Every time you make a move

24, pt I

In a studio somewhere in London...

"The backlight was in frame," Monica pointed to the monitor. "It's going to need reshot."

"Very well. Theo, you happy to do one more take?" The assistant director turned to Monica's new boss Mr Cohen.

He pulled his hand away from his stubbly chin and nodded, "Uh, yeah, maybe two or three more. Just for the poor guys in post."

"Will this day ever end?" Monica looked at her watch as the crew rushed about in studio, setting everything back to the way it was for the take.

She had to collect her brother from the station within the next hour. Lenny was visiting for her 24th birthday, which was in fact the next day.

Of course, one month in and she loved her new job. She'd built a good ethos with the people around her (if they were hired regulars), her boss was nice, and she developed a good enough understanding of what happened on a set; She in fact found that in a lot of ways it wasn't much different to the music industry when Queen were preparing a tour or preparing to shoot a promotional video. A few weeks in and she'd already worked on a few commercials under Theo's direction, one for a toothpaste, a couple of others for insurance. It offered a great distraction from the fact that her two children were growing up fast.

On the other hand, the inflexible and unpredictable side of things meant that Freddie or Phoebe was suddenly called to mind Johnny and Roshni at the music studio or at home for however long she was going to be dragged out by Theo for the day right through to the middle of the night.

She marked the scene and take number on the clapperboard as Theo ushered more crew members to intervene. Within moments the set up was back and ready, and Monica jumped back into her spot in the front of the lens, uttering the project name, scene and take number before Theo briskly called, "ACTION!"

*****
Paddington Station, later on

Monica had nothing to do other then sit in the waiting area of the main entrance. She was flustered when she arrived, but she didn't care. She didn't want her brother wandering around lost in a station of a major European city.

It was 7:25 now, and Lenny was due five minutes before.

She anxiously looked back at the pile of glossy magazines sitting on the small table beside her.

"Don't touch that rag," she scolded herself. "You already know what sort of stuff is in there!"

But nothing better than watching the tides of people passing through the entrance to the train station was going to distract her from her worries. Waiting for Lenny was beginning to feel like waiting in the dentists' office, so she picked it up, skipping to the gossip pages to see what morsels lay there about her and her small family.

She never took them as seriously as the tabloids or front pages of newspapers, for all the magazine ever did was document what she or Freddie was wearing, and when they were put and about and where they were taking their two small children etc. Thankfully, months before, the picture of Johnny and Roshni alongside the deacon children in the ball pool at Gambado never appeared; the Garden Lodge assumed that no press company would buy it due to how invasive it was...

...Not forgetting that the paparazzi had a field day when she cut her hair shoulder length and in 1980 when Freddie appeared with a moustache and image overhaul.

"Ahhh, first sighting of the week," she eventually stumbled across an image of her with Johnny and Roshni (their faces blurred, much to her relief), walking them back from school on her day off.