"John put me down!" She shrieked. This was them John, Paul, the band, George, they all could lift her and her mood like nothing else, a load of sunshine on a stormy day, she would never admit it to them though.

"Say Sorry May-be, Mabel"

"Sorry John, now down. Where are we going now? Seeing as you louts have lost us a warm room and tea"

"Train station I suppose"

They walked the blocks to the Lime Street station Louise positioned in the middle, she tried desperately not to worry or look about and behind for her nightmares but the lads caught her twice and both wrapped arms around her waist and shoulder.

"I haven't been out since that night I told you" Lou took the warmth, the mateship, the protection from them both "I shouldn't be such a chicken but the night is quite evil now"

Louie looked at Paul then, he was looking ahead but noticed her gaze, lifting an eyebrow in question "I'm guessing big mouth told you then"

"He told me a little not a lot though, secrets safe though Lou and don't be scared, luv" Paul smiled sincerely and offered her his smoke, she turned it down not needing the nicotine hit now.

"You'll be right, two strapping laddies to look after you" John chuckled by her ear and squeezed her shoulder for good measure.

"I don't know 'bout strapping lads but I shoulder be right with you two" Louie giggled and that was ok, they thought, if she had to use sarcasm and humour to cope with her lot, so be it.

The page lay on her lap and she tried desperately to read it through. Paul's writing, John's writing, more doodles, pictures of babies and houses, it was a very busy piece of paper.

Paul sat swinging his leg off the wall beside the ticket office and the railway person inside the small room wasn't very pleased, but he didn't say anything about it. So, Paul continued, quietly smoking, blowing rings into the cool night air.

John slouched, dozing in and out of sleep, on the next bench along and several times Paul had to kick him because he had started snoring.

"Right done" Louise stood up and walked into the entry hall of the station, not waiting for either boy. They hurriedly bound after her once Paul had kicked John with a little too much enthusiasm making the older boy tip off onto the stations grimy floor. After another PJ scuffle they caught up to Louise, taking their places again as they marched through the night.

"So...." John poked her nose so she would look at him, troubled eyes and a frown greeted him as they melted into the night past the next lamp post.

"This page is.... Well you both should have writing lessons" Louie was having trouble getting what she wanted to say out. "It's so easy on paper isn't it. At the moment there is no wife, no baby, so no bother. Then it becomes real John. Messing with your career, my parents, Mimi, stuck with a wife, a crying baby. Have you actually thought about it being real John, truly looked at the mess it would be?"

Louie stopped and turned to John, taking his warm hand, her fingers holding each side, palm and back "I'm awed at what you have thought to do.... but this" She put his hand on her stomach 'This is my bed to lie in, not yours. I can't let you do this"

John eyed Paul to move along, which he did, not far but enough to give them a moment alone under the lamp light "You saw what I wrote we'll put a time limit on it, get you and the baby settled then you can divorce me, it's just paper Louise. Don't think about the church and their now and forever shite. This is bigger than that. It's your life"

"That's right it's my life" Louie let go of his hand and surprisingly hugged him, her arms laced around his shoulders, fingers meeting behind, her head resting on his collarbone..... then just as quick she was stepping away to gaze at him whispering gently "Your band is on a precipice of great things John, you don't need me dragging you down"

"Look Louie, you write out an agreement like you would in Bartlete's offices, make duplicats-"

"duplicates"

"Yea them. Make copies" Louise rolled her eyes at him, her fringe deciding right then to drop to cover them. Lou's neat bun had come adrift sometime in the melee of the night and John went to move the fringe off her face so he could see the questions, and decisions, her dark orbs gave.

But he hesitated, his hand hovering near her without touching. Like she would be angry that he touched her, like it wasn't something for him to do, his fingers itched though, to tug the veil from her eyes so he did. Tucking the wayward strands away behind her ears, touching her reddened cheek with cool fingertips, his hand then falling away to his side.

Tension laced the air around them... John equally loved and hated it yet he knew he didn't want to scare her. Didn't want to make her shy away from what was a decent idea, an idea to make it possible for Louise to survive her turbulent times that were likely ahead. John eased that tension in his own particular way "Put whatever you want to add in it. Except sex I won't have you making me sign something needing me to cater endlessly to your wicked ways" He laughed a cackling manic John laugh and every hint of tension dissipated from view "Unless... I can have my wicked ways too of course"

"Of course" Louise, who never ever was shy, blushed lightly about what he was insinuating.

"Hear that Paulie"

"Yea wicked" Paul deadpanned from somewhere behind them.

"You'll be married, but for a bit you'll have to stay here in Liddypool cause I ain't got any money yet and us lads are going to share a flat for a few months you see, but after that I'll have my own place with two beds of course"

"Of course"

"Hear th-" John again called on Paul. Paul, having become bored, was now kicking the door of the green grocers repeatedly.

Yea lots of beds" Paul stopped and approached "Would you two hurry up, I'm starting to see the bloody crack of dawn and I need my sleep"

"Beauty sleep" Louie murmured under her breath making John grin along with her, their eyes meeting in shared jest.

Louise watched John cackling and in that moment she loved him.

Loved him for the things that he was saying, doing, meaning. He was a true friend in her hour of need.

John must have seen her resolve wavering because, before she could straighten her emotions from her face, he was off.

"OK. I'm doing this"

John sunk to his knee and held Louise's hand not letting her go, she turned pleading Paul to stop Johns folly but Paul ignored her, a little smile hovering on his lips. More interested in watching his mate kneeling on the corner of Penny and Dovedale Lanes. Watching his surly hard mate kneel in front of a girl that needed to see that this was a way for her to be safe.

Louise turned back to look at John. The smile plastered on his face was his devil grin the one he uses to get his own way, when he wants the world to give him something, wants her to give him the answer he wants.

His grasp was firm, suddenly warm and she could feel the small calluses the guitar strings had caused. She tried to wiggle loose to no avail.

He turned his other palm over and showed her the very 'cheap' but pretty ring he had nicked from the jeweller in Penny Lane yesterday morning.

Louise's eyes widened, she just thought the box was something from Mimi's hoarding cupboard in the entry hall of Mendips.

"Now be a good Lass and agree, yeah" John took her other hand "Louise Harrison would you do me the exceptional honour of becoming my wife? To have and to hold the document you're to re write, for better, for baby, from now til whenever you- .."

"John say it proper like, would ya" Paul stood next to Louise, patted her on the back and wandered back to lean on the grocer's window, to watch the show, take 2.

"Louise marry me! make an honest man of me" John was acting the fool now Louise smiled happily at his folly and silly pleas.

John knelt so long he had to bang his leg to wake it up but he soldiered on waiting for Louie to cave to his proposal. She tried to pull her hand away again.

Love is supposed to be the centre of a marriage proposal not a scrap bit of paper with a list of what could and couldn't happen in the fake, but would ultimately in the eyes of the legal system, be a real marriage.

A tear escaped, just one, making John frown up at her "Come on Lou, just til you're ok. Say something.... my leg has gone dead and Macca is losing precious beauty sleep"

"Watch it" floated softly over her shoulder, Paul was closer now sensing she was on the verge of falling into a teary stupor .

Louise wiped her tear away and nodded slightly, it was all he needed, John was up and giving her a big bear hug.

"Say it Maybelline"

"Yes Winston, yes" Sniveling with sparse warm tears marching slowly down her face Lou clung to him, her senses overclocked and in mild shock with all that the night had served her.

"There, come on, stop that crying, not so bad was it..."

"But all those things you wrote we have to agree on"

"Of course, anything you want Lou"

"And you can back out anytime you want" Louie returned his hug and gathered the courage to drop a somewhat shy kiss to his cheek. If they were to marry she needed to get used to his touch, his fingers around hers, his kiss, him.

"How will we kiss? I mean you're you" Louie's face contorted as the early morning light approached, deep orange slivering through the misty street.

Paul laughed at the horridness she was feeling about kissing Lennon.

"Stop it Lou. We'll get over this bit first. I know you don't really want to keep your mitts off me" John sniggered in her ear, planting a wet slobber of a kiss back on the cheek.

"Jeez for two people that don't kiss each other you sure do kiss a lot" Paul stepped into their space and shuffled towards Lou "Let me be the first to congratulate you both, may I kiss the bride to be"

Louise blushed at the thought of being a bride to be but what Paul did next swept her well and truly off course.

Paul grabbed Lou and tipped her back planting a searing kiss on her lips, she responded before she realised what was going on, fingers curled round his neck, into the dark hair that lay there. Paul tipped her back up straight and his lips turned up cheekily "Now.... John. Mate.... That's how it's done"

Louise blushed as John stepped in then they were wrestling beside her. She hoped they couldn't see her toes turning pink.

"Fuck off Paul, she's mine, she said yes" John manhandled Paul away a few metres, a mixture of jest and jealousy, though he wasn't sure why jealousy would play a part. Louise suddenly felt intimidated by the two of them, her senses swirled haphazardly and she went to walk off home "Oh no you don't missy" John swung her round so she was slammed into his chest and John proceeded to one-up Paul's kiss, with a doozy of his own.

Louise again responded with fingers creeping to his collar, touching his neck. How did they both get so good at kissing she wondered, she clung a little dizzily to John as he finally tucked her under his arm "Now, that's how it's done, Macca!"

She was quiet on the walk back to Speke, her brain fuzzy with sleep and addled with John. Her belly rolled silently, like a little reminder it was still there. Paul lit their last smoke and they shared the single cigarette as the dawn awoke around them bare footpaths carrying them back to her childhood home.

Louise stepped up onto the Harrisons' stoop. Hovering on the threshold, clutching the papers tightly and with a shiny ring snug on her finger. She wondered.

Was it all a dream, these past few hours?

Her lips, as she traced them, told a different story.

She turned slightly and watched two tall figures steal away....