On Loving Paul [McLennon]

Why Now?

a/n: Hey guys so I've been thinking about what kind of Beatles fanfic I wanna write when I'm done with this one... Would anyone be interested in reading a McHarrison fanfic? I've been strongly considering doing a McHarrison story. I dunno. Let me know what you think.

~~~

A few days later they were in a nicer hotel. They had booked two rooms and george offered to stay with Ringo as he always did so that John and Paul could stay together without raising suspicion.

Paul pulled George aside. "You don't have to do this, you know. I know it'll be awkward now...."

"Don't worry about it," George shook his head.

"You sure?" Paul raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah," George nodded and went into the room he was sharing with Ringo and Paul just shook his head with a sigh and strode into the room across the hall that he and John were staying in.

The Beatles were one week away from starting a six month your before they began recording on their second album. It was just the calm before the storm...

~~~

John was awoken by Paul stirring in his arms. He slowly opened his eyes to look down at the dark haired man. He face was scrunched up in an expression that looked rather pained.

"Stop," he murmured.

"Paulie?" John said beside his ear.

"Stop it," Paul said.

"Hey, Paul, wake up."

"STOP!!" Paul screamed quite suddenly. "PLEASE! JUST STOP IT!!"

John sat up hastily and pulled Paul into his arms. "Sshhh,"

"GET AWAY!!" Paul was thrashing about. "GET AWAY FROM ME! LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Paulie, wake up." John said firmly. "Come on, you've got to wake up!" He glanced at the alarm clock. It was quarter past three in the morning. If Paul woke everyone up and staff came running and found them like this.... "Paul!!"

"GET THE HELL AWAY!!" Paul bellowed. He writhed and tried to squirm from John's grasp. "GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME!! GO AWAY! GET OUT!"

John frowned. "Paul...."

"YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!" Paul shouted. He was terrified, that much was obvious. "YOU'RE DEAD! YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD!"

"PAUL!" John cried. "WAKE UP!"

"JOHN!!" Paul sobbed. "JOHN, HELP!!"

"I'm right here," John whispered in Paul's ear, squeezing his eyes shut and holding the younger man closer to his body, wrapping his arms tighter around him.

Paul woke with a jolt. He felt the warmth encircling his body and he knew the feeling immediately. He knew it was John and he flung his arms around John's neck and broke down into sobs. He buried his face in John's neck and just sobbed.

"Paulie?" John rubbed his back. "Paulie, you haven't had nightmares since he died... Why now?"

"I d-don't know!" Paul choked out. "I - I don't kno-know!" He shook his head against John's neck. He stayed there, plastered to John's body for a long while. Eventually he ceased to sob and attempted to calm his breathing. "J-John... M-my head hurts.... Please... Make it stop...."

"I can't, love." John said apologetically. "I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do."

"It hurts, John..."

"I know, babe," John wove his fingers into Paul's hair and held him even tighter. "It's okay. I love you. I love you."

~~~

Paul slept. He just slept. And John let him. It was eleven in the morning and he was dressed, but Paul slept on.

John stepped out into the hallway and knocked on George and Ringo's hotel room door. The door swung open to reveal George. "Hey," he said to John. "Is Paul up? Ringo and I are almost done getting ready and then we were thinking we could go out and grab a bite to eat."

"You two can go ahead," said John. "Paul's still fast asleep. He had a - erm - rough night." He frowned.

George examined the look on John's face. He looked from side to side in the hall. "Come inside," he said. "We need to talk."

"Okay," John nodded and stepped into the room to see Ringo in front of the mirror, fixing his tie. "Morning, Ringo."

"Morning, Johnny Boy." Ringo replied and continued focusing in his tie.

"So what went down last night?" George frowned worriedly.

"He had a nightmare," John sighed heavily and looked at George's puzzled expression. "Paul had a nightmare..... About his father."

George furrowed his brows. "His father? But his father had been dead for like three years. He hasn't had a nightmare about him since before he died. So why would he start again now? What happened?"

John shook his head. "No idea,"

"Why would he be having nightmares about his father?" Ringo asked.

"His father abused him," George frowned. "He almost killed him twice and then he almost killed his brother. John accidentally on purpose killed him when he was about to beat Mike to death."

"It wasn't at all on purpose!" John yelled.

"Well, you sure hit him over the head with that brick a lot of times for just wanting to knock him out," George said.

John rolled his eyes.

George and Ringo went out for lunch and they said that they were going to go see a movie or something afterward. John returned to his and Paul's room and sat on the empty bed with a sigh, looking over at the still sleeping Paul.

"What are we going to do now, love?" John frowned.