Chapter 11: Shake Your Groove Thing
Several days later, Sheldon and Niki were sequestered in his office, neither one had left the office the entire day. Their research had reached an impasse and they were both feeling frustrated. Sheldon was not one to quit when stymied, he was more than prepared to camp out in his office for days, if necessary. Niki held a much different view and while she saw nothing wrong with missing lunch, she was not about to stay there for the entire night. And seeing as she was Sheldon's only ride home at this hour, that was looming as a distinct possibility.
"Look, Sheldon, why don't we go home and get some rest and come back to this tomorrow. We're not making any breakthroughs by standing here staring at a blank whiteboard."
He turned to her with an almost offended look on his face. "Sheldon Cooper does not quit! He sticks with it until he finds the answer. Are you saying you would actually go home and sleep tonight knowing we have reached an impasse in our work?"
Niki shook her head. "No Sheldon, I am not saying that at all. I have no intention of going home and sleeping."
"What are you trying to say, then? Because it certainly sounded like you preparing to quit for the night."
"I'm not quitting. I am going to go out and find me the answer."
"And just how do you propose to do that?" he inquired in a sarcastic tone, "Are you going to gaze into your crystal ball?"
"No, and don't be sarcastic like that." She warned him. "I intend to go dancing."
"DANCING?" He turned to her and stared in surprise.
"Yes, dancing." She replied, ignoring his implied disapproval. "It has often helped me in the past. There is something about the body movements that sets my mind free, and very often, the answer I'm looking for comes to me mid-dance."
"That sounds like pure poppycock!" Sheldon protested, "And from a gifted scientist, too!"
"Like it or not, it's what works for me." She countered, then added, "Don't knock it until you've tried it."
'I have no intention of 'trying it' tonight or any other night. I can't see how dancing can give you the answer to a physics problem." Sheldon harrumphed.
"Well, suit yourself, but I'm leaving."
"You can't! You're my ride home!" He protested loudly.
"Of course I can." She calmly pronounced, "I'm your partner, not your slave. Look Sheldon, how would you like to come home with me and we'll talk about it."
"I'm not going dancing." He insisted.
"Do you dance at all?" She asked him innocently.
"Of course I dance. I was raised in Texas. Dancing lessons are considered a rite of passage there."
"Are you any good at it?" The trap was being set.
"I excel at everything I do." He responded with a lift of his head.
"Good, let's dance."
"No! That is a very unprofessional way to solve this problem."
"It's not unprofessional if it works. Face it, nothing else has today." The smirk was alive and well.
"What if I outdance you?" He challenged her, his eyebrow rising to heights she had never seen before.
"I do not believe that is possible. Paul and I went dancing quite often. I can Cha Cha and Rumba quite well, most likely better than you."
"I highly doubt that." He sniffed.
"Prove it. I dare you." She threw the gauntlet down with a purpose.
"All right Miss Smarty Pants, I will. Let's leave and go to your home. We will have ourselves a dance-off. As that old song goes, Ms. Oakley 'Anything you can do, I can do better'."
"We'll just see about that." Niki was laughing to herself on the inside. That had been almost too easy. Now, to get him to an actual club…
They arrived at Niki's apartment and she immediately headed for her spare room, which to Sheldon's surprise, was almost completely empty. "Where's your furniture?" he inquired, staring at the open space.
"I don't have any in this room. I keep it empty on purpose. I use it only for dancing."
"By yourself?"
"Not tonight." she winked at him. "Come on, let's put on some music and get going."
"If I may be so bold as to ask, what dance are we going to do? Waltz? Rumba? Cha Cha?"
"Tell you what, I'll let you pick."
"I suppose we could start with a Rumba." He offered in an unsure voice.
"Rumba it is. Let me choose some music for that." Niki looked busily through a series of songs stored on her laptop, "Ah, perfect!"
"I do hope it's nothing too hippy dippy or gangsta."
"For a Rumba? Have no fear; it's from Broadway, Miss Saigon to be exact. Do you know 'Last Night of the World'?
'No, I do not believe so.' He answered, uncertainty etched across his face.
'Well, you're going to know it now. It's one of my favorite songs. I'll play it for you first, and then we'll work on dancing to it. Deal?'
"Deal. I don't know how I let you talk me into things like this."
"I felt the same way about Paintball. Now, just listen to the music and get a good feel for it."
They both listened in silence to the song. Sheldon was the first to speak when the music ended. "That was beautiful! Rather sad, though. However, I do believe we could dance to that one quite nicely."
Niki beamed at him. She loved this song and loved to dance to it. She was glad Sheldon had liked it, also. Now, to see if he could actually dance. She motioned Sheldon into the middle of the room and restarted the music. It wasn't long before she realized that while Sheldon knew all the steps in a Rumba and carried them out with no mistakes, his dancing didn't flow. The Rumba was a sensual dance that needed smooth, seamless, motions. He knew how to Rumba fairly well, and yet at the same time, he didn't know how to Rumba at all.
"That was pretty good, Sheldon, but we need to tweak it a bit."
"Whatever do you mean? I danced every step perfectly." He glared at her in disbelief.
"Well, yeah, you did. Except you weren't feeling the music."
"Excuse me?"
"How can I explain this? Oh, I've got it. In our work, we're researching properties of Black Holes. Am I correct?" She waited for his answer with great expectancy.
"Of course, but what does that have to do with dancing?"
"Bare with me a minute and you'll see. Sheldon, how does light travel as it approaches a Black Hole? Does it move in a straight line?" She moved closer to him as she asked the question.
"No, of course not. It follows the curve of the Space Time Continuum."
"Exactly! Sheldon, your dancing movements are like light traveling in a straight line. Nothing wrong with that, but it isn't following the universe's natural curve. Your movements shouldn't be hard and straight in this dance; they should flow the same way light particles follow the curve of the Space Time Continuum. Do you understand? This is the sensual dance of light through space."
"Hmmm…fascinating. Okay, let's try that again. I will now think of myself as a particle of light traveling to the far reaches of space." he spat out sarcastically. "Personally, I think this is ridiculous. How will dancing a Rumba give us an answer to our impasse?"
"I'm not saying it will." She explained to him with a patient smile, "It just does more often than not. At least for me. Now, I'll just restart the music. Ready?"
"I suppose." He sighed. Sheldon thought her idea was intriguing, but hardly valid. Oh well, he had nothing to lose by trying out her suggestion.
What happened next surprised both of them. Their dancing was no longer stiff, regimented, and formal; slowly their dance began to flow together into unified movements. It became a sensual, graceful, and at the same time, liberating journey through time and space. The longer they danced, the more their bodies worked in unison. It soon became apparent that they danced very well together. When the music ended, Sheldon was the first to speak, "I actually enjoyed that. May we pick another song?"
Niki gave him a playful grin, "But of course. Another Rumba, or a Waltz or Cha Cha? What would you prefer?"
"I'm having fun with the Rumba. Let's do that again. Can we?" His face once again resembled a ten-year-old boy's at Christmas. It was oddly endearing to her and she found she liked it when he did that.
"Sure. I have another great song we can use. Have you ever heard 'Jesus to a Child' by George Michael?"
Sheldon shook his head, "No,I don't really follow modern music, but okay, let's dance to it"
"Not to be morose, but this song has been known to make people cry. It always reminds me of Paul. I hope you like it."
"We'll see. Just don't expect me to shed any tears. I seldom, if ever, cry."
"You don't have to cry to be moved, you know. Anyway, let's do this."
Once again, Niki started the music and she found herself moving with Sheldon as if they had been dancing together for years. It was as though they were two particles of light, flowing through space towards a distant destination. Each was listening to the words and were moved by them. Sheldon became lost in his own thoughts: Niki was right, this song does move you. It feels like a beautiful, haunting tribute to something profound from the past. When the music ended, they stepped back from each other, tender looks on their faces. Suddenly Sheldon's emerged from his reverie. His eyes went wide and he gasped, "We have to get back to the office immediately! I do believe I have found the answer we were looking for!"
"No need, I keep a spare whiteboard and paper there in that corner, for just such occasions." Niki responded, gesturing to a spot across the room. Sheldon quickly picked up a dry erase marker and began to fill the whiteboard with the new calculations. Sheldon was amazed. It really worked. When I freed my mind the answer just came to me! Sometimes Niki's insight is amazing, but I mustn't let her know that. Still, the truth remains that she is a very special physicist…and woman.
Niki began to copy Sheldon's calculations down on a yellow legal pad. This man, like Paul, is amazing! His mind has no limits. He is a very special breed of scientist…and a very special person, but I can't let him know that just yet.
Over the next two weeks, until Raj returned, Sheldon and Niki went out dancing whenever they hit a snag in their work, and sometimes just because they felt like dancing together and having a little fun.
"You got Sheldon Cooper to go dancing with you at a club?" Penny shrieked. 'How on earth did you do that? I've only saw him dance with Amy once, and it wasn't in a nightclub setting. He hates those kind of places! How did you pull that off?" The girls were sitting around Bernadette's kitchen table on a Friday night before going out. Penny stared disbelievingly at her new friend, once again wondering what the deal was with her and Sheldon.
"It wasn't that hard" Niki reassured her. "I just tied the whole idea into our work. It was fairly easy after that."
"First rollerblading, then paintball, now dancing, what's next? I'm getting curious about all of this!" Bernie exclaimed, staring at Niki through her wine glass.
"Maybe something a little more intimate?" Penny teased her.
"Stop it you two. I've told you both before, we're just good friends having some fun."
"Sure you are." Penny grinned, "Tell me something, how long are you guys going to go on fooling yourselves?"
"About what?" Niki gave her a perplexed look.
"About what's really going on. I haven't seen Sheldon smile like this since he was with Amy. He's back to being Happy Sheldon again, he's just so different from the way he's been the past two years. And you, my dear, have a lot to do with that."
"Well, thank you for the compliment, but I can't take any credit for that or not much of it, anyway. You know the old saying, 'you can lead a horse to water…' That's pretty much what this is. I plant the ideas and Sheldon runs with them. He was just ready, you know?"
"Oh yeah, we know all right!" Bernie giggled, "But do you guys know, that's the big question."
"Knock it off, Bernie. If anything changes, I'll be the first one to tell you. For now, I'm enjoying the heck out this friendship. Sheldon can actually be fun, with the right motivation." Niki took a sip of her soda and suddenly sat bolt upright. "Oh my god, I almost forgot to tell you guys, Raj is coming back on Monday. Sheldon can hardly wait to see him. It's been what, a little over a month? I can only imagine how Emily feels."
"Confused? Angry?" Penny offered.
"What do you mean?" Niki asked her in a confused voice.
"Well, the guy goes off for over a month without her, what is she supposed to feel? I would be pissed as hell at the way he kept extending his assignment there."
'Uh," Bernie interrupted her, "He hasn't exactly been alone there. Emily has been going down every weekend to see him.
"How do you know that?" Penny cocked her head quizzically.
"I listened in when Raj Skyped Howard the other night."
"Well, they would be near San Diego, so there are a lot of fun things to do there. I'm sure they've been having fun." Niki responded with a dreamy look in her eyes. "San Diego is a great city to explore. Paul and I took mini- vacations there whenever we had the chance."
"Well, maybe. But Raj told Howie they just get a motel and stay in."
"Well I'll be." Niki mused, "I was right, it must be the coitus."
All the girls collapsed in laughter at the thought of poor Raj, trapped in a motel room with his weird girlfriend because of his hormones. They all knew that, once again, Raj had failed at ending his twisted relationship with Emily.
"Come on, girls," Penny pointed at the door, "let's get going. The night won't be young forever!"
"Who's driving tonight?" Bernie asked in a worried voice.
"Don't worry; I've been assigned all driving duties." Niki reassured her tiny cohort as she grabbed her car keys. "You girls are safe with me. By the way, there's this new Italian restaurant on Colorado Blvd. I've been dying to try."
"Do they serve alcohol?" Penny asked in a concerned voice.
"Of course they do, my dear. What Italian place doesn't serve wine?" Niki reassured her, smiling at her pretty friend who would most likely drink a little too much tonight. But then again, she was in no position to judge. Penny seemed to keep her drinking confined to the weekends and occasionally after work. Lots of people did that, didn't they?
"Okay then, let's go!" Penny laughed as she headed towards the door.
With that settled, the three friends left Bernadette's house to find fun and adventure on the mean streets of downtown Pasadena.