Sunday morning, Brian woke up early, his very first thought being Lillie. He couldn't help but think about how remarkable that was, that only three weeks ago Lillie Sparrow existed as an enigma, but now she was dominating his every thought. The last image of her, walking towards her house swinging her wildly decorated guitar case, was stuck in his mind, and he knew it would be until he saw her later on that day.

He couldn't wait to see her. Him and the lads had booked out the studio for a rehearsal space once again, and he didn't think any of the engineers would be in, so it would just be the band and Lillie, the way he liked it. The band had planned to rehearse some of their already recorded songs and then start planning for their next album which was approaching, and they'd decided to invite Lillie along, not just because she had practically become the fifth member of their group but because it was nice to see how she felt about new music they were developing, considering she was a fan.

That was the plan, or at least it was until Brian's phone rang just after breakfast.

"Hello?" he answered, unsure as to who would be ringing.

"Brian, darling!" an enthusiastic voice called from the other end of the line, and Brian immediately knew it was Freddie. "How are you, dear?"

"I'm alright, Fred, you?"

"Brilliant, actually, because I've just had the most amazing idea!" Freddie told him excitedly. There was another voice in the background that muttered some curse words, and Brian recognised that voice as Roger. "Well, actually it was Roger's idea, but I fancied taking credit for it, or at least until we told Lillie,"

"What's this idea?" Brian frowned slightly, knowing from experience any idea that Roger and Freddie came up with together was usually rather chaotic.

"We were thinking that once we've finished rehearsing in the studio today we could use the tech to help Lillie produce a demo tape, you know, record one of her songs," Freddie explained, and for once, Brian thought he'd had rather a good idea. "Since we'll all be there as well one of us can work the desk, whilst the others help out with instrumental. I was talking to Lillie about it the other night, and she was telling me she was saving up to rent out a studio to do this herself so I know she'd be up for it, Deacy will of course think this is a great idea, but what do you think, dear?"

"Well..." Brian sighed slightly, knowing Lillie would be ecstatic at this idea. "Fred, I think you're a genius,"

"Oi! It was my idea!" a high pitch voice belonging to Roger called down the phone, almost angrily, whilst Freddie let out a giddy laugh.

"Yeah, fine, you're alright too, Rog," Brian grinned absent-mindedly at the thought of two of his best friends, no, brothers. "I'm picking Lillie up from work and then coming to the studio, so I'll meet you lads there, alright?"

"See you soon, dearest!" Freddie called excitedly, though there was the noise of the phone being grabbed off him.

"Make sure you don't snog Lillie so much she loses her voice, lover boy!" Roger called mischeviously down the line before slamming the phone down, leaving Brian stood, still holding his reciever.

As annoying as Roger was for all of the teasing, he really had struck gold with that idea. Lillie would probably be so excited at the idea of it all, to finally have something recorded rather than just rely on her live material. Brian knew how desperately she wanted the opportunity to make an album, as being a proper musician was her dream, and making a demo tape with them would get her one step closer to that dream. After all of her hard work, she deserved a chance to get her break.

In fact, Brian didn't know anybody who deserved their break more than Lillie. When they spoke about music, he noticed how her eyes always lit up, especially when he'd ask her about her favourite songs and performing live. Watching her in the pub, where he could see she was nervous yet exhilerated, he felt as if he was watching history in the making, watching someone who was going to be huge one day. He could imagine her songs being played on the radio, in stadiums, on records, and he knew that it was her dream. He imagined her music being played on a vinyl in someone's living room, such a mundane occurence for musicians but yet it was a sign that she would have made it. She could make it, she deserved to, and he wanted nothing more than to help her.

That was when the phone rang once more, making Brian frown slightly, wondering who else could be ringing him.

"Brian," Lillie's voice called to him down the reciever as soon as he picked up, not even giving him the chance to ask who was calling him.

Something was wrong. Her voice was shaking ever so slightly, and the lack of cheery, joking greeting made him instantly worry. He'd never heard that tone in her voice, even when she was nervous. That wasn't nerves in her voice, he knew. It was something else, upset, anger, disapointment, embarrassment, the mixture of emotions in the one little word she'd spoken making him wonder what could have possibly happened.

"Brian, I need you to come pick me up, if you're free, obviously," she spoke again, her tone sounding a lot more firm this time, as if she was trying not to sound so emotional.

"Yeah, of course, what's-"

"I just got fired,"

***

Lillie was waiting outside the department store front as soon as Brian pulled up, holding two rather large shopping bags as well as her guitar case. She barely gave him the chance to park properly before she was jumping in the shotgun seat, throwing her things on the backseat. Once she was in the car, checking her seatbelt was done right, she glanced over to Brian, before she broke into hysterical laughter.

"I've never been fired before," she commented, out of breath from laughing.

"Are you alright?" he asked, momentarily glancing away from the road to look over to her in sympathy.

"Watch the road, Bri," she told him, more concerned over his driving than her own situation. "And... I dunno really, it feels weird. I mean, I didn't particularly like it, the only good part of it was the staff discount, but my contract at the office finishes on Tuesday so all I'm going to have work-wise is the pub. I guess I could ask Mick for a couple more hours, I'm his favourite so I don't think he'd say no, but... fuck sake, do you know why I was... fired?"

"Why?" Brian frowned, not taking his eyes off the road ahead this time as he drove to the studio.

"Because I forgot to ring in sick yesterday," she explained with a small, bitter laugh. "I was that hungover I fell asleep pretty much as soon as you dropped me off, and I completely forgot to ring in. So I went in this morning, early as well, and the manager was waiting for me to pretty much tell me to get lost. Guess it means I can cut this up now, now I've used the last of my staff discount,"

With that, Lillie pulled out a small plastic card from her pocket, waving it with a slightly defeated laugh. Brian didn't even need to look to know it was her employee card, now useless.

"'Employee of Debenhams: Lillie E. Sparrow'," she read out with a laugh. "Not anymore! You know, if it wasn't bad for the environment I'd throw this out of the window,"

Out of the corner of his eye, Brian saw her sigh slightly, pushing her glasses up onto the top of her head as her rubbed her eyes slightly out of frustration. He knew that her rather amused reaction to the situation was probably the shock of it, and soon she'd be panicking. Biting his lip slightly, he tried to think of what to tell her to make it better, thinking of anything that could fix the situation. Instead, his mind seemed to fix on the last thing she'd said; the name on her card.

"What's the 'E' stand for?" he asked curiously in an attempt to change the conversation, his question making Lillie snort out a laugh.

"Elara," Lillie rolled her eyes, sounding annoyed just saying it. "It's my stupid middle name based on a stupid family tradition, I know it's like an old lady's name, but you should hear my sister's. I always thought Elara was shocking but she got stuck with Ethel,"

"No, no, I like it, it's pretty," Brian smiled, trying not to think about how nice the name was, instead trying to remember where he had heard the name Elara before, until it came to him. "Did you know one of the moons of Jupiter is called Elara? And if you consider how interesting the planet Jupiter is both in astronomy and mythology, you can say that the name Elara is just as interesting,"

"Are you trying to make me feel better by talking about space?" she asked softly with a small laugh, a laugh that sent his insides buzzing as he realised just how much he loved making her smile. "Because it's working. Go on then, tell me more about Jupiter if it's so interesting,"

"Well..." Brian began, hesitating slightly to consider the fact that Lillie was encouraging him to talk about his passion; space. Very few people did that, and her asking him to tell her more just reinforced in his mind about how special she was to him. "I guess if you're thinking of Jupiter in a non-scientific way, it's still really interesting, especially in terms of mythology. It was actually named after the Roman God of the sky and thunder. The Romans believed the planet was sacred, and I believe it was the Babylonians who viewed it as a god. The Ancient greeks thought it held significance with Zeus, they used to call it 'Phaethon', which roughly translates to 'shining one',"

"'Shining one', eh?" Lillie mused, raising her eyebrows. "Now what about the science behind it?"

And so, for the rest of the drive over to the studio Brian told her all about the science regarding Jupiter, Lillie listening patiently and occasionally asking him questions when she felt confused over the technicalities of it all. They were still deep in discussion as they arrived in the studio, to the extent that, as Brian led her into the room where John, Freddie and Roger were waiting, carrying her guitar case for her, they barely noticed the others.

"Oi, you two!" Roger shouted as they walked in, knowing that neither of them were going to pay them any attention. "Nice of you to finally show up, Brian,"

"Hang on though, Lee, what are you doing here, I thought you were at work until two?" John asked with a frown, ignoring the way she was looking at the guitarist, especially as he saw the embarrassed blush rise up on her face and he knew something was wrong, despite the lovestruck look in her eyes.

"Yeah, I got fired," She muttered annoyedly, not meeting his look as if out of shame. "Apparently not turning up because of a hangover is worthy of losing your job,"

The impact of her words seemed to hit them all at the same time, as their amusement faded. John immediately jumped up from where he was sat to wrap his arm around his best friend in comfort. Though Lillie attempted to push him off at first, not wanting him to feel sorry for her, she eventually gave in and let him hug her, biting her lip slightly to hold back the emotions she'd briefly forgotten.

"Oh, Lillie I'm so sorry, dear, that's entirely our fault!" Freddie rushed to her, pulling her into a tight hug as soon as John had let her go.

"Yes it is your fault, yours and tequila's fault," Lillie mumbled sadly. "No, please don't blame yourself for me getting the sack, I was the one who didn't turn up for work that day,"

"That's shit, Lillie," Roger sighed, hitting her arm supportively, and out of all of the gestures she liked his the most, his simple hit not making her feel as if he was being sympathetic, instead feeling more supported.

"What are you going to do now?" John asked, sounding almost nervous.

"I dunno, get another job?" she shrugged, trying to look casual except all of them could see straight through it. "I mean, I've still got the pub job, and I've got rent to pay. God, shit, not to mention my parents are definitely gonna kill me!"

"You could always just lie and say ou've still got both jobs?" John suggested, even though he knew his words were in vain. He'd met Lillie's parent's enough to know lying to them wouldn't work.

"Yeah, but they've already been pestering me about giving up music," Lillie rolled her eyes, making all of them frown.

Their surprise was justified though, considering she'd never told them about the argument she'd had with her parents. John knew things weren't the best at home, but he didn't know they had gotten that bad; again.

"Like, the other night when I got in, my Dad gave me a full lecture about how it's time I settled instead of jumping from different jobs to support a dead-end hobby. Then, my Mum came in and started lecturing me about how it's time I settled down full-stop. You know, as in get married, have kids, do nothing else with my life, just like she did!" Lillie continued, finally opening up about the situation.

"You can't do that!" Brian exclaimed, and that was the first time Lillie had heard him sound almost anger. "You can't just give up on your music!"

"Yeah, I know that," she sighed, collapsing back onto a spinning desk chair.

"Lillie, darling, that sounds like a load of shit," Freddie told her, spinning her chair so she was facing him. "But Roger and I had an idea to help you out with your music, and who knows, if all goes to plan you might not even need the barmaid job!"

"I wish I was as optimistic as you, Fred," Lillie forced a smirk, though the idea he hinted at intrigued her. "What are you thinking?"

"You've got songs," Roger spoke up, kicking her chair gently so it spun to face him instead of Freddie. "And you know exactly how you'd want it to sound on a record. You're also in a recording studio, with a pianist, a bassist, a guitarist and a drummer. Fancy giving it a go?"

Lillie raised an eyebrow, narrowing her eyes slightly as she tried to comprehend what Roger was suggesting. Make a record out of one of her songs, with the help of the band? It was the thing of dreams, and he was right; she did know exactly how she wanted her songs to sound on record. That was something that kept her up at night, her mind whirling with plans for guitar riffs combined with lyrics and other backing instruments.

She couldn't even imagine what her life would be like if she managed to make a demo, let alone a record, so once Roger's words set in, the cocky smirk on his face practically daring her to give it a go, Lillie jumped up from her chair, almost excitedly as she looked between the boys determinedly.

"Yeah, alright, lets give it a go,"

***

Word count: 2640

***

Hey guys!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I feel like this is probably one of the most important chapters so far since it shows all of their relationships with Lillie as well as how it hints to what's going to happen further on in the fic.

If you enjoyed this please leave me some feedback, and remember to check out my other works if you're interested (I'm currently also working on a George Harrison/Beatles fic that I'm really into at the moment). I should hopefully have the next part up soon!

~Olivia