Now, he had two children and a nearly declining marriage, as she was the only one who knew about his little affair with Anita. It confused her a little as she would've expected him to go to Roger about it, but she promised to keep it a secret nonetheless. She had told him that if he ever wanted Anita around for something, she could lie and say that she was her second cousin. Easy.

Veronica and Elise were both worried about John the most, though. He had a massive panic attack before the show and nothing could calm him down, not even the way that Elise had learned to hold him after all these years. She had him sitting with his legs over her lap and a hand on his back, whispering soothing things in his ear while they watched Rosa and Joshua play together on the ground. Nothing seemed to work.

But, there he was, standing on the stage in the biggest stadium in the world. He looked a bit scared and his eyes widened the second that he saw how big the crowd was, but when he looked over at Veronica and Elise, he felt like he could fly. He had his best friend and the love of his life waiting for him—he'd be okay.

Roger, however, looked as if he was as happy as could be. One could argue that he was as ecstatic as Freddie, even. He was happy because of how far they'd come, and happy because he still had Elise by his side, ten years later. There were fights, of course, and some were rough enough that she had stayed with Brian for a few days as she just wanted to get out of Roger's hair—but he wouldn't trade their love for the world.

He laughed quietly to himself as he positioned himself properly at his drums, reminding himself of how they'd gotten to where they were.

It all started with a one night stand.

-

"Jim!" Elise smiled, waving him down as they waited for the boys to finish their last song. "How wonderful it is to see you, love! Haven't seen you since before the boys went on stage?"

"Just...got a bit lost is all. Are they nearly done?" he asked, chuckling as Rosa took a hold of his forefinger.

"Should be out after this song. Do you want to hold her?" Jim nodded and she laughed softly, holding out her little girl to the Irishman.