I Learnt To Love In Liverpool | George Harrison ✅

♥ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 ♥

Emeraude's POV

Paul and John were back rather quickly. I had stopped sobbing, and instead I was just sitting silently on the settee in Mimi's front room, staring blankly at the empty fireplace, reliving the entire night in my mind.

"Em?" Paul said when he came into the front room, immediately kneeling down in front of me as John put my suitcase against the wall. He went into the kitchen to give Paul and I some time. I wanted to thank him for that. I looked into the kind, loving eyes of my brother and stifled a sob. Somehow, seeing him looking at me with so much pity in his eyes made me want to cry again. "Oh, Em," he put his arms around me and then patted my back. I cried again and he tightened his hold on me. "Let's stay here with John tonight, eh?" He asked, pulling back from me so he could look in my eyes, "it's late, and I reckon that him and Mimi'll be awful worried about you all night long."

I opened my mouth to ask if dad would be alright with him staying out - and then I realised that Jim was my legal guardian too, now.

"Don't worry about dad." Paul said, as if he had read my mind. He stood up, "I'll tell John to get the spare blankets out." I nodded and he left me alone for a few minutes to go and speak to John.

Minutes later, we were in John's room.

"I'll take the floor, I s'pose." John said, throwing one of the spare blankets straight onto the carpet. "You take the bed, Em, and -"

"Paul can share with me." I said in a shy tone, gesturing to the single bed which looked barely big enough for one body, let alone two.

Paul turned to me in surprise, "you sure? I can take the floor, too -"

I nodded shyly, "you're my brother, Paul," I told him, "and I want someone to, um, just be there during the night...?"

He nodded and smiled softly at me. "Okay. Want me and John to leave so you can get changed?"

I shook my head, "no, I'm too tired. Let's just go to bed, yeah?"

He nodded and got into the bed first so that he was lying beside the wall. He then held up the duvet for me and I got in, wriggling into his arms but leaving an acceptable amount of distance between the two of us - we might be brother and sister, but we'd only known each other a few days and I wanted to be exactly like siblings would be - they wouldn't spoon.

John got onto the floor and sighed. "Night, Maccas."

"Night, John." Paul and I chorused. Paul moved his arms and rested his hands on my stomach.

As we three began to drift off, I whispered, "Paulie, I love you."

The next morning, I woke up with a dry throat and sore eyes. I rubbed at them, and then swallowed. I got out of the bed and it took me a few seconds to realise that I wasn't in my own bed, but rather John's - and neither my brother or his best friend were in the room with me... but I could hear talking downstairs; two male voices and then one female: John and Paul and Mimi. I went over to my suitcase, which John had lugged up the stairs for me the previous night, and made an attempt at getting dressed and looking presentable.

When I looked in the small mirror in the bathroom opposite John's bedroom, I saw my reflection - and I looked like a mess... but I didn't have time to fix it. Somebody must have heard me walking overhead, because Paul came to the bottom of the stairs and called up to me.

"Em! Tea's down here and gettin' cold - I was thinking we could get on over back home in a bit -"

"Coming." I replied in a voice barely loud enough to be heard outside of the bathroom, let alone down the stairs. I sighed and went down, my brother immediately embracing me and bringing a small smile to my face. "Come 'ead," he said, leading me by the hand into the kitchen, "John's been waiting for you to get up for half an hour and more."

John smiled as I walked into the kitchen and I smiled back, feeling my day get a little brighter when we locked gazes. He came over and put an arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his chest. "Everything will be a'right in the end, Em," he said, "if it isn't a'right, then it isn't the end."

"You're too good for this world, John." I said, turning to him and hugging him, feeling closer to him this morning than I had the previous day - possibly because he had held me until Paul arrived after I had found Kevin -

I felt tears fill my eyes, and I was about to break into tears again, but Mimi distracted me, "there's a police officer in the living room who needs to speak with you, dear," she informed me in a kind tone, pressing a soft kiss to the top of my head in an almost-motherly way. I imagined that she had done this to John many-a-times when he was younger - somehow, I couldn't imagine John at twenty-one years old being kissed by his aunt very much. "I've set him up with a bacon sandwich and a cup of tea, and he said he's quite happy to wait until you've had your breakfast."

I nodded, "thank you, Mimi -"

"Aunt Mimi to you, dear." She smiled, "I think you need a family, now -"

"She's got me and Mike and da, Mimi." Paul pointed out.

"And me." John added.

"Yes," Mimi turned and looked at the two boys, replying in a patronising tone of voice, "but she needs a woman. Dear," she now spoke directly to me, "if you ever feel like you can't go to your father with anything, then come to me. I will always be here for you."

Oddly touched, I smiled and dashed out of John's arms and into her's. She hugged me in return, and John chuckled under his breath.

I wondered if she had ever embraced him - she didn't seem like the kind of woman to show affection very often.

"There now," Mimi cooed, holding me at arm's length and brushing some strands of hair from my face, "let's get some breakfast in you." She gestured to the table. Paul sat on one side, John on the other, and I sat beside my brother and opposite John. She put a bacon sandwich and a cup of hot, sweet tea in front of each of us before she turned and left the room.

Paul said, "do you want me to be with you when you talk to the officer?" I nodded. "Me, da and Mike are all the family you've got now, Em," he told me, "and I'm never leaving your side. You're stuck with me forever."

♬♩♪♩　　♩♪♩♬