Disclaimer: Not mine
Note: Here's the end of it. Enjoy.
AssignmentWhen everyone had finished their dessert, Joan excused herself to go to the toilet. On her way back an elderly woman started talking to her and she realized she knew her all too well.
"What do you want?" she asked. "It's my brother's wedding, don't tell me you have something to do for me right now."
The woman smiled. "I have, but you won't have to leave the wedding. Do you remember Ms. Bloome?"
Joan raised her eyebrows, trying to remember. "I guess I heard the name before but I don't know when or why."
"What I'm asking you to do is to remember what she said and make it come true. Nothing more."
"Here?" Joan asked. "But…"
She looked around but the elderly woman had already left the room.
"Great," she muttered. "How am I supposed to make something come true when I don't know what it is?"
When she returned to the table, she ran across her parents who were standing next to the dance floor, watching a few couples who had started to dance. "So I guess she wasn't right with her second prediction either," Joan heard her father say. Her mother shrugged. "Yeah, it looks like. But he's happy, just look at him. So why complain?"
Prediction? Ms. Bloome? A million bells suddenly seemed to ring in Joan's head. Ms. Bloome, the psychic who'd said that she had a special connection to the universe and that Kevin would dance at his wedding. She rolled her eyes. "Thank you, God. Great idea," she mumbled.
Her mother, who'd heard her mumbling, turned around. "Hey sweetheart. How are you doing? You look beautiful."
"Fine Mom. You feeling better?"
Helen nodded. "Wasn't that sweet of him?"
Joan smiled. "Yes, it was." She followed her father's look to the dance floor where Siv was dancing with her father. "Her dress is gorgeous, isn't it?"
Her mother smiled. "It's fantastic. You went with her when she bought it?"
"Yeah. She said she wanted a Girardi to help her find one and since Kev wasn't on the list, she asked me."
Her father stepped between her and her mother and put his arms around both of them. "So, who of you wants to dance first?"
Joan looked again at the dance floor, where Siv was still dancing with her father and started to look for Kevin in the crowd. She saw him coming from the bar, a beer between his legs and said, "Take Mom. But I might come and collect later."
Their parents went the few steps forward and started to move to the music. Will was saying something and Helen laughed.
Kevin stopped next to her and sipped at his beer. "I hope that Siv and I will be as happy as they are after so many years and so much trouble," he said.
"Why shouldn't you?" Joan asked, but Kevin shrugged,
Then he suggested, "Why don't we go over to the non-dancer table and entertain some of our guests?" His head pointed towards the table with the guys from his basketball team and Joan nodded.
"Sure, why not."
Together they went to the table on the other side of the dance-floor and joined the light conversation that was happening there. Joan listened to what the guys and their girlfriends and wives were talking about, but she wasn't really interested. The assignment was still occupying most of the space in her head and she was trying to figure out on how to make Kevin dance. None of the guys at this table seemed to be in the mood for some rockin' wheelchair and she invisibly rolled her eyes, unable to make up a single idea on how to persuade him.
They were interrupted anyway, when some friends of Siv performed a little sketch and forced the newlyweds to join in.
Joan's mood was obviously worsening the more time passed and the longer she didn't have an idea on how to make Kevin dance.
She tried to enjoy herself, talked to people she hardly new and to those she'd known all her life, she danced with most men and sometimes on her own, but all the time she kept thinking about the assignment.
"Hey, what's up?" Siv asked when she sat down next to Joan who was relaxing at a table. "What are you doing?"
"Just thinking."
"About what?"
Joan shrugged. "A lot of things."
"Kevin?" Siv asked.
"Yeah," she nodded halfheartedly. "Kevin too."
"You don't have to, you know. He's fine."
"I know. But I'm still thinking about him."
Siv smiled. "I wish I had any siblings I could be so close with. I love to see you and Kevin together. He's good in the big brother thing, isn't he?"
"Perfect," Joan laughed. "He's part of all my good childhood memories, even more so than Luke."
Siv's look suddenly turned serious. "You know that I'll never take him away from you, don't you?"
Joan raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Of course I know. I never thought you'd take him away from me or us or whatever. I consider you a part of our family. The sister I always wanted to have."
Siv smiled and she pulled Joan into a hug. "Thank you. That's so sweet."
"You're welcome."
The DJ, who was changing constantly between phases with slow music for couples to dance and faster music for everyone to dance, had just changed again to a faster song and Joan asked, "So, my sister, you wanna storm the dance-floor?"
Her sister-in-law grinned. "Yeah. You're coming with me?"
Joan looked at her, trying to decided whether to ask the following question or not, then decided to do it. "Don't get me wrong, but… shouldn't you rather be dancing with Kevin?"
Shrugging, Siv took Joan's hand and tried to pull her towards the dancing crowd.
"Really, Siv, isn't there a law somewhere that the newlyweds have to dance with each other on their wedding?"
Siv let go of the hand and looked at Joan critically. "I don't think there's a law, but I agree that it's common and normal. But tell me, when has anything concerning your family ever been normal?" She forced a smile, but to anybody who could see her it was clear that she didn't feel like smiling.
"Have you ever asked him about it?" Joan wanted to know, ignoring her last sentence because of taking it the right way and referring it to Kevin instead of herself.
"No," Siv replied. "I haven't. And I won't. Not today." She was still trying to smile, but Joan felt she'd touched a sore spot.
"I'm sorry," she said. "It's not my cup of tea. But you shouldn't let him get away with his stubbornness."
"I know," Siv said. "I just don't want to fight today. Really, it's not a big deal. Let's go and dance, okay? And I already danced with the rest of the Girardi guys, so I guess it's okay."
"If you say so," Joan said and followed Siv. When they were both moving in the crowd, she said quietly between clenched teeth, knowing the addressee would hear her, "Thanks for ruining the wedding."
Time passed and they all continued chatting, dancing and drinking. When Joan returned from the bar where she'd been to get something to drink, she started to look for her older brother.
Kevin sat alone in a corner of the room, listened to the slow music and watched the couples dance. The room had gotten less crowded, a lot of people were hanging out at the bar and most of the others were dancing.
Siv was slowly swaying to the music with Will, Luke was dancing with Grace and even Siv's parents were dancing cheek to cheek. Kevin couldn't take his eyes of his wife. She looked exhausted, it had been a long day, but she was smiling and her eyes were shining happily. For her, a dream had come true and Kevin could do nothing else than adore her beauty and give in to the good feeling that she'd chosen him.
He didn't notice that someone had come to him, until he heard his sister's voice behind him. "You should ask her, you know?"
Turning his head around he asked, "Ask her what?"
"Ask her to dance with you." Joan pulled a chair closer and sat down on it.
Now on eye level, Kevin looked at her critically. "Dance with her?!"
"Gee, Kev! Don't pretend you've never done it before. Soft music, romantic atmosphere… everything is right. And you know she'd love to. I know she'd love to."
The look on his face was so sad that Joan would have loved to scold God for his idea. "Yeah," he said slowly. "I know that she'd love to. But I don't think I'm ready for it. All these years and I still…" He didn't finish his sentence.
Joan gave them time to let her and his thoughts wander for a moment, before she asked, "Would you dance at all? Maybe with the other guys from the non-dancer table? Something faster?" She had jumped up. That was it. She just needed to get every guy in a wheelchair on the dance-floor. "I'll be back in a second."
Not that Kevin would have had a chance to answer. He only watched her disappear and wondered if what she'd just said was really what she'd had in mind.
Joan went to the DJ first and asked him for something faster, then she went to the bar to talk to the basketball guys. Only a minute later she'd them all gathered around her and told them, "You have to do me a favor. Me and Siv. I know that Siv would love to dance with Kevin, but he's too shy in front of all the people. So I need you to loosen him up."
"Loosen him up? What do you want us to do?" one guy asked.
"I want you to go on the dance-floor and take Kevin with you. Just you guys and whoever wants to join in. I know that you know how to move." She smiled the brightest smile she could offer and hoped that it would help to have someone start it.
"What's in for us?" a particularly cute guy named Charlie asked and made Joan bite her lip.
"What do you think is in?" she asked back.
"I will do what you asked for if you're gonna dance with me."
Joan laughed relieved. "Deal. Last one of you is going to bring Kevin."
"Okay. Come on, girl."
She followed Charlie to the dance-floor, still laughing. The music had changed by now and most of the couples were dancing solo. Joan and Charlie were the first "mixed" couple, but a lot of the others followed and only a few minutes later, most of them were moving more or less elegantly to the music.
Smiling, Joan realized that she hadn't made a bad pick, Charlie knew well how to move in his chair and she saw that some of the guys who weren't doing that smooth, tried to imitate him. She needed to have some patience, but after two or three songs had passed, she saw Kevin wheeling to them and joining in the dance that was a potpourri of wheels and feet. Everyone seemed to be dancing with everyone, everyone was laughing and even Kevin's face lit up when he realized that he wasn't doing too badly.
Joan wondered if this would count as Kevin dancing on his wedding and wished that it would never end, but the DJ picked a really slow song to revive her fears of him fleeing back to the tables.
Charlie stopped her spin of thoughts when he asked, "You're going to leave? Or do I get this dance?"
She looked down at him and at his cute smiled and shrugged. "Sure, why not?"
His smile seemed to widen when he offered her his lap and she took it. Careful not to harm the dress she sat down, put her hands on his shoulders and waited for him to continue his moves. Amazingly it felt great. She felt really good in his lap and enjoyed the smooth moves. She was so lost in her own feelings that she'd almost completely forgotten about Kevin and Siv until she saw that they were both still on the dance-floor; Siv on his lap and the two of them entwined in a tight embrace, every now and then swaying slowly to the music.
"Looks like you made him dance," Charlie said smiling.
"Yeah," Joan smiled. "Looks like. Thank you for helping me out."
"No problem. Especially not with such a nice reward."
"Oh," she asked, pretending to be surprised. "So I'm your reward?"
"You are," Charlie grinned. "Do you think I can call you sometime?"
Joan smiled and let her look travel to the other couples on the dance-floor. Next to Kevin and Siv there were Grace and Luke, Helen and Will and Siv's parents. They all moved slowly, relaxed and happy.
Smiling she answered. "Sure. I'd like that."
The End
Note: So that's it. He danced. I wanted to make a point here, because I didn't feel the end of "Touch Move" to be right. The Girardis' faces when Kevin told them… I don't know why they all seemed to think that "dance at my wedding" would mean "walk at my wedding". There is a difference between dancing and walking, right? So I had to write it. Hope you liked it a litte.
Merowen