Carry On (A Beatles Fanfiction)

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen: Ashley's POV

Morning came quick once again, but even after a late night, I was up at the crack of dawn feeling rather refreshed. I had the Elvis song still playing in my head from the night before and sort of walk danced my way around the flat to the living room. When I got there, I noticed that something had been slid through the mail slot in the door nearby. Curious, I went over and picked it up. It was a newspaper and the front page unfolded. 'BEATLE SECRETS, JOHN LENNON TELLS ALL' The headline read with an extremely untasteful picture of him below! I recognized it, the photo had been taken probably shortly before I needed to have my eyes bleached when I walked in on John with the girl! The girl had been a reporter?! 

"Did he know this?" I wondered. If Mr. Epstein got his hands on this, and odds were he already had, John would be in a ton of trouble!

"John!" I cried, running back through the house. Deciding to NOT open his door this time, I took to banging on it with my fists.

"I'm up! I'm up! Where's the fire?" He said groggily as he finally opened the door from the other side, still in his pajamas. I thrust the paper in his face and he paled. 

"Wh-Where did you find that? What is this?" He demanded, taking the paper.

"The front door. Someone dropped it off...John did you have any idea that girl you were with was a reporter?" I asked, running a stressed hand through my tangled hair.

"No....Oh God this is bad, Ashley this is really bad." He legit looked scared witless.

"What are we gonna do? If your manager finds this..." I trailed off as he shoved the paper back into my hands.

"Get dressed." He ordered.

"Hey! Wake up!" He then shouted at the top of his voice and banged loud on the two other closed doors. Protesting groans and mumbles were heard as I scurried off to throw on a dress. I worried a little about Paul who should probably stay in bed longer, but I knew John probably needed to go fix his mistake which involved the rest of the lads. Me? Probably support. 

"You WHAT?!" I heard Paul yell a few moments later and I knew John had told what happened. By all accounts it wasn't his fault really but...it was a mess. I ran out of my room after dragging a brush through my hair and the others were dressed and racing for the door. Paul still didn't look great, John better than I figured he would.

"He's gonna kill all of us." I voiced. And the others knew I was right as we headed out the door for Epstein's office.

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"For once! For once could you manage to stay out of trouble?!" Mr. Epstein yelled at the four lads standing in his office. It wasn't Paul's fault what happened to him. He was a victim of assault." George said in a very matter-of-fact tone. 

"And so, why wasn't I informed? Or why did you not go to the police? You're grown men! show some sense!" 

"I went after the offenders myself." John spoke up. Epstein sighed.

"I can tell. And now you're plastered all over the paper, Lennon! What have you to say for yourself?" He was steaming mad. I stood by the doorway feeling awful for the boys getting chewed out.

"It...won't happen again?" Oh no.

"John now is NOT the time to be a smartass." I thought. His tone was cocky as hell.

"Give me something more believable." The manager raised his eyebrow.

"Fine, it probably will happen again." He smirked.