Borrowed Time: Saving John Lennon - A Beatles Fanfic

Chapter 20 - HOW?

December 4, 1980

"What do you mean, I die?! How??"

Holly felt her heart quicken. This was all so much harder to say than she thought it would be. "You don't just die, John. You get killed." She tried to keep her voice calm in an attempt to lessen John's frenzy.

John shook his head incredulously and stared at the floor, unable to comprehend what Holly was saying. "Killed? How? What? Is it a car accident or something? Plane crash?" He removed his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"You're shot." Holly paused, waiting for a reaction from John. "You get shot by someone."

John's head slowly turned to look at Holly, his glasses still in his hand. "Shot? Who the fuck shoots me?!"

There was a knock on the door and it opened instantaneously. "Jesus Christ, there you are. Yoko is going crazy looking for you."

"She can fucking manage without me, Jack," John retorted. Holly recognized him from the studio a few minutes earlier.

"The reporter is here as well. Front desk has him waiting," Jack replied.

"Fuck." John stood up from the couch. "Wait here," he ordered Holly. "Don't move."

Ten minutes later the door to the small room opened again.

"We're leaving. Come on." John's voice didn't sound angry, but his tone was sharp.

Back in the limo a confused Yoko relentlessly chastised John for their quick departure from the studio. John had also cancelled the scheduled interview they had with the Soho Times. John didn't respond to Yoko's nagging, and instead stared out the window seemingly at nothing.

"This is because of you, isn't it?" Yoko seethed at Holly. "John, what did I tell you about not listening to everyone who has something to say to you?"

"Shut up, mother," John grunted under his breath. He finally turned to acknowledge Yoko. "You don't know what you're talking about." He pointed at Holly. "She is the only person I want to listen to right now, and you're going to listen too."

Yoko sighed and folded her hands in her lap. "Honestly, John you are becoming impossible."

Once inside their apartment in the Dakota, Holly briefly met Sean and his nanny, Helen, before John sent them off elsewhere for the rest of the afternoon.

"I'm not putting up with your erratic behavior, John," Yoko said sternly. "I'm going to my office."

"You're not going anywhere!" John bellowed.

Holly sank down into a plush white chair next to a matching couch. The last thing she wanted was to watch a shouting match between John and Yoko.

"Sit," John said to Yoko, pushing her toward the couch. "Sit, and listen."

Yoko begrudgingly sat on the couch and John joined her. Her expression was nothing short of disgust. She stared at Holly, eyebrows raised, boring holes into the side of Holly's head with her gaze.

"Tell her what you told me," John said to Holly.

Holly took a deep breath. She wasn't sure why Yoko made her nervous, but she did. "John will be killed in four days," she started. "I'm here to try and stop that from happening."