Two days before the festival, Lisa and the crew were manning the bridge, sending the various squads to their patrols for the day
A ding notified Lisa that there was an incoming transmission coming in to her station. Lisa flipped the switch and the leader of the Skull Squad Capt. Rick Hunter appeared on the screen. Lisa's heart did a little flip and she felt butterflies in her stomach as she opened communications with him. Rick had the most beautiful deep blue eyes that she had ever seen and thick, unruly black hair, that made Lisa just want to run her fingers through his hair and pull him in for a kiss. Unfortunately, the crush was single sided and Lisa knew there was no way in hell that Capt. Hunter felt anything for her except friendship.
Lisa smiled and spoke into her headset "Skull Leader, this is Delta One, come in."
"Delta One, this is Skull One, so where you sending us today Lisa?" Lisa looked down at the coordinates assigned and frowned a bit. "It looks like you are headed to check out the reports of some Zentraedi rebel sightings in the northeast quadrant, this is a recon mission only, do not engage unless fired upon and report back if you run into any issues. Please be careful, Hunter."
"Sure thing, Capt. Hayes, uh Lisa can you switch over to a secure transmission?" asked Capt. Hunter.
Lisa was a bit confused as she didn't think any questions Rick had about the orders she provided needed a secure transmission, but she flipped another switch and she and Rick were on a private channel. While the channel was private in regards to the whole base couldn't hear their conversation, the conversation was still audible on the bridge. "Communications secured, what's going on Rick?" Lisa asked, tilting her head a bit to the side and giving him a wide eyed questioning look.
All Rick Hunter could think about at that point is how cute Capt. Hayes looked when she did that. He stared at her in silence, until she said, "Rick? You ok?"
Rick jolted out of his daze, responded to her query, "Uh, I wanted to know, if you weren't busy or anything, if you wanted to gototheObonfestivalwithme and Max and Miriya."
"Huh? I'm sorry Rick, I didn't quite get that, could you repeat your request, something about Max and Miriya?" said Lisa.
Rick took a deep breath and let out at sharp breath of air that caused the front of his hair to waft up a bit and spoke a bit slower "I'm sorry Lisa, I said, if you aren't busy, would you want to go to the festival with me and Max and Miriya on Saturday?"
Lisa bit her lower lip in disappointment. She had already promised the girls that she would go with them and didn't want to back out of her commitment to them. She tucked a few loose strands of hair behind her ear and smiled at Rick, "I would love to go with you, but I already promised the girls that I would go with them."
Sammie, Vanessa and Kim listening to the conversation with bated breath couldn't believe what they were hearing. Lisa was going to turn down a date offer with Rick, the man of her dreams, to go out with them! They were all for girl power and solidarity but they knew that Lisa shouldn't let this chance go. Sammie and Kim both ran up to Lisa's station and stood on either side of her. "Hi Rick," Sammie said and waved to him on the screen. Rick feeling a bit dejected that Lisa couldn't go with him due to other plans, returned a small wave to Sammie.
"Lisa, listen, we were going to tell you after our shift ended that Rico, Bron and Konda asked if they can join us on Saturday as well. If that's ok with you, we'll go with them and we will meet you, Rick, Max and Miriya at the festival." said Sammie.
"I hope that's okay with you Lisa, Rick," said Kim.
Lisa looked at Rick on the TacNet, who looked at her with a pleading face. "Rick, is that okay with you?"
"Yeah. Lisa that would be great, are you sure you don't mind coming with me instead?" asked Rick.
"No, not at all,"replied Lisa with a blush and a shy smile.
"Ok, I will come and pick you up at 3pm ok?" Rick said with a grin.
"Ok, 3 o'clock then. See you then. Thanks Rick, for inviting me." Lisa said shyly.
"Can't wait, it'll be a lot of fun Lisa, see you then, Skull Leader out."
Lisa responded in a bit of a daze still, "ok, returning to regular transmission, " as she switched them back onto the network.
Lisa proceeded to give Rick and his squad take off instructions and they took off into the bright blue skies.
Rick had been quite nervous asking Lisa to the festival and had thought about how to ask her over the last couple of days. While this wouldn't be the first time Lisa and Rick had hung out together, it was the first time that he had asked her out on a date. Since that time Rick had saved Lisa at Alaska Base and returned to the SDF-1, they had naturally seem to gravitate to one another. Even though Rick was mostly in the skies on patrol, when he was on base, they seem to find each other in the mess hall more than once or twice a week for meals or coffee breaks. Outside of the base on the weekends, they also somehow ended up spending time together. Lisa would sometimes stop by Rick's quarters with some food she had made and end up hanging out with him or he would stop her place to see if she wanted to go to do something with him and Max and Miriya. These were never planned events so it was weird to purposefully ask Lisa to do something with him.
With all the time spent together the last couple of months, their relationship didn't seem to progress much further than it did on the SDF-1. Lisa was insecure about confessing her feelings to Rick for a myriad of reasons. One she was older than him , two she was his superior officer but what held her back the most was that Rick still seemed to harbor feelings for Lynn Minmei. Sometimes when they hung out together, Rick would get a faraway look in his eyes when a Minmei song came on over the radio. Lisa, trying to be a good friend, didn't pry into his feelings and left him alone to think about the singing star. Although Lisa was frustrated with the situation, she couldn't keep away from being with Rick even if it was only as a friend.
As for Rick he was conflicted about his feelings, he still had feelings for Minmei as his first serious crush and tried to keep Minmei in his heart, but there were many times his attraction for Lisa overwhelmed his infatuation for Minmei. Even though Lisa was stern and serious on duty, off duty, he found a very caring, giving woman who had a great sense of humor and at times could be quite playful. Rick had thought about approaching Lisa about becoming "more than friends" but didn't see why a woman like her would be interested in a man like him. Sometimes it was easier to be "in love" with someone unattainable like Minmei than to deal with the possible rejection of someone he needed to see and work with everyday.
The squad had been in the air for about 20 minutes when Max contacted Rick.
"Hey boss, how'it go?" said Max. "You two were off the TacNet for quite a while there."
Rick gave Max a thumb's up, "Yeah, it's all good. We are all set, I'm going to pick her up at 3pm."
"That's great, I'll let Miriya know, she will be happy Lisa's coming with us. She'll probably ask Lisa to help her pick out something to wear" said Max with a laugh.
Even though Max and Miriya had been married over a year and Max was incredibly patient with his Zentraedi wife, Miriya for some reason had taken an instant liking to Lisa when they first met, calling her a kindred warrior soul and felt comforted when Lisa was with her in new cultural situations. While Miriya approached each situation with her usual bravado and eagerness, Lisa gave Miriya an example on what to do in unfamiliar situations especially when Rick and Max couldn't provide that guidance.
Max and Miriya couldn't figure out what to do with their two friends. Miriya, Claudia and the Trio had spent many hours discussing why two people so meant to be with one another were two stubborn to see it and Max wondered how Rick who was such a great pilot and able to see the big picture during a fight was so blind to his own feelings for Capt. Hayes. He wondered if Rick held onto the memories of Minmei as a way to keep his growing feelings for Lisa in check. For some reason, Rick didn't feel that he was good enough for Lisa and always seem to comment on the type of guy that would be good enough for his friend Lisa, who in Rick's words, "deserves someone who can give her the world and would compliment her elegance, beauty and class."
Max and Rick chatted a few more minutes about their plans for Saturday before rejoining the squad on the patrol. The Skull Squad didn't run into any rebel Zentraedi that day and returned safely to base after their 10 hour patrol. Rick was exhausted when he got back to his quarters and was pleased to find a glass container filled with a hearty stew wrapped in a beautiful piece of square fabric on his kitchen counter. It wasn't the first time that he had come back to find a meal from Lisa in his quarters after a long day and he realized how nice it was to have someone care about him. After much thought, Rick decided that maybe it was time to try and explore whether a relationship between him and Lisa would work. He didn't get a chance to see her the next day but looked forward to seeing her on Saturday afternoon for the Obon festival.