Bluebird

15

November 15, 2011

Annabel woke up to the smell of pancakes wafting around the condo and she smiled. She slowly eased herself out of bed and trudged into the living and kitchen area. Lindsey, was behind the counter at the griddle wearing sweatpants and a teeshirt and he looked at her and set the spatula down and made his way around the counter. 

"Dad?" She asks.

He doesn't answer, all he does is he wraps her up in his arms tightly, his cheek resting on the top of her head. 

"For the first time in 24 years, I get to have you in my arms on your birthday." 

"But I'm 25." She says into his chest. 

"I know that, but the day you were born, 25 years ago, I got to hold you." He explains gently starting to sway back and forth. 

"Oh, well are the pancakes done?" She asks. 

"Almost, I'm working on them. I have blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes cooking and I have Nutella, syrup, whipped cream, and hot fudge." He smiles. 

"Are you trying to make me fat?" She inquires. 

"No, I'm just trying to spoil you rotten." Lindsey smirks. 

"Well thank you for cooking for me." Annabel smiles. 

"Of course, you're my daughter. It's what father's do." Lindsey shrugs. 

"I appreciate it." She pulls away from the hug and presses towards the kitchen. 

"So what do you want to do today?" Lindsey asks.

"Oh, I don't know...the girls won't be here until Thanksgiving, cause you get them this year, and Kristen gets Christmas, but I usually spend my birthday's alone anyway, with a cupcake and a movie." She explains

"Well, how about I take you out shopping this afternoon, because I'm a horrible gift giver...you'll be doing all the Christmas shopping for  William, Sam, Stella, and Leelee....so I didn't get you anything but we can go downtown get some cupcakes, take in some of the shops and then go out to dinner and then when we come back, you can pick out what movie we get On Demand." He states flipping the pancakes. 

"Okay, I can live with that." Annabel shrugs.

"Good. We have a plan." He hands her a plate and pushes the toppings towards her. 

***

Lindsey and Annabel were heading up to Magnolia Bakery to pick up some cupcakes. There wasn't anything at the little shops in downtown Los Angeles that she wanted so Lindsey had succumbed and said he'd just give her his credit card and she could order whatever she wanted online. But on the way to the bakery was one of the humane society buildings. North Central to be exact and Annabel stopped and looked at the door. 

Lindsey gave her a side glance and he threw his arms up. "Our building does allow pets."

She gave a beaming grin and pushed into the building. Lindsey lost track of her very quickly, having to stop and take a  picture with the shelter hand that was working. He didn't have to take the picture per say, but he wasn't usually stopped by fans so when he was, he liked to indulge them. But when he did find her, the shelter hand hot on his tail, she was knelt down in front of a cage with two white dogs. They looked to be a mixed breed. A cross between a German shepherd and something else. They weren't as stalky as a German shepherd but they looked like German shepherds, except the one who's ears were bent. 

"Daddy, their names are Bowie and Prince. Look at them they look so sweet." Annabel coos. She had her hand pressed up against the cage bars and the bent eared one was licking at her hand through the bar. 

"That one is Bowie." The hand points to the bent-eared one.

"Are they brothers?" Lindsey asks.

"Yes they are, from the same litter. They were surrendered because they have German Shepherd in them and shepherds are high energy dogs. They need to be able to run and play. This family couldn't give them that. And they're very protective and territorial. If they get a bad vibe off of someone they won't  necessarily attack, but they tend to growl and bark and the family didn't like that especially because they had young kids." 

"Anna, we live in a three bedroom condo." Lindsey crosses his arms.

"I know, but we can take them to the park and on walks. We aren't doing anything during the day half the time. And, Sam and Will live in a one bedroom condo that you're paying for. You've been talking about getting a house, especially now that Leelee is going to be turning eighteen in July, and she had mentioned wanting to stay with you permanently. We can give Will and Sam our Condo and get a house. So if Leelee does decide she wants to solely live with you, after she turns eighteen, she can." Annabel looked up at him giving him the sad brown puppy dog eyes that Stevie had given him so many times. 

"Okay." He nods.

"Yay, thank you daddy. Can I play with them?" She looks at the hand.

"Sure." She nods tugging on her key ring. 

They were escorted out back to a little play area and as Lindsey watched Annabel with those dogs, it reminded him so much of her mother. The look of love and adoration for those dogs in her eyes mimicked the adoration Stevie had for her dogs. He was just glad that Annabel was taking after him and leaning more towards bigger dogs. Ankle biters, were not his thing...Except for Ginny, the dog he had gotten with Stevie so many years ago. Stevie. He had been thinking a lot about her recently and he fought with himself every day on if he should call her or not. 

***

Stevie was in Australia and though it wasn't November 15th in Australia, due to the time difference, she was still mourning the loss of her child. She didn't have to go on stage for three days, the 19th...but she had told Rod Stewart, her touring companion that the reason she wasn't emerging was to fight off the jet leg. It wasn't true, not in the slightest, but very few people knew about the child she shared with Lindsey and what had happened to her when she had given birth. 

She was alone-alone, not being able to take her dog with her into Oceania and that's why it was hitting her so hard. She was actually, physically alone in a hotel suite left with nothing but her thoughts and that was a dangerous little game. 

She wiped tears away from her eyes as she thought about what Annabel looked like. Did she look like Lindsey with brown waves and blue denim eyes. Was she a clone of herself. Or was she the perfect mixture of both of them. Blonde hair and blue-denim eyes. Was she musical. Short, or Tall. Was she married, or in a long term relationship. Did she have any children. If she was a grandmother and didn't know it, that would really screw her up for the worst.  

But despite all of that, there was one thing that was for certain...she wanted her baby.