Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy (JoeMazzello!JohnDeacon fanfic)

eighty three

Admittedly, it took Roxanne a while to get into the swing of being a new mum; there was so much to do, so much to learn and for the first couple of weeks, she had run on autopilot.

There had been points where she thought that no, no she couldn't do this and points where she got so overwhelmed but, like always, she'd look down at Arthur's little face and everything would be alright again.

And, as always, John was right there to help her and of course, they had their friends. Roger and Rebecca came over almost every day; Roger so he could spend time with and dote on Arthur while Rebecca came over so Roxanne could have some proper adult conversations with someone other than John...but holding the adorable baby was always a bonus.

Kayla and Brian would visit a couple of times a week and Brian was thrilled to see that the baby seemed to adore the stuffed penguin that he'd won.

Freddie visited occasionally but when he did, he'd tell everyone all about the songs he was working on for the next album while feeding Arthur his bottle, an album which would be going into production sometime in the next two months.

Roxanne wasn't worried about John going back to work though. By the time that came around, she'd have this whole parenting malarkey down to a T...hopefully.

Back to now though, it was a stormy March afternoon; rain lashing against the windows, wind howling...weather that you just didn't want to go out in but, the Deacons had something to smile about.

Tomorrow was the day they were finally moving into their house. It had taken longer -with Arthur's unscheduled arrial- than they thought to get it up to scratch but finally, it was happening.

Roger and Becca were helping them pack up their things, the bigger things would be getting picked up tomorrow morning by a moving company and while Roger and John took apart the coffee table, Roxanne was packing up all of the photographs and such that decorated the walls and Rebecca was sat on the couch playing peek-a-boo with Arthur.

"Bex," Roger chuckles, "'m not quite sure he understands what you're doing, love."

"Oh hush," the brunette murmurs as the phone rings, John getting up to answer, "He's enjoying himself, aren't you Arthur?"

"Rox?" John calls softly, making her look up from the photo she's bubble-wrapping, one of Arthur that John had taken a couple of days after bringing him home, "It's for you."

"Oh," she gets up, "Who is it?"

"It's your mum."

The whole room goes silent; Rebecca stops cooing over the baby, Roger stops his work - even the music fades out as the record comes to an end.

"She's got a bloody cheek," Roger mutters as he too gets up, following Roxanne as she takes her spot beside John.

"You alright?" he asks, hand on her lower back, "You want to talk to her?"

"You don't have to," Roger says.

She knows that but she feels like she should. What if something had happened to one of them?

"It's alright," she murmurs, taking the phone from John, clearing her throat, "Hello?"

As soon as she speaks, Roger has his ear pressed against the other side of the receiver, trying his best to hear what's being said.

"Roxanne?"

"Hiya mum."

"Rox," she breathes, "Oh, it's so good to hear your voice."

"It has been a while," Roxanne nods, feeling ridiculously awkward. Never has she found it so hard to talk to her mum.

"It has," Cathy says quietly, "I just...your dad is at the supermarket so I thought I'd ring."