#vera sweetie youre my favorite dont tell the others

[talkingismylifewrites]

40, Hot Space OT4 angst

40. Write an alternative ending to [insert fic title] (or just the summary of one).

oh man, you realize the alternative ending would be them not getting back together, right? like, roger would either a) never be able to trust them again b) not want to trust them again or c) die. 

but basically what would happen is roger would throw himself into the cross, and queen would end up dying. it’s freddie’s decision, he just can’t handle seeing roger suffer through dealing with seeing john and continuing to drink himself halfway to death. so queen ends, and roger starts the cross, which becomes stupidly famous. probably helps that freddie and roger make lots of songs together. 

(freddie watches from across the studio as john approaches roger, his hands twisting as he tells him that “daisy’s been saying that she really misses him, and well, it would be good for her if you came over for dinner this weekend.” and freddie is just so fucking tired of watching roger’s kids get dangled in his face and taken away from him while he has to drive him to the hospital to get his stomach pumped. so he announces at the end of practice that he’s done, queen, is dead, and he’s going on his own way. because he’d kill queen, he’d give up everything, if it would save roger. he loves roger more than he loves himself, the money, the fame.) 

after one of the cross’ shows, freddie introduces roger to debbie leng, and she’s like, instantly into him. roger, however, is still nursing a broken heart and trying to keep his family semi normal, so he’s more hesitant to get on board with her. but after a while, he’s not seeing john as much, the wound isn’t as deep (still deep, still needs stitches, but he’s no longer working his way through a bottle of gin every night). so he agrees to go on one date with her, just to grab a coffee. one date turns into another, which turns into another, and another, and before they know it they’re dating. 

meanwhile, back at the big house, john and ronnie and dom are slowly realizing that they can’t actually fix things, but that doesn’t mean they don’t love each other. they start to kinda close the wounds together, filling the hole that roger left behind, and slowly, things start getting better. it’s easier to see roger, and easier to communicate. they don’t withhold the kids, they start doing one week on and one week off, and they settle on a custody agreement. 

about a year post the end of queen, vera, their second child and roger’s biological daughter with ronnie, accidentally lets it slip that “daddy has a girlfriend her name is debbie and she’s really cool”. 

(roger kept debbie separate and quiet for as long as he could, but one morning he woke up and realized he was going to miss debbie for the week, and that he knew vera would really like her. so he introduces her as his good friend-- which robbie and vera see right through-- and by the end of the week, they realize, oh shit, debbie’s here to stay) 

it sends shockwaves through the family; dom, who has always been holding onto the hope that they can fix things, ends up having a breakdown; ronnie is like cool cool cooolcoolcoolcoolcoool; and john starts drinking again. it’s rough, really, and they don’t handle it as well as they can. 

meanwhile, roger has finally introduced debbie to his hoard of children and explains that they are all his, and he had three partners and when things ended it nearly killed him. debbie holds him close and promises that she’s not going anywhere, and she’s always thought that bali was overrated anyways. 

and it sucks, really, it sucks, because suddenly roger and debbie aren’t hiding their relationship, and the paps are just going crazy taking pictures of them and accusing roger of cheating on poor dominique, leaving her alone with their three kids (daisy, HA#1, and kitty) while veronica and john have to hold down the fort with the rest of their kids (robbie, vera, HA #2). and roger is getting vilified in the papers, but he doesn’t say anything because he doesn’t want them to a) be outed or b) hurt their kids further. plus, he still loves them. so he just kinda brushes it off and keeps working on the cross. 

debbie, meanwhile, loves roger’s kids, really, she loves them so much. and it’s hard, because the kids now have a third “mother” in their lives, and some of them (daisy, robbie) are really rebelling against her while dom/ronnie/john are really hurt that vera in particular loves debbie. plus, no one wants to see their kids bonding with someone else, especially when it means that debbie is proof of their relationship being dead.

it takes them a while to find some solider ground, and then debbie gets pregnant. now, the last time roger was going to be a dad, things fell apart before his eyes, so he’s really kinda shaken at the idea of losing another kid. and debbie grabs him by the hand and is like listen to me: i’m not going anywhere. you are the father of my baby and the love of my life and when i say i’m sticking around, i mean it. so they decide to get married in a small little courthouse ceremony with freddie and jim and crystal as witnesses. they keep it small and private, and they tell the kids later when its their turn. 

this time, its robbie who announces that “daddy’s married debbie AND they’re gonna have another baby”. the impending breakdown is somehow worse as roger never wanted to get married before, and now he’s married debbie. 

dom takes it extra hard, and it doesn’t help that she makes an offhand comment about it to jim, who, having staked his flag firmly for team roger, is like “oh that’s cuz he needed some stability, though i don’t know why, it’s not like debbie’s gonna leave in the middle of the night with their kid”. (they...don’t see much of jim and freddie for a while after that). 

the kids are...okay with the new baby. like, not super happy? but not terribly upset. and when the baby comes, roger is like look kids! new sibling! and again, this whole time he’s never treated any of the kids like they weren’t his, even the ones who are obviously not his (robbie, for one) he still loves so much because he raised them, he loved them, he cherishes them. so obviously little rufus is their sibling, too. 

(they were terrified that the new baby meant that they were getting left behind. robbie had always been told that dom and roger chose to love him, that the moment they knew he was theirs, whether not he actually was. so what if the new baby is proof that roger was gonna forget about his other kids and only love rufus??)

(stupid, really, roger loves all of his kids) 

and there’s drama as well where robbie wants to live full time with roger, but john and ronnie have to awkwardly explain to him that legally, he can’t, he’s not roger’s kid, so he can’t. neither can vera, even though roger is her dad. the only ones who technically could are the ones dom gave birth to, even though john is half of their fathers. and its terrible, and it causes one of the biggest fights between the kids and the parents because they’ve been told all their lives that roger is their dad and now he’s not?? and robbie ends up running away to freddie’s and roger has to awkwardly pick him up and be like robbie, buddy, you’re my son. you’ve always been my son, and you always will, but the law is the law. and i want you to stay with me, but so do your papa and mummy. and so you have to stay with them, but you can call me every day and still come see me. 

vera, too, wants to spend more time with debbie (she loves debbie, it causes a ton of friction because vera wants to be a model and debbie is helping her with that and dom and ronnie are like wtf does she have that we don’t) but she can’t either. and the kids are chafing under the custody agreement and it’s so. fucking. hard. (vera also doesn’t help by tag teaming the parents into thinking the other are okay with her and debbie going to london fashion week together, which sparks a terrible all out brawl between the five adults over custody and “real parents”).

eventually, they also realize daisy, who’s always hated debbie, is trying to parent trap her parents back together, and veronica and dom have to very gently tell her that, no, honey, they’re not going to get together, and it’s no one’s fault, it’s just what happens. there are lots of tears. 

so everyone gets put in family therapy, and they start to talk about what happened, and how to move forward. and it helps! they all start to heal, and they realize that yeah, it sucks, and they’ll always love each other, but what happened can’t be changed, and they’ve all moved on. 

the kids start calling debbie “mama deb” and they implement their own traditions and holidays, they buy a giant house out in the country where they get like three dogs and too many cats, and a cow because daisy was vegan for a hot second and felt bad for one, and HaHa love llamas so they get one (freddie’s terrified of it its great). and they spend holidays and birthdays as a family, and they slowly move past what happened. 

debbie and roger have a few more kids, and dom/ronnie/john end up having another baby as well. and the whole time, they just stress the importance of family: the kids are well cared for, they love each other, and they’re moving forward. 

and, when the kids grow up and get married, roger, debbie, john, veronica, and dominique are all up at the parent’s table smiling and laughing and celebrating the job well done that they did raising their brood of kids. dom/john/ronnie even come to roger and debbie’s kids weddings and graduations, and no one can ever deny how much they all love each other. 

no, it’s not perfect, and there are issues, but they love each other and they love the kids and at the end of the day they can say that they’re friends and that what happened happened. 

and, eventually, they all live happily ever after. 

p.s. vera is the one who finally sets the record straight on how roger was in a long term relationship with her parents, no, no one cheated, yes, she loves debbie she’s her step mom and fuck no they’re not terrible parents even though they were in a polyamorous relationship that imploded. she’s sixteen and fierce and the second it happens, miami gets the urge to buy a costco-sized tub of alkaselters for his ulcer. (it’s name is vera). ratty also looses £250 to crystal because he bet that it would be Ha#2 that would spill the beans, not vera.