If I Fell

~70~

Revelations

"Soooo" Stella hopped up and grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge, tossing Hailey one as she returned.

"Soooo" Paul copied, smiling at her puppy dog enthusiasm.

"Dad"

"Stell"

"Stop it father, spit it out, all the gory details, Hailey and I are so over waiting" Stella pouted and made Hailey pout too by giving a little tilt of her head towards the old's.

Abigail made a decision to speak up, Paul was right. As much as it pained her to speak of it, she had to tell the lot, warts and all. If Stella got upset what was the problem, they would be jetting out of the country tomorrow anyway.

"Your father, Stella, was not your father when I spoke to him at first"

The girls hushed and leant forward as if a fairy-tale was being read before bed.

Paul grinned broadly remembering and leant back on the couch touching Abigail's hair as he did so, eliciting a minute shudder from her, but he felt it all the same.

The girls eyebrows shot up and would over and over as the story unfold. Abby was about to continue but Hailey then realised Abby had basically called Paul a liar.

"Mum, why? He's Paul f-ing McCartney"

Abigail smacked Hailey's knee at the near use of the cuss word and tried to move past the moment.

"They all did. Ok start of the story. I worked for your grandfather, Stella- Jim. I was very young, very green and apparently..." Abigail looked pointedly at Paul and he raised hands in surrender "Apparently, I was perceived to be a big blabber mouth"

"Hey!- " Paul interrupted.

"Blabber mouth, yes!" Abigail insisted, shaking a finger at Paul "I was not to be trusted hence, when my employer got ill, I had to call his sons Michael and James...... Ramone"

Stella opened her mouth then thought better of it, Paul Ramone had always been her dads alias ever since she was a little girl. To think that Abigail was sitting here speaking about that Ramone and not realising she had been speaking to one of the Beatles in the 60's was freaking huge.

"For weeks I was led on a merry chase, the boys were in the US for the first time -The Ed Sullivan Show, Hailey. Their M.O. to moi though was that they were selling knives, travelling knife salesmen, lord I was naive! And during this time I was conveying to Ramone his father's illness and recovery, by telephone, over all those weeks. Bill/ John was wonderful, Geo, being the only one with a name close to real and Manuel- Richard with his French hairdresser's accent" Abigail giggled at Richie's long-ago folly "Such blindness to their obvious amusement"

"You would have been livid if they were being so deceiving to you especially with pop's in hospital" Stella smacked her dad's leg waking him up from staring at Abigail.

"Ouch, Stel......" Paul turned facing the girl's expectant faces "You see, we were huge in Britain by then, if it got out that I was at me da's he would never have any peace at his home"

"So, you all led the poor girl down the garden path" Hailey wasn't speaking of her mum as such, just of that young girl back in '64.

"Yea, suppose we did" Paul rubbed his neck and felt rather flustered even though the time since was massive. "But she cottoned on to us and gave a right ear bashing, poor da when he knew she knew and was feeling like a mushroom... Well he was so upset for her. Abby, you felt like everyone knew but you-right"

"So...." Stella pressed, Abigail picked up from where Paul had paused.

"I fled" Abigail blushed red, realising suddenly that she fled numerous times "Nicked off back to Liverpool I did" She smoothed her hands down her jean clad legs multiple times resulting in Hailey catching her hands, stopping her mother's worrying habit.