Torn

Part 23

AN: This is not exactly the updated you wanted yet. Sorry!

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Karen wasn't immune to the Dave Grohl effect either. She barely even knew the guy, having met him a handful of times while attending an event or a recording session with Stevie. Yet, she found it impossibly hard to say no to him. And to be fair, she would much rather help out Dave than Lindsey and lord knows, she'd helped the latter a hundred times, setting up elaborate apology schemes after another Buckingham Nicks fight.

So, when Dave reached out a couple of days ago, prior to the show in Amsterdam, Karen knew, she was going to be asked to go behind Stevie's back once again. After she'd listened to 'please' more times than she cared to count, Karen relented. Stevie had been doing better and seeing Dave could easily destroy the progress she'd made. But...

Arms crossed, Karen stared at Dave in Stevie's dressing room as he nervously smiled at her. Her icy exterior did a fantastic job of hiding the good intention behind letting him show up out of the blue. 

"I swear, Dave, if Stevie fires me over this-"

"No, she won't." Dave shook his head. "What's she gonna do without you by her side? She needs you as much as the air she breathes." He wasn't sure if sweettalk was going to work, but he at least had to try.

Karen pursed her lips to hide a smile threatening to cross her face, her eyes softened a little. "If tonight goes to shit, you take full responsibility." She said, pointing a finger at him. 

"Absolutely!" Dave agreed without any questions. "This is completely on me. You just took me backstage and that's it. You're totally innocent."

Karen nodded her head once as if saying, hell yeah, I am. "Alright. They're already on stage, so... do you wanna hang out here and wait or-" She shrugged. "Do you want to maybe stand in the dark and watch?" She emphasized. "Stevie cannot see you until after the show. It's their last night and nothing, you hear me? Nothing can jeopardize their final performance."

"Of course, I wanna watch." Dave fought back against giving her a duh expression. "It's Fleetwood Mac, baby!"

"Okay." Karen turned around, she glanced back at him over her shoulder. "And do not say baby to me."

Dave made a motion as if he zipped up his mouth and followed Karen out of the dressing room. He kept his head down as they walked through the corridors, though, it was unlikely that he could have stayed unrecognized. What if he just happened to be in Amsterdam for whatever reason and decided to catch the show? No big deal.

Just like Karen asked, Dave did his best to stay out of Stevie's sight, while he could see her perfectly. A smile instantly appeared on his face and his heart began beating a little faster. God, he'd missed her. The past month or so was absolute torture. He read her letter almost as soon as they said, goodbye, and his whole world fell apart in an instant. It would have been the right thing to do to accept it and move on. For about a week, he tried and then gave up, when every single minute of every single day all he could do was think about her. He was too much of a coward to reach out, having convinced himself that if Stevie had decided to break things off, she was already moving on. It would have hurt too much if she ignored his calls or worse - picked up the first one and told him to fuck off. 

Dave had absolutely no idea of how Stevie was going to react to seeing him. Flying across the Atlantic just to tell her, he loved her, again might have been a mistake, but he couldn't live in the unknown either. She said, she hoped that they would see each other soon as friends. Fuck that! He didn't want to just be friends, they were way past that point.

Song after song, Dave watched Stevie, completely enthralled by her stage persona. It wasn't that different from who she truly was; she still rambled on about things that happened in the 70's or 80's and looked cute doing it. She captivated the audience with her voice just like she did him, when they were alone. Yet, there was something a little extra. There was no denying that right now she was Stevie Nicks and not just Stevie. Currently, she was a total rockstar and having been a fan for years, Dave couldn't help but see her as such.

Karen informed Dave that the last song was coming up. He suddenly felt a little lightheaded as he wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans. Silver Springs. As he watched Stevie spit out lyrics at Lindsey, he had an odd feeling. Fear? Jealousy? There was no way that the passion that she performed with was fake. It hadn't even crossed his mind that Stevie might have gone back to Lindsey. She said, she wouldn't.

And there she was. Dave gulped, seeing Stevie coming closer. She kept her head down as she carefully took the first step down the stairs. Taking a deep breath, he held out his hand for her. Feeling her easing her grip on his hand, Dave panicked and resisted to let go. As if in slow motion, she turned to face him and-

"Dave..."

Dave swallowed uneasily, unable to formulate a sentence as he just stared right back at her.