"Hollywood Diner, Roxanne speaking, how can I help you?"
"Rox?"
"John?" her brow furrows, "John, hey!"
"Listen," he sounds rushed, "Roxy, I know that this is short notice but is there any way that you could possibly pick us up at the airport?"
"The airport?" she repeats, "I-what do you mean the airport?"
"We're coming home," he tells her and her mouth drops, "Tonight."
"What? Why? I thought the tour had another month?"
"It does," he confirms, "But Brian's sick. We're not going to be finishing it."
"Sick?"
She's repeating a lot of what he's saying, she knows that but she's very, very confused.
"Yeah. Love, listen, I'm going to have to go, were going to the airport in a bit but the plane is due to arrive in London at one."
"In the morning?"
"Yeah," she hears the receiver being covered by his hand as someone else talks to him on the other end of the line, "Paul wants to know if you'll take Brian to the hospital? The minibus will take the rest of us home."
"The hospital? John, what's going on? You're scaring me."
"I wish I had time to tell you love but I don't. I'll explain everything when I see you."
"Okay," she frowns, "I...I guess I'll see you later then."
"I love you," he murmurs and her frown turns into a small smile.
"I love you too."
Roxy hangs up and just stares at the phone in front of her.
How sick could he be? That was what she wanted to know but she's gutted for them, really, she is. John was just getting into the swing of things and everything seemed to be finally going right for them.
"You alright?"
She turns to their new cook, Jason, who's sitting at the counter with her lunch, "That was John. He says they're coming home tonight."
"What? Why?"
"He says that Brian's sick."
"Oh really?" Jason frowns, "That's too bad. Did he say what was wrong with him?"
"No, he didn't have time to say. They're heading to the airport."
"It must be bad though if they're having to come home."
Roxy starts wiping the counter, "That's what I was thinking. I'm picking Brian up tonight and taking him to the hospital...I just don't know how bad a state he's going to be in."
"Hospital? You've to take him to the hospital?"
She nods, "Straight there. A minibus will take the rest of them home."
"That sucks," Jason mumbles and she nods absentmindedly, deciding that she'll set off for the airport at midnight - it won't take her that long to get there, especially at that time of night and she's hoping that the flight will come in earlier.
"Yeah, it does."
++|++
Instead of coming in early like she'd hoped it would, the flight comes in almost an hour late. Roxy's reading a magazine that she'd bought from the WHSmith and as she reads, she glances up at the arrivals board every so often as she shifts every so often in the uncomfortable seats but when she sees that, at 2:15 am, that they've landed, she tosses the magazine onto the seat beside her and makes for arrivals.
If this had been under any other circumstances, she would probably have made a sign - a really cheesy sign with the band's name on it but hey, she's sure that there would be other tours.
When the doors open and all the weary travellers spill into the waiting area, Roxy's up on her tiptoes trying to spot them.
And then she sees John; he's in one of his favourite sweater vests, looking absolutely exhausted but when he hears her shouting his name excitedly, he can't help but perk up slightly.
It's been a whole month since he's seen her.
Roxy rushes toward him, weaving in and out of the other people that are around and thankfully, he drops his bag before she reaches him.
"Hey!" he grins as she throws her arms and legs around him, making him stumble back a few steps.
"I've missed you!" she cries, leaning in to kiss him but he moves his head back, making her frown.
"Believe me," he murmurs as he lets her return her feet to the floor, "There's nothing more I'd like to do more than kiss you but I've been on a plane for seven-plus hours. 'm not exactly at my freshest,"
Roxanne pulls a face but stands on her toes so she can kiss his cheek instead - that would have to do for now.
"Am I getting a hug, Nessie?"
Another squeal leaves her as Roger appears beside them and before he can blink, Roxy's hugging him just as tight and he smiles, ruffling her hair when she lets him go.
"Did you miss us?"
"I did," she says sincerely, "Now, where's Brian?"
"Freddie and Paul are helping him from the plane. Decided to wait till everyone else was off," Roger explains and she feels a smile tugging at her lips as John takes her hand in his own.
"How bad is it? What's wrong with him?"
"It's pretty bad," John frowns, "They reckon he's got hepatitis."
"Jesus," she whispers, "Poor Brian. And I'm sorry that you had to come home early."
Shrugging, Roger picks up his bag, "Can't be helped. Paul did ask us if we wanted to go on without him but we couldn't. Bri's health is more important."
Speaking of Brian, the doors open and there he is; practically being held up by both Paul and Freddie. They've put a ridiculously large hat on him to keep him somewhat hidden from prying eyes but Roxy can tell that he's not well. In fact, she'd even say that he looks a little bit yellow.
"Roxanne," Paul greets, "Thank you so much for doing this,"
"It's alright," she murmurs and Freddie moves away from the guitarist so she can take his place.
"I had the label ring ahead before we boarded to let them know that he'd be coming in."
"Okay," she nods, "What about his stuff?"
"We'll deal with that, darling," Freddie smiles, kissing her cheek, "You just get him to the hospital."
"You might wanna get yourselves a vaccination while you're doing there," Roger tells her, "We all got one."
Roxy makes eye contact with John to see him nodding, "Great, thanks for that, Roger." She then fishes the keys for her flat from her pocket and hands them to John.
"I'll see you when you come home," he nods and she leaves Brian in Paul's capable hold for just a second so she can kiss his cheek again, "Welcome home."
++|++
Like Paul had said, the hospital was expecting them and when Roxy finally managed to get Brian inside and someone brought them a wheelchair, they took him off to get admitted and looked over while a rather stern-looking nurse grabbed hold of her arm and hauled her into a small cubicle, where she got the vaccination that Roger was talking about.
"A real Florence Nightingale that one," she mutters as she exits from the room not ten minutes later, rubbing her arm where she's sure that there will be a bruise.
Brian's on the brink of sleep when she finally finds his room and he manages to give her a hint of a smile as she sits down on the chair beside the bed.
"You should get some rest," Roxy whispers, giving him her own tired smile and he nods.
"Thanks, Rox," he breathes, "Know that this probably isn't how you planned on spending your evening."
"Shut up, Brian," Roxanne instructs softly, "And go to sleep."
"You're the boss."
Her plan was to wait until he fell asleep before taking her exit but it wasn't long before she too was starting to doze off. She's almost there, she can feel herself on the edge and that's when the door crashes open and she swears that she almost has a heart attack as she opens her eyes again.
She expected a lot of things but whar's in front of her, that certainly wasn't one of them.
Kayla's stood at the foot of Brian's bed, clad in a pair of sausage dog pyjamas and a dressing gown.
Roxy quickly stands (perhaps she was dreaming) and Kayla moves to take her now vacant chair.
"I knew it," she whispers, running a hand through her wild air, "I knew he didn't sound right the other day."
Roxy's still staring at her.
She takes Brian's hand, ignoring Roxanne as she tries to warn her that he might be contagious, "Why didn't he say anything?"
"Uh, Kayla?" she barely glances at the blonde when she speaks, "What are you doing here?"
"Paul rang me," she murmurs, reaching up a hand to push some of Brian's hair from his forehead, "Told me you were heading here."
"Why did he ring you?"
"Brian asked him to."
"Why..." she trails off, a look of realisation coming across her face and Kayla nods. So Roxy clears her throat and starts gathering her jacket and bag, "Right, well...I guess I'll just be going now."
Again, Kayla barely looks up at her and so she quietly takes her leave, closing the door softly behind her, a smile tugging at her lips as she makes her way down the corridor.
Well, when did that happen?