The Dance (Original Series Part 2)

Yesterday's Gone

"If it could stay on, that would be great."

Christine McVie was fifty-three years old, and she had confided in Stevie earlier that day, during the photo shoot, that her hot flashes were out of control today for some reason, and she would give anything to have chosen an outfit that had not included a blazer for the interview they were about to do. Christine pointed at the small metal fan that was blowing lukewarm air onto the five Fleetwood Mac members on the rehearsal stage where they sat, waiting for cameras to line up various other technical things. She asked, "Can we leave this fan on?"

She was met with resistance by the director, who told her it would interfere with the sound. Lindsey said, "It's not helping me, anyway," unable to resist the innuendo about it being hot, as he was standing right behind Stevie, who was perched on one of the red touring cases, sitting cross-legged and looking so tiny she could fit in his pocket. Stevie didn't respond; she was looking straight ahead at the camera, wondering if the angle of the shot was too low. She was, by far, the most petite of the band, which was why John and Christine got to sit in chairs and they'd had to put her on the touring case to be in the frame equally to everyone else.

"I shouldn't have said anything," Christine said, disappointed about the fan, but her concerns changed a moment later when she turned to Lindsey and asked, "Is that camera high up enough? Is it doing its thing?"

Stevie, who'd been worried about the camera angle herself, said, "It's not high up to me; I'm looking -" But her words were interrupted by Mick, who claimed to have checked it earlier. You're six-foot-six, idiot, she thought, and it took her three false starts to say she was looking right into the camera from where she saw sitting.

A debate ensued between Lindsey and Mick then, and when Lindsey leaned in and asked Stevie if she wanted someone else to check it out, she heard Mick scolding him from behind her by simply saying, "Lindsey..." It was almost as if he were saying, "Don't give in to her whims," which made her angry. She was very aware of two things - that Lindsey was doing exactly what she'd asked of him the night before by staying as close to her as he could and looking out for her, and that somehow, Mick was annoyed by this. You can't have it both ways, she thought. You leave me for my friend, marry her, then try to steal "Silver Springs" from my mother...well that means you don't get to be the one who protects me here. That's Lindsey's job.

Ironically, as she felt her irritation at Mick rising, the interviewer was asking them questions about reuniting after the years of spoken and unspoken animosity among the five of them. She'd have been the first to say it was water under the bridge if Christine hadn't beaten her to it, but she did feel a twinge of anger at Mick when he poked fun at Lindsey nudging her playfully and kissing her head when Christine was talking about how four out of five of them had found themselves reunited in the studio some time ago - Stevie being the one who was absent. They all put their two cents in about how they were able to put the past behind them and work together again, Christine talking about how they were all involved in different projects earlier and getting together wouldn't have been feasible, how recreating the past wouldn't have been a good idea but they were creating something new out of the past now, and Stevie was once again stunned by how witty and diplomatic Christine could be under pressure. She'd missed her so much.

Stevie prayed to God that Lindsey would be as diplomatic as Christine when the interviewer asked him about his departure from the band in 1987. She sat very still and listened to his response, trying not to think of that terrible day at Christine's house ten years before, the vicious scene that had turned violent and sent her home in hysterics, calling her mother because she needed a dose of home, and for the first time in over a decade, home did not include Lindsey and she had no idea how to manage that. She didn't tell Barbara the details, though, because she knew Jess and Christopher would have hopped on the next plane to California to beat the hell out of Lindsey even if she'd been the first one to get physical.