The police were out searching for Paul's father, but they couldn't find a even trace of him. They were lost for what to do and it made John, Paul, George, and Mike all the more worried knowing that Jim McCartney was still walking free.

When Paul came home, John sat by his bedside with him and held his hand. "I love you," he kept saying. "And I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

And then Paul would say, "It's not your fault," and shake his head. "It's not your fault."

"I love you," John would say again.

"I love you more," Paul replied with a smile.

And so, Paul's first day home passed thus.

~~~

It took about three weeks, but Paul was back on his feet at last and they were playing gigs at the Cavern once more. John and Paul were writing music again and George was helping out.

Life went on and Paul eventually stopped his constant worrying about his father. He celebrated his nineteenth birthday in June and the Beatles played in the Liverpool fair where John and Paul had met in 1957 in July. But Paul still had the nightmares. Every night.

John knew about the nightmares, of course. He would often have to wake Paul in the dead of night when he began screaming. But John never spoke of the terrors that haunted Paul in his sleep for he knew that Paul was trying to deny the fact that the nightmares existed.

But that was about to change.

John, Paul, Mike, and George were out for a stroll through Liverpool as the sunset. It was a surprisingly cool and breezy day, early in August. They were all chatting and laughing.

And then they turned onto an empty road and all four of them stopped dead in their tracks. There were a few cars parked along the the side of the street, but otherwise it looked quite abandoned and they furrowed their brows.

"Should we head back?" Mike asked.

Paul, John, and George all exchanged a glance, then looked around at the buildings. The street's buildings all appeared to be work places.

"Nah," John shook his head. "This is just a bunch of business buildings. Everyone's gone home, that's all."

So, they kept on walking down the sidewalk.

They weren't really paying attention to their surroundings and they should have, because as they were passing an alleyway, a hand reached out and grabbed Mike.

"MIKE!!" Paul ran at full speed into the alleyway, stumbling over scattered bricks and John and George followed at his heels.

Mr. McCartney through Mike down and kicked him hard in the ribs.

Paul grabbed a fist full of his father's shirt and tried to drag him away from Mike. But he wasn't strong enough. George and John joined him but Paul's father was insistent. They couldn't drag him away.

Mike was bleeding heavily from his nose, lip, and several cuts on his face. He screamed and writhed and squirmed, but his father had a tight grasp on him, pounding an iron fist into his face over and over and over and over and over again.

And then John grabbed a brick that was lying on the ground and pounded it into Paul's father's skull. And he did it again and again and again until the man was in the ground, unmoving.

"Mike," Paul took a deep breath and feel to his knees. "Are you okay?"

Mike nodded slowly, disoriented. "Y-yeah,"

Paul wrapped his arms around his little brother tightly. "Oh, God. I - I thought - I thought he was going to - I thought I was going to lose you. I thought I was going to lose you." His voice was unstable and inconsistent.

"No," Mike shook his head and returned his older brother's hug. "No, you're not going to lose me. You can't get rid of me that easily."

Paul laughed shakily and released his brother.

George walked over to John who was standing over the limp form of Jim McCartney who lay in a pool of his own blood. George knelt down beside him and placed to fingers on the middle aged man's neck and sat in silence. Then he placed a finger under the man's nostrils.

"Pulse?" John questioned.

George shook his head. "No. He's dead."

Paul and Mike looked up suddenly. Mike leg out a sigh of relief, but Paul looked at John worriedly. He had killed a man and while that man was wanted by the cops and had attacked Mike, it was John who had killed him and as him McCartney hadn't attacked John, it wasn't self defense.

~~~

Within a week, everything was cleared up. John wasn't facing any charges, Mike was fine, and Paul's nightmares had stopped knowing that his father was gone forever.

Things were starting to look up once more.