Settling Down

16

January 20, 1993

Time Jump

After Lindsey was initially called in the day before Halloween, two years prior, the years just seemed to fly by.

Lori, Christopher, Barbara, Jess, and Baby Jessica James Nicks who was born in September of 1991 came for Thanksgiving, and Lindsey's family in San Francisco came down for Christmas and meeting each other's families went really well. Over New Years, Lindsey had taken the girls to Carol's parents house and Stevie would've felt awkward going so she didn't. Lindsey did however tell the Harris' about Stevie and he told them about Stevie becoming a legal guardian to the girls. When he got home in the early, early morning hours of Halloween, like 4:30 in the morning, and Stevie handed him that note it dawned on him that he hadn't done that after Carol died and he needed to. So they spoke to the girls and on January 18, 1992, Stevie signed papers stating that she could legally get the girls if anything were to happen to Lindsey. She could make medical decisions for them, and so on and so forth.

Lindsey made it through the Rodney King Riots and Stevie was forever grateful for that because they were scary and so many police officers lost their lives because of it. Lindsey had never found himself in that incident. Sure they had riots throughout Santa Monica, but Lindsey was never sent to them.

They had been together for about two years would be three on February 14th. Emily would be turning fifteen on February 19th, Stella would turn twelve in August. Lindsey had turned 43, in October and Stevie would be turning forty-five in May and they were a happy family. Stevie hadn't done any work at all in 1992, because she wanted to spend time with the girls and easily transition into that role of mother, because that's what she was now. She was their mother. She was living in their house, she was cooking their meals, signing their papers for school, taking them to the dentist, the doctor, she hadn't missed one of Emily's dance events and she was relishing in motherhood.

There was a time when she didn't want children, she had four abortions and she thought that they would fuck up her work, but being their mother kind of turned over a new leaf for her. She was starting to regret her abortions because she loved those girls and they weren't her own. She couldn't even imagine a life without them in it anymore, and she was starting to itch for her own. But she had been avoiding broaching the topic with Lindsey because as much as she wanted to try for a baby they hadn't even talked about marriage.

***

The family of three, as Stevie wasn't with them was watching the inauguration of Bill Clinton. He had used one of her songs as his campaign song, and when she was approached to sing it, she of course said yes. So while she was in DC, they Buckingham's were at the house, watching it when the phone rang. Lindsey had only been off of work for about four hours so he groaned in the back of his throat and answered the phone.

"This is Officer Buckingham"

"On My Way." He hung up, bit his lip and looked at the girls. "There's a potential robbery at one of the banks. I have to go...You guys can stay up until Stevie performs but then it's off to bed with you." Lindsey points.

"Should I call Mrs. Martin?"

"No Em...I'll hopefully be back by seven." He sighs going to the second set of stairs. There was one in the entry and there was one in the living room.

Much like Stevie, Emily didn't like knowing that Lindsey was gone so even after Stella had gone to bed and Stevie performed she was waiting up...She knew she'd get an earful from her father but when the doorbell rang, she knew that she made the right decision in staying up. She gulped and slowly trudged to the front door to reveal two officers. She knew Captain Grisman, but she didn't know the other guy.

"Emily is, Stevie home?" Captain Grisman asks. He had gotten close to the family, they had precinct Christmas Parties, and Fourth of July Barbecues and the Grisman's were always so welcoming to the family and he knew the relationship status between Lindsey and Stevie hell, most of the world knew that Stevie Nicks was in a relationship with a cop, but that's as far as it went.

"She's not, she was asked to perform at the inauguration, she's in DC."

"Okay, does she have a cell phone?"

"No, but her assistant does...why?"

"Go call her assistant and collect your sister. Your dad was shot, and he's being treated at Ronald Reagan Medical Center." Captain Grisman tells her.

Emily just stands there in shock as Captain Grisman hands her his cell phone. it takes her a minute to snap herself out of it but then she dials Karen's number. They were three hours ahead of California and though it was one in the morning California time, it was about four in the morning DC time. She had to dial it a couple of times before a groggy Karen finally answers and once the words. 'daddy's been shot,' comes out of her mouth she starts crying.

"Emily, where is he...what's happening?" Karen asks all the way in DC, quickly gathering her stuff getting ready to go inform her boss of what was happening.

"I don't know, I just know he's been shot and they're treating him at UCLA, and Captain Grisman is taking me and Stella there now."

"Okay, okay...I'll get a red eye alright." Karen assures.

"Okay." Emily sniffles.

She hands the phone back to the Police Man and then she runs upstairs to get Stella.

***

Stevie's in a complete and utter panic when she gets to the hospital the flight time was about five hours long, so it was around seven in the morning when she ran through the doors of UCLA and when Stella sees her, she calls out "MOM"

Stevie whips around and sees the girls in the surgery waiting room and her heart falls and Stevie runs to them taking both of them in her arms.

"What happened?" Stevie asks.

"He got called in while we were watching the inauguration and when we got here all they told us was that he got shot, and the bullet's really deep and hit his collar bone but it looked like no other damage was done so they're fishing for the bullet and resetting his collar bone." Emily explains.

Stevie just lets out a relieved sob. "At least it's not bad."

"Family of Lindsey Buckingham" A doctor calls and Stevie and the girls immediately turn to him and the three of them, both girls still in Stevie's arms walk over to the man.

"I'm his...I'm his wife." Stevie sniffles.

"He's okay. he's in recovery right now but once he's out of the anesthesia we'll let you back there to see him. His collarbone was broken, but we fixed that. He's going to be in a sling for about eight weeks. he's not to use his right arm at all. His stitches can come out in about four weeks, but we want to keep him in the sling for the full eight weeks. We're going to pull him from work for the eight weeks so he can heal. Collarbones, while they aren't the worst bones to break they can cause a lot of problems if they aren't healed properly so we just want him to rest and relax and heal his arm up. Is he left handed or right handed?"

"Right Handed." Stevie answers.

"He was shot in the right shoulder. He's going to need some physical therapy as well, but we'll talk about that later."

"But he's okay." Stevie looks at him.

"He's okay Mrs. Buckingham."