Buckingham Nicks A/U Series Part 4: The Dance

And I'll Love You Like Never Before (Part One Finale)

Hartford, Connecticut
Wednesday, September 17, 1997
(9:00pm)
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Christine started noticing the suspicious looks somewhere in the middle of "Temporary One".

It was subtle, but she looked over at John as she was singing about how the river goes on and on and the sea that divides them is a temporary one, and she noticed him shooting a wink to Mick behind the drums. She didn't think much of it at first, but then Lindsey was performing his animal sex sounds during "Big Love" in the spotlight, and John and Mick were talking in hushed tones at the drums. Stevie was standing at her mic and Christine tried to ask her with her eyes if she knew if anything was going on, but Stevie shrugged and went back to watching Lindsey reveal just a little too much of their sex life set to music. By the time she strapped her accordion on for "Tusk", she knew something was up.

"Why don't you ask me if he's going to stay?" Lindsey began. "Why don't you ask me if he'd going away?" Lindsey always threw himself into "Tusk", a song he'd written two decades before when he was suspecting Stevie of being unfaithful with every man she came in contact with, and because after twenty years of marriage it seemed almost silly looking back on it now, he just concentrated on having fun with the song, dancing around to the beat and enjoying his masterpiece. Stevie had told him that if she wasn't so visibly pregnant, it would have been a cute idea for them to work out a little dance routine, and a few late nights when she was still so nauseas a few months ago - her morning sickness usually creeping into the night - he had stayed up with her and tried to distract her from feeling sick by concocting a whole play-acting routine, a "put up your dukes" kind of fight to parody the tense times that had birthed the song, followed by a dramatic hug and a slow dance.

It was already filed away in their minds for the next tour when she had her body back.

"Tusk" led to "Go Your Own Way" and then "Don't Stop", and it was when Christine prepared to return to the stage for "Songbird" that she finally tried to ascertain what the big secret was. She tried to ask Stevie, but she raced by her on her way to the bathroom, scurrying and holding onto her baby bump over her dramatic tapestry cape.

"I've got a baby playing soccer on my bladder, Chris!" Stevie called back to her as she made her way down the corridor. Sharon Celani genuinely had no idea, and so she went right to the source.

"What's the big secret, Johnny?" Christine asked, sidling up to him as she brought a bottle of Fiji water to her lips. "You and Mick have been giving each other eyeballs all night."

John gave his ex-wife a simple smile. "No big secret," he lied. "Just cool that we're together and doing this again." He glanced at his watch and said, "You're up, songbird. Get out there and give it to them." He kissed her, and then took the water bottle from her hands to free her to go back out onstage. She sat down at the piano and began to sing.

"For you, there'll be no more crying...For you, the sun will be shining...'cause I feel that when I'm with you, it's alright...I know it's right..."

Down below the stage, the moment had come. John was given a group hug by Stevie, Lindsey and Mick, and then another one by Jodie and Olivia, who'd managed to sneak backstage without their mother knowing it. Armed with a diamond ring and a bouquet of white roses, he crept through the corridor and around to the other side of the stage, so that he could come up from behind the piano where Christine sat.

"And I wish you all the love in the world..." she was singing as John made his way around to her. "But most of all, I wish it for myself..."

It was the cheering from the audience that made her turn around. She stopped playing when she saw her ex-husband, the father of her children, down on one knee at the piano bench with a bouquet of flowers and an open ring box. A quick glance at the other stage entrance near the stairs revealed Stevie, Lindsey and Mick huddled together, watching the proposal. Stevie was crying, her hand over the baby, wearing her glasses so she could see it all, Lindsey's hands on her shoulders. When she looked back at John, there was a microphone in his hand.