I'll Get Him… One Day
Chapter ten: And I Love Her
Disclaimer: I don't those four charming Englishmen mentioned in the story or anything related to them. Oh yeah and I don't own anything from the movie "In His Life: The John Lennon Story." It's called fanfiction for a reason!
John's POV
"Alexis!" Jen and I ran over to Alexis. She clutched the toilet bowl and sobbed like there was no tomorrow. I just stared at her in awe. She looked so helpless.
"I-i-it huuurts…" Alexis managed to say through sharp breaths. Her eyes bulged and she vomited in the toilet once again. Jen held her hair.
"Help her. I'm going to call 911." Jen ordered me sternly. I switched places with her and Jen sprinted out of the bathroom. I still don't think the other guys have a clue on what's going on. I held Lex's hair while she barfed. I tried not to show her how disgusted I was.
After two minutes of blowing chunks, Alexis leaned on the bathtub and started crying again. I flushed the toilet for her and grabbed her hand.
"Gargle." I ordered while leading her to the faucet. She nodded and did as told. When her mouth was finally clean, Alexis went back to her old spot. I sat next her. "Com'ere." I hugged her tightly while she sobbed into my chest. Oh boy, my new shirt's getting wet. You selfish bastard, stop think of yourself for once! The voice in my head interjected.
"It hurts so much John." I rubbed her back comfortingly. "I'm gonna die." She whispered through sobs.
"No, you're not. You just ate too much." I tried not to get too soft. "Now, c'mon, don't cry anymore. I know you're a little trooper." Alexis smiled slightly. "Oh see! I know we can get through this! Jen's calling the hospital and the ambulance is going to come right away." I didn't know if I was trying to assure Alexis or myself.
"Really?" She sniffled.
"Yeah, everything'll be all right." I soothed. She leaned her head on my shoulder before lunging towards the toilet again for another round of puking. I held her hair and rubbed her back again. You know it's gonna be all right.
(-:-)
Paul's POV
Jen ran out of the bathroom and picked up the telephone.
"What happened?" I asked her.
She dialed 911 and cradled the phone between her cheek and her shoulder. "Lex has a wicked stomach ache. I'm calling the hospital." Ringo, George, and I were about to run to the bathroom before Jen stopped us. "Don't even go in there. It's not pretty." The three of us slumped back on the couch.
In a couple of minutes, an ambulance arrived. Even though she said she was fine, the ambulance care assistant insisted she be carried on a gurney. I followed her to the ambulance while the others piled into John's car.
The nurse and ACA were talking in the ambulance about Alexis's condition while I waited with her outside. "Paul, I'm really scared." I took her hand in mine and gave it a gentle squeeze. "I've never been to the hospital before."
"You'll be fine. It's the doctor's job to CURE you, not HURT you." I gave her a sympathetic smile. "Just hang in there, kiddo." I gave her a quick peck on the cheek before joining the rest. The ambulance rushed to the hospital.
"Nice one, son. Trying to get her when she's down. I think I'll try that next time!" John waggled his eyebrows at me.
"Oh shove off John. She just needed that extra moral support. God knows what they'll do to her there." Soon we got to the hospital but the ambulance surely had already beaten us there and Alexis was up in a room. We all ran in there after checking in at the front desk. There were monstrous machines in the room and nurses were writing notes down on clipboards. Alexis looked really apprehensive. A man in a white lab coat turned to us. I assumed he was the doctor.
"Hi, I'm Dr. Robert. And you all are?" He shook our hands when we each introduced ourselves.
"We're friends of Lex." Jen said. "Is she okay doctor?"
"She's gonna be fine. First we're gonna get her stomach pumped just to clear the digestive tract and then we're going into surgery. The X-rays found some weird thing in her stomach. But no worries, I think she'll be out in two days." Dr. Robert put down the clipboard he was reading from. Alexis gave him a worried look.
"Sur-surgery?" Alexis gulped.
"It'll be okay, you'll be knocked out the whole time!" Dr. Robert exclaimed.
"Knocked out?" This time Alexis found her voice and sounded furious. The doctor looked at his watch.
"Whoops! Looks like visiting hours are over kids! You can come back tomorrow morning to check on her. In the meantime, leave it all to me!" The doctor and the nurses pushed us all out of the room, even when we were protesting. Wow, they're pretty strong. We found ourselves in the waiting room again, not knowing exactly what was going to happen to Alexis. We might as well have thrown her to a pack of wolves.
John's POV
"So what now? It's nearly ten 'o clock." George looked at his watch. "I better be heading back home. Me mum's probably worried."
"Oh yes! Mrs. Harrison wouldn't want her poor Georgie boy out late with the big boys, now would she?" I loved giving George a pull. He just scoffed at me and sat on a couch.
"Actually John, I'm pretty knackered. It's been a long day. Can you take us all home?" Jen asked.
"Of course sweetheart!" Just to irritate George some more.
"Wait lemme make a quick phone call to Alexis's mom." She went to the nearest payphone and dialed. "Hello? Auntie? Yeah it's me, Jen. Listen this is gonna be hard for me to say but…"
Ringo and George started to playing cards. I spotted Paul sitting in the corner by himself, similar to the wall plant next to him. "Look alive, Macca." He looked up at me when I spoke.
"Oh. John." He nodded at me.
Time to put on the "best-friend-John" face. "What's got you down Paulie?" He gave me a look that said he didn't get my change in mood either, but still talked.
"Just worried erm… about whether or not our career of being professional musicians is actually gonna take off. Yeah just all that is all." I know him very well to know when he's lying.
"You really like her, don't you?" I answered his thoughts for him. He looked at me in bewilderment.
"How'd you know?"
"Everybody knows, except the two of you." I gave him a knowing smile.
"You mean, she likes… no John be real. Nice girl like her go for bad guy like me?" Oh come on, Paul. Really? Do I have to get into specifics?
"Wow, you two really are oblivious. Paul, you're a big boy already. I'm not gonna tell you what's even going on. You're gonna have to figure out everything yourself." This is gonna be fun to watch.
"What are you babbling about John? Whatever, I'll figure it out later." He hugged his knees to his chest and put his head down like a little boy in time-out. "I'm just so worried about Lex." He mumbled.
"So am I, but there's no use in worrying because it won't do anything." I put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "The doctor said it wasn't a big deal and she'll be out in two days. We all know Alexis, and we know she'll be strong." I finally got a smile on his face. "Now that we're no longer moping, let's go home. Mimi's probably worried sick 'bout me. You can sleepover if ya like." He nodded and we got up from our corner.
"Okay, her mom knows. You're so lucky you didn't have to talk to her because she was so freaked out. 'My poor baby! Is she all right? What happened? How long will she be there?' Blah blah blah." Jen complained. "But we can go now." We left the hospital, one less person in the pack.
(-:-)
Paul's POV
"Mimi! I'm home!" John called out as we entered Mendips.
"John? John, where have you been? It's late!" Mimi came from upstairs and looked like she was about to go to sleep. "Paul, what are you doing here?"
"Mimi, Alexis had a really bad stomach ache and we had to take her to the hospital." She gave John a face which meant she didn't believe a word he said.
"No it's true. Alexis really did get sick, Mimi. I can vouch for him." Hopefully, she'll believe me.
"Very well then. Send her my love if you two visit her tomorrow. She was such a nice girl. The only one I'd be happy to see you court." Mimi shook her head at the thought of John wasting a nice girl like Alexis. He knew the real reason why he wouldn't though. "But why are you here Paul?"
"Erm… I'm letting him stay the night Mimi." John bent down to match her short stature. "Nursing a broken heart, you see." He whispered. "Ow!" Good thing no one turned on the lights, because I gave him a good kick in the arse.
"Oh buck up Paul. You know you always get the girls so don't let this one get you down." She was a funny one, that Mimi. "I don't mind you being here, but just keep it down, I don't want the neighbors to be complaining." With that last word, she went back upstairs. When she left, we bursted into giggles like children.
"Nursing a broken heart?" I gave him a look. "Really?"
"That sounded the most believable in my head!" John said, putting his hands up in the air to surrender. After he said that the phone started ringing.
"John, can you get it?" Mimi called from upstairs.
"Hello?" John spoke into the receiver.
"Who is it?" I asked, getting a quiet signal back from John.
"Oh really? What for?" John seemed excited about something.
"What are they saying?" I whispered to him.
John covered the receiver. "Shh! Tomorrow? What time? Where's it at?" He started writing notes down on a sheet of paper.
"Where's what at, John?"
"Shut up, Paul!" John forgot to cover the receiver. "No, not you sir! Yeah, we'll be there. Okay. Bye." He hung up the phone. "God Paul, when I say shut up I mean shut up."
"So, can you answer any of the questions I've asked you?"
"That was Brian Epstein. He wants us to go to his record shop tomorrow at one. Says it's a surprise but I reckon he wants to manage us. I overheard him talking to that Taylor fellow at one our gigs, but I didn't actually think he was serious. I want you to call George and Rings tomorrow and tell them the news, got it?" I nodded, and with that we went to sleep in the living room happily.
(-:-)
Ringo's POV
"Yeah, we can't visit Alexis right now, but let's go see her tonight." I spoke in the nearest payphone to Jen.
"You're at Mr. Epstein's office?" She asked. As if she doesn't believe me.
"Yeah, says he wants to talk to the band about something important, luv." I assured her.
"'Kay, I guess I'll see you tonight then. Oh by the way I had a student council meeting today."
"On a Sunday?"
"I know, crazy right?" She said, answering my thoughts. "But the Fall Formal is being moved to December. So it's a Winter Formal."
"Why?"
"I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention. But yeah, just thought I'd let you know. You guys have up until next month to be ready to perform for the dance. "
"So do you." I remembered she and Lex were entering the talent show.
"Yeah. So see you tonight, remember now. Bye. Luv you." Jen said cheerfully.
"Luv you too." I hung up the phone. I went back into the record shop where John and Paul were looking through some records.
"Don't steal any, John." I said, knowing his habit.
"Hey those were the old days." Instead when none of the employees were looking, he took a bunch of mints from the tray at the cashier counter.
"Lads! Good to see you! Thought you weren't gonna show up." Brian Epstein came out of his office and ushered the three of us in.
"We thought you weren't gonna show up." John muttered to himself.
"What was that John?"
"Nothing, Mr. Epstein." John feigned innocence.
"Please, call me Brian." Brian sat at his desk and her motioned for us to take a seat in his chairs. "Where is Paul?"
"Paul… er… said he was in the bath." George said timidly.
Brian gave a deep sigh of frustration at the sound of Paul's absence but maintained his composure. "That, we'll need to fix."
"What are you getting at, Brian?" I asked.
"In my opinion, you boys are enormously talented. But you are underpaid and underexposed." Brian put his hands on his desk and looked at us.
"Give us more money and we'll be happy to expose ourselves." John quipped and he and George snickered.
Brian continued, smirking at the comment. "You need to be marketed properly or else you'll never get out of Liverpool. The goal is to be going national and the key is to that is to secure a recording contract."
"With all due respect Brian, you've never managed a rock 'n' roll group before. Why should we trust you?" I was a little skeptical about this whole thing. What if we still went nowhere?
"Because I'm a successful business mogul." Brian answered rather boastfully. "I own music stores and have contacts the music business everywhere." I guess he all still looked at him skeptically because he finished with, "More importantly, I believe in you. There's something special about you boys."
Me and George looked at John to answer the man for all of us. "Okay Brian," John said seriously, looking as if to give Brian a negative answer. "Where do we sign?" Relief returned to Brian's face as he took out a contract and pointed at the dotted line.
(-:-)
Alexis's POV
I was so happy to see my friends again. When I woke up this morning after the anesthesia wore off, I was so confused. I didn't know where I was or why I was there. I remembered what happened and lifted up my shirt to the sight of scars. I put it down, not wanting to even think about what Dr. Robert and the nurses did to my stomach. I had to spend the day in bed because a nurse said I would still be a bit loopy for a couple hours.
"There's our little trooper!" John greeted me as he and the rest of the gang came into my room, interrupting my thoughts. I looked at the wall clock and it was about 9:30 pm. Dr. Robert said I could leave at ten.
"Hey guys!" I lifted my arms up as much as I could to give them a hug. Jen put get-well balloons on my bedside table. Richard and George kissed both my cheeks roughly at the same time, to my chagrin. Hey I missed them though and they're my friends, so it's not biggy. John playfully tousled my hair but fixed it after seeing my annoyed face. It was great to see them all, but I wanted to see Paul.
"I got you a Teddy bear." Paul handed me a plush bear, wearing a hospital gown just like mine. "You know, to add to the collection I know you have." He gave me a knowing wink.
"AWW!" John, George, Richard, and Jen cooed at the gesture. Paul and I laughed it off.
"So…erm… Dr. Robert said that in the X-rays he found something weird in your stomach. Did you find out what it was?" Paul shifted on the balls of his feet nervously, driving away from embarrassment.
"Yeah, that." I pointed to a Thomas the Tank Engine miniature toy on the counter in the room. John gingerly picked it up. "Eww… gross John that's been in my stomach!" But he ignored my protests.
"How'd this get inside you?" He asked, amazed.
"When I was five, I swallowed that when the nanny wasn't looking. I never told her or my parents and forgot about it ever since."
"Ah, that's ni-" John was cut off by my mother, who just came running into the room wailing with my father calmly trailing behind her.
"Ay mija, are you okay? What did they do to you?" Mom came to my bedside and cupped my face in her hands. She started kissing my face rapidly.
"Mom, mom, MOM!" I gently tried to push her away. "Not in front of my friends!" I hissed.
"Oh perdón." Mom apologized and briefly smiled at my friends before examining me again.
"Cecilia, don't damage her." Dad came over and slightly pulled mom back. "How are you, bebé?" He asked while stroking my forehead.
"Dad, I'm not a baby anymore and I'm fine." I said the last part mostly to reassure my mom. "The doctors just pumped my stomach of the bad stuff and got that out of my stomach through surgery." I pointed to the toy on the counter again.
"How did that even get in your stomach?" Mom's face looked weary.
"Oh, we can talk about that later!" I didn't want her to worry too much in front of my friends. "The doctor said I could leave tonight at ten."
"Tonight? I thought it was tomorrow." Mom lightly kissed my forehead. "I'm sorry but your father and I are working late again. We were just dropping by for a short visit before going. We tried getting time off to see you longer but we couldn't."
"Uh, Mrs. Canencia?" Paul piped up. The band and Jen were awkwardly standing off to the side while my parents ambushed me. "We could drop Lex off home for you. It wouldn't be a big deal." Mom abandoned her spot at my side and went over to Paul.
"You must be Paul! Alexis has told me a lot about you." She stretched out her hand which he shook.
"Mo-om." I whined but she ignored me. She gave Paul a once over.
"You're right mija, he is handsome!" Really mom, in front of my friends and him? Paul blushed while the others snickered like little kids.
"MOM!" I scolded. "Really?" She gave me a teasing smile.
"Okay, you can go with them."
"Wait," Dad wasn't just going to let them off that easy. "How old are you and do you have a proper license?" Dad asked sternly. God, my parents are so embarrassing.
"Dad," I begged. "Be nice."
"I just want you to be safe." Dad turned back to Paul.
"I'm eighteen and I got my license last year, sir." Paul fished out his wallet from his back pocket and flipped to his license. "See, it's legit, sir." Aww, he's so cute when he's nervous and polite.
"Okay then, young man. Take good care of her." I rolled my eyes at my dad. He could be so overprotective. "Bye, we'll see you in the morning." Dad pulled my mom away from the room before she could say another word.
"Sorry about that." I laughed nervously when my parents left.
"It's okay. Ready to go, then?" Jen broke the awkwardness. I nodded and she called in Dr. Robert to tell him I was ready to go home.
(-:-)
"How come we have to take your car?" I asked Paul.
"John's Aunt Mimi had to use his." He answered. The six of us piled into Paul's rather small car and we exited the hospital lot. Soon, John, George, Richard, and Jen were dropped home and it was just the two of us. The rest of the ride was silent. The only sound came from the radio softly playing REO Speedwagon's "I Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore" which was pretty ironic, considering that the lyrics match the way I feel about Paul. When I got home, it started raining.
"I guess this is my stop." I said.
"You don't have to go now, it's raining. We can wait in here until it stops." Paul took the key out of the ignition.
"Yeah, actually I don't wanna get wet." Truthfully, I just wanted to spend more time with him. After a moment of silence, I spoke again.
"Sorry about the way my parents acted earlier."
"No, it's all right, I really don't mind." Paul smiled at me. Ah-dorable!
"Hey, can you fill me in on what I've missed when I was knocked out?" I said, looking for more reasons to stay in there with him.
"Oh yeah a bunch of things happened!" Paul got into an animated description of the band's meeting with Mr. Epstein, how he didn't make it, and how he wanted to manage them. He talked about how he was already trying to get the band better gigs and a recording contract.
"That's great!" I exclaimed. Paul also talked about how the Fall Formal became the Winter Formal and how I have more time to practice.
"Seems like I've missed a lot, haven't I?"
"I—we really missed you." My heart skipped a beat when he said this. "Oh yeah, and I wrote a new song."
"Ooh sing it for me!" Paul reached from behind the seat and got out his acoustic guitar. "Always prepared, aren't you?"
He tuned his guitar and laughed. "I know George is the lead guitarist but I just came up with this piece on the guitar yesterday and haven't shown the rest of them."
"Well go on then." I leaned back against the car door to face him. He started picking three chords and strummed a slow tune. It sounded peaceful. After a short intro, he took a deep breath and (what sounded like a choir of angels) started to sing. I closed my eyes to take in the music and smiled.
I give her all my love
That's all I do
And if you saw my love
You'd love her too
I love her
She gives me everything
And tenderly
The kiss my lover brings
She brings to me
And I love her
A love like ours
Could never die
As long as I
Have you near me
Bright are the stars that shine
Dark is the sky
I know this love of mine
Will never die,
Paul stopped playing and my eyes were still closed. I could feel him shifting his position in the seat. I opened my eyes to the sight of him. His face was in close proximity of mine, about three inches away, and his hazel eyes searched my dark brown ones as if looking through me and into my soul. I could feel my heart beating and felt like it was going to leap out of my chest. I was sure he could hear it as well. He tilted my chin up and his face came closer until our lips met. It was a soft, warm kiss (and my very first!) I closed my eyes again and wrapped my arms around his neck. He put his around my waist. After a couple minutes, he gently pulled away and I breathed heavily, gasping for air. He bent back down and looked me in the eyes lovingly. Before greeting my lips with his for another kiss, he softly sang in my ear,
"And I love her…"
A/N: Aww… how sweet haha. I didn't want to keep you guys waiting for them to get together that long. This was the song that many of you had chosen from before when I asked for a slow, Early-Beatles, sung-by-Paul tune. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Thanks for reviewing the last and do it once more for this chapter!