Break Me One More Time [McLennon]

in which paul and yoko have a chat

   The next day, Paul phoned Yoko and arranged to meet her at the cafe where he'd first told her that he was dating John. She was already there, seated at a table by the window, when he arrived.

    "Hi," she greeted with a smile when he dropped into the seat across from her.

    "Hello," he sighed.

    "What's up?" She asked.

    "Has anyone from the Unknowables been to see you recently? Like really recently?" Paul asked.

    "Well, I've only ever met Tessa but.. I haven't seen her in a few months, actually," Yoko shook her head. "In fact, the last time I saw her was when she came to me right after you told me about you and John.. Why? Has something happened?"

    "Yeah, you could say that," Paul huffed.

    "What is it?" Yoko frowned.

    "The Unknowables have teamed up with the Shadows," Paul hissed.

     Yoko's eyes grew wide. "No!"

    "Yes!" Paul nodded.

    "B-but — but the Shadows want John dead," Yoko shook her head.

    "That's what I said," Paul huffed. "Barney insists that the Shadows have agreed to let John live, but I'm not buying it. I don't trust them, and I will never trust them. I've seen what they can do, firsthand, and I've seen them try to kill John."

    "I thought they wanted him to die in 1980," Yoko furrowed her brows.

    "Yeah, me, too," Paul nodded. "That's always confused me a bit.."

    "Hm," Yoko said thoughtfully. "Anyway, what did you see them do?"

    "We were in the Azores for some charity performance thing and we had quite a bit of free time," Paul said. "So we went on this boat for a dolphin watch thing. Barney was with us, in disguise of course, and came over to me said that there was a Shadow sitting in front of him. There was a really bad storm, and John alms ot fell off the boat. The wheel was broken for a bit, George and I both fell in and I was unconscious but George got me out of the water... John was okay, though."'

    "Well, damn.." Yoko sighed. "And the Unknowables seriously think that it's a fine idea to team up with these people when their goal is to save John and the Shadows' goal is to kill him? I'd love to know how that logic works exactly."

    "That's just thing," Paul frowned. "What if the Unknowables don't really care whether John lives or dies? What if they just want our help?"

    "Yeah, I've thought about that before." Yoko nodded. "Maybe that's the way they all are, really. Maybe the F.H.O. just wanted you to cooperate so they told you what you wanted to hear. Maybe the Unknowables just wanted my help, and yours, so they told us we'd still be saving me. Maybe the Shadows are only agreeing to let him live for now so that they can team up with the Unknowables. What if you and I are the only ones who actually care about saving John?"

    "Then we'll do it," Paul nodded sharply. "By ourselves if we have to, we'll save him. I don't care if time itself falls apart as long as John lives.."

    Yoko shifted uncomfortably, but she nodded.

    "We'll save him," Paul said, more to himself than to Yoko that time. "We will. We have to."

~~~

     "Lilly, I have to go into work!" Barney called.

    Lilly walked into the kitchen with Kylie trailing closely behind her. She was holding a small, sleeping dog in her arms. "Which work? Why?"

    "The Unknowables," Barney said and sighed. "They're having some troubles transferring all the members of the Shadows into the Unknowables' system or something."

    "Okay," Lilly nodded. "Well, try to hurry back. I've got a toddler and a puppy to take care of on my own without you here."

    "I will," Barney nodded and kissed her cheek. He scratched behind the puppy's ear and said, "Bye, Sadie," then turned and picked up Kylie. He squeezed her tightly. "Bye, sweetheart. I'll see you tomorrow."

    "Bye bye, daddy," Kylie giggled as Barney set her down.

    "Bye," he said one more time before heading out — and by heading out I, of course, mean magically disappearing into thin air.

     "Barney, thank god you're here," Steph said.

    "What seems to be the problem?" Barney asked. "Trouble with the computer system again?  Won't add everyone into the system? Those computers are crap, you know, Darren. You should really think about investing in some new ones."

    "That's not the kind of 'problem entering people into the system' I was talking about," Darren frowned. "Unfortunately. That would be a much easier issue to solve, seeing as we've all got magic and what have you."

    "Yeah, I was wondering why you needed me to come in over some computers that could be fixed with magic," Barney said. "By the way, you might want to consider upgrading them with magic, because they really are crap."

    "Man's got a point," Gabriel nodded.

    "More pressing matters!" Marbella exclaimed.

    "Right, right!" Barney said. "Okay, so what's the problem?"

    "About half of the Shadows are refusing to join the Unkowables," Tessa said. "They claim that it's going against what they've been working toward all these years, and they're organizing their own organization now. They're keeping the title of the Shadows, and they're hellbent on taking down us, the F.H.O., and killing John Lennon."

     "Well..that's very not good," Barney frowned.

     "You think?" Lola said.

    Barney frowned at Lola, who frowned back at him.

    "So, what are we going to do?" Barney asked.

    "There's nothing to be done," Marbella sighed. "We can't exactly force them to join, they won't be faithful to the cause."

     "Exactly," Darren nodded. "We're moving our base and...well...we're just going to have to work to take them down. Shouldn't be too hard, I mean, we were prepared to take on the Shadows before they joined us, right? Well, the Shadows we've got to fight now are half the size of the original Shadow organization and they're without an experienced leader."

     "Darren is right," Marbella nodded. "We can do this if we just all stick together."

     "Right, then," Steph said. "Let's get packing."