Hey everyone. I am soooooo sorry for the almost 6 years since I last did anything with this story. My life has changed tremendously since that time. Lately I have been reading some of my favorite fics again and it's pushed me to start working on this story again. I am changing a couple of things on the chapters that I already had published and double checking the spelling and I will reupload them hopefully with a new chapter added to make up for the long hiatus. Thank you to everyone who has favorited and followed my story and a very gracious thank you to "Sitting on the Event Horizon" for the constructive criticism and informing me of some errors in my original publication. Thanks again.
This is an (AU) story. I always found it annoying how Rick would always think that Lisa didn't know the risks of being a fighter pilot and the dangers involved, and vice versa how Lisa thought Rick was always irresponsible and reckless when flying. So, I decided to see about reversing their roles a little bit. I thought it would be interesting to see what happened if Lisa was assigned to fly with Rick as a fighter pilot and his wing mate for part of an experimental training period and Rick became her superior officer. Will this sudden role reversal teach our hero and heroine the respect that they should have for one another, as well as help them learn a little bit more about each other personally? This is my first fanfic so any reviews are welcomed, but good reviews are the best. This is a real quick description of the setting for this story. Setting is on the SDF-1 in space, and the time is just after the episode Bye, Bye Mars. Khyron's assault on the SDF-1 hasn't happened yet, but Minmei's birthday party has happened. Lisa doesn't find out about Rick's promotion until after Rick has given his medal to Minmei. BTW I do not own anything of the original Robotech characters. The characters Mitchell, Stephen, and Brandon are mine though. So here without further ado, is the fanfic...
UNDERSTANDING
"DO WHAT?" Said Lisa, hoping she hadn't heard what she thought she heard from Claudia.
"That's right. Rick Hunter was promoted from Sgt. to Lt. and now he is the leader of the new Black squadron" said Claudia, looking confused as to why Lisa was so surprised. "Roy told me just a few minutes ago" she added.
"B...Bu...But how in the world did that loud-mouth, reckless, arrogant, disrespectful, jerk get a promotion?" Lisa asked, her voice getting louder with every new insult.
Claudia's look at Lisa was at first a little shocked, and then it slowly turned to amusement as she realized her red-faced friend really didn't know what had happened. Claudia closed her eyes and started shaking her head and chuckling lightly.
"What's so damn funny?" Lisa asked, looking at her friend with part confusion and part anger.
"You really don't know?" Claudia asked, still laughing lightly.
"Know what?" Lisa asked, still not getting the picture.
"The reason he was promoted was because he acted like a knight in shining armor, riding his white steed into battle against the forces of evil to save the fair princess, our first officer, and whisk her away to the safety of the castle" Claudia smiled at her little fairy tale version of the story.
Lisa looked like a fish out of water, her mouth opening and closing while trying to say something, but nothing came out. Then like a lightning bolt, understanding flashed across her face, and Lisa suddenly moaned, putting her elbows on her console and covered her face with her hands.
"I can't believe I am the reason that idiot got a promotion!" Lisa said in utter disgust.
"What's wrong Lisa? Roy says he's a great pilot. Sure, he's a little rough around the edges, and may need a little attitude tweaking, but he can't be all that bad" Claudia said.
Lisa lifted her head and turned her body toward Claudia and the rest of the bridge crew, not noticing the little beep that came from her console.
"You call being reckless, arrogant, disrespectful, and loud-mouthed, being not all that bad? Let me remind you that the first time we met he called me "That Old Sourpuss" right in front of everyone"
How could Claudia forget? She had been laughing after Rick said it, not to mention quite amused when Roy called her one too.
"And not only that, but just before he joined the RDF I found him in the lingerie shop hiding behind some clothes" Lisa said with even more disgust in her voice.
At this point the trio decided they wanted to be in on the discussion at hand. Of course, they had been listening in on the conversation since it got started, but were afraid to say anything because of Lisa's temper.
"Actually, we don't really know the reason he was in there in the first place" Vanessa stated in here usual calm manner.
"What are you talking about? He was a MAN in a women's lingerie shop. That's just creepy period" said Kim.
"I don't know. He looked kind of cute, bending down picking up his groceries, even for a letcher" Sammie said while giggling.
"You would think that" said Kim, in her usual smart-alecky tone towards Sammie.
"That's just it. Why would he buy groceries and then decide to go into a lingerie shop to look at women? Even if he was doing that, wouldn't he do it in reverse, so he wouldn't have the groceries to deal with?" Vanessa asked while wondering why she felt she was the only one who could think things through.
All the girls seemed to ponder this for a minute.
"Well if you're so smart, and then tell us what he was doing in there" said an annoyed Kim.
"Well...I think he was there with a girlfriend or another female" Vanessa said.
"That is one possibility" noted Claudia.
"Well that sucks. I thought he would be kind of cute to date myself" Sammie said, pouting a little.
This caused all the girls to start laughing.
"Well if that is the case then I feel sorry for you Sammie, or any other girl who would date Sgt. Rick Hunter. I would actually have to question their sanity too" said Lisa, feeling slightly relieved by the joking.
Of course, the tension hit again when a certain voice came in over the tacnet.
"Oh, I don't know. I would think any girl willing to date Rick Hunter would be pretty smart and lucky in my mind, oh, and he's a Lt. now, by the way" said the rather annoyed voice.
All the laughter stopped, and the girls looked at each other with fear, knowing exactly whose voice that was. One, Lt. Rick Hunter.
Lisa swallowed, took a deep breath, and slowly turned around to see the rather irritated face of Rick Hunter on her screen.
"Lt. Hunter, I didn't notice you call in" Lisa said cheerfully, with a strained smile, hoping he hadn't heard too much of their conversation.
"Really? That surprises me. Usually us loudmouthed pilots can be heard pretty clear when we call in" Rick said in a bitter voice.
Rick was looking at Lisa with one eyebrow raised, and a frown that would make even Ebenezer Scrooge cringe.
'Great, he did hear most of the conversation' Lisa thought. She decided to go ahead and keep the facade going. "What can I do for you?"
"Well I would like to defend myself against the gossip that your conversation entailed" Rick stated. "Vanessa was correct about the reason I was in that shop that day...at least to a point"
Before Lisa could say anything in her defense, Rick continued; "I happened to have went grocery shopping with a close female friend of mine. Then when we past that store, she insisted we go in, saying she needed a few things. I got startled while waiting on her, and dropped some of the groceries. That is why I was picking up groceries when you found me," Rick paused to let it sink into Lisa's head
"Lt. Hunter you really don't...," again Lisa was cut off when Rick raised his hand to make her stop.
"Even though my personal life is just that...PERSONAL...I felt I had to clarify a few things to you," Rick said, sounding bitter still.
Lisa felt her cheeks burning red. Never had she been so embarrassed by her actions. She turned to find all the other girls blushing as well. All of them felt a little ashamed for what they had said.
"Is that all Lt.?" Lisa asked just above a whisper.
Rick felt like he had finally straightened out some of the rumors that the bridge crew had of him, not to mention turning the usually cold hearted, tough as nails, first officer into what looked like a shy, blushing schoolgirl. 'Well that probably won't happen again in my life time, too bad, Lisa does kind of look cute blushing like that. If only she wasn't so ill tempered and strict all the time,' Rick thought, and finally relaxing from his earlier tension, said in a calm voice, "Black squadron requesting permission to land Commander"
Lisa, regaining some of her composer over the embarrassment of the whole situation, said in her normal tone, "Permission granted, runway one on the Prometheus is open".
Before Rick acknowledges the order, he had an evil idea that was sure to get under the commanders skin.
"Roger commander, Black squadron coming in for a landing...oh and commander?" Rick said innocently.
"Yes Lt. Hunter?"
"Tell Sammie I appreciate the comments and that I may take her up on her offer sometime," Rick said with a smile on his face, causing Lisa's mouth to drop open again from shock. "Lt. Hunter signing off...see you later you old sourpuss" the smile now a full blown grin on his face.
Lisa's mouth suddenly went from opened to closed, with a thin line going across her lips. Her eyes ablaze with anger, but before she could open her mouth again to reprimand him, his face disappeared from the screen. Lisa was about ready to tear the console right up from the floor. Her nails were close to breaking because of her fingers digging into it. The girls saw her face so red that they didn't utter a word, for fear of the raging storm that was known as Lisa. 'How dare he call me that again? I'm going to kill that little arrogant bastard!' Lisa couldn't remember a time she was as mad at any one person as she was right now with Rick Hunter.
"Sammie," Lisa said, in a cold as ice tone.
"Yes Lisa," Sammie said, scared to death of Lisa at that point.
"Lt. Hunter wanted to extend his appreciation of your comments and that he may take you up on the offer in the future".
"Oh, thank you".
"Sammie, will you please take over my console for now?"
"Sure Lisa, but why?"
Lisa started sporting the evillest grin ever imaginable. "Because if I go down to the hangar and get my hands on Hunter like I'm planning on doing, then you will have to take over for a while anyway, because I will either be in the brig, or thrown out of the military completely," This had all the girls looking at Lisa like she was a different person.
"Lisa...what exactly are you going to do?" Claudia asked, sounding just a little bit cautious.
"Don't worry Claudia. I'm just going to teach him never to mess with a woman scorned," Lisa said while standing and heading for the door.
"Lisa, you know how immature he can be. He is just trying to get under your skin".
"Exactly, and two can play at this game." Meanwhile, Lisa's thoughts were saying something almost similar 'I'll teach him to mess with Commander Elizabeth Hayes' and with that, Lisa stepped out of the bridge, heading for the hangar.
"What do you think she is going to do?" Asked Kim, now feeling a little worried for Lt. Hunter.
"I'm afraid to think about what Lisa has in store for him" said Claudia also worried. She had never seen someone get under Lisa's skin like Hunter did.
"Well as long as she doesn't hurt him too bad, because I probably would like to go out with him once" Sammie said innocently
Everyone suddenly looked at Sammie wide eyed.
"What?" Said a puzzled looking Sammie.
The rest of the crew just signed in disbelief, and went back to their duties. Sammie just shrugged and went to Lisa's console to take over.