George and Ringo moved into John's apartment after the funeral. It was a little crowded in there with the three Beatles, Yoko, John's five-year-old son Sean, and an assortment of pet cats all sharing the same living space, but apart from wanting to stick together as much as they could now, John, George, and Ringo had planning to do. They couldn't afford to jump into this without thinking like Paul probably had. They had exactly three months and ten days to work out what they were going to do, and insure that when they changed history this time, every Beatle was going to survive.
"That means jumping in front of Paul like he did for John is out," George remarked during one of their first planning sessions.
Ringo nodded fervently. "I don't really want to have a turn at this...."
The threesome discussed their different options several times a day. Eventually, their discussions started to follow a similar pattern.
"Can't we just run at Paul, grab him out of the way with us, and run off?" Ringo offered. This was the "A Hard Day's Night" method of the early Beatle days, used in the movie of the same name, and the boys had always found it quite effective.
"It could work," George agreed.
"Except that we might still get shot at," John reminded them. "We'd be a bigger target, all four of us."
That was true. Of course, they'd also be a moving target, which would be harder to hit, but the three Beatles weren't taking any chances with each others' lives. "We could just push Paul out of the way as he comes to jump in front of me," John added. "Better fallen on the ground than dead."
"You still might get shot on the ground," Ringo pointed out, frowning. "You wouldn't be that hard to spot down there."
John was frustrated. "How are we supposed to save Paul if one of us is goin' to get shot no matter what we do?"
"I think we're going to have to take that out of the equation," George said, speaking slowly as he thought this out. "You know, tackle him before he can shoot anyone, and get that gun away from us."
"I'm not tackling anyone," John stated firmly, folding his arms. "Peace and love."
"You can't tackle him," George pointed out. "You can't go anywhere near him or he'd just shoot you anyway."
"So why can't John just stay inside that night, now he knows what's coming?" Ringo wondered. "We could all stay in, and just call the police to say someone's been lurking about outside."
John shook his head. "Because then Paul will still come looking for me, and he might still get shot at."
"Maybe." George frowned thoughtfully. "I wish we knew which reality we'll be living when we go back - the one where Paul's gone back in time too, or the one where he hasn't."
John and Ringo both gave him confused looks. "What's that mean, George?"
George shook his head. "Never mind. We've still got to do this as if Paul is coming to rescue you, John, just in case he still does."
"There's got to be a way that doesn't mean we've got to attack somebody," John persisted.
"Like what?" inquired George delicately. He sat in silence for a few moments, giving John plenty of time to answer. When he didn't, George went on: "Look, you don't need to actually do the attacking, John. We'll wait until he's about to pull the trigger, then Ringo and me can pounce on him, while you get Paul out of the way if he's still going to show up."
"I'm not lettin' you and Ringo get shot!" said John fiercely.
"We won't," Ringo assured him, with more conviction than he felt. "He won't be expectin' us, remember?"
It wasn't ideal. Far from it. But it was the best they could do. A few times, the threesome had discussed changing things around and just making the day go differently from how it really had, but each time they had concluded it was too risky. They didn't know anything about Chapman's plans or how far he might go to shoot John that night. The night's events as they were were horrible, but at least the Beatles knew what to expect. At least they knew what they were working with, and could at least try to change things.
"Let's still try and come back a bit early," John suggested. "December seventh, say. Give you two time to come back here to New York once you find yourselves wherever you were that day."
This was followed by just a bit of awkward silence, since John had come very close to mentioning how none of the Beatles had paid any attention to what the others were doing or where they would be for ten years. It wasn't something any of them were proud of or wanted to remember, though the press was doing a good enough job of reminding them as it was. In between planning sessions, the three Beatles were called in to numerous press conferences to talk about Paul, in which the reporters would come up with the most ridiculous theories about Paul's personality and his life. Suddenly Paul was an obsessive control freak who had been desperately searching for an outlet for his troubled feelings ever since his mother's death, and whose life had been one big grab for attention. Paul had suddenly gone from the Cute Beatle to the Angry Young Man, with people using references like Paul's lyrics to "Getting Better" to support this. Nothing John, George, or Ringo said could convince them otherwise. Many a reporter theorized that, because the remaining three Beatles had stayed together since Paul's funeral, that Paul was the only reason they had ever been apart, that maybe Paul had even terrorized his bandmates. Once a reporter went so far as to suggested that the Beatles "could reunite now", maybe with Paul's brother Michael as their substitute bassist. If George's theory was right, had Paul had to put up with something similar in some alternate reality that no longer existed, the one in which John had been the one to die?
All this only made the three Beatles look forward, even more, to the day when they would be able to go back in time, and make sure that this time round, every Beatle would survive. And, it seemed, where every Beatle would keep his reputation intact.