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“What am I even supposed to do?” George asked once again as people around him scurried with cameras. “Jump on the car? Isn’t that a bit dangerous?”
“It won’t be going fast,” Brian assured him. “And you get off right after to go to the trunk.”
“What? Why?”
“Did you not read the script?”
John laughed from his spot at Paul’s side. “Eppy, you know he can’t read it unless it has pictures. He’s a kid, don’t make fun of him.”
George glared at him, but he didn’t deny it. “Whatever. Where’s Ringo? Doesn’t he come in this scene?”
“Yeah, he’s in the trunk.” George knitted his eyebrows together. “Is there a problem?”
“Is there a problem?? Yeah, there’s a problem! You know that he’s claustrophobic, you insensitive prick! Let him out!” George turned and frantically began searching for the car.
“It’s just for a bit,” Brian said. “The quicker you can get this filmed, the sooner he gets out.”
“Alright. Let’s just get it over with.” George went through the scene mindlessly, not even noticing what he was doing until he was crawling off of the crashed car, standing right outside the trunk. Without hesitation, he began to open it…
“George, wait! We have to redo that last bit. Can you jump off the car instead of climbing down?” Whoever it was that had said that didn’t have the right to call him ‘George’ if he wasn’t going to let him at least check on Ringo.
But he didn’t argue as he redid the last bit of the scene, jumping down and opening the trunk before anybody else could stop him. And the second he saw Ringo’s distraught face, he dropped his act as if there weren’t still five cameras watching his every move. Tears streamed down Ringo’s face as he shuffled around under their gaze.
“Richie,” George whispered, leaning down to put an arm around Ringo and help him out of the trunk. “Oh, god, I’m so sorry. I wouldn’t have let them if I’d known…” But Ringo didn’t say anything. He only cried against George’s newly appeared shoulder. “Can we get you out of here, love? There’s cameras.”
“Just let me stay here. Please. I don’t want to go anywhere.”
“Okay,” George mumbled. “Okay, we won’t go anywhere.” He ran his hand along Ringo’s back in a way that he hoped would soothe him. “You’re safe. I won’t let them put you back in there, I promise.”
“It’s a part of the movie. I should just learn to suck it up. Not much of an actor I am, huh?”
“You’re not an actor. You’re a drummer, and you’re scared of small spaces. There’s nothing wrong with that.” He resisted the urge to kiss him, still hyper aware of the people around them. But then Brian came up to them.
“What’s going on? Is everything okay?” Ringo looked up from the shoulder to see their manager, revealing how upset he was. “Richie! What happened?”
“He doesn’t like small spaces, Eppy. Especially being trapped in them.”
Brian sighed. “I’m so sorry.”
“He’s not going back in. You’ll have to find another way to do the scene.” As Brian was thinking, George thought of the one thing that could help Ringo in this situation. “Rich, what if you tried it with your blanket?”
“Erm, I g-guess I could try.” Brian looked on with a cocked brow.
“Could he try it with a blanket?” Ringo curled into George again. “It helps him to sleep sometimes, so maybe it might help him get through this one scene.”
“We can try, I suppose. You okay with that, love?” Ringo nodded hesitantly. “Alright. We’ll have someone go get this blanket of yours, and we’ll try again.”
-
They did try again, and the entire time they were running through it, George found himself insanely worried about whether or not Ringo was doing okay in the boot. He jumped off of the car for the third time that day and went to open it, fully preparing himself for Ringo to be sobbing, and ready to comfort him while yelling at Brian that the scene needed to be cut from the film.
He then came face to face with Ringo’s worried eyes, wide with fear. He almost broke character, but then he heard Ringo talk.
“Hello.” It was so simple, but it was just enough to let George know that he was okay.
“Oh, hello!” he said in reply. “Hang on a minute.” He went to the wheel of the car, beginning to pull off the center cap of the wheel. After that, the scene went smoothly, and he was finally able to pull Ringo out of the car, the two of them running off camera.
“Cut!” George turned to look at Brian with trepidation in his face. He really didn’t want to have to do the scene again.
“How was it?” he asked, and Brian nodded at him.
“You’re all good.” And just like that, the worry inside of George collapsed, and he breathed a sigh of relief. “Ringo, I’m so sorry about today. I honestly had no idea that you would hate it that much. If I had known, I swear--”
“It’s fine,” Ringo said. “It’s done.”
Brian grinned. “I just hope you don’t have any issue with being pantsed in front of the entire public.” Ringo blushed. “Though I’m sure you’ll be fine, yeah?”
“Y-yeah,” Ringo laughed.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there, Brian.” George put an arm around Ringo’s back. “For now, I think we’ll be done for the day. We’ll see you later, okay?” Brian let them leave, and the second they were in private, George gave Ringo a kiss. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
Ringo smiled. “Thanks, Georgie. For everything you did today. I wouldn’t have been able to get through all that if you hadn’t helped.” Ringo kissed him again.
“Anything for you, love.”