And I Love Her (Paul McCartney/Beatles fanfiction)

Prologue: Strange Little Girl

"Strange little girl, you really should be going" - Strange Little Girl ~Tori Amos

August 1966

The dressing room was buzzing with activity. She glanced around at her fellow performers, excited to be performing in a regular show. She smiled as she finished putting her fishnet stockings on, she bent down and picked out a small toy raccoon from the suitcase she'd packed with costumes for the show. The toy had seen better days, his fur dull and grey, one of his button eyes had long since gone missing and he slumped to one side where his stuffing had grown thin.

She smiled and set him at her dressing room mirror.

"Ginge," one of her castmates giggled "What's with the raccoon? You bring him to every show!"

"His name is Rocky I'll have you know" she laughed back "And we're theatre people, everything has some bizarre superstition to it...he's my good luck charm."

She thought back on when she'd received Rocky, her face grew a bit melancholy.

"Gift from mumsy and daddy?" another teased.

She scoffed "C'mon, you know the kind of gifts my parents would give me."

"A one-way ticket to a convent!" another joked.
She laughed slightly and looked at the raccoon again "no, he's just a gift from someone who's a memory now"

***

June 1959

"Charlotte..." A woman's voice called up the stairs. Charlotte half opened her eyes. Her head ached and she hadn't gotten enough sleep.

"Charlotte" her mother's voice called again "I hope you're ready, church starts soon"

Suddenly Charlotte's world came clearly into focus "SHITE!" she said trying to get out of bed quickly, falling hard upon the hardwood floor of her bedroom with a loud THUD!

"Charlotte, are you ok?" Her mother called from the hallway.

"I'm fine mum!" she said trying to quickly put on a pair of trousers "Just knocked over me school books, that's all!"

"Please tell me you're not just getting out of bed," her mother said trying to open the locked door.

"No mum! Been up all morning...erm...reading passages!" she grimaced at her terrible excuse while she slid a sweater over her head.

"Charlotte, you know how we feel about locked doors!" she said jiggling the door handle again.

"Mum! I just want a little privacy sometimes" she responded, unlocking the door.

Charlotte's mother looked disapprovingly at the 15-year-old mess standing in front of her, her red hair obviously hadn't been combed, wearing an old pair of trousers and a grey-blue sweater.

"What?" Charlotte asked noting the disapproving look.

"What happened to the dress I laid out for you last night, Charlotte?" she asked raising an eyebrow. Charlotte groaned.

"Mum! I'm 15! I don't need you setting clothes out for me anymore!" she protested.

"Evidently you do, you're not going to church like that," she said marching into her daughter's room "Oh lovey! It's on the floor! Really, dearie...is this any way to treat a gift from your father and me?"

She picked up the yellow, floral dress from the floor "Come now, I even bought you a matching cardigan and gloves. It will go nicely with the hat we bought for you last year that you have yet to wear"

"Muuuum..." Charlotte whined

"Charlotte Anne McLeod! I've had quite enough of this attitude" her mother bit "Get ready for church and be downstairs in 10 minutes or no more going out with friends for the rest of the summer!"

Charlotte caved. "Fine..." she sighed. She knew there was no point in arguing any further.

10 minutes later, she was in the front room of the McLeod house, her father sat in his chair, reading a paper and smoking his pipe.

"You were out late again last night, Charlotte," he said not even looking up.

"Not too late da'...I got in half past 10" she lied knowing full well she had snuck into her room around 2 that morning.

"Too late on a night before church," he said

"Da', it was just a small gathering at the pier...it just went a little later than expected," she said rolling her eyes and putting on the cardigan she hated.

"We'll talk about this after church," he said sternly.

Charlotte walked outside before her parents, her mum was still gathering baking to bring to the church as her father chided his wife for not being ready sooner.

As she stepped outside she heard a voice coming up the footpath "Hey Charli," the voice said calmly. She could almost hear the smirk in his voice, her heart skipped a beat. A young boy, wearing a leather jacket, his dark hair done in an almost perfect Elvis curl smiled at her mischievously "Get enough sleep?" he asked.

"What are you doing here, Paul?" she asked with a smile. 

"Just taking a morning walk" he laughed slightly looking at her attire "what's with the flower garden?"

She blushed. "Sod off...it's for church," she said trying to cover up the dress. She heard the door close and her parents were standing locking up the house.

"James," Mr. McLeod said crossly "Charlotte has to go to church. You can see her after that"

"Oh, yes sir!" Paul said politely (with a hint of mocking in his voice that Charli picked up on) "Best be on my way"

She watched him as he walked off down the footpath.

"Honestly, lovey," her mother said "I'm not sure about you hanging around with that McCartney boy"

Charlie rolled her eyes as she slid into the back seat of the family car.

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A/N:  Right, this one starts off almost sickeningly sweet at some points...but it gets pretty dark (I've actually taken a wee break after a recent chapter I wrote).  It's written in 3rd person, mainly because I couldn't really do first person in this...plus, since it's a new fic I sort of feel like it separates the different characters from different fics (at least that makes sense in my head)

Still soundtracking everything, this fic ESPECIALLY.  Songs and a quick lyric will be posted at the start of each chapter.