Landslide (Original Series Prequel 2)

The Child Within My Heart

***Get your tissues ready for the last part of this chapter!***

Arcadia, California
Saturday, November 2, 1974
********************

"He's going to kill me, Robin. He's going to kill me and leave my dead body in the hills by the fucking Hollywood sign."

Stevie sat in a bamboo chair on the terrace of Robin's apartment, wringing her hands and looking paralyzed with fear. It had been exactly twenty-four hours since she had found out that she was pregnant, and exactly twenty-four hours since she had been in a major panic attack. Lindsey had finally convinced her to go to the doctor for antibiotics for the strep throat she had contracted at the end of their stay in Aspen, and the doctor had run a blood test and come back with the new as casually as she returned to tables at Clementine's with a tray of margaritas the customers had ordered. Lindsey had gone up north to Atherton to see his mother for the first time since his father's funeral in February, and Stevie had declined his offer to come along, saying that he needed some time alone with Ruth and Greg and Jeff to be together as a family, and she needed to get in to see the doctor, clean the hell out of the house, give poor Ginny some quality time after dragging her all over Aspen, and visit Robin for some much-needed girl talk.

"This is a good thing, baby," she'd told him as he'd zipped his duffel bag filled with clothes for the weekend in the bedroom. Stevie walked around to the other side of the bed where Lindsey stood, squeezing the two sides of the bag closer together so that the zipper would close. She said, "We can go off and do our own thing this weekend, we'll miss each other, and Sunday night, when we get into bed, absence will have made the heart grow fonder and we'll get to cuddle and talk all about our weekends...or not talk at all..." She stood on her tiptoes in her bare feet to kiss him, and he pulled her closer with his arm around her waist, deepening the kiss and releasing her only after he heard a little "Mmmmm" escape her lips as his lingered there.

It had been about a week since they'd been home from the disaster that was their trip to Aspen, and Lindsey had kept his promise and then some. He'd been showing appreciation, treating Stevie like a partner, and keeping her safe and warm under the covers every night, whispering into her hair as it lay strewn across his shoulder and chest the he loved her as she fell asleep in his arms.

"I don't know how I'm going to get any 'fonder' of you, angel," he said. "My heart is about as 'fond' as it gets...and my heart isn't the only thing..." He gave her a wicked grin, and she playfully slapped his arm.

"Dirty bird," she teased, giggling. "You plan on kissing your mother this weekend with that mouth?"

"In fact, I do...and then I'm bringing my mouth home on Sunday so it can do various other things..."

They both got a late start to their separate weekend plans after that, Lindsey tossing his duffel bag off of the bed and replacing it with Stevie, then himself, making love to her one last time before they went off to their own individual weekends.

"What are you going to do about it?" Robin inquired. She lit a cigarette, and held out the open pack, offering it to Stevie, who waved it away.

"That's one of the things they never tell you about being pregnant," Stevie said. "You're not supposed to smoke and drink, but it's actually fine, because alcohol and cigarettes taste repugnant to me right now! Ugh! Yet I really wish I could smoke...this is stressful as fuck!" Stevie ran her hands through her hair from her feathered bangs downward, her hands dropping to the hem of her sweater. "I don't know what I'm going to do...I mean, we don't have two cents to rub together, we're trying to get this second album out, get a few paying gigs...fuck...I don't know."