I Will Run To You

I Stand Accused On Trial (Part 3)

Dallas, Texas
Monday, September 5, 1983
(11:30 pm)
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"Fuck Howard Kaufman and fuck the security team, and fuck you for insisting that this place was totally checked out!"

Lindsey was enraged, and there was nothing that Jess or Christopher or Waddy could do to hold him back. He had already threatened half the staff of the Reunion Arena and the Dallas police force, and it had only been thirty minutes since he'd found the open bathroom window and Stevie had vanished into thin air.

"Dude, this isn't helping anyone here," Christopher said, adding a hand to Lindsey's shoulder which he shrugged off.

"You know what, Chris? Neither are these fucking clowns trying to tell me they're on top of this...when Stevie is God knows where with God knows who!" He ran his hand through the front of his hair.

They had been standing in the dressing room area of the arena since the end of the show. The fans were all gone, ushered out of the parking lot by the police, who were stomping through the arena searching for clues and making Lindsey angrier by the minute. He turned to Jess, who stood at the back of the room with his hands in his pockets, not saying a word.

"Jess...I swear to God it was just going to be two minutes," he said, hating that tears were welling up in his eyes in front of Stevie's father. "It was the ladies' room...we assumed we were looking for a guy and...I didn't think."

"Listen to me, Lindsey." Jess grabbed him by both shoulders. "We don't have time for that horseshit. This isn't your fault, and standing around cursing out the entire population of Texas isn't helping us find her any faster. You get what I'm saying?"

Lindsey nodded, swallowing hard. "Jess...we weren't going to tell you and Barbara until we were together and had a plan, but you should know...she's pregnant."

"Then we are getting the hell out of here and finding my daughter and my grandchild," said Jess matter-of-factly. "This is the best thing you've made together just the two of you since the first album, kid, and we don't want this going wrong too."

Lindsey had to suck back his tears when he remembered that he'd made the same joke to Stevie not an hour before.

"Christopher, you're getting in the car with us," Jess ordered his son, who nodded dutifully.

Together, the three men Stevie were closest to in the world were escorted out of the arena by the police, who drove them to the hotel in the patrol car.

Lindsey looked out the window the entire way, thinking that every woman he saw with blonde hair was Stevie and the pit in his stomach growing with each one that wasn't.

He had no idea he'd been only a few yards away from her the entire time.

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Reunion Arena
Dallas, Texas
Tuesday, September 6, 1983
(12:30 am)
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The first thing Stevie became aware of as she woke up was the smell of fresh wood. For a moment, in her daze, she thought she was in Japan, flirting happily with the crew of the Rumors tour as they prepped the stage for the show. She was about to go and find Robin to tell her about the little girl who'd found her jewelry for which she'd taken the scarf from around herself and wrapped it around the little girl...but she was alone. Where was Robin?

It suddenly came to her that it was not 1977. She was in Dallas - if she remembered correctly - and she was going back to the hotel to have a drink with Joe Walsh to apologize. But then, where was Lindsey?

Stevie threw off the knit blanket that covered her and sat up slowly, and a look around the room told her she was in a concert venue of some kind...the one where she'd just performed? She was just about to get up and investigate when the door opened up and she saw the figure of a tall blondish man enter and quickly lock the door behind him. She immediately understood what was happening.

"Hello, Stevie," he said calmly.

"Hello, Joe."

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