"Robotech - To The Stars: Aftermath - The First Year"
Chapter 4, part 3

January 21st, 2015

Rick remembered the many times that Lisa had come over to his place to go over flight schedules or other work-related things, as well as just to come over and hang out. Whenever they would 'just hang out,' all Rick would talk about was Minmei. He was so wrapped up in his own personal problems that he had never really asked Lisa how she was feeling or if she had anything she wanted to talk about. It was as if whenever she came over, Rick would use her as a crutch and security blanket to help him get over his problems with Minmei. He had never really stopped to be a crutch for Lisa. And even though she never gave any signs she needed someone to talk to, he should've asked her anyways. But he couldn't count on even one hand, the times he had asked her if she needed someone to talk to about something.
He thought perhaps it was his way of keeping the distance between them. Perhaps it was another way for him to deny his feelings for Lisa.
Whenever she would come over, and there was a moment of silence between them, or she walked to the kitchen or to the bathroom, and his mind wasn't occupied with something at the particular time, he couldn't help but watch her. He noticed the way she moved, graceful and confident, yet not arrogant.
One time, Lisa had dropped her pen and both of them had bent down to pick it up, but instead of grabbing the pen, they ended up holding each other's hands. Though Rick had held Lisa's hand before, that particular time felt different. Rick held onto her hand for awhile, noticing how soft and graceful it was. Lisa didn't pull away from him, and when he finally let go he looked at Lisa and she gave him a shy smile.
For the next couple of days after that incident, Rick couldn't get the images out of his mind, and the scene came back to him several times during the day. At that time, he knew he was suppose to be in love with Minmei, but there were times like this when Rick couldn't shake his attraction to Lisa, no matter how hard he tried. But everytime he thought about what would happen if he went on a date with her or allowed himself to get closer to her, he had an image of an angry Minmei, running away in tears. So he would push all thoughts of Lisa out of his mind and replace them with his frustrated thoughts of Minmei, and he felt even worse than before.
Rick now looked back on this and realized he had wasted so much time. The times he spent whining about Minmei whenever Lisa would come over, could have been opportunities for him to get to know Lisa better.
He now knew that all those years of him denying his feelings for Lisa was because he was afraid to fall in love with her. He had fallen in love with Minmei first, and thought that if he let himself entertain thoughts of another, that he was not being faithful to Minmei. But what he had not noticed, or rather, refused to believe, was that Minmei didn't love him the way he wanted her to. He was just 19 years old when they first met, Minmei was 15. He realized that what he had with her was just puppy-love infatuation. He was thankful that he had the opportunity to actually get part of his wish for him and Minmei, to live together and be a couple. He was thankful he had that time because it finally made him realize that Minmei really wasn't the woman he thought he was in love with all these years. They could get married if he just said yes, and when he was faced with that prospect, it had hit him that it wasn't the dream he thought it would be. Once he found this out, he felt he could move on. There would be no wondering about 'what if's' with Minmei anymore, because he had already found out.
The day that Minmei proposed was the same day that Lisa had come to say goodbye to him. Had she not come to him, he knew he would've gone to see her that evening, and tell her about Minmei wanting to get married and his realization that Minmei didn't understand him. Would he have then realized and told Lisa that he loved her and that it was she whom he was meant to be with? He thought about it for awhile and really couldn't figure out if he would've or not.
He felt ashamed that it had to come down to Lisa almost leaving his life for good for him to realize how much she meant to him.
He tried to remember the advice Max gave him, because he was feeling so guilty at the moment. He let go of his guilt for awhile and conjured up an image of Lisa in his mind. The image was of a happy and smiling Lisa, and he pictured himself dancing with her cheek-to-cheek. He wanted so badly to have her there with him so that he could just hold onto her.
Rick tried to finish his shopping list but found he couldn't. He couldn't get Lisa out of his mind. Her absence right now hurt him to the core. He realized that though he had felt hurt from longing for Minmei, this hurt was stronger, and he realized that he was falling for Lisa harder than he had for Minmei. He thought about it some more and finally smiled, because it was Lisa who he was destined to fall in love with. His mind was filled with thoughts of her, and though the longing for her hurt deeply, he felt good about it. He was now head over heels in love with the woman whom he was suppose to be in love with and who loved him back.
Rick sighed a forlorn and long sigh but wore a small smile and turned his attention back to finish his list.

* * * * * * *

Kim had been running for about 15 minutes when she finally realized just how out of shape she was. She stopped and doubled over trying to catch her breath. She looked around her and then at the map, she still had at least half an hour's walk before she would be in sight of the area where Edwards and Lisa were last heard from. She cursed the supposed ineptness of the search party not employing any all-terrain vehicles or using a motorized boat to travel down the river. 'We don't want to give away our
position to the enemy,' Leonard had said, which seemed to contrast with his claim that the area had been secured. Kim thought for a moment, trying to come up with a way that would get her to her destination faster. It was already dark and she wasn't particularly eager to meet any of the unknown creatures that lurked in the brush. She looked at the small river and decided she would make her way following the bank.
Finally, after what had seemed like an eternity, Kim was within 100 feet of where Lisa and Edwards last reported from. She left her route along the river and made her way inland. She started running only to trip over something after 10 paces. She cursed and got to her feet and looked to see what caused her to trip. Through her night vison goggles she saw what looked like a canoe, she then took off her night
vision and inspected it with her flashlight and verified it was. She trailed her flashlight over the surrounding area and saw some footprints, what seemed like two sets, heading away from the canoe. She got up and followed the tracks and came to a stop right in front of a pile of rubble.
She walked around the pile and scrutinized it from top to bottom. "They must've gone in there. The tracks don't lead anywhere else..." she said aloud to herself. She decided that it was worth a shot and started tossing away the rocks she could lift. She stopped to reach for her radio to call for help but she found that she didn't have it anymore. She ran to the place where she tripped and scrounged around but couldn't find it there. Then she ran to the riverbank and looked there and still couldn't see any sight of it. She decided not to waste her time anymore and ran back to the mound to continue her dig.
After half an hour of hauling rocks and small boulders, Kim managed to finally uncover the entrance door. She pulled on the lever and made her way through the opening.

* * * * * * *

Lisa looked around the room and could see not discern an opening anywhere except the one that they had fallen through. She saw a row of three cubical shaped pools off to one side and the main pool in the middle of the room, but not anything else except a small walkway attached to the wall directly above the 3 pools.
She walked toward the pools and looked around the sides to see if she could find some type of staircase that led to the walkway overhead. She didn't find anything but as she was walking back past the pools she noticed that one of them had a ladder going up its wall.
She reasoned that they could probably reach the walkway by using the ladder, although they'd have to make rather a long stretch to grab onto the end of the walkway. She saw Edwards situp and look around and he started to stand up when he caught sight of Lisa.
Lisa walked over to meet Edwards and pointed to the walkway, "I can't tell what's up there, but if we want to check it out it seems that ladder is the only way to it."
Edwards surveyed the scene for moment then walked over to the pool to take a better look at the ladder. "It doesn't look strong enough for two people, we should go one at a time."
Lisa nodded her head and waited for him to proceed.
Edwards jumped into the pool, expecting to feel some type of flooring beneath him but he didn't. The water was cold, but not freezing, and he couldn't tell how deep the small pool was. He swam over to the wall that housed the ladder and grabbed the first rung and began to climb up. It wobbled a bit, confirming his original observation of it not being very sturdy. He got to the top of the ladder and pushed off so he could grasp the ledge that was some 4 feet away. He pulled himself up and quickly looked behind him before shouting down to Lisa, "It seems ok here, I'll hold the ladder for you."
Lisa made her way to the ladder and carefully ascended and took a deep breath when she got to the top, then made the stretch over to the walkway and Edwards helped her up. They saw a small room in front of them and went to explore it. From her estimation, Lisa guess that the room was only 6 feet cubed. They suddenly heard a rolling sound and headed out of the room back to the walkway and got there just in time to see they were entrapped by bars and had no way to get back down.

* * * * * * *

Rick finished setting the table and took a moment to stand back and marvel at his handywork. He smiled proudly as he smelled the mouthwatering aromas of his small Italian feast. He heard footsteps quickly approaching and in a few seconds saw Sammie and Vanessa burst through the door.
"Oh my god!! What smells so good?!!" exclaimed Sammie as she rushed to sit down at the table.
"Sammie! Don't you dare eat all the food before I even get a chance to taste it!" scolded Vanessa.
Rick laughed, "Don't worried ladies, there's plenty for everyone."
The three of them ate in silence, enjoying every bite of their food and not needing or willing to speak in between forkfuls. Finally they finished and sat back in their chairs.
"Whoa, I'm so full. Rick I've never had such a wonderful homecooked dinner before. Thank you!" said a happy Sammie as Vanessa nodded her agreement.
"You're welcome ladies. You'll be having more homecooked dinners if I have anything to say about it," said Rick with a smile and continued, "Don't forget to leave room for dessert ladies. Tiramisu cake. The best you'll ever taste!"
They waited 5 minutes before cutting the cake. While Vanessa and Sammie were happily eating their dessert, Rick brought out a bottle of red wine and poured everyone a glass. Then they toasted and sipped the wine.
"This wine is so good!" said Vanessa. She had quickly downed her glass and waited for Rick to refill it for her.
Sammie put her glass down and reached out to pick up the bottle to read the label, "Oh this is the same brand that Lisa keeps in-"
Vanessa held her breath, dreading what might transpire.
Rick looked at Sammie, wineglass halfway to his mouth, and waited for her to finish her sentence. When she didn't finish her sentence, Rick became curious and asked her about it, "What were you going to say Sammie?"
The time in between her pause and Rick's question had given her enough time to think of an excuse, "Oh, this is the same brand that Lisa used to keep in her refrigerator for special occassions, like a birthday, you know, special occassions." Then she tried to smile as convincingly as possible.
Rick looked at his glass for a moment then spoke, "You know, actually. That's something I had been wanted to ask you girls about."
Sammie and Vanessa stayed completely still, not making a sound or a move.
"I would like to have a lot of candelight dinners with Lisa, and I know a friend who can get me a good deal on good wines, but, I don't know, I don't know if Lisa can hold her liquor very well," explained Rick.
"Why do you say that Rick?" asked Vanessa, hoping she sounded naive, and refilling her wine glass.
"Well...one time, when we walked home from Claudia's house. I could tell that Lisa was drunk. And even when we had just one drink at Max's and Miriya's quarters at the Factory Satellite, I could tell a change in her right away. I would like to buy some great wines for us to share but I won't if she can't hold her liquor."
"That's very thoughtful of you Rick," said Sammie, patting him on the shoulder.
"So...then what should I do?" asked Rick.
"Uh...well, ok. Here's the deal. It's true, Lisa can't hold her liquor, but I think if you just keep her at half a glass tops, then she should be ok," said Vanessa, deciding that the direct and honest approach was the best way to keep Rick from asking any further questions on the topic.
Rick smiled and then said, "Thanks girls."
Sammie felt relieved but that quickly evaporated when Rick said, "Uh...you know you girls never did tell me what Lisa did on Christmas Eve."
Vanessa had been in the middle of taking a sip of her wine and hadn't expected Rick's question and ended up choking. Both Sammie and Rick patted her on the back and watched her with concern until she seemed to be alright.
"Was it something I said?" asked Rick.
Vanessa waved her hand, "No no no, not at all Rick," and poured herself another glass.
Rick cleared his throat then said, "So do you girls know what Lisa did for Christmas Eve? She told me that she had stopped by my place but had left after she heard Minmei and me talking. Please, it's important that I know where she was or how she spent her Christmas Eve. This has been bothering me for a couple weeks now. She had come to my place because she wanted to spend Christmas together, and through my stupidity and blindness, I let her down. I need to know if she had a bad Christmas Eve so I can make things right because it would've been my fault."
Vanessa protested a bit, "I don't think you can blame yourself that Lisa happened to stop by when Minmei was there."
"I know, but I was stupid enough to forget to close my door. And I was stupid to not try and make up with Lisa even before that, it was Christmas week after all. But she wouldn't talk to me at all. If I'd known she was coming over I would've made sure I spent some time with her."
"Even with Minmei there?" asked Sammie with a suspicous glance.
"Sammie..." warned Vanessa.
"It's alright Vanessa. Sammie, I really don't have an answer for you on that question. At that time, I really don't know what I would've done," said Rick quietly.
"What does that mean Rick?" asked Vanessa with bewilderment, "You mean that if you and Minmei were having a nice little Christmas dinner and Lisa happened to stop by, you'd tell her she had to leave? On Christmas? After you stood her up that time?"
Sammie watched quietly as she saw a slightly tipsy Vanessa start to shift into her angry mode.
Rick was looking down at the table and said nothing.
Vanessa continued on, "Just like that time you asked me out for dinner, you did it right in front of Lisa, on purpose. Just to upset her."
Rick was still loooking down at the table as Sammie leaned over in Vanessa's direction and scoldingly said, "Vanessa you're drunk, shut up before you say something you're not suppose to!!"
Vanessa snorted, "Oh, you mean something like Christmas Eve?"
Rick stood up, "What about Christmas Eve? You girls know what Lisa did Christmas Eve don't you, and you don't want to tell me? You've been trying to avoid the question. It must not be good if you can't come out and just tell me."
Sammie looked at Rick and then Vanessa and pounded the table, "NO! We don't know anything about what Lisa did Christmas Eve. Don't listen to Vanessa, she's stupid and lies when she's drunk."
Rick looked at Vanessa, who was rubbing her temples. She looked up at him and said evenly, "I'm sorry. I'm drunk, I don't know what I'm saying. Like Sammie said, we don't know anything about what Lisa did on Christmas Eve. Please stop asking us, we don't know."
Rick started to clear up the plates, "You're right. I'm very sorry for being so persistent. You've been very good friends to me these past few days, I really do appreciate it. I just want to know as much about Lisa as much as possible, even if some things hurt. There's so much that I missed out on these many years because of my infatuation with Minmei. I just want to try and put together some of the pieces of the puzzle because I've been walking with blinders on for the past five or so years. I want to know everything about Lisa. And I know that she'll never tell me everything I did that hurt her, but I need to know everything I did wrong so I won't do them again. I've hurt her so much for so long and she won't tell me what hurts, but I've got to find out somehow, because I don't want to hurt her again."
Vanessa and Sammie looked at each other, then looked at Rick who had started to wash the dishes. Vanessa gave Sammie a 'should we tell him?' look, Sammie looked back at Rick again and then wore a sad look as she nodded yes. They both felt guilty for lying to him.
Vanessa did the duty of starting the unpleasant deed, "Rick, wait. Please, I think we need to talk. We haven't been honest with you. The fact is, we do know how Lisa spent her Christmas Eve, and her Christmas..."
Rick dried his hands and waited for them to follow him to the living room. Sammie and Vanessa took a seat on the couch and Rick took a seat on the chair opposite them, sitting forward, waiting eagerly for them to tell what they knew.
Vanessa and Sammie looked at each other one more time to make sure they wanted to continue
what they were planning to do, then Sammie said, "Rick. We will tell you only on the condition that you make sure Lisa doesn't know it was us that told you."
Rick nodded his head, "I promise I won't tell."
Vanessa exhaled a long breath then said, "Lisa spent her Christmas Eve at The Setup. We weren't there ourselves, but the people who told us about it are reliable sources."
Rick looked suprised, "The Setup? But that's a bar."
Sammie nodded yes.
Rick looked confused as he thought the scenario through, then it hit him. "Wait, a minute. Are you telling me that Lisa spent her Christmas Eve drinking?!"
Vanessa looked down at her hands, which were neatly folded on her lap, "I'm afraid so."
Rick was trying to come to grips with what he had been told but he could not find the words to express his guilt and shame. He got up and started to pace around the room, his hand on his forehead, his eyes blinking rapidly to try to keep the tears from falling. He remembered that they said they knew what happened Christmas as well. That was the evening he had confronted Lisa about not calling him in for duty. She had told that she knew Minmei was staying with him. He watched Lisa walk away, as the cold snow began to fall. He remembered her solitary figure fading away in the distance as he watched her for awhile, then turned to go home and spend the rest of the evening and night with Minmei.
"You said you know what she did on Christmas night, please tell me," he said with the emotion evident in his voice, "Did she spend Christmas night at The Setup again?"
Sammie decided that it wouldn't be fair to let Vanessa do all the explaining so she spoke up, "She didn't go to The Setup. She stayed home. She was suppose to come in for first-shift duty the next day, but she didn't show up. Actually, she had done that several times before. I think you remember that time when you reported in and asked me where she was and I said that she just hadn't shown up."
Rick nodded, remembering the day Sammie was referring to.
"Well, since this hadn't been the first time she hadn't shown up like that, Vanessa and I decided to go check on her on our lunch break. We let ourselves in with the key that Claudia had given us, 'incase of emergencies' is what she said it was for, and so we found her passed out in her bedroom, still in her uniform and coat. We managed to wake her up after awhile and stayed with her until we were sure she would be alright. We asked her what she drank but she couldn't remember and we didn't see any bottles anywhere. Rick please don't let her know we told you this, she'll never speak to us again if she found out," pleaded Sammie.
"I won't tell her," said Rick quietly.
Everyone remained quiet for a minute then Rick made another realization and rushed up to them, a fearful look in his eyes, "Tell me, she didn't do drugs did she?!"
Vanessa and Sammie immediately started shaking their heads and Vanessa added, "No no, there's no way she could've and us not find out about it. If she gets wiped out on cheap wine then drugs would've put her in the hospital, or worse. No, she didn't, we all definitely would've been able to tell if she had."
Rick felt completely numb. He couldn't imagine that he'd hurt Lisa so much that it drove her to drink. He felt so ashamed that he couldn't even look at Vanessa and Sammie. "I think I will finish the dishes then turn in early. As you can understand, I'm not feeling well."
Vanessa could somewhat guess how he might be feeling and went over to him and told him, "Rick, please don't take it so hard. You honestly didn't know how Lisa would've been affected by the things you did. I think if you had known you wouldn't have done half the things you did. I know Lisa would be mad at us forever if we didn't tell you that you shouldn't hate yourself over this. Please Rick."
Rick only nodded and headed into the kitchen.
"Vanessa? Do you think we did the right thing?" wondered Sammie.
Vanessa dropped back on the couch and took off her glasses to rub her eyes. "I really don't know what to do anymore these days Sammie. There's so much going on on so many fronts this past week that I have no idea about anything anymore. But you know, if we didn't tell him, he'd find out eventually, and I felt really bad for lying to him at first. I think it would be worse if he found out down the road that we had lied to him all this time."
Sammie leaned down against the arm of the couch, "I think you're right. This has been the worst week of my entire life. I just want one day free from troubles and worries. I just want one day where I can be happy the entire day."
Vanessa laid her head back and closed her eyes, "You and me both Sammie...you and me both."

* * * * * * *

After following the same route that Edwards and Lisa had, Kim finally made it to the small opening to the chamber where Lisa and Edwards were trapped.
Kim looked through the opening and shouted, "Hello!! Lisa?!"
"Kim, over here! To your left!" returned Lisa.
Kim looked to her left and saw Lisa and T.R. Edwards standing on a high ledge, trapped in by metal bars. She looked around her and saw that the only way into the room was to jump down into the pool, which seemed a very long ways down, but they were impeded by the bars.
She took a deep breath then jumped, feet first, into the pool. When she hit the water she immediately felt a sting in her left ankle. She made her way up to the surface, hoping she hadn't broken her ankle.
When she pulled herself up out of the water she felt a bit of pain in her ankle but nothing excruciating so she sighed in relief. She looked up at Lisa and was about to speak when the entire room started shaking violently. She looked around to try and take cover when she heard Lisa and Edwards shouting overhead. She looked up and saw the ledge they were standing on start to crumble and drop out from under them. They fell 100 feet and landed in the narrow, square-shaped pool. From where she stood, Kim had seen Edwards hit his head on one of the side walls on his way down.
Lisa fell into the water and could feel rocks falling in the water with her. She thought it was some kind of miracle that she hadn't been hit on the head with one of them by now. She surfaced and saw Kim running towards her, limpling slightly. She looked around and didn't see Edwards anywhere and Kim called out, "He hit his head on the wall, he must still be under!" Lisa immediately dove back down under to search for him.
Kim was still 20 feet away from Lisa and Edwards and froze in her tracks as she saw Lisa dive back under the water. Suddenly the nightmares came at her in full force. She saw Gloval, she saw Lisa, she heard Rick yelling at her and shaking her. She was so locked into her mental block that she didn't notice that metal bars had come down on the pool Lisa and Edwards were in and enclosed them in their pool, the three other sides surrounded by stone walls. The cubed pool on their left also had had bars come down, but the pool on the right was still free from entrapment.
Lisa found Edwards and with great difficulty, hauled him up the surface. As she broke the surface she heard a low rumbling sound and realized it was coming from overhead. When she looked up she was terror-stricken to find that a large slab was steadily coming down to enclose them completely. She tried to move to look around for a switch or lever that might stop the descent, but she had great trouble keeping Edwards' head above water and she was completely exhausted and it took every ounce of her strength not to sink herself. "Kim!! check one of the other pools, there must be some type of switch to stop it, or look for some type of opening so we can swim out of here!! I looked in here and there's
nothing in here, at least nothing that I could see right now, you need to try the other pools!" yelled Lisa, as she struggled to keep Edwards afloat.
Kim didn't hear a word Lisa said. She stood there staring at nothing in particular but in her mind's eye she was being bombarded with everything that haunted her for the past couple of days.
Lisa stared at Kim in disbelief, but then remembered why Kim had been in the hospital in the first place. "Kim!! I need your help!! Get over here!! That's an order!!"
Kim stayed frozen in her place, shaking slightly.
Lisa tried again, "Kim!!! Kim if you don't get over here right now we are going to drown!!"
"YOU LET HER DROWN!!!" yelled Rick from Kim's flashback.
Kim started shaking her head slowly, "No...no..." she whispered.
"YOU LET HER DROWN!!!"
Kim shook her head violently this time and screamed, "NO!!!!!!!!!!" She looked in Lisa's direction and saw Lisa staring at her through the bars. "Kim!!! Help us!!!!"
Kim said quietly and slowly, "I won't let you down, I won't let you drown..."
"KIM!!!!!!!" screamed Lisa. The descending slab now left she and Edwards with 6 inches of airspace.
Kim finally snapped out of her mental block and ran as best she could towards the only pool that wasn't enclosed by bars and dove in. She strained her eyes to try and find some mechanism but couldn't find one, then her eyes caught site of what seemed like a sliding window that connected her pool with Lisa's. She swam towards it and pulled it back with all her strength. It was pitch black in Lisa's pool and luckily Kim had a good sense of where Lisa and Edwards were. Lisa felt a tug on her leg and though she couldn't see her, she knew it was Kim. Underwater, she handed Kim one of Edwards arms and followed as Kim led them to the opening, which now exuded a small bit of light coming from the other pool.
The window was only large enough for one person at a time to pass so Kim went through first and then waited on the other sides to pull Edwards through. From what she could tell by sense, Lisa thought that the slab had stopped descending, and breathed a silent prayer of thanks. She started swimming towards the window when the room started shaking again.
Kim was trying to haul Edwards up out of the pool and onto the floor when the place had started shaking. It shook for about 15 seconds and she was grateful that it hadn't shook hard enough to cause more rocks to rain down on them from overhead. She managed to get Edwards on the floor finally and waited for Lisa to come up. She waited 5 seconds then began to panic and dove back down into the pool. She looked around frantically and saw Lisa was struggling to get her foot out of the window, which looked like it had tried to close on her after that last tremor.
Lisa saw Kim and motioned for her to try and get her foot unstuck. Kim just stared at her and stopped moving. Lisa motioned for Kim one more time and Kim managed to snap out of it once again. She dove down to Lisa and the two women pulled on the window, managing to nudge it back just a little bit, but enough to allow Lisa to free herself. When they surfaced they quickly swarmed over Edwards to see if he was still breathing. Lisa checked his pulse and listened for breath as well as watching to see if his chest rose and fell and it appeared that he had stopped breathing. "Kim, you take his head, I'll take his chest." Kim hesitated for a moment, she always cringed at the thought of doing CPR on someone,
especially if they were a stranger. Lisa looked at her and waited. Kim said nothing and just shook her head.
After about 2 tries, they managed to get signs of breathing and sat back to try and catch their breaths as well. They sat silently as Kim replayed what had happened in her head. She should be happy that Lisa was alive, but she couldn't help shake the feeling of shame. She had in fact, freaked out, something she had sworn to herself she wouldn't do. Her mental lapse had nearly caused Lisa her life and Kim felt very embarrassed.
Lisa looked over at Kim and quietly asked her if she was alright. Kim didn't look at her but nodded her head.
"Kim, you saved our lives, thank you."
Kim shook her head, "You two almost died. If I had reacted properly in the first place, instead of freaking out, then it wouldn't have had to been a close call."
"Kim, look at me! You saved my life. Don't feel like you failed because you didn't."
Kim sighed and said, "You don't understand."
Lisa was suggested they try and see what they could do for Edwards head wound, even though they had no medical kit with them, and to try and give Kim some time to calm down. Kim lifted his head and they could only find one small cut on the back of his scalp. They figured he would come to in a short while so they sat and waited until he awoke.
Lisa looked at her sternly then told her, "Tell me, what is it that I don't understand?" Kim looked at the floor for a moment, then told Lisa of the dream that had haunted her. After hearing Kim's recount, Lisa stood up. "Look at me Kim. I'm alive. I haven't drowned. You saved my life. Your dream DIDN'T come true exactly as you dreamt it. You've beaten that demon. Now please, try and exorcise it from your mind as well."
Kim shrugged a shoulder, "I guess you're right. But please make sure, this is the last time we go near water."
Lisa didn't know what to say, and didn't want to say the wrong thing. She knew that when they got back, Kim would need to visit the doctor again, to try and workout the trauma from this latest incident.
Some half an hour later, Edwards was still unconscious, and the two women were about to check on him again when they heard shouting overhead. They looked up and Kim recognized two members of the rescue party. "Don't worry ladies, we'll get you out of here!"
Kim and Lisa looked at each other and smiled, then stood up to help give directions to the rescue team.

* * * * * * *

Rick had finished the dishes and gone back upstairs to his room. He sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the wall. He his mood had been up and down all day and now he was definitely down. He had been the cause of Lisa turning to the bottle for an escape. The very thought of it made him want to curl up under a rock and hide there for the rest of his life. He hadn't know that his actions or lack of them, had hurt Lisa so badly. He didn't know how he could even begin to make it up to her. He remembered that he wasn't suppose to let her know that he knew about her little alcoholic episodes and wondered how he could face her without her not sensing that something was wrong. This was something that would linger and haunt him for quite some time and he needed to figure out a way to keep this from being so obvious that it would affect their new relationship.
He didn't know what to do. The weight of the guilt over the new revelations and his missing Lisa so much crushed him. He could think of nothing to do but to cry, so he sat there and cried himself to sleep.

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Author's Notes:

1. Dear me, I'm still busy like crazy, I don't have the website halfway finished yet! :( I wanted to finish this last part of the chapter because since next week is Christmas week, I'll be majorly busy.

2. The reference to Lisa and drugs, I feel, had to be mentioned, because it was something that was mentioned in the novels. (McKinney book #6, the chapter for "A Rainy Night", I think. I don't have an exact page number yet, I'll get that for ya when I put up my expanded chapter notes on the website).

3. There are more references in the books to backup the claim that Lisa had a good figure. In fact, if you go by the books, Lisa's figure is evident to Rick the first time they meet after the Lingerie shop incident, where he's walking with Roy and they end up meeting Lisa and the Trio. Then there's another reference to Lisa being "shapely" in the chapters for "The Robotech Masters" episode.

4. I had intended for the Edwards and Lisa Tomb Raider-esque scenes to be longer. But I decided to shorten it because I felt it would be too repetitive and I have already gone through three parts on this one chapter alone, so I felt the scenes I have are adequate enough. :)

5. Please keep in mind, Rick Hunter is a very mopey kinda guy :) Remember all the times he would mope about Minmei. And in the books it seems he was always confused about something. He's also a very sensitive guy too, there's nothing super-macho about him, so he tends to openly and freely express his feelings when he thinks you'll listen. (just in case you were wondering why he's such an emotional wreck right now ;) ).