Lisa's awoke to the sound of her watch alarm, at 5:45 a.m. as usual on workdays. It was Christmas Day, December 25th 2014. The morning after Lisa went over to Rick's place to try to make peace, give him his Christmas present and to try, one more time, to get it right. The morning after she found Minmei there asking to stay, and hearing Rick agree. The morning after Lisa spent most of the night attempting to drown her sorrows in alcohol at the Setup.

Lisa was sitting on the floor against the wall in her bathroom. She had been there since she got home. "How did I get back here," she wondered, afraid of what the answer might be. She couldn't remember anything past 1:00 a.m., or was it 2:00 a.m.?

Lisa stood up slowly by sliding herself up against the wall. She was relieved to find that the room finally stopped spinning, but before she could be too grateful she discovered another problem; a pounding headache concentrated over her right eye, which provided her with another wave of nausea. She turned around and walked over to the sink.

She leaned against the sink and looked in the mirror. "Oh…my…. God…" she thought to herself. She looked awful. She looked like she spent the whole night alternating between being passed out and throwing up. Her hair was wet from sweat and plastered to her forehead. Black circles surrounded her puffy eyes, and her skin was the almost same shade of green as the trim on her uniform.

"I HAVE to go in," she thought to herself; remember the fact that she had not reported for duty a few weeks ago for the very same reason. When she opened the bathroom door she found Claudia sleeping on the couch. "Okay…Claudia's here, but how did we get home?" she wondered to herself as she tiptoed past her snoring friend into the kitchen to start some coffee. Lisa stood there for a moment trying to fend off another wave of nausea and when she heard Claudia begin to stir.

Claudia sat up slowly and looked around, looking just a little confused as to where she was for a moment before she remembered, and saw Lisa standing in the kitchen. "Good Morning, Merry Christmas," she said in a groggy voice.

Lisa managed to croak out weak "hi," before running to bathroom to be sick again.

"Poor kid," Claudia thought. She stood up, discovering her own slight headache and walked over to the bathroom door. "Lisa, are you okay, honey."

Lisa opened the door and looked at her friend saying, "I feel so stupid."

Claudia led Lisa over the couch and sat her down before heading into the kitchen to bring them both some coffee and toast.

"Here, you have to eat or you'll be sick all day." Claudia said as she put their plates on the coffee table.

"Thanks, Claudia. I'll try, but it's twenty to six and I have to get ready." Lisa said.

"You're not thinking of going in are you? Lisa you can't. You look terrible and……"

Lisa cut Claudia off. "I missed my shift two weeks ago, Claudia. For the same reason. I don't care how good my record is, I can't just not show up again. I'll just tell everybody I have the flu and hope it's a quiet day."

"Lisa, I'm getting worried about you. Sure, I over do it a little myself now and then, but not as bad as you. And it doesn't make me sick, either. Dammit, girl, you can't let him get to you like this! You're better than that. Besides, after last night…. " Claudia stopped herself, realizing that maybe she should just let it go.

"What do you mean? Oh, God, Claudia what happened last night? I don't remember much. How did we get back here?"

Claudia took a deep breath and said "Lisa, maybe we should talk about this later…."

"No, now, Claudia. I'm going in for duty. If I did something stupid you have to tell me. You know how people are. You can't keep anything quiet…"

"Okay, okay. Don't you remember anything?"

"I remember you coming in and ordering a drink. I think I was already pretty numb by then. Then that guy came over and started talking to me."

"More like hitting you," Claudia corrected her. "He was kind of cute, but he was also very drunk."

"What did I do? Wait. I remember something. Did I…. did I do something, to him, Claudia?"

"Do you remember dancing with him?" asked Claudia.

After a moment Lisa shook her head, "Vaguely. Who was that guy, anyway?"

"I don't know, Lisa. Some civilian. He coerced you onto the dance floor. You were dancing to bad country western song…I can't remember what song it was, but then he started getting grabby. Somehow, you managed to put him in a hammerlock and push into a table. Then you ordered another tequila shot. The bartender cut you off, thank God, and then you threw up on my shoes. Lieutenant Snyder was there from Wolf Squadron, and he offered to drive us home. That was about 1:30. You passed out in the car and he had to carry you in."

"Shit. Who else was there? Does Snyder have a big mouth? I guess it doesn't matter, this will get around. Dammit." Lisa muttered as she headed toward the bathroom for some aspirin.

"Lisa, I'm going to head home. Can I borrow a pair of shoes?" Claudia asked.

"Of course. I'm sorry about yours. And thanks, Claudia. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Don't worry about it, sweetie. Call me when you get home." Claudia replied as she headed out the door.

After a quick shower and some makeup to try and cover the dark circles under her eyes and hide her even paler than usual appearance, Lisa took a bite of toast and a sip of coffee before rushing out the door to report. One more quick check in the mirror led Lisa to realize that no one was going to buy her flu excuse.

"I just hope it's a quiet day," she thought as she locked the door behind her. Fortunately she saw Major Simmons who lived a few doors down with his family leaving for duty and she asked if she could ride in with him.

They we barely a block away when Lisa was overcome by another bout of nausea. She put her hand over her mouth and prayed she could stop herself from puking all over the Major's jeep.

"Are you okay, Captain?" said Simmons

"Just a touch of the flu. Just keep driving. I'll be fine."

Thank you Sphersian for the encouragement!