Edge of Midnight

8

May 7, 1982

He was working. He was actually sitting at a giant black wooden desk with notebooks and paperwork sprawled out he was making phone calls and he had a filing cabinet with things spilling out of it and he had a board in the corner of the room with pictures of little kids on it, ranked from most important to important but not horrible and all she was doing is sitting there on a black leather couch staring at him. Biting her lip. 

The phone rang and he answered, "This is Lindsey Buckingham." 

He was exchanging some words and then Stevie perked up when she heard him say, "Tom Petty, it's a pleasure to get to talk to you. I've been trying to reach you in regards to the Little Buckaroo's Make A Wish charity." 

She knows Tom is saying something because Lindsey stops talking, but she stands up from her perch on the couch, and then she strides over to him and straddles his waist. He raises an eyebrow as she lays herself against him her head on his shoulder, trying to listen, but all he does is instinctively start rubbing her back.

"It is true that Stevie and I got married and it is true that she did just go see a little girl who died a few hours later." Lindsey sighs.

"I didn't know she was your best friend no...but to answer your questions, we kind of eloped, kept our relationship private." 

Tom says something else and Lindsey bubbles out a laugh and then Stevie calls. "We met at a party had sex and then decided we wanted to get married." 

Lindsey smacks her ass playfully and then he turns back to Tom. "Did you hear her?" 

"She is with me right now, she's sitting at my desk. I'm standing up talking on the phone...but she said We met at a party had sex and then decided we wanted to get married." 

"What's he saying?" Stevie asks.

"That the second theory of how we married was more like you. Not that first excuse bull shit." Lindsey explains. 

"Yes, his name is Davey Marshall. He's got brain cancer he's only eight but apparently, he's your biggest fan." Lindsey turns back to the conversation with Tom Petty. 

"Alright, shall we meet for lunch sometime to go over logistics and everything?" 

"Stevie and I will meet you at Pierre's in an hour then. Have a good day Tom, thank you so much." 

***

Having Stevie with him was a good tool for work because that's what ultimately got Tom to do this thing.  He had been struggling lately, movie stars would jump in front of a bus if you offered to pay them, but singers were a little bit harder to come by and the sad truth was, that most of the kids wanted to meet the famous singers. In Tom's eyes if Stevie had trusted Lindsey then he would trust Lindsey too. And after they finished their lunch and parted ways they were sitting in Lindsey's car and Stevie just turned to him and smiled at him, but not her normal smile a creepy conniving smile.

"What?" Lindsey questions placing his sunglasses on his face.

"Can we...can we go to the Humane Society?" 

"Christ, you're back on the dog topic." He sighs.

"Please Lindsey, let's go pick one out together." Stevie beams. 

He just rolls his eyes but turns right and heads in the direction of the humane society. Lindsey gets out of the car first and runs around to let Stevie out of the car and as soon as her feet are planted on the ground she throws her arms around his neck and cheers. 

"I have such a good feeling Lindsey." She grins.

"I'm sure you do." He sighs returning her hug and then walking her towards the building. 

When they walk in, there are greeted by the sounds of howling and barking, and a woman at the desk smiles at them.

"Hello, how can I help you?" She asks.

"We would like to look at your dogs please." Stevie grins.

"Absolutely and can I just say Ms. Nicks it's an honor to have you visit with us." She grins.

"Oh well, it's no problem," Stevie explains as they are led to a room with cages. 

Stevie stands there and looks around and Lindsey makes eye contact with a sweet little dog at the far end. The dog was sitting there calmly and he could see blue eyes. She had pointed ears and blonde and cream fur and Lindsey tapped Stevie's shoulder.

"What?" She asks turning her attention from a shaggy dog and directing it at Lindsey. 

He points to the dog and then slowly makes his way over to it. She finally jumps up when Lindsey approaches her and then Stevie comes behind him placing her hands on his hips and peering over his bicep. 

"This is a cute one." Stevie smiles.

"This is Hope she's two years old, housetrained, and spayed, she's a German Shepherd Huskey mix." The woman tells them.

"Can we get her out and play with her?" Lindsey asks.

"Absolutely, if you go right out to that door, I'll bring her out to you." The woman points to a barn door and Stevie pulls Lindsey towards it. 

As they exit the society building, they come to a fenced-in green yard with toys sprawled out everywhere and Stevie sinks to her knees and grabs the stuffed animal and she just waits for the dog to emerge. 

They play with her for a while and at one point the dog knocks Stevie over so she's laying on her back with her knees folded under her. The dog's paws on her shoulders and her body pressed against Stevie's and she's licking her face causing a dirty laugh that Lindsey loves to bubble out of her. Lindsey sinks down next to her and pulls the dog off her onto his lap and Hope barks and starts wiggling out of his grasp. Once he and Stevie are back in an upright position, the dog bounces between the two of them licking and nuzzling as she goes. 

"She's our puppy Linds." Stevie grins.

"Well she's two, so she's technically not a puppy but yeah, she can be ours." Lindsey nods.

"Oh thank you so much! We'll take her." Stevie says and throws her arms around Lindsey.