VALERIE HAD RECENTLY quit her job at the library. She'd been allowed to take many books that the library was getting rid of, so she had quite a hefty amount of books. 

    "Half of what you got is the works of Edgar Allan Poe," John said as he went through the large piles of books in her piano room. It was one day before they were leaving for Rockfield,  and Valerie and John had just opened a bottle of wine.
    
    He had come over to visit her and to go swimming in the pool, and had of course been dragged into looking at Valerie's collection of books.

"And? Edgar Allan Poe is one of my favourite authors. The Tell Tale Heart? Mystification? Lenore? Please tell me you've at least heard of Lenore," Valerie said from where she was sitting behind John, her, her cheek pressed against his shoulder and her arms wrapped around his waist as she watched him flip through the books.

    "Um, I haven't. But I'm very well acquainted with The Raven." John said to Valerie, as he gave her hand a light squeeze.
   
     "Only because you had to read it for a project in English, yeah?" Valerie said, as John stood up to stretch.

     "Yes, you're quite right. Is Eddy Poe your favourite author?"  John asked as he dragged Valerie off the bed and pulled her into him, his arms resting loosely around her waist.

    "Definitely. Lenore is one of my favourite poems of his." Valerie replied as she leaned her head against his chest.

     "You'll have to read it to me one day. I'm not much of an Edgar Allan Poe fan. The works of Jules Verne are much more appealing because of the science fiction aspect. That's what I expect you to lean towards, but I guess not." John said as he ran his fingers through her red hair.

     "I prefer the more macabre and melancholy feel of Edgar Allan Poe to the excitement of sci-fi, as surprising as that is." Valerie replied to him as he started to sway her around, slow dancing with her to no music.

     "Remember when we went to that jazz club with Roger and Periwinkle,  and you dragged me out to the dance floor?"  John reminisced with a smile.

     "Of course I do. We ran into many people that night." Valerie said, recalling the memory of the two of them dancing around foolishly during the upbeat songs, and trying to make each other laugh during the slow dances, the two of them pressed together much like they were now.

     "It was the most fun I've ever had. We must go back to that club sometime,"

    "Definitely. We'll rock that place apart and dance until we can't feel our feet. We'll-"

    "Okay, love, before you get any more poetic with me, yes. We should. It'll be a lot of fun, considering how I'm a much better dancer than you are." John said with a smirk as Valerie pushed away from John lightly,  though not very far.

     "Whoa whoa, John. That is a very tall assumption! You are not a better dancer than me, lovey." Valerie said, spinning away from John and wrinkling her nose at him.

"I am, and you know it." John said, going over to Valerie and trying to embrace her again, to which she spun away from again.

"Oh no, don't you try to tell me you're better at dancing and then try to pull me in for a kiss. I simply won't have it," Valerie said with a laugh.

"No? Then perhaps some tickling might convince you." John said, creeping towards her. Valerie groaned loudly and started to back away.

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Try me," John said, starting after her. Valerie shrieked and giggled as she started to run about the house, getting away from John.

The two of them were laughing as they shouted at each other, running around the dining room and scaring her cat. Valerie ran past John and made her way up the stairs. She had almost reached her bedroom when John caught up to her and wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting her up and carrying her into the room.

"John! No!" Valerie shouted as he plopped her onto the bed, propping himself above her and kissing her nose lightly.

"Nope. I am a better dancer than you. Say it, and your suffering ends now," John said, trying not to smile.

"I'll never say it, but-" Valerie cut herself off, bursting into laughter as John started to tickle her sides.

    "Stop it!" She shrieked, unable to contain herself. She was very ticklish, and John used this to his advantage all the time.

"Not until you admit I'm a better dancer than you!"

"And bring shame upon my family? I'll never do it," Valerie said, in between laughs. John continued to tickle Valerie for a few more minutes until -

"Alright! I'll give. You're a much better dancer than me!" She exclaimed. John stopped tickling her, and she was left gasping for air, her sides aching from laughing so much.

     "I hate you." Valerie proclaimed, trying to wriggle away from John, who was still lightly holding her waist.

      "You love me,"

     "No, I don't."

     "Don't make me tickle you again," John threatened jokingly, leaning down to kiss Valerie.

     "Nope. Just because you tickled me, you're not getting a kiss." Valerie told him with mock sternness.

"Oh come on, love. Just one?"

Valerie rolled her eyes at him and laughed a bit. "You know 'just one' for you means 'give me every ounce of affection you can, because god dammit you are the most beautiful thing on this planet'...... right?" John said, making Valerie's cheeks go a bright shade of pink.

"Well, if you put it that way, it makes me want to give you more than one kiss."

     "I know, Val. Why do you think I put it that way?"  John asked her with a smile, leaning down to kiss her lightly, the two of them grinning like the love struck idiots that they were.

     "Weren't we going to go swimming?" John asked Valerie, who simply shrugged.

    "Swimming can wait just a bit, don't you think?"
*****

"Are you all packed up and ready to go?" Brian asked Valerie. It was early in the morning, and he had come with Roger to pick her up from her house.

   "Last I checked I was ready to go. Unless my clothing magically hopped out of my bag, then I am." Valerie replied in a sharp tone, not having had her ritualistic peppermint tea with honey to wake her up.

Not to mention, Paul would be accompanying them in the car, and it made her mood even more foul. That, and it was that time of the month for her, so she had larger mood swings than usual.

Brian, of course, knew all of this, and was prepared for anything; he knew how not to set her off, and he even took the liberty of buying plenty of the necessities for Valerie because that's just what he did.

Roger knew better than to make a remark about her mood, as it would probably make her even snippier. He'd made this mistake many times and had only gotten into fights with Valerie. 

"Okay then. Miami said he would come by every night to feed Bowie, and he'd water your plants every other day." Brian said as he grabbed one of Valerie's suitcases to help her out.

She had one suitcase and an extra backpack that contained all of her books, her songwriting notebook, her sketchbook, and two extra pouches that contained her pencils and one that had her pads.

"That's good. I'll have to pay him when we get back." Valerie said with a nod as she slung her backpack over one shoulder and started out of the sitting room, but not before she played a few notes on the piano.

She had started playing the piano more often, and would spontaneously write (terrible) songs for John whenever he had been around the past few days.

    Freddie was her teacher, and a fabulous one at that. Most times, it was very fun, but other times they got very serious with each other. Sometimes their intense piano lessons would turn into heart to hearts. She'd never known Freddie too well,  but now they knew each other much better.

Valerie, Brian, and Roger made their way out to the rather nice car where Paul was already waiting to drive them.

Valerie placed her suitcase in the trunk with Brian and Roger's before sitting in the backseat of the car with Brian, Roger perching in the front.

    "Are we all ready to go? Freddie and John are going to meet us there with Evan; we'll probably have pit stops together." Paul said as he started the car, a cigarette dangling from his lips.

"Yup, all ready to go." Brian said from the back as Valerie took a book from her backpack and opened it up.

    They pulled out of Valerie's driveway, and started down the road. They had been driving for about two hours when Valerie finally proclaimed she had to go to the bathroom.

"We're almost to our stop, just wait like..... ten minutes." Paul said calmly, much more patient with Valerie today. Perhaps he'd had a change of heart. But much more likely, Brian had told him to take it easy.

After about ten minutes, they stopped at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. It was rather empty except for John, Evan, and Freddie, a stray cat, and someone working inside the convenience store.

     "Good morning, love. How are you?" John asked Valerie kindly as they walked into the store together, leaning down to kiss her cheek.

"Miserable. My ovaries are giving me hell, and I didn't drink my peppermint tea to help aid the cramps." Valerie said as she made her way down an aisle to get some cookies and crisps.

"But other than that, I actually don't mind being in the car with Roger, Paul, and Brian. As unlikely as that seems. We've had fun playing twenty questions and guess the animal. Roger got into a fight with Brian once because Brian selected a gnat as his animal, but it's been lots of fun."

"Oh, that's something new. How do you reckon that happened?" John asked with a laugh.

"They're respecting the fact that I am a woman, and that I will hurt them if they piss me off." Valerie joked, though Roger overheard and made eye contact with John, nodding in agreement with her.

John laughed at this and left Valerie to get some drinks and more snacks for the road. Valerie gave the food she wanted to Brian while she went to the restroom, which was the whole reason why they came.

Upon turning down the hallway to go the restroom, however, Valerie spotted Freddie and Evan talking quietly, and very closely together. She blushed after a few seconds of watching them, realizing that they were not only talking, but sharing kisses every now and again. It's not like Valerie was a stranger to PDA, but this interruption felt different.

She felt bad for interrupting such an obviously private moment, and even worse when Freddie looked mortified to see her.

"Valerie!" He squeaked, speechless for once in his life; he was at a loss for words to explain what Valerie was witnessing.

"Let me explain-"

"You don't have to explain anything, Fred. It's no big deal." Valerie said, smiling ever so slightly to reassure him. He looked a bit relieved, but he was blushing furiously and still looked like he was going to be sick.

She moved slowly past them into the restroom, still blushing, processing most of what she had just witnessed and realizing - for surprisingly the first time ever - that Freddie most likely wasn't straight.
*****

"Finally! We're here!" Valerie exclaimed as she got out of the car, stretching her legs. Evan and Paul immediately started to get luggage out of the cars and pass them along to their owners.

Freddie, the entire time, didn't meet Valerie's eyes.

"Recording studio?" Roger asked, walking to a rooster that was perched on the wall and reaching out to touch it.

"Well, the idea was to get away from all distractions." Paul said with a sigh, shooting Valerie a look as he closed the trunk and started to lead everyone around.

He showed them the slightly rundown barn where they would be recording, a few other places Valerie was too distracted by the cows to notice what they were, and a house that they would be staying in.

"Right, let me show you your rooms," Paul said when they got into the house, which was actually rather nice looking.

It had a large living room with a piano in it, and one phone hanging on the wall in the hallway that lead to the kitchen. It was small, but the house was decorated quite nicely.

They all made their way upstairs as Paul showed everyone to their rooms, turning right back around. "John, Valerie, you two are sharing a room downstairs."

"Ah, downstairs. That way no one will hear you when-"

"Roger Taylor, I've had it with your bullshit. Especially after you made your animal a lynx. I'll drag all of your fur coats though cow shit. And don't say I won't do it, because I will." Valerie threatened before she apologized immediately, realizing she was overreacting. Roger was busy trying not to laugh, his baby blue eyes wide as he patted her on the shoulder.

John and Brian were trying not to laugh as well, and Freddie was already laughing into the sleeve of his jacket.

"She will do it," Brian said with a laugh, "she once put all my shoes in the kitchen cabinets, KNOWING I wouldn't look in those places. Safe to say, I borrowed Tim's shoes for two whole weeks."

"What'd you do to make her so mad?" John asked, laughing.

"That's a story for another time. I need a nap." Brian said with an airy laugh as he went back into his room.

Paul lead John and Valerie downstairs into their room, and Valerie had to try to be very kind about the sheer size of the room.

"Smaller rooms don't get nearly as cold." Paul said when he saw Valerie's look, leaving the two of them to get situated.

"Right. You'll take the bed, I'll take the floor?" John asked jokingly. The floor was covered by a horrendous shag carpet that was once a bright blue but had faded to an awful shade of gray.

"John, don't be ridiculous, we're sharing the bed." Valerie said with a laugh as she set her suitcase down on a nearby chair that was stuffed into a corner.

She sighed as she flopped backwards into the creaky bed that wasn't that uncomfortable, but rather small.

"I'm worried." She said after a moment of John attempting to fix a lopsided picture that was hanging on the wall to no avail.

He turned to look at her, concern present in his gaze as he lied down next to her, the two of them adjusting themselves so that they could lie together comfortably. It was a difficult task considering how the bed was nearly too short for John.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"My dad, he's unwell. He has been for the few months. Remember when you met him on our first date? He's having trouble breathing. And of course, being my dad, hadn't gone to the doctor. I'm just worried for him, because it doesn't seem like he's gotten any better." Valerie admitted. She hadn't told anyone of this at all. She'd spoken her concerns to her mother who hadn't convinced him to see a doctor yet. They got into lots of fights.

     Valerie fought often with her father as well. She really was worried for him but he was so stubborn.

"I'm sure he'll be fine, Valerie. I will say, however, that you should try to get him to go to the doctor. It could turn into something serious. What are his symptoms?"

"Tightness in the chest, fatigue, shortness of breath. To name a few. He insists he will get better, but it's been quite a long while now, and he hasn't gone to be treated. And I've tried getting him to go to the doctor, but he won't listen!" Valerie said, distressed as she tugged at her hair.  John grabbed her hand and held it tightly against his heart.

"He's going to be okay." John promised as he kissed the palm of Valerie's hand lightly. He wiped a tear away from her eye. He felt a pang in his chest, remembering how he lost his father when he was so young. He didn't want Valerie to go through that.

    "Oh, I wish I was a medical doctor. I don't know shit about sicknesses." Valerie said quietly, her voice quivering as John wiped away her tears with the sleeve of his sweater.

"It'll be okay, Val, I promise. I'll be here for you." John said gently, moving so that he could wrap her in a hug, the bed creaking beneath them as he moved.

  They were silent for a moment while Valerie listened to John's breathing before they both burst out in laughter at the noisy bed.

      "My goodness, and Roger's over here saying he won't be able to hear us." John joked, and Valerie hit him in the shoulder. Not too hard, but hard enough to make John cry out in pain.

      Valerie sniffled before she collected herself, smiling at John. "You're right. He'll be okay. Mum will get him to the doctor."  Valerie said,  reassured, though a voice in the back of her mind tried to convince her otherwise.

       She ignored it, continuing to reassure herself as she and John began to unpack their things, the two of them joking about and making each other laugh while they did so.

        And for a moment,  all was well.