Fall From Grace: The Dance Thriller, Part 2

Just To Make Sure You Survive

U.S. Airways Arena
Andover, Maryland
Sunday, November 30, 1997
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"Goddamn it, Marty, how hard is it to make sure the dressing rooms are off limits to people without passes?"

Lindsey stood in the center of Stevie's dressing room, waving a piece of paper in his hand that was a letter from Kristen. Earlier that day, after soundcheck, Stevie had returned to her dressing room to see that Lindsey had filled it with red roses, with a card that had made her cry.

My beautiful Stephanie,

Tonight marks the end of the tour, but only the beginning of our life together, you and me and our baby girl. There are not enough red roses in the entire United States, which we have traversed, to express how excited I am for the rest of my life...because I get to spend it all with you, sweet girl.

Love always,
Lindsey

After crying over her card and kissing Lindsey passionately in a room surrounded by red roses, Stevie had headed out to a quick meal with Christine. She had returned to her dressing room at five-thirty for soundcheck and found every last red rose completely demolished, the floor of the room covered in petals.

Stevie had started screaming before she'd seen the letter atop the pile of red rose petals at her feet.

Now Lindsey and Marty were standing in the middle of the room in a standoff, the entire population of the Fleetwood Mac lineup and their assistants watching. Stevie held her hand over her baby in a protective stance, a crumpled tissue near her eyes in the other hand, flanked on either side by Mick and Christine while John - God love him, Stevie thought - was awkwardly and ineffectually sweeping up the rose petals because Stevie couldn't look at them without crying.

"Look, I'm trying all I can here, for Christ sake!" Marty was every bit as angry as Lindsey was, and it showed. Lindsey knew why Marty was yelling - he was angry at himself for not being able to figure it out for himself and protect his client. "Nobody told you to go out with some psycho here, Buckingham, okay, so just lay the fuck off!"

"You want to say that again to me, Hom, so you can know exactly what you said that made me punch you in the face?" Lindsey already had his fists curled in anger, and somehow, amidst the chaos of the moment, Stevie remembered a day in 1969 when she'd invited Robin and a few other friends to a Fritz rehearsal that was being recorded, and Lindsey had backed Javier Pacheco against a wall and come close to punching him after Javier had insulted her singing and called her mediocre, and implied they were sleeping together when they weren't - yet.

"Stop it!" Stevie shrieked, her tears starting up again, this time in frustration more than fear. Mick tried to rub her shoulder but she broke free of both his grasp and Christine's, and stood in the middle of Lindsey and Marty so they wouldn't come to blows. She was crying, but she held her own, made sure her voice was steady. "Enough! Son of a bitch! Lindsey, I love you, but how the actual fuck is this helping anything, huh? Marty, I know you're not responsible for this, but Jesus H. Christ, who on God's green earth are these security agents you hired? Where the hell did you get them? Disneyland? This maniac came into my dressing room today while I was out with Christine, demolished my flowers from my fiance, and all we're doing is picking stupid fights and rolling fists and all this male bullshit when I am a pregnant woman in danger of another pregnant woman coming after me and doing God knows what! I am through being the shrinking violet here, people! Now..." She folded her hands over her baby. "What the fuck are we actually going to do about this?"

Stevie's outburst put and end to the fight. Christine invited her into the ladies room to calm down, Marty stormed off to call the agents in for a meeting on the stage so they could familiarize themselves with the exits when they were finished talking, and Lindsey went back to his own dressing room, at Stevie's insistence, to cool down. Mick followed Lindsey into his dressing room to talk, and as the crowd dispersed, Stevie lingered in the doorway and watched as John continued his quest to gather all of the discarded rose petals with an old, worn wooden broom. She crossed the room to where he stood stooped over his project, trying hard not to let her gaze meet the mess on the floor, and in one swift motion removed the broom handle from John's hand and pulled him into a hug.

"John Graham McVie, you are probably one of the sweetest men alive, you are my brother, and I love you more than you'll ever know." She held him as close as she could past her belly, and kissed the top of his head and rubbed his thinning hair as she released him from her grasp. With a wink and a smile, she said, "Happy belated birthday."

"I love you, kid." John McVie was a man of few words, so when he talked, Stevie listened. "You're going to be okay, you know. We're not leaving you alone for a second and we're going to find this lunatic, and when it's all over, Stevie...save me a dance at your wedding."

Stevie felt the tears return to her eyes, this time because she was overcome by her love for this beautiful, complex, intelligent, adorable man who had been one of her best friends for over twenty years. "Don't you worry, okay?" She grabbed his hand and squeezed harder than he would have expected from her tiny hands. "After Lindsey takes his turn, I'm all yours."

John picked up the broom again as she followed Christine to the ladies room.

She prayed she hadn't just made John a promise she wouldn't be able to keep.

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