Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy (JoeMazzello!JohnDeacon fanfic)

forty three

Oh well that, that they could definitely do.

++|++

The following morning, they were in the dining area having a bite to eat when the phone rang from through in the reception and her mum quickly rushed out to answer it, returning a few minutes later, "John, it's for you."

"Me?" he shares a glance with Roxanne, "Who is it?"

"It's Roger. Says he wanted to tell you about a meeting? Apparently it's earlier than they first thought on Monday. You might have to catch an earlier train."

"Oh," he pushes back from the table, "Excuse me,"

"Phone's just on the desk, son." Cathy smiles, patting his shoulder as he walks by her.

As she said, the phone's on the desk and John leans against it to pick it up, "Rog?"

"Deaky," he hears the panic in his voice, "Deaky, he got out. He's gone."

"What?" he's very confused, "Cathy said something about a change to the mee-"

"Forget about the bloody meeting," Roger interrupts, "The meeting is the same as it was when you left but listen, he got out."

"Who got out? Roger, you're not-"

"Amos," he interrupts again, "Amos got out."

"What?" John looks over his shoulder to see that Roxanne isn't listening. Instead, she's luckily distracted by a little boy that is obviously the son of one of the other guests, "What do you mean he got out?"

"He ran through Rebecca's legs when we came round to feed them," he's freaking out and John can imagine him running his hands through his hair and all sorts, "Nessie's going to kill me. She gave me one fucking job!"

"Rog, calm down," John hisses, "He's not going to get very far, is he?"

"What?"

"It's a secure building, isn't it? A locked door and unless he's got a key attached to his collar, I don't think he'll be getting out any time soon."

"You're right," Roger mumbles, "Yeah, you're right. Can't have gone too far-"

"I got him!" John hears Rebecca call and Roger sighs in relief, "He put up a hell of a fight but I got him."

"Jesus Christ. Rebecca, love, look at your arm!"

John stares at the receiver when the line goes dead. He startled when Roxanne places her hand on his shoulder, looking down to see her looking at him worriedly, "Is everything okay?"

John nods, resting his hand on hers as he placed the phone back down, "Everything's fine. Are you almost done?"

Roxanne smiles, "Yeah, I just want to have a quick shower and then we can go."

++|++

Getting to the cave was a little bit of a trek and really, Roxanne should have warned John that maybe the trainers he was wearing weren't the best shoes to walk in for so long.
Her mum had packed them lunch, saying that they'd be hungry by the time they got there and after the number of rocks they'd scrambled over, they were both glad she had.  

It was surprisingly light in the cave but John thinks that it's just because of the sunlight coming in and Roxanne leads him along the edge of it to a little island. 

"I used to sit here for hours when I was little," she tells him, "Mum and dad didn't like it when I came out here, especially if I was on my own."

"How old were you?"

"Eight, maybe nine. I remember coming down one day when I knew that the tide was way out, so I had plenty of time to explore. It was just over there," she points to a spot in the middle of the cave, "That I found this egg."

"An egg?" he repeats. 

"Yep. And I remember I got so excited, I was thinking that maybe I'd found a water horse."

"A...a what?" 

"It's like a Kelpie," she explains, "A mythological creature that haunts rivers or streams."

"And you thought it was in the ocean?"

"I was nine," she murmurs, leaning against him as he helps himself to the sandwiches that Cathy had made.

He watches her as she continues to tell him her story; how she took the egg home and put it in the shed out the back so she could look after it when it hatched, only to be disappointed when she found that it was only a bird.

"You're not honestly telling me that you actually thought it was going to be a water horse."

"I did!" she nods, "Honestly, John you should have seen my face. I was gutted."

He can just imagine a little Roxy, all excited when the egg showed its first signs of hatching. He can imagine her crying when she realised that it was just a bird.

"I took care of it though," she nods, "I went to the library and spent almost two hours copying pages from textbooks."

He can imagine her doting on it; hand-feeding the creature and making sure that it was warm enough.

"You're just a big softy, aren't you?" he murmurs, kissing her forehead and she grins up at him. 

They sit in the cave for a little over an hour; talking and eating and John makes a mental note to thank Cathy for the food and it isn't long before Roxanne grabs hold of John's wrist to look at his watch. 

"Shit," she mumbles, "Come on, we need to get going. The tide will be coming in."

"Now?" he asks. He doesn't know much about the sea and how the tides work but he would have thought three in the afternoon a little early, "I thought they came in at night."

"There's two," she explains, quickly packing up the basket, "It'll go back out again in a couple of hours but I'd rather not be stuck here." 

"Noted," he hums, getting up from the uncomfortable rock that they're sat on, taking her hand to lead her back towards the mouth of the cave. 

They head back the way they came, hand in hand though they come to a halt when they climb back over some of the rocks, seeing that between where they are and where they need to get to, is now filled with shallow water...well, Roxanne thinks it'll actually come up to their knees. 

"No," she groans, throwing her head back in exasperation, "God, I should have known that this was a bad day to wear my favourite trainers. Ah, Roxanne, you're going to the beach? Yes, wear your white converse. Idiot." 

John stays silent for a couple of moments before he's handing her the basket, "Hold this."

"John!" she yells as he hops down into the water, turning around so his back is to her, "What on earth are you doing?!" 

"Can't have you getting those shoes wet, can we?" he asks, looking over his shoulder at her to give her a smile. 

As gently as she can, she jumps onto his back and wraps her arms around his neck, pressing a kiss to his cheek, "What did I do to deserve you?" 

John smiles softly as she rests her head on his shoulder, slowly wading through the water and Roxanne swears she feels her heart melt. Not many people would do this for someone. 

God, she loves him.