Break Me One More Time [McLennon]

in which john finds out

They hit the ground hard — harder than they usually did when travelling via magic — and, it being his first time travelling in such a fashion, John swears he's had all of the wind knocked out of him completely.

"Heal him," George said, breath heavy. "Heal him, quick."

"The medics are going to do their best," Barney said, nodding.

"What —" John blinked hard.

"Medics?!" George said. "Just use your magic!"

"Mag— what?" John whipped his head around, looking wildly around the unfamiliar place. He had absolutely no clue as to how he'd gotten there when, literally ten seconds earlier, he'd been kneeling on the pavement on the corner of 72nd and 1st. But now...

"There are some limitations to what magic can do, you know," Barney huffed. "Over here!" he gestured to the Unknowables medics.

"Don't touch him!" John said, throwing his body across Paul to protect him. "Who are you?" he demanded of Barney. "Who the fuck are you?"

"John, you need to calm down and come with me, okay?" Yoko said.

"What the fuck — what is happening?" John huffed.

George, who still had a hand wrapped around Paul's wrist, spoke urgently, "His pulse is slowing down."

"He needs to go to a hospital," John said. He looked George in the eyes. "Why are you okay with all this? He needs to go to a hospital. Why are we here? How'd we get here? He needs a hospital."

"John, I'm only going to say this once," George said back to him. "You're going to get up off of Paul right now, and let these people save his life, or you will be removed from on top of him."

John shook his head. "Why do you trust —"

"Move him," George snapped without hesitation, and without remorse.

A few of the Unknowables who had rushed into the room upon hearing the commotion surged forward and lifted a struggling John off of Paul. While John was angrily shouting, "How could you?! How could you?!" at George, Paul was lifted onto a gurney and swept away.

Once the door was secured behind the medics, to be sure that John would not be able to follow after them, the Unknowables holding him in place released their deathgrip on his arms. He rushed to the door that Paul had been taken away through regardless of watching it be locked. He yanked at the door handles and banged fruitlessly on the Plexiglass windows.

After a while, he slid down the door and crumpled up on the floor. He started begging, very softly, but no one could make out exactly what he was begging for. Just "pleasepleaseplease" over and over again, and then some garbled words that no one understood, and then all over again, "pleasepleaseplease, oh God".

"George," Barney said very softly. "Go to him."

"I don't know what I'm supposed to say," George said, voice barely louder than a breath. "I can't imagine there's anything to say."

Barney shook his head. "We're going to have to say a lot pretty soon. There's so much to tell him. And if Paul dies —"

"Don't say that," George hissed.

Barney sighed. "Okay, okay... No matter how Paul's surgery goes? Yeah? No matter how Paul fares in there, we still have so much to explain to him. It's going to be a lot for him to have to take in. But right now you can just be there for him, help him calm down."

John eventually stopped saying anything at all. He just curled up, sobbing and banging his fist against the floor.

George walked over very slowly. Each step took exorbitant willpower, but he made it across the room eventually. Without a word, he sank down at John's side and wrapped his arms around him. They stayed like that.