… well, I used to own some ballet slippers…

The Paso Doble

Buzz blinked, gave a little shake of his head, and looked down.

He was down on one knee in the middle of Bonnie's bedroom floor with Jessie draped backwards over his arm. The cowgirl had one hand extended to the cheering, admiring circle of toys around them, the other hand lightly gripping the back of his knee for balance. She tipped her head up and grinned at him. Buzz felt his face burn.

What just happened?

As far as he could tell, he and Jessie had just performed an un-rehearsed folk dance choreographed to fit the meter and musical phrasing of a traditional song of Spanish origin that felt completely natural and familiar despite the fact that neither he nor Jessie were of Spanish descent and had never, as far as he could recall, had any training in said style of dancing – or any dancing, for that matter.

Buzz suddenly realized that while he was busy analyzing their dance, Jessie was attempting to get up. And he was still holding her in such a way that it was difficult for her to stand without some assistance. He hurriedly set her on her feet and stood up. The other toys scurried over to them, exclaiming.

"You guys!" Trixie squealed. "That was awesome!"

"When did ya learn to do that?"

"Those were some pretty nice moves!"

"Buzz, I never would have guessed you were a dancer!" Dolly laughed. "Where did that come from?"

"I – I have no idea," Buzz stammered.

He turned to look at Jessie, bewildered. She winked at him.

"Not bad, space toy," she mumbled around the rose in her teeth. She took it out, smiling, and handed it off to one of the Peas-in-a-Pod. "Here Peanelope. You go give that to Mrs. Potato Head, y'hear?"

The Pea giggled and bounced away.

"How on earth did you manage to rehearse an entire dance without the rest of us finding out?" Buttercup wanted to know.

"Oh, we didn't rehearse," Jessie said calmly. "I just followed Buzz's lead."

"Genius!" Mr. Pricklepants cried.

Buzz felt his face get even hotter as he realized that the toys had now turned the full force of their admiration on him... and he still didn't know what had just happened! He grabbed Jessie's hand.

"Excuse us," he mumbled.

Jessie seemed confused. "Buzz?"

"We need to talk," he said, hurrying her out of the room before too many more of their friends could crowd around and ask questions he didn't have the answers to.

Jessie pulled on his hand. "Talk? About what?"

He didn't reply, instead pushing her down the hall and into Bonnie's parents' bedroom. Something wasn't right. Space rangers don't dance. He knew that for a fact! But it was also a fact that he had just danced a highly stylized dance with Jessie not two minutes ago, and he needed to know just how that extraordinary event had come about. Buzz shut the door and turned to face Jessie.

"What just happened?" he demanded.

Her eyes widened. "You mean you can't even remember a few minutes ago?"

Buzz's face flushed. "Of course I can, I just… I-I don't understand."

Jessie gave a little chuckle of relief. "Good! For a minute there I thought you meant you'd switched over completely."

"Switched over?" Buzz repeated, brow wrinkling. "What do you mean? Switched over to what?"

She hesitated. "You sure you wanna know?"

He cringed. "Sounds like I'm not going to like it much."

"Well… not parts of it, anyway." Jessie sat down cross-legged on the floor and patted the carpet next to her, indicating that he should sit. "Buzz, what's the last thing you remember about Sunnyside?"

Buzz felt his back tense. He was still pretty foggy about what had happened at the daycare, and his family seemed unnaturally reluctant to fill him in on the details. But he could clearly remember one thing:

Lotso, an instruction manual in his heavy paws, reading aloud the steps necessary to switch a Buzz Lightyear action figure over to Demo mode.

He shook himself hard, trying to ward off the sudden anger that came with the memory. Jessie was watching him.

"I… I remember Lotso," he said tightly. "There was an instruction manual…"

He found that he couldn't go on. Jessie patted his knee.

"I know," she said gently. "We figured out what happened."

Buzz inhaled sharply. "So… I guess I was in Demo mode for a while."

"Yes. And once we realized somethin' had happened to you, we tried to figure out how to get you turned back. You can thank Barbie for that," Jessie added, grinning. "She's the one who talked Ken into telling' her how to get you switched back. Only I guess it didn't go quite like it was planned."

Buzz frowned in confusion.

"It's like this, space ranger," Jessie drawled. "Turns out you got more than just two sides to ya. First you got switched over to Demo, and then…" She giggled. "And then, Buzz, we found out you have a Spanish side, too."

He gaped. "Spanish?"

"Yup."

"So I… I spoke Spanish?"

"Oh, you didn't just speak it," Jessie grinned. "You acted a lot different. More..." She paused, batted her eyelids at him. "Flirtatious."

Buzz froze. Flirtatious? Him? Was she kidding? He looked at Jessie, and his heart began to pound. No, she wasn't kidding. He could tell she was being dead serious. And if that was so, and he really had been playing the flirt, and Jessie knew all about it, then that could only mean one thing.

He'd been flirting with her.

"Please tell me I behaved myself," he groaned.

Jessie laughed delightedly. "Well you didn't do anythin' I wouldn't wanna have you repeat again some time, space toy!"

"Jess, would you please, please just tell me how much of a fool I made of myself so I can apologize for it?"

She gave him a funny smile. "You wanna know all the stuff you did?"

"Not really," he muttered. "But yes."

"Alright," she said quietly, "For starters, you saved my life."

He blinked.

"I – I did?"

"Yeah." Jessie scooted closer to him. "Y'see, I got caught under some stuff in the garbage truck, and I couldn't get out. You came and pulled me out. Carried me off to safety."

"Carried you?" Buzz felt his face getting redder by the second. "W-why?"

She laughed. "I don't know. Maybe you just wanted to." She paused, looked down at her hands folded in her lap. "Maybe you knew I wanted you to," she said softly.

The space ranger was so surprised that he forgot to be embarrassed. Jessie had wanted him to do that? She'd wanted to be treated like a damsel in distress? He stared at her, fascinated. Jessie had been fighting that stereotype for as long as he'd known her, proclaiming long and loud that she'd rather play the hero any day. It hadn't occurred to him to think that maybe she was bluffing, that maybe somewhere in her heart she wanted to play the part of the damsel… and she'd wanted Buzz to play the hero. The whole idea made him a little dizzy. But if it was what Jessie wanted…

"Anyways," she continued, "You saved me from getting' trapped under all that junk… and then you saved me again when a TV fell in with the trash. You weren't so lucky, though." The cowgirl's face grew anxious. "You threw me outta the way but you didn't have time to run, and…"

Her voice trailed off, but it wasn't hard to put two and two together. Jessie had been in danger, and he'd chosen to put himself in harm's way instead of her. Strangely, Buzz felt as if this was the only part of the story that made sense.

She took a shaky breath. "And then… when we dug you out and you… you weren't movin' and you wouldn't wake up and I-I thought…" Her voice caught in her throat and she threw her arms around him. "Oh Buzz!"

Buzz's stomach clenched. "You thought I'd been killed?"

She shivered and hugged him tighter. "I was so scared."

Buzz couldn't remember any of that… saving Jessie, sacrificing himself for her, almost dying… none of it seemed real to him. But he did recall, in those moments before he woke up, hearing her cry. Knowing that she needed him. And then, of course, there had been those moments after he woke up.

"I-is that why you were so… uh…" He was stumbling over the words like always. "… h-happy when I woke up?"

Jessie was blushing too, but she nodded. "Yes. And not just that you were alive, but that you were back to bein' yourself."

"But… I-I'm sorry, Jess. I guess I don't understand." He hesitated. "If you like Spanish Buzz so much then why would you be happy to see me?"

She blinked at him, her green eyes wide. Then she laughed. "Buzz! Don't you see?"

"See what?"

Jessie shook her head, smiling. "Spanish Buzz was nice. And I don't mind sayin' I'd like to see just how much of him you got in you." She bit her lip. "If-if that's okay with you."

"Yes," Buzz said quickly. He still wasn't sure how he felt about his alter ego, but he wanted to make Jessie happy. And anyway, Spanish Buzz sounded a lot more appealing than Demo Buzz.

"Spanish Buzz was nice," she repeated. "But he ain't the one I've known for ten years…"

She reached out, gently sliding her hand into his. Buzz automatically laced his fingers through hers. It was funny, he thought, just how natural that felt. Jessie smiled at him.

"And he ain't the one who held my hand when I thought we were gonna die," she said quietly. "You are."

"Oh." Buzz looked down at their hands. "But… the music and the dance and everything…" He peered at her. "You liked that?"

She blushed. "Yes. Did you?"

Buzz hesitated. He wasn't really sure how he felt about putting on a performance, particularly since it meant his family would be talking about him and Jessie for days to come. And he didn't like the idea that his Spanish side was controlling him. He'd rather it be the other way around.

But then he thought about Jessie, how beautiful she'd looked when they danced and how wonderful it felt to draw her close or dip her low or just do whatever seemed to go with the music, and he'd never forget the look on her face when he unexpectedly spun her around and around while laughter came bubbling out of her. He'd certainly liked that.

Something of his Spanish self must have decided it was time to join the conversation, because Buzz suddenly found himself kneeling down and taking Jessie's hand in his. The cowgirl blinked at him in surprise. Buzz allowed himself a small grin.

"Si, Senorita. Me gusta mucho."

And even though he didn't know a word of Spanish, he knew he'd said exactly what was in his heart.

Hey gang!

This one took on a life of its own… and I like it that way!

I'll see you guys again Thursday, and after that I'll be taking a little two week vacation from FanFic . Time to recharge the batteries :D ~Owl