The Dance We Shared

2

April 1997

They had worked all five schedules out to the point where they were going to be filming a televised TV concert for MTV that would celebrate their twenty years of Rumours and they were now in Burbank just starting rehearsals. Lindsey still couldn't believe that Mick had gotten through to Stevie but he was glad that he did and she was there with them, but she seemed withdrawn. 

She was late their call time was noon and she had strolled in right at 12:45 and made her way to hair and makeup. Mick was just rolling his eyes as the other members of the band loitered around their photoshoot space. The small conversation was being made and touch-ups were being done and then finally Stevie emerged. But Lindsey could tell as soon as she walked into that room that she wasn't entirely there. But it wasn't the not entirely there that she was during Tango when she was on the tranquilizers, this was a scared, nervous, almost sad not there and Lindsey pursed his lips before going to stand by her as they were posed. 

Several pictures were shot and then the photographer stopped to change the film and Lindsey took that opportunity to say, "Sweet Little Dress." 

"What?" She asks turning to him.

"That's a sweet little dress. I like it" Lindsey smiles at her, trying to lighten the mood. It was the first time that they've seen each other in a decent amount of time, except for that one-off 48 hours when they recorded Twisted for that movie in 1996.

"Should I get one?" Mick states and Stevie quickly glares at him and snarls something that Lindsey can't quite make out but he resists the urge to place his hand on her shoulder. 

***

As the photo shoot was ending, Lindsey sighed and headed to Stevie's dressing room. He knocked politely on the door and Karen answered it.

"Stevie, Lindsey's here." She looks back into the room.

"What does he want?" He can hear her ask.

"I just want to talk is all." Lindsey states.

"He just wants to talk," Karen calls back.

"Okay." He hears weakly and then Karen steps aside and lets him into the dressing room and he could see her curled up on the couch chewing on her thumb. 

"Karen could you give us a minute." Lindsey sighs when he sees how withdrawn she is.

"I don't..." Karen starts.

"Please." Lindsey looks at her.

"Fine, but I'll be right outside the door." She warns.

"What's wrong Angel?" Lindsey asks and her head lightly turns to him.

"Do I look bad?" 

"What?" He questions.

"I...I fell, and I hurt my hip and that's why I'm not wearing my high heels, and Mick made fun of my shoes when I got here. Does it look bad?" She asks.

"Personally, I'm not a big fan of them. I always preferred you in High Heels because you're tiny so you don't have legs...but the boots always made you have legs. But they're not ugly or anything and you look perfectly fine." He sighs going over and sitting next to her.

"Oh, okay." She looks down sadly.

"What's bothering you?" 

"Nothing, Nothing is bothering me." She shakes her head.

"Something is bothering you. I can tell, so what's going on." He sighs taking ahold of her hand.

"Will we still be good?" She looks at him biting her lip.

"What do you mean?" He gives her a curious look.

"I mean like, Will we be good without the drugs because like Street Angel flopped badly." Stevie shakes her head.

"It'll be fine...Stevie, we know these songs. Everyone loves them." 

"But the emotion will it be there?" 

"It'll always be there. The stories, the emotions the love that we had for each other the hatred we had for each other it'll all still be there laid out on that stage. Think of it this way. It's our twentieth High School reunion. There's the Jock and the Cheerleader who had two kids then divorced and now hate each other standing on opposite sides of the room. There are the geeks who now are multimillionaires who own their own companies. And then there's us the middle-class small-town couple that's still together going strong. It'll all be okay." Lindsey nods.

"Are you trying to make a Rock and Roll point?" Stevie asks.

"Yes, the Eagles are the Jock and the Cheerleader, The geeks are the Ramones who weren't necessarily popular but people still love their music, and then there's Fleetwood mac the ones that have been through the most shit but are still together and going strong," Lindsey explains.

"Okay, it makes sense." She nods.

"Alright, so cheer up, we've got an Interview to do." Lindsey stands holding his hand out for her. 

She gnaws on her lip again, and then she takes his hand and stands up, and as she goes to walk away he pulls her towards him and he wrapped his arms around her. And almost instantly it was like she became a bowl of jello. All the tension let go when she was safe in his arms and she let out a breath against his chest.

"How did you know I needed this?" She asks nuzzling further into him.

"Stevie, you forget...I know you like the back of my hand." Lindsey chuckles and he can feel her smile against his chest. 

"Thank You." She sighs.

"You're welcome." He kisses her head and her smile grows wider against his chest. 

They held hands as they were walking back to the group and he helped get Stevie situated on the road case she was going to be sitting on and as he just stared at her as the rest of the crew and their bandmates came flooding in, he realized that no matter, how long it had been he'd love her. And it was becoming increasingly clear as she was sitting there her back straight, her hand firmly on her hip, which made him believe it was howling at her, he just admired her. He admired how healthier she looked, how good she looked in general. She had lost a lot of weight since he last saw her but her hair was fuller and she looked perfect to him.