What Is Life? - A George Harrison FanFic

Chapter 20

The next two weeks came and went. We said our goodbyes to my home in America after seeing my parents again. They promised to come visit us in England for the holidays and for the birth of our child around the new year.

When we landed in London upon our return we saw John's Rolls Royce there on the tarmac ready to pick us up.

George, Linda, her daughter Heather, and I were excited to finally have landed safely and I was so happy to be able to introduce them to John and Cynthia now that they were here to pick us up.

We reached them and John stepped out but I was caught off guard to see that he was with another woman. A new woman entirely and she was the exact opposite of Cynthia. She had long dark black hair and was of Japanese decent. We had absolutely no clue who she was and Linda looked confused as well.

"Welcome home!" John said as if we weren't all confused by the presence of this mystery woman.

"Who might this be?" John asked us about seeing Linda and her daughter with us.

"We can ask you the same thing," I said plainly.

"This is my new wife," George said sarcastically as a joke to break the tension, "you know Americans are into that these days."

Linda and I burst out laughing.

Johns new friend looked at Linda and I like we each had five heads and that she didn't get what was so funny.

"This is Yoko Ono," John said to us proudly, "my new fiancé."

"Have you gone mad?" George asked him in a harsh tone. He then pulled him to the side to have a private discussion.

This left me to break the ice with this Yoko woman. I had no clue what went down with John and Cynthia while we were gone and felt terrible that I wasn't here to console her when this all came to light. I was shocked to find out that we just hadn't been told.

"Yoko," I said to her, "I'm George's wife, Lauren. This is our good friend Linda and her daughter Heather."

"Nice to meet you," she nodded at us and then said nothing else.

I looked over at George who then came back to us and put his arm around me as if he needed me near him to calm down his anger at the situation.

We rode in mostly silence as John took us to our home. I still had no idea what had just happened or how this was going to affect things for the Beatles. I just knew that George was back and that they could be a band again, hopefully all feeling refreshed.

"Your home is lovely," Linda said after we brought her inside and George picked up Heather to show her around the property. She was in awe at all of the artwork we hung on the walls and kept saying how 'pretty' it was.

Linda smiled at them and then turned to me happily, "George is going to be a great father to your child. He seems like he's great with kids. I appreciate both of you for helping me with her."

She was right. Seeing him grow a liking toward Linda's daughter after how close we have all gotten was a great thing to see. I was now 4 and a half months pregnant and starting to show yet somehow we've stayed out of the public eye and none of our close friends and family have sold the story to the press.

Moments later after getting home and getting settled in, Paul McCartney came walking up to the door and let himself inside. Every single one of the Beatles had a key to our home and I wouldn't be surprised if they had been here using the studio while we were gone.

"Welcome home, Lauren Woods," Paul came up to me and hugged me with his usual greeting. That was always our little thing and it made me smile every time. He wasn't yet sure who the woman was sitting on the other side of the room.

There was so much to catch up on now that we were back home. In our English home. I knew Paul had split from his girlfriend Jane before we had left and that he had been super lonely, and with the Beatles all being apart for many weeks now, he must have been completely lost.

George then walked in with Heather still in his arms and his eyes grew wide.

"Americans grow babies pretty fast, no?" He joked with us.

Linda began to laugh at this and stood up to introduce herself.

"Linda Eastman," she held her hand out, "this one here is mine."

Paul shook her hand and said, "Paul McCartney."

She took her daughter from George and then excused herself to bring her upstairs to the room we showed her that she could have while she stayed with us. Heather was completely exhausted after the long flight we had.

After Linda was gone Paul looked at both of us and was a little bit speechless.

"Who is she?" He finally asked.

"Lauren's new best friend," George told him, "they've spent every waking minute together in America. The two of them are inseparable."

"So Jenna is no longer holding that top position?" Paul smirked.

"I have lots of friends," I admitted, "what can I say... people like me."

"Do they now?" Paul asked "because I heard that Ms. Yoko Ono wasn't impressed."

George and I looked at him and said nothing. We didn't know what to say. We now knew that there was a lot we didn't know. Paul had information that we needed to be able to understand what's been happening with John.

"What was that today? Did John tell you they picked us up?" George asked his friend.

"He was planning that for over a week," Paul said, "he knew you both had no idea that he was having this affair and did that to break the news to you. He has no shame."

"Where's Cynthia... and Julian?" I asked him. George put his arm around me to brace me for impact.

"She moved out. Wants nothing to do with any of us and won't let us see Julian," he said.

I was in shock. They were working on their marriage when we last saw them and now he was openly with another mystery woman who apparently already doesn't like me.


As we all sat there Linda returned and I sat her down and told her that Paul was George's best man at our wedding.

"Well you seem like a great friend to the Harrison's," she said to him to which he nodded fondly.

"When you walked away I had to ask who you were," Paul admitted to her, "all these mystery women keep popping up in Beatle land."

"I'm not George's second wife, no matter what he says," she joked and Paul laughed as hard at this as we did when George had made the joke earlier with John.

To our surprise Paul and Linda hit it off and were chatting like old pals. Suddenly the whole thought of her possibly not coming out here to stay with us because she was afraid to take the leap came full circle as we saw just how happy she could be with friends like ours.

It began to get late and we had to excuse ourselves to get some rest. Linda and Paul said goodnight to us and stayed in the foyer on the sofa just talking. I got up two times to see if they had gone to sleep or if Paul had left and they were still down there talking well into the night.

"Where were you?" George asked as I crawled back into bed and accidentally woke him.

"Checking on Linda," I admitted.

"And?" He asked me as he pulled me close to his chest.

"They are still up, in the same spot just talking," I said to him.

His eyes widened and he looked at the clock and saw it was well into the middle of the night.

"I didn't see that one coming," he said happily.

"I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing," I looked up at him.

"Why would it be bad?" He asked me.

The truth was that I didn't want Linda to fall for Paul so quickly. I had done so with George and life was great because of it but I didn't want to be responsible for completely changing the course of her life. If she was falling for Paul she was going to be thrust into the spotlight in a way that isn't easy. Also her entire life would change because of it.

I knew that Paul has always been completely full of himself and would be with women because of their infatuation for him rather than because he loved them back and I will never forgive myself if he ends up hurting her someday.

"What are you thinking about?" George then asked when I hadn't answered him.

"About how different things are around here," I admitted. Nothing seemed the same.