Third Date: Dance the Night Away
by Bryn
E-MAIL: buddygirl19@yahoo.com
STATUS: Complete
RATING: G
SEASON: 5-ish
SEQUEL: Sequel to "First Date: Dinner and a Movie" and
“Second Date: Moonlit Walk on the Beach.”
SPOILERS: Singularity (Cassie), Rite of Passage, and
the first two fics of this series
CATEGORY: D/J, romance, humor
SUMMARY: Cassie’s trying to learn to dance and once
again Daniel saves the day.
DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters and
places are the property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret Productions. This piece of fan fiction
was created for entertainment not monetary purposes and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks was
intended. Previously unrecognised characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the author.
Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: This has actually been sitting half
done on my hard drive since shortly after I wrote the first two of the trilogy, but I only just found it
again and finished it. Gotta love my short attention span. Thanks to Nike for the beta, oh and hon? TAG!
You’re it ;)
“Ow!”
“I’m *sorry*! But we’re not moving!”
“I know, I’m sorry, I’m not used to leading.”
Dancing lessons always sounded good in theory. That
is until someone’s toe got stepped on until it was
black and blue, as Janet’s was at the moment. Cassie
had a formal dance coming up and was absolutely
terrified that she’d make a fool of herself. So,
Janet had volunteered to teach her.
“Cassie, honey, I really don’t think there will be
ballroom dancing at this dance of yours,” Janet said,
sitting down to rest for a second.
“Yes, there will be! The theme’s ‘Waltzing in the
Moonlight’ and the sophomore class has decided to go
all out with the Victorian theme, *including*
waltzing!” Cassie explained, dragging Janet to her
feet again.
“Ok, let’s try again: 1… 2… 3… 4- Ow! Cassie, that’s
my toe!”
“I’m *sorry*!” Cassie said, glancing up apologetically
before staring at her feet again. “Hi, Daniel.”
Janet stopped dancing suddenly, causing Cassie to step
on her feet *again*. “Ow!” she complained as she
turned around to see Daniel standing in the doorway
with a very amused look on his face. “What are you
laughing at?”
“If you could see the two of you, you’d be laughing
too,” Daniel replied. Pushing himself off the
doorframe he’d been leaning on, he held out a bag of
take-out as a peace offering. “I brought Chinese.”
“Oh, great! I’m starving!” Cassie switched the music
off, grabbed the bag out of Daniel’s hand, and headed
towards the kitchen.
“Cass, you had a snack just a little while ago!”
“So?” called the teenager’s voice as she went into the
kitchen with the food. “I’m hungry!”
Janet rolled her eyes and shrugged, deciding at the
very least her feet were going to get a rest. Smiling
at Daniel, she waved him into the house and closed the
door behind him. “Yet again, you seem to be my
savior.”
“That’s what I’m here for,” he said, smiling back.
“Oh, good, you can teach Cassie to dance, then,” Janet
grinned back.
Cassie stepped back in the room, holding the Styrofoam
box of Chinese food and a fork. Between bites she
said, “Ya know, what I really think I need is to watch
how it’s done.” She tried to hide her smile with
another fork full of chow mein.
“Um…” Danny mumbled incoherently, but didn’t take his
eyes off Janet. She just stared back.
“Good, I’ll put on the music,” Cassie said, turning
the CD player back on and dimming the lights.
“Cassandra, how are you supposed to watch us if the
lights are off?” Janet glared at her daughter.
“I can still see you,” Cassie said around the noodles
she was chewing. “Now start dancing!”
Daniel stepped forward and gently took Janet’s right
hand in his left while slipping his other hand around
her waist. Silently they started swaying to the
music, floating across the floor effortlessly. As he
looked down into her eyes, Daniel tried to remember
how to breathe. He wasn’t even sure how he’d gotten
there that evening, let alone how he’d ended up
waltzing around the living room with Janet. Not that
he was complaining.
“You don’t have to bring food every time you come
over, you know,” Janet commented. “In fact if you
continue to we’re most likely going to explode due to
overeating.”
Daniel chuckled lightly. “Well I didn’t want to just
drop by for no reason.”
“Why not? I told you, you could.”
“I thought you just wanted Cassie to do the dishes.”
“That was just a pleasant side effect.”
“Do you want me to?”
“Do the dishes?”
“No, stop by… for no reason.”
“I haven’t protested so far, have I?”
“That’s not the same as wanting me to. You could just
be too polite to say ‘Daniel, go away’.”
“Have I ever been polite when telling the Colonel to
go away?” Janet asked, amused.
Daniel laughed lightly. “No, but I’m hoping I’m not
nearly that bad.”
“I don’t want you to go away, Daniel. You can stop be
for no reason, or any reason, any time at all.
Consider it an open invitation.”
Daniel grinned broadly at that. “Thanks.”
“I should be thanking you.”
“For what?”
“Putting up with all this, coming to my rescue
repeatedly, feeding us…” Janet smiled, it seemed like
she couldn’t stop recently, especially when Daniel was
around. “For being such a good friend.”
“Just a friend?” Daniel asked, using her words from
only a few nights before when they’d been walking on
the beach off-world.
“No,” she replied looking straight into his eyes, “not
just a friend.”
The song ended, and they reluctantly broke apart,
remembering there was a teenager in the room with them
and she was, after all, the legitimate reason for
their dance. Janet raised the lights and Daniel waved
Cassie over to him. “Come on, let’s see what we can
do with you,” he offered. He wondered briefly how
he’d gotten himself into this, but the answer wasn’t
very hard to find: he’d do just about anything Janet
asked.
“Don’t listen to her,” Cassie said, indicating Janet,
“I’m not that bad. She just doesn’t know how to
lead.” She put down the food and stepped into
Daniel’s arms.
Daniel was a patient and natural teacher and Cassie
really wasn’t that bad, so it only took a few more
songs before she was satisfied. Daniel got an
enthusiastic hug in gratitude before the teenager
noticed what time it was and ran off to her room to
change.
“She’s going out tonight?” Daniel asked.
Janet nodded from her vantage point where she’d been
watching. “She’s got a date. Won’t be back until
ten.”
“Really?”
Janet noticed his smile had a bit of mischievous glint
to it, and she quirked an eyebrow at him, enquiringly.
“What exactly do you have in mind, Dr. Jackson?”
“Well-”
Janet barely suppressed a growl of frustration as the
doorbell rang just then. “Hold that thought,” she
told Daniel, then went to answer it. A minute later
Cassie bounded down the stairs and disappeared out the
door before Daniel even got a chance to get a good
look at this Dominic he’d heard about.
Daniel walked up behind Janet, where she stood at the
front door waving to the now-vanishing teenagers, and
impulsively wrapped his arms around her waist. “So
that was ‘the boyfriend’ huh?”
Janet leaned comfortably back in his embrace, a bit
surprised, but very pleasantly so. “Yes, and
apparently she’s as worried about you meeting him as
she is about the colonel.”
Daniel’s brow furrowed, characteristically at that.
“I don’t know if I should take that as a compliment or
an insult. I’m not as bad as Jack, am I?”
Janet shut the door and turned around to look at him.
“No one could be as bad as the colonel!” she assured
him. “But it’s a sign that she sees you as an
over-protective father-figure.”
Daniel smiled again. “I can live with that.”
“Are you hungry?” Janet asked, reaching for his hand.
“Hopefully there’s some Chinese left.”
Janet served up the rest of the food on actual plates
and set them down on the dining room table, opening a
bottle of wine to go with it, and they ate
companionably, chatting as they normally did. When
they were done, Janet gathered the dishes to take to
the kitchen, chastising Daniel when he tried to help.
He would have protested further, but just then he had
a better idea.
Slipping back into the living room, Daniel rummaged
through Janet and Cassie’s extensive music collection
before finally choosing a few CDs and putting them in
the stereo, hitting shuffle. Just before leaving the
room, he lowered the lights again, as Cassie had done
earlier that evening. He strolled back into the
kitchen, and grabbed Janet’s hand, which had
previously been putting dishes in the dishwasher, and
gave it a tug.
“What?” Janet asked.
“Come with me.”
“But the dishes-”
Daniel smiled and tugged gently on her hand again.
“Leave them.” This time she followed and he lead her
out into the living room. Stopping them in the middle
of the room, he turned to face her and asked, “Dance
with me?”
Janet’s confused look melted immediately into a smile
and she inclined her head to agree. She slipped her
arms around Daniel’s neck as his went around her
waist, holding her close. Breathing deeply, Janet
felt all her cares and worries wash away as she
relaxed into Daniel’s embrace.
They stayed like that for quite a while, though they
weren’t very conscious of time, Daniel’s hands
playing gently along Janet’s back and her head tucked
comfortably under his chin. But when the first few
strains of “Take my hand” by Dido started playing,
Daniel slowly lowered his head to drop a soft kiss on
Janet’s forehead. She shifted her head to look at
him, and after a moment of silent, unmistakable
communication, they both leaned in for a kiss.
When Cassie got home that evening, she found them
cuddled up together on the couch, sipping coffee and
talking. Her face quirked in curiosity, but she
didn’t say anything regarding their position, instead
she just asked, “So, what is this, the second date?”
“Third,” Daniel answered, quite contently. “Hopefully
of many.”
Cassie smiled, called a good-night, and ran off to her
room.
When Daniel turned back to Janet, he found her staring
at him. “Third date?” she asked, softly.
Daniel suddenly became incredibly nervous, realizing
he’d been presuming - quite possibly, too much. “Um,
I know they weren’t what one would classically
consider dates-”
Janet stopped him with a finger on his lips. “I’m.
Not. Complaining,” she told him in no uncertain terms,
then replaced her finger with her lips.
When their kiss ended, Daniel looked at her seriously,
not willing to make the same mistake twice. “So
you’re okay with this?” he asked, fretfully.
Janet grinned at his anxiousness, so very Daniel-like.
“Okay would be a grave understatement,” she informed
him.
He gave her a curious look, relaxing again into the
comfortable familiarity there was between them. “What
wouldn’t be an understatement then?”
“Somewhere along the lines of ecstatic,” she replied,
cuddling against his chest.
“I can definitely live with that.”
The End.
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