hang out in your heart

we're a crooked love in a straight line down

Stevie's not an idiot.

There are a few things she knows for sure about the show that's just ended. She knows that Lindsey's wife's ex-husband had just shown up out of nowhere. She also knows that Lindsey was in a worse mood tonight than she'd seen him in a long time, even worse than when Kristen had brought their three week old baby onto the stage. And she knows that Lindsey had left the stage in the middle of a song only to come stumbling back a few minutes later with a cut over his eye. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he'd gotten into a fight with Gary Briggs over Kristen.

He hadn't even looked Stevie's way when he returned - hadn't looked at anyone actually, instead keeping his gaze focused somewhere out in the middle distance, a vague scowl on his face. And even when she'd muttered a quiet "What happened?" to him during the bows, eyeing the towel he held to his head to stop the bleeding, he'd just turned to her, his eyes still stormy, and said simply, "Later."

"I'm telling you," Sharon is whispering in the backseat of the limo as they hurtle towards the hotel, Stevie and Jana hanging onto her every word while Karen looks out the window at the lights of West Palm Beach streaking by. "You should have seen his face when he stomped over to Briggs. Honestly? I haven't seen him like that in decades."

Stevie nods, thinking about how long it's been since she'd seen her Lindsey retreat into himself like that. "Yeah, me too."

Sharon continues. "Anyway, I guess it's not a shock, that jerk was all over Kristen during the show."

Stevie swallows, her mouth becoming drier with each word that escapes her background singer's mouth. "I didn't see him all over her."

"Okay, not literally, but I just mean they were seriously into each other." Sharon raises her eyebrows, completely missing Stevie's discomfort. "Kristen kept hanging onto his shoulder, they were laughing like idiots all night. It was actually pretty fucking annoying. Lindsey kept turning and looking at them during the whole show. I mean, it was obvious he was gonna blow a gasket at some point."

Jana waves her hand in the air in response, rolling her eyes. "What's obvious is what Kristen is doing, bringing her ex around."

Sharon nods in agreement. "That is the most desperate woman I've ever seen in my life, and Lindsey is playing right into-" Sharon cuts herself off as she finally catches a glance at Stevie, who can feel her face turning to stone. "Oh, honey. You know that's not what I meant. I don't think Lindsey's going back to her or anything. She's just...pathetic." For her part, Stevie clears her throat and looks out the window, trying not to fidget where she sits, zoning out for the rest of the drive and trying to ignore the looks the rest of the girls shoot each other when they think she's not looking.

Stevie honestly doesn't know what she thinks. She'd been suspicious about Lindsey's behavior from the second she saw him before the show, his foul mood obvious to everyone in a ten foot radius. Listening to him go off about how friendly Kristen had been with Briggs in the dressing room, the fact that she might have actually invited him here herself - he'd just been so distracted. She'd not wanted to believe the worst, but in the face of what came afterward...what is she supposed to think?

After arriving at the hotel, she follows the others into the service elevator, vaguely listening to whatever new piece of gossip they've moved onto. As they step off the elevator, she waves goodbye with a faint smile, riding up to her own penthouse level and stepping out onto the floor deep in thought.

She rounds the corner, stopping short when she finds Lindsey sitting on the ground outside her door, his head propped against the wooden frame, his eyes closed. She realizes with a start that, in all her annoyance about Kristen tagging along to Florida with the band, she'd forgotten to slip him a copy of her key card. She feels her lips curling into a reluctant smile at his presence at her door, her eyes running over his features from afar, relishing the chance to study him before he realizes she's there. She notes the band-aid sloppily applied to the cut above his eye, the corners of his mouth turned down slightly, the lithe grace of his long fingers woven together as his hands rest in his lap. Looking at him like this, so quiet and unassuming, Stevie feels the slightest hint of guilt thinking back to the conversation Karen had had with Lindsey before the show. It had probably felt like a low blow to have her assistant come by and break the news about Silver Springs, but honestly, she knew that if she had done it herself, it would have turned into an argument, and Stevie is trying her hardest to stop picking pointless fights with him. Call it a new tour resolution. If they really are going to try again, and if he really is leaving Kristen and upending his entire life as he knows it - for her - she thinks maybe she can make a few changes too.