I do not own Dirty Dancing.

Chapter Fifty Five

POV Baby

The Time Of My Life

Sometimes, it felt like I was underwater. My thoughts just seemed to echo throughout my head in their own silence, settling peacefully at the back of my mind. It felt like nothing was truly reaching me, I was in my own world, nearly oblivious to the voices and happenings of the people around me. They, too, seemed to almost echo, distorted as voices became if you truly were underwater. But I wasn't.

I sighed, and leaned back in my seat, watching my Sister sing onstage. Some part of me wanted to know what sort of snarky comment that Johnny would come up with if he were here now. He would be leaning casually against the wall at the back of the room, a little bit out from the rest of the staff. Johnny would've smiled that same devil-may-care grin he'd worn as he pulled me out to the dance floor for the first time in the dingy storage room, snaked his arms around my waist and stolen a kiss before I could say a word about how I'd managed to sneak away from my Parents.

But Johnny wasn't here, and the other part of me wanted to bury those memories until I was in a place where I could deal with them, because right now, it hurt too damn much to think about it. I was not about to start crying in the middle of that stupid Kellerman's Anthem. I may have lost my good reputation, my Father's trust, and Johnny, but there was no way in hell I was going to start crying in public.

But out of the corner of my eye, I see a man dressed in black standing by us, towering over my Father, a familiar leather Jacket on his shoulders, and I immediately straightened in my seat. Johnny. Great, A sarcastic part of my head laughs, Now you're hallucinating him, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner," Johnny said in that deep voice he had, which just proved that he couldn't be real. That line was so, so Johnny that it smelled like sarcasm, and the voice was too perfect to be real. Because he couldn't be real. Johnny couldn't be here.

But then why were my Parents looking at him like they could see him, too?

"Come on," Johnny says, offering me a hand. And some solitary impulse makes me take his hand, and stand up, following him into the aisle, hearing faint protests from my Father behind us. I held his hand tightly, wanting to hug him as hard as I could. He was real. He was here. But why?

"What are you doing?" I asked him under my breath as we approached the stage up front. Oh, God, we weren't going onstage, were we?

Johnny turned his head, smiling gently at me in a way that said we were going onstage, and I felt fear all of a sudden coiling in my stomach. "Fighting," Johnny answered, squeezing my hand encouragingly. It didn't help, but for his sake I at least try to remain calm as we walked up the steps to the stage, catching the sight of every parson in the theater, including Mr. Kellerman's. I eyed the floor, unwilling to meet anybody's gaze.

One by one, the people on the stage stop singing, leaving Johnny and I standing dead center of the stage, everyone's attention on us. I felt like fainting. Was now a good time to faint? It would get me off the stage, that was for certain. Besides, I'd done my turn on the stage, and without throwing up my guts, at that.

"Sorry about the disruption, folks. But I always do the last dance of the season," Johnny explained. "And this year, somebody told me not to." Using the word 'told' Was not exactly the truth, though it wasn't as if anyone except Penny, Johnny, my family, and Mr. Kellerman's would know that. But then, it was better than saying he'd been fired for sleeping with me. "So I'm gonna do my kind of dancing, with a great partner," My Dance Instructor said, "Who's not only a terrific Dancer, but somebody who's taught me that there are people willing to stand up for other people, no matter what it costs them."

"Somebody who's taught me about the kind of person I want to be." Johnny stated resolutely. He looked at me, and I felt my heart warm under the bubbling nervousness of being onstage. Johnny squeezed my hand, and looked back at the crowd. "Miss France's Houseman."

When the lights go out, everybody else hurries off the stage, even Johnny. I'm left standing there alone, and as always, not quite sure what to do with myself. Johnny passed his leather jacket to Billy, along with a 45 I can't read the title of. I just see Billy put it on the phonograph and set the tone arm onto the vinyl disc, and barely a second later the music starts.

Out of the darkness, Johnny walks towards me, beckoning coyly, and I can feel my heart in my throat. He stops in front on me, hands on my waist. I set my hands on his shoulders, and Johnny reached up to take my right hand in his. And I relax, because the look he gives me in that second makes me feel that everything will be alright, so when I come up from the dip he pushes me into, all I can do is smile at the Dancer that stole my heart, all my nerves melted away.

Johnny stepped behind me and guided me arm up behind his head. His hand fell down my side, just barely brushing the side of my beast. I look up at Johnny, and I still see assurance in his blue eyes, down to the second Johnny kisses my nose, and his hands cup mine at my hips, and he spins me away from him.

I caught his hand, and we entered in unison back into the basic. Johnny lifted an arm for an underarm turn, and then an open break, me spinning into a side basic on the last step. I twirled to the right, coming to stop with my arm around Johnny's shoulder, the other extended for styling as we did a fast count akin to what we had danced on the log not so very long ago.

We pivot into the basic, I kick, and then do a basic, and then kick again. Another basic, and I find Johnny and I side stepping right across the stage, doing a Cross Body Lead that I barely had to think about now. Joining hands, palm to palm, we swivel right, left, right, into a Pivot Turn. I cross my left foot behind me on our first step to the left, like Johnny had told me to do. Another step to the side, I bring my foot to meet the other and I immediately turn, Johnny a second behind me on his turn. I felt Johnny pressing forward from my back on what normally would be a Cross Body Lead, but is now a Half Moon, followed by a spin that nearly leaves me too dizzy to stand.

I step to the side, arms high over my head, more comfortable doing this now than I ever could have been at the Sheldrake. Johnny pushed me left on the next steps, bringing me around him for an Open Break, the perfect way to enter into a walk around turn, Johnny spinning me so fast I most sight of anything and everything but his eyes, a trick he had taught me for keeping from getting dizzy. I rock back to come out of the spin and enter into a different sort of swivel at breakneck speed. It felt like we were flying through the steps, Underarm Turn, Open Break, Spot Turn, Cross Body, an angled forward basic with the left, then the right, testing the strength of my frame.

We enter a different walk around, no frame, just orbiting around one another, the center of each other's universes. I am certain that Johnny came up with that step himself, and it is one of my favorites. There is an Open Break, and he pulls me to him so fast I almost have no time to recover from that last turn. Just felt his chest heave against mine, and instead of kissing me, which I could sense he wanted as much as I did, he threw me out, and then yanked me back in, a step that was completely improvised on the spot, because we had not done that at the Sheldrake. I loved it anyway.

Johnny brings me around to the right into Swivels and New Yorkers with a turn to get out of that and into what was once walks, but us now Johnny grinning wickedly at me as he pushed his hips into mine, dancing like we had when we'd first met at that staff party. He skipped over a few steps and went right into a walk around, lifting me into a graceful twirl that left people cheering, but that wasn't the last of it.

My feet hit the stage, and Johnny spun me around to his left side, and within seconds, kissed my hand and jumped off the stage. In that second, I could only laugh as I remembered my words to Johnny in his car on the way to the lake."You're wild!" I howl, throwing my head back in laughter, Johnny laughing with me.

He was. And what happened next was what I could only describe as Johnny completely flaunting his best moves for the purpose of winning the crowd over. It was like the line dancing I'd seen him and Penny briefly do in the storage room, but it was so much better than that, similar, but different, and not in a bad way. I couldn't help but laugh a little at watching Johnny's charm the other guests with nothing more than flashy dance steps. But then, it hadn't taken a whole lot more than that for me to be completely ensnared.

This continued all the way to the back of the room, and beyond, when Johnny turned around and started to dance back up the aisle, other staff gathered around and behind him like a small army, with a Dance Instructor leading the charge to the stage. Everybody else kept on dancing, even once Johnny stopped, and gave me a look that said many things. It said to do the lift, to trust him. It said that I was ready to do it. I saw utter adornment in his eyes, and even a hungry look that said Get over here already, Which I'd only ever seen when we were messing around in the practice room a few days ago.

I nodded without hesitation, unable to keep a euphoric grin off my face. Two men from the staff helped me down from the stage, and I sprint right for Johnny. You'll hurt me if you don't trust me, Echoes through my brain, time seeming to move too fast and too slow all at once. Did I trust him? Yes. I trusted Johnny more than anything, more than anyone else I'd met at that second. It would have to be enough. Please, God, let it be enough.

And it must be, because, I feel Johnny's hands grab onto my hips, and raise me up over everything else in the room, resting precariously on his hands, in just the perfect position so that I do not fall. If I was happy before... then this... this must be rapture. There was no other word to describe the pure, unadulterated joy that I felt in that second. It was like what I'd felt after the Sheldrake... I never ever wanted that feeling to end, and it didn't, not even as Johnny brought me back down to the aisle, embracing me with all his might. I laid a kiss on his cheek, the pair of us nearly oblivious to what was happening around us.

Johnny and I kept to our spot in what was now becoming a dance floor with hundreds of people dancing right along with us. I didn't care then that I would be leaving in the morning... I just knew that I wanted to spend every possible second I could cherishing my precious time left with Johnny. "You wanna get out of here?" Johnny asked, wearing a smirk that was she nearly too suggestive for its own good. I beamed at the Dancer, and gave a nod, eager to leave with him. "Let's go," Johnny said, giving a nod in the direction of the door, taking my hand and leading the way out.

Johnny turned abruptly when somebody caught him on the armed, and I can't help but be a little bit shocked to find that it is my Father. "I know you weren't the one who got Penny in trouble," My Father stated, his expression nearly unreadable, even for me.

Johnny answered, "Yeah," In a voice that was almost a challenge, daring my Father to call him unworthy of me now, to his face.

"When I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong," Is all my Dad says in an explanation. I don't expect any more of an apology from him. After all, a Father could only be so forgiving to the person who was the reason his Daughter publicly admitted to having sex with someone as their only alibi. But for now, it was a start, and that was all I could hope for.

My Father looked at me, his eyes gone gentle. "You looked wonderful out there," He admitted, a praise which meant more to me than any other complement he'd given me before. I hugged him before anyone could say anything else and ruin the moment. Eventually, we break, and my Father stepped informing us with a sigh that he had to go and talk to Max about something.

"Do you want to finish the song?" I inquired to Johnny. You were supposed to dance till the last note of the song rang out, not leave half way through, which was something I knew without Johnny's instruction. "I mean, it is your record," I excused, looking for just a few minutes more of dancing with him. "We've got until morning,"

Johnny gave me a strange look, and I could sense he was deep in thought, but before I could retract my suggestion, he smiled and answered, "Yeah. Let's finish the song. But then, I expect just to go back to that cabin I left, because I have a few things I want to do that shouldn't be done in front of this many people," Johnny added suggestively.

I smiled, leaning closer to him, "I look forward to it already," I eagerly purred. Johnny took us back out to the center of the floor, and, in unison, we began to dance, swaying slowly in every direction. It feels like the moment will go on forever, but I inevitably hear what must be the final few notes coming, and Johnny and I slowly stop swaying, simply standing, arms around one another, in the middle of the crowd, our actions entirely unnoticed by the others. Looking down at me with what I think must be love, Johnny mouthed along to the words, like he had when we first danced, and when we were joking around in the practice room.

"Now I've had the time of my life,

No, I've never felt this way before.

Yes I swear, it's the truth.

And I owe it all to you,"

I cannot help but laugh at the antics of this man, who I am so in love with. I didn't ever want him out of my life, I thought. I wanted me and him against the world, forever. We were young, and we had almost everything against us... but this felt too right to be just young love, just a Summer fling. On that dance floor, I'd not been as sure of anything as I was of Johnny and I staying together. Johnny leaned down, and I stand on my tiptoe, and tip my head up, and we kiss in public for the first time, finally free.

Johnny looks really happy when the kiss breaks, and that is enough to put any doubts I had left about us to rest. Johnny grasped my shoulders, and lifted me over him, holding me.

Blue eyes.

My feet land on the floor, and for the last few seconds of the song, Johnny and I keep dancing, arms around one another, almost too slow to match the song. It works, regardless, if only because of the passion we have for not just each other, but the dancing as well. Maybe we don't have much time left together. But for the first time in what feels like forever, I'm too relaxed to care.

So, I'm not dead, though I'm certain some of you want me to be after this long. Been kind of short on time lately, an this was a chapter that I actually had to write. See, this is what I mean. If I were to post a sequel before I was certain I was ready to and I was far enough into it that I couldn't abandon it, it would just end up abandoned, and I won't do that to my readers. It's not about how many would read it, it's about my about my ability to finish what I start. I'll post it when I'm damn good and ready, not a second before, and you'll all have to live with that.