Tomorrow Never Knows - Chapter Eleven

Authors: lovely_rita_mm, jenny_wren28, & pennylane_fic

Starring: The Beatles and Maggie Sue

Rating: M for language, implied sex (though none of it is explicit) & implied drug use. Characters used in this story are either our creation, or are historically-based (ie, The Beatles).

Disclaimer: We don't own any of the Beatles, this obviously never happened, and is a complete work of fiction.

Early September, 1967

"Absolutely not!" Maggie stood up furiously from their breakfast table. "We've been throwing money at him for months, and has he even produced one solid thing? Well, that's it. No more! As long as I'm in charge of Apple, I will not let that man so much as breathe on my building."

"You work for us, luv," John reminded her, "And I want Magic Alex to be the one to build the new studio for the band." She hated that cold, caustic tone of voice – he didn't level it at her very often, but the few times he had, she hadn't enjoyed it. Nor did she plan on letting him get away with trying to cow her with it. Not this time, anyway.

"No, John," she retorted. "I don't work for you, I work for Brian…" Then, realizing what she'd said, she snapped her mouth shut. Maggie stood there for a moment, feeling her stomach clench at what she had been about to say. Not trusting herself to keep her emotions in check, she picked up her dishes and put them in the sink.

"Well, he's gone, isn't he?" John said, watching her carefully, knowing she was hiding her face from him. He knew the grief and guilt were still fresh, and while he was cross that she wasn't giving him his way, he didn't want her to retreat back into the depression she'd been in lately.

"Yes, John," she said quietly. She leaned against the counter. "He's gone. Brian left me in charge – he wanted me to be the voice of reason, and the fact is, I'm not answerable to you. The company was set up to be that way. You all have input, and that's as it should be, but I can overrule you. I haven't so far, not on the Boutique idea, not even on the Flying Saucer." Maggie wished she'd been kidding on that last one. She continued, "But I have to put my foot down on this one. Trust me."

"Why do you hate him so much, luv?" John's voice was warmer now. He got up and went over to her, and peered down at her through his glasses. "He's harmless, isn't he?"

Maggie wasn't so sure.

Why did she hate Magic Alex so much? Truthfully, she'd hated him before she'd ever laid eyes on him and encountering him in person had done nothing to change her opinion. It was Magic Alex that had resurrected the idea of the Beatles buying a Greek island with John this past July. It was ridiculous, and she knew the Boys would lose interest in it five minutes later, but they'd all wanted it, and so she'd been forced to let them have their way. They'd gotten a good deal, and Maggie was keeping an eye on real estate prices, fairly certain they could make a profit on the island's inevitable sale. They'd taken a short trip to Greece in July to inspect this island, and though Maggie had enjoyed seeing Greece, she'd had to grit her teeth every time Magic Alex opened his mouth to make another wondrous claim.

Then there was the "artificial sun" he'd been commissioned by the Beatles to build for the opening of their Boutique. This great display would light up the night sky. Of course, when the time came for Magic Alex to deliver, he'd claimed there was not a strong enough of an energy supply to power it. This had been accepted by the Beatles without question, though Maggie, though unsurprised, had fumed silently. She could have told them that he'd never follow through with this latest impossibility, but they'd all been curious to see what Alex would do. After all, it was only money, so why not throw it at Alex for a lark?

But the artificial sun wasn't the only thing Alex hadn't followed through with. There was always some futuristic electronic device he was "working on". One was a telephone that responded to its owner's voice and could identify who was calling. Maggie had sighed tiredly when John had come home eager over this one. He'd remembered that voice command and caller ID were used all the time in the future on computers and phones, but Maggie knew Magic Alex certainly hadn't been the one to invent it. "But if we give him some money, maybe he will!" John had said excitedly. "Wouldn't you love to have this stuff sooner than later?" "Fat chance," she'd grumbled back, but she'd cut Alex a check.

The list went on and on. There was the force field that would surround the Beatles' homes. An X-ray camera. This particular one resulted in Maggie giving John a very long lecture about X-ray astrophysics, until he agreed to cry "Uncle" if she'd only stop talking about things he didn't understand. There was paint that would make anything invisible, and paint that would make one's car change color with the flip of a switch. Magic Alex even took apart John's Rolls Royce and George's Ferrari Berlinetta so he could power a Flying Saucer with their engines. In the end, of course, there had been no Flying Saucer – just two destroyed cars.

To Maggie, Magic Alex was worse than just a hanger-on. Worse than just a mooch. No, Magic Alex was a fountain of dangerous misinformation about science and engineering – and he was a bad influence on the Beatles, who were all looking for instant gratification. Real science and engineering didn't always result in instant results, and so the Beatles had no interest in it. What did reality matter someone could make you empty promises that never needed to be fulfilled? That someone was Magic Alex, and naturally, the Beatles loved him. What's not to love when someone promises you loudspeaker wallpaper?

The Beatles laughed good-naturedly at her protests, and knowing that she was fighting a losing battle, Maggie simply cut Alex his checks, though she always made them for less than the Beatles asked. She'd also made the money conditional that he had to find outside lab space because she didn't want him anywhere near her building.

There was one more issue. Since failing to save Brian, Maggie felt like she had to exert control over something, and Apple was it. It was the only place she felt like she was making a positive difference these days, and it was worth the fight to keep Magic Alex from destroying it, from letting him turn Apple into what it might be in another timeline. She had saved it from failure, from losing money, from being a joke. And so she continued to fight for it, even if it meant fighting with John. Yes, she may have lost battles over Magic Alex, but she intended on winning the war.

It appeared that a key battle in this war would be about a new recording studio.

Maggie had soon realized with John, that a little knowledge was a dangerous thing. He'd picked up bits of knowledge during his time in the future, and one of these stray pieces of information had to do with how music was recorded. John had no idea how a modern recording studio really worked, but John did know that in the future there'd be no limit on how many tracks you had at your disposal. But that day was not now in 1967. Nor was that day even close off. Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody from 1975 had only used 24 tracks. However, 72 tracks were what Magic Alex had promised to John and John thought this was perfectly reasonable. This was why John had asked Maggie Sue to let Magic Alex build the Beatles a recording studio in the basement of the Apple building.

A recording studio in the basement, Maggie groaned inwardly when she'd heard the plan. The basement was next to where the subway roared by underground, vibrating everything. It was next to the heating unit for the building. Next to plumbing pipes that gurgled and swished water. It was incredibly poor placement for recording anything, never minding the fact that 72 recording tracks were currently an impossibility anyway.

Maggie decided that she'd put up with Magic Alex long enough, and this was the final straw. She knew from her original timeline that the studio would be a disaster until Geoff Emerick, the Beatles sound engineer, was put on the job. Being very knowledgeable in real sound engineering, he would pull off a miracle and make a real studio out of Alex's mess. Why couldn't they just have Geoff do the studio right the first time? Why did Magic Alex have to be involved? What would it take, how many failed projects did there have to be before the Beatles saw this charlatan for who he was?

Closing her eyes in frustration, Maggie let her head hang back in defeat for a moment as she tried to gather her wits. John's question was still hanging in the air, unanswered. "Why do I hate Magic Alex?" she asked John, turning to him with resolve in her eyes. "Because he makes promises he can't keep, yet you all hang on his every word. I don't like to see people I love get taken advantage of, and he is most certainly taking advantage of you."

John sighed. "Luv, it's our money, and there's lots of it. Why not see what he can do?"

"Because he never actually does anything! Name one thing he's actually produced!?"

John thought silently.

Maggie broke the silence, when it was obvious John had no answer. "Look, we've been through this same argument dozens of times. I have to get to work. Can we have another fight about this later?"

"So, we're done with this one, then?" John got up and moved towards her.

"I guess so," Maggie said, not altogether convinced that it was actually over. She still had no intention of giving in on the issue of this recording studio.

"Good, then we can move on to the best part," he grinned.

"And what's that?"

"Making up, of course!" With that, John's body was against hers; his hands held her face, and his lips pressed against hers, his tongue teasing her mouth open. John's fingers tangled in her hair and then crept downwards, wandering over her body, pausing to rub here and stroke there. John pulled his head back, watching her reaction with interest. Her eyes were closed and she moaned softly as he ran his hands up under her skirt. Cupping her bum, he pulled her hard against him. He had to have her right now. But not on that floor. He hated that tile, it was too hard and cold. He bent to kiss her again, but she turned her face away.

"John, I'm going to be late!" But her voice was weak and unconvincing, and before she knew what was happening, she was being boosted up onto the counter.

Maggie decided she no longer cared if she missed her meeting, mostly because of where John's hands were and what they were doing, but she felt obligated to make one more token protest. "We have to stop! This dress was expensive, and I'm sitting in the butter dish!"

John pulled his lips away from her neck. "Not your dress!" He gasped in mock horror. "We'll have to get you out of it at once!" With a wicked look he added, "I'd better take my trousers off too, just to make sure they are safe from any breakfast foods." Unconcerned by the cost of her dress, he pulled it up over her head and tossed it onto the floor before asking in a concerned voice, "Must we keep your knickers safe as well?"

She giggled at that. "By all means!"

The floor was soon strewn with clothing, and John easily managed to make Maggie Sue forget Magic Alex entirely.

---

"Who do we want on the bus, then?" Paul said, sitting down at the table in the back of the studio. The Beatles were still hashing out their plans for the Magical Mystery Tour. Maggie, who had stopped by for tea, still wanted no part of it, and only listened half-interestedly. She was tired today. She and John had had another row over Magic Alex last night at dinner, and they'd spent half the night "making up" afterwards. Maggie suspected that John had started the fight (and ended it quickly) just for this reason. While she didn't mind in the least, her mind was kind of fuzzy today, and she kept yawning.

"Well, Magic Alex, of course," John shot a look over at Maggie, and catching her eye, winked at her, and waggled his eyebrows. "Unless Miss Margaret wants to fight me over that one?"

She rolled her eyes, but then grinned at him, "I'm too tired to fight about that anymore today! But maybe tomorrow, over breakfast?"

"You know, there are other people here," George broke in. "Disgusting, you two are. We all realize you're talking about sex, you know. You're not fooling anyone."

"Animals," Paul agreed before getting back to business. He opened a book of actors that he'd acquired for this purpose and flipped through it. He paused and turned the book around to show the others. "How about Jessie Robins? Maybe she could be Ritchie's auntie or something?"

"Oh, let's have Neil Innes," George added. "He could do something musical, maybe with his band?" Neil Innes was one of the Pythons and George loved their comedy.

"Don't forget Victor Spinetti!" Ringo chimed in. He was sitting on the floor, replacing the head of one of his toms. Maggie yawned again as more names were listed.

"Oh, I met this great new artist," John said suddenly. "She's really unusual, and I think she'd be perfect. Her name is Yoko Ono."

Maggie froze in mid-yawn.

"Yoko?" She struggled to keep her voice under control, but she knew that George at least could sense the strain in her tone. John seemed oblivious. After all, they'd never fought outright about Yoko, though Maggie had expressed some concern that Yoko was chasing John. After reassuring her, he'd obviously dismissed her worries as just that, and had forgotten all about it. Clearly he wasn't sensing that Maggie was at all dismayed about the idea of Yoko being on their traveling bus.

"Sounds great, I'll write her down," Paul said.

"Maybe not, Paul," George tried, looking at Maggie worriedly.

"We can just sort it out later." Paul waved his hand at George, and continued. He took out a fresh piece of paper. "Now, when do we want to start filming? Maybe in a week or so? All we need is the coach and some cameras…"

-----

"You're coming with us, right, luv?" John asked her that night, as they were lying in bed.

"Coming where?" Maggie's thoughts were far away.

"On the Tour. We decided to start filming on September 11, and we'll probably go to the 25th or so."

Maggie was quiet. It was bad enough that Magic Alex was going to be involved, but if Yoko was going to be there, she wanted no part of it. Did she have a choice though? Did she dare stay away and let John and Yoko share time together that might bond them together? Possibly forever?

Who was she kidding? It was going happen no matter what she did. Brian was dead, and John and Yoko would find a way to be together.

The thought made tears spring to her eyes. Hating herself for being so weak, for giving in so easily to despair, she started crying in earnest.

"Luv, what is it?" John rolled over and cradled her in his arms. "What's wrong?"

She just shook her head. She still couldn't tell him how much she resented Yoko's presence, her intrusion into their lives. Instead she wept uncontrollably, and John did his best to comfort her.

"Is it Brian?" he asked gently.

She nodded her head. It was in a way – he was the key to this whole thing. Her inability to stop his death was what had her doubting that she could change anything. She was so tired of fighting, she just wanted to give up and let the future take its course.

---

"When are you going to come for a visit?" Linda asked her the next day, during one of their regular phone conversations.

"I don't know, things are so busy here, what with the new movie the Boys are starting."

"Oh, that sounds exciting."

"Actually, it's going to be a major disaster," she said dryly. "I mean, from what I can tell." Maggie still forgot that she wasn't supposed to know how Magical Mystery Tour turned out. "They don't have a director or a script, or even a clear vision."

"Oh," said Linda, slightly puzzled.

"But the music is going to be amazing."

"Well, I guess that's what's important in the end," Linda mused. "When are they starting filming?"

"They are driving around the country in a bus somewhere between September 11th and 25th," Maggie said.

Linda laughed. "Please tell me you are going to be on this bus!"

"I know it's hard to believe, but I was hoping to find a way out of this one."

"Well, why don't you come and visit me then? Say that I desperately need you to help me pick out some clothes to impress Jim Morrison, who I will be shooting before his gig on the 17th." Linda laughed. "Maybe we can rescue you and make Mr. McCartney jealous all at the same time!"

"How can I resist an offer like that?" Maggie replied with a laugh. Maybe it was time to let time and fate and destiny do what they wanted. Who was she to question any of this? When she came back from her trip, at least maybe she'd finally have some answers.

---

A/N: Thanks for reading! The next update will be next Sunday! We love comments, so please tell us what you think!