chapter = 13

author = Dwparsnip

Rating = AP15

Type = Romance

fanfic = Lisa slowly opened her eyes, letting them become accustomed to the fact that she was awake, and she looked at the clock on the nightstand which read 0753. She turned her head to check on Rick, as had become her custom since Rick was injured, only to find him lying on his side with his left arm propping up his head watching her. His cobalt blue eyes held a warm glow for her and the smile that was on his face was one of love. She rolled over onto her side so that she could face him.

He leaned over and kissed her gently on her soft lips. When he pulled back he said, “Good morning.”

She smiled back at him and said, “Good morning yourself.” She narrowed her eyes and asked, “How long have you been awake?”

“Long enough to trace every detail of your beautiful face with my eyes a couple of dozen times”, he said affectionately.

She brought her hand up to stroke his cheek and said playfully, “If I didn’t know better I’d say someone was bucking for a promotion.”

He kissed her hand and said thoughtfully, “Well, that wouldn’t be too bad. I’d finally outrank you.”

She moved her hand away from his cheek and placed it behind his head, and as she pulled him down to kiss him she said triumphantly, “Never!”

As they kissed, Lisa became aware that his right hand found it’s way to her stomach, slipped underneath her pajama top, and as their kissing intensified, he slowly, gently pulled the top up, exposing her flat belly. He broke from their kiss and moved his head down to kiss her bare tummy, moving his hand to her right side. After several little kisses he looked up at her and he asked, “Do you love me no matter what?”

She looked at him and said affirmatively and a little out of breath, “No matter what, Rick.”

“Good”, he said as he lowered his face to her again, “Then you don’t mind if I …tickle you!”

He gently squeezed the ticklish spot on her side and Lisa began to laugh uncontrollably. She grabbed at his arms and tried desperately to get him to stop, and when that failed she squirmed as hard as she could to try to escape his ticklish grasp.

“Rick!”, she exclaimed in between her laughter.

After a few more seconds he did stop, and when he looked at her he reminded her, “No matter what you said.”

He kissed her abdomen one more time and looked at her again. His thoughts about Lisa and her self-confidence from the previous night were still fresh in his mind.

He moved back up to lie beside her, his head mere inches from her own. His blue eyes found her green gaze and he brought his right hand up to move her hair from her face so that his view of her was unobstructed. When he was done with that he took her left hand in his, kissed it and laid their combined hands in between them on the bed.

With all the love he could find in his heart he asked, “Do you remember that night back in Monument when I told you just how beautiful you are?”

It took a second for her to realize what he had meant, but when she did remember a serene feeling came over her mind, body and soul. She did indeed remember how Rick had told her how he thought she was beautiful. The loving way that he spoke to her, the caring way that he touched her, and the honesty and sincerity in his eyes and his voice. It warmed her heart every time she thought of that night.

“Yes”, she said quietly. She kissed him deeply for several seconds, and when she leaned back she continued, “I could never forget that night.”

He released her hand and gently brushed away a strand of her hair that had fallen across her face when she kissed him. Lisa could see his eyes darting around her face, looking at her.

Rick traced the edge of her left ear with his index finger from the top of her ear to the bottom, and when he reached the bottom his finger jumped to her jaw. He ran his finger along her jaw line to her chin, and when he got there he touched the tip of her nose and then ran his finger along her cheekbone and finally to her lips. His finger touched her lip as it did those long years ago, and Lisa remembered the happiness that she had felt at that time, and it overwhelmed her.

She saw the look in Rick’s eyes change from love to seriousness as he looked at her and said, “You’re still the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, Lisa. Nothing has changed. Your eyes, your lips, your skin, your body…still absolutely gorgeous.”

Flattered as she was, Lisa was realistic. “Come on Rick, everything has changed, gotten older.”

He closed his eyes for a second, and when he opened them there was a shine in his eyes. “You’re right Lisa, everything has changed.”

Lisa’s eyes showed the hurt that she felt at his admittance of the sad reality.

Seeing that hurt, Rick said solemnly, “No Lisa, you don’t understand. You’re right that everything has changed. You have managed to become more and more beautiful over the years.”

She looked at him and tried to figure out a way that could possibly make him understand how much those words meant to her, but the thought process was interrupted when he said, “I’m just sorry I didn’t say that more often.”

“Rick, you have nothing to apologize for.” She kissed his nose and said, “Nothing at all.”

He thought for a second and smiled. “I love you.”

She matched his smile and replied, “I love you too.”

They kissed again and this time, when his hand found it’s way underneath her pajama top, there was no tickling.

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An hour and a half later, Lisa was sitting on the edge of their bed, drying her hair as she waited for Rick to finish his turn in the shower. Rick had said that he had something very important to tell her. She didn’t know what it was, but she suspected it might have something to do with the note she had found on the table when she went into the kitchen to get the coffee started. Sometime during the night, he had gone to see Max.

That in itself wasn’t an odd occurrence. Sometimes when Rick had trouble sleeping he would go and see Max. Max was a bit of a night owl, a carry over from when Dana was an infant. More often than not, Max had felt obligated to be the one to get up whenever baby Dana cried, and that had been often.

She turned off the hair dryer and with steady strokes brushed out her long brown hair. As she finished, she heard Rick turn off the shower. She looked at her reflection in the mirror and thought hard about what to do with her hair. ‘Leave it down or pin it up?’, she asked herself. ‘No, a ponytail for a change.’

She found a scrunchie that matched the light pink blouse she had picked out to wear with her black jeans, and began to put her hair up. It took a couple of attempts to get the ponytail how and where she wanted. A ponytail was something she hadn’t done in a long time.

She had just finished when Rick opened the bathroom door and came out with a towel wrapped around his waist. She could see the surprise on his face in his reflection in the mirror when he saw her with her hair like that. His eyes opened in marvelous admiration. ‘I think I’ll do this more often’, she thought with some amusement.

She got up and walked towards the door to the living room. She hid the smile that she felt coming and never even so much as looked at Rick as she passed him. She knew he hated it when she did that.

She poured up two cups of coffee and placed them on the table. She sat down and while she waited for her husband she looked over a report that Jean had sent up to her a couple of days earlier. It was her final report on the medical departments performance during the MED.

She was halfway through the first page when she felt Rick’s lips nibble gently on the back of her neck and she could no longer hide the smile.

He kissed her neck there and said as he planted another kiss on the side of her neck, “I love…” another kiss”…it when…”another kiss”…you show off…” another kiss”…this beautiful neck.” He gave her another kiss on that hyper sensitive spot and, grudgingly, moved to the place at the table where his coffee was waiting and sat down.

After a few seconds Lisa regained her composure asked in a sexy voice, “You like?”

Rick laughed and said after taking a sip of his coffee, “I love.”

She narrowed her eyes and said seriously, “Okay Rick, what do you have to tell me?”

He put his right elbow on the table, placed his hand underneath his chin and looked at her dreamily. “I love it when you talk like that.”

“Rick!”, she exclaimed.

He removed his arm from the table and laughed again. “Okay, okay.” He became serious himself, and Lisa could see that though he was serious, he wasn’t nervous or edgy. She was very pleased to see that he was more confident and sure of himself than anything else.

He took another sip of coffee and began, “I couldn’t sleep last night so I went to talk to Max.”

“I know”, she commented. “I saw your note this morning.”

He nodded his head and continued, “He wasn’t home, so I decided to go and talk to Graham.”

Lisa was taking a sip of her own coffee when he said that and she almost spit the liquid all over the table.

She brought her hand up to her chin, and after wiping a drop of coffee that made it out of her mouth off her lip she said, “You…what?”

He didn’t shy away from her gaze, even when it turned into shock and then anger. When he spoke, his voice was still confident. “I had to Lisa, and you know it. I had to tell her that what she did was wrong. I had to do something.”

She did know it of course, but it didn’t help to dissipate the shock that she felt.

Rick looked at her and told her the whole story. What he said and what she said. What he did and what she did. Everything.

When he was finished he took another sip of coffee and let her process what he had just told her. After a few seconds he reached across the table and held her hand.

Her emotions ran the gambit, from shock, to worry, to fear, frustration and finally to anger. She was shocked by the thought of him going to her quarters so late at night. She was also worried and shocked at Graham’s reaction to what Rick had said to her. Her comments and attitude told Lisa that she would never give up on her feelings for Rick. This frustrated her because Rick was right about morale, and as such, they couldn’t really do anything to her. All of these feelings though, paled in comparison to the anger she felt towards Sue Graham. She had the audacity to try to convince Rick that she was what he wanted and the nerve to tell him bold faced lies about what had happened

Rick could see that Lisa was getting upset, so he released her hand, got out of his chair and knelt down beside her. He put his hand on her lap and said softly, “Lisa, we can’t let her get to us. We’ll be ready for whatever she throws at us. I love you and she will never change that.”

Lisa looked at him. He was so confident about their love and their ability to survive, and that in turn buoyed her own spirits.

“Besides, Max said that he and Miriya are watching our backs. Jean and Vince too. Max asked me last night when the last time was that we lost a fight. Do you remember?”

She smiled and shook her head. “No, I don’t”

He returned her smile and said, “That’s right. Lisa. All Sue Graham has managed to do is to strengthen our love, and you know what, I almost want to thank her for that.”

She put her arms around his neck and hugged him as he put his arms around her waist.

“Almost”, she said into his ear.

He laughed and replied, “Almost.”

He released her and she let go of him.

“Are you alright?”, he asked.

She smiled her brilliant smile and said, “Surprisingly, yes.”

“Good”, he said as he got up and held out his hand. “I’d hate for our last free day together to be ruined.”

She reached out and took his hand, and as he pulled her up out of the chair she asked, “What do you have planned, Admiral?”

“Sorry, Admiral, it’s classified. All I’m going to tell you is that it requires you to put on a flight suit.”

“Ah, a flight”, she said playfully. “And?”

“And… you’ll see. Are we ready to go?”

She looked into his eyes and said, “Not yet.”

He was about to ask what the problem was when she moved in close to him, put her arms around his neck and kissed him. His arms slipped around her waist again and they just stood there, their lips locked in a passionate dance that shook them both to their cores. When Lisa finally pulled away she said to a dazed Rick, “Now I’m ready.”

Before she could even laugh at the look on his face he grabbed her hand and said, “Let’s go.”

Twenty minutes later they arrived on the hangar deck, checked with the flight crew chief and went to the pilot’s locker rooms. After they got into their flight suits, they met at the plane they were to use, a training Alpha.

Lisa climbed into the front seat as Rick talked to the chief.

“Flight Control has you designated as ‘Snowbird One’ for this flight, Admiral. Have a safe one.”

“Thanks, chief. See you in a few hours.” The chief nodded and Rick climbed up into the back seat. He got the plane geared up and when he was ready to contact Flight Control he asked Lisa, “You all set up there, baby?”

“Affirmative, Admiral”, came her response.

He smiled and opened his mic. “Snowbird One to Flight Control. Request permission to depart.”

‘Roger, Snowbird One. You may leave at your discretion.’

“Understood Flight Control. Take off in 3…2…1…mark.”

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Half an hour later Lisa was watching Rick talk to the security guard at the checkpoint to Tirol Base Epsilon.

‘Of all the places, why on earth come here’, she thought, bewildered. She was extremely annoyed that Rick wouldn’t even so much as tell her where they were going until the Epsilon control tower starting chirping instructions. She was hoping that they would be going to see Roy at the “Summer Camp” near Base Delta, but that was on the other side of the planet. When she realized they weren’t going there she hoped they would be going the see the vertical waterfalls near Base Lambda. A hiccup in the planet’s gravity made the waterfalls go up instead of the traditional down, and she had made no secret of the fact that she wanted to see them. ‘Of all the places. There’s nothing around here but desert.’

She saw Rick coming towards her and fixed an appropriate scowl upon her face.

Rick noticed the severe look and said as he smiled, “Any moment now, baby. We’re just waiting for Max to bring us a package.”

As if Max had been listening, his blue Alpha flew over them and circled around. Max opted for a Guardian mode landing in lieu of the traditional, just to give Lisa an extra couple of seconds to guess.

He threw to configuration switch, and after his Alpha’s transformation, he began the slow descent to the runway, not far from where he saw Lisa and Rick waiting. Skull One made contact with the runway and Max kept the nose of the Alpha up so that Lisa couldn’t see into the cockpit.

As she approached Skull One, she could see Max say something and a second later smile. For a moment she thought he was losing it.

Rick was behind her and she thought to herself, ‘What are they up to?’

Lisa and Rick reached the Alpha, and Lisa looked at Rick then at Max. “Alright you two. What’s going on?”

She saw Rick nod to Max and Max said, “One…two…three…surprise!”

Lisa almost fainted where she stood when her little boy jumped up on Max’s lap and yelled ‘surprise’ at the same time that Max did. He was grinning from ear to ear and clapping his hands together wildly.

Max lowered the nose of the Guardian and lifted Roy out to Rick, who took the boy in his arms and gave him a monster bear hug and a spin. Roy squealed in delight as Rick spun him around.

Lisa just stood there as she watched Rick put her son down, and as soon as Roy’s feet hit the runway he yelled, “Mommy!”, and bolted right for her. She got down on both knees and held out her arms. He slammed into her waiting hug with all the force that his four-year-old legs could generate. Her arms went around him and she squeezed him so hard that she thought she almost hurt him.

Through her tear filled eyes she saw Max get out of his Alpha and go to Rick, who held out his hand to Max. The two friends shook hands and Max looked at Lisa and nodded. She picked Roy up and went towards Max, and when she got to him she held Roy with her right arm and threw the other one around Max’s neck.

He hugged her back and reading what was on her mind he said softly, “You’re welcome.”

She laughed and as she pulled away from Max she gave him a kiss on his cheek. She filed away the fact that Max blushed in the back of her mind for future use.

Max looked at Roy and said playfully, “Okay copilot Hunter, I have to go. Thank you for all your help. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

Roy giggled and said, “You’re welcome, Uncle Max.”

Max gave Roy a salute and headed for his plane. Rick followed him and as Max was getting ready to climb up into the cockpit Rick put his hand on his friend’s shoulder.

“Thanks, Max”, he said with heartfelt sincerity.

Matching Rick’s tone Max said, “It was my pleasure, Boss. Have fun.”

With that Max climbed up into Skull One and lowered the canopy. He waited for Lisa, Rick and Roy to move far enough away, and when they were at a safe distance he activated the foot thrusters. He reached a safe altitude and switched to Fighter mode and flew to the end of the runway, turned around and headed back to where his friends were. As he approached them he started a barrel roll, Roy’s favorite move. When he passed them he righted his Alpha and headed for the ship.

Still watching Max as he got farther and farther away, Roy exclaimed, “Wow!”

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For the next twenty minutes Roy talked non-stop about his time on Tirol. He told them of the friends he had made, the things he had done and most importantly for Rick and Lisa, the tremendous fun he had. Lisa didn’t let him down out of her arms, she was just so happy to have him there with her.

Rick finally interrupted Roy as he was talking about one of the caretakers at the camp and said, “Well, are we ready for phase two of my little operation?”

Lisa looked at him questioningly and said, “Phase two?”

He laughed and said, “Oh yes. I’m not finished yet. Would you like to go for another ride in an Alpha, Roy?”

Roy held out his arms to Rick and said excitedly, “Yes, yes, yes!”

Rick took his son in his arms, looked at Lisa and said happily, “He’s his father’s son alright.”

Lisa screwed up her nose and said, “That’s for sure.”

They laughed as they headed for the Alpha that brought Lisa and Rick to Tirol. When they got to it Lisa climbed up into the front and when she was settled, Rick handed Roy up to her. He got on his mother’s lap and hugged her again. “I missed you, Mommy.”

Tears welled up in her eyes and she said, “I missed you to, baby.” Indeed, she had missed him very much. She had sized him up as he ran to her on the runway. His straight brown hair waved only slightly as he ran towards her, and his big blue eyes were full of happiness.

Rick got into the back and after a few moments they were airborne.

Rick smiled as Lisa and Roy kept talking. Seeing his son again lifted his spirits tremendously, but even more importantly being with Roy made Lisa the happiest woman in the galaxy. She forgot about everything else, the ship, the mission and most importantly, Sue Graham.

And that made him the happiest man in the galaxy.

A short time later, Rick said to Lisa, “Take a look to starboard, Lisa.”

She did and her breath was taken away. “Rick, look at it”, she said, awestruck.

Roy asked excitedly, “What Mommy? What?”

She helped him to turn around to see the vertical waterfalls. They were still a fair distance away. The gravitational anomaly prevented aircraft of any kind from venturing too close.

“Wow!”, said the child.

Rick landed the Alpha at Base Lambda and a land vehicle was waiting to take them to closer to the falls. When they arrived as close as they could get, they were astounded. The water was rising up from a pool and went up over the edge of a cliff, creating the vertical waterfall. Lisa couldn’t remember the scientific and technical reasoning behind it, in fact her head hurt whenever she tried, but it looked amazing.

What looked even more amazing to her were the men in her life. Rick had Roy up on his shoulders and Rick was explaining to Roy why the water was going up instead of down. Lisa laughed to herself when she heard Rick say a magical elephant under the surface of the pool blowing water out his trunk was the cause.

She missed Roy terribly, but with her and Rick too busy to properly take care of him, this was the best place for him. At least he seemed to be genuinely enjoying his time on Tirol, and that eased her mind a little.

A little while later they had lunch at a local restaurant and Lisa marveled at how Roy could come up with new things to tell them.

All too soon however, it was time for them to return to the ship. They boarded the Alpha and Rick flew them to Base Delta where one of the camp guardians, a pediatric nurse from the hospital ship Banting waited for them.

On the ground, Rick took his son into another bear hug and kissed his cheek. “I love you, Roy, and I’ll miss you. You be good and listen to the guardians, right?”

Roy looked at Rick and said, “I love you too, Daddy. I’ll be good. I promise.”

“That’s my boy”, Rick said as he lowered him to the ground.

Lisa’s was heart broken. She enjoyed being with her little boy so much. He ran to her again and this time she scooped him up when he got to her. “I love you, Roy. I love you so much.” She gave him a squeeze and a kiss on his cheek. She brought him over to the nurse, who just smiled as she took him from Lisa.

Lisa didn’t want Roy to see her cry so she tried very hard to keep the tears from building up in her eyes.

Rick put his arm around her as the nurse took Roy away from the tarmac, but stopped when she reached the checkpoint.

Roy waved to them and they waved back. Roy pointed to the Alpha and Rick understood what he meant.

“He wants us to go so I can do a barrel roll”, he said softly to Lisa.

Lisa glanced at him and said, “I hate barrel rolls, but anything for my son.”

Rick kissed her cheek and said amusedly, “For our son.”

She smiled and climbed into the Alpha, with Rick right behind her. He taxied to the take off position and threw the throttle forward. After they lifted off seconds later, he aimed the Alpha towards Roy’s position and started the roll.

He leveled the Alpha and headed to the ship, and as the Alpha left the atmosphere Lisa complained loudly, “I hate barrel rolls.”

Rick just smiled as he initiated one last series of rolls.

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Lisa and Rick walked into their quarters half an hour later, exhausted to the bone.

Lisa collapsed face down on their bed, still in her flight suit. “I’m bushed”, came her complaint, muffled by her pillow.

Rick laughed and as he came to stand beside her he said, “Back to work tomorrow. Imagine how tired you’ll be tomorrow night.”

She turned her head to look at him and said with false annoyance, “Thanks for reminding me.”

She rolled over onto her back and then sat up. She reached for his hand and pulled him down to sit in front of her. Keeping a hold of his hand she said, “Thank you, Rick. Thank you for taking me to see our son, thank you for taking me to see the waterfalls…thank you.”

He leaned over and gave her a tender kiss. “No thanks necessary. The look on your face was more than enough thanks and I got almost as much out of it as you did. Besides, there is no other place in the universe that I would rather be than with my beautiful wife and adorable son.” His gaze became mischievous as he added, “Except maybe alone with you in our bedroom.”

He reached his hands up, put them on her face and pulled her towards him, and as he did he fell back onto the bed so that she landed on top of him. When they settled he looked into her green eyes and said, “I love you, Lisa. So very much.”

She looked into his blue eyes and replied, “I love you too.”

And then she kissed him.

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In another cabin aboard ship, Sue Graham pulled the bed covers up over herself as she lid down on her back in her bed. The rumor mill spouted out that Rick and Lisa had gone to Tirol, but she couldn’t find out why or what they had done.

It didn’t matter. Her plan was almost complete.

The problem was time. It would take time to get ready, and when the time came, timing would be everything.

It would take weeks for sure, possibly even months. Certain things had to be done, certain things had to happen, and some of those things required a significant amount of time. Her pilot certification, for example, would take several weeks to obtain. She had completed the basic instruction in flight training over the last few months in her spare time, but the actual flight training would require weeks to finish.

She also needed help from her friends, but she had no doubt that they could be counted on. They would have to work as hard as she did, Angela even a little more. Angela was perhaps the key. She already had her flight certification from the academy, and she would be able to help her with her training, as she had helped her with the instruction. Along with that, Angie had her field medic training, she had access to the infirmary and hopefully, she would have access to Admiral Lisa Hunter.

She had originally planned to try to drive a wedge between Rick and his wife, but that proved to be more difficult than she had anticipated. She tried seduction, tried to create mistrust and friction between them and jumped at the opportunities that presented themselves to her, but Rick resisted.

‘Not because he wants to though. Must be some sort of loyalty complex or something. What does he see in her anyway? She’s so…old!’

Now her plan had become complicated and contingent on a number of outside variables.

She had to show Rick that he could love her, and it looked like that could only happen if Lisa was no longer in Rick’s life.

Period.

Her eyelids became heavy as the thoughts came to her, and as she drifted off to sleep she thought of Rick sleeping beside her, reaching over to hold her, leaning in to kiss her and wanting to be with her.

State = Continuará/To Be Continue

feedback = Sí/Yes

email = dparsnipAThotmail.com