The Dance (Original Series Part 2)

And The Child Was Enough

*Warning: Drama ahead!*

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July 4, 1997

"When do you guys officially go out on the road?"

Christopher Nicks stood at the barbecue, talking to Lindsey about The Dance and the upcoming tour as he used a pair of tongs to flip a series of neatly-lined burgers over on the grill. The sun was shining high in the sky in Paradise Valley, Arizona, and almost everyone named Nicks and all of their friends had converged on the big compound Chris and Lori shared with Stevie to celebrate the Fourth of July with a barbecue/pool party. It had been mostly the kids who'd taken advantage of the pool party part, and currently Jessi and her best friend Maddy were the only ones using the pool, taking turns on an inner tube that looked like a pink sprinkled donut and splashing each other. The speakers of the expensive and studio-quality sound system Stevie had installed a few years ago were turned out into windows facing the yard, and Christopher had selected a Steely Dan CD and filled the backyard with the sound of "Do It Again".

"Our first show is on September 17 in Hartford, Connecticut," Lindsey said before drinking a generous sip of his Heineken. "We're going into the studio to rehearse in about three weeks, though."

"Is it true you're doing this by bus?" Christopher asked, knowing his sister couldn't possibly be happy about that.

"Unfortunately yes," said Lindsey. "Christine has developed this fear of flying, it seems...I don't know. She seemed pretty adamant about it being the bus or nothing, so we gave in. Mick's already planning road games for us and I told him dude, you need to stop being so gung-ho about this bus thing."

"I'm sure Stevie is really excited for the bus," said Christopher. He took up his own beer with his free hand and drank from it, laughing the whole time about Stevie on a bus.

"Oh, very." Lindsey rolled his eyes, laughing with the man who, after all these years, he could only think of as his brother-in-law.

Barbara had told Jess when they'd gotten home to Arizona in May that Stevie and Lindsey were together again, and Jess' reaction had simply been, "Good! She needs someone to keep her grounded again." After that, talk among the entire Nicks family had been that the long-awaited reunion of Lindsey and Stevie had finally happened. Lori had invited them to stay for the Fourth of July weekend and they'd come right in on the next plane, just about, Stevie talking non-stop about how much she missed Jessi. Jess had cornered him in the hallway of the house almost as soon as they'd arrived, shaking his hand and saying, "Welcome back, kid." Now they were together at a family barbecue, as most of America was also doing that day, Lindsey figured, and he couldn't help but think of how normal it all seemed, how easy, just two people in love going home to family to celebrate a holiday. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Stevie, talking to her mother in a long, flowered sundress and looking so beautiful he couldn't believe she was his. She saw him looking over at her and smiled, waving at him. He blew her a kiss from across the yard and mouthed "I love you." It was moments like these, standing in a backyard on a sunny day, watching Stevie be Stevie, just float around and spread sunshine of her own to everyone she knew, that made him want to just pull her aside and tell her he loved Stevie Nicks but he'd love Stephanie Buckingham even more, and ask her to marry him.

He tried not to think of the mistake he'd made on Stevie's birthday by replying to Kristen's message, however nonchalant and polite his response had been. He tried even harder not to dwell on the fact that they'd met for coffee in L.A. about a month after his reply, Kristen explaining in another email that she'd love for him to come to the photography studio where she'd been working and get his thoughts on a few photos she was taking for a guitar magazine. He'd done just that, not quite sure why Stevie flying to Maui to celebrate Mick's fiftieth birthday had meant, in his mind, that checking out Kristen's photographs and discussing them over cappuccino that afternoon was justified. He'd told Mick he couldn't attend his birthday because of some studio time he had booked, which was true, and Stevie had been unsure at first about going to Maui without him.