Page 262 of Every Almost

A woman's voice, enormous, and under it a rhythm like a hammer. It was coming out of the Observation Room's own speakers, the ones that had never, in Reyna's memory, played anything at all.

Then Reyna caught movement from where Charlie was standing and watched her toss her datapad onto the bench.

And start dancing.

"Charlie, what are you?—"

"Comeon, Reyna," Charlie interrupted, spinning now. "It's Whitney. You cannot stand still to Whitney, it's not physically possible. Dance with me. Get your wiggles out."

"Get mywhatout?"

"Your wiggles." Charlie kept going. "Your pacing-in-front-of-a-viewport-while-your-hair-falls-out wiggles. Dance it out!"

"This is completely?—"

"Ridiculous?Yes." Charlie grabbed her hands. "That's the point. Now dance."

Reyna pulled back.

But Charlie held on, and Reyna knew that grip. She had watched it applied to a dying engine, and a flooded bay, and a Coalition supply requisition, not to mention every immovable object this universe had put in front of Charlie Wickett in the last few months, and it had never, once, let go.

And right now, that grip was not going to let go of her.

"Come on, come on, come on?—"

Reyna laughed. A real one. She heard it happen and couldn't believe it. It came out of her before she could even have a chance to stop it. But this wasn't the captain's laugh, the one she used professionally. It was the other one, the one that seemed to only show up when Charlie was around. Because she'd discovered that this laugh only belonged to Charlie.

There was a Coalition denial sitting in her chest, a Fleet Admiral three sectors away, and a woman being taken off this ship inside a cycle.

And Reyna Solas stood in the middle of the Observation Room and laughed like an idiot.

"You areinsane," she said.

"Completely!" Charlie was grinning. "Do you know what this song is called?"

Reyna shook her head.

"It's called 'I Wanna Dance with Somebody.' So, can you see my problem? I have a somebody and she'spacing."

Reyna stared at Charlie, feeling the resolve slip.

"Come on, Rey," Charlie pleaded. "Dance with me."

And then Reyna started to dance.

The truth was,she was horrifically bad at it. If the Thriller dance had been any indication, it was evident right now that Reyna was not a dancer. She had attended state functions on nine worlds and could hold a receiving line for three hours without a single misstep, for God's sake. But it turned out that none of that had anything to do with this. She was stiff, and counting, and completely aware of her own arms in a way she hadn't been since she was fourteen.

Charlie didn't care in the slightest.

Charlie grabbed her by both hands and pulled her around in a circle, and then let go and danced aroundher, orbiting her like a small, determined moon, before coming back and taking her hands again. The whole time she was laughing, and Reyna kept going where she was pulled.

"Okay, wait, wait, wait." Charlie was still holding on to her, still moving, and she was grinning like she'd just remembered something. "Here it comes. This part."

"What part?—"

"Just listen."

Reyna listened.