Crystal Visions Part 1: The Reunion

He Asked Me For My Love (Part One Finale)

Maui, Hawaii
Stevie's Birthday
Sunday, May 26, 2008
(10:00 am)
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"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday, my beautiful Stephanie...Happy Birthday to you..."

Maybe he was wrong. Maybe she did need all that sleep. Lindsey crept onto the bed on the side he'd abandoned at six o'clock to go swimming in the ocean outside their bungalow, then quickly get changed and go into town to pick up coffee and bagels and stop by Mick's and the bakery and the jeweler to make sure everything was in place for tonight. He'd lived a whole day, and there was Stevie, sleeping through the best day of the year.

"Steeeeevie?" His fingers were in her hair, his lips over her face, covering it with tiny kisses that even Sleeping Beauty couldn't ignore, and she was beginning to stir in her sleep, her arms reaching up to whoever or whatever she felt above her through the sleeves of the Rolling Stones t-shirt. It was her birthday and she got to wear it to bed; that had been their rule ever since 1971 when it was brand new. He was almost straddling her half-asleep form, giddy with excitement as if it were Christmas morning, partly because it was her birthday and he wanted her awake to enjoy it but partly because he had been allowed to wake up beside her for a year now, and every morning had felt like Christmas morning to him. He whispered down into her ear, "Wake up, birthday girl, or you're going to miss it!"

"I'm sixty today, baby...I'm old, and old people need their rest." But her eyes were open now, and she reached up to meet him halfway on top of her for a kiss. She smiled as her head hit the pillow again and he moved over to his side.

"Baloney," Lindsey said emphatically. "I refuse to believe it. You are twenty-four and it's 1972 and I'm making you blueberry pancakes as Joni Mitchell plays on the turntable and you are young and beautiful and our whole lives are ahead of us."

"I can't believe you remember that." She reached across the bed to run her fingers through his curls.

"That was your first birthday after we moved, angel. Of course I remember."

"The year before that we were still home and you flew my mom and dad and Chris in and we had a party in the yard," she recalled, her hand on his cheek now. "You treated May 26 like a national holiday from the very beginning, baby."

"That's because it is," Lindsey explained. "It's the day you were born, and I would be lost without you...so there you are - national holiday."

"I love you." She inched closer towards him to kiss him before settling in beside him. Lindsey was dressed for the day in cargo shorts and a blue t-shirt that enhanced the look of the tan he'd gotten in the three days they'd already spent in Hawaii. He wrapped his arms around her as she nestled in closer, those few extra minutes in his arms before she got out of bed each morning being just what she needed to start her day off right - with warmth, with a few little extra kisses, with love.

The whirlwind of drama that their reunion had caused last year at this time was finally at an end. As quickly as they'd come together Stevie had left, her Crystal Visions tour taking her all around the country and not even over yet - she was due in New Jersey in a few days for her final show. Lindsey had flown in for as many shows as he could make and cheered her on in the same place he'd done so the first night, over to her left, just as he'd been on stage with her all their adult lives. Sometimes he'd missed the show but he'd always be there for her in her hotel room when she was done, waiting for her with flowers and open arms and a turned down bed and the biggest silly grin on his face because she'd walked into the room and now they were home.

The knowing look in Kristen's eyes when he'd arrived home from Stevie's house the morning after they'd reunited had actually made him sad to see. He'd asked to speak to her privately over coffee and the kids were nowhere in sight, Will and LeeLee at school and Stella at nursery school on that Monday morning. They'd made coffee and sat on the deck in the backyard, the sun shining down and making the water in the pool shimmer like diamonds, as he had calmly explained it all - how it had been Stevie to tell him to go to her in 1997 when Will was on the way, being conflicted by wanting a family but being with a woman who couldn't give him one, how he had genuinely enjoyed the times as a family but felt the distance between them as a couple because they'd been thrown together, how difficult it had been to be around the love of his life without being able to be with her...