(Carey Martin visits her boys not long before a formal dance is being held. Emma Tutweiller volunteers to help her get a dress and learns a few dance moves from her. But what happens when dancing leads to romance? Femslash. Carey/Emma.)
Emma Tutweiller snuck a quick glance at clock on the wall. Only a couple more minutes until the end of the school day. She sighed. She really shouldn't feel this way. She loved teaching and she loved her students. But sometimes she just wished life held more for her.
Returning her attention to the class she hastily snatched up the list of announcements she needed to go over. Everything was pretty routine, dealing with class assignments, the ship's itinerary and upcoming events. The last item was a reminder of the class formal dance that was being held on Friday.
Emma finished the last announcement just as the bell rang. At that same time a woman stuck her head inside the classroom door. She looked vaguely familiar but Emma wasn't able to place her until Zack and Cody both jumped up and rushed her.
"Mom!"
Of course. The woman was Carey Martin. Emma had met her the day the boys first come aboard. She had seen but not talked to her another time when she dropped in on the twin's birthday. She smiled and made her way to where Carey was attempting to squeeze her boys like toothpaste tubes and they were enthusiastically returning the effort. Carey was marveling at how much the pair had grown and they were asking when she had cut her hair and changed back to being a redhead. Emma smiled and waited until Carey finally let the pair go and looked up.
"Hello, Ms. Martin. Nice to see you again."
"Please Ms. Tutweiller, call me Carey."
"And I'm Emma," she turned her attention to Zack and Cody. "I certainly don't want to separate you two from your mom but even if you are going to go to supper with her you better clean up first. And don't forget, Zack," the older twin attempted to look injured at being singled out but failed miserably, " I WILL be checking homework which WILL be done on time or no dance for you. And rest assured I can tell when you've copied Cody's even though you try to disguise it."
The boys nodded, hugged their mother again and took off. Emma smiled as Cody's head swiveled back and forth as he left. She could tell the exact moment that he spotted Bailey. His face lit up, his posture straightened and he changed direction in a flash.
"Hmmmm, so I see Cody must be catching up to that young lady who has his heart."
Emma looked at Carey and was relieved to see a happy smile on her face.
"That's right, I think the last time you were here Cody and Bailey hadn't started dating yet."
"No. I remember meeting her though and I thought she was a very lovely young lady."
Emma nodded. "She is and they are as perfect for each other as any young couple I have ever seen."
Carey smiled. "I think I can trust you on that."
The teacher nodded and then giggled. "Carey you can trust me with anything except a nice, good looking guy." Realizing what she had just said Emma turned red and covered her mouth. Fortunately after a moment Carey began to laugh.
"I don't blame you for that a bit. That kind of guy seems to be very scarce."
Emma decided to change the subject. "So how long will you be here Carey?"
"That depends on Moseby. I'm actually between gigs right now. I was hoping for old time s sake he could offer me a reduced rate and let me 'sing for my supper' for a few days."
The pair headed up to Mr. Moseby's office, chatting the entire way.
"So the kids are having a dance on Friday?"
The teacher nodded. "Yes. I'll be chaperoning it of course. But it actually might be fun. Instead of what I expected for music they voted to have a formal ballroom dance."
"Really? I bet Zack and Cody had a lot to do with that."
"They usually do with everything that goes on, especially Zack. But I understand that they were the driving force for it."
Carey explained about the boys learning to ballroom dance back at the Tipton, relating how she herself had participated in Esteban's class and how much she had enjoyed it.
Emma blushed. "I once did some dancing. But not that kind."
"Oh?" enquired the other woman. She grinned. "Spill it!"
"I was a chorus girl once upon a time."
"Oh my gosh. Really?"
Emma nodded. "It helped pay for my way through college. But ballroom dancing sounds really wonderful."
The pair arrived at Moseby's office to find the man, as usual, tearing his hair out. The look of absolute relief that spread over his face surprised both women.
"Carey! Just in the nick of time. I don't suppose you have a few days to spend with us, at least until we reach the mainland US on Saturday?"
Carey looked pleased and nodded. "Certainly. What's going on?"
"My lounge singer just jumped ship with one of the ship's cooks. If you could fill in I can pay you and of course you'll travel for free. I just have to find some place for you to stay."
"Which of course will be with me," Emma announced.
The details were quickly worked out. Carey would spend three hours nightly in the lounge but the rest of the time would be free.
"Oh and Friday night the kids are having a dance there so the lounge will be closed." Moseby paused for a moment and his face lit up. "By the way Carey, since that means you will have the night off, would you consider chaperoning the dance with Miss Tutweiller?"
Carey nodded. "That would be fine. I suspect the boys will be running everywhere as usual so it might be one of the few chances I have to spend time with them."
"Let's get you moved in," bubbled Emma as they left the office.
"Thanks for inviting me to stay with you."
"No problem. I can use the company. Being alone gets very tiresome after a while."
"Tell me about it," agreed Carey. When Emma lifted an eyebrow Carey smiled. "Believe me being a lounge singer isn't all that. Sure I get lots of offers but they're mostly from middle-aged businessmen away from home and hearth and looking for a little trip on the wild side. You don't exactly have much of a chance to meet your soul mate." She shook her head. "Anyway, how am I going to repay you for your hospitality?"
"Teach me to ballroom dance by Friday?"
"It's a deal."
They moved Carey's baggage into Emma's cabin. Carey proceeded to move the furniture to the walls and then sorted through Emma's CD's until she found a couple that she announced would work just fine. She took Emma's hand and they started.
Thirty minutes went by. Thirty minutes that saw Carey's confidence in her ability to teach Emma to ballroom dance fade to near vanishing. Thirty minutes that was filled with collisions, stepped-on feet and several near falls. The two women finally took a break. The woe-begone look on Emma's face nearly made Carey laugh but she suppressed the urge.
"Well," she admitted, "So we're not Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers."
"Or Selena Gomez and Drew Seeley," added Emma, recalling a show the class had seen and discussed for weeks.
Carey sighed. "We're not even Selena and Ginger." She got a determined look in her eyes. "But practice makes perfect and I stepped on my partner's toes a lot back at the Tipton when Esteban was teaching me. So let's keep going."
Eventually over the next several days they began to make progress. The more they practiced the more Emma improved and to her surprise Carey found that she got better herself. She admitted she had been out of practice and she had forgotten how much fun this was. And in between times the two women got to be good friends, friendship being something they both sorely missed.
Of course the pair couldn't spend every waking hour practicing. Emma had her teaching duties and Carey her singing appearances. They also needed time to alter one of Emma's dresses to fit Carey and a scramble to find matching shoes and other accessories. But they made it by and the evening of the dance they were ready and Carey was confident that Emma would be fine.
"You look great!" admired Carey as they made a final check of each other before leaving the cabin.
"Thank you!" Emma twirled around. She was wearing a sleeveless and strapless powder blue dress that was gathered just below her breasts and fell to her ankles. Her hair, teased into curls, hung freely over her shoulders. "And you look great yourself."
Carey laughed. She had worried that the dark burgundy of her dress would clash with her hair color but instead it blended together just fine. Almost like a Chinese Giapo the dress had a high collar and was slit up the side more than halfway up her thigh.
"Let's just say we both look hot!"
"True," laughed Emma, "But I wish we had someone to be hot for besides teenage boys to impress, two of whom are your sons."
Carey sighed, and then grinned. She thrust her hip out, mimicking a bump and grind that showed off her leg through the dress slit.
"We'll just have to be hot for each other."
"Ohhhhhhh," Emma winked, delighted with Carey's playfulness. "It's a deal."
Several hours later the two women staggered through the door.
"Don't get me wrong," Carey said, continuing the conversation they had been having. "I had a good time and I'm glad we went. Watching Cody and Bailey dance together showed that we weren't the only ones who practiced. And they looked so sweet together. Nothing like young love."
"I had a god time too," Emma admitted with a giggle, "But you know, it would have been nice to have danced one dance with someone my own height. My back is killing me from bending over."
Carey laughed. She walked over to Emma's sound system, turned it on and inserted a CD. The gentle rhythm of Irving Berlin filled the room. She held out her hand to the other woman and executed a slight bow.
"May I have this dance?"
Emma smiled and curtsied. "Enchanted, of course." She took the singer's hand and the pair began one of the ballroom routines they had practiced.
If the two women didn't float across the floor it felt to both of them like they did. They swayed, they dipped, their heels clicked over the cabin floor as they danced about it.
Carey spun Emma out to arms length. The teacher teetered on her heels for a moment, looking back at the singer with a smile. As she was pulled back she gave a laugh, spinning on her toes until she nestled back against Carey, who folded her arms around the pleased woman and hugged her.
"Perfect!"
Emma covered Carey's hands with her own. "Yes it is." And it was. It felt so good to be hugged, so good to feel someone's arms around her holding her like this. She snuggled closer in the other woman's embrace. "Feels wonderful," she murmured as an afterthought. The CD player clicked to the next track and soft music again filled the air. This time the song was slow.
It did feel wonderful Carey admitted to herself. It didn't matter that her arms were around another woman. In fact, to her surprise, it felt right. Without even thinking about it her hands moved slightly, rubbing her palms against Emma's tummy. The soft sigh the caress elicited made her smile. Emma's hair had fallen to one side. Moved by a sudden impulse the visiting woman dropped her head slightly and she kissed the smooth bare shoulder.
"Mmmmmm even more wonderful." Emma felt goose bumps spring up under the touch of Carey's lips. She shivered slightly.
"Cold?" whispered Carey. She blew gently into Emma's ear and giggled as the other woman shivered again. The circles her hands were making on the other woman's belly became wider, fingers now running over the hidden swell of Emma's mound and now grazing the bottom of her breasts.
Emma turned slightly in Carey's arms. Her left hand lifted and the back of her fingers brushed against the singer's cheek. "Never."
Up to this moment everything seemed to have simply happened. Neither woman had really given any conscious thought to what they were doing. It all just happened. But now as Carey and Emma looked deeply into each other's eyes they both realized that they were on the brink of something new, something different. Each saw something they were missing, something they wanted; something that the other was wordlessly offering.
As though they were joined by an invisible cord the two faces moved towards each other. Lips were parted slightly. After what seemed like hours those lips finally touched, just for a moment. Emma leaned her head back slightly, her eyes searching Carey for some unspoken sign. Satisfied at what she saw she turned in the singer's embrace to face the other woman and the second kiss began. And went on. And on. The warmth that had been growing deep inside the teacher became a fire.
Emma brought her arms up between them and ran her fingers through Carey' short red hair.
"God, you're beautiful," she murmured.
Her students' mother smiled back as she kissed Emma on her forehead, then both eyes. "Me? You are gorgeous Emma Tutweiller."
For some reason the heartfelt compliment made Emma's eyes fill with tears.
"Sometimes I get so lonely," she whispered. "Sometimes I believe that I'll never find someone."
"You will. You have." Carey's grip on the teacher tightened. She kissed the tears away even as her hand slid up Emma's back and found the hidden zipper. Slowly, inch by inch she eased it down. When her fingers found the back of Emma's bra they paused to unhook it, and then continued their slow march down the other woman's back.
Emma shivered as the cool air of the room danced down her skin. Her own fingers dropped just a bit from Carey's hair. She played with the back of the redhead's neck, sending matching shivers through Carey, before she unfastened the high collar of the singer's dress. Then Emma's dress was sliding down her body and Carey's hand slipped up her quivering side to cup her now freed breast.
Carey stepped back and for a moment Emma's heart caught up in her throat. Was the other woman just regaining control of herself, having gone farther than she planed? But her momentary fears calmed as she met Carey's burning eyes. The red head reached behind herself, fumbled for a moment and then worked he dress down.
Emma's eyes devoured the other woman's body as the dark fabric exposed more and more of the singer's body. Shoulders appeared, then the swell of breasts hidden only by a lacey black bra through which dark brown nipples peeked. There was the softness of Carey's tummy; the marks of her child bearing only making her look more desirable. Farther the dress slid, showing the singer's skimpy matching panties that barely concealed the dark triangle between her legs. The material rasped lightly down the thigh high stockings and the thin garter belt that supported them until finally the dress pooled at the red-head's feet.
"Now you," said Carey softly.
Emma wordlessly lifted her arms over her head. Already loose, her dress and bra slipped down her body without further effort on her part, leaving her clad only in a blue thong and her heels. Carey raked the teacher with her own gaze. That gaze fastened at the remaining scrap of blue and she ran her tongue over her lips.
The women took two steps and fell back into each other's arms. Emma wrenched Carey s bra loose as the singer showered frantic kisses over the teacher. Her hands settled on Emma's soft bottom. The other woman arched as the red head's lips danced over her neck and throat and settled on a rounded orb, sucking it in deeply. Emma pulled Carey s head to her and moaned aloud.
Step by step Emma retreated. Carey maintained her mouth lock on the sweet breast, her tongue lashing the pink nipple to incredible hardness. Just as she switched to the other one Emma reached the edge of her bed. Still clutching Carey she toppled back onto the covers.
The two women rolled back and forth, lost in each other. Now Carey was on top and now Emma was. Fingers sought out secret places and they arched against each other. Thighs slid between thighs and dripping wetness met as each frantically striped the last remnants of clothing away from the other. Emma bucked with her first climax. Carey never slowed. The teacher pinned the singer and slid down her body to dive head first between the other woman's legs. Now it was Carey's turn to go off like a rocket and then return the favor to her new lover.
Their strength exhausted and their passion quieted for the moment the two women snuggled togther, exchanging soft little kisses. Both knew that tomorrow might bring its own troubles to them and neither knew just where they were going with what had arisen between the two of them. But that would be tomorrow. They spooned and relaxed.
It could have been funny; it could have made Carey laugh. But as the two women drifted off in each other's arms she caught Emma humming dreamily under her breath. It took only a moment for her to put the words to the tune.
"Heaven, I'm in Heaven And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak.
And I seem to find the happiness I seek When we're out together dancing cheek to cheek."
(The End)
