Eddie ~Paul McCartney Fanfiction~

Chapter 29: Answers

"John?..." The three people turned to see Paul walking slowly in their direction along with Jim, guiding him with one hand behind his son's back. He looked tired, just as the rest of them. His shoulders curved forward. John could only see the dark circles under his watery eyes. He dragged his feet to the window before pressing his right palm against it. He looked down at the first bed on the left. She was laying there, sleeping. She appeared slimmed after these weeks of starvation. Her cheeks were flattened, her auburn hair was neatly brushed on each side of her face and her ashen skin made his throat tightened...yet, he still thought she was beautiful. He took a deep breath as a tear fell down his cheek.

***

Mimi put down a freshly steeped pot of tea on the living room's coffee table. Beside it rested a few objects John and Dr. Phillips found around the house the prior evening; two pairs of clean knitting needles, an empty bottle of whisky, ripped girdles and a half full tin of Epsom Salts. "Does anyone want tea?" Mimi offered, looking around her. John, leaning on the fireplace, shook his head before crossing his arms. Sitting on the couch, Paul was silent, starring blankly at the floor. Beside him, his father smiled faintly. "It would be lovely, please." Mimi smiled back, enlightening the heavy atmosphere hovering over all of them. She poured him a cup then sat in her armchair and looking up a Dr. Phillips, standing between the table and the fireplace.

The man cleared his throat "Uh...I know it's a difficult moment to go through, but we need to try to understand the circumstances of this so we can help Edwidge effectively as soon as she gets better." He announced, initiating this meeting. "It's really important to figure out her psychological state before yesterday. "He added. Mimi sobbed, shaking her head in disbelief. "Has the doctors told anything?" She questioned. "She suffered massive blood loss due to her womb being perforated during the procedure. I've been informed, due to her precocious age, they omitted to perform a hysterectomy to stop the bleedi...."

"What is it?" Asked Jim, interrupting the doctor. "It means the removal of the uterus. They hope she will recover properly from this wound and her infection and be able to carry other children eventually." Dr. Phillips awkwardly explained, aware of the delicacy of the subject. He wasn't used to talk about such subject matter outside of his cabinet.

"Did she really asked someone to do it?" John stepped to the table, gazing at all the objects on it. "I believe so. Edwidge answered herself and there is no way she could have washed these knitting needles after doing it on her own. I also found this in her wastebasket...." The man grabbed a wrinkled piece of paper from the inside pocket of his jacket. "It's a list of ways she probably believed she could induce a miscarriage." John snatched the paper from Dr. Phillips to have a closer look at it. "There's a number at the bottom of it. What are we waiting for?  Let's find out who it is and inform  the police!" He hurried, getting more impatient by the minute. "I tried to call it." Said Dr. Phillips "As soon as I introduced myself, the woman who answered hung up immediately. There's no name on the paper. This person is not stupid. Even if we found who it is, proving she did it would be almost impossible. She would deny everything. She surely have an array of stories and alibis to fool the police. Besides if the police would believe us and arrest this person, Eddie would fall with her too because she probably sought for her and paid her, fully conscious of her actions. Trust me. It's not the first time I've seen a case like this. These backstreet abortionists have mastered their craft. They know ways to convince women who solicits them and they know how to break them. In this case, everything written on this list is ineffective, probably to make Edwidge call her again. Who knows? Maybe she got scared at first but realized she couldn't do it alone. These tricks sure have done more harm to her than to the baby."

"My poor little girl." Mimi cried in her hands.

"Most of the time, people find women collapsed in the streets because the procedures are performed in dark alleyways and are more than commonly botched. Most women dies a few hours later. Consider Edwidge really lucky." Said Mr. Phillips.

"It's my fault." Wailed Mimi. "I never doubted anything. I thought she stopped eating out of stress..."

"Please, nobody should feel guilty about all of this." Voice the doctor. "Does anybody might know how she got pregnant? It will help us greatly."

John began to pace the room, closing his eyes. "Two months....Who did she go out with two months ago? Rory Storm's drummer...that French piano bloke...Where was she two months ago? He asked to himself.

"She told me it happened on the 20th of June." Hinted Dr. Phillips.

Hearing the date, Paul lifted his head, tears pooling in his eyes. "Hamburg..." He mumbled. Every heads turned to him, surprised he finally spoke his first word in almost 24 hours. "What son?" Jim rubbed his son's back. The young man frowned sadly before closing his eyes. He bit his bottom lip, feeling his stomach churning. "She was raped."

John's fists clenched. "What?" Paul shook his head, his face getting visibly paler. The thought of his supposition made him feel sick. He jumped from the couch and hurried to the kitchen just in time to vomit in the sink. John rushed at his best friend's side, seeing him wipe his mouth with the back of his hand before opening the cold water tap to rinse his face...and cleaning his mess by the same occasion. He took a deep breath, leaning over the sink. "Have I heard right?" Asked John, raising his voice. "That's what she tried to tell me at the cavern. That's why she suddenly didn't want to have sex. It was the night we rented a room to ourselves. She left before me... She told me she got back at the Top Ten and cried all night long. I just thought she got lost on her way there and came back."

"YOU WHAT?" Yelled John, grabbing Paul by the collar of his t-shirt. "Ye let my little sis' walk alone at night...in this fucking shithole?" Seeing red, he pushed Paul against the fridge. "What the fuck did ye think? What about the hammered men she might have stumbled upon?"

Totally shaken and guilt-ridden, Paul didn't answer before Jim and Dr. Phillips came to separate them, shouting at them to stop.

"Ye fucking brainless twat!" Called out John, unable to control his sudden burst of emotions. "You're the wanker who told her you wouldn't help her if she ever got abused. Were ye too fucking drunk to remember? Who says this to his own sister?" Paul shouted in frustration. "John, please. It's just a supposition!" Jim, of a calm and composed nature, instinctively stepped out to protect his oldest son. Being held back by the arms by Dr. Phillips, John exhaled loudly as tears began to pour down his cheeks. Paul turned to his father, busting out crying, losing all the composure he had left. "It explains why she haven't slept that night...and why she didn't say goodbye the morning after... the mood swings, the nausea..." Jim wrapped his arms around Paul's shoulders.

"I don't want her to die." Paul shrieked, collapsing to the floor, still being held by his father, following him into his fall.

John watched the scene silently, feeling a burning sensation in his stomach, the sadness, anger and lack of sleep was taking ahold of him. He slowly kneeled down in front of Paul and grabbed his left hand to pull him into a tight hug. "I promise ye she won't"

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I cannot express how much I hate this chapter. I took way too long to write it and it is in no way what I dreamt it could be. I just couldn't do it. By chance, writing it twice allowed me to salvage it the best I could. God it was way worse before.

One last chapter and an epilogue and It's gonna be the end of part one!

Just can't wait to take some time and really think about part 2 in depth...and also write the What Ifs. Christmas inspired me one of them. I'm just in love hahaha.

Like always. Hope you liked it!