You Take My Breath Away - Brian May

10. Save Me

Lettie wasn't watching - no, seriously she wasn't. She had been walking by when she noticed Brian out on the dock overlooking the lake - it appeared that they were the only two awake so far. 

He had been sitting in a lawn chair on the dock, again with his giant textbook. She was about to call good morning to him when he set the book down on the chair, stripped off his shirt, kicked off his shoes, and dove into the lake.

She watched him disappear until  his head popped out of the water a few moments later. He threw his head back, his hair flipping and flicking droplets of water all around him. He looked like a merman. 

Okay, now  she was watching.  She suddenly made this realization, so she hurried away into the kitchen to put the kettle on. 

A little while later Tina came downstairs wearing one of Tim's shirts, and Mary and Freddie came down a few minutes later hand-in-hand.

"Has anyone seen my shirt?" Tim entered the kitchen. Tina just smiled over the rim of her teacup at him. 

Roger snorted with laugher and came up behind Tim, patting him  on the shoulder. 

Brian was the last one to make an appearance in the kitchen.  He came into the room in a pair of dry trousers, the same shirt, and dabbing his still-wet hair with a towel.

"Hey Brian, go skinny dipping?" asked Roger.

Lettie could feel herself blush at this, especially with the knowledge that she had seen him swimming.  

"Dipping, not skinny. I needed to take a break from my thesis."

"We all need a break from your thesis."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Come on, Mate, have some fun! We're on a weekend trip! You're letting your schoolwork consume you."

"It's my thesis for my Graduate degree."

"Yeah, but still. You're being very boring."

"Like how Lettie is letting the prospects of her job consume her," put in Tina.

"Enough from you," Lettie shot back. 

"You two can be boring together."

"Piss off, Tina."

Later, Lettie found Brian in the same place as earlier on the docks. He had set up a card table and was scribbling away in his notebook, pouring over some loose pages.

"Hi," she called as she approached.

"Hi." He looked up from his work and smiled at her.

"So, how far along are you in your graduate thesis?"

He gave a half-sigh, half-chuckle and looked down at the scattering of papers before him. "Well, this is an early draft of the first chapter - at least so far... But I might- 

Wooosh!

He didn't get to finish.  A sudden gust of wind snatched the loose papers from the table and blew them away - right into the open water. 

The early draft of Brian's thesis was now taking a swim in the lake!

They both stood for a moment, watching in horror as the pages floated across the water, before Lettie took off running down the docks. "We can still save it!"

Brian watched, jaw agape, as, with no hesitation, she took off her jacket, slipped off her boots, and jumped into the lake after the runaway pages.