A Man For All Seasons (Queen or Freddie Mercury Fanfic)

Lab Rats: Blessings in Disguise

Hey, folks! Sal here!

My apologies on the delay on this chapter. The Lab Rats chapters are necessary evils at this point, I'm afraid, but the next one to come will be a Freddie one. Regardless, I hope you enjoy, and that you have a great week (or two or three) ahead!

"What do you mean, you're locked out?" K set down his phone, finger accidentally brushing against the "End Call" icon, and came closer.

"Just that. Watch." Madelyn backed out of the portal and re-entered, describing every following action aloud. "I am connected to the server. See? I type in your username. And then your password- and yes, caps lock is off. I hit 'Login.'"

She pointed at the screen, which announced in small, red letters, "This user does not exist."

K tried a couple of times himself, but came away each time just as unsuccessful as she. Unlike Madelyn, though, K was far from surprised.

"I had a feeling this would happen," he mumbled. "I'm pretty stunned it took them as long as it did."

"You think the rats kicked you out?"

"I'm pretty sure."

"Can they even do that? I mean, don't they need authorization from George?"

"They do- which means they must have gotten it." K swore under his breath, turning away from his computer with a huff. "Wonderful. I'm locked out of Preus Hall, locked out of the remote server, no apology or explanation- and Freddie still thinks he has a choice."

K had learned that first part the hard way, when he arrived at Preus Hall that afternoon and found his access card no longer allowed him entry into the building. Madelyn's, fortunately, had worked, allowing them both to proceed to the lab elevator. Upon reaching the underground facility, however, armed security met swept K back up and out, forcing him to rely solely on Madelyn to be his eyes and ears for the day. This embarrassment K swallowed with as much dignity as he could muster. Coupled with the way the group chat, which consisted of K, Stuart, and C, abruptly fell dead silent that evening after ten straight days of perpetual activity, the signs indicated that K's services had been effectively dismissed.

"All this because we went through his initial diagnostics yesterday?" Madelyn scoffed.

K shook his head. "I doubt it was solely because of that, it hadn't been my first time sifting through that file. Preus just knows I'm on their side; and right now, he's trying to weaponize or castrate anyone who is."

"Ew."

"Not literally, Ms. Boyd." To himself, he added, only half-joking, Not yet, at least.

Madelyn blinked. "So does this mean they can't go back together?"

K sat down heavily in the swivel chair nearest him. "There was never any guarantee I could have made that happen. For one thing, I can't operate Speck independently."

"But I could have logged in under C's credentials, and we could have done it together that way."

The old man's brows shot up. "You know Tim's login?"

"Well, no," Madelyn admitted. "But we could have found it somehow. Gabe could probably work a little magic if I asked him to."

"You're suggesting that Gabe would agree to hack a top-secret international database for the clearance credentials of George's trigger-happy lackey, just because you said 'please'?"

Madelyn glared at him. "You didn't have to put it that way, you know."

With a sigh, K swept his hands across his head as if brushing back an imaginary mane. "I guess now is the time to remember the good things we have going for us."