Just Friends by k71

Chapter 4

Lisa awoke early, as usual, and arrived at base long before her scheduled check
in time, as usual. She was sitting in her office, going over the days training
lecture, when Claudia came in with a mischievous smile on her face.

"Hello, Lisa," she said with a devilish glint in her eye.

"Hi Claude," Lisa returned, eyeing her friend suspiciously, "What's up?"

"Gossip. Somebody's got an admirer," Claudia sang. Claudia rarely got excited
about gossip and Lisa was intrigued to see what bit of information her friend
was so eager to share.

"Who?" Lisa asked cautiously. She wanted to hear the latest prattle but didn't
quite trust the look on her friend's face.

"YOU!" Claudia answered gleefully.

"Me? No way, you must have heard wrong."

"Oh no, it's YOU!"

"OK, I'll bite, who is my admirer?" Lisa asked, as if waiting for a punch line.

"Well, I don't know for sure..."

"Uh huh, I thought there was a problem with that story."

"No, really Lisa, The Trio was in the rec last night and Hilly, the girl who
used to work in software maintenance, told them that someone had told her that
they heard some guy asking around about you. They couldn't figure out who it
was, but Hilly's friend said he was VERY cute!"

"No way, I still think they heard wrong. Who would be asking about me?"

"Well I don't know Lisa, it's sort of a secret admirer I guess."

"Yeah right."

"You just wait and see," Claudia continued, "The Trio is on the job to figure it
out."

"Whatever. I'm late for my meeting. I'll see you later, you're giving a lecture
today, right?"

"Yes I am, I'll see you there. Oh, and try to keep your sex appeal under
control now, we don't want ALL of the men going crazy for you."

"GOODBYE, Claudia," Lisa said laughingly, pushing past her and out the door.

Lisa arrived just as the meeting hall was filling up and everyone was getting
settled. As she walked in the door, Rick immediately walked over to her.

"There you are. I've been looking for you," Rick said as he approached her.

"I've been in my office all morning, is anything wrong?" Lisa asked.

"No, it's just this place is packed and I wanted to make sure we got a couple of
seats together."

"OK, lets sit down," Lisa replied. Rick was sure acting strange lately.
Yesterday, he was rushing her out of work, then he was particularly attentive to
her at dinner, and now he was acting like this.

"I had a great time at dinner last night," Rick said as they sat down in the
last two seats available in the front.

"Me, too. The food was really good."

"Yeah, maybe we can try the new Greek place tonight."

"Sounds great," Lisa said, still thinking that something was a little, well, off
with Rick. She let that thought go as the first lecture began.

At lunch, Rick was again acting strange. He suggested that he pick-up sandwiches
for both of them and eat in her office. "We can go over some of the flight ops
reports we're getting behind on," he had explained, "You go on to the office and
I'll meet you there."

She had agreed, although she had never seen Rick Hunter quite so eager to go
over reports before. Oh well, she thought, it would be nice to get caught up on
some of her regular duties.

On the way back to the meeting, Rick and Lisa bumped into Claudia, who was
headed to the lecture hall for her own presentation. The three of them arrived
for the afternoon session a little early. The lecture hall was still almost
empty and there were several groups of people standing around talking.

Rick didn't notice Jeff walk up from behind them until he was already there.

"Hi Lisa! Hi Rick!" Jeff said amicably.

"Hi Jeff," Rick said, trying not to sound too weary. "Do you know Commander
Claudia Grant?"

"No, I've not had the pleasure, it's nice to meet you Commander Grant," Jeff
said as he extended his hand to Claudia, “I’m Captain Jeff Wilson. Please call
me Jeff.”

"Nice to meet you too, Jeff. Please call me Claudia."

"I was looking for you two at lunch," Jeff said, motioning to Rick and Lisa,
then looking at Lisa.

"We had lunch in my office," Lisa told him, "we were trying to catch up on our
regular duties. These lectures have gotten us behind."

"I'm sure," Jeff continued, still looking at Lisa. "Listen some of us are going
out for drinks tonight and I was wondering if you guys would like to join us.
You too, Claudia."

"Oh, thanks, but I've already had a long day, I'm going home after work and soak
in a hot bath," Claudia said.

"Well, Rick and I were planning on dinner, but Rick, I'll let you slide if you
want to go out with the guys," Lisa said, looking at Rick.

"Oh, well, you're invited too, Lisa," Jeff quickly interjected.

"I'll take a rain check- but thanks for inviting me," Lisa said. Probably due
to her 'ice queen' reputation, Lisa didn't get invited out much with groups of
people besides her small collection of friends. She was pleased to be invited
but thought he was only inviting her out of courtesy.

"I think I'll take a rain check, too," said Rick.

"OK, well I'll talk to you guys later," said Jeff, with noticeable
disappointment, "only a couple days of training to go, huh?"

"Yeah, thank goodness for that," Rick said, meaning it truthfully.

"Yes," Lisa agreed, "and Rick and I only have to be here one more day."

"Oh really?" Jeff asked with surprise.

"On Saturday, the last day, the training will be given by some of the original
Zentradi defectors. It should be quite interesting," said Lisa.

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure it will be," Jeff said with a strangely downcast look on his
usually cheerful face.

"Well, I'll see you later," Jeff said to Lisa, Claudia and Rick as he returned
to his seat.

“She turned me down,” Jeff said to Chad as he returned to his seat and everyone
began to settle down for the meeting.

“Well, you DID ask her and Hunter to join a group of us. Did she realize you
were asking her out?” Chad asked.

“I dunno, but if she was interested at all, she would have wanted to go out with
us, right?”

“Maybe not, maybe she’s not comfortable in crowds.”

Jeff sighed. “Yeah, maybe. Should I still ask her to dinner? I mean, I was
going to try to catch up to her at lunch and talk to her more, but she had a
lunch Meeting with Hunter in her office.”

“With Hunter?” Chad asked, “Are you SURE they’re just friends?”

“I told you…” Jeff began.

“Yeah, I know, you asked him.”

“Yeah, although she did say something about having dinner plans with him
tonight,” Jeff added as he pondered Chad’s pervious statement.

“Hmmm. Don’t you think that’s a little suspicious given the fact he knew you
wanted to ask her out?” said Chad thoughtfully.

“Well, maybe. But, hey, he already gave me the go ahead to ask her out. Maybe
he still just doesn’t trust me.”

“Maybe. Or maybe he changed his mind.”

“Maybe, but it’s too late now. I’m thinking tomorrow is the last chance I’ll
have to see her for awhile. I’m just going to ask her straight out for a date.
What have I got to lose? If she says yes, we go out, I dazzle her with charm and
call her again when my transfer to Monument comes in. If I get the embarrassing
turn down, I don’t have to see her again for a long time.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Chad said in a whisper as the meeting was called to order.

Immediately after the last meeting, Rick again planned to rush Lisa to dinner,
but she was talking to Claudia. They were standing close and speaking low.
Rick got the idea they were having one of their ‘girl talks’, so he stood near
the exit and gave them their space.

Lisa noticed Rick stand back from them and said, “Rick, why don’t I meet you on
the forward deck in thirty minutes. I’m going to walk back to my office and
change, then we can go to dinner.”

“Sounds great. See ya in thirty,” Rick said, waiving as he exiting the
conference hall.

Claudia had quickly walked up to Lisa after the meeting adjourned and started
talking to her teasingly. “Well, I guess we know who your admirer is now,” she
said to Lisa, keeping her voice low.

“What are you talking about? Who?” Lisa said innocently.

“Come on. Captain Wilson. Jeff. He was coming on to you. He asked you out.”

Lisa looked at her with wide eyes, “No he wasn’t! No he didn’t!”

“Yes he WAS and yes, he DID. I was standing right beside you! He asked you to
drinks!”

“I don’t think so, Claudia. He and Rick have been getting to know each other
all week I’m sure he wanted to get Rick to go out with him and his friends. He
just wants to hear all the old fly-boy stories from the SDF1. He simply
included me -and you- to be polite. He couldn’t very well ignore us when we
were standing right there.”

“I don’t think so Lisa, he barely took his eyes off you the whole time. I
noticed him looking at you during lectures, too. Didn’t you even notice?” said
Claudia. She couldn’t believe how dense her intelligent friend could be
sometimes.

“No, I did not,” returned Lisa, exasperated.

No, of course you didn’t notice him, Claudia thought, because you were looking
at Rick most of the time.

“Did you EVEN notice how gorgeously handsome he is?” asked Claudia, not willing
to let it drop easily.

“I guess he’s attractive,” Lisa replied, shrugging her shoulders.

Claudia couldn’t take it anymore, “Lisa, I can’t believe you! Don’t tell me
you’re so wrapped up in Rick Hunter that you don’t even NOTICE another
attractive man flirting with you?”

Lisa was taken aback by her friends forceful tone. “Well, for one thing, I’m
still not convinced the guy WAS flirting with me. Besides, Rick and I have
become pretty close these past months. I enjoy spending time with him and we…”

Claudia cut her off, “And you are madly in love with him! Which would not be a
problem if you would TELL HIM HOW YOU FEEL!” Claudia said rather loudly.

“It’s not that easy Claude,” Lisa said, trying to keep her friend’s voice down,
“We’re becoming good friends. I don’t want to jeopardize our friendship at this
point by bringing up that fact.”

“Oh, the little fact that you love him. Oh sure, why would you tell him that?”
Claudia said, shaking her head with aggravation.

“Claude, really, if he felt the same way, it would be different. But he’s in
love with Minmei.”

“Come on honey, how do you know for sure that he still loves her?” Claudia said
sympathetically.

“Because he TELLS me. He tells me all the time that he loves her and wants to
be with her, wishes he could see her more often, on and on. I’m basically Rick
Hunter’s love counselor.”

“Oh honey, I’m sorry. Why do you put up with that?”

Lisa looked at the floor before answering. “I don’t know, I guess I like being
the one he confides in. Like I said, we’ve been growing close as friends.
Besides, he doesn’t do it to be cruel- he doesn’t know how I feel. He just
needs someone to talk to about his problems and I want to be that person, even
if he wants to talk about Minmei. That’s what friends are for.”

“Maybe, but you’re going to have to tell him one day. I mean, you can’t live
your life focusing on Rick and ignoring all the other men around you, while he
focuses on Minmei, ignoring you. My God,” Claudia chuckled, “this sounds like
something out of Shakespeare- or one of those really bad TV sitcoms!”

“Let’s go with TV sitcom. In those, the girl usually ends up with her guy. In
Shakespeare, we would all die or commit suicide or something!” Lisa and Claudia
laughed together.

Lisa checked her watch, “Look, I’ve got to meet Rick, be careful going home.”

“OK, go get your Prince Charming,” Claudia said, punching Lisa lightly in the
arm, “But we’re going to talk more about this later.”

Claudia watched Lisa head out the door and disappear down the corridor. She
couldn’t help but worry about her. She was attractive, smart and sweet. She
was a lot of fun, too, for those who got to know her. Unfortunately, she had
built up such an emotional wall around herself it was difficult for other people
to get in.

Part of her cold demeanor was necessary, Claudia realized. As XO, she had a lot
of responsibilities and many lives depended on her dedication to duty. Her
absolute devotion to that duty was one of the many things Claudia admired about
her, but that same attitude also kept many people at bay.

Claudia remembered in the early days on the SDF1, when the only men who dared
approached her were the self-styled playboys. Lisa had smartly turned them all
away and after a while even the most egotistical of men left her alone.

Unfortunately, keeping the playboys away also meant many of the nice guys were
scared off, too. Claudia knew first hand what a caring, loving person Lisa was
inside and had hoped for some time that she would find someone who could take,
and return, all the love Lisa had to offer.

Claudia was glad Lisa and Rick had become close. Lately, Claudia had been
spending a lot of time at her brother’s house, reconnecting with her family.
She adored her sister-in-law and was looking forward to helping out with their
new baby that was on the way. She had originally felt guilty about ignoring her
and Lisa’s friendship, but that guilt was partly relieved when Lisa started
spending time with Rick.

Claudia had long ago saw through their bickering, thinking they were perfect for
each other. When she saw them together, she smiled to herself thinking how
pleased Roy would be about his little brother’s new ‘girlfriend’.

She had always assumed that the relationship would eventually turn romantic. “I
really thought they would have the romance of the century by now,” Claudia
thought wistfully, “if only they weren’t both so stubborn.”

Claudia gathered her paperwork and headed home. “I’m afraid this is going to be
a tedious relationship for some time,” she thought as she left, “I might as well
get ready to deal with it.”

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