fanfic_name = The Promise

chapter = 4

author = LTjg_GT_RDF

Rating = AP

Type = Angst

fanfic = THE PROMISE

CHAPTER FOUR

“I’m hit! I’m hit! I’m going down! Lisa! Help me!”

Lisa was behind Rick in her skin tight white and yellow flight suit. “Eject Rick! Eject! I’ll grab your hand when you come up.”

A huge Zentraedi hand reached out and grabbed Rick’s shot up VT as it was falling and laid it in the palm of his hand. It was Breetai’s hand and he was laughing.

“Say good bye to your precious pilot, Lisa Hayes!”

“Please Breetai. Don’t kill him. He loves me! And I love him! I don’t want to lose him again!”

Exedore joined Breetai.

“Listen to the little Micronian military woman crying like a little human girl!” Exedore said laughing.

Minmei entered the scene. She was Zentraedi size.

“Kill him Breetai! Kill him!”

“Minmei, NO! Rick loved you Minmei!”

“Correct tense, Lisa! Yes he did! He did love me! But he loves you now! He’s going to marry you! What about me? I would have given him everything! I’m a big star! What would you give him Lisa? Another chance to getting himself killed in battle? All you ever do is to boss him around all the time. What does he ever see in you? You’re nothing! You’re not a big singing and movie star like me!”

“You’re not around for him all the time Minmei. You’re always off somewhere singing, cutting records or looking at movie scripts. It’s all about you and your professional career. You always are thinking only about yourself, Minmei. Not about Rick. You don’t take any time out for him. I do. I take the time to listen to him. No matter how busy my day was or how tired I am. I’m around him all the time. We know what it’s like being in the military and the dangers that it comes with it. We started out as friends because he needed someone to talk to and to listen to his fears, his hopes, and his dreams. There are some things he can’t even tell Captain Fokker or his pilot friends. I was there for him because you weren’t Minmei. We never meant to fall in love. It just happened because we kept running into each other. But he always cared about you, Minmei. And at one point, he did love you. Please Minmei. I’m on my knees begging you. Don’t be a part of killing Rick.”

“It’s too late, Lisa. Kill him Breetai.”

”Yes Miss Minmei.”

“Say good-bye to your precious little flyboy, Lisa Hayes!” Minmei said cruelly.

Breetai’s huge hand enclosed Rick’s VT and crushed it. Pieces of the VT went flying. Breetai then balled it up in his fist like a crumpled up piece of paper. Breetai, Exedore and Minmei mercilessly laughed as Lisa fell to her knees crying.

“NO!”

Lisa woke up, sat up in her couch with a starling jolt and in a panic. She looked around the darkened living room of her BOQ to make sure she was just having a nightmare. When she realized that she was just having a nightmare, she gulped. Sweat was pouring from her brow and her heart was beating like she had just finished running a marathon. Her heart was beating so fast that she thought it would come right out of her chest. She was breathing so fast, she knew she will hyperventilate if she didn’t slow it down. She had to take in several deep breaths and had let it out slowly before her breathing returned to normal.

“Oh God, what a horrible nightmare I had!”

She brought up her arm and hit the backlight to her wristwatch. It showed 1:30 AM. She shook her head in frustration.

“It’s only 0130 and I don’t have any sleeping pills in the medicine cabinet. Great, maybe I should have taken that sedative when the nurse offered.”

She went into the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face. She stopped at her bedroom to get a pillow and a blanket, and then threw it on the couch. She then went to the kitchen, took a glass from the cupboard and filled it with chilled water from the refrigerator. Lisa drank it down in several gulps. Lisa put the empty glass in the sink and trudged back to the couch. At the foot of the couch, Lisa took her running shoes, ankle socks, tee shirt and jeans and slept the rest of the night in her undergarments.

Morning came before Lisa knew it. Even though she was sleeping on the living room couch, she can still hear the alarm clock in her bedroom going off. Lisa opened her eyes, slowly sat up, and rubbed her sore shoulders and the back of her neck as she slowly got off the couch.

“OW! That will be the last time I will ever sleep on the couch.”

The couch was not one of the most comfortable places to sleep through the night. She didn’t sleep very much or decently most of the night. The nightmare she had several hours earlier didn’t help matters for her. She shuffled to the bedroom, shut off the alarm, went into the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was standing up in many places and her eyes were still red from crying most of last evening and last night.

“Oh God I look horrible. Captain Gloval and Rick wouldn’t like it if I showed up looking like this.”

She went back into the bedroom, went to the closet, picked out her uniform and laid it on the bed. She then went to the dresser, took out a bra, a pair of bikini briefs and pantyhose and also laid it on the bed. She went back into the bathroom, closed the door, stripped off her undergarments and stepped into the shower. Even though the hot water couldn’t wash away the hurt she was feeling in her heart, it at least relieved the pain in her back and shoulders and revived her enough to at least face the day ahead of her. After drying herself off, brushing her teeth and blow drying her hair, she went back into the bedroom to get ready for work. Claudia told Lisa that Captain Gloval is allowing her to come in when she likes. So, she decided to see Rick first to see if he’s awake and to confer with the doctor before reporting to the bridge.

After putting on her makeup and putting eye drops in her eyes to help with the red eye, she was about to put on her uniform when she decided to wear perfume for Rick. She usually does not wear perfume but decided to wear perfume that Rick once gave to her as a Christmas present because he thought it would smell good on her. Even afterwards, Lisa didn’t wear it very often. She only wore it when she and Rick went out on dates. It seems that he likes it when she does wear it and it has become his favorite. She hoped that if he wasn’t conscious, the aroma of the perfume would at least stir his senses and help his subconscious remember. She was careful not to put on too much.

When she arrived at the hospital, Lisa found out that Rick was out of the ER and was transferred to ICU and that Dr. Wainwright wanted to see her about Rick’s condition but he was making his rounds at the moment. Lisa decided to use the time to visit Rick.

As she was walking towards the ICU, she came upon the chapel. Lisa wasn’t much of a religious person even though she was raised a Catholic, went to Mass occasionally and received her first Communion when she was a child. But she believed in God and figured that a time like this; she knew it wouldn’t hurt to ask God to help Rick. She went into the small chapel, kneeled at the railing, did the Sign of the Cross, folded her hands, and looked up at the crucifix above the altar. Lisa never carried a rosary with her after she became a teenager. Also she couldn’t remember the prayer she did when she was a little girl because she was more interested in playing with her friends after church. So after she said her Hail Mary, she just talked.

“God, I’m sorry that I haven’t been going to church in a very long time. But I’m asking you…no…I’m begging you, please don’t let Rick die. I know I sound selfish but I don’t know if I can live without him. I never thought that I could love anyone again after Karl died. But, Rick has shown me that I can love again. He looked through the mask that I’d put up and saw the real me. He loves me for who I am. He’s my life and I cannot imagine living without him. So please, I’m begging you to help Rick.”

Lisa then did the Sign of the Cross again, got up to her feet and left the chapel, hoping that God would at least consider her request.

When she got to ICU and asked the charge nurse where Rick’s room is, the nurse told her and she quietly went in. Rick was still unconscious, hooked up to an IV, O2, and an EKG. During the night, an EEG was connected to Rick’s head. She went over to Rick’s bed, leaned over and kissed him on the lips. Lisa then grabbed a chair, sat down, put his hand in hers and kissed it.

“Good morning sweetheart. It’s me, Lisa. I’m wearing your favorite perfume just for you. The doctor was out when I came in but he said he wanted to see me about your condition. I hope he brings me good news about you. Oh Rick, I love you so much. I can’t wait for you to wake up so we can start talking about our wedding. Maybe we can even talk about having children. Do you like children? I do. I want to have as many children as we can. Oh baby, I don’t care about the stretch marks and the birth pains because I know you will be there with me. I know you’ll make a great father. Your father did a good job with you. You always talked about your father and what a great man he was. I wished I’d met him. He sounds like he was a good man.”

There was a soft knock on the door. Lisa turned around. Roy was standing on the door’s threshold. He slowly walked towards Lisa.

“He was a good man Lisa. Pop Hunter was the greatest man I’d ever met. He was the one who taught me how to fly a plane. He took a troubled no good punk from the streets who was always in trouble with the law. He saw something in me worth saving. Jack Hunter saved my life.”

Lisa looked at Roy with a surprised look on her face. She knew that Roy had a troubled childhood from what he told her and Claudia. She knew that Roy came from a broken home. His father abandoned the family when Roy was young. His mother blamed Roy for his father leaving. But what Lisa didn’t know until Roy confessed to her, is that Roy’s mother soon became an alcoholic and started to be abusive to Roy and his younger sister, Gwen. He ran away from home when he was 12 and later joined a street gang. It was with the street gang that he started to get into trouble with the law, and that was just for starters. He tried to persuade his sister to run away with him but she refused.

Shortly after he ran away from home, the authorities took his sister away from their mother and she became a ward of the state of Wisconsin. He later found out after he joined the military, his sister was adopted by a loving family in California. She’s now happily married and has two children. He stays in touch with his sister. He later found out that his mother died of alcoholic poisoning after a night of binge drinking.

What Roy confessed to Lisa shocked her. “You never told me that, Roy.”

Roy found a chair and sat next to Lisa.

Roy shook his head slightly and shrugged his shoulders. “I never thought it was worth mentioning until now. It’s just a part of my life that I always kept to myself. Even Claudia doesn’t know everything about my troubled childhood and my run-ins with the law when I was a teenager. Rick was very young when I joined his father’s flying circus. Even as he gotten older, his father kept my troubled past from him because he knew Rick looked up to me.”

“How did you meet Rick’s father?”

“When I was 15, I was in juvenile court for trying to rob a convenience store with a fake gun. Pop Hunter was at the courthouse applying for a permit to stage an air show. He was walking by the court room I was in and something told him to go in. The judge was about ready to send me to adult prison when Pop Hunter stood up and talked to the judge about letting me work for him instead of shipping me off to prison. He promised the judge to send him reports on me on how I was doing and my behavior. The judge didn’t wanted to at first because it was my third offense but eventually he said yes to Pop Hunter’s plan. Like the hard head I was, I resisted. I even tired to run away several times. Then one day, Pop Hunter had enough of me and my screw ups. He just sat me down and talked to me. He never hit me. He never raised his voice at me. But he had gotten through my thick skull that if I didn’t straightened up, he would have no compunction to send me back to the judge and send me to prison. He always treated me with kindness and respect. Like a human being. That was the first time in my life that I wasn’t treated like a piece of garbage. He treated me like I was his own son.”

“How were you able to get into the military with your juvenile criminal record?”

“I wanted to join as a pilot in the early days of the Global Civil War, but couldn’t because of my criminal record as a juvenile. Pop Hunter still had connections with pilot buddies who flew with him in Vietnam and were still in the U.S. Air Force as generals. They stayed on when the U.S. fought in the Global Civil War on the side of the Allies. He convinced them to take a chance on me. Somehow, my juvenile record was ‘lost’. Before I knew it, I raised my right hand, went to basic training at Lackland Air Force Base then it was on to flight school. Now I wish I stayed with the flying circus.”

Lisa turned and looked at Roy with an angry look on her face. She then grabbed Roy by the shoulders and looked at him with a stern look in her eyes. “Roy Fokker! You listen to me! Don’t you ever say that again! Never say you regretted joining the military. If you didn’t, Rick and I would had never met and fallen in love!” Lisa said as she raised her hand and showed him the engagement ring Rick had given her the night before.

“If I had never met Rick, I would still be a broken hearted girl putting on a hard nosed by the book military act because I thought I’d lost my first love. Rick brought me out of my shell and showed me that I can be in love with someone again. Now Rick will get through this. But right now, he needs us. When he comes out of this coma, he will need us even more. With the help of you, me, Claudia, Max, Miriya, Ben and everyone else, Rick will come out of this coma, he will recover and he will fly again. I know he will. So, I never want to hear you say that you regret joining the military.”

Roy slowly nodded his head, seeing the logic of Lisa’s argument. “You’re right Lisa. It’s just that I hadn’t been able to sleep at all last night.”

You’re not the only one, Mr. Fokker. Lisa mused to herself.

“I just kept thinking and dreaming about Rick and how frightened he must have been when he was shot and trying to land on the ship.”

“I know Roy. But I think he knows what he had gotten himself into when he joined up. He knew that combat flying was different. He knew it would be difficult with an enemy wanting to shoot him down.”

Roy nodded his head. “I remember him telling me before he went on out his first mission with me. He said he was so nervous and uncertain that he would return from the mission that he didn’t slept a wink the night before. When he made his first kill, he couldn’t wait to get back to the ship so he can go to the latrine to throw up. It had affected him that much.”

“Sounds familiar, right?”

“It does, Lisa. The same thing happened to me when I was a rookie fighter pilot and made my first kill.”

“It doesn’t get any easier. Does it Roy?”

“No it doesn’t, Lisa. How’s Rick doing?”

“The doctor was supposed to see me about Rick’s condition but the nurse said he was making his rounds.”

“Should we wait for him or go look for him?”

Before Lisa can answer Roy’s question, the ship’s PA system came on.

“May I have your attention please? Will all senior staff officers please report to the captain’s conference room on the double? Repeating, all senior staff officers please report to the captain’s conference room on the double.”

Lisa and Roy looked at each other. Looks like the doctor will have to wait. But before they left, they said their good-byes to Rick. Lisa was first. She leaned over and kissed Rick on the lips.

“Rick darling. I have to leave. Looks like Captain Gloval needs to see all senior staff officers. It sound like it’s something very important. But I’ll be back to see you when I get the chance. I love you.”

Roy leaned over, grabbed Rick’s hand and placed it in his.

“Hey little brother, I’m sorry I haven’t had the chance to talk to you. I have to leave also for the meeting with Captain Gloval. I hope it will not take too long. I’ll come back to see you when I get the chance. You hang in there Rick. You stay strong because I’m looking forward to winning that air race with you, just you and me.”

He then laid his hand on Rick’s shoulder as to give some of his life energy to Rick. After Lisa kissed Rick one last time on the lips, both she and Roy left Rick’s room and headed for the conference room.

State = Continuará/To Be Continue

feedback = Sí/Yes

email = georgemtATearthlink.net