Our Dance

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#003399" TEXT="#080000" background="03fc8c00erkjxk.jpg"> <div> <B>Post- "Inauguration" fluff.</B></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#0066CC" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#99CCFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Smiles, Tears, & Happy Endings</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFF99" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#CC0000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT>  |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Smiles, Tears, Happy Endings"><U>home</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Brandys Stories"><U>Brandy's Stories</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Other Side"><U>The Other Side</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Getaway"><U>Getaway</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Deserved Recognition"><U>Deserved Recognition</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The End of These Days"><U>The End of These Days</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id34.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Moving On"><U>Moving On</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lessons Learned Shared"><U>Lessons- Learned & Shared</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="So, I Had This Dream..."><U>So, I Had This Dream...</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id214.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Perfect Plan"><U>The Perfect Plan</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id215.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Incredibly Campy Road Trip From Hell"><U>The Incredibly Campy Road Trip From Hell</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id216.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Whole New Story"><U>A Whole New Story</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id217.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="What Are Friends For? 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They finally had the chance to make it to one of the Inauguration balls. Finally had a chance to celebrate and to dance.</div> <div> They had danced together before. They moved well together. They had moved well together from the very beginning, and tonight was no exception. They danced like two people who spoke their own private language- a language comprised of gentle touches, subtle looks, and unspoken, shared knowledge of each other's deepest wants and desires.</div> <bR> <div>  When they danced they had always been perfectly in step with each other. Flawless and perfectly in tune. They never talked when they danced- they didn't need to. It was only in those moments that they understood each other completely. There were no mixed signals, no miscommunication, no misdirection. At one point during the evening though, they came to a sort of joint, unspoken conclusion. The dance was no longer enough. It was incomplete. They needed the words to accompany the music. They needed the words to complete it. To complete each other.</div> <bR> <div>   As the last strains of the ballad came to and end, he moved just a bit closer, leaning down just a bit to whisper in her ear. </div> <div>   " Can we leave now? I want to take you somewhere." </div> <bR> <div>   " Where?" she asked, her head still pressed against his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart.</div> <bR> <div>   " Wherever you want to go," he replied, and she knew he meant so much more than an actual, physical destination. </div> <bR> <div>   " Okay," she said, reluctantly stepping away from the warmth of his arms. She looked into his eyes at that moment though, and felt warm all over again as she saw the look in his eyes. She saw the same thing that had been in his eyes when he had told her earlier that she looked amazing, but now there was something else as well. There was excitement, and anticipation, and something else. Something she couldn't quite identify, but it made her feel good all the same. </div> <bR> <div>   His hand was at the small of her back as they walked out of the ballroom, and she noticed that he kept constant physical contact with her as they walked to the cloakroom to get his coat. </div> <div>   He slipped his coat around her shoulders, pulling it close and as he turned the collar up for extra added warmth, he kept his hands on either side of her neck for just a moment as he looked into her eyes. Both his touch and his gaze felt like a caress. </div> <div>  </div> <div>  " I'll be right back with the car." </div> <bR> <div>  " I'll be here," she replied, her voice barely more than a whisper. </div> <bR> <div> With great reluctance, he broke physical contact with her and walked away. She followed him with her eyes until he was out of sight, and even though he was no longer beside her, she still felt the warmth of his touch. </div> <bR> <div>   He was back a few minutes later, his cheeks rosy, and his eyes even brighter from the cold. His smile, when he saw her still standing there was like the sunrise on a summer morning, and she basked in the warmth of it. </div> <div>   </div> <div>   " Ready?" he asked. </div> <bR> <div>   She nodded, favoring him with a smile of her own. As they walked outside, he pulled her close, and though it was a frigid night, neither of them felt the cold. </div> <bR> <div>  Once they were inside his car, he glanced at her, almost hesitantly and asked, "Where do you want to go?" </div> <bR> <div>  She thought for a moment, then with the tiniest of smiles said simply, " Home." </div> <bR> <div>   She saw a hint of disappointment flash across his face before he quickly masked it, then with a faint sigh said, " Okay." </div> <bR> <div>   Knowing that he misunderstood, she layed her hand over his as he moved to put the car into gear, and said, " Come home with me, Josh." </div> <bR> <div>   For a moment he looked confused, then the confusion melted away, and he smiled, ever so slightly as he nodded, and reluctanly taking his eyes from hers, drove away. </div> <bR> <div>   They walked up the steps to her apartment about twenty minutes later. Josh barely remembered the drive there. It seemed as though one minute Donna was saying ,'Come home with me' and the next minute they were there. </div> <div>   They walked inside her apartment, stopping when they reached the living room. Josh stood there watching Donna, the city lights shining through the picture window behind her acting as an almost celestial backdrop to the stage they found themselves on. </div> <bR> <div>   " I'm glad you came and got me tonight," she said, after a long moment of shared silence. </div> <bR> <div>   " I wish I'd done it sooner." </div> <bR> <div>   " Sooner? I thought you told me you came as soon as Danny showed you the article... as soon as you figured it out." </div> <bR> <div>   " That's not what I meant." </div> <bR> <div>   " Okay... well, what did you mean?" Donna asked, closing the distance between them so that she could reestablish physical contact with him. It seemed that whenever they were on the brink of saying important things to each other they put physical distance between themselves. Not this time. It was time to close the distance and ignore the borders and all the barriers of the past. It was time to say the words that would complete everything at last. </div> <div>   " I should have done it months ago. I should have been straight with Jack when he asked if he was getting in the middle of something... " </div> <bR> <div>   " And what would that mean? What would you have said if you had been straight with him?" she asked, laying her hand on his arm in a gentle caress. </div> <bR> <div>   " I would have said... I would have told him that I've been caught up in this complicated dance with you for the last couple of years.That I was intrigued and dazzled by you from almost the first moment I met you. That you made me crazy and my world sane all at the same time.  I would have told him that I wasn't sure how you felt, but I hoped it was the same - or at least close- to what I felt. I would have told him that all those things- those stories- I told him about you were proof of how wonderful and unique I think you are. I would have told him that, yes, he was getting in the middle of something. That we were in the middle of something, and I didn't want him, or anyone else, cutting in,"  Josh said, unable to look into her eyes by the time he finished his confession. </div> <bR> <div>   " So why didn't you?" Donna asked, titling her head and running her finger along his jaw, so that he would meet her gaze. </div> <div>   </div> <div>   " I started to think... to worry that maybe it would be all for nothing. That you didn't feel the same way and I would have scared away someone you could be happy with- someone who could love you the way you're meant to be loved." </div> <bR> <div>   " Josh...Josh...Joshua. Of all the times, in all the years I have known you, you pick this one particular time to think before you speak?" she asked, with a teasing glint in her eyes, and a smile playing on her lips. </div> <bR> <div>   " You're picking this moment- when I'm all exposed and...revealing my feelings to..." </div> <bR> <div>   " Enjoy the fact that I haven't been dancing to a different song all this time after all? Enjoy - just a little- that you were as scared and unsure of how I felt as I was of how you felt all this time?  Laugh just a little at the ridiculous comedy of it all?' Donna replied, finally giving in to the heady freedom of being able to laugh out loud at the wonderful silliness of it all, as she wrapped her arms around Josh and held him tight. </div> <bR> <div>   " Well- I guess when you put it that way..." he said by way of agreement, as he buried his face in her neck, inhaling the unique scent of her. Thinking that no other woman on earth smelled like her, thought like her, made him feel the way she did. At that moment he pulled away ever so slightly and cupping her face in his hands, and looking into her eyes, he said the one thing he still needed to say.</div> <bR> <div>   " You know I love you, don't you?" </div> <bR> <div>   " Yeah- I do now. It's nice to hear it though," she replied as she wound her fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck and kissed him gently, reveling in the feeling- in the freedom of being able to- after so many times of wanting to. </div> <bR> <bR> <div>   " Yes, it is. I love you, Donna." </div> <bR> <div>   " ...and I love you, but I'm sure you already knew that." </div> <bR> <div>   " You're right- it is very nice to hear." </div> <bR> <div>   " So... what do we do now?" Donna asked, as they stood in the middle of her dark living room, wrapped in one another's embrace. </div> <bR> <div>   " Dance with me?" </div> <bR> <div>   " But there's no music," Donna pointed out. </div> <div>   </div> <div>   " We don't really need it. This is an old familair dance. We've been practicing it for a long time without knowing it. We just never got to dance it all the way through..." he replied with a hint of a wicked grin. </div> <div>   " Let's get started then. I hate to leave things unfinished- you never get to find out what's next." </div> <bR> <div>   Josh smiled and pulling her back into his arms, their lips met as they began their dance. A slightly new dance, but Josh was right- they had been practicing for this one for a very long time. No further words were needed. They had all been said for now. For that moment, there was just the dance. </div> <bR> <bR> <div> The End  </div> <div>     </div> <div>  </div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>