Heart of the Matter

4

March 9, 2018

How she ended up on a nighttime talk show with Fleetwood Mac she'll never know...but she did and she was performing which meant LIndsey was there. The news had dropped about his firing in February and though he didn't want to go he went because he wanted to be there for his daughter. She was debuting her new single from the album. She had switched some around and taken some off and eventually ended up using one of the new ones that she wrote with Lindsey as her new single. 

She had her blonde waves straight down her back and she was wearing black leggings, a pair of strappy black heels and a black shirt. Her arms in the shirt were funky because they were solid black on the bottom but it didn't really have tops to the arms, it was more like bands of diamonds connecting them about two inches apart.

"So Kendall Rose...you broke onto the scene with American Idol and now you're on an interview with the new Fleetwood Mac lineup. How are you feeling?" He asks.

"I'm excited...excited to be here. Excited to perform for you...I think probably the best thing for me anyway is that they fired Lindsey because I was able to snap him up." Kendall explains as Stevie scoffs. 

"Yes, he's producing your album, he's now your guitarist as well. In your perspective what's it like working with Lindsey?" 

"He...he kind of took me under his wing. I'm only nineteen and I'm here in Hollywood with like no parental guidance what so ever it's just me and Craig, and he's 22 but we're still really young. Lindsey knows that so it's like he calls and checks up on me and makes sure I'm okay...like a dad would. He and I just mesh really well. I approached him to record my album and we ended up writing like six songs together." Kendall smiles. 

"And what would these songs be?" 

"I Hope, How You Remind Me, which we're doing both of those tonight. Dammit, Let me Go, Little do You Know, and Anyone." 

"Can you tell us what they're about?" He asks.

"Buy the album." She smirks.

"Yes, River Rose, it comes out on May 24th. What was the inspiration for the title?" 

"Well...it's a song on the album that I really love. I wrote it with Craig and he sings on it with me. Lindsey and I flew to Nashville while he was recording to get that vocal, but it's also my name. Kendall is my first name and it means River, like the Kent River. Rose is obviously Rose and it's my middle name." She nods.

"If Rose is your middle name what's your last name?" 

"I'm not telling you...I want to keep that to myself. I didn't use it on Idol for a reason so..." Kendall holds her hands up.

"Alright, fine...After the break, Kendall Rose performs I Hope and her brand new single, How You Remind Me."

***

Performing on stage with Lindsey gave her an adrenaline boost. They rocked together and by the end of How You Remind Me, they were both in tears. Lindsey wrote that one solely. He wrote it about every single time he and Stevie had a relationship. 73-78, 83-85, 93-05. Lindsey sang harmony with her on both songs and their voices sounded just as good as Stevie and Lindsey's voice. 

The Buckingham's are ushered out of the building right after they perform to avoid any crossfire with Fleetwood Mac and they make their way to their separate houses. Craig was waiting up for her and when she got there and discarded her outfit and slid into her pajamas she just turned to him.

"How was it?" 

"It was good, you and Lindsey sound amazing together. Your mother on the other hand I think is very much pissed off at you for some reason." He chuckles.

"She thinks he's sleeping with me. I guess after I was taken she suffered from Post Partum Depression and she kept pushing him away so he looked for affection and love and...other things, from the young girls that he was producing at the time. Causing their divorce." Kendall explains. 

***

After the interview, Stevie and the rest of Fleetwood Mac hunkered down in her Pacific Palisades home. 

"That song was directed at us wasn't it?" Christine questions.

"Which ones?" Mick asks.

"The last one...the first one came out before we fired him." Christine states.

"I think it was directed at Stevie, love." John sighs.

"I didn't want to divorce him, but he cheated on me." Stevie plops down on the sofa.

"Stevie you cheated on him first...with Don Henley, then with Mick. He still went back to you." Christine exclaims. 

"But he cheated on me when I needed him the most." She says tears starting to fall freely down her face.

"Stevie, he suffered the same thing you did and we all watched it happen. You pushed him away, what was he supposed to do." John replies. 

"I'm still Stephanie Buckingham...I never changed my name back." She looks down and bites her lip. 

"I'm lost." Neil sighs.

"Stevie and Lindsey were married from 1996-2005. She got pregnant at the end of 1997 and gave birth to a little girl in May of 1998. She was taken from the hospital nursery and disappeared. The police are ready to pronounce her dead but Stevie and Lindsey won't let them...instead, the police just closed the file. She'd be about the same age as that girl we interviewed with." Christine gives the slimmed-down version of the story. 

"Same Birthday and name and everything." Stevie cries.

"Stevie...you don't think she could be her?" Mick implies. 

"No...I would know my daughter. That's not my daughter." Stevie shakes her head.

"Would you though...you never breastfed her you couldn't have held her for more than 30 minutes." Christine places her hand on her back. 

"I don't know." Stevie cries into Chris's neck. 

"You know Steves, she did kind of look like you. Same hair and eye color." Karen speaks up.

"No...Lindsey would've said something if she was our daughter. I may have accused him of sleeping with her at Musicares." She sniffles sitting up straighter.

"Maybe he doesn't know...hoenstly. maybe neither of them know." Karen replies. 

"How would I even go about finding out?" Stevie slams her hands on the table.

"I...I don't know." Karen shakes her head.