Buckingham Nicks A/U Series Part 4: The Dance

And The Songbirds Are Singing Like They Know The Score

Warner Brothers
Burbank, California
Friday, May 23, 1997
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"And we're not done yet!"

Christine was in visibly high spirits, talking to the audience as the band prepared to close the show with "Don't Stop". She flashed a smile at Stevie, who stood beside her, tambourine in hand, ready to go. Only Stevie had been let in on Christine's little secret, the one that was making her so happy these days.

She and John had decided to have a reunion of their own.

It had begun innocently enough, she'd informed Stevie one day over lunch during rehearsals back in March when the guys had decided to spend the afternoon vinyl shopping and Stevie and Christine had both expressed a desire for Mexican food. Over sangria and enchiladas, Stevie had teased Christine about spending so much time with John until she'd finally worn her down, and Christine had confessed to everything. She'd told Stevie about the three-hour conversations she had been having with John on the phone every night, about a kiss under the mistletoe at Christmas when he'd dropped Olivia off at home after she'd spent the holiday with him and her half-sister Molly, the New Years Eve drinks which had led to dinner which had led to dancing which had led to deciding in their tipsy state to check into a room at the hotel where they'd been downstairs talking at the bar inches away from each other's faces, fingers tracing over hands and forearms and finally entwining completely. She'd told Stevie about the way the sex had felt perfectly natural between them, as if no time had passed and there had been no Julie or Eddy in the interim. She'd told her they were still trying to figure out how to tell Jodie and Olivia that their Parent Trap fantasy was about to come true.

Lindsey and I are having a baby, and John and Christine are getting back together, Stevie thought as they settled into place to begin the song. Maybe things are finally starting to come together for us all again...even Mick!

The U.S.C. Marching Band, which the audience assumed was only there for "Tusk", was set to accompany them on "Don't Stop". Christine told the audience, "We've never done this with a brass section before, so this should be interesting."

The familiar notes of "Don't Stop" began, and the U.S.C. Marching Band assembled in front and behind the stage, and suddenly the room was alive with the sound of the most perfect song to close the show with, a song that was uplifting and joyous and captured exactly how they were all feeling that night.

"Why not think about times to come?" Christine was singing into the mic when Stevie suddenly realized she'd zoned out for awhile, lost in her own happy thoughts. "And not about the things that you've done? If your life was bad to you...well just think what tomorrow will do..."

Tomorrow...Stevie was thinking as she sand along and played the tambourine. Tomorrow was Saturday, which meant blueberry pancakes at the Buckingham house. Julia was in town with Jodie for the show and was not going back to New York until Tuesday, after Stevie's birthday, which was also Memorial Day. Stevie had requested a family barbecue in the yard for her birthday dinner on Monday night, but she had a sneaking suspicion Lindsey had more than that up his sleeve. Lindsey treated May 26 like a national holiday; he always had, explaining that to him, it was, because "that was the day his beautiful Stephanie was born." Stevie had decided to wait until after her birthday weekend to sit down with Aaron and speak to him as calmly as she could about his recent behavior, and so nothing was standing in the way of her having a perfect birthday. She sang along to "Don't Stop" gleefully, a strange but beautiful renewal of life and its wonder inside of her, bursting at the seams to come out.

One by one, everyone left the stage, Mick being the last person to climb down the stairs after banging the gong attached to his drums. Christine was going to emerge again after the applause to sing "Songbird" alone at the piano, as always, and Stevie gave her a high five on her way through the narrow corridor before finding Lindsey in the small crowd.