Keep Yourself Alive - Roger Taylor

101

We walked through the park, our hands clasped over one handle of Elizabeth's pushchair whilst my other gripped the next one.

Things had been hard since we fell out, but we had made it a daily occurrence to visit Freddie with Lizzie to make him as happy as he can possibly be.

Today we decided that we'd throw him a little party, just for a bit of a different atmosphere. We had decorated the downstairs of his house without him realising yesterday, now we just have to surprise him.

"It'll be fine, Rog" I gave him a reassuring smile which he returned after kissing me lightly on the lips.

"We'll be fine" I repeated, squeezing his hand lightly as we reached his house.

We let ourselves into the recently decorated house and were greeted by the rest of the band.

"Hiya guys!" I smiled, pulling Elizabeth from her pushchair to greet the lads.

"Hi Rose, Roger" Brian grinned warmly, pulling me into a side hug before squeezing Lizzie's cheek.

Anita and Veronica were also here with their children, along with Mary. We had only got his closest friends around as we're the only ones who know about the illness.

Suddenly, as we were all welcoming each other and catching up, Lizzie began to cry. I turned to see Roger throwing her up and down, not far, but enough to scare her and make her sob.

"Roger! We've talked about this!" I laughed, taking Lizzie off him to rock her back to happiness.

"No throwing the baby!" I said sternly, trying not to laugh as I saw everyone chuckling behind him as I scolded him.

"No throwing the baby" He repeated monotonously with his head hung low.

"Good, now play nicely" I giggled, ruffling his hair as I passed her back to him.

He instantly perked back up and bounced her more calmly this time, making me shake my head in amusement.

"You have him whipped, Taylor" John smirked, hugging me as we spoke for the first time since I came.

"Is that my Queen Lizzie I hear!?" I heard Freddie's croaky voice call from the top of his huge staircase.

"Sh!" I hushed everyone and we all waited.

All that could be heard was the slight gurgles that left Lizzie's mouth due to Roger tickling her little tummy. We all had to suppress our laughter as she dribbled all over his face though, to stay as silent as we could.

When he came into view we all jumped up and shouted happily.

"Surprise!"

John even blew on a little horn excitedly, making Freddie laugh in hysterics.

"Oh this is just fabulous! Roger, why was Lizzie crying? Did you throw her again?" Freddie laughed, walking over to us with the help of Jim and a walking stick.

It was incredibly hard and unsettling to see our dear friend in this state, but I am more than happy that we all did this for him. It was nice to be together again as I hadn't seen the whole gang in such a long time, I just wish the circumstances were different.

"No..." He replied guiltily, passing Elizabeth to him before earning a slap in the back of the head from Fred.

"So, get the music on then you fools! And you better have some Queen on there, I heard that they're a bloody good band" Freddie joked, walking towards me to give me a huge hug.

"Well, I think they're the best in England. But, you were always a better judge of music than me so you'll have to see" I teased, sticking out my tongue.

"Best in England? I heard best in the world, darling" He laughed, hugging me again before moving on to the other guests.

Of course, we cranked up the volume to the Queen songs and really began the party. We danced and sung all through the day, talking about anything and everything like we had all of the time in the world.

*_*_*_*_*_*

"Well thank you for this, it has been just spectacular" Freddie smiled.

"Don't worry Fred, we've loved it too" I grinned, hugging into Rogers side as he held me lovingly.

"Why don't you stay? Just the band again, with Rose of course!" He chuckled.

Luckily for us, Roger has rang his mum half way through the night and she was more than happy to take Elizabeth for the night whilst we had a few drinks. She was so good like that, which I felt guilty about sometimes but she always insisted that she loves spending time with her only granddaughter.

"Yeah, why not" Brian smiled.

"Sure, I'm sure Veronica won't mind" John nodded.

Their wives had gone a while ago to look after the children and make sure they got to bed on time. It's so funny how your life changes so much after having children, it's rather ludicrous really.

"Great! Let's get some more drinks down you" He laughed, grabbing a bottle of champagne from the side and popping the cork.

We all cheered as he stood up on a chair, holding onto Brian's shaggy head for balance as he found it hard to control his legs due to them being quite weak.

"To Queen!" He shouted enthusiastically.

"Queen!" We all grinned, opening our mouths wide as Freddie poured the champagne into our mouths from above.

Most of it went over our clothes of course, yet it was still funny to witness every person soaking wet from Freddie's bad aim.

The night continued in a similar fashion and ended with the lads stumbling from the house with their arms wrapped around each other for support.

"Rose" Freddie said, grabbing my wrist before I left the door.

"Yeah, Freddie?" I smiled, turning back to look at him.

"I really do love you, thank you so much for everything you have ever done for me" He said, a few tears pricked both of our eyes as he spoke.

"You speak as if you are leaving me Freddie Mercury" I said, pursing my lips together into a line to stop myself from crying.

He just stared at me.

"Just know that I wouldn't change anything about what we've had. We've have a good run, Taylor" He grinned through tears.

"Don't talk like that Freddie, I'm going to see you again. I'm coming tomorrow" I said, wiping the tears from his face,

"I know. I know, I'll see you tomorrow" He nodded, kissing my forehead after giving me an extremely tight hug.

"Love you, Freddie" I smiled.

"I love you more, Rose"