Being that she was only five weeks pregnant, Roxanne and John were waiting until the twenty-week mark before even thinking about telling people and normally, that would be quite difficult but with the band being on their break, they weren't seeing their friends as much as normal and so, that was a lot easier.
The pregnancy itself, that was shaping up to be hard. Unlike with Arthur, the morning sickness started pretty much straight away and it was just as horrible as she remembered. To go along with the sickness (which Roxanne thinks should be changed to all-day sickness), she had the most terrible heartburn and she was always, always tired.
That's why John offered to take Arthur to the park that afternoon; to give her the chance to relax.
She's literally just sat down on the couch with a cup of tea and a couple of biscuits when there's a knock on the door.
"Are you kidding me?" she grumbles and before she can even get up again, she hears the door opening.
"Nessie?"
Oh, thank god.
"In the living room," she calls, picking up her mug of tea as both Roger and Rebecca step into the room.
"Wow," Roger comments, "You look like shit."
"Roger," Becca scolds, giving Roxy a once over herself, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," she waves a dismissive hand, "This is a pleasant surprise. What are you two doing here?"
"We were out for a drive," Roger says as he sits down in the armchair, Becca taking a seat on the arm of it, "And I thought that we hadn't seen Arthur in a while."
"I hope it's alright," Rebecca chimes in, "I did tell him to phone first."
"It's fine," Roxy smiles, "John's taken him to the park but they shouldn't be too long in coming back."
"That's alright," Roger gets comfortable, "Besides, we want to talk to you about something anyway."
"Oh?"
The two look at each other before Rebecca speaks, "It's about our wedding."
"Oh!" Roxy perks up a little bit, sitting up on the couch to give them her full attention, "What about it? Are you going to start planning?"
"Not quite," Becca smiles.
"We've decided," Roger pipes up, "That we want to get married as soon as possible."
"No fuss,"
"No fancy ceremony," he nods, "Kinda like what you and John did."
"Alright," Roxy nods, "You wanna do it at Gretna Green?"
"Not Gretna," Rebecca shakes her head, "We've actually booked a registry office for next week."
"Next week?!"
They nod excitedly, "And we were wondering if you could maybe help us."
Roxanne nods again, "Yeah, of course. What do you need help with?"
"Well, Becca stupidly asked Freddie to plan a party for us, it's going to be in the hotel across from the place." Rebecca looks sheepish as he speaks, "So, can you possibly help him with that? Well, we say help...supervise is a better word."
"You want me to supervise Freddie Mercury in party planning?" she asks as Roger gets up to go make some coffee, "Who do you think I am? What would you need me to do?"
"Just keep him in check," Rebecca looks desperate, "Make sure he doesn't invite too many people, make sure that it's all people we know."
"So what brought on the sudden need to get married?" Roxanne asks, sipping at her tea, "Becca, I thought that your mum was looking forward to the big lavish wedding?"
The brunette shrugs, "That's - it's not my style. I mean, people looking at me-"
"It's not something that either of us would enjoy," Roger says, leaning against the doorframe, "We don't want some big affair with Aunts and Uncles that we don't like. Cousins hat we haven't seen in years..."
Roxanne smiles as he returns to stand by the chair, which Becca is now sitting in, leaning down to kiss her forehead before looking at his cousin.
"I just wanna marry her, Rox."
She doesn't realise that she's crying until the tears drip from her chin and onto her hand. "Oh," she says, quickly wiping under her eyes but it's too late, they'd already seen them, "'m sorry."
"Rox, are you sure you're alright?" Rebecca asks as Roger hands her a couple of tissues.
"I'm fine," she nods, wiping under her eyes once more, "I just...I never thought I'd see the day that Roger got married."
"Oh, fuck off, Nessie."
Both Becca and Roxy laugh and she tosses her tissue onto the coffee table, "So you just need me to supervise Mr Mercury?"
"Yeah, but don't just stand there and make it obvious that you're watching him. Help him with setting up tables or something."
Shit. Shit, shit, shit. She wasn't going to be much help if it was all heavy lifting. She'd basically be sitting there watching everyone else work.
"Your parents know though, right?" she suddenly asks, "You've told them?"
"We decided we want to keep it a secret," Rebecca grins, taking hold of Roger's hand, "A surprise."
"So we'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone."
She nods, looking towards the door as John chooses that moment to return with Arthur and that takes all the attention off of her.
"Hey," Roger grins as the little boy walks into the room on wobbly legs, eyes lighting up at the sight of visitors. Crouching down, Roger waits patiently for Arthur to reach him before he's scooping him up into his arms.
Arthur grins and looks around him to Rebecca, "Bec! Bec!"
"Hi," she says, her voice in a tone that she keeps for the little boy and the little boy only, "Look at you! You're getting so big!"
John pops his head around the door, curious as to who's visiting but the first thing he notices is that Roxanne is crying.
"You alright?" he mouths, raising an eyebrow when she nods.
"Tell you later," she shrugs and he nods, leaving it at that before greeting Roger and Becca.
"What are you doing here?" he asks, tugging off his jumper and Roger gives Roxy and knowing look.
"Just wanted to come by and see this little one. I've put the kettle on. Do you want anything?" Roger answers, handing Arthur over to Becca.
The two of them disappear into the kitchen and Rebecca comes to sit on the couch beside her, "Will you help?"
"Of course I will, Becca."
"Thank you," she says in relief, "He says he's going to go down to the hotel tomorrow."
"I'll ring him with some ruse tonight." Roxy nods, "Don't worry, your party is in safe hands."
++|++
Once Roger and Rebecca left, John made dinner while Roxanne lay on the couch with Arthur cuddled in beside her, both of their attention on the TV which was playing Lady and the Tramp for the first time and when John pops his head around the door, he can't help but laugh quietly at how invested the pair of them are.
He puts the dinner onto simmer and then joins them, smiling as Amos leaps up onto his lap.
"Puppy," Arthur murmurs as Lady wonders what is a baby? and Roxanne grins.
"Yeah, that's a puppy. Good job, buddy," she kisses his dark hair as the film goes to adverts.
John watches on with a fond smile as she continues to play with his hair, giggling quietly when the little boy hums quietly. He really couldn't wait to do all of this all over again.
++|++
i am currently working on the 700k celebration chapter for STL and i *hope* to have it up by tomorrow. i won't lie, it doesn't feel like a celebration but i feel like i had to write about freddie's death and leading up to and stuff. i didn't like how i left it.
it's gonna be sad, i've cried already but i hope you'll like it :)