Going Through the Motions
Rated: PG
Category: Angst, Implied Caskett.
Season: Four.
Spoilers: Cops and Robbers.
Summary: Sometimes, we do things simply because we always have. Funny, though, how life has a way of reminding us why we started doing them to begin with.
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The truth is, she'd never much enjoyed dancing.
Sure, she could do it. In fact, she was damn good at it, and she knew it. She could go through the motions as well as anyone, but it had never really been her thing. Even in college, when friends constantly pestered her to go clubbing with them, she'd made excuses to stay home more often than not. A good book was more her style.
Still, something about this dance intrigued her. She couldn't help but sway to the hidden music of it all. Two steps forward, one step back. Circle left, then right. Dodge and duck and nearly touch but never meet your partner - never, ever.
Sometimes, she or her partner forgot that rule, and their bodies came together like two drops of water, molding into one form as easily as raindrops in rivers.
Those moments were as glorious as they were short-lived.
Like dewdrops vanishing under a scorching sun, their closeness was soon forgotten, and they stepped back into their usual routine. Step, circle, dodge, duck, and never touch.
On rare occasion, one of them left the dance floor. They'd sit out a song or five, either due to hurt feelings or frustration, and the other would be left to make their own way through the music.
Inevitably, though, they always returned. Like birds in spring, they returned to their usual haunts. And like those same birds, they engaged in the same rituals. Step, circle, dodge, duck, and never touch.
Always the same dance.
Always the same partner.
Always near, but never touching.
It was their way.
Most couldn't understand, but for them, for now, the dance was enough, and it was assumed it would always be there. The music constantly played in the background of their lives - so much so that they sometimes tried ignore it.
Until the day the dance floor exploded into a fine shower of disintegrated bank.
Until the day she heard the music stop.
Until the day the silence that followed a deafening roar threatened to overwhelm her.
Suddenly, she didn't want to ignore the music.
Suddenly, she wasn't just going through the motions.
Suddenly, Kate Beckett wanted to dance.