IT WAS 20,000 YEARS AGO TODAY

Chapter Twelve

Paul's heart ached when he saw the state his friend was in. John was haggard, he had lost some weight and his eyes were glazed from drug use. Paul could tell he was barely holding on to sanity and he had to restrain himself from going back in and beating the shit outta William.

"Paul? You survived?" John said in a hopeful voice. "That wasn't you? It was a replacement like fucking William?"

Paul was at a loss for words, unsure how to deal with the situation. He hated seeing his best friend like this but he couldn't lie to him and give him false hope. He stood there when John came up and embraced him tightly and tears came to his eyes when John began to sob on his shoulder.

"I knew it wasn't you, Paulie," John said as he lifted his head and cupped Paul's face with his hands. "Where were you? Did they hold you captive? Is Brian alive as well?"

Paul stiffened.

"Brian? Our Brian?" he said.

John stared at him with bleary eyes.

"Yes, our Brian, the one that manages us. He bashed his head on the windscreen when your car hit the tree, you don't remember? Or did they take you away and crash the car after that?"

"Wait, John, I thought I was shot, now you're saying I was in a car crash as well?" Paul said. "And Brian was in it with me?"

John stared at him, completely confused. Eleven went up beside Paul to try to sort out the situation. Ten glanced at Jane and noticed that Tya was scared while Jane tried to soothe her. He walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Listen, the poor child has been traumatized enough for one day, don't you think? Why don't we get her an ice cream or something so she can get out of this until it gets sorted out?"

"Yes, I wanna get her away from here, she's scared enough as it is."

"Go ahead and go back to the ship. If we stay here tonight, we'll have to tell Pepa anyway," Eleven said to his counterpart.

Ten nodded and saluted him. He smiled tenderly at Jane and Tya as he took Jane's hand and led them away towards the front entrance. Eleven watched them go and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Tya calming down as she walked with Jane. Bill tapped him on the shoulder.

"Look, he's freaking out over me now," Bill said, pointing to John.

Eleven looked at John and saw that he was looking at Bill with pure hate.

"I'll take Nog and go back to the ship as well," Bill said.

"Good idea. Or go ahead and catch up to them. Might as well treat yourself to an ice cream, eh?"

Paul wriggled free of John's grasp and reached into his pocket.

"Here, mate," he said, giving him his wallet. "It's on me, I don't want you washing dishes if you come up short."

"Thanks, I'll see you back at the ship," Bill said.

"Be careful," Paul replied.

Bill nodded. He beckoned to Nog and both of them hurried to catch up to Ten, Jane and Tya while Paul turned back to his friend.

"Paul, that's the bastard that's impersonating ya and you're giving him your wallet?" John said in disbelief.

"No, actually, the bastard that's impersonating me is in the restaurant having a nervous breakdown," Paul said, hooking his thumb back at the door.

John looked over his shoulder and saw William sitting in a chair, calmer now but still babbling about being haunted by Paul McCartney while the staff tried to keep him from going berserk. John growled low in his throat and started to move past him when Paul slammed his hand into his friend's chest.

"Don't you dare go in there and make it worse, Lennon," he said angrily. "Let them handle it!"

"He killed you or he stood by and let you be killed or kidnapped or…what the hell happened to you since apparently you're not dead!"

"If I tell you what happened to me, will you tell me what you think happened because I'm completely confused. Brian is dead?"

"He died in the car crash," John said in exasperation, "he was with ya when they ran you off the road into a tree."

"Who? Who ran us off the road."

John jabbed his finger in William's direction.

"The bastards he's friends with, that's who!" he said angrily.

Paul looked over at the front desk and noticed the desk staff were giving them odd looks.

"Look, John, take us up to your hotel room so we can discuss this in private, yeah?"

"Who are they? More of his cronies?" John said, narrowing his eyes at Eleven, Rory and Amy.

"No, they're friends, very dear friends and they want to help you just as much as I do. Now can we please go up to your suite?"

"Ringo and George are there," John said.

"Good. We can all sit down and have a chat," Paul said. "Because trust me, you'll wanna sit down when you hear my explanation about why I'm still alive."

John smiled and put his arm around him. Paul looked back at the others and they could see the pained look on his face contrasted with the happy look on John's face.

"This isn't gonna be pretty," Amy muttered as they followed John and Paul.

Jane walked with her daughter and Ten along the pavement. For the most part, Jane had been silent as she kept her eyes open for an ice cream shop they could go to. Tya had calmed down and was looking around her in wide-eyed wonder which melted Ten's hearts. He was happy for them that they had found a little daughter to love in all this. He continued to walk with his friends, enjoying the late morning and the cloudless sky.

"I know I'm not much company."

Ten looked at Jane and smiled.

"Nah, you're fine. I know you and the little nipper kipper have had a lot to process today," he said. "I'm happy just to walk with ya and possibly get some nummy ice cream in my tummy."

"It's just that…I can't believe that's another version of Bill…our Bill, the Bill who wouldn't hurt a fly and his double was just some drug-crazed egomaniac."

"It's the programming, it's changed him," Ten said somberly. "Besides, he might be slightly different than our Bill; this is a parallel universe after all."

"Yes, but…I just hate to think what they might have done to our Bill. Repressed memories and all that stuff about ritual abuse and…"

"Bill's a very strong person," Ten said gently. "He's come through a lot but he has a lot of inner strength and I think that's why he's still sane and not some insane megalomaniac."

"I wonder if he would have done the same if my Paul had died, would he have acted like that? I didn't hate Bill until today and it scared me because I know it's not our Bill but I still had this loathing for him, like he was some sort of elitist who felt he deserved to take Paul's place. I'm just glad that our Bill isn't like that."

"So am I," Ten said.

"What about you? You died to become our Doctor?"

Ten looked down at the ground.

"Yeah," he said softly.

"What happened?" Jane asked.

"Um, not sure I should say right now, not in front of the little lady who's seen enough things death related for one day."

"Yes, you're right, I'm sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about," Ten said happily. "I understand. I will tell you if you want, just not around her since she needs to have some happy, warm ice cream tummy time and feel loved."

Jane giggled.

"You're a bit different than the other Doctor. You're a little more…sillier."

"Yeah, I noticed that. When did I become a bow tie wearin' stiffie? Ugh, knew it was a mistake to die, I turned into Mister Grumpy Fez."

"Why do you keep mentioning a fez?" Jane said in amusement.

"Oh, you wanna hear the story about his fez? He loved a fez once. It was a very creepy love affair but he loved it."

Jane giggled and Ten patted her on the shoulder. He pointed ahead.

"Look! Ice cream place! We can have happy, warm, fuzzy, ice creamy tummies now!" he said.

"Lead the way then…um, is there something else we can call you? I mean, calling you both Doctor is a bit confusing."

"Call me John then."

"Why John?"

"It's me moniker, me alias, me nom de plume! I call meself John Smith when I wanna pass myself off as a human and lo and behold, I'm a human now, so just call me John Smith."

"Really? Not very original, yeah?" Jane said.

"Nah, it'll do. I'm not very fussy. You can call me Tousley Todder Poo Poo the Third if it makes you happy, I'll answer to almost anything."

"Okay then, Tousley, let's get some ice cream!" Jane said.

"Janey, you are speakin' my language!" John said as he opened the door.

He was about to go inside when he heard someone calling for Doctor. He turned and saw Bill and Nog running to catch up with them.

"Oh, hello," John said.

"Sorry, we were going to catch up to you but Nog wanted to know what happened back there so I took a minute to explain," Bill said as he and Nog ran up to them. "I've got Paul's wallet, he said to get whatever you want and…"

He stopped talking when Jane embraced him and held him tightly.

"I was telling…well, he wants us to call him John Smith now, I was telling John that I'm so glad you didn't change into…that thing back there. I'm so glad you're a warm, sweet, loving guy."

John smiled while Bill embraced her.

"I was thinking the same thing myself," Bill said, hugging her tightly. "I was horrified that he could have been me if the Doctor hadn't saved me. The way he treated you made my stomach turn. I had to fight myself just to stay still."

"I saw that," Jane said, nodding as they broke apart. "Listen, you go ahead and let the Doctor see these memories of yours, perhaps he can help you come to terms with them."

"Or…if you want, he could also erase them," John said. "I don't believe they're essential and in fact, I think they're hindering you because I think your low self esteem comes from whatever happened to you that you're repressing. If you can't remember it, then you won't remember it subconsciously either."

"That sounds good. If they're what I think there are, I want no part of that past. I may have been Crowley's child but I don't have to accept him as my father."

"My sentiments exactly," John said. "Now…shall we go in and have a laugh and relax for a bit with ice cream?"

Everyone nodded and he opened the door and let them all go in before he went in after them and closed the door behind him.

Meanwhile, Paul, Amy, Rory and The Doctor were in the Beatles's suite. Paul was wondering if this had been such a good idea since now Ringo and George were in tears and embracing him. All three of them were asking about Brian and Paul finally had to sit them all down while he and his sister and friends got chairs and sat down in front of them.

"Look, just tell us what you know about my death," Paul said to them.

The three Beatles looked at each other.

"I'll do it, you're in no shape to talk about it," George said to John, "you're barely holding it together as it is."

"Go right ahead," John said.

George sighed and told them what they knew.

"You and Brian went out for a drive on November 9th," George said. "You were driving along, I suppose, when these bastards smacked into the back of your car and ran you off the road right into a tree. Brian was killed instantly but you were thrown from the car and ended up nearby in some bushes. The bastards stopped the car and went down to check on their handiwork and while they were examining Brian's body, you groaned and that's how they found you. They grabbed you and one of them radioed back that you weren't dead yet. They put your body in the boot of their car and took you to a helicopter. The helicopter flew all of you to Dartmoore Forest and somewhere in the forest was a little rickety shack. You were hurt badly so they tied you up very loosely because they didn't think you had long to live anyway. You heard them talking about how they were going to kill you, you wriggled out of the ropes, opened a window and got out of it. You ran for your life and the bastards saw you and ran after you. They shot you in the left shoulder and when you went down, they grabbed you, raised you up, put the gun above your right ear and shot the bullet through your head. It came out your left cheek and they dropped you to the ground and let you bleed to death. While you were lying there bleeding, they drove over to John's house, forced him at gunpoint into the car and drove back to the woods."

"And they forced me to stand there at gunpoint and watch while you slowly died in front of me," John said in a choked voice, "and I couldn't do a damn thing about it. I had to stand there until you died and then they left me alone. I fell to my knees and I vomited and kept on vomiting."

"After that," Ringo said. "They put your body in a cave for awhile and went somewhere, God knows where. They came and got your body after a few hours and dumped it on John's doorstep. We had you buried inside the grounds of the Strawberry Field orphanage and as far as I know, you're still there. Except you're right here so what the fuck is going on? Who did we bury?"

"You buried Paul," Paul said.

He swallowed hard when all of them stared at him in shock.

"Just hear me out, fellas, I can explain," he said to them. "Although you might not like what I'm going to tell you. You see…"

Suddenly, the door opened and everyone froze when William came into the suite. He froze when he spied Paul sitting in the chair and his mouth dropped open.

"Oh shit," Amy muttered when he saw John slowly rise from his chair with fists clenched.

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