Twenty- Six

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Once he was home, Lindsey spent almost all of his time in the studio, with the band. It had been a long time since they worked through the night, but since he didn't have anyone at home, waiting for him, they worked until almost four in the morning a couple of nights.

It was too quiet at home, and he just wasn't used to it. So if he wasn't in the studio, he was at the restaurant, doing paperwork and making produce orders to pass the time.... He missed her, a lot.

"Have you talked to mom today? How's she doing?" Elise was standing next to him, pulling orders off the rack to send to the back.

Sighing softly, he gave her a gentle shrug. "She hasn't been feeling too great the last few days." He spoke to her three or four times a day.... There wasn't much either of them were missing out on, not even two thousand miles apart.

She frowned gently, heart sinking. "I talked to her the other night and she said it's been a rough adjustment."

Elise and Kash tried to call her every day, but a couple of times, because of the time difference, it just didn't work out well. However, Levy made it a point to call her every day on his lunch break. He would spend the entire forty- five minutes, sitting in his car, chatting with her... Levy missed his mom, almost as much as Lindsey missed his wife.

"She's gonna be alright." He assured her, even though he was really trying to reassure himself.

"I think I'm gonna go out there to see her in a few weeks, you should come with me?" Elise wasn't sure Kash would be able to get away from work long enough to see his mother and she knew Levy couldn't.

Sighing softly, Lindsey bit down on the inside of his cheek. "Don't say anything to anyone," he warned, "But I'm actually going on the road in a few weeks." He hadn't really told anyone, not even Stevie, which probably wasn't the wisest decision he had ever made.

"Lindsey..." She creased a brow, hands falling to the counter with a thud. "The last thing you need to get caught doing is keeping secrets from that woman." The thought alone scared Elise... She would never want to be on the other end of Stevie's temper.

Leaning back against the counter, he let out a chuckle. "I'm bored at home without her." He admitted, shrugging his shoulders casually. "Besides, the baby isn't due for almost five months... I'll be back in time for that."

~

Half way across the country, things were pretty... pretty interesting as well. It had only been less than two weeks since Stevie's arrival and things weren't totally ideal.

Stevie could hardly sleep- she was up at all hours of the night and sat around the apartment during the day, all by herself. She was also gaining weight fairly quickly, which wasn't sitting well with her, either. She was upset- very emotional and was starting to feel like she had no one.... And in reality, she didn't.

Not only was she struggling with the new living arrangements, Lucy wasn't sure she liked it all that much either. Right away, within just two days of being there, Stevie was already helping out around the house- she would vacuum the carpet, she did the dishes and a couple of nights, she even made dinner for them... Lucy kind of felt like she was overstepping in some ways.

She wanted her mother- in- law to back off a little, and just be a normal house guest, instead of trying to run the show, yet she didn't know how to tell her that without being offensive. She couldn't possibly say, "can you just sit down and just chill out," because that might have sounded a little rude.

"Stevie, you don't have to do those." Lucy mumbled, leaning against the kitchen doorframe.

She had just gotten home from work, greeted immediately by the smell of sickening lavender scented candles and Stevie's overbearing perfume... she had never met a woman who wore so much perfume- it filled the entire house.

"Oh, honey, don't worry." She looked back over her shoulder as she set another clean dish on the drying rack. "Since you cooked last night, this is the least I could do."

The truth was, Stevie wasn't used to waking up to a sink full of dishes, so the night before, when everyone went to bed without doing them, she couldn't stop thinking about it... She couldn't wait to get up and start cleaning their apartment.

And it wasn't that the house was a total mess, because it really wasn't... It was just well lived in and they were busy people. They had full time jobs and a really entertaining social life- she just wanted to take some pressure off while she was there.

Sighing heavy, Lucy set her bag down in one of the kitchen chairs as she scanned over the mail. "My parents are very excited to meet you and they want to know if they can take you out to lunch sometime in the next week, or so?" She said it so casual, almost like it was nothing to worry about... Stevie could have sworn her blood pressure shot up in that split second.

"Oh," she tried not to sound how she felt- really unenthusiastic, but it was hard. "Are you going to be there?" She asked, certain that she would feel much better with Crosby and Lucy, even though she really wanted Lindsey.

She wanted him there, so bad.

Shaking her head, Lucy let out a little laugh. "I'll be working." She have her a shrug, kind of like it was no big deal.

Turning back around to the sink full of bubbles, she bit down on her lower lip. "I think we should hold off until we can all go..." She lingered, hoping to get out of it easily, but of course, that wouldn't be the case.

Rolling her eyes, Lucy's jaw settled from irritation. "They just want to meet the person, who is carrying my baby, okay? That's it." She thought Stevie was being ridiculous- it was lunch, not a life long commitment. "It's really nothing to panic over."

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