It was hours later. Their plane was about ten minutes from landing. It was waiting for a runway to land on. The gangs tickets read "London" but it looked like they were going to have to land in Liverpool due to some thick fog over the London airport.
"Just a little longer for us to land." Micky said to Chea soothingly.
"I know." She said. "I don't know whether or not every minute more we spend on this plane I'm liking it more or less."
"Well, you hadn't been scared lately, even though we hit a hell of an air pocket an hour ago. I think that’s a good sign." Micky said.
"We still gotta fly back." Chea said. "But because of you I think I will handle flying a lot better after the first flight."
"I'm so glad." Micky said.
Brianna walked down the aisle. Chea sighed.
"Oh no, here she comes. Demon spawn." She groaned.
"Demon spawn?" Micky raised his eyebrow.
"Tell you later." Chea said. "What’s up Bria?"
"Mike wants you two in coach, we're having a little meeting." Brianna said looking the two of them over. "Maybe there you can explain those outfits."
Chea and Micky looked at each other. They shrugged, got up and followed Brianna to the coach section. Mike, Karen, Davy and Peter were grouped in a small circle around their seats.
"Okay, heres the plan." Karen said. "Me and Mike talked about it all the way here. Since its almost time to land, we thought we would bring it up now since we might get separated, being that Chea and Micky are in a different section..." Karen looked up at Chea and Micky. "What in the hey?" She asked.
Brianna shrugged. Mike looked at the duo. They were decked out in Hawaiian style clothes. Chea had a blue and white muumuu with a lei around her neck. Micky had the same color shirt on, with a pair of khaki shorts.
"What is that?" Davy asked. Peter sniggered from his seat. "We're not going to Hawaii you know."
"We're not?" Micky asked visibly disappointed. "Then why did they give us this stuff to wear?"
"Must be one of the bonus's for flying first class." Chea replied.
"Great. I guess we're not getting those pina coladas then?" He asked. Chea shook her head.
"We're not old enough to drink." Chea said.
"I don't think that will matter, we're in merry old England now." Davy said as a announcement came over the speaker asking everyone to return to their seats and put their trays in an upright position.
"We're here." Davy said to Brianna. "As soon as we find Livvie, we'll go see my parents."
"I hope they approve of me. In my time there are people who put up quite a fuss about dating foreigners." Brianna said.
"Who cares what they think?" Davy asked. "There is only three opinions that matter. Yours, mine, and gods." He said pointing up.
"What, like if he didnt like us dating he'd crash the plane?"
"I don't think he'd do something like that." Davy said.
"Before you go," Mike said. "We're staying at the gilded lily. This is the address." He handed a slip of paper to Micky and Chea. "In case we get separated."
"Righto, chief." Micky said going to the curtain that separated the sections of the plane. Chea did a mock salute.
"Ah, guys?" Mike said before they went through.
"Yep?" Micky called out.
"Don't do too many touristy things. We're here for a reason." He added indicating Peter.
"Yea, right." Chea said. "Okay." They went through the curtain as some stewardesses were showing people back to their seats.
"In one ear, out the other." Mike murmured.
Livvie felt herself drifting above her body. She felt like a balloon, floating in the wind, drifting wherever it took her. She had brief moments of awareness. She knew she was in a room lying down, but she was never awake long enough to figure out where. She knew she as almost mugged but a man saved her. As he was telling her who he was, she fainted from the pure fright of the moment.
The next thing she knew, she heard voices. At first she thought her friends had found her, but she quickly realized that all the voices had a British accent, like Davy.
"How is she?" She heard one say.
"She’s been in and out." Another replied. The voice was familiar. It sounded like the one who saved her. The mysterious Richard.
"One thing I've always liked about girls, they looks so peaceful when they sleep. And so cute." Another person commented.
"Come on you lot." She faintly heard a nurse say. "She needs some more rest."
"All right." "Richard" said. "We'll be back soon. I promise you that."
She felt someone brush his hand against her forehead.
She began to fall back asleep. Whatever it was they gave her to sleep was certainly doing its job she thought as she drifted off again.
Liverpool
After they disembarked the plane, they all gathered at the luggage return. Thanks to Mikes planning, none of the group were separated from each other for long.
"Okay. We gotta go through customs and do that passport thing, I think." Mike said. "Oh look at me, the great thinker has no idea what to do."
"But I do." Davy said. "Follow me."
They got their bags through customs all right, though Brianna was almost kept back cause they thought a stuffed dog in her bag was a real one.
"Its Mr Snuffy." She said as the gang gave her odd looks. "I never travel without him. Ten airplane rides and not one crash. He’s my lucky charm." She smiled. "Besides the obvious."
"Okay, we gotta be here on our best behavior guys." Mike said as they made their way out to the exits. "Like it or not we're ambassadors for our country. What we do, reflects on the US. Okay?" Mike said.
"Mike, lets have some fun here." Karen said. "I do hope thats the last time you slip into Lecture mode."
"It will be, I promise. If all goes well." He said eyeing Micky and Chea.
"What did we do?" Micky said.
"Nothing, yet. I know you two." Mike said.
"We'll behave, papa nez and mama kar." Chea said crossing her fingers behind her back. Karen rolled her eyes.
"Mama Kar?" She muttered. "Ay yi yi."
"We'll have to flag two cabs to bring us to our lodgings. Cause we have so much." Davy said paying a man a pound to do so.
"I wonder why." Brianna said.
Two cabs pulled over. While Davy and Mike loaded the cars, Karen went to talk to Peter while he helped the driver strap a suitcase to the trunk.
"You all right?" She asked Peter. "You have been awfully quiet during this whole thing. I was beginning to think you got up and left."
"I'm wondering if this is the right thing to do." Peter said. "I can't help feeling like we should go back. If we go now, we can have a dinner flight."
Karen smiled. "Give it a chance. I'm dying to see what Livvies doing over here myself."
"Hey." Micky said. "Look. A palace guard."
"Palace guard?" Chea asked. "I thought they only worked
in London, around the queen and stuff."
They looked at Davy. "Oh I guess I'm the expert." He said. "Some palace guards might live here and commute. Its not an impossible...uh eh...possibility." He stopped. "Yeah."
"I heard that they cant move, or speak or do anything." Brianna said.
"Nope." Davy said. "They'd get into huge trouble if they were just talking with the tourists."
"Can't do anything, eh?" Micky said. "Sounds like a dare to me. What do you think Chea?"
"Yes." Chea said chuckling devilishly. "Let's!"
"Uh oh." Mike said as he looked on as the duo ran off toward the aforementioned palace guard.
"We better catch them before they do something stupid." Karen said. A weird yelp came in the direction of where the duo had run.
"Too late." Brianna said. "And I thought I was bad on the plane!"
The hospital
Livvie sat up. She was wide awake, and had no idea where she was, at least for the moment. She seemed to be in a hospital. She looked around for a moment. She seemed to be alone. She sighed, got up and looked for her clothes. A thin paper johnny hung off of her. She noticed when she walked around her room, that the rear section opened and exposed whatever was back there. She was about to pull it together with a hand when she saw the knob turn on the door. She placed her hand in back of her and held the gown tightly. The door opened. Livvie moved to go back to her bed but she stumbled and fell on the floor. She landed on her butt. The johnny offered no protection from the hard wood floor. She moaned as she recovered from hitting the floor. She looked up to see who was at the door. It was him, and a nurse.
"Oh my." He said and turned around. "So sorry."
"That’s ok." Livvie said. "What’s going on?"
"You're free to go, ma'am." The nurse said. "I brought you your clothes. They've been washed and pressed."
"Thanks." Livvie said getting off the floor. She took the bundle of clothes from the nurse. "I'll get dressed."
"Groovy." He said. "I do hope your hurry. Me band mates have a gig tonight, and we're almost five minutes late now. I would like you to see the band." He said with his back turned. "Unless you'd rather go back to your room."
"I would love to accept your offer of evening entertainment." Livvie said. "Whats your bands name?"
"We're not well known yet." He said. "We're the..."
"Come on man." Someone opened the door. "The mozzarella sticks will be cold!" The second man looked at her. "Oh geez," He turned around. "Well that doesn’t happen everyday. Unfortunately."
Livvie looked at this second man. He seemed taller than Richard but with the same hair style. "I'm almost done. Maybe it would be better if you guy waited outside." She said.
"Gladly." They both said. They closed the door while trying not to look at her again.
"I swear, they are just like Davy and Peter. With stranger hair!" Livvie muttered.
Half an hour later: The Gilded Lily
The Gilded Lily was an inn in the same building as a small pub. The gang got there after Mike and Karen profusely apologized to the palace guard that Chea and Micky had met up with. He wasnt too happy with the "American Gift" they had given him.
"So it was his first wedgie. We all have our first time. I remember giving one to Davy." Micky said. "The look on his face was priceless."
"Ah wedgies." Karen said, suddenly regretting allowing Chea teaching Micky all about all the popular pranks and jokes of the next twenty years. "Never get enough of them."
They put their stuff down beside the check in desk. A large man came immediately to the desk.
"May I help you?" He asked.
"Yes, Nesmith, party of seven." He said. "We have two rooms reserved."
"Ah yes. The Monkees." He said looking it up. "You look like a band."
"That we are." Davy said.
"That’s fabulous." The man replied.
"We like to think so." Peter said. "Now we just have to convince other people!"
"I need a band tonight." He said. "Me other band hasn’t shown up yet. I will pay you 25 pounds to do 5 songs. Agreed?"
The guys looked at each other. "Don't look a gift gig in the mouth." Mike said. "We'll do it!"
"Great. Do you have instruments?" He asked.
"Yes!" Micky said. "In....California." He remembered.
"Thats all right. The band that was playing left their things here." The man said. "All you have to do is tune up and play."
"Great." Mike said. "We'll just do a few songs we all know." He said to Karen.
"This is neat. The Monkees and international diplomat-ism." Brianna said sitting down.
"I wonder what the other band was?" Chea asked.
"The Not heres." Micky said giving himself a rim shot. Some strange lookng man inthe back gave him a half hearted clap. "Thank you, I'm here all week."
"Are you ready?" Mike asked. "Careful guys, you never know when your big break will come."
"No pressure, eh?" Davy asked.
"What song?" Micky asked.
"Let's dance on." Mike said.
As they were about to play, the front door of the club opened. It had started to rain since they had come in and some water and leaves blew in when the door opened. Five people entered. They all had the same raincoat on. They started to take off their raincoats. Karen looked at them, here eyes widening. She poked Chea who in turn poked Brianna.
"What?" Brianna demanded. "Is this my payback for the plane?"
"Look." Chea said. Brianna did so. There were four guys, and one girl. The girl was familiar to her. So were the four guys.
"It's Livvie!" Karen said.
"That's not all. Look who she’s with!" Brianna said pointing.
One by one the four guys straightened their hair, ridding it of excess rain water and leaves.
"Who?" Karen asked.
"Don't be a drumstick." Brianna said. "George, Paul, John...." Brianna said squinting. One of the man took Livvie by the hand. "And Ringo is holding Livvies hand." She said haltingly.
The girls looked at the boys on the bandstand, but particularly at Peter. He seemed to stare out into space. He took the guitar off that he was tuning up, and ran from the room.
"Dude." Brianna said. "Imagine what’s running through his mind right now."
"Besides 'one of the Beatles got my girlfriend', I imagine a lot of things." Karen said.
