This one is so sweet… I hope you like this.

George and Patti, 1979

A sigh left the lips of the now older and no longer glamorous Patti. She had looked at herself in the mirror plenty of times as a young girl, admiring herself. Her legs went on for miles, and her face was so cute it was almost impossible to behold. She had been blessed with a beauty many envied, a career that many wanted and the man that all desired. There was only one thing she had not been blessed with…. A baby.

It had been years since the doctor had given the couple the heart wrenching news that she was barren. And George, the courteous gentleman he had always been, always told people HE was the one with a low sperm count, unable to make his wife pregnant. A big, fat lie.

Tears threatened to emerge as she looked out the car window at the playground, where children played and frolicked around the swing sets and slides. A small grin arose on her lips as she toyed with the thought of what a baby between her and George would look like. Would it have been a boy or a girl? And would it have her bubbly crispy appearance or his soulful, deep and dark glare? One could only wonder, and it seemed it was the only thing she could do: Wonder.

- Eh, Pat…- George turned her head with his finger. –Stop it.

She sighed. – I’m sorry…

George shook his head and put an arm around her. He knew that Patti would forever blame herself for not having given the infamous Beatle a baby. Now, thirteen years after their marriage, it seemed they would die together, an old couple, with no one to carry his name for future generations. George had tried to convince Patti on adopting a baby, but she wouldn’t hear of it. They were now on their way to see the newest and then best; Fertility doctors were the trendiest thing, and they had flown to New York exclusively to see if there was at least one final hope to conceive. Her tests had been sent in, and it was time to hear what the possibilities were. Ok, so they weren’t the almost teenagers they had been when they had married, but she was still in good time.

They went into the doctor’s office, and waited in the hall. It looked like a regular hospital, and people snickered and gasped from a distance, wondering if that person sitting with the blonde bombshell at the end of the hall was indeed George Harrison.

Despite the situation, he made jokes and giggled with his wife, trying to keep her spirits up. With George around her, she couldn’t have gone wrong. And to think she had almost left him for his friend Eric! She was now glad she had changed her mind before the fling had gotten really serious. George was hers, and she was now sure of it.

- You know that hospitals have the best vending machines? – George spoke between giggles.

- Don’t be silly..

- Straight up!- He smiled. –In places like these, they have people waiting fer hours and hours… They’d better have the best vending machines…Ere, in fact, I’ll go get us a candy bar… you want something, luv?

Patti smiled at George. –Well, now that you’re going all the way down the hall..- she thought for a few seconds. – I think a bag of crisps would be good.

- No spices?

- No, plain, please love.

Smiling, George turned and walked away to the vending machines while Patti picked up a copy of Vogue and read the contents. She was 33, and still looked good, but somehow missed her kittenish good looks of her early youth. Yet to her, George looked even better now than what he had before. After years of soulful meditation and courses, her man indeed had gained a few years and looked manlier and stronger than ever.

- Are they real??- A little voice distracted her. A little girl, roughly about five, sat beside her, her little freckly face a mess of chocolate and saliva.

Patti smiled at the child. –Are what real?

- Your nails! - The girl pointed at her hands. –They’re really long…

- Yes, they are mine. - Patti smiled, and looked in her purse for a tissue to clean the little girl up. – What’s your name?

- Paula.

Patti was saddened. She knew that the little girl had nothing to do with her past or her husband’s, but the sheer similarity between the names rung a bell. She remembered the tears her beloved George had shed when news of Paul’s suicide reached his ears. Even more so, the image of Paul's face, adorably childlike and smiling during Beatlemania, somehow didn't match the memory of a cold, sad body lying dead in a coffin. It would never quite sink in, she knew that much...

- I had a good friend named like that once…- She cleaned her face as she spoke.- Only he was a boy…

- Was he your boyfriend?- The child enquired?

- No…- Patti giggled. – But he was a good friend of my boyfriend.

- What’s his name?

- Who?

- Your boyfriend…

Patti laughed. –Oh, goodness, he’s not my boyfriend any more! He’s my husband…- she turned and stared at George, pointing at him with her finger. –See him over there, kicking the coffee machine? That’s him. His name is George.

- My daddy’s name is also George. – The girl grinned.

Patti looked around and saw that the little girl was by herself. –And… where is your daddy?

- In another floor. He has something I don’t understand. Can you tell me what it is?

- Your daddy is sick? - Patti winced.

- Yes. He has something called terminal cancer. What’s that?

Patti’s heard was suddenly wrenched into a raisin. –Ehm… Where’s your mummy?

The girl shrugged. –I dunno.

- You don’t know?

- My daddy told me that she left us when I was a baby… So I don’t know…

- You’re here by yourself, then? - Patti asked in horror.

Paula nodded. She didn’t quite notice the horrified look on her face. Patti could not begin to understand it; how could some women have babies and leave them, when she herself was unable to have a single child?

- And what’s your name? - The girl asked.

- Errr…Patti.

- I had a doll named Patti once. - the girl sighed, her blonde curls hanging above her brow. –I lost her.

- How?

- Someone stole it from me…

Patti grinned. –A bad boy in school?

Paula gave Patti a frown and a confused sneer. –School? What’s that?

Another shock.

George returned, bringing a candy bar, Patti’s crisps and a small chocolate for the girl, whom he had seen from afar. Paula seemed slightly shocked at George’s somewhat dishevelled appearance, but his smile immediately won her over. –Ello, you! - he handed her the chocolate.

With a grin the girl pushed the chocolate away. –I can’t take your candy, cos you’re a stranger, and strangers poison candy to kidnap children…

George and Patti laughed heartily before George opened the candy bar. –There… I’ll take a bite from it first, sweetheart. Then you can see it’s not poisoned. All right?

George bit the bar, and gave it to the smiling child. –I’m George. Who are you, then?

- Paula…- she giggled shyly. –And you talk funny…

George’s face was also saddened when he heard her name, thinking on his dead friend, one he had known since childhood.

- Well, that’s because he comes from a very, very small city in a faraway land…- Patti came in, trying to distract the girl from noticing George’s pained expression. –And in that small city, everyone speaks like that. Its called Liverpool.

- I’m from New York. –Paula stated proudly, as if Patti didn’t know where she was.

- A lovely town! - George smiled at the girl again.

Just then, a nurse stepped outside. –Mr. and Mrs. Harrison?

A series of gasps from those who had been questioning the identities of the two patients was heard as George and Patti stood up. – Please follow me…

Patti turned to the girl. –Well, Paula, we’ll see you later, all right?

- Tara, luv. – George leaned over and kissed her cheek, making her giggle because of the funny feeling she got from his stubby beard. They were nice. Very nice.

The flight back to England was sad and long. Patti didn’t stop crying all the way back. George had shed a tear or two, but wanted to appear strong to her. The tests for fertility had come out all negatives. Even the finest technology would not give the Harrisons a child of their own.

- Why are you with me, George? - She wept sorrowfully. –You should find yourself a nice girl who can give you something, instead of staying with… with this LUMP…

- STOP! - George barked and hugged her. –I’m never EVER leaving you, Pat! Even if we die alone, I’m dying at your side. Hear that?

It had been a month since they returned from New York, and Patti was finally caving in. Many children needed homes. She needed to feel like she could live up to her husband’s expectations. She knew that deep inside, George would have loved to have a baby. She remembered Paul’s tragedy, and how perhaps the pitter-patter of little feet might have saved his life. And the thought of the little girl, that little Paula… She would need a home soon, and had no one to give it to her.

- George? - She turned her head at her sleeping husband.

- Mmmhhh…

- I want a baby…

- Oh, Pat…- he turned and hugged her, his eyes still closed.

- Maybe we should adopt one.

George’s eyes suddenly opened, and he sat bolt upright. –What?

- You’re right…- She grinned. – I think it would be great just having a child in the house. It’ll be ours, even if we didn’t make it…- She smiled at him. –We could pretend to ourselves that we have, you know…

George’s huge smile illuminated the room, his dark, soulful eyes shining with tears of joy as he suddenly threw his arms around her. –Thanks Patti!! I love you so much!!

Paula Harrison was 27 when her father died… It was the second time Cancer had ripped her father from her. Her younger brother Dhani, was seventeen. Her mum Patti was the saddest person on the face of the planet. Her "uncles" John and Ringo had gathered for his funeral. She had often been told how John had regretted so many things after the death of his friend Paul, and how he had mended his ways and gone back to his wife. Together they had had another baby, a boy named Sean. And Paula felt like the most blessed woman on earth, for she had somehow managed to do the same for her mother without dying. She loved both her fathers, both Georges, and both killed by cancer. But she held a special gratitude for her second father, the former Beatle George, who had given it all for her and Dhani, even when they were not made from his own flesh and blood.

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