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Long Way Back
By Misha
It started with Daisy and Billy.
This time the music came after the feelings.
He showed up at her door and reignited their friendship and friendship quickly became more and it was after that more, that the idea of reigniting their musical partnership was discussed.
First, it was Billy watching Daisy in the studio and then it was him helping her with lyrics and then it was them writing a song together.
“I’m crediting you,” she warned him, lying with her head against her chest, “but I can use your pen name if you want.” He had been writing songs for other people for years, but not as Billy Dunne. He had needed to keep music away from his personal life.
“No,” Billy told her. Daisy turned her face, ready to argue, and he put his hand to her lips, “when we write songs, we do it together. Billy Dunne and Daisy Jones.”
She beamed and it lit up her whole face. She was 44, almost 45, and she was still as pretty as she had ever been. “The press will definitely have a field day.”
“Let them,” Billy told her, “I mean with the documentary, they are going to, anyway.” Julia had found a distributor for her documentary, her tribute to a The Six (and to Camilla), and it would be coming out soon. She already had music channels contacting her for the TV rights.
“Well, then about how we go all in,” Daisy suggested, almost shyly, “this song would make a killer duet.”
It would. They had written it together after all and their best songs were conversations and this one was no exception. If Daisy sang it alone it would be a good song, if they sang it together ir would be a great one.
“Daisy Jones featuring Billy Dunne,” he mused, pondering the idea. He hadn’t recorded a song in a long time and it terrified him, but it also excited him. Especially since it was with Daisy.
And not just any Daisy. Not the old strung-out Daisy who had burned so brightly and who he knew would set him on fire. No, this was a softer, gentler Daisy who offered him all the things that had been impossible in 1977. This song proved that they still made magic together musically, but the life they were slowly building was a different type of magic.
And he wanted to share that magic. He had all the songs he and Daisy had made when they were burning each other alive, he wanted this song that they could make when their fire had become a warm glow that was capable of sustaining a life together.
“Let’s do it,” he told her before flipping her over so that she was under him and covering her lips with his.
“Are you talking about the song or something else,” she teased against his mouth, her arms going around his neck and her hips bucking up to meet his.
“Both.”
**
It was just going to be Billy and Daisy. And Warren, because he worked on all of Daisy’s albums.
Then Karen came to town. She lived in London now, but she and Daisy had stayed close. Billy didn’t know why that surprised him, but it had.
He hadn’t seen Karen since Camilla’s funeral and it was awkward to see her again when he stood bare-chested in Daisy Jones’ living room.
“I can see I am interrupting,” Karen commented with a smile, “Daisy didn’t mention you were visiting.”
“He’s not,” Daisy answered as she came out of the kitchen, wearing a belted robe and not much else, “he lives here.”
Billy shot her a look. He did not. He still had his own place.
“When is the last time you went to the beach house?” Daisy asked, “Julia told me she’s thinking about changing the locks to see if you notice.”
Billy shot her a look. It hadn’t been that long. Maybe a couple weeks or even a month… The realization hit and Daisy just laughed and wrapped her arms around his waist.
“I am happy for you both,” Karen said, interrupting the sudden silence, “I really am.”
Billy just nodded, still feeling incredibly awkward about the whole thing. He knew that people would find out a boy him and Daisy, it wasn’t a secret and he didn’t want it to be, but this wasn’t quite what he had envisioned.
“I guess I should find a hotel?” Karen asked Daisy. Later Billy would learn that Karen always stayed with Daisy when she was in L.A and that she had a key. Even in that moment, he could guess that there was some kind of long-standing arrangement and he was the interloper. Even if he maybe lived there.
“Of course not,” Billy told her before Daisy could answer, “stay here. It would be nice to catch up.”
“Billy and I were actually going to the studio today,” Daisy told her, “if you wanted to join us. We wrote a song.”
Karen’s eyebrows shot all the way up and she seemed stunned and then nodded. “Yeah, I would like that.”
**
So it was going to be Billy, Daisy, Warren and Karen. Still a Daisy a Jones single with some guest musicians. Warren was her normal session drummer and Karen had performed on a few of her singles, so it was really only Billy’s presence that was unusual.
Then Graham called.
The Dunne brothers lived across the country from each other, but they talked often and visited frequently and Graham had apparently decided that it had been too long between visits because he had come to L.A. This was terrible timing for sure.
“I need to go meet him,” Billy told Daisy, trying not to look at Karen, “I’ll call you.”
He knew his brother would expect to stay with Billy, at a house that Billy apparently no longer lived at. Which was fine, it was better than them all bunking down at Daisy’s. But it also meant that Billu and Daisy would be sleeping apart for the first time since they started sleeping together.
“Tell Graham I’d love to see him,” Daisy told him, squeezing his hand and giving him a quick kiss before going to wrap her arm around Karen and talk quietly to her friend. Billy left the two women, his thoughts occupied with the reunion with his brother and how the past and present were colliding.
He met Graham at the airport and filled him in on a few things, mostly his relationship with Daisy.
“So you two?” Graham asked.
Billy nodded. “Yeah. It’s new and it’s crazy and it works. Julia adores her and Poppy.”
“Poppy?” Graham asked, obviously not in the loop of the life and loves of Daisy Jones.
“Daisy’s daughter,” Billy answered, unable to fight a smile as he pictured the six year-old red headed spitfire. She was just like her mother in all the best ways and she had everything baby Daisy had been denied. He had fallen in love the moment he met her and so had Julia.
“No father in the picture?” Graham asked and Billy wondered if he was remembering Daisy’s brief disastrous marriage to Nicky and wondering who Daisy had chosen to father her child.
Poppy’s paternity was a fiercely guarded secret, but there was no one Billy trusted more than Graham and Daisy had already given her blessing, obviously expecting this line of questioning.
“Jake Austin,” Billy said quietly, “Poppy was born in October of 1991.”
Graham let out a deep breath and nodded. The Dunne brothers might not follow celebrity gossip, but the car crash that had taken the life of Hollywood’s leading action star at the prime of his life in July of 1991 had been big news and you would have had to live under a rock to miss it.
And Daisy had done everything in her power to keep the fact that he had left an unborn daughter out of the press.
“She knows about Jake,” Daisy had told him, “but the world doesn’t need to. She’s already my daughter, it would be worse for her if the world knew she was also his. He knew that, it was why we kept our relationship private, we were still figuring out what to do and then he was gone.”
Billy had held her close, understanding the grief that had crept into her voice. “You did what you had to,” he assured her, knowing Daisy was the type of mother who would always put her child first.
The kind she’d never had.
“So you’re taking on the role of step-dad?” Graham asked after a moment, the subject of Jake Austin dropped.
Billy grinned, “getting there.” It wasn’t official, they hadn’t even discussed moving in together, apparently it had just happened, but they were becoming a family. He and Daisy and Julia and Poppy. He wasn’t Poppy’s dad yet, but he kinda thought he wanted to be.
“Can I meet her?” Graham asked her, “I need to secure my favourite uncle status.”
“I think Warren might already have you beat there,” Billy warned and then his smile faded, “this might not be the best time. Graham, Karen is in town. She’s staying with Daisy.”
His brother went silent for a long moment.
“Oh.”
“You and I can just hang out,” Billy offered, “Julia would love to spend time with her Uncle Graham.”
Graham forced a smile. “It’s been a long time, Billy. I am a grown man, I can handle seeing Karen. I’d like to see Daisy again and Warren.”
“They are at the studio now,” Billy offered and then explained about the song that he and Daisy were working on.
Graham whistled, “Billy and Daisy making music together after all these years, who would have thought?”
“Not me,” Billy answered, “but it feels good. Really good.”
“I’m glad,” Graham answered, “sure let’s go to the studio. I can’t wait to catch up. And hey, maybe Daisy could use a back-up guitarist?”
**
So suddenly there were five. If it was awkward between Graham and Karen, it wasn’t as bad as Billy had thought it might be. There were some long, searching looks but also some pleasant small talk.
“Someone should call Eddie.”
It was Warren who said it.
Everyone stared at him.
“If we’re all here, we should call him,” Warren said, “it only feels right.”
Because it wasn’t a Daisy Jones single anymore. Somehow this was a reunion track. Except not completely yet.
“Is anyone in touch with him?” Billy asked, he knew Julia had interviewed Eddie for the documentary, but he hadn’t talked to him since Chicago.
“I am,” Karen and Warren both said at once.
“I’ll call him,” Daisy offered, “since it is my song.” She shot them all an amused look, “officially at least.”
“No,” Billy interrupted, “it has to be me.”
Eddie’s problems in the band had been with him. He knew that, and time had given him some perspective on his behaviour (though he still thought Eddie was mostly a jackass) and he knew that any olive branch had to come from him.
**
So he tracked Eddie down to a small club outside L.A and showed up there for his gig.
“Billy? What are you doing here?” Eddie asked, his face impossible to read.
“Daisy’s putting together a song, kind of a reunion and we want you on it,” Billy told him, knowing there was no reason to beat around the bush, “everyone else is in.”
“Of course I am the last one asked,” Eddie muttered.
Billy fought his temper and Eddie raised his hand. “No, man I get it, I do. This is… It’s a surprise. I have put those days behind me. I thought we all had.”
“Me too,” Billy admitted.
They stared at each other for a long time.
Eddie ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know if I can go back.”
“I get that,” Billy told him, “and I won’t push. But it won’t be The Six without you. If you say no, we’ll just call it a Daisy Jones single with some guest artists.”
The others had all agreed on that before he went to meet Eddie.
Eddie looked pensive.
“We are recording this week,” Billy continued, “join us if you can.”
He turned to leave, knowing he had said all he could. He couldn’t make Eddie come back.
“Billy, wait!”
He turned around.
“I’m sorry about Camilla.”
Billy fought the pain at the mention of her name, especially from Eddie’s lips, and just nodded. “Thanks.” And then he turned around again and walked out of there.
Eddie would show up at the studio or he wouldn’t. It was in his hands now.
**
Eddie showed up.
He stood there awkwardly, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “Are we going to do this?”
They were.
The song was called Long Way Back and it was a story of love and loss and of finding each other after a long separation. It was Billy and Daisy’s story, but as Billy glanced around the studio he realised it was also the band’s story. They had somehow found their way back after all this time.
Thanks to Julia. And Camilla. Billy knew how happy she would be to see this. All of them back in the studio, together, making new music.
He wished she could see it, but he also knew that if she had lived it would never have happened and that added a bittersweet quality.
Daisy must have seen the conflict on his face, because she squeezed his hand.
“This is for her,” she whispered and there was no jealousy on her face, just support and Billy loved her for it.
He would always miss Camilla and regret her early death but he was so grateful for the gift she had given him, the life they had shared and now the reunion she had set in motion.
**
Long Way Back hit the charts the week Julia’s documentary debuted.
It soon made it to Number 1 and the documentary “The Rise and Fall of Daisy Jones and The Six” got rave reviews. Aurora’s sale sky-rocketed overnight.
The Six was back.
No one knew what came next or how long it would last. They all had lives, a lot had changed since 1977 and none of them really wanted to go back.
So maybe Long Way Back was the last single The Six would ever produce. If so, it was still great. It was more than Billy had ever expected.
And even if it was the end of the line for The Six, it wasn’t the end for Daisy and Billy. Not by a long shot.
Whatever happened to the band, with their music, they had built something solid. The two of them and their daughters. They were building a life together.
It had taken a long time, but they had found their way back together and that was what mattered more than any number one hit.
The music mattered, but they mattered more.
End