Buckingham Nicks A/U Series Part 2: Dreams

Epilogue: When The Rain Washes You Clean You'll Know

Venice Beach, California
Wednesday, July 12, 1978
(7:00 pm)
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Stevie stared out the bedroom window at the rain as it splashed relentlessly against the glass, wondering if the weather would keep people away from the party tonight. She looked down then at the t-shirt with the strawberry on it that she was wearing with track shorts, knowing she was overdue to shower and throw on some real clothes before the doorbell rang and Fleetwood Mac descended upon her living room. She went into the nursery to check on the baby before she showered and found Robin, who had arrived early to help set up, peering over the brass cradle at her namesake with a lovesick smile.

"Man...I want one of these," Robin said with a sigh. Stevie entered the room and looked in at her daughter, who lay perfectly still on her back, sleeping in her little pink pajamas with lightning bugs on them. Barbara had found them at a baby boutique in Phoenix after hearing the story of her granddaughter's birth amid thunder and lightning, and she'd brought them - along with a ton of things they needed and things they didn't - when she and Jess flew in to meet their first grandchild in April.

"You'll get one," Stevie assured her. She was going to be Matron of Honor at Robin and Kim's wedding in September after the final leg of tour ended, and she knew Robin was going to want to try to get pregnant right away. She looked down at her sleeping baby and said, "Julia Robin Buckingham...my calm in the storm...tell Aunt Robin she's going to have a baby just as beautiful as you very soon."

Robin said suddenly, "Hey, you know what I was thinking? It's Christine's birthday tonight, right...Didn't you tell me that after the little party we had backstage in Maryland you and Lindsey were..."

Stevie giggled, quietly because of the baby. "Oh yeah...I'm pretty sure this little one here was made that night...and just one town over from Silver Springs!"

It was Robin's turn to laugh. "Well it's Chris' birthday again tonight...if Kim wasn't in Minnesota with his mom right now I'd grab him and say let's go to Maryland! It'd bring us luck!"

Stevie laughed again, and then adjusted the pink striped blanket over her sleeping daughter. "Hey listen, Robin, could you just keep an eye out for her in case she wakes up or fusses or something while I jump in the shower? I wore this outfit to bed last night and I do not intend to entertain in it!" She picked at the picture of a giant strawberry on the front of her shirt.

"No problem, Mommy...I can look at Julia Robin Buckingham till the cows come home!" Robin was in love with her goddaughter and it was mutual. Julia had been known in the three months she'd been alive to lie peacefully in Robin's arms for hours.

Stevie turned to leave the nursery and was tugging uncomfortably at her bra beneath the strawberry shirt. "Ugh...this fucking bra! I'm losing it with this thing!"

Robin's face crinkled in confusion. "You're wearing a bra under the shirt you slept in? That's weird...it's not like they hurt because you're breastfeeding...you're not." Stevie's breast implants two years earlier had affected her milk production, according to her plastic surgeon and her obstetrician, and she was bottle-feeding Julia - much to the delight of Lindsey, who got to sit in the Bentwood rocking chair that had been a gift from Barbara and Jess and feed Julia as well. Stevie had photographs of Lindsey Buckingham, rock guitarist of Fleetwood Mac, sound asleep in a Bentwood rocking chair in pajama pants and fuzzy slippers, his infant daughter asleep in one arm and an empty formula bottle in his other hand.

"Robin..." Stevie approached her best friend slowly, holding out a hand as a signal to remain calm. "I'm going to tell you something, and you have to promise me you're not going to freak out or scream or squeal and wake up Julia, okay?"