Every time you make a move

Friends Will Be Friends-Pt 3

Jim Beach's office, around 2:30pm

"I don't understand... they were definitely in here before we left the house!"

Phoebe was rummaging through his black leather shoulder bag of Freddie's belongings as he quickly followed his boss down the corridors, looking for the wad of song papers with the lyrics of Freddie and John's new untitled song.

"Don't worry dear, it's too late to fuss about it now," Freddie was looking at signs on the walls that lead to any outdoor space, even if it was out of bounds, "I need to find somewhere for a quick smoke before the meeting starts"

"But you're already late" Phoebe gestured his wrist watch.

Shortly after Monica's friend Paula and her Great Dane left for Dover in their Fiat camper van, Freddie bit the bullet and telephoned Jim Beach to confirm that he wanted to participate in Live Aid after all. And thus a last minute business meeting was arranged with the rest of Queen and none other than the Boomtown Rats' Bob Geldof in attendance.

"I know I'm late, but it'd really calm me down first... as if losing that song wasn't bad enough! What do I tell Deaky?!"

"You never know, he might have the music scribbled down somewhere" Phoebe suggested hopefully.

"It's not necessarily the melody, it is the lyrics I'm worried about...." Freddie's hand instinctively reached into his pocket for his box of cigarettes.

His tastebubs were itching for tobacco at such a stressful thought. He was yet to confront Monica about her secret unborn twin and find his missing song, and with such worries on his mind he didn't know how he was going to sit still in a business meeting for an hour...

Garden Lodge

"You should've told me that the sink was blocked before you tried to fix it yourself, Johnny!" Monica reprimanded her son, trying to shine her small torch down into the blocked plug hole of the kitchen sink.

"But I thought that I could make it go down the drain!" He made the same excuse for what felt like the hundredth time in the space of ten minutes.

Not long after Freddie and Phoebe had left for the Live Aid meeting, Monica found Johnny stretched into the kitchen sink and shoving crumbled up Rich Tea biscuits into the plug hole. Instead of preparing dinner she was bent over with her hair scraped back and sweat building up on her forehead, her arms growing tired as she used all the elbow grease that she had to unclog the pipe with the plunger.

"There was no blockage earlier, I don't understand," getting exasperated, she frantically twisted the taps on in the hopes that more water would force the blockage out of the trap, "I've told you before that if something goes wrong you tell Phoebe or myself, alright? ...Or even dad if we're not there"

"I was only trying to help" Johnny muttered sullenly.

"I know that, love. But you know for next time" she softened her voice as she grabbed the plunger back off of the windowsill.

"Cool, a manipulator arm!" Johnny snatched it from her before she had a chance to use it.

"Johnny, give it back!" She ordered, even though she felt like she was pushing jelly up a hill whenever she used it.

Johnny ignored her demands as he took the clean saucepan off the marble sideboard and put it on his head so that the handle was sticking forward, and poked the plunger in his hands into his mother's side as he robotically repeated, "Exterminate, exterminate!"

"What-Johnny, what are you doing?!" She tried to snatch off of him, but he dodged her again.

"I'm a Dalek," He jabbed her in the side again, "From Doctor Who!"