The next morning, after their run, Bobby brought his guitar down to what he now thought of as the music room. Their first hurdle was deciding what to play. Bobby primarily played old standards from the early twentieth century like "Oh Susannah" or protest songs from the middle of that century like "Blowin' in the Wind." Shepard, conversely, played things closer to a classical vein.

"You've listened to me play, so play me something you play frequently," Shepard said.

Bobby paused for a moment, reviewing in his mind what he thought would be a good place to start. He had been practicing a Bob Dylan song, "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," the night before and decided to play it. He played concentrating on the guitar and not looking up at Shepard. He was tentative at the start, not used to playing for someone, but as he progressed through the song his confidence grew. His playing was solid, though not great, and he didn't embarrass himself.

When Bobby first started playing, Shepard was listening primarily to the music and his tempo. She realized that the song was intentionally slow, and wanted to hear him play something a little faster. But as the song progressed, she began to listen to the words. Shepard had come to know that the execution assignments weighed on Bobby's conscience, and she could see how the words of this song would appeal to him. Maybe it wasn't quite as good as the poems she and Ashley had shared, but the words moved her. When Bobby was done, she asked, "Who wrote that?"

"His stage name was Bob Dylan. He was the first lyricist to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. It's a good song, but not his best. But it's a simple song and relatively easy to play. But it's far from the stuff you've been playing," Bobby said.

"I was going to suggest starting with the song Liara taught me. Both are simple and simple is probably good right now. Let's start with those two and we'll see where we go from there."

They spent the rest of the morning working with the two songs. Shepard would play a segment on the piano, and then Bobby would attempt to duplicate it on the guitar. Then they would switch songs and Bobby would lead. It was apparent that, since she was better than he was, that they would get "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" down first if they played them equally, so they spent more time on Liara's song.

"I usually play a little at night before going to bed," Bobby said. "I'll get some extra practice in and hopefully not slow us down too much."

They broke for lunch before coming back to work on the dancing. The music had been relatively serious, perhaps because "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" had set the tone. With the dancing, there was a lot of laughter, especially in the first couple of weeks. Bobby started them out on the simple waltz that was the first dance he had learned.

Simple or not, they struggled. Bobby had not danced at all since Claudia had left to join Cerberus and while he knew the moves, his feet didn't want to cooperate. To start they danced without music, taking slow deliberate steps to help Shepard learn the steps and to help Bobby re-acquaint himself with them. By the end of the week, they had the steps down and started dancing to music, trying to stay in time. They frequently stepped on each other's feet during the first couple of weeks and once Shepard tripped Bobby and sent him backwards on the floor.

"Sorry," she said, over barely suppressed laughter.

At the end of two weeks, they were comfortable enough with the waltz that Bobby decided they should try the foxtrot. With the first dance complete, Bobby's muscle memory for dancing was back. They still made mistakes, especially Shepard, but they would laugh about it and move on.

Musically, though they had started out faster, they stalled when trying to learn new songs. They had the first two down good enough at the end of the first week to move on to two new songs. For these songs, Shepard picked a faster tempo song and asked Bobby if he knew any happy songs. Bobby struggled a bit with the them the faster tempo song she picked. He chose a song called "Copperline" and Shepard saw how the song would appeal to him. Even though he had grown up in St. Louis, he had spent several summers with his grandparents on the farm. The nostalgia in the song would likely remind him of that time.

One night, while he was practicing solo in his room and frustrated with his progress, he realized that Shepard made as many mistakes dancing as he did playing. The difference was she laughed at her mistakes and went right back to trying. He would let his mistakes distract him. It was a turning point for his playing. He would still catch himself thinking about the mistakes, but when he did, he made the effort to let it go and just keep playing.

Shepard noticed the change. He was less tentative when he played and was less upset by his mistakes. Because of that, he enjoyed playing even more than he had before, which also made her enjoy playing more. Now, she could push him to be better. Both knew he would never be as good with the guitar as she was with the piano, but she didn't need him to be great. She needed them to be able to connect. But Shepard found herself wondering if she needed that connection because she thought it might be the way out or because she wanted to connect with Bobby.

One afternoon, after they had finished dancing, SAI informed them that they had now been at the beach house for six months. They had known the time had been slipping away, but both found it hard to believe it had been that long. Admittedly, the shorter days made the days pass more quickly, but it didn't seem like six months. At dinner, they wondered what family and friends thought. Had the Alliance given up hope of ever finding them or were they still looking? If they were looking, would they even have an idea of where to look? In Bobby's case, he doubted they even knew he had been on the Citadel.

After dinner, they grabbed a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses and went out on the deck. There was a light rain falling but the temperatures were mild. Rain wasn't uncommon but in the past year they had had only had a couple of heavy storms. The temperatures had varied some over the six months, but was always within fifteen to thirty degrees Celsius.

"It's hard to believe it's been six months," Shepard said.

"Same. If I didn't have SAI tracking the days I wouldn't have known. Six months ago, I wouldn't have believed we would be here this long. At this point I'm starting to think we're not getting out."

Tina frowned. "I'm really sorry Bobby. I thought the music or the dancing might help, but if there's something out there for me to tap into with my biotics, I haven't been able to find it."

"Stop that," he said. "That wasn't an accusation. I know you're doing what you can to get us out. Besides, I can think of a lot of worse things than being stuck out here with you."

"Well, that's true," she said, wearing that crooked little smile that meant she was teasing. "I'm stuck out here with you."

"Ouch," he said, laughing. "You want to twist that knife a little before you pull it out. I should take you out there and dunk you in the water."

"Try that and you'll find out how far I can throw someone with my biotics," Shepard said.

"Clearly my revenge will need to be a strike from the shadows. I will hatch a nefarious plan when you least expect it."

Shepard laughed. "You're not very scary."

"All part of lulling you into a false sense of security," Bobby said.

They sat quietly for a time, then Bobby got up to go upstairs. "Before you go, Bobby, a couple of things."

"Shoot," Bobby said.

"We've been here six months, and we'll be here who knows how much longer. Drop the Shepard. Every time you say it I hear the Commander in front and at this point the military ranks don't mean much. Just Tina, okay."

"Yes, ma'am," Bobby said with a wink and Tina shook her head. "And…"

"I want to learn the tango."

Bobby looked surprised. "They never taught the thirteen-year-old to Tango. We'd both be learning and I might drop you on your head."

Tina laughed. "It's a distinct possibility. But we're good at the other dances and ready for a challenge. So not just a simple basic tango but I want to work up to some of things I've been seeing in vids."

"I'm game if you are. Besides, it will provide me with multiple opportunities for payback."

"Goodnight, Bobby" she said with a false sternness.

"Goodnight, Tina," he replied.