Disclaimer once again I don't own any of the original Dirty Dancing characters or original story line or anything else blah blah blah; I do however own Christian and Tanner they're my boys!

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Chapter 11

A few days after my parents had left I was feeling a lot better about everything; my relationship with Johnny had gotten back on track, mostly because I wasn't acting like a lunatic anymore and I could tell that he noticed I had relaxed. He probably thought that it was because my parents had left, but really it was just that my mind was finally at ease, I had no doubts about my feelings for Johnny and was 100% on track. But... there was still the matter of Christian, I still hadn't spoken to him since that morning by the lake and I knew that I would eventually have to confront him. No time like the present right? I finally decided to go find Christian and tell him.

I wandered around the grounds for over an hour looking for him with no luck until finally I heard what sounded like Penny's laughter coming from up ahead. I skipped into a jog and continued up the path until I came across Penny, Tanner and Christian sitting on Penny's front porch chatting with a young man and woman. The two looked very familiar to me but I couldn't quite figure out from where.

"Hey guys!" I called over trying to sound casual as though I had just stumbled upon them accidentally.

"Baby!" Penny called out in her usual cheerful voice, "come on over, I want you to meet my friends." Penny smiled over at the woman sitting next to her and then as I approached she reached out grabbing my hand and pulling me up onto the porch close to her. "Baby this is Maria and her boyfriend Eddie, guys this is Baby, she's Johnny's girlfriend."

"Hey Baby, how's it going?" Maria asked politely. Eddie nodded in my general direction while looking up at me over the top of his dark sunglasses.

"Hello." I replied feeling a little nervous with everyone sitting there looking at me.

"So Baby, Maria and Eddie are going to give us a hand with the final show," Penny informed me.

"Oh yeah! We're really excited about it, that's a great idea you and Johnny had." Maria sounded really enthusiastic about the whole thing.

"Well to be honest it was Johnny's idea, but I really think it's going to work," I paused for a moment, "if we can get everything done in time that is."

"Don't you worry Baby, we'll get it all done, it'll be better than either of you ever imagined," these were the first words Christian had spoken since I arrived and now that the uncomfortable silence between us had finally been broken I figured this was as good a time as any to talk to him.

"Um Christian can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure," Christian didn't move an inch.

"Um, well I was hoping we could talk alone."

"Sure" Christian stood and walked past me down the steps and started down the path away from Penny's room.

As I prepared to follow him I smiled over at Penny, "I'll see you guys a little later ok? It was nice meeting you Maria, Eddie."

"You too Baby," Maria smiled. Eddie just nodded not saying a word.

I had to break into a jog to catch up to Christian who was quite a ways down the path already. "Wait up!" I called ahead.

"So what did you want to talk to me about Baby?"

"You know full well what," I replied with a little sarcasm in my voice, "we need to talk about what happened the other day."

"Well you've been avoiding me for so long I figured you just didn't want to talk about it."

I slowed my pace a little and stared down at my white runners feeling ashamed, "I know," I paused a moment, "I didn't, I still don't but I have to."

"Well?" Christian sounded annoyed, not that I could blame him. I hadn't been the easiest person to deal with so I could understand his frustration.

"Well," I began slowly, "I've been thinking about it, I've been thinking about it a lot and I don't think I can see you anymore."

Christian immediately stopped walking, "what?" He asked in surprise, "What do you mean you can't see me anymore? That's not a solution to this; you don't know what you're giving up, don't you think you owe it to yourself to see where this could go between us? Don't you think you owe it to us?"

"Christian there is no us, there never was. There was just confusion and fear and I don't owe you or us anything what I owe is to Johnny, I owe it to him to be faithful to him. He doesn't deserve any of this and I won't hurt him."

"But how do you know that this isn't meant to be? What if you're passing up true happiness, you'll never really know what might have been Baby?" Christian sounded almost desperate I really don't think he ever expected me to reject him. I got the feeling from him and judging by his looks that he didn't get rejected very often.

"I don't need to know what might have been Christian because I know what is, and the simple fact is that I love Johnny with all my heart no matter what the future brings for us. He holds a piece of me that no one else can touch and nothing will ever change that." As I finished speaking I could feel the tears had welled up in my eyes and were beginning to stream down my cheeks. I tried to wipe them away but it was no use there were too many and they were coming to fast.

Christian just stared at me finally realizing what his actions were doing to me, "Ok Baby," he mumbled looking down at his feet and kicking some small pebbles around on the path. "If he's what you want then..." his voice trailed off so I almost didn't hear him finish, "I won't stand in your way."

When I heard that I immediately began to feel better, just knowing that I wouldn't have to fight Christian every step of the way on this was relieving. "Thank you Christian," I tried to smile at him, but I couldn't, not very convincingly anyway. I didn't want to lead him on or give him any false hopes, especially after the speech I had just given.

After several moments of silence Christian looked up at me and in almost a whisper said, "so do you think there is anyway we could still be friends?"

I didn't really know what to say to that, could we be friends after all that had happened? I really didn't know. I liked Christian as a friend before all this and we got along really well besides the fact that we would have to work together and maybe even dance together for the final show. Finally after a long pause I smiled and replied, "I'd like that."

Over the next month all of us spent the majority of our spare time in preparation for the show, we had approached nearly every guest and were amazed at how many of them had booked in advance for the next season, we were almost positive that we had the resort fully booked for the next year and maybe into the following year as well. We hadn't given out too much information about the reasoning behind our involvement just enough to get peoples interest, we also didn't give out too much information about what the final show would really involve just that it would be more spectacular than anything they'd ever seen before.

The majority of the staff had gotten involved, excluding the waiters who were mostly Harvard and Yale students that would more than likely go straight to Max and spoil everything. We had many different dance numbers lined up, some a little more risqué than others and as I suspected Johnny, Penny, Christian and I were going to dance together as the finale. I was so glad that Christian and I had worked everything out and managed to remain friends in the process. I was also relieved that Johnny never found out about what had happened.

The four of us spent hours in the White Room rehearsing almost to the point of exhaustion and the tensions were beginning to build.

"Christian you've gotta be a stronger lead for Baby!" Johnny was getting really annoyed with him, "she can't take all the weight of this performance for you."

"Oh give me a break Johnny! Don't get all high and mighty on me when you know damn well that I'm one of the best dancers at this resort!"

Johnny just looked over at Christian with a look of disgust, "is that what you think? Because if it is then you're sadly mistaken, someone's been filling your head with lies Chris."

"Well your girlfriend doesn't seem to think so Johnny!" Christian snapped.

"What? What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"Why don't you ask her?"

Johnny looked over at me waiting for some kind of answer, I couldn't speak, I tried to open my mouth but nothing would come out. I was in complete shock, how could Christian have said that, now Johnny would know for sure what had happened. Christian had promised me that he would never breathe a word to anyone about it. My mind was spinning and I could feel the color draining from my face.

"Baby?" Johnny questioned me, "Baby what's he talking about?"

I still just stood there, I could feel the tears fighting to come and I struggled to hold them back.

"Yeah Baby come on," Christian snapped, "why don't you tell him what you really think of me, why don't you tell him what you thought of me that morning down by the lake?"

I couldn't believe how mean Christian was being; didn't he know what this would do to mine and Johnny's relationship? Was he trying to hurt me? Finally I couldn't hold back the tears any longer and one escaped and trickled down my cheek.

"Oh my god," Johnny whispered, "I don't know why I didn't see it before, it was so obvious. That's why you were acting so weird before."

"Johnny no," I didn't know what else to say to him, he was right and I had no excuses to give. A few more tears came as I went to try to explain, but Johnny interrupted me before I could speak.

"I don't believe this Baby, after all that we've been through together. I've been hurt and betrayed by a lot of people in my life, but I never..." his voice trailed off for a moment before he went on, "I never thought that you would be one of them."

"But Johnny I didn't..."

"NO! I don't want to hear it, I can't do this."

And that was it, he left, right then and there, he walked out of the room and out of my life. For a second I just stood there in shock not believing what had just happened and then I ran after him, as fast as I could, I ran. I finally caught up to him just as he reached his car in the staff parking lot, "Johnny wait!" I cried, "Let me explain!"

Johnny looked over at me for a second and then got into his car and drove away. The dust filled the air so much that I could barely see the car as it sped off, I could only hear the sound of the engine becoming a faint rumble as he got further and further away. I think I must have stood there for over an hour waiting, hoping, praying that he would come back.

OK, so there's one more installment. Hope you all enjoyed it! I just love cliff hangers don't you?! hahaha. Don't worry though I won't leave you hanging for too long, I'm loving writing this way too much to take a break from writing. Please R & R I love hearing what you have to say!

Thanks again

Jaye