Winter Queen (Roger Taylor fanfic)

19. ...she dealt with an offer she couldn't refuse

Josie had just a bit of translation to finish in the next few days, she needed to work only on mornings and spent the afternoons and evening on rehearsals in Queen's studio.

The year was almost over, when she came home and before she took off her coat, Marge came to the hall and handed her an envelope.

"A courier was here."

"Courier?" Josie marveled. She hanged the coat and looked at the envelope, with a UN logo at the letterhead. Her stomach knotted in fear.

"What is that?" she mumbled and ripped it open, to get it's content. She walked to the living room like sleepwalking and collapsed on the couch.

"What does it say?" Marge asked.

"They offered me a job."

"That's amazing!" Marge exclaimed.

"How did they found me?"

"What kind of a job?"

"Translating."

"So you had to sent them your CV."

"I did, but just the local branch. This letter is from the Secretariat."

"Are you kidding, they offered you a job at the UN Secretariat?" Marge squeaked.

"I need to call them, this must be a mistake."

Josie still couldn't belive it the next day, when the agent, that wrote her, met her. He explained, they file every CV and then, when they have a particular job vacancy, they look for the perfect candidate and approach him.

"You are the perfect candidate. Your past could be you motivation, your knowledge of languages is extraordinary and you could be a great benefit to the UN."

The only thing in her mind, when she went to the studio, was what her father said. Her languages could help to free the people in her country. Although she said something else, she deeply wished for Czechoslovakia to be free, she thought about her grandparents, her friends from high school, about the people she admired back there.

Deaky and Freddie were already in the studio, waiting for the others. Josie stumbled inside, pale and exhausted. She sat on a chair, and the boys went quiet, once they saw her distant look.

"Josie?" Deaky addressed her finally.

"I have a job offer. In the UN." she managed to say and boys opened their eyes wide.

"It's a big opportunity, don't you think?" Josie said, when they were quiet for too long. Freddie recognized in her voice, that she needs somebody to talk her out of it. He promised himself, he won't be that person. Because she was right, this was a big opportunity.

Josie went over to him and sat on a chair next to him. He sat by the mixing console, rocked on the rear legs of the chair and watched her. Deaky sat in an armchair next to them, plucked on his bass and also observed her carefully.

"What's going on?" Brian asked, when he arrived. "It's like a funeral in here."

So Josie told him about the offer she got.

"That's huge." Brian admitted.

"I could be on some talks with Czechoslovakia, Soviet Union..." she explained, the agent was right about her motivation. She also didn't need to explain, they all realized that.

"Yeah, it's probable." Brian nodded.

"Can somebody tell me something more!" she asked them with desperation in her voice.

"Yes, Josie, it's an extraordinarry opportunity, you should definitely take it. To work in to UN so young, I don't whink anyone ever managed it." Deaky tried to be supportive." But..."

"But?" she repeated.

"When are you gonna tell Roger?" Freddie completed Deaky's sentence. She had no time to sigh, when she heard Roger's voice.

"Tell Roger what?" he asked. She got up and turned around, so she could see him. He raised his eyebrows and waited for the answer. She barely opened her mouth, closed it again and sat on the couch.

"What are you supposed to tell me?" he asked impatiently.

"I got a job offer, at the UN." she said finally. "Probably because I speak Russian."

"Since when do you speak Russian?" Roger marveled.

"Well, for a long time, I just don't say it to people, because I don't like to use it."

"Okay, so you got a job at the UN." he repeated.

"UN Secretariat." she specified.

"Well, that's a great offer, isn't it? Why the long faces?"

"Do you know where the UN Secretariat is, Rog?" Brian asked. Roger looked back at Josie.

"I'd move to New York."

"For how long?"

"I don't know. Indefinitely."

"When?"

"Next Monday."

"Next Monday." he repeated after her. The four people around him watched him, while he stared over her shoulder.

"Well, that's an offer you can't refuse." he said with a hollow voice. The boys looked down, while she stared at him. They all heard her desperate plead in her voice, when she spoke up.

"I guess it is."

"I think you'll be great. Maybe you could stop the Cold war. Maybe you can stop the occupation of Czechoslovakia." Roger continued, but his voice sounded dead. Deaky looked up to Josie, she looked down in the next second, but he saw the tears in her eyes.

"I'm not decided yet. It's far away." she said. Brian felt so sorry for her, she couldn't say it more clearly.

"Oh why not. You are twenty two, you can make such a career and nothing keeps you in London." Roger said, unnecessarily loud, considering the deafening silence in the studio. He quickly got up. "Where's my guitar? I got the best idea!"

The rest of the band watched him in disbelief, while he walked from the control room. First tear came down Josie's cheek. Brian took her by her waist and dragged her a bit aside, so they were out of view from the live room.

"Don't cry. He doesn't know how to express himself, he doesn't want to spoil it for you." he comforted her, but she only started to cry more. He hugged her tightly and she hid her face to his jumper.

"I can't understand him." she sobbed.

"He doesn't understand himself, Josie."

"I'm gonna go home." Josie whispered, when she got a grip.

"You want ride?" Brian offered. She shook his head, she prefered a walk. Without saying goodbye to the others, she left. Brian closed the door behind her and went back to the live room, where Roger played with his guitar.

"What the hell was that, Rog?" Brian asked with hands on his hips. Roger didn't even look up.

"You can't let her leave like that." Deaky joined Brian's side.

"And what am I supposed to do, you geniuses? Tell her to stay, basically to stay here by herself while I go to America? To make her hate me in five years, because I took it away from her? And she said herself, nothing keeps her here."

"You said that, Rog." Brian objected.

"Well she didn't really talked me out if it, did she? That doesn't matter, I can't take it away from her, the chance to prove something, while I'd persue my own dreams."

Now his bandmates knew he was right. Every one of them broke up with a girl in the past, so their band could be, where it is now.