Petty Little Beatles

Act II: Scene iii

Tom smiled for what felt like the first time in a while. It was not a faked nor forced smile he may have shaped during an uncomfortable moment (or when doubt stabbed at him, his mind nagged); much rather, he felt what may have been truly happiness when he carefully set down his guitar as he slammed it down from waist-height to just about his thigh, where the end of the guitar rested for a bit. He glanced up to see Mike grinning.

"Are you alright there, Tom?" From where he sat at the piano, Benmont Tench asked.

"Of course." Tom rolled his eyes, but his smile stuck.

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure." From behind them, Stan Lynch walked up to them from his drumset, stuffing his drumsticks into his back pocket. "He's a bit petty if you ask me."

"Thank you for that, Stan." Tom lifted his guitar up a little. He glanced over at Ron Blair, who was tuning his bass. "Here, let me do it." Ron handed him the bass, and Tom twisted the knobs around. He plucked a string, listening closely, before he moved on to the next. It was a slow, careful process he took into consideration. He was a perfectionist when it came to tuning; if an outsider walked into the studio just then, they may have thought all of Tom's concentration was on simply tuning the bass, but he still tuned into the chatter and banter of his band-mates:

"Isn't it just a beautiful day?"

"It's night, you idiot!"

"Sure! Let me go check that!" Stan jerked on the string, and the blinds opened suddenly to reveal that it was, in fact, pitch-black outside. He let out a string of curses, but he was still grinning his face off. He shook his head and threw his hands up, all with the uttermost ridiculous smile twisting his mouth. He pulled his drumsticks back out from his pocket before beginning to tap on the cymbal.

"Will you stop that?" Tom jerked his head up, averting his eyes from the bass. "Anyway, here, it's all set," he said a bit tersely and handed the guitar back to Ron.

"What's your problem?"

"Nothing," was Tom's automatic response. Stan did not question it any further, but shook his head, his dark hair shifting a bit so it rested in front of his eyes. Tom almost thought he could feel Mike's eyes on him; he knew it was not nothing, but they all did.

"Girl problems?" Mike asked in a bit of a joking tone.

"It's nothing," Tom repeated.

Mike did not question it any farther. The engineer looked at them, and Tom began to count off. The take wasn't all too shabby, but Tom's mind was on other things. Still, after the final chord rang out, Tom nodded. This was the one. And he was still smiling when he left the studio.

~

"Honey, I'm home!"

"Nice to see you at last! Boys, your father's home!"

He could hear the smile in Kay's voice as she stood up from the chair she sat in, coffee in hand, to embrace him in a hug. Behind her, the boys ran over and put their arms around their parents. Suddenly, it was nothing but entangled arms, and Tom found himself laughing.

"Wow, this is different," he said.

The boys laughed.

"Well, yeah, of course." Kay smirked.

John wrinkled his nose. "Are you two going to get all mushy now?"

"I wasn't thinking that, but thanks for the suggestion," Kay replied, immediately kissing Tom's cheek.

Tom smirked as the boys exchanged their cries of disgust and stepped away from them.

"Oh my God!"