I Learnt To Love In Liverpool | George Harrison ✅

♥ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐲-𝐒𝐢𝐱 ♥

8th August 1969

Emeraude's POV

The next few weeks passed quickly and peacefully. Jack was an easy baby; more so than Dhani and even Nancy had been. He settled very quickly whenever he was in George's arms, and mine to a lesser extent. Dhani took to him like a fish to water, Nancy adored him and fawned over him, and Julian - whilst less interested in the new baby - was very happy that he had another brother.

I watched as Paul shucked off his shoes, "you can't be that hot, Paul?" I asked him, gesturing to the discarded sandals. He turned away, going over to speak to John who hadn't brought Yoko to the studio with him that day, which was extremely unusual. He seemed to be in a lighter mood because of it, though we all knew by now not to tell him that because he would only lose his temper and then storm off, effectively rendering the day at the studio a waste.

Linda chuckled, taking my mind off of John's marriage, which made the rest of us unhappy, "of course he's not, but you know he always has to be the rebellious one." She was nine months pregnant, and had a camera resting over the top of her baby bump. I liked Linda, feeling akin to her because she was a fellow American - despite the fact that I had not been to America since I had left for Liverpool in 1961, eight years earlier. The way she spoke was familiar, and she knew the news from the States, which was something that I had never thought to keep up with but decidedly missed. Paul being the rebel was the exact opposite of him, and Linda and I both knew that, however we both laughed at her joke.

"What're you two lovely ladies laughing at, then?" George asked, coming up beside me, Nancy in his arms, as she so often was.

"Paul's rebellious streak." I replied.

George scoffed, "obviously." He put Nancy down and then took Jack from me, who was sleeping. "How is my little man?"

"An angel." I replied, "but there's no surprise."

"Oh," Linda said with a smile, putting her hand on her baby bump, "I hope our little one is as good as your's. I don't think I've ever heard a peep out of him."

I turned to Linda and smiled, "you should see him at two in the morning," I replied, "you'd think the house was coming down on top of him! I'm surprised his little lungs can -"

Iain Macmillan, the photographer for the shoot at Abbey Road, just outside of the boys' EMI studios, clapped his hands, "right!" He cried, "it's very hot out here, and I'm worried that Paul's going to step on something," he looked pointedly at Paul's bare feet. Paul ignored him, continuing to converse with John, who didn't even glance at the photographer, "so let's get on with this."

"Excuse me," George said politely to Linda and I with a charming smile, the same that I had fallen in love with so long ago in Liverpool at the chip shop. He handed Jack to me and then hurried off to join the other Beatles, taking up the rear in the queue. Linda took her camera in both hands and snapped a few shots of them queuing. Paul and Ringo noticed, and posed for her. Linda giggled as Paul did extravagant poses. I looked down at Nancy, who was watching Linda.

"I bet if you asked her, she'd show you how to take photographs too, Nance."

She looked up at me with a curious look on her face and then shook her head, "I want to be in magazines," she told me. I sighed, having expected that. She'd gotten into my makeup the previous week and had come downstairs with lipstick on her eyebrows, eyeshadow in the crease of her lips and mascara (thankfully) on her eyelashes, though I wondered how many times she had stuck herself in the eye trying to apply it.

"Where are the others?" I asked, referring to Heather, Julian and Dhani. Ringo hadn't brought Jason and Zak to the studio, and Maureen hadn't come either. I had come because Linda had phoned to ask if Julian and Dhani could come so they could play with Heather, and I had reminded her of John's ongoing heroin habit, insisting that if they were to come to the studio that day then I needed to be with them to protect them from John - not that I didn't trust George to do it, but I preferred to do it myself.

"They're inside, playing with daddy's guitar." Nancy informed me, "and I think Heather is singing."

"Does daddy know that they're touching his guitar?" I asked her. She shrugged and I sighed, "alright, Nance, go on inside and tell them to be careful with it." She nodded and skipped up the steps of the EMI building, disappearing very quickly. I turned back to the four boys - men. I had to remind myself that they were men now, not boys. They were walking across the zebra crossing, very obviously sweating hot under the sweltering sun, but none of them willing to say it before the others, all of them wanting to get the perfect photograph for the cover of the album. They were nothing if not perfectionists.

Linda was busy snapping photos of them from all angles, crossing in front and behind Iain and ruining several of his shots, though he daren't voice it to her for fear of Paul going off at him - I doubted he would, but I didn't tell that to Iain, who had seemed nice enough when he had come over to greet Linda and I at the beginning of the shoot.

"Lin!" Paul called from the zebra crossing, a very obvious teasing tone in his voice, "will you sit down? You're going to burst!"

"Oh shove off, you, and get back to your posing!" She called back, the two of them giggling like school children with the most fantastic secret between them.

I watched George and noticed the annoyed ticks on his face. I sighed and looked down at Jack, "I think all this might be coming to an end, my angel," I said quietly so that nobody else would hear me, "and it's a shame, because the world needs The Beatles." I paused, "but I think The Beatles are tired of the world," I paused again, "they've been hounded for years, and for what? None of them are happy - well, George and Paul are, and I don't know about Ringo, but John certainly isn't. And they all deserve to be happy, Jack, because who doesn't? I want you to be happy. And Julian, and Dhani and Nancy. I want little Heather and the new baby to be happy, and Ringo's two boys, too. I want everybody to live happily and be happy and wish happiness on everybody else, and I want everyone to love each other, because love is all you need." I looked up at the band once again, who had reached the other side of the road and were now crossing back, "and one day, you're going to know how much your parents love you, and you're not going to believe it. Jack, you make everybody so happy, and I'm so sorry that you won't ever know The Beatles as I did, because that is how everybody deserves to know them."

A few more minutes passed of the band talking quietly, ignoring Iain asking them to cross once more, before George came over to me. "We've all decided that it's okay to finish early today -"

"But the album -"

"Em, there'll be plenty of' time to record Paul's hammer song another day. And the day after that. And probably the day after that -"

"If you're bad mouthing Maxwell again, Geo, I swear..." Paul teased as he came over to join us, Linda under one arm, though I knew from the way that Paul narrowed his eyes at his brother-in-law that he was being serious about the song. George had told me that they'd recorded it almost twenty times over already, and that had just been over the course of two days. I knew that he was at his wit's end with it, but I didn't dare tell Paul. It wasn't my place.

"A song about a homicidal maniac, Paul, is not a good one to put on the album." I had told him this before, and always with a teasing lilt to my voice.

Linda giggled, "it's actually rather good, y'know -"

"I prefer Something." I interrupted, naming the song that George had written for me.

Paul scoffed, "you would. You're biased."

I scowled, handing Jack off to George. "Biased?" I echoed, "because I'm married to George?" Paul nodded slightly, "you're my brother, Paul. You'd think I'd be biased towards your songs, too -"

"Next thing you'll be telling me is you like Come Together or whatever rubbish John's decided to write this week."

I huffed, "why do you bring him into everything?"

"He's in the band, Em," Paul answered, "he's included in band stuff."

"And I'm not?" I asked, "I was there for you, Paul, in the Cavern. I was there -"

"Because you had to be, Em!" Paul snapped, causing Linda to jump in surprise. He settled back down very quickly, but it was already too late. I rushed off and went back into the studio to collect Dhani, Julian and Nancy, ignoring George who called after me.