A Period of Peace and Rejuvenation

by mammothhunterd

A while in the hospital, an old flame runs into Rick.

60

Robotech: The Macross Saga

Chapter 1: "A Period of Peace and Rejuvenation"

She took a deep breath, exhaled and proceeded forward. The double glass doors parted automatically and she entered the SDF-1's Main Medical Facility. She hated hospitals ever since she was a little girl and hoped this would be a quick and simple in and out.

"Okay, now that I'm here, where do I go next?" she asked herself aloud looking around, hating the feeling of being lost in a place she didn't like.

She lifted her sunglasses and set them on top her head, so she could have a better look around. She immediately winced and squinted her green eyes to the sudden exposure to the SDF-1's Main Medical Facility's bright, fluorescent lights that provided an extra unwanted reminder of her throbbing headache. After a few moments, her eye adjusted enough to the point where she could see. The sight that greeted her aggravated green eyes was that of a very busy triage, which meant this hospital visit might very well not be a simple 'quick in and out'.

"Coming through! Excuse us!" called out a female voice behind her.

She spun around just in time to see a trio of nurses and other medical personnel wheeling a person on a gurney towards her! She jumped out of the way and flattened herself up again a wall.

"Great, come here to figure out why instead of my paycheck they gave me a polite little letter telling me to come down to the SDF-1's Main Medical and nearly get run over. Is it any wonder I hate hospitals?" she said aloud to herself, holding her head.

"If they did run you over, luv, all they'd have to do is throw you right on top of the gurney that they ran you over with," her conscience chimed in.

She was pleased to find that the gurney that nearly ran her over, also cleared the area of just about everyone else and her green eyes quickly spotted the nurse's desk and she walked over to it. There was already one person ahead of her so she stood back and waited. As she stood and waited her ears noticed a familiar song coming from a radio. It was The Eagles' "Lyin' Eyes".

"…city girls just seemed to find out early how to open doors with just a smile."

In that sense she was very much a city girl as she had learned one thing in life well: a pretty smile and nice body would get her far and just about anything she wanted, and so far it had, except when it came to her own sex. For that and many other reasons, she always had trouble getting along with members of her own sex.

The sound of boots on the floor in front of her window caused her to look up from her charting.

The nurse was used to dealing with mostly uniformed personnel and when she looked up being able to read the name of who she was dealing with, so she was surprised when she looked up and right into the cleavage of a Caucasian woman wearing a black leather biker jacket on over a charcoal gray, u-necked tee-shirt!

She immediately cast her eyes up to look at the woman's face instead, not liking the awkward reminder of her own physical shortcomings.

"Umm, can I help you?" asked the nurse skeptically, thinking the woman had only come into SDF-1's Main Medical only to ask where the restroom was.

"And I thought the rest of the ship was cold," the young woman said to herself brushing off the nurse's icy stare.

"Yeah, umm I went to my mailbox on the November 30th expecting to find my paycheck and, I found this letter in my mailbox instead, telling had to go SDF-1 Main Medical…" the woman began, dropping the tri-folded letter on the desk in front of the nurse.

Before the nurse could read it or reply, she added,

"…so now that I am here, can I have my check so I can get on with the rest of my day and put this mix-up behind me?"

"Umm, we don't have your check," the nurse began.

"What? Oh your kidding me right?"

" 'Fraid not Sorry."

"Than why the hell did I have to come down here?"

"My guess is that there's a hold that's been placed on your check," the nurse explained.

"Okay, well could you remove the hold so I can get paid?" the woman asked impatiently.

"Well unfortunately it's not that simple. It's all depends, on why the hold was placed there. Can I see your ID so we can get started?" the nurse replied.

"Sure…" the woman said as she began to go through the pockets of her black leather jacket.

Seeing this, the nurse grew more nervous, thinking the out of place woman was about to produce a gun instead of an ID. She looked around an saw the triage was quite busy.

"Plenty of witnesses…" she thought to herself, wanting desperately for her more experienced co-worker to return from her lunch.

"Now, where did I put it?" the young woman said becoming frustrated.

"Check in your…" the nurse thought, trying to see the humor in the situation.

"Crap, don't tell me I forgot it again…," she said to herself, remembering a few nights ago when she had forgotten her ID and was locked out of her barracks.

The nurse wanted to roll her eyes as she was very busy and didn't have time or the patience to deal with someone that had forgotten her ID. During the few and brief times, the young woman looked up and exchange eye contact with her as dug around in her pockets for her ID, she only smiled politely, not wanting to agitate the strange woman further, and possibly escalate the situation.

As luck and subsequent efforts to be more responsible would have it, she found her ID Card in her wallet, where it belonged.

"Sorry bout that…" she said setting her black leather wallet which was chained to her blue jeans belt loop open on the counter in front of the nurse.

"No problem," the nurse replied politely.

"Can you see it or do you need me to take it out?" the young woman asked.
The nurse looked down at the woman's black leather bi-fold wallet. On one of the inner folds was a semi-clear window behind which was what looked to be a United Earth Defense Force ID Card.

"Umm, yeah could? I need to run it through the scanner…"

"Sure thing hang on..." she said, pulling the ID card out and setting it on the counter in front of the nurse.

The nurse picked up the ID card. Her eyes immediately confirmed that it was a United Earth Defense Force ID Card complete with hologram U.N. Spacey logo. She ran it through a card scanner next to her computer and the card's contents came up on her screen.

Name: Johnson, Marlene, Nicole

Rank: Corporal

Branch of Service: U.N. Spacey

Occupational Class: UEDF Marine Corps Aviator

DOB: 03/22/1990

Sex: Female

Height: 5 Feet 4 Inches

Weight: 130

The picture in the computer database matched the woman that was standing in front of her as well as the picture on the ID card. Among the many hundreds of things the nurse had learned in her short life was that very few girls were lucky to photograph well no matter what, and oddly this "biker gal" was one of them.

"God, probably even takes a decent DMV picture, unlike the rest of us. It's not fair that she gets the looks and the measurements, Didn't seemed get the brains though " the nurse though to herself

"So what's up? Why did I have to come down here?" Marlene asked becoming nervous thinking she was about to be told some dire news about herself, unintentionally breaking the nurse's train of thought.

"Looks like…yeah that's what I figured, your immunizations are incomplete," she stated in a matter of fact tone, tapping her right index finger on computer screen.

"A bit afraid of the ol' needle are we? By the looks of it one might think needles and the like are right up your alley," the nurse thought to herself.

"Immunizations?" Marlene asked a bit surprised and worried as she hated getting shots more than she hated hospitals

"Yup. Hard to believe they let ya come aboard with incomplete immunizations, but I guess with everything being so hectic with the reconstruction and such, these things can and do happen, but we'll get you fixed up right away" the nurse replied.

"Umm yeah…" the woman replied agreeing knowing deep down that she had done everything to put off getting her immunizations, which had just caught up to her. It didn't help her fears that the person that gave her the first round was a bit of a novice and left her bruised and sore.

"All these folks aren't here for their immunizations are they?" Marlene asked looking back behind and then again at the nurse.

"No, this is the SDF-1's Main Medical Facility Triage. Most of if not all of them are here for more serious medical issues.

"Oh good. For a second there, I thought I was gonna have to wait all day…I'm not am I?"

"I don't know. If we're were handling them probably yes, because though immunizations are important, they are pretty far down the so-called urgency list. The immunizations are being given in Room 108…down the hall, first door on your right," the nurse explained routinely, pointing to her right with her right thumb.

"Okay…thanks," Marlene replied walking off towards her new destination glad to not have the nurse's cold eyes on her any longer.

"Who was that?" asked another nurse taking a look at the young woman that had just left and then back at her co-worker as she took her place at the desk.

"Just some cadet," the first nurse replied simply, looking down at the note Marlene had given to her.

"Cadet? Where's her uniform? "

"That's what I was wondering too, but her ID checked out," the first nurse replied pointing to the computer screen.

"So what's she here for anyway?" the second nurse asked glancing briefly at the computer screen.

"Looking for what I'm guessing is her first check," the first nurse said looking down at the tri-folded piece of paper Marlene had given her.

The second nurse reached up and picked it and began to read it.

"Guess payroll gave her that nice little letter telling her to come down here instead of giving her her her first check."

"Ouch, that's a bummer. Maybe she needs it to buy some more clothes," the first nurse said Both girls erupted in laugher.

"I know if I were her I'd be looking to buy some new fashions…STAT! Stand back ma'am, pu the eye-liner down and and drop the whole biker chick motif!" the first nurse said.

"Where's that Fashion Emergency candid reality show when ya need 'em?" the second nurse said looking around.

"And of course in typical fashion the letter is really vague," the first nurse said.

"It's weird that they would send her here for her check though, unless she actually worked here in Main Medical," the second nurse said, thinking aloud.

"Well, she's Veritech pilot. Apparently they sent her here because, her immunizations are incomplete, so it's not exactly a mix up as she thinks," the first nurse said.

"Her? A Veritech pilot? She's not even trying to dress the part," the second nurse commented.

"True, she's not the first cadet to come in here, not wearing their uniform. Heck half if not more of the people that come in here don't have a uniform…"

"Wow, now you're defending her?" the second nurse questioned sarcastically.

"Just sayin' is all."

"That's because most of the ones that do come in here outta uniform are civilians and none of them came in here, dressed like that, in a low cut tee-shirt with their…their woman hood practically spilling out everywhere."

"If she did work here, we could all start a fund to buy her a bra," the first nurse replied

The second nurse chuckled and added,

"Seriously, what's with the sunglasses, and biker jacket?"

"I dunno, I really thought she was gonna pull a gun on me when I ask for her ID and then she started digging around in her all jacket pockets," the first nurse said.

"Not the most organized person is she?" the second nurse said.

"Doesn't seem that way…she really had trouble finding it."

"Did you suggest she look between her…" the second nurse added.

"Course not….but I sure wanted to."

"Something not adding up…even if her ID and such checks out. Let's give security a heads up anyway. The last thing we need is for her to go wandering around here causing trouble. The week before you got here, we had a rash of people trying to get in under the guise to use the bathroom, just so they could look around for needles and narcotics" the second nurse said picking up the phone receiver in front of them.

"RDF Main Medical Security….Security Officer Dobbs, how can I help you?"

"Hey, Chet, it's Marianne.

"Hey Marianne, what's up?"

"We have a potential live one. Wondering if you could gather a few of the boys and come check it out, just to be on the safe side?

"Sure, what we looking at?"

"Caucasian female in her early 20's. She's wearing a black leather biker style jacket with sunglasses."

"Caucasian female…early 20's…black leather jacket…sunglasses, gotcha." Chet said as he took down the descriptors the nurse gave to him

"….and a low cut u-necked charcoal gray tee-shirt, she a bit on the chesty side so you guys behave,"

"We will, we always do. So What was her last know direction of travel?" Chet asked.

"First floor, towards Room 108. She came her for immunizations…"

"Okay, just got her on camera…"

"Her ID checked out, but she seems like the type that well… might go nuts so just play it cool when you get up here."

"Will do."

With that she felt somewhat relieved. She took a deep breath, hung up the phone and "returned" to her conversation with the other nurse.

"Shots huh?" the second nurse asked, sipping her morning coffee out an off-white mug.

"Yup…"

"Hmm, well… they ought to be sure and give her a few extra ones, if ya know what I mean, just to be on the safe side." the second nurse added.

They both chuckled in reply.

"So why did ya throw in the commented about her being chesty, was that to tease the guys?"

"Kinda. Well…it's a fact I couldn't get around…literally. I mean I was just sitting here finishing my charts and when I looked up to help whoever was next when…wham! I was staring right into her chest."

"That's hilarious. I might jealous are we?"

"It was awkward more than anything."

"I'm sorry I don't mean to laugh and make fun, if anything it's bound to make Chet and the boys response faster.

"I know right? We we've got front row seats…"

Telling her she had found the right destination, was a line 20 people deep.

"Well, there goes the rest of my morning and probably most of my afternoon," she said, taking her place at the end of line.

She reluctantly leaned her back against the wall and shoved her hands in her jacket's pockets.

"God this is worse then the DMV…" she thought aloud to herself looking around.

Though the overall vast majority of her experiences with the DMV were negative ones, there was one positive memory: receiving her driver's license and with it, much desired and needed freedom and independence. She had trouble with the written test, as she never did well on written tests, she eventually passed, though not after taking the test multiple times. The road test was another matter. She passed it first try with flying colors. Maybe because she knew getting her license was her first step in her getting her own freedom and away from her family.

She remember standing there in similar slow moving DMV line, anxiously waiting to take her road test. She quickly saw that there were two testers, a crabby old woman that had brought a few test takers back in tears and a and a man. She knew right that if she was paired with the male tester she would fair better. As fate would have he she was indeed paired with the male tester and she unzipped her jacket and was suddenly very glad she wore a similar low-cut shirt, which she later knew "helped" her to pass her driving test, if only to distract her tester and give her a few extra points.

Eventually this line poked along until she found herself standing across from a group of patient rooms. She began to read their name tags. She was about to give up and direct her attention elsewhere when she saw a name that caught her attention and her eyes lit up. It was familiar! A name she recognized! Finally she wasn't going to feel alone on this big ship.

"God I hope he isn't here because his immunizations went horribly wrong."

As her mind bubbled with possibilities of this new knowledge, she quickly forgot about the line and before she knew it she was next.

"Miss?" Miss?" a voice questioned in front of her.

"Hmm? Wha?" she asked emerging from thoughts looking up to see who had spoken to her.

There down the hall she saw a young, Caucasian woman, with straight, dirty blonde hair and that was pulled back into a pony tail in maroon medical scrubs standing there. The line had moved, but she had not.

"You next for immunizations?" the woman asked.

"Oops, yes, sorry, thanks," Marlene said, closing the distance and entering room 108.

"Come on in and have a seat. Go ahead and take off your jacket and take out your ID card, I'll be right with you as soon as I can, " the woman said briefly looking back at her before returning her focus on readying some items on a counter.

Marlene took off her jacket sat down in the plastic chair with shiny metal legs and looked around. It was a small room. Too small and a feeling of claustrophobia began to crept in. On the wall in front of her there was a counter where the nurse was getting things ready. On the counter were all kinds of medical supplies, all in jars, from wooden tongue depressors to band-aides to bottles of iodine.

After gauging the size or lack there of with the room, her eyes quickly noticed it was overly lit by fluorescent lights. She quickly put her sunglasses back on.

Soon, the nurse was done and went to close the door behind her. Marlene suddenly felt very claustrophobic in this small room.

"Do ya have to close that door? I promise I won't scream…or run," Marlene said in a half joking manner.

"Sorry HIPA, you know privacy issues,."

"Yeah, I know. I just hate small rooms."

"I understand, I get kinda claustrophobic working in here all day…I'll try and make this as quick and painless as possible, how's that?"

"Sounds good."

The nurse's comforting tone surprised her. For once someone wasn't giving her a look over. She was suspicious, but also relieved.

"I don't have to take off my sunglasses do I?" she said handing the nurse her ID Card.

"Nah, you should be fine. What ever makes you feel comfortable. If you want, I could turn off the mian overhead lights? I know…they bug me too and use just the counter lights," nurse asked looking and pointing over to the lit counter

"That would be nice."

The nurse did as she had offered and soon returned to Marlene's side, the lights above the shelf now given the job of providing light. Marlene smiled as the nurse was seemingly one of the few people left in the medical field that actually still cared about people and that put her at ease. At ease enough to even remove her sunglasses.

"Here you go…"

Marlene looked and saw a clipboard with a paper on it. She knew it was the standard medical release form. She accepted it and depressed the clip to release the pen so she could sign it. In a matter of seconds she was done.

"Done already?

"Yup, call me Speedy…"

"That was fast…umm did you get a chance to read of scan the document?"

"Normally I would, but like I said this room is…"

"Gotcha," the nurse said accepting the clipboard.

Marlene "sensed" what the nurse needed next, and she produced her ID card.

"Thanks," the nurse said taking the cadet's ID card and running it through a scanner next to the desktop computer.

"Looks like you're in the system already," the nurse said hitting the "return" button on the keyboard.

She had heard the phrase 'your in the system' before, but not for positive reasons. She pushed that notion from her mind as she knew she didn't need any more undue stress and aggravation.

Marlene saw the nurse holding a small red ball.

"Where do you want it?" the nurse asked.

"What?" Marlene asked surprised, not sure what the nurse meant or what she was doing to do with that ball. Suddenly in her mind she pictured herself in high school gym class all over again. It was dodge ball day, one of the gym class days she dreaded most. Except this time she was alone, save a woman in front of her. It was the nurse, holding the red ball in her right hand. Because she didn't like dodge ball, she tried to get out as fast as she could by either catching and deliberately dropping the ball or taking a hit. She preferred the former because it was less painful, thought not as fast.

"Sorry, what I meant to say was which arm do you want me to stick ya?"

"Oh, well I dunno if it matters really…" she said looking her arms.

"Are you right handed or left handed?"

"Oh, left handed."

"Then I'll use your right arm…"

"You can use my left, or my right or both. You might have to. Every time I get my blood drawn it usually takes a few tries in each arm. My veins have a way of hiding I guess. Guess that's why I kinda hate hospitals and getting shots..."

"Ouch, I don't blame you. Tell you what…I'm going to try and be as gentle as possible.

"Sounds like a plan," Marlene replied smiling gently.

"I'm sorry you had to hold on to your coat, they ought to give us place to hang them.

That's okay. It kinda works out for the best. I feel more comfortable holding it anyway. Kinda embarrassing, but maybe' it's like my security blanket," Marlene replied.

"Ah, don't feel embarrassed. Just because people get older, doesn't mean they leave their security blankets behind, they often just take different forms. Let's try the right arm first anyway. Who knows maybe we'll get lucky…squeeze this ball every 5 seconds…" the nurse added.

"Oh, I get it, stress relief. Wow pretty non-traditional, I kinda like it," Marlene said accepting the small red ball, looking it over.

The small red ball wasn't all red. On one half, it had the familiar two sided, white triangles of the U.N. Spacey kite logo.

"Well there's that, but it more to get the blood pumping through your veins making them easier to find…let's see what we find…" the nurse said looking for a vein by tapping on the young cadet's forearms. She then stopped.

"Find one?"

"Yup…keeping squeezing that ball…" the nurse instructed readying the latex strip. When she had the latex strip ready, she was a bit surprised to find the young cadet beginning to doze off.

"Boy, they must of run you guys pretty ragged. I dunno how they expect you guys to defend the world on two hours of sleep. You get the dreaded graveyard shift?" the nurse added.

"Sort of. I'm not really a morning person. I've heard that you nurses also keep some pretty lousy hours," she replied, watching the nurse produce a syringe, trying to hide her growing fear.

"Actually I'm just a lowly Medical Assistant that's gotten more than her fair share of practice as of late, but I guess we all have to put in our dues sometime."

"I'm not going to stick you just yet, but I'll let you know when I'm about to so you can turn your head if you like," the Medical Assistant added.

"That also sounds like a plan, what's that one anyway can I ask?" Marlene asked, hoping small talk would ease the awkward nervousness of the situation.

"Influenza all part of the 'The Works' as we call them," the Medical Assistant said looking at the filled syringe in the light.

"I got shots for those back in basic training…does that help?"

"Only that you know more or less what to expect, it does mean, however that you got a few of them outta the way, but some of the ones I have to give ya are double doses, " the Medical Assistant said as lifted the syringe to her eyes and squeezed the syringe slightly until a few drops of clear liquid squirted from the needle tip. She then set it aside on counter. She then turned her attention towards opening a small square packet that contained a cotton pad soaked in rubbing alcohol.

Once the packet was open, the nurse pulled the pad free by giving it a shake to get it to unfold and she then wiped the woman's upper arm.

"Give me a sec to get you all tied off…" the nurse said using a latex strip to tie off the woman's arm around her elbow.

"Oops, dang it slipped and broke, sorry…"

"No problem." Marlene replied, watching the nurse retie the latex strip on her arm.

"There…got it…so what do you do here aboard the ol' SDF-1?" the Medical Assistant said, making small talk, hoping it would comfort Marlene.

"UEDF Marine Corps Aviator," Marlene replied routinely.

She could tell her response fell on deaf ears so she added,

"I'm a Veritech pilot."

"Oh! Wow! A Veritech pilot? Wow must be pretty exciting," the M.A. said replied.

"Well actually…I'm just a cadet and I haven't really flown in any actual battles, just done lots of simulations and basic flight training. So, I guess you can say I'm pretty green."

"Ah, I figured you were some sort of covert operative,"

"Covert Op.? Me? What make you think that?"

"The street clothes…the sunglasses."

"Oh, it's…laundry day…kinda works out cause I don't really like my uniform. It doesn't fit me quite right ya know, It's tight in all the wrong places and loose in all the wrong places…yeah I know I picked the wrong career path, one that in involves wearing uniforms. Guess it was either a military one of a restaurant one. I'd imagine you don't spend a lot of time wearing your scrubs outside of work if you can help it?" Marlene inquired.

"Ordinarily, yes, but be honest, the last few guys I've dated, well, they've had a little thing for nurses so…"

"Ahh so we ladies aren't the only ones who 'melt' over a person in uniform?" Marlene asked, grinning.

"Yeah, though in the end, just about every guy I dated was more concerned about getting me out of it. Go ahead and turn your head…" the nurse advised.

"Is it going to hurt, or is that a dumb question?" Marlene asked looking at the ceiling.

"It's not a dumb question. Like I said, I'll try and be gentle and…looks your in luck…I found a vein almost right away so chances are I won't have to stuck ya…any more than I need to," the nurse said injecting the syringe.

Marlene winced as the needle entered her forearm.

"Let me know if you feel sick or like you are going to faint, okay?"

"Sure…" Marlene said, thinking her request was dumb as she already felt sick and like she was going to faint.

Soon, but not soon enough, the nurse was done with that injection.

"All done."

"Wow, done already? Great! Sign off or do what ever ya have to do to my chart and I'll head back to payroll to get my check," Marlene said perking up.

"Held back your pay did they?"

"Yup, my first check no less…oh well it's all water under the bridge…"

"sorry Hun, the floods just starting," the Medical Assistant said.

"What?"

"Yeah we've got to get ya up to par on your all your immunizations and normally this wouldn't be this way as we'd of spread it out so you could heal, but we pretty much have to do this all in one shot, forgive the pun, it was unintended."

Marlene went pale.

"Dunno if you ever saw a therapist, but if ya have and he told you about going to a 'happy place' when things get kinda unpleasant, I do that now…" the Medical Assistant said setting filling up more I injection syringes on the counter and lining them up.

Forty-five minutes later UEDF Marine Corps Aviator, Corporal Marlene Nicole Johnson was up to par with all her immunizations.

"How ya holding up?" she asked.

Marlene gave her a unhappy irritated look, but said nothing.

"Well, we're all done with everything…you can hold this?"

There she saw a small cotton ball she saw over the last injection site. The woman took over and held down the small white cotton square over the injection site.

"Here, let's get that all taped up…" the nurse said putting medical tape over the last cotton ball.

"So now that I'm all done, can I go now?"

"Sorry, you gotta hang here for at least ten minutes…"

"Yeah, I probably couldn't of moved…even if…even if there was a fire," Marlene said tiredly inhaling and exhaling.

The woman looked around the room and her attention soon focused on the nurse as she put labels on the vials of blood.

"That my medical charts?"

"More like paper work for the immunizations…when started my so-called medical career, I thought more of my patients would be living and breathing rather than flat and white and covered in ink," she replied as gathered everything up and began to dispose of the syringes and gloves.

"I know they have drinks and stuff after giving blood, that the case this time too?"

"Sure all we have is apple juice box and peanut butter crackers."

"Sounds fine,"

As the M.A. handed her the small box of apple juice and a package of peanut butter crackers, Marlene asked,

"Can you open the door now that we're technically all done."

"Oh, oops sorry. Sure thing," the Medical Assistant said walking over and opening the door.

She then poked her head outside the door and then said,

"…and seeing as how there's no one else waiting, you can take your time."

Marlene pulled the red bendable straw from the side of the box and used the pointed end to poked through the top of the box, but was unsuccessful because she was feeling weak.

"Here lemme get that for ya," the Medical Assistant said taking the straw and successfully pushing the pointed end of the red straw through the box's top.

Marlene managed a weak smile as she accepted the box.

"Guess if I…I pass out or something', this is…this the best place to be…." she commented.

"Yup…" the Medical Assistant said as she began to enter the new information into the computer.

Soon she heard her patient sipping away on apple juice and munching away on peanut butter.

"I know that juice box and crackers wasn't much and I was going to visit the vending machines myself. I can get you something else if you want, ya know to help you remember this one hospital visit as a pleasant one."

"That would be nice."

"Anything in particular you want? It's on me," the MA added.

"A beer or a shot…" Marlene said.

"Ha! Don't I wish…but this is only my lunch break…otherwise I might."

"How about anything but diet?"

"Sounds good, I'll be right back," the Medical Assistant said walking off to get the young cadet a drink.

"Ugg, I hate needles. I don't see how anyone could get hooked on anything that forced you to inject yourself," Marlene said shaking off a series of cold shivers, recalling the series of injections she just had to endure.

She then went over in her mind of all the various non needle substances she had tried in her 22 years. She had no preference or aversion to any one of them. Her substance of choice was and had always been, since she was 10, was alcohol, something she had found as much access to during training. She hoped that would chance once she moved to the SDF-1 and was more or less "on her on". She had it all planned out in her head that she was either going to buy some alcohol or go somewhere and have a drink. With that note from payroll, her plan had hit a snag, at least momentarily.

The door to the room opened and broke train of thought. She looked and saw that Lora had returned a single soda can in hand.

"Kinda weird, but the entire machine was out of soda, save this can of Petite Cola. I figured I better get back here ASAP otherwise I might get mobbed, but hey, least it isn't diet. You can have it. I'll just go scout around later for a vending machine that's better stocked,"

Though Marlene never cared for Petite Cola it, she accepted it graciously and thanked her.

Seeing that Lora had opened it for her, Marlene wasted no time drinking it,

"Never cared for anything diet related. You can't spell diet without the word 'die' in it and that can't be a good thing."

"Ha, ha yeah…though I doubt you ever have to worry about having to eat or drink anything diet related, me on the other hand, lets just say there's a reason you rarely see large-chested skinny girls. Seems to be a total package deal for the most part. " Marlene said between gulps, knowing that basic training had kept her skinnier than she would have been if she hadn't been in it.

"It wasn't a beer or a shot that you were hoping for, but that looked like it hit the spot," the M.A. noted with a smile as she finished hers paper work.

"Very much so. I just might need a cigarette, it was that good," Marlene said holding up the empty can and looking at it.

"Well, you'll be happy to know you're ten minutes is up, you're free to go."

"Oh good. Umm is there a place I can smoke? I've been here for what feels like forever and I'm really dying for a cigarette,"

"Sure, you can onlysmoke on the open air patio. Let me show ya. I was going to go and try and get in a quick smoke myself before the next batch arrives, Can you stand and walk okay yet? " the M.A. said,

"If it means I can have a cigarette, than the answer is yes…" Marlene said standing up slowly.

"…show me the way I shall follow," Marlene said once she was standing.

As the M.A. proceeded towards the doors that lead to the open air balcony, Marlene thought,

"Something ironic about someone in the healthcare field leading me to the smoking patio."

Once outside, they walked over to a balcony area and began to look for their cigarettes. Unlike the hospital itself, the patio area was relatively empty of people, which was a welcome relief to Marlene. The M.A. quickly found her pack and a lighter and was about to light up when she notice Marlene still hadn't found either of hers.

"Forget yours?"

"Yeah, I…well today hasn't been the best day," Marlene said realizing she was out of cigarettes as well as alcohol.

"No prob…" Lora said holding out a cigarette.

"Thanks."

"No problem and your welcome. Think of it as a peace offering."

"Peace offering?" Marlene asked.

"Yeah, in case you hate me something crazy cause I stuck ya with a bunch of needles and made you take off your jacket and sit in that tiny room."

Marlene smiled, accepted the cigarette put it to her lips. The M.A. lit it for her. After a long, savored drag they both exhaled.

"Actually, I'm trying to quit, made it my 2011 new year's resolution, Guess I'm not doing too bad, this is my second in as many days," Lora began looking down at the cigarette in her right hand.

"Sorry if I pushed you off the wagon or on the wagon rather so close to the end."

"It's okay, guess I should of picked a less stressful time to try and quit,"

"Is there ever a less stressful time to quit? Especially here?" Marlene asked taking another drag off her cigarette

"Good point, looks like your jacket can in handy after all" Lora said with a smile taking another drag off her cigarette.

"Yeah I'm freezing. I duno why they keep hospitals so cold, I mean we're not cadavers, yet," Marlene said.

"It also hides all the cotton balls you now have taped to your arms," the M.A. added with a smile putting her lighter and pack back in her pocket.

"Indeed," Marlene said exhaling with a smile, looking down at her the sleeves of her black leather jacket.

Lora looked down and pulled her hand out of her pocket.

"What is it?" Marlene asked.

"My name tag, I forgot to ask them for a replacement, the pin part on the back broke. Guess I was the one being anonymous today."

"It's just a tag, right?"

"Yeah it is, but my boss called me into her officer early on to let me know I had to get it fixed ASAP."

"Oh…there must be an unwritten code somewhere that all bosses have to be assholes, ya know?"

"Yup. My name's Lora Hill, but you can call just call me Lora," Lora said holding her nametag on the front of her scrub top.

"Nice to meet you Lora, though you already know more about me than even I would of told you after a few shots…but please just call me Marlene." Marlene said with a smile exhaling.

"Never seen 'Lora" spelled that way," Marlene noted, looking at her name tag

"Leave it to my parents to try and help me stick out. I've thought about changing it to the more traditional spelling. To be honest I haven't met any other girls named Marlene,"

"And leave it to my parents to try and help me stick out," Marlene added taking a drag of her cigarette.

"Ha, true. Still, it's a pretty unusal name, where did they get it?"

"Ever heard of Marlene Dietrich, the black and white starlet from the 1920s and 30s?" Marlene asked.

"Yeah, never seen any of her work though."

"My mom was a huge fan of hers."

"Looks like it…I wonder if there are any famous Loras out there?"

"Dunno, might we worth looking into."

After a few minutes, each girl finished their cigarette and were about to part ways when the lights of the ship went dark.

"What the hell?" Marlene asked.

"Looks like another power outage," Lora replied.

"Another?"

"Yeah, guess they're still getting all the kinks worked out during the reconstruction I guess."

Marlene looked down at the streets below. Everything was pitch black. She heard screams and the squeal of tires and the crunch of metal.

"I don't walk back to my quarters in all that chaos," Marlene noted.

"Nah, just hang out here until they get thing back up, the emergency power generators should kick in soon anyway," Lora said.

As she predicted, the emergency generators kicked on and lights came on, but they were only enough to barely see.

"You might wanna wait till full power is restored, which means our little break just got extended," Lora offered.

"Sounds good to me," Marlene said with a smile.

"You want another cigarette?" Lora said pulling out her cigarette pack.

"Wow, sure, not gonna pass on an offer like that.

"I figure the more you smoke from this pack, the less there be left for me to."

"I do what I can to help, " Marlene said with a smile she waited for Lora to light her cigarette.

"Look at you. You're becoming quite the helpful Girl Scout," Lora added.

"Ha, not hardly. I was kicked out of the Girl Scouts pretty early on for these as well as fighting, and basically not doing what I was told and more or less wandering off one too many times during camps outs to do my own thing and visit the boys camp," Marlene explained exhaling smoke

"Ha! I was in scouts for awhile too, but it was more of a matter of I had too many things on my activities plate and something had to give. It wasn't hard choice really, I never liked camping that much anyway, something unappealing about getting dirty and freezing your ass off,"

"True. Not sure if it's just me, but these things are becoming harder and hard to find." Marlene said holding up her cigarette.

"Well it's not just you, they started this clean air program on the ship and they're phasing out cigarettes among other things," Lora said.

"Here's to the old regime! Maybe we ought to save them and sell them later," Marlene suggested.

"Yeah huh?"

"You want another?" Lora asked, seeing Marlene extinguish the butt of her cigarette.

"Nah that one was just enough to hit the spot. Plus I don't want to push your luck with your resolution anymore," Marlene said squishing the butt against the cement wall.

"I'm glad you were my last patient, more specifically my last patient was a woman."

This surprised Marlene. She wondered if Lora was hitting on her. Though she was heterosexual, she had done more than her fair share of partying and drunken experimentation.

"Oh?" Marlene asked not sure where the conversation was headed.

"I mean a girl can only take so much from these typical military guys. All the comments, I mean they try and make it a real 'hands on' experience. I was sorely tempted to give some of them a tongue depressor and a shot of Demerol."

"Demerol?" Marlene inquired.

"Yeah, it's a great little drug that really quiets patients down. Anyway I started off my medical career as a Certified Nurse's Aide, or C.N.A. "

"Hmm, a good friend of mine from high school was a C.N.A. for a bit I think. What's it like?"

"Umm, you basically get paid to change diapers and wipe butts…

"Yuck…"

"That's why I like this job, no butts to wipe, no diapers to change."

"Definite pluses."

"Anyhow, my first job was at this nursing home, Autumn Meadows or something. It wasn't the best nursing home, but anyway there was this patient named…God I can't think of her name…began with an 'M'…. and she was always on her call light, wanting us to go in her room and fix this and adjust that. Our LPN on duty must of felt bad for us because she gave the patient some Demerol to calm her."

"Did it work?"

"Yeah, maybe a bit too well…"

"She didn't die, did she?" Marlene asked.

"No, but let's just say she probably got a better night's sleep than she had gotten in a while."

"I'll bet."

"Yeah, Maxine, that was her name, was none too happy when she woke up."

"Why?" Marlene asked with a smile.

"My guess she was unhappy she was 'out of action' so to speak from bugging us with every little thing for so long," Lora replied.

Marlene smiled and inquired with: "Demerol huh? You wouldn't happen to have some would ya? I could use a 'better night's sleep than I've had in a long time' ," Marlene asked taking a drag from her cigarette.

"If did, I might be taking a little myself. This is my first military career too. I had no idea things would be...well quite like this. I'm just not cut out for the military, ya know?

"More than you'll ever know…" Marlene said with a half smile,

"Yeah, I guess we were all pretty much drafted, whether we knew it or not, whether we liked it or not, when this ship crashed on Macross Island back in 1999. I was happy that it stopped the Global Civil War. Then when those aliens attacked and just about wiped out Earth…I mean what choice did any of us have, but sign up and join? Just about everything and everyone that defined our civilian lives is now gone," Lora said looking at the many uniformed RDF personnel going about the business of getting things back in order streets as the back-up lighting came on.

"Yup," Marlene said.

"They're my family, your family…" Lora added.

"Except a lot better dressed," Marlene said with a smile.

"You're a Veritech pilot though. That means you actually volunteered and signed up to be here. You must think I'm being very unpatriotic?" Lora said in a dejected tone.

"I am a Veritech pilot, yes. As for me volunteering and signing up to be here, well that's debatable. I could really care less if your being patriotic or not, thought. I'm more like you in that I don't think I'm cut out for the military either, but there's not a lot I can do about it, or not that there's a great grand life waiting for me on the outside."

"Oh?" Lora asked becoming interested.

"Yeah, I barely passed basic training. Never did much running on my own. Guess all those years of gym classes that I gotten out of by telling the P.E. teachers I had cramps more or less caught up to me."

"I could of used that excuse too, I really hated gym class," Lora began, rolling her eyes, "…but I was a rather late bloomer in all departments."

"That and you try running and doing just about anything physical with my endowments," Marlene added.

"What about a sports bra?" Lora asked.

Marlene smiled and looked at Lora. She was 100 pounds, her dirty blonde hair pulled up into a business like ponytail and she was petite all around.

"They only go up to a certain size, after that you have to shell out some serious dough. Dough is something I didn't have a lot of growing up."

"I've always been envious of girls like you because you always got all the attention from guys," Lora added.

"Right attention, wrong attention, yeah I pretty much got it all. It's all a weird, sick game and while I don't like the rules or the game, I learned early on that if I could get more of what I wanted with what I had. Especially from guys."

"Yeah, I'll bet. Guys, are kind of simple that way," Lora said with a smile.

"Girl's however are a different story. I tend to make enemies of them. I've had more than my fair sure of fights, both verbal and physical. I've gotten to the point though where I don't want to fight anymore. I figured out few years ago that if I ever wanted to see thirty, I better start trying to use my head more instead of my hands and mouth."

"Speaking of attention and I hope this doesn't disappoint you, but I probably will remember you."

"Cause of the jacket and sunglasses?"

"That and you seem like the first person I've met that seems…well actually human and doesn't want to brag about every military accomplishment they ever had."

"It be kinda hard…I don't really have any military accomplishments to brag about, and even if I did, I wouldn't brag about them. Sometimes I feel like I am the only human left in a world full of military robots, like a weird Twilight Zone episode."

"Ha, never thought of it like that…"

"Kinda hard not to think about something like that when ya work around robots all day, everyday and well being a Veritech pilot, I spend a lot of time inside a robot."

"Don't forget, we both live inside a giant robot," Lora said with a wink.

"Yikes, your right, hard to believe I forgot that one," Marlene said looking back at Lora and the ship around them.

"You seem pretty tough and all, I know if I ever had to go through basic training they'd eat me alive," Lora said.

"Thanks, it took years of practices. The military's main job in basic is to eat you alive and shit you out as clean slate ready for molding into the perfect soldier, pilot etc."

"Yeah I figured that, you probably handled it than I would of."

"Well, being 'tough' just means all my superiors have to work harder on me.I remember when the shit really started to hit the fan for me back in basic. My head hit the pillow and I passed out right away from sheer exhaustion. The day had turned sour early on and it never seemed to get better. Another day started with they, well we military types called 'P.T.' or physical training, which consisted of a 2 1\2 mile run and I had fallen behind the rest of the group early on. I had been yelled at so much that I felt like I was going deaf and it took everything I had to keep from wetting myself whenever I knew I had to do PT. I didn't help that never liked exercise and so I wasn't in shape when basic training started, so they put me in 'Fat Camp' for a few weeks. That just gave my peers more reasons to laugh as well as hate me."

"Hate you?"

"Like I said I hated exercising and in basic you to everything as a unit: you sleep, shit shower and eat and train together. The way things work is that if one person falls behind with things like running, they punish everyone. Sure the Drill Instructor gives ya an earful, but they figure your own peers will do the dirty work."

Lora raised her eye brows.

"Then they started to wrap up evenings every few weeks with something called a 'full pack run' which consisted of a 1 1\2 miles run in full gear, including a 50 pound pack. Since I wasn't able to keep up with the group in PT with no pack, I knew there was no way I was going to be able to keep up in full gear. Like the morning PT, I got an earful from my drill sergeant afterwards and they made the rest of the group wait in the freezing rain until I finished, afterwards promptly threw up my dinner and a a fair amount of blood. I wanted to pass out and was seeing stars, but my Sarge made damn sure I didn't, at least not until he was done yelling at me. 'Throw up and pass out on your own time, Cadet Johnson!' he said. At first, my squad mates were more or less tolerant. After repeated sessions of this, they'd had enough and decided to resort to their own, more personal "corrective measures".

"Uh-oh…"

"My head hit the pillow and I passed out right away from sheer exhaustion from another day that wrapped up with a full pack run. You'd think that once yer head hits the pillow that pretty much is the official end of any bad, little did I know then that bad day was about to get even worse, which I couldn't imagine how or it was even possible that it could.

Lora listened intently, but said nothing.

"You know feeling ya get when you can tell when someone's looking at you even when your eyes are closed or you are turned around?"

"Yeah."

"Well as tired as I was, I suddenly got that feeling. At first I ignored it, thinking I was just being paranoid. It was so strong, that I figured it'd better open my eyes. There I saw one of my squad mates standing at the side of my bed. 'w…what's going on?' I asked sleepily, thinking I had missed the wake up Reveille When you're that tired, it seems like you go to bed one minute and the wake the next. My visitor didn't reply, which sent up red flags in my head. Before I knew she and a few others were on me and they quickly and forcefully put a rolled up pair of socks in my mouth that was not only humiliating, butit's bigger purpose was to muffle my screams if I did scream. Then began to punch me, but some of them had packed bars of soap in burlaps sacks. Can't keep up in PT? We'll give you a reason' they said to me. Then, as suddenly as it started it was over. I wanted to breath a sigh of relief, but I knew better. As I suspected and feared they weren't done yet. I felt myself being carried off. I was so stunned from the beatings that I couldn't hardly resist.

"Where…where did they take you?" Lora asked fearfully.

"To the bathroom. I saw the lights go on and they dragged me over to a shower stall "tossed" me in and turned the water. A wash of cold water washed over me and I gasped. Soon it appeared to be truly over as everyone left the bathroom. The shock of everything wore off and I spit out the rolled up pair of socks from her mouth. Though I wanted to, I fought to keep herself from crying, not knowing if they were still in the bathroom or nearby within earshot,"

"Wow…yikes, I'm sorry," Lora said trying to take in and process all of what Marlene and told her.

"It's okay, I'm through it now. That's were the tough side of me comes in, guess it's the only thing that really saved me. I don't get scared, I get mad and look ways to even the odds into my favor. I guess I leanred a long toime ago that if you play by the rules you hardly ever win. I knew that I'd never be able to comply with what they wanted so I had to find another way and I wanted to make damn sure they never did that to me again and I had to act fast, before they tried again."

"So what did ya do?" Lora asked.

"Besides running us all over God's green earth in all kinds of weather and all kinds of terrain, they also paired up against squad mates for hand to hand combat training and self defense.

"You get paired up against them?"

"You guessed it. Though I don't remember if it was right away or later, and let's just say I put my years of getting into fist fights in school to good use on each of them."

"Wow again."

"They all spent some time in the infirmary, after which a few of them resigned. I had to go there too as I broke my left hand fighting the last girl,"

"Wow, I can imagine, so then what happened?" Lora asked, hanging on Marlene's every word.

"Well, they started out by giving me more P.T."

"More P.T.?" Lora asked following Marlene's line of thought.

"Yup. It's was ironic in that the very thing that had gotten me in the mess in the first place, that and my fists had result in more PT. A deadly cycle. Also spent some time in the Brig, but to me it was worth it. Nobody ever bothered me after that, even the officers left me alone for the most part. It's kinda like prison, you gotta make a reputation for yourself before one is made for you."

"You've been to prison?"

"Jail, but I figure in a lot of ways they are the same. The sad thing is I guess is I still can't really run with a full pack on my back, but I got high marks in hand to hand combat and firearms handling," Marlene said

"Those two items must of given you some positive attention, though right?" Lora inquired.

"I generally don't like a lot of extra attention, good or bad. From guys or girls. Guess my chest didn't get that memo," Marlene added looking down at herself.

"So what do you do for fun?" Lora said taking drag off her cigarette changing the subject.

"Like I said, I never was into running and since running and sports go hand in hand, sports weren't my thing. Deep down maybe I hated all the authority, rules and structure that goes along with sports. I wasn't a terrible athlete, when I was 11, before I started to develop and well like the whole attention thing, my body had other plans.

Lora sensed there was a deep reason, possibly a negative one why Marlene had joined the UEDF as things weren't adding up, but didn't probe further.

"I didn't think I'd end up here…" Marlene began after a period of silence

"The SDF-1's Main Medical?" Lora asked not following Marlene's train of thought.

"Well, that too because I hate hospitals so much, but here, the SDF-1, the UEDF, in other words the military."

"Me too, but when aliens show up on your doorstep…we kinda all got dragged into this mess"

"True, I mean God knows I spend most of my life on the opposite side, fighting law and order and now I'm part of it. I hate myself and who I've become," Marlene said.

"What did or do you want to do instead?"

"Like what did I wanna be when I grew up?" Marlene said looking at Lora with a half smile.

"If that helps…" Lora replied smiling realizing out unintentionally silly her question sounded.

"I dunno, I knew pretty early on that I wasn't cut out for the 9 to 5, corporate world."

"Who is?" Lora added.

"I want to agree with ya, but I think some people out there are, well a lot of people here are" Marlene replied looking down at the people walking around on the street below.

"Well?" Erica asked.

"I dunno, I thought and hoped that maybe someday I'd be in a band or at least be a groupie of a band. Or even star in one of their videos. Figured I got the goods might as well put 'em to good use, ya know? I remember one Christmas I asked my folks for a electric guitar. Not having a lot of money they got one I think my uncle had in his closet when he was living with my grandma."

"Tried it and didn't like it?"

"Well not so much that I didn't like it, but rather it didn't sound like I thought it or hoped it would."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, my, both my parents were always pretty busy with their own lives so any time I took an interest in anything I was pretty much on my own. I mean don't get me wrong, I sure they would of gotten me lessons if I'd of asked. I mean my mother played piano every once in a blue moon."

"So what did it or did not sound like, rather?"

"Like an electric guitar, a literal electric guitar, no effects of nothing. I think some of the frets were out of order, because I cut myself of them a few times running my fingers down the fret board."

"Oh, so you wanted to be the next guitar god or goddess, rather?"

"Exactly, I mean I grew up listening to bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Great White, Def Leppard, Guns 'N' Roses. I didn't know that to really make a guitar scream you have to have a wah-wah pedal."

"I didn't even know that, so you've got me beat there."

"I gave up pretty quickly. I think I was eventually given to one of my mom's friends who played in a blues band. At least it got used by someone that could play it properly."

"You say that with regret…why?"

"I seem to have this…this mental tally of all these expensive things I wanted when I was growing up, which my parents bought me that I later tried and failed at and later collected dust. "

"Like what?"

"Oh a bow and arrow set."

"Wanted to be the next Robin Hood?"

"Something like that. There was also this remote controlled hovercraft. The thing made so much damn noise and only lasted like 10 minutes after charging it for dozen hours."

"Betcha they don't tell ya that in the commercials."

"Nope.

"You talk about all those events with regret…why?"

"Because I failed and my parents had to pay for it, over and over."

"Helping you find what you what to do for fun and other things is your parents job. They and you should know it won't always pay out."

"Still I feel I should of stuck with one of those things because I'd be better off."

"Better off? How?"

"Like I could be a guitar goddess like you said by now or…"

"Or the top archery person or master of the remote controlled hovercraft?"

"You make it would so frivolous. I guess in a big way they are. Maybe what I was looking for more than anything was an image or something that made me, well me. Guess it's back to square one cause now I'm more of a number and a rank. I'm starting to think that my military career is starting to go the way of that guitar, bow and arrow set and that hovercraft," Marlene said taking a final drag off her cigarette.

"Have another cigarette," Lora said handing Marlene another cigarette.

Suddenly a voice came over the intercom.

"Medical Assistant Hill please return the immunizations Room 108. Medical Assistant Hill please report to Room 108!"

"Well, looks like my breaks over, hon.," Lora said looking putting out the last of her cigarette.

"That's okay, I better get back to things too."

"Well it was nice to meet you, and good luck out there, what ever you decided to do."

"Thanks, you too and thanks for letting me bend your ear."

"Sure thing."

With those words Lora returned to her duties, leaving Marlene alone with her thoughts and her extra cigarette, which she decided to enjoy.

"Well, chalk one up to positive hospital experiences," she said to herself exhaling and blowing the smoke to the side.

She had planned to leave the hospital once she was done, but after seeing the name "Richard Hunter" on the name tag, she changed her plans.

With the one positive hospital experience behind her, she turned her attention to seeking out a familiar soul she hadn't seen in almost four years. She wasn't very good at reunions or anything that was heavy on emotions and she wasn't sure how he react to seeing her after all this time so she decided to stop at the Main Medical's gift shop for something to smooth him and things over.

She quickly found a card and when something else caught her eye: a small bin of stuffed animals. She walked over to the bin and began to root through it, when one particular stuffed animals caught her her eyes: a brownish-gray rabbit. She remembered how much he liked rabbits.

"He was always weird and quirky like that," she said picking it out of the bin.

"Hmm, you're awfully cute, Mr. Buns, but you might be a bit much for now," she said looking at the rabbit before putting it back with the other stuffed animals, quickly deciding on just a card.

She returned to the room where "Richard Hunter" was in. She knocked and waited, but after failing to hear a reply she decided to take a peek, thinking he had perhaps fallen asleep. She was surprised to find it empty! Her heart began to sink.

"God, I hope he didn't die or something," she said aloud to herself.

"Did you forget something?" asked a voice behind her.

She jumped up and spun around, not knowing who was there. There in a white nurse's uniform was a heavy set African American woman.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to sneak up and surprise you like that. I thought you were someone else," the nurse said.

"This patient…he's not…dead or anything…is he?"

"No. I think he's in PT right now."

"P.T.?" she asked confused with fear.

The last time she heard anyone talk about "PT" was back at RDF Yellowstone Academy.

"Sorry, ya work all day with hospital types and all day long you speak nothing but 'hospital speak' to each other. By P.T., I meant Physical Therapy."

"Oh…for a sec I thought you meant…oh never mind. You know when he'll be back?" she inquired.

"He might be in surgery too, I'm not really sure. He might be a while." the nurse continued.

"Oh, well in that case, I'll just leave what I brought him and be on my way," she said walking over to the small hospital bed tray so she could set her card on it, not relishing the thought of waiting any longer in the hospital than she had to if he wasn't there.

He woke up and found himself in an all white, plain hospital room with a constrictive bandage wrapped around his head. A young, Caucasian woman dressed in a bleached white nurse' uniform entered the room. She was pleased to find her patient awake for the first time in a day in a half.

Rick looked at this strange woman, with his brown eyes, which were still trying to focus.

"Good, you're awake…now try and relax while I get your vitals…" she began as she began to take his vitals: respiration, pulse, temperature and blood pressure.

"…all are within normal a range, that's good." she said to herself recording the results in his chart.

"Who…who are you and how did I get here, where ever here is…" he said in a weak voice, looking at her and then the room, his eyes still trying to focus.

"I'm Ana, your nurse today, and you're in the SDF-1's Main Medical Facility."

"Hello Ana, my name's Lieutenant Rick Hunter, though I guessing you already knew that and probably…well, a whole lot more," he said scratching his head nervously.

"Yes, but that's okay. Nice to meet you, though."

"So, how did I end up here?" he asked, looking around the room, furrowing his brow, trying to recall unsuccessfully to recall the events that led to his being here.

"Well, looks like you bumped your head pretty good."

"Am…am I going to live?" he asked somewhat fearfully.

"Yes, and you'll be fine," she replied with a warm smile and encouraging tone.

He relaxed and moved his wavering mind to focus on simpler details.

"I'm all done taking your vitals, anything else I can help you with while I am here?"

"So how long am I gonna have to be here?"

"Not sure, the doctor has to give you a look over."

"Can I get a refill of cranberry juice?"

"Certainly," she said exiting the room, taking his room tray with her.

"No hurry though," he added.

"'k," she replied with a friendly smile.

Another round of injured pilots entered the hospital, cutting her ability to get him his refill of cranberry juice.

It wasn't until after she left, that he noticed he had two card sitting on his tray table, behind where Ana had been standing. He rolled over and picked it up them up. The first was a "get well" card from Lisa and it read:

Rick, sorry I couldn't be there in person to give you this card, Gloval's kept all of us pretty busy as I'm sure you can imagine, but I am wishing you get well soon!

-Lisa.

P.S. Hope you enjoy the gummy bears!

"Gummy bears?" he asked himself aloud happily looking over at the bedside table. There sitting next to his food tray was a small package of gummy bears!

"Hmm guess maybe she knows me better than I give her credit for.…" he said reaching over and picking up the package of gummy bears.

He didn't have much a of a sweet tooth, but Gummy bears were one of the few candies he liked. Having like them since he was in elementary school, he considered himself a 'gummy bear aficionado'. A 'reverse gummy bear aficionado' might be a more accurate title as he preferred the cheaper brand of gummy bears to the pricier brand that his mother got him one Easter.

He quickly opened and was about to "dig in"; when he paused to take in the sweet, delicious and fruity aroma of the gummy bears and to look. The clear gummies were his favorite and he saved them for last. He felt that he was one of the few people that could taste the difference between the gummy bear colors. After a few handfuls, the package was empty. He tossed the empty plastic wrapper into the small trash can beside his bed and was about to pick up Lisa's card to take a second more careful look at it, when he remembered that he had a second card.

"Well, heck maybe the girl really misses me and cares for me more than I thought or she lets on…or I give her credit for," he said to himself thinking Lisa had gotten him two cards.

Still, Lisa wasn't usually the "sappy" type so getting two cards from her in the few days he had been here didn't seem very "Lisa like", especially how she made it a point of telling him how busy things were on the Main Bridge. In the short time he had known her, he had come to know that when it came to choosing between work and relationships she tended to choose work.

The second letter had his name written on it, not in Lisa handwriting. He opened the mysterious second envelope and pulled out it's contents. It was another "Get Well Soon"card.

"Hmm, I wonder who it's from. It's defintely not from Lisa…" he wondered opening the card, knowing that everyone that knew him was also spending time in the hospital.

On the inside was a short poem by a man named "Yeats". Not being an outstanding student he only knew of "Yeats" as one of many poets he "had" to read in high school English class.

"Hmm, maybe it's from that nurse…I wouldn't mind getting a card from her," he thought to himself smiling.

"Heck, if I only have few days left, maybe I ought to push for that sponge bath after all…"

He finished the Yeats poem. Across from Yeats poem, on the other side of the card was a handwritten note:

Rick,

Long time no see ol' buddy!

Boy, I sure hope I have the right Rick Hunter, otherwise I'm gonna feel like a dumbass, though it least it won't be the first nor the last. I was in a few days ago getting my immunizations when low and behold whose name did I see on the wall across from the line I was stuck waiting in? I tried give the card to ya in person, but you weren't in, the nurse said you were in P.T. I nearly freaked because when she said that my mind flashed back to my days at Yellowstone where P.T. meant Physical Training. I was like: boy they really are rough on you guys here. I nearly ran out and resigned!

Anyway, I'll try and drop by again.

P.S. I hope ya enjoyed the Yeats poem. When I was looking for cards, I saw it and thought it reminded me of our days back in Mrs. Weinstein's horrible English class.

-Marlene

The details of the last few days he couldn't hardly recall, but it didn't take him long to recall his memories of one Marlene Nicole Johnson from his days at Macross High School. He and Marlene met their Senior year at Macross High School. He remembered their first encounter as if it happened only yesterday ago.

It was only Tuesday, October 3rd, 2008, but it felt a lot later in the school semester. He was as he often was, early for his next class: Mrs. Weinstein's Senior English class. A class everyone else had begun to dread: He walked over to the door and looked inside the classroom. As he expected there was another class in session. He turned slightly to see if she could or hopefully could not spot Mrs. Weinstein.

"Yup, there she is dammit. Blathering away," he said to himself back away from the door, knowing his fate \ date with Mrs. Weinstein was sealed at least one more time for the next 106 minutes.

The school had recently decided to try a block system in which classes didn't meet everyday, but every other day. To make up the lack of meeting everyday, classes that met on Tuesdays and Thursdays were 106 minutes long. Mrs. Weinstein's Senior English class, just happened to meeting on such a day a fact he and the most of the class quickly cursed. Mrs. Weinstein wasn't a bad teacher, she just seemed to find all kinds of ways to make any simple, short assignment more complicated. A few weeks back, Nate and Brian, two of his fellow class mates and friends were transferred to another English class. He since had spent many lunch periods there after having to hear about how great their new English teacher was. How they had gotten through "To Kill A Mockingbird" in a few weeks while he and the other members of Mrs. Weinsteins English class were in week five of "To Kill A Mockingbird" with the full treatment of vocabulary lists, chapter summaries and other various forms of analysis. Since then he shuttered when ever he heard the name "To Kill A Mockingbird".

"God I can't believe we had still had spelling and vocabulary tests our senior year," he though to himself. Still in "shock".

Most of the words he had to remember the definitions and the spellings of had long since faded from his mind, however two of the words didn't, nor would they ever.

"No Mrs. Weinstein, you'll be happy to know I didn't forget all those stupid words. Let's see here. There was 'huzzah'. 'Huzzah (originally huzza) is an English interjection of joy or approbation'," he said rattling off the definition he had memorized nearly five long years ago.

One guy, Tim Bonne', a student that sat in the back row, took it upon himself to shout "huzzah", pronouncing it more like huzza when ever the teacher decided to do just about anything that result in more work.

"Tim said huzza a lot after that," Rick said aloud to himself.

The other word he had remembered nearly caused a riot when it was read: orgy.

"How did theytry and define that one? Oh yeah something like an over doing of something, like an orgy of work, if there was ever such a thing "

She walked along the hall counting off the room numbers to herself, making sure she was in the right area. It second period of her first day at Macross City High School and she was beyond feeling lost, a feeling she hated. She wanted a cigarette now more than ever to ease her stress. She glanced up at a analogue clock hanging above one of the doorways. It was 8:52 am. Not enough time to sneak away and get in a quick smoke, she knew a cigarette would have to wait. She knew that once she got to know the routine, she could find the loopholes, among them showing up late to get a quick smoke.

Finally, after a bit of searching she found Room 217. Then it hit her. By coincidence 217 was also the most haunted room in one of her few favorite books "The Shining" by Stephan King.

"Hmm hopefully me going into this 217 won't turned out the same way," she thought to herself recalling how Danny Torrence, the little boy with special powers snuck into the forbidden Room 217 and was attacked by a female corpse.

"I better ask to be sure, because if this isn't the right Room 217 then I'm gonna have to haul ass,"

As luck would have it she saw a few other souls standing around Room 217's entry way.

"Hey, umm is this Room 217, Mrs. Weinstein's Senior English class?" inquired a female voice behind him.

"I…" he said turning to face the voice he had heard.

There before him stood one of the most attractive woman he had ever laid his eyes on. She was Caucasian, had shoulder length wavy brown hair and brown eyes. He stood stunned and awestruck for a moment before she spoke again.

"Is this Mrs. Weinstein's Sophomore English class?" she asked again, about ready to ask someone else.

"Yeah. Sorry about that."

"Sorry about what?" she inquired not following his line of thought

"That I…oh nevermind."

"So, what kind of teacher is she? Is she like real cool or like a real bitch?"

"Real bitch," he replied simply.

"God, I knew I should of skipped…oh well," she replied to herself leaning up against the wall.

She knew an ally was her best strategy against so-called bitchy or difficult teachers. She decided to make him her ally. He seemed nice enough, although a bit strange.

"My name's Marlene," she said smiling.

"Hey Marlene, nice to meet you. My name's Richard, but everyone just calls me Rick."

"Nice to meet you," she replied with a casual smile.

"Yea calling yourself 'Rick' is better than 'Dick' which was the shortened version of Richard.

She could tell her smile was having the intended effect: getting and holding his attention. She knew he was practically putty in her hands. Because he seemed naïve, she decided to go easy on him and not take total advantage-at least not yet.

His "luck" only got better, as the time for everyone in class to take their seats, he found this pretty new girl was sitting in behind him! First, there was Sandy Stevens, the cute, blonde haired, blue eyed cheerleader he always had a crush on and now there was this stunning new girl. Suddenly there was a folded up piece of paper on his desk! At first he though someone had mean to throw it away but missed or aimed for him. But the piece of paper wasn't waded up like it was destined for the trash or meant as a makeshift missile of sorts. Which left him with one other conclusion: it was a note. He had been involved in the note passing train before, but this time was different. Nobody has told him who to pass it to, which meant only one thing: it was for him! At first, he was in disbelief. To prove or disprove his hypothesis, he took a quick peek.

Rick—

God, is everyday in this class this dull? Cause of so, I might skip from now on.

-M

Pretty much, so what would you rather be doing?

Just about anything, I guess. Right now I could go for a couple more hours of serious crash time, or I suppose watching T.V. or listening to some tunes

What do you like to watch?

Umm…Montel Williams, but I missed him yesterday…

Oh I like Montel too.

Did ya catch it yesterday?

Yea

What was it about?

Something about bald chicks, he was interviewing a bunch of them, what kind of music do you like?

Metallica, though my favorite song is Foolin', by Def Lepard.

Being a Metallica fan himself, he was quite familiar with their work, though he planned to get even more familiar with it, just in case they got into a discussion about them. He was also familiar with Def Lepard, but decided to get especially familiar with the "Foolin' " song. Class activities didn't permit him to have a further discussion, at least not that day anyway.

As luck would have it they were put in a group together to research topics for a research paper. Looking back, he couldn't even remember what his topic was, but he remembered hers: "Joan of Arc". He smiled as he recalled "helping" her gather books and other materials. He even wanted to "help" her do research for it as he had always held an interest in Joan of Arc.

"Hmm, something about those warrior maidens," he thought to himself with a grin.

He even planned, in the back of his mind anyway, to get together with her down the road to help her to "help", write it. In his zeal to help her with her paper, he'd lost track of time and soon their class was done.

"Hey Rick?"

"Hmm?" he asked leafing thorugh a few boooks.

"That was the bell, class is finally over."

"Oh? Well umm okay," he said looking around, as he held three books in his arms.

"Good thing cause I'm hungry and I'm Jonesin' for a cigarette," she said returning to the table where they had set their things."

"You wanna check these things out or…?" he asked struggling with the books.

"Nah, they'll be here tomorrow."

"True…so, what lunch period do you have?" he said setting the book down on a table.

"B, what about you?"

"A…"

It seemed his luck had just run out.

"…but I'm going to go now."

His eyes lit up, as he thought maybe his luck had changed.

"Oh?" he asked trying to play it off as cool.

"Yeah a bunch of my friends have A, so I'm gonna skip so we can grab a bite and a smoke."

He was disappointed, but hid it.

"Oh, well see ya tomorrow?" he inquired.

"Ugg, these book maybe be here, but not me," she said with a sly smile looking back as she exited the library.

As he exited the library, his mind swirled around what he knew about this new girl: Her name was Marlene, and she liked Montel Williams and Metallica. The Fates were not kind to his plans as Marlene was frequently absent from school and because of the different cliques they hung out with, Rick with the "geeks" and Marlene with the "stoners", their friendship remained and could only at the basic level. People in high school rarely ventured beyond their so-called cliques. It was a strange unwritten code. There interests and paths they were each forging were too different. Rick did and always lived the straight and narrow path. Marlene had left the path some years ago. For Marlene that path included suspension from school for: fighting, smoking and drinking on school grounds, ditching classes, mouthing off to teachers and other members of authority.

He chose however, because of his shyness to remain only friends with her during this beginning stage of their friendship. In the following weeks the friendship that seemed to bloom suddenly and had all the potential to grow quickly reached it's limits as each party chose increasing different and non-compatible paths. He wisely stood back and watched from a distance, not wanting to go down that same path but wait and somehow, someway be ready to rescue her when and if she ever came to her senses. Perhaps their friendship would of fizzled and died completely if it hadn't been for one thing. the addition of a new man in her life: one Jeff Easton, a fellow stoner.

Being that this new character in her life was a stoner and she was a stoner, they had more in common than she and Rick did. Still, despite this hearing this notion caused an ache in his heart.

Partially due to the fact, he had developed feelings for her, feelings that carried beyond the friendship realm. A few times they had the opportunity to sit and chat away from all the academic distractions and he saw a very intelligent, attractive, vulnerable young, woman. Beyond his own "selfish feelings" she started coming to him more and more to talk, mostly about Jeff who was sadly becoming more and more abusive.

Maybe it was due to their personality differences or her chosen rocky path in life had finally caught up with her, but he saw less and less of her, until one day the seat where she sat in Mrs. Weinstein Senior English Class was empty more and more until she simply wasn't there anymore.

"Hmm, never did get to her to sign the ol' yearbook," he said with a hint of regret remembering how much he was looking forward to having her sign his Macross City Marauders yearbook.

Though all those events were five long years ago, she had left a lasting impression on him. He always wondered what happened to her, and the more he thought about it, the more he realized he didn't remember seeing or hearing her name at their high school graduation. He hoped not, but he knew it was quite likely she had dropped out. He didn't get a chance to look around for her after the grduation ceremony, his father more of less found him and "whisked" him away to the family barbeque filled with lots of family filled, some of whom he had never seen before or since. It wasn't as if he didn't want to spend time with his family, but a family filled barbeque wasn't how he had pictured his post graduation hours. He hoped to be spending time with his recently graduated Macross High School alum.

Then another memory filled his head as he remembered she didn't fade from his life after graduation. She would make on "final showing" in early July, 2008, some four years ago.

The house phone rang more or less catching him by surprise, it rarely rang as everyone in the house had cell phones, still his father insisted they keep their 'ancient relic landline'. There were only a few types of people that called the house phone anymore: the occasional annoying sales \ political call \ religious call or wrong number or his Big Brother, Roy Howard Fokker. He hoped it was Roy and that he had found some time to finaly call him. Due to Roy's government job he had to depend on Roy to call him and it had been at least a month since he had heard from him last.

He glanced at the digital clock next to the phone. It was 9:47 pm.

"A little late for a sales call…" he thought to himself, looking at the phone's Caller ID before answering it.

The Caller ID read "Johnson, Lorraine".

"Well it's definitely not Roy, and don't recognize the name or the number," he said aloud.

He decided not to pick up the phone and let it go to voice mail instead.

After the third ring, the answering machine picked up.

"Rick? Rick are you there? It's me Marlene…please pick up if you are…"

"Marlene!" he said springing from his "bed" and reaching for the phone, nearly knocking the entire phone and lamp off the end table, realizing he hadn't seen her for almost three months.

"Hello? Marlene? Marlene? I'm here!" he said.

"Hey, Rick."

"How are you? Long time no chat…"

"Okay. Yeah it's been awhile. Whatcha up to?" she asked trying to keep things simple.

"Not much, just chillin'? You?" he replied casually, a little perplexed as to why she hadn't been at their graduation 2 month prior or in class much the months leading up to graduation

" Kinda bored, you wanna hang out or something?"

He had been waiting almost a whole year for her to ask him something like that. By the time he had worked up enough nerve to come close to asking her, she seemingly disappeared, until now.

"Better late than never, Oh well, at least she finally came to her senses" he thought to himself grinning.

"I just really need someone to talk to right now…"

"I'm all ears."

"Thanks, but I sort meant in person, maybe we could grab a bite to eat or something?"

"Okay, you wanna meet somewhere?"

"Well, I was sorta hoping you could pick me up.

His luck only seemed to be getting better.

"You got a pen an paper?" she asked.

"No, but I just sat down at my computer…just gimme your address and I'll use Mapqwest to map it.."

Marlene wasn't very computer literate so his reply didn't mean very much. Still, she did as he asked and gave him her address.

"You got it?" she asked a bit unsure.

"Hold on…. it's searching…got it!"

"Good, how long will it take ya?"

"A mite hungry are we?" he replied.

"Something like that

"Gimme like 20 minutes…" he said, giving him self a little bit of extra time to get ready.

"K, see you in like twenty.""

"Alright see ya then."

He wanted to shower and shave and put on some cologne, but he didn't, not that he didn't have the time, but he knew deep down it wasn't that kind of get together, even as much as he wanted it to be. He pulled up to her place 17 minutes later, thanks in part to light traffic and a slight lead foot.

"2073 Harlow Rd, this is it, but where is she?" he asked slowing his car down to take a closer look.

"God this rain is making it impossible to see just about anything, she probably went inside…" he said, using his hand to wipe away the condensation that had gathered on the inside of his card's window.

Part of him doubted that she would even be waiting for him and it had been one big, last nasty trick.

Then he spotted her and he pulled up to the curb and put his car into park and hit the "unlock" button on the driver's side door twice to unlock the passenger side door.

"Oops, I better do the gentlemanly thing and get the door for her. I wanna start off on the right foot with her," he said.

It took him by surprise to see her standing outside his door.

"I was going to get the door for you…"

"you can still do that, but could you gimme a hand first?" she asked squinting her eyes from the stinging hard rain, not hearing what he began with

"Give you hand?" he asked not getting what she was referring to.

"Follow me…" she said simply.

She walked back towards her house and he followed her. There more or less stashed under a a well sculpted juniper bush was a very large duffel and back pack!

"What does she have planned tonight? Whatever it is, it's certainly not just a eat and chat session," he thought a little shocked.

"Trunk or back seat?" he asked, trying to mentally plan.

"I'd like to ride up front with you, if that's okay," she said.

"I sort meant your bags…"

She blushed thinking he had made a reference to her chest.

"Either or, what ever is easier for you," she said hastily hoping she wouldn't notice her blushing and ask why.

She had know him long enough to know that he wouldn't of intentionally made a comment like that to her, it was her own 'corrupt mind ' at work. She found it odd and sweet that he didn't.

He knew that either option would have it's own difficulties: the back seat doors might not open wide enough for the large and bulky duffel bag and use of the trunk would require him to lift the bag higher than he could. Still, it seemed to be the better of the two options.

"You gonna grab your end so we can get this thing over and into your car or did ya want to stand here in the rain some more?" she asked with a smile.

"Hmm? Oh right…" he said reaching down to grab the bag's handle on his end glad she was going to help.

He took a firm hold with both hands on the bag's handle, and looked up to see if she was ready when his eyes inadvertently looked down her shirt as she was still leaning forward! He immediately looked away so as not to be distracted and out of politeness.

"God I hope she didn't see that, I'm probably blushing, oh well I can blame it on carrying this bag…" he thought to himself.

"You ready?"

"Yes ma'am."

"On three, one…two…THREE!" she said and together they lifted the bag simultaneously.

"How did you get this bag moved on your own?" he asked as they made their way towards his car.

"I dunno. I couldn't now…I'm about wiped…"

"Can you lift it…. one final time so we can put…put it in the trunk? I don't think….it'll fit… in the backseat… " he said.

"I'm game…if you are," she said with a smile.

"Set…set it down on the curb…" he said.

"You gonna drop it?" she asked a bit surprised.

"No…I need…to get my keys out…"

Once the bag was on the ground, he pulled out his keys aimed the remote and hit the 'trunk release button'.

"I heard…heard it click…it didn't open?" she said looking up briefly, leaning forward trying to catch her breath, with her hands on her thighs.

"It sticks…" he said using a fist to pound the trunk door once. The trunk popped open, filling them both with relief.

"Pretty smooth Fonzie," she said with a grin, looking up briefly.

"'cept this ain't no jukebox. You bout ready?" he asked seeing tha she was still hunched over.

She didn't reply, but began to cough before she spit something out and he hoped his eyes were deceiving him as he saw her spit up what look to be blood!

She eventually stood up, wiped her mouth on her jacket's sleeve. He tried harder than he ever had to shoulder the brunt of the bag's weight and finally after much effort the behemoth duffel bag and backpack were in the trunk.

"You…okay?" he asked out of breath looking at her as she leaned up against his car.

"Let's….let's just get inside…" she replied.

He jumped into action and opened her door for her and helped her over to it. She more or less collapsed into her seat. He then moved as fast as his drained body would allow him over to the driver side and he too entered and practically collapsed into his seat. It was a good five minutes before he said anything or started up the car.

"Wow that rain is really cold and kinda stings...I hope you weren't waiting long."

"About fifteen minutes, but only because I chose to. Thanks, for coming to get me, I know it was short notice."

"It was no problem."

"Good," she said leaning back and closing her eyes and swallowing to wet her dry throat.

"I must say you made pretty good time…I called you what… 20 minutes ago? You don't have the boys in blue tailing you do ya?" she asked with a grin, turning her head towards him as she rested it on the headrest.

"Umm not that I saw, but you'd better get buckled in, that's the only rule when riding with me."

Marlene normally didn't use her seatbelt, but since he was helping her out, she obliged.

"All buckled in," she said.

With those words he started his car and pulled away from the curb.

"Looks…looks like the rain's finally letting up…" she said in a sleepy tone.

He didn't reply, but suddenly bought the car to a dead stop.

"Ahh! I can see why you made me buckle up…you trying to do to my heart what the bag couldn't?" she asked looking over at him, her right hand on the dashboard, her left hand on her chest where the seatbelt and dug into her.

"I almost hit that rabbit.." he said pointing to the speckled brown rabbit hopped along away from his car.

"Rabbit? What the hell are rabbits doing out at night?" she asked a bit annoyed.

"I don't know, but they are everywhere and I do mean everywhere," he said.

"Hmm I see what ya mean," she said seeing cottontail rabbits in every yard munching away happily on people's front lawns, the lights from the headlights of his car shining in their reflective eyes as he went around a bend in the road.

"Wow, there are a lot of them out tonight, almost like a rabbit version of 'The Birds' eh?" Marlene replied with a half smile.

"Ugg don't remind me. That is one of the few movies that truly creeped me out."

"Yeah though these rabbits don't look very scary, unless one of them happens to turn out like that rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail," Marlene added.

"You know about Monty Python?"

"Gimme some credit, I may be a girl, but I'm not too girly to not know about things like the Rabbit of The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog. Aww is poor Ricky scared of the bunny-wunnies?" Marlene said in sing-song tone, patting him on his shoulder.

He looked over at her with a smile, because he was amused and he liked that she was being tactile.

"Maybe…"

"Well ol' Marlene will protect you from the nasty bunnies and their big, pointy teeth," she added with a smile.

After a few minutes they were out of the rabbit-filled resident area and onto a main thorough fair.

"You cold? You want some heat?" he asked, looking over at her, noticing she was starting to shiver.

A man had asked her that once a short while ago, but it, unlike this request, had purely a sexual connotation to it and it took her a second to separate the two.

"Heat would be nice, might help us to warm up and dry off, I think we both got a good soaking," she said wriggling out of her jacket.

Once she was free of it she set it in the back. He saw that underneath she wore a black, low cut, u-necked tee-shirt. He glanced over and quickly glanced back and sighed.

"A little heat coming right up, though it probably take a little bit. It's been acting up and I haven't had the time or money to take it in and get it looked at," he said, turning heat on.

"Some is heat is better than none at all at this point….might want to do a heat and defrost combo, your windows are startin' to fog up," she said using her hand to clear away some of the condensation on her window.

He reached over and set the knob to defrost and foot heat and refocused on to road instead of the girl of his dreams practically spilling out of her top next to him.

"Be one oif the few times I fogged up a car's windows legitimately," her conscience commented.

A short while passed before anyone said anything.

"I'm glad I caught you on one of your nights off. Had you not been home I dunno what I would of done. Where you at nowadays?" she asked recalling that he had resigned from his position at Burger Barn half a year ago a place he had worked for the past three years.

"American Title Corporation."

"Wow, pretty fancy-shmansy."

"Not really. All I really do is scan and file documents. It's kinda monotonous. Pay's not too bad:10.00 an hour. With the whole Global Civil War stuff…pre and post, the need, as I am finding out, for temporary office workers has become scare and have been happy to get what I can."

"Hey, I'd take monotonous over greasy any day. So you think you'll come back to Burger Barn?" she inquired.

"Probably not. In fact I took a certified nurse's aide class during Fall Break. Figured there'd always be a demand for healthcare."

"Wow, so you're like a nurse now?" she replied, raising her eyebrows, feeling a bit left behind.

"Not quite. I'm only nurse aide, I'm not really official CNA till I pass my state board in two weeks."

"Oh, so what exactly does a CNA do?"

"Basically I get paid to change diapers and wipe butts and just about every other nasty thing the LPNs and RNs, you know the higher up nurses, won't do. Brings whole new meaning to the phrase 'unwrapping a present'."

"Gross, I hope it at least pays decent," she replied sticking her tongue out.

"Well, if I work at this place we did our clinicals, they pay 10.50 an hour."

"Wow! 40 hours a week at 10.50 an hour…. That's…" she replied counting up his and her potential earnings in her head.

"Far less than you would think. The CNAs already working there say they don't usually get forty hours.

"Hmm that's weird. I wonder why." Marlene asked.

"So management can save money. You see if any place has you only work under 32 hours, that's considered part-time. Under 32 hours is just enough to keep them from having to offer them benefits."

"Now that you mention it I never got more than 30 hours at Burger Barn. I always figured it was because I wasn't their star employee. Maybe I ought to take a CNA class and join the 'wipe some butts for dough' club. 10.50 beats 7.50, part-time or not. I could really care less about the benefits anyway."

"I can help you get signed up and help you study if you want and I think you'll might fit in better there than I would,

"Oh?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, it's mostly woman."

Hearing his reply was the pin that deflated her CNA dream bubble.

"I don't seem to get well with most women. Why are you having trouble fitting in can I ask?"

"I kinda thought working in the healthcare field would attract caring and nurturing people. Most of the woman that work there are far from it. Burger Barn not working out?"

"Not really…I kinda got fired last week," she replied looking down at the ground for second before looking back over at him in shame, knowing he had gotten her a job there.

"What happened?" he asked gently, as he took the on ramp to the freeway.

"I was working the breakfast shift, you know my favorite shift and this ass-hole comes up to the counter and ask for his money back, because we have the deal 'Try Our Breakfast 100 % Guarantee: if it's not best breakfast you've ever had, we'll give you 100% of your money back,' she continued rattling of the motto that she knew all too well.

"Okay," he said

"Of course you know how we have to fill out forms for everything there now so I began to look for a refund form and of course I couldn't find one and the longer I took to find one the angrier he got,"

"I can imagine," Rick said being sympathetic towards her.

"Usually I can keep my cool, but I sorta lost it when he said 'I can see why you got your job here, too bad you don't have the brains as well, then again you gals don't usually have both'. Now I want 100% of my money back"

"He said that?"

"Yeah, I bout jumped over the counter slugged him right then and there, but I didn't….instead I said: 'Mister, if you don't shut up, I'm gonna kick 100% of your ass. Though not that that is much better."

"Just like Brad from Fast Times at Ridgmont High," Rick said with a smile, not expecting her to get or catch the reference.

"Yeah, pretty much…"

"Wait, you've seen Fast Times at Ridgmont High?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Many, many times, is was on my regular rotation during my early and middle teens years. I kinda always have been lost in the 80s. Anyway this pretty much turned out the same way, except Nicholas Coppala who most people known as Nicholas Cage wasn't working in the back.

"Yeah, I didn't see him either, go figure, so then what happened?"

Todd overheard and fired me right there."

"Wow so what did you do?" Rick asked.

"Well since we are on the subject of movies, you ever seen Office Space?"

"Yeah, you didn't pull a Milton?

"I of course thought about it, I mean I was heated, but deep down I knew Burger Barns wasn't worth the jail time even with the all the crap I had to put up with there so I pulled a Joanna. I told him 'you can't fire me from this fucking job, because fucking I quit'. His mouth opned in shock, but I think it nearly hit the floor when I stuck two middle fingers in his face. I then ripped of my shirt, pants, shoes and socks right then and there and walked out flipping everyone behind me off.

"Wow…right there in front of everyone?"

"Hell yeah, I was fucking pissed and threw them back at him and stormed out of there."

"Wow. So you just walked out in your bra and panties?"

"Yup…eight lousy fucking dollars isn't enough to get paid to put up with that kind of shit. That asshole wouldn't stop hitting on me. I wanted to deck him too. He always wanted to see me without my uniform on, bet he didn't think it would be like that."

"Bet not. You like Fast Times at Ridgmont High and Office Space huh? We shoulda had a regular DVD movie night. We have similair tastes in movies. Kinda sucks to discover this now, when I'm bout to leave town. Maybe I wouldn't of ended up in so much trouble so often," she said.

"Maybe when you come back?" he offered.

"That's just the thing, I don't think I am coming back," she explained, looking over at him brielfy before refocusing on the city skyline at night.

His heart sank, but he hid it and said nothing.

"Something tells me even if I got the job with you as a CNA, something would happen, something always does."

"Because of Burger Barn?" he inquired gently.

"That and every other job I've taken. I know, doesn't leave me with a whole lot of options though. After Burger Barn, I sat down really did some serious thinking. For whatever reason, and I know it doesn't make sense, but I seems to do my best thinking while drinking. It really calms my nerves…which have been pretty shot and frayed as of late," she began, as she pulled out a silver flask, unscrewed the top and tipped it to her lips, before replacing the cap and placing it between her thighs.

He was surprised, but decided to play it cool.

She looked over at him briefly and refocused back on looking outside through the raindrop dotted window.

"You what to know what my poison is?" she asked not looking at him.

"Umm…" he said not familiar with the term.

"When someone asks what' yer poison, they want to know what your drinking or what's your drink of choice," she explained looking down at the silver flask between her thighs and running her fingers over it affectionately.

"Oh, umm sure…"

"I'm not picky really, when you don't have a lot of money you can't afford to be…literally. I generally prefer all the harder stuff like wine Jack Daniels, a whiskey and Vodka which I often affectionately refer to as 'Voddy' when and if I can get it which is rarer and rare nowadays. To answer your or well my question, Voddy happens to be the poison on todays menu."

"You could be a bartender, since you know about that kinda stuff."

"I did right after Burger Barn. There's this little shit hole club that I practically grew up in, I filled in on more than a few nights behind the counter, made pretty good tips, then one day, one of their dancer didn't show and they asked me to fill in. Hell then I'd do anything for a drink. Figured I got the goods, might as well use 'em and get paid…everywhere else they've been a liability."

"Oh how did that go or should I not ask?"

"Pay was a lot better than Burger Barn, but lasted there half as long. Got into a fight with one of the other girls. She was jealous and mouthy from the get go. I guess because mine are real and hers her rich Daddy or Uncle paid for. I knew most guys like them big, but I found out there is a certain select bunch of guys the prefer "El natural" and will tip me a little more to show their appreciation."

Rick blushed very aware that he was one of those select guys.

"Well one evening she got all up in my face and mouthy, like she had half a dozen or so times before. I didn't didn't give it much thought, thinking it was just part of being a girl

"Whys that?" he asked curiously and cautiously.

"I know some guys just don't get along and th same goes for us girl, except our reasons are more superficial. guys don't realize that

attributing it to the fact that some girls won't ever get along for a variety of reasons.

, except this time came came at me with more than nasty names. She accused me of some things, like stealing her make-up, clothes, tips, customers, cigarettes and her boyfriend. I was able to keep my cool, until she she pushed me and I more or less snapped or lost it or whatever you want to call it and decked her. I don't really remember it, I mean next thing I know I was being restrained by the security staff and she was out cold on the ground.

"Wow again," he said, trying not to sho alarm, realizing how little he knew her.

"Knocked her right out, hurt like hell too," she looking down and holding her left hand tenderly.

"How long ago was this?"

"Today is what Tuesday so….last Monday. The bouncer had to escort me out. Hey speaking of not being cut out for the 9 to 5 world don't you have sort of side job thing anyway, that stunt show plane gig?" she replied quickly changing the subject away from herself.

"T The Hunter Brothers Ariel Circus or Hunters Flying Circus?"

"umm yeah that's the one, I think…"

"We changed the name, dropped the 'Brothers'. You weren't thinking of becoming a wing-walker, were ya?"

"Ha, not hardly, I hate heights, but love going fast, I know it's weird. Though at this rate I might want to come by for a show and to fill out a app."

"Yeah I dunno how much longer I'm gonna be in it."

"Why? Don't tel your getting al fatalistic on me now."

"No. Roy Fokker, our best daredevil stunt pilot is gone now, well left back in 1999"

"Gone?" she asked gingerly thinking maybe his friend Roy had been killed in a stunt show accident.

"He left to fight in the Global War…." Rick began.

Marlene never thought very highly of any military organization and what they stood for: join and conquer. To her they were just as bigger version of the police and law enforcement, an organization which she had found herself on the wrong of on more than a few times in her 18 years. Though she didn't know Roy, hearing that the Global Civil War and the military organizations attached to it had claimed a friend's friend, it gave her yet another reasons to dislike the military and law enforcement, no matter what form they took.

"I thought they called off all that Global Civil War stuff since that creepy alien space ship landed in our backyards back in 1999.".

"They did…, he back back here for a little bit, but he was called back to duty by Admiral Donald Hayes and has become the top test pilot for something he called 'Project Valkyrie', which led to the creation of the' transformable veritech fighter'."

"Tranformable what?" she asked confused.

"It's all pretty top-secret, you know about as much as I do, other than the confusing name."

"Oh," she replied, glad she and he were in the same boat.

"Well, it's 2008…it's been like 9 years… where's he at?"

"That's kinda what I like to know. I guess he's still being a test pilot. I asked him once if he was ever come back and he said couldn't because once you join you never really leave the military…it gets in your blood. I keep thinking if I ever wanna see or hesr from him more I might have to sign up and join the UN Spacey."

"Yeah I saw those 'I want you for the UN Spacey' posters plastered all over Macross High School hallways. Alls I kept thinking was they are combining school and the military now? Might as well thrown in doctors and they'd have my big three most hated things. I won't ever catch the military bug if I can help it," she explained.

"All I hear about Roy is through papers now. I know he's a good pilot and all, I just don't wanna read about him dying in a test plane accident through newspaper blurb. He is such a daredevil."

"Had you not been there to pick up the phone tonight, I dunno what I would of done…" she said changing the subject off of Roy and the military.

He smiled as they drove on through the light rain that was dotting his windshield. After a period of silence she asked,

"Can we listen to the radio?"

"Hmm? Oh sure," he said, pushing the radio's on button and refocusing on the road.

She soon became bored with the current radio station and began to press the other preset buttons to see what else there was. Nothing satisfied her and she hit the "scan" button. Though this really annoyed him, he said nothing. It quickly became clear that her taste in music was different than his. He was more into classic rock and easy listening while she was more into heavy metal and hard rock. Luckily for his ears and any future conversations she must of sensed his dislike of her radio station selections as she decide to turn off the radio all together again.

"Thought they had a all hair-metal radio hour on one of these stations around this time," she said.

"They did, but I think the execs at Clear Channel axed it for some talk show based somewhere else because it's cheaper about three months ago" he explained

"Ahh that's too bad,

"I agree," he replied, recalling the note she had sent him that indicted that she liked Def Leppard, a band he also liked."

"So what or where do you feel like eating?" he asked.

"It doesn't matter. I have sort of have another favor to ask you…" she said slowly.

"I can cover you…"

"Thanks, but I was sorta more wondering if we could go to the bus station too."

"Bus station?" he asked.

"Yeah, umm some stuff's come up and I have to, well leave town, hence the bags."

"Leave town?" he asked surprised.

"Yeah sorry our reunion has to be a farewell,"

"Me too. Missed you at graduation and Mrs. Weinstein's English class"

"Yeah, sorry I can't say I missed Mrs. Weinstein's English class. Sorry we didn't get a chance to talk and work on on my Joan of Arc paper more. Like I said some serious stuff came up, and I had to take sorta of a break from school and life in general to 'take care of some things'," she replied.

He could tell by her tone that in no uncertain way that she didn't want to go into any further detail.

talk about that or just about anything else for that matter and so for the next twenty minutes they sat in relative silence.

"Boy I knew girls were complex but she musta gone back for seconds when they were handing it out," he thought to himself.

After a bit of driving he found the Macross City bus station and a "nearby" parking lot. Because it was located in downtown Macross, parking space was at a premium and thus came at a monetary cost.

Marlene surprised him and paid for their parking before he could offer. They were about to proceed to the bus terminal across he street when a thin, short, scruffy Caucasian man approached them.

"Hey, I hate to bother you fine folks, but I am a bit short on money…if you guys can't help I totally understand…"

Before he could finish his story, Marlene said,

"Sure, how much do you need?"

"5 dollars."

Soon he was 5 dollars richer and they moved on. He had done some volunteer with homeless folks and he had always felt it was a bad idea to give people asking for money, instead offer them a meal by taking them to a local fast food eatery.

"Never been a religious type, but I do believe in karma. I've been there and needed help…"

They entered the bus terminal and she spotted the ticket counter.

He feared that she would ask him for the bus ticket money, but she again surprised him and stood in line, bought the ticket with her own money.

With her ticket purchased, she turned around and rejoined him, ticket in hand.

"All set?"

"Yup, It was 133,"

"Did you have enough?"

"Yeah and looks I have some extra money, do you think we could go to a grocery store so I can get some snacks for the bus ride?"

"Sure, umm when does it leave?"

"Umm well, I sort of have another favor to ask…it leaves at… 7 am, I tried to get the one for midnight departure, but they were all sold out."

"Oh…you need a ride back to your house?" he inquired.

"Well…I wasn't planning on ever really going back tonight or ever, not if I can at all help it."

Then Rick knew. She was running away, From what he wasn't sure, but what ever it was it had to be dire enough to make her not want to ever go home again. Every teenager thought about running away, but he never met one that wanted to so much that they actually went through with it.

"You think you folks would mind?"

Rick paused to think, if he waltz into his house with Marlene he knew they wouldn't exactly be thrilled, well not his mother anyway. His dad might have to pretend to be mad for his wife's sake, but might indeed be deep down proud his son was finally sneaking \ bringing home a girl. His parents had left town for a fourth of July mini-vacation. It appeared he was going to grow really fast and really soon which made him nervous. He decided to hold off on letting her know his parents weren't around.

"Nah," Rick replied.

"Thanks you're a real friend, you know that?"

They were on the road less than for less then five minutes when she began to dig frantically through her purse.

"Oh crap, where is it?" she asked herself.

"What are you looking for?" he asked politely fearing she had misplaced her bus ticket.

"My cell phone charger."

A through search of her purse and all her pockets turned up empty.

"Did ya leave it back at the bus station?" Rick asked.

"I didn't grab it when I pulled my phone off the charger. I know I've asked for a lot tonight, and I really hate to do this to ya, but could you take me back to my place? I'll totally make it up to you."

He was starting to tire of being her taxi, and her place was a good thirty minutes away.

"Sure."

"Oh thank you!" she said wrapping her arms around him and kissing him on his cheek.

He had been trying to think of when and how to tell her about his feelings for, the same ones that had been building since October, when suddenly she kissed him, leaving him stunned.

"No rabbits, I wonder if that's a good sign," he thought to himself.

"Crap and I'm locked out…shit!" she said realize she had left her house key behind never planning to return.

"Are your folks home?"

"Nope, my mom is at work and doesn't get off till 2am and even if we were still talking she wouldn't and can't answer the phone till close and my dad's working another damn overnight...figures I wanted him gone, but if his fat ass were inside I could get in, make up some story just like always and get my cell phone charge. If they were home, I know all this would be easier, but I don't want to face either of them right now."

"Wouldn't anyone wouldn't notice your stuff missing?" he asked, not ever having met her parents.

She looked at him with a look that told him he'd asked a silly question.

"He's not the most observant guy in the world to say the least. He works late and sleeps late, I packed last night. My mom's been hanging out late with her friends from work getting drunk and high while playing cards. She does keeps a spare key in a combo pad lock in back she uses to get inso she doesn't have to wake and bug my dad, let's just hope she didn't take it already, do you have a flashlight?"

He wanted to ask why his mother did have her own key to begin with. It appeared thast her father might be trying to keep her mother out, at least passively.

"I do."

"Cool, meet me in back," she said getting out and closing the door behind him

"I really hate this. People are gonna think we're trying to break in, which I guess we kinda are," he thought to himself as he grabbed his flashlight from his car's glove box.

He quickly found the flashlight was dead after pressing the on button a few times without any result.

"Maybe we could beat the lock open with it," he said heading back towards where Marlene was.

He soon joined her in her backyard. There he saw her squatting down next to a combo pad lock.

"Hey, I found a flashlight, but it was dead," he said.

"Lucky for us, well me, my mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought, cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives."

"A what?"

"Light this and hold is kinda close would ya?" she said pulling out and holding up a silver Zippo lighter.

"Hmm? Oh sure," he said accepting the lighter.

He tried but it wouldn't light and after half a dozen tries, his fastly sore thumb was advising him not to push his luck and try again.

"Can't be out yet…lemme see it," she said turning to face him.

He handed back her lighter. A calloused thumb from years of using lighters to light her cigarettes gave her the edge to light the "stubborn" Zippo. Once it was lit, she handed it back to him and he held it close as she suggested.

"Wow, you have quite the silver tongue," he said his eyes widening as he accepted the Zippo.

"Silver tongue? Umm thanks…I guess," she replied unsure of his compliment.

"It means you have a way with words. Ya know your comment about your mind…"

"Oh, thanks,

As she continued to work on the lock, he noticed a smile creep across her face.

"What's so funny?"

"Your compliment…"

"Why? Though I guess it was a little odd or old fashioned…" he replied.

"That or misplaced."

"What do you mean?"

"Hon, my mouth is about as far from being 'silver-tongued' as one can get. I have what they call a 'sailor's mouth'."

"Really? You been pretty good so far."

"He don't know me very well do he," she replied doing her best Bugs Bunny impression.

"Hey that was pretty good!" he said surprised again.

"Thanks, I can't take much if any of the credit for the comment about my mind though. It was a movie quote. Guess you could say I'm one of those rare girls that can recall movie lines on occasion Comes in handy when all you hang out with all guys who do the same.

"Yea?"

"Yeah, I quickly found out that unless I could recall a line or two from the movies they were quoting I was going to be left out of the conversations a lot.

"Ha, so I see, what movie was that from, it doesn't sound familiar," Rick asked watching her work on the lock.

"Blazing Saddles…circa 1974. A spoof western by Mel Brooks," she explained

"Mel Brooks? I think I seen some of his stuff. I liked those, I bet I would like that one too."

"It is a good one. Hope you don't mind political incorrectness and racist jokes," she replied.

"Nope. At least the rain stopped," he said looking up at the clearing clouds.

"Fuck! I thought I knew the damn combo…" she said trying unsuccessfully to open the 4 wheeled combo lock for a 8th time.

"What's next?" he said figuring the lock was a dead end and she would give up.

"I gotta get in and get my charger, my phone's almost dead."

Marlene tried the lock again unsuccessfully.

"Damn!"

"What about calling your sister?" he offered gingerly recalling she had an older sister.

"Shit… she'd give me the third degree as always and that's the last thing I need right now. I gotta get this thing open ASAP!" she cried

"I know you want to get in there ASAP, but would you mind if we took a little break, the lighters getting kind warm?" he inquired, knowing what he wanted and she wanted were opposite.

After a brief pause, she said

"Yeah…sure my hands and just about every part of me is cramping up. I need to stand up."

He stood up and held his hand out. She took it and she used it to pull herself to her feet once again.

"Can I see my lighter a for a bit?" she said as she reached her hands above herself to stretch.

"Sure," he said handing it over.

"I need to think and figured I could have a cigarette too."

He stood and watched as she lit a cigarette and exhaled. Seeing how frustrated she was becoming, he kept quiet.

"1987…that's the year we moved to California…and that's the lock combo my mom chose!" she said suddenly, taking him by surprise.

She handed him the Zippo and squatted in front of the lock, He managed to get the Zippo lit and held it close.

"and 7…" she said excitedly as the lock opened.

Her happiness was short lived as she found the lock was empty and she was back to square one!

"Crap!" she cried out in frustration.

"What it it? You got it open?" he asked

"The fucking things empty, my mom musta grabbed it."

He was confused as to why keys in the Johnson household seemed to be rare for it's members

"Come on, follow me. I've got another idea, I should tried this first, but then again I'm not exactly known for doing things the easy way."

"Your mom forgot her key, too?"

"She lost it a long time ago, probably while stoned or drunk and never bothered to get another one made...so when she knows she gonna go out with her friends after work, she takes it, like today," Marlene explained.

He felt like asking: 'Don't you have your own key?' as everything wasn't adding up, but he didn't. He had began to realize that Marlene tended to only give details if they benefited her and there was probably a specific reason why she didn't have her own key among other things.

He followed her to over to the sliding glass door wondering what else she had planned. She walked over to the sliding glass door's handle and began to pull up in short quick motions.

Again, he wanted to to out that it was called a 'sliding glass door for a reason, but he kept quiet, deciding to let her go with what she had planned. She then reached inside her jacket and pulled something out, what he couldn't tell in the dark. Then heard the flick of a knife and he saw the glint of the moonlight on her stiletto blade, which both surprised him and made him nervous. She then went to work on the lock's with the blade.

"I never thought… in a million years… I'd have to break into my own house…" she said aloud to herself.

After few moments she deactivated her blade and put it back inside her jacket pocket..

"Meet me 'round front. I'd invite ya in, but it's a real mess and I will only be a few seconds," she said turning to him before sliding the door open and disappearing inside before closing and locking the door.

As she said she was only inside a very short while and soon she exited her front door, her much sought after cell-phone charger in hand. Soon they were back on their way.

"Quick thinking and fancy work with that stiletto back there" he said trying to awkwardly make conversation and he pulled back onto the highway.

"Thanks, I didn't rue the idea of having to give up when I've come so far," she said, looking out her window to the city lights off in the distance.

"I didn't even know you carried one,".

"Thanks. Nobody really does. It's a big city and I started carrying it a long time ago for protection and in that respect it's come in handy for enough times to pay for itself," she said producing her stiletto and activating the blade

He watched her out of the corner of his eye.

"I guess I've really started to put it to good use as a sort of multifunction tool as of late…a bit hard on the blade though…" she added looking over the blade, which was becoming scratched.

"Oops nearly forgot, here's your Zippo," he said handing it to her.

"Thanks, you know these things are know for being notoriously easy to light," she said with a smile.

He didn't reply.

"Hey I was only teasing, really," she said rubbing her hand over his.

"It's okay, I forgive you…"

It was some time before she said anything else, during which she plugged the cell phone charge into his cigarette lighter to charge her phone.

"Sorry if I got bitchy with you back there. I was a little stressed…"

"I'd be too. At least you got in though right?"

"Oh yeah, I don't know what I would of done if I hadn't," she said looking at the Zippo.

It had the intials 'JE' engraved in a on it in a fancy font.

"I wonder if he misses it yet. Wonder if he misses me yet. Probably will miss the Zippo before he misses me," she thought to herself thinking of the Zippos true, original owner, running her thumb through the grooves and curves of the font.

"Umm, could we make a stop at a grocery store so I can get some snacks for the bus ride?" she said after a long period of silent reflection.

"Hmm? Oh sure…" he replied, also lost in thought.

Soon after they met in October, eight long months ago, he'd began to develop feelings for her and had been looking for a way to tell Marlene how he really felt about her. At first his shyness and her frequent abscesses from class and school made telling her impossible. Her frequent abscesses from class and school should of sent up major red flags for him, but her abscesses only intensified his feelings for her. With his graduation he thought his chance to tell her were all but gone and the feelings that had been building for her began to fade. Now fate had brought them together for one last time. He knew he had to try and tell her.

As he was pulling into a empty parking space at a Macross City Mart, a local grocery store, his mind began to go to work.

"I should tell her how I feel about her maybe she'll even let me kiss her, and we are going back to my place…"

He unbuckled his seatbelt and was about to turn to her and tell her how he really felt about her, but she had already unbuckled her seatbelt and gotten out of the car! He shut his door and locked it and rejoined her outside.

"What's the point, she'll be gone by the morning," he thought reconsidering his choice as they headed for the store's entrance.

As they entered the store, a feeling of disappointment began to wash over him. A simple trip to the grocery store wasn't how he'd imagined spending with, Marlene Nicole Johnson, the girl of his dreams. It all seemed so anti-climactic and final because he knew she would soon be far away. It only seemed to be delaying the inevitable.

"Cart or basket?" he asked simply as they came to the row of grocery carts.

"Cart, I don't plan on getting a cart's worth but I don't think either of us want to carry a basket around, call me Miss Lazy pants if you want," she said with a smile.

"True."

She walked over and pulled a cart free and pushed it it towards the aisles of food.

"Looks like you got one that's not too bad of shape," he said walking along side her.

"The Fates are being terribly kind to me aren't they?" she replied with a smile.

For the next few minutes he simply followed her around, lost in his own thoughts again.

"Guess this is what I get for building her up in my head for 7 or so months. Nothing we do can match to what I've built up in my head, especially grocery shopping. Here I am with the girl of my dreams at a dumpy ol' Macross City Mart and I'm not happy, but I should be happy or, well happier that she asked me to help her out at all."

He knew sooner rather than later he was going to have say goodbye to her forever. He wanted to tell her to leave and yet wanted to tell her to never leave.

"I'm unhappy when I am away from her, I am unhappy when I'm around her," he thought watching her shop, trying to preserve every images in his mind as he knew she wouldn't soon be gone forever.

Soon, all too soon and not soon enough their shopping trip was over.

"That wasn't too bad, though I still not much for shopping," she said as she parked the cart in behind his car.

"Me either…I may not be the most typically macho gu out there, but like most guys I don't like shopping,

"Good, I was worried about you," Marlene replied looking at him briefly with a grin.

"Behave youself or you'll be riding the rest of the trip mafia style,"

"Yeah, you and what army?" she asked looking up at him briefly as she loaded another grocery bag into his trunk.

His comment got a reply, but not one that he expected and he "froze".

"I'm kidding if you are," she said with a smile.

"Yeah…"

"You better learn to lightened up, otherwise your gonna have a heart attack by 25. I rarely amserious, my life and mental wel-being kinda depend on it, what time is it?"" she explained

"Well looks like we've got some time to kill," she said as she loaded the last grocery bag into his truck. pulled out of the parking lot

It was ironic how he had wished and fantasized about being on a date with Marlene. Even more about being alone with her in a car with "a lot of time to kill". Now he had gotten his wish though the context wasn't a date. She seemed more troubled than usual so he abided by her wishes and together they window shopped and eventually stopped off at a local bar.

"Umm neither of us are 21…"

"Yeah, I know, but that doesn't mean we can't play a little pool right?," she replied skipping in an odd almost happy fashion as they entered the bar.

Bars were unfamiliar territory for Rick and so he quickly felt uncomfortable and out of place. It would be their ages that would make them out of place and soon they were standing outside of the bar

"Since when did they have a 21 and older policy to even be in the pool area?" she said a bit flustered.

"Might have had issues with underagers," Rick offered.

She knew she could of gotten without Rick, she had many times before. So many times that they knew her by name. She had all the right tools: a cute smile, a killer body and a fake ID, except today and cash if necessary

"Looks like playing pool is out. So you wanna go back to your place?" she asked taking a drag off her lit cigarette, knowing he didn't smoke and not wanting to smoke in his car or his house.

"Sounds like a plan…" he said as they stood under the awing to get out from the rain that had picked back up.

Neither person said very much to the other person on the drive back to his house. She was thinking about recent events and her unknown future as she stared out into the dark and rainy night.

He was trying to think about what was going to happen when they got to his house and how to go about things. This was all new territory for him and he was nervous. He glanced over at her and seeing her sitting there only added to his desire for her, despite the red flags and the fact that she would be gone very soon.

He pulled the car along the curb of his front porch and put it in park, but didn't shut off the lights or turn off the engine.

"You have a curfew?" she inquired, figuring he might and she wanted to respect that.

In the little bit of time she had known him, she had come to know that she and he were very different. Him having a curfew and her not having one was but one of many ways they were different. She knew deep down that even if she had one she wouldn't of abided by it.

"Umm midnights on Friday," he said looking up at the ceiling, breathing rapidly.

"Aww how cute he's nervous…" she thought to herself.

"What time is it now?" she asked, playing dumb to make conversation, knowing full well either of them weren't ready go inside yet.

"12:18 am…" he said, a bit surprised read the digital clock above the center console..

"Looks like were a bit late," she said.

"I think my folks will be willing to cut me a slack, still I don't want to barge in there with a lot of noise," he added.

"K…" she replied simply and undid her seat belt.

She expected him to have done the same, but he hadn't. He hadn't even shut the car off. It didn't take and expert in reading body language that he didn't want to proceed. Why she wasn't fully sure.

"Hmm maybe he has really has strict parents and they maybe they really flip when he's late and coming home with a girl," she thought to herself.

"What ever it is, he's really struggling with something…" she thought to herself.

"You gonna shut the car off?" she asked gently.

"Do you mind if we take a little drive?" he asked.

"Nope," she replied.

He pulled away from the curb and into the main road.

"Did you want to go somewhere and talk?" she inquired, knowing he had something on his mind.

"Yeah."

"Oops I forgot all about offer to grab a bite to eat…you must be starving."

"Yeah, but I don't think I could eat much, my stomach's really turning."

"I know just the place," she said looking at him.

"What?" he asked feeling a little awkward with the way she was looking at him.

"It's this small out of the way spot…you mind if I drove?" she asked knowing he wouldn't know where it was.

"Umm sure I guess," he said pulling off to the side.

After fifteen minutes, she pulled into a small dirt parking that looked out onto a lake.

"Where are we?" he asked as she pulled into an empty space behind some boulders

"Ponderosa Pointe…" she said

"Aptly named," he said seeing the many Ponderosa pines that lined the shore and surrounded the lot itself

They both knew that while it was designed as a scenic lookout, but she knew most teenagers knew it also as a "make-out place", a place she had been to on a number of occasions, to do more than make out. Sometimes it was drink or get high or both.

"I just wasn't ready to go inside my house."

"I could tell, and that's okay," she said facing him.

"Wow, it's getting kinda hot in this car…" he said looking around at the windows which were beginning to fog up.

"I think I can fix that…" she said using buttons to lower all the windows.

"Wow never fogged up the windows of a car with something as innocent as talking, unless it was really cold outside," she thought to herself as she looked around to to watch the windows lower.

"Don't worry about those back ones, they only come down halfway, must be a child safety thing.

"Alrighty," she said.

"Looks like it quit raining just in time," Rick said leaning out the passenger side window and looking up.

Through her mind flashed the last time she was here. The guy she had come with waited until she had to step outside for her "traditional post-coital pee" before droving off, with most of her clothes, leaving her. She looked over at Rick who was still looking up a the clouds. She knew she could bet her life on the fact that he wouldn't nor did he have it in him to do that to her. She also knew that there was very few positive thing in her life she could bet her life on. Still she didn't know if she wanted to test him out as she said,

"I dunno bout you, but I'm gonna step outside," she said opening the door.

"Hmm? Oh sure…" he said exiting his side.

She exited her side and wanted another cigarette but held off, knowing he walked to talk and she wanted to give him her full attention.

After a moment she realized he hadn't joined her and she looked around.

"Did he get lost?" she asked herself.

She saw that he had opened up the trunk and she so she walked over to see what he was doing.

"He may not drive off and leave you in your unmentionables, but I seen many a horror movie start like this dearie," her consciences warned her.

"If you're wanting to show me the hatchet you have in your trunk, I'll pass rather you held off," she said with sarcasm.

"Hatchet in my trunk?" he asked looking up from what he was doing.

"Sorry it's a movie reference…Uncle Buck starring John Candy?" she asked.

"That was a good one, though I don't remember him talking about a hatchet in his trunk. I know he used a drill to break into what ended up being the wrong room, though Bug was in it with some other girl."

"Now that I think about it, I think my name ought to be Tia and not Marlene, if ya know what I mean,"

"Got anger issues with yer mom and a idiot boyfriend with a dumb nickname?" Rick asked.

"And then some, let's put this blanket on the hood of your car, unless you had another use in mind for it?" she asked

"The hood of my car! that's great idea!" he said enthusiastically, heading for the hood of his car.

He set it on the hood of his car and unrolled it, while she held it in place.

"Wait, what else could you do with a rolled up blanket?" he asked.

"As long as you don't ask me to 'play Cleopatra'…." Marlene said with a smile.

"Cleopatra? Wait I thought to had to do research on Joan of Arc back in Ms. Wienstein's English class,"

"Good memory…come think of it playing Joan of Arc would be a lot worse. Cleopatra I think had to kill some Egyptian king and so got passed all his guards by rolling herself in a rug naked."

"You lie…."

"You're a computer internet person, look it up. Now what?" she asked coyly.

"Climb aboard…" he said climbing on to his creation after a bit of struggle.

"Okay…gimme a hand though…" she said holding her hand out.

"…and I don't need to you making grunting noises or anything like that. I'm not that heavy. I'm only 135 lbs."

"Hadn't crossed my mind."

He took her hand and in that brief second as he waited to see if she was ready, his eyes inadvertently looked down into her cleavage and it took his breath away for a second.

"I hope it's dark enough that she didn't see that," he thought to himself lifting her onto the blanketed hood of his car, making sure to do as she suggested and not grunt and soon she was sitting next to him.

"Really turned out to be a nice night huh?" he said.

"Yup," she said removing her black leather jacket.

"Yeah it…it rained cats and dogs on the fourth, first time in my whole life they called the fireworks show," he said looking over at once again.

She was wearing a white tee-shirt and he could see her black bra underneath.

"Can't say the last time I saw a fireworks show…most of the time my parents had to work or didn't care enough to take us," she said rolling up her jacket, setting it on his windshield and laying back.

He did removed his green hoodie, balled it up and used it as a pillow.

"Wow look at all the stars you can see once you get away from the city lights," he began.

"Yeah makes you feel pretty small…wonder if there's anyone on any of those stars looking up and wondering if anyone's looking back at them," Marlene said.

"Wow, you may not claim to have a silver tongue, but yer getting' all philosophical on me now," he said with a smile.

"Hey philosophy class was one class I actually did well in. Maybe because I'm really argumentative according to my family. You know when you said you wanted to go for a drive, I was kinda happy. I didn't want to go inside just yet either. I did have my hesitations about bringing you here."

"Why's that?"

"Well it is a pretty well-known make-out place,"

Rick blushed.

"It's okay I know you just wanted to talk and you've been pretty well-behaved tonight."

"I have, I mean why wouldn't I?" he asked turning to face her.

"I know you like me, but you've been a perfect gentlemen, thank-you."

"What? You do?" he replied shocked.

"Sure, it's not hard to see how you look at me. You think I don't notice, but I do. Don't worry it doesn't bother me, well at least not from you. In fact it's flattering."

"Oh, well umm okay, your welcome," he replied scratching the back of his head a little bit embarrassed. Thinking perhaps she did see earlier.

"I should probably tell you that's why I was acting so weird at the store."

"That's what I kind of thought…"

"What time should do you want to head out?"

"I ready anytime you are…"

"I meant to catch the bus…"

She didn't reply right away.

"Rick I have something to tell you and I don't want you to hate me or be mad."

"Umm okay, what's up?"

"My bus doesn't leave at 7am, it leaves at 2:15 pm."

"Oh…why would I be mad? That means we don't have to get up at the crack of dawn, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Wait, so if you didn't tell me that and we did get up early, what would you do when I drop you off there until 2:15?"

"Umm the bus was a back up plan."

"For?"

"I just had the mother of all fights with my family about three days ago and they kinda kicked me out."

"Oh…oh so…"

"Yeah I kind of did break into my own house. I was gonna call a few people to see if I could crash with them until things either blew over with my folks, which it looking like it won't."

"Oh…I guess I have sort of a confession of my own,"

"Oh?"

"Yeah, my parents aren't home, they took a vacation…"

"My timing couldn't have been better then?"

"Nope… you wanna head back? We could order a pizza?"

"Sure sound great, you mind if I used your shower and laundry?" Both have been a little hard to come by as of late,"

"Sure, yeah."

As she got off the hood of his car she helped him roll up the blanket and carry it back to his trunk she said,

"By the way, sex on the hood of one car doesn't work. I slid off twice and rolled off once."

"Yikes and ouch."

"Yeah, landing in the grass, dirt and rocks with yer pants and underwear around yer ankles and shirt and bra cast aside few times is more than enough to kill the mood, especially when the cops roll up on ya."

"They didn't.."

"Thankfully not right then but other times they did and nearly got caught me in more than a few compromising situations."

"Cops huh?"

"Yeah they've been patrolling this little spot a lot, probably why were the only ones here."

"Could they bust us for laying on the hood staring at the stars?"

"Not technically because we were clothed, but they would tell us to 'move it along'."

Marlene's mind then recalled the few times her cheating ways nearly caught up with her to her as a recent outing to Ponderosa Pointe had left with cuts and bruises from rolling off the other guys hood.

"That was the longest PMS \ period I ever had," she thought to herself, knowing that if Jeff ever found out he would probably kill her and looking back she realized that her pretend game probably saved her life as Jeff had a very violent temper.

Soon they were back on the road and he pulled up the curb in front of his house. This time he didn't wait to turn the car off and kill the lights.

"Let me just have one more cigarette before we head in," she said.

"Hmm? Oh sure he said midway up the steps to his front porch.

He sat on the steps next to her while she had her cigarette. Mid-way through her cigarette she noticed he was hunched over.

"Hey, you didn't fall asleep on me did you?" she said gently elbowing him.

"No…" he said shaking his head.

He had been crying and trying to hide it. His quivering one word reply told her everything. Hearing him cry made her a bit uncomfortable. Marlene rarely cried herself, at least around others especially with the crowd she usually ran with. It usually worked out well as everyone in her circle were heavily focused on trying to numb their negative feelings with alcohol, drugs and sex.

"I can handle indifference and anger, dear ol' Papa taught me those lessons well. My boyfriend gave me regular refresher courses too. Even lust, got regular lessons in that from my boyfriend, hell even a few of his friends when he wasn't around, but crying…I just don't know what do. I'm afraid I'll say something stupid and mess thing up more."

She thought back to the times when she found a fellow female friend that had isolated herself in order to cry during a night of drinking and partying. It was often a hard experience for her as every time she saw a fellow female friends cry, she was forced to face her own insecurities she was running from. She had never up to this point seen a man cry out of emotional angst. This crying thing was perhaps more complex than she thought. She was at first going to ask a few question and listen, but his sobs had an odd effect on her. She knew none of her hard drinking, hard living friends were around right now, and mostly likely would she ever see or hear from them again. The realization of that notion formed a crack in the wall she had been building up for most of her teenage life. She felt an sudden, odd maternal feeling towards her friend. She felt safe around him. Safe to be more herself and be more emotional vulnerable and expressive.

"Hey, hey why are you crying?" she said putting her right arm around his shoulders.

"Because…"

"Because why?"

"I…I…don't want you to leave tomorrow."

His words were like a axe as they shattered another section of her stone-encased heart. Never before had someone said something so touching to her, without being drunk, high or wanting something in return. Hearing them and what they meant caused her to gasp. She knew that if she spent another ten minutes with him she would probably shed a tear or two.

"I don't want to go either, but I have to," she said.

"Why do things always have to be like this?" he said, his eyes filling with fresh tears.

"Like what?" she asked gently.

"I meet a really cool girl and then and poof! Without out fail, two weeks later they're gone. I call it a two week curse."

"I hardly say I was gone two weeks after we first met. We've known each other for about eight 8 months, right?"

"Yeah…I but the same things is happening,"

"Come here," she said embracing him in a deep hug.

"Marlene, I…I care for you a…and I don't want you to go…"

Their hug last about a minute which she shed a tear.

"Wow, sure feels weird to embrace someone without them trying to get up your shirt or down your pants," she thought to herself, enjoying the purity of the hug.

"Let's go inside, k?" she said as she pulled away from their hug.

He nodded in reply and stood up.

"What about your stuff?" he asked remembering the large and rather heavy duffel bag sitting in his trunk.

"It's fine where it is. I've got all my essentials on me and in my backpack. Good thing too because I doubt I be much help, my arms are like noodles from lugging it around earlier,"

"Mine too."

She followed him as he entered his front door and flipped on the lights. Though he knew his mother and father were away, he half expected to see them,

"Mi Casa," he began and he slipped off his green hoodie and hung it on a peg that was one of five in a horizontal row, adjacent to the door.

"Nice. No offense, just about anything's nice compared to where I have been staying…" she said as she began to remove her black leather jacket,

"Can I ask where?" he asked gently, concerned.

"Where ever I could really. I was was stayin' in a motel at first when I had money, which ran out quick, then spend a few nights at the local woman's shelter. I'd still be there, but-it wasn't really my scene, ya know?"

He suspected there was more to her not stil being in the local woman's shelter other than it just not being 'her scene', but he let it be.

"Did a few nights sleepin on these Macross City streets. Good ol' Mayor Hennski vowed to solve the homeless problem, but what we didn't know was he was going to use the 'outta sight outta mind method'. The police did a round up and put a bunch of us in jail for safe keeping. It sucked, but it was a was a roof over my head and 3 more or less square meals a day. Which was a good thing because had I been outside any longer I think I would of gotten pneumonia or bronchitis sure. After I got out I knew I had to set out on my….my own," she explained, when she discovered just how much arms strength and coordination the duffel bag had taken out of her.

Luckily he was quick to offer his assistance.

"Thanks, guess that bag took more outta me than I thought," she said watching him hang her jacket next to his.

"Go ahead and take off yer shoes and leave them there," he said looking over at her briefly.

She did as he asked and removed her black ankle high Doc Martens. Omce she was done she quickly saw her socks were wet and dirty too and she felt a little embarrassed tried to quickly pull off her wet sock unsuccessfully. Not having success she grew impatient and frustrated.

"Have a seat, let me help you," he said pushing one of the cushy faux leather chairs next to her.

She sat down and held her foot out and watched as he gently unrolled her wet and dirty sock from her foot.

"You aren't trying to make this a reverse Cinderella thing are ya?" she asked seeing the irony of the situation.

"No, there got it that last one was stubborn, sorry I was trying to be gentle and not hurt ya, he said pulling the second sock free.

"You did more than fine, which is pretty amazing because I don't usually like people touching my feet" she said amazed at how far he was going for her.

" You want me to order that pizza?" he saud setting her socks next to her boots and standing up and holding out his hand.

"That would be wonderful," she replied taking his hand and using it to help her stand.

"What do you want on it or not want rather, maybe that be easier," he asked.

"I'm not a picky girl when it comes to eating as you can kinda see. You don't get curves like this from just genetics, just no anchovies or pineapple," she said patting her stomach

"Ugg not a chance."

"I can order now or give you the grand tour first, depending on how hungry you are," he said enthusiatically.

"Actually I just want to get out of these wet clothes, get a shower and into some dry ones," she said.

"Sure, shower's down the hall, second door on the left, toss me your wet clothes and I can dry them for you…"

"Sure, uhh can I do a load of laundry" she asked.

"Sure, you want me to do them?" he offered.

She knelt down and unzipped her backpack.

"My laundry is usually one thing I am picky about, but time may be of the essence so I'm trusting you. If you could jus add the wet ones I'm wearing when I hand them to you and do them, so they'll be at least washed when I get out," she explained, pulling an armful of clothes from her back pack and setting them on the ground

"Supreme, extra sauce?" he asked.

"Ha your so funny," she said grinning.

"Why?" he asked furrowing his brow.

"No offense but I suspect you didn't much of what I said. You're still thinking about food," she said with a grin, putting her hand on his head and rubbing it back and forth a few times in a playful amused fashion.

"Poor guy might starve to death once he discovers sex," she thought as she headed for the bathroom.

She was mid-way undressed when she heard a knock on the door.

"Yes?" she asked coyly, as she opened the door.

"Just came to give you some clean towels and a… washcloth," he explained as she opened the door enough for her to peek out.

"Aww is that all? How boring," she replied slyly.

"Oh…and to get your clothes…" he said meekly not realizing what she was getting at.

"Yes, Mar., you may have found one of the few remaining male virgins," she thought to herself.

"Ahh yes, of course. Here's my jeans…my tee-shirt… panties and last certainly not least my brassiere," she said from the other side of the door, handing him the items being careful to remain out of sight if only to tease him.

"Feel free to use the shampoo and conditioner. I know their not fancy ladies stuff…hang on let me get my mom's shampoo and conditioner"

She was about to tell him not to but he left and reappeared before she could say anything.

"I hope strawberry scented generic Herbal Essences is okay?" he asked reading the bottle.

"Should be just fine," she said accepting the bottle and closing the door.

"Well if he's still a virgin, it won't because I didn't make an effort, Poor guy he's the type that's going to have a girl stand naked in front of him to catch his attention. Then again, I not sure if I would want to be his or anyone's first." she thought to herself smiling

20 minutes later she entered the kitchen with a towel wrapped around herself.

"There you are, I was beginning to wonder if I should send a search party to come find ya," he said.

"Nope, just been a while since I've had a really good shower."

"I bet. I pizza should be here in another ten to fifteen minutes," he said.

"K, and the clothes?" she asked

"Hmm? Oh right silly me here I am reading the newspaper and your standing in my kitchen dripping wet in a towel."

"Your fine."

He ran over to the washer and dryer and she headed for the dining room table where she puled out a chair and sat down.

"Your stuffs almost down washing, hope you did have any water pressure issues, I should remembered that" he called out.

"I may not be blonde or named Goldilocks, but the water pressure was just right. Could you lend me some clothes then till they dry?" she asked.

"Sure, umm I'm not sure what I have that you wanna wear…" he said.

"Well when you don't have any dry clean clothes one tends not to be too picky. I'm more of a tom-boy anyway," she said following him downstairs and back to his room.

"Nice big screen…"

"We got full cable, and a large selection of DVDs. Maybe we could find one and watch it if you want," he offered.

"Sounds good.

He opened the door to his room and flipped on the light.

"Your walls are pretty bare mister," she said.

"I know…"

"My walls of my room were covered in posters…my mom prolly ripped them all down though. Now about those clothes,"

"Right, I have tee-shirts in my dresser and button-up shirts in the closet," he said pointing to his dresser and then walking over to his closet and turning on the light

"One hell of a walk in closet I might add, it's almost as big as my room," she said entering the closet. Call me logical but I rather start with the basics,"

"Basics?"

"Underwear, I'm hoping you don't have bras," she replied looking briely at him with a smile.

He blushed and said,

"No."

"You're a boxers guy I hope?"

"Yea…"

"Good,"

"Those are also in the dresser, top-shelf."

She walked over to the dressers top shelf and pulled the top drawer out.

"A lot of tartan plaids in here, you're not Scottish are you?"

"Umm not that I'm aware of, maybe only a small percentage, I'm—"

"Relax, Rick, this isn't an interrogation, I was just commentin…ohh and they're knit…" she said running her hands tenderly over a pair.

"I uhh hope that's okay…"

"Like I said about food…and right now these basics are the only dry ones," she said taking out the top pair.

"I prefer the 100% cotton knits over the regular cotton ones. I hate polyester ones" he replied feeling for some reason he had to defend himself and his boxers

"Me too. I just hope they fit," he said.

"You saying I'm too fat to fit in them?" she asked sarcastically.

"No not at all, just realizing the urgency of the situation."

"I know, I was giving you a hard time,what about a shirt?"" she said with a smile pulling a pair out to look at.

"The second drawer…you large or XL?" he asked knowing that what he had, quickly realizing what he had said came out awkwardly and he blushed

"Well…ladies shirts are usually categorized by a numeric size…I generally wear between a 16-18…sizes don't always remain true between brands…but if I recall a woman's 16-18 is pretty comparable to a mens XL…," she said smiling.

She set the pair of boxers she had picked out on his bed and she began to go through his tee-shirt selection and quickly realized his XL hadn't been made to accommodate a woman with measurements such as hers.

"You're a great guy Mr. Hunter, but I put on one of these and you're going to be unable to think straight all evening, which maybe under different circumstances might be more okay," she thought to herself, recalling wearing men's tee-shirts in the past.

"Not finding anything to your liking?"

"Well sorta, you have anything…umm bigger? I have some ..umm 'extra considerations' to work with"

"Hmm, wait I think Roy left a few of his shirts behind…He's 6 ft 4 inches!"

"That's a step in the right direction," she replied

Rick disappeared into his walk in closet and reappear with a maroon shirt.

"Guess he only left one behind…good thing I saved it eh?"

"Let's hope…" she said taking the shirt and boxers, walking over to his walk-in closet and closing the door. The door opened and he turned to see.

Roy's ol "Macross Marauders" tee-shirt was long enough to and big enough.

"Ta da!"

"Yeah, we better try and get some shut eye, it's pretty late," he said pulling away from her.

Together they stumbled up the steps and entered his house.

"You can get ready in the guest bathroom, just let me just get my things out first," he said

As soon as his bed hit the pillow he was out.

"What am I dreaming?" he said noticing his bed had somehow gotten smaller,"

He opened his eyes and saw that Marlene had crawled into his bed!

"Does mean…? What does this mean?" he thought to himself looking at the woman of his dreams lying in his bed.

"Put your arms around me silly," she said.

He did as she asked and she put her arms around him and pulled him close. After a little bit, she struggled.

"Everything okay?"

"You need to change positions your bed if ya want me to join ya…your bed is a little smaller than I figured."

"oops…sorry,"

"What is this a twin bed?"

"Yeah…"

"That's one way to keep your son sleeping alone," she said with a smile.

"What you need me to do?"

"Lay on your side and scoot down a bit…."

He did as she asked wondering and excited about what she had planned.

"Now lay down," she instructed.

He laid his head down and immediately felt he was laying on something soft and warm, but it wasn't a pillow. Nor did his pillow have a heart beat!

"Bet this is something you've always wanted to do," she said gently running her fingers though his hair.

He didn't know how to respond. He still wondered what she wanted exactly.

"Do you umm…want to umm because I don't have any…"

"Shhh…this is fine…" she whispered.

She leaned inward and kissed him full and deep. He was a bit surprised when she slipped him her tongue.

After a bit she said,

"No, kiss me gently on my neck…"

He did as she had asked.

She guided his head further down into his face was full in her cleavage…

6am came all too soon and soon they were on their way standing in the waiting for the bus.

Leaving without explanation was something he had know she did often. She had a number of jobs and then later quit without notice. He waited with her in line until she boarded the bus. Because there was a glass wall, he didn't get to hug her goodbye as he had planned. All he could do was watch the bus drive away through teary eyes.

That was five years ago. He looked at the card once again. There was no return address, no envelope just the signed note on the inside of the card. He wanted to think he had come a long ways emotionally since high school, but this card was a tough reminder that his growth may have not been as far along as he first thought.

He pondered if the get-well card was really from Marlene Johnson. He had always thought she was among the millions and millions of people that perished during Dolza's attack on Earth. The logical side of his mind knew the odds of the card actually being from her were slim because of time and events.

Odds, the passing of time and events couldn't hide two facts: Of the many people that knew he was in the hospital, nobody would of known about his friendship with Marlene, except Roy and perhaps a few of his squad mates.

"Wow, this has to be one of the weirdest and cruelest jokes yet, Big Brother," he thought to himself.

While Rick and Roy were often playing jokes on each other, this joke seemed a little too cruel and obscure.

"Personally a marriage proposal from Lisa might have been more effective guys."

"Hmm, if it's not from her that whoever sent it has done their homework."

His frustration only increased as it seemed the logical side of is brain was fighting with itself, trying to wrap itself around it's new logic problem.

He had done a lot of thinking during his stay here at the SDF-1 Main Medical Facility, mainly because there was little else for him to but think. One subject his thoughts always came back to was the subject of him and Lisa and with it their on again-off-again-relationship.

Lisa was a good friend and probably always would be. She was also attractive, so that wasn't the issue. The main issue was the possible lack of chemistry or spark between them. Lisa always had trouble expressing and showing emotions and thus intimacy was always a problem because it hadn't developed and he was beginning to think it never would. He had been wanting to spend more time with her, but her position of Communications Officer and his as a Veritech pilot kept them both very busy.

"Hmm, now that I have all the time in the world to see her, I'm not sure that I even want to see her and it's not like I can just get up and walk away," he said aloud to himself, letting out a sigh.

He too had problems showing and expressing his emotions, partially due to their lack of chemistry, but also his own deep insecurities.

Also, during his stay the SDF-1's Main Medical Facility, he concluded something else. It stared out as a simple want that had grown and developed into a full need. That need was to be with someone that he not only had a spark with, but also someone that had been through a relationship or two before so they could "teach" and coach him, rather than the "blind leading the blind" scenario he had with Lisa. His visitor had no idea that the timing of her visit was an answered prayer of sorts.

She was feeling totally different on this trip to SDF-1's Main Medical Facility. She was perhaps for the first time in almost a year or so happy, almost to the point of being enthusiastic, even giddy, though she would deny it to her grave. These feelings were something rare for her. So rare she didn't know quite what to do with herself. She hardly slept the night before, but for once it wasn't because she was drunk or high.

As she entered the hospital once again and made a bee line for his room, she her mind went into overdrive.

"Oh, please be there, please, please be there. If he's not because he died…I might die. Don't think that way Mar. Oh God what if he doesn't remember me? Ha! Yeah right! God I sound so stupid."

People fell into to categories when it came remembering Marlene Nicole Johnson. They either hated her or liked her, but they never forgot her.

"What if…he doesn't want to talk to me? I kinda did leave him hanging at the bus station. I knew he liked me except he was too shy to make a move and in a way I was just using him. No doubt he's moved on from all that. I just hope he's forgiven me."

She "prepared herself for the worse and hoped for the best" and was ready to move on as if nothing happened or mattered, but for the first time in a very long time she realized she didn't want to or have to move on and be alone anymore if she could help it. She wanted to reach out to someone and be vulnerable, if only to him. If he had any reservations she knew she would have to lay on her charm.

Finally she reached her destination and her many questions for good or bad would finally be answered.

Marlene knocked on the door three times.

"C—C—come in…" a weak male voice replied from the other side of the door.

"Rick?" she began gently, happy to see he was in the room this time.

He stirred slightly. The voice was familiar, but he figured the medications he had been given were causing him to hear things, so it took a few moments to register who the voice was from. He feared his "showdown" with Lisa had come.

"Hey there, sleepy head," Marlene continued walking slowly over to his bed, not sure if his current impaired state would help or hurt her case.

To support her case, she noticed he was holding her card in his hand.

He realized the voice he heard wasn't from Lisa, which filled with relief, but voice from Marlene! Rick looked up to see the source of the voice and saw an exceptionally attractive, young, Caucasian woman with dark brown, shoulder-length, wavy hair standing there. She was wearing a black, leather, biker-style jacket, the same jacket she often wore back in high school, back at Macross High School. Under the jacket she was wearing v-necked black tee shirt and pair of blue jeans.

"I always thought angels wore white, long flowing robes," he thought to himself.

A dopey haze-induce smile crept across his face as he was taken back to his much more simple and innocent days of high school.

"Boy you must be in a haze, I thought you'd be happier or at least more expressive to see me after all these years," Marlene said, taking off her jacket and hanging it over the back of one of the chairs that was in the room.

"God, she looks almost exactly like she did in high school, maybe with one more little wrinkle." he thought to himself, looking her over.

"Wow, pretty good for a hallucination…" he said aloud to himself.

She walked closer to him, gently took a hold of his chin with her right hand, looked him square in his eyes and said,

"Hey…fly boy…snap out of it. You're not hallucinating, it really is me…" she said watching and waiting to see if any or all of what she said registered with him, tapping her left hand on the top of his thigh.

He responded, but only a little.

"Hey…don't make this a 'reverse sleeping beauty thing' " she continued.

Luck or unlucky for him, before she had to think of some other more creative way to bring him out if his haze, he began to blink rapidly. He had been hospitalized for a concussion sustained during a battle and yet, hearing and now seeing her standing before him left him even more stunned than any battle ever had.

"Wow…Marlene! It's really you! Boy, it's been forever!" Rick said smiling happily.

"Forever? Come on… it's only been like five years," she said.

"Well, if you wanna get technical," he replied smiling.

"So, am I gonna get a hug or not?" she asked, glad to see her charm was working its usual magic.

"Sorry, I'm just still in shock," he said lifting up his arms.

"I can tell," she replied with a grin as she leaned forward, knelt down embraced him.

Their hug seemed to erase all his pains at once.

"Boy what treatment that would be. 'Take three hugs from the pretty, busty brunette and call me in the morning'. I bet more guys would go to see their doctors if they knew hugs from pretty, busty girls were part of the treatment," he thought to himself smiling.

Marlene was expecting a simple quick hug, but when their hug turned out to last a bit longer she smiled and was pleased. Everything was going well. The simple greeting card she that she had bought him, turned out to be the "Ace of Spades" as it obviously had left a favorable impression on him, seeing as he was reading it when he fell asleep. Maybe, just maybe his fogged memory wasn't able to quite recall the negative and sad events that surrounded their last encounter. She have to be sure and help him lay down some positive memories before be was able to more fully recall those other memories.

This wasn't his first journey into the realm of pretty girls and the medical field however. He always disliked dentists, but it quickly became a less dislikeable because of the hygienists. Usually they were young and cute and most importantly there was just something about them as they leaning close and over him as they worked. He always wondered why the various skin flicks he saw always involved a pizza delivery guy and not a hygienist.

"Well, a few of them did involved a nurse or two," he thought to himself.

Though he was heterosexual, he wasn't the typical, macho guy. Instead he was "sensitive and artsy", and more than a bit on the shy side especially when it came to the opposite sex.. He was even accused of being gay on a few occasions, one of them being during a junior high gym class, a class he already struggled in. For awhile he couldn't think of a good comeback to get the accuser to leave him alone. Then he decided to turn the tables on his accuser by asking: Why? You looking for a date? His accuser never asked him again.

Unlike Rick, she didn't have trouble showing affection with the opposite sex. In fact, she quickly developed a bit of a negative reputation. Still she held back physically and emotionally with him.

After their last encounter, he his mind practically went into overdrive trying to figure and everything that happened or in many cases didn't happen. She always said she wasn't the affectionate type, and the few time they did hug, she remarked she was just doing it to "be nice", whatever that meant. He suspected her lack of affection was due partially due to her rough upbringing and her own need to protect herself. He always wanted to try and did try to help her break down her walls so she could be more open and feeling. His reasons weren't all selfless and noble as he wanted to be on the receiving end of those new and budding affections. He quickly realized it was a two way street and if she wasn't going to help him by taking down the bricks on her end, all his efforts, no matter how noble, were useless. Her inability to open up was at first a simple project, a problem he thought he could solve. When he quickly realized not only could he not solve it, but couldn't find away around it, their friendship reached plateau. This time he wasn't going to let any opportunity slip by.

For Marlene too, their long hug had a bit of a sexual element to it, though not as much as Rick's, but it the greater element was genuine affection, something she hadn't felt in what felt like a lifetime.

"God, this feels sooo good and sooo right. Almost better than sex. Heck it is better than the sex I had a few times. Either way I just might have to have a cigarette afterwards. Rick, honey pie, my sweeite pie, my darling, you have no idea how much mommy needed this. Strange I came here expecting to try and make you putty in my hands and here I am putty in yours" she thought to herself.

She felt life was being poured back into her "dying" body. All the trials she had faced to get to this one moment seemed to all be worth it. As good as it felt and as much as she needed it, she knew she had to end the hug. Too much to soon rule was a rule she wasn't good at sticking to, but she wanted to do everything right this time with him.

"So, I take it ya missed me? Or are ya just little a starved of human affection?" she said smiling, looking down at him, nuzzling up against her chest,

"Both."

A faint, but pleasant smell of perfume entered his nose. It took only seconds for him to recognize it and he took another whiff to be sure and to savor the smell.

"What kind of perfume is that?" he inquired change.

" 'Red Door' by Elizabeth Arden," she said in a low tone as if she was announcing it for a commercial.

"…you like it, I take it?"

"Mmm-hmm."

"I thought you might…" Marlene continued, with a grin.

"…I had a bottle of it in my bathroom medicine cabinet just sitting there. I got a bottle of it way back as a Christmas gift from Tiffany Ulrich who also wore Red Door. She always said it drove the guys crazy. Guess she was right."

"Umm, you could say that. Tiffany Ulrich…wow, now there's another name I haven't heard in five years too. How is she?"

"Not sure…haven't heard from her since we graduated. Actually, I haven't heard from a lot of our Macross City High School Alum since graduation. Guess that's what happens to people once you graduate high school and enter the so-called 'real world'."

"Or the real world happens to them," Rick thought knowng was a good chuck of the world's population was now gone.

A sad look over came him. She hadn't meant to make him feel bad, so she decided to try and raise his spirits with a little light hearted teasing, as her mind with suddenly ripe with ammo.

"You, had a little thing for her…as I recall," Marlene asked in an inquisitive tone, cocking her head slightly and lowering her eyebrows, gently driving her right index finger into his chest.

"Who?" Rick asked defensively.

"Tiffany Ulrich, we haven't been talking about anyone else, silly," Marlene added.

"Well, I'm not going to deny that," Rick replied sitting up in bed a little more.

"You do know she had a boyfriend named Todd Richardson?" she said, lowering her head.

"Course, he was a big, macho cowboy that was into bull riding."

She raised her eyebrows, impressed with his recall.

"Hey, I always did my homework and I'm not just talking just books," he added, crossing his arms.

"Helps if you don't want to get your ass kicked by a guy with cowboy boots."

"But you really can't blame a guy for just looking." Rick added.

"I know. I was only kidding. Or even a girl for looking," she replied.

"You liked Todd Richardson?" he inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"Well…" she began "innocently" rolling her eyes.

"…he's not really my type, but there's something about the whole cowboy motif; the tight jeans, the rugged good looks and what guy does doesn't look good in flannel? Though most guys I went for wore their flannel untucked."

Rick smiled, but his heart sank. Even though he had always only known her as a casual friend he was physically attracted to her from day one. All he had been wanting since then, was a shot to date a hot girl like Marlene. Hearing how she was attracted to big macho cowboys, he knew immediately he didn't foot the bill. His second strike was that he didn't then or now ever wear flannel, tucked or untucked.

"So what is your type?" he asked, doing his homework.

"Jerks and assholes it seems," she replied with a sigh.

He felt a bit dumb for asking, but he chose to hide he reaction.

"I think I heard they got married or something a few years back," Marlene said sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Any kids?"

"It was only a rumor that they got married, I dunno if they ever had kids…why?"

"I dunno I have sorta been….how do I put it…"

"…carrying a torch for her? You not really her type though," Marlene warned playfully.

"True, but I've had some time to think about the whole Tiffany-Todd thing."

"Oh have you now?" Marlene asked leaning closer.

"Well, as I see it they got 15 years good years together, max."

"Before what? You bump him off mysteriously as your new career as like a ninja or something weird like that?"

"No, not quite…"

"Well, what, pray tell, did your scheming little mind come with?"

"Sooner or later she gonna want to have kids, right?."

"Okay, I'm following you…and lemme guess…that's where you magically come in?" she inquired.

"Yup,

"Now I'm not following you."

"Well, as I see it…his choices of many years of riding big, angry 2,000 pound animals combined with wearing those tights cowboy pants will have had certain consequences. Me however, I've chosen not to ride big, angry 2,000 pound animals or wear tight cowboy pants."

"Pretty good mister, but you're not totally off the hook."

"What do ya mean?"

"It's an unfair double standard and your sexist"

"What? Why? How?" Rick asked defensively.

"You aren't totally anti-cowboy pants."

"Hmm? W—w-what do you mean?"

"Tiffany Ulrich…"

"Yeah, what about her?"

"She wore tight cowboy pants."

Rick recalled memories of seeing Tiffany Ulrich in her "cowboy pants."

"Ahh yes, Rocky Mountain Jeans. They came in a multitude of different colors: purple, green, red, sky blue, denim blue, for just about every occasion. No pockets in the back…." Rick said spouting of the details as if he were the announcer in his own commercial.

"Yeah girls wore them for riding," Marlene grinning not unaware of the double meaning.

"…but I think girls wore them for other reasons too…" Rick said, his eyes still closed,

"Because they were tight and guys like to look at girls' ass in tight jeans?" Marlene asking, in a leading way but making sure not to lead him too far to give him a chance to show her where he was going with his thought.

"There's that, but I was thinking more form a feminine perspective."

"And what's that?" she replied hiding her disappointment.

"I haven't known a girl that hasn't had some issue with their bodies. Specifically, in this case their butts."

"Watch it mister, you're trending thin ice…" she replied in a kidding tone.

"Hear me out."

"Alrighty."

"Even if you didn't have a much of a butt, these jeans gave you one…too big of a butt, too flat of a butt, Rocky Mountain jeans are the perfect solution to any girl's rear end issues,"

"Sounds like you have some of your own rear end issues," she said grinning.

"Maybe so…" he replied watching her walk over to the mirror to check out her own behind.

"I've always thought I had a big bottom."

"That's not a bad thing," he replied.

"Flattery will get you everywhere. Had I known ya missed me that much I might of tried what I was originally planning to do to wake ya."

"Oh?" he asked intrigued, his mind flashing back to the skin flick he had been imagining.

"Yeah a little cold water…"

His smile faded slightly.

"Cold water?"

"Yeah, run a little cold water over my hands until they're nice and cold and…" she continued to explain, putting her hands under his gown and on his chest.

"Whoa Hey now!" he said stopping her.

"Whasta matter? Oh I get it. You're modest cause you ain't got nuthin' on under your gown, do ya?" she asked playfully.

He yielded and she found that her suspicions were incorrect.

"Tighty whites, now why doesn't that surprise me?" she said with a smile.

"Satisfied?" he asked.

"Almost…" she said.

He watched with nervous anticipation as she moved her hands closer. Feeling the sudden intense cold, he jumped and gasped. She quickly pulled hands out grinning.

"Why, what did ya think I was gonna try?"

"I'm going to plead the fifth, thank you very much."

"Yeah, I guess it's good ya woke up when a did. These places are pretty concerned about things like your heart rate, I wouldn't want to set the machine off or nuthin'." She said patting him on his chest.

"Yeah."

So you out doing a little sight seeing and get lost?" he said slowly opening his eyes.

"Hardly, I was across the hall getting stuck with needles eight ways from Sunday for my immunizations and I saw your name on the wall outside the door, 'Richard' " she said holding back a laugh

"That's the name my parents gave me. Anyway I guess I can't help to be prepared…winter's here. Careful though, I heard this year's flu vaccine hasn't been very effective."

"There's that, but actually I'll be calling the SDF-1 my home from now on, Actually I'm a Veritech pilot, well cadet actually, like you I'm guessing?" she replied.

"Very good, you've now earned a cookie," he said imitating an English accent while holding up the package of cookies he had left over from lunch.

She accepted it, opened it and took a bite.

"Mmm, triple chocolate, these are as rare and valuable as diamonds," she said with a mouth full of cookie.

Rick didn't reply, but instead watched her intently.

"They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, but it works pretty well with us ladies if it involves chocolate. Glad to know they at feed ya pretty well in here…well desserts anyway," she continued, finishing off her first cookie with a few quick bites, looking at the rest of the food on his tray.

"Help yourself to what ever ya want. They just delivered it. I don't have much of an appetite. Must be the pain meds. Figures I get stuck in the hospital the week after thanksgiving and all the still serving is turkey, I think that even tried to give me turkey in my IV…"

"wouldn't surprise me," she said as she leaned over and gave his food tray another look over.

There was a patty of what she guessed was turkey in a gravy that looked to be more water than anything. A side of peas and carrots and a cube of cornbread. All typical military food.

"Hmm, I think I'll stick with my first choice. Pretty hard to mess up pre-packaged cookies."

As she munched on her second cookie, she came to a conclusion and it wasn't a pleasant one.

Ever since she was "drafted" into the UEDF, she feared it was signing her own death warrant sentence. All her superiors dismissed her fears and told her that her fears were normal and after her training she would be fine. She tried her best and still only managed to graduate towards the bottom of her class. Now as she looked at the bandages wrapped around her friend's head, someone who was trained and graduated near the top of his class, a cold fear ran through her. It seemed fate and played an cruel trick on her. She finally met someone that was going to bring her out of her shell, only to have it al taken away from her.

"Guess I missed out on all the action," she said dryly.

"Yeah, the Pods really came at us. I've never seen so many before in one place."

"Pods?" she asked, lowering her head and furrowing her brow.

"Yeah you know…wait that's right you probably wouldn't know," he said aloud, thinking aloud to himself.

"Bandages and hospital stays-bet they'd never put those in the brochures and on those dumb posters," she paused, thinking.

"Nope."

"Too bad it's passed Halloween, you could of gone as the mummy…"

"Ha ha…"

As Rick watched her closely, as she happily ate her "well-earned" triple chocolate cookie, he was beginning to wonder why she or as she put it her father had chosen for her to become a Veritech pilot, one of the most difficult and dangerous positions aboard the SDF-1, rather than the hundreds of other positions. He knew first hand of the difficult physical and mental requirements that one had to pass to even get a shot at training to become a Veritech pilot. She was smart, but not book smart, something UEDF recruiters really looked for. Was he really looking at a changed, more die hard military Marlene or had the UEDF, unfortunately lowered its requirement just to get people to join and fill the ranks that were vacant by the deaths of other pilots and other UEDF crew? Sad as it was, it would make sense and was just a part of the business so to speak. The recruitment rate however, had steadily declined since the start of Dolza's attacks on Earth. Even with Dolza now dead and gone, it was still hard for the UEDF to lose its "sign up and die image". Most people wanted to rebuild there lives in peace. The increasing number of empty quarters around his own was a sure sign. Would it backfire in them in the long run? Only time would tell.

"Umm, you don't spend a lot of time in here. Do you?" she asked looking around his hospital room.

"Try not to. So, what squad did you get assigned to?" Rick asked excitedly.

"Sixth position of the Yellow Team. Though we really haven't done any flying."

Each Veritech squadron Team had a total of six planes in it. The Yellow-Team was the "worst of the worst".

"What about you? What squad are you with?" she asked.

He knew gentleness would be the key to his reply, as he figured the last thing she wanted to probably hear was to be reminded of her "lowly" status.

"Second position on the Skull-Team."

"Second in command of the Skull-Team? Wow." Marlene asked a little stunned.

"It's not an easy position,"

Her face told him that she was feeling inferior.

"Ahh, don't worry about it. It's all numbers you know. You probably need some more combat experience that's all. And the way things are going, it won't be long before you'll have more combat experience than you'll know what to do with," he said.

"Hmm."

"So, what made you decide to join the RDF? It wasn't those dumb 'I want you for the UN Spacey' posters was it thye on on all the walls at school was it?" he began innocently.

"Ha! Hardly."

Then it hit her. She had a choice. She could either be vulnerable and honest and tell him and risk having him reject her or lie like she usually did to "save her skin". She decided to be honest, hoping that would win him over. Though she knew she wouldn't tell him everything right away at least. Oddly it again was all coming down to the much too soon rule.

"Well…during my…well our senior year, my grades and…" she began pausing to swallow

"…and my police record really took away any real options of college. So my dad made a deal with the state. They'd drop and or reduce a lot of the charges if I joined the RDF, so here I am," she replied simply.

"So you were more or less drafted."

"Yeah pretty much."

"I didn't mean to pry and I had no idea," he said quickly stumbling over his own words trying t backtrack.

His efforts to care for her feelings was sweet and it touched and warmed her rapidly beating heart.

"It's okay…really." she began in a gentle encouraging tone, gently placing her right hand on his thigh.

"By the way, I'm not sure if I ever got a chance to thank you for helping out that one rainy night."

"You're welcome."

"I know it wasn't quite that evening with me you were hoping for, but I meant a lot to me and I just wanted to thank you."

"You're welcome, I'm sorry I didn't get to say good-bye to you at graduation. My dad wisked me away to a family barbeque. I didn't get to say goodbye to anyone." he began slowly, realizing he was entering sensitive territory gain.

"That's okay would wouldn't of been able to say goodbye, I didn't graduate. At least not then. The UEDF does have a GED program at Yellowstone City. I did feel really stupid going to it, but after I saw I wasn't the only one, I didn't feel as dumb. There weren't a lot of us, but at least I wasn't the only one. I was the top of my class, though my competiton wasn't the toughest. Sometimes I guess it takes having evryuthing in yor life taken to give you focus."

"You were going to see your aunt that right?"

"That was the plan anyway. Some pretty serious shit came down between myself and my parents and I figured it was best if I skipped town. I've had a lot of time to think about those events, about five years in fact, and while I'm not proud of them, they are a part of my past and they've shaped me to become who I am today. While I often wish I could erase them, I can't. Sounds simple enough but that's probably the longest and hardest lesson of all. I've also done a lot of thinking since I came to visit you a few days ago."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I mean I've gone through my entire UEDF career a pretty closed book. It's easier when others don't know you and you don't have to get to know them. I've done it I guess mostly to protect myself and keep others from hurting my feelings. I found that out a long time ago before joining the RDF. On one hand it's easier, but on the other it's harder, ya know? Does that make sense?"

"Sure, by playing it safe all the time you never really get to play," he replied, smiling genuinely.

"Or live for that matter. I guess it's like holding onto a grudge. The one we end up hurting most is ourselves. Living life closed off and numb is a pretty lousy way to life to be honest. I should know, I've done it for more years than I care to remember. Over last few months and last night especailly I've started to realize that I can't and don't want to live like that anymore. A change or die kinda thing except I've been sort of stuck."

"How so?"

"It's like learning how to swim again…I want a teacher someone to open up to and help me be vulnerable again, a kindred spirit of sorts Someone I could trust. One other big reason why I haven't moved towards opening up more was I haven't really found someone else I could trust."

"Wow, thanks…I dunno what to said I guess except I'm honored. I kinda ran into a similar problem during my time at Yellowstone City."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, as you know Yellowstone City is kind of a party town. Partying and drinking never really been my thing. So I took my time trying to find people I trusted in case I needed their help getting back to my quarters. I never really did, but I did find some guys to hang out with that weren't interested in drinking and partying."

"I'm glad you found some people to hang out with at least."

"So what brought this sudden change of heart on?"

"Like I said before, I've gone through my time in the RDF a pretty closed book. Mostly to protect myself and keep others from hurting my feelings. I've been living the closed book thing for quite a few years before. It's a quicker and easier way to live your life when you don't have to get to involved with other people and their problems, but it's not a very fulling one. I'm not a very religious person by any stretch of the imagination, but seeing your name was an answered prayer or wish. I prefer wish. Anyway, seeing your name brought up all kinds of memories. You were one of the few people back then that accepted me for me as dumb as that sounds. You didn't judge me or try and use me. I know I didn't always make it easy for you either, and I'm sorry, and I'm going to try and make it up to you. Maybe I'll tell you all about my senior year some time, but I want to you to trust me and I want to be able to trust you. I think if I laid all of that on you, it would only make that hard if not impossible."

His wish to find a person to open up to and for them to open up to him had been answered in a a very big, unexpected way.

"I'll leave that up to you. If you tell me one day or if you decide never to, that's fine too."

He had heard it from the so-called horse's mouth but he still in part couldn't believe it that Marlene Johnson had joined the miliytary she hated so mch, even though she had explained why she ahd joined.

"I don't mean this in a bad way, but being a pilot for the UEDF on the SDF-1 is the last place I'd of pictured running into you after high school," he said.

"Wow. That was kind of rude," she replied blushing slightly.

"Sorry. That's not quite what I meant and yes your right it was kind of rude, and I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I understand. As I said before, by my senior year, my choices had pretty much eliminated any options of higher education other than trade schools in California. In a way I'm glad though. The last thing I wanted to do was spend more time in school for a career like a secretary or something stupid like that.

"I probably should of asked you this back when we first met, but where are you from again?"

"Originally? Red Banks, New Jersey."

"The Garden State eh?"

"I dunno why it's called that, it's not very green from what I remember, but anyway. I guess you could say I'm was and am your typical 'Jersey Girl' in a lot of ways."

"Jersey Girl? I've heard that term before, but gimme a refresher," Rick asked.

Marlene paused to think, getting up to walk around while she did so. After a bit she hopped up and sat down on a dresser, crossed her legs and replied with as she looked around the room with a smile,

"Well we have this love of a good time, and a certain sense of style. Which for me generally consists of an abundance of denium and leather. We Jersey Girls are about attitude. We eating pizza, drinking beer, having great hair…" Marlene explained flipping dark brown, semi wavy shoulder length hair. We are girls who enjoys the mall, might wear more makeup than the Ivy League or an institution like the UEDF would approve of. Beware, we Jersey Girls usually have a mouth on us. You hven't been around me much in a non-school setting so you haven't seen it yet. We says what we mean. We have a nice, cheerful laugh. We're spunky and witty, and we handle competition very well. I've been told we Jerset gals got this confidence, you sorta have to, it's dog eat dog there."

"Wow, so what brought you out to California?" he asked knowing the two states were about as far apart as states could get.

"My parents, I was getting into a lot trouble, I kinda ran with a bad crowd, but I also was the bad crowd so they figured a big change of scenery would do everyone good. Except I didn't really stay out of trouble. I didn't do the cross country thing in one fell swoop though. Made a little stop in Northbrook, Illinois."

"Now that's a town I haven't heard of."

"Wouldn't surprise me, it only had like 30,000 people in it. Though in my defense, we went there on account of my dad's job, when they relocated him. My mother…she couldn't keep a job to save her life. She was always too drunk or high. Guess she was the original Jersey Girl. So we had to go where the money was. But they got a divorce and my dad got tired of of all my shit so he sent me off to live with my Mom who had moved to" Marlene explained matter of factly.

"So they switched schools again?"

"Yup from Palisade high School to Macross City High School the start of my senior year. Rick was beginning to see a negative pattern.

"Where did you say you headed to that night when I dropped you off again?"

"That's a night a rather forget about…"

Rick frowed.

"No, our stuff was fine, it was just the events that lead up to that night and days after. I was planning on going back to Jersey to live with my aunt, except I sorta didn't make it,

"The bus broke down?"

"I ended up calling Jeff at the first town stopped in and I stayed with him."

"Jeff?"

"Jeff Easton, my boyfriend and a big part of why the shit that went down went down."

"So you dad found you?"

"Yeah kina hard not to when the police are knokciong onn your dopr at 7am in the morning."

"Yikes what for?"

"You name it, we did it, were doing it or helping others do it for a price. We were two bad kids…all sorta of illegal drugs from meth, marijuana, crack cocaine, dope and heroin, underage drinking, domestic violence, One thing Jeff and I used to do be sides fuck and get fucked up was fight. I mena real knock down drag out fights. Both our tempers and my smart mouth were a volatile combination. So, to use a military term, I made a pre-emptive move, and I got out before my parents threw me out. My parents probably wouldn't of never had to get involved if it wasn't for one minor technicality: I was 17 and thus a minor so when the police came a knockin they eventually did some callin'. As bad as that was I still didn't hit rock bottom. I wasn't even in the room, I was outside passed out on the lawn from a night of drugs and binge drinking. When my father found me that morning, he took me down to the local police department to sober up. Talk about wanted to never sober up because I knew what was coming at. The police and my dad gave me the earful of all ear fulls. Between the two my dad was worse. The police and the DA were kinder, they offered a plea deal. I could go to boot camp and go on join the military or face a the whole range of charges and fines that I had been building up since my so-called 'Cali-days'.

"A no brainer."

"Yup and well if it helps, there is some military in my blood. I had an uncle that flew antique W. Naval planes. It was a Corsair II I think. He took me up with him one day after school my 6th grade year. Ever since then I've wanted to fly, the more legal way to fly," she explained simply.

"So there is military and flying is in your blood." he replied.

"Guess I'm no longer off the hook on both counts eh?"

"No but I over look it. So, what's with the biker jacket and jeans and tee-shirt, flygirl?"

"Surely you've seen me wear biker jacket, tee-shirt and jeans? Thst's all I practically wore in high school. Besides, we don't always have to wear our uniforms..."

"I don't mean to harp on you, but, you should start wearing your uniform even when you're on your own time. It's more professional…"

He could tell mid-way through his advice she was finding his advice unwarranted.

"…and it could help when they consider promoting…better pay, bigger quarters," he said recalling the quarters he had been assigned to first. Small would have been too generous of a word.

"Okay mother…anyway I have sort of have an excuse. It was laundry day. Well, actually it's been laundry day for a few days. After I got done visiting you, I was going to go and see if I could find a bike and go for a ride," she explained.

"I don't know think the park here aboard the ship has any biking trials…or is even big enough for them," he said, not quite following her training of thought

"By bike I meant one those UEDF motorcycles I see driving everywhere."

"Technically I think those are for security and M.P. use only."

"True, but I found some guys that were willing to bend the rules for me," she replied, a sly smile creeping across her face.

"Wow, how did you manage to pull off that one?" Rick asking knowing the military would not let just anyone drive their motorcycles.

"Well, they wouldn't at first, but I had a pretty convincing argument or arguments rather."

"And that was?"

"A lady doesn't kiss and tell, but let's just says a girl can get a lot done with just a…smile," she said taking a hold of the front of her shirt and slowly pulling down.

"Marlene…" he replied with a disapproving tone, seeing what she meant by her arguments.

"They got your attention, or am I wrong?

He blushed.

"Ahh, nothing really bad happened. I only took it on a short ride through the bowels of the SDF-1. I was kinda surprised that still have so much unused space under our feet. It was kinda scary, I thought I might get lost for a bit. I've always found it helpful to make friends to security personnel. It's come in hand on other occasions as well."

Rick paused to think about his own wandering through the inner "bowels" of the SDF-1 with Minmei. Her her speak, drew his mind back to the present.

"Of civilian life, I think I miss driving my '98 Katana Turbo most. People say when you are in love with another person, only then do you feel complete. I haven't ever been in love like that, but I sorta got the ' you complete me' feeling when I bought my '98 Katana Turbo. To look at it wasn't much, heck it was ten years old, but I fell in love with from the start. It was all black and had the words "Katana" written in red on it's side. Ohh the sound it made when it started it up…it probably sounds like a cliché', but it really did purr like a kitten, though it sounded like a kitten with a bad case of gas when I first got it," she said closing her eyes, remembering her bike fondly.

"Hmm, I didn't even know you owned a motorcycle," he replied

"I didn't while we went to school. I bought it when I 'graduated'. A lot of relatives I never knew I had came out of the woodworks and handed me graduation check after graduation check. I probably should said no, but I was eighteen and hadn't seen that much money in my life. Part of me deep down doubted I ever would again. Then word got out that I didn't graduate."

"Yikes."

"Parents are weird, I mean that almost goes without saying. My dad was pretty easy to understand. When he yelled, everyone knew he was mad, but with this, he didn't yell that much. Probably because I had hurt and lied to other people, a lot of them his family. I think that was the last straw and after that he pretty much gave up and washed his hands of me like my mother did. It was ahrd because up till then I always 'daddy's little girl'.

"So what happened to it, can I ask? Did your father make you return it?"

"Pretty much, I had to sent all the money back to all of my realtives with a letter explaining why I was returing their money."

"Wow he doesn't mess around."

"Nope, I think he felt like he had some years of punishing to catch up on. So when you getting out of here?" Marlene said itching to get out of the hospital.

"Good question, I asked the nurse to get me some cranberry juice, but it's been awhile, she probably got pulled into something else. I remember as a CNA that how it always one one errand or task always was interrupted by something or someone else. Guess they wanna be sure I can go before they let me go,"

Hearing him talk about going reminded her of her stint in the hospital after she had her baby. The docotors held the same requiements over her as well. Luckily her body cooperated promptly, for her mind's sake.

Suddenly, the door to his room opened and he was strangly worried that it was Lisa unintentionally interrupting his time with Marlene.

"Hi! Sorry... it's just me again. Here your cranberry juice….sorry I got pulled into a million different directions…"

"I was a CNA once so I understand," Rick said accepting the small plastic glass of cranberry juice that was sealed with a alumimum foil cover.

"Oh hello I didn't know you had company, so want me to come back?"

"Nah your fine."

"Here are two more cranberry cups in case you need more and I'm not here."

The nurse left once again and Marlene watched her leave,a smile forming over her face.

"What's so funny"

"Boy you've got her trained and bringing you extra cranberry cups?"

"She's just being friendly…"

"Hmm, maybe I ought to leave you two alone," she said picking up one of the cranberry cups and opening it.

"Hey did I say you could have one of those?"

"No and think of this way: the less of these there are, the more of her you'll see," she said lifting the cranberry cup to her lips and drinking.

He smiled as she liked how she was thinking, then she saw a soured look come spread across her face.

"Is it expired?"

"Dunno…"

Rick opened the cranberry cup he had and took a careful sip. It tasted like regular cranberry juice.

"Mine tastes fine," he said before downing the rest.

"Maybe it's bee a while since I've had cranberry juice by itself…I usually have mine in a Cape Codder with vodka."

"Perhaps."

Soon enough the call of nature came and he reached over and pressed the call button.

"You need help getting up?"

"That, and I have to use the bathroom," he said.

"K, well then I'll wait out I the hall you want me to track down the nurse?"

"Sure that might help speed things up," he said not wanting to wait another thiry minutres for the nurse to return.

Within a few minutes the nurse returned.

"Can I help you?" Ana said poking her head into his room.

"Uhh, yeah that cranberry juice kicked in pretty fast."

"That's a good sign that everything inside is working," she said entering, making sure to close the door quietly behind herself.

She walked over to the side of his bed facing away from the door and she squatted down.

Rick sat up a little bit wondering what she was doing, think she had possible misheard or mis-understood him and was going to adjust his bed instead.

"Looks like you're catheter bag is almost full,"

"Catheter?"

"Yup, that would explain why you felt like you had to pee,"

As she went to work putting on gloves, getting a urinal from the bathroom to empty the urine into, he asked,

"Umm so can I get it removed so I can go to the bathroom normally again?"

"Yes, we just gave it to you because you were unconscious," she said squatting next the catherbag again in preparation to drain it.

"Can you do that or.." he asked knowing only certain medical personnel did certain things. As a CNA, he could only empty a cather bag but not change it out.

"Yes…in fact the was one of the doctor's order for me to do that as soon as you were awake and had to go. All done here," she said standing up and walking over to the bathroom with the full urinal. She emptied it into the toilet, filled it with water from the sink and empty that also into the toilet before flushing it. She then peeled off her rubber gloves and put them in small trash bin and then started to wash her hands.

"You think being a former CNA, I'd remember how many steps were involved in just about any task," Rick commented.

"You were a CNA, were you now?" Ana asked as she merged from the bathroom, drying her hands.

"For a summer or two…then the UEDF starting calling and I liked the tune they were singing a bit better,"

"Ahh in that case maybe I should of asked you to empty your own bag eh?" she said with a smile.

"Ya know that is among the many things I don't miss," he added smiling back.

"I'll bet, let's what we can do about this catheter all together," she said grapping two more gloves from a rubber glove box that was by the entrance , and putting them on.

"I always had trouble getting the gloves on, but I supposed practice makes perfect,"

"And I...have had lots of practice," she replied putting on her 2nd glove.

As she went to work to remove his catheter, he could only think about how awkward it was.

"I wanted get to know her more and she really getting to know me…."

"Almost…done. You might feel a slight pinch as it comes out…there all done. I'll be back with the release forms so the doctor can give you for final check over," she said dropping the catheter in the trahs as well as her gloves which she peeled off with ease. As before she then went to work to wash an dry her hands.

Rick turned too look out the windows happy to know there was a world out there waiting for him a world that would now include Marlene. He was under sure just how long he had been starting out the window, but the nurse's voice eventually broke his train of thought.

"Here are the doctor's release forms. Just read them over and sign them before you leave okay?" the nurse said suddenly instructed, patting him on his foot.

"Sure…" Rick replied.

"He doctor said he looked at you last night and says your good to go, he wrote some post hospital instructions. Your friend can help you get home,"

While she waited out in the hall for him, a baby lying in a blue stroller caught her eye. She looked over at the reception desk and saw a Caucasian womamn with long green hair!

"Hmm, nice to know that punk rock isn't dead…hopefully the recetionst is kinder to her," she thought to herself.

While the baby's mother was at the front desk talking to the nurse, she walked over to stroller and looked inside. It's large blue eyes looked up at her and it reached out with both of its tiny hands that made her smile.

It was not long before Rick had finished the forms and exited his room for and saw her. She was looking into a stroller. Another brief memory of her being pregnant her senior year filled his head. It was only a rumor, and another touchy subject, so he decided to not bring it up.

He tapped her on her shoulder and said.

"All done."

"Alrighty, unless need to make any more rounds, let's head out, I hate hospitals"

"What do ya mean ' unless I need to make anymore more rounds' I don't work here?" he asked seeing a smile on her face.

"Seems like you've been making your rounds in your own way," Marlene commented.

"What do you mean? I'm not a nurse…"

"No, but you certainly chatted up that nurse for awhile…excuse miss I'll take my sponge bath now' ." she remarked smiling.

"She was going over the post hospital care plans."

"Don't look at me Mr. Sponge Bath." she said grinning.

"So what else have you been up to?" Rick asked quickly to recover the conversation as they passed through the hospital's double exit doors.

"Oh, not much really just Cadet Training is all. I walked here, are your barracks close?" Marlene said.

"A2" Rick replied.

"Mine's in E6. You got a roommate?"

"Nope, not yet anyway,"

"Must be a perk of your rank, Lieutenant," she replied smiling at him

"So, you must have a roommate? What's her name?"

"My, I've seen you for all of twenty minutes and you're already asking me to set you up."

"I wasn't..."

"Sure, anyway much to your disappointment, I'm the only one there too , you think I'll get a roommate?" she asked.

"Yeah probably," he replied.

"Guess this is part of the whole college roommate thing I missed out on by going to Yellowstone RDF Base."

"You surely had roommates at Yellowstone City?" Rick inquired.

"Yeah like a whole room of them. I guessing when I do get a roomie, least it'll only be one and one I can manage."

After a few minutes they reached the elevator that would take them to Deck two, where the Veritech Pilot Quarters were.

"Here's the elevator," Rick said looking at all the people waiting to use it.

"I hope your not in any hurry," she replied.

Rick wasn't and so took his place in line. Marlene took advantage of this time to have a cigarette. She stepped away from the line and took out her pack.

"Come on, we can take the stairs," he said tapping her shoulder.

Though she really wanted the cigarette, she followed him to be polite putting away her cigarette.

He opened the single door and Marlene said,

"How many stairs is it?" she asked.

"Guess we'll find out,"

"Hey shouldn't you be 'taking it easy' ?" she asked quote one of he lines of his after care.

"It was just a minor concussion, I'm only going to walk up the steps not run up them," he said.

Finally after 8 flights of 8 stairs each flight, they reached Deck Two, though she came in a little later than he did.

"We'll here we are," he said opening the door for her.

"Thanks...Good old…Deck Two," she replied out of breath.

"I thought you being fresh out of cadet training…you be less out of..out breath."

"You learn something' new every…day, how are you faring?" she replied managing a tired smile.

"A bit winded too, maybe we should of taken the elevator. Are your quarters close?"

"Shouldn't take more than a minute or so…to get there."

"Can you make it, you do you wanna rest some more?" he ask.

"I'll make it just…just gimme a sec."

After a few moments, he noticed she was looking over the railing below.

"8 flights was a guess…" he said.

"Yeah, I believe you…I think I dropped my cigarettes…"

He didn't know if she was subtly asking him to go back and get them. He wasn't as out of breath as she seemed to be, but he didn't have the energy to go back down and come back up.

"So you finding everything okay?" he asked sitting down on the step beside her.

"I guess, I really haven't ventured out much" she replied.

"I know I was sure lost my first months here," Rick replied.

She began to cough rather hard.

"You okay?"

"Yeah…I'll…I'll be okay," she said waving him off with her right and as she continued to cough onto left hand,

As soon as she stopped coughing, she looked down into her left hand to see if her coughing productivity matched it's intensity. There was nothing, and she was glad. A few times during the 5 mile runs, she threw up and on more than one occasion she had coughed up blood. She was surprised to find that wasn't enough to get her out of that day's run.

Soon she stood up and took of her jacket as he she began to feel hot and sweaty.

"Shall we?" she offered looking back at him while stretching.

"Lead the way," he said standing up.

As the headed for her quarters, the closer of the their two quarters, the day seemed to blossom with possibilities that he hope included her. The walked to E3 took less than a minute. She took out the key from her small black purse, shoved it into the keyhole and turned it. She then turned the doorknob, but it didn't not turn-it was still locked!

"Geez, this thing never works," she replied putting her shoulder into the door a few times.

"Here let me try, before you break your shoulder."

She stepped back, expected him to put his shoulder to the door. However, she was surprised when he didn't.

"Sometimes these locks stick and you have to jiggle it," he offered, jiggling the key and then unlocking the door.

"Thanks," she replied turning the doorknob and pushing the door open.

She flipped on a light switch to her right then turned to face him.

"Here we are, home sweet home."

There on the ground was an olive green, heavy duty, extra large duffel bag. A standard issue for all new RDF cadets. The floor was littered with various articles of clothing.

"I see you got some of your sorting started," he noted.

"They've kinda been there all week."

"You can kick that duffel bag aside…"

He reached down and dragged it to a more out of the way spot by a wall.

"Ugg I remember those behemoths…..How did you fair lugging yours around?" Rick asked

"Quite well," she replied holding back a smile.

Her reply surprised him. He knew she weighed less than she did. He wondered how a person of lesser weight did 'quite well' with the behemoth duffel bag that was more than half their weight.

"Hmm…so you've been working out?" Rick asked.

"Well a little. Though military life has been a struggle for me, I have learned that a pretty face and a nice body will lessen the chances a girl has to carry heavy things."

"Were you wearing that shirt?"

"So, you noticed….I had my doubts about you," she commented.

"Using your body and looks to get what you want…"

"Not something they excately teach you in cadet training...you make it sound so negative and so manipulative. I never put a gun to anybody's head." she replied with a smile, kneeling next to her duffel bag and removing some of it's contents.

Rick knew that if Marlene kept on her current path, she was going to quickly develop a negative reputation that would ultimately hold her back from promotion as reputation was a major part of consideration of promotions.

He remembered her saying she was going to go to try and find a motorcycle and go for a ride. He was up for that and was open for just about anything as long as it was with Marlene, including sex seeing at least advantage to her reputation. This sudden desire was strange to him. He was surprised as he never had this reaction when ever he hung out with Lisa

"so what else else is on your agenda today?"

"Well I guess where ever you go I go, I am your caregiver after all" she said with a smile.

"That's true," he said with a smile.

"So pick something intresting…"

"I'm open to suggestions….like going for a ride on that bike,:" he said.

"You be willing to get in into trouble with lil' me?" she said.

"Yes ma'am."

She chucked slightly.

"I'm hungry, why don't we grab some lunch outside of the barracks so we can get some beer and maybe shoot a little pool? We can then go see if we can track down a bike and go for a ride maybe even outside the ship,"

"Sounds good, but I kinda like to get cleaned up first."

"A little late to try and impress me don't ya think?"

"You mean you didn't get one yet?" she inquired.

"You saw me. I didn't get very far from your quarters…"

"I know, I was just sorta figuring with how you were looking all googley-eyed at your nurse, had showered you or given you a sponge bath before she let ya go.

"Alas it was not to be," he replied with an English accent.

"Or was she not available and you turned down 'Bruno'?" she added smiling.

"What? Oh! Luckily he never offered but I think I would of turned him down regardless."

In a few short moments, they reached his quarters.

"Okay, show me what you've got, Mr. Locksmith," she said, grinning, remembering the trouble she had with her own door.

Rick put the key into the keyhole, turned it and the door to his quarters unlocked.

"And for my next act…" he said grinning back..

"….and for your next act you'll be a gracious host by not pointing out the faults of your lovely guest, Or I'll pull a trick of my own," she replied.

"What's that?" he asked casually.

"I can't decided whether to make you or me disappear."

"Ha, ha," he said removing his keys and entering his quarters, she followed behind him.

"Well, here it is… mi casa," he said setting his keys down on a little stand that was by the door.

"And no roommate I see. Guess space is one incentive to shoot for a higher rank," she replied taking a look around.

His quarters were bigger than hers were, but not by much.

"I remember the tiny quarters I had when I was with the Vermilion Team. I am sorta hoping since I become a Lieutenant, that I'll won't have to have a roommate anymore."

"Hmm, something tells me you have to be a lot higher rank than a 2nd Lieutenant to not have a roommate," Marlene speculated aloud.
"I been pretty lucky actually. Been here almost a year and haven't gotten a roommate," he said looking at the empty bunk above his.

"I could only wish to have that kinda luck. I mean all I heard were roommate horror stories from my sister when she came home for summers from college. I'll probably get a early rising, military go-getter."

Usual conversation would then lead into him asking about her sister, another person he had not seen in a while and ask her how she was doing. Dolza's attack had not only changed physical landscape but the familial landscape as well as he realized most if not all of Marlene's family was most likely victims of Dolza. So he didn't ask about her sister or her major.

All she wanted was a friend or an ally and all she found over and over were enemies. Seeing Rick, and old friend was an answered prayer of sorts, though she was by no means a religious or spiritual person.

"I know how you feel," he said, not knowing what else to say as his options had been taken from him.

"Thanks…" she said still immersed in her thoughts.

"Well, until I get a roommate, you're welcome to crash here anytime you'd like. Mi casa es su casa."

She didn't reply right away. He figured maybe her Spanish wasn't very fluent so he deicded to translate.

"Means my is is…"

"Your house in my house…I did attend some, but not a lot of my Spanish classes."

"Unless you'd feel too uncomfortable or something," he said, thinking that's why she had a slightly somber tone in her voice.

"I was more thinking that you might," she said looking at him briefly before returning to exploring the rest of his quarters with her eyes.

"Do you want me to leave while you change?" she asked politely

"Your okay, I'll change in the bathroom. Make yourself at home," he said gathering a towel, and a small, white plastic shower caddy where he kept a bottle of shampoo and a bar of soap.

She nodded and with that he was gone.

"Guess I did make him disappear, if only for a little while," she thought to herself thinking about how he performed magic tricks by opening doors.

Her brown eyes looked around the room for something to occupy herself while he was out. There on his table she noticed a white, loose-leaf style binder that was lying open on a desk.

"Technically, it's not snooping if it was already out in the open," she said aloud to herself, walking over to the table.

The binder turned out to be a copy of an aircraft repair manual for a Turbo Fan Jet. It was open to the 83rd page. On it was a complicated diagram of the Turbo Fan Jet's engines. She was not around the RDF a years ago when he made his flashy entrance with his Turbo Fan Jet as part of the air show hosted by Roy Fokker. The air show was commemorating the SDF-1's original launch from the Macross Island.

"Wonder why he has this," she asked, picking it up and flipping through it.

She remembered hearing rumor that it had guns, so she flipped to the front and checked the table on contents, which yielded nothing. Next she turned to the back where the index was. She tried guns as subject heading first then "armaments". Finally she found something on page 189. She flipped there and there was a diagram of two, 50 caliber machine guns that fired amour-piercing rounds.

"Hmm I thought that it came with guns. Maybe I can get him to go for a ride in this instead of a bike."

A knock on his door caught her by surprise. She quickly flipped the book back to the 83rd page and turned around to answer it,

"Probably forgot something...maybe he's down to wearing only his towel and I can have a little fun…"

She looked through the peephole and was a little surprised to see a Caucasian woman with brown hair standing there instead of Rick. She opened the door.

"Oh…hello there. Umm, is Rick Hunter here?" the woman asked before Marlene could greet her, a little surprised to see a woman in front of her instead of Rick.

Marlene didn't recognize her and thought she was just some random girl looking for Rick.

"Uhh, he's a little indisposed right now," Marlene said, hoping that response would be enough to shoo her away.

The woman standing before her, was no random girl however. She was Lisa Hayes and she didn't appreciate this strange girl's efforts to shoo her away be telling her Rick was indisposed. A cold shock washed over Lisa when she heard the word "indisposed". Was she looking at the woman who Rick was cheating on her with? Suspicious or not, she had to try and keep her composure.

"Indisposed?" Lisa asked, holding her composure.

"In the bathroom," Marlene replied.

In the bathroom could be innocent or he could be showering.

"Alright Mr. Hunter, I'm going to trust that thing's are not as they seem," Lisa thought to herself, thinking she had caught him cheating. She was hurt when she went to the Main Medical to visit him, only to find his room empty. He was usually more polite of considerate about telling her his plans and now to find a woman standing at his door.

"Oh, so he'll be right back?" Lisa probed, calling her bluff.

"Should be…"

"May I come in a wait for him?" Lisa asked, seeing if the mouse would take the bait.

"Who does this woman think she is?" Marlene thought to herself trying to protect Rick's privacy.

"Actually he's showering. Might be kinda awkward if he came back and had an audience while he was trying to change."

Another, even colder wave of shock washed over her as she heard the word 'shower'. Lisa suspect this woman was trying to get her to leave so she could change and join Rick. She pushed aside her fears and focused back on reality. She knew Rick and how very shy he was around women, a bt of disappointment crept over him as she thought maybe he was only shy and holindg back around her.

"It's not okay if I see him on his return from the shower, but it is okay if this woman sees him?" Lisa thought to herself, wondering who this woman was.

Still seeking her goal, she decided to try and approach it from a more subtle direction.

"I don't think we've met before, Lieutenant-Commander Lisa Hayes," Lisa said holding out her right hand.

The cold shock that had washed over Lisa twice washed over Marlene as she realized who she was arguing with.

"Lieutenant-Commander Lisa Hayes! Hello!" Marlene said immediately recognizing Lisa and instantly she saluting her, the words of a few of her classmates at the Yellowstone RDF Base filling her head: 'The only reason that old sour-puss Hayes is where she is because her father is the Admiral of the United Earth Defense Council'.

"No need to salute me, you're a civilian…" Lisa explained.

"Actually I'm a Veritech pilot like Rick. 2nd Lieutenant Marlene Johnson Marine Corps Aviator" Marlene replied saluting.

"Oh sorry, I thought you were a civilian. At ease there," Lisa replied.

Marlene relaxed, but not all the way as she was regretting not wearing her uniform.

They each had exhausted the introductions as far as could go, which brought them both to the situation at hand.

"Would you like me to tell him you stopped by?" Marlene offered not knowing Lisa's relationship with him, thinking that with those words Lisa would move on.

A voice inside her was screaming at her to do what ever she had to send Lisa on her way, but Lisa was showing she had other plans.

"So, have you gotten yourself situated?" Lisa asked remembering how much trouble all new personnel have navigating around the SDF-1.

"More or less," Marlene replied awkwardly.

"…the first few times can be overwhelming."

"Yeah…" Marlene replied nervously scratching her head realizing the truth and irony to her words that was being demonstrated before her very eyes.

"Well welcome aboard, 2nd Lieutenant. What squad do you fly with?" Lisa inquired further. "The Yellow-Team," Marlene replied knowing that with that Lisa could use it against her if she wished.

"Lieutenant Marcus Tebel is the squad leader. He going to seem like a real hard nose, typical military guy, but he knows what he's doing. Stick with the Lieutenant Hunter. He can show you ropes until you get the hang of things around here," Lisa added.

"Thanks," Marlene replied with a somewhat force smile. .

As he returned from shower with a white towel wrapped around his waist, he was quite surprised to find Lisa Hayes and Marlene conversing in front of his quarters! Marlene also spotted him emerge from the shower and knew she had to do something so Rick didn't have to stand in the hallway in his towel. Marlene had made a noble stand, and tried everything short of pushing this woman away with her own two hands. Why she would get the hint she had no idea, but decided it be in her career's best interest to leave as she felt outclassed on a number of levels. She knew she would hate herself and Rick might also hate her for leaving but she saw no other way out.

"Look, I'd better be going, I was nice meeting you Lieutenant Commander Hayes."

"Alright, good luck with everything and please when it's just you and me, call me Lisa," Lisa said.

"Oh, okay."

"In that case, you can call me 'Marlene'," Marlene said returning the offer of informalities.

"Okay, Marlene, it was nice meeting you, and I hope I'll see you around," Lisa said.

As she walked away she headed for Rick and held her right hand up to her ear and mouthed the words: 'I'll call you later'

Lisa then turned to Rick and said,

"I'll wait for you out here."

After a minute the door opened and Rick said,

"Sorry about, I'm not in any trouble am I?" Rick asked.

"Trouble? No, not unless you think there is a reason you think you should be, Lieutenant."

"No, you just had a weird look on your face," Rick replied.

"I guess I was just surprised to see her open the door and to not find you here or at the Main Medical."

"I guess I just got distracted. I meant to call…sorry about that. Thanks for the card and gummi bears."

"Distracted? I'll bet…" she thought to herself seeing that his distraction had two legs and a pretty face. Her years of military training had trained her to control emotions even to the point of of hiding them.

"You're welcome."

"We're just friends. I knew her back in high school…we were just catching up," Rick replied feeling like he owned Lisa a further explanation.

That's what his mouth said, but what his heart and mind desired was a different matter entirely.

"I never can get over how young and innocent the cadets look," Lisa said watching Marlene disappear around a corner.

"That always changes after their first battle," Rick said as they both watched her walk away.

"She been in battle yet?"

"No, she came with the group of cadets just joined us after the last battle,"

"I wish there was a way we prepare them for the shock. No simulation can do that."

"Me too."

Inasmuch as she believed him or wanted to believe him, she was turned off by the whole situation and decided to not pursue spending time with him.

"Well I just stopped by to see how you were. Claudia said Roy's got out yesterday morning out too and doing well," Lisa said looking at the bandages on his head.

"Glad too hear Roy's doing well."

"Anyway I'm on lunch break and I should be getting back to the Main Bridge," she replied lying.

"Alright then, see you later," he replied as she left.

"Okay," she said walking off.

As she walked back to the Bridge she began to think about Marlene. It wasn't that she didn't believe Rick, but there was something about Marlene that sent up a "yellow caution flag".

A few minutes ago he was looking forward to getting reacquainted with and old friend now he felt like he had broken some unspoken rule with Lisa. A knock on the door broke his train of thought. He got up and looked through the peephole, not used to getting visitors.

"God, it's probably Lisa given me my walking papers…"

The peephole was smudged, but he could tell it wasn't Lisa. He opened the door and said,

"I figured you'd of gone back to your quarters…"

"I was going to but I went outside to have a cigarette, that's when I saw Lisa leave."

"Ahh…"

"I hope I didn't cause any trouble between you two…wait a minute are you two dating?"

"Yes, well kinda…"

Her suspicions were confirmed.

"As for causing any trouble between us…don't worry about it."

"Anyway, So you still up for hanging out? I mean no sense in showering for nothing!"

"Sure, Lisa left so I'm pretty much free."

The door to the Main Bridge opened and Lisa entered, returning from her lunch break. She quickly found her seat.

"Hey Lisa," Claudia said as she saw her.

"Oh, hey," Lisa replied casually.

Once in her seat, Lisa finished her work so she decided to go through the RDF personnel records. She typed Marlene's last name. She had never seen Marlene before and Lisa was just curious. Since Johnson was a common name, the computer came up with many results. However none of the Johnsons had the first name of Marlene. The only one that came close was:

RDF File Number 2450

Name: Johnson, Irene

Rank: 3rd Lieutenant

Occupation Class: UEDF Medical, Physical Therapist

Sex: Female

Height: 5'6"

Weight: 140

Race or Ethic Background: Caucasian

DOB: 6/09/88

Lisa read the file and thought for a moment. She was sure she heard the woman say her name was Marlene. However the computer records indicated that there was no "Marlene Johnson" aboard the ship. This "Irene" shared a similar first and the same last name as Marlene. However she knew Johnson was a common name, so she was about to dismiss it as a lead. She thought the computer might not have been updated or was acting up which it often did so she performed the searc again. This time the UEDF Employee Query crashed and she gave up and returned to her work.

"Lisa, Lisa!" Claudia called out to her friend.

"Huh? Oh, hey Claudia what's up?" Lisa asked.

"The Ghost Team is looking for clearance to land,"

"Huh? Oh sorry," Lisa replied adjusting her headset and giving the Ghost Team Clearance to land.

With that task over with, Claudia said,

"Lisa, are you all right?"

"Yeah, I guess why?"

"You seem a little preoccupied today?"

"Oh, well I guess I've been thinking about this person I just met," Lisa replied

"Really? Tell me about him," Claudia said thinking that Lisa had finally met some interesting guy.

At first Claudia was expecting to hear a story about a guy that Lisa met that had. The logical side of her mind knew this wouldn't explain the less and cheery look on Lisa's face. Perhaps the new guy had said or done something that had upset her.

"Sure. Well it's not a he, but a she."

"Oh? Go on." Claudia replied a little disappoint that she wasn't focused on some new guy.

Her disappointment quickly faded as she knew Lisa was one never to get lost in her emotions and her need to console her friend kicked in.

"Earlier I went to go check on Rick after you told me Roy was released from the hospital…"

"Okay…" Claudia replied, thinking they had another fight.

"…and a woman opened the door, instead of Rick."

"Wow, was she was clothed?" Claudia asked gently.

"Yeah."

"In her own clothes?" Claudia inquired further.

"As far as I could tell. It's not her fashion sense or of lack there of that I'm worried about. Having a woman over for casual sex isn't like Rick," Lisa added.

"Course not. Do you think that's why she was there?" Claudia inquired gently

"Don't think so, but my woman's intuition is telling me something different.

"So you had a chance to talk…this new girl and you?"

"Yeah. Her name's Marlene Johnson. She's a cadet, one of those that just joined us."

"Oh really? What's she do?" Claudia asked.

"She's a pilot," Lisa replied a matter of factly.

"Then you'll get many more chances to talk to her and get things cleared up. She sounds pretty harmless."

Though that was true, she realized there was a positive about the situation. She would only have limited if any "required" contact with her. Had she been a Enlisted Operative, she had to see her and work with her regularly.

"Yeah, I dunno. I just get this…this weird feeling about her."

"Like what?"

"I can't quite put my finger on it…"

"Okay, until then, give her and yourself and Rick a break and the benefit of the doubt. She's probably having a hard enough time trying to get adjusted to living and find her way around the ship."

"Yeah, okay your right. Rick said they were just old friends catching up."

There was pause as Lisa reflected on what Claudia said.

"I guess more than anything, I'm thinking she's going to try and hook up with Rick."

"It takes two, and Rick's a good guy."

"I guess the final choice of how she's going to fit in Rick's life is up to Rick. It would break my heart if Rick choose her over me. I mean especially after all we've been through."

"Of course."

"I mean were all the downs worth all the ups?"

"I can't answer that."

"I guess I just would feel bad if they got together."

"Why?" Claudia asked.

"Part of it is...is well I'm just guessing they're very different. And she might end up hurting him."

"Opposites sometimes attract."

"Sometimes, but for long-term?"

"Ahh, give it time and space, you have much better things to think about, like what you want for lunch," Claudia replied standing up.

Lunch however didn't change things for Lisa and as they cleared their trays, Claudia put her hand on Lisa's shoulder.

"Hmm what? Did I miss a dish?"

"No, I think we need to have a serious heart to heart talk…"

"Sure of course…"

"Before we go back to work…"

"Wasn't that what we were doing all along?" Lisa asked.

"Yes, but there's something you're not telling me, perhaps you'd feel more comfortable if we stepped away from everyone?"

"That couldn't hurt…" Lisa replied meekly.

Claudia found them a small out of the way place to talk.

"There's more to this girl than her being different isn't there?"

"Yeah, I mean I can certainly deal with others being different, heck being a vice admirals daughter, I was very different than a lot of the cadets in my class…"

"So what got you so bugged about this young woman, hmm?"

"I…I feel like…like we're about to start a some sort of competition…"

"We?" Claudia inquired.

"Yeah, this girl and I.

"Ahh, okay."

"…but I feel like I've already lost."

"Already lost?" Claudia asked gently.

"I mean I know Rick's a shy guy, but you should have seen this shirt she had on, it was really low-cut…I mean I don't have any clothes like that…but even if I did, I don't have the body to fill it out…" Lisa said, her eyes tearing up.

"I've had a lot of similar doubts with Roy. Unlike Rick, however, he's played the field."

"So what did you do?"

"Good question, I have to have faith I guess. Faith that Roy will choose something true over something flashy…"

"Does it help?"

"It gives me hope, but it's still hard."

After a few minutes Lisa tears subside and they returned to the Main Bridge.

"Captain, we just detected a massive power surge in the Venezuela Quadrant," Kim Young said looking at her screen and then at turning around in her chair to face Lisa and Claudia.

"Could that be Khyron's fleet?" asked Sammie.

"It appears that we haven't heard the last of him after all," Gloval added.

"I don't doubt it. And thus the Zentraedi War machine springs to life," Claudia said.

"Captain what should we do?" asked Kim.

"Wait, for now," he replied

"Wait?" asked Sammie and Vanessa in unison.

"Yes, 5000 miles is too far for the Veritechs to prove effective," Gloval explained.

Getting their question answered, Sammie and Kim turned again to face their consoles. They knew the only thing that would prove effective over 5,000 miles was their main gun which was not fully functional. Since Khyron was lifting into place, there was a real possibility that would fire on them. All they could go is just wait, hope and pray as it was up to the RDF bases of Venezuela of the Venezuela Quadrant to counter if Khyron tried anything.

The day pressed on into afternoon, finally Khyron made his move.

"Captain! We've lost all radar signature of Khyron's ships!" Sammie shouted suddenly shattering the quiet that had gripped the bridge for that past hour and a half.

"What? Switch to long range radar...all frequencies, we can't lose track of them!"

Everyone on the Main Bridge tried to regain the precious radar signature of Khyron's small fleet.

"Darn it, nothing here!" Claudia said turning around.

"Here too!" Lisa said looking at Sammie, Kim and Vanessa."

Silence as the trio worked harder than they ever had in their lives. As they worked frantically, Lisa thought to herself,

"I may have not ever rooted for you guys before, but now I'm rooting for you now, come on… you've got to come through," as she folded her hand in front of her mouth, almost ready to bite them as the nervousness increased to the point of being unbearable.

"I can't get anything..." Kim Young said back away from her console and running her fingers through her hair.

"I've lost them for good..." Vanessa Leeds said also backing away from her console.

That left Sammie Porter Claudia Grant's Communication assistant. Everyone hoped and was rooting for her, though they all knew that if Claudia couldn't find the radar signature of Khyron's fleet, someone with less experience would mostly likely come up short.

"There...I got it..." Sammie replied catching her breath.

"Yes!" Lisa said.

"It's fading fast..." she replied shaking her head.

"Another attempt to jam our radar?"

"It appears that way, they're moving off into space."

It wasn't quite what they were expecting of the glory hungry war lord, but they were thankful.

"What the hell was that all about?" Claudia asked.

"I dunno, but it looks like we might have an explanation. Emil Lang is hailing us."

"Put it through," Gloval said.

"Greetings Gloval!" Dr. Emil Lang said.

"Greetings Dr. Lang." Gloval said saluting, returning Dr. Emil Lang's salute.

"Khyron is gone, but is it for good?" Lisa asked.

"No, I'm guessing he is headed for the Robotech Factory. You see, Zentraedi are unable to repair anything that becomes damaged. However repairs are possible at the Robotech factory. After which I'm sure he will return and attack," Exedore explained.

"How long will that take?"

"A few months at least," Breetai added.

"We supposed to just sit here and wait?" Claudia asked.

"Breetai's has left us a small fraction of his force to aid us in defending ourselves against Khyron," Gloval replied in a matter of fact tone, though he doubted the solution

Would Breetai's small force of ships and the SDF-1 be able to fend of Khyron and Azonia? Only time would tell.

60