Love You Enough

Thirteen

When Stevie and Lindsey woke up in each other's arms the next day, and eventually managed to climb out of bed to get dressed and make their way to the next venue in seperate cars, they had no idea what type of bad news awaited them a couple hours later as they got off of stage.

"God, I can't wait to get back to the hotel and have a shower.", Stevie said and took a bottle of water from her assistant.

"I fear you might have to wait a little longer for that.", Karen replied apologetically, "Mick asked for a band meeting. It seemed important."

"Ugh," Stevie rolled her eyes before taking another sip, "What for heaven's sake does he want this time?"

"I have no idea. But he asked for the four of you to be left alone. No management or assistants."

Karen's reply surprised Stevie. Most of the time, whenever Mick asked for a band meeting it had something to do with prolonging the tour, adding more dates or meeting specific people for promotion interviews, which was all the stuff Stevie wasn't exactly interested in, so she usually brought her assistant along so she could handle it. The fact that her best friend wanted the four band members to be by themselves and kept the purpose of the meeting a secret was weird and pretty unusual for him.

"Do you know what this is about?", Lindsey asked Stevie as they made their way down the hall to get to Mick and John's shared dressing room about half an hour later.

Stevie shook her head, "I have no idea. But apparently, it has to be something personal, otherwise I could have brought Karen. You know how bad I am with dates and appointments. I forget half of them."

Lindsey suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, his hand reaching for Stevie's shoulder to make her stop walking as well, "Oh God, you don't think they found out about us, do you?"

Stevie turned her head to look at him, her eyes turning wide, "No. I mean, we weren't being that obvious, right?" When Lindsey didn't answer her right away, she started to freak out, "Right, Lindsey? Why are you not answering me?!"

"I don't know.", Lindsey said and threw his hands up in the air, his own voice starting to rise in panic, "You were the one who told me Christine found out just by watching us a couple minutes together."

"Oh, shit! Shit, shit, shit, shit!", Stevie cursed, "Mick's gonna kill me. If he knows, I'll never hear the end of it."

"Kill you?! He's gonna kill me! I am the man. I am the one who's married, not you."

Stevie didn't have the heart to tell the panicked man standing next to her just how often she had had to promise Mick that she wasn't going to sleep with Lindsey, again, especially not right this very moment, that he looked at her like a deer in headlights. "Okay, let's calm down a little. We have no idea if this is even what this meeting is about."

Lindsey shot her a look, "Do you even believe that yoursef?"

Stevie bit down on her bottom lip, "Lindsey, I don't know, okay? I just don’t know."

He sighed and ran both his hands through his hair, "If they know, it's only a matter of time before Kristen's going to find out."

Stevie looked at him, not believing what he had just said. All of a sudden, she felt dirty. Cheap and dirty, like a secret that needed to be hidden away. Instant tears sprang to her eyes, her throat closing up at the thought, that once again, she had gotten involved with a married man. A man who would crawl back to his wife if things got difficult, just like all the others had done before him. "Wow...", she said slowly, "And here I was actually thinking, things would be different this time."

Lindsey turned his head into her direction as he noticed the change of sound in her voice. She looked hurt. It was only then, that he realized what he had just said, "Stevie, that came out wrong. That was not what I..- You know, I didn't mean..-"

But before he could explain himself, the door in front of them opened up with Mick standing in its frame, "Finally. We've been waiting forever. Come on in, you two." The tall British man stepped aside and Stevie was quick to push her way past Lindsey and inside the dressing room to escape his presence.

Lindsey watched Stevie taking a seat as far away as possible from him, both arms crossing in front of her chest as she looked at Mick expectantly, while she ignored every single attempt of him to make eye contact with her, "So? What is all of this about? Why are we here?"

Mick sighed, then took a seat next to John who was being his usual very quiet self, "Umm, actually, I wasn't the one asking for this meeting."

Stevie furrowed her brow in confusion, "Huh?"

"John?", Mick called out his name, his eyes wandering to his long-time friend to his right.

All of a sudden, an uneasy feeling overcame Lindsey. This whole situation was weird. He looked from Mick to John and back again, before sitting down on the same couch as Stevie, while she made sure to slide an extra couple inches away from him to get her point across.

"Umm, yeah, well...", John eventually spoke up, both hands buried in his lap, "Something happened. And, umm, well, I guess we have to stop the tour earlier than expected."

"Something happened?", Stevie echoed his words, "John, what are you talking about?"

John sighed and slowly shook his head, but before he could even say a word, Lindsey spoke up, "You are sick." It wasn't a question.

Stevie turned her head into his direction, "Lindsey, what the hell..-"

"No," John said, "Stevie, he's right. I am sick."