A/N: Happy to finally get to do this! After all that Fanfiction.net hassle, I'm finally getting to this. Well, big thanks to: DoctorLennon007, Macca40, ThisBirdHasFlown, PurlyandGirly and leah9712 on Wattpad plus rockon1973 on AO3 for reviewing!

A huge thud from a random room in the apartment echoed out. Aunt Mimi stopped talking—yelling actually—for a moment, looking around for whatever made that hollow sound.

"It sounds like it came from one of the bedrooms," George muttered, like he was taking to himself almost. He dashed in what I'm guessing is the direction to the bedrooms so I followed him immediately with Mimi and Ringo on my heels.

We found George leaning on a closed door, eyes shut in concentration.

"What's going on?" Ringo whispered only to have George hold a pointer finger up, asking for a moment of silence.

"I think I hear someone crying,” George finally said after such a long stretch of not talking. Though he didn’t say who it was, I’m pretty sure we all knew who it was.

Thankfully Aunt Mimi went back to the living room with the lame excuse of ‘wanting to look after Tim’. More like try to dangle him out the window . . .

George knocked on the door lightly, making the soft crying from the other side of the door stop immediately. He took that as a sign to come in and opened the door with surprising calmness.

If you couldn't guess, it surprised me because calmness isn't what I do.

Paul was curled up in a ball on the corner of his bed farthest away from us, hugging onto a pillow for dear life.

"You okay?" I asked him. He didn't move a muscle and for a moment, I thought he was asleep.

Well that would be rude.

"McCartney, what happened in here?" I whispered as I got closer to the bed.

A sob escaped his lips immediately and he turned to the closest person to him, which was Ringo. Of course this shocked him at first but he got over it, giving Paul a firm hug. Paul murmured something into Ringo’s chest, shaking all over.

“What did you say?” George whispered as he stood a bit off from the rest of us. I would have told him that he could go with Aunt Mimi but I knew he wouldn’t want to leave Paul.

“He said that . . . Dot broke up with him,” Ringo said slowly.

“How did you understand that?” I asked.

“I speak mumbling. I actually speak it fluently,” Ringo muttered nonchalantly.

Paul let out another muffled sob and that directed our attention back to the reason we came here in the first place. I’d have to ask Ringo how he knew mumbling later.

“Hey, Paul don’t worry about Dot, it’s nothing—” I tried to say all comforting and all, but Paul cut me off in a heartbeat. Okay, not cool Paul. No one cuts me off.

Paul got out of Ringo’s grasp, whipping around to stare me down in only a matter of seconds. “It is something! I loved Dot so much but apparently it was too much! She just wants nothing to do with me now . . .”

I opened my mouth to tell him that no, he wasn’t going into things too quick or too much. Whatever. But he sucked in a wobbly breath and started to shake again.

Ringo pulled him into a hug once again, George following his lead and hugging him too. And because I didn’t want to seem weird or anything, I joined in the affectionate hug too. For a while, it was just silent with all of us hugging Paul and Paul slowly calming down.

“Paul, don’t worry. Seriously,” I said and gave him a look that screamed that I didn’t want to be interrupted.

Deep down though, I wanted him to say something so I knew he was okay.

“I’m sure that by two weeks, you’ll forget you even know what she looked like. Or her name even!” I said with a small smile.

“Yeah, I’m sure you’ll be fine then, you’re a smart guy,” Ringo piped up. Paul looked up with hopeful eyes, letting me see how much he cried. His eyes looked so red that I nearly flinched and I could see that I’m not the only one who wanted to do that.

“Definitely. So, if you could, try to be happier a bit sooner. I kinda want to see if I can bring Pattie,” George whispered a bit too loudly. Ringo and I both laughed at that with Paul managing a chuckle.

Seems like we were already getting progress.

. . . . . . . . .

Okay, I lied. Progress was not made. Not even close. As in, the happiest we got him was on George’s birthday. And that was only when George woke up. After that he spiraled into this weird 180° and ended up just eating ice cream without speaking a word. Yeah, he shared some with us but it still wasn’t good enough. Though the ice cream was pretty good.

So we tried to change his surroundings. Maybe take him back to Starbucks or something, just to get him out of the rut he was in. Don’t ask why we chose Starbucks. I didn’t know where else he liked to go and George wouldn’t help because he was obsessing with Pattie.

“Paul, we’re going to go out today. That alright with you?” I asked him as he was glued to some chick-flick.

He continued to mutter some bitter one-liners at the screen the whole time and it was starting to scare me a little. Note to self, don’t get Paul upset.

“Yeah, sure. Be sure to get me some hot chocolate,” the possibly depressed college student told me with his eyes still on the TV screen.

Ringo and George both gave me looks but I shook them off. They told me Paul might try to not go outside and I may have not listened. The stubborn guy would still have to go out though.

“No, you’re coming with us,” I said bluntly and stood up.

“But I don’t want to! The Notebook hasn’t finished yet,” Paul complained but he still stood up.

He was decked out in lazy clothing from sweatpants to an oversized hoodie with ruined sneakers to match. But I would get him back to the Paul that looked like he was going to see the Queen in no time!

“You can always pause it,” Ringo said as he picked up the remote and did that. Paul’s mouth formed a small ‘o’ and he grudgingly followed us out of his apartment.

The moment we got out of the building, he started to murmur something in a hissy sort of way. I swear it sounded like Harry Potter speaking parselmouth.

“What is it?” George asked as he saw Paul squint and walk a couple steps behind us.

“The sun’s too bright,” Paul whispered, putting his hands up to block the sun.

We all laughed at the sight of this which only made Paul grumpier than he was before. Thankfully he still got in the car, only there was a silence so thick that a samurai sword wouldn’t be able to get through this. But he would only get in if I wouldn’t drive. That, I have to say, hurt me a bit.

When we got to Starbucks, he sat in the car as if he didn’t notice that the car stopped or that the rest of us were getting out.

“Paul? You okay?” I asked him as he continued to stare out the window.

His head snapped up, which showed he wasn’t paying attention. “Hmm?”

I sighed, feeling like something was weighing me down. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’ve been staring into space for a while.”

Paul shook his head, giving a smile that I nearly thought was real. “I’m fine John, let’s just get some hot chocolate and go.”

Ringo shrugged his shoulders and lead the way to the little building with its overpriced drinks.

“I wish this place sold jelly beans,” George said to no one as he went to find a table.

“I don’t think they would. Think of all the non-teenagers that would come because of that,” Ringo said back as he followed, which left Paul and I to order everything for everyone. And guess who was at the counter . . .

“Tadashi, you can’t stay away from us. Should I’ve told you up front that I’m totally irresistible,” I joked as I looked at the menu hanging above.

It looked like he was going to laugh, but the second he opened his mouth, a sneeze came out. Both Paul and I took a step back to step out of the line of fire.

“Sorry, I don’t have a cold,” Tadashi quietly said as he sneezed again. “This usually only happens when I’m near cats or cat hair.”

His eyes landed on Paul instantly, who looked like he took a good bath in cat hair.

“Umm, sorry,” Paul sheepishly said. “I guess I’ve just been around cats a lot for a while.”

Great, now he stole my cat too. If I didn’t try harder to get Paul out of this rut he was in, he might turn into a cat lady and my Tim would be first. There is no way that I would let that happen. To Plan D it is then.

“You better shake that cat hair off before Tadashi blows his brains out then,” I joked as I pulled out my phone quickly. I’m not losing Tim any time soon. “So I’ll have that blueberry scone and a vanilla Frappuccino.”

I went over to the table George and Ringo saved, punching in the numbers to the phone number that I call at least once a day.

“Why do you have your phone out?” George asked as he was munching on one of the many sandwiches that he bought with Ringo.

“We’re going to Plan D guys, I don’t think there’s much else to do,” I said with a small frown. The phone started to dial quietly in my hand.

“Plan D? I thought you said that we wouldn’t go to that unless he wouldn’t go outside for anything,” Ringo gasped. The phone was still dialing.

“Well I don’t want Paul to be the crazy cat lady that everyone’s afraid of. That’s my job and I don’t want it taken away,” I said calmly.

“Okay then, crazy cat lady, what do you need from me?” the voice on the phone said. I don’t remember hearing him pick up, but I laugh anyway at what he said.

“Nothing much, Stu. I need to know if you can get me a dog."

A/N: Rather short, yeah, I know. But this was a real bother of a chapter. I didn't know how to bridge what I want in the next chapter with the last one (Chapter 8) so I made this as something to join it. If you didn't notice, the start was a flashback to chapter 8. Comment if you so chose!