Little Mercury

Poor Brian

Sorry guys this is a shorter chapter and a bit of a filler but I didn't want to miss it out.

As promised Freddie rang as soon as they got to their first stop, Amelia was overjoyed to talk to him and her quiet mood quickly disappears, he continues to ring them every other day.

They had been on tour for two weeks and the closer it got to the end of the school year the more excited Amelia got about going to America.

On the 11th of May, the phone rang and Amelia dashed from her homework at the table to answer it.

'Daddy?!'

'Hello Milly, sweetheart. Sorry, I don't have much time to talk, I need to speak to Mary it's important darling.' Amelia heard the urgency in his voice and knew not to argue so passes the phone over.

Amelia listened to the one-sided conversation but couldn't make head nor tail of it. She pouted a little when Mary put the phone down, "What's going on? Why couldn't I talk to him?" She wanted to talk to her dad.

Mary signs, "I know you wanted to talk to him but he had a plane to catch. The band is coming home early."

"Why are they coming home early? They're meant to be on tour till the end of June." Amelia frowns very confused by what she has been told.

"Apparently Brian is unwell and he needs to go to a hospital in England."

"He's sick! That's not good." Amelia's confusion turned into worry.

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Mary sat at the airport with Amelia asleep next to her waiting for the boys plane to arrive. Amelia would be tired at school tomorrow, it was ten to midnight but at such short notice, the was no one the watch her so she had to come with.

When the arrival doors open Mary stands to look for them through the crowd of tired travellers but also keeping a side-eye on Amelia who is still fast asleep on the seat.

She watched the people go past but Mary still couldn't see them. After the other passages had disappeared she finally saw John and Paul came through first, John gives her a one-handed hug, "Where are the others? Is Brian alright?"

John grimaces, "There helping him off the plane, the tour medic thinks it's hepatitis."

"Oh, poor Brian." John moves round Mary to Amelia giving her a gently shake, the girl wraps him in a tight hug once she's come to her senses.

Mary looks back at the door to see Roger and Freddie walking towards them holding Brian up, he looks terrible. His skin is yellow and she could tell he's in pain.

John takes Freddie's place so he can wrap Mary in a tight hug and a loving kiss, "I've missed you, my love."

"I've missed you too." Freddie lets go for her and kneels down, Amelia runs into his open arms clinging tightly both sharing a tired grin.

"Is uncle Brimi going to be okay?" She asks shooting her uncle a worried look. He is being helped into the minivan now they are outside.

"Yeah he'll be okay, we just have to let the doctors do there job and give him time to heal." Freddie gets in last sitting Amelia on his lap.

"I've missed you, daddy." He kisses her forehead in reply and she promptly falls asleep on his shoulder, Freddie has missed these hugs, he wishes she could stay this small and innocent forever.

They dropped Brian and Roger off that the hospital first then the minivan drops everyone else at there homes.

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A few days later Freddie took Amelia to visit Brian in hospital. On the way up to his room, Amelia pulls her dad to a stop in front of a shop that is in the entrance area of the hospital.

Amelia walks up to the toy stand that Freddie had gotten her cat from two years ago.

Freddie watches her take out her pocket money purse and count what was in it, he double-checks it for her and Amelia picks up a cuddly toy badger and takes it to the till.

"Can I get this one, please? It's for my uncle, he's not very well and he loves badgers so it will keep him company while he is in here." Amelia spoke to the sweet old lady behind the counter.

The lady smiles at the girl taking the teddy to type in the price, "I think that's a lovely idea that's £3 please."

Amelia tips her pocket money out onto the counter, "Is this enough?" The woman patiently counts it.

Freddie knew she didn't quite have enough and was ready to give the extra but when the woman declared she had given enough, Freddie knew she was lying but mouths her a thank you. The lady nods in return handing the teddy back to Amelia.

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When they reach Brian's room Freddie knocks before walking in to see John and Veronica sat next to Brian's bed.

Brian is sat up in bed trying to eat something. He still looks ill and weaker than normal but his skin is back to his normal colour and his pain has improved since the airport.

Brian's face lights up a bit when he sees them, he pushes his food to the side as Amelia climbs onto the end of the bed they've all had the vaccination put she still could touch him yet, which frustrated her immensely coz she wanted to hug him.

"Are you feeling better?" She asks not understanding how the illness works.

"A little bit yeah. Even more so now your here."

"I've got you something." She pulls the badger out from behind her back, handing it to him. "He will keep you company while you're in here."

Freddie spoke up, "She brought it herself with her pocket money."

Brian becomes a little teary-eyed shocked by the sweet gesture "Oh you shouldn't have spent your pocket money on me, Milly." He takes the teddy giving her a proper tooth grin, "but thank you, he's very sweet."

Happy that Brian like his toy Amelia starts talking to Veronica while Freddie spoke to John and Brian.

Veronica is John's new girlfriend she been with him for a while now but it was only recently that Amelia had met her. Amelia had taken to her straight away and has already dubbed her the nickname, aunt V.

Freddie was glad that she has another female figure in her life.

The next week Brian was released from the hospital and between the boys, Mary, Veronica and Amelia they nurse him back to health at home.

Queen started working on the third album without the guitar stuff at first but once Brian is stronger enough to pick up a guitar again, as long as he has a chair to sit on, they were ready to crack on.