TURN ME ON, DEAD MAN

Chapter Three

Amy, mindful of the role she was playing, made sure she looked attractive and moved seductively the moment she walked in the door. But, mindful of Rory and his reaction to her plan, she kept her wedding ring on her finger so the Beatles didn't get the wrong idea about her availability.

She was correct. When she walked in the door, the Beatles had been chatting and laughing amongst themselves but the moment Paul and Ringo caught sight of her they immediately shut and up and stared at her. John and George, wondering what they were looking at, turned in their seats and they too went quiet while they looked at the attractive woman passing by their table.

Amy couldn't help but feel flattered at that, especially when she heard George mutter, "Check out the bird." Meanwhile, Rory and the Doctor deliberately headed for a booth on the other side of the room, making sure that it didn't look as though they were with her. Amy chose a table just past the Beatles booth. She tried to appear casual while she rifled through her purse trying to find her money.

The Beatles continued to stare at the attractive woman, watching while she pulled out a small wad of bills and counted them. Their eyes drifted down to her legs and they lingered there. John's eyes flicked up to Paul who was fixated on Amy and her body. He grunted when John gave him a playful punch in the arm and Paul gave him an annoyed look.

"No. You can't look at her," John said, wagging his finger with mock sternness.

"Who says?" Paul retorted.

"Mate, you can't fancy her, what will Jane think?" John said.

Paul's mouth dropped open.

"Um...you were also fancying her and last time I looked you were married to Cynthia."

John shrugged.

"What Cynthia doesn't know won't hurt her," he said.

"Okay, well, what Jane doesn't know won't hurt her," Paul said.

John gave him a scandalized look while Ringo and George snickered.

"You hear that, lads? Saint Paul is being sinful; he's been hangin' around us too long," he said, nudging George in the ribs.

The smiles fell off their faces when Paul started to slide out of his seat.

"Where are you going?" Ringo asked.

Paul gave them a haughty look.

"Saint Paul is gonna be sinful and go chat up the bird."

John raised his eyebrow.

"Paul, I was only having ya on. I didn't mean for you to go over there and talk to her."

Paul crushed out his cigarette in the ashtray.

"I know that," he said. "But I'm bored and there are times I prefer female company to you lot. She seems like a nice girl and I want to get to know her better."

"Why? So you can bring her back to Jane's house and shag her?" George said.

"No," Paul said with an angry sigh. "I'm just going to talk to her, nothing more than that."

"We'll eat your share of the food then while you're busy impressing her with the fact you're Paul McCartney," John said as he got up and turned away from them.

The Beatles watched him intently while Paul walked over to Amy. Amy saw him approaching and her heart raced as she forced herself to remain calm. She glanced over and saw the waitress approaching at the same time Paul was coming up to her and she cursed the rotten timing of the Chinese woman. She kept her eyes on the waitress as she sensed Paul coming to her side.

"Hello," Paul said.

Amy forced a neutral expression on her face as she turned her head to look at him. She nearly hyperventilated when she saw the charming smile on his face and she thought she'd faint dead away. However, she forced herself to be calm and gave him a pleasant smile as the waitress came up to the other side of the table.

"May I sit with you?" Paul asked, gesturing to the empty chair across from her.

"May I take your order?" the waitress said, holding up a pad of paper and a pen.

She ignored her for a second while she gave Paul the okay to sit with her. As Paul was sitting she turned her attention back to the waitress.

"I would like a cup of tea and some chicken chop suey," she said to her.

The waitress wrote it down and looked at Paul.

"Same and put it all on one bill please," he said.

He smiled at Amy while she wrote it down.

"Don't worry about paying. I'll get it," he said to her.

"Thank you," Amy said as the waitress walked away.

"Well, least I can do for intruding," Paul said. "Besides I think it's more polite if I pay for the meal. Um..."

Paul paused a moment and then chuckled.

"This is a bit awkward since I'm pretty sure you know who I am but again, in the interest of being polite, my name is Paul."

"I'm Amy."

"Pleased to meet you," Paul said.

There was another awkward silence. Paul glanced back at the booth and noticed that the others were still watching him and sniggering. Paul turned his attention back to Amy.

"Um...I'm sorry but I just realized that it's become a bit awkward for me meeting new people since I assume most of the world knows me and knows about me and I'm afraid anything I say will be answered with an I know that, idiot."

Amy laughed.

"I expect it is difficult being one of the most famous people on the planet," she said. "But I have to admit I don't know everything about you. For instance, I only learned earlier today that you had an accident on your moped."

Paul groaned.

"Yeah, I was an idiot. I went riding with my friend Tara late at night and noticed the moon and was so busy looking at it that the next thing I knew I was falling towards the ground. Chipped my front tooth and scarred my lips but didn't kill me, thank God."

Amy felt a twinge upon hearing that and her hand drifted down to the pocket and felt the postcard through the fabric. She looked at Paul and suddenly noticed two small slash-like scars on the left side of his upper lip.

"I'm glad you weren't hurt that badly," Amy said.

"Yeah, me too. I didn't feel any pain when my tooth chipped because it didn't hit the nerve ending but the piece went through my lip when I hit the ground. And now...my friends over there aren't letting me live it down, John especially has plenty of bad driver jokes but that's John's way, sarcasm is a second language to him so I don't take it personally. He and I have been mates for a long time and I know he's only joking."

They looked up when John walked up to them with a cup of tea.

"You forgot your tea, Matron," he said, sitting it down in front of Paul.

Paul groaned.

"Bollocks and I just ordered another cup without thinking," he said with a laugh.

Amy laughed when John tapped the side of his head.

"Wake up, Paulie, get that brain in gear so you aren't up to your armpits in tea cups," he said.

John looked at Amy and smiled.

"John Lennon," he said, extending his hand.

"Amy Pond," she said, shaking it.

"Amy Pond, nice name. Nice to meet ya. I'm sorry if I'm interrupting anything, didn't want me bandmate's tea gettin' cold. I'll be goin' back to me seat now. Behave yourself, son!" he said, wagging a finger at Paul.

"Yes, Dad," Paul said as Amy giggled.

John looked at Amy, gave her a wink and headed back to his seat.

"Like I said, you have to excuse John, he's always joking," Paul said. "I honestly didn't remember the tea though. Now I'll have two cups."

"That's okay, I'll help you drink some of the second cup,"Amy said.

Paul sighed and rubbed his eyes. Amy suddenly noticed the heavy dark circles under his eyes and guessed the reason he had forgotten about his first cup of tea.

"You're tired, aren't ya?" she said.

"Gee, is it that obvious?" Paul said.

He took a sip of tea and nodded.

"Yeah, isn't easy being famous. When we were in Hamburg, we dreamed about making it to the top and now that we're here, I find it exhausting. Seems like we get one thing done and we have to go on and do something else. Neverending, it is. Just got done last month touring America and that was stressful enough considering a good chunk of America is angry at us now for John's comment about us being bigger than Jesus. All the time we were touring, there were constant death threats, everyone from preachers to the KKK was breathing down our necks, threatening to kill us if we played in their city. I'd never been so scared in me whole life. We're talking about not touring anymore, just concentrating on making albums. It's never been done before, making albums and never touring, but I'd rather be in the studio alive than ripped apart by angry mobs. But now we're working on a new album so I haven't had much sleep lately so I apologize if I look a bit out of it or I'm a bit forgetful."

"It's alright, I understand," Amy said.

Paul smiled at her.

"Thanks," he said. "What about you though? Where are you from? Scotland?"

"Was. I was born there but my parents moved to England when I was a little girl."

They spent the next hour chatting while they ate. Amy loved talking to Paul. She loved how sweet and charming anddown to Earth he was. She could see why so many people liked him and it hurt thinking that someone actually had it in them to kill him. It made her silently renew her vow to help save Paul McCartney from whoever was going to kill him.

After about an hour, Paul suddenly laughed again which made Amy smile.

"What is it?" she said.

"I just noticed your wedding ring. See, I told you I was knackered. It's been on your finger the whole time and I've just seen it. I hope your husband doesn't find out you've been chatting with me," he teased.

Amy debated whether or not to tell him about Rory and then figured that if the Doctor and Rory were going to help Paul, she might as well come clean about them. She turned in her seat and pointed towards Rory.

"Actually, that's him right there," she said.

Paul did a double take and stared at him.

"Wait, this whole time your husband's been over there and you're not sitting with him? Why not?" he said.

Amy coughed nervously, suddenly feeling embarrassed. Paul grinned.

"Let me guess. You wanted to appear single in the hopes that one of us would come over and talk to you," he said.

He laughed when Amy turned crimson.

"Don't worry about it. Not the first time a girl's done that. Except this is the first time the husband was in the same room. He must be very understanding since he's been sitting there the entire time watching me chat with you."

"Well, he does want to meet you as well, him and my friend there."

"What are their names?"

"My husband's name is Rory and my friend's name is the Doctor."

"Doctor who?"

"He just calls himself the Doctor, it's a...nickname," Amy said.

Paul shrugged.

"Fair enough," he said. "Rory! Doctor! Come here! Now that I know about you, I want to meet you in person!" he called to them.

The other Beatles looked up from their meals and watched while the Doctor and Rory got up and came over.

"Wait, they're with her and they've been sitting over there the whole time?" George said as John and Ringo snickered.

"What is this?" John said to George and Ringo, "some elaborate scam to get Paulie's autograph?"

"Apparently they don't give a damn about us, lads," George said.

"No, it's Paul, it's always about Paul," John said before he feigned weeping over his tea.

"Alright, you knuckleheads, come over here and meet them!" Paul called to them.

The three Beatles looked at each other, grabbed their cups and slid out of their booth. They walked over and Paul introduced them. The Beatles gave each other amused glances when they learned Rory was married to Amy but they all pulled up chairs and chatted with one another for another half hour. While they were chatting, Paul looked at his watch and grimaced.

"Bugger, we have to get back to the studio. Do you three want to come with us? Be our guests for the day?" Paul said to Amy, Rory and the Doctor.

The three travelers looked at one another.

"We'd be honored, Paul," the Doctor said.

"Good. Because it gets boring in the studio and I'd like to have someone to chat with during breaks," Paul said.

"I second that," John said. "Course we're working on new material so you have to be sworn to secrecy and not tell anyone about our new songs or we'll have to kill ya."

Amy flinched at the mention of someone being killed. Paul noticed it and gave her a confused frown but Amy quickly regained her composure and smiled at John.

"I agree with the Doctor, it would be an honor to come and watch you work," she said.

"Pfft," Ringo said. "Enough with the you'd be honored rubbish. We're not royalty, we're just like everyone else."

"I'm not," John said with wide eyes. "I've been sectioned."

"Oh yeah, John's been sectioned," George said as everyone laughed. "But other than that, we're normal blokes so feel free to treat us as such."

Amy smiled at that and nodded. She caught Paul's eye and he grinned and winked at her and once again, Amy felt herself melting into a puddle of goo. John called for the waitress and asked for the bill for all three tables. He ended up paying for everyone and after they were finished, John gave everyone taxi fare and told them to meet them at Abbey Road Studios before the four of them climbed into John's car. The Doctor, Rory and Amy watched while they drove off and once they were gone, they started looking for a taxi.

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