Running Down A Dream

It Felt So Good, Like Anything Was Possible

Regent Berlin Hotel
Berlin, Germany
Wednesday, October 5, 2022
(12:30 am)
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"Did they ever get married at the end? I forget."

An hour's worth of talking about the agony of the last five years had given way to a conversation about The Nanny, which was still playing on the TV on the other end of the room.

The entire conversation had taken place on the bed.

They were lying together on the rumpled unmade bed, Stevie having kicked off her Uggs, curled up into a little ball in Lindsey's arms as she had millions of times before, as she had been missing for so long. She hadn't let go of him for a second, moving herself in line with him if he moved an inch to adjust himself, her head on his chest near the crook of his arm, her arm draped over him and coming to rest at his heart.

It had taken awhile for him to get her to stop crying when she'd found his heartbeat beneath her cheek and told him she'd never been so happy to hear a sound in all her life.

"They did," Stevie said in answer to his question about The Nanny. "They got married and had twins, and then in the finale they sold the house and moved to California."

"I must've missed that," he said, and he kissed the top of her head. "I don't know where I was...I actually grew to enjoy the show once you'd made me watch it with you."

"That was 1998 or 1999...you were busy." They didn't need to clarify out loud that Will had been born in 1998.

They lay there in silence for awhile, Lindsey stroking her hair, twirling long golden curls around in his fingers, Stevie closing her eyes to the sound of his heartbeat, exhausted from traveling but so contented and happy that she didn't care if she was tired.

She knew she was home.

"Linds?" Her voice broke into the near-silence of the room, the only sounds around being their breathing, which had fallen into sync, and the dull murmur of the TV.

"Mmm?" He was busy placing a series of tiny little kisses along the top of her head, realizing that the coconut scent she carried was from her shampoo. He was in heaven, his lips brushing against her hair slowly, over and over.

"You can be honest with me," she said. "I can take it. This whole health issues thing...are you really okay? Like...if you were dying you'd tell me, wouldn't you?"

"If I were dying I'd tell you and I'd have come and found you sooner so that I could hold you till the end of my life so that your face would be the very last thing I saw, angel," he said, and his words brought tears to her eyes. "No, I'm not dying. I'm old...Covid kicked my ass. I caught pneumonia and they all suggested I not perform, not strain myself, take medication and rest up...I have a whole U.S. leg of the tour coming up, you know."

"Not if you're sick, baby." The terms of endearment they'd always used on each other had started up again almost immediately. "I had pneumonia a few years ago...right after the Hall Of Fame...kicked my ass too...I don't want you to play hero and go out there if you don't feel well...it's not worth it, sweetheart." She felt him pull her in closer as she said that.

"I missed that," Lindsey confessed.

"Missed what, sweetheart?"

"That...just now," he said. "One of the things I missed the most...You have this way of calling me sweetheart that doesn't sound like anyone else...it sounds like you invented the word just for me...and I haven't heard it in years and..." He kissed her forehead softly. "It sounds amazing...sounds like I'm home."