fanfic_name = Friendly fire

chapter = 2

author = Jo Anderson

Rating = O18

Type = Alternative Universe

fanfic = Disclaimer: I don’t own Robotech or any of the characters. This was only written for fun

Author’s note: This fic takes place during the missing years of reconstruction and it’s an AU, so I hope you like it but I must warn you this came up to my mind after watching certain tv show too many times, so I can guarantee that this will be full of surprises.

Reviews: please, I’ll be waiting them. It’s what keeps me writing.

To: Carla, honey this was your b-day present and I promise I will finish this ASAP. Special thanks to Dwaparsnip, thank you so much for been my beta and for all the patience and work that it takes to fix my fanfics, I really appreciate it. To every one who takes the time to read it and to everyone on the DYRL forum.

Friendly Fire

Chapter 2

“Tension”

The feel of her bare, soft skin against his it felt better than what he had ever imagined. It felt so good to have her in his arms, to have her, she was perfect, everything was perfect. They were moving together in a rhythm that it seemed natural for them. They had become one and he felt he was reaching the edge.

He looked down at her, still unable to believe what was happening; she looked at him only for a second and then closed her eyes and gave herself up to the feeling. It surprised him how much she trusted him and that just made him want her even more, he had never realized how much he wanted her until now; so he gave himself up to the feeling too, to this unwritten choreography that their bodies seemed to know better than themselves and that caused him to feel a sensation that was better than anything he had ever feel. It was a feeling beyond the physical sensation that was related to the moment they were sharing and he didn’t understand what it was.

The soft moans of Lisa made him open his eyes again, the rhythm that they shared had increased both in speed and intensity and as he felt her nails clench in his back he knew that they both were reaching the point of no return. She dragged him were he wanted go, even closer to her and he didn’t know how much longer he could hold on. Suddenly she tensed and a suffocated moan escaped from her throat. The sound of Lisa moaning his name as she clenched her nails harder on his back again while she let herself fall into the sensation that ran across her entire body. He knew that it was time to let himself fall into the same sensation; he could feel how the electric shivers were taking control of his entire body when suddenly a sound got his attention, a steady annoying metallic sound.

Rick woke up and with his right hand punched and smashed the alarm clock and cursed it. It was the third time that he woke up this week with the same dream and the third alarm clock that he broke. He got up annoyed, turned on the cold water in his shower and stepped into it without even taking his pyjamas off. He just stood there, letting the cold water cool him off and wash the dream away.

He really needed these dreams to stop. He couldn’t wake up every morning and take a cold shower, that just wasn’t right, it was worst than if he was back in boot camp. Finally he turned off the cold water and walked outside the shower annoyed, shaking from head to toes, but all he did was grab a towel and dry himself.

“Nice way to start your day Hunter” he said to himself annoyed and started to put his uniform on.

When he was fully dressed he went to the kitchen and made himself a coffee as he was still shaking because of the cold shower. He checked the flight assignments and prayed for Lisa not to be on air traffic control today, but of course today wasn’t his lucky day.

Things between them after what happened “that day” had been tense, not that anyone else noticed that something was odd between them, but he could feel it. There was this tension in the air, this weird energy between them that on one side dragged him towards her and at the same time made him want to run away as fast as he could from her. At least they hadn’t seen each other too often this week, only once in a meeting to plan an operation and with his luck it has been with all the high ranking officers of the base. And that was a good thing for him, that way he was forced to keep his mind on the Op and not have flashbacks of his dreams. But to his misfortune he could not bring the entire staff of high ranking officers in his cockpit every time he flew a mission and Lisa was the one the other side of the commo screen.

Rick had never enjoyed hearing Lisa at the other side of the commo screen to be honest. At the beginning it was because he found her annoying, later it was because every time they talked it seemed like the entire RDF was paying attention to what they said in order to feed the rumour mill. But now, right now, hearing Lisa created a physical reaction in his body. And not a good one if you are wearing a suit that is designed to tighten on your body so you can resist increasing g-forces

So here he was heading towards his plane, in a bad mood again. He had even screamed to a poor rookie about some stupid thing that to be honest had no importance. And Max once again had given him a clap in the shoulder and told him “Boss if you need to talk you know where to find me”. What on Earth could he say to Max? That he’s been dreaming of Lisa, and not in a pure friendly way, but more like in an X-rated way. He just shook his head and climbed into his Vt.

“Air Control, this is Skull one requesting permission to take off” he said automatically while he finished the security check of his Vt.

“Skull one this is air control. You got permission to take off on runway 3-B, the coordinates for your mission will be delivered to you once you’re in the air” Said the cool voice of Lisa on the other side of the screen, making him jump, even when he knew that she would be on air traffic today it still had taken him off guard.

“Roger that air control. We’re flying recon today is that correct?” He asked after clearing his throat, trying to sound as professional as he could.

“Affirmative, just recon over Antarctica we just need thermal images of possible Zentraedi activity” Lisa said calmly, looking at him straight in the eyes through the commo screen, like always. ”How does she always manage to be cool and in control?” Rick thought to himself and shook his head.

“Just fly by and take a look, roger that Lisa” he said a little bit more relaxed, mostly because he had already started the engines of his Vt and was about to take off. Being in the air always calmed him down.

“You are clear to take off” Lisa said and gave a pause “and be careful, Rick.”

“I’m always careful Lisa” he said and winked at her instinctively while his plane took off.

Had he winked at her? Lisa asked to herself after they broke communication. “It was probably just something in his eye” she said to herself while she sat at her control station. She repeated the last phrase in her mind one more time; she needed to convince herself that there was nothing else behind that.

The last days after “the incident” the promotion days have been a torture to her. She had found herself dreaming and daydreaming about him, and just the fact of remembering those dreams made her flush as red as a neon sign. She had been avoiding him as much as she could but at the same time trying not to, so he wouldn’t think that something weird was happening. In addition to that she buried herself in work. She was working like three times more than what she should in order to not think about him and it worked in a way. She didn’t think about him except when she checked the flight schedule, or planned an Op, or watched a Vt, or watched the skies, or entered her house and watched her couch…

That couch, the couch on her living room had become a forbidden territory, every time she looked at it she couldn’t stop remembering what had happened there, but that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was that she started to think about what ifs…what would have happened if they didn’t stop the kiss? What if they have been more intoxicated? What would have happened then? And then she started to daydream, she imagined that Rick returned to her place and grabbed her in his arms and kissed her, a kiss filled with passion and desire, and then everything was just too fast and too sensual. They tangled their hands in each others bodies unable to break apart, the attraction between them was just to strong, too powerful to do anything other than surrender to it. They fell onto the couch clutching at each other and he looked at her, with his baby blue eyes that were now a little bit darker because of his burning desire. He just looked at her with tenderness and smiled at her the sweetest smile she had ever seen from him and softly kissed her on the forehead, then trailed his lips all the way down to her mouth with soft, tender kisses. Before kissing her again he gently moved one of his hands from her hip to her face and caressed her tenderly, while looking deep into her eyes as if he was asking permission to make his next move. She didn’t need to say the words, she just looked into his eyes and he understood that what he wanted was the same as she wanted; to reassure him that she was sure of what her eyes were telling him she placed her hands behind his neck and dragged him towards her, and kissed him deeply. While they kissed, his hand moved slowly away from her face, to her neck and then to the collar of her jacket. He looked at her in the eyes one more time and she knew then that there was no one else on his mind, that she was all that he wanted, she was the only one that he wanted. It was just the two of them, together, so close that she couldn’t tell were her body ended and his began, just the anticipation of what his next move would be made her arch her back.

She still could feel the electric shivers run through her body; she bit her lower lip in order to get back to reality. She couldn’t be having those “dreams” while she was on duty. She was working!. She thanked God that Claudia wasn’t in the Command room, because she probably would have noticed the tension between her and Rick and it would probably take Claudia just a second to realize what it was, that was one of the reasons why she had been avoiding her as someone avoids the plague.

The only time that she saw Rick this week had been during a briefing to plan new operations with the high ranking officers of the base. She had never been more nervous in a briefing before, lucky for her Rick didn’t sit in front of her or next to her. He sat a couple of seats away from her, but just the fact of hearing him talk slowly, with that deep voice that he used every time that he was trying to explain something or make a point in front of other people. It just affected her, it just made her remember the way that he had looked into her eyes and asked her “What do you want me to do?” She could deal with the fact of hearing him talk on the commo screen, she was used to that. As a matter of fact watching him on the commo screen after the “incident” didn’t have any effect on her, but hearing him there live, talking with that deep voice, that was a different thing. She had lost track of the meeting several times.

“Back to the work Hayes” she said to herself and started reading some papers that were on her desk and by the time she finished reading them she had completely forgot about Rick. As matter of fact she had never felt happier to read the notification that she was ordered to re-qualify her status as an active for combat officer, because there was no other way to keep her mind busy than preparing herself for active field combat, it had worked for her on the academy and it will work again.

Lisa went to the firing rage. It had been a long time since she had last time fired a weapon so she figured it would be a nice place to start. So she went to the gunny in charge and asked for a weapon and booth to start practicing. She used to go hunting with her grandfather in England when her mother was still alive, not that she ever hunted anything but she spent the time his grandfather and learn how to shoot. Lisa took the gun in her hands, and checked it again to ensure that everything was in place. Then she left it on the bar in front of her and placed the safety glasses on, took the gun in her hands again and looked at the target and fired. After she fired the entire round she pulled the button to retrieve the target sheet.

She couldn’t avoid a frown when she had the paper in her hands. What happened to her good shot? She set up another target sheet and was about to load her gun again when she noticed that she had forgot to bring extra ammo. So she left her gun on the bar and was leaving her booth when she crashed against someone.

“I’m sorry” She and the other person said at the same time.

“Rick?” she said surprised.

“Lisa” he said after hearing her saying his name.

“What are you doing here?” she asked uncomfortably. She wasn’t expecting to find him here, after all she had came here to not to think about him, and yet here he was.

“I came to practice; I was ordered to re-qualify for active field duty. What are you doing here?” he asked nervously, of all people that he would have expected to find there Lisa wasn’t on that list. And now that weird aura that had surrounded them during last week was present once again.

“The same thing” she said and couldn’t avoid a smile because of the irony. “Actually it’s funny that we both were ordered to re-qualify”. She said.

“Maybe they don’t want the captains to become soft.”

“You’re afraid that you will end up like Maistroff?” she asked teasing him. Feeling more relaxed, maybe this was all that they needed to set things back to normal, just to run into each other and be themselves again.

“Very funny” he said and looked at the target sheet that was over Lisa’s bar. “So how are you doing?” he said and went to pick up the sheet but Lisa moved faster and took it in her hands. “Is it that bad?” he asked with a grin in his face. Suddenly the weird aura started to fade; maybe this was all that they need for things to get back to normal.

“It’s been while ok, and no it’s not that bad” She said crossing her arms.

“I believe you” he said with a smile in his face. The fact that she always wanted to be the best amused him it “after all you were first in your class.”

“What about you, how are you doing?” she asked challenging him.

“I haven’t shot yet” he said.

“Then be my guest” she said and pushed the button and the target sheet was put in place.

“Has anyone told you that you are really competitive?” he said with a grin.

“I don’t like to compete but I do enjoy wining, that’s why I always win” she said raising an eyebrow.

“You can’t win them all” he said smirking to her. He loaded his weapon and shot. When he finished he pushed the button and the target sheet came to his hands. “Not bad 3 in the chest 2 in the head” he said with a wining smile. “Now it’s your turn”.

“You’re showing off” She said without even looking at him. After picking up some of his ammo she reloaded her gun and fired. When she finished she frowned again, she knew he had won this time.

“You’re killing that poor trigger, that’s why you aren’t hitting the target” he stated arms crossed over his chest a couple steps behind her.

“Maybe you were just lucky last time” she said raising an eyebrow.

“Right” he said and loaded his gun and shot again. Unfortunately for Lisa this time his shooting was way much better than the last. “Do you really call this luck?” he said smirking while he showed her his target sheet.

“Fine, you can shoot and hit the target, I’m impressed Captain” she said passing next to him while she loaded her gun one more time. “So can I” she stated and fired again.

When the target sheet arrived in her hands she was starting to get upset, even through this one was better than the last one, she knew she could fire better and it was pissing her off that he was smirking and telling her what was wrong with the way she fired.

“The problem is this” he said and stood behind her just when she had finished loading her gun to shoot again “First, be gentle with the trigger” he said and placed his left hand over hers and made her release the gun a little bit “And your posture is too rigid, let it go” he said and with his right hand he shook her shoulders.

“Since when you became a shooting expert?” she asked without taking her eyes away from the target.

“Since I shoot better than you” he said with a grin. He knew she getting more and more upset with every comment he made and he could barely hide his smile as he stepped ahead to get even closer to her “What’s your target the head or the heart?” he asked almost whispering in her ear.

“The head, it’s faster and safer” she said and swallowed hard, he was invading her space and she couldn’t figure out if that was a good or bad thing.

“Rational as always Captain” he said and couldn’t avoid a smile. “So if you are going for the head then you should shift your weight, your hip is too forward” after saying that he place one hand in her hip and move it backwards. The moment he placed his hand on her hip, he knew he should have never done that. They were too close, and it seemed as if the booth was getting smaller and smaller and at the same time it started to fade away, all he could see or feel was her.

Was it just her or was the booth getting smaller and smaller and Rick was getting closer and closer? She could feel his hand placed on her right hip, and she could feel the heat that was flowing from his palm to her body even through the fabric of her uniform.

She turned her face to face him and say something, but all she could do was turn in his direction and freeze when she saw his eyes. She opened her mouth trying to articulate a word but words didn’t come to her mouth and she felt her knees turn weak because of the proximity. She wasn’t sure if she could remain standing on her own feet and she finally ended up resting her weight against him.

The feel of her breath against his neck, gave him goosebumps on the back of his neck and he instinctively pressed his hand on her hip harder, bringing her closer to him, and letting go his other hand from hers and from the gun and placing it on her other hip. Then he slowly turned her so she could face him, he never moved his eyes from her lips, he wanted so much to kiss her, to explore those perfect sweet lips of hers.

She felt the pressure of his hands on her hips trying to make her turn in his direction, so she carefully left her gun on the bar in front of her. Once she had done that she placed her hands in his arms and took a step back bringing him with her until they collided against the bar. He bent down towards her, looking for her mouth and, for Lisa, it was as if she was being drawn towards him, she wanted to kiss him so badly that it itched. Then he stopped for a second and slowly removed her safety glasses. Lisa just smiled at him and pulled his over his head. Only then he continued to move, to cover the inch or so that separated their lips but which seemed like a mile, their lips where barely touching when Lisa’s pager started to ring. The sound surprised her so much that she couldn’t avoid a jump and the magic of the moment was broken.

She cursed the pager and got away from Rick, sliding between his arms. She checked the message and was glad and mad at the same time, she had to leave which probably was the best thing that could happen. She turn into Rick’s direction who was resting his weight on his hands where he had them placed against the walls of the booth.

“I have to go” she said in a barely audible voice.

“Duty calls” he replied not even turning in her direction, his eyes were fixed on the walls.

“Yes, the admiral wants to see me” she said and remained silent for a while, unable to figure out what to say or what to do. “See you tomorrow” she said casually.

“Sure” he said only turning his head towards her.

“Bye” she said with a polite smile. And started to walk away.

“Bye” he answered and then turned his head back to wall. He closed his eyes when he heard the sound of her footsteps fade away.

What the hell was wrong with him? He asked to himself, he had almost kissed her again. But he couldn’t control himself, just the fact of having her so close to him triggered all these sensations in him. His blood seemed to burn him from within and his heart was pounding so fast in his chest. He closed his eyes, trying to vanquish the memory away, trying to stop the urge that he was feeling for Lisa right now, but it was impossible. It was impossible for him to let go, and he knew that after having her so close in his arms again not even a cold shower will work.

Lisa was reading the latest reports of the day in her office. If she had been working a lot lately after what had happened yesterday now she was literally buried in work. So now she was in her office with Kim and Sammie planning a new operation.

“I think we should send Skull there, I mean Miriya is still respected among the Zentraedi” Kim said.

“Great idea Kim, Miriya can be the liaison with a few of the malcontents and sending the CAG there will leave Leonard happy” Lisa said.

“Maybe you should go, Rick has never been good with diplomacy” Kim said.

“Actually I think you will have to go. Rick requested permission to be stationed at New Los Angeles base for a week or as long as it takes to check things there now that he is the CAG.” Sammie said.

“What? What are you talking about?” Lisa asked surprised.

“I just got the notification from Admiral Gloval’s office that he will leave first thing in morning for New Los Angeles.” Sammie said confused.

“You didn’t know about it?” asked Kim who had noticed how Lisa’s face had turned livid.

“Of course I didn’t know about it, this came from Gloval’s office?” Lisa asked.

“Yes, Lisa I just got the notification” Sammie said and handled her a folder.

“This is great, this is just great” Lisa said and stood up with the folder in her hands.

“Where are you going?” asked Kim.

“I will not tolerate that he bypass my authority, I’m in charge here! And I have to find out that my CAG is leaving the day before he leaves” Lisa almost yelled.

“But he…” Sammie was saying but she remained silent after Kim’s killer look.

“You’re dismissed we can finish this tomorrow” Lisa said when she was already at the door. After saying that she left her office, slamming the door.

“Poor Rick” Kim said.

“Yep, I definitely wouldn’t like to be in his shoes” Sammie said while she picked up her folders to leave Lisa’s office.

Lisa knocked loudly on the door of Rick’s house, she was beyond mad. She had both her jaw and the folder in her arms tightened.

“Yeah?” Rick said when he opened the door and saw Lisa standing there “Lisa, what are you doing here?” He managed to articulate after seeing her face, she probably had found out that he was leaving.

“I need to talk to you” she said coldly.

“Come in, sorry for the mess” he said stepping away from the door to let her in.

“Don’t worry this isn’t a courtesy visit” she said hardly.

“So what bringings you here?” he said scratching his head, he knew perfectly well why she was here.

“You know perfectly well why I’m here. Would you mind explaining to me what this is?” she said and hardly pressed the folder against his chest.

“Lisa I..” he was about to say but she interrupted him.

“You what? You decided that the opinion of your direct superior officer didn’t matter?”

“It’s not that. The New Los Angeles base needs help with the pilots and I’m the CAG in case you’ve forgotten” Rick said starting to lose his temper; he didn’t want to explain to her his reason for leaving

“No I haven’t forgotten that, but it seems that you forgot that I’m your superior officer. You deliberately went over my head.”

“I didn’t” he was saying but she interrupted him again.

“Yes you did, you broke the chain of command and went straight to Gloval and I do not appreciate it.”

“Well excuse me for trying to do my job.”

“You know damn well, as I do, that this has nothing to do with doing your job.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You know perfectly well what I’m talking about” Lisa stated and crossed her arms and looked at him straight in the eyes waiting for an answer.

“What do you want me to say Lisa?” He asked raising his hands, exasperated.

“The truth” She answered.

“Fine, yes I bypass you because I didn’t want to see you after what happened yesterday.”

“I can’t believe this” Lisa said shaking her head.

“Well excuse me if I’m not as cold blooded as you are, ok? But all the things that happened since the promotion day, they just aren’t right and I need time.

“And do you think that I believe that things are right?” she asked looking at him upset. “But we made it clear that we aren’t going to let this get between our friendship.”

“Well that’s exactly what I’m trying to do, save our friendship” He said upset.

“Nice way to save it, running away and bypassing me.”

“You wouldn’t understand me even if I told you, so we should leave this here ok? The situation is not easy for me period.” He said and turned his back to her.

“What is that supposed to mean?” She asked in disbelief.

“Lisa I’m a man ok, and you say it better than me. I’m not as cool and in control as you are. That’s why I need time to cool off” He said and turned in her direction.

Lisa just looked at him and looked at the ceiling to then cover her face with her hands in exasperation.

“This absolutely fantastic, so now because I’m a woman I’m not supposed to have a problem with what happened?”

“It’s different for you.”

“Different? Different how?” she said and got closer to him.

“Just different ok, I’m a man, I have hormones” He said and started to pace around her. “there are things happening that I can’t control, I just can’t and I can’t erase what happened from my head either, so I’m stuck. I can’t handle things as easy as you can.”

“You really think this has been easy for me?” she asked and looked at him with a threatening look. “Well I got news for you, it hasn’t. I had trouble focusing on work, on sleep, I can’t shake the feeling of what happened that day out of away from my head, God I can’t even sit in my own damn couch because I…”Lisa was saying when suddenly Rick grabbed her in is arms.

“Shut up, just shut up” he barely articulated and kissed her, deeply with all the desire that he had been holding in all these days.

She was caught by surprise by this sudden impulse of his, she was petrified but he was kissing her with so much need, with so much intensity that she was sure that her heart had never beat so fast and so hard in all her life. There was only one thing that she could do and that was kiss him back.

“This is what I was talking about when I said that there were things that I couldn’t control” he said when they broke the kiss and rested his forehead on hers without opening their eyes.

“Well you certainly made a point” Lisa said still trying to catch her breath; eyes closed, her forehead against him. “But I wasn’t lying when I said that it hasn’t been easy for me” she said and opened her eyes and looked at him. “Because it hasn’t, because I can’t stop wanting to do this” she said and kissed him back the same way that he had kissed her.

He kissed her back and pulled her closer to him, grabbing her by the waist with one hand and leaving one in her face. She felt so good in his arms; all he wanted to do was to hold her tight and never let go. He lowered his hand from her waist to her hip and pulled her even closer, until there was no space between them.

“I think…” Rick said with a deep voice but was unable to finish.

“We shouldn’t be doing this” Lisa said with her lips still touching his.

“This isn’t right” Rick added and breathing against her neck, trying to decide if he should kiss her there or not.

“We should stop” Lisa said in his ear while she ran her hands trough his hair.

“If you tell me to stop I will” Rick could barely articulate while he kissed her again.

“Will you?” She asked voice faltering, taking his face in her hands and looking into his eyes. “Will you stop if asked you to?”

“Will you ask me to stop?” Rick said looking at her intensely, desperately. He wanted her so much that it was killing him, but if she asked him to stop he would.

She held his gaze, looked at him deeply as if she was searching for something and then she just surrendered. She surrendered to his magnetic blue eyes, to their intensity, to the desire that they emanated and that was melting her. Lisa kissed him again, kissed him as if life was trapped in his mouth and she was dying, when the truth was that she had never felt more alive in her life.

And that was it. He took her his arms and pulled her closer to him again until there was no space between them. He lifted her from the floor still kissing her and started to lead them to his bedroom. Nothing would stop them, the world could collapse outside, the Zentraedi could attack again, it could be the end of the world but nothing would stop them, nothing.

They fell onto his bed, hands tangled in each other’s bodies, desperate to explore, to touch each other even through the clothes. It was as if their bodies had been expecting this moment for a life time, they were moving as if they had done this before, as if it was natural for them. They seemed to know what the other one want, where to touch, where to kiss and what to do; the feeling was so intoxicating, so powerful that neither of them knew how much they could resist it and the same time they couldn’t let it go, they couldn’t stop searching for each other, couldn’t stop the need to be drawn into the other.

They were melting into one, skin against skin, moving as if they were one, feeling what the other felt at the same time. A sensation that neither of them had ever felt before, a sensation so powerful that they felt the need to touch, to feel the other to hold on to this physical bond that was driving them across a new world of sensations. Just with a quick look into each other eyes, the connection was beyond a physical one and all the sensations that they were feeling just raised, it increased to the point that they just couldn’t take it any more, until they were consumed by it.

Rick was laying sideways looking at her, still unable to process what had happened. She was there with her eyes close, laying on her back more beautiful that he could ever remember seeing her. Slowly she turned in his direction and opened her eyes, she looked at him for a minute and then smiled and covered her face with her hands.

“What?” he asked amused by her reaction. He brought her closer to him and kissed her hair.

“I can’t…”she said and giggled. “I can’t believe that we just…” she couldn’t finish, she felt too ashamed to finish the sentence.

“I know” he said unable to erase the smile from his face.

“I have never done this” she said and then nervously added “Not this…I mean this, I have never…” she tried to say but just couldn’t find the words and realized that she was turning redder with every word she said.

“I know what you mean Lisa” He said and put one hand on her face to calm her. “I never had friends with benefits either, if you can call it that” he said unsure if the last words he said were the right ones.

“This is so embarrassing” she said covering her face one more time.

“Well at least it’s me, not some random guy from a bar” he said.

“I will never…” she protested and looked at him and found out that he was laughing.

“I was joking Lisa” he said. They remained in silence looking into each other eyes.

“I better go” she finally said avoiding his gaze.

“Hey” he said and touched her face to make her stop. “Do you…” he asked and this time he was the one who couldn’t find the words.

“No Rick I don’t regret what happened, it’s just that I need to think, I need to…and you’re travelling tomorrow morning and it’s late, I should be going” she said slowly, looking at him from time to time.

“I don’t regret it either” he stated, looking at her in the eyes so she could see that he was honest. “But I don’t know. What’s going to happen now?” he asked confused.

“I don’t know” she said honestly.

“Don’t you think we should talk about it?” he asked unsure.

“Yes, but not now because right now, well right now we aren’t thinking” she said with a knowing smile.

“Yeah” he said and smiled at her too.

“So maybe this trip of yours will help us” she said and sat up on the bed covering herself with the sheet.

“See that trip wasn’t such a bad thing” he said with a grin.

“Yeah right” she said rolling her eyes.

“So are we ok?” he asked a little bit nervously.

“I guess” she said looking at him.

“I hope so, I don’t want to…” he said and caressed her right cheek tenderly.

“Everything will be fine” she said and smiled at him. Then she moved closer to him and kissed him on the forehead. “Now I really have to go”.

“I know” he said looking at her.

“Would you mind?” she asked smiling shyly.

“What?” he asked confused.

“Turn around so I can…” she said and gestured that she wanted to get up from the bed.

“Oh yeah sure, sorry” he said and flushed.

One week later.

“Hi” said Lisa opening the door of her house.

“Hi” said Rick smiling at her.

“Come in” she said and moved away form the door. “So how was your stay in new LA?” she asked while she walked towards the living room.

“Fine, how was your trip to South America?” he asked while he sat on the couch.

“Fine, I mean besides Leonard it was fine” she said and sat in front of him.

“Is it me or have you got a tan?” he asked, raising and eyebrow.

“Maybe, I spent most of the time in the field” she answered with a smile.

“So you got a tan and I got to spend all my time in an office checking paperwork” he complained shaking his head.

“The price to pay for becoming important in the RDF” she said teasingly.

“Right, the price to pay for becoming Captain” he said sarcastically.

“I can’t complain. Kim and I even found the time to have some Caipiriñas in Brazil” She said with a grin.

“Are you taunting me Captain?” he asked crossing his arms.

“Maybe” she said with an innocent smile.

They remained in an awkward silence until Rick finally spoke.

“So?” he asked.

“So?” she asked without looking at him.

“Did you find time to think?” he asked.

“I did, and you?”

“Me too” he said and started to play with his hands nervously. “And?”

“And” she said thoughtfully “well we both leave pretty clear that our friendship is very important for both of us.”

“Of course, you…our friendship is very important to me. I don’t know if could have made it through this last year without you” he said avoiding her gaze, feeling a little bit embarrassed for what he had said.

“You know it’s the same for me, you are very important to me too” she said and avoided his gaze too.

“Thanks” he said and smiled at her. “That’s why I don’t want us to tear apart because of what happened.”

“Me neither, I mean we are both grown ups and well one thing lead to another” she said and felt how her cheeks were turning red.

“It’s not like there was much to do, everything that was happening between us after promotion day was really affecting us” he said very softly.

“I know, all that unresolved sexual tension was really affecting us” Lisa said and stood up.

“Unresolved sexual tension?” Rick asked raising an eyebrow. “Where did you come up with those terms?” he asked amused and surprised.

“Just say that I used to watch too much Tv before entering the Academy, anyway my point is that it was really affecting us and…” she said but couldn’t end the sentence.

“And we…well I guess we dealt with it the only way we could” he said feeling that he was turning redder with every word he said.

“I guess so too” she said and turned her back to him, took a deep breath and then turned back to face him. “So I guess that now that we released all the “tension” things can get back to normal.”

“I guess” he said and stood up too and started to pace nervously. “I guess now everything will be as it used to be.”

“Me too” she said and looked at the floor. “Will things turn back to be the way they used to be?” she asked to herself, watching how Rick paced in her living room like he was a cat in a cage.

Rick ran a hand through his hair and finally said what he was thinking. “What if the “tension” appears again?” he asked so fast that Lisa could barely understand what he said, but it took one look at him to figure it out what he had asked and she couldn’t avoid a smile.

“Do you think it will appear again?” she asked unable to hide a grin.

“Well there’s always the chance” he said getting closer to her.

“Maybe you are right. It’s not like we have too much free time to meet other people.”

“Practically the only contact with people that we have is with each other.”

“I know and well, what happened the other day. Well it was something pretty hormonal, I mean we had been working so hard lately I guess all that tension…well it got expressed in what happened.”

“That’s my point, we have to deal with so much pressure and to have to add to all that all this “Unresolved sexual tension” as you call it is just too much, but I’m not sure if we could help it I mean it was pretty clear that we can’t really control it.”

“I know, what happened was…well uncontrollable” Lisa said and bit her lower lip.

“More than uncontrollable, the way we felt…how things happened, everything was so intense and unexpected that I can’t possibly assure it won’t happen again” he said and released a little bit the collar of his shirt.

“So what did you suggest we should do?” she asked taking a step back from him, she felt inevitably drawn to move towards him, the way he was talking, the tone he was using. She better step back, it wasn’t safe to be that close to him.

“Well it seems to be that this is a problem with only one possible solution” he said and once again got closer to her, until they were almost nose to nose.

“Really?” she asked unable to hide a grin.

“I can only think in one way to solve this problem.”

“Just one solution to solve this problem and preserve our friendship?”

“Yeah, and well I’m willing to make some sacrifices in order to preserve our friendship, Captain” he said with a grin looking into her eyes.

“So thoughtful of you Captain, I’m really moved.”

“A man got to do what a man got to do” he said shrugging his shoulders and smiling at her.

“So are you suggesting that in order to preserve our friendship we should…?” She asked raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms.

“I’m just saying that we should release the “tension” every time it appears, Captain” he said looking at her intensely.

Lisa couldn’t avoid a smile and bit her lower lip. “Well since we are talking about saving our friendship” she said looking at him innocently.

“That’ my point, save our friendship” he said looking at her with the same innocent eyes that she had when she looked at him.

“And if you are willing to make some sacrifices then I guess I should make some too” she said and this time she was the one who moved closer to him.

“Would you be willing?” he asked and couldn’t avoid putting one of his hands on her waist. He had been dying to touch her again ever since he had walked into her house. Actually he’d been dying to touch her ever since she had left his place, but the problem wasn’t touching her, the problem was, would he be able to stop now that he touched her again?

“Maybe” she said and paused to look into his eyes, those deep blue eyes that she had never seen until promotion day. “Maybe not” She added and slid away from him.

Rick was taken by surprise by her words, but most of all by her action. It almost hurt not to feel her close to him, he search for her in the room, for her eyes. And he finally found her just a couple steps ahead of him, with a huge grin on her face and he couldn’t avoid a smile.

“I was kidding the other night when I said that I knew what buttons to push to make you do something. I never was really sure about it until now, your face was really priceless” Lisa said with an evil smile.

“I think” he said and took a step forward and grabbed the belt of her pants and bring her closer to him until their hips collide against each other. “That I also know what buttons to push” He said raising an eyebrow.

“You do?” she asked in disbelief and before she could say nothing else he kissed her on the neck.

“Rick” she barely articulated while he kissed her.

“You are not the only one who knows…” Rick was saying when he suddenly stopped and moved Lisa’s t-shirt to expose her shoulder. “Is this a tan line?” he asked and looked at her in the eyes with a smile.

“It could be” she answered with a grin.

“You are so going to pay for this; you were tanning while I was trapped in an office buried in paperwork!”

“It’s not what you…” Lisa was saying but Rick kissed her again on the neck and started to trail kisses along the tan mark. “Rick” Lisa giggled because he was tickling while he kissed her on the neck.

“Not a single word Captain” he said and looked at her in the eyes smiling and then kissed her passionately while she pushed him onto the couch.

To be continued….

State = Continuará/To Be Continue

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email = jo_anderson19ATyahoo.com