Magical Mystery Tour

Chapter Thirteen: George's POV

George's POV-
Dinner was extremely tasty and we all found we were hungrier than we thought. We were all clearly trying not to be rude stuffing our faces, but it tasted so good, and we hadn't really had a proper meal since we left Georgia.
During dinner we got to meet Paul's wife Nancy and his daughter Beatrice, who was around ten-ish. She was cute and she looked just like Paul in the face. I was a little surprised how much she resembled him actually. Though my thoughts didn't stay on Beatrice for long. I got caught up in talking to Dhani about some of the music he's been recording and playing. I missed him quite bit more than I thought when we got here.
I could tell John missed everyone too because he was talking way too much. He was talking to everybody, holding everyone's attention (mostly) and he was cracking jokes and laughing. I hadn't seen him this way in quite a while and it was very nice.
Paul seemed very glad to have us back as well. He didn't stop smiling once and he was talking nearly as much as John. I knew how he felt when John died, and I hated seeing him that way, I can only imagine what it was like to go through that again when I died too. That's a weird statement; 'When I died too.' It gave me the shivers.
"Dad!" Beatrice said getting up from her seat at the other table and walking over to Paul's side, "Can we go swimming tomorrow? She said she wanted to swim!"
Paul laughed and pulled her to sit on his knee, "Who does?" he asked gently. Beatrice pointed to Lilly, who smiled sheepishly and waved.
"Her!" Beatrice said. I giggled and she looked at me and frowned. I frowned back at her and she turned back to her father.
"Oh, well it's too cold to go swimming." Paul said with a little shiver.
"I don't mean now!" Beatrice sighed roughly, "I mean tomorrow! Daniel said it was gonna be warm tomorrow."
"How warm?" Paul asked cocking an eyebrow, "It is December remember."
"He said it was gonna be in the upper seventies." She sighed. Paul looked at Stryker and he shrugged.
"I did say that, but I wouldn't go swimming tomorrow." Stryker said before he took a long drink from his cup.
"Why not?" Lilly asked from the kids' table.
"Because there's still other people trying to get to George and John." Stryker said rolling his eyes.
"Right." I sighed, "Who are they anyway?"
"We aren't really sure." Stryker said, "I was sent to Paul's to make sure they didn't try and get a hold on him and try and get your whereabouts from him, while someone else was sent to Ringo." I looked across the table to Ringo, who I realized I'd barely said a word to this whole time.
"Hello Richie!" I said waving. He waved and smiled goofily.
"Hello Georgie! Nice to see you!" he said. I smiled at him and nodded before I went on.
"So who was sent to you then?" I asked curiously. I hadn't seen anyone else except the people eating with us.
"It was a girl, I don't remember her name, but she had to fight off some blokes at the airport and told me to go on. No idea what happened to her." Ringo said with a sigh, "She was a nice girl and I really would like to find her, but Stryker won't let me go anywhere."
"I told you I looked for her already." Stryker said rolling his dark eyes, "I didn't find her and if she's lucky she's being held hostage by those blokes."
"How's that luck?" Serena asked with a disgusted look on her pretty face.
"And how do you know she's not dead?" Cindy asked scowling at Stryker. She and Lina still didn't seem to like him much.
"Well since she was assigned to protect Ringo, they're probably keeping her alive as long as she knows his whereabouts." Stryker shrugged, "So as long as she's alive I can go and save her eventually, and then everything will be fine."
"But in the mean time?" Lilly asked worriedly.
"She's probably being tortured for information." Stryker said like it was no big deal as he drained the rest of his glass. I choked a bit on my food and Olivia pounded on my back.
"Sorry, did you say tortured?" I asked wide eyed. Stryker nodded and Serena got up.
"I'm gonna go and...yeah..." She left the dining room, shutting the door behind her quickly. I wanted to go after her and make sure she was OK, but then I saw the look Stryker was giving the door she'd left through. He looked almost upset he'd been the one to cause her to leave. Did he like her? Why was he worried about her? What gave him the right to think about her that way?
I shook my head and took a deep breath. Why did I care who liked Serena? I wasn't going to care about her anymore. If Stryker wanted to try and get Serena to like him then I wasn't gonna stand in the way. But the way he was looking at the door pulled at me and I couldn't handle it at all. I was about to get up when Lilly beat me to it. She excused herself quickly and followed Serena.
Stryker instantly looked away from the door and I sighed, knowing he liked her at least a little bit. He didn't seem like the type to have those sorts of feelings. Kinda like the way John used to be, except John had his little moments every now and then. Stryker struck me as the type to skip those little moments and stay uncaring just to save some time.
"George?" Olivia said pulling me out of my thoughts.
"Yes, sorry, love." I said turning to her with a plastered smile, "What is it?"
"I was just...wondering if you wanted more to drink." She said looking at me funny, "Are you OK?" She gave me one of those looks that she used to give me when she knew I was trying to hide something from her. It wasn't ever anything that was bad, usually it was where I hid her Christmas, Birthday, or Anniversary present, but now...
"Fine" I said offering her my cup. She gave me a sideways look and filled my glass up, "Really." She nodded, but I could tell she didn't believe me.
"Anyway!" John said, knowing my feelings toward Serena, "What're we gonna do now? I mean we can't very well stay here all the time."
"Why not?" Paul asked looking hurt. I smiled at the fact that he wanted us here, but there were the others to think of here.
"Well what about Serena?" I asked with a glance toward the table that only had Cindy and Lina at it before I realized what I'd said, "And you know Lina and Cindy and Lilly."
"Yeah they have worried parents." John finished, pretending I didn't pause awkwardly.
"Well we'll just send them home." Paul shrugged.
"No!"
"No!"
"No!"
John, Stryker, and I all stood up and looked at one another after we'd all spoken. We slowly sat back down and Paul snickered.
"Should I dare say you two have grown fond of them?" he asked smirking. I rolled my eyes and threw the pretty red cloth napkin I was given at him.
"No!" John and I said again. I felt myself blush a bit and I hated suddenly that I couldn't hide it. That beard I had did cover some things. John refused to look away from Paul to show him up, but he lost when the door opened again and Lilly walked looking a bit pale.
"Um, so something happened." She said extremely quietly. We all frowned and John stood up.
"What?" He asked looking over her to make sure she was OK, "Are you alright?" Lilly nodded quickly but she pointed out of the room.
"I'm fine, but it's Serena, she-"
We didn't give her a chance to finish, we being Stryker and me. We left the room to look for Serena. My stomach clenched in worry when I saw blood smeared on the wall of the hall. This was not good. And it really wasn't good when we found her lying on the carpet with blood pooled around her.