Time Passages (Queen or Freddie Mercury Fanfic)

Lab Rats: Damsel in Distress

Dr. Ling sighed loudly enough for Stuart to hear.  He rolled his eyes; he'd heard that sigh enough to know what it meant.  As Gabe would say, I'm being "judged" again.

"What's wrong?" Stuart asked.

Dr. Ling shook her head.  "Nothing."

"Come on, just say it, you've been huffing like that since you got here.  What's the matter?"

She looked at him.  "Only- thinking of how easily all this could have been prevented if you hadn't let in a child."

"He wasn't supposed to know how to get in.  We have cameras, and a heavy duty lock, you've seen it-"

"And yet, he found a way inside the lab.  Managed to manipulate the controls all by himself-"

"He had help," he protested lamely.  "Some guy let him in-"

"And you have record of this?  Aside of the boy's word?"

Stuart bit his tongue, left the question unanswered.  Lady, will you just get what you came for and tell us what we need to do, so you can go?

Dr. Ling was a woman of her word.  She showed up at Preus Hall right on time, and right after the necessary briefing took straight to the investigation.  Ever since ten o'clock that morning, she and her subordinates had been filing through the data, scanning the reports, inspecting the machine itself.  The woman may have been even more thorough than Stuart when it came to her profession and her research; K had to admit, he was impressed- especially when she passive-aggressively chewed out Dr. C for bypassing the teams, albeit with George's permission, last night, in sending Freddie's consciousness home without taking any of the established precautions.

Even more startling, perhaps, was how little it meant to Ling that Freddie Mercury was the man they had brought forth from the past.  The legendary showman, the rock god, harbored no importance in her eyes; it would seem she knew next to nothing about music to begin with (music that wasn't classical, anyway).  As far as she was concerned, he was just another gauche, foolish performer who contributed nothing of practical use to the world, aside of some silly songs and ridiculous music videos in the 1970s and 80s.  Her sole interest was ensuring he returned home, and the continuum could be released without a hitch.

"Look at all that stuff," Gabe marveled aloud, gesturing toward the yet-to-be-installed equipment they had brought along- foreign tools and technology that Dr. Ling referred solely to as "upgrades."  "What's it for?"

"Damned if I know; I don't speak Chinese," Dr. C admitted, for that was the language the upgrades were riddled with, inside and out- and among the American team, only Stuart was fluent, so only he knew what was actually going on thus far.  "As long as it gets Bucky out of here tomorrow or sooner, I couldn't care less."

"I wish he'd stop calling him that," Madelyn whispered to Gabe.

Dr. C whirled.  "Sorry, Ms. Boyd, you say something?"

"Uh, nothing," she replied hastily.  "Just- talking to Gabe."

When C's back was turned, however, Gabe whispered back, "I actually watched the Queen movie on Netflix last night, the one with the guy who was in Mr. Robot?  It's called Bohemian Rhapsody."

"That guy played Freddie?"  Madelyn squinted.  "How did that work?"

"I don't know.  But that's who they picked."

"Huh.  So was it good?"

"Hey, you two," Stuart called from where he and Dr. Ling were standing, inside Speck's open compartment, "can we save water cooler conversation for the water cooler, please?"