Break Me One More Time [McLennon]

in which it becomes frighteningly obvious that paul doesn't really have a plan

     "John?" Paul whispered. "John?" Slowly and cautiously, he crept through the dark, feeling his way along a damp wall.

    A gunshot sounded and a scream rented the air and Paul looked around frantically, but it was too dark. He couldn't see anything. He couldn't see anything...

     Another gunshot.

     Another scream.

     Heavy footsteps.

    "JOHN!" Paul cried.

    The footsteps grew fainter and fainter until they disappeared completely and Paul began to run aimlessly, desperate to find John. He ran and ran until his foot caught on something and he toppled to the floor.

    He reached his arms out before his face could slam into the ground and his hands were met with something warm and wet.

     He yelped and leapt off the ground and turned around and shroud frantically. "John," he said, over and over again. "John.. John!"

~~~

    Three years.

     Paul had only ever had one of those weird, out of the blue nightmares and that had been three years ago. So why he was, all of a sudden, having a second, was completely beyond John.

    "Paul, wake up!" John cried, shaking Paul vigorously but it was to no avail. Paul's eyes were screwed shut and he was thrashing about, yelling nonsense. "Paulie, come on! It's okay! It's just a bad dream!!"

    Paul squirmed and yelled and sobbed. His cheeks were shining, wet with tears.

    "Paul, come on! Wake up! Wake up!" John huffed, gripping his boyfriend's shoulders and shaking  him with all his might. Yet still, his efforts were fruitless and Paul was still lost within the horrors of his mind. "PAUL, WAKE UP ALREADY!"

    "JOHN! WAKE UP!" Paul screamed in his sleep.

    John frowned, completely puzzled. "Paulie.."

     The bedroom door burst open. "Is he okay?" George asked.

    "I don't know.. I don't think so," John frowned, just staring down at Paul. He didn't know what to do anymore.

    "Has he had a lot of nightmares since the first one?" Ringo asked.

    "No," John shook his head. "None at all. He hasn't been sick since then, though." He pressed his lips to Paul's forehead.

    "Fever?" George asked.

    John frowned. "No.. I thought — I thought he had that nightmare because of the fever but.. No. He hasn't got one."

    "Please, John..." Paul whimpered weakly in his sleep. "Don't leave me. Not again."

    George and Ringo glanced at one another.

    John gripped Paul's hand tightly. "I'm here," he whispered. "I'm not leaving, okay? Not now, not ever. I'm here and I'm always going to be here, for as long as you want me to be.."

    Slowly, then all at once, Paul woke up. He woke with tears in his eyes, and he sat up and threw his arms around John. He hugged him tightly, refusing to let him go for a long long time.

~~~

     It was days and days later, after John had questioned paul about the nightmare an innumerable amount of times, that Paul found himself alone in the flat staring down a page of lyrics.