Real Love: Chapter Eighteen
Real Love
Title: Chapter Eighteen
Authors: lovely_rita_mm & jenny_wren28
Starring: The Beatles (specifically John Lennon) and Maggie Sue
Rating: R for language, sex, & implied drug use.
Disclaimer: We don’t own any of the Beatles, this obviously never happened, and much to the real Maggie’s disappointment, is a complete work of fiction.
Will they ever finish recording the White Album? And is Maggie STILL pregnant? The answer to both of these is... yes!
Previous updates are located HERE.
Chapter 18
“Hi Ken.” Maggie waved up at the control room as she, Chris, and Pattie walked into Studio 2. “We’ve got food!” She pointed at the bags the other girls were carrying. Ken nodded and waved back, and then came down the stairs to meet them.
It was 5pm, a little early for dinner, but she knew the boys would be tumbling into the studio within the hour, ready to work all night, and she wanted to be sure everyone ate.
Plus, with the end of the work on the White Album in sight, John had been especially busy and if she wanted to see her husband, she knew this was the best bet.
Ken helped the girls set up the food at the table in the back and then helped himself. He’d be on the clock once the first of the band showed up. And he’d barely taken a bite when the first Beatle came through the door.
‘Hello, what’s this?” Paul came nearer so he could peer down and her and the dinner offerings..
“Dinner.”
“Indian again?” Paul wrinkled his nose and held up his hand. “I know, I know, it’s George’s favorite.” He rolled his eyes in an exaggerated fashion.
“It’s your favorite too, silly boy. Now come have some nice curries.”
“I’ll get some later. I want to warm up some first.” Paul waved his hand dismissively at the food, though Maggie knew it was just for effect.
“Suit yourself!” Maggie picked up a fork and made a show of eating a mouthful of vegetable curry. “Yum, this is SO good.”
Paul snorted in amusement. “Now you’ve got curry all over your face.”
“I do not!” Maggie grabbed a napkin and wiped at her chin.
“No, no, you missed it.” He pointed at her forehead, and then Maggie knew he was having her on, since she couldn’t possibly have gotten curry there.
“Go play your guitar.” She playfully shoved him away and turned back to the food - it really was just as delicious as it smelled. Before helping herself to more though, Maggie busied herself with cleaning up the lids from the takeout containers and making sure Ken had gotten enough to eat before he had to head up to the control room.
There were comforting studio noises going on in the background. The buzzing of amplifiers, tuning of guitar strings, strumming that changed in tone as Paul switched randomly between the pick-ups on his guitar.
He was still the only Beatle here, something not terribly surprising, as he was often the first to show up. Besides living close by, he liked having time to play around before the others arrived and interrupted his peace.
Maggie listened to him noodle a few riffs as she grabbed the container of butter chicken and sat down - and then almost dropped it when she heard something incongruously familiar.
“What did you just play? Play that again!” She shot to her feet, as quickly as her pergnant girth would allow.
Chris, reacting quickly, grabbed the sauce-filled container from Maggie’s hand, before she could spill any on the floor.
Paul was looking up at Maggie, puzzled by her intensity.
She drew nearer. “Seriously, Paul, play that again.”
Paul looked down at his guitar and played a riff.
“No, not that.” Maggie shook her head. “You’re doing it wrong. Play it like you did before.”
“I don’t remember what I did before.” He tried again, not quite nailing the melody that was so familiar to Maggie.
“Yes, you do. Now play it like you did before. Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah nah, nah nah…” Maggie sang at him.
“Oh, like that. Sure.” Paul’s fingers flew over the fretboard as he easily repeated the notes Maggie had given him. “That’s quite nice, isn’t it?” He played it over again several times, ultimately flipping the switch on his guitar to a setting that gave him a more distorted sound.
After a few more repetitions, he looked up and saw that Maggie was grinning at him.
“I just wrote a Beatles song, didn’t I?” he stage-whispered at her.
“Yep.”
“You cheated!”
“Did not - you played the riff first. Now make a song out of it!”
“All right, let me play around with it. Why don’t you go have some nice curries?” Paul said with a wink. He went off into a corner and Maggie returned to the table to finish her aborted attempt at making herself a plate of food.
She’d managed to get scoop some butter chicken over the rice on her plate when the noise of the other Beatles coming into the studio distracted her again.
“Let me do that.” Chris grabbed the container from her for a second time.
“Sorry,” Maggie said sheepishly.
“Here’s another napkin.” Chris held one out to Maggie. “Now go say hello to your husband. I’ll put a plate together for you.”
“But…”
“I’m the assistant, so let me assist,” she said firmly, pushing Maggie towards in the direction of John.
“Hello, luv.” John gave Maggie a big hug and a kiss. “How was your day?”
“Good, how about you?” Maggie knew full well that John had probably gotten up no more than two hours ago. She ruffled his hair affectionately and gave him another kiss in the tip of his long nose.
“Excellent. I had quite an, um, engaging dream,” John whispered, pulling her into him. “Perhaps I can tell you, or rather show you, more later.”
Maggie’s knees felt a little weak at his words and at the feel of his warm breath on her ear. If he said another word, she was simply going to have to drag him into an empty studio and have him right now. She looked up to see he was laughing at her reaction, which had been obvious to him. Damn Beatles, she thought to herself. They clearly know the effect they have on women.
“Later.” John winked, giving her a chaste kiss on the cheek. He wandered off to where Paul was still diligently noodling on his guitar, teasing a song out of a single riff.
Maggie smiled as she watched them, and then started a bit when she felt another pair of masculine arms wrap around her. She shifted around until only her protruding stomach separated her from George Harrison.
“Sorry to startle you, luv.” George dropped his arms from around her, but then took her hands, grasping them gently.
“All right. Hungry. As always. Ooh!” Maggie exclaimed, dropping George’s hands and putting them on her stomach.
“Is it kicking?”
“Yes! Oh, feel!”
Maggie grabbed George’s hand again, putting it on her stomach right where the baby was moving around.
“That’s amazing!” A big lopsided grin took over his face. The two of them stayed together, still touching for a minute longer, and then broke apart a little awkwardly. They’d never been shy about affectionate physical contact in the past, but for some reason this seemed more intimate. And Maggie had to admit that since their drunken night together, things had been different. They weren’t as easy with each other as they had been before. Maggie wasn’t sure exactly what had changed, but something had. Maybe once you kiss, or admit physical attraction, you can never go back from it. They’d always been just friends before. But what had happened between them that night had opened some door that couldn’t easily be closed. Even if neither of them wanted to step through it again. Then there was the simple fact that George was a Beatle. And a Beatle could charm the pants off of any women, married or single. This thought made Maggie feel better. It wasn’t just her. Any woman would swoon in the presence of a Beatle.
“I’d better go get tuned up.” George gave her a peck on the cheek and a cheeky grin, and Maggie felt their familiar dynamic restored for the time being. Maggie watched as he wandered off over the others, and saw the expression on his face shift slightly as he took in Paul and John, the two-headed monster, writing another hit that he probably wouldn’t be a part of.
Maggie let Chris put a plate of food in her hands, and even the savory butter chicken (one of her favorite dishes) wasn’t enough to distract her from watching the Beatles write a song she already knew, from watching their dynamics, and from hoping once again, that they would survive as a band.
Firmly putting melancholy thought aside, Maggie did her best to enjoy the evening, watching the song come together, and laughing as they finally decided it was to be a birthday song. They’d never really done a themed song like that, and they loved the idea that people might use it for birthday celebrations, or that musicians might cover it at their shows when the need arose.
Maggie smiled even harder when Paul spontaneously made the band crowd into one of the offices with acoustic guitars so he could ring Linda up to play it for her. Linda’s birthday was in less than a week, and Paul’s gift of the song to her gave the it new meaning for Maggie.
After the 20th take, John looked at his watch. “Let’s take a break! ‘The Girl Can’t Help It’ comes on at 9.” Everyone agreed, and putting things on hold for a few hours, they all trooped over to Paul’s house, which was the closest.
It amused Maggie to see them all so bound to a TV schedule. Though she had been in the 60s for nearly 2 years, she still felt as if she was merely on vacation from her TiVo, even if that wasn’t really true. Still, she remembered when she was little and looked forward to seeing the special broadcasts of ‘The Sound of Music” and ‘The Wizard of Oz.” If you missed it, you’d have to wait another full year.
‘The Girl Can’t Help It” wasn’t exactly ‘The Wizard of Oz” but it was the first time it was being screened on TV in the UK, and it was a rock and roll ‘classic,’ starring Jayne Mansfield, a starlet they all loved - and it also had guest appearances by Little Richard, Eddie Cochran, and Gene Vincent. Maggie wasn’t sure which had more appeal to them, the buxom blonde (whom John had once snogged) or the boys’ rock idols. It was a little hard for Maggie not to be jealous. In the state she was in right now, there was no way to compete with the glamorous figure cut by Jayne.
But Maggie felt better when the band gave John a good ribbing over that night at the Whiskey-a-go-go, which had happened way back in 1964. That was one thing she could rely on the Beatles for - to take each other down unmercifully when needed.
After the movie, it was back to the studio. With Ken’s help, take 19 was selected as the best one. Paul and John quickly refined the lyrics and dubbed them over the musical track they’d recorded. Maggie, Pattie, and Chris were invited to join in the backing vocals and also provided handclaps.
“I’m in a Beatles song,” Maggie thought to herself excitedly. Then she’d had to remind herself of the “A Day In The Life party.” She had already been a part of a Beatles track. But this was different; she was singing and clapping on a real Beatles recording. And nothing could dim that excitement.
After the adrenaline faded a bit, though, Maggie felt exhausted. The band still had to do some over dubs of piano and tambourine, as well as mix the track. Pattie stayed to wait for George, but John sent Maggie home in a car. Chris went with her.
“You can stay if you want,” Maggie protested.
“That’s alright - I’m tired myself,” Chris smiled. “I’m going to go bed and the try to relive being on a Beatles song in my dreams.”
“That will make two of us,” Maggie’s own smile was interrupted by a yawn.
* * *
Maggie’s happiness was dimmed when a few days later, John came home from the studio to report another row between Paul and George.
“What happened?” Maggie asked George on the phone. She’d felt it necessary to call to get his side after hearing John’s somewhat garbled version of things. John was still in his head with the song they were currently working on, “Happiness is a Warm Gun”, to give Maggie the level of detail she was looking for.
“The usual. Paul being Paul,” George replied, the usual acerbic hint present in his voice.
“I thought things were better?
“What would make you think that?”
Maggie paused for a second before replying. “Astrid. You guys were all nostalgic for the good old days and recording “Birthday” was so fun. And you guys made up with Pete… It just seemed that you were all working to put the negative stuff behind you.”
George let out a short, bitter laugh. “But it’s not the good old days. I’m not 17 years old anymore. I’m 25. I have so many ideas for songs, but Paul won’t let me get a fraction of them out.”
“I know that you’re not who you were in the old days, but you guys still need to find a way to move on together, as you are now. Hasn’t Paul been any better?”
Now it was George’s turn to think silently. “It is better, yes, but it’s not enough. I will never not be a little brother to John and Paul. I’m tired of it.”
“But your songs for this album - they’re so good. And you have more of your songs represented than ever before.”
“I know, you’re right. And I should be grateful for it, shouldn’t I?”
“That’s not what I mean…” Maggie sat heavily down on the couch. The weight of the conversation was almost too much. It was one they’d had many times before, so it was nothing new, but each time she hear George say he wanted more, it made her a little sick. She wanted more for him. But it would break her heart to see the Beatles break up. And before their time. If Abbey Road never happened… The Beatles would still leave a tremendous legacy, but Abbey Road was perhaps the crowning achievement.
George saved Maggie from having to re-explain herself. “I know. It’s just that I had this idea for a song when we were working on Piggies. And I played a bit of it for Ken, and he said we should use it. Do you know what my first thought was?
“What?”
“That I should give it to Jackie Lomax as a single.”
“Give it away?”
“It’d have a better chance of getting used that way.”
“Can you hum a few bars of it?” Maggie asked, curious.
“Oh, you want to see if you recognize it, do you?”
“Well, yeah. It’s just that…”
“What?”
“I shouldn’t tell you.”
“What do you know?” he demanded.
“You’ve written some great songs already, but there’s another one that will be considered one of the Beatles’ greatest, and you can’t not write it. And if there’s even a chance that this is it, you can’t give it away.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“That’s all I ask.”
* * *
October of 1968 was spent recording and mixing the rest of the tracks for the White Album, or “The Beatles” as it had been titled by the band. The dynamics in the group stayed relatively stable but Maggie had a feeling George would want a long rest before starting on something new. As it turned out, everyone wanted a break.
“You’re going where? When?” Maggie asked Ringo. She’d actually called to talk to Maureen, but Ringo had answered instead and said that Maureen was busy packing for their trip.
“We’re going to Sardinia for two weeks. On the 14th.”
“But don’t you have a session that day? The last one for the new album?”
“They don’t need me. They’re doing mixing mostly. And Paul and John have a better ear than I do.”
“But they’re still finishing Savoy Truffle!”
“The drum part is recorded, so my part is done.”
“But it’s George’s song…” Maggie protested again.
Ringo interrupted her gently. “That’s right, it’s George’s song. He doesn’t need me.”
“Oh, Ringo,” Maggie said sadly. “We all need you.”
* * *
The last Beatles session for the White Album went all night long. Since it would be the last session for a while (though Maggie sincerely hoped it wouldn’t be the last one ever), she went and stayed as long as she could. Since Ringo’s light-hearted presence would be missing, she felt she needed to be there to help keep the peace.
The session was surprisingly smooth and Maggie let the boys do their work, dozing on the couch in the studio when she got too tired to stay awake any longer.
“Maybe I should bring a mattress in for you,” John said jokingly.
“No!” Maggie said it far more forcefully than she meant to.
By 7:30 am, “The Beatles” was done.
And one by one, over the next few days, the band themselves parted company. George flew to LA to do Jackie Lomax’s album, and Paul and Linda went to New York to visit family. With Ringo still in Sardinia, that dropped the Beatle population in Britain down to one. To Maggie, despite John’s warm and loving presence, this felt lonely indeed.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, not so long a delay as last time, but still a delay. Sorry! Thanks as always for being awesome, and patient, readers!
We'll see you next time! There should be some big developments happening in Chapter 19!
Continue to Chapter Nineteen
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