Why Should It Matter?

5. Over Our Heads

Sitting outside, down a couple houses from his place, Stevie waited for Karen to come and get her.

And only a few minutes later, her assistant was pulling down the street and gesturing for her boss to hurry.

Opening the door, she got in and sat down, letting off a small sigh.

"You cannot just stand outside like a person at night!" her assistant scolded. "You could get kidnapped."

"Yes, Karen---I know, you say this a lot..." she tossed her head back into the seat, shutting her eyes, kind of tired at this point in her day.

She loved taking care of Lindsey---it just made her feel old things, but she did admit, she was a little tired. But there was something about it that made her feel so good. And maybe it was the fact that so much was happening in general and the fact that she didn't get to say goodbye and he'd have to wake up to his wife there instead. She felt bad about everything.

Glancing over at her boss, she looked back to the road and cleared her throat a tad. "So, what happened?" she felt the need to ask.

She sighed a little and started talking, her eyes still shut. "Kristen got home and she wasn't pleased to see me... I don't know what Lindsey heard, poor baby was asleep," she shook her head a little.

"Did she say anything to you?"

"I did most of the talking, actually---said more than I should have, probably... But I don't necessarily regret it, either..."

"Well--"

"I don't wanna get into it," she put her hand up, silencing the last hour. "I was just happy taking care of him today. I really enjoyed that and he needed it..."

"Yeah, you've always been at your best when you could care for him," Karen felt the need to add. "Not to mention, he deserves it."

After the small statement, silence washed over them for a while.

Both of them were engrossed in their own thoughts, many things circling their minds at different paces.

"What are your plans for this week?" Karen asked.

"I have to tour," she shrugged. "As much as I hate the thought right now, but I don't really have a choice," she let her head fall into her hand and she rested her elbow on the door's interior.

"Yeah, I know..." she agreed with a small nod. "But are you guys okay? You and Lindsey..."

"I don't know," she shook her head. "He can call me all he wants, provided he can. I'm not gonna block him again---what if he really needs me?"

"I understand," she nodded. "So, how was he? You didn't say exactly what was wrong."

"Well, he may have some vocal cord damage---can happen in a lot of ways with surgery. Could be a temporary paralysis or could be forever. I can't even fathom him losing his voice," she sighed, putting her hand to her forehead. "I feel awful as it is."

"That's awful," she commented. "All he had was his solo career and now he can't even fall back on that if there's a true issue."

Stevie sighed, knowing that, but definitely not wanting to hear it. It just made her feel worse. At this point, with everything that had been going on, she wanted to cry thinking of all the things he was probably going through and she knew it was her fault in a lot of sorts and admitting it outloud made her feel terrible.

...

When Karen pulled up to her boss' mansion, "Will you be all right?" she asked.

Stevie picked her head up and looked out the window. "Yeah, I'll be fine---" she grabbed her purse from the backseat and pulled it off with her as she opened the car door.