The Dance (Original Series Part 2)

The Sound Of The Woman That Loves You

"But I chose to dance across the stages of the world...Everyone said I'd never learn...I still hear your words...Well, I've waited all my life for you...I watched you fly across the world in a golden ball...Many of the cities, I never saw at all..."

Stevie was counting the minutes, the seconds, until she was finished singing "Sweet Girl". She'd nearly broken down twice last night at the Atlantic City show during "Sweet Girl" alone, and "Silver Springs" had been nearly impossible to get through. The moment that had actually gotten to her, however, had not been during one of the songs about Lindsey, ironically enough, but during one of his songs about her - the line in "Go Your Own Way" when Lindsey sang, "Tell me why everything turned around..." A few nights ago, she had fallen asleep pressed naked against the body of the man who was the love of her life. A few nights ago they had been so in sync, so incredibly close, she'd felt as if they were one person. A few nights ago, as he'd been falling asleep with his arms so tight around her she couldn't tell where she ended and he began, he had whispered, "I love you, sweet girl." Finishing this song tonight was going to be tough, tougher than last night.

"Sometimes I feel I was always on call...Sometimes even I am allowed to fall...He says, 'Come down here for a minute...well, come down here for a minute...He says, 'Come down here for a minute, sweet girl, sweet girl."

The tears in her eyes were visible by the end of the song, she knew, but Christine had begun to play "You Make Loving Fun", and she had a second to control herself during the whole "Sweet, wonderful you" verse. She turned away from the audience for a tissue and a sip of water. She had been trying to look at Lindsey all night, but she just couldn't catch his eye. She was beginning to think he was avoiding eye contact on purpose, and if she thought about it, after last night, she couldn't blame him...

"It doesn't have to be this way, Stevie; you KNOW it doesn't!" Lindsey lay on top of her on her bed in Atlantic City, holding her so close she almost couldn't breathe. They had spent hours after the show alternating between making love and crying - sometimes both at the same time - and she was telling him he was wrong, that he had to go to the woman carrying his child, that he had to let her go.

"It's the right thing to do, Lindsey, and you know it." She would have said more but his mouth was at her neck, moving down towards the breast he cupped in his hand, and his other hand was between her thighs and she cried out through her tears, letting the tears fall down her cheeks as his mouth traveled down to her stomach. He'd had her twice tonight but he showed no signs of stopping, and with every touch, every kiss, Stevie was memorizing him...so she would never forget a thing when he was gone.

"I'm never letting you go, baby...ever!" His words were tearfully muttered into her stomach as her hands grabbed at his hair; she couldn't lose contact with him for even the time it took for him to kiss a trail down her body.

"You can...and you will." She pulled his head up so he could look into her eyes so she could say, "But not tonight. Tonight we take it all in." She took his face in her hands. "Make love to me again, Lindsey, please...I need to remember it all." And then he was inside of her, pulling her to him again and again, his hands at her hips and his mouth on hers, tasting each other's tears as they fell among the moans and the kisses and the desperate cries.

"Silver Springs" was coming up and she was terrified of losing it. Six songs stood between Fleetwood Mac and the end of The Dance, and when it was over, reality would begin again. Before The Dance, Stevie would never have even imagined a reality in which she and Lindsey would be this close, would be so much more than ex-lovers who occasionally came back for more when life got too tough without each other's bodies and hearts waiting there to take the pain away, and now that The Dance was over, she couldn't imagine a reality without him.