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!TW!

"What do we do now?"

Those that arrived at the hospital with Reggie have all been moved to a private waiting room.

Lorissa is sitting in the corner, her protruding belly barely covered by her tight t-shirt, sobbing into her hands.

Freya, Bill and Jen are slumped against the wall, defeated and feeling the loss of a soulmate.

Nobody answers Bill's question.

Freya looks around and tries to hold back tears as she relalises Reggie will never be sat with them again, slumped tiredly against a wall, and that QUEEN is probably no more.

"What happened?" Jen rasps out, clinging on to her elbows that are currently crossed tightly together over her stomach.

"We don't need to discuss that now," Bill answers, placing a hand on Lori's.

Lorissa pulls back, wiping furiously at her own brimming tears.

"My husband, the father of my child, is dead and Rosalia has announced it to the whole world. The least you could do for us and your deceased soulmate is to explain to his other soulmates what the hell happened. He was fine- our Reggie was fine, and now we'll never see him again."

Freya stares directly opposite her, no emotion visible on her face.

"Go on," she speaks up. "I know it's hard for you, but we deserve to know."

"We...We were shooting for the music video, as you know. You'd all just left. It was about ten people on set. I tripped over a wire on the way up to the stage. Reggie was worried because I groaned out in pain, so he came over to me. He started heaving a bit and leaning down towards me on the floor, clutching at his chest. I thought he was panicking about me falling, you know how he gets about blood, but he had a heart attack. As soon as the crew and I realised, we called 999. He didn't make it through the Ambulance ride, wouldn't come back when they shocked him..."

At that, everyone in the room goes completely still.

The only noise left, is Freya's light mix of laughter and shocked gasps.

Lorissa looks up with broken eyes, staring at her long-term friend who has already become estranged from one soulmate and has now lost one too. She knew, in her heart, that the only person in the world that Reg loved the same as her and their unborn child, was Freyalindaly Zahid Bulsanya-Mercury.

The two of them were the iconic duo, alongside the only other duo, Jen and Bill.

She lost her biological parents, after years of abuse from them. She was emotionally abused by her soulmate. And the one thing Freya never did, was ask for help with these things.

"Frey, I need you to promise me something," Lorissa chokes out as Freya's laughter quietens down.

"Yes?" Freya responds, trying to keep to laughter instead of tears, even throughout the circumstances.

"Promise me you'll be our son's godmother. Even if Reggie isn't here...Please."

At that, the lead singer of a now broken rather than broken-up band, begins to sob.

"Of course, I will."

Jen and Bill crack slight smiles, seeing the glimmer of hope Reggie's son now brings.

"What were you doing here?" Jen asks.

"What do you mean?" Bill inquires.

"Well, Freya was here before we were, which is impossible because she found out last."

Lorissa looks back to her best friend, her face twisting into slight horror.

"Frey...You're doing alright, aren't you? You haven't had any health scares recently?"

Freya shakes her head.

"No, I haven't. I'm completely healthy, Lor. My dad has stage four throat cancer. We're going to lose him just as we did Reggie. He has four months."

Jen, Lor and Bill straighten up, eyes widening and another bout of tears springing from their now swollen and tired eyes.

"No, no, no, no," Jen cries, digging her fingernails into her skin. "They're too young! This isn't how it was supposed to happen! Reggie was twenty-two! Only just! M-Micheal, he's fourty-nine! They were supposed to have decades longer. I...I can't...I can't breathe."

Freya gets up from the floor, and with Jen's permission, gives her a hug.

Penelope and Perrie arrive, both of them with terrified facial expressions, and shaking hands.

"No," Perrie mutters as she sees the room 's inhabitants' states. "Not him."

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"Come inside, Sweetie. It's cold out there."

Freya doesn't move a muscle.

"Please, my Queen, you have not spoken to us since...Since the day you came home from London."

"There's not much to say. Reggie is dead, my adoptive father is about to be dead, and millions of people won't stop pestering me online and in person about it."

Tony sighs, looking around at his mates in worry, trying urgently to get her away from the cold balcony.

"We know- especially with news of our mating to you coming into the limelight. I don't particularly like people, baby girl, but I certainly suspected more common decency. To hound someone over their personal life is not only intrusive, but inhumane."

"Have you ever thought about jumping?" Freya asks, hands tracing the balcony railings.

"Sorry?" Bucky gulps.

"Jumping from the balcony. I reckon it would only be about a three second fall, harsh impact and then simply...death."

Natasha gets up from her seat on the couch, pulling a blanket with her and going to place a blanket around Freya.

"I have not," everyone answers, knowing full-well that after they found their mates, life was much better for them.

"I have," their number one soulmate confides, breaking everybody's hearts as her voice cracks.

"I always wondered, with my parents having been how they were..."

The Avengers quieten down as she mentions family- something she has never truly opened up about.

"My mother, she tried committing four times that I can recall and maybe a few times before I was old enough to remember. She'd take one or two pills more than she should have, drink a glass or nine more of Vodka, hoping to choke...The only time I can ever truly picture, though, is the balcony."

Clint fumbles nervously with his fingers, not liking the haunted tone in his darling's voice.

She sounded so disconnected- to the extent where one would think she was sleepwalking.

"Mum was having a cigarette, trying to tap some of the ashes out as she cried. We were about to lose our rented one-bedroom apartment below Jen, Reg and Bill's floor. I'd learnt to stay away from her by then: she had something wrong with her...with her behaviour. She was turbulent, one might say. Her mood could change during the same sentence."

As she speaks, Bruce starts to understand.

"We later found out that she had bipolar disorder, a mental health disorder that prevented her from feeling the same way others might. I got tested, but never looked at my results. I wanted to feel the validity of my emotions without judgment or diagnosis."

"What does this have to do with the balcony-"

"I was sixteen, almost seventeen. Mum finished her cigarette and threw it off the balcony, while it was still in her hand. She threw herself off."

Peter cries out in disbelief.

"I always wondered if, in her last moments, she'd regretted it. If just before she hit the ground, she realised that she didn't want to die, and that her daughter didn't want her to either..That she had something, someone to live for."

Shaking herself out of it, Freya laughs bitterly.

"I suppose it was already too late for regret, though, because she'd already hit the concrete. Thud, and she was dead."

Silence.

"I might not have inherited the bipolar disorder, but I certainly did get the suicidal tendencies and clinical depression from her. I went to a therapist once in my entire life, and he could tell at least as much as that."

Natasha finally leads her back to the couch sitting her next to Tony and Pietro.

"We're sorry, my love. We knew your story, but not how much of it you'd seen...I suppose, losing Reggie must be hard for you in many ways. Brings back memories, perhaps?"

Mercury leans into Tony, thankful for his comforting touch and Loki's kind smile from opposite.

"MY LADY, WE ARE HERE TO HELP YOU THROUGH THIS. IF I MAY BE PERMITTED, HOWEVER, I DO HAVE A QUESTION OR TWO."

"Go ahead, Thunder Crackle."

"FIRSTLY, FAIR MAIDEN, I WOULD LIKE TO ASK ABOUT YOUR SO-CALLED, CLINICAL DEPRESSION. IS THERE ANYTHING WE MAY HELP WITH? I DO NOT WISH TO WATCH YOU SUFFER."

"That's sweet of you. I-I think you just being here with me makes me happier. It's not like I can't feel love, happiness and excitement, it's just that I'll always feel a layer of sadness beneath it. I'm a sad heart but also a happy spirit. I'm so thankful to finally have mates that try to understand that. Liam John Trix..."

Her soulmates eyes darken and narrow, never having heard his real name before.

"He...He didn't even try to understand. I was supposed to laugh when he laughed, cry when he cried and feel like sex if he was in the mood..."

"But he never..." T'Challa trails of, horrified by the thought of betraying a soulmate like that- a woman, full stop.

"He did. That's why I haven't...I don't..."

"It's okay, we don't have to talk about that today," Shuri reassures, calming her now on-edge mate.

"What was your second question, Thor?"

"INDEED. IT HAS NOW BEEN THREE AND A HALF DAYS SINCE SIR REGINALD MAY TAYLOR's PASSING. HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE BAND? I KNOW IT IS SOON, BUT I EXPECT LADY ROSALIA WILL BE AWAITING YOUR COMMANDS."

"She is," The distressed blonde sighs. "We have agreed on what Reggie would have wanted. We'll keep going. Jen and I actually sent a few messages for a song called "The Show Must Go On" yesterday- It's for our album coming out in a few months from now. We'll invite drummers on tour, but in the studio, it will only be us playing his kit. It's Reginald's place in the band- that's not being taken by anyone, as far as we are concerned."

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The Show Must Go On
Jen & Frey

Empty Spaces, what are we living for?

Abandoned places? I guess we know the score.

On and on

Does anybody know what we are living for?

Another Hero? Another mindless crime?

Behind the curtain, in the pantomime.

Hold the line.

Does anybody want to take it anymore?

The show must go on x 2

Inside my heart is breaking, my makeup may be flaking, but my smile still stays on...

edited: 2023