IT WAS 20,000 YEARS AGO TODAY

Chapter Thirty

By the time the others caught up to Paul and John, they had the being cornered. Paul glanced back at them and held up his hand.

"No, stop!" he said to them. "I don't think he's a threat."

"He tortured the Doctor," Rory said.

"Yes, but I think it's a misunderstanding," John said.

"Yes, please, I'm sorry. Let me explain," the being said to them. "They're right, I misjudged you all."

Rose looked over her shoulder and gasped when she saw the bruised and battered Doctor walking towards her with John Smith at his side.

"You just hurt him and now you're saying it's all a misunderstanding?" she said angrily as she pointed back to the Doctor.

"I thought he was an intruder, there are ways we deal with intruders," the being said.

"Yeah, I see that," Rose spat at him, "You deal with him good and proper and…"

"Rose, calm down, I'm alright," the Doctor said, laying a hand on her shoulder. "Go ahead and explain yourself."

The being looked around at the group and when he was sure no one was going to attack him, he pulled the hood off his head. Everyone gasped when they saw his face. It resembled Freddy Krueger's face with numerous burns and scarring.

"I am Ja'thed," he said to them. "My people and I are from the planet Ouris. Our planet was devastated in a nuclear war and I and the survivors fled and found this planet. We christened it New Ouris in honor of our home world and set about trying to rebuild our civilization. Those animals you saw are native to our planet. We are keeping them in captivity until we can terraform the planet and make it livable for them and for us. Unfortunately, some of the species are endangered and we've had poachers infiltrating the enclosure and trying to hunt some of them down for profit. We assumed that your friend was a poacher. So are you?"

"No," the Doctor said. "If you had taken the trouble to identify yourself, I would have told you the truth. We are travelers trying to get back to this man's home world," he said, gesturing towards Pepa, "Our ship is acting wonky and we tried a dimensional jump and ended up inside your enclosure. We don't mean your animals any harm. However, I must point out that if you're trying to protect these animals, you aren't doing a very good job because I saw one of them eat another one."

"Yes, we're aware of that. We had force fields separating them but our equipment is old and we had a power loss that we're trying to fix. We were in the process of fixing it when our scanners detected your ship. I'm sorry I overreacted but you're not the first person to intrude inside the enclosure and we're growing weary of the poachers. I will give you medicine for your wounds and offer all of you food and beds for the night. As a peaceful gesture, you're welcome to stay as long as you need to in order to repair your ship."

"Thank you. We have a few more on the ship that are in hiding. We need to go back and get them," the Doctor said.

"I'll get a few of my friends to escort you to your ship. We can put a movable force field around you so you'll have a safe journey back."

"Thank you," the Doctor said.

"Please accept my apology," Ja'thed said, putting the hood back over his head. "I want us all to be friends and have a peaceful relationship."

Everyone murmured their agreement and Ja'thed nodded.

"Come then, my friends, I'll find some people to escort you to your ship and heal your friend's wounds," he said to them.

After they got everyone else off the ship, Ja'thed set up a force field around the ship and constructed a narrow walkway that led from the hatch of the ship to the doorway so they could walk to and from the ship in safety. Ja'thed and the others prepared them a banquet after healing the Doctor and told them that they had a machine that was able to duplicate objects from all over the universe.

"We brought it from a bazaar on Chelthroup," Ja'thed said to them as they ate their meal, "we thought it would help to duplicate many of the things that we left being on Ouris, things that were too contaminated to bring with us. It has a search function so I think I can duplicate almost anything."

Paul leaned over and whispered something in John's ear. John grinned, chuckled and nodded.

"Have a go, Paulie," he said to him. "I definitely wouldn't mind."

"We're wondering if this thing might be able to duplicate musical instruments," Paul said to Ja'thed.

"Oh boy, here we go, My Fair Lady," Bill said to Rose who was sitting beside him.

"No, I was thinking of me and the lads but now that you've opened your big gob…" Paul said as everyone laughed. "Yes, a guitar for him as well then. But…seriously, we're a band and we thought if you could duplicate our instruments, we could give you a bit of a musical concert in return for your hospitality."

Ringo and George looked at each other and grinned when they heard that.

"Yeah, that would be fab, a musical concert with alternate Paul," George said.

"I can try to duplicate what it is you require," Ja'thed said, "I can't guarantee the machine will know what these musical instruments are but I will certainly accomidate you."

"Get ready, Audrey, you're gonna get a guitar lesson," Paul said.

"Wheee…" Bill said while everyone laughed.

After eating, Ja'thed led them to the machine. The Beatles named off the make and models of the instruments and equipment and amps they needed and to their delight, the machine reproduced them. Paul smiled when he grabbed the Hofner bass as it came out of a conveyer belt on the side of the machine.

"Yes, my little baby, I have you back!" he said, kissing the neck of his bass.

He looked over at the Beatles who had amused looks on their faces. John looked at George and Ringo.

"Not only will he boink women, he'll boink his bass as well," he said while they laughed.

"Hmmph," Paul said, sticking his nose in the air while he held the bass protectively to his chest. He and the others carried the equipment and Bill carried his acoustic guitar while Ja'thed led them to a large auditorium. Once they were inside, the Beatles set up everything while Ja'thed left. There were metal benches all around the metal auditorium and everyone went and sat down while the Beatles fussed with their equipment.

"This is a dream come true," John said to Paul while they plugged their instruments into the amps, "never thought I'd play music with you again, mate."

"Well, happy to oblige," Paul said, giving him a hug when John got teary eyed.

"Do you know Sergeant Pepper?" John said, pulling away.

"Sure do, just finished recording it. Why? Wanna play some songs from it?"

"I thought we could try to open with Sergeant Pepper in honor of our friend and then proceed from there," John said.

"A splendid idea," Paul replied.

He and the other three Beatles got in a huddle, discussing the songs they wanted to perform while the others waited. While they were waiting, the door open and Ja'thed entered with his people. To their surprise, the auditorium began to fill up with hooded, masked people and by the time the Beatles finished their meeting, all four sides were filled and there were some left over standing near the benches.

"Wow, a proper audience," George said as he got his guitar ready.

"Right, lads, let's give these people a show then!" John said to his band mates as he adjusted the wireless microphone. "Right, we're the Beatles," he said to the audience. "We're from Earth and we're going to play some songs for you in gratitude for your hospitality and as a peace offering. Hopefully we can all get over the huge misunderstanding. For our first number, we'd like to dedicate this to our friend, Pepa. Right, lads, 1…2…3!"

They began to play Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to the delight of their friends and family who began to clap and sing along with them. Ja'thed and his people began to rock back and forth while they played. They went from that into A Little Help From My Friends and Ringo sang while he drummed. After they were done with those two songs, they bowed as everyone applauded. John grinned at Paul when they came back up.

"Damn, this feels good. I miss touring and playing before live audiences," he said to him.

"Yeah, I do too," Paul said. "Feels great to have an audience and hear the applause."

He went up to his microphone.

"For our next song, we'd like to go back to the very beginning of our days as a group and because I want Audrey to hear this because he's gonna play it tonight!" he added as Bill flipped him off and everyone laughed.

They launched into Twist and Shout and everyone laughed when Tia jumped up and ran to her father. Paul smiled and began to dance around and he grinned when his daughter imitated him. Once they were done and everyone was applauding, he bent over and kissed her lips. He put his bass down on the ground and let Tia look at it for a moment before he took her hand and guided her towards the microphone with him. He held out his hand and took the acoustic guitar from John who snickered, knowing what he had planned.

"Okay, for our next song," Paul said, "I wanna play this for my number one fan."

He let go of Tia's hand and she ran laughing with him as he ran over and got in front of Rose. Everyone laughed as he put the guitar strap around him and bent over into her face.

"For you, ma amour," he said while Rose turned beet red.

He played Till There Was You while the Doctor took Tia's hand and guided her over to him before he sat back down. Everyone laughed when Paul leaned his head over and fluttered his eyelashes while Rose tried to give him a stern look. She looked at her fiancé who was sitting right beside her and eyed him when she saw he was giggling uncontrollably. Then she let out a grunt when Paul spun around, plopped down on her lap and continued to sing the song while he played.

"There were biiirds on a hill but I never heard them singing," he sang as Rose tried to push him off her lap, "no I never heard them aaaall, till there was Rose, my number one faaan!"

Everyone howled with laughter when Rose smacked his back and tried to push him off. Paul stood up and finished the song then quickly launched into Yesterday while he walked over to Amy. She raised her eyebrow when he sang the song to her.

"Remember this song, Kitten?" he said in the middle of it, "Twas the song I entertained you with while the rest of the gits were taking the tour."

"Yes, I know," Amy said as Paul continued singing.

He finished the song and sat down on Amy's lap while Rory laughed. He sang Eleanor Rigby while he leaned back into her.

"Get off me, you git!" Amy yelled while the others laughed.

He finished the song and walked back to the Beatles while everyone applauded.

"Now, for our next song…" John began.

"Helter Skelter! Sing Helter Skelter!" the Doctor yelled.

They laughed when all the Beatles except Paul got blank looks on their faces.

"I'm sorry, I haven't done enough time traveling to learn what that song's lyrics are," John said to the Doctor. "So I'm afraid we can't grant your request concerning the song that's apparently about a funfair ride."

"Back in the USSR then!" Jeremy yelled.

Paul laughed when John gave him a dirty look.

"No, sing Mean Mister Mustard!" John Smith yelled as Paul laughed hysterically.

"Sing Silly Love Songs!" Amy yelled.

"Sing Bad Romance!" Bill added.

Paul laughed and pointed to him. He walked up to the microphone.

"Rah rah ah ah ah, mo ma, mo mama, Gaga ooo la la, want your bad romance!" he sang while everyone cheered.

"What the hell is that song?" John said to him.

"Bad Romance by Lady Gaga, remind me to play you her song and show you the video. She's fab," Paul said to him while everyone cheered.

They continued their music concert while everyone sang along and Tia danced in front of Jane.

After they finished the concert, Ja'thed showed them to their guest rooms while Pepa, the Doctor, Jeremy and John Smith went back to the ship to do repairs. The rooms were made of metal with a sleeping platform that had a soft mattress, pillow and white blanket, a metal table and nightstand and a dresser with a full length mirror along the back wall. Everyone helped to carry the equipment into the room and Paul got settled into his with Jane and Tia.

"I think the bed's big enough for all of us," he said as he pushed on the mattress with his hand. "And it's nice and comfy, good."

He looked over his shoulder when Bill and Michelle appeared at the door. Bill had his acoustic guitar in hand.

"I'm here for the lesson," Bill said.

Paul beamed. He grabbed his guitar and Jane and Michelle sat on the bed while Paul and Bill sat on the floor nearby with their guitars in their laps. Tia took her doll over and sat down beside her father, playing with it while she listened to her father demonstrate some basic chords to Bill. While he instructed his brother, everyone else came into the room and watched them silently. They laughed when Tia finally put down her doll and plucked one of the strings on her father's guitar.

"Oi!" Paul said while Tia giggled and her father poked her side, "you quit that, my little princess. I'm in the middle of teaching your uncle here."

The other Beatles walked over and sat down beside him while he showed Bill another chord.

"Did you teach your John how to play properly?" John asked when he finished telling Bill about the new chord and listened to him playing it back to him.

"Yes, I helped the poor bastard," Paul replied. "Especially since his mum only taught him banjo chords."

"Well, mum only knew how to play the banjo so I could only learn what she knew," John said while the others sat down near them. "You however, you could do things I could never do with the guitar, you and Georgie here."

"Well, I think that's why we were meant to come together," Paul said while he listened to Bill strum a few chords. "We complimented each other."

"Meanwhile, I was the git behind the drums," Ringo said while everyone laughed.

"Nah, you were the final missing ingredient. That's why I'm glad we managed to get you away from Rory Storm," Paul said. "Rory was alright, but you needed to be with us."

John smiled while he watched Bill strum another chord.

"I know I keep saying it but I'm glad he's nothing like our Bill. Our Bill was basically a tyrant, forced on us and he knew that we had to accept him so he had a sense of entitlement. And we had to do everything his way, no compromises. It went from being the fab four to Dictator William overnight. Sergeant Pepper is a good album but it would have been better if we had some input rather than William ordering us about like slaves. And then…he wanted to do this naff project about taking a motor coach around the countryside with a bunch of freaks."

John shut up when Paul giggled at that.

"You know about that?" he asked Paul.

"Yes, I had the pleasure of watching the film on board the TARDIS one night. Naff doesn't even begin to describe it," he said while Amy, Rory, Jane and Bill laughed. "Believe me; you do not want to do this Magical Mystery Tour film. Or…maybe you do, for a giggle. Just don't be surprised when you show it on the telly and people don't watch it."

"It's odd, you know all these things about our future," George said.

"I know many things about the future," Paul said as he demonstrated another chord to Bill, "which is why I like doing this time traveling thing. I get to see what comes next."

"Yeah, that's why I wanted to come back," Rose said. "It's definitely an addiction."

"Too right it is," Amy replied. "I could do this forever."

"But you caaaan't," Paul warbled to her while he strummed his guitar, "becaaause eventually you'll turn old and grey and maaaanky and diiiiie.'

"Soooo wiiiill yoooooou!" Amy warbled back while they laughed.

"Nah, I'm gonna live forever. I'll just ask Pepa to make me immortal!"

"Um…I wouldn't do that. I know someone who's immortal and he can still die. He dies and comes back to life repeatedly," Rose said.

"Really? Who is this bloke?" Paul asked.

Rose told them about Jack while Paul continued to instruct Bill. He continued with the guitar lesson for a couple of hours and when he was satisfied his brother had mastered the chords he taught him, they set their guitars aside and spent the rest of the night chatting with everyone else in the room.

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