Hello

The Beat

Back in England, everything fell into rhythm. I would spend my nights at work at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London on the Children's Ward and for Queen it was business as usual. I rotated sleeping between my house and Roger's, both of us sleeping in until at least 1pm. At work, uniform differed depending what ward you were assigned to. In Children's Ward, we dressed to look less menacing when holding a needle. We had lavender or pink coloured dresses with short sleeves, a tight collar with black edging, and a white apron that came over our shoulders (much like an amish apron) and down to our knees to meet the seam of our dress. Each of us wore a simple white nurses cap that pinned into our hair at the crown and black lace up shoes. The kids were quick to remember your name so our name tags usually stayed in our pockets and were never used. The nightshift staff consisted of me, my best friends Vivienne Florence and Erica Jenner. Every night at 7pm, we began our 12 hour shift in the ward, being as quiet as possible usually. When we finished, we walked out of the hospital as zombies. When I lived at home permanently, I would cycle to and from work. Staying with Roger would mean an extra hour of cycling and after working 12 hours, I just wasn't ready for that kind of commitment. It was truly comforting to strip down to my underwear at 8am and crawl into bed next to Roger every day. It was better than crawling in alone.

Back then, I didn't own a car. I had a race car shared between myself and my racing partner, Will Jenkins, but no car of my own. I just got on my bike and went where I needed to go. Roger drove me to work and Vivienne dropped me home on her way to the apartment two storeys above mine. Roger would always make a field trip of driving to hospital. We'd turn up our music, roll down the windows and sing along. I don't know of people ever got sick of hearing is roar down the street singing Led Zeppelin quite loudly but we didn't care. The band would take a break for an hour every day to give Roger time to drive me to work and to have dinner before returning to writing and recording music until some ungodly hour. I don't know who worked harder: me or Rog? We were always tired and asleep. Every time my father came to visit us, I'd make Roger drag himself out of bed and he'd always complain.
"Why am I the one who has to do it?" He asked, sitting up. I grinned at him, watching him move at a snails pace.
"Because everyone who comes to visit you is more accustomed to seeing you half naked than seeing me at all." I pointed out as he left the room. When he returned, he wasn't alone.

"Why are you still in bed? Get up and dressed, we're going." Freddie Mercury sang, springing into the bedroom. I looked at him in disgust as he had basically just said "let's do the complete opposite of what you want to do. Right now."Flopping back onto the pillow, I covered my eyes.
"I'm so not ready for the day." I told him, trying to go back to sleep.
"Come on, Lucy. You're like an old lady." John Deacon added, walking in.
"Bloody hell, who else is here?" I asked, pulling the blankets up to my neck to cover myself.
"Can you all at least give me a moment to get up and dressed please? I've just worked 12 hours with no break. Can't you guys do whatever you are gonna do without me?" I asked. Freddie jumped onto the bed, landing right next to me.
"Come on, Lucy! We need your help." He begged, his brown eyes melting my ice blue ones.
"What could you possibly need MY help with?"