A couple weeks later, in the middle of September, the Beatles arrived back in England. But that time, George's hand was still just as bruised and had swollen up quite a bit.

    "Alright, Georgie," Ringo said the morning after they got home. "I'm driving you to an emergency room to get that hand checked out before you can never play again and we'll be out a guitar player."

     George sighed, but he stood up. "Okay, let's go."

     "See you later," John waved as they headed out the door, then, once they were gone, he turned to Paul. "So, we're back in our country, we didn't get tatted out and arrested in America. We're fine. See? I told you everything would be okay." He grinned.

    "Yeah, you're right," Paul nodded and shot him a smile, but he still couldn't shake the feeling that something was very wrong. If someone had really seen them dancing and kissing, then why wouldn't they have gone to the police? Or a news reporter? It just didn't make any sense and it was scaring him out of his wits.

~~~

     It turned out that George's hand was severely fractured and he wouldn't be able to play the guitar again until sometime in the middle of January. Brian freaked out at first, saying that this was the worst possible thing that could happen, but the boys quickly calmed him down and reminded him that With the Beatles was already recorded in full and they didn't have any concert dates set up until February when they were going back to America.

     Paul wasn't even fazed by the fact that this hadn't happened the first time he loved his life. Things like this could barely make him flinch anymore, he'd seen so much shit since arriving back in the sixties.

     George's hand injury, however, meant that the Beatles wouldn't be able to play any concerts until January, even tiny ones that Brian could arrange a couple days in advance. They had a few months off!

     "So what are we going to do with all this vacation time?" Ringo said a couple days after George got his cast on, toward the end of September.

     "We could take a vacation?" John suggested. "We could go to Germany and visit Stuart and Astrid."

     Paul nodded. "Yeah, that could be fun."

     "Yeah," George agreed. "Ooh, we should have a party for your birthday, John! It's only a couple weeks away!"

     "I don't want anything too big," John said. "Maybe I should call Mimi and see if she's busy on my birthday? Maybe we can all have dinner with her? I haven't seen her in ages.."

     "Sorry..who?" Ringo furrowed his brows.

     John and George turned to Ringo, eyes wide.

     Well, that couldn't be right...could it? Paul thought to himself. Then again, as far as this time around in the sixties went, Paul didn't remember Ringo ever meeting Mimi...

     "You know, my auntie Mimi?" John said. "The woman who raised me?"

    "Oh, well, I knew you were raised by your aunt but I don't think I've ever met her," Ringo said.

     "Well, I'm going to call her, then," John said, rising to his feet. "Because of the rest of us have had to suffer through years and years of knowing Mimi Smith, then you should have to do the same." He laughed and hurried off to the phone.

     Ringo looked to George and Paul nervously. "Is she really that bad?"

     Paul laughed. "Don't listen to John. She gets on his nerves, for sure, but he loves her. She and his uncle were all he really had growing up, you know. And anyway, in Mimi's defense, just stop and take a second to think about what it must have been like to raise John Winston Lennon."

     Ringo's eyes grew wide. "My god, he's a hellion now. I can't imagine what he must have been like as a teenager."

     "You don't want to know," George and Paul said in unison and laughed.

     "That poor woman," Ringo shook his head slowly.

     "Point of the matter is, Mimi is a sweetheart," Paul smiled. "As long as you always stay on her good side, that is. She's strict as hell, and when she gets angry, well, you really start to see where John's hellish ways come from."

     "Easier said than done, Paulie," George sighed.

     "What are you on about?" Ringo asked George.

     Paul rolled his eyes. "Mimi didn't really take to George at first, but she's warmed up to him over the years."

     "Yeah, warmed up," George said sarcastically. "That's not exactly what I would call it. I would say that she has...defrosted slightly."

      Paul rolled his eyes again as John walked back into the room, "She's free. On October ninth, Ringo, you are going to meet Mimi Smith."

     "I...have no clue how to feel about that, honestly." Ringo laughed nervously.

~~~

     Without having to go to concerts and interviews and rehearsals and the recording studio, the next couple of weeks passed by very quickly for the Beatles. And before they knew it, it was October ninth and they were on the doorstep of Mimi Smith.

     "Hello, boys," Mimi answered the door. "Come in, please."

     "Hello, Mimi," John greeted.

     "Happy birthday, John." Mimi smiled, closing the front door behind the door boys that had just walked into her home. "It's good to see you finally, it's been such a long time."

     "Are you trying to guilt trip me?" John laughed.

     "Absolutely," Mimi smirked. "It's wonderful to see you again, Paul, as always. Are you well? John told me you had a bit of a health scare a while back, and I was sad to hear it. But you look like you're in good health now."

     "Yes, ma'am," Paul nodded. "Thank you for your concern, but I really am feeling great now."

     "And you must be Ringo. It's lovely to meet you." Mimi extended a hand to shake and Ringo took it. "John tells me that you met the boys in Germany?" L

     "Yes," Ringo nodded.

     "And how did you like Germany?" Mimi asked.

     "Oh, it's a beautiful country," Ringo beamed. "Wonderful art, amazing architecture, outstanding musicians, and the most amazing history! But nothing beats England. You've got a lovely home, by the way!"

     John smirked at him and Paul nodded approvingly with a wink. George just glared at him.

     "Oh, why, thank you." Mimi gushed, oblivious to the way John, Paul, and George were staring at Ringo. "Come on into the kitchen. Dinner is almost done. And, Paul, I've made sure yours is vegetarian."

     "Thank you, Mimi, I really appreciate it." Paul smiled and George rolled his eyes at Paul once Mimi had turned her back.

     "Erm, hello, Mrs. Smith," George said, speaking for the first time since the four of them arrived.

     Mimi glanced over her shoulder as if to see who had spoken to her, and for a second when she saw George she looked like she hadn't even known he was there until that moment. "Oh, hello, George."

     "You're looking well," George said.

     "Thank you, George," Mimi said, walking up to the stove and beginning to pour some sort of soup into bowls, getting Paul's from a separate, smaller pot. "Everyone, have a seat." She said and she started setting bowls down in front of everyone.

     Everyone began to eat and, as always, George was about to tell Mimi how outstanding the food was and Paul and John were going to let him be the first to say it as always so that he could try and make a good impression on her at long last. Everything was going to be great this time, he was sure of it. He made sure that swallowed so he wouldn't be talking with his mouth full, he was sitting up straight so his posture wasn't messed up, and he had every word he was going to say planned out perfectly in his mind so that he wouldn't stammer. There was just one thing that screwed it all up.

     "Your cooking is exquisite, Mrs. Smith!" Ringo beamed and took another bite of the soup.

     It took all of Paul and John's self control not to burst, then and there, into a hysterical fit of laughter. Paul nearly choked on his soup, and water almost came out John's nose when he took a sip and choked back an obnoxious snort. George, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes at Ringo.

     "Oh, thank you, Ringo." Mimi smiled proudly and took a bite of the soup herself. After dinner, when Mimi was serving pie, she noticed something. "George, what on earth happened to your hand?"

    "Oh, I fractured it," George said.

     "Oh, my, how long are you going to have to keep that cast on?" Mimi asked concernedly, setting down a slice of cake in front of George.

    "The doctor said until around Christmas time and then I'm not allowed to put too much stress on it until the middle of January," George said, and he couldn't help but smile because Mimi Smith was actually talking to him and she looked concerned about him!!

     "That's terrible," Mimi frowned, taking a seat at the table. "So you can't play the guitar at all?"

     "I'm afraid not," George said. "But Brian's got it all worked out. We're going to be doing a lot of advertising for our music instead of performances for a while, and then in January we'll record a new album, then start touring again in February."

     "Well, thank goodness you have a manager who can work so well under challenging circumstances," Mimi said. "But anyway, I hope your hand feels better soon." She smiled, and that's the story of how Mimi Smith finally warmed up to George Harrison.

~~~

    Apart from a few interviews to give and parties to attend, the rest of October and the majority of November were rather uneventful for Paul, John, George, and Ringo, but then on the twenty second of November, their second album was released.

     "It's doing very well!" Brian said excitedly, a few days after the release of With the Beatles. "I've gone down to a few record shops to see how the album is selling, and it's absolutely flying off the shelves! And Please Please Me has started selling more copies! And on top of all that, I've gotten several phone calls from America and it's selling even more copies over there!!"

    "So, what does that mean?" George grinned.

    "Well, for starters, Ed Sullivan wants you to be on his show in February when you go to America!"

     Paul beamed.

     "That's amazing!" Ringo exclaimed.

     "So many people are going to see us!" John said.

     "This is so..." George looked to Paul and smirked. "Awesome."

     John and Ringo burst into a hysterical fit of laughter.

     Paul rolled his eyes. "THAT WAS TWO YEARS AGO! WOULD YOU ALL JUST LET IT GO ALREADY!"

     "Never," George laughed at the same John said, "No, thank you, I don't think I will."

     Brian looked confused, so he just shook his head. "Well, anyway, enjoy your last weeks of vacation time, because a few months from now you're going to America!!"

~~~

     "Paul, wake up! Quick! It's an emergency!!" Someone yelled urgently, leaping on top of the sleeping bassist.

     "AH! WHAT?!" Paul sat bolt right up. "WHAT'S WRONG?!"

     "Nothing, silly," John grinned. "It's Christmas! Come on, get up!"

     Paul groaned. "Was that really necessary, John? You nearly gave me a heart attack!!"

     John's grin grew wider. "Yes, it was absolutely necessary. Now come on, it's Christmas!"

     Paul rolled his eyes, but he laughed, kissed John, and got out of bed. He followed him to the sitting room where Ringo was setting four cups of tea down on the coffee table, and George was sitting beside the small Christmas tree that the four of them had set up the week before. He was sorting all of the gift wrapped packages into four piles, one pile for each of them.

     "Happy Christmas!" Ringo exclaimed.

     "Happy Christmas," Paul smiled tiredly, trying to stifle a loud yawn and failing. He sat down on the sofa, curling himself up into a ball and reaching for his tea, taking a long sip.

    "Okay, here is Paul's pile, here's Ringo's, here's mine, and here's John's." George said. "Shall we?"

     "Sounds good to me," Ringo grinned.

     Paul smiled, setting his tea down and getting back up off the couch. He sat down on the floor with his friends and picked up a package from his pile that the tag told him was from George. He tore away the wrapping paper and found a leather bound journal.

     "Your song book is kind of starting to fall apart, and I noticed a few weeks ago that you're almost out of pages, so I thought you could do with a new one." George smiled. "And it's fake leather, because you're all about saving the animals and what not."

     Paul beamed. "Thank you, George. I love it." He kept unwrapping his gifts to find a new tie from Ringo, and a camera from John. Paul smiled when he thought about just how weird it was too look down at the camera in his hands that looked like a beautiful vintage to him, but it was so shiny and new, and for the year that Paul was living in at the moment it was surely the peak of photography technology.

     George had some trouble unwrapping his gifts because his cast kept getting in the way, but with a little bit of persistence and a lot of help from Ringo, he managed it.

     After they were finished unwrapping gifts, George, John, and Ringo sat down and drank their tea and watched some television and Paul offered to make pancakes for breakfast.

     As he stood in front of the stove, cooking the pancakes, his thoughts turned to Barney and he realized that he hadn't seen his friend in quite a long time.

     He sighed and shook the thoughts from his mind, focusing on not burning the breakfast he was preparing. He was sure that everything with Barney was just fine and he'd see him again soon, he was probably just busy at work.

    I haven't seen Tessa in a while, either, Paul thought, then mentally kicked himself. That could be a good thing! You still don't know if you can trust her! He told himself scoldingly.

~~~

     A few days after New Year's Day, at the very beginning of 1964, it was just a couple weeks until George would get his cast off his hand. That meant that the Beatles were just weeks away from going to America to be on the Ed Sullivan show and do a string of performances across the performance. Then they would prepare to go into the studio, record a new album, and there was talk of them making a movie (which Paul knew would happen).

     On January fourth, Paul woke up in the early hours of the morning to someone knocking sharply on his bedroom door. He knew that it couldn't have been George or Ringo, because John didn't wake up to the loud knocking so it had to be either Barney or Tessa.

    He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up, walking to the door and opening it. There was no one in the hallway, so he excited the room and headed for the kitchen.

     Paul assumed that it was Tessa, because Barney never knocked to wake him up. Barney would just barge into the room and wake Paul up, then drag him out to the kitchen. But Tessa didn't seem like the type of person to knock either. Paul thought that she seemed like a Barney kind of person who would come in and yell at him or leap on him and scare him awake.

     When Paul walked into the kitchen, his heart skipped a beat when he saw the man who was standing there. He was about Paul's height, and his dark hair was specked with grey. His eyes were cold and grey. The tanned skin of his aged face was lined, and the suit he wore (which wasn't nearly as nice as the ones Barney wore) fit too tightly, prominently outlining his pot belly.

     For a split second, Paul thought that this must be Barney in disguise. But then he remembered how he'd been awoken by someone knocking on his door instead of barging into his room..

      He frowned, dreading pooling in his stomach. "Who are you?"

     "Hello, Mr. McCartney, it's a pleasure to finally meet you." The man extended a beefy hand that Paul refused to shake, so the stranger eventually lowered his arm. "I am Carlos Vega."

    "Oh.. Who are you?" Paul asked again.

    "I'm with the F.H.O.," Mr. Vega said. "I'm the one who was originally assigned to your case when you were first brought back to the sixties from the twenty first century. Unfortunately, I got into a rather terrible car crash just before I was due to begin work. I was in a coma for several weeks, and it took me write months to fully recover. But now I'm here."

     "Oh, I see," Paul said slowly. "Erm, if you don't mind my asking, why are you here? And where's Barney?"

     This couldn't be good. Paul hadn't seen Barney since September and now the guy who was originally supposed to work with him was showing up in his flat? Where was Barney? Had something happened to him?

     "I'm here to tell you that I'm going to be your advisor now." Mr. Vega explained. "Barney Lynch has been suspended from this case. President Wilson is reviewing his case, and he will receive a full trial, but he's facing expulsion from the case and, possibly, losing his job."

~~~

A/N: Ok so I lied, something horrible happened.