Chapter 26: Misery
20 September 1969
Not too much has happened lately. Still stress between the lads, but what else is new? We had just celebrated Zak's fourth birthday. It's so hard to believe that he's that old. He's become such a little version of Ritchie. I love it.
The kids and I were at Paul and Kate's visiting she and baby Mary while the lads were at the studio.
"So how have things been here? I can't believe how big Mary's gotten within these few months."
Kate smiled and rocked Mary lightly. "She has. I still can't believe it's been 2 months since we had her. Things have been okay, having Mary keeps Paul calmer."
"Kids grow up so fast. I can't believe Zak just turned four.."
He quickly turned around and held up four fingers. "I big boy now!"
We both smiled and giggled lightly. "Yes you are sweetie."
He smiled and went back to playing with the twins, I turned back to Kate.
"As I was saying, I feel like just yesterday I was pregnant with him-the same with the twins. But I'm glad Paul's a bit calmer. It's starting to become too much to watch the lads be like this."
"It really is. Do you want to hold Mary for a bit?"
"I'd love to." I smiled widely as she was passed to me. I looked down at her. She was the perfect combination of Paul and Kate; she had Kate's smile and nose, but Paul's eyes.
I held her for a few minutes and soon James and Cadence came over and sat in front of me.
"Hi kiddos, do you want to come up here and see your baby cousin?"
They both shook their heads and tugged on my skirt. "No, we baby."
"Mummy, we baby."
"You are my babies, but now Uncle Paul and Aunt Kate have a baby too."
They both climbed onto the couch and pulled on my arms. "We baby..."
I handed Mary back to Kate, pulling the two of them into my lap. "Yes you are.."
They buried their faces in my chest as Kate smiled at them.
"Was Zak like this right after you had them?"
"A bit, yeah. The first month was hard; he always cried for attention. That was during the time when we had our short separation..so with it just being me he was really jealous of how much I payed attention to the twins. But after 6 or so months he calmed down. Mum said Paul and I were badly jealous when she and my dad brought Mike home, so he took after us."
Kate laughed and smiled lightly. "Your dad said you three were always trouble."
"Me? Trouble? No.." I laughed a bit. "It was Paul and Mike mostly. They'd always take each other's things, Mike would occasionally put the blame on me when Paul's things went missing. I remember a few times in particular, your husband gave me a concussion and broke my arm. He said they were 'accidents' but we got on each other's nerves a bit. Little Paulie was a trouble maker."
Kate couldn't help but giggle by the story. "I could see it. You three are still very interesting. But Paul told me how you gave him a concussion too."
"Aye now that was a complete accident. I was sneaking out of the house, he was in the backyard and I slipped and fell on him."
"I gave you one, you gave me one. We were even."
Kate and I looked up to see Paul, George and Ritchie had walked in.
"Hi love, you're home early." Kate said as Paul came over and sat in between us.
"Yeah, we are." He looked down at Mary and kissed her forehead. "Hi baby girl, Daddy missed you while he was gone."
I looked over at him. "Rough day?"
George walked in and sat in the chair across from us. "Oh yeah. John told us he's leaving the band. He and Brianna want to concentrate on their music and such. He's officially done with us."
"I can't believe it.. he's not even himself anymore." Paul said, burying his face in his hand.
Ritchie came and sat by George, pulling Cadence into his lap. "We came back here to talk about where we go from here."
Cadence looked up and tapped him lightly. "Daddy sad? Why?"
He kissed her forehead and shook his head. "I'm okay baby girl, I promise."
I walked over and picked her up. "Come on sweetie, let's let Daddy and your uncles talk."
With that the kids, Kate and I went outside to allow the lads to talk. We all went out into the yard; the kids ran around with Martha while Kate and I watched them.
"I can't believe John quit.." Kate said with a sigh. "I can tell Paul's so upset.."
"John started the band..I can't believe he's the first to leave it.."
"What's going on is crazy.."
She and I kept talking for about another hour. Ritchie came out of the house to us and picked up the twins.
"Come on kiddos, dad's ready to go home." He then looked over at Kate and baby Mary. "And how's our little god daughter doing?"
"She's been good. Been keeping us up, but we couldn't be happier." She smiled and looked down at her before turning back to Ritchie. "Are you all okay?"
"We'll be fine. Macca's taking it hard though.."
"I better go talk to him. We'll see you all soon."
The kids looked up at Kate and waved. "Bye Auntie Kate! Bye Mary!"
"Bye little ones." She smiled and went back inside.
The five of us went to the car and made our way home. The kids went to playing which the two of us sat and watched them.
"Are you okay love? I know today was unexpected.." I asked turning to him.
He gave a small nod and pulled me to him. "Yeah..I'm fine. I just have to think positive. We don't know where we'll go from here, but I think I want to do a solo album."
"I think you should. You're an amazing musician and I know you can do it."
He smiled and kissed my forehead. "I want you to help me. I want us to do this together."
I blushed and held his hand. "Together."
