Stop Crying Your Heart Out - McLennon AU

10.

(R.I.P Astrid ❤️🙏🏻.)

15th April, 1963

Ringo stared at the man, who's eyes studied the letter carefully. It was a letter from the council...? Government? Ringo wasn't entirely sure, but from what Paul had told him, John wasn't originally too pleased when he'd heard the 'idea'.

"Bloody Paul and his... I don't even know." The man huffed, placing the letter next to him on the couch. "Thinks he knows what's best for me."

John altered the way the baby was lay, now placing his other hand also underneath the baby who was still drinking his bottle.

"Hey, wait a minute, John." Ringo said, picking the letter back up. "Don't just throw it away like that."

"Wasn't throwin' it away." He shrugged, staring at Julian's face. "Just savin' it for later."

"We both know that's not true." Ringo pointed out, causing John to take a deep breath and sigh.

Ringo was forward with what he said, wanting to make his point clear. When Paul had called him to see if he'd visited John yet, the man informed him that he'd been denied.

But as soon as Paul told Ringo about John snapping at him, he knew the other man was breaking, and had to visit him, whether a John liked it or not.

Paul and John were always the closest in the little 'friendship group' of four that they had. And for John to snap at him for something as such as reading a letter... That was completely out of character.

Ringo knew he had to be careful how he spoke to John. He had to be forward in what he said, way more demanding than Paul. He knew how difficult it must have been for Paul to see John like this, and although it was hard for Ringo too, he could compose himself better than the other boy could.

When John was in pain, Paul was in pain too.

"Come on, let's just have a read through it, eh?" Ringo suggested, looking at the man who shrugged. "If you still feel the sane way after lookin' through the options, then we can just leave it."

After a few short seconds, John nodded.

"Alright." He said, his voice sounding broken, as if the man had just lost his fight.

Ringo opened up the letter, as John couldn't. His eyes scanned through the paper. It was a letter from the government indeed, the logo, signature and everything. There was a list of all the new plans that had been introduced, but most of them were useless to John.

Until he found the one about work and money.

"Fuck, I haven't got my soddin' glasses." John cursed as he turned to look at the letter.

"I'll read it to you, don't worry." His eyes continued to scan through. "Gotta make sense of all this fancy talk shite though first." That earner a light laugh from John.

"Good at confusing us, ain't they?"

"Aye." Ringo agreed with a light smile. "So you already get £40 a month anyway for Julian."

"Really?" His eyes widened.

"Yeah, whether your in work or not." He read more. "But there's a few you can claim, depends how many hours you work..."

After a few minutes of reading through the letter and discussing what he was entitled to, Julian had finished. John places the almost empty bottle of milk on the table infront, before reaching for Julian's light grey elephant, Nellie. He cuddled him as the baby fell asleep.

"You can apparently claim 75% of what you're usually paid, it says..."

"What? Really?" Johns eyes widened in surprise. "Jesus, That's way better than I thought it would be."

"Yeah. God that's a lot..."

Ringo could see John's face deep in thought, not for the first time that day. He watched as the man seemed to loosen up at the idea.

"How- How can I look more into it?"

The older man smiled at John, heartwarming, as if to show he was proud.