Tomorrow Never Knows - Chapter Thirty

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.

"Maggie, can I talk to you for a minute?" Maggie was on her way to meet Paul and didn't relish the idea of stopping to talk to Magic Alex. However, Alex rarely, if ever, approached her so she thought she'd better stop in case it was something important.

"What's up, Alex?" Maggie had to work to keep the impatience from her voice.

"Not here, in private."

The last thing she wanted was to go off someplace private with Alex. "Sorry, this is about as private as it's going to get." Maggie looked around the courtyard – there wasn't a soul in sight, though that didn't preclude someone from suddenly appearing.

"Fine." Alex looked around nervously. "Remember what I told you last time, about the Maharishi being after the Beatles' money?"

"Yes."

"Well, he just tried to bribe me to talk to the Beatles about tithing twenty-five percent of their money to him."

"Twenty-five percent? That's ridiculous!" While Maggie wasn't terribly surprised, the sheer audacity of the Maharishi thinking he could get one of the Beatles' party to talk them out of that kind of money outraged her. "Is he insane? That's a hell of a lot of money."

"He's hoping for at least fifteen percent but offered me more money if I got them to go as high as twenty-five.

Maggie laughed. "Well, I can tell you he's not going to get that kind of money from the Beatles. Not if I have anything to do with it. Why are you even telling me this, Alex? Why not just keep your mouth shut and collect what you can?"

"Because I know you're not stupid, and I know there's pretty much no way to talk you into what he wants me to. Besides, why would I want the Beatles money to go…outside the family, shall we say?"

"You're not family, Alex." A bold statement, but the truth.

Alex didn't even flinch. "Neither is he. I think he's become too familiar, and I mean to do something about it."

"Do what?" Maggie wondered if their peaceful days in India were finally at an end. She knew that something was going to happen to make the Beatles want to leave suddenly – some allegations about the Maharishi's inappropriate behavior towards one of the women here. It occurred to Maggie that perhaps Alex had been behind it originally. She guessed she would find out soon enough. He seemed very determined. In any case, Maggie was nearly ready to go home. She had been away from Apple long enough. And she missed Julian and knew John did too.

"I'm not sure yet. But I'll figure out something."

"All right," Maggie said dubiously. "Good luck with that."

Alex nodded and left her standing there, not sure what she should think.

She didn't trust the Maharishi and she'd be damned before he'd collect twenty-five percent of the Beatles' earnings. But she didn't trust Alex either. She wasn't sure that she shouldn't be trying to stop whatever little ploy Alex was going to use to discredit the Maharishi. The allegations against him had never been proven. On the other hand, Alex would be doing her dirty work for her. She didn't relish the thought of trying to talk the Beatles, particularly George and John, out of giving the Maharishi money. A lot of money. She shrugged. Maybe she'd talk to Paul about it.

***

"We're leaving, Maharishi," John said quietly. Paul, George, and Maggie were standing slightly behind John, and George looked positively sick. Paul and Maggie exchanged glances, and she thought back to what had happened earlier in the day.

After talking with Alex, Maggie had taken a chance and told Paul what she knew. Of all the Beatles, Paul seemed to have the most common sense, and though he liked Alex, he'd never been as enchanted as John had been. They'd ultimately decided there wasn't much they could do to stop Alex from whatever he was planning, especially since they didn't know exactly what he was going to do. They would just have to wait and see what happened. Paul had also been suitably horrified at the thought of giving twenty-five percent of their money away to the Maharishi.

What did end up happening was not entirely unexpected. Word had gotten round that the Maharishi had made advances on a few of the women. Maggie had one guess who was spreading these rumors. The one thing she still wasn't sure of was what, if anything, the Maharishi had actually done. Was it like the age-old "chicken or the egg" debate? Alex spreads rumors of impropriety and after that, any woman in contact with the Maharishi would be programmed to misinterpret any move he made? Or had there already been whispers of unseemliness and Alex had merely been amplifying them? Maggie wasn't sure they would ever really know, but she suspected it was the former.

After the rumors got around to John and George, they called Paul and Maggie into a quick meeting.

"Have you heard?" John asked, when they'd all gathered together in secret in one of their rooms.

"We've no real proof," George protested. He didn't want to believe that this religious leader he respected could be guilty of such a thing.

"We have what Alex told us," John said. Maggie chanced a quick look at Paul, who met her eyes. He quirked a sardonic eyebrow at her. "And Mia Farrow said the Maharishi tried to put his arm around her and she'd been so frightened, she ran away."

"That's not really proof of anything, John," Maggie piped up. What was she doing? Why was she defending the Maharishi? She didn't like him. Maybe her conscience was pricking her. The man's name was being dragged through the mud, for something that Alex may have totally fabricated.

"She's not the only one," he said. "Wait, what do you know from the books you've read about us? Surely you must know something."

"Er…" Maggie hated being put on the spot. What should she say? And why did she feel so compelled to edit things for John's sake? Why had her been instinct to go to Paul about this and not John? Because John would never believe anything bad about Magic Alex, she answered herself. John was still waiting for her to answer his question. "Well, yes, basically this happened the first time around too. You guys left in a hurry after hearing these rumors about the Maharishi. I can't say that anything was ever substantiated, but I don't know if you can just disregard what these girls are saying." Tentatively she ventured, "I'd just be sure it's actually the girls saying it, that's all."

"What does that mean?"

"This is coming from Magic Alex, right?" Maggie braced for an argument. "What if he's making it up?" There, she'd gotten it out.

"Luv, I know you don't like him, but I don't think he'd lie about this. What does he have to gain?"

"Really, John?" Maggie was unable to contain herself. "What does he have to gain? He hates sharing you with the Maharishi. It's like a battle of the charlatans and the prize is the Beatles' money."

"The Maharishi is not a charlatan!" George interjected hotly.

"But he does want our money, George," Paul said. "Twenty-five percent of it."

"Twenty-five percent? Over my dead body," John was grim. He shook his head, disbelieving what he was hearing. Maggie was pleasantly surprised that he seemed as horrified about the amount of money as Maggie had.

"How do you know that?" George asked Paul.

"That's what Magic Alex told Maggie," Paul shrugged.

"How come Paul knows this and I don't?" John demanded. He turned and looked at Maggie.

"Because I knew you would accuse me of trying to discredit Alex just because I don't like him! Which is basically what you've just done!" Maggie tried to keep the bitterness from her voice, but knew she was mostly unsuccessful.

"But you told Paul?"

"Yes, because in this case I thought that he'd be the only one of you that could see things for what they are!" Maggie was exasperated. "George is blinded by his love of the culture and religion, and you… sometimes you are just blind."

John blinked, taken aback.

"I'm sorry," Maggie tried to soften what she was saying. "It's just that you are always willing to trust people and to give them the benefit of the doubt if you like them. And just because you like them doesn't always mean that person is worthy of trust."

John took this calmly, more calmly than Maggie expected. "If you remember, I believed you when you said you were from the future. Paulie, here, was the one who didn't. And he was wrong."

"Well, Paul's not perfect either."

"Hey!" Paul protested. "Leave me out of this!"

"Look, John, you don't want to believe that Alex and the Maharishi might have hidden agendas. And you know that I am pretty skeptical of both of them. I thought Paul might be able to see the situation more clearly, since he wasn't as invested as you and George, or as prejudiced as me."

"So now what do we do? If we can't trust Alex or the Maharishi, as you claim, whose side do we choose?"

"We choose our own side, I think, John," Paul said.

"And what side is that?"

Paul shrugged his shoulders casually, neatly slipping into his role as diplomat. "Maybe it's best that we just remove ourselves from the situation without coming out and calling either of them liars."

Maggie nodded her head. "I wouldn't accuse the Maharishi of anything. If he asks why we're leaving, just make something up. But I also wouldn't let Alex feed you any bullshit OR give him the impression that you're on to him. The Beatles have made tons of impulsive decisions. The decision to pack up and leave will just be seen as another one."

"Leave? I don't want to leave," George protested. But his protest was weak and it was apparent that his total faith in the Maharishi was being rocked.

"It's time, George." Maggie patted his shoulder gently. "You can't hide from the Beatles forever. This has been a nice break from it, but it's time to get back to real life."

"I guess…"

"Come on, lad, it'll be fine," Paul encouraged. He was afraid to say too much about his eagerness to get back to making a new album. George had bit his head off the last time he'd brought it up.

John looked at Maggie. She nodded. "All right, mates. Let's go home," he said finally.

"Are we sure about this? Maggie, you said you're not sure that the Maharishi is even guilty. What if Alex is making this all up?" George tried one last objection.

"Oh, I'm fairly certain he's making something up. But one thing I'm confident about is that the Maharishi wants your money. Alex told me he was bribed to talk you into giving up that twenty-five percent to the Maharishi's organization."

"He bribed Alex?" George looked shaken. "Brilliant. So either he's a pervert or he's using us for our money, or both."

Maggie was silent.

"Let's go home, George," Paul said.

George shook his head slowly. "Right. I guess there's nothing else to do. This is…disappointing."

"I'm sorry, George," Maggie said. "Try not to let this taint the time we spent here though."

"I guess I need some time to think about this."

"You can do it on the flight home. I think it's now or never," John said.

The four of them had walked over to the Maharishi's house, and were able to get a private audience with him relatively quickly, which is how they came to be standing where they now were: with John, informing the Maharishi that they were leaving.

The Maharishi, misinterpreting John's words, perhaps willfully, simply smiled at them before responding. "Certainly. Perhaps in several weeks time, yes?"

"No, now." The Maharishi sobered at the look on John's face.

"Why?"

"You're the cosmic one, you should know why," John shrugged. Nodding at the others, he turned and left and they all followed him.

Afraid that if they stayed, the Maharishi might start probing for a real answer about why they were leaving, they agreed it was best to go home as soon as possible. Silently, they all returned to their rooms to pack. George was left to break the news to Pattie. Paul said that he would tell Neil and Mal and ask Neil to tell Alex. They would meet in two hours at the front entrance, where they would have cabs summoned to take them back to Delhi.

Somewhat unexpectedly, their plan worked without a hitch. No one lifted so much as a finger to stop them. As they drove away, Maggie looked out the back window of the cab a little regretfully. She'd dreaded this trip and in the end, she'd had a really nice time. She'd gotten to know Paul better, and she felt closer to John. This experience had been as much of an escape for her as it had been for George. She was sorry it had ended the way it did – but on the other hand, home was waiting for her, and she could hardly wait to sleep in her own bed.

"Oh, Maharishi, what have you done?" John sang in a comical voice. "You've made a fool of everyone…" He smiled down at Maggie, who was sitting between him and Paul in the back seat of the cab.

"Not bad, that," Paul said. "You should work on it!"

"Maybe I will, " John mused.

"I'd take the Maharishi's name out of it," Maggie suggested. "Maybe use a girl's name instead."

"Any ideas, luv?"

"One. But I won't tell you unless you guess it first," she grinned at him.

"I think you'll find you won't be able to resist my powers of persuasion," he said suggestively.

"Oh, please, save it for the airplane loo," Paul rolled his eyes.

"Was that an offer, Paulie?" John leaned over Maggie to gave him a big smack on the cheek, and was swatted away by Paul. It was Maggie's turn to roll her eyes, but she did it with a smile on her face.

They made it to the airport without any further incident, and Mal managed to get everyone on a flight home that evening. On the plane, the band powwowed about what they were going to say publicly about their reasons for leaving the ashram. Other than Ringo and Mo, who would be filled in, they decided that the Beatles as a whole would keep a code of silence about why they had left. There was no need to trash the Maharishi unnecessarily, or to make a big fuss. They would just put it round that they'd decided they were ready to come home and work on their next album. They figured the words "next album" would easily be the focus of any further questions. George sighed at this, but agreed. The Beatles would start their next album soon.

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