Settling Down

15

September 8, 1991

Lindsey dropped the last box of their stuff in the middle of the kitchen floor and he looked at Stevie and the girls. They had settled on a house in the Pacific Palisades, It was still in the girls school district and it was closer to work for Lindsey so they jumped at it. The house was five bedroom seven bath house. There was also a pool house, with two bedrooms and a bathroom, but they wouldn't be readily used.

There was a front porch where Stevie had put a wooden swing and then you walked into the entry way. The stairs were to the right and Stevie had put a white grand piano in the entrance way as well as a little table where they sat their keys. Then there was a little library office space. Stevie had put a desk in there and there was a shit ton of books on the built ins and Lindsey didn't even know where they all came from. There was also another piano in this room a smaller black baby grand piano and a white leather couch. There was a living room with the TV in it, and they had designed that room with brown leather furniture, an over stuffed brown leather couch, and two chairs. There was a coffee table, a little hutch with records and a record player, and a little display case with some really expensive looking angels and Stevie's awards. The dining room was almost identical to her previous dining room with an extra large table that sat ten people. The kitchen pure white, white tile, white walls, white cabinets. white marble counter tops. There was a small-dish table in the kitchen that sat six,  And the island had four chairs on it. There was a guest bedroom on the bottom level with a private bathroom, and there was another small bathroom off of the kitchen

Upstairs the master was giant, they had their own television and a couch and coffee table. They had a giant king bed and one sole dresser for their pajamas, and underwear because they had a massive walk in closet and master bathroom with a soaker-jacuzzi tub, and a walk in shower. Emily and Stella would have to share a bathroom but they each had their own rooms, a few doors away from Stevie and Lindsey and everything was right in the world it seemed. Lindsey had a pool, Luna had a back yard, and Stevie had a privacy gate. It was perfect for them, their perfect house.

"You're looking at us weird." Stella says after a moment.

"Um, yeah I've gotta tell you something." Lindsey sighs.

"What honey?" Stevie asks worry laced in her voice.

"Tomorrow I go on call." He sighs.

"Wait, you're going back on call? Are we going to have to take the bus again?"Emily asks.

"No, this time you have a Stevie and a Karen, I'll wake her up when I leave and if I don't wake her up before the alarm clock goes off, then she and Karen will drop you off. If Stevie has to be at work, I'll work it out with Carrie Martin." Lindsey shrugs.

"Honey I don't like that." Stevie wrinkles her nose shaking her head.

"Like what?" Lindsey asks.

"I don't like the thought of you going on call." She sighs.

"I don't necessarily like it either but Its bosses orders." Lindsey shrugs.

"Why don't you like it Mom, that means daddy gets more money so he can buy us things." Stella smiles conivingly.

"Because more awful crime happens at night than it does during the day." Stevie rolls her eyes.

"I'll be okay Steph...I promise I'll be okay." Lindsey goes over to her and kisses her head.

Later that night, after the girls had gone to bed, and Lindsey and Stevie were curled up on the couch in the living room watching TV, Stevie turned to him, "Why are they putting you on call?"

"Cause I've been here for two years, and everyone ends up on call eventually...I've been on call before, that's why the girls responded the way they did. Em's good at figuring out when I'm on call and she knows what to do." Lindsey tells Stevie.

***

October 30, 1991

It was over a month later when Lindsey finally got a call to go in at night. But the call came right as he and Stevie were having Sex. Their moans almost made it so Lindsey didn't hear the phone but eventually the ring-ring-ring broke through their haze.

"Is that the phone?" Stevie asks breathlessly as Lindsey gives one last thrust.

"Yeah, hold on." He pulls out and she whines falling back against the pillows, She was for all intents and purposes sitting on his lap but he was doing all of the work and it felt so good and she was so close to coming, not to mention him...but the fucking phone rang.

"This is officer Buckingham." The way he evened out his breathing caused something to click in Stevie and she started to tear up.

"On my way."

"No, no..." She shakes her head tears spilling.

"I have to go baby, there's a Domestic Violence claim, in our old neighborhood actually...I'll be okay. I'm just going for back up." Lindsey tells her.

She lays their naked, the blankets pulled up to her chest as she watches him put his underwear back on and slide into his navy blue uniform. Once he fastens his belt with the baton and the taser and the gun on his hip she has to hold back a sob. He kisses her and then she hears the car that had become a permanent fixture in their driveway, Patrol Carl A132, rev up and she finally lets the sob go and she curls up in the fetal position on the bed. Yes, dating a police man was much different than being with a rockstar. It almost seemed harder because during the day she really didn't think about him getting shot, or killed on the job, but she knew that most violent crimes happen in the middle of the night and now knowing that he would have to go respond to them scared the shit out of her, but that's when it hit her...If something happened to him, what would happen to the girls and she quickly shot out of bed. She changed into her nightgown and then she went downstairs and grabbed the pad of paper off of the fridge where she scrawled out, What would happen if you are killed...who get's the girls....if that hasn't been determined, could I get them?

She folds it up and she places on her nightstand. He'd get it when he woke her up to tell her that he was home.